The 4 C’s of Photography

Forget what you know about diamonds.  I know that throughout my training as a photographer – C words work perfectly to explain the basic aspects of many different kinds of art.  I don’t know why the words always have to begin with C – but it’s a letter that seems to hold a lot of answers in life.  So forget cut, color, carat and clarity.  Here are 4 C’s that matter a helluvalot more in my opinion:

1. Content - what does your photograph(or other piece of art) say? What is your subject and why should it matter?

      

The first photo says: Here are some random, moody gravestones.  Look how artistic I am!
The second photo tells a story and reminds us of the way that, as children, we all just wanted to grow up.  Ah, much better.

2. Composition – How have you arranged your subject, and what does that say about it?  Over the centuries, high-falutin artistic minds have argued for content vs. form.  I’ll tell you right now that that they are nothing without each other. In many cases, how you choose to arrange your thoughts mean just as much as the thoughts themselves.

Henri Cartier Bresson was a master of composition.  Check out the perfect separation between the bicyclist and the staircase. Oh, and how it leads the eye!

3. Color - Are you using bold colors? Muted colors? No colors? How does the color of your image set the mood for your work? Color should lead the eye and entice the viewer to understand something about the subject.

 

Color Tip #1: Just because you used selective color – does not mean you are using effective color.

Now Steve McCurry? He knew how to use some color for a great photograph. So bold!

 4. Contrast - Too little contrast? Your subject appears flat, lifeless and gets lost in the shuffle of all the other terribly flat contrastless images in this world.  To much contrast? You’re going to blow out the highlights or shadows and you may lose some very important details or distract the viewer from the content or form of your image.  Here’s an example(click to see the details more closely on this one):

 

It’s a lot to consider, am I right? But the more I look at the photographs that I most admire, I realize that all of these things are COMPLETELY vital.

Although my examples are photographically related, don’t think that these basic concepts don’t apply to other art forms as well.  I would hope that before you ever pick up your respective artistic tools, you would think of these basic things that give such an impact to your final product.  More and more, I’m trying to be more mindful of them myself.  After all, if you’re just constantly clicking the shutter without any regard to what’s in front of you – why photograph? (Or why sing? Why dance? Why create at all?)

If these words don’t exactly apply to you – think of the four words (regardless of the starting letter) that are most important in your creative process. Then write them down. Or tattoo them on your forehead.  Whatever it takes to make you stop and think. Because once the basics become instinct, what’s to stop you from going further?  That’s when you can start to develop the 5th C -

Confidence.