Some Photography Thoughts

Some people are scared of enhancing their photos. They needn’t be.

A couple of years ago, I was approached by a co-worker asking for some help because he had decided to try and start selling his Photography. He had created a simple site and asked if I’d give it a look and what my thoughts were on it. Truth be told, I think he was looking for help rebuilding the site making it better, so I agreed to look at it.

When I visited the website, there was a nice grid of his photography shot mostly in Italy, as I recall. But the entire site had a tone of grey across all of the photos, as if this was a Claritin commercial. You know the one, where they pull back the haze to be “Claritin clear” and everything is nicely colored.

When I met with the fellow again, he was focused on getting me to rebuild his website, I was focused on the photography so I asked him, “Do you color correct your photos after you shoot them?”

“Oh no,” he said, “I’m a purist and take the photos as they come off the camera.” I tried encouraging him to do some editing of the photos, but he would have none of that. I quickly realized I was trying to explain Darwin’s Evolution theories to Ted Cruz.

“Yeah, I can’t help you.” I said. I have no idea if he’s sold a photo since then.

You see, unless you really, really, really, really know what you’re doing with your camera, you will never get the picture you intended to take straight out of the camera. And this hasn’t changed since camera’s were invented, there’s artisty after the photo that needs to occur.

Photography, BD (Before Digital)

Modern photography begins in the early 1800s. In the mid-1800s, James Clerk Maxwell developed the first way to take the first permanent color photographs by taking three different images through three different filters, can you guess them? Red, Green, Blue.

You can be forgiven if you think that before digital what you did was take the photo and have it developed and printed at your local Walgreen’s and you get back the exact same image that you took. I’m sure photographers who still have the smell of the fixer forever fixed in memory are shaking their heads.

When I was in college, I took a black and white photography course. In this course, we shot photos, developed the negatives and printed the images. My co-worker above, from our discussion, felt the art was in the first part. I couldn’t convince him that it was required in all of the parts.

If you have never personally developed and printed film, try and find a local community college that still offers the course. Just the process of getting the film out of the container and onto the spiral for development (which, by the way, is done in complete darkness) will give you lessons in patience beyond anything you’ve so far experienced. And by the way, you will mess up loading the film on the spiral and not know it until after it’s developed many, many times.

Ilford has a PDF that documents the steps necessary for film development (Pages 8 — 11).

After you have the negative, then the artistry comes in. When you expose your photograph you’re making many artistic choices, how long do I expose this, the longer you do the darker it becomes. Do I burn or block specific areas. Do I do multiple exposures on it? Finally, there’s the sense of timing in the fixer and water tanks. This is the part you usually see in the movies with the actor in a darkroom. He’s standing there in a red-lit room (this is the only part of the process you can have a specific light on) with three tanks of liquid and the photographic print submerged in one.

All of those steps require a fifth sense of timing. Much like a painter determines how much of each color to mix together to make the perfect shade, a photographer uses time: How long to expose the initial photo, how long to keep in the developer, how long to expose the print, how long to keep in the fixer.

Photography AD (After Digital)

Digital cameras have been a revolution in photography. They have made it easy to quickly and easily shoot of hundreds, even thousands, of photographs. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing. I still cringe when I see someone walking by a landmark and pull out a camera phone and take a quick shot without even thinking about it.

But that’s okay, I guess. They’re not trying to be professional photographers; they just want travel mementos from their trip.

For those who strive for a higher level of photography, it’s important to remember that digital cameras shoot for the average, unless you’re using a scene mode that adjusts the photos to algorithms.

Averages are bland. You need to be an artist and use software to enhance the photo to create one that’s uniquely yours.

An Example

For example, I was recently in Paris and took this shot:

I think it’s a good shot, but it’s not great. Generally, the first thing I always do to my shots is add in a little bit of contrast. It’s just a style standard that I prefer. And you can see by punching up the saturation and vibrancy, you can really bring out the sky and give the tower its more natural rust color. I’m not a fan of the lens flare in the middle of the photo, but it’s not enough to try and remove since that part of the image is very complex.

Here’s the result:

I’ll full admit that the final image may not be everyone’s preferred enhancements. That’s okay! This is about taking an average photo and through software making it pop more. You want to create images that grab people from the corner of their eyes and make them look at it.

Some Humble Suggestions

Shoot Raw

If you’re camera supports it, shot in raw format. This gives you the best flexibility to make adjustments to the photo, even adjusting the exposure multiple steps. The negative, however, is the file size. Whereas a JPEG image will be 4-6MB, a Raw image can be upwards and above 25MB.

On my Canon 6D, I shoot with a 64GB card and that allows me to shot roughly 1700 shots in Raw.

Backup

My last sentence probably made real professional photographers shudder at the thought of using a 64GB card. The larger the card, the more photos that can be lost if the card goes bad. I’ve been lucky to not have a card go bad on me or lose one. But also, when I’m traveling, I usually return to my room mid-day for a little bit of R&R.

