Artistic Process

The artistic process differs from medium to medium and is of course a never-ending learning process. As an artist working in the medium of photography, I cannot help but compare my medium and process to others. I find it both helpful in understanding my own medium but also in growing with it. And although I have been working in digital format for almost 10 years, the medium still feels new to me.

There is one aspect of working in digital format  that may be more important than any other. Unlike working with film, having immediate feedback on the camera’s LCD means being able to respond both to the scene in front of me and to the image I just created. And so as in painting, sculpture, or even composing music, I can analyse the result and adjust the process to do things differently.

Mostly, people think of that feedback as a way of checking that the camera is working correctly and that the image reflects what was desired. That is helpful, but maybe even more important is that the image itself becomes a new thing to which I can respond. Just as a painter lays down a brush stroke and then responds to how that brush stroke changes their feeling about where to lay down the next brush stroke, the photographer can respond to an LCD display of an image to determine what next direction to take.

In the image below that I made in Acadia National Park this past August, I was able to respond to the image I made as separate from the scene in which I was working. The image I made then could send me in a different direction than the scene itself would have.  As a result I could respond by changing focal length, perspective, polarization, exposure, composition, and if I chose to, also white-balance and application of a variety of other camera-based controls. The immediate feedback offered by the camera’s LCD allows me to be more creative in the field and ultimately with the final print.

This image was made with a Panasonic GH2 with an Olympus 9-18mm m4/3 lens at 18mm hand-held.

Cloud and Grasses, (c) 2012 Paul Grecian

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Penn State – Berks: What I learned in class

I gave a talk to a photography class of 20+ students at Penn State – Berks campus this morning. The teacher, Jeff, selects one photographer each year to speak about their work and approach to the medium. I learned that most students were using “point and shoot” cameras to learn photography. While this would have never worked when I was in college, I do believe that most of these cameras today are more than capable learning tools.

In most respects these simple cameras are more complicated and more geared toward learning the medium than the truly simple Fujica ST605n classic 35mm with which I leaned photography. Even basic digital cameras often come with exposure overrides, white-balance controls, histograms, and of course instant feedback. The tools have changed, so why shouldn’t the learning process change as well? I was asked by a student at the end of my talk whether I thought the way I learned the medium (B&W darkroom, then color slidefilm, then digital) was a better way to learn than digital from start? I’m happy that I learned in the progression that I did, but I certainly don’t think I would feel deprived if I were starting out today learning only digital.

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