Learning from others

I’m a big fan of Larry Becker’s blog. I love his ability to observe a simple situation and then, with his unique writing style, make a lesson out of it.  Recently, he wrote a post called “Dissecting the Work of Others“. In his article, he suggests three reasons to try recreating someone’s style. It reminded me how we analyzed other competitors when we competed on the National Karate Circuit. So, for a week, I had my karate students “dissect” each other’s performance. Their goal, copy something they liked from another performer.

Using this same advice, I started to review a few of my favorite photographers. I wanted to see how they blended their photography talents with their editing skills. Notice I said editing skills? It doesn’t matter if they used Photoshop, Lightroom or another image editing software. I was looking for artist to emulate and then one found me!

I received a compliment from Trey Ratcliff on my post, “Adding Texture to an Image“. I was feeling pretty good. He mention he did a video series on textures and offered me to check it out. Being a HUGE fan of his work, of course I had to. Applying Larry’s advice, I dissect Trey’s technique. To say I’m excited is an understatement!

Trey blends several simple Photoshop tricks together to create a unique piece of art. He walks you through his entire work flow from choosing the textures to applying them in Photoshop. Some textures and techniques worked, some didn’t. He didn’t edit anything out of the video. You see exactly what he was thinking while creating his image. As an added bonus, he supplies all the textures for you!

My quick notes:

• look for textures with colors that will enhance your image.
• apply as many textures to an image as you want without over doing it.
• major use of layer mask, look for elements in the photo you want to keep and edit out the rest.
• merge the final layers, keeping the original as the top layer and use opacity to dial in the effect.
• Review Trey’s Video

Learned more than HDR

Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to be a guest of  Scott Bourne at his workshop in Tampa Florida. His special guest, Trey Ratcliff and the subject, High Dynamic Range (HDR). Before the seminar started, I struck up a conversation with an attendee. He said he saw a huge differences from the photos he took Friday; the night before the seminar, and Saturday, after he took the seminar. He couldn’t believe what he had learned in just one day. This gave me a high expectation of the workshop. I wasn’t disappointed!

On the surface, these two motivated instructors taught the fundamentals of HDR. The more I listened, the more  I realized they were teaching more than HDR. It takes a masterful instructor to teach one topic and sneak in concepts and theories that can be applied to any subject.  To keep this post simple, I’ve outlined the philosophy I came away with from the workshop.

Trey Ratcliff:

• Blues give other colors their vibrancy.
• Important to put complimentary colors together.
• Lens choice 14-24.
• uses google earth to scout out his locations.
• communicate feeling through temperature.
• perspective crop
• Nik color Efec 3.0 – tonal contrast for HDR look

My favorite quote from Trey: When you can’t get the shot you really want, there are always plenty of other shots around.

When shooting HDR

• Aperture priority mode
• Tripod level
• Auto bracket
• Cable release
• Nikon VR or Canon IS off
• Use PhotomatixPro for tone mapping
• Use Photoshop to complete your image

Scott Bourne

• HDR doesn’t have to stop with color, convert it to black and white.
• Recreate the image the way YOU saw it.
• The human eye sees about 11 stops of light, the camera only sees about 4
• Try vertical Landscape panoramics
• Photography protects memories
• Every photo or painting should have a little mystery in it.

My favorite quote from Scott: Be authentic, be yourself. That’s how you become different.

A Few Guidelines (not rules)

• Look for leading lines
• make the photo lead the viewer on a path
• Watch horizontal lines; either on top or bottom avoid the middle
• Study the old masters.
• Look for odd numbers like 3 trees or 5 benches.
• Look for shapes and colors.
• Landscapes need a strong foreground.
• Focus 1/3 into the landscape.
• When taking photos of people or anything with eyes, try to take the photo at their eye level.

Acronyms

Subject
Attention
Simplify

Entire shot
Detail
Focal length
Angle
Time

Look up
Look down
Look all around