Decision Making Before and After the Shutter

June 12, 2022

How much of the creative process happens before you take a photograph, and how much of it is shaped afterwards? That is a useful question to ponder, because the answer informs us where we spend most of our energy, and where you might have some more room to grow creatively.

For me, personally, that answer varies from image to image. There have been photo sessions that I have planned out in detail, and the resulting images were exactly following the vision that I had in mind for them before I picked up the camera. On the other hand, I’ve also had sessions where preconceived ideas went nowhere, or times where I didn’t even put much thought beforehand into what images I was hoping to make.

And sometimes the end result can surprise you, and lead you down a whole new creative path. Below is an example drawn from my own work: a triptych of black and white images. 

Harbor Abstract II - Irish Coast

Downtown Railway Tracks II - Downtown Los Angeles, California

Church Detail II - Dordrecht, The Netherlands

Did I decide beforehand that I wanted to crop these images into a square aspect ratio? Did I set out to make a series of images that could work well together? 

No, in this case I did not. These three images originate from three different photo sessions in wildly varying settings, in three different parts of the world: a church in the Netherlands, a harbor in a small fishing village in Ireland, and a bridge over train tracks in Los Angeles, California.

Only afterwards in post-processing for each of these images did I realize that a square format would serve the subject matter, and much later yet I realized that they might work well as a series with varying tonality, but all square and with abstracted subject matter effectively reduced to lines and shapes.

After that realization, I am now interested in making this into a body of work, and will seek out other photo sessions where I can add to the black and white square abstracted image concept. So next time, I might think ‘square frame’ and ‘black and white’ and ‘abstract’ before pressing the shutter, and not only afterwards. 

It is really fun (and a great creative exercise!) to have a few ongoing projects like this in your back pocket, that you can either add to when the opportunity arises, or actively work on by searching for photo sessions/locations that might yield images following the same concept.

And here is a bonus question to think about: How much do you consider the final product when you create an image or such a body of work? Will they end up as a book, with or without text, or as a series of prints on the wall? How will that affect your creative process? Food for thought.