April 7, 2017
Interview with Scott Mowbray co-author of the book The Unforgettable Photograph
Mike Carruthers: Anyone can take a photograph but taking a great photograph takes some effort.
Scott Mowbray: You know I think the 1st rule is don’t take pictures of something that you can buy postcards about. So if you’re going to the Eiffel Tower the question is how do you interact with that thing?
Scott Mowbray co-author of the book The Unforgettable Photograph…
You know 1 example is you can have fun with that. Let’s say you’re with somebody who’s really good at standing on their head. Get them to stand on their head in front of the Eiffel Tower, in front of the Grand Canyon, in front of the White House. You’re going to end up with a very funny series of photos which are about your interaction with the place as opposed to something that you could just download off Google in 1 second.
You’ll get a more interesting shot if you’re playful with people rather than just pose them standing there.
Take a chair from the dining room and put it out in the middle of a snowy backyard and shoot a kid sitting there – now that’s a funny theatrical thing to do. But if you do that with every member of your family in that funny unexpected thing suddenly you have a series of pictures that are fun and it’s just everyday stuff.
And lighting is a very important yet often overlooked consideration.
Natural light, filtered light, indirect light (that’s light that’s bounced off a wall before it strikes the subject) almost always better than direct light. For example let’s say you’re shooting at the beach – we’ve all taken those shots where people are squinting and there are shadows. Just move them around the side of the beach house or whatever and shoot them in that reflected light and suddenly the picture’s a million times better.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS