I wrote earlier about the value of imposing certain obstacles, overcoming which help develop photographic skills and, generally, a keener sense of the process at hand. This approach is similar to an artist’s using a limited palette of colors to show the essence of an originally multi-color scene.
Having fewer choices has other important benefits, as Tim Ferris explained in his hugely popular “The 4-Hour Workweek.” I believe it was he, who coined the term “choice-limited lifestyle.” The key concept here is that attention, i.e. ability to focus on something, is a limited commodity, which is required not only for getting things done, but also for appreciating the present moment (e.g. food, music, works of art, company of other people). Making decisions, even good ones, effectively consumes attention, which becomes unavailable for future decisions during the rest of the day (or until some recovery has taken place and the attention budget is restored). Hence, there is a dilemma of making the best decision, but likely being dissatisfied after having invested a lot of attention into it, or making a sub-optimal decision, but never having to second-guess it.
This is a long preamble, but I believe the principle of choice-limiting directly applies to photography. Modern cameras, from entry level (e.g. Canon EOS Rebel T5
) to top-of-the-line ones (e.g. Canon EOS-1D X
), offer virtually unlimited number of combinations of shooting modes and settings. Rather than spending time, for example, trying to decide on the ideal priority between releasing the shutter and obtaining focus, which can potentially lead to missing the shot altogether, it is better to determine, through systematic experimentation, which few combinations of settings work reasonably well in typical situations, programming them as custom functions, and then focus on shooting. Likewise, in post-processing, it is important to stop tweaking the adjustments of a particular photo and move on to another one. After a certain point, spending more time working on a photo, debating various possibilities for improving it further, will make the whole process progressively less satisfying.
Related
