Are you an iconic photographer?

One of the first trips June and I took with my first DSLR (a Canon Digital Rebel XTi, which I still have)  was to the Canadian Rockies in Alberta.  We've been to a lot of different places since then but the Canadian Rockies is still my favorite place to visit.  I remember taking a lot of photographs, including this one of Spirit Island on Maligne Lake.

It's not really an island, but if you position yourself correctly and compose the shot just right it can appear to be an island.   This is one of those shots everyone takes.  To get the shot you either have to hike for a couple days or take a boat tour.  The boat drops you off right next to the island and gives you just enough time to walk to a spot to get "the shot" before it's time to get back in the boat and head back to the other end of the lake.

Spirit Island is what I call an Iconic Photograph - the image everyone who has been there has taken and you can find hundreds or thousands almost identical copies on the internet.  Try this - go to google.com and type "spirit island maligne lake" in the search box.  When the list of results comes up click images and see what you get.   On one trip to Zion National Park I found myself standing shoulder to shoulder with dozens of other photographers to take an Iconic Picture of The Watchman from the Canyon Junction Bridge.  Even National Geographic photographers give in to temptation and take iconic photos, such as Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park at sunrise.  Every place has them and they are not to be missed.  When planning a trip that I may only get to take once I prepare my hit list of iconic photos I want to take while I'm there.   I'm in the final stages of planning a trip to Washington State and Oregon and have created  quite a list of iconic photo spots to hit.

While I will take the Iconic Photos, lately I've become more interested in finding something unique and different and less interested in the images made by hundreds or thousands of photographers before me.  I try to find subjects and compositions that I won't see on other people's websites, facebook, etc.   Here's a quote from one of my favorite photographer/authors:.

"The more I study photographs from the past century -

the incredibly short lifespan of our art so far - the more

convinced I am that everything’s been photographed,

that our challenge now is to manipulate light, lines,

and moments in the frame in a way that expresses our

unique view of those so oft-photographed subjects. "

- David duChemin - Photograph Issue 2

I don't know if everything has been photographed, but it's getting harder and harder to create unique photographs.  Here's some photos I took in 2012 and some suggestions on avoiding the iconic photography rut.

Even when you are at one of those iconic spots, open your mind to different angles or subjects.  On this morning I was in the Smoky Mountains at one of the best places to photograph the sunrise.  When the sunrise didn't happen I had fun taking long exposure photos of cars going by on the road.  Not what I went for but a different take on a familiar location.

Slow down and look for something or someone outside of the main action.  In this case I was taking photos at a Revolutionary War Reenactment and discovered this man resting on a bench outside one of the cabins.   An interesting expression on his face and that red vest and green hat are a great combination of contrasting colors.

Walk a ways off the beaten path.   I was at Roan Mountain with a group of friends for sunrise photographs.  Afterward we walked down the road just a little way and found this just off the road.  People were driving and walking by about 15 feet away and never looking down where we were getting this image.

Look for small details with interesting shapes, lines and colors.  This is a section of McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park.   Although hundreds of people take photos here every day, I bet you won't see this one anywhere else.  It tells a story of how the rocks have been worn smooth and the curve carved by the blue glacier fed river.  Here's another of small details in the same river.

Look beyond the obvious.   I was on the Blue Ridge Parkway for the fall colors.  When I took this the sky was blue and the colors brilliant, but I found the the lake with leaves on the surface and a reflection of trees to be more interesting.  I think I got some strange looks when I was taking pictures looking down when the obvious iconic picture was up.

These are just some examples and suggestions.  You might want to read this article on Lightstalking - Travel Photography - A Different Point of View.

There are interesting subjects all around us.  If you look you will find all God's creations are interesting and worthy of being photographed.  All we have to do is open our minds, slow down, get off the beaten path, look for the details and look beyond the obvious. 

My Photography Was All Wet

All photos can be viewed large size by clicking on them.  The Smoky Mountain photos are available for purchase here.

Kind of a strange title for a blog post.  What in the world is he talking about?   Photography that's not good?  Ideas that are all wet? Developing film? Are you interested yet?

