# What do you think about when you take a picture?



## Leam (Dec 4, 2011)

Hi everybody,

I'm doing an art project about photographers. I'm actually more into drawing, that's why I'm new on the forum 
I was wondering if you guys have something special you think about when you press the shutter realease?
Some kind of sentence like for example : "It's going to be a great picture", "The light is great", "this kid is growing to fast"... 
Or do you visualise the picture you're trying to take?
Even if it's changing everytime, if you could share some thoughts it would be very helpful for my project.
I hope it's clear, but if not, don't hesitate if you have questions 

Lea


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## joealcantar (Dec 4, 2011)

Most of us do not need a camera to take a picture.  Part of everyday life really, we walk around doing our daily rituals and see the images take place in front of us.  Subject in the right light, right expression or one of those things you may never see again and wish you had been ready for the image.  Basically "there it is" comes to mind when you see the shot in the viewfinder. 
-
Shoot well, Joe


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## ann (Dec 4, 2011)

Checking my edges, visualization of the final print and always what is the meter advising and how will i adjust.

That is with a camera, on the other hand I like Joe am always "looking", friends have told me they can tell when the shutter is firing in my brain.


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## chaosrealm93 (Dec 4, 2011)

i try to frame it properly, maybe leave some extra space so i have some freedom to post-process later. angle of the shot is also very important


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## sandraadamson (Dec 4, 2011)

I too am alot like Joe all day long I am watching for that amazing shot, watching everything. But when I am in that immediate moment just about to hit the shutter release I am usually looking at what's in the background and if it's pleasing to my eye.

www.sandraadamson.com www.sandraadamson.blogspot.com


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## BlairWright (Dec 4, 2011)

Before I depress the shutter it's just a question of framing. I worry about the technical aspects before I get to that point.


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## Overread (Dec 4, 2011)

"Don't Move!"

Generally for wildlife or macro that is what's going through my mind just before I take a shot - and might refer to the creature itself or even just the wind (macro). It's always a pain when you line up the shot - check the edges, compose, focus, check settings, go to click and wooooooosh! The subject changes its position or vanishes from the viewfinder altogether.


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## gsgary (Dec 4, 2011)

If i'm out in the hills i'm looking for my dog in the shot or my partner walking into the shot and she get a bollocking if she does


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## c.cloudwalker (Dec 4, 2011)

Overread said:


> "Don't Move!"



Yes, I can easily imagine you thinking that 



This is an interesting question with many possible answers so that I don't know if you'll get what you're looking for. Most of what I do today is so static I don't need think about anything moving. Everything is so set up that by the time we click the shutter, anyone could be pressing the button. So there really are no thoughts coming into mind at the moment of.

But, for your enjoyment, here are a few thoughts that have crossed my mind when shooting:

"Man, I'm fooking great"

"Is it the end of the day yet?" (that was on wedding jobs)

"Come on *****, spread them"  (j/k)

"Have I shot enough to make sure the lab gets me one good one back?" (after 10 rolls of Kodachrome)

"Man, this person is ugly!"


What you think about when shooting is so tied to what you are shooting, your frame of mind that day, etc, etc, that it could be anything and everything.


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## KenC (Dec 4, 2011)

sex, drugs and rock & roll


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## Buckster (Dec 4, 2011)

I'm usually thinking about composition at the moment I press the shutter button.  Subject, background, leading lines, juxtaposition, rule of thirds, balance, horizon line, tilt, perspective, edge of frame, etc.

By the time I get to that point, I've already decided on ISO, shutter speed and aperture for the composition to come, and have seen in my mind the colors of the filters I'll use later in processing (used to use them in front of the lens in the old days so I made those decisions while setting up the shot, and I still pre-visualize color that way in my mind).

Other times, all I'm thinking about is trying to capture a moment before it's too late.


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## Derrel (Dec 4, 2011)

c.cloudwalker said:


> Overread said:
> 
> 
> > "Don't Move!"
> ...



*POST OF THE DAY!!!!!!!  Good stuff, man, good stuff!*


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## ISO (Dec 4, 2011)

I just look away, hold the shutter release button on continuous mode and hope to get something good.

Joking, I don't think of much, unless it's action sports, I wish I got the right moment.


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## d25ryuta (Dec 4, 2011)

I don't usually think anything when I take photo. I don't care how the angle of view is going to be. But a lot of things pay attention to me and make me shoot them. After shooting , I check my photos and find it good or bad then, I decide what photo should be edited. If I take photos for a job, I do anything what Client says but, when I go out take photo by myself, I don't usually think anything.


