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Great photographs are often not imagined that way. Many advanced amateur photographers I know, step out into location, take an image with the most obvious composition and then walk away with the idea that they are done. I did this for many years, but I no longer treat my photography that way. I start with the most obvious compositions and then I stay and I stay and I stay. I try another composition and yet another composition and keep on going until either physical exhaustion or mental exhaustion or my next chore deadline hits me. Often, I stay at a location and make hundreds of images. My best compositions then turn out to be those that are closer to the frame 100 mark and almost never near the frame 1. The creative juices start flowing after the most obvious compositions are out of the way. Your brain starts thinking out of the box, after the “in-the-box” thinking is exhausted. This is in fact, a great way to train your composition skills. Lock yourself into your closet and force yourself into making 100 different compositions. Freeman Patterson taught me this through one of his books. Later, when I attended a seminar by John Shaw, he told us the same thing. Ever since, I have tried it very often and every time, I come up with some cool images.

Let me illustrate using one example. This happened two weeks ago. I was travelling with a fellow photographer in his car. Fortunately for me, he was driving and we had an hour to drive before our night photo shoot in San Francisco. He happened to tell me about his new Fuji X100S camera in his glove compartment. I found myself pulling it out and making hand-held shots. I made 300 frames that night and will show you a sample of the progression from trash to good (atleast for my eyes).

I started with images like this one.

One of the first images I made in a series of 300. Nothing spectacular. No big deal. But, this is just a beginning.

The first images made in a series will not be necessarily spectacular. But, it is important to get going.

After a few frames, this is yet another frame that was made.

This image was made shortly after the car started moving. Nothing spectacular here either. But, some ideas are developing. The streaks due to long exposure is triggering a thought …

I want to extend the idea of making light streaks with long exposures. So, I try some more shots.

The streaks are more prominent in this shot. This is validating that some cool images are possible. Need to try variations, with the same idea.

OK, at this point, I am thinking, “what else I can do with this idea?” And then, I make an image like this.

Extending the idea of brandishing my camera during a long exposure. Still not a killer keeper, but I want to keep going.

By this time, I want to keep going with the idea further. Then, after a few frames, I made this image.

Continuing on the streaks during long exposure idea.

Now, the idea of creating an image with streaks during a long exposure, while brandishing my camera, is very encouraging. This is still not a keeper image for me, but it is getting close. I want to keep going.

This is getting a lot closer to a clear keeper. In fact, with a crop to remove the emptiness of the bottom most area and the dark top right area, this is indeed a keeper. Very encouraging.

With the right crop, this is a nice keeper. Let me keep going.

Ooooh! My first keeper, for my eyes. Made by brandishing my camera in circular movement plus bottom left to top right.

By this time, I have completed shooting over 200 frames. From now on, I went on shooting solid keepers. Here are some examples.

One of the keeper images, from a series of 300 shot in a one hour car ride. Never imagined this composition, before I started the car ride.

One of the keepers from the series of 300 images made in a one-hour car ride. This composition could not have been imagined prior to the ride.

My favorite so far, from the whole series. To my eyes, this is a lovely composition.

To summarize, you should practice your photographic composition often. How about 100 images a day? If not, atleast do 500 images a week. In any one practice session, include atleast 100 images of a simple subject. Your composition skills will shoot through the roof, if practiced consistently. This is more useful than reading tens of books on composition.

If you found this article useful, let me know. Email me at info@pixgaga.com. Feel free to forward it, comment on it, and above all please use it.

Good luck with your photographic composition.

Photography is commonly thought of the way to make an image of something seen by the eyes. This is commonly true, of course. However, photography is also capable of capturing images, not exactly visible to the eye. In this post, I shall talk about six of them. I call this post “6 Ways To Photograph The Invisible”. By “invisible”, I mean that which cannot be seen exactly as depicted in the photograph. Let’s begin.

1. ADJUSTING FOCAL LENGTH DURING A SLOW EXPOSURE

Consider this image I made at an apparel store, when my family was trying on clothes.

Apparel in Mall

This image was created by using a slow shutter speed and zooming in (changing the focal length), during the exposure. The metadata for this image is the following: Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f10, 1/5 s, Hand-held, zooming the focal length constantly during the exposure.

While this photograph is interesting (at least to me), can you really see something like this with your eyes? Therefore, I consider this to be the first way to photograph the invisible.

2. MOVING THE CAMERA DURING A SLOW EXPOSURE

Now, consider this image.