I'm talking about what I did this last weekend.   The forecast was for up to 2 inches of rain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Saturday and Sunday with locally heavy down pours and possible lightning.  Sound like a good time to stay in doors and wait for better weather right?   No way!   Time to grab the camera and head to the mountains!

There have been times when I've been out taking pictures on a bright sunny cloudless day and people I meet will say something like "What a great day to be out taking pictures.  It's it beautiful?"  I'll smile and say something like "It sure is a beautiful day" but in my mind I'm wishing for clouds and even a little rain.  You might be thinking my head should be examined.

Bright sunny days are not great conditions to take landscape photos, especially during the hours between an hour after sunrise and an hour before sunset.  At these times the light can make taking photos very difficult.   The bright sunlight can make parts of a scene extremely bright while other parts are in deep dark shadows.  Under these high contrast conditions it is hard to find an exposure that works for both the bright and dark areas.   Expose for the bright spots and the shadows are very dark without any details.  Expose for the shadows and the bright parts are over exposed, sometimes to the point of being solid white with no details.  HDR photography can be used to overcome these conditions but even with HDR techniques it can be difficult to get to a realistic photo that is pleasing to look at.

Stormy days are the opposite.  If the entire scene is in the shadow of clouds then the difference between the brightest and darkest areas of a photo are not as extreme.  You can more easily come up with a single exposure that covers the entire range of light in the scene.   Gone are the dark shadows and blown out bright highlights.   Partly cloudy may not work if you are still dealing with bright sunny and cloudy spots in a scene.  You need a solid overcast day.

Rainy days are even better.  When foliage is wet it can bring out the vibrant colors in the green leaves, brown soil, and colorful flowers.   It's important to use a polarizing filter when there is any water on the subjects, even when it is dark and cloudy.   A polarizer will cut the reflection off wet leaves and other surfaces and allow the dark rich colors to be captured, as in the photo below.  It was really pouring when I took this one, but the 2 1/2 second exposure allowed me to blur the water and make the raindrops "disappear".

So, when the forecast was for a rainy weekend June and I made reservations at our favorite hotel in Townsend Tennessee and headed for the mountains.   I am blessed to have a wife who is willing to go away on a weekend of wet rainy weather and drive around looking for that shot of a flowering dogwood hanging over the far bank of a rushing  stream or the wildflower covered in rain drops.  

These dark wet days are also the best time to take photos of streams and waterfalls.  The low light conditions allow me to get slow exposures that create the silky white water effect that I really like.  In the first photo above, I was able to get a long six second exposure making the water soft while keeping the rocks sharp and well defined.

Some of the best conditions can be at the end of a storm when the skies start to clear.  If this occurs in the early morning or late afternoon God may put on a dramatic show of sunlight and storm clouds that can be breathtaking.  I didn't get these conditions this weekend but there was a time when the rain stopped and the clouds started to lift.  I took 8 vertical (portrait orientation) shots and stitched them together to create this wide panorama of Cades Cove.  You can see the brilliant colors in the field and some of the fog hanging in the mountains.

There are some conditions where bright sunny days are good for landscape photos.  In this example from Glacier National Park, the sunlight was behind me and evenly lit the field and mountains, without harsh light or dark shadows.  The 6,600 foot altitude made the sky deep blue, which made the mountains stand out.  This shot wouldn't have worked on a cloudy day.

Bottom line is don't let the weather keep you from going out, taking some photos, and enjoying God's creation.  Figure out what works well under the conditions God has given you and shoot it.

Enjoy!

Nail the Focus with Live View

Well it looks like wildflower season may actually arrive here in East Tennessee before summer does.   The day time temps are forecast to be 50 - 60 this week with some sunny days.  I saw my first wildflowers last Friday.  With the wet winter-spring and extended cold weather we've had I expect the blooms to start popping out all over any day now. 

Wildflowers are great macro photography subjects.  I suspect many of you will be like me out in the field (literally) with your macro lens trying to get that great image that is perfectly focused on exactly the right spot to make your composition.  If you're like me, you'll struggle with the focusing.  Here's some tips to help you "nail the focus" on your macro shots.

