The marvels of creative photography

By Amal Hewavissenti

Photography is a creative art. It is a powerful visual media that calls for a strong consciousness of pictorial images. Taking a creative photograph demands higher awareness of how to ‘compose’ it. The composition of an artistic photograph includes how the subject is arranged, how it fills the frame, what shapes, colours and tones are present and how light is used to achieve maximal effects.

The two eyes of the photographer and the camera's eye together do marvels by capturing nature in more colours than it really is. As a matter of fact, camera does not see things in the same frame as human eye sees them in. The ‘third eye’ sees things in a more different light than human eye does and an artistic photograph is capable of speaking much more about what it portrays.

On the other hand an artistically creative photographer readily captures something which an ordinary person does not see in whatever he sets his eyes on. This is because the good photographer possesses a sharper eye that arranges scenes creatively through the camera.

It is important to remember that everyone with a digital camera can ‘take a photograph’ that mundanely records everything he sees. Yet creative photography falls beyond the boundaries of mere photographic recording. Here in good photography, the photographer fades into insignificance against the quality of the photograph that interprets a scene under different ‘angles'. But unfortunately, the personal image of the photographer has come to replace the quality of the photograph and the story that it narrates pictorially.

Rhythm

A creative photograph includes everything needed for the story that the photographer is trying to tell. Interestingly enough, such a photograph accompanied by the same rhythm as found in a dance or a song.

This dramatic contrast from an average photograph makes it a unique product.

Sometimes, a photographer may be amazed by the classical quality of a scene captured in comparison with the real scene which may lack that quality when viewed with the natural eye. How the photographer sees the scene, how he reproduces the scene at different angles and what he includes for special effects make up a creative photograph.

When a certain photograph shows something that the viewer has never seen - something that has been looked at from a fresh viewpoint - the photo is bound to be a creative one. Such a photograph may address both the eye and the mind of the viewer. For instance, Ansel Adams, an American photographer, made every possible effort to create a highly natural picture through black and white photographs. For this purpose, he exploited a number of lens, used certain chemicals and experimented with cameras. Rather than being an average photographer, he tried to test ways to create an artistic photographs of utmost creativity.

The creative photographer is a magician capable of conjuring up attractive scenes on film which appeal to the viewer with a deep message and appear extraordinary even though they are ordinary.

Whether a photographer is creative or not, he should have a sound knowledge of the techniques and ways to capture a scene artistically.

This is to mean that he should have intelligence and imagination to present the scene as attractively and artistically as possible. The good photographer gives fresh interpretations to what he otherwise views as totally average and common place.

Thus a creative photographer is someone who succeeds in addressing the intellect and the heart of the average people and who sees a special thing in most commonplace scenes and events.

The “third eye” of the photographer should be highly artistic and creative and it distinguishes him from those who can “take photographs” with digital cameras and do corrections at the moment. Creative photography as an art does not demand a greater knowledge from the photographer but calls for imagination, a refined taste for art and the awareness of colours and angles.

His photograph taken would noticeably contrast with the non artistic photograph showing the real back ground in the way it is.

The secret is the taste and skill that have been developed by degrees by the inventive photographer.

Impression

That good photographer, like a weaver weaving a beautiful mat, thinks deeper, organisers details of the scene and brings out a beautiful creation out of what he has captured with the camera. He gives either a powerful message or a strong impression of a particular image or scene that is otherwise ordinary. A really creative photographer conjures up interesting scenes and figures and creates a mysterious world out of an extremely ordinary view.

A creative photographer is highly conscious of the effects of light and direction of light which add an extraordinary quality to his photograph. And this photograph contrasts from photographs taken by a cameraman with a digital camera or a film camera.

The digital technology has substantially enriched photography as a visual art but the same technology has been used to decrease the qualitative value of a photograph. Upon the blessings of modern technology, everybody has become a photographer to the extent that they are hardly distinguishable from talented, creative photographers.

Even though one can do everything with a digital camera, that would not be creative because the creative photographer uses the technology correctly and captures colours invisible to the naked eye. But what counts is not the technology but the photographer's creative use of it and the technology should be his servant in producing a good photograph.

However, a good photograph tells a story while an average photograph is a mere record of a scene.