Photoshop and Owning an Iron

So tonight we're going to cover a touchy topic with some "professional-type" shooters... 

It's a topic that I think can really separate good pictures from GREAT pictures... 

...attention to detail and Photoshop.

I shoot in the digital realm of life.  I don't know how to process an image on film.  I have no clue.  The extent of my film processing knowledge comes from Hollywood movies (Seven, Red Dragon, ManHunter, etc...)

Yeah... deep right?

So is using Photoshop "cheating"?  It's sort of like asking if using Microsoft Word is cheating... you should be using a pencil and paper!!!!  Yeah - tell your boss, teacher, family, the psychiatrist that one... "I don't know why yellow makes me so sad"...

So no... Photoshop is not cheating.  It's all perspective and art anyway right?  Sure, sure... there are circles of people that get to "judge" your work... and let's be frank - the world is full of people that can't tell the difference between a JoeyL shot and one you took at the bar...  But still... unless you are photojournalist... don't be afraid of your computer... well, okay... fear the machine, it's probably going to take your soul anyway... but don't be afraid of Adobe Photoshop.

It's not even a real shop... 

So this is Cal.  I shot Cal (with a camera, duh!) recently.  Cal was looking for modeling type shots.  I love this one!  The intense stare, the crossed arms, the simple white shirt... a very commanding look.  I'd hire him... if not just out of fear of him hitting me... Great shot (my opinion)... right?

Let's see where this bad boy started out at...

Oops... Seriously, take a minute and look at both of them... A little creative Photoshop and one of them I'd hang on my own wall... the other one... yeah... well... yeah... 

Photoshop my friend... Photoshop!  

This leads me to one final point... BUY AN IRON!  Or better yet, pay attention to the details in your shot.  I knew I was going to crop the top off and play with the colors and saturation.  What I blindly did not take into account... the amount of wrinkles that would show up in my thrown together backdrop.  Hours... HOURS spent fixing that... sheesh... I could have been done with the pictures in a day or two... but instead I spend hours fixing my severe oversight!

Buy an iron... pay attention to details... use Photoshop... and HAVE FUN!!!!

 

- jermz

www.jermzphotography.zenfolio.com

Wait, you only took 10 pictures?

I recently have had the honor of shooting at a local "hang out" for my church.
 
The District
 
It's a great place to hang out with good friends, listen to some music, have a coffee, dance maybe, and try and shoot people… ehh, with a camera.

The recent theme for the evening was "A Masquerade Ball".  They had "ballroom" style dancing (complete with dance instructors) and of course those cool masquerade masks!  A great night!  

There's a problem I've found when you show up to a coffee shop / dance party / music lounge… Yeah… To get that cool neat atmosphere they drop the lights down low and when the party jumps to ELEVEN - laser lights galore and smoke machines...  

Very impressive - unless you have a camera in your hand and want something better than just a simple point-and-shoot shot with no background in it and boring yucky flash - or something that resembles The Blair Witch Project and epilepsy combined. 

 

So… this grab-bag of fun can be a headache - and a real blessing when you nail that shot.  And there's the problem… you are going to drop the ball more than you get the touchdown.  If not, send me an email, I need all the help I can get!!!  I think I snapped off about 200 frames of digital that night.  Maybe 50 of them are really useable. 

Maybe…?

Out of those… probably only 10 are really the "keepers"… You know, the ones that you are really proud of that if you were trying to start off in the world of photography you'd add to your portfolio (for now at least)… 

And there in lies that blessed catchy-twenty-two…
 
You show off the 10 great pictures and people immediately wonder - "Wait a minute, he was here for 3 hours shooting everything… he ONLY got 10 pictures??  Where's the picture I know he took of me dancing…???"  Etc, etc, etc… 

...Or… 
 
You throw up 200 pictures (most of which give people nauseous headaches instantly) and you get deemed as "that guy".  You know, the person who spent the gross national income of a small South American country on camera gear… and your shots look like Ray Charles was at the helm.  Full steam ahead captain, I can't see the iceberg anyway - I'm blind!

 

Heed the warning… and suffer the questions… Only show your best work!  Maybe even the "good" shots if that's the case - but leave the blurred, the missed focus, the poor lighting, the bad cropping all out the picture (get the pun… ha-ha).  Right now at least one person is laughing at that joke… Ehh… anyway… 

If you want people to remember your work as "good" or "great"… Only show them "good" or "great" pictures!  Leave the boring pictures to everyone else!

- jermz

www.jermzphotography.zenfolio.com

You like which picture? THAT ONE!?! Really!?!

There's an interesting phenomenon I have started to notice in this world of "amateur photography".  When you start showing off your work it is amazing the responses and comments you receive from others.  Typically I deal with people that are "less than amateur".  This is not a slam on them, they just do not have that drive or ambition to do what it takes to get better pictures.  A point-and-shoot is enough for them.

