For me, Vision is the main idea that separates a technically proficient photographer from someone who can truly visually communicate with their photos.
And I don’t mean only photographers who have their photos in magazines or in galleries. I mean photographers that share their photos with their friends, families and peer groups around them. It’s nice to have your work admired by others right?
You’ve all probably met (or maybe you are) that person from your photography club that can speak in f-stops, can calculate shutter speeds in their heads, and tell you every technical detail about photography. But their photos are missing something and they don’t have the vision to take them further.
It’s TOTALLY normal. Why?
Because the technical is quantitative, and can be measured. You either know what Aperture is, or you don’t. It’s easier (for most people that is) to learn than the creative part.
See… once you learn the technical stuff, it’s fairly easy to go out and document what’s in front of you. To capture a scene as it looks. Honestly, cameras are really good at it these days with little intervention from us.
But what about how the scene actually feels or what you were feeling about it? Does that matter? To me, it’s ALL that matters. That’s where vision and taste come in.
Luminosity Masking and Taste? Huh?
I have a quick story for you. In an interesting coincidence I was releasing my “Art of Editing Landscapes” course the other day and I got an email that morning from some one that solidified why I made that course. This person asked for more “in depth” luminosity mask training. They said they had watched many YouTube videos that didn’t deliver. So I went to YouTube and just typed in “Photoshop Luminosity Masking”. I watched a few videos and I thought they did a really good job at explaining and showing what a Luminosity Mask was. So what was the problem?
I actually think his issue was not that he needed more “in depth” training. I think he’s a technical person, and the moment his photo looked different from what was on the example he watched, he didn’t know what to do.
If you’re not sure what a Luminosity Mask is, it’s simply a selection. Plain and simple, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Just like there are 100 ways to change color in your photo, there are 1000 ways to make selections. They don’t magically make your photos better. They don’t magically reveal something and bring out detail in areas you never knew. They don’t make the photo sharper. They simply make a selection in a different way than the usual selection tools in Photoshop’s toolbox.
The real skill to using Luminosity Masks is knowing what to do with that selection. Knowing what area of the photo needs improvement. Knowing how bright, how dark, how sharp, how colorful, how whatever, to make the part of the photo you just selected.
Notice I just said “the real skill…”? Well, yeah, it kind of is a skill right? But everything I mentioned that came after “skill” is really a product of taste.
I believe what this person was looking for, and just really either didn’t know it, or couldn’t articulate it, was help in figuring out how to make his photos better with those selections/masks. He wasn’t getting the results he wanted, and it wasn’t because he didn’t know how to make a Luminosity Mask. It was because he didn’t know what to do with them once he made them.
Why not? Because he didn’t have a vision for the photo. A game plan. If you’re going to invest the time to make complex masks, you should also have a plan. What do you want to do in the photo? If you know the end game (like the Avengers reference there?) of what you want from a photo, then once you make the masks, or whatever else it is you’re doing, you have a plan on how to use them. But if you’re just learning skills, without adding the vision and taste to the mix, you’re likely to have those technically good photos, that don’t necessarily move you or others.
It’s like people that learn long exposure photography. Learning how to extend the shutter for 2 minutes, and get a well exposed photo is something concrete that you can put your mind around. You either know how to do it, or you don’t. Learning what scenes and subject matter lend themselves to this technical ability is VERY DIFFERENT story.
I Was Not a Creative Person!!!
When I first started in the graphical and photography world, I was NOT a creative person. Not by a long shot. I wrote software code for a living. When I got my first DSLR, I would walk around my neighborhood and come back every time with photos of trees. Not even good looking trees 🙂
Why? Because I didn’t have any creative experiences to draw on. I walked outside and all that was around were houses and cars and fences. So the nicest thing I could find was a tree. We take photos of things we know (or are familiar) to scenes that we’ve seen before that we liked.
So can you really learn how to have better taste or to be creative?
Absolutely! I believe it happens by looking at, studying, and talking with people who are more creative, and have that “taste” you’re looking for. At first it’s daunting. But little by little it builds. You learn one great tip for shooting or editing. Then you go repeat what you learned. Sure, you copied it from the person you learned from, but that’s ok. Every great guitar player learned by copying songs from the greats before them. Then you repeat this process. Before you know it, you have 5 or 10 little things you learned in your arsenal.
Then… one day when you least expect it… a situation comes up and you try a little bit of tip #1 and a little bit of tip #4 that you learned. And you put them together to see what happens. And BAM!!!! It looks great to you. And then you share it and everyone likes it as well. Guess what… you CREATED something and developed a better taste for what works along the way.
