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by RR Jr on February 27, 2010
We’ve been buried with over 30″ of snow here in the Hudson Valley, as well as power and Internet outages, so I’m just getting back online and away from the shovel! I also had to cancel the Printing Workshop that was scheduled for today, but hopefully I can re-schedule asap to make sure all registered students are available for the new date.
Now to the title of the post, I came across an interesting article by David Pogue of the NY Times titled “Photoshop and Photography; When Is It Real?” which examines when a photograph crosses the line between “real” and “artificial”. This is an issue that is not new to photographers and I’ve discussed it here several times, most notably in an article about digital manipulation.
Pogue suggests we ask instead “what is reality”, a question I have always thought about in my own photography. I’ve always felt strongly that this issue of “reality” is both subjective and an integral part of the creative process for a landscape photographer. We each see, experience, interpret, and “feel” differently about reality, and it only makes sense that would make each of our images unique and different. Whether we allow ourselves to go “too far” with technology in our zeal to interpret our feelings is another mater entirely, and certainly becomes a part of a photographer’s credibility and style.
You can only ascertain this by looking at a photographer’s body of work, and not just a single image. Only then can you begin to make judgments about what a photographer values both in terms of his feelings about his subject matter, and how he chooses to convey those feelings. As for my own personal work, capturing moments that elicit the most dramatic and strongest emotional responses, and the challenge of achieving that, are central to both my motivation and reason for being in and around nature. Perhaps that isn’t ordinary reality, but it certainly is real for me, especially when it captures my eye and heart in a way that is forever special. I hope that we do not lose the essence of what photography is about, and instead focus all of our attention on the medium instead of the message.
Let me know what your thoughts are about “reality”? Do you think I am missing something?
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2010 > February
by RR Jr on February 21, 2010
Canon 1Ds Mk III, 1/250 sec, f/14, ISO 400, 28mm
Home >
2010 > February
by RR Jr on February 17, 2010
We had a great Lightroom Masterclass workshop this weekend, and I want to thank everyone who attended and helped make it a learning experience for all. One of the great benefits of teaching any subject is that you learn more than you expect, especially when students present challenging questions. Such was the case this weekend as we explored how to become more efficient with Lightroom, and spend less time with repetitive tasks or time consuming operations.
For example, I’m a big advocate of using nested or hierarchical keywords, which greatly increases the value of keywording when it comes to performing searches. In the case of locations, I start with the country, state, geographic area, city, park, street, etc. So my keywords would be nested as follows:
United States > New York > Hudson Valley > Hudson River > Long Dock
Here’s how it actually looks in Lightroom with additional keywords:
The major advantage of this from a workflow standpoint is that any image keyworded with “Long Dock” will automatically get all of the other keywords added to it. This is a huge time saver, and a way to make sure that a particular image gets found regardless of how specific or broad the search term is. The easiest way to create your hierarchies is to think about broad terms, then narrow them down to the most specific keyword you need. Create them individually in Lightroom, then just drag and drop them on top of each other in the Keyword List panel to create the nesting.
This is just one of the many topics we covered on Saturday which I hope will increase students enjoyment of using Lightroom. I’m already working on an a new workshop to cover many advanced features of Lightroom including creating web galleries and printing, and also spend more time working with students one on one for their specific needs. Look for the dates of the Advanced Lightroom Masterclass soon…
Finally, I’ll be at the Professional Club of Lower Fairfield County in Connecticut tonight presenting a talk titled “Beauty Within – The Journey of Landscape Photography” which I’ve been working on for the last few days. As usual, I’ll stress that I continue to be a student and as such only present ideas and concepts to inspire and motivate creativity. If I can only remember my opening lines, I should be ok – wish me luck!
