by Zack Schnepf
In the Field Composition Workflow Part 1 – Simplification
Having a workflow, both in the field and for post processing is extremely helpful just as having a road map if you get lost is extremely helpful. That’s what a good workflow is for me, a road map. If I’m struggling to find a good composition, I fall back on my workflow to help get back on track and give me ideas. In this article I’ll walk you through the different phases of my personal workflow in the field.
Evaluation and scouting phase: My first tip for composing in the field is to walk the scene first and fully evaluate the options. I like to do this well before the light is at it’s peak so I have enough time to properly take stock of my options. This may sound obvious, but this is something I see workshops participants often overlook. Anytime I visit a new location I leave my camera in my pack and I walk the scene extensively. I do this for several reasons. I want to evaluate the scene and see what elements are attracting me and get a good idea of my compositional options. Once I take stock of the scene I can move on to the next steps in my composition workflow.
Arrangement phase: The second step in my field workflow is to put the elements together. Once you have taken stock of the scene you can start to think about arranging the elements in a visually compelling way. This is easier said than done, but when I follow these steps in the field it’s much easier to come up with composition ideas. Sometimes I’ll focus on the element in the scene that attracted me the most and try to come up with a composition using the other elements as a supporting cast. For example, in this image from Crater Lake there are a lot of compelling elements to choose from: Wizard Island, the lake, the light itself, and the tree are all strong compositional elements. I chose to make the tree the star of the show and let the other elements be supporting elements. I could have gone a different direction and focused more on the lake and the sky and the resulting image would have been very different. I had several composition ideas in mind and I tried more than one, this happened to be the one I liked best. That leads me to my next tip.
Experiment phase: Try more than one composition idea and compare them. During the arrangement phase I try to come up with more than one composition idea. I also like to try them out before the light is at it’s peak. This allows me to evaluate the results on my camera LCD, or my laptop and decide which I want to focus on during peak light. If the locations are close enough together, sometimes I can get a shot from more than one. Once I’ve experimented with my options it’s time to prioritize composition ideas and come up with a plan for peak light.
Planning Phase: Before the light is at it’s peak I like to have a tentative plan in place to mentally prepare for capture phase. I try to pre visualize my capture phase before it happens. This helps me anticipate any issues that might come up during capture phase. This includes anticipating what the weather might do. I also like to have a back plan, or two to help maximize my chance of success. This probably sounds like a lot of work and it is, but sometimes you only get one chance at really good conditions at a location. I like to increase my odds of capturing a good image.
Capture phase: This is it, the moment we’ve been waiting for. This is when we execute our plan and try to realize the pre-visualized ideas. Sometimes, everything goes to plan and I’m able to get exactly what I had pre-visualized in my head. Other times, things don’t line up quite right, or one of my predictions is wrong and I have to change my plans. Even the best laid plans fail, so be prepared to wing it if you have to. Most of the time, one of my plans does work out and I’m able to capture a good image. Having several options has saved me so many times. I can’t count how many times I’ve changed to a backup plan at the last minute based on how everything lined up.
Re-evaluating the scene is extremely important during capture phase. If you see things aren’t lining up well for plan “A”, but plan “B” is looking more promising then you can quickly transition to plan “B”. A perfect example of this happened last fall on my trip to Colorado with Sean Bagshaw. We had scouted the area extensively earlier that day and came up with several contingency plans for capture phase. Plan “A” was to shoot away from the setting sun toward the mountains using some nice looking aspen trees as foreground. The problem was, there was a storm moving in that was blocking the light from getting to our scene. We quickly evaluated the scene and saw that another area we had scouted was shaping up really nicely, so we instantly abandoned plan “A”, jumped in the car and headed to the other location. We arrived just in time to capture one of my favorite images of the whole trip. If we hadn’t scouted so well, or had several back up plans we would have gotten skunked, but because we were so well prepared we were able to capture something really special.
In the next part of this series I’ll discuss different types of compositions I like and look for in the field.
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