Tag: photograph

Every photograph is edited. Yes, I said it. Oh, you shoot film you say. It is edited. The editing starts with the selection of film, then the selection of the developer, then the paper. Do you shoot jpeg, and straight from the camera? It is edited. The camera decides how the image is processed, you give total control to the camera. You shoot raw and just do an import and basic export, most likely your software adds some basic adjustments.

One of the greatest, in my mind, photographers was Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams did extensive processing of his photographs. One of my favorite quotes from Adams’ book “The Negative” is; “It is important to realize that the expressive photograph (the “cre­ative” photograph) or the informational photograph does not have directly proportional relationship to what we call reality. We do not perceive certain values in the subject and attempt to duplicate them in the print. We may simulate them, if we wish to, in terms of reflection density values, or we may render them in related values of emotional effect. Many consider my photographs to be in the “realistic” category. Actually, what reality they have is in their optical-image accuracy; their values are definitely “departures from reality.” The viewer may accept them as realistic because the visual effect may be plausible, but if it were possible to make direct visual comparison with the subjects, the differences would be startling.” In other words, his photograph, although accepted as realistic, is a huge departure from the actual scene.

This debate about the use of programs like Photoshop happens virtually every day and frankly, it is tiresome. If you don’t want to use it don’t but don’t try to place your standards on me. If I want to use it that is my choice. Regardless of the opinions of the purists, their photographs are also edited they are just edited in a slightly different way. The first composite photographs appeared over 160 years ago!

In the end, it doesn’t matter. Create the image for you and use the tools you wish to use. It’s all good and they are all photographs.

We see all sorts of headlines for blogs, articles, videos, and books saying something like, “30 days to better photography”, or “8 Surefire ways to improve your photography”. What we don’t see so much is headlines or books telling us the hard truths of photography.

Hard Truth One

Photography like any other project takes time and practice to become good. There, typically, isn’t a simple 30-day recipe to get better. I get it, these people want to grab your attention, buy their product, visit their website, and get bombarded with ads and email campaigns.

Hard Truth Two

There are no real surefire ways to better photography. There are ways, but I would hardly call them surefire. The “way” may work it may not because we are all different. Again, I get it. They’re trying to make their money.

Hard Truth Three

Despite people saying they want an honest critique of their work, most do not. I used to give critiques of photographs. I rarely now offer critiques because I take giving a critique seriously. I spend some time studying a photograph, I make notes, and then I write my critique. The next person writes, “Love it”.

The wrap

I could go on and on about the hard truths, but that is not the intent of this blog. My intent of this whole blog site is to encourage, motivate, inspire, and give my honest thoughts. My honest thoughts about most of these headlines are to read with caution. Be skeptical but pay attention. Don’t be afraid to try things you’ve read about but don’t get lured into thinking it is going to be quick and simple. If you’re serious about your photography it won’t be quick or easy. Pay the price of time, dedication, and hard work. These things don’t guarantee success but they can be their own reward when you begin to create the imagery you love. Next week, you may come back to the previous week’s work and wonder why you thought it to be good and strive to do better. A quote I heard from a photographer several years back goes something like this, “If you could have made this photograph 5 years ago you’re not growing”.

Let’s grow and improve together.

Good photography ain’t easy. If you think it is, you’re not doing it right. I’ve been involved in photography in some form or another for 40 years. Taking a photograph is easy and has gotten easier with modern cameras. You don’t even have to think, just point and push the button. The camera can focus, set the exposure, and have an instant photograph. This ease of taking a photograph doesn’t make it good by any stretch.

One of my favorite photography masters, Ansel Adams, has some very good quotes on the act of taking photographs, “You don’t take a photograph you make it”, “twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop”, and “there is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

Today, we can literally, with ease, take thousands of photographs in a day, and we may get lucky and find several “good” photographs. Or we can plan, set up, and execute a few shots to get a good photograph. We have lots of modern tools at our disposal. We have apps for our smartphones that give us the position of the sun, moon, and any number of other atmospheric conditions. We have advanced weather forecasting that we can access instantly through our smartphones. We have mapping programs with satellite images allowing us to see and often scout areas before we even get to them.

