Category Archives: opinions

Dodging and Burning – An essential skill and a new ebook to help learn the basics…..

July 17, 2012 by admin | Comments Off

Many of us “old timers” got our start with film cameras and darkroom work with chemicals and all kind of trial and error methods to bring out the details in our photos like dodging and burning. I remember having all kinds of funny shaped cardboard pieces on little pieces of wire and cardboard with cut outs and sometimes just using your hand to help bring out details in a print. In newer terminology to bring the full dynamic range to view on a nice print. Today, of course, we can use computers, so instead of throwing away trial prints we can edit and experiment. Especially with tools like Lightroom, the changes are all parametric and we can always go back and re-edit. You can still do that with Photoshop but it takes a little more effort. Now we use pen tablets and a mouse to apply and change the areas, to make the highlights and shadows as we remember the scene or how we want it to look. All of us go through various learning curves and it is always useful to learn new techniques, so that brings us to the subject of this post. Here is a new ebook, available from the fine people at Craft and Vision. This new ebook is quite a package, it includes an ebook on Dodging and Burning, including lots of examples, but it also includes some Actions for Photoshop and a custom Panel for interacting with the Actions. The sample images discussed in the book are included so that you can follow along exactly with each step. These are set up for Lightroom 4 or Photoshop CS6, while they will work with earlier versions these are recommend because of the improvements that were implemented with the new Image Process in Camera Raw. Trial versions are available for download from Adobe. In case you are wondering about cost, the normal cost for this fine package is $10, however if you use the code “DODGE8” during checkout, it will only be $8. This is only for a limited time, so go and get the Dodge&Burn ebook through this link and use the code before midnight on July 22, 2012. The Craft and Vision book store also has a package deal, for the same limited time, in which you can get 20% off 5+ ebooks from the site, the code is “DODGE20”.  All of the books are worthwhile, however I recommend in addition to the Dodge&Burn, ebook to take a look at Up Close, Exposure for Outdoor Photography, Making the Print, and the Power of Black and White. There are many others that are excellent but those will give you some great information.

So be sure to check out the ebook, and learn how to Dodge and Burn effectively, bring up those shadows and modify the highlights to match your initial vision when you took the picture.  This is an art that does take practice and there is certainly many ways to accomplish the same effects but this book will give you a great start and some insight into improving your images. Not only are the traditional type of modifications discussed but also uses of sharpening, and tonal effects to add some depth to your vision. How to effectively do it in a non-destructive fashion in photoshop, but also how to use some of the tools from Nik Software as a way of making it more efficient.

 

Learning to Print……

January 17, 2012 by admin | Comments Off

Almost every photographer I know at some point wants to make some prints of their work. There are lots of options, you could buy an inexpensive printer and print yourself. You could also buy a more professional wide format printer and get as sophisticated as you would like, or you could use outside printing resources.  By outside printing sources, I mean uploading or taking a file and getting it printed. There are many online places and also Costco and other warehouse stores. There is also the local photo printing store, although those are becoming fewer and fewer.  A lot of choices, but it really depends on the desired results. Does the final quality of the print matter a great deal or just a little? What sizes and types do you want to make and this is just for starters. So where do you go to learn how to make a print? There are lots of references on the internet, some great, some not so good with outdated information. I know I went through this when I decided I wanted to get a quality printer. I went to a lot of sites and asked a lot of questions, and I finally settled on an Epson 4880 printer. Epson has come out with newer models since then but I love using my printer and the output is really great, much better than I had been getting using an outside printing source. The best prints come from a sound techniques and knowledge of how to control the process. So how do you get this knowledge?  I found two sources that really cover the material needed. Both are very new and I wish I had them when I was first going down this path.

For a really good introduction and to cover a lot of useful ground, there is a new ebook from the Craft and Vision people, called Making the Print by Martin Bailey. (If you use the code “PRINT4”  before midnight on the 21st of January 2012, you can get it for $4 instead of the normal $5, or save 20% on 5+ pdf using the code “PRINT20”.) This ebook may be low cost but it is packed with lots of useful information. Enough information to make you decide whether or not you want to pursue printing on your own, and it will also give you enough information to use an external printing resource with a color managed output. This little ebook covers all the basics from types of paper, to color management and printing. There is also a chapter on doing gallery wraps on canvas. While the ebook is not intended as an in-depth tutorial it will give you enough information to get started and perhaps enough to do just want you want to do. Like anything in life you can make this as complex or as simple as you like but what matters is the end result.

If you want to get more in depth discussions and you like learning by watching videos than this next item is for you. This is a video tutorial covering everything from capture to printing to displaying on screen. It is about 12.5 hours long and is broken up into chapters. This video tutorial goes into greater depth than the ebook but also costs more. The video features Michael Reichmann and Jeff Schewe, both very accomplished photographers with a tremendous amount of knowledge. It is available for purchase and download from the Luminous Landscape web site and is called Camera to Print and Screen. Production quality and the information is top notch. This was only recently made available and even though I have done a lot of research I still learned a lot from watching these video tutorials.

Both of these are very useful resources and will help to steer anyone interested in printing their own pictures down the correct path to yielding great prints. They are certainly not the only reference but I find both of them to very useful and will really streamline the learning curve.

 

Improve your photography – for FREE!

December 1, 2011 by admin | Comments Off

Well it may not be a completely truthful statement, it is however, still a free item. What I am talking about is the new free ebook from Craft and Vision. The ebook is called Craft and Vision, and if you click on that link you can download it for free. This book contains 11 chapters by 9 different authors that will give you tips and suggestions that might improve your photography and help you get to the next level. While it will not work miracles, it can provide food for thought.  Looking at new concepts and also re-enforcing standard techniques can help you help create better images.

