Book Review
‘Creating Photographs’ by Albert Watson is a quick read (127 pages including full-page photographs) that should not take you more than a week to finish. I loved this book for three reasons. Firstly, it has encapsulated most important lessons in bite-sized chapters (easy to digest), without beating around the bush. Secondly, Albert has used more of a story-telling approach (from his life events and various projects) to put across his ideas and thoughts, which makes you feel as if he is sitting right across the table recounting those events. Lastly, all the concepts are beautifully complemented with breathtaking photographs captured by Albert Watson which is a true visual treat to the eyes.
The book is spread across 20 mini chapters with each chapter offering something very simple yet valuable to learn and remember. While you may feel that you are already familiar with some of these points, Albert Watson saying them with his decades of experience and life stories makes it all the more compelling and emphatic.
My Learnings
Chapter 1: Photography Journey. In the first chapter, Alex shares his ‘circuitous’ journey to photography and tells us how his learnings and experiences, particularly, innate urge to follow his curiosity, have greatly influenced his style of work today.
Chapter 2: Seizing Opportunities. The second chapter of the book makes a convincing case of why you must seize an opportunity and force it open, if you ever get your foot in the creative door, citing examples from Alex’ own struggles and challenges in the initial phase of his photography career. The chapter highlight the importance of hard work and going extra miles when the opportunity so presents itself.
Chapter 3: Finding Inspiration. This is my favorite one as I could completely resonate with the need for finding inspirations from great books, not just photography books but also books on other art forms. Albert also suggests looking at an artist’s whole portfolio, not just what they are famous for and immersing yourself in art by visiting museum and galleries.
Chapter 4: Technical vs. Creative. Chapter 4 was an eye-opening one, proving the case why we should not worry about technical so much (which counts for only 20%) and rather focus on the 80%, i.e., the creative aspect. I loved the analogy when Albert says photography is like driving a car, it is not how you do it but where you take it. He suggests learning all the technical things well enough so that you can use them where needed, but never let that be your driving force.
You want to conquer the technical aspects early on. My advice is to slog away at learning to drive the camera, but hold on to your creative dreams. Never let the technical be the dominant force: it’s as high as 80 per cent creative and just 20 per cent technical.
– Albert Watson
Chapter 5: Practice and Experimentation. This chapter focuses on practicing and experimentations with different cameras, lenses and printing methods till it becomes instinctual and then learning to rely on your experience and instincts (start to finish) to decide what you like best aesthetically. This will also help you develop your own personal style as a photographer. Albert also emphasizes on printing your photographs regularly and experimenting with different types of paper and printing methods.
Chapter 6: Planning. This chapter emphasizes on meticulous planning, research and thinking before you shoot.
Chapter 7: Portrait Photography. In this chapter, Albert shares some useful tips for portrait photography. I have listed a few below:
- Be a people person first. It is important to be loving towards the person you are photographing and show genuine interest in them.
- Try to get to know them a little bit in advance, and if they are a celebrity, research them well.
- Use your personality to make them feel comfortable.
Chapter 8 and 9: Studio and Lighting. These two chapters talk about setting up the studio and controlling light. In Chapter 8, among other things, explains how to set up black box. Black box, he says, is useful because any light that you put into the shot is determined by you, not by the light bouncing off any white wall or surface. The idea is to block most of white, not all. A few other tips that I learnt from these two chapters are:
- lighting the canvas background;
- spending some time to check what the lights are doing;
- setting up a posing table for the subject to rest their hands on;
- Sitting or standing at the subject’s position not only to see the positioning of lights from their perspective, but also how distracting everything in the studio could be for the subject;
- Making the subject’s space a little bot more private;
- Setting up the lights and studio before they arrive;
- Lighting may vary, depending on whether you are shooting in color or black and white;
- Having a plan, but always being flexible at the same time, particularly about lighting.
Chapter 10, 11 and 12: Advertisement and Celebrities and Capturing Faces. Chapter 10 and 11 cover shooting advertisements and celebrities. Chapter 12 is about capturing contours of a person’s face. My key learnings from these chapters can be encapsulated in below points:
- Always have ideas you could potentially share with the client;
- You have to protect the client from themselves and also yourself;
- You have to err on the side of being the dominant force on set, at least 51%. This also helps you remain true to yourself;
- Make sure you know what the client is about, how their earlier campaigns or work looked like, where the creative director was before;
- You can control your own destiny a little bit by coming up with a strong idea;
- Approach everything with the maximum amount of preparation.
- When photographing a person up close, look the face from different angles and pay attention to how you can use the attitude of the body.
Chapter 13 and 14: Landscape and Still Life. These two chapters cover landscape and still life photography. As I am more of a landscape photographer, I found this chapter more relevant than others focused on portraiture. A few things that I learnt about landscape and still photography in this chapter are:
- Landscape photography is more than a postcard. Aim for creating unique pictures that few other people would think of;
- You cannot divorce the landscape from the people who live there. Think about the people when you are photographing landscape, and about the landscape when you are photographing people;
- Do sufficient research for the location you are going to photograph, but do not only rely on Internet only. Look up all kinds of books, not just photography books.
- Your landscape photography need not be grand and dramatic. You can look at simple things and find beauty in them that others don’t see.
- If you have an object you find interesting, put together a concept that says something, mean something, and has another layer beyond texture.
Chapter 15: Natural Light. This chapter covers working with natural light. The question you need to ask here are- how you can make the best use of natural light, shape it, cancel it, increase it, work with it while it changes or sometimes not work with it at all, what time of the day it is. Albert also recommends using a board of minimum 8X4 feet, with black on one side and white on the other, for their versatility of use when working with natural light.
Chapter 16: Relationship and Communication. emphasizes on maintaining good relationships and communications with your team and being aware of what everyone is doing and how they work. Albert says, learning to appreciate the key role everyone around you is playing, is crucial to making good photographs together as a team.
Chapter 17: Post-processing. This chapter is about Photoshop, where Albert suggests knowing the basics well early on to polish your images, but not overusing it or relying on it to fix pictures. While editing, watch out for what the light is doing and maintain the well being, mood and feeling of the shot.
Chapter 18 suggests always being in the look out for shots, so that shots can come to you. Chapter 19 emphasizes on memorability of a photograph and says great photography has to stand the test of time. Albert also suggests living with your image for a while, after you have edited down to best 2-3 images. This will help you see what you love about them and what you do not. The book ends with Chapter 20 which covers Albert Watson’s Morocco project.
The entire book is filled with great photographs taken by Albert Watson to complement each chapter and explains how he shot that image. You can find many of his photographs here.
My Rating
About the Author. Albert Watson is celebrated for his photography in the realms of fashion, celebrities, and fine art. Since the 1970s, he has over 100 Vogue covers, 40 Rolling Stone magazine covers, 50 international exhibitions, Grammy award, and seven major books published to his credit. Regarded as one of the 20 most impactful photographers in history, he shares this esteemed rank with luminaries such as Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.
Creative Genes 