today’s post was inspired by an article written on this very topic, by professional photographer Andrea Joki. Here is an excerpt:

“…One phrase I hear a lot is, “it only costs 10c to make a print – so why do you charge so much?” And if the value of the image was only the print paper cost itself, that would be a valid question. But then again, a lawyer makes several thousands and all they produce is paper worth less then a penny. So why do we pay lawyers upwards of 100 euros an hour?

The easy answer is that an experienced photographer – one who has spent years studying the craft, honing skills, and perfecting style, is going to give you a much better image than the beginner who is simply clicking a shutter button.

…One thing I really find interesting is that people will buy… all manner of luxury goods that have maybe a 1-2 year lifespan. But when it comes to professional portraits, which will last a lifetime, they base the decision purely on price. I’m not sure at what point children and family become less important than a fancy purse. But I can tell you that those who purchased high quality portraits have a beautiful reminder of a time that has past – and those portraits are still hanging or displayed while the (designer) purse has long since been thrown away.

…Choosing the best you can afford will always be the best advice given to anyone looking for quality professional portraits. As with anything hand-made and requiring an artistic eye, those who produce quality work will charge more – it compensates for the amount of time they have spent learning and perfecting their art.”

read the whole article here

and along those lines, here is an entertaining skit which highlights this issue from a different point of view

here’s an experimental pinhole photo i took a couple of years ago, using my homemade pinhole ‘lens’ (a pierced DSLR body cap). if you want to know how to make your own, leave a comment

become a storyteller, not just an image-maker.

Quit trying to find beautiful objects to photograph. Find the ordinary objects so you can transform it by photographing it. (Morley Baer)

Photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place. I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. (Elliot Erwitt)

Don’t fight Mother Nature – When out photographing, I have always found working with the prevailing conditions to be a far better idea than stubbornly resisting what is going on around me. (Howard Grill)

at the risk of looking like i’m jumping on the ‘before and after’ blog bandwagon: here’s a short ‘before and after’ post which i hope will go some way to dispelling the mystery.

first of all, i don’t think you should be trying to make your photos look just like mine. they need to look like YOURS – your own style and unique eye is what you bring to photography that no one else has, so make the most of it. as international wedding photographer jasmine star says: “don’t be the best, be different.”

regarding photographic gear: there are two schools of thought as to how much influence your camera equipment has over the end result. on the one hand, better tools are always easier to work with, have fewer limitations, and usually output a finer quality product. but on the other hand, a talented and experienced photographer can get stunning results with the most basic or old-fashioned gear – so the jury is out. generally, better quality optics, finer sensors/better film and more reliable focus systems/techniques will help most people improve their work – but that’s not all there is to it. your best tool is still your eye – so don’t turn your camera into your excuse!

i would love to claim that i’m so ‘rockstar’ that every photo i show here on this blog just fell out of my camera looking that way – sadly that is not the case, haha; each finished picture is the product of a good base photograph, and knowing how to use my processing tools to bring out my vision. everyone sees a different picture in their mind when shooting – and this is why it is important for you to be clear about what you want to achieve before you start, because that will guide you as you shoot and prepare the photo.

my processing tools:

adobe lightroom, which is my RAW file processor. i never shoot JPEG anymore, RAW allows for so much more creativity without damaging the photo. it is also very forgiving: should anything be not quite right when the shutter opens, it is good to know you have a better chance of recovering that shot!

adobe photoshop, my ‘finisher’. lightroom plays more of a lead role these days in my photo processing but i still rely on photoshop to work with the processed file, tweaking or adding special touches not yet available in lightroom. i also use it to prepare files for web viewing in order that they look their best.

i also have a collection of professional presets & filters for both lightroom and photoshop, which i use to save time while processing, or to give me a starting point for the result i want to reach. some i have created myself based on my own style; some have been shared by photographer friends of mine; and others are commercially available, such as Totally Rad Actions, Kubota Image Tools and Nik Software.

here is a photo i took yesterday on a photowalk, original is on the left; finished photo on the right:

the process:
* in-camera settings were: ISO 160, aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/1000 sec, focal length 135mm
i deliberately underexposed the shot to retain all the colour and detail in the sky
* using lightroom 2, i chose a feathered adjustment brush and set the exposure to +0.5, then painted over the seat and surrounding grass to lift it from the shadows
* then, i chose the vignette tool and gave the edge of the photo a slight burn, which draws the eye toward the middle
* then i chose the brush again and set it to +0.3, and repainted the lighter areas of the seat to give more contrast
* then i exported the file and opened it in photoshop
* i chose a filter by nik called viveza which allows you to select a colour in the photo and alter it without changing the rest of the image
* i selected the seat colour, and cooled it down slightly by removing warmth and tinting it blue, to ‘place’ it visually back into the shadow area
* then i resized the photo, and added a slight sharpening effect and frame/watermark before exporting it for web viewing at 80% quality

and that’s it – not a lot was involved, but that’s because my original photo already was close to what i saw in my head. and that’s probably the most important tip of all.

