Exposed: The story behind the image.

I thought it would be fun to talk about the story behind an image every once in a while. So many photo bloggers to it, I thought, why not? What I really hope to do is demystify some of the technique or ability that many of us seasoned shooters have and show you it is just a combination of skill, guts and luck. Not always in that order.

I shot this image on the ’08 Lumen Dei workshop while in Delhi. I really love this shot for so many reasons. The blue shutter behind the boy, the arms up and hands on the back of his neck. But what make this a strong image is a couple of things. One, the sharpness on his eyes. You have heard me gripe that digital photographers over do the importance of sharpness at time. (see Steve McCurry Sharp ) I still believe this, but when you have a subject looking directly into the lens, you need two things; sharpness, spot on focus on their eyes and you need a great catch light. Never, ever underestimate the importance of a great catch light. The eyes are what we look at when we speak to one another face to face. Ever talk with someone who won’t look you in the eyes? You think, either they are up to something or they are very insecure. Our eyes communicate almost as much as our words. So if the subject, like this one, is looking at you directly, the eyes have to be sharp, the sharper the better in this case. The reason the catch light is important is it gives life to your subject. If you can see a refection in the person’s eyes I think you see some of their world. The catch light makes them real/alive in some way.

The second thing that makes this image work is the strong diagonal lines running from upper left to lower right. Diagonal lines create a dynamic force in a photo. Michael Freeman call’s it “unresolved tension” and I think he is right. People’s eyes already want to move from left to right in a photo, but with a downward slant of the strong diagonals you get at since of gravity pulling you through the photo. So a diagonal line running from left to right is a very strong compositional element. In this picture it is even enhanced as it is duplicated with the boy’s arms running parallel with the lines of the shutter. By the way, the lines of the shutter at a diagonal where intentional, I move to the boys left, my right to get those lines. But his arms were luck. Here is where I want to maybe do a little demystifying. When I saw him, his hand were on the top of his head. As I approached, as so often happens, he giggled and started to drop his arms. I knew I was loosing the shot. I shouted “Rukho! ek minaṭ.”, or “Stop! Just a minute.” in Hindi. At this his hands stopped on his neck at the same angle as the lines of the shutter. Pure dumb luck, or the grace of God, depending where you are coming from.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Blog, Exposed, Photography, Workshop. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.