{"id":2278,"date":"2011-12-23T09:01:41","date_gmt":"2011-12-23T17:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/?p=2278"},"modified":"2019-11-29T10:12:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T18:12:09","slug":"photography-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/23\/photography-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Your Photography to the Next Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read a great series of articles by George Barr<\/a> on taking the next step in photography.\u00a0 They were passed along to me by a good friend \u2013 Brian Graham.\u00a0 I have some early thoughts on what Barr proposes.<\/p>\n

In his articles he defines six or seven steps for both technical and aesthetic growth in photography.\u00a0 His articles define each step, discuss ways you can determine what step you\u2019re in and gives ideas on how to advance to the next step.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to simplify this a little and cut out some of the earlier steps.\u00a0 I\u2019m suggesting that the first goal for us is to take photographs that have the same quality as, well, let\u2019s call it \u2018Calendar Art.\u2019<\/p>\n

OK you say, that\u2019s clich\u00e9 stuff.\u00a0 Yes, it is.\u00a0 I agree.\u00a0 The photographs are of standard images.\u00a0 They may be of the Eifel tower, two kittens playing with a ball of yarn, bull riders or better yet, rodeo queens,\u00a0 fast cars, Half Dome from tunnel view and what not.\u00a0 But let\u2019s face it, the technical quality of the photographs is excellent and that becomes a worthy goal for the serious photographer.<\/p>\n

Qualities of Calendar Art<\/h3>\n

The photographers that take these photographs are no slouches.\u00a0 And hey, they\u2019re making money.\u00a0 So\u00a0 let\u2019s not be too critical.\u00a0 But what exactly is it that goes into a successful calendar photograph?\u00a0 As it turns out, a lot.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a closer look.<\/p>\n

First of all, the photographs have snap.\u00a0 They look good.\u00a0 They are well done but blend in with their surroundings.\u00a0 They don\u2019t demand attention but add something nice to the room where they hang.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Well, for starters they are well exposed.\u00a0 There are no blown highlights or muddy shadows.\u00a0 They are not too dark or too light.\u00a0 They\u2019re just right.<\/p>\n

Next, they\u2019re focused correctly.\u00a0 Things that are supposed to be sharp are sharp and things that are supposed to be soft are soft.\u00a0 The eyes of the two cats are tack sharp.\u00a0 Everything in the Half Dome photo is tack sharp.\u00a0 The focus and depth of field is right on.<\/p>\n

Next, the composition is solid.\u00a0 The Rule of Thirds is frequently employed.\u00a0 Nothing is in the bulls eye.\u00a0 There are no creepers along the edges, no bright spots there either.\u00a0 They may not be the most dramatic or creative compositions but they are solid, well designed compositions.<\/p>\n

The light is good.\u00a0 Many\u00a0 outdoor calendar photographs are taken during midday.\u00a0 The photographer doesn\u2019t necessarily wait for golden hour.\u00a0 The light is not flat but has interesting shadows.\u00a0 It just goes to show you that good photographs can be taken during the day.<\/p>\n

So by the time the photographer presses the shutter there\u2019s already a lot going for the image.\u00a0 But pressing the shutter is not the end of the process.\u00a0 There\u2019s more work to be done in the post processing.<\/p>\n

When you carefully look at the photograph you\u2019ll notice that it takes advantage of the full dynamic range of the medium, in this case the paper the photograph is printed on. If you examine the image you will most likely find a black point, some meniscal area that is pure black.\u00a0 You\u2019ll also most likely find a white point, some very small area that has no ink but it the color of the paper. This ensures that you have taken advantage of the full dynamic range of the paper.<\/p>\n

The overall brightness (tonality) of the image is just right.\u00a0 It is neither too bright or too dark.\u00a0 It is usually sunny and cheery.\u00a0 And the contrast is snappy, not too much and not too little.<\/p>\n

The colors are also rich.\u00a0 There are no inappropriate color casts and the colors that are there are well saturated without going over the top \u2013 with the possible exception of the intense blue sky.\u00a0 All of these things require post processing adjustments to get the most out of the image.<\/p>\n

Comparing Your Photographs to Calendar Art<\/h3>\n

So calendar art is a pretty decent goal because, aside from the common subjects, it requires a lot of skill both in the capture and the post processing to produce photographs of this quality.<\/p>\n

How can you tell if your photographs measure up to the calendar art standard?\u00a0 Well, first you have to print them.\u00a0 Getting photographs looking good on the monitor is way too easy, especially if you\u2019re using an LCD monitor (I do all my work on a CRT monitor for that very reason).\u00a0 So a good looking photograph on a monitor just doesn\u2019t count.\u00a0 You need to put it on paper.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if you send them out to Costco or do them yourself, they need to be printed.\u00a0 Believe me, it\u2019s not easy to get the printed photographs to look as good as they look on your monitor.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a different post.<\/p>\n

So, print out a dozen or so of your very best photographs.\u00a0 I\u2019d suggest you print 8x10s so that the next step will be more helpful.<\/p>\n