Okay… I’ll Answer the Question Already
Finally, I hate to pose questions and not answer them. Or worse, answer a “this or that” question with “both” (I hate when that happens) 😉 So I’m going to pick a side.
When it comes to landscape / outdoor / travel photography (note, I’m picking a genre for this answer), I would take the person that has a good eye, creativity, and great taste in a heartbeat. Hands down… it’s not even a choice (for me).
Now, there are exceptions to everything. I’m talking about the art of seeing a scene in front of you and capturing it with a camera. Cameras are so good these days, that you could put it on P mode and as long as you had a good eye to get yourself into the right place at the right time, I’d be okay if you took every photo using P mode on your camera.
Will that “creative” person (who’s not very competent using the camera) be hindered if the wind was blowing the trees, or if they were photographing moving wildlife, or long exposures or night scenes? Yep. But I had to pick a side – and I’d still stick to my choice from an overall perspective.
Luckily, we don’t have to pick sides. We get to choose if we want to learn more about the skills and the taste or creative part.
I think there’s a lot of education out there to help with the skill part, but not that much on the taste part of it. My latest course “The Art of Editing Landscapes”, actually works to teach you how to balance both. There’s a lot of technical subjects in the course, but in each one of them I’m constantly trying to teach you how to use it creatively. You get to hear my thought process, the why behind what I’m doing, and even my screw-ups and why they happened, and how I get out of it. I hope you’ll swing by and check out the course page today.
Have a great weekend!
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Saw this quote this morning.
“Photographers should follow their own judgment, and not the fads and dictates of others… Photography has no rules. It is not a sport.”
– Bill Brandt
b. May 2, 1904
Right on Point to me Matt..
I’ve been shooting a LONG time, 50+ years now as an avocation, doing other things to make a living, working in Technical fields of one sort or another, and in IT for the last 25 years before I retired. That made the TECHNICAL part of photography a natural for me, but THE best advice I ever got MANY years ago that had the most profound “Smack you in the Forehead” feeling was:
” Art is Emotion, everything else is a technical exercise ”
YES, you have to master your tools, but THEN you have to use them to SAY something clearly enough to communicate some FEELING or EMOTION to the viewer.
That’s what has driven my photographic efforts for a long time now, and when I get it right, those are my favorite images.
Being technical, I usually understand the technical details I need for a given situation. The creativity and artistic aspects usually is much harder for one to pick up, as you stated very well, Matt. I am still working hard to improve my creativity, art of seeing and picturing the end goal before I start. If others are like me in any way, when you are describing an image for example and saying you see the triangles, most cannot see the triangles. They look and look and look and cannot isolate the image down to diagonals, triangles, leading lines, etc. They need help in seeing that….breaking down the grand scene into multiple different images by seeing the triangles, diangles, patterns, etc. I hope your new course does help me and others be even better at seeing and being artistic. Possibly taking those 2K plus images you got break down the art of seeing by drawing the triangles, the patterns, etc. in the image to help people see what you and others may natively see or have trained yourself to see. Just a suggestions to someone that does break things down into easy to understand language.
I have taken many Photo and Photo editing courses in the past, including several by Matt, but this course has been the most helpful for me of any of them. My technical skills with the camera and with Photoshop and Lightroom are very good, but this course helped me “SEE” much better.
Thanks so much Jim! I really appreciate the kind words and so glad it’s helped 🙂
Matt, you make a lot of GREAT observations here! Technical stuff is relatively easy to learn. While there may be a variety of ways to perform a particular task, once you know how to do it…well, you KNOW how to do it!
But how do you LEARN creative vision? I am a person who has a significant loss of physical vision, however I can still appreciate a beautiful scene. However, just seeing a beautiful scene does not automatically translate into having the creative vision to capture the scene “creatively”.
How do you “learn” something that really isn’t academic?
Hi Randall – I think I talked about that in the blog post. About how you learn little things here and there and eventually you put them together. Maybe have a read again?
After more than 10 years shooting, the notion of “picking up things here and there and putting them together” doesn’t seem to be working for me.
I can get great “postcard” shots of Horseshoe Bend or Haystack Rock or any number of Yosemite sites. But they all look exactly like the same image I’ve seen 10,000 times. There is nothing unique, creative or special about my image over someone else’s.
Where do I learn, in a tangible way, how to create art that is uniquely mine?
You have to go places that haven’t been shot a million times. You’ve seen horseshoe bend from every angle possible already so of course, your shots are going to look the same.
Exactly… you went to a place that has ONE photo. There is no other reason to go to Horseshoe Bend. It’s hard to get creative at a place like that. Kind of like Delicate Arch in Moab. You can get as fancy as you want. THere’s one shot that everyone wants to see from it. Now… head down the road from HorseShoe to the Slot Canyons, and you have a thousand creative choices. It’ll be crowded, but there’s texture, sky, ground, long exposure, etc… all in one place.
