How To Stop Overthinking Your Photos
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- Опубліковано 14 бер 2024
- Nothing ruins a photographer's day more than falling into the mire of overthinking your photos. This is what I do to stop this from happening.
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Thank you so much, Alex. The “Who, am I trying to impress?” Question came to my mind. Just let go and cherish the fact that you’ve taken a photograph. You’ve expressed an idea and brought something into the world that wasn’t there before. :-)
Great vid, great advice. I'm a bit older (70) and things like AADHD didn't exist when I was a young man. After some deep dives with some help, I have found I am, indeed, on the spectrum. I can go from hyper focusing on a subject, to absolutely freezing up. "Paralysis by Analysis" is now my phrase to let me know that I am letting my brain take over and that I'm not letting my creative self come to the fore and guide me. Get back in touch with that creative self and let it take you where it will! Thanks so much!
It did exist, it wasn’t diagnosed. I figure that I’m ADHD. Not as bad now but still it’s a struggle
"Don't think, just do" is quite the opposite, of what I usually do ;-) ... Great advice! The other thing I learned today (by missing the premiere): the US switch to daylight saving time earlier, than we do on this side of the pond ;-) ....
I took a picture the other day and I felt the light was to hard so I changed my position and move around and when I got home the pictures turned out the best when I flowed.
I always try to remind myself - don’t think, but instead, FEEL. Great vid!
VERY much agree with this, ‘paralysis by analysis’ creeps up insidiously.
Just did that this morning. I had four exposures on a roll of film I wanted to finish so I could swing by the lab to drop off a couple of rolls while on my errands. Took the camera out to the grocery store (which happens to be right on the estuary), walked over to the path, popped off four shots of what I saw from four different spots, wound the film, dropped it in my bag and went inside to buy spinach.
Should know in a few days if I got anything interesting. Then again, I'm still learning what that camera can do, so who knows?
Looking forward to seeing you at the Penn show at the end of May. Thanks, as always for the content.
Coffee cup is good for me. Makes it more informal and you more relatable. Like we’re meeting over coffee.
Very good advice here. Often times I find myself "stuck" on photographs or I can analyze a scene that perhaps I'm stoke about, and then start to come up with reasons why it "won't work" and this too prevents me from making a photo. I think for me, as you had touched on, was partially I was in the mindset of "what does the audience want" rather than "what do I want". Even if it's the so-called hero shot that everyone has, if I don't have it, and want it, should probably get it, and not worry about what others think (which is one issue I have; I don't shoot some common shots, because they are common shots, even though it may be a shot I'd like as well, or perhaps something similar). So I think for me, part of it is doing it for ME and not someone else. The second thing I think is for me to stop overthinking photos and particularly, why they may not work, and in some cases, to do the best I can to create the composition I had in my mind, but don't get overly obsessed about possible issues (especially ones that I cannot control) and take the picture. In some respects, I sort of want to go back to that curiousity I had when I started, when I didn't think much about composition or perhaps even "the best light" for whatever (ie. golden hour which many strive for in landscape photography, which is fine). I think if i can get myself to do this, and to "forget the rules" for a moment, it may help me with over analyzing photos as well.
good suggestion, over thinking is a consequence of the many possibilities we have today with too many set ups, digital cameras, lenses etc. minimize and stay calm, and shoot.
What you said about looking at the shot on screen, i hardly ever look at a shot ive took until i get home, the exeption being if im taking a macro shot
Alex, i thought for a subject; many old studio photos where not made by using strobes, i suppose. In the old days those did not exist ... can you explain how photos where made in the old days (with artificial lighting, fresnel, hot lights, theater spots...)? What we can learn from it.
Thank you so much. This came just at the right time 😊 Just had a conversation with friends about not taking photos lately due to the "over thinking"
This urge to impress is all too familiar.
Thanks for another lesson
Excellent, honest video, Alex. I identified with all you said. Really helped me take a new approach.
