Posts by Robert Rodriguez Jr
The Camera Sees Less Than You Do
Have you ever stood somewhere with the light looking incredible, made the photograph you thought was successful, then looked at the file later and found it lacking, nothing like what made you stop and press the shutter? What I’ve learned after many years of this is that the problem comes down to perception and composition.…
Read MoreThe Most Powerful Tool is Subtraction
There’s a moment we’ve all experienced—standing in front of an image that isn’t quite working, that feeling of almost but not quite. The subject is there, the light was good, yet something feels cluttered or unfocused. And our natural instinct is to add. More light on the subject, more saturation, more contrast, more processing to…
Read MoreMake Everything In The Frame Earn Its Place
Every time I provide feedback on images in a workshop, someone eventually asks about cropping. How much is too much? Where’s the line? How do I know when I’ve gone too far? And I always give the same answer, which is usually not the one they were hoping for: there is no line, and you’re…
Read MoreWhy I Outgrow My Own Photos
There’s a simple creative practice I do every year that’s helped me understand my own work better than any amount of shooting new images. I review my portfolio and remove 10-15% of the images that no longer measure up to where I am today, then add new work that better represents my current vision. I…
Read MorePhotograph What Excites You
In a recent Print Lab session, a member asked a thoughtful question, the kind of question I could spend a whole hour discussing. He wanted to know if I’d ever done an exercise where four or five people describe the same image, looking at the commonalities and the differences, to see what that tells us…
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