Seeing the End Result


To illustrate the idea of seeing creatively, I'd like to share with you a few of the pictures I took during two of my wild-west photography workshops. I'll begin with some pictures that I took on the Ponderosa Ranch in Seneca, Oregon (a Joseph Van Os Photo Safari) and end with a few images from the Double JJ Ranch in Rothbury, Michigan (a Popular Photography Mentor Series workshop).

All of these pictures have been tweaked a bit in Adobe Photoshop and in Photoshop Camera Raw (see the sidebar "Real Artists Shoot Raw" at the end of this chapter), but no special effects or digital filters have been applied. Basically, they're straight shots. I include technical data for each picture to give you an idea of the camera settings and lenses I used.

Catch the Light

From a technical standpoint, when you take a picture, all you're doing is recording light. You could be called a light catcher or a light gatherer.

Keeping that in mind when you're looking through the viewfinder will help you get good exposuresif you learn how to see the light, you learn how to identify the highlight and shadow areas of a scene and set the exposure accordingly.

For all of my pictures, I set the exposure for the highlights because I don't want them overexposed. In this picture of a cowboy at sunset, for example, I used the bright sky area as my reference point, which resulted in a nicely silhouetted subject (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 400mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 200.


Sure, you can rescue an f-stop or more of overexposed highlights in Camera Raw, and adjust the shadow and highlight areas in Photoshop using the Shadow/Highlight feature (Image > Adjustments > Shadow/Highlight). But if you start with a good exposure, you'll have more time to be creative in Photoshop.

Make Pictures

There is a big difference between taking pictures and making pictures. My workshop co-leader, Darrell Gulin, and I made or set up or helped to set up most of the pictures in this section. That is, we worked with the subjects to get exactly the kind of pictures we envisioned in our minds.

This picture, like a scene from a wild-west movie, was totally set up (Figure 1.2). We picked the time of day. We picked the location for the backlit horses to ride out of a cloud of dust. We also selected the location for the photographers. Those directions yielded a picture that probably would be impossible to get by chance.

Figure 1.2.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 400mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 800.


When you take the time to make pictures, you get photographs that go beyond a simple snapshot.

Think Creatively

When you're out in the field, use your imagination to compose pictures in your mind that others may not envision. To use the cliché, think outside the boxor frame.

This picture illustrates how a unique angle (shooting from ground level) and viewpoint (shooting between the legs of a cowboy) resulted in a creative photograph (Figure 1.3). This scene benefits from the fact that everything is in focus, from the cowboy's spurs to the building in the background. That's the result of using a very wide-angle lens set to a small aperture.

Figure 1.3.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 15mm lens. Exposure: 1/30 sec. @ f/11. ISO 100.


Fill the Frame

Here's one of my favorite photography tips: The name of the game is to fill the frame. When you fill the frame with the subject and/or subjects, you have less dead space in your picture. The less dead space, the more interesting the picture.

This picture illustrates another technique that I'll squeeze in (Figure 1.4). To get the entire scene in focus, use a wide-angle lens, focus one third of the way into the scene (using manual, not automatic, focus to get the greatest depth of field), and select a small aperture. Had I used a wider aperture or a longer lens and focused on the sleeping cowboy or the building, the entire scene would not have been in focus.

Figure 1.4.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 17-40mm lens @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/60 sec. @ f/11. ISO 100.


Take Horizontal and Vertical Pictures

One of the first choices you have in taking a photograph is to shoot either a horizontal or a vertical picture. There is no right or wrong choice. However, if you follow the aforementioned tip about filling the frame, you'll quickly identify which format is more appropriate.

Speaking of filling the frame, you may think that I didn't fill the frame when taking these two pictures (Figures 1.5 and 1.6). However, the clouds added to the beauty of these scenes and illustrated "big sky country," so I chose to include them.

Figure 1.5.

Tech info (for both figures): Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 17-40mm lens @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125 sec. @ f/8. ISO 100. A polarizing filter was used on the lens for both photographs to darken the blue sky and whiten the clouds.


Figure 1.6.

Tech info (for both figures): Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 17-40mm lens @ 17mm. Exposure: 1/125 sec. @ f/8. ISO 100. A polarizing filter was used on the lens for both photographs to darken the blue sky and whiten the clouds.


Provide a Sense of Place

I used to tell my photography students that the background was almost as important to me as the main subject. Today, I stress that the background is as important as the main subject because it gives the subject a sense of place.