Sometimes shooting lots of frames from the same position can be meaningful, eg ef the model moves a lot, more or less is dancing. On a scene sometimes the light moves around givning vaying shadows and reflektions.
Also with too slow shutter speeds you can shoot a burst and find some of the shots in the middle decently sharp.
I honestly love your videos, you create such a good atmosphere in them! I imagine you must have shot film back when it was the go-to medium, which it is for me right now. I'd love to see you make a video talking about film photography!
yep... been there
informative content
I always judge myself that I don't take more time to analyse what I'm taking. I see something, line up the shot and take it. Most of the time the images turn out like I saw them in my minds eye at the time but I still can't help thinking I rush the process. Maybe a discussion to have on our workshop next month. 😊
I caught my self over thinking last weekend. I was taking photos of an old railway station in a plaatter land dorp, station has not been usen for many many years. Small building, beautiful old orange face brick. Platform has grass and little bushes growing every where. Boom over thinking, chasing around like a fox terrier going after a rat. Well a photo here and there I will keep.
Great challenge!
Ignoring the noise and using your developed instincts is the destination.
Sounds like zen stuff, somewhat. Love the newsletter, Alex.
Hi Alex, great subject I find that when I go out shooting on my own I don't overthink. When I'm looking to buy another Camera that's when I overthink. Thanks 😊
Great advice
4:51 You mean: Spray and Pray?
I remember back when I was green, taking a couple of rolls of the same thing from the same angle, and expecting something different (a definition of madness, I know). I had to save to process a role of Kodachrome back then, so I thought I'd learned my lesson. Then decades later, with a new set of monolights and a studio, same again. I don't know why I fall back into this trap, but since I rarely show my work to others unless they're buying it (shy I guess), it's not vanity. Like Alex though, I found the best way to beat it is to keep things dynamic; keep moving, keep subjects moving, etc Sorting a memory card of same stuff isn't as costly as processing film, but it's every bit as soul destroying. It's sort of gratifying in a grotty sort of schadenfreude way though, to realize other also suffer this weird derangement.
You don’t just fall into a rhythm on such shoots like you do out on your own when you tend to just act instinctively - naturally. Shoots often evolve in my experience as you interqct with a subject when it is just 1:1 but that goes when the model has a number of other people to listen to. It wasn’t just that though as I always knew how I would normally approach such a shoot and I was there to learn so I was interested more in how other people approached a situation to see if I was missing something and I would watch the other photographers more than trying to get decent images for myself.
Ansel Adams said “You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”. You can't rationalise this - you have to trust your subconscious.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results". This is attributed to Albert Einstein, but he most likely never said that. It's true anyway, very much for photography as well. And yes, I am guilty as well of that, having 10x the same image without having anything significnatly changed.
I haven't heard Hippy Dippy since Moses was a pup
George Carlin, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman
When I'm shooting my digital it seems near impossible to NOT look at the screen ... to give it that "check" I do not think about it with film. ( truth... my film has been disappointing here lately). It is almost as if I've aged out of being able to do photography easily. I have to think more about it or it seems a mess.
Good, but even top fashion photographers use the machine gun approach sometimes taking thousands of shots in a shoot just to get a couple of good ones. Shooting film is a great way to slow down.
Don’t worry about the tea drinkers.
Taking a photo just for the sake of taking a photo is wasteful of time and effort. There should be a purpose for taking photos. What is it that you want to achieve? Sure just shooting a subject in different ways, you may get lucky and produce a great photo but then did you remember how you took that shot? My photo goal now it to reproduce the old black and white movie clips with a modern setting and a higher F-stop. I've found that F-13 works very well for the outcome I seek.
You should put you coffee cup down, It's very distracting.
You are overthinking it. 😂
I never noticed it until you mentioned it. Stop overthinking
Don’t overthink it
Let the man alone, I not here for your concept of a good video.
You should keep your opinion of his coffee cup to yourself