Keeping It Simple

Photo by Andrew Ebrahim. Nikon D3s 200mm f/11 ISO 200 @ 1/250sec

As with many things in life, the simpler the better. Thats not to say simple is boring; more often than not, simplicity brings along a sense of depth without the clutter or confusion of something more complicated. Simplicity will serve to focus, enhance and define whatever you are creating.

KISS: Keep it simple, Stupid!

KISS is a principle I first learned about in my grade 6 shop class, and its been with me ever since. A quick wiki search says that Kelly Johnson, a lead engineer at  Lockheed Martin, first coined the term. While Johnson was first to says KISS, he's not the first to promote the power of simplicity. You have individuals throughout history, like Einstein and Da Vinci, demonstrating the principle of simplicity and if used correctly, the sophistication it carries with it. Not only do engineers and scientists live by this principle, but so do world class chefs, next time you go out an eat at a fine dining restaurant, look at the presentation of the food. Everything from the size of the plate, to where the food is placed and how the plate is facing you, all works to present the food in a simple, clean and beautiful way. All because something is elaborate, does not mean it is complex.

So what does this have to do with photography? Everything. From the gear you own to what you see in though the lens, it ultimately becomes the image you create. 

When I first go into photography as a hobby, I thought gear was everything. I had to have more lights, more lenses, more stands clamps and other gadgets before I could make the image I wanted. I got to the point where I had a small army of Speedlights and an arsenal of lenses. But where was this image I’ve been so desperate to capture? I had the gear I wanted but no image. I spent more time setting up scene, dialing things in and figuring out how to place all my gear, that I never thought about the image I wanted to capture.

A many moons have past since then and I find my self coming back to the world of KISS. I ask my self, If it doesn’t add to the image, why is it there? Whether is a tree branch in the corner of the frame, things on a table or jewelry on a person, if it doesn’t somehow contribute to the image, take it out.

With the cost of making an image so low, and our cameras being able to shoot 10 or more frames per second, many of us seldom think about what it is we’re really photographing. So before you push the shutter button on your camera, take an extra second to look at the entire frame and ask your self, is everything in the frame what I really want to photograph.

The more I’ve been shooting, attending workshops and working with others in this community, its clear to me that the main thing that separates a professional from an amateur is the ability to take things out. This goes to what you see in the frame, to the images you show in your portfolio.

A photographer may have tens of thousands of images in his or her library, but when you put together your portfolio, you only want to show your best. I would rather show the 10 of my best images than show 50 that are just OK.

Sure there will be times when you need to put together a more elaborate lighting setup, but do not make it more complex than it needs to be. I’ve gone from shooting portraits with one light up to six, but now a days I find my self returning to only using one or two lights. Just remember that the more lights you have, the more time its going to take to set everything up and the more things that can go wrong.

For example, the image above is a picture of a computer heatsink. My goal was to show how kick-ass the product looked. The product came with two fans that serve to move air across the fins, sure this serves a purpose in its function, but not for my image, so off the fans came. I wanted the image to just focus on the product, so its shot sitting on a sheet of opaque glass, so I could get a reflection off the bottom, and the backdrop is just a simple sheet of black fabric. When it came to lighting I went with a sandwich (there’s probably some fancy photography term for this), one light on either side with the subject in the middle. A simple and clean set up that highlights the object and creates depth in the image. Took me less than 5 minutes to set up and create the object.

When all is said and done, the principle of KISS is to avoid any unnecessary complexity in the goal of your project. Whether you're photographing an object or a person, cooking a world class meal or building some of the most advanced spy planes, one theme that unites all these fields together is simplicity.

So the next time you're out shooting, just remember to KISS.