Even with all these tools and planning we sometimes come away empty-handed. We may have photographs but we may not have anything good, especially if you are like me. Every time I get a good photograph I set my bar a bit higher and my expectations for the next set. Challenging yourself like this, for me, is a good thing. I don’t strive to be better than anyone else. I strive to be better than I was yesterday.

I’ve had the desire to become a professional photographer, I’ll admit it. I no longer have that desire. My desire now is to photograph what I want, when I want, and where I want. I do have a goal to do fine art photography and market some fine art pieces to sell. I want to make money on my terms, doing my work.

I still see people who get into photography say they want to do their photography as a job, to become a professional. I suspect one of the reasons many of us have had this thought is, that we love photography. We enjoy taking photographs, and wouldn’t it be awesome to do something you love to do and get paid?

Here are some facts I have found about becoming a professional photographer and starting a photography business. Did you know that 85% of photographers fail? According to Dane Sanders in his book Fast Track Photographer. In the 1st year, 60% of photographers give up their business. Of that remaining 40%, another 25% will fail within the 2nd year. Of all of the other small businesses that are started 50% fail in the first 5 years.

Being a professional photographer is hard work. Long hours, working weekends, holidays, dealing with difficult clients. Then the hours spent in front of the computer putting together the prints, wedding albums, etc. Then the marketing, bookkeeping, and tax forms.

The whole actual act of taking photos is a small part of the business. The taking of the photos is important but the behind-the-scenes day-to-day stuff is what is going to be most of the day and week.

As I have said, I no longer have the desire to be a professional photographer. I want to create the photographs I want. I will offer some for sale. I hope I can get people to buy some but to do my photography as a job, I don’t think so. I don’t want to be hindered in my creativity by what I need to do to keep the business afloat.

I recently bought an LED light wand. I had looked at them before and thought they could be the source of some very creative lighting. I used the light wand for a photo session shortly after I bought it with the help of another photographer who had previously used light wands.

Yesterday, I spent a couple of hours working with the light to learn about how to get the most from it. I have learned that the light works best in low-light situations requiring higher ISO and wider aperture settings.

I’m still working with the new light to find out all the possibilities it can provide. I find it important to set up practice sessions with new gear or to learn new techniques. The sessions don’t have to be anything serious, in fact, I would caution you to not use a new piece of gear or technique on a serious photo session until you practiced it and become familiar with the gear or technique. Not every photo session you do has to be a serious session, practice is just as important.

Every day I browse through my Lightroom catalog. Often it is to find inspiration for my topic for the day. I have found that I have a very eclectic catalog of photographs. I have portraits, street photography, landscapes, and everything in between.

I have also discovered I have a variety of file formats. I have files that are jpg, tif, nef, dng, png, and PSD files. I often wonder why I chose to save something in a particular format.

I believe it is important to revisit previous work. In my doing so I get inspiration about places, styles, and subjects to revisit. Sort of a do-over. To see if I can do something better or different. I work to compete with myself. Have I gotten better or worse? Have I just changed? Have I learned or have I forgotten?

Challenge yourself by going back through your work. Don’t cage yourself into always having to compete with others or find something new.

I often enjoy photographing the beauty of nature but there are times when our equipment limits our ability to accurately photograph the beauty. The photograph above had such a high dynamic range by the time I could get the color of the sky and the light rays the lake and foreground were very underexposed. There were also several distracting elements in the scene. A parking lot and cars along with a shelter house could be seen through the trees in the background. In the foreground along the lakeshore, there was an area of a muddy bank. My eyes, however, were able to accurately see this scene as pictured.

If it were not for the ability to post-process this image, which by the way is a merged HDR of three separate exposures, I would have been unable to show the beauty of nature in this scene. This is why I believe it is important to understand the limitations and abilities of not only your equipment but also what can be done in post-processing. All of these things could have been achieved with advanced darkroom techniques. The use of computers and modern software just allows us to do those things digitally.

Learn the capabilities and limitations of your camera along with post-processing techniques. You’re not changing reality or the beauty of nature. You’re bringing it to life in your art.