Nice article Matt! Oh yes, Horseshoe Bend..been there, left quickly, on to better things, it was a zoo! And has been photographed a zillion times! I took a few clicks of the crowd: http://bit.ly/CrazyHorseShoe
coming from a B/W film background has at least 1 advantage – the cost and the time and effort required to develop and print was a very large committment. I spent several weeks at the Banff Centre wandering up and down dale with a 4 x 5 and a medium format Mamiya looking .Several questions kept popping all of the time “Why are you going to take this picture?” and “What does it say about the environment – both physical and metaphysical – that I was in.”
The cameras are both big and somewhat clunky, so setting up to take one shot was a time committment. But I did not have to carry ant batteries around.
Very interesting blog Matt and I’m in total agreement with your conclusion.
I’m a quite a latecomer to Landscape Photography (two years) and I’m in my fifties!
However, I’m fortunate to have come from a creative/artistic background as a painter and so have many years experience working with composition, colour, tone, etc.
I found the technical side of photography fairly easy to learn as there is SO MUCH fantastic content on Utube etc. (your own tutorials a prime example).
It is my creative/artistic background and “vision” which has really been the catalyst for the images I’ve been able to capture.
You are also quite correct that you can “learn” those creative skills, yes some may be more naturally creative than others, as some are more technically minded than others, but you can certainly improve vision and creativity with experience.
Great article.
Great article; thanks. I’ve seen too many photos that are technically excellent—well exposed, robust histogram, tack sharp—of poorly composed, not very interesting subjects, that tell no story (or even hint at one) from technically competent photographers who haven’t learned to make an interesting picture. So, vision is critical; the most expensive gear (or software) won’t turn a poorly-composed or chosen scene or event into a great picture.
Matt, I agree with you that creativity is priority #1. However I’m just a little annoyed with the arrogance of some who completely ignore technique. I’m a retired commercial photographer and have seen it over and over. Some even go so far as to say that their out-of focus, wacky contrast photos were intended to be that way. Their stuff would be a lot better if they would put a a little effort into better technique. Thanks for a great article. I greatly appreciate your obvious passion and desire to pass it on.
Glad you took the time to address this, Matt. Great article and very instructive and informative. As always, you’ve given me more to ponder in terms of this aspect of photography.
Glad to help Mary 🙂
Hi Matt
I think you hit the nail on the head. I’s like to add what Uncle Ansel had to say: “A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety”. So, vision expresses our personal and unique view of the world. He also wrote that we don’t make a photograph with just a camera. He said we bring to the act of photography all the pictures we’ve seen, the books we’ve read, the music we’ve heard, the ones we’ve loved. So, not surprisingly, our view of the world is shaped by our life experiences. see you at PSW.
Thanks George. If you’re in Orlando I won’t be at that one. My son graduates that week. I’ll be in Vegas though! Hope all is well buddy!
That’s not possible. He’s not old enough. 🙂
I know right?!
Might be wrong but think it was Edward Weston, who when asked what made a great photo said “F8…and be there”
Very good article. I have been trying to learn things going in this direction and it sort of showed me what I have been looking for.
Great article Matt. This really goes along with another photographer and writer I follow: David duChemin, who always talks about vision – having one and knowing why you’re taking an image before taking it.
And I was one of those people who’d watched video after video about luminosity masking without comprehending how to incorporate it into my images. So I finally buckled down and purchased your course on it – the first time purchasing an online course on anything. And then it clicked. So thank you! (I use it and the included actions often)
Thanks Terry. David is great! Love his stuff.
excellent article here! we, photographers, maybe much more than other creatives (thinking here about painters or even more writers), tend to spend a lot of time learning an mastering the technical aspects of our craft, and some of us get stuck in this process… there is so much to learn, and so many offers to learn on the Internet… basically, a writer will learn most of his vocabulary and grammar in his early years, at school, and can focus on “vision and taste” when he becomes an artist… photography encompasses much more of technical aspects and you don’t learn it in your early stages at school. so, specially if you don’t learn photography in college but much later and as a self-taught like myself, you have to pursue both aspects (technical and artistic) at the same time… and because the technical aspect is so dense, some of us, as you very clearly pointed out in your article, forget about the artistic one… thank you for reminding us this risk and for putting us back on the right track!!
