This is just a little word about concept planning, shoot planning and test shooting. The Macro image shown here is a part of a concept I was toying with for the "American Epidemic" Photo Study I have been working on. Overall, the technical aspects of this photo are awesome, the focus is there, the droplette is perfectly formed, the angle on the needle is perfect and overall, I am very happy with the composition...So...Where's the problem?
The problem in this shot lies in the background and the needle itself. As I sat with some extra time in my day, I thought I would give this a quick attempt...in doing so, I neglected to clean the needle, neglected to prepare the background and really just wasn't thinking about the final results as much as I was the technicals of working in such a close up, "magnified" environment. The intent was NOT to end up with usable final images in this session, but to test my skills and abilities to work in this macro environment, without micro adjust rails and macro ring lighting or any of the other equipment usually associated with true 1:1 macro work. YET, here it is, a shot that, had I spent the time ahead of time to better prepare, test shooting or not, would have been an AMAZING and very usable shot for the series!
So...The lesson here...ALWAYS TREAT AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHOOT AS IF IT WERE A FULL BLOWN PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITY. You never know what kind of shot you will get out of a "Test", in the end, you may be presented with the actual shot you were looking to ultimately achieve...
Plan, compose, test and execute should ALWAYS be the order...and should that TEST step end up producing the final results you wanted, well...you banked some time for the post process!!
Now...time to go clean up that needle, setup a better black background card (instead of a black binder), and get that shot right!!!
Capture Moments...Capture Life...Capture CHAOS!!!!
Gill