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How Does It Feel?

MAGNUM PHOTOGRAPHER DAVID ALAN HARVEY has been quoted as saying, “Don’t shoot what it looks like, shoot what it feels like,” a plea to not only shoot from the heart but, it seems, to interpret the subject rather than capture merely a literal representation of it. That interpretation, if it’s going to have any kind of feeling, must include a consideration of the mood of the scene and our available choices for conveying that mood in the final photograph.

With few exceptions, the world has enough photographs that show us what something looks like. We’re drowning in them. Cameras are more present in our lives than ever before, which has led to a flood of pictures of things rather than pictures about things. Here is a building. Here is a duck. Here is another picture of a kitten. And it may be the most incredible building, the most beautiful duck, and the cutest kitten. But the qualities of those things don’t come across in the photograph unless we make it so. That is true of mood as well. If you want mood in your image, you’ve got to make the decision to put it there.

It would be easy to overthink this and to dive deep into an inventory of proven mood-enhancers, such as backlight, lens flare, or warmer colour temperatures. But I think the strongest approach is to go with your gut. Mood is about feeling, so how do you feel about this scene? What one word or sentence best describes what’s going on emotionally for you that makes you want to photograph this experience? Is it warm and bright? Is it cold and rainy? Does the scene feel lonely or nostalgic? Maybe you can’t put it into words, but your awareness of the mood drives the search for a way to express it. There’s nothing wrong with thinking, “I’ll know it when I see it,” as long as you go looking for it.

There are more questions about mood than perhaps any of the other ideas we’ve discussed. I think this is because so many of those ideas represent possible ways of bringing mood to play more powerfully in our images. Two of our first big questions—“What is the light doing?” and “What does colour contribute?”—can be repurposed here. What is the light doing to establish mood, and how can I best use that? What does the colour contribute to the mood, and how can I amplify it?

Here are further questions to nudge forward your exploration of mood:

• Could shooting into the light, rather than with it, give me silhouettes or lens flare, and how would that amplify the mood?
• Could over- or underexposing contribute a greater sense of mood that is darker or lighter? Sometimes all you need to do is stop listening to the camera and go darker or lighter.
• What does the weather contribute to the mood? Should I photograph this subject in weather that is, itself, atmospheric and carries emotional weight?
• What can I do to make the most of that weather? Could I photograph through the raindrops on the window? Would it be so bad if I got some rain on my lens and shot through that?
• What does my colour palette contribute to the mood? Am I aware of the possibilities within my camera or in post-production to warm or cool that colour palette and increase the emotional pull of the image? Setting the camera’s white balance to Shady or Cloudy, for example, will warm the scene, which will have an effect on how the image feels.
• Would black and white create a stronger mood, perhaps attaching the subject to emotions of nostalgia and memory? Should I subdue a colour palette that runs against the emotional charge I’m trying to create?
• Can I recognize dark shadows and use them as compositional elements to create mystery?
• What kind of mood would candlelight or soft window light create?
• Would a slow shutter speed and some motion blur contribute to a more emotional and less literal interpretation of the scene?
• Would a shallow depth of field and out-of-focus highlights (bokeh) help establish a softer, more romantic mood? Would a little dust on the lens exaggerate this?
• Would the image feel different if I used a much different point of view? A safari photograph shot low and through out-of-focus grasses will go a long way toward creating a feeling of empathy with predator or prey. A portrait shot from outside a window might feel creepy and voyeuristic. A photograph made in the water, with the lens half in and half out of the water, would feel immersive. It’s all about the feeling.

Learning how to answer these questions begins with awareness of the mood itself, then a willingness to take risks to convey that mood. Most images with strong mood require us to break the so-called rules, to try something new: move the camera, photograph in inclement weather, over- or underexpose relative to what the camera wants, or use white balance creatively to make something emotive.

The big question that remains is, “Is it appropriate?” Does the mood work with or against the subject? Is there alignment between the subject and the emotional weight, or mood, that you’re conveying? Some subjects just aren’t happy. Some aren’t nostalgic or mysterious or romantic, and trying to make them so won’t be giving them their best expression. It’ll just cause confusion and dissonance.

The best way to learn about your own preferences in mood and the tools to express that mood is to study photographs with this in mind. Look at photographs that have, for you, a sense of mood. What is that mood? How did the photographer accomplish that mood visually? What choices did they make about light, moment, colour, point of view? Becoming aware of these possibilities, as well as your own tastes, will give you a new visual vocabulary with which to write emotion and atmosphere into your photographs.