Friday, October 7, 2011
Week 5- Composition & aesthetics
My daughter went on a photo shot this week for her senior portraits and I found it interesting watching and talking to the photographer about the composition and overall aesthetics of the photos. He spent some time talking with her about the things she liked to do, what she thought would look good and how she wanted to be portrayed. He took shots both observing the rule of thirds as well as those centered. I asked him how he would define aesthetics and he paused and said he had not thought about it as anyone thing. It was defined as what is naturally pleasing to the eye of the viewer. I asked how he knew and said he just knows, he feels it, what works in what he sees and what he wants to convey in a manor that an audience can understand. Part of that is understanding his subject and the intented viewer. The hardest part is to see beyond what your eye and your mind think it sees. To stop thinking about what you think is there to accepting what is, once the shutter closes and the image and energy is captured.
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I think you just explain what aesthetics is by quote the photographer said, "just knows, feels it..." I read the meaning of aesthetics in the dictionary. It was interesting because this word is used by doctors, photographers, scientists, professors, and students; so therefore it showed me that this word can means in many way. I also explained in my blog that it is called previsualization, as I was reading an article about Ansel Adams. IT is almost similar to what your photographer said.
ReplyDeleteIf he is a trained photographer he assimilated the rules of composition and now just intuitively uses them as he wishes. Sometimes breaking the "rules" is just as effective as using them, but we need to know the rules and how to use them before we can consciously break them. What a great opportunity for you to observe a professional photographer at work!
ReplyDeleteWhen you said your photographer did not think as aesthetics as one thing, I understand a little bit why he said that. One article I read made the photographing one whole process to think about before and during the shoot.
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