Fine Art Photography Blog

Light is the essence of photography, as we can see from the word roots.  ( Photo = Light;  Graph = Visualization, Display )  Most landscape photographers take this to mean shooting during the Golden Hour, and for good reason.  Incident light falls on our subject from its source - often the sun - before reflecting off the subject, to the camera.

The tonal quality of the light can play more role in the final image than, perhaps, any other single factor.  We can see this in the work of Ansel Adams ( the crosses of Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico;  the clouds in Clearing Winter Storm ) or Sebastiao Salgado ( Sudanese Refugee Camp, Boys in Mexico City ).  Both men produced gorgeous zone-system exposures, but, two of these show light filtering through the atmosphere. Black and white zone system photography highlights the effect, but it can work well in color, too.

Dust particles in the air can be one of the easier ways to capture the filtering light effect.  Storms are harder.  Water droplets suspended in the air can reflect the light perfectly, as Old Ansel  showed us.  Unfortunately, low hanging fog tends to block the sunlight;  finding the right conditions can be difficult.  Edges of storms are most likely to catch the light - and let enough of it through to make a good exposure. Read the rest of this entry »

Fog hangs in pockets of the Seattle, particularly near the water, while clouds blow overhead, reflecting the colors of the city behind them. This isn’t unusual for mid January in the Rainy City … most days, the sky scrapers are hidden behind the fog.

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Fuji makes slide film in two renowned flavors: Velvia, for intensely colored landscape, and Provia, a more true to life but less break-taking color rendition. Before people debated whether or not Photoshop is cheating, photographers have been choosing their film ( and shutter speed, and aperture ) to suit their tastes. Galen Rowell famously praised Velvia, asking “Who wants to take dull pictures that will last a hundred years?”

Less people these days are using slide film; photography is a digital art now. And while the biggest influence on color saturation is still lighting, we use Photoshop instead of a favorite type of film and darkroom wizardry now. To that end, how does one recreate a digital Velvia?

There are a number of options, actually. Most people use the Hue / Saturation command. Like most approaches in life, this works in moderation, but will only get you so far. Anything beyond a small dose begins to look overly colorized, like a neon sign in Las Vegas or Disney Land. Curves offers the opposite extreme: a little too cumbersome in its power and flexibility, although it makes a good color balancing tool.

Beyond vivacious color, balance is an important part of a stunning visual impression. Read the rest of this entry »

Something doesn’t have to be big to be compelling. A friend of mine who didn’t know much or anything about photography tried an old camera I used to have with a mega-zoom lens, and described the wide angle as a “grand view.” We’re taught to think in terms of sea to shining sea, of a big sky that stretches from one end of the horizon to the other, as far as the eye can see. This doesn’t always have to be the case.

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The time the shutter stays open really doesn’t matter indoors when using a flash. A bright pulse lights up the room for 1/10,000 to 1/100,000 of a second; the shutter curtain seems glacial by this standard. Naturally, whether the shutter ’speed’ is 1/250 sec or 1/160 sec won’t amount to a noticeable difference. The flash has already frozen the scene in this case.

Outdoors, shooting with more ambient light, or a very reflective subject will change things. Your flash has a maximum sync speed listed in its specs telling you the fastest shutter speed you can get away with. Light will continue to flood your camera’s sensor even after the flash stops firing, and can ruin an exposure. Read the rest of this entry »

I thought I had lost the first image in this series many years ago. This was shot in December of 2000; I had spent the month living in Denver and left at sun up most days to explore the high country. Heading into Colorado’s “interior” along US Route 285 toward Buena Vista, this expansive landscape can’t help but catch the eye.

Without meaning to, I’ve pulled over to enjoy the scenery every time I’ve driven by this particular curve in the road. That hasn’t been very often; three years passed between the road trips that produced the two photos below.

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Diagonal lines are a powerful tool to draw on when composing a frame. This is true in portraiture, landscape or cityscape photography, and it’s true, sometimes even the saving grace, in abstract photography.

Here, in the heart of San Francisco’s financial district, a fountain decorating the foot of a skyscraper is hardly rare. This one is outside what used to be The Sharper Image, then Charles Schwab, always a favorite meeting place for the bike messengers. A jet shoots water upward, causing ripples and even waves. Below the water is a tile bed, obscured by the movement and sun reflecting on the surface; above is a leaf, fallen from one of the nearby trees.

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Every photographer goes through a period of looking for clever ways to make use of stair cases. Mine was extremely brief, just long enough to set up the tripod for this:

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From Yellowstone’s Geyser Basin, this is a good example of the power of panoramic format landscape photography. We tend to scan the horizon - glance side to side - to keep our wits about us and avoid surprises. Whether this is hard wired from evolutionary times or because of the generally broad plane from one edge of our vision to the other, we see the world this was: as wide as the sky.

Photography is an art, meaning that your goal shouldn’t be to reproduce the world as a bystander would see it. On the other hand, tapping into the familiar can help convey abstract notions.

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