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## mishele (Dec 4, 2011)

Hmmmm.....

I'm kinda my own cheerleader in my head at times.....lol 
"That's it....right there"
"Nope....this isn't it"

I yell at the elements a lot too...
"Where's the sun!!!" lol
"Please no wind...please no wind"

I would like to say that I hear Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca Allegretto while shooting but my mind is going a mile a minute figuring out the next shot.
[h=1][/h]


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## EIngerson (Dec 4, 2011)

I think to myself, "Hey man....I'm taking a picture."


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## marmots (Dec 4, 2011)




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## RobertDarasz (Dec 5, 2011)

It's something like "Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, dat be good".  

But seriously, mostly I don't think too much about it (you know - all that instinct bullsh*t) - unless it's a very complex and difficult subject. Usually I have this moment of enlightenment when I see a good spot and then I know it'll be good


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## invisible (Dec 7, 2011)

KenC said:


> sex, drugs and rock & roll


Either that, or "where have those clouds gone now?". My inner thoughts during photoshoots fall under  the "polite" category, but what actually comes out of my mouth is  for the most part  sailor-speak. I talk to my camera and to the weather a lot, and they'd both blush if they could.


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## raphaelaaron (Dec 7, 2011)

i think about cool things. 

like quasars


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## SurfCityJohn (Dec 8, 2011)

All the usual stuff.  Composition, light, colors, contrast.  But ultimately it all mixes into what I want the viewer to experience.  What story am I telling.  What moment am I capturing.  Why?  Is it meaningful?  Will it bring pleasure, inspiration, or meaning to the viewer.  Stuff like that.


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Dec 8, 2011)

I think "how I can make this picture not suck?" with about a 10% success rate.


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## imagemaker46 (Dec 8, 2011)

joealcantar said:


> Most of us do not need a camera to take a picture. Part of everyday life really, we walk around doing our daily rituals and see the images take place in front of us. Subject in the right light, right expression or one of those things you may never see again and wish you had been ready for the image. Basically "there it is" comes to mind when you see the shot in the viewfinder.
> -
> Shoot well, Joe



Well said Joe. When you really understand light you see so many things in small images, where people that don't own/use cameras see just the big picture.  I've always said the big picture is made up of thousands of small pictures, it takes a good photographer to see those ones.


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## GooniesNeverSayDie11 (Dec 8, 2011)

My bank account.


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## imagemaker46 (Dec 8, 2011)

It really depends on what it is that I'm shooting, once I'm ready to shoot (exposure is correct etc) if it's sports I try and put myself in the game, watching where the play is going, hoping that it's coming my way, trying to antisipate what will happen. I block out what is around me and just concentrate, on what I'm shooting.


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## Destin (Dec 8, 2011)

Shooting sports, lets say football it's, "come on, come on. Run to this side of the field. YES, he's coming this way. Come on, Come on, do something interesting (as I'm snapping frames of him running), and then when someone hits him and the ball pops out, i'm going PLEASE TELL ME I GOT THAT." And then after the play I check my photos on my lcd, and if I got it I might fist pump, or high five the photog next to me, or get a stupid smile on my face. But if I missed it I just stand there depressed and wait for the next play.


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## unpopular (Dec 8, 2011)

I try to quiet my mind completely.

Maybe that is why I've been accused of taking photographs of nothing.


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## camz (Dec 8, 2011)

I tickle my camera's sweet spot.

But I do try to clear my head of all opinions and just act as an observer. No outward thoughts, just absorbing what's infront of me.  It's weird, I feel like I blend into the walls or something...

If I don't do so, all I come up with are snapshots.


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## invisible (Dec 8, 2011)

unpopular said:


> I try to quiet my mind completely.
> 
> Maybe that is why I've been accused of taking photographs of nothing.


As most of us who take photographs of nothing know, photographs of nothing require a LOT of thinking.


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## unpopular (Dec 8, 2011)

^^ I am not sure thinking is the right word - concentration, yes. But I think that it's a more meditative or mindful kind of concentration, rather than thoughtful.

BTW - with names like ours, people are going to assume us photographers of nothing have low self esteem.


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## andrew_patterson (Dec 9, 2011)

I find that lately I prefer to do a lot more of fiction, concocting the shots in my minds eye instead of looking for a shot. I'm constantly looking at what I'm shooting deciding if it looks like the moment I'm trying to create, if it expresses the story I'm trying to tell, and if it fits the world that I'm imagining. Essentially though, I'm just comparing what I'm looking at and what I see in my mind, if they're congruent, then I think "Yes" and shoot.


