Today I’m reviewing Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
by David duChemin. (affiliate link) Davids major goal is to help you take more powerful, and technically superior photographs. He has a very laid back writing style, I never felt that I was being preached to, only that key lessons about the craft of photography were being handed down to me from a master photographer. David truly cares about the people and cultures he photographs and it shows. The book contains at least one of his beautiful photographs every 2 pages, all with his notes, and important data such as focal length, shutter speed, f/stop and ISO. This is a handy thing to have to see how the master does it! I have learned so much from this book, and I will keep it’s lessons in the back of my head whenever I’m out shooting. (and before I’m shooting, when I’m researching!)
Chapter 1: It’s About Vision
The book starts off with a discussion of your vision, before discussing what makes a powerful photograph.
“Vision is the beginning and end of photography. It’s the thing that moves you to pick up the camera, and it determines what you look at and what you see when you do. It determines how you shoot and why. Without vision, the photographer perishes.”
He discusses how each photographer has a unique vision, and that our vision evolves over time. Vision is the embodiment of what we are passionate about.
Chapter 2: Within the Frame
You have to make the viewer of the photograph care. You have to tell a story, one that the viewer can relate to, as well as making a beautiful photograph. My key take away is that you have to make the viewer care. We must be conscious about what we put into the frame, what we exclude is just as important as what we put in, if not more.
“As photographic storytellers, it is or job to ruthlessly exclude every element within the frame that is not part of the story. The results will be more powerful images.”
My favorite bit of advice from this chapter is to shoot what you’re passionate about. It comes across in the image if you are just taking shots because you’re mimicking something you’ve seen, or if you are taking shots you THINK you have to take. When you shoot something that you are passionate about, you can better communicate your feelings through the image. It becomes a record of what you felt, instead of a record of where you’ve been.
A successful photograph makes an impact on others. David writes that you must remember that the person viewing the image only has the visual cues from the photograph to interpret the story. They do not have the benefit of the experiences you’ve had in that place, so we must be VERY conscientious about what we put into the frame, as well as what we exclude, in order to create the most powerful image possible.
“Failure can ground you and prevent you from growing as an artist, or it can move you to identify the barrier to capturing your vision and tear it down.”
Use speed to help with your vision, such as using blur to show movement, or maybe absolute clarity to freeze a moment in time. Whatever your vision is, make sure you know how to use your tools to the best of your ability to try to capture it.
Never forget that you are trying to capture a moment, and that the moment you choose is up to you, make it a powerful one!
Chapter 3: The Artist and the Geek
Balance between your artistic side, and your technique/gear side (geek) The discussion moves on to some more technical aspects, such as using telephoto lenses to compress the landscape, or using a wide angle lens to push things further apart. Photography is a uniquely technical form of art. There are many tools and accessories and gadgets at our disposal. David argues that those are great, but the most important accessory you have is your own artistic vision. It’s all about balancing your technical skills with your artistic vision. You must know how to use your tools in order to capture that moment, so by all means, geek out. But don’t forget that the end goal is the photograph!
There are good introductions here to many technical aspects of photography. The exposure triangle, balancing your photos to have the best light, how to use diffusers to create a softness to the light, choosing the right lens for the vision you are trying to create, and the rule of thirds. Rules of course, are made to be broken, so don’t be afraid to work outside of them, just know them, and learn from them first!
Chapter 4: Storytelling
All photography is ultimately about telling a story, whether that story is about the rain that day, or the cute little girl shyly looking at the camera from around the corner. This chapter covers many tips and techniques on how to tell a strong and powerful story with your images.
“A story succeeds of fails on empathy, or lack of it. If you don’t care, it’s not a relevant story.”
To tell a story, your photos must be about something. Universal themes such as love, death, loneliness, harmony, balance, and beauty are good ways to start. Universal themes are immediately recognizable to most people, so it helps them relate, and therefore care about the subject matter. You can use contrasting themes in your images as well, to create tension, or interest.
He also discusses the photographic essay in this chapter. The idea is to use multiple photos to tell a story that couldn’t be told with just one image. He includes an example photo essay of the Tibetan community in exile in Nepal. (fantastic photographs by the way) He also includes a sort of “photo essay template” of the types of photos to shoot for a solid photo essay. This is good information for those of us just starting out!
He covers other ways to help tell a good story, use relationships in your photographs, those between a grandmother and her granddaughter, the positions of people in the frame, closeness or separation of people from each other, etc etc.
One of the most helpful portions of the chapter for me, as someone just starting out, was the section that explains what things our eyes are usually drawn to first. It’s a great bullet list of things, I’ll include a couple here.
