Successful photography demands constant attention to tradeoffs and compromises. My preferred subjects are birds, and they rarely agree to pose patiently in the perfect light of a studio.

A bird photographer, therefore, must do the best they can with the conditions they get. This means there are no “right” camera settings for bird photography, only better and worse settings for the specific situation.

Accepting reality, working with the tools you have, and learning to deal with the inevitable tradeoffs... seems relevant to life and work.

Competing Demands

Birds are rarely still, even when perched, and their speed and agility on the wing is nothing short of remarkable. A fast shutter speed is required to avoid a blurry bird.

Yet, many species of birds are found only in the dense forest, and it is hard to truly appreciate just how dark the deep woods can be until you try to take photos in that dim, leafy world.

It is not uncommon for the understory to see just one one-hundredth the light hitting the canopy. Compared to a sunny meadow, much longer shutter speeds would be required to achieve the same exposure, but that is not really an option given the aforementioned blurry bird problem.

Assuming the lens aperture is already as wide as it will go, the only remaining option is to crank up the ISO setting, which essentially amplifies the signal detected by the image sensor.

Before digital cameras, film photographers would have swapped out their ISO 200 for a roll of higher speed ISO 1600 film, which is more sensitive to light. The faster ISO 1600 will achieve a proper exposure with the faster shutter speed, but that increased sensitivity comes at a price.

Pick Your Poison

The silver-halide crystals on the higher speed film react to light faster, but they are larger and their “grain” is more visible. Image quality suffers. With digital cameras, the mechanism is different, but the effect is the same. Higher ISO settings result in more visible “noise.”

Therein lies the tradeoff. In the conditions typical of bird photography, I must choose between motion blur and noise. I can have ideal levels of one, but not both.

My goal, in those cases, is to give up ideal and find acceptable, and sometimes even that is not possible. Some situations are just not manageable with the currently available technology.

Sensitivity is a double-edged sword.

From Film to People

Humans have a similar setting that demands its own tradeoffs. It’s called sensory processing sensitivity, an attribute studied in depth by psychologist and author Elaine Aron in her book, The Highly Sensitive Person.

Dr. Aron’s work has resonated with many HSPs, including this one, but it is important to define what she really means by “highly sensitive.”

Defining Sensitivity

The term can bring to mind a person who is emotionally sensitive, thin-skinned, or lacking in “toughness,” but that’s not really what it means.

The thing we are evaluating is “sensory processing sensitivity,” and the more technical term gives us better clues as to what is really involved.

The word “processing,” in particular, is important.

HSPs, people with high sensory processing sensitivity, tend to process information and stimuli, including sensory inputs, more deeply.

A Framework for Understanding HSPs

Dr. Aron describes the importance of high sensory processing sensitivity using the acronym DOES.

D–Depth of Processing

HSPs tend to spend more time and mental energy processing any given stimulus. When an HSP walks into the conference room for a meeting, instead of noticing fifty things, they notice 250. Then they think about those things, make connections, compare to past experiences, look for patterns, etc.

It is not that their senses are more acute. Rather, HSPs simply spend more of their attention and processing power on each experience. It's not a conscious decision. It's the default setting for an HSP.

As always, there is a tradeoff. HSPs sacrifice speed for depth, often taking longer to digest information.

O–Overstimulation

Because HSPs are spending more energy taking in and processing details, they tend to become overstimulated more quickly. All that processing requires energy. Brain imaging reveals the increased activity relative to those with average sensitivity.

HSPs will need to build in more breaks and extra time to down-regulate an overstimulated nervous system.

Noisy, crowded, and fast-paced environments can be especially difficult for HSPs. It’s not that they dislike those stimuli; they just get full faster. 

High speed film is fully exposed in less time than regular film. In low light, it will capture things slower film misses. But when the light is intense, it is easy to overexpose. Tradeoffs.

E–Emotional Reactivity and Empathy

HSPs are sensitive to all stimuli, including those that come from inside their own bodies and minds. They tend to feel emotions, both positive and negative, more intensely, and thus react to them more strongly.

This combination of deep processing and awareness of emotions, plus heightened attentiveness to details often results in high empathy.

HSPs notice more about the emotional expression of others and can relate to them easily because they have spent more time processing those same emotions themselves.

The gift of empathy comes at the price of being subject to bigger emotional ups and downs.

S–Sensing the Subtle

HSPs notice fine details and subtle changes in their environment that others might overlook. This could be anything from small shifts in someone's mood to minute changes in lighting, sound, or texture.

HSPs can feel frustrated when things that seem obvious to them are overlooked by others.

This heightened awareness of subtleties can yield valuable insights, but it also contributes to overstimulation or getting bogged down.

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

None of these traits are inherently good or bad. Just as there are no “right” camera settings for bird photography, only better or worse settings for different situations, there is no “right” way to be human.

Highly sensitive people will have an advantage in some contexts and a disadvantage in others. The trick is knowing the difference.

Unlike our cameras, we cannot change out our mental film or turn down our emotional ISO setting.

But, we can understand our own hardware and software, and learn to work within its strengths and limitations.

Knowing if you are an HSP, like knowing your DiSC personality type or measuring your emotional intelligence, is just one more tool for self-awareness and understanding.

By recognizing our own unique "sensitivity settings," we can better navigate the diverse and changing conditions we encounter in life and work. As always, we're here to help.

Until next time,
Greg