I thought I would follow up my thoughts on education after Nicola left her thoughts on the subject on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/takingpicturesphotography and in particular her comment ”I also wonder – can you teach someone how to take a good photo”. Its a subject that I purposely shied away from but one that I often think about. I believe that some people have a natural ability, despite themselves, to see an aesthetic composition and scene and will always take a pleasing pictures without much thought, just like some people can always tell when a picture isn’t hanging straight on a wall and others will never see it. But this doesn’t mean that this the skill of seeing ‘a picture’ cant be learnt, at least not to a degree.
This subject brings to mind two past students of mine, but first I have to explain what sort of things can be learnt. There are rules to composition such as the ‘Rule of Thirds’. If a conscious effort is made to apply these rules the authors photographs will improve. Other things will make photographs more pleasing and more interesting such as changing the view by getting higher or lower and tilting the camera at an angle.
The angle ‘thing’ is something I always bring up when doing my lecture on composition and cite Rodchenko, the Russian photographer, as the man who first did this, really only to give some weight to the idea as all the students, particularly at evening classes, view the idea of of putting horizon at an angle strange to say the least. It was when I suggested that my students try this that I got the usual reaction but I always suggest that the students try it and take two pictures, one straight and one at an angle – they never do do both though. One student, Robin, unfortunately no longer with us, was a traditionalist and although he ‘liked what he liked’ always took me at my word and would try anything even if he didn’t like the idea. Robin took picture after picture at an angle and would come in every week with his two images, one straight and one at an angle and always explain that he preferred the straight one and nine time out of ten I agreed. He came to one evening class after another and the angled pictures became a standing joke in the classes. The following year Robin came in with a print he has really please with and before showing the group he exclaimed “I get it” and there was an angled shot that worked, the right angle for the right picture, he never looked back. So Robin learnt what made a good picture but he had to work at it and that’s the difference, not that it cant be learnt but if you don’t have the natural ability you have to try harder to obtain it.
My second student I taught for a year, in that time she was compliant in her assignments but not outstanding. One day a fellow student asked if I had seen this student pictures on Flickr, I said I hadn’t so he showed me. I was speechless, I am not usually prone to over enthusiasm but I wanted to show this work to everyone I saw and tell them I had found a . This might have been an over exaggeration but, after several years gap, I really don’t think it was far from the truth, her pictures were the sort of pictures I wish I had taken but know I never would. My only reservation was that they were all of a type but if she only ever did this type of picture that was fine by me. She was a ‘natural’ and although she never did get the technical stuff I hope she is still making beautiful images but I hope she has learned some technical stuff as well, if she has she will be ‘really, really good’.
In the words of Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘Be a good craftsman; it won’t stop you being a genius.’ and conversely learning techniques on composition etc won’t inhibit your technical ability.
Please leave any comment about this subject that you might have, I would be interested to read them.