What Type of Photographer Are You, Proactive or Reactive? It's Worth Finding Out

There are two distinct approaches to photography: reactive and proactive. The type of photography you do depends on your personality and how comfortable you are with each of those approaches. What kind of photographer are you?

Reactive Photography

Reactive is probably the most common type of photography. What is it? The easiest way to understand that is with an example: you go for a walk, spot something interesting, and photograph it. It’s spontaneous and relies, to a certain extent, on the good fortune of being in the right place at the right time.

Of course, you can increase your chances of getting a reactive photo by choosing the place and the time, and the more thought you put into the image, the further it slides toward being proactive.

Reactive photography is instantly adaptable, and you need to be responsive. As new situations arise, you must be ready for them. So when that stag bellows in the autumnal cold air, or you react to a street performer doing his stuff, you must be prepared to respond.

Wildlife and street photography are two genres where the photographer often responds to what is happening in front of them. The photographer's skills are reflected in their ability to capture a vital moment. The bird taking off, the wave crashing on a beacon, and the tender moment shared by an old married couple in a park are all incidents where reactive photography comes into play. It requires observation and anticipation of the precise fraction of a second when you should release the shutter.

Moreover, the skilled reactive photographer breaks away from the mundane and finds at least one element that makes the shot more compelling. For example, a typical "bird on a stick" photo requires exposure and focusing skills, and it can be a perfectly acceptable photograph if you want a catalog image of that species. However, if you add some extra interest, such as behavior, captivating lighting, or other relevant elements, it becomes more appealing to the viewer. For example, the header image of this article is more interesting than if the goose had just been sitting on the water.

The same applies to street photography. It’s easy to take mundane photos of people clutching the ubiquitous phones and disposable coffee cups. Novice street photographers often make that mistake, resulting in weak images that they try to improve by converting to black and white. The following two images show a mundane shot and something more dynamic.

Similarly, some landscape photographers will turn up at a pretty spot and hope for the best. But that is not necessarily the best approach.

Reactive photography is often adopted by beginners who stroll around with their cameras, hoping to capture a great image. However, it is hard to do well and worth practicing. It works best when we show the world in an unusual way, putting our lens in places the eye does not usually see. It takes skill, but that can be learned. Done well, the image must create a story beyond, “This is a pretty young woman with a phone,” “Here’s a bird on a stick,” or, “This is a lifeboat.”

Proactive Photography

Photographers will have a much higher success rate when they plan the shot.

Being proactive is being ready for an event before it happens. It means controlling the scene rather than just responding to it. If you are proactive, then a great deal of planning goes into the shot, and you will know enough about your subject to predict what will happen or know what will look good and set up the scene accordingly. It requires a more precise and fastidious personality that enjoys careful planning.

Probably the most proactive photography is still life, where the photographer completely plans and sets up the scene. Studio portraits are also proactive because they are, for the most part, planned. Although good studio photographers interact with the model and can adapt to suit the circumstances, such as the personality and the mood of the model, they have control over the shoot. Fashion, fine art, and product photographers require that precision in planning and preparation too.

When we consider those genres, we can see that proactive photography is visionary. The photographer has a good idea in their head of what they are after and has probably planned this by storyboarding it and deciding beforehand how the images will look.

Combining Proactive and Reactive Techniques

Let’s take the three genres I mentioned earlier: street, wildlife, and landscape.

I split street photography into two sub-genres. Firstly, there are the action shots where people are doing something interesting. The proactive photographer will already have a good idea where the best light will be and set themselves up where there is a good background and where things will happen. They will also anticipate the kind of people that will appear but be prepared to react to the situation should it change.

The second sub-genre is street portraiture. Again, the planning will go into the shot, but the photographer will shoot a head or head-and-shoulders image of the subject. This is sometimes posed and agreed upon with the subject or shot as a reaction without permission, where the facial expression of the subject is more natural.

For wildlife, it is similar. The photographer will know the direction of the light, where the creature will be, and when it is likely to exhibit the behaviors that are wanted in the shot. Nevertheless, animals are sometimes unpredictable, and a reactive approach is required. However, prior learning about the behavior of the animal will help the wildlife photographer to react and get the shot.

One might think that landscape photography is almost entirely proactive. Every photographer worth their salt will plan where they want to be standing to get the light coming from the right direction. They will also consider the meteorology, perhaps the tide times if applicable, and their route in and out of the location. Nevertheless, despite all that planning, things can change. Spotting a bird flying into the scene might completely change the way the scene is composed, or you might arrive on location and find another photographer standing in your chosen spot.

Personality Types and Proactive and Reactive Photography

As I mentioned above, most photography sits somewhere between these two extremes but leans more toward one than the other. Nevertheless, some people like to think about and plan the shot and be in control of every detail. This type of thoughtful, introverted person suits proactive photography. Meanwhile, reactive photography is immediate and unrestrained, often suiting impulsive extroverts. Reactive photography requires an eye that sees what will make an interesting image and the ability to predict what will happen next. They just like to shoot whatever the situation brings them.

I suspect most of us sit somewhere on the spectrum between those two extremes, with a preference weighed more toward one approach but not to the exclusion of the other.

Neither is right nor wrong, and either approach is possible for many types of photography.

Which Are You?

In researching this, I read articles that insist the proactive approach is the only way to take photos. That is a load of codswallop. If you like walking with a camera and photographing whatever you see, nobody can dictate otherwise. When I am shooting for myself, instead of a client, the entire process is far more important than the finished product, and I think that is true for many photographers. I enjoy planning, heading to a location, and following my plan. I get a kick from setting up the camera and implementing its advanced settings.

What is your preference? Are you more of a careful planner, envisioning the photo beforehand and deciding what you need to do to get that shot? Alternatively, are you more inclined to walk with your camera and enjoy shooting what comes your way?