Behind the Scenes Yosemite: Putting it All Together

Ok so hopefully we can wrap up “Behind the Scenes in Yosemite” with this post — by putting all the pieces together. You’ve seen the camera gear, and you’ve seen how we get around on the wall… so just a little composition and we’re ready to go. Sounds simple enough but composing climbing (and action sport images in general) is the toughest part of the job. I’ve shot for climbing publications for close to 10 years now, and in that time I’ve built up a bit of a mental check list of what photo editors are looking for.

Here are some climbing composition basics:

• Shoot from above to show action and perspective (not to mention ass shots are a no-no, no matter what sport you are shooting)
• Show action (chalking up and resting hands is not action!)
• Get the climber above the bolt/gear… that means his waist shouldn’t be at a bolt!
• Show the holds (people want to see all points of contact)
• Focus on the special moments/features of a pitch otherwise its ‘just another climbing shot’
• Show where the climber is coming from/going to (this is universal for all action sports photos)
• Watch your horizons and trees… they should be horizontal and vertical respectively

Easy enough! But hold, on there’s one more rule and this one is hard to explain. It’s also one of climbing photography’s biggest secrets. So let’s call it…

Climbing Composition Advanced:

When you are shooting climbing you are showing a 3d space in 2d. So just like a painting you need to use the ground or other ‘anchor’ points to show the proper perspective in your frame. Remember your eyes are seeing everything, but through a camera lens is like a horse with blinders… its easy to lose the sense of place, scale and orientation. Ever see a photo and you don’t know which way to look at it? This is what I am talking about.

This image from Yosemite lacks anything to anchor it, anything to give it perspective:

But check out what happens if I rotate the camera 90 degrees and then you have the trees/ground to anchor the image:

Sure the first image works, but in my opinion it doesn’t have the perspective or sense of scale of the second.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Here’s another example:

This first image shows the ground, but the perspective is just off, its crooked and inaccurate:

But if we drop down the rope a little bit and use the horizon, gravity (on the gear hanging from the climber) and (vertical) trees to anchor the image it seems to make a bit more sense:

It’s subtle I know but the great thing is digital cameras provide instant feedback… and climbing is SLOW! so you will have lots of time to get it right.

Here’s one that I’m pretty happy with (didn’t make the final cut but still pretty sweet) that put’s it altogether:

Photo Info:

• 5d with 15mm fisheye
• Lighting: Alien Bee 800 with Pocket Wizards held overhead on a monopod by assistant
• Climber: Kevin Jorgeson, 17 pitches up El Capitan, Yosemite CA
• Post: Lightroom

tk

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 11:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.