Then run out and invest in a calendar that contains the kind of photographs you are aspiring to.\u00a0 Select a calendar with photographs of a technical quality that you admire.\u00a0 But don\u2019t select a calendar of the works of the masters.\u00a0 We\u2019re not aiming for that just yet.\u00a0 That will come.\u00a0 Instead, choose a more everyday calendar.<\/p>\n

Now sit down at a table with the calendar and your dozen or so photographs.\u00a0 Make sure it\u2019s well lighted.\u00a0 Then set the two side by side.\u00a0 Flip to a page in the calendar and then set one of your photographs right next to it.\u00a0 How does it stack up?\u00a0 What\u2019s your\u2019 first impression.\u00a0 Try to be objective (that may be a little tough).<\/p>\n

What can you learn from the calendar photograph?\u00a0 Is your photograph as snappy as the calendar photo?\u00a0 Is your exposure as good or are you over or under exposed?\u00a0 How\u2019s your focus (an 8X10 photograph will be better for assessing focus than a smaller one)?\u00a0 Are your colors as rich?\u00a0 Is your composition as strong as theirs?\u00a0 Do you have distractions along the edges of your photo?<\/p>\n

What can you learn from this comparison?\u00a0 What can you do differently?\u00a0 What are you already doing as well or better?\u00a0 We all tend to be proud of our work and that\u2019s natural.\u00a0 So you might want to get a second opinion.\u00a0 Ask someone you trust and who will be honest with you to do the same comparison.\u00a0 This feedback can be extremely valuable.<\/p>\n

Moving to the Next Level<\/h3>\n

If you find that you have some room for growth, how can you go about reaching the next step?\u00a0 Well, there are several definite skills you can work on.<\/p>\n

Exposure<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t make a great photograph from a poorly exposed capture.\u00a0 It is critical to learn to get good exposures.\u00a0 I don\u2019t mean you need to shoot in Manual mode.\u00a0 I mean you need to know how to evaluate the histogram and make adjustments when it indicates you have an exposure problem.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t use the histogram it\u2019s time you become familiar with this powerful tool.<\/p>\n

Your image has to be in focus. That means more than setting your lens on auto-focus and letting it do its thing.\u00a0 The camera doesn\u2019t always make the right decision.\u00a0 There are three things you need to know about focus \u2013 depth of field, hyperfocal distance and diffraction.\u00a0 And you need to know how to control them.<\/p>\n

Light is critical, whether you\u2019re in a studio or outdoors.\u00a0 In a studio you need to know how to set up your lights to get the effect you want.\u00a0 When you\u2019re outdoors you need to know how to read the light and how to adjust to it.\u00a0 The study of light for is a fascinating life-long pursuit.<\/p>\n

Composition forms the emotional foundation of the image and is one of the most critical parts of a photograph.\u00a0 Start with some of the foundational principles like rule of thirds, off center, leading\u00a0 lines and clean edges and build from there.<\/p>\n

The place to start in the post processing is adjusting the tonality of your image.\u00a0 The things you need to do are set black and white points, adjust the overall brightness and make sure the contrast is just right.\u00a0 And you need to be able to do this for the entire image or just parts of it (global and local adjustments).<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a color cast to the original it will need to be corrected.\u00a0 If there\u2019s a cyan cast you need to add red.\u00a0 If there\u2019s a magenta cast you need to add green.\u00a0 It\u2019s really helpful to understand the color wheel and to think in terms of a color palette for your photographs.<\/p>\n

And finally you want to adjust the color saturation.\u00a0 Some colors may be too saturated and you\u2019ll want to decrease it.\u00a0 Other colors may not be saturated enough and you\u2019ll want to increase it.\u00a0 These decisions need to be made color by color and they may need to be applied globally or locally.<\/p>\n

So, I think it\u2019s very clear that there is a lot of skill that goes into making a successful calendar photograph.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as easy as it looks (which is the mark of a good photograph \u2013 it doesn\u2019t look like it was hard to do).\u00a0 That\u2019s why I feel that calendar art is an excellent first goal to set for people how are serious about their photography (and a challenging goal too).<\/p>\n

What Comes Next?<\/h3>\n

What comes after calendar art?\u00a0 Fine art.\u00a0 Moving beyond the solid quality of calendar art brings you into the realm of fine art.\u00a0 How is that different?\u00a0 I\u2019ll go into that in more detail in a future post.\u00a0 But to start you thinking let me make this observation.<\/p>\n

Calendar art is about the subject of the photograph.\u00a0 The photographer is transparent.\u00a0 In fine art the influence of the artist becomes more apparent.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

Join me on an upcoming workshop.\u00a0 Click here for more details.<\/a><\/p>\n

To see more of my photographs click here.<\/a><\/p>\n

(5746)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this post we take a look at photography skills with the aim of helping the interested photographer understand where he is and what needs to be done to advance to the next level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[293,281,296,4],"tags":[354,25,26,13,1358],"class_list":["post-2278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-composition-how-to-articles","category-expoure","category-histogram-how-to-articles","category-how-to-articles","tag-calendar-2","tag-fine-art","tag-photograph","tag-photography","tag-workshops"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9Nl7-AK","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2278"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4694,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2278\/revisions\/4694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}