There are chapters on how to read a histogram, on how to direct viewers eye to emphasize your intent, and composition. There are chapters with valuable advice, like how to take better portraits and make your images more dynamic, and much more. Is this a worthwhile ebook? Definitely and the price is certainly right, you cannot go wrong. While you are there you can check out the other volumes that are available, all for $5 each. There are some great informative titles.

One of the reasons I am recommending their books is that I have found inspiration from them. I have read many of them, and it has helped me get over a creative hump. I was getting tired of reading endless forums debating the same hardware issues, the same questions over and over, call it a form of burnout. I am now thinking more about the creative aspects, and looking at and seeing things in a different manner.  Trying to improve my craft. There is some great advice in these books and the price is reasonable which is refreshing in this day of over commercialism. So check out their free ebook by clicking on this link to the Craft and Vision free ebook.

Feel free to send a link to this blog post to all your friends and camera buddies, help them improve their photography. Feel free to comment here as well. I hope you find it useful. 

HDR photography: What’s the big deal?

November 1, 2011 by admin | 2 Comments

HDR photography or high dynamic range photography can generate a lot of controversy in some circles. Especially in the online forums; mention that you have taken an image using HDR techniques and you will get very polarized responses. This polarization is kind of funny, in my opinion. Photographers will either love it or hate it, although there some that are a little bit in the middle, but basically very polarized, they either love it or hate it.. I’m not so sure why this is such a big controversy after all it’s just a technique, a tool, that the photographer can use to process an image. This tool can be used in many ways. To me, it is a tool that is used to enhance an image to the photographer’s “vision”. So what’s the big deal? In reality it’s no different than using any other tool. There are lots of tools, and different filters and plug-ins you can get for Photoshop. For instance, Topaz Lab’s “Adjust” and Nik’s “Color Efex Pro4”. If you adjust the sliders and play around you can make a gaudy looking highly saturated low contrast images that are no different than some of the HDR photography! On the other hand, those same plugins can be used to make subtle changes, it is up to the user to control. If you mention that you used the plugins, the response is usually “toned down”, but if you label it HDR, watch out.  It all comes down to the photographer’s vision for the image, the story the photographer is trying to tell; the message to be conveyed. How the artist gets to the end result is through the use of tools, and how much or how little they are applied, again is up to the artist and what they envision.

My theory as to why it is so polarizing is some photographers have a preconception of what an image should look like. Not necessarily, what the human eye sees, but what they envisioned the sensor or the media can successfully capture. Is this right? Is this wrong? The only right answer is if it matches the photographer’s vision. Sometimes there is fear in new techniques that are not “mainstream”. The HDR technique is no different than blending exposures, it is just the method and how it is finally processed.  Many photographer’s blend several exposures to bring out details in the shadows or to bring back highlights that were blown out in the single exposure. Sensors can only capture so much light, so much dynamic range. So that leads some photographers to have this preconception that if you have details in the shadows and if there are extreme details in the highlights, with a very high dynamic range then it must be artificial. And if you label it HDR, then their bias slams to the front, the blinders come on and the wall is built. Then post that same image and mention that you took a couple of exposures and blended them together and often you will get a lot of constructive comments. Not always but generally it’s a much more relaxed and much, much less of a reaction then if you label it HDR. So I think this is just one of those biases that photographers will just have to get over. I think that you’ll see more and more high dynamic range imaging. And how it’s processed is up to the vision and skills of the photographer. It is, after all, used to show what they envisioned at the time capture. At some point in time, sensors will be capable of capturing huge dynamic ranges but until that time we will have to use the tools that we have available.

Yes we’ve all seen extremes in this type of photography. I have seen a lot of images that could have been captured with a single exposure but yet they bracketed and processed it as a HDR image. They might have very low contrast, very highly saturated colors but if the image is what the photographer is happy with, what’s wrong with that? Who is to say whether that’s right or wrong? It may not appeal to the vast majority of viewers, but it doesn’t make it any less valid of an image or “vision”.

Then there are images in which a single exposure could never capture the full range of values, and this is where the HDR technique really shines. You can then express to the viewer more of what you saw with your own eye, if that is what you want to share. It gives you greater latitude to express yourself. It is not evil, it is not a trick or something that is going to go away anytime soon. It does not need to be feared.

The funny thing is that when you talk to people who are casual users of cameras, the ones not hounding the forums, or avid photographers, they are very accommodating to the use of HDR techniques. Perhaps because they are evaluating the image, and not the way the image was processed. Perhaps they are seeing the vision that the artist was trying to convey rather than bogged down in techniques or what they deem to be acceptable. Maybe they are not as influenced by preconceptions.

To paraphrase David duChemin (Craft and Vision – Great ebooks at great prices), it is all about “the vision and not the gear”, or the technique. So again I ask, what’s the big deal?

 

Film Grain

June 29, 2011 by admin | Comments Off

Does it seem funny to you that in this day and age of digital cameras, that people are now going back and trying to duplicate film grain? I know this is strictly opinionated and sometimes the “film grain” adds some character to an image, but it really is just noise! When shooting film you basically had no real choice, depending on the type of film being used. You shot and with some films you got more grain than with other types. Now there are all kinds of plugins and utilities to add “grain” back into an image, seems like such a waste of good data!  I have actually seen a time when it can be useful, after applying a lot of noise reduction to a high ISO image it will sometimes have a plastic type look and the addition of a SMALL amount of grain makes it seem a little more natural, ok, so that is an exception.  It just seems ludicrous to go out and buy an expensive camera with ultra smooth and relatively noise free high ISO settings and then pay a good chunk of money to add it all back.

Maybe people are just being too retro…….. but after all it is all “art” so as long as the creator is happy, what difference does it make?