Reading_PhotoProcessing

Looking for great books on digital processing? Browse this collection of my favorites.

Learn how to make the most of your digital images. You’ll find inspiration and information in this collection of books that set the standards for the industry.

Enjoy!

Find more great books here.

Category: Books - Recommended
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A little perspective correction can make a big difference in your images. While this is particularly evident in architectural images, it’s true of all images. If you think of it as perspective adjustment or controlled distortion, the visual possibilities open to you will grow dramatically.

Perspective