The Secret To Successful Photographs

The Secret To Successful Photographs

by William Lulow

This sounds almost way too simple, but the real key to successful photographs is the thought and care you put into making them. There are images one can obtain by pure luck, being at the right place at the right time. having your camera at the ready and having the awareness to take a picture! There are any number of people who, when they see something amazing happening or even something newsworthy, become transfixed by the events unfolding before them and forget that they are photographers or have the photographic ability to take an acceptable photograph of what’s happening. This notion is currently undergoing some drastic changes due to the invention of camera phones and their pretty near ubiquitous use. Folks are getting in the habit of documenting just about everything they see.  But documenting an event is way different than making a really successful image of it. One that captures not only what exists in front of the camera but also does it while creating a lasting work of art. 

So, having the ability, knowledge and instinct may be enough sometimes, but more than likely, a successful photograph communicates its intended message through careful and thoughtful use of the available technology involved. More than not, successful images are not made by chance, but by bringing one’s visual ideas together with one’s thoughts. Here’s an example:

This sales sheet for a bulb company was produced by taking an idea about showing bulbs and their shapes as well as the details of the filaments inside them and making them really stand out by using a knowledge of the objects themselves and how to light them. First, whenever you shoot glass products you have to be aware that long, distinct highlights are produced by a pair of long softboxes that make equally long reflections. In this case, setting up a cross-lighting was the best way of creating a shadow down the middle of each bulb, thereby showing off the filaments. So the knowledge of what that special lighting setup would produce, coupled with the clear intent of showing the product literally in its “best light” was the way to create a successful image. Here’s another example:

This image of a basket of wraps and other foods demanded a lighting that would highlight the arrangement by including many ingredients. It was arranged carefully by a food stylist and then lit by three lights placed in strategic positions to provide the right sparkle to the subject. And yet another:

This is not one of my typical portraits, but one specially designed to fit into an existing website which contained quite a number of more dramatically lit subjects. I don’t think this website contained one image that was lit with soft lighting. So, after studying it carefully, I determined that a Rembrandt Light would be a good fit with the others and still show the person’s features. It looks like it might have been made outdoors with light coming from above the camera and to the left, but the truth is that it was made on location, in the subject’s home, with a small, plain gray background set up just behind him. It fit perfectly with the other images on the website.

Here’s yet another example of how the thought process can solve a visual problem. I had a client for a good many years that required images of various party setups to be made before the party actually began. This was a large catering company in New York City, known for being able to create parties in large and unusual spaces. This was in an atrium in  a building on Fifth Avenue. The problem these jobs often presented was that I was not able to have the spaces all to myself, with all the party decorations and tables set up for me to shoot. The “setup” process often continued until just before the party started. So I had to find a way to make images of the spaces, with tables set up and decorated without asking all the catering staff to vacate the room while I did the photography. I used my knowledge of the photography process to make images of the space with no people present by using a slow enough shutter speed so that all the people disappeared as long as they kept moving within the scene. My instructions to the catering staff was to “keep moving.” I knew that with a long exposure, any movement would not register on the film. This particular image was made by setting up one or two electronic flash units on each floor, taking an ambient light reading to determine basic exposure and then adding the highlights by firing the flashes at regular intervals during the exposure itself. I believe that this image was made at ASA (now ISO) 100 film, with a view camera, using an exposure of f/22 at something like 5 minutes. It also included about 5 flashes of the flash units to build up enough density on the film to register some highlights on tables. You can also see the faint image of a person sitting at a table at the lower left side of the image. He was the only one sitting down folding napkins and consequently wasn’t moving. That’s why his image registered on the film.

Each of these images had a purpose and the requisite thought behind it to make it successful. None of this happens by chance. These photographs were not made by being in the right place at the right time. They were carefully thought through, set up, lit correctly and made using the technology required to make them work.