Creative vision – Enhancing your awareness

When looking at a scene, do you think you see the same as the person standing next to you? Most definitely not. What we see is colored by who we are, what our interests are, our likes and dislikes etc. Imagine a scene containing trees, a couple of houses, a roadway and all that can usually be found around such a location.

• If you’re an architect, you might notice the houses and how they are built.
• If you’re a landscape architect, you might notice how the houses are placed in the hillside, how the gardens are planned out and how the roadway is placed.
• If you’re a biologist, you might notice that one of the trees is home to a woodpecker, that there is a rare flower growing in the shade and that some of the vegetation is about to die as a result of some waste that is lying around.
• If you’re an entrepreneur, you might notice how the hillside would be perfect for building terraced houses that would sell for big money.
• If you’re… well, you get the picture (pun intended).

My point is that in most scenes there are LOTS of details. Most people are used to experiencing their environments as “a whole”, with few details standing out from the rest, except specific details tied to their occupation or special interests.

Some people are naturally receptive to details in everything around them, but for most of us this is a skill that needs to be developed. It’s called “awareness”. I like to call it creative vision.

As your photography skills are being developed, so is automatically your awareness. You become more and more attuned to details everywhere around you, but it is a good idea to work consciously and specifically on developing your awareness.

So what should you be looking for?

Elements of design

Train your eye to look for the elements of design: lines, shapes, forms, texture, patterns and color.
To use lines as an example:
How many lines do you see?
What directions do they have? Vertical, horizontal or diagonal?
Are there receding lines? Advancing lines?
Be aware that eylines (the direction people are gazing) are also very powerful lines, as they are perceived though not actually seen (called implied lines).

Scene lighting

Try to get an impression of how the overall light is in the scene. Is the dynamic range very high? Strong reflections or highlights? Is the light soft or harsh? Does the light create interesting shadows? Are there dense shadows that may block up? Is that okay?

Look for contrasts

Contrasts often make for interesting photos. There are contrasts everywhere! Light vs dark, contrasting colors, curved vs straight, large vs small are all obvious contrasts. But there are also other, more subtle contrasts. If you photograph people, there might be contrasts in rich vs poor, happiness vs sadness, many vs few and a whole lot more. Imagine a photo of a playground with lots of kids playing ball. On the side there is one lonely child not participating. The contrast in this scene would be very powerful indeed, though it is felt more than seen.

Get closer

In any given scene (except maybe for macro images), there will be other scenes if you just get closer. Often a whole lot of scenes!

Looking for smaller scenes in large scenes is a great exercise for enhancing your awareness! Read more about this in the post “There’s another picture in that picture!“.

Get *really* close!

Small parts of otherwise mundane and ordinary objects may present interesting and unusual, often abstract, scenes. There may be strong contrasts, angles or forms “hidden”, that you notice when your creative vision is enhanced.

Natural framing

A great way to draw attention to your main subject is by using natural framing. Learn to notice possibilities for this technique as you walk around, also when you’re not out shooting. Sometimes you will find one that seems so good you will want to return with your camera!

Look down!

When you were little, you probably often looked down on all the exciting stuff on the ground, like insects, litter, rainwater-rivers etc. But as we grow older, we lose interest in this view (and besides, our mama told us to keep the eyes in the direction our feet are pointing). But, as a photographer, the world on the ground gets exciting once more. A little creative vision, and there are lots of interesting scenes on the ground!

Anticipation

Develop your skill in anticipating possibly interesting scenes. One example is morning frost that may look flat in shadow but can represent a stunning image when lit by the beautiful morning sunlight. Find a place where you expect the sun to shine soon, use your creative vision to find a scene that may be interesting, try a few different framings and then just wait for the sun to hit. In this specific example you may have just a minute or two (sometimes only seconds!) before the sun has melted the frost, so you do well in anticipating the scene and planning it up front! Read more about anticipation in this article.

Bokeh

Do you see a collection of small lights or reflections somewhere? These may very well make for a great background utilizing bokeh. Bokeh can significantly enhance a photo, or even be the main subject of a photo. For more on bokeh, see the article Using bokeh actively in photographic composition

Colors

Colors can be an important part of an image, or the actual subject itself. The impact of colors should not be underestimated. Learning to make good use of colors will definitely improve your awareness! Read more about colors in the article Color in photography – Color theory.

Okay then!

Don’t keep all these things in your head at once in the beginning. Pick one tip, grab your camera and go out and shoot as many pictures as you can. Look through them all when you get back and try to analyze how successful each photo is at conveying that particular theme. And if you like, add a comment on this page with a link to your photo on Flickr so that we can all see!

Do you have other tips to enhancing your awareness? Share them with us in the comments!

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