How Photography May Have the Power to Change Our World
Blog entry
17th June
How is photography powerful?
I feel that you will make an image powerful, depending on its importance to you and what you decide to use it for.
Here is a set of questions that consider when thinking about the power of photography.
Questions
Do pictures help memory?
Why is photography important in our world today?
Is photography important in society?
What’s the impact of photography?
Have a think about these questions and consider your own answers to them, as I will explain my own point towards each one.
Do pictures help memory?
‘Study shows taking photos improves visual memory! Sure, taking pictures captures the visual details of our memories, but a new study suggests pressing that shutter button improves visual memory.
Most use photography to capture that event or memory throughout our lives. This then brings objects, places, and events to life! Then you have the chance to reminisce and remember when that photo was taken.
Why is photography important in our world today?
Photography is important because it allows people to see the world from different points of view and to admire the most different scenarios and situations captured in a frozen moment. Let’s not forget that photography has become a global cacophony of freeze-frames & millions of pictures are uploaded every minute.
Is photography important to society?
Who takes photos regularly via your phone?
Me, I love to use my phone to take photos of people or animals that I love, events that I am enjoying, and places that I have been.
Society has made photography important because it enables the diffusion of objective information through the visual capture of things as they really are. Photography allows people to accurately familiarize themselves with far-off landscapes and cultures. The most important thing is photography is more accurate than previous forms of visual media.
What is the impact of photography?
Photography is the ultimate tool for capturing our surroundings with a realistic approach. The very nature of capturing evidence has impacted the way we remember things from our past or our present. From global-scale events to domestic and familiar occurrences, photography has shaped the way we remember things
This for me is the power of an image or taking a photograph!
Now being a photographer and a commercial photographer I use the power of images to encourage clients to have professional photographs taken. A powerful image is one that looks real.
Many photographers will attempt to provoke an emotion, a genuine feeling in the viewer that connects them to the photograph & the reason behind why the photographer took the image in the first place. As each photographer wants the viewer to mentally put themselves in the photograph, or at least, feel like they are in the same space as they view it.
Are any of you studying the subject of photography?
As when you learn about photography, you are taught the processes, skills, and techniques but you also learn about the meaning of a photograph! When you start to understand the meaning of a photograph, this is where the power of an image can evoke that emotion or feeling.
Here is a famous photograph taken by Dorothea Lange
Have you seen this photograph before?
Migrant Mother (1936) by Dorothea Lange
Can you feel any emotion or feeling by looking at this photograph?
As a commercial photographer myself, I use the emotional link when taking a photograph and understand how powerful this can be for any company or person.
How many of you take pictures, but don’t print them?
Do you have a precious photograph? & why is it?
Ask yourself this if you had a professional photograph taken would you print that? Why would you? compared to a picture that you took yourself?
This is where professional photographers can support and help as they can shoot your wedding, family portrait, products, and many other subjects.
My Niche - is food, property, and fitness photography, and have skills in lighting, editing, posing and styling a product photograph.
Here is a list of the equipment I use:
Studio light, with a softbox or umbrella
Flashgun, with a softbox or umbrella
Reflectors, with a black, white, gold and silver surface
Backgrounds, either white or black and many other material backgrounds
Let’s not forget props.
As a photographer, I am keen to teach others my process and as our society is becoming more visual, we are all using visual apps, like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and many more. We use the nearest thing to hand to take a picture or video and this is our phones.
What type of phone do you have?
Andriod
iPhone
I want to try this little activity which is how to take a depth of field image with your phone, but for you to control it. With an iPhone they have the portrait mode which already is a program to take a depth of field image, so you can use that or just keep your photo option as it is.
If you only use your phone to take pictures then please take read this blog on how to effectively use your phone
iPhone Process
The process of taking or creating depth of field with your phone is really easy and you may already be completing this task each time you take a picture with your phone. If you have the latest phones, you may have a mode called portrait, this mode has been formed so that each time you take pictures of a person or an object the camera focuses and the background becomes blurry. If you do not have this mode on your phone then all you need to do is use the focus square.
Line up three objects diagonally and place them at equal distances away from one another. Now take three photographs and for each photo move the focus square between the three objects and see the visual results.
ANDROID Process
Do the same process with the three objects, explained above. With an android, you will have a circle focus ring, so instead of moving the square focus on an iPhone, you will move the circle per object, to get a depth of field image.
If you are not getting a blurry background then move the foreground objects further away or download this app and try this effect.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.GoogleCamera
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