Sarah's work always interests me, it has a classic, yet contemporary, feel about it (not just in terms of content). I like the complex compositions, but also the focus on what the subjects are doing in the frame (that's the classic bit to me).
Awesome photos Sarah...well explained Jeff. I am a wedding photographer, and really in awe of your wedding work. Would love to see how you explain in a video how you saw things whilst shooting weddings like in these videos.
This feels so advanced to me. My brain is exploding even trying to imagine keeping all of those ideas in mind in a split second. Truly inspiring! Thanks for sharing 🙏
These videos come about from us trying to make sense of what we do. 99% of what we do is just instinct. We don’t actually think about all those things.
I love the way Sarah shoots photos. And one of the most I Iove is the three youngs in Brighton (2:30). Have you realize the gesture the young girl is doing with her left hand when she’s jumping? Not the most gentle, but incredible. Sorry for my english
really interesting stuff, I can't see the compositions until you explain it in some cases but once you have I can recognise them in some of my own images that I've picked out and gone on to process (without perhaps understanding why), but I still don't actively think in this way when I'm shooting. How do you develop this way of seeing and thinking?
I mentioned this in the comments on another video, but basically I (Jeff) was taught classical composition some 35 years ago as I started my career as a studio portrait photographer. Sarah’s eye for composition comes mainly from the movies. I tend to stick to a more rigid style of composition because that’s what my eye naturally looks for. I don’t actively think about composition. A scene either works visually or it doesn’t. I guess that’s years of experience.
If you have a camera that does not have any composition lines on the software, how can you master to get this complex guidelines if you don't know them fully by memory? Most of the most well known street photographers now have cameras that can give you all kinds of composition so they can do all kinds of photography. Like me that I have a mirrorless camera without these lines that can help me, how can I memorize all the composition ways to master photography ?
Start with cropping when editing. That’s the easiest way to learn. The purpose of these videos was to show how our eye works regarding composition. We don’t actually think about composition in terms of absolutes and rules. We just place elements in a frame which look good to our eye.
This was amazing!! Her work is SOOOO good. Tbh I’m a pretty big hater of “Street Photography.” But this is good!! Hah! Do you guys also do Documentary/Fine Art? If not, are either of you open to starting to do Doc work? In Documentary you get more frames to truly tell people’s stories and you get to chose the stories you tell. To me the depth in the image making is just a little thicker!
I sometimes get the impression that photographers are very good at pointing out composition after the fact. They kinda always find one "type" of composition no matter what. Take Sarah's photo of the girl jumping. If the lines used to demonstrate didnt fit, you could just pin it on some other type of composition, right? Like composition is more arbitrary than we make it out to be. Am i alone in thinkint this?
You are overthinking it, these videos are nothing more than visual tools to make sense of a photograph. When shooting, a good photographer doesn't think about the composition, it's a natural, instinctive thing. When trying to explain to others why a photograph works visually, it's helpful to show how the image is constructed. In the same way a musician might write a piece of music and record it, but if they want others to understand how it was put together, then they might annotate it after the act.
I'm not sure "triangles" and "fifths" and "thirds" go through Sarah's mind at the moment she takes the photo. It's mostly just an instinct, isn't it. I mean, it's so easy to apply theory after the event. Nice pics, though!
When I studied English literature at college, we used to study the work of many great writers. My tutors showed us theories and rules to help us understand sentence construction, flow of narrative and so on. Did the writers actively think about these theories when writing? Probably not. The writing would have been instinctual. Did they learn those theories when starting out? Probably.
It’s also important to remember that you’re not seeing the thousands of photos she’s taken that she’s thrown out because they weren’t to her standards. I’ve had the opportunity to look at contact sheets from photographers that I admire and a lot of them look like ordinary photos. The difference is when they select their images they are thinking about “triangles, fifths, and thirds.” And it’s those concepts and theories that lead her to publish a specific photo. You’d also be surprised, sometimes they hang around a certain area knowing what they want, and they wait for the opportunity to present itself. Don’t take these breakdowns as necessarily a way for you to think too much about how to take a street photograph. And use it more as a guide for why you decide to select, and discard, certain images you take.
I wonder about the music. Many YT videos has this kind of free (gratis), "fake" A.I. music with uneven (unsteady) beat. It is much more unsteady than any musician would play. In my opinion such music degrades the quality of the video.