For example, imagine how these cowboys (Figures 1.7 and 1.8) would look if I had photographed them in New York City or on a beach in Pago Pago.

Figure 1.7.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 28-105mm lens @ 100mm. Exposure: 1/250 sec. @ f/5.6. ISO 200.


Figure 1.8.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 28-105mm lens @ 35mm. Exposure: 1/125 sec. @ f/11. ISO 400.


When composing your pictures, pay careful attention to the background. If it's not right, you may have to move the subject to a new location. Or, if you can't work with the background you have, you could darken or blur it in Photoshop. You'd lose your sense of place, but you'd still have a nice picture.

Of course, you could also use Photoshop's Clone Stamp tool to remove distracting elements from the background, or even import a background from another image. But your best bet is to shoot with a good background in mind.

Look for Details

When you're composing a picture, look carefullyvery carefullyat all the elements in a scene to see if they add or detract from the impact of your picture.

Check out the photograph of the cowboy (Figure 1.9). At first glance, it's a nice portrait. Look closer, and you'll see the reflection of the cowboy's horse in his sunglassesa horse strategically positioned, by the way.

Figure 1.9.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 28-105mm lens @ 105mm. Exposure: 1/250 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.


Now look at the picture of the cowgirl on the horse (Figure 1.10). What makes this picture interesting is the cowboy's shadow on the horse's rump. Here, I asked a cowboy to position himself that way. Little touches like that make the difference between a nice shot and a more creative image.

Figure 1.10.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 28-105mm lens @ 35mm. Exposure: 1/125 sec. @ f/8. ISO 100.


Tell a Story

In addition to being called a light catcher, you need to consider yourself a storyteller, because a successful photograph tells a story, as I mentioned at the beginning of this chapter (Figure 1.11).

Figure 1.11.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 300mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 200.


To help you tell a story with a picture, try to write a caption for the picture in your mind while you're composing the scene. That process may help you with your composition and exposure. It may also tell you that you need to wait for just the right light, or add light with a flash or reflector, or diffuse light with a diffuser (Figure 1.12).

Figure 1.12.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 300mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 200.


Use Time to Your Advantage

Now let's look at two of my favorite pictures from the Double JJ Ranch. You can easily stop or blur the action in a photograph by adjusting the shutter speed on your camera. Slow shutter speeds (usually below 1/30 second) blur action; fast shutter speeds (usually above 1/500 second) stop or freeze it.

Both of these pictures say action in their own way, but the picture with the blurred background conveys a greater sense of speed (Figures 1.13 and 1.14). Sure, you can add a sense of speed to a picture using one of Photoshop's Blur filters; but, as always, it saves you time in your digital darkroom if you start with the picture that you see in your mind's eye. In addition to carefully selecting the aperture to get either all or part of a scene in focus, choose your shutter speed wisely.

Figure 1.13.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 28-135mm IS lens @ 135mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.


Figure 1.14.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 300mm. Exposure: 1/30 sec. @ f/8. ISO 200. A tripod was used to steady the camera.


Envision the End Result

Seeing pictures in the field is a part of the creative picture-taking processa big part! But envisioning what can be done in Photoshop to enhance an image (covered in Chapter 2) and then adding an artistic touch to that image (covered in Chapters 3 and 4) is also important.

How do you get good at seeing? The same way you get good at any creative endeavor, such as playing the piano or guitar: practice.

When I was composing this picture of a herd of horses running toward me at top speed, I envisioned freezing the action and cropping out the top and bottom of the image so that the horses filled the frame (Figure 1.15). I also envisioned a black-and-white image (Figure 1.16), as well as a more artistic rendition created by applying Photoshop's Diffuse Glow filter (Filter > Distort > Diffuse Glow) to the image (Figure 1.17).

Figure 1.15.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 200mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.


Figure 1.16.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 200mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.


Figure 1.17.

Tech info: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II, Canon 100-400mm IS lens @ 200mm. Exposure: 1/500 sec. @ f/8. ISO 400.





Idea to Image in Photoshop CS2(c) Rick Sammon's Guide to Enhancing Your Digital Photographs
Idea to Image in Photoshop CS2: Rick Sammons Guide to Enhancing Your Digital Photographs
ISBN: 0321429184
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 72
Authors: Rick Sammon

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