Shutter Sisters

Get Closer

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One of my favorite documentary photographers, Robert Capa, once said “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.” It’s true. And it’s not just about the positioning of your feet or your lens. It’s about tightening the distance of your relationship with your subject. The best way to improve your documentary photography skills with people is to focus first (and frequently) on the people closest to you. Watch them move. Study their gestures. Get comfortable creeping in close with a wide angle lens. Be silent. Move your body to craft the composition without disrupting your subject. Wait. Remain alert. Working in this way will teach you how to anticipate action and be quick with your click.

Sequence of Steps Before the Click: I propped my elbows on the bed and used my Nikon D3s with a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens on it’s widest 24mm setting and set the aperture to f/4.5 to let in a fair amount of light while retaining enough detail for elements in the field. I fired an external mount flash (Nikon SB900) tilted behind me at a 45 degree angle (and slightly off to the left) to soften the light. To capture the best quality image, I make every effort to shoot on the lowest possible ISO setting (200 in this case). After making an initial image or two with my f/4.5 aperture setting (with the default shutter speed designated by aperture priority mode), I moved to full manual mode and adjusted my shutter speed a bit to compensate for light. This image is one of 33 shot in that sequence. I knew, at some point, she’d lean in close.

Comments

  1. LOL! My cat does the same thing, rubbing his face on our books as we read. This could be my son, reading the same book almost! Great image.

  4. I love this! Your patience paid off. Photographing kids and cats can be challenging individually, let alone trying to put them together. Nice.

  6. I love that it is one of 33 shots! Thank you for telling us that. I so many times get it stuck in my head that "good" photographers get it the first time. I know it's not true, just the crazy self-doubt lurking in the shadows on my head. Thank you again!

  8. I really struggle with using an external flash. I tend to use my 50 1.4 indoors, but then everything is pretty soft. I'd love to use a larger aperture and bring out the 18-200 VRII more often, but that would require a flash and I just don't feel confident using it yet….

  9. What a beautiful image! I have heard similar about being "close"…the version I've heard says, when you're ready to take a shot, take two steps closer. This especially rings true with the old film cameras I use, as I don't really use zoom lenses.

  10. I love this advice. Thanks for the quickie tutorial. Robert Capa is on my list of people to study this year on my 52 weeks of photographers project and can't wait to get to him.

  15. Your picture made me smile immediately. How often have I seen my son in a similar position–with the same book, no less–and not grabbed my camera. And one of thirty three shots? I need to learn to stay with the subject. Thanks for the inspiration.

  19. I love this photo so much, Stephanie. It's transcendent in the sense that I feel I'm RIGHT there. Your work is always so compelling.

  20. This is so true! I once had a teacher who told me that when you think you took the perfect photo, take another step closer and shoot again, take one more step closer and shoot one last time. You will see the most perfect picture then! Great advise!