Photography from the Heart and Head

In other words, the decisions you make every time you take a picture range from spontaneous (the heart) to meticulously planned (the head). Both are important if you want to take powerful photos. Photography from the Heart and Head!

The Heart

As a photographer, some objects you see in the world will interest you more than others. Which ones? That depends on you. No two people will have the same answer.

Often, this is subconscious anyway – having something draw your attention. (I even considered calling this article “Photography from the Subconscious and Conscious,” but it didn’t have the same ring.) You’re walking along with a camera, and a subject catches your eye. You’ve taken a photo before you know it.

That’s all heart. Heart is the broad stroke of photography – the inspiration, whatever it was, that led you to take a picture in the first place.

The Head

The other side of photography involves conscious decision-making. The most obvious example is picking your camera settings, which requires at least some level of thought in order to do properly.

But there’s more to it than that. My mantra in photography is simple: ask questions. Look at the scene in front of you and make certain that you’re capturing it as well as possible. Are your camera settings optimal? Is your composition balanced? Do you even want a balanced composition in the first place? Why?

These decisions are part of the head. It’s the detail-oriented side of photography – turning your inspiration into a tangible, successful photo.

Which One Should You Work On?

As I said at the beginning of this article, heart and head in photography are not at odds with one another. The situation isn’t, “my heart wanted the photo to look one way, even though my head told me it was a bad idea.” It’s more, “my heart liked this subject, and my head figured out how to photograph it.”

In other words, you should try to improve both. Improvement in one does not come at the expense of the other.

Here are some signs that you should develop the heart/subconscious side of photography:

• You feel like you need to be in an amazing location to find good subjects
• You inadvertently skip over good subjects and only realize it later

And some signs that you should develop the head/conscious side of photography:

• You need to delete photos for image quality reasons
• You realize how you should have composed a photo only when you’re back at your computer
• You don’t have an end goal in post-processing and catch yourself just pushing sliders around
• The first photo you take of a subject is the best, rather than a steady improvement as you refine things in the field (aside from cases where conditions out of your control get obviously worse, like a rainbow fading)

If any of these sound like they describe your photography, don’t despair. To varying degrees, I think most of them apply to every photographer out there. And knowing what you need to fix is an important step in actually fixing it.

Final Thoughts

Keep in mind that “heart and head” is a just a framework. It’s a simplified lens through which you can see the world of photography – a useful analogy, but not a perfect description. Sometimes other factors play a role in your photos, like luck or accidents, which don’t fall neatly into either box.

Nevertheless, I think it’s helpful to see decisions in photography through this framework. Successful photography involves making choices – many of which are with your head, except for that crucial moment when you notice something and are inspired to take a picture in the first place.

This conscious-vs-subconscious debate has lurked behind the scenes in many of our previous articles and discussions on composition, so I’m happy to finally put my thoughts down into words. Hopefully this article helped you figure out which side of photography you need to work on and how to go about doing that.

If you have any questions or feedback, please post your comments in the comments section below.

You can see our equipment here