A beautiful scene is not enough to make a good image
Photography is not about capturing, photography is about creating
Creating a fantasy that conveys what we feel
The way we perceive a place like this one is unique to us
it's not only about what we have in front of us, what we can see, but also about what we can hear
what we can smell, what we can touch, and most importantly, how we feel about the place
and that will mean very different things for different, people but even for you in different conditions
depending on your mood, on how you are feeling, or on the weather, of course
In order to create those illusions, to communicate what we feel
we need to stop seeing reality as it is and start “seeing in images”
Every photograph is a crop of reality, and we can do this in our minds
Let's call them “mental crops”
We don't see a beautiful tree, we see instead a wrinkled and aged trunk surrounded by an ever-changing world
we don't see branches and leaves, we see beautiful silhouettes against the sky and the ground
We also need to start visualizing what the final image could look like after playing with it for a bit in editing
touching the shadows the highlights and all that kind of stuff
This is harder than it sounds
Sometimes, we feel like there is potential for an image but we are not sure, we don't know if this is the right
composition, the right angle...
in those cases, I tell you: take all of those photographs, you'll have time to decide
for yourself which one is best in editing
What were unimpressive RAW files and negatives at first, turned out to be some of my favorite images in the end
We need to practice, to practice a lot
This is why I always tell you to carry a camera along
Even if you're not taking any pictures, just the mere fact of having a camera on you will make you think in images
it will make you look for images around you
Take this as training for photographers, we need to practice in order to get better
This might take a bit, it's a skill that is going to take time to develop
but in the meanwhile, technology can help
Back in the day, B&W film photographers used a few tricks to get an idea of what the image would look like
once they developed the film
For that, they looked through color filters
We don't need to do that today, even when I shoot film, I use my digital camera, or my phone
if I don't have the camera with me
to preview the image that I have in front of me in B&W
and when I shoot digital, I set the camera to a B&W preset, but I still shoot in RAW
so i get the benefit of both things: I have a live preview of the image in B&W
and I still get all the information and all the colors from the scene
Of course, this preview won't be exactly the same as the final image
but it will give you a good idea and a good starting point
As i said, being able to see images in the field is a skill that takes time to develop
but it’s one that is very important and that we want to have, so we need to practice and work hard on getting it
I hope these few tips were useful, if that was the case please leave a thumbs up
and you can leave your own tips in the comments down below
Thank you so much for watching the video, and see you in the next one!