by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
“That’s not really photography!”
“You cheat!”
“I never crop I only show what was in the frame originally.”
“I show exactly what was captured by the camera…”
Today’s Photo/Art quote has a lot to do with vision. What does the final image look like? Does it really matter how it arrived in it’s final form? I don’t think so…
“Those doing digital manipulation of their own photos deserve the respect to be viewed for whatever their final product is – not the process.” – Julie Rodriguez Jones (more quotes from Julie)
If you follow my work you know that I am an anything goes kind of guy when creating my artwork. I use multiple layers, textures, blend modes, masks, hue saturation layers and anything else I can think of to get the vision in my head out into the world.
When working on my commercial images I have no problem creating different exposures of the same scene and blending them together with masks to give a better rendition, closer to what the eye will see in that scene, than any one single exposure might.
To those who believe that any photography is “pure photography” I wish for you to think hard about it. All thoughtful photography is art and is very subjective to the maker even if there is no ‘visible’ manipulation.
Many things factor into a photographic image. Lens choice. Choosing what to leave in – or out – of the frame at time of capture. Exposure. ISO. Format choice. Time of day. Add light? Block light? Focus. Depth of field. Black & white, sepia tone or color? High angle or low? When prepping to print – Retouching. Dodging and burning. Choice of medium to print on. The artistic choices are endless…
I don’t feel that someone who has taken an image further via digital methods should be penalized for their choice of tools. Now do some digital images not appeal to you? Maybe not. Or ‘straight’ prints not appeal to you? OK, fine… Please don’t judge how an image was created. Judge the effect the final image has on you regardless of the creation methods.
Ansel Adams is often put forth as one of the great ‘straight’ photographers. But an in-depth study of his work and understanding of how Adams manipulated his medium of film and printing will tell you that his images stand out not because of being straight with his photography but pushing the limits of the tools he had available at the time. He did special exposure and development of his film. He choose the grade of paper on which to print. He spent days manipulating the final image from a negative by dodging and burning a print until it was what he wished it to be.
In 1984 when his autobiography came out he said, “I wish I could be around in 20 years to see what people could get from my negatives via electronic means. It would not be the machine that would be responsible for the final print, but the operator of it. While the images would not necessarily look like mine I believe they would be able to get much more information from the negative than through traditional means.”
Celebrate great imagery no matter how it is created…
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | architectural photography, black & white, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography education, photography seminar
While roaming the streets of Chicago during the Out of Chicago conference I was led to a place to capture a ‘Batman’ image. One of the organizers was on our photo walk and had found this great spot to play with the architecture and come up with this…
Check out the blue sky for the batman logo formed by the buildings.
Had to experiment for a different look.
Using the Lumix GX7 with the 7-14 f4 Aspherical Vario lens (a sweet and sharp lens with no distortion) in Illustrative Art mode set to Black & White and under-exposed by about a stop led to this more graphic rendition on the same scene. Totally different feel don’t you think? Don’t be afraid to get in there and play with the camera presets, especially since you can tweak them Remember to shoot in RAW plus jpeg so you get the arty image as a jpeg but also get all the information present at the time of capture so you can tweak away in post for a totally different look.
How do you find it? Just go down the streets looking up everywhere you go – you’ll eventually find it! Actually you can head out on a photo tour with Teresa Peek of Tour Through a Lens. She was the one who hooked us up with this spot giving very specific instructions on where to stand and what to look for. I promised I wouldn’t tell so you can wander around looking for it on your own or check out her photo tours.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography education, photography seminar
A big salute to Chris Smith for putting on the Out Of Chicago Conference. Well attended and enjoyed by the participants. I’ve only heard good feedback and as long as he is going to go through the pain of putting on an event (if you’ve ever done it, you know what I’m talking about) I would highly recommend looking for this and signing up next year. In the meantime I recommend following Chris on his web site! http://outofchicago.com
Here are a few images from the photo walks…
Working and sharing camera settings and compositions near the ‘Bean’. (photo Lisa Sly)
Here are the attendees getting last minute instruction before heading out to the
streets of Chicago for the photo walk.
Hitting the streets with with a semi-posed fun shot before we started spreading out.
Always keep getting out to shoot, share and get more education with fellow photographers. It will help you become a much better photographer. And it’s fun!
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote
I’m at the airport in Chicago after presenting at the Out of Chicago Conference so this Photo/Art Quote is getting published a wee bit late. Thanks for bearing with me! Here we go…
Let’s head to the funny papers for some inspiration this week. Ever read the cartoon Dilbert? Scott Adams is the author and I found a quote by him about creativity that we can use. It actually contains two ideas strung together that I believe wholeheartedly.
“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams
Creating art can be accelerated by experimentation. Trying new things and giving yourself permission to fail is key. There is a tendency to keep recreating things with which we have had success. We set lights in the same place most of the time, or worse, lock them down without thought of who the subject is and what changes could really highlight the best features of our subject.
Or when we work with our manipulation programs like Adobe Photoshop we repeatedly use the same settings. I encourage you to take some chances. Play with Photoshop. Try new things. Play some more! By the way if you haven’t upgraded to Photoshop CC yet know that they have the $9.99 a month rate for getting the Lightroom & Photoshop bundle. Learn more here.
Get on you computer and mash down some buttons you’ve never tried before. Use new blend modes. don’t worry if it doesn’t work out perfect. You can always try again!
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | people photography, photography, photography - art quote, photography education
Wikipedia on photography reports, “The word “photography” was created from the Greek roots φωτός (phōtos), genitive of φῶς (phōs), “light” and γραφή (graphé) “representation by means of lines” or “drawing”,together meaning “drawing with light”
Many of us have heard the term stretched a little bit more as ‘Painting with Light’. Whichever definition you use LIGHT IS WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT… And today’s Photo/Art Quote comes from someone who knew quite a bit about light.
“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” – George Eastman
I think we become more aware and stronger as photographers when we give a language to light. Check out the portrait of Eastman from the Wikipedia web site. Can you talk about the quality of the light? Can you give a ratio to the light? Describe the lighting pattern on his face? How large is your lighting vocabulary? Why is it good? Or Not?
Photographic portrait of George Eastman from Wikipedia web site.
Once the brain learns more words for lighting it can offer more thoughts and combinations, mixing ideas and allowing you to see light in a new light if you’ll pardon the expression. I will be having more blog posts about the ‘Language of Light’ here on Successful-Photographer and I hope you’ll join in. In the meantime study the photograph of George and see what you photography vocabulary is like. Drop your thoughts in the comments here to get the dialog started. I’ll revisit this in a couple days with my thoughts in another post.
Yours in Photography, Bob
