My thanks go out to the Professional Photographers of Ontario for hosting a wonderful half day workshop for their members with me as their speaker at the Ashbridges Bay Yacht club in Toronto.
I was able to present to the group a motivational lecture, an on-location shoot, and an image review and quick post processing example after dinner. However to extend your experience, I’m going to provide you with some original Canon 1Ds raw files shot that day to try your hand at lab color mode post processing, as well as altering the mood of the photo with a lighting overlay image you can download from the Create Cart:
So I was out on an engagement shoot and had done all the normal stuff and wanted a little something extra…
But the simple daylight angle was not very flattering and the busy environment of the playground rope piece made for a very messy image - cool - but a little too messy - what could I do quickly to improve the impact of my couple in the space…
Here I am climbing around searching for the right perspective….
Read on to see the final shot and read about my camera settings making it…. Continue Reading »
Support: yes you can do this, be around people are positive (surrounding yourself with people that believe you can achieve the highest vision you have for your photography)
Get Serious about practice: make it conscious when you practice!
There is an area of mystery in an expert - where is the motivation coming from? how do they continue to shatter their own limits?
Belief itself allows you to go beyond your own limits
And this is where the podcast get’s interesting! So keep listening beyond 14 minutes….
It’s a false assertion that our beliefs are coming from an external fact or source; so many are based on our own opinions or interpretation of that event
so many of our beliefs are not individual thoughts, they are formed from a belief system: the belief system is an energy form that is incredibly powerful
Mind like water is a visual metaphor for a state of being. A nugget I hope you gain from watching this video is quoted “choice is a function of awareness, awareness comes as a function of meditation.”
So if no-one has ever taught you the goal of meditation let me help you “observe things from a place of non-reaction, which does not mean detachment, but means not attached to an outcome.” And this is my personal favorite photographic mode, allowing my own choices to be fully aware and scooping creative power from the natural surroundings….I hope you begin a practice of meditation into your life to help you create with a watchful eye and this article blesses you with the inertia to start that practice.
Here is a before and after view of what I did with the image, finishing with a little texture overlay and warm B+W tone. I chose to abandon the color since the background was so bad and dark. I could have adjusted the skintones in color, but with that eye makeup - I would still have found it a difficult picture to like. By adjusting to B+W and using the fine tuned tonal controls over density in the Luminance channel, I was able to draw the attention straight to the eyes. The texture is a good way to add blur and interest over a nondescript and non-essential background. The texture appears visually as a surface element creating a sense of space between the print and the background. Thanks to the power of LAB color mode and the one action workflow I didn’t waste all day.
Again here, I just want to emphasize that the ONE Action will always promote you getting to the essence of any particular shot. With the power of lab color, you can get at that essence more quickly and with less effort. As a point of discussion, I used the transform controls to level and improve the symmetry of Lilia’s face. After that I helped shape the upper cheek bones by lightening them, and providing a nice shadow under them to accentuate the and slim the face. Same process on the neck…. I applied a texture overlay here to help the head float in a luminous background that overlaps the shoulders. I only spent 5 minutes to achieve this affect with the ONE Action and my library of textures, but I’d charge my client at least $40.
I’d like to dedicate this site to one of my mentors, Don Chocran
I first met Don, on the Moose River in upstate NY. When a guy old enough to be your dad can rip you up in a kayak, it gets instant respect. Buy my friend who introduced him as a great photographer, and so I was curious. A few campfire stories later and we were friends and he was giving me tips to nail some killer kayaking photos the next day. So on various occasions for a few years, I would assist Don with some of his big projects…
Above is a shoot in which I ‘realized’ what the inverse square law could do for me and it helped us get done on time. Below on the floor are a whole spool of fuse burning lights, two large Fresnel spots to push the light up above the proscenium into the corners. On Polaroid we had made it too hot - and we were running out of time for this view, so without a dimmer on the lights it would take me 5-10 min to move them to the exact position. But as a trade off, I switched the angles on the lights to cross their beams and double the distance to the corners. Exposure was good after that, and it was a visceral understanding in the aplication of the inverse square law.
Well this is just a shot for inspiration, but on a shoot inside this building was the first time I gelled the lights for a shoot. It just happened that I taped Roscoe gels to all the florescent lights on the ceiling in a boardroom to color correct them and dim them to match the tungsten spots. From then on I knew what lengths one must be willing to go to in order to get good pictures. Planning and a little bit of technique mixed with some good old fashioned elbow grease helps things progress to the point of good.
So I’d like to dedicate this site to Don, for all that he taught me by just watching him do his job. Thanks.
And point out to those reading, that getting outside your photographic specialty can really teach you some things and inspire you to bring them back into your own practice - so contact an architectural shooter and see if they’re willing to take you along to a shoot.
I don’t really need to tell you that I don’t watch TV do I?
How about I challenge you to improve your seeing by escaping from the bombardment of your senses in front of the TV?
You see TV makes you a captive audience to 30 second intelligence aimed at motivating you to buy something or continue to be glued to the nonsense. Kill your TV and watch movies if you must, but kill your TV and play a seeing game!
Othello is a great option. In it, you must capture pieces by surrounding them with your color of chip. This game can challenge your mind to make strategy and predictive decisions, help you to see in B+W, and improve your pattern recognition skills. The game is pretty exciting and can go from win to loose in several moves. And as a strategy hint, win the corners!
Chinese checkers is probably my favorite board game. Maybe cause I hardly loose. Chinese checkers is unique in that it’s a positivist strategy game - no pieces die or are captured - it’s only who can get to the other side first. Chinese checkers will demand that you analyze a complex and changing system to make the most positive move within the current design. The game reflects the efficiency of nature and will help you see connections and act on them, this will transfer to your photographic and artistic endeavors.
I believe each of these games will improve your visual awareness, calm your mind, and give you some fun with your loved ones.
