The Photographic Process

The Photographic Process

by William Lulow

What exactly are you doing when you “capture” someone or something with your camera or iPhone? Well, you are firstly obtaining an image that you can view on several different devices with screens, sometimes at the same time and always to share among friends. There is a difference between capturing and photographing a subject. It is that the former doesn’t take much thought while the latter usually takes a lot. There is another, more fundamental truth to the capturing process. It is the fact that your iPhone is just that, a phone. A camera, by the same token is not anything but a camera. So, the purposes of each are clear from the outset. A phone, in recent years, has been able to do some amazing things including taking pictures. But that’s not it’s primary function.

So, if your intention is to come away with images of which you can truly be proud, you need to use a camera or know how to use your iPhone much better.

Sometimes I hear people say “What do you need all that equipment for? Can’t you just take a photograph?” Recently, I was doing some family portraits on the beach at sunset. I wanted to get a great shot of the kids with a very soft background. I decided I would use a camera-mounted flash with my large reflector as well as a two-stop neutral density filter which would allow me to open the lens to about f/4.5 or so. I used my 60mm f/2.8 lens to magnify the distance somewhat and to cut down on the depth-of-field. This is the image I wound up with:

It is fairly close to what I had in mind, a pastel kind of background with a soft look. Everyone standing, being their own person, so to speak, with a bit of the sunset as an accent light.

The point is that many photographs are made to look like they are just snapshots that anyone could take but are really very carefully set up and executed. This is not to say that great images cannot be made with camera phones, but, as with anything else, you have to learn to use them properly.