Decision Making – A Key Element In Photography

I’ve always said that photography is about choices. This, in turn, means it’s also always about decision making. What camera settings should we use? How should I process the image? What aspect ratio should I pick? Should I crop it?

As photographers, we clearly have a lot of decisions to make. Or do we? Technology now gives us the opportunity to free ourselves of this “burden”. We can simply let the technology make the decision for us. There are auto settings in our camera and editing software. Filters and presets can quickly edit our photos. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can even pick the best composition for us. My Gawd, is there nothing that is sacred!

If the technology wasn’t enough, there are lists upon lists of rules we slavishly follow foregoing all independent thought. It’s gotten to the point we have to ask ourselves. Did I make this photo or was it an engineer at the camera company and/or a programmer at the post-processing software company that made it? That’s a hard question to answer, but it does make you think.

The Hidden Danger

The use of automation and slavish rule following can be an alluring siren call. They promise beautiful images virtually at a touch of a button. Because of this, we no longer have to worry about anything. It’s instant gratification in a world of photography that has a short attention span and constantly demands more and more “eye candy”. We can take a shot out in the field, load it to social media and by the time we get home we are reveling in all the likes. The opportunity and benefit of letting things “marinate” is sacrificed in the name of expediency.

Oh, to be sure, this siren song is hard to resist. But if we give in to it, it can lead to a bad conclusion. The truth is that automation and slavish rule following lightens our burdens, all the while stealing our opportunities. By allowing them to make the decision for us, we give up the opportunity to put our personal stamp on the photo. It lessens our ability to call the photo our own, to express how the scene made us feel. At its worst, it results in “cookie cutter” photos all with a certain sameness that we see time and again. We risk losing the opportunity to present our vision because of this. We give this up in return for instant gratification and fleeting social media fame. That’s not a fair bargain in my mind.

Is our photographic vision destined to be subsumed by automation? Clearly, this is becoming the way of the world. Already, much of what we see around us is a result of this style of “photography”. No doubt, it will continue to grow. However. the good news is that we can take back control of our own photography.

The Way Out

At this point you might be thinking I’m opposed to automation and rule following. I’m not. Really, I am not. The issue isn’t the automation and the rules. Rather, the issue is how we use them. Automation and rules are tools. They can make us more efficient and make it easier to achieve our goal. They don’t become a problem until we cede control to them.

Just because the auto settings give a workable solution, it doesn’t mean that is the solution that matches your vision. Likewise, filters and presets should be considered a starting point. They don’t have to be the end point.

There’s an old saying, “Rules are made to be broken”. Rules are truly just guidelines that will give us the best results most of the time, but not always. There are no photography police that will come after us if we break the rules. We just have to understand them to know when they shouldn’t be followed.

Some might say this isn’t a big deal. However, I would suggest that they think back to when they were a little child and first created something. They, no doubt, proudly proclaimed something like, “I did this! This is mine!” The pure joy and pride of that accomplishment is a wonderful thing. It spurs you on to do more, gives you confidence, and strengthens your belief in your vision.

So, learn the automation and the rules. Then, take control of them and make your own decision. As a result, you might just find yourself proclaiming, “I did this! This is mine!” once again.

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