What I am always surprised with though… are the pictures people seem to almost fall-in-love with.

 

I took the picture above only a few weeks after I bought my first DSLR camera.  I had literally no idea what I was doing (still don't).  I was dialing shutter speeds and apertures without a care in the world… and a memory card full of garbage.  

--We'll call it practice.--

In my head I had this idea of this deep red door on the outside of one of the most impressive churches I have ever seen (Kirk in the Hills).  The shot is very simple.  Ambient light on a very overcast (and cold!) day.  I had only my 18-55mm kit glass on the camera.  I just sort of point-and-shot my way through it.

In Photoshop, I knew even less about what I was doing.  I had no work flow.  No plan.  No final outcome intended… just click this.  Saturate that… etc… 

Everyone seems to love my "Door to Eternity" shot.  My own loving mother has it hanging in my parents living room.  My 90 year old grandfather has a copy.  People just seem to love this shot… 

I like it.  I took it.  But for the life of me - I don't get it… It's just a door and some steps…

 

An amateur photographer buddy of mine and I were out cruising the side roads of Michigan one day late in the fall a while back… we came across this barn on the side of the road.  A small hike into a neighboring (read: wet!) field and a few weird looks from cars passing by… and then the shot!  I had to remove a power line that was in the shot, but overall a little color saturation and the shot is as it was.  This one is hanging in my parents living room in a larger format.  Mind you, my mother doesn't just hang anything in her house!  If she didn't like it, it would be hidden back in one of the bedrooms or even the dreaded basement!  Nope… front room for the world to see!

It's just some old barn and a half dead tree…

 

I posted this one on Flickr a while back after my wife and I went on a wonderful trip to Bar Harbor, Maine (go there, it's amazing!).  We had just hiked up some "nature trail" for what felt like an eternity.  Something about the moment, the lighting, the view… it was just "magical".  It may sound cheesy and lame, but truth be told… it was… well… magical (probably more a sign of the lack of oxygen to my brain after all that climbing… but…).

People loved the exposure and the way it felt… To me… the picture never captured that true beauty I remembered.

The point is - you never know what "other" people are going to take away from your pictures.  What they are going to see and remember...  A picture is worth a thousand words right?  Or a million… or sometimes just one (garbage… haha).

This becomes true when you start shooting for people, events, etc…  I've shot a few people now - guess what - my favorite picture from the session isn't always their favorite picture… and that's what makes photography a great thing!

- jermz

www.JermzPhotography.Zenfolio.com

No... Look over there!

Ever tried shooting a sunset (or sunrise)?  Okay, let's face it - no one wakes up early... so we'll stick to a sunset.  

You know, you are sitting there overlooking some pond, lake, whatever... The sun is dropping fast, and the sky is alive with all that beauty God put up there.

And there you are... you followed the rules for landscape photography...

You have your tripod, you turned off your flash, and you even wait for that magic moment that occurs a few minutes after the sun has actually set and the sky is just screaming with a level of awesomeness... 

So what's the problem?  Oh yeah, did it occur to you that there are no less than 10 other people out there shooting the same sunset?  Okay, so probably 4 of them have a "point-and-shoot" camera so the sky lights up for that brief second of camera flash... a temporary beacon for the alien landing party!  Four other people think their cell phone is enough of a device to capture that moment and remember it (heck, it'll even end up on Facebook so everyone can say "Oh, that's great - you should shoot my wedding").  If you like sunsets that were colored by Ray Charles... I'm just sayin'...

So you may have only 1 or 2 people "following the rules" for sunsets...

Well... here's a neat concept... don't shoot the sunset... well, not directly... 

See the world has all this awesome color in it (especially during that magic sunset moment).

The picture above was shot on top of Cadillac Mountain in Bar Harbor, Maine (great place by the way!).  And I broke all the "normal" rules.  The sunset was to the right of this picture... but it was boring.  There were literally 20 people up there snapping away... flashes blinding God.  I happened to spot the clouds, turned the tripod and started shooting.  I love this picture.  No one else that night has this shot!  No one!  Score one for me (I need all the points I can get!).  The sky is so smooth looking - and those darn clouds ruin it!!!  I love it!

So what's the point?  If everyone is looking right, what is going on to the left?  If 10 people are shooting from eye-level, what happens if you drop down to your knees and shoot?  See the world in a different way!

This picture (above) was shot at Niagara Falls (on the US side).  The falls are somewhere behind me a few hundred yards as I was shooting this... There were hundreds of people at the falls snapping away... all that white foaming water.  You see about 3 seconds of one of those snap shots and you're done.  I like the feel of this one - gives a bit of suspense to the feel if you ask me.

One more sunset... no one was around?  Why?  The sun had "gone down" and it was cold out... I want to get a spoon and eat that sky!!!

- jermz

http://jermzphotography.zenfolio.com/