Perspective, Story and Authenticity.

What made me love photography in the first place was that among the very few things in the world, photography can influence thousands of minds with just one photo, for me, that's 'Artistic'. It's also a form of expression, people explain themselves and their actions through their photographs.

What's the similarity between A Picture and A Painting, well there are a lot but the most incredible one is that it takes a beautiful mind to make it a reality and a beautiful mind to understand it, Yeah! Not everyone can understand the context of a great photograph/painting and what it represents and that is why you see very few people at art galleries.

Now how do you click a great photograph, if you think that you should have the best camera in the world to do that then you can't be more wrong, Do you need the best writing pen or the best typewriter to become the best writer, No! Of course not. The pieces of equipment you use are just 'Tools' and nothing else. It is the Photographer's imagination and execution to make it a Masterpiece. Most of the greatest photographs that have ever been taken in the world had a lot of similarities, No I am not talking about ISO, Shutter speed, and Exposure (they are also very important though). The three things that I think are the most important while capturing someone/something are as follow:

(1)- Perspective There is an old saying "What you see depends upon how you look at it." and that's exactly what perspective means, everything we are surrounded with are 3-D objects but what a photograph captures is different 'View' of that object so that means that there can be a lot of views of a particular object that defines different angles/faces of that object. Capturing the different sides, from different distances, at different angles and with different backgrounds is what perspective means in simple words.

With camera technologies evolving so quickly in the world and the 'Auto' options in the Cameras becoming better and better, there are only a few things that a person needs to do to click a decent picture and perspective is one of the most important on that list. Of all the things a camera can do on its own, it cannot tell you in what position to point the camera or where to stand so that the image you capture looks the best. It is something that you have to figure out on your own.

So how you figure that out? Initially, you do 'Hit and Trial' but as you start clicking a lot of photos, you kinda understand it on your own. You understand as soon as you see the subject or the scene that what would be the 'Ideal' capture.

(2)- Story Before we understand this, we need to understand why we click a photo in the first place, The idea behind clicking a photo is to keep that photo as a reminder of memories that allow us to travel back to that time and feel it as we were in it when we were capturing the picture. That's why it is called "Capturing the Moment" because that is what it does, The photos capture the feel of the moment and let you live it every time you see that photo.

A photograph of a mountain view brings back memories of how magnificent the scene was, a group photo with the people you love brings back the memories of how much fun you had that day. Even if you are into portrait photography, the face of the model tells a story, the smile, and the expressions. Every photograph should hold a story, a memory, an emotion in itself because that is its purpose. We call it 'Photo Essay' or the ability of a photograph to tell a story by itself and that is why its important for your photograph to have a story or else it is of little or no use.

(3)- Authenticity This term right here has lost all its meaning in the photography world lately, people depend on software and editing so much that the photographs have lost all the originality and tend to look more artificial than ever before. The situation has gotten so worse that the quality that every photograph should have is now a separate genre in photography. For people like me who were admirers even before we touched our first camera have very little hope that the situation will improve. Don' get me wrong, Color grading and improving various elements of a photograph is important in many situations especially when you are shooting RAW but overdoing it so that it looks more attractive is liking compensating

"Don't Compensate your lack of photography skill with over editing, it doesn't work that way, using more expensive paint can never compensate your lack of creativity."

While some consider Authentic photography to be photographing things that are not planned such as the world-famous portrait of 'The Afghan Girl' which was also called as "the First World's Third World Mona Lisa", many great photographers consider a more natural or true to life or "Original Photograph' to be Authentic.

Conclusion A photograph with Authenticity and a Story will scream emotions and the examples of that are "Woman Falling From Fire Escape" in 1975 or "Man Jumping the Puddle" in 1930 or "Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel" in 1946. These photos are considered to be a few of the greatest photographs in history. So Authenticity, story, and perspective are the three tools that I think can make a huge difference when executed properly