The Three Most Important Skills in Photography

Bottoms Up! Berry College campus, 1981.

My friend and fellow photographer and photo-blogger Dennis Mook has written a post in which he suggests that the most important skills in photography today are the ability to set up the camera properly and proficiency in using software. You can read his blog here. 

In fact, if you're interested in photography you should read his blog regularly. He's an accomplished photographer with a great eye and lives in an area where there are many photo-subjects that appeal to me. I often find myself thinking "I wish I had made that shot!"

I greatly respect Dennis, and it is with respect that I disagree with him about the most important skills in photography today. I believe the most important skills in photography are three, and that they are the same they have always been since the dawning of the art.

They are selection, composition, and exposure.

Select. Choose a subject. Whatever it may be. Whatever appeals to you for any reason, whether scene, object, or person. Nothing happens until you choose a subject. Although you could, of course, just point your camera at random and pick your subject out of the medley afterwards. It's been done. In fact, that's what most street photography I see looks like. But even that is choosing a subject.

Compose. Arrange your viewfinder frame around your chosen subject in the way that most appeals to you. Notice that I didn't say "arrange your subject within the frame." You can only do that if the subject is mobile and will move, or can be moved, at your direction. If it's not, you have to arrange the frame around the subject. Also, composition includes preliminary thoughts about depth of field. Should it be shallow or deep?

Expose. Set the aperture to provide the depth of field you choose, whether shallow or deep. Choose a shutter speed that works with the aperture to give proper exposure, whether you wish to stop action or to let it blur. Select an ISO (we used to call it film speed) that will cover your aperture and shutter speed settings. Then take the picture. 

This is all much simpler and quicker than it sounds. If you're out looking for pictures, you will probably already have your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO set within range so that few or no adjustments need to be made as you bring the camera to your eye.

Yes, the camera can do all your exposure settings for you automatically. But do you want it to? The camera makers tell us that they design the camera to do all the exposure settings for us so that we can concentrate on the subject without thinking about technical details. That's a lie. Making decisions about technical details is an integral part of the creative picture-making process. As the great Fritz Henle, master of the Rolleiflex, said, "...seeing pictures is always tied up with technique...it is important to decide things like sharpness or unsharpness and not let them happen accidentally. It is equally important to command the techniques that get the effects you want."

So, do I do any post-processing of my pictures? Yes I do. But  my goal is always to get it right in the camera and spend as little time as possible on the computer. We'll talk about my post-processing techniques next time.

About the picture: The picture of the swans on the pond on the campus of Berry College was a quick grab-shot made while I was working on a book about the city of Rome, Georgia.  Loaded with Ektachrome film and with the 85mm Zuiko f2 lens attached, my Olympus OM camera was set for the prevailing light conditions. All I had to do was raise the camera to my eye, compose the photo, and shoot. I usually try to apply the "rule of thirds" to my compositions when appropriate, and in this case I did place the swans about a third of the way from the right edge of the frame. However, instead of placing them a third of the way up from the bottom, I placed them in the center because I felt the reflections at the bottom of the picture were an important part of the composition.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.50 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail me a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  Looking is free, and you might find something you like.

Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography     travel     Rome, Georgia     Berry College   swans     Olympus OM film cameras     Olympus  Zuiko lenses    Ektachrome film    photography techniques