You may have noticed that the first image I display on my website homepage is a blurry photo shot at a wedding. Surely if I’m a professional I should only have sharp images? Right?
But is sharpness important in photography? Is sharpness the ultimate “make or break” of a photograph and to a certain extent of a photographer?
Not at all. It is one of my strongest beliefs that many blurry images tell a better story than sharp ones. What’s the point of a sharp image with no emotion, no life, an image that makes one feel absolutely nothing?
Would you rather not instead look at a motion-blurred image that makes you smile, cry or laugh?
The world of photography, especially since the advent of digital photography, has been obsessed with sharp images. By sharp I don’t necessarily mean many pixels, instead, I am referring to sharp focus and fast shutter. Images have to have at least an area in full focus and without motion blur.
What my experience has taught me, over a decade of capturing street photography in London, people, places and events, is that some of the sharpest shots have just the same ability to disappoint and underwhelm the viewer as blurry images do.
Let’s look at this particular image on my homepage as an example:
This was captured at a wedding I was hired to shoot and I really love it, otherwise, it wouldn’t be at the forefront of my website. You see I’ve been a photographer since 2008, I have many achievements and have been shooting long enough to not worry all the time if people will like what I do. Some do, some don’t and I can deal with that.
The couple specifically hired me having seen my street photography work and wanting a photographer able to capture an event in the most authentic way, as it happened, without people noticing the photographer, people being people, having a good time.
It’s impossible for an event photographer to get all the right shots, in perfect focus, perfectly composed, magically lit and all that at the perfect moment. Any photographer claiming to hit a 100% success rate is living a lie or not picky enough in their selection.
Of course, when I photograph events I aim for a vast majority of sharp shots, I never go there telling myself “Let’s try to get as many blurry shots as I can”.
However, I am never too quick to automatically dismiss all photos that aren’t “perfect” from a technical standpoint. If the photo makes me feel something, it deserves a closer look.
Photos tell life stories and life stories are far from technically perfect.
For this reason, I happily embrace the odd and occasional shot that stands out from the rest, the oddball, the rebel image that doesn’t want to stick to convention.
In this particular photograph, life is unravelling fast, the blur shows speed and action, there were laughs to be had and people attending didn’t have a care in the world as it was so much fun.
He lifted her and spun her around, my shutter was too slow and I was manually focusing, I did my best to capture a split-second moment and think I did it well, the moment was as captured, fast and blurry.
My advice to all photographers and clients is not to be too hasty in dismissing the stronger images because they may not be technically perfect.
I’ll end on this analogy:
Photos are like supermarket tomatoes versus wonky homegrown ones. The supermarket tomato is visually perfect but has no flavour. The ugly rejected homegrown tomato will in most cases turn out to be the tastiest tomato you’ll ever have. Treat your photos the same way, embrace imperfection, and you may just find a treasure.
Until next time,
Nico