First, put your lens on a good sturdy tripod.  Good macros can be made hand held, but they can be challenging.

Second, use a wired or wireless remote shutter release. If you don't have one, use your camera's shutter timer so you are not touching the camera when the shutter trips.

Third, turn off auto-focus and set your lens to manual focus.   When you're shooting a small intimate scene like a wildflower your depth of field where the subject is in focus will be extremely shallow.  It is important to compose your shot and manually focus so that the most important part of the composition is in focus.  The auto focus may be great, but it will often focus on the wrong thing, ruining the shot.

There are a lot of factors working against you being able to manually focus a macro shot.   The camera may be low to the ground, requiring you to either lay on the ground or get into a contorted position that makes yoga look easy in order to be able to look through the viewfinder.  I wear glasses with the "no-line bifocal" feature, which means the focus on the bottom of my glasses is different from the middle or top.  If I'm in a position where it's difficult to line up my glasses with the viewfinder then manually focusing through the viewfinder is frustrating because it never appears to be in focus.

Fourth, manually focusing a macro shot involves minute manual adjustments. It's hard to tell when you have the focus where you want it.  Any slight movement of the focus ring, camera or subject can ruin the focus.

The good news is most modern DSLRs have a Live View feature that can help over come the manual focus challenge.   In Live View mode you're seeing what will be in the image before you take the shot, but you're seeing it on the camera's LCD.  Live View enables you to view and compose the shot without fighting to get in position to look through the view finder.  You see the image while you manually focus so you are able to get the focus right and on the right spot.  If you have a camera with an articulating LCD display then you have even greater flexibility.

Both Canon and Nikon DSLRs have a digital zoom feature while in Live View mode which works like zooming in to the image in post processing.  What I do is pick a place where I want the focus to be as sharp as possible then use the Live View zoom to get down to where I can see the smallest details on the LCD while manually focusing.   You'll be able to see how just touching the focus ring on the lens can change the focus.

Of course, to make this possible your camera must be on a tripod.  Any camera or subject movement will make manual focus nearly impossible.  If you are hand holding and/or the subject is moving you might be better off in auto focus mode.

Live View manual focusing is not just for macro shots.  I've been using it to get more accurate manual focusing in my landscape shots.

The way Live View works varies by manufacturer and camera model.  You'll want to break down and actually read your owners manual and then practice a bit before heading out into the fields of flowers, bugs and other subjects in the intimate world of macro photography.

These and other macro flower photos are available online in the flower gallery on my website.

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Should I shoot my black and white in color?

Many digital cameras today will take photos in black and white.  Sounds like a neat time saving feature.  If I intend for a photo to be a black and white image, why not let the camera convert it to black and white for me and save an editing step later?   Like most things, taking a short cut now will cause problems later.

When the image that comes out of the camera in black and white, all you have is black and white.  All the color information has been lost.  You can't tell a red from a green or blue.  Why do you care if it's a black and white?  If you plan on doing any editing of the photo, you do care about the colors.   Here's an example to illustrate my point.

Here's a color image shown in Lightroom 4

Although it was still winter when I took this, there are some colors here.  Blue sky, red bricks, green roof, and just a little green grass.   Now, here's the same image converted to black and white in Lightroom.

By default Lightroom will create a black and white image that maximizes the distribution of grey tones. Notice how the color channel sliders on the right have been automatically set by Lightroom.   Most of the time I use this as a good starting point.  In this case, I want to make this photo a bit more dramatic.

I start by making the sky more dramatic by increasing the contrast between the dark (blue) areas and the light clouds.  Because the color information is still there in the photo I can easily do this by lowering the blue channel by grabbing that slider and pulling it to the left.

Notice the difference in the sky.  If I pulled the slider all the way to the left the sky would be almost black, which may be dramatic but it does not feel natural.

Second I want to lighten the front of the Salt House.  I do that by adjusting the Red, Orange and Yellow sliders until I get the effect I want.  I also want to darken the roof a bit.  Because the roof is green I can easily do that by pulling the green slider to the left.

