Camera shake blues
I’m so annoyed at myself right now. So many of my recent photos have some slight camera shake in them – it’s very slight, and you probably wouldn’t spot it at the size and resolution on here but I know it’s there and it spoils the image for me. I used to pride myself on having a very steady hand but at the moment you’d think I’d been hitting the bottle on a regular basis.
It’s got me thinking about the whole issue of sharpness. It seems to me that if you’re setting out to take a photo that relies on sharpness, then it should be perfectly sharp. But unless you have very bright light, that really means using a tripod, and I hate them. I hate them for a number of reasons but the most important one to me is that it takes away the spontaneous nature of shooting. I took up photography in part because I’d spent too much of my life being academic and precise and terribly, terribly careful. I wanted to break away from that. I wanted to work intuitively, move fluidly, and lose myself in the flow of it all. For me, getting all finicky about perfect sharpness is too much like being back in academia where everything felt so restricted and lacking in life and joy – no matter how interesting it was on an intellectual basis. To use a tripod on a regular basis would take away much of the joy that photography gives me, but I don’t want to take poor shots either………
I’ve always been very drawn to any kind of lo-fi photography. I like the way you never know quite what you’re going to get and how there’s always a chance of a serendipitous accident that turns out to be your best shot. And I like the softness and mystery the lo-fi approach creates. One of my recently discovered favourite photographers is Susan Burnstine; she makes her own (very lo-fi) cameras out of bits and pieces she picks up at car boot sales. The resulting images are dreamy, mysterious, and full of story. Sometimes digital can seem too hard-edged, too bright, too contrasty, for me. I know it doesn’t have to be, but it so often is.
I used to love my Lensbaby for its lo-fi qualities but I pretty much stopped using it, largely because I got such a rollicking when I used it for a whole assignment. I can see now that my assignment photos did leave a lot to be desired, but I still don’t think that was the fault of the lens. Lensbaby images can be a bit gimmicky, it’s true, but when they’re done properly they can also be very effective. However, it does have a very distinctive and identifiable look and that’s not always what I want, either.
I’m aware I’m rambling on here, so let me finish up and get to the point. I feel there’s a decision I have to make – go for sharp pictures, bite the bullet and use a tripod, or go in a different direction towards a more lo-fi approach, where lack of sharpness isn’t an issue in the same way. I like the second of these better, but I’m going to have to think hard about how I want to do that.
In the meantime, I took these once I got finished teaching in London at the weekend. They were shot in one of my favourite places, St Dunstan’s-in-the-East. The light was pretty dull so I concentrated on taking little abstract-y shots. Some are sharp, some aren’t………….but you might not notice.
November 7, 2011 @ 9:33 pm
Some lovely pictrues above Gilly. I’m oddly taken with the leaves on concrete though I couldn’t say why. I tend to push up the ISO to get sharpness as I often don’t have a tripod. I also work a bit on camera technque (my nose gets squidged as I hold the camera hard against my face and press my arms to my chest) but I am sure you are doing that already.
I also like Susan Burnstine’s work a lot although I can’t find a way (yet) to make that low fi style work for me. I am looking forward to seeing how you take these thoughts forward.
November 21, 2011 @ 12:52 pm
Thanks Eileen; I think your camera has much better ISO capability than mine. It’s my dream to get one that copes well with noise and goes up past ISO 1600!
November 8, 2011 @ 8:54 pm
These are such beautiful pictures Gilly. I love all the colours; that one with the odd-coloured bench and leaves is just gorgeous!
November 21, 2011 @ 12:52 pm
Thank you, Kirstin!
November 12, 2011 @ 12:46 am
Gilly, these are a gorgeous collection of artfully conceived and composed images. Focus certainly looks fine at this scale. I’m only at the beginning of my photography journey, but already sharpness is an issue that I wrestle with. I’ve been working in two modes – selective sharp focus (using a tripod) and a soft impressionist vision (more recent experiments, handheld and purposely a bit out of focus). A soft focus image is more evocative, but do I want everything that way? Not really, as that would limit my “vision” to just one mode. All though I hated using a tripod at first, I have gotten use to dragging it around. I do like the sense of knowing that I can be confident that I will come home with some “keepers”. There is nothing more frustrating to me than spending an exciting day outside and finding out later, that the images are out of focus – but not enough for it to look intentional. As you mention, the spontaneity of working handheld is wonderful and can produce good results. Such a conundrum! I guess finding the answer is a process of defining our vision of the world. It’s part of our photographic journey.
Take care and happy focusing, or not 🙂
Anna
November 21, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
Anna, thanks for your thoughtful reply. Yes, I don’t want to be locked into doing only soft focus either, although it is what I tend to prefer. I think it takes a lot of time to find our own personal vision and possibly even longer to figure out how to achieve it in practical terms. Some photographers do seem to get stuck in a certain style and I wouldn’t be happy with that. Life’s all about evolving and changing.
November 12, 2011 @ 12:52 am
Ecckkk, typing too fast – although is spelled incorrectly!
November 14, 2011 @ 3:28 pm
Oh boy do I hate my tripod too — but then again mine is this cheapie little thing that won’t stay put once I finally jiggle it into the proper position. Drives me nuts! So I tend to push the iso way up high too and then use Topaz to remove the extra noise. But…
I do feel your struggle with the sharp vs. low-fi look. I can process photos both ways and then I inevitably tend to pick the sharper/more saturated one. I love my lensbaby but haven’t really used it much either. It’s hard to find a “style” when there is so much out there to inspire. I still feel like I’m finding my way — I think that’s a pretty common feeling though. : )
November 21, 2011 @ 12:57 pm
Jessica, my first tripod was a real cheapie – £12 from Amazon! It was awful, and I hated using it. The one I’ve got now is much better, although it’s still quite an inexpensive one. Someone I met on a course told me that if I ever tried a really good one, I’d probably be a lot more enthusiastic about using one. He offered to let me try his, but the opportunity didn’t come up so I still don’t know.
November 15, 2011 @ 1:32 pm
Hi Gilly
I’m so jealous! We (once again) don’t have an autumn this year 🙁
I don’t want to single out certain pics, because then you may think others are not good… but I like them..
Dewald
November 21, 2011 @ 1:00 pm
Dewald, I’m so sorry you haven’t got an autumn to speak of! What a shame. I’m afraid I don’t know much (anything!) about the climate in your part of China. Thanks for the kind words; I’ve been watching you on Flickr and intending to leave comments but I’m lagging behind a bit at the moment. Will catch up soon!
November 22, 2011 @ 4:45 pm
Lovely pictures, Gilly, and I enjoyed your internal debate with yourself on sharpness and shake. As a photographer, I like shake and movement in my images, though obviously there are times when you need things to be really sharp. I’m just about to post some images of my recent project, which has been based entirely on taking out of focus images. I’ve really fallen in love with blur and don’t think I’m quite done with it yet!
December 2, 2011 @ 3:18 pm
Thanks, Sam. I love blur as well, always have. I think I’m heading back that way again.