Thank you, Matt. This is affirmation for me. My brain works in reverse…I see and know what to do to enhance an image to raise the aesthetic value of it, yet don’t know how to accomplish it, so I hunt to find the technical skill I need to achieve the sensation I envision. Also, once I ‘discover’ a technical skill I’ve been ‘needing’, it is fun to go back to an older image and use that skill to successfully create the mood, character, tone or atmosphere I’d seen in it all along but didn’t know how to achieve it at the time.
Blessings ~
Matt, Your explanation is “Spot on” (excuse the pun) I’am old enough to know when film camera’s ruled the world of photography. When I started with camera’s (at a young age) I took pictures like I do now with my iPhone, or digital whatever (snapping away.) That is until my parents decided to teach me the value of the dollar by turning the developing costs over to me. Thus longer story shorter; Over the years I developed a better attitude at the beginning of “clicking” at everything that moved (or not moved) But you are perfectly in the “frame” with your characterization in your narrative. Bravo sir, Thank you for your insight!
I agree; you’re onto something Matt that’s been avoided in even the very best of the videos on landscape/nature photography. I’m three years into my photography journey. I consider myself to have a very good eye and know when their something with some “emotion” in front of my lens. However, when I post process I’m CONSTANTLY second guessing myself over the use of the post processing technology to get the outcome I want. I’m now pretty familiar with LR, PS, Nik and fully understand Luminosity masks and exposure blending…yet, I’ll process a photo and second guess myself as whether there’s “something more” I should be doing to make it look even better…and so starts version 2, 3, and 4 of the image. If the new course is intended to help people lock in their vision and then use the minimum amount technology to achieve that vision without wondering if we did it the “best” way, then you might have a customer in me.
Nice post Matt! I am bad at both! Persistence and a sincere love for photography are my mojo!
You are so right! My Dad had that eye. He was taking pictures with an old Kodak SLR and an old Zeiss Ikon (made in East Germany!) with fixed lenses and Kodacolor and Kodachrome and his composition was soft on. I have really struggled to get there, but I’m still trying. Thank God for digital!
I know what you mean. We all know people with “that eye”. I’m always trying to be one of them 🙂
I couldn’t agree with you more – and vision is actually the point of ALL creative endeavors – writing and poetry, art, etc. So I don’t have photoshop – I’ve been lazy about getting started with it, so I just use Lightroom and Luminar. Luminar helps with editing out unwanted things in the photo, though it’s limited. How much would would you say I really need to get photoshop and learn how to use it?
Hi Laurie – It’s tough to answer. It’s like everything, if you feel good with what you have I’d stick with it. Photoshop is essential for me, and can do everything. But it does have a learning curve that can make it difficult. Maybe start with some simple tutorials and see how you feel. Thanks!
I love this article, Matt. I think after years I’m beginning to shift from concentrating on composition technique to vision. I think I am able to do that now because the technique part (camera and composition) is finally developing muscle memory and no longer taking up a lot of thought and interfering with the more important vision part. And I’m enjoying photography so much more. Once again, you nailed it for me.
Thanks…nice article!
Years ago went to Yellowstone with another family, me with a very nice DSLR and my son and his friend with IPhone cameras. Compared shots after first day, basically all of us in same spot, and I looked at my son’s friend shots, and I almost stopped dead. His were so creative and his perspective just blew me away. He mentioned to me that he tried to visualize different perspectives before shooting. Pretty cool from a teenager.
Thanks Matt that was a help. When is “The Art of Editing Landscapes” coming out in ON1?
Hi Don. I did an ON1 Landscape class. It’s not as in depth as this because I can’t do everything I do in ON1. But if you go to mattk.com/on1landscape you’ll find the course. Thanks!
I could not have said it better Matt. !!!
Thanks 🙂
You are on to something, Matt. Thank goodness. So exhausted by all the technical training that is squeezing imagination out of existence for many of us. You’re helping me pause, take a breath and THINK creatively about what the picture FEELS like, not just what it LOOKS like — even when I’m working an image for an audience of one (me). Thank you. Now, I appreciate that you deserve and should get the compensation for your courses. It’s just a bit out of reach for me, darn it, but I’m hopeful lots and lots of people can buy them, because you deserve the reward for your work… and VISION! Rock on.
Thanks so much Sandy. I’m so glad it resonated with you 🙂
I LOVE this article. It correlates to one I deal with daily in my profession: do you want to hire and work alongside a person with great technical skills or great people skills. If the individual is going to be a lab rat in the basement, then maybe the great technical skills is all they need, but in general I’ll take a person with great people skills then teach them the technical skills. It’s difficult to teach people the great people skills especially those individuals who have really deep technical skills (Matt, you seem to be an exception) — people skills are an art, an intuition, a way-of-being. Same with photography — in my opinion, and how I read your article.