How understanding dopamine changed my photography.

This article was originally published on https://medium.com/@phil.gal

How understanding dopamine changed my photography.

Introduction

I can call myself a typical amateur photographer who simply enjoys taking pictures. I have been doing since my grandfather gifted his old film camera in the beginning of 2000s when I was about 16 years old. Then I discovered Magnum Photos and a plethora of the great photographers of 20th century who inspired me to explore the world around me through the lens. Now I am 35 and I can’t imagine myself without photographing.

Of course, nowadays I use respectable digital cameras that can take a good care of aperture, shutter speed, white balance and ISO settings. Luckily, I know what these are and how they affect the photographs, thanks to my film camera past.

I have to say, my photography is experiencing Renaissance, and this article is a fruit of it. However, it wasn’t a case few years ago. I was almost abandoned my gear and felt a lack of motivation. I reflected on why my desire to shoot has been reducing over the years, and the conclusion was shocking.

U-Bahn, Vienna, Austria, 2024

Struggle

Back in the times, humans gotten a lot of satisfaction from a good hunt and that motivated them to hunt more. This mechanism probably saved our ancestors from starvation. Nowadays we don’t need to scavenge to get basic needs, but we still need a good challenge to get a reward from our brain, and that paves the path for our progress. Just think about how you feel when you cook something nice and tasty vs when you simply buy an equally delicious meal. I believe we wouldn’t get all the nice music, paintings, comfortable buildings and other fruits or art and progress, if not the dopamine. I have read a lot about “cheap” dopamine and cut a significant source of it. That had greatly improved my overall productivity and gave my real hobby a second chance.

Tate Modern, London, 2012

Switch

One day I decided to change my approach to photography. If I wanted more inspiration and better results, I needed to make it more challenging. Of course, I didn’t want to make it a struggle or burden either, but there must’ve appeared some challenge that should drive my desire to go outside, take picture, grow as a photographer and a person.

I desired goals and challenges, required to make my brain spin its gears to boost creativity. For starters, I split my preparation to work into two phases: preparations at home, and resistance on the streets. Yes, this time I said work meaning my hobby. That’s right.

Monolith. Rax-Alps, Austria, 2024

Preparation at home

Before going outside, I try to set a goal or multiple. For example: to capture a particular color, or a subject, or maybe make a set united by a single idea. Reflections, blue shoes, a person wearing a hat — whatever floats your boat. Every time you fulfil a goal, your brain releases chemicals of satisfaction, which will make the process enjoyable now and in the future. You’ll desire more and more, and that inside spark-emitter will be hard to extinguish. As a bonus, such exercises train your eye and make you a better photographer. Later you’ll notice how you find interesting things with a side-vision, you’ll start foreseeing potential shots and raising your ready-to-shoot camera in a right place before the right time.

Resistance on the streets

Let’s talk about another technique that will make you a better photographer. I’m talking about using a camera consciously. One way to achieve it is to reduce number of automatic settings in the camera and give yourself some space for mistakes. It’s not necessary to go all-in and start shooting full manual, which is, of course, also an option, but start controlling at least some parameters.

For example, a white balance could a be good start. In my opinion this would be a much better option than aperture or shutter speed. I guess, most of the photographers even with some experience will use one of the priority modes anyway, keeping the ISO and WB on auto.

London, 2012

So why the white balance? I find it much more interesting: it can affect the creativity the most because it changes the most “visible” aspect of a photograph — its color balance. That’s why by playing around the WB you’ll not only better understand how colors work in different lighting conditions and various light sources, but you’ll also get some other nice bonuses, depending on your goals or mood:

a. control the white balance to keep it consistent across photos from the same set, or to match your mood, a situation you’re in, your vision;

b. set values that will give you a creative look that you want right away, without spending long minutes or even hours in front of your computer later.

Why bother, you may ask, if I can just shoot raw and do whatever I want later, right?

Of course, this is also and options, and I used to be a fan of RAWs until recently; until I realized that RAWs reduce my creativity as a photographer. Simply put it’s too forgiving. Another important thing is that not always we have time to process the images in the same day, but your mood changes over time, your feelings fade out and by the time you sit in front of your monitor, the emotional connection with the moment in the picture might have already been lost. I had a few situations like this, when the struggle at a snap-time and what seems to be a failed image after, keeps my memories very vivid and create strong emotional connection to that situation in the past.

Example

I was year 2008, I only had a full manual film camera with me (that was the only camera I had back then, actually). The summer day was very bright, and I was near a war memorial where there are no trees, only a lot of concrete tiles on the ground. I saw a group of cheerful young soldiers having a day off, one of which had a red poppy in his hand. I instantly wanted to take a photo of them, but not in my usual candid style. I asked them if they would like to be photographed and they happily agreed. I knew the limits of my camera and a lens and that I had an ISO 400 Fuji Superia film. I had to close an aperture to at least f8 and have a shutter speed at the shorted 1/500s.

Novorossiysk, Russia, 2007

It was an SLR camera, so the lens had a special ring to quickly open the aperture for focusing. You get where I am going, right? Stressed under the seriousness of the young people preparing be photographed together maybe the last time before going home to different regions of the country, I announces that I am finally fully set. The frame is set up, the composition is good, red poppy in the hand… I press a shutter button with a fully open aperture at f2. Of course, the picture was many steps overexposed! But because the film has a relatively good dynamic range, I managed to get at least something from my overexposed and not-in-focus picture, with which I have great emotional connection. And that feeling makes me happy; I think it is one of my best photographs! it’s not yet another photo, but it is a moment in my life that I will probably remember until the end of my days. Lessons learned.

JPEGs

In a digital world we have a good alternative to stay connected to the process and stay “in the moment”. I am talking about shooting in JPEG format. I realized that I get much closer to my creative side when I don’t rely on subsequent post-processing and cropping. When I control the camera setting and know that I will not be able to adjust too much I become more aware of the conditions I am in, I try to find a better light, and think in advance about the bright spots that might come overexposed, and that’s even more challenge with the street photography when the subjects can change rapidly.

I must confess, I started to love JPEGs more after I discovered the world of presets in my Ricoh GR IIIx. Sometimes I still shoot RAWs on a Sony camera, especially when it’s some important photographs, but mainly for risk-managements reasons. I try not to use RAWs for creative street photography anymore. Understanding how much I still need to master keeps me motivated.

Conclusion

A person needs a lot of practice to become a real master. When we practice and see how our skills improve, we feel great satisfaction and motivation to practice even more.

Take Leonardo DaVinci and other great masters. There is no doubt he was a genius and some may think he simply created his masterpieces naturally just because of that, however if you read his notes you will discover that a great role in his success was his education, apprenticeship and studies. He studied nature, color, light, anatomy, physics and even alchemy to create better paint for his works.

From one hand, when I think about it I understand how little I know and how hard it is for me to achieve the level of work I want to create, even as a hobbyist. From the other hand, it motivates me like an powerful engine motivates a train to move — I have no other choice.