American Cinematographer - June 2021 - 30

EIGHT MILLION STORIES

An infrared still of Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery, spring 2018.

Another thing I've learned: Shutter speed is everything when it comes
to photographing people moving on the streets; for daytime work, I usually set a shutter speed of 1/1000 or 1/500, along with a fairly deep stop,
and then switch the camera to Auto ISO (with a compensation to slightly
underexpose the image to preserve highlight details.) At night, I use a
fast lens nearly wide-open and a high ISO setting so I can shoot around
1/100 if possible. With a full-frame camera, I can get away with very high
ISOs and, if necessary, denoise the image later. But the short shutter time
is the only way to quickly react to something happening right in front of
the lens; too often in the past, I discovered that I wasn't steady when I
swung the camera over and snapped some action going by. Of course,
I'm not saying anything a sports photographer doesn't already know!
Patience is a virtue, too, when it comes to street photography; sometimes you find a great background, but you have to wait for someone to
cross the frame to give the image some life. Luckily in New York City, you
don't have to wait long. I've also learned to snap the shutter immediately
if some fast-moving subject blocks my view momentarily, because you
never know if some fascinating composition will result. And if a car is
partially obstructing my view, I try to use the reflective elements of the
hood, roof, bumper, etc. in the foreground as part of the composition.
Clearly, photography is a creative outlet, but how does it tie into cinematography? To some degree, they are very different art forms. Photography is more about freezing a tiny moment in time and then having
a lot of time later to examine all the elements in the frame, whereas in

cinematography, we capture longer moments in real time, just to have
them appear only briefly in the final cut - and they cannot be re-examined unless you watch the movie over again. For this reason, I believe
that cinematic compositions often have to be simpler and more graphic
to have any impact, due to the short duration a viewer is given to review them and absorb their meaning. Imagine being allowed to look at
Ansel Adams' Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico for just three seconds. Of
course, photography can serve as a sketchbook for visual ideas that can
be referenced later by a cinematographer. And one can think of taking
pictures regularly as a form of daily exercise for the visual thinker; as
Dorothea Lange said, " The camera is an instrument that teaches people
how to see without a camera. " Certainly, I think composition is a particular aspect of image-making that is best learned through continuous
practice - perhaps even more so than lighting.
Where I think photography and cinematography converge is when
the composition and light in a photograph suggest a narrative, or when
they serve to support (or stand in contrast to) an emotional quality conveyed by the subject. Of course, the actual narrative in a street photograph is often a mystery - New Yorkers are always on the move, and
one can only guess at where they are heading and why. But thinking
about such things allows the viewer to consider our common humanity,
how most of us are out there daily, heading to work or looking for work,
seeking companionship or enjoying it - or, like the photographer, walking alone and observing everyone else.

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American Cinematographer - June 2021

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