Take Your Best Shot

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

My Portfolio: Elbow Canyon

My Portfolio: Ice 1

1 Seeing

On Reading Photographs

1. Center of Interest

2. What is the Image About?

3. What is the Photograph About at a Deeper Level?

4. What are the Parts of the Image and How do they Relate?

5. Tonalities

6. Emotional Impact

7. Flaws

Reading My Photographs

What is the Photograph About?

What is the Photograph About at a Deeper Level?

What are the Parts of the Image and How Do They Relate?

Tonalities

Negative Space

Balance

Framing

Emotional Impact

Flaws

Is Beauty Essential to Great Photographs?

Elements of a Great Photograph

What Photographs Well?

Photographing Clichés

It’s Been Done Before

Noticing Subject Matter

My Portfolio: Machinery

My Portfolio: ADM Mill

2 Finding Images

Working the Scene—Part 1

Working the Scene—Part 2

The Poison of Preconceived Ideas

Finding Inspiration—Interest Comes First

Rules for Looking

Seeing Fatigue

There’s Nothing Here to Photograph

Where Should You Point the Camera?

My Portfolio: Canyon 2

My Portfolio: Rust Rings

3 Composing

Sketching to Make Photographs

Complicated doesn’t Cut It

Does an Image Need a Center of Interest?

How Close to Perfect is Needed?

Decisions and Compromises

Your Options

Where Should You Point the Camera?

Framing Your Images

The Art and Religion of Cropping

To Crop or Not to Crop, That is the Question

Formats and Aspect Ratios

What About Cropping Both Ways?

Back To Framing

Framing Assistants

What Edges Can Do For Your Images

Working on ...