Thinking photo-graphically
by eNoBlog on Jul.14, 2010, under Composition, Story-telling, Techniques
Almost two months ago, I read through a book I picked up several years ago, John Shaw’s Landscape Photography. While the edition I have focuses exclusively on film photography, most of the principles and advice the author lays out transcend whether one is shooting film or digital.
On this reading, a statement that had gone unnoticed previously struck me with great force: “think photo-graphically.”
John Shaw points out that most of what most amateurs photograph falls into one of two categories. First there’s the recording of everyday life: birthdays, vacations, get-together with friends, the coming of a new pet… you get the idea. He calls this a photo-journalistic approach. In doing so I don’t think Shaw is diminishing the great talent many professionals exhibit in this field, but rather pointing out that we should not approach landscape photography in this way: it’s not about recording what we saw for future generations to know we were at this or that magnificent national park, etc.
The second approach Mr. Shaw points out hinges on capturing natural beauty. I would call this the photogenic approach. I’ve certainly chosen many landscape compositions and scenes based on what is beautiful and disdain that which is not. Shaw points out that this, too, is a poor way to select and arrange our subjects.
Instead he wants us to think photo-graphically. Chiefly, he wants us to think about shapes, lines, colors, textures and other graphical elements. Don’t notice a mountain peak; notice a triangle. Don’t notice a rock formation; notice its textures and forms. Don’t notice the beautiful colors in a sunset sky; notice how the interplay of hues compliments the overall image and whether colors clash or hang together. Well, I’m putting this in my own words, but that’s essentially what he’s saying.
Armed with this admonition, I headed out to two very photogenic locations where I would normally be very tempted to photo-journal the great places I had just visited. Looking for graphical elements and finding ways to arrange them inside my frame, I came away with images that begin to deviate in character from most of what I’ve shot to date. (While I’ll admit some of my prior work effectively combined graphical elements, I’ll also cop a plea that this was mostly either coincidental or intuitive, and did not result from forethought on my part.)
Point: lines, shapes, textures
Face: shapes, textures, complementary colors (orange and blue)
Thumb rock: shapes, textures
White bokeh: lines, textures
Kayak: lines, textures (water), color
How do you select your subjects, whether they be landscapes, people, stills, etc.? How do you compose them inside your frame? Maybe it’s time to start thinking photo-graphically.
The five facets of photography
by eNoBlog on Jul.09, 2010, under Story-telling
What will make me a good photographer and help me capture great photographs? I continue to grapple with this question, but for now I will share some thoughts that reflect my journey to become a better photographer. This journey for me includes the following facets, in the order given:
1. Technical proficiency: this involves getting to know your equipment, camera(s), flash(es), lens(es), etc., inside and out. Primarily, it will involve learning to "nail" your exposures, and other related side-bits such as White balance and post-processing.
2. Compositional proficiency: here you learn about the rule of thirds, leading lines, shapes, color, etc. It all adds up to developing the skill to frame (what to include/exclude) your image and how to graphically arrange the elements within that frame.
3. Lighting appreciation: You may have learned to expose in 1, but just because you know how to avoid the blinkies or prevent excessive shadows by adjusting aperture, shutter speed and ISO to account for the amount of light doesn’t mean you fully appreciate the role light plays in an image. Here you will learn about soft vs. hard light, the direction of light (side, back, front, above), and its color (warm vs. cool). Then you will figure out how to use available light, or how to "bend" it (reflectors, etc.), or how to augment it (bulbs, flashes, etc.).
4. Artistic vision: Here’s where many never get to, I’m afraid. It’s the hardest phase, often riddled with indecision, imprecision, self-doubt, fits and starts. Some opt to just be clever and call that their “style.” But artistry is about asking the hard questions. In photography, those questions are “what is this photo about” and “what am I saying with this photo?” It is the story-telling aspect of the image, and most never get there — or they shoot first and figure it out later. Or they try to capture something unique or unusual, and hope that will make the image stand out from all the other unique and unusual shots out there. For most types of photography, it is about bringing out emotional impact and connection (for the viewer) through that 2-dimensional set of pixels.
5. Capturing the spirit of the image: Lately, I am realizing all this builds up to an ephemeral, yet answerable question: “what is the spirit I am trying to capture and convey?” Here’s one reason this is even tougher: answering this question requires you first connect with your subject matter, and that you do so emotionally (often painfully) and yes, spiritually; whereas often we are quite content with being separated from the scene or the people before us, letting the camera be the convenient looking glass — we outside, they inside.
I’ll illustrate this last point with a recent experience I had while photographing a volunteer, community service event. I instructed my team to capture people in action: "show them at work, and you will have captured what the event is all about." In other words, use a journalistic, action-based story-telling approach. After issuing my instructions and in the course of preparing myself for the event, I realized my directive was okay, but also would yield a cold, functional rendering of people serving their community. The real question was: "why in the heck are people giving up their weekend to serve total strangers?" Or, more to the point, what is the motivation (spirit) behind their service? I set out to capture that, and not just the action, and the result was what many viewers found to be a compelling and self-describing story.
In the end I don’t know whether my journey to improve my photography will uncover additional facets I must work through. For now, the five I list here are enough to keep me busy, and I’m guessing they’ll keep you plenty busy, too.
Revisiting your post-processing
by eNoBlog on Jul.01, 2010, under Post-processing
If you do any sort of post-processing (PP) to your photographs, chances are you’ll sometimes second-guess how you first approached an image. You may do this several times, especially for photos that hold more potential. Given the almost infinite number of possibilities we have at our disposal, perhaps this is inevitable – unless you are really sure of yourself.
The following sample image also resulted from my recent outing to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs, CO. With the soft, late day lighting I was able to use during the exposure, just before the sun dropped behind a nearby hill, my first take was to preserve the delicate hues, and I did very little by the way of post-processing beyond minor level adjustments and sharpening of the foreground rocks. The result is pleasing and perfectly acceptable.
But could I get a little more pop? And do so without destroying the scene’s mood? A few days after my initial PP attempt, I decided to add more contrast through Curve and Tone mapping adjustments. I also used my trick of de-noising the sky in a separate layer to achieve greater separation from the foreground, sharpened rocks. In addition, this color version now shows more of the texture and form I normally love in B&W conversions.
Speaking of B&W conversions, since I had gotten some interesting results for other scenes at the same locale, my real end-goal was to see how far I could push this particular image. Using B&W’s more representative approach, I applied even greater contrast and achieved the following result. Perhaps it’s a little over-cooked, and I may come back to tone things down in a future version. But for now, I’ll continue to let B&W impress me with its often surprising potential to bring out more in a scene by leaving out color.
What do you think?
