Right and Left Brain

  1. Right Brain Photographers like to:
    1. Focusing on gut instinct, right-brainers shoot what FEELS right.
    2. They see with their heart, their memory, and their experience, and ideas just flow out of them.
    3. Right-brainers have a strong determination and unquenchable passion – and an urge to create something wonderful.
    4. These photographers appeal to emotions in their work and often love portraiture and documentary photography because of the connections they are able to make with their cameras.
    5. Right-Brainers can find beauty or create beauty anywhere - in anything.
  2. Left Brain Photographers like to:
    1. Seeing the order in the world, Left-Brainers focus on a perfect exposure that captures a decisive moment in a flawlessly organized way. Left-brainers are methodical and have a deep understanding of their equipment. They’ll often use multiple metering methods, and take their time to make sure everything is just right. Many of these photographers lean toward architectural, landscape, or illustration photography. For these photographers, technique is an instinctual quality they can utilize to create the perfect photograph.
  3. While many photographers fall predominantly into one of these categories, it is important to marry these two sides and be both of these things equally. Not really equally but you need to give attention to all of these things and focus on what you care about most without forgetting the things that you are not naturally drawn to. The perception is that artists only need their right brain to be successful. There are also many photographers that believe that as long as you have great equipment that you really know how to use, anyone can do it. In all honesty, you have to have both or you’ll find yourself stuck at the crossroads you’ll never get past.
  4. For Left-Brainers to work on -
    1. Great equipment will only get you far if you have a passion and instinct for what your artistic style is.
    2. Try keeping a sketchbook to use for doodling and just draw. Don’t think about it – just let information flow onto the page without much regard to order.
    3. Challenge yourself to define you personal style by coming up with different photographic games and projects that you can try.
    4. Get out of your comfort zone and photograph strangers – make yourself do something new.
  5. For Right-Brainers to work on-
  6. Even with all the passion and artistic talent in the world – without a sense of order, you won’t be able to express your ideas well so that they are accessible to others. Try this – shoot one roll of film (20 or 36 shots). You have a limited number of shots, and they all need to count. TAKE YOUR TIME.  Make sure you are thinking about every technical detail of each photo you take. Try your best to look for patterns, lines, and shapes in your compositions and understand why things work or why they don’t.
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