by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Great works of Art.
What do most of them have in common? I posit that Michelangelo has it nailed.
“Genius is eternal patience.” Michelangelo Buonarroti
The patience and perseverance to complete the task would be very high on the list. Even works of art that were completed in a very short period of time had in their basis a long time learning and practicing the skills necessary to make that happen. Think of the great photographers and artists that come to mind immediately. All devoted their lives or a major portion of it to learning, practice, perfecting, practicing some more. It’s apparent in the depth of their work.
An artist goes through stages of learning. A child attempting art often starts with stick figures and very rudimentary shapes. As growth and practice occur perspective is added. Shadows create more dimension. Color begins to play a part with mixing, under-painting and differing colors laid side by side to give unusual effects. Final touches of opaque paint give the illusion of highlights and deeper shadows.
A musician starts with basic notes. Chopsticks on the piano. A slightly more advanced simple song. Then scales to train the brain and fingers in motor memory. Study. More in-depth practice until it’s possible to play notes at a speed and clarity for advanced intricate pieces.
Just as the other artists go through their paces as photographers we need to ‘learn the scales’ and add perspective and depth to our work as we advance our craft. There seems to be a tendency to think we are pretty good at making images before we even understand what makes a great image. I know I went through this at various stages of my photography career thinking I was pretty good at this or that. Now when I begin to think I am good at some area of my photography I go out and find those that really are and aspire to learn more.
We can take bits and pieces from other arts to make us better photographers.
As the musician practices scales to create motor memory we can sit with our cameras and make changes to settings without looking at the camera. Confirm it’s the setting we were trying for and repeat until all the controls become automatic.
Learning the vocabulary of our profession is important. You can’t create what you can’t think about or visualize in your brain and you can’t do that without knowing words for all kinds of light, shadow and form.
I guess the long story short is how much are you willing to work, to make mistakes, to study, to practice, to play in order to be able to create better images?
How much patience do you have??
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Мікеланджело; Michelangelo – власне фото (by Qypchak)
PS – Michelangelo made an appearance here last week in the Photo/Art Quote…. and that’s just coincidence.
by successfulbob | black & white, commercial photography, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography education
Pre-visualization Part 2.
And, the anatomy of post production of an image to meet the pre-visualization. That’s what we’re continuing talking about today. I saw this final image in my head before I even made the photo. (if I could only get there in time) Here’s the story…
Esteban is an extremely talented artist with the guitar. I have been fortunate to photograph him on numerous occasions. Last time out (see post here) I made images of him for marketing and promotion and I was gifted with seeing a lighting situation during a live performance that I knew would be wonderful in color. And, then especially in black and white. If only I could get to the right position, with the right lens, before the dynamics of the situation changed.
Moved quickly across the room while changing lenses. Dropped to the floor and fired off about 8 frames before he came out of the position and the lighting changed.
Here’s the Black and White version building upon the color version from yesterday followed by an Animated Gif showing the steps of post production…
Esteban image after building on the color version.
Color processed file. NIK Silver FX Pro 2 for BW conversion. Clean up background distraction. Add detail to hand from another capture. Tone down Background w/ Curves Layer. Duplicate Curves Layer. Add Soft Light Layer Painting with grey to burn down image. Copy of previous Layer. Remove distracting shadow from leg near guitar. Final Soft Light Layer for final burning adjustments.
Was there more in post? You betcha! Some things are very subtle like selective sharpening of certain places in the image to further guide the viewer around. They would be too subtle to show the differences in this Animated Gif.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Original image was captured with the Lumix GH4 with the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario Lens under stage lighting conditions during a live performance.
PPS – So which image do you like better? Color or Black and White??
by successfulbob | black & white, commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photography, photography education
Pre-visualization.
And, the anatomy of post production of an image to meet the pre-visualization. That’s what we’re talking about today. I saw the final image in my head before I even made the photo. (if I could only get there in time) Here’s the story…
Esteban is an extremely gifted artist with the guitar and I have been fortunate to photograph him on numerous occasions. This last time (see post here) I made images of him for marketing and promotion I was gifted with seeing a lighting situation during a live performance that I knew would be wonderful in color. And, then especially in black and white. If only I could get to the right position, with the right lens, before the dynamics of the situation changed.
Moved quickly across the room while changing lenses. Dropped to the floor and fired off about 8 frames before he came out of the position and the lighting changed.
Here’s the color version followed by an Animated Gif showing the steps of post production…
Esteban playing guitar after post production. See the animated .gif below for most of the steps used.
Straight out of camera. Remove background distraction. Add a Tonal Contrast and Glamour Glow with NIK filters. Bring back some detail in strumming fingers from another capture. Burn some highlights. Tone down clothing to shift focus. Tone down background. Tone down guitar.
Toning was done with a variety of techniques including Curves Adjustment Layers and Soft Light burn layers. You see how we can drive the focus to where we would like the viewer to look first. The eye goes to the area of highest contrast. Then the viewer is invited to look around in the image by the use of diagonal lines in the composition.
Tomorrow this will be taken to another level when the image is converted to black and white followed by more adjustments.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Original image was captured with the Lumix GH4 with the 35-100mm f2.8 Vario Lens under stage lighting conditions during a live performance.
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photography, photography gear
Esteban has a new percussion master as part of the Dinner Show at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona so I was asked to capture some new marketing images. They are playing on Saturdays and Mondays through May.
Here are a couple stage views.
Dinner show at Sound Bites with Esteban and company… (daughter Teresa Joy is on violin)
During a lively portion of the show!!
While I was photographing the show I saw the light! Esteban was in deep and intimate with his guitar and I saw this beautiful light
reflecting from the soundboard onto his face. I rushed to run to the angle and hope the communion would continue while I captured the photograph. In another post I’ll talk about the whys and hows of the post production that went into the final black and white
I photographed the show with the Lumix GH4 and used the f2.8 Lumix Vario lenses 12-35mm and 35-100mm. This combination allows for the wide angle to telephoto needed. The GH4 has a great dynamic range allowing me to capture the depths of shadow and the bright LED lighting.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art photography, Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, macro, photography, photography education, photography gear
I took my Lumix GH4 out for a hike yesterday. I was accompanied by it’s friends the 7-14mm f4, it’s cousin 12-35 f2.8 and it’s big brother the 35-100mm f2.8. This combination of camera and lenses gives me the 35mm equivalent focal range of 14-to 200mm with fast glass. Add a spare battery, a five in one 20 inch Westcott reflector, some extension tubes and put it all in a small Tenba ‘Switch 10’ bag and I’m ready for almost anything I might come across photographically.
Oh, did I mention all of that gear weighs just a bit over six pounds? Throw in a MeFoto backpacker tripod and water for the hike and it’s still under ten pounds. TOTAL.
The Lumix Micro 4/3rds Mirrorless system rocks!
Happened upon this stand of delicate little lavender flowers.
Mounted the GH4 with 35-100mm on the tripod. Added a 10mm Vello extension tube and it looks like this in full sun.
Open the 5 in 1 Westcott reflector, take off the cover and use the scrim between the sun and the flower and look at the change.
I think I’ll take the kit out for a hike again tomorrow.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you use the links to Amazon.com as an affiliate I will receive a small percentage form the sale. It helps support photographer education and the Successful-Photographer web site. TIA.
