Learning to See

Recently, I watched a few courses on the Masterclass Series; Filmmaking by Martin Scorsese and Photography by Annie Leibovitz, one thing they both mentioned is learning how to see. This actually curios as to how I see. What do I like visually? What is my visual taste? I decided to go London South Bank, take a tonne of photos and work out what I like visually. I had a rough sense of it but I wanted to articulate it.

I placed a few limitations on myself so as not to go crazy. Limitations were –
1 Camera Body // 5D Mkiii
1 Lens // 24 – 105 F4 (was tempted to sneak in the nifty 50 but I resisted)
1 full Battery
1 128gb card (well 2 if you count the SD card doing auto backing up)
1 Location // Long stretch along the South Bank of the Thames.
2 hours // Unfortunately I lost track of time and used 3 hours.

Please note this was not a photography exercise, but an exploration into self discovery – I ended up with 391 images. Here are a few showing the top 5 things I uncovered (some I was already aware of, a couple surprised me) –

Leading Lines

I am constantly drawn to lines, as a filmmaker this is one way to lead you viewer to where you want them to look.

Leading Lines

Leading Lines

Objects Creating a Frame

This is one of those I can’t explain, I just love using other objects to frame the subject. I know you can use the darker objects to direct the attention but I still used it a lot even when the objects framing was equally exposed.

Objects Creating a Frame

Objects Creating a Frame

Close Up & Context

This one was one I find myself doing over and over again. I see a subject, photograph the interest, then take a wide to give it context and vice versa.

Close Up & Context

Close Up & Context

Cropping Buildings & Structures

I got bored photographing buildings and other structures head on and found myself regularly cropping them to get some kind of visual interest which I found more pleasing.

Cropping Buildings & Structures

Cropping Buildings & Structures

Low Angle

Shooting from near ground level has always fascinated me. With this one, I am not sure if its the act of photographing close to the ground or the look of the image enjoy. There is something I find satisfying when I take the camera low especially with shots that captures people in a wide space. It would be interesting to know if anyone notices the difference from the example below.

Low Angle

Low Angle

In Conclusion

What I noticed when doing my summation is a few images had more than one of the points. I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise and would be doing this more often. It would be great to find out what other fimmakers & photographers do to hone their skills when it comes to visual appreciation.