any questions, feel free to ask

here’s how i did it…

first of all, i needed to use the best light possible for the shot, so i took Norm (the subject) outside to an area of open shade, with good reflected light from the sunlit lawn. then i faced him at an angle to the camera, and had him turn his head towards me a little more, to create interest and present a flattering view.

unlike my DSLR cameras, my IXUS has no manual shooting controls; but it does have a 3x optical zoom (max focal length approx equal to 105mm on a 35mm camera). to avoid unflattering barrel distortion (seen with wide-angle photos, makes you look like… well, a barrel), i chose to zoom the lens in as far as it would go, and step well back to compose the shot. this also solved the problem of my reflection appearing in the subject’s glasses!

while i chatted a little to Norm to put him off-guard (as this impromptu photo shoot was not his own idea!) i composed and pre-focused the camera – important with compacts as they have a noticeable shutter delay – and when i saw a natural smile i grabbed the shot. i took a few shots to make sure of getting one that he would be happy with… and this was his favourite. so now i had the photo, and here’s what came out of the camera:

unfortunately, the result looks like what it is – a compact camera snapshot. so here’s what i did to make it more presentable (sorry but here i’m gonna assume a good working knowledge of Adobe Photoshop – plenty of other places cover the basics much better than i can in this blog).

first of all, i ran ‘Pro Retouch’ on it (from Totally Rad Actions) and gently softened areas of the skin with a low-opacity brush. then i used the ‘Eye Bump’ layer from that same action, and slightly lightened the tinted glasses to reveal his eyes, and painted briefly over his teeth as well. then, i used the Colour Balance tool and adjusted the warmth of the photo by increasing cool green, blue and cyan tint on the tree behind Norm (leaving Norm his original colour with the history brush). i used the Curves tool and gave the photo a little more contrast and clarity overall. then, another action from Totally Rad, this time from their second set The Revenge: ‘Pool Party’, at just 20% opacity – and only applied to Norm himself (using layer masks), to remove some of the redness created by the camera, and even out his skin tones. and i added a light vignette to direct the eye to his face. here is the photo so far – looking a lot better, but still not done.

next, i needed to give Norm more separation from the background… with no control over aperture i was unable to shoot the way i normally would with my ‘wide-open’ lenses; and this put the whole photo into focus – fine for landscapes, but distracting for portraits. so i duplicated the whole layer, and ran the Extract filter on the top layer to manually erase the entire background. this is a fiddly job especially where fine hairs exist – if you erase them too, you end up with a cardboard cutout. the Extract filter often doesn’t do a very good job but this time it was acceptable with a bit of tweaking. then, on the underneath layer i ran ‘Bokeh’, a filter from Alien Skin which approximates the effect of wide aperture lenses. i experimented with the settings until the preview looked reasonably natural, and then applied the filter. this put the leaves out of focus – but of course it blurred Norm too and made his shape bigger than it was before, so that it showed up as a fuzzy pink glow all the way around his outline. and here’s what that looks like:

yeh, not good LOL. to fix that, i enlarged the leafy area on the bottom layer all the way around Norm to reduce the size of the glow; now the upper layer would hide it. a couple of tweaks (like removing the red reflection from the left of his glasses) – and i’m done. and here is the before and after shot together for comparison:

this method will never produce as good a result as using the proper equipment from the start – but it can help rescue a situation where sometimes a snapshot is all you have to work with, and you’ve just got to do your best. if you have any questions please feel free to comment

“never work with children or animals” was famously coined by WC Fields… that law still holds true today, for all but the most patient saints (and the feeble-minded):

this next “compliment” will be familiar to many photographers and others… a variation on the retort below is to invite yourself to a tasty meal at their home, and, after you have eaten your fill, comment on the obvious quality of their mixing bowls:

this is what we all wish we’d thought of doing when yet another person comes up and asks us to hand over portions of our livelihood for free:

actually, i am not an abstract photographer – but i believe frustration is a universally understood quality:

something a little more topical:

come on, admit it – you didn’t read the middle panel either!

warning: uncontrollable cringing and chronic eye tics may occur in anyone who has ever put themselves and their equipment through this experience:

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