Balance of light is the problem, not the amount. Balance between shadows and highlights determines where the emphasis goes in the picture...make sure the major light in a picture falls at right angles to the camera. Elliott Erwitt More Quotes by Elliott Erwitt More Quotes From Elliott Erwitt I like museums in Berlin a lot, especially in the eastern part. They're extraordinarily good. Elliott Erwitt eastern berlin museums Everybody's got to do something... I'd been on my own since an early age and I thought I better find something to do to buy biscuits and stuff. From high school onwards I was earning my way with photography, one way or another, working in darkrooms and taking pictures of weddings, neighbors' children and so on. Elliott Erwitt photography children school I enjoy nothing more than spending time with my loved ones, young and old, and at least once a year we get together for a formal family photograph. Elliott Erwitt loved-ones together years My 'work' is about seeing not about ideas. Elliott Erwitt photography photographer ideas Photography is a craft. Anyone can learn a craft with normal intelligence and application. To take it beyond the craft is something else. That's when magic comes in. And I don't know that there's any explanation for that. Elliott Erwitt crafts magic photography Now very often events are set up for photographers... The weddings are orchestrated about the photographers taking the picture, because if it hasn't been photographed it doesn't really exist. Elliott Erwitt wedding events photography My life has been quite interesting professionally. Elliott Erwitt has-beens interesting I've been around so long, most editors think I'm dead. Elliott Erwitt editors long thinking Do what the client wants, not what you want. Elliott Erwitt what-you-want clients want Working myself into a position of total versatility, so that I can do anything I want to do at the time I want to do it. Whether I do it or not is another question. Elliott Erwitt photography photographer want Quality … has to do with intention. Elliott Erwitt intention quality You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy. Elliott Erwitt pictures you care humanity It's almost embarrassing, but I do have one trick for taking portraits on commission. I carry one of these little bicycle horns in my pocket, and once in a while, when someone is sour-faced or stiff, I blow my horn. It sort of shatters the barriers. It's silly, but it works. Elliott Erwitt carry someone bicycle silly Making books is a very specific kind of activity. It's not really a collection of your best pictures - although it is - but it's also a way of presenting your work so that it's not repetitive, so that it flows, and so that it makes sense in a book. Elliott Erwitt pictures best work book The ratio of successful shots is one in God-knows-how-many. Sometimes you'll get several in one contact sheet, and sometimes it's none for days. But as long as you go on taking pictures, you're likely to get a good one at some point. Elliott Erwitt good you sometimes long Professionally I've evolved with what's required, but the pictures I do for pleasure haven't changed, except for the cars in the background, the clothing. I haven't changed at all. Elliott Erwitt pictures background clothing pleasure