Digital Photography Mastery

If you are like me, you constantly struggle with the creative process in photography. I’ve always felt that my technical abilities were very good, even above average for the most part. But coming up with original ideas and consistently producing eye catching photos can be a challenge. I believe it’s a lot like golf. If it were easy, then there wouldn’t be that drive to master it.

I purchased a series of ebooks from Craft and Vision a few months back, and finally got around to reading them. It was originally a two book series titled The Inspired Eye: Notes on Creativity for Photographers, written by David duChemin. Later, David added a third book to the series.

The Inspired Eye series, while not life changing, was definitely worth the few dollars I spent on it and the time to read it. Each eBook takes around an hour or two to read. In the series, I learned not only the creative process that David duChemin goes through, but also that working professionals struggle with creativity as much as enthusiasts do.

In book one, David introduces the Muses. The goddesses who where sources of inspiration in classical Greek mythology. Then he goes on to discuss what I would characterize as the mental aspects of being creative. Increasing your inputs, letting ideas incubate, knowing your creative space, embracing your constraints, being open to serendipity, and making mistakes.

In book two, David gets into the nuts and bolts of the creative process. Asking “what if”, knowing the rules and breaking them, collaborating, learning your craft, not censoring yourself, keeping notes on ideas and inspiration, digging deeper for inspiration, and letting it all flow. The book ends with an interview with Chris Orwig, photographer, author, and faculty at Brooks Institute of Photography.

Lastly, in book three, David discusses some mental and physical techniques he uses to boost his creativity. Topics include: stronger imaginations, sketching photographs, quantity leads to quality, taking risks, beginning, embracing solitude, slowing down, playing, imitating others and then moving on, trusting your process, and finally, forgetting about talent.

If you are looking for books on photographic techniques, then The Inspired Eye series is not for you. David duChemin steps outside the typical photography how-to book design and addresses some of the mental aspects of making good photography. Actually, his Inspired Eye series could be used in any creative endeavor, be it photography, painting, sketching, sculpture, or any other I have failed to mention.

Pick up your copy of any or all of The Inspired Eye books and start reading. I believe they will make any enthusiast or professional photographer better at his or her craft. And you can’t beat the price. Individually, each ebook costs $5, and you can get the entire series of three books for $12.

You can click on any of the book covers above, and you will automatically be sent over to David’s web site. Of course, I do earn a commission when you go through my links (at no extra cost to you!). If you do end up making a purchase, please shoot me a note on Twitter or Facebook so I can thank you personally!

Wikipedia defines Bokeh (pronounced boh-kay) as “the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image.” Bokeh is also defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light.” Bokeh in of itself, is not a bad thing. The problem, as I see it, is when bokeh becomes the subject of the photo. Or more percisely, when bokeh becomes more important than the main subject of your photograph. At that point, it’s nothing more than a gimmick used solely for the purpose of catching the viewers eye. The photo itself has little to no value. It’s weak. So, even though the photographer has caught the viewers attention, there’s no sustenance to the photo to hold their attention.

Bokeh is not new, just newly defined

According to Wikipedia, bokeh “was popularized in 1997 in Photo Techniques magazine” and “appeared in photography books at least since 1998.” After hearing the term “bokeh” for the first time, I remember looking up the definition and thinking, “this is nothing new.”

The phenomenon of bokeh has been around long before the term ever existed. The basic principles of light and optics have not changed since the very first photos were made, so the effect of “out-of-focus points of light” has been around since the very first photographs. Looking in one of my old photo manuals from the early 80s, I see mention of the effect of mirror lens causing “out of focus rings of light.” Sounds like bokeh to me even though it didn’t have a fancy name back then.

Bokeh is the big buzzword all over the photography forums. Seems like every post has, “nice bokeh” or “fantastic bokeh, man.” I typically don’t hear beginning photographers talking about bokeh too much, mostly because they are concentrating on learning their craft. And the professional photographers, although very aware of bokeh, don’t obsess about it. The enthusiast photographers, however, really latched onto the term and effect. The only thing I can figure is that bokeh is an easy term to understand, an easy effect to spot, and an easy effect to create.

