How to Develop a Photographer’s Eye: Start Seeing the World Differently
I see everything as a snapshot. I really do. Well, most of the time. I find that the more active I am with my camera, the more likely I am to capture in my mind’s eye a still image of a live event. The ability to visualize a scene as a photograph is called “the photographer’s eye.”
The photographer’s eye isn’t necessarily innate. Some people are probably born with it, but you can develop it. I’m sure that it’s easier for some people than it is for others, but that’s true of skill, and even for any talent or gift. The photographer’s eye takes you from merely looking at objects to really seeing them, and you can learn to do it.
Everything is a Subject to the Photographer’s Eye
Yes, I believe it. Some of my favorite and most beautiful photographs have been very mundane subjects: close-up of a pine cone, the burned-out hollow of a lightning-struck tree, a tuft of green grass busting out of a dormant lawn. Looking around my study right now, I see several things that would make interesting photos, given the right angle, good light, and the appropriate lens. You can find beauty and interest in a cracked teacup, a shadow on the wall, or raindrops on a pane of glass.
After you read this paragraph, I want you to try this exercise. Look around the room. Pick several objects to focus on. Close your eyes and try and clear your mind. Then open your eyes and fix your attention on one of those objects. Really look at it. If it’s small enough, pick it up and hold it. Turn it around, turn it over. Examine every side of it. Look at the individual components of it – zippers, levers, handles. Feel the surface. Notice shadows and reflections. Even if you don’t find a photograph in the object, you’ve fully explored it, and you can do the same with a different object. Practice this exercise often, and you’ll find yourself seeing things more deeply. Your photographer’s eye will develop over time.
Get Closer – Then Closer Still
I love my zoom lenses. They let me get close to things I ought to stay away from, like bison in Yellowstone. Sometimes, though, the zoom isn’t the best option, and sometimes it’s not enough. There will be times when you have to “zoom with your feet,” that is, step closer to your subject.
When I’m out exploring with my camera, I don’t carry every lens with me. I’ve heard other photographers say the same thing. Sometimes we want to force ourselves not to rely on the technical advantages of a particular lens, so we only carry one lens. As a result, we have to find different ways to accomplish what another lens might do natively, like step closer. It’s a good idea to learn to do this anyway, because most lenses do what they do really well, but they don’t do some other thing very well at all. If all I’ve carried with me is a zoom lens, getting a macro shot of a flower or a bee may be a challenge. However, if the only lens I have with me is a wide-angle lens for landscapes, I just need to accept that I’m not getting a shot of that bison a couple of hundred yards away, because there’s no way I’m stepping close enough to get that shot.
I have found interesting photos in revealing the texture of things – orange peels, the end of a skein of yarn, the stripes of a candy cane. Getting in close to a flower can allow you to help your viewers feel that velvety softness of the petals. You can show cracked and peeling paint, silk fabric, or frost on a glass. Going in close can help your viewers experience more than just the visual image of the subject; you can help them engage their other senses.
Isolate and Simplify
There’s a growing trend in minimalism in photography, and it’s a powerful way to draw your viewers to your subject. When we remove distractions from the scene, it pulls the focus where you want it. (It’s worth noting that the concept doesn’t just apply to photography.) If we can’t remove the distractions, we can apply some techniques to accomplish the same thing.
Framing
When we’re walking around our subject, we can look for natural or contrived frames for the thing we want to isolate. By adding something to the overall image, we subtract it from its surroundings, or we subtract its surroundings from the viewer’s attention. Placing the object between a pair of trees forms a natural frame; if the limbs of the tree bend over the object, so much the better. Doorways and windows, mirrors, people, and reflection surfaces can all frame your subject. Have someone hold out their hand in a position that makes it appear to be supporting an object. This can be a fun project: Go and look for several frames.
Depth of Field
Another way to isolate your subject is by using depth of field – keeping the subject in sharp focus, but setting your camera to only focus on that thing. I have a post on it here. We set the aperture to a shallow depth of field, using a large f/f-number. That tells the camera to keep the focus with a limited range around the object we actually focus on. Everything outside of that range will be out of focus. That’s the element that makes outdoor portraits work, the ability to isolate the subject by taking the rest of the environment out of focus.
