Knowing how to visualize a shot in your head before you take it is an important step in the creative process, else you're simply firing off shots and hoping for a good edit to come out of the process. This great video follows a landscape photographer from pre-visualization all the way to printed photo.
I think the biggest thing I overlooked when I got into landscape photography was the importance of pre-visualization. I would find a nice view or scene, frame up a shot, and go home with no idea of how I wanted to edit it. This caused my progress to stagnate for quite a bit, as I wasn't developing a vision, just coming home with some ok starting images and seeing where I could go from there. As Nigel Danson details in this great tutorial, your photos will get better the more you shoot to the creative vision you have in mind. Part of this is because what makes for a great scene to our eyes doesn't always make for a great photograph (and vice versa) and part of it is because you will develop a stronger personal style and know how to consistently shoot to further refine and augment your catalog. Give the video a watch to follow the process from start to finish.
I always enjoy getting to see someone else's start to finish process. It helps to see things from a different perspective. I wouldn't shoot and edit that way personally but it gives me ideas about how I could make small changes in my the way I approach a photo even before I take my camera out of the bag.
Great post!
His process is very similar to my own. One thing that can't be overemphasized is stepping away from your work for a while and revisiting it later. Even though I don't drink, I was wondering if the final image would have turned out differently had he stepped away to have a beer rather than a cup of tea. ;-)
I don’t drink either! But if I did then not great I suspect!
A few years back, I "puppy sat" for my sister. She has one of those little scrappy dogs and before he even arrived, I imagined a dramatic shot, similar to the Benji posters. In my mind's eye, the sky would be stormy, he would be standing on a cliff and a bit dirty. I didn't imagine him wearing a collar but my wife wasn't having that. Anyway, I watched the sky every day and when the time was right...
That, my friend, is pre-visualization.
“Pre-visualization” is the proper term, aka the conceptualization of an idea or shot before the manifestation of said shot through the act of taking the picture. There’s a distinction between pre-visualization and visualization in the arts.
Great video. Top man