Better Cameras, Better Glass, Constant Upgrades

Is the quest for perfection killing your artistic vision?

No matter what genre you might pursue, a study of Saul Leiter’s use of color and composition is worthwhile.

Saul Leiter is a photographic artist whom I implore you to explore. No matter if you’ve seen his work before or if it’s the first time there’s a lot to be learned for all of us. Generally, he is pigeonholed as a street photographer but that label is too constraining and is probably an obstacle for those not attracted to that genre to consider studying his massive body of work. The fact is his street photography looks nothing like his contemporaries. What’s more, his color work is what truly defines him as an artist (my opinion).

I wanted to discuss this artist today in the same way as I did Paolo Roversi a while ago. Even if you are not remotely drawn to the kind of work Saul has done, there are still many things to be learned. Take one look at the image above and ask yourself how much better it would be much sharper, much more saturated, with far more resolution, far more contrast, less noise, you know... everything super sharp and super detailed.

I propose the photograph would be far worse. All of those motivations would not only ruin this image but worrying about them, seeking them out, and concentrating on them would cause one to completely overlook making this picture in the first place. The camera industry spends countless amounts on convincing photographers of their definition of perfect. Why on earth would every picture need an extreme resolution of hair, eyelashes, and detail reproduced perfectly? Why would one need to freeze motion with arbitrarily fast shutter speeds in dim light? Why does one need perfect, true-to-life, super-saturated color for every scene?

A random selection from Saul Leiter

In the same way as my discussion on great glass v. good enough glass, I am not suggesting that there’s no time and place for perfect as defined by the current crop of upgrades. What I am suggesting is to take a step back and embrace limitations. The unrelenting pursuit of photographic perfection as defined by manufacturers poisons your ability to see opportunities in many ways.

A few suggestions to help detox

Instead of having the mindset of removing every technical “limitation” imposed, embrace and work with them to see new opportunities. Here are a few suggestions.

• Shoot some film, stick with its built-in limitations for a roll with no recourse.

• Pretend your ISO is limited to 100 or 200 or whatever.

• Forget DOF and pick your focus point

• Shoot a few out-of-focus pictures to varying degrees on purpose

• Don’t worry about freezing the subject

• Don’t worry about noise

• Take your crappiest glass and only that.

• Forget that zoom, stick a crappy old manual focus prime of inappropriate focal length on whatever camera you have. Adapters are cheap.

• Just press the button, don’t worry if the eyelashes are perfectly sharp. Stop trying to track that subject, literally focus on something else and pick a moment. Do that a dozen times with different focus planes and apertures.

• Embrace shadow, let them go very dark... and oh, my black. Who cares abut the fabric detail in that guys black coat walking toward you back lit...

In summary, you can make your list of anti-perfect, and embrace “limitations” and circumstances that present themselves in front of you for a while without that constant, nagging, artificial desire to produce what the industry defines as “perfect”.