Capturing an event that matters is arguably the thing that unifies photography with our own adventures in audio. With a number of parallels between the art of capturing sound or light for posterity, here we take stock of the things that photography can teach us.
Getting The Right Event
Some things are worth capturing for posterity. There are the seismic events in the world, or moments in our personal history that can and should be held on to. I don’t know about you, but having a lens in my face the next time I brush my teeth or tidy the studio isn’t something that’s going to happen anytime soon. Do I record every little song idea that might come my way? Perhaps not as often as I should, but I’ve also saved myself a lot of time by concentrating on the better ones.
Although the digital age lets photographers store countless images on something the size of your thumbnail, even now, pro shooters only point at the stuff that’s worth recording. For them, the subject is usually fully formed. In the recording studio, songs that do not inspire might need to be worked on before anyone presses record, but sometimes even that won’t save the day. Like photographers, audio engineers’ best results are when they are pointed at something worth recording.
Arranging The Subject
When it comes to building a musical narrative, I’d argue that the seed of a great song isn’t the whole story. Different sections of a song are its building blocks that support the whole thing. There’s an undoubted art to this, but as long as someone has an eye on this all will be fine. Even if that is just pointing out that the first verse is three minutes long… There are conventional arrangements, but equally, being absolutely sure those conventions cannot be bettered is always a good idea.
The photographer relies on a number of compositional norms that elevate the subject. Placing the most important element dead centre in a photo often gives a dull, uninspired image. Most shooters will be aware of tricks such as the ‘rule of thirds’ or placing subjects along lines of perspective. The subject is there, but each and every time the photographer will move either themselves or arrange elements to get the image that serves the subject.
Like photographers and their viewers, engineers and producers with an eye on the arrangement of their subject are the closest to getting results that resonate with the listener.
Grabbing The Moment
Getting themselves in front of the right subject might be a big part of a lens slinger’s job, but just like the news shooter or wedding photographer, the precise moment to grab can be pivotal to an image’s success. In the film days of stills, there lay yet another skill for the photographer to master - knowing what people are about to do before they know it themselves. In the digital age, this is where the static nature of the still image makes it possible to capture in ‘bursts’ where the vast majority of shots will end up in the bin.
Although the audio pro is capturing a continuous flow of action, the same principle of always being in record before and during something happening is essential. Recording a first run-through as ‘Take Zero’ without necessarily announcing it to the artist is always more welcome than “too bad I didn’t record the first one”. Recording multiple takes has a flipside. As one engineer summed up to me perfectly just before yet another take: “It never gets better…”.
Just like the staged photo will always be beaten by snatching the one that tells you what it was really like to be there, the best records crackle with excitement, energy, and authenticity.
Quality In Capture
Most reading this will be aware of the old cliche of trying to ‘fix it in the mix’. Does time compression or expansion sound better than accurate drum hits? Will chorus hide that pitchy guitar? Will that scoop make the singer sound less like they’re holding their nose? Like so many production mishaps, the fix usually lies in avoiding them in the first place.
Like Auto-Tune and Google, Photoshop has given creators a new verb. Yet despite the prevalence of doctored images, and the claims of tech companies, the Post-Truth Age still cannot provide the superior images captured in-camera that only pros can get.
Understanding light and its qualities, and how these influence the subject are still fundamental in excellent photography. Understanding the interaction between ISO, aperture, and shutter speed in getting the right exposure is right up there with not missing the moment (and being in focus!). AI might be the future of photography for some, but for now it cannot be the genesis of imagery that actually matters to people. It cannot decide what to ‘paint’. It cannot infer any kind of meaning in a lopsided blurry mess.
Pro photographers already have great shots in the bag before they get down to any adventures in Photoshop. Likewise, knowing recording tools well, and applying them to the right subject rewards audio engineers with the best mixes. Many will be able to recount those titles that just seemed to mix themselves thanks to fully-formed sounds in record.
It’s Right In Front Of You
I haven’t mentioned the gear. There are fewer direct comparisons to be made between the tools of our trade and those of the photographer, other than one of quality. It’s true that those at the top of their game rightly invest in the gear that never lets them down, and that upholds the quality of what they do every time.
Despite that, now seems like the right time to paraphrase some smart photographer: whether you’re collecting sounds or light, the best collector is the one in your hand. Does the viewer care about the megapixel count? Maybe only as much as the listener does about a 192kHz sample rate.
Whether you trade in lightwaves or soundwaves, quality in the capture will always count the most. We need the right tools to do that, but just like in photography, it’s all about what you’re pointed at.