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## colfer (Dec 10, 2011)

I am a people photographer. I do weddings and I have no patiente to stay for the right hour, right light, right everything what made a good landscape photograph. and I admire the meditation way for the right doing of the landscape photographers.
so I deal all day with fast happenings. you can not do it again. so I trained myself to shoot fast. and only preoccupied with three things: the moment, volumes and composition. as at the martial arts you learn to not think when fighting. that´s what I learn every days: look fast, compose fast and shoot fast. thank´s to Raw files and the good light meters the cameras have today the finish is post production with software. so most of the time i do not think: i just react.


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## c.cloudwalker (Dec 11, 2011)

camz said:


> I tickle my camera's sweet spot.
> 
> But I do try to clear my head of all opinions and just act as an observer. No outward thoughts, just absorbing what's infront of me.  It's weird, I feel like I blend into the walls or something...



At first it was not a problem but, a few years in, watching the huge and intense BS all over the place, I worked hard at trying to achieve this as a photojournalist. I wasn't very succesful. And that is partly why I finally left that kind of photography behind.




invisible said:


> unpopular said:
> 
> 
> > I try to quiet my mind completely.
> ...



Love that exchange. I sometimes think that photographs of nothing require a lot MORE thinking than the other kind, to be succesful.


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## rambler (Dec 11, 2011)

With fast moving subjects like sports or portrait taking and weddings the thought process and planning occurs ahead of time.  Positioning , lighting, the how and where of posing or who and what groups need to be taken, the mechanical things. etc.  then just before clicking..."how does it look what is the expression or what's the action.

My preference (I am a novice) is landscape.  So, Surf City John has expressed it  best for me.

I try to answer the question, " Why am I taking this photo?"  and "What do I want the viewer to see?"  This I learned from reading John Shaw books.
Our eyes see much more than the camera, so what is the scene within the scene that I want to photograph. What is the specific subject and what around it either belongs or does not.  Look at the foreground the background the sides and where to place the subject in the frame.  When one is surrounded by 360 degrees of natural beauty narrowing it down to what can be seen in a small viewfinder and then making it interesting ia not as easy as it sounds.  And , I do not want over-thinikng to take away creativity, but good composition is key.  That said, spontaneity works , too.  I might have "worked a scene" for awhile.  Then bingo, when I turn away alnd look elsewhere, sometimes right at my feet there it is,click, presto, my favorite shot of the day!

In short, I try to think before I shoot, so when it comes to clicking the shutter don't think, just do it.

When pro golfers step up to hit the ball, it was found that the best are not thinking at all.  Practice, training, repetition has been done.

Basketball players who are going up with that last second shot to win the game have said that all goes quiet and the action slows down to very slow motion as they watch the ball arch towards the hoop.


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## analog.universe (Dec 11, 2011)

Right before I click the shutter I'm trying to make the translation in my head from "scene I'm walking around in" to "2D image I'll have when all is said and done".  It's really just trying to be as subjective as possible and absorb whatever feeling I get from the lighting and composition.  Sometime I'll hit the DOF preview button to get a more realistic idea...  But the last moment is always an attempt at transcendence (an attempt which often fails   ).  The goal is that all the thinking and calculating has been taken care of first, so the only thing the I need to do is find the photo that "feels" the best and then snap it.


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## photo guy (Dec 12, 2011)

It depends on what I am photographing. Sometimes it is the weather, sometimes something special, etc.


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## photography.next (Dec 13, 2011)

Its digital time so no need to think, just check the photo and it shows its good or have to take again 
Charleston Bridal Photographers


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## kkamin (Dec 22, 2011)

For an alternative view:

Do you think Andrew Lesnie, ACS, Cinematographer on Lord of the Rings is sitting around, waiting for the seemingly perfect moment to appear in the viewfinder? No, days, week, months of thought and hundreds of hours to thousands of work has gone into what lies in front of the lens. This is why a lot of commercial work looks so succinct in visual communication. Even the 'rough and tumble' look you might see in fashion photography is heavily correographed and all aspects of production artistry are hinging on a concise vision.

Photos can be taken in a fraction of a second. But there are many types of photos that take weeks or months before the shutter is release and week or months in post.


