{"id":152,"date":"2008-08-08T06:39:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-08T14:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=152"},"modified":"2009-12-15T21:07:41","modified_gmt":"2009-12-16T05:07:41","slug":"the-photographer-as-artist-creative-vocabulary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2008\/08\/08\/the-photographer-as-artist-creative-vocabulary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this third article we continue our exploration of photography from the perspective of other artistic disciplines.\u00a0 The first article was The Photographer as Artist – Introduction.\u00a0 We introduced the idea that art stands on the Tripod of Artistry, three principles that are common to all arts.\u00a0 The first leg of the tripod, the expressive capabilities of the medium, were explored in The Photographer as Artist – Expressive Spectrum.\u00a0 In this article we will look at the second leg – the Creative Vocabulary.<\/p>\n

Creative Vocabulary<\/em><\/h2>\n

We all know that to be an effective writer it helps to have a large vocabulary.\u00a0 It just stands to reason that the larger the writer’s vocabulary, the more effectively he or she can communicate.\u00a0 Poets probably have the greatest mastery of the language as that is the most condensed form of communication.\u00a0 This reaches its absolute zenith in haiku, that wonderful form of Japanese poetry that paints the most beautiful images in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables.\u00a0 Probably the most famous is this exquisite poem from the haiku master, Basho (1644 – 1694).<\/p>\n

Furuike ya<\/p>\n

Kawazu tobikomu<\/p>\n

Mizu no oto<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roughly translated…<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Old pond<\/p>\n

A frog jumps<\/p>\n

The sound of water<\/p>\n

You need to close your eyes when reading haiku.<\/p>\n

Poets have other forms as well -sonnet, limerick, ballads, couplets, blank verse and more.\u00a0 Then there are short stories, novellas, and novels for other writers.<\/p>\n

The same ideas apply to other art forms.\u00a0 We agree that art is communication and the medium plays a major role in setting the bounds of what the artist can say – the Expressive Spectrum.\u00a0 But a medium capable of a vast Expressive Spectrum does not in any way make the artist expressive.\u00a0 Beginning artists, artists who have not yet fully developed their voices, will be able to utilize but a small portion of the medium’s Expressive Spectrum.\u00a0 Artists who have mastered their medium probe the outer reaches of the medium.<\/p>\n

How does the artist master the medium?\u00a0 There’s more to it than the answer to the question, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, practice, practice.”\u00a0 Artists spend their artistic lives learning and mastering their tools and techniques.<\/p>\n

Tools and Technique<\/em><\/h2>\n

How many ways does a painter have of applying oil paint to a canvas?\u00a0 In fact, how many tools does a painter use?\u00a0 There are a wide assortment of brushes and pallet knives that vary not just by width and shape but other properties as well.\u00a0 Brushes can have different degrees of suppleness.\u00a0 Pallet knives vary in their stiffness.\u00a0 With each of these tools a variety of techniques are possible.\u00a0 The combination of tools and techniques yields a enormous array of expressive possibilities.<\/p>\n

To take a closer at the differences that technique can produce let’s look at an oft painted subject, the Madonna and Child.\u00a0 (Each one of these examples will open in a separate browser window so you can compare them side by side.)\u00a0 We can start with thirteenth century Italian, Byzantine influenced painting – Early Italian Madonna and Child<\/a>.\u00a0 Next, take a look at the same subject by the Italian master Leonardo da Vinci – The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne<\/a>.\u00a0 As with the early Italian Madonna and Child, this was painted on wood but the differences resulting from techniques are striking.\u00a0 Compare these to a fifteenth century painting by Cima de Conegliano, also painted on wood – Madonna and Child in a Landscape<\/a>.\u00a0 If we leap forward to the present, technique creates an even more striking difference.\u00a0 See the Irish Madonna and Child<\/a> painting of E. Thor Carlson.\u00a0 These four examples illustrate a wide variety of techniques which lead to quite different results.\u00a0 As a side note, it’s very interesting that the techniques reflect the styles and tastes of their times.<\/p>\n

A musician’s instrument is his tool.\u00a0 The instrument I studied as a child is the piano and there are an amazing number of techniques to learn and master.\u00a0 To perform at the concert level requires a lifetime of constant learning.\u00a0 For an incredible example of technique in the realm of music, just listen to Winton Marsalis perform Flight of the Bumblebee<\/a>.\u00a0 Listen to it before reading on and see if you can identify the technique he uses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Besides playing the piece incredibly fast he also plays long passages without taking a breath.\u00a0 The technique is called \u2018circular breathing;’ that is, breathing in through the nose while at the same time blowing out through the mouth.<\/p>\n

What do we call artists like Marsalis who have mastered their tools and the associated techniques and take the art to new levels?\u00a0 We call them virtuosos.\u00a0 All art forms have their virtuosos, including photography.<\/p>\n

Photographic Tools and Techniques<\/em><\/h2>\n

As photographers we have a large array of tools and techniques.\u00a0 We can break them down into two broad categories – those for the field and those for the darkroom.<\/p>\n

Tools and Techniques in the Field<\/em><\/h2>\n

In the field first we have our cameras, lenses, tripods and the rest of the gear that goes with them.\u00a0 For many of us this appeals to our geeky side.\u00a0 We enjoy endless chit-chat about mega pixels, highlight tone recovery, pixel depth, white balance, live view, image stabilization and on and on it goes.\u00a0 Our tools become increasingly sophisticated with each new generation of bodies, lenses, tripods, ball heads and such.\u00a0 The bad news is that the increased sophistication brings along with it increased complexity.\u00a0 But the good news is that the increased complexity allows increased expression – as long as we develop the necessary techniques.<\/p>\n