Actually it’s written by real artists playing real instruments and it’s not free. Unlike this video which is free. We like the music. If you don’t, there is always the mute button 🙂
This seems like a ridiculous conversation. A photo not taken using a view finder isn’t street photography? Would people say that photography not using a Leica isn’t street photography? Digital photography isn’t street photography? Rubbish. Street photography is photography done on the street. It doesn’t even require that a person be in the image. It can be video. How the image gets into the camera is irrelevant. Whether the medium is digital or analog is irrelevant. Just make the image. I mostly use the EVF. I also have my rear screen setup for touch to focus and then take the image. It doesn’t matter. I make the image and then move on. We all have our rules of engagement. I would never flash a person on the street. According to my rules of engagement this is too intrusive. Bruce Gilden got into Magnum using this technique. What do I know? Outside of work or workshops nobody has seen my body of work. Will I wind up being another Vivian Meirer? Not likely. My images will be deleted upon my death unseen. So be it. My images aren’t that good. Does my not sharing my images disqualify them as street photography? I can’t explain my behavior. I don’t try to explain other people’s behavior. You want to make the use of the view finder a requirement for being considered street photography? You may call shooting from the hip not street photography. Hip photography? So be it. Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)
Good points. The world of photography is full of ridiculous conversations. To flash a person on the street has a completely different meaning where I live 🫣😂
Sarah's work always interests me, it has a classic, yet contemporary, feel about it (not just in terms of content). I like the complex compositions, but also the focus on what the subjects are doing in the frame (that's the classic bit to me).
Thank you Mark.
Amazing pictures used for some interesting composition lessons. Thanks for the video.
Thanks for watching 🙏
This is one of the better videos on the technical side of photography, and I appreciate the high theories and techniques being brought to street
🙏
Awesome photos Sarah...well explained Jeff. I am a wedding photographer, and really in awe of your wedding work. Would love to see how you explain in a video how you saw things whilst shooting weddings like in these videos.
Thank you. No chance on the wedding front. I left that life permanently over a year ago. No desire to revisit it. Sorry…
@WalkLikeAlice I knew..I had to try. Lol.
This feels so advanced to me. My brain is exploding even trying to imagine keeping all of those ideas in mind in a split second. Truly inspiring! Thanks for sharing 🙏
These videos come about from us trying to make sense of what we do. 99% of what we do is just instinct. We don’t actually think about all those things.
@@WalkLikeAlice good point! they are just tools to have in our toolkit :)
I love the way Sarah shoots photos. And one of the most I Iove is the three youngs in Brighton (2:30). Have you realize the gesture the young girl is doing with her left hand when she’s jumping? Not the most gentle, but incredible. Sorry for my english
Thank you. Yes, she is making a gesture to the beach patrol boat below her.
Great video as always!
Thank you 🙏
Thanks for sharing your insights and knowledge
My pleasure. Thanks for watching.
Several inspirational images that gave me ideas for my own street photography. Thanks.
Thanks for watching 🙏
awesome video, inspiring
Thank you Chris. Glad you enjoyed it.
I love this video. Congratulations 👌👌👌
Thank you
Interesting, love the analysis. Does she shoot-from-the-hip often or frame through viewfinder?
Never from the hip. Always through the viewfinder.
What an explanation!! I found a gem 🤌
Thank you
Incredible Explanation
Thank You 🙏🙏
really interesting stuff, I can't see the compositions until you explain it in some cases but once you have I can recognise them in some of my own images that I've picked out and gone on to process (without perhaps understanding why), but I still don't actively think in this way when I'm shooting. How do you develop this way of seeing and thinking?
I mentioned this in the comments on another video, but basically I (Jeff) was taught classical composition some 35 years ago as I started my career as a studio portrait photographer. Sarah’s eye for composition comes mainly from the movies. I tend to stick to a more rigid style of composition because that’s what my eye naturally looks for. I don’t actively think about composition. A scene either works visually or it doesn’t. I guess that’s years of experience.
If you have a camera that does not have any composition lines on the software, how can you master to get this complex guidelines if you don't know them fully by memory?
Most of the most well known street photographers now have cameras that can give you all kinds of composition so they can do all kinds of photography.
Like me that I have a mirrorless camera without these lines that can help me, how can I memorize all the composition ways to master photography ?
Start with cropping when editing. That’s the easiest way to learn. The purpose of these videos was to show how our eye works regarding composition. We don’t actually think about composition in terms of absolutes and rules. We just place elements in a frame which look good to our eye.
