Storytelling with photography
Like many of you, I’ve spent copious amounts of time watching YouTube tutorials. For me, lighting was the subject I became obsessed with. I would look at the work of many other photographers and the first thing I would think was – wow the photo must look so good because of how it was lit. This led me down a path of slowly accumulating a bunch of strobes and modifiers – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the long term when building a business in photography, but I became “lighting obsessed” so to speak.
I started with an off-camera flash and a trigger. I was so proud when I first managed to make my grey seamless (my second purchase) white for the first time from shooting a flash onto it. I quickly realized that the flash was limiting my potential after watching more YouTube videos on lighting, so I upgraded to the Profoto lighting system. Instantly I noticed a difference, mostly in ease of use, color consistency, and the best part (the strobe never misfired!) – But I definitely felt that buying into the Profoto system gave me an edge in lighting. I was using my Profoto b10 just about every day. Rembrandt lighting, check, Butterfly lighting (with a reflector, another purchase I made) check, Loop lighting – you get the idea. I realized I was improving, but I knew I was far from achieving the look some of my favorite photographers would produce, so I read more articles, watched more Youtube videos.
After attending a lighting workshop, I came to the conclusion that one light just wasn’t enough (real shocker there). Naturally, I bought a second light. Perhaps by now you are starting to see a trend, and keep in mind, throughout this purchasing process I was also purchasing lighting modifiers which can be quite expensive themselves. I’ll spare you the rest of the very predictable details and finish by saying I ended up with 4 lights, a plethora of modifiers, and was still unhappy with the look I was producing.
It wasn’t that the photos didn’t look technically well lit, the problem, which I think many others overlook as well, was the content. My photos were not saying anything other than – I spent money I could have been saving, on camera gear. The skill that my idols had that I needed wasn’t necessarily lighting, it was the ability to tell a story. I was shook by this discovery, and just how long it took for me to acknowledge it- I am a writer after all.
Soon after I realized the narrative was what was missing, I began to pick up on nuances in each Youtube video. A lot of professional photographers tend to dumb down the clarity and sharpness of their images in post-production, some of them add noise, and almost all of them dodge and burn. In essence, it wasn’t until I discovered how important being able to tell a story is that I discovered that you don’t need a state-of-the-art camera, or 8 strobes to accomplish that. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love my Profoto strobes and use them on just about every shoot, but now I ask - how will this help advance my story - whether that is creating a mood or conveying a certain emotion, adding depth to the image, or facilitating a grand narrative. So next time you get out there, ask yourself - what message do I want to convey?
