Category: Photography as Art

Articles on the photographer as an artist

What Else Things Are

What do your photographs say – about the things you photograph and about you? What do your photographs trigger in your viewers’ minds and imaginations?

Brooks Jensen published a very provocative article in the current issue of Lenswork.  He delves into a topic that I’ve thought about ever since I first picked up a digital camera.  It relates to the question of whether or not it is OK to manipulate photographs.  I’ve always contended that it is not only OK but, at least for the kind of photography I do, it is required.  The photographs I create reflect my interpretation of the natural world around us.  Therefore, their subjects and contents are going to reflect something of me.

Jensen goes several steps farther by identifying three major types of photography – Documentary, Personal Narrative and Imaginative.  Jensen describes Documentary photography as telling “someone else’s story.”  What a great way of describing it.  Clearly, then, in documentary photography, the photographer strives to be as true to the subject as possible and minimize or eliminate his or her own coloration or bias.  The goal is total objectivity.

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Dewitt Jones Said It All

I was reading an article by Dewitt Jones in the latest Outdoor Photographer last night.  I always enjoy reading him; he is so positive and full of enthusiasm.  The title of the article was Don’t Prove…Improve!  He was recounting his experience when he got hired on as a National Geographic Photographer.  Dewitt was a little intimidated.  His new boss, Bob Gilka, gave him some advice that applies to us all.  He told Dewitt, “You don’t have to prove yourself, not to me or to the other photographers.  What I do demand that you do is improve yourself.  Every day….”

Dewitt goes on to write,

“[Gilka] understood that when we shoot from our own unique vision, there’s no reason to ‘prove’ ourselves…. There’s only one person on the planet who can do what we do, see as we see.

“Improve ourself?  That’s a different story.  There’s so much for all of us to learn to make our vision clearer, stronger, sharper.  And Gilka knew that the fastest way to learn is to trust and share rather than compete.”

Yep, I always enjoy reading Dewitt’s comments.  He is so positive.  And right on.

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Creative Vocabulary

Art is communication and each art form has a vocabulary, the creative vocabulary. Explore the creative vocabulary of photography and discover how being aware of it can help you grow and develop as an artist.

We all communicate with each other.  In our every day dealings we use our verbal vocabulary.  But as artists we also communicate, this time through our medium.  And for this we have another vocabulary, our Creative Vocabulary.

Let’s take a closer look.

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On Purchasing a Fine Art Photograph

Most of us aren’t in the habit of purchasing art.  And for some of us the thought may be just a bit intimidating, especially when the work of art is, oh, shall we say “expensive.”  How do you now you’re investing your money wisely?

I can’t speak for other art media such as paintings, sculpture, etc.  But I can offer three suggestions when purchasing fine art photography.  Here are some things you should expect from a fine art photograph.

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The Making of a Photograph Part 3 – Photoshop First Round

In part one and two of this series I described how I selected the file to work on and explored the potential of the image in Lightroom.  The treatment I ended up with would be exported into Photoshop and we go from there.

Read Part 1

Read Part 2

After trying several approaches particularly with regard to the color of the light I selected one that was very much like the unadjusted file.  The only change was opening up the shadows in the valley floor a bit.

Yosemite_4Now the fun begins.  While Lightroom 2.x supports local adjustments I prefer to do the local adjustments in Photoshop.  I just feel that I have more control in Photoshop.

The first thing to deal with is the silhouette of the pint tree in the lower left hand corner.  I used the clone stamp tool to get rid of that.  I have no qualms about removing things that distract from the image.  But I draw the line at adding things.  Someone asked me if I added the moon in Bristlecone Moonrise.  No, I was there and that was the moon.  What’s the point of faking it.  The experience in the field would simply not be the same.  It’s so exciting to take an image like this and think you’ve got it.  But there’s always the nagging doubt in the back of your head wondering if you overlooked something and messed it up.   You never know until you get back at your computer to see what you really have.

bristlecone_moon_2008

But back to Yosemite.  So the pine tree silhouette had to go.  Also, I checked the image for dust spots and only found one or two.  The spot healing brush took care of them.

The next step was to do some local adjustments with Viveza.  It’s a cool tool from Nik Software that allows you to select an area and control brightness, contrast, saturation and more.  The clouds in the upper right needed contrast enhanced a little.  Next a couple of Curves with layer masks helped open up the valley floor even more.  I tried some vignetting on the bottom and really liked the way it funneled the eye into the center of the image where everything was happening.  I didn’t think I’d need any  vignetting for the top corners but tried it anyway and liked that too.