This was amazing!! Her work is SOOOO good. Tbh I’m a pretty big hater of “Street Photography.” But this is good!! Hah! Do you guys also do Documentary/Fine Art? If not, are either of you open to starting to do Doc work? In Documentary you get more frames to truly tell people’s stories and you get to chose the stories you tell. To me the depth in the image making is just a little thicker!
Thank you. Check out sarahascough.com to see Sarah’s documentary work.
it is great
What are your shot to keepers ratios?
I genuinely have no idea.
nice
🙏
Has she been waiting for all those triangular shapes and circles and all those leading lines fall in to place before she press the shutter ?
I’m not sure what you mean. But Sarah is attracted to scenes that have all of those elements present. That’s what attracts her eye. She doesn’t wait.
I sometimes get the impression that photographers are very good at pointing out composition after the fact. They kinda always find one "type" of composition no matter what. Take Sarah's photo of the girl jumping. If the lines used to demonstrate didnt fit, you could just pin it on some other type of composition, right? Like composition is more arbitrary than we make it out to be. Am i alone in thinkint this?
You are overthinking it, these videos are nothing more than visual tools to make sense of a photograph. When shooting, a good photographer doesn't think about the composition, it's a natural, instinctive thing. When trying to explain to others why a photograph works visually, it's helpful to show how the image is constructed. In the same way a musician might write a piece of music and record it, but if they want others to understand how it was put together, then they might annotate it after the act.
@ i see:)
Is she actually giving you the finger?😮
No. She’s giving it to the lifeguards who are in a boat.
@@WalkLikeAlice 👍🤭
I'm not sure "triangles" and "fifths" and "thirds" go through Sarah's mind at the moment she takes the photo. It's mostly just an instinct, isn't it. I mean, it's so easy to apply theory after the event. Nice pics, though!
When I studied English literature at college, we used to study the work of many great writers. My tutors showed us theories and rules to help us understand sentence construction, flow of narrative and so on. Did the writers actively think about these theories when writing? Probably not. The writing would have been instinctual. Did they learn those theories when starting out? Probably.
It’s also important to remember that you’re not seeing the thousands of photos she’s taken that she’s thrown out because they weren’t to her standards.
I’ve had the opportunity to look at contact sheets from photographers that I admire and a lot of them look like ordinary photos. The difference is when they select their images they are thinking about “triangles, fifths, and thirds.” And it’s those concepts and theories that lead her to publish a specific photo. You’d also be surprised, sometimes they hang around a certain area knowing what they want, and they wait for the opportunity to present itself.
Don’t take these breakdowns as necessarily a way for you to think too much about how to take a street photograph. And use it more as a guide for why you decide to select, and discard, certain images you take.
@@fermin94 Thanks. I will apply this advice to my next Photographic Exhibition.
I wonder about the music. Many YT videos has this kind of free (gratis), "fake" A.I. music with uneven (unsteady) beat. It is much more unsteady than any musician would play. In my opinion such music degrades the quality of the video.
Actually it’s written by real artists playing real instruments and it’s not free. Unlike this video which is free. We like the music. If you don’t, there is always the mute button 🙂
This seems like a ridiculous conversation. A photo not taken using a view finder isn’t street photography? Would people say that photography not using a Leica isn’t street photography? Digital photography isn’t street photography? Rubbish.
Street photography is photography done on the street. It doesn’t even require that a person be in the image. It can be video. How the image gets into the camera is irrelevant. Whether the medium is digital or analog is irrelevant. Just make the image.
I mostly use the EVF. I also have my rear screen setup for touch to focus and then take the image. It doesn’t matter. I make the image and then move on. We all have our rules of engagement. I would never flash a person on the street. According to my rules of engagement this is too intrusive. Bruce Gilden got into Magnum using this technique. What do I know? Outside of work or workshops nobody has seen my body of work. Will I wind up being another Vivian Meirer? Not likely. My images will be deleted upon my death unseen. So be it. My images aren’t that good. Does my not sharing my images disqualify them as street photography?
I can’t explain my behavior. I don’t try to explain other people’s behavior. You want to make the use of the view finder a requirement for being considered street photography? You may call shooting from the hip not street photography. Hip photography? So be it.
Mask On Nurse Marty (Ret)
Good points. The world of photography is full of ridiculous conversations. To flash a person on the street has a completely different meaning where I live 🫣😂