Capturing Character

Character is to photography like flavor is to food. It becomes what is savored the most. The image comes alive because of the visual appeal it presents and becomes the defining essence of whatever it is you are photographing. Whether a portrait or a landscape, every photographic opportunity is defined by its character. Capturing character therefore becomes one of the utmost important missions for every photographer. Recognizing character, then capturing it comes with experience.

Recognizing photographic character may in fact be one of the most difficult principles to master for photographers of all levels. Partly because there is such a wide range of possibilities, one can easily look right past it. One of the more obvious points of character is found with capturing people. Creating compelling portraits is all about capturing character. Without it, all you have is a Xerox image of someone. Character is what defines their personality and character definition is most often associated with how you use light and shadows to enhance the persons features. Soft light, harsh light, back light, sidelight, direct light, filtered light, defused light, daylight, low light, shadow light, big light, small light, all of these play a role in defining the character of the person you are photographing. Recognizing which one to use for each individual moment requires you understand the effects each of these can have on your subject. To develop this understanding requires that you shoot using all of these kinds of light. Without practise, no amount of instruction will improve your ability to apply what you want to do.

I once heard a former player for the legendary University of Oklahoma football coach, Barry Switzer ask his coach why they had to run these plays a thousand times in practise. Barry's answer was classic..."...because 999 is not enough". His point was to make the execution of the plays instinctive and that comes with repetition. The same applies to learning how to employ techniques that capture character. The more practise you get, the more instinctive it becomes, and eventually you begin to see or visualize the end result before you ever snap an image. Practise not only involves the mechanics, it involves the mental aspects as well. Learning to see photographically and thus learning how to capture character only comes with a great deal of perseverance.

Becoming instinctive is the key. If you have to think about what you are doing all the time, your results will often reflect the indecision you are encountering. Of course at first you do have to think about it, but go about it in a creative way by asking yourself, 'I wonder...or What if...or I want to see what this does.' Sometimes what you experiment with may work in one situation but not in another. Regardless if it works or not, you will have learned something in the process.

This applies to every form of photography. Think conceptually about finding character in the moment and move away from simply photographing things. Use this wonderful element called Light to your advantage and apply it in as many ways as you can imagine for imagination is what will elevate the character of your photography to a newer, higher plain of accomplishment.