During that time, I’m off loading my photos into my computer. Because I like to post an image or two on my site each day during travels, I’ll quickly pick one out and do some enhancements during this time. I also have an external hard drive to which I can back-up my photo library if needed.

Purge

Okay, I don’t really due this because I’ve got somewhere in the range of 10TB of hard drives that have my photos and backups (I haven’t figured out an online solution for additional back-ups that works for me yet). But, if you’re not going to get massive amounts of storage, purge your library. Chances are there are shots that just don’t work like the ones that are beyond out of focus or the ones you accidently shot of the sidewalk as you walked. Some professionals will even suggest purging in camera as you shoot because if it doesn’t look good on that small screen, it most definitely will not look good on the computer screen (as an image is compressed to a smaller screen, a blurry photos starts looking more in focus).

Copy the Professionals

See someone out there that looks like they really know what they’re doing? Take notes. What angle of they shooting? What lens does it look like they’re using? After they move on, can you replicate the shot they were trying to get?

If they look approachable, ask them some questions. I have no problem if someone asks me what subject or equipment I’m shooting. I’ve shot a Canon Rebel for years and when the 6D, which is a full frame camera was announced, I ordered it and got it when it was released. So, of course, I’ve had several people ask me about it when I was out shooting. Most competent photographers are willing to share their knowledge and experience with others. Some aren’t. But most are.

I saw some images of a guy who did some fantastic HDR shots at Epcot. Well, I said, lets see what I could do. I’m too modest to say that my shots are anywhere near the level of perfection his may have been at, but for my friends, they’re “Wow” shots.

Get More Robust Software

If you have a Mac, you have iPhoto and it’s a great application for managing and doing some tweaks to your photos. But if you’re going to start shooting raw, you’ll want to upgrade to something more like Aperture or Adobe Lightroom. These are designed to work with raw images and have many more nuanced adjustments you can make to your images. I don’t think you need a level of application like Photoshop early on, unless you’re planning on taking different photos and compositing them together. I have Photoshop and I rarely use it for photo enhancements.

Set Challenges For Yourself

I like the idea of going out and saying to myself, “Get a great shot of a light post.” I may shoot other things when I’m out, but my focus is on light posts and it forces me to think of how I would compose a shot to make it unique. Do I shoot wide, low, tightly cropped or artistic light flare off of it? These are little lessons really designed to get me to think about a particular subject in different ways.

Tilt The Camera

So, I have this bad habit of not being able to take a straight and level shot. I have no idea why. In fact, I was convinced that the sensor of my last camera was off. You can fix it in software, but only if you have enough room around your subject to allow some cropping of the photo.

But also remember that tilting the camera brings another element into the photo. Take a look at the Eiffel Tower above, my camera is tilted a few degrees for that shot. Sure, I could have shot it straight and I have many shots that way. This is another artistic choice you can make.

Be Open to Critique

Finally, seek out and accept honest critiques of your work. A buddy of mine hates asking my opinion on his work because I rarely give a 100% thumbs up to it. I want people to challenge themselves and take everything to the next level. Maybe my advice works, maybe it doesn’t. Don’t get defensive or you’ll turn off people. Take in every bit of critique you receive. Try to understand their reasoning for it. Some of it makes perfect sense. Some not so much for the vision you had. I can listen to honest critique of my work and consider it and justify why it wouldn’t work for what I was trying to achieve. But, that advice may be perfect for the next thing I do.

If what you’re really looking for is ego boost, ask your mom for her opinion of your work. If you’re looking for ways to improve your work, then ask someone who’ll give you honest feedback and suggestions on ways to improve what you’ve done.

Amateur photographers never really see the subject they’re shooting

Stop. Look. Walk Around. Inhale. Then, Shoot, Shoot, Shoot.

After getting back from my recent trip, I’ve looked at photos and asked myself, “Why did I take that shot?” Amateur photographers never really see the subject they’re shooting. They’re too busy taking photographs to really experience a subject.

I’ll bet everyone has taken a photograph of something and when they’re looking at the photo back home notice a large predominant detail and said to themselves, “I don’t remember seeing that.” I certainly have because I didn’t look at the subject before shooting it.

Next time you go out to take photos, find a subject you want to shoot. Then stop! Put the camera down and look at the subject. Inhale the vision in front of you. Notice the intricate details of it, sometimes a detail photo is better then a expansive wide shot.

The Eiffel Tower, for example. Notice the intricate design work. The bolts. The names imprinted around the first level of it.

Walk around the subject to see it from different angles. My favorite shot of the Venus de Milo in the Louvre is not the standard front shot. I love the shot from behind with everyone crowded around.

Find the shot the subject is begging you to take. Many times, you’ll know you’ve found it because once you take the shot, several tourists will hurry over to see what you were just shooting.

And my final bit of advice: If you’re traveling, make experiencing the location the priority and the photography second. If you haven’t experienced a place, you’ll never find the right photography to tell the story of your trip.

Have fun. Keep shooting.

If you want to see more of my photography, visit my personal website at 300stations.com or my 500px Page.