Copying other work you admire...

I mentioned this in another post I had running.... but one of the ways I have tried to improve my own "work" is by trying to emulate others peoples works that I really like. There is so much that can be learned through this process. But then next step is to try to take that interpretation to the next level and making it done in uniquely your style.

My wife and I like to watch singing shows (The Voice, Song Writers, etc) and one of the things the judges/coaches always say is to make your presentation of a song that everyone knows, your own. Its a tough thing to do. The "original" is engrained into all our memories, and we have formed an impression of how it should be. To break that memory and add another layer on top of it which is uniquely the other artist... is hard to do.

I think photography is the same. I do sports (or at least used to). I became very very bored with it. At some point getting a good shot is pretty easy. So you try to shoot things others aren't shooting to keep things fresh.

So my challenge to you all is to show me (and all the others) an image you created that was based on something else you say, and put your own twist on it. I'ld love to see how you accomplished it... who knows.... maybe I'll be inspired and copy you....

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Croasdail wrote in post #19240995
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So my challenge to you all is to show me (and all the others) an image you created that was based on something else you say, and put your own twist on it. I'ld love to see how you accomplished it... who knows.... maybe I'll be inspired and copy you ....
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There were some scenes in the movie "The Revenant" that I watched over and over and over again, because the vegetation in the foreground was blurred out and rendered in a most beautiful, dreamy way. Seeing how gorgeous they made that out-of-focus vegetation look made me want to get the vegetation in my wildlife photos to look the same way.

Of course, getting vegetation to look just like it does in those scenes in The Revenant proved to be far more difficult than I had thought it would be, and I am not sure exactly why. Is it because I have to divide my attention between the wild animal I am shooting and the vegetation that lies between it and myself? Or is it because I am using "regular photography" gear instead of dedicated cinema lenses that have awesome rendering characteristics .... and cost upwards of $30,00 or $40,000?

In any case, I have never been able to get the foreground vegetation in my wildlife photos to look as gorgeous and dreamy as it does in those scenes in The Revenant. But I have tried, and that counts for something. At least I am conscious of the vegetation and how it gets rendered at various settings. And while I may never achieve the exact look I am going for, I hav ebeen able to improve the way my foreground vegetation is rendered because I am so conscious of it and shoot with it in mind.

I was a newspaper photographer in the 80s and 90s. The publishing industry used to hand out awards in lieu of pay.

I remember one year when the awards publications were full of backlit sprinkler shots. And why not? They look great and they're easy to do once you recognize the light and put it to use. When we made those shots, were we copying the first one we saw? Absolutely. Unapologetically.

And if you're copying other people's work as a lighting exercise, there may no better way to learn to recognize light and put it to use in your own style.

BTW, Tom, that shot of the buck, next level. Well done.

When is it copying admired work, and when is it following an accepted practice that you happen to like or you want to experiment with? I can't draw a sharp line there. You pick up ideas by exposure without necessarily knowing who originated them. For instance, without POTN, it might never have occurred to me to shoot food from directly above.

That shot is spot on..... nicely done.

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I am a little surprised there hasn't been more response to this thread. . It's a great topic and a great invitation to share.

I'm going to head out to try to find and photograph Common Yellowthroats this evening, and hopefully a couple more times this coming week.

In preparation for my own attempts, I have been looking through the images on the common yellowthroat hashtag on Instagram, in order to see how others have incorporated vegetation into their Yellowthroat portraits in a way that looks beautiful and maybe even a bit ethereal. . I am also interested in what poses the Yellowthroats are striking for others, so that I can see what different poses are possible, and then see what I can do to get them to strike the pose(s) that I like the most.

Here are some of the images that I liked enough to save them to a collection. . I've looked these over rather carefully, so that I can recall them when I am out there setting perches up and calling the Yellowthroats in and deciding what backgrounds to line them up with. . I hope I have the opportunity to use some of these ideas myself in the coming days. . I'll update this post once I've been afield with the Yellowthroats.

I agree, if I see a photo that I really like and I happen to be shooting a similar subject, I will try to remember the things that made that other photo standout to try to incorporate them (to some degree) in my image.

There's lots here, on POTN, to emulate