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## camz (Dec 23, 2011)

c.cloudwalker said:


> camz said:
> 
> 
> > I tickle my camera's sweet spot.
> ...



Yeah with all the little short term noise it sometimes gets harder for me to get in that mindset too. When I get there, that's when I start thinking. To add, I think what also makes it tough is sometimes the repetetiveness forces us just to go through the motions. It's much easier when things are new, things are fresh. That old dog saying...


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## Dominantly (Dec 23, 2011)

I usually think "man, the family on Facebook  is gonna love the **** out of this one".


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## TheFantasticG (Dec 23, 2011)

rambler said:


> In short, I try to think before I shoot, so when it comes to clicking the shutter don't think, just do it.


 
That is what I do. Words don't flow in my head when I press the shutter.


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## Fred Berg (Dec 23, 2011)

In the moment that I gently depress the shutter release button my mind is empty and calm, cleared of all thoughts and distractions. Seconds beforehand there is an internal inferno raging and my senses are drawn to a highly tense and alert state.


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## MSnowy (Dec 23, 2011)

I say to myself "wait till the azzholes on thephotoforum see this one"


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## SimplyShane (Dec 23, 2011)

I'm thinking about how the shapes, colors, and lines interact with one another!  :thumbup:


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## picturephotos (Jan 3, 2012)

Before taking a photo I think about the subject. Because mine are always moving I am constantly thinking about, "timing". Sometimes I'm counting or thinking, "up, down" and the whole time my body is moving with the movement, just a little bit so i can stay in the rhythm.


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## APHPHOTO (Jan 3, 2012)

I like to think of the  possible awe any phot will bring. Hopefully. I'm constantly looking around no matter where life brings me. Try to bring the camera along especially as winter just arrived hoping one morning there be a new dusting of snow. Its funny how people veiw things. But as a beginner. Every thing is a possible shot waiting to be exposed.


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## KmH (Jan 12, 2012)

But, not when typing. :er:


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## PapaMatt (Jan 12, 2012)

Leam said:


> Hi everybody,
> 
> I'm doing an art project about photographers. I'm actually more into drawing, that's why I'm new on the forum
> I was wondering if you guys have something special you think about when you press the shutter realease?
> ...


  Let your heart speak to you

I don't really think -  I feel deep within when i know i got it right


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## PapaMatt (Jan 12, 2012)

It is like painting, I also paint with a brush,  ha ha, another hobby,  I know when everything is working just right. A scene or object that makes you feel an emotion is worth a click.


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## tododelsur (Feb 9, 2012)

I'm usually thinking about the person I'm photographing and looking for that part of their personality I want to capture. It's hard to do when most of the girls you shoot with strike an instant pose the second you hold up a camera.


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## ahcigar1 (Feb 9, 2012)

"Oh my gosh I can't believe it I got it"  When I go to do photos I typically predetermine what I want out of every shoot.  And so I work for that 1 shot.  Sometimes I get it sometimes I don't.  But when I do that is what is going through my head.

"Gotta make it work somehow, you take what you can get"  This is ultimately what happens most of the time I do go to shoot.  I go for one thing but end up with something completely different.  Perfect example is when I went to shoot some foals in a field.  They just wouldn't leave me alone.  No matter where I went to get some distance from them they followed me.  They were just so curious what I was doing in thier pasture.  So I made it work.  Got down low put on my wider angle lens and shot.  Came out with one very interesting photo, but it worked.

"Please work with me here."  "1... 2... 3... NOW!"  I do this alot.  If I need to set myself up in a certain position to get the shot I want I have to have my assistant listen to my command of when to get the horse to move.  And I hope the whole time that the horse moves how I want them to, and that my assistant is listening to me (which isn't always the case).

"Don't run me over please"  Shooting horses is a dangerous thing sometimes.  Looking through the viewfinder your depth of field is thrown completely off.  And when working in a small arena while a horse is loose and running circles around you.  Sometimes they like to take a sharp turn and make a beeline straight for you.  Can't tell you how many times I have to pick my camera up and jump out of the way.


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## MReid (Feb 9, 2012)

I set the picture up in my head, then I create the picture in the frame, click the shutter. Chimp...repeat as necessary.


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## Compaq (Feb 11, 2012)

I hope Derrel will like this one.


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## chuasam (Feb 12, 2012)

In the back of my mind WIFE.
White Balance
ISO
Focus
Exposure


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## bogeyguy (Feb 12, 2012)

Why are these jagoffs walking in front of me as I try to take a photo!


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