Large elements before small elements. Light elements before dark elements. Warm colors before cool colors. Focused elements before blurred elements.
I know this might seem obvious, but to me, this was much needed information. He goes on to show an example or two of how he used that information to frame a couple of powerful photographs.
Chapter 5: Photographing People
Davids passion is people and cultures, and it shows. He’s mastered the skill of breaking down the barriers between him and his subjects. He takes his time, is respectful, and occasionally, makes a fool out of himself in order to capture that natural smile. He says it’s all about the eyes. Eyes can express so much emotion, but you have to make sure they have a catchlight, otherwise they look lifeless. A catchlight is literally that twinkle you see in peoples eyes. The highlight from some unseen lightsource. You have to be kind, honest, and understanding when photographing people. They are not props, they are people, and if they give their time to you, you should do your best to take quality photographs that treat them with respect.
Surprisingly, there is a lot in this chapter about light; how to position your subjects, tips on how to light them up, really GOOD tips such as place them in the shade, looking back at the light to get reflected light as well as a good catchlight in the eyes.
As I’m less interested in photographing people this chapter was less interesting to me, but still, I can see the value in what he’s describing.
Chapter 6: Photographing Places
David is an avid traveler. He’s been traveling almost all of his life, so he’s no stranger to it. Some of my favorite tips from this chapter are: Get lost. Slow down. Go deeper. Pack more gear that you expect, your tripod is useless to you if you don’t bring it. He talks about how you should always bring lenses to cover each situation, because once you get to a place, you may find that your reason for going there is not all it’s cracked up to be. Perhaps it’s a rainy crappy day, or perhaps it just doesn’t match up to what your research told you. The bottom line, like a boy scout, Be Prepared!
Speaking of research, make sure you do it! Dont’ just go somewhere blind, you should have some ideas in place about what you want to shoot before going. Once you get there, scout the location, make sure it’s what you think it will be. You may find that this is the perfect time, so by all means, make the shots then! Even if it’s everything you wanted, don’t forget to just wander. You won’t be able to take a unique shot of the Taj Mahal from the same spot everyone else has. Get out there and wander around. Find the unique spots noone else has. Figure out what makes the place special to you Remember, make the photograph ABOUT the place, not OF the place. It’s easier to make iconic shots in mundane places than in already iconic places. Wandering gets you out of the major tourist zones and lets you free your mind a bit. I like this idea a lot, because this is how I travel. I hate just seeing the major tourist sites. I want to see how people live! You can shoot the big stuff, and the small stuff. Make sure to include people, not only for scale (because we need that sometimes) but also to give us a human element.
My favorite tip from this chapter: create depth with layers. Strive to include a foreground, midground, and background in your photographs. This gives them visual interest, and can help lead the eye through the photograph.
Chapter 7: Photographing Culture
Davids other passion is exploring other countries and cultures. Here he has much advice on how to capture the feel of a culture in your images. The first thing to remember however is: Treat the people and the cultures with respect. Just because things are different doesn’t make them wrong, have an open mind, and honor their traditions and values. He offers up some questions and tips on how to think about the culture, and hone in on what makes that culture unique. Who are it’s heroes? Who are it’s villains? What are the iconic symbols of the culture? When trying to capture the culture in an image keep in mind our differences and our similarities. Since you are trying to tell a story about the culture in one image, you should always keep in the back of your mind what things make that culture unique, that way you are prepared to capture the image that embodies the culture when it is presented to you.
Food is a great indicator of culture, try and capture some of the uniqueness of the culture through it’s food. Remember, you’re trying to evoke an emotional response from the viewer, not just show what you had for lunch.
Festivals are another great way to capture the feel of a culture. There are countless festivals and celebrations throughout the world, so do your research before going! Do your best to capture the uniqueness of the festivals and the culture that spawned them!
Faith and religion are also fantastic ways to capture a culture. People everywhere strive to be closer to their faith, and to experience it more fully. Capturing people in theses places and at those times can be magical. Always try to capture an image ABOUT faith, not OF faith.
Chapter 8: Final Thoughts
Here, David mentions that it’s basically impossible to separate the chapters of this book, because to photograph a culture, you need to photograph it’s people and it’s places, and tell a story to boot.
I totally agree, I love this book, but as a newbie to the world of photography it’s A LOT to take in at once. I know that I’ll be coming back to this book time and again, and that makes me very happy. I love the insight into how he works, and how he’s passing along information to the rest of us.
Is this book worth it?
A resounding yes. A thousand times yes. This book helps to clarify some things I’ve been thinking about for a while now, and it seems that it reached me at exactly the time I needed it!
Go buy it today! 
