Two different moments
from the same position.
The intensity of the
boy’s expression when
he looks up makes it
clear which shot is best96 March 2016 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com
NIK PEDIA FREEMAN ON...
Repeated physical action, as with this sculptor using a
hammer and chisel, gives you the opportunity to quickly
analyse the details of a gesture, decide on the perfect
moment for you, and work to capture it. In this case, the
special moment looked for was the spurt of stone dust as
the hammer struck the end of the chisel, which I was able
to isolate using selective focusing. A refinement of camera
position meant that I could get the end of the chisel and the
sculptor’s glasses in the same plane of focus (final image).
The questions to ask yourself are: which moment gives
the viewer the most information? Which is the clearest
visually? Which moment has the most energy? Which
is the most interesting or unusual?T
he smallest scale of movement and moment in
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place a great deal of store in facial expression,
especially in what we believe other people
are thinking and feeling. Most people take an
unreasonable amount of pride in their ability to
judge people from their expression, and photography
buys into this idea. How often have you heard the
expression that the eyes ‘are the mirror of the soul’.
It sounds clever and thoughtful, but really? This
basic idea, of capturing the inner self through some
rare opening of the eyes into the soul, divides
photographers who do this kind of thing. Can you,
or can’t you? I’m sceptical, because if it were true,
the police, criminologists and security services
would be out of a job. Many people are incredibly
good at concea l i ng t hei r i nter ior l ives beh i nd t hei r
expression. Photographers’ egos get in the way, too.
Even so, there’s a constant passage of expressions
across the face, like a weatherscape, and some are
going to be more resonant than others. And this, of
course, means resonant to the photographer. In this
case (above right), what began as an impromptu,
candid shot of a young Tibetan novice monk in
Sha ng r i-L a rec it i ng sut ra s t u r ned i nto more of a
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moment for expression gets stretched out over time,
and that really does change the decisions about what
will make the best moment. At the time the obvious
choice seemed to be the boy reading, concentratinghard and with his lips moving. I chose to get in close
w it h a w ide -a ngle a s it felt more i nvolv i ng. But t he
shot changed to something else when the boy looked
up. Behind the thick spectacles – probably because of
t hem – he looked at me i n a n eyes-w ide - open, a l most
st a r t led way: a n e x pression wh ic h st r uc k me a s more
interesting than any of the other moments.What’s in
a look?
Faces have massive visual weight
in a photograph, no matter how
small they are in the frame, so
facial expression is importantRefining
repetitive
action
MEANING FROM EXPRESSION