(soft upbeat music)
(camera shutter clicking)
- Hi, I'm Ira Block, Sony Artisan of Imagery.
In this video you'll learn about
the key components of a photo
including composition and moment.
When I'm shooting people, besides moments,
there's nuances and body language.
It's these little things that take a good or average picture
and transform it into a great image.
It's a small nuance, but to me, it's very important
especially if you're doing something like a silhouette.
This picture of the fisherman
is almost there for me, it's not perfect.
I have a couple of issues with it.
The main issue is that his head is not turned enough for me
to see a profile of his nose.
It's a great picture, I'm happy with it,
but what would make me happier?
Had I had his head turned just a little bit more
so I'd get the profile in the nose.
I get very picky about my photos but you have to.
You have to look at your photos critically
and learn from them so in the future
you'll make better images.
In this image I did get the guy's nose.
Plus, this has a little more layering.
I've got his boat in the foreground,
the motor of the boat really stands out
and has a nice shape.
He's at the bow of the boat with his fishing net
and in the background is another boat
going through the water.
And all this is happening in some beautiful golden light
with a little fog going on.
It's, you know, really a nice image.
And again, I'm at a high shutter speed.
Look at the boat in the background.
It looks like a canoe with a motor on it,
that's the kind of boat I'm shooting from.
So the boat I'm shooting from is bouncing around a bit.
High shutter speed and your picture's not blurry.
In Myanmar, I saw this novice monk adjusting his robe
and there was beautiful backlighting
coming through a doorway
and it gave this terrific silhouette effect.
So I did this picture, but I stayed with the situation.
This picture's not bad, but let's look at the next picture.
His robe drops just a little bit.
I was careful about my metering on this picture.
I just wanted the detail of the light
coming through the red robe.
And I could see his face and I could see the silhouette
of his nose and I'm really lucky, he's getting a beautiful
little highlight on in his face.
Even when you do landscapes,
and I like to include people in my landscapes,
I look for these nuances.
Here's a boat going into a little village.
Now, it looks like a fine image
but the people aren't as defined
and you don't see much action.
The next image, however, look at the paddles.
The paddles are out of the water,
they're holding the paddles, the body language is different.
It makes the image much more dynamic.
The same thing is happening here.
I was photographing these fishermen in front of Mount Fuji.
Not a bad picture again, foreground, the fishermen.
Middle ground, I got this layer of fog,
in the background I have Mount Fuji with a little cloud
over the top of the mountain.
Picture's not bad but look
at the fisherman in the foreground.
He looks okay, but in the next image he's got his hands up,
just a little different body language.
For me, makes the picture better.
In photography you're combining a lot of elements
in your image, a lot of things going on.
There are things that add to the picture,
which make it a great picture, just as there are things
that distract from the picture.
Stuff in the background, garbage in the background,
busy background, bright spots in the background.
Those will distract from your image.
Let's look at a couple more images
from my Cuban baseball project.
This is one of the young kids who's totally interested
in playing ball and I liked the background
and I put a strobe on him
'cause he had those cool sunglasses on.
I love the colors in Cuba and I tried working
with the colors in Cuba so incredible blues here
and the ball player behind the fence
just attracted me right away.
And what was I careful about doing in this picture?
I wanted to make sure that his eye
was not getting obstructed by the fence.
So I look for these small little details.
In this picture, I'm at a baseball game
and all the action's going on behind me,
but I needed more grass roots people involvement.
So I turned around, I looked through the stands,
and I found a couple, and I knew this couple,
they were getting a little close and friendly
and I waited and I stood there and boom, they kissed.
So it just made for a moment for me.
I was walking outside a stadium
and I noticed this ticket window.
And the woman was looking out
and it looked like she was floating in space
'cause the way the white was.
It's not a situation where I'm gonna walk by
and just snap the shutter and keep going.
It's a situation where I want it to work for me,
there's a lot going on, I'm working the composition,
I'm working where she's positioned.
I have to talk to the person.
I have to start interacting with that person,
which is an important part about being a photographer.
I came over and I started shooting her.
I had the 24 to 70 on the camera.
I switched to the 16 to 35
because the 16 to 35 going wider
seemed to give this more of a floating effect.
It just worked well, the colors worked well,
and agan I have her face in between the gate
that she's looking at.
So you really can get into her face.
I mentioned the colors in Cuba, I mentioned the background.
Here's a great example.
I love this corner.
The colors are terrific and I love the fact that the walls
are going at an angle and this kid was playing baseball
in front of it and I just captured this moment.
The ball's in the right place, the bat's in the right place.
His clothing, the blue pants, the white shirt,
all the colors really matched.
Had he been wearing red or black
it wouldn't have the same appeal.
So there's a lot going on
when you have to make a good picture,
there's a lot of elements.
In this picture we just have a very quiet moment
between this kid and this ball player in the dugout.
The way they're looking at each other, the colors again,
everything just came together and made a nice little moment.
I was driving around and we saw this building
and these kids playing ball.
Well, this was some old sports center
and the background was great.
It's got the Cuban flag and it's got a baseball.
It's telling my story.
And I just caught the kid throwing his ball
in the same position as the ball on the background
and it just made the picture, and another element
is he's wearing these bright colored pants.
The background has subdued colors,
his pants are a little brighter,
everything starts working together.
When I was shooting baseball in Cuba
I wasn't shooting it just for the action
or for the news and timeliness of the game.
I was trying to capture the poetry of the game of baseball
and I think this image really speaks to that.
I was focused on home plate,
I knew this runner was gonna come in.
And I got this fantastic image of the player,
the dust spinning around, the body language, the colors.
It just all added up.
In this video, you learned about the key components
of a photo including composition and moment.
Keep all this in mind, keep practicing,
and you'll take better pictures.