Sometimes the color I want to adjust is not a pure color but a mixture of several colors.  Lightroom has a cool tool for adjusting specific colors in an image.  At the top left of the B&W panel on the right is a small target.  Clicking on the target activates the target adjustment.  Put your cursor in the place in the image that contains the color you want to adjust, left click and drag the mouse pointer up to brighten that color or down to darken it.  When you do this you will see more than one slider move and some sliders will move more than others.  Click Done to turn off the targeted adjustment mode.

In this example the locomotive is a bit dark and some details cannot be seen.  I'd like to lighten it up a bit.  Because black is the absence of color you can not use the color channels to make this adjustment.  The same is true for white, which is all colors blended together.   The best way to adjust these is to adjust the region of the tone curve using the tone curve or tone sliders or to use the adjustment brush.

If I was working with a straight black and white image right out of the camera with no color information it would be difficult to impossible to make these adjustments. That's why you should always shoot in color and then convert to black and white later on the computer.

I used Lightroom for this example but it works the same in other photo editing packages, including Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex (now part of Google).

Remember, don't take short cuts when you capture an image.   It may sound like a good time saving step but you may not be able to get the end result you want if you short cut.  The same rule applies for good composition, exposure, and technique when taking a photo.  Get it right in camera without short cuts.

Some of my favorite software is on sale 70% off!

I've used Nik software in addition to Adobe Lightroom for a couple years now.  I own the entire suite

Silver Efex

• Color Efex 4
• HDR Efex Pro 2
• Silver Efex Pro 2
• Vivesa 2
• Define 2.0
• Sharpener Pro 3

You can't beat the quality of Nik software.  When I learned that Nik had been gobbled up by the giant Google I was concerned about the future of the product.  Google bought the company to get the Snapseed mobile app, which they promptly started giving away for free. What was in the future for my Nik suite of products?

Well, Google hasn't released any new products or versions but what they have done is drop the price for the complete suite from $499.95 to $149.  That's a 70% price reduction!

I can't predict what the future hold for the Nik software now that it is Nik Collection by Google.  Will there be new versions?  Will there be new packages?  Will the pricing stay low?  Hard to say.  For now I recommend if you use Apple Aperture, Adobe Photoshop, or Adobe Lightroom that you jump on this deal at http://www.niksoftware.com/nikcollection/usa/index.php?view=intro%2Fmain.shtml

Online Photography Magazine - Photograph

Those of you who read my blog know I enjoy photography books.   I've gathered quite a collection in my library, including several eBooks.   I also subscribe to a couple photography magazines, but after a few years I find the articles are short and not in depth enough for me.  They tend to spend a significant number of their pages on reviewing the latest gear. I'm not in the market for new gear and tend to skip over these, plus all the pages and pages of ads.

I recently subscribed to an eMagazine - Photograph, A Quarterly Magazine for Creative Photographers from the people at Craft & Vision.

I missed the first issue and subscribed for the next 4 issues for $24.   The second edition is 120 pages of interviews with and photographs from premier artists, instructional articles, inspiring articles, and yes, there is one gear review article.    Because they are not sponsored by the gear makers and sellers, their reviews may be a bit more reliable than what you get in the traditional printed magazines.  What's missing in the ads.  There is not one ad in the magazine.   Only $6 per issue or $0.05 per page this is a nice deal.  Because it is delivered in Adobe PDF format, I can keep it on my home PC, my laptop on the road, and even my smart phone. 

The featured portfolios in the second edition are from Martin Bailey, an excellent landscape and nature photographer living in Japan, Andy Biggs, a specialist in B&W images of African wildlife, and the portrait photographer Chris Orwig.  Being able to enjoy photos from these artists is worth the price of the entire edition.  There is a Q&A interview article about each photographer that goes along with their portfolios. 

