Grand Canyon Sunrise ~ Winter 2010
I realized the most important part of a photo was not the subject matter. Vision–or how you viewed things–was the most important part.
James Brandenburg
Photographs appear to be realistic visual presentations of what was right there in front of the camera’s lens. Nothing is further from the truth. Photographs are not copies of the real, rather they are a re-presentation of the photographer’s vision, both the vision in the moment of exposure and the vision that is constructed in post-exposure processing.
Photographer’s paint with light and shadow. Important tools such as the color temperature of light (warmer at both sunrise and sunset for example) and understanding the relationships between ISO, shutter and aperture speed and where to stand to capture the visualized image all contribute to the creation of a photographic image. By far the most important tool in the photographer’s bag is the ability to gaze, to focus on and select one image from an infinite number of images presented to the photographer at any given moment.
Much of photography is a process of editing. The photographer must choose from among an infinite possibility of images before the decision is made to release the shutter and capture an image. Editing does not stop with the exposure. Not every frame exposed is a candidate for a pleasing image. Post-processing choices must be made as the photographer makes use of the gaze. Choosing which images to print and which to discard or, perhaps, save for another day, is a function of the photographer’s vision. I might even argue that vision is the single most important tool a photographer develops over a lifetime of making images.
The Grand Canyon Sunrise ~ Winter 2010 by Roger Passman, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
