Apogee Photo Magazine

Seeing with a Master’s Eye

by Noella Ballenger

Giovanno Antonio Boltraffio’s
(Milanese 1467-1516)
Portrait of a Youth

Photographers talk about having a “good eye.” Whenever someone says that about my work, my feathers fluff up just a bit and my ego goes into high gear. But how is that wonderful quality, skill or technique of being able to see developed? Or is it a gift at birth? And just exactly how does having that “good eye” fit into our development as photographers.

When we present our images to others, there is a quality that can make them stand out from any other work. They are a visual presentation of what we saw, what we felt, and what we knew. Images need to be technically sound, but they also need more. They need to have strong organization and design. They need to have impact. They need to be an expression of the artist’s individual creativity. They need to be memorable. It is a tall order, but don’t allow this task to overwhelm you.

You don’t have to be another Rembrandt …

Many photographers describe themselves as “fine art” photographers. This expression has now become a buzzword that means very little. If they see one photographer doing one technique, soon their work becomes peppered with poor copies of another’s creativity.

It saddens me as a photography teacher to hear entry or intermediate photographer’s talk about producing “fine art.” It is even sadder when you hear of photography teachers encouraging their students to think in this way, instead of placing the emphasis on their pleasure, their unique creativity and the expression of their inner feelings.

So many of the people we now consider masters in the creative visual art world, worked against the popular trends of their day. Few artists of this caliber were successful in their own time. Many died without even knowing a touch of fame or fortune. They worked so very hard, were isolated or laughed at, but they did it because “they had no other choice … they had to.”

So, let’s put the “fine art” myth to rest for a bit and let’s actually go back to learning from the master’s such as Rembrandt, or van Gogh or Gainsborough. You may wonder why I, as a photographer, should study those masters when I have the photographs of Ansel Adams or David Munich or Edward Weston to study? Well, that is an easy question to answer. We aren’t going to limit ourselves to studying just one level of mastery; we are going to begin a life study of all of them.

You don’t have to be another Rembrandt … you just have to see like one!

Art, whether cave drawings, paintings, photography, or the latest digital innovations, is about human activity and is not a mechanical activity. We can use the latest methods, techniques, equipment and devices to create, but the bottom line is that art is human.

And, what we do and how we express our creative vision is an expression of our human inner feelings. So, this makes art and the study of old masters as important today as it was years ago. This study is as applicable to the computer, as it was to early man who left details of his life on ancient walls. We may not know who his “masters” were, but you can bet that he had them. When someone saw his drawings and added to them or improved upon them with their own creativity, they communicated, and then stepped past just communicating, into an artistic medium just for the sake of creating.

In other artistic endeavors, such as music, we have no early recordings of Beethoven or Mozart playing their work. The musician has to go by the written and rely on his own ability to interpret. In visual arts, however, we are so fortunate to have the originals to study. We can see exactly what they did, along with the how and why.

Are we born with a “good eye” or can it be acquired?

It is my opinion that we are both born with the ability to see and express ourselves artistically and that we also have the ability to learn to see. Seeing is noticing details. Sometimes it is intuitive, and other times it is not. I think the big difference comes in our ability to break out of being unaware and into super awareness. Have you ever seen a hungry animal tracking prey? Because they are working at finding sustenance, they become super aware of every noise, every whisper of sound in the bush and every smell or movement around them. I like to say that they become “gamy.”

Photographers who are intently aware of their surroundings and working at the solution of finding their vision and translating that vision to film also become “gamy”. They notice the edges of light, the contrasts and the similarities in subject and background objects. They look at a variety of angles and weigh the design merits of what they see. Their concentration is focused, and if you were to ask them specifically what they were seeing or doing, they might be so focused that they are unable to answer you. In order to have a master’s eye, this is the kind of focus that is demanded.

How to acquire a “master’s eye.”

Have you ever gone to a museum and stood before a painting in awe and wondered what it was that made this art so special, and why the maker is called a master. Many years ago, when I was struggling with art and painting classes, one of my instructors told me to find the book called Painting Techniques of the Masters, by Hereward Lester Cooke who was the Curator of Painting at the National Museum of Art. This book takes a famous painting and analyzes a small section, a technique, or even a method of brush stroke. Mr. Cooke breaks apart the whole and talks about why the painting works.

As an example, Mr. Cooke takes the painting of Giovanno Antonio Boltraffio’s (Milanese 1467-1516) Portrait of a Youth and analyzes the way the painter uses his mastery of light and shade to make the portrait wonderfully three-dimensional. But, Mr. Cooke points out, there is more than the mastery of light and shading. There is the subtlety of slightly altering the value of the shadows to change the expression. In this painting, the shadows are deepened under the lip, at the corners of the mouth, and under the nostrils. This subtle change of accent in these shadows creates a feeling of resentment and sorrow. Now, how can we translate what we just learned from Boltraffio to our photography? What is the lesson here?

The best way for the student of photography to proceed is to go to photography books or other examples of the photographic masters and see how they manipulate the light to bring subtle changes to the expression of the subject. Whenever you look at work produced by Ansel Adams, or other photographic masters, try to understand what made them stop at that particular point to photograph that particular scene or flower or nude in that particular way. Don’t just admire the image, but try to look for the subtleties, the hints, and the small differences that makes one image dynamic and masterful, and another one just so-so. Reach into their minds and past their techniques to see if you can feel what they might have been feeling. Go for the human angle of presentation and communication.

Then, try your hand at being a “master.” If you are into people photography, find a willing subject and have them sit very quietly for you. Have them keep a relaxed expression on their face. Move and manipulate the light to add those subtleties to their expression. Take a number of shots and make notes on what you were trying to achieve and what you did. Then, when you get the film back, see what worked. Even if you don’t detect the differences, or if you feel the experiment didn’t succeed, you will find out that you did learn from it.

Another good way to learn to see is to take a class at your local museum or take a tour. Learn to look at what you are seeing. Visit art galleries and good photography galleries. Go to libraries and bookstores to review the photographs. But don’t be passive about looking at the variety of images you will see. Learn to see in detail, wonderful specific detail! And that is how you develop a master’s eye.

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Noella Ballenger is a photographer, teacher and writer living in California. You can find out more about her and her workshops at www.noellaballenger.com