The Third Bucket
For more than a few reasons, including thinking about subjects for the Tack Sharp podcast that I do with Dan Benjamin, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the essential skills that a photographer should have. The ones that we should all learn, and then practice again and again as we pursue the making of images. Of course, it would be easy to go way too far with such a list and get into mind numbing detail. But, as I ponder the subject, I’ve found myself thinking about the skills of photography in three major buckets. I’m sure these divisions aren’t a news flash and they’ve been talked about by so many others before, but nonetheless, I’m finding them to be a useful construct.
The first bucket contains the soft skills. I use this term in the same way as one might refer to the soft sciences. These are the skills that are essential, but there are a wide variety of “right” answers to any particular situation. Into this bucket falls such things as being able to evaluate the light in a scene and use it to creatively illuminate a subject, take advantage of the psychological effects of warm versus cool light, the framing and composition of a subject, the use of depth of field for creative purposes, and selecting a type of paper to print a particular image on. All of these skills make up the craft of photography.
The second bucket contains the hard skills. Of course, I don’t mean difficult. Instead, I mean that these encompass the more rigorous aspects of photography. This bucket contains the ability to set white balance, control exposure time, control aperture, and being able to know how to use a histogram to evaluate an exposure. Sure, there can be multiple correct values for these things, but in practice, those answers are a much narrower set of values. In essence, these skills revolve around the science of photography.
For a while, I’ve personally been focused at thinking about photography in these two buckets, craft and science if you will. But, just as I got too comfortable with that thought, something in the back of my head sits up and points out that I’m missing something important. There are skills that don’t fall into either the craft or science buckets. These skills include the ability to conceptualize what you want to communicate in a photograph, the ability to provoke an emotional response in a viewer of the work, the vision to look at things in a way that is intriguing, or the ability to suss out what is important in a fast moving and world changing event. This is the real art of photography. It’s what transcends simple documentation into an image with the power to either move one to tears or a smile, or even to change the world.
Duh! How could I miss that one for so long. Maybe because it was so obvious? Sort of like air? It was surprising to me, considering all those years I spent in architecture school.
The problem with this last bucket is that it’s really hard to talk about. It’s full of things that are hard to describe in words. The je ne sais quoi. Exposure? Easy to communicate in words on a variety of levels. The feeling of a photo of a baby? Obvious, so obvious that words aren’t necessary. What makes a photograph from a war zone make people want to stop making war? An awful sublime, but so very hard to put words to.
One thing that’s worth pointing out, our relationship with the first two buckets has changed over the years. Decades ago, you had to master the science of photography before you could even think about composition. Over the years, that’s changed. Now, you can go a long way on green auto-everything mode and make compelling photographs. I know people that are masters of composition but who are puzzled by how ISO, exposure, and aperture relate to each other. Heck, we’re to the point now where some very compelling imagery has been produced on mobile phones with no control at all over the technical variables.
But, our relationship with that third bucket, the art of photography, that’s not changed at all. It’s as slippery and elusive as ever. And the power it has is why most of us became entranced with photography—and remain so.
Related Links
- Kader Attia: It Comes From Within, by Chase Jarvis
10 Comments
Duncan, I love this post. This Third Bucket is something that I think about a lot when looking at photography, but have never really tried to put into words. As an amateur, I can learn and practice certain skills, and I can work on the "soft" skills, but there is still something beyond that which will sometimes grab me when looking at other people's work, or occasionally--if I'm lucky--when I make something of my own. It's the type of thing that is hard to explain to someone, but one of those "know it when you see it" moments. It's certainly something to strive for, and it's nice to think about breaking photography down in these areas.
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I'm just at the beginning of this wonderful journey. Taking shots is an art, as programming or playing a piano.
I think that one of the toughest skill to get is learning how to capture the light and use it to trasform every shot.
I hope to get something more on Tack Sharp soon.
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Interesting. I prefer not to think of them in terms of buckets at all. The "science" things affect the first bucket (shutter speed being the one that stands out most to me), some of the things you put in the first might also belong into the third, and the bucket approach just compartmentalizes something that doesn't need to be compartmentalized.
To me, anyway.
If I was forced to have buckets, I'd have only two: artistic (mostly your buckets #1 and #3) and technical (most of bucket #2). Technical things can be used to affect the artistic expression, and for me, those types of things belong in bucket #1 as far as the result goes, but the application is still a bucket #2 thing.
Which may be why I really don't think in terms of buckets... why bother? I've seen technically great photographs that lack art and artistic, great photographs that lack technical perfection (intentional and otherwise).
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I agree, and one resource I've really been enjoying is Jeff Curto's Camera Position podcast. It's an audio podcast with embedded pictures. He talks about his and others pictures; how they were done technically, but more about why they work, and why they create emotional response.
http://www.cameraposition.com/
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I've heard it referred to as having the "Eye" for photography.
It's like the difference between being able to come up with a menu, knowing the cooking techniques to actually cook it, and having made the perfect meal for your guests.
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I like that description, the third bucket. And you're right, it's hard to describe but it's definitely (for me) why photography is so much fun (and frustration).
Great link to the Jarvis entry; thanks for that.
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Whether or not one should think about photography in groupings of skills probably varies by the individual and what they are trying to do. For me, I'm looking at it as a mental model to hold when I'm talking about the facets of photography with people either face-to-face or via other means. Don’t worry, you're not going to see me prefacing those discussions with "Now, it's time to talk about Bucket Two, specifically the Exposure sub-bucket." :) Not gonna happen.
If thinking about these things all together in an unsorted way works for you, that's cool. We all need our own mental models.
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Ian, thanks for the link to that! I've listened to his stuff before, but lost the feed somewhere in moving things around. I've resubbed and will be listening again.
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Eugene, the culinary example is one I was tempted to use for this post somewhere! It's a good one that I've used in many ways with photography before and it really works nicely on a lot of levels.
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This stuff hurts my head.
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