Road seen from a moving car

To make this photograph, I was sitting comfortably and legally in the passenger seat of a moving car, while a good friend drove the car. The tripod was setup inside the car with the tripod/ball-head sticking out from the sunroof. An electronic shutter release cable reached me comfortably. Before starting the drive, I positioned the camera to look straight ahead, composing carefully to avoid the hood of the car, while at the same time pointing downwards, just enough to achieve the right balance between the ground, horizon and the sky. After the drive began, I clicked over a thousand shots in that drive, to find a few keepers eventually. The metadata for this shot is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 lens, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, f25, 1/8 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ballhead, Nikon electronic shutter release cable.

Such a scene is never visible to our naked eyes and therefore, I consider this to be my second way to photograph the invisible.

3. ALLOWING THE SUBJECT TO MOVE DURING A SLOW EXPOSURE

Consider this image of an Anise Swallowtail Butterfly.

Anise Swallowtail Butterfly

I shot using my telephoto lens and adjusted the shutter speed to be slow enough to allow the movement of the wings to be captured. The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens, Nikon 2x Teleconverter, 400mm, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, f11, 1/80 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head. In this case, it is also important to note that although the wings are not sharp indicating a sense of movement, the eyes are still sharp. An entirely blurred butterfly will not cut it. The sharp eyes allow you to connect with it, while the blurry wings indicate motion.

Since our eyes and memory do not have the ability to retain the past and combine it with the present, visually, one cannot see what this image has captured. To me, this is the third way of photographing the invisible.

4. USING VERY HIGH SHUTTER SPEED DURING FAST ACTION

While we have so far seen how a slow shutter speed creates images not usually seen by the naked eye, a very high shutter speed can create equally interesting images that our eyes cannot see.

Take for example, this image of a snowy egret splashing water to catch its prey. The high shutter speed has frozen the water in air.

Snowy Egret and frozen splash

The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens, Nikon 2x teleconverter, ISO 200, Aperture Priority, f5.6, 1/800 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head.

Our eyes are incapable of freezing visual information that happened in a very short span of time such as 1/800 s. Therefore, this is my fourth way of photographing the invisible.

Here is another image of a boy splashing water in the pool. This cannot be seen by the human eye and yet can be captured by the camera.

Boy splashing water in pool

The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens, Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f5.6, 1/160 s, Hand-held.

5. LONG EXPOSURE OF TRAFFIC TRAIL LIGHTS AT NIGHT

Traffic trail lights at night is quintessential image-making demonstrating the capture of that which cannot be seen. Consider this Las Vegas Image. The long exposure enables capture of the bright traffic lights (without exposing for the significantly darker vehicles themselves).

Las Vegas at Night

The metadata for this image is: Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, ISO 200, Aperture priority, f22, 14 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon electronic shutter release cable (several exposures stacked together in Photoshop).

This is my fifth way to photograph the invisible.

Yet another traffic trail image of a local street near my home in San Jose, CA.

Traffic trails at night, San Jose, CA

The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, ISO 200, f16, 15 s, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon electronic shutter release cable (several exposures stacked together in Photoshop).

6. FINE APERTURE EXPOSURE OF NIGHT LIGHTS

Consider this image of Austin Downtown at Night.

Austin Downtown at Night

The most prominent foreground of this image is the star pattern from the nearest street light. Can you see a star pattern when you look at street lights with your naked eye? Of course, not. This is simply an optical phenomenon manifested in lenses. If your aperture is f22, point light sources convert themselves into stars. No, a star filter is not essential to get this effect (I have never used a star filter). The metadata for this image is as follows: Nikon D300, Nikkor 17-35mm f2.8 lens, Manual exposure mode, f22, Several exposures (1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, 15s, 30s, 1min, 2 min) composited using the HDR technique, Gitzo 1340 Tripod, Kirk BH-1 Ball-head, Nikon electronic shutter release cable.

This is my sixth way to photograph the invisible.

ABOUT ME – Hello, I am Satish Menon, founder of http://pixgaga.com. Visit my website to learn more about me, see my image gallery or to listen to my student testimonials.

MY REQUEST TO YOU – If you have enjoyed reading this post and if this has perhaps triggered an expansion of your photographic vision, please forward this post to a photographer friend. Also, if you practice other ways in which you photograph the invisible, please reply and share it here. Lastly, if you are interested to receive digital photography tips from me on a regular basis, register at my website at: http://www.pixgaga.com/users/new. I do conduct digital photography webinars (free), seminars and workshops, announced exclusively to my mailing list.

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Discovering unimaginably great photographic compositions

6 Ways To Photograph The Invisible