Concepts for Lighting and Still Photography .. by Chuck Gardner

QUOTE ... My approach is unconventional because it is goal and strategy oriented. I want the reader to understand the cause and effect for each action before any action is taken. It starts with a baseline understanding of how the eye is attracted when it looks at a photograph. The reason is simple. If one does not know what will attract the viewer's eye on a basic instinctive level, how can one create a photograph which effectively leads to viewer to what is most important in it?


... attract our eyes to your thoughts, below

this is a good guide for someone like me, who gets stuck on the visual, creative aspects of a photo, and loses sight of the more technical aspects from time to time..

I find that what attracts one person will fly right past the next person, or worse they will be repelled by it ;) LOL- Take a lot of photos to be safe----

"If one does not know what will attract the viewer's eye on a basic instinctive level, how can one create a photograph which effectively leads to viewer to what is most important in it? "

I came across this quote by the photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. I'd have put it up in it's own post, but it's related to this thread, so here it'll go :

"Shooting a picture is recognizing an event and at the same instant and within a fraction of a second rigorously organizing the forms you see to express and give meaning to the event. It is a matter of putting your brain, your eye and your heart in the same line of sight. It is a way of life." He went on to call this process the "decisive moment"

I found this in the Sept 2006 issue of the PRO Digital Imaging magazine. It was it was used as a comparison to the way wildlife photographer Andy Rouse described his own work. I for one, couldn't agree more. I've never felt more alive, or cognitive than when i'm preparing to shoot, or shooting a photo. Just thought I'd share....

Very interesting, thank you :)