See like the camera

I fondly remember my early days of photography, going around making photos of everything I found interesting. Having decided to practice photography in a serious way attuned my senses to a new and beautiful world of possibilities. I immersed myself in the joy of camera work, certain that I was capturing pure magic.

I also remember looking over my photos later, often with disappointment and confusion. Why did these pictures not look like I'd expected they would? The vast majority of my photos were truly awful, and it hurt.

I realised there was a major disconnect that needed fixing.

The camera is not your eye
As a serious photographer out to make your best photos, one of the most valuable skills you can develop is to learn to see like the camera does. You can know in advance whether a great photo is even achievable before attempting to make it.

First off, just because something catches your eye or looks amazing in real life does not mean it will make a great photo.

And sometimes, making that great photo simply is not possible given the circumstances, external conditions or available equipment.

Active seeing, the mental exercises we go through, all the thinking that happens before pressing the shutter … this is what leads to great images. Start thinking of the shutter activation as the conclusion of a process, and you will start making better photos.

You can also practice your photography even when there's no camera around.

Seeing like the camera
Great photography is mostly about how you see. And then how you use the equipment to translate what you see, in order to transmit your vision to other people.

So understanding what will and won't make a good photograph is essential.

Here are a couple of techniques that can immediately transform your seeing:

1. Close one eye – the camera captures an image on a two-dimensional plane, whether it be a sensor or film. And most cameras use only one lens to focus the image onto the recording surface. This is very different to how most people see.

What's more, your captured image is most likely to be displayed and viewed in a two-dimensional medium, whether it be a print or on-screen. (Sure, there are pseudo-3D types of specialist photography like stereo photography etc., but even these are achieved using two-dimensional pictures.)

Whatever the case, with two functioning eyes, the world appears different to a person than it does to the camera. The space between your eyes provides distance, depth and three-dimensionality that a camera simply does not have.

So when you see something that might make a good photograph, close one eye. If it still looks compelling, go ahead with making the picture. But you'll often find this simple exercise saves a lot of time and aggravation when you realise what you're seeing doesn't look nearly as interesting in two dimensions.

Tip: One of the most useful benefits of closing one eye is to identify mergers in the picture, where elements blend into one another. With only one eye open, the scene will be flattened and some objects won't look the same as with both eyes open.

2. Squint the other eye – with one eye remaining closed, narrow your other open eye to the smallest slit. This changes how the scene appears to your visual system. Squinting removes detail and reduces your vision to only the elements of the strongest contrast. Doing this allows you to better identify the key elements in the composition, along with any potential distractions. (It can also give you a sense of the optimal exposure.)

3. Superimpose an invisible frame – you've likely seen the old film director's trick of using the index fingers and thumbs to create a frame to look through, providing an aid to seeing the frame edges and refine the composition. In my early days of photography, I used to carry around a black piece of plastic with a hole the size of a 35mm frame. I would look through this to evaluate scenes and work out possible compositions.

You can learn to do this without using your fingers or any other visual aid. Simply imagine the edges of the frame, superimposed onto the scene in front of you. Move it around, make it portrait and landscape, change its size and shape, etc. all the while envisioning precisely where the edges of the frame would go to create the perfect composition.

These days, after nearly 30 years of practice, I unconsciously use my invisible frame all the time. It's become second-nature, constantly moving around in whatever direction I'm looking. This habit helps me see much more and much better, and enables me to more quickly identify any possible photo opportunities.

My invisible frame is also one of the outcomes of practicing photography that helps me get more out of life. Combined with mindfulness and present-moment awareness, this form of active seeing connects me deeply with the external reality I experience in every moment.

When I'm working with the camera, whether in the field or the studio, the above techniques help ensure I can identify more opportunities for great images and, just as importantly, help me know what's not worth wasting time on. (In a future article, we'll explore pictures not worth taking!)

Start incorporating these techniques into your photography and I'm confident you'll make better photos!

This is the kind of instructional material available to Members of the Photocraft Academy.