I made some global adjustments too.  Selective Color helped warm the reds with some yellow, lighten the yellows and darken the blues.  Color Balance also shifted the overall color just a couple points to the yellow.

Sorry I don’t have images of each of the steps along the way but that pretty much finished up the first evening.  The image was starting to get interesting and it was time to sleep on it and come back another day to take a fresh look at it.

Yosemite_1
Original Capture		 Yosemite_Edit_1
After Photoshop Session 1

Here are the two side-by-side.  It’s starting to take shape.  There’s a little hint of warmth in the clouds and they stand out more from the background.  The valley floor is better defined and the trees stand out a bit more.  There’s actually a subtle feeling of warm light down there.  El Cap and Bridle Vail Falls also are more prominent and their warmer tones contrast more with the overall picture’s coolness.  You can click on the images to enlarge them.

Even before I fell asleep that night I was thinking of what needed to be done next.  As you work on an image you become satiated to the colors, tonalities and contrast and you can’t tell if they are good or not.  You also get emotionally involved.  So it’s good to stop, get away from it and return another day.  Sometimes when you return you are pleased and other times you say to yourself, “What was I thinking?”  When I get the latter reaction it usually means starting over from the beginning.  We’ll come back to this technique when you get far enough along to start making proofs.

So come back for #4 in this series to see if I  said, “What was I thinking?” or if I picked up from where I left off.

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The Making of a Photograph Part 2 – Exploration

In the first post I talked about photographing Yosemite Valley at sunrise from Tunnel View in a snow storm.  I imported the images into Lightroom and reviewed them there.  One stood out.  See The Making of a Photograph Part 1 – Selection.

Yosemite_1

The next step is to explore the image for possibilities.  I do this in Lightroom, making virtual copies of the image that I can then adjust.  I adjust such things as color temperature, exposure, highlights, shadows, fill, contrast, saturation, hue and more.  The goal is to see what’s in the image and what it’s capable of expressing.  I’m also looking for something that gets me excited.

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Great Training DVD

I’m always buying photography books and on the lookout for good DVDs.  I like the books because I can read them at my leisure.  And if they contain assignments at the end of each chapter that’s even better.  DVDs, on the other hand, can be even better because you can see the photographer in action.

But not all DVDs live up to this level of expectation.  Sure, you can get see where the photographers are photographing.  And often you can see what they captured.  But all too often you aren’t privy to what is going through their minds.  Well, I found a DVD that sets the standard.

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The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary

The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary

In this third article we continue our exploration of photography from the perspective of other artistic disciplines.  The first article was The Photographer as Artist – Introduction.  We introduced the idea that art stands on the Tripod of Artistry, three principles that are common to all arts.  The first leg of the tripod, the expressive capabilities of the medium, were explored in The Photographer as Artist – Expressive Spectrum.  In this article we will look at the second leg – the Creative Vocabulary.

Creative Vocabulary

We all know that to be an effective writer it helps to have a large vocabulary.  It just stands to reason that the larger the writer’s vocabulary, the more effectively he or she can communicate.  Poets probably have the greatest mastery of the language as that is the most condensed form of communication.  This reaches its absolute zenith in haiku, that wonderful form of Japanese poetry that paints the most beautiful images in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables.  Probably the most famous is this exquisite poem from the haiku master, Basho (1644 – 1694).

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The Photographer as Artist – Expressive Spectrum

We’re exploring art from the perspective of other artistic disciplines to shed light on what it means to be a photographer and an artist.  (You can read The Photographer as Artist – Introduction.)  We’re doing this because photographers often seem to be expected to meet a “reality standard” that has not been imposed on other artists since the classic period of Greece two thousand years ago – “Did you use a filter?” “Are these colors real?” “Did you manipulate this photograph?”

There are three areas to explore – what I call the Tripod of Artistry – the three legs upon which all arts and artists stand.  This article looks at the first of the three – Expressive Spectrum.

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The Photographer as Artist – Introduction

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of the photographer as artist.  I don’t think there’s doubt in anyone’s mind that photography can be a sublime art form. 

But not all photography is art and not all photographers are artists.  Just about everyone has a camera these days.  In fact it seems you can’t buy a cell phone without one.  Virtually everyone is taking pictures but not very many photographers are trying to produce art.

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