Learning to "See", New Webinar and Workshops

Robert Rodriguez Jr / Issue No. 47 / July 15th, 2024

Hello, and welcome to another issue of the Creative Path Newsletter!

Creative Cafe #11 - Lightroom Workflow

The next Creative Cafe is this Wednesday! We'll be looking at a few images from other great photographers and painters and breaking down the composition to learn what makes it work and why!

There will also be a general Q+A towards the end where I'm happy to answer any questions about photography in general.

Creative Cafe #11
Date: Wed, July 17th, 2024​
Time: 7:30PM EST

Learning to "See"

I often tell students to think less about “subjects” and more about shapes, colors, lines, and of course light. I recognize how difficult that can seem, especially when cameras today make it trivial to capture a technically perfect image; everything is there for the “taking.” For me that’s the difference between looking and seeing.

I think of “looking” as simply identifying what the subject is, and “seeing” as the awareness of potential design elements that we can use to develop a good composition. Looking is what comes naturally to us, what we’ve been intuitively doing since birth.

Look at that tree over there, or that building over here, or those amazing ominous clouds in the distance. We unconsciously identify with descriptive labels, and that gives us a sense of comfort that others will also “clearly” the same thing.

But therein lies a potential problem, one that can hinder our creative vision without even realizing it. Because it’s comfortable and relatively easy to define the subject of our image, we limit our seeing as a whole, and therefore ignore other potential possibilities—better ways of capturing and expressing what we really want to convey.

I’ve seen this happen many times when I make a slight adjustment to a student's camera that improves the composition and seems obvious yet was invisible to the student a moment before. And I’m sure I’ve missed many images myself due to the same lack of visual awareness. The only difference that I can see between myself, and the student, is that I’ve been focused on this aspect of photography for much longer, dedicating the majority of that time to improving my ability to see, rather than the endless list of things that can distract us as photographers (more gear, techniques, software, etc.)

The fact is that you don’t simply pick up the camera and immediately start seeing. As I mentioned before, seeing is a process that starts with looking and observing. Learning to see however is not necessarily some intuitive creative process that only a few right-brained people can do. It’s a skill, which means anyone can learn to do it with enough commitment, practice, and patience.

The key is making the transition from looking to seeing. And that entails many things, but chief among them, a good understanding of visual design and a conscious willingness to let go of the aforementioned labels and focus on light.

One assignment I often give students is to consciously try and avoid labeling anything you see, and instead simply become aware of how lines, shapes, and especially light and shadow are interacting with each other. Try not to isolate anything by itself (subject) but instead try and see how they are connected in some unifying way (design.)

This is where the design principles I’ve talked about are so important, because they are responsible for how your eyes (and the viewers eyes) move inside of a composition. Our eyes move from darker areas to lighter areas, follow lines, and move between shapes depending on their differences, or group them together depending on their similarity.

I’ve only scratched the surface on the whole concept of looking and seeing, but I hope you have a better sense of the ideas involved. Surely there are many other approaches, and I can only describe my own. But the basic fundamentals are still important. Design, composition, and seeing light are critical factors to consider when it comes to making images that are meaningful for you and others. More to come in the future!

Workshops

Fall In Acadia National Park
​There are still a few spots left on the Fall in Acadia workshop coming up soon from Sep. 30th to Oct. 4th. Join us to explore the rugged coastlines and beautiful forests of Acadia, including lesser-known locations off the beaten path. If you're interested, or have questions, PLEASE respond to this email and let me know asap.

The Acadia workshop was fantastic! Robert guided our small class to beautiful locations and challenged us to see light, dark, motion, stillness, color and texture. I am a better photographer as a result. In the words of Ansel Adams: “A good photograph is knowing where to stand,” and, “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” You taught me both. Thank you! - Brett Friedli

Questions, comments, feedback? Please reply and share your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!

Robert :)