Ian Furniss Photography » Blog Archive

Knowing The Rules

I’m English. I think it’s probably true that we have some kind of obsession with ‘the war’ (it’s probably the only time we ever won anything apart from the world cup in ’66!) even though the view of it is somewhat rose-tinted. Both my mother and father were old enough to remember it and I myself grew up listening to their stories, usually involving some moral or other about how I should eat all my dinner and be grateful because “we’d never seen a banana back then..”. Added to that were the old films we used to watch. They were great films and I love them still despite their obvious failings. There were two which stood out for me in particular. One was A Matter of Life & Death with David Niven & Kim Hunter (a wonderful romantic story) and the other was Reach For The Sky with Kenneth More which was the true story of Spitfire pilot Douglas Bader who lost both his legs early in his life, but despite that, still went on to achieve amazing things.

It’s from that story that this quote comes from, “Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men”. Apart from being a wonderful quote and great example of the man, those words also sum up a large part of photography for me. As a beginner we are quite foolish. At least I was. We think it’s sufficient to look at something pretty, point the camera in the general direction, click the button, and genius will result. It won’t. We are fools and we need to learn the rules, apply them, and be guided by them. The rule of thirds gives our compositions strength, we then move onto creating shapes, lead lines, etc, etc. As we become more experienced, more wise, it’s at this point we need to start discarding those rules whilst always being mindful of them and, being guided by them.

So, the question I want to pose today is how far should we be guided by them? In a previous post I spoke about the use of colour and films like 300 that emphasised different colours and a kind of grainy effect, and there are other films like Amelie and even Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels which also use specific palettes to give a certain feel to the scenes. That’s one way of mixing things up, changing things around, and there are other ways too with renowned filmmakers such as Hitchock for example, using all sorts of techniques and angles to create or reduce tension. These people, and others like them, were of course incredibly talented individuals, but they all had one thing in common. They didn’t stick to the rules, they tried something different. You can see it in photography these days with things like the current trends in HDR or tone-mapping. Is it good? Bad? Does it matter? Not really. What matters is that it’s something different and that at some point somebody said “I’m going to do something different”. From that point on lots of others followed along and we now have a new style of photography that has become accepted.

Think of panoramas. At some point it needed somebody to turn around and say “Hang on a minute. I’ve got an idea!” and then follow it through. Same thing with 4:3 and 3:2 .. “Hang on a minute. I’ve got an idea!”. If anything is to progress, be it our photography or anything else, it’s this principle we need to embrace. This willingness to say “I’m not going to stick to the old ways of doing things. I’m not going to do what’s popular now, i’m going to do my own thing and believe in it”. It doesn’t matter so much whether what you choose to do becomes the ‘next big thing’ or not, what matters is to do things in your own way because ultimately that’s what will set you apart. Think of your favourite photographer, your favourite actor or actress, think even of your wife/husband/significant other. What sets them apart is what makes them important to you and what defines them as who they are. When we think in that way it seems obvious, but for ourselves we often have a terrible habit of trying to conform to an ideal or accepted practice. We shouldn’t. It’s the differences in life and discovering those differences which makes everything so beautiful.

You don’t have to change the world, you don’t even have to change yourself. Obama wanted ‘change’, now it seems that everyone does and they all want to be just like him. It’s better to be yourself. Know yourself, know the rules, but once you know them, break them!