But there are other tools and techniques we bring with us to the field – well, maybe more technique than tool.\u00a0 Composition is one of these.\u00a0 Some artists will claim there are no rules of compositions (those wouldn’t have been the ancient Greeks by the way).\u00a0 But it’s easy enough to find books, blogs, courses, articles and thousands of examples of various ways to compose an image.\u00a0 Just a few are – rule of thirds, leading lines, S-curves, near-far, golden rule, diagonal lines, symmetry.\u00a0 You get the idea.<\/p>\n

Another technique for the field is design principles.\u00a0 This includes the design elements of line, shape, form, texture, pattern and color.\u00a0 There’s so much to think about.\u00a0 But that’s not all.<\/p>\n

As photographers we’re keenly interested in the light.\u00a0 Landscape photographers go to great lengths and tremendous effort to be in a location when the light will be its best.\u00a0\u00a0 But while great light can come from a variety of circumstances, we tend to crave the wonderful horizontal, warm light of sunrise and sunset.\u00a0 But there are other kinds of light – direct, indirect, diffuse, bounce, and fill to name a few more.<\/p>\n

But technique in the field does not stop here because as photographers we need to concern ourselves with exposure.\u00a0 This goes way beyond getting the correct number of photons to strike your sensor or film.\u00a0 We also have the variables of depth of field and shutter speed to consider.\u00a0 If we’re photographing a waterfall we may want to use a long shutter speed which leads to yet another technique… filters.<\/p>\n

In the days of film be it black and white or color, the photographer had many filters for all sorts of occasions.\u00a0 In digital landscape photography we only need to buy a few -polarizer, neutral density and graduated neutral density.<\/p>\n

These are the tools and techniques we bring to bear in the field.\u00a0 That’s quite a list.\u00a0 With so many things to think of it’s a wonder we get as many good images as we do.\u00a0 But that’s just the start<\/p>\n

Tools and Techniques in the Darkroom<\/em><\/h2>\n

Probably most of us who have been shooting for any length of time or have taken photography classes in high school or college have the experience of being in a dark room with the yellow light glowing as a black and white image magically appears in the developer bath.\u00a0 And there are certainly a large number of techniques that can be learned in the chemical darkroom.\u00a0 But let’s talk instead about the tools and techniques in the digital darkroom.<\/p>\n

Tools – boy, we have plenty.\u00a0 In fact the number of tools available can break the budget of all but the independently wealthy.\u00a0 We of course start with our computers, external hard drives (it’s a good thing that terabyte drives are relatively inexpensive now), monitors, printers and more.<\/p>\n

Next comes the software.\u00a0 Of course the first software tool we think of is PhotoShop.\u00a0 That’s not the only tool but probably the most commonly used.\u00a0 We have a number of good raw converter software packages to choose from.\u00a0 Add to that the host of plug-ins that do everything from the opposite twins of sharpening and noise reduction to making your image look like anything but a photograph.<\/p>\n

But let’s get back to the notion that acquiring more techniques makes it possible to express yourself more fully, that it, increases your Creative Vocabulary.\u00a0 PhotoShop provides an excellent example.<\/p>\n

Most of us use PhotoShop at some point in our workflow.\u00a0 And of all the people that use PhotoShop, most use layers.\u00a0 Of those that use layers, a smaller percentage use Curves.\u00a0 And of those that use Curves, a lesser number use masking.\u00a0 And of those that use both Curves and masking, even fewer use blending options.\u00a0 This is just one example out of hundreds of possible examples.<\/p>\n

There are some photographers that use all of these and more.\u00a0 These are the artists with the richer Creative Vocabulary.\u00a0 These are the ones that are not limited by their vocabulary in saying what they want to say, that are less limited in following where their imaginations and inspiration lead them.<\/p>\n

Practice, Practice, Practice<\/em><\/h2>\n

So building our Creative Vocabulary is the process of mastering the tools of our passion, both in the field and in the darkroom.\u00a0 We approach mastery by learning and becoming proficient with more and more of the techniques associated with each tool.\u00a0 We cannot possible master them all, especially given the certainty that new tools are being developed all the time.\u00a0 And for that matter we don’t need to master them all.\u00a0 But we do need to master enough to give us a sufficiently rich vocabulary with which to express ourselves.<\/p>\n

And how best can we master the tools and techniques we choose to put in our creative toolbox?\u00a0 This is where, “Practice, practice, practice” comes into play.\u00a0 One does not develop an eye for composition by reading about leading lines and foreground, middle ground, back ground or by looking at the photographs of the masters.\u00a0 One develops an eye for composition by putting a camera up to one’s eye and shooting, lots of shooting.\u00a0 Then critically evaluating the results.\u00a0 You get good at what you do.\u00a0 You get very good at what you do a lot.\u00a0 Some photographers try to shoot something every day.<\/p>\n

Composition is just one example.\u00a0 For our cameras to become second nature to us, we need to shoot every day – well, maybe not every day, maybe that’s not practical.\u00a0 But we need to shoot as often as we can.\u00a0 The back yard will do just fine.<\/p>\n

And here’s the fun part.\u00a0 There is so much to discover and learn that this is a path we can follow our entire lives.\u00a0 And as our Creative Vocabulary grows we expand our ability to more fully make the most of the Expressive Spectrum of our wonderful art – photography.<\/p>\n

In the next article we will look at the third leg of the Tripod of Artistry – Interpretive Decisions.<\/p>\n

Read the first two articles:<\/p>\n

The Photographer as Artist – Introduction<\/a><\/p>\n

The Photographer as Artist – Expressive Spectrum<\/a><\/p>\n

(1556)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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