Enthusiast photographers want to sound like they know what they are talking about. I get that. They’ve worked really hard at learning their craft. They’ve spent countless hours reading books and making images. They are at that juncture where they want to be part of the photography community and to be noticed. I understand, and I am right there with them. But, please stop trying to impress others with your ability to use the latest and greatest buzzwords.

Using the term “bokeh” excessively is nothing more than a form of name-dropping. Just because you know one of the buzzwords of enthusiast and professional photographers, does not mean you are a great photographer, or even a good photographer for that matter. I’m not saying eliminate it from your vocabulary altogether, but definitely limit it down to the minor player that it is. Talk about a photos subject matter, it’s composition, it’s use of light and shadow, it’s ability to tell a story, and “oh hey, there’s some interesting bokeh there in the background.”

Bokeh should not be your main subject

One of my favorite images that I made is of an American Goldfinch perched on a limb in my backyard. As typical in most of my bird photography, I made the image with my diaphragm wide open to throw the background out of focus; isolating my main subject (the bird) from its background. In this photo, the background is a pine tree. The light colored pine needles did create some bokeh. I put my photo on Flickr and very rapidly got the comment, “nice bokeh, man.” Really? Looking at this photo, your only takeaway is “nice bokeh”? You didn’t find the pretty little miracle of nature (yellow bird) interesting? Or maybe the composition? If “nice bokeh” is the only thing you got out of my image, then as far as I’m concerned, my image is a failure. In this particular case, my Mother loves my Goldfinch photo and has a framed print in her home, so I do consider it a successful photo. But, you get my point.

A while back, I was on Flickr looking at a group shot of a family at some outing. It could have been a wonderful memory of Mom and the kids at some picnic or amusement park. Instead, the family was out in the open and facing directly into a late afternoon sun. It was obvious from all the squinting and scrunched up faces, that this was a very painful experience for them. I asked the photographer why he had posed his family looking directly into the sun. His answer was, “in order to get some really cool bokeh behind them.” Really? You made your family uncomfortable, caused them to make ugly faces and risked burning holes through their retinas in order to get some pretty out-of-focus circles in your picture?

When overused, Bokeh is nothing more than a cheap effect; an easy way to get a pretty picture that people will “ooh and aah” over. Stop worrying about, and going out of your way to produce, bokeh. If it happens, it happens. The only time you should purposely put bokeh in your photo is when it supports the message of your image; when it is a necessary part of the story. Bokeh needs to compliment, not overwhelm, your image. So, the next time you look at one of your images, if the first words out of your mouth are “nice bokeh,” dump the image and move on. You can do better.

What’s your opinion? Is bokeh an overused gimmick, an overused buzzword or a necessary effect for photographers?

The 2012 Rockford Airfest was held last weekend at the Chicago Rockford International Airport in Rockford, Illinois. I couldn’t have asked for any better weather for the event. The temperature was in the mid-70s, and the sky was blue with puffy white clouds blowing through. As usual, all of the pilots and skydivers did a fantastic job at amazing the crowd with their aerial stunts. The headliners this year were the Air Force Thunderbirds and the civilian Black Diamond Jet Team. I was a little bummed that there were no Navy demonstration teams this year, but what can you do?

I deviated from my normal airshow shooting techniques this year. I joined Kelby Training earlier in the year, and one of the online courses that I recently completed is Moose Peterson’s Aviation Photography. I’ve always been a fan of Moose’ nature and wildlife photography, and over the past few years he’s devoted a lot of time to aviation photography as well. Moose had three recommendations that I have never tried before, so I gave them a go at this years airshow.

First, I set my cameras at -1 f/stop exposure compensation to underexpose my images and bring the colors out, especially the sky. This really isn’t too much of a deviation for me. I always keep the exposure compensation on my cameras set to -0.5. Actually, in Moose Peterson’s training course, he recommended setting the compensation at -1 to -1.5. For simplicity’s sake, I kept it at -1.

Second, I shot the entire day with both of my camera’s Picture Control set to Vivid. In the past, I’ve always shot in Standard. I do like my colors to pop though, so I tried it. I like what I see so far. In the airshow environment, the paint schemes of the planes are as big a part of the show as the flying. Shooting in Vivid really brings out the bright colors.

