Warm-Up Exercises For Photography
Develop a photographic eye
How to think photographically? How to take photographs more frequently? How to exercise the eye? Often when I am driving in the car and I look around, I am not always able to click the photograph I have in my mind. This is because of various reasons. Sometimes I do not have the time to take the shot or the conditions in terms of light, angle and composition do not come together.
What do I do? I imagine the photograph and put it in the “potential images” compartment in my brain. When circumstances do not allow me to take photos, I just scan them in my mind and think of them as research material for future photographs. This way the bank of potential ideas can be developed. One great thing that happens with this is that one learns to exercise our photography-eye. It’s like a warm-up exercise before going to the gym.
I can always come back to the images stored away in my mind whenever feasible. Often when I wait to take a photograph, I find that the composition I first thought about has now improved with time because it has worked itself out better in my mind first and thereafter in reality.
Training the eye to see photographically can lead to some great images. When I started “exercising my eye”, I could see a photograph everywhere I looked. I was able to see shapes, patterns and symmetries better and also conjure up a photo composition in my head.
The second exercise is anticipating when an action is going to take place. Henry Cartier Bresson, one of the greatest photographers of all time, referred to action in a photograph as the “decisive moment” since it is the high point of an image.
Let’s take the instance of street photography. Sometimes I simply observe crowded places where there is a lot of movement, gestures and expressions. With this, I have learned to read and anticipate action in real-time situations.
Films that we see are also great sources of ideas. The recent show Ripley on Netflix is a rich source of material for any photographer. The angles, composition and light are amazing and the film is a good lesson in photography. I remember watching Citizen Kane, a classic and a must-watch for anyone interested in photography. Again, one can take a picture of any shot in the scene and include it in a digital diary.
All these exercises feed into our photography imagination. A photographic eye is what I aspire to have.
