Making Photographs

Book excerpt:

In Making Photographs, photographer Ibarionex Perello teaches you how to face and conquer two of the greatest challenges for a photographer: to consistently make good images and to see the photographic possibilities all around you.

Ibarionex shares the approach and techniques he’s honed over the last 15 years while conducting workshops and teaching photography courses to countless students of the craft. The key to this approach is to develop and implement a visual workflow that allows you to create a repeatable process for your photography. This workflow revolves around the four “visual draws”—light and shadow, line and shape, color, and gesture. As Ibarionex discusses each of these visual draws, you’ll learn how to move beyond merely “looking” at the world around you to “seeing” photographic possibilities at every turn. It is this act of seeing that gives photography its magic—and that gives you the vital tool you need to improve your work. Rather than simply taking pictures, you’ll begin making photographs.

Ibarionex also covers topics such as exposure, composition, preparation, lighting, the role of emotion, culling your images, self-assessment, and post-processing. He presents the stories behind his photographs, which reveal his thought process as he works through a scene; shares some of his successes, failures, discoveries, and breakthroughs; and includes assignments and challenges to inspire and motivate you to put these principles into immediate action in your photography.

With a foreword by Joel Meyerowitz