Third, I changed how I was shooting the jets. I typically shoot airshows entirely in Shutter Priority using a shutter speed of 1/125th for helicopters and 1/250th for prop aircraft in order to get some blur in the blades and props. For jets, I use a shutter of 1/1000th since there are no props to worry about. Moose recommends shooting in Shutter Priority for helicopters and prop aircraft using the shutter speeds of 1/45th for helicopters and 1/250th for props. For jets, he recommends switching to Aperture Priority with the camera set to f/5.6 which gives you some incredibly jet stopping shutter speeds. I must say that I did do a lot better this year with keeping the jets in focus as compared with the prop aircraft.

I made nearly 1500 images at this year’s airshow, so I have a lot of photos to weed out and process yet. Over the next few weeks, I’ll get several of them posted here on this blog. The entire set will be available on my Flickr page soon, and I will let you know when they are ready.

So, what are your thoughts about Moose Peterson’s recommendations? Does underexposing by a stop and shooting in Vivid make the photos stand out? Do you feel it would be better without exposure compensation and shot in Standard mode? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

The PictureCorrect blog has a really good article on Photography Tips to Take Good Pictures written by professional framer Autumn Lockwood . This article goes along so well with the theme of Digital Photography Mastery, that I just had to include it. I don’t necessarily agree with Autumn’s step 6, where she states to “put the subject in the middle”. That’s not really my style. I prefer to include some of the subjects environment and offset the subject some using the Rule of Thirds. But I do agree with her statement to “shoot, shoot and re-shoot”. You don’t have to worry about film or processing costs with digital photography, so go crazy. Shoot different angles and try different styles. Find what makes you happy.

Steve Berardi over at PhotoNaturalist has a nice short article on the Three Phases of Developing Creativity. This is based off of Galen Rowell’s great book, Inner Game of Outdoor Photography. I actually haven’t read this book yet. I own a copy, but it’s piled up on my desk with about five other books I still need to read.

Jerry Monkman from the MonkmanPhoto blog has a short video and article on how to Use Your Histogram. It gives a very good overview of the histogram and how to use it to see when you’re clipping your highlights or shadows. This video is from week two of his new Outdoor Photo Tips series. It looks like an interesting series, so I will be keeping my eye on it.

Lastly, I found this interesting YouTube clip of photographer Eric Schwabel’s adventure at the 2010 Burning Man. Eric literally strapped his camera and studio lights to his body and walked around Burning Man with his Human Light Suit making some wonderful portraits. I’ve watched this clip many times now. It is just fascinating.

Back in the early 90s, I was stationed in San Diego, California with the Navy. Being an avid scuba diver, I would often take off with a buddy and do a little beach diving to photograph sea life in the kelp beds.

On one particular trip, my dive buddy and I returned to my truck after our first dive to discover the back of my truck had been broken into. All of our secondary dive equipment, dive bags, and extra tanks were stolen. I was heart broken.

So, what does this have to do with photography you may be asking. Other than the obvious, I was doing underwater photography. Actually, I learned a very valuable lesson that day. I have never forgotten the lesson and still use it to this day.

Never advertise your hobbies on your car!

In talking with the police and filing the report, one thing they pointed out was, I was advertising what I had in my truck. I had cute little bumper stickers and license plate frames telling the entire world how proud I was to be a scuba diver. It was extremely easy for the thieves to find my truck and know that I was going to be gone for about an hour.

Today, I do not put any bumper stickers or license plate frames on my vehicles advertising my hobbies. Those neat little stickers saying, “I Love Nikon” or “I Love Canon” or “I’d Rather Be Taking Pictures” just scream “Free Camera Gear”. The bad elements in the world know we usually leave extra camera gear in our cars and we tend to wander away for hours at a time.

I’ve recently read that one of the latest threats to our camera gear’s safety are thieves who, after identifying you as a photographer, will follow you until you stop at a convenience store or a local restaurant and then break-in and steal your photo gear in a matter of seconds.

Here are a few tips to make life a little more difficult for would be thieves.

1. Do not put cute photo related bumper stickers and license plate frames on your car.

2. Do not leave your camera gear laying out in plan sight. Put the gear in your trunk, throw a jacket over the top of it, or only take enough gear that you can carry with you.

3. Keep your head on a swivel. In other words, be aware of what’s going on around you.

If you have any similar experiences or some suggestions to share, please post a comment below.