A picture that is professionally shot will convey a message or concept. Let the stated maxim be put to test. The picture in the figure 1. is taken as test image. In that image one can infer following things: "a man", "sitting posture" and "a park or woods or forest". Shirt, pant and body shape suggests the subject should be a man. The male subject's head is turned right and upper body is blurred (i.e. not clearly visible). The sitting on the ground with stretched legs, bare feet and upper body supported by hands evokes a "relaxed" emotion in viewers' mind. Looking at the greenery behind the man, one can assume the location as forest or wood. But common sense tells us a commoner will not sit casually in a forest. So, the location must be a park only.
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| Figure 1. Relaxed man in the park. Image Courtesy: Wikipedia |
Professionals selectively blur the picture to make their visual message to be unambiguous. In our case photographer is interested in keeping the subject anonymous (i.e. identity of the subject or male model is irrelevant for the visual message). For that subject face was blurred. Human eye drawn to look at the face or crisp portions of the image. In this case bare feet of the man is clear and naturally eyes are drawn there. This helps to evoke "relaxed emotion" in viewers. Likewise the background is blurred to curtail the botanist-viewers to draw their attention towards the trees.
Let us visualize another scenario. In this case, the man face is upright, eyes are looking at us, teeth are visible and face portion of the picture is sharp. Now, attention is drawn into face portion. Then people will conclude that "a happy man in the park". Thus small change in face combined with non-incorporation of blurness changes the meaning of the picture altogether.
One can safely conclude photography is a park or woods or foresta "visual tweet or visual SMS." Photographers' should use few visual words (say a man, sitting posture etc) and express their message succinctly. Photographic art has a grammar (not in strict sense). It is like collection of thumb rules. Violating once in a while is permitted. Without understanding grammar, affluent people buy costly camera with accessories. But they end up in making poorly composed picture. It is well known fact good photographers use high end camera and lighting systems to compose great photo. But availability of high-end does not guarantee good picture.
Digital technology provide as a great platform for us to understand and appreciate every aspects of photography. Before that enthusiast have to rely on film camera, photographic books and workshop. All the above options are costly affair. Nowadays access to digital camera, photography related literature and sufficient amount of good photos (via Internet) are within the reach of common man. Let us take photography as our hobby.
The moral of the post is "Photography is an art and camera is just a tool." Let us keep aside the intricacies of camera technologies and focus on art of photo composing. Digital platform opens up a opportunity to become a photography hobbyist. Let us put into use and bring peace in ourselves.