Contrast
Color contrast can bring attention to your subject. In this image, one purple azalea bloom among all the pink ones grabs all the focus.
It was the purple bloom that caught my eye, and by getting in close, I emphasized its singularity among its pink peers.
I’ve also used a processing technique called Selective Color to ensure that the only thing worth looking at was what I wanted eyes on. It calls for removing the color from everything else, taking it all down to shades of gray.
Walk Around It
We have a piece of farm equipment that I pass by on my walks, and I hadn’t given much thought to it. One day, I noticed something in the grass behind it and went to investigate. I never saw what I went to look for, because I turned around and saw this implement from a different angle, and I knew I had to get a picture of it. There wasn’t anything spectacular about it, but seeing it from a different side presented a pattern in the components that I had missed before.
Besides walking around an object, look at it from above, and, if possible, from below. The underside of a mushroom makes a fascinating picture! Get down low to the ground to get a shot at a puddle. Put your camera near the surface of a reflecting object to capture the reflections. Use the same technique that I had you do in the earlier paragraph to explore something. You don’t have to pick up a plant; you can just get down next to it, like I did for this one.
Ask: What’s the Story Here?
There’s always a story. Every image suggests a narrative or an emotion. Your photography is an opportunity for your viewers to put themselves into the story. Who touched this? What just happened? The single shoe abandoned on a tree stump, a fragment of a handwritten note caught by the wind and pinned against a fence post, a gate with a broken lock…mysteries invite the viewer into the story. Capture the subject in different ways, from different angles and at different focal lengths, to see which one evokes the tone you want to convey.
I spied this abandoned boat tied up to the shore at a cabin we rented a few years ago. I wonder what happened to the owners?
Make it a Habit
As with anything you hope to improve, consistency is the key. You may have to set reminders to practice seeing things, but it will begin to come naturally. During the time you’re forcing yourself to enumerate the control buttons on the vacuum cleaner to make sure you’ve noticed everything, you’re training your mind to seek out details. Over time, your photographer’s eye will find its voice, and details will begin to stand out everywhere.
Keep a camera handy. It could be your phone, if you’re most likely to have that available. Take a photo of something every day. If you commit to doing that, you will be seeking out photography opportunities, and by seeking them, you’ll find them. Also, start a small notebook of visual ideas, things you’d like to shoot, even if you can’t shoot them now. If you make a note to go over it regularly, you can schedule time to go and shoot some of them.
Take a Challenge
I found that my interest, as well as my photography, improved from participating in challenges. There was a portrait studio that published a challenge every year, but they stopped, so I had to find others. I found that a weekly challenge, each week focusing on something different, had me seeking out opportunities and learning new techniques. It was during one of these challenges that I realized that I was seeing everything as a photograph.
Follow the Rules
Challenges work best if you participate as they intend. That means you can’t use images that you shot last year. It also means that even if your photos aren’t as “good” as some you see on the site or in the group, post anyway. You can get some useful feedback from the other participants, and I’ve never seen anyone being disrespectful. We all seem to remember those “just starting out” days, and the group interaction was a big factor in developing my photographer’s eye.
Take Chances
Challenges get you out of your comfort zone, too, and that’s the whole idea of them. That first time you spin that dial to “Manual,” you understand that every setting, every decision, is now yours. Good news – if you’re shooting digital, you get a nearly unlimited number of chances to play with the settings. But putting your work “out there” for others to see is another way of getting you used to seeing differently.
Plan Your Shots
In addition to getting you thinking differently about your photography, challenges allow you to plan what you want to do. For this post on lens compression, I had to figure out what I was trying to accomplish, then plan the series of shots to present the information. You’ll still develop the photographer’s eye when you plan.
Your Turn
The photographer’s eye is a way of living, not just a way of seeing. I hope you start noticing, wondering, and experimenting – there’s a whole world out there!
Take a look around you right now and look at something differently. Then drop a comment below, just under the Related Posts segment, about what you found. I’m looking forward to reading about what you see!
Here are a couple of challenges to get you started. Just pick one, more than that is just too stressful.
Photography Challenge – DogWood.Photography
52Frames – Weekly Photo Challenge Project
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