Other articles include

• Using the Frame by John Paul Caponigro
• Long Exposure Photography in a Few Simple Steps by Younes Bounhar
• Inspiration and Fight by Chris Orwig
• On Missing the Shot by David Duchemin  
• Studio Sketch book - Simple Sushi Session by Kevin Clark
• Taxi Driver. The Armenian Remake using Lightroom 4 by Piet Van Den Eynde
• Why Resolution Matters, But Doesn't Matter by Martin Bailey
• Exposure and Metering Modes by Nicole S. Young
• FujiFilm X-Pro 1 by Al Smith
• Fall In by Jay Goodrich

I've had this magazine for a few weeks now and have not finished reading it yet.  I find myself spending more time reading and thinking about what I have read.  When I get a typical print photography magazine I tend to be finished with it in less than two hours.

I suggest you check out this new eMagazine.  Buy one copy for $8 to check it out.    I'm pretty sure you'll be subscribing.

The Crop

Do you crop your photos or leave them as they came out of the camera?  If you crop, do you use the standard crop sizes such as 8x10, 5x7 or 11x17?

Photos out of my camera come out with a 2x3 ratio, meaning the photos are 1 1/2 times as wide as they are tall.  They can be printed uncropped 2x3, 4x6, 8x12, 20x30, etc.  Often they look fine just the way they were composed and don't need to be cropped.  But other times, they could be improved with a little creative cropping.

Here's one I took this weekend when hiking up the balds of the Roan Highlands from Carver's Gap.

This is uncropped just as it was composed and shot.  It is in a landscape orientation, but is that the best way to present it?   The trees dominate the image giving it a vertical feel.  The trees sticking out of the snow in the back hint at a horizontal line tilting down on the right side.  I think there are multiple options here to explore.

What if it was in a portrait format?  This first 8x10 crop simplifies the image by removing many of the trees and focuses the viewer on the clear area leading to the lighter section in the center of the top half.  Including the snow at the bottom makes it feel like the trees are further away.  This crop emphasizes the vertical trees.  Vertical lines in a composition symbolize strength and stability.

You don't see square crops very often because they can tend to feel static and uninteresting.  However, in the second version of the same image, the square crop has been used to remove distracting elements and focus attention to the lighter point in the back of the trees.  Removing the snow at the bottom and the tree on the right makes the viewer feel like they are in the scene and gives it depth.  Almost feels like I can touch that tree on the right.

The third option is a wide crop using a 1x2 aspect ratio, meaning it is twice as wide as tall.  A horizontal image is more like what we naturally see with our eyes. In this version you see more of the horizontal line across the background made by the trees and snow.   Horizontal lines are peaceful and tranquil, which seems to be appropriate for this peaceful snowy scene.

Composing a horizontal or landscape image with repeating vertical lines can give a sense that the scene can't be contained and the repeating lines continue to the left and right.   In the image below I framed the image with a tree trunk on either side, which contains it and the composition loses that infinite feel, but they do give a sense of depth to the image.  A good title for this one might be "Lost in The Woods" because it feels like trees are all around.  There is no one element in the image that jumps out and says "look at me", but my eyes want to explore the path through the trees on the left side.

Should you crop using the standard ratios found in Lightroom and other photo editing tools?   It might be easier to get a standard size printed and it will be easier to find a ready made frame for a standard size print.  However, I have come to realize it's more important to crop right than to fit within a limited number of print sizes.  There are companies out there that will print in almost any dimension.   Places like American Frame will custom build a frame for you at a reasonable price.  If you only going to display the image on a website, then there is no reason to restrict the crop at all.  Crop to any ratio you think makes a better composition.

I like some of these better than others.  You may not agree with what I like or may not like any of them.  There is really no right way to compose an image.  Don't let others opinions limit your creativity.

One last point about cropping is you should always try to get the composition as close to what you want when you take it and not rely on cropping later.  You may find you don't have sufficient resolution to crop a horizontal image into a vertical.

Both of the images used here were taken while hiking up the balds of the Roan Highlands from Carver's Gap on Saturday.  It was snowing and I was in the clouds all morning.  Not great conditions for the grand landscape vista shots (I couldn't tell the mountains from the sky) but the low contrast conditions were great for these in the woods shots.