Learn to ask better, more helpful questions of your work so that you
can create stronger and more powerful photographs.
Photographers often look at an image--one they've either already created
or are in the process of making--and ask themselves a simple question:
"Is this a good photograph?" It's an understandable question, but it's
really not very helpful. How are you supposed to answer that? What does
"good" even mean? Is it the same for everyone?
What if you were equipped to ask better, more constructive questions of
your work so that you could think more intentionally and creatively, and
in doing so, bring more specific action and vision to the act of
creating photographs? What if asking stronger questions allowed you to
establish a more effective approach to your image-making? In The Heart
of the Photograph: 100 Questions for Making Stronger, More Expressive
Photographs, photographer and author David duChemin helps you learn to
ask better questions of your work in order to craft more successful
photographs--photographs that express and connect, photographs that are
strong and, above all, photographs that are truly yours.
From the big-picture questions--What do I want this image to
accomplish?--to the more detail-oriented questions that help you get
there--What is the light doing? Where do the lines lead? What can I do
about it?--David walks you through his thought process so that you can
establish your own. Along the way, he discusses the building blocks from
which compelling photographs are made, such as gesture, balance, scale,
contrast, perspective, story, memory, symbolism, and much more. The
Heart of the Photograph is not a theoretical book. It is a practical
and useful book that equips you to think more intentionally as a
photographer and empowers you to ask more helpful questions of you and
your work, so that you can produce images that are not only better than
"good," but as powerful and authentic as you hope them to be.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Better Questions
PART ONE: A GOOD PHOTOGRAPH?
Is It Good?
The Audience's Good
The Photographer's Good
PART TWO: BETTER THAN GOOD
Better Subjects
PART THREE: BETTER EXPRESSION
Exploration and Expression
What Is the Light Doing?
What Does Colour Contribute?
What Role Do the Lines and Shapes Play?
What's Your Point of View?
What Is the Quality of the Moment?
Where Is the Story?
Where Is the Contrast?
What About Balance and Tension?
What Is the Energy?
How Can I Use Space and Scale?
Can I Go Deeper?
What About the Frame?
Do the Elements Repeat?
Harmony
Can I Exclude More?
Where Does the Eye Go?
How Does It Feel?
Where's the Mystery?
Remember When?
Can I Use Symbols?
Am I Being Too Literal?
PART FOUR: BETTER PHOTOGRAPHS
The Heart of the Photograph
Index
