Tag: teach

What photography tools are you afraid to learn? Studio lighting? Flash? Editing software? Something else?

I’ve had various cameras since 1982 but until about 2014 I was nearly terrified of off-camera flash. I tried using off-camera flash using my camera’s built-in flash as a commander to control a flash unit as a slave. The system was IR (infrared) and I used the TTL (through the lens metering), so basically, it was automatic. The results were also boring nearly flat lighting.

Then I was, literally, forced to begin to learn proper lighting during my photography school.

I learned to use a dedicated light meter and manual power adjustments on the lights. I learned to use a variety of diffusion devices, umbrellas, softboxes, grids, and reflectors. I learned how to set up lighting outdoors and use it as a fill flash even in the sunlight.

In the session I did this past weekend in the woods, I carried a couple of light stands, a portable softbox with a grid, remote triggers, two lights (speedlights), light meter (to measure flash). During one of the conversations, I had with my fairy model she mentioned that most of the previous photographers she had worked with didn’t use such equipment.

I explained to her that, at one time I too didn’t understand off-camera lighting or the use of lighting during the daylight hours. I also explained, very briefly, that using the lighting I could make the forest much darker while she was well lit.

Each of these images I shot during this past weekend was all shot using a flash with a softbox and grid. A very small amount of adjustment was done in post-processing afterward as far as the lighting was concerned.

Without the use of speed light, the scenes would have looked like the photograph above, which was taken without flash during my scouting mission a few days earlier at nearly the same time of day.

Embrace your fear of learning that thing of which you are afraid. Overcome the fear. It will help your artistic vision come to life.

This is often a difficult challenge, at least for me. Often I use the wrong criteria to measure success. Many of us use the term success as something that has achieved financial success. Even without a photography session having earned a dime it can be a success.

After my session this past Sunday with a fairy theme I have received a hugely popular response in both social media circles and the potential business market. In addition to those responses, I achieved the look and feel I wanted with this project and the model is thrilled with the results. With those things in mind, the session was an absolute success.

Measure your success not only in terms of financial gain but more so in personal gain. Measure success in achieving your personal challenges. Measure success in terms of positive feedback and completion of your vision. Measure success in personal terms, rather than money.

The success of this session serves as a reminder to me, to practice what I preach; Prepare and plan your photography sessions. Even if it is just a casual walkabout.

Yesterday, I wrote about preparing for your photography session. I was able to find a model to portray my fairy, arranged for the costume, scouted the location, fine-tuned my vision, and brought nearly everything I could think I would need. I was also fortunate the model was a fan of this sort of genre although she hadn’t really done much of it in a photography way.

After everyone arrived we wandered off into the forest and set up. During the hour and a half session, we took 120 photographs. In going through images upon returning home I really like 73 of them. Getting prepared pays off.

These are just a few I have developed to match my vision. I have many more to come. The fantastic thing, to me, about this session is that it is a fantasy world with a mythical being, so reality doesn’t exist and can be whatever I make it.

I have written about being true to yourself as an artist and not allowing others to change your course, style, vision, or adhere to their concepts. With that being said, there are times when others like work you have done that you may have thought to be mundane. There may also be times when someone will ask or suggest a subject or scene. The featured image was one of those times.

My wife made a request for a photograph of a tree line. I thought about it and, at first, thought eh. I tried a variety of tree lines. Nothing really grabbed me. I didn’t stop looking but I still wasn’t “sold” on the idea.

In the winter of 2013, we had a big snowstorm and, at the time, I drove a 4-wheel drive truck. Since I was retired at the time I decided I would venture out and take some photographs. One of the places I visited was a conservation area and as such, it had lots of trees. I shot a whole wide variety of trees and treelines.

Then I saw the treeline below. Normally, it was a mundane open grassy field in the foreground. Fortunately for me, there had been enough snow few others had ventured out. There were no footprints or other distractions in the snow.

The photograph above was edited to convert to black and white as well as to remove some of the sticks and tall grass from the snow in the foreground. I would love to list exactly what I had done at the time, but I didn’t save the Photoshop working file and it has been long enough ago that I don’t recall my steps.

I showed the final photograph to my wife, who had requested the work. She immediately wanted a print made to hang. I ordered a 16×24 and got it professionally framed and matted. The photograph still hangs on the wall today.

This isn’t the only time I have had such a request. In 2011, I was contacted by a person who had seen a photograph of mine on my website. She wanted to buy a print to use as wall art. I was amazed that someone I didn’t know wanted to pay me for a photograph of mine.

