Bracketing in the digital age

Growth rarely seems to be one single epiphany, rarely a situation where one is suddenly faced with a new reality and yells, “AHA”!!! Archimedes notwithstanding, I think artistic growth is more often a series of small steps that delivers us to a new way of looking at our world.

When I was a beginning photographer, I would bracket (making multiple exposures at different camera settings) extensively, hoping desperately that at least one exposure would correctly translate my vision onto film. My wastebasket overflowed, but I learned eventually how to create a “good” exposure. (As long as I could remember which settings I had used for each image). As my skills increased, I found myself looking with disdain at the process of bracketing, seeing it as a sign of a shooter not really confident in his or her understanding of light and exposure. It was a great source of satisfaction to “nail” an exposure and having the confidence not to bracket. Seems pretty shallow in retrospect, eh?

Interesting that now as a digital photographer, I find myself bracketing probably more than ever. I no longer bracket for general exposure, the histogram having pretty much eliminated that worry. I do bracket for very specific exposure, such as the images I placed on the blog previously, in which the color range could not be captured with one exposure. I also bracket for dynamic range, where image contrast far exceeds what I can capture with one exposure. I also bracket for depth-of-field, using layer masks in Photoshop to blend images together in order to increase apparent depth-of-field. And of course, I bracket composition, often choosing my favorite image after the fact, on the computer screen.

“What goes around…”

P.S. The attached image has nothing to do with bracketing. I'm just having trouble letting go of summer. Sorry.

Grasshopper--a Haiku Photograph

I don’t think of my photographs as being “minimalist” necessarily, but I can’t deny that I look for simplicity. Two of my earliest influences were Japanese ink block artists Hiroshige and Hokusai.

What I learned:

• Not every square millimeter of image space needs to be filled.

• Space that contains nothing may make a significant contribution to the impact of the image; it sets off the subject as a beautiful setting sets off a diamond. It gives the subject a space to move into, thus aiding in establishing a story— establishing potential for future movement.

• Negative space is not the same as empty space. Empty space is merely empty space--it contains nothing, contributes nothing. Negative space has no content but offers possibility, and contains potential.
  

Back to haiku:
While my son Ben was living in Washington D.C., we went to an exposition of prints by Hokusai at the Smithsonian. I recall an image which showed a meticulously drawn branch, leaves, and flowers, but nowhere to be seen were the birds after which the painting was named. Perhaps the birds were sitting on the branch when he began the painting; perhaps he could simply hear their songs as he was painting; perhaps he simply imagined that branch as an ideal roosting place for the birds; perhaps…
See what I mean? Haiku photographs are all about possibilities.