Getting the Perfect Shot… Every Time
Photo junkies…especially those at the beginning stages of learning…are constantly seeking the Panacea of Photography, trying to find the method(s) or setting(s) that will offer the illusive perfect shot each and every time. If you have read much on this site, then you will already know the answer to this question.
Some will scour the internet and read thousands of articles, watch a plethora of videos, and cataloging all of the prospective tips and techniques trying to isolate the variables to allow one to take the ‘perfect shot’ each and every time you click the shutter.
However, if you do scour the internet, then you will find that there is a bit of disagreement about how to accomplish this daunting task. In fact, you probably won’t find anything decisive at all. If, as you read this, you start to realize that I am not actually telling you how to achieve the stated goal, then congratulations. You caught me! The real truth is this…there is no way to take the perfect shot every time. Why? Simply put, there are too many variables at play…and we should be thankful. If it were not for these variables, then we (photographers) would be out of business.
Variety…the Spice of Photography
If it were not for the difficulty of taking quality photos, then everyone would do it for themselves…and every picture would look the same! Imagine the world without the creativity of mankind in art. Not a very pretty place at all. Now think of some famous photos and look at the variety of styles, impressions, perspectives, colors, subjects, lighting, and framing. The amount of variety is astonishing. One photo can be underexposed and be moving. Another photo can be overexposed and also be moving, and yet another perfectly exposed and still have the same effect. The magic of the ‘perfect shot’ is arguably not about exposure.
What Makes a “Perfect Shot”
There are too many “perfect shots”, which are too different to categorize, too different to reduce to a common denominator, and too different to minimize by associated similarity. The “perfect shot” contains something that inspires, something that touches the heart and soul of people, something that changes the core of a person’s being. That “something” isn’t always the same. Therefore, if you are trying to achieve the “perfect shot”, then you must shoot with those things in mind, look for the opportunities that are offered, seek out inspiration, and work hard to find something within yourself and your subject that will affect people. You must be able to do all of this while maintaining the technical aspects of photography and use your camera as a painter uses paint, canvas, and brushes. The technical details must become second nature so that you can create beauty, drama, shock, awe, inspiration, and touching scenes with your tool of choice…a camera.
Beginning and Continuing Your Journey
While it sounds overly simplistic and almost cliché, you must start with the basics. If you take several shots and none of them seem to work like you hoped, planned, or envisioned, then you don’t need a better widget or gadget, you need to get back to the basics. Most failed photos are the result of poor planning, poor understanding, or poor execution. All of these problems stem from misuse or disuse of the basics. For example, if a professional sports team suffers an embarrassing loss, you don’t hear the coach talking about a new fancy tactic or play during the next practice, you hear them drilling the team on the basics of the sport. The common thread of truth is that perfection or mastery of the basics, the technical aspects of photography will allow your creativity to shine through and flow to a degree that will allow you to achieve more of what you see in your mind’s eye.
Once you think you have the basics down, start all over again and try to find new ways to utilize the basics. Continually rely upon the basics of aperture, shutter speed, framing, composition, ISO, and lighting to capture images, to capture the image you imagined in the first place. Once the technical details become second nature, then…and only then, will you flow through a shoot allowing nothing but your creativity and art to be showcased. Only then will you truly be able to capture images…and then you will understand what the “perfect shot” truly is…an expression of the human soul in an image that speaks to another human soul.
Perfection never occurs randomly, never occurs without purpose, and never occurs without thought and design. We may think they do on the surface, but reality shows us otherwise. Perfection might actually be an unobtainable goal for flawed humans, but that does not mean that we should quit trying to achieve it.
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