The image above is the one that was requested and as you can see it is a piece of artwork that was on the lawn of the Nelson Atkins Art Museum. Since this was the work of another artist, I contacted the art museum and asked if I could sell my photograph of the piece. I was given permission from the museum to sell my photograph.

The lesson I have learned and continually remind myself of is that you can remain true to your vision as an artist while listening to your audience or others who are potentially your audience. I have also learned that sometimes the photographs and artwork I like may not always be what others like.

Do quality work. Display your work and you may find an audience or buyers of your art that you didn’t know existed. Following this mindset, I have sold a few works and most were pieces I wasn’t personally wowed by.

There is truth, justice, and then the artist’s way. While they can all coexist but often they don’t. These things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive but they oftentimes don’t play well together. Let’s take a look at the original version of the featured image.

The version above is the way the camera saw the scene. It’s not nearly as compelling. Ah, if we adjust the exposure it will all be better you say. Maybe. I’ll get a bit more technical for a moment.

For those who may be a bit unfamiliar, the image above is a screenshot of the original image’s histogram in Photoshop CC. My camera would show this as a good exposure, neither under or over exposed.

When I was at this location taking this photograph my eyes perceived it to be much more dramatic than what was captured by my camera. Due to recent rains the colors were much more saturated looking. The sky and clouds much more ominous looking.

This is often the conflict I have with the truth in photography. I view much of the world, especially when out taking photographs, with the eyes of an artist. In viewing the world like this, my final image fulfills the truth, justice, and the artist’s way. To me, this is the truth. To me, fulfilled giving the scene its justice. To others, I may have changed the truth and did an injustice to the reality by fulfilling the artist’s way.

I live by the code of what I believe is true to an artist. Have I achieved the level to call myself an artist? Maybe or maybe not, that I’ll leave for you to decide. To me, I believe I succeed sometimes and fail sometimes.

Establish your truth, justice, and artist’s way. Set yourself free from the expectations of others.

Many times I work to create a fantasy world. When I do this type of photography what does reality have to do with it? Nothing. Many photographers would call this digital art and not photography. So be it. I work to create art with my camera, sometimes things just don’t work out.

When we were doing this session the pink smoke bomb didn’t give the results I was looking for in the image. So a little Photoshop magic and viola!

It wasn’t a matter of not attempting to, as the purists say, “get it right in the camera. It just didn’t work. so changing something in the final development of an image through software or darkroom techniques may be required.

We’ve all seen these photographs of women in long flowing dresses where they are “floating”. Many of these have Photoshop magic, but we rarely question them.

When creating fine art photographs does reality really matter or is it the results? Why is it that often photographers can’t accept a piece as art rather than work to discredit it because doesn’t fit their definition of a photograph?

If you are like me, fuhgeddaboudit. Do your thing.

Yesterday, I was on the road back home from a short overnight trip to southwestern Missouri. I decided to take a different route back home since I wasn’t in a hurry to get back. I discovered almost instantly on the way back, that the GPS navigation apps on my phone were somewhat lacking in helping me find a “scenic” route. Even after I changed some settings, the routes chosen were not the country backroads I was hoping to drive. After some choice words to the navigations system. The route adjusted somewhat.

We ended up taking the old U.S. Highway 66. The road still exists but it is no longer considered U.S. Highway 66. While driving along, we happened upon a small town, Avilla Missouri. The first thing that caught my attention was the small red brick post office. Apparently, at one time it had been a bank. Across the street was another gem.

I didn’t wander around much more but there were a couple of things that may have played out. This town was very small, with a population of 103. One of the reasons I didn’t wander around more was I had my little dog with me and he was a bit stressed out that I was out of the car even though my wife was with him. Yeah, he is spoiled. Maybe that is lesson two, go without my dog but he is my buddy.

Not long after we left the small town the navigation app had me turn onto a county highway. County Highway 80. County Highway 80, was a two-lane paved road with no shoulder to give you a mental visual. As I was driving along, I saw a wheatfield at an intersection. I stopped quickly and since it was fairly early on Sunday morning there was no other traffic. I was able to park on the side road and took the photo of the field you see above. What caught my attention was the golden color of the wheat, lined by the green trees and the cloud formation just above the triangle created by the trees lining the wheatfield.

I’m not in search of a better way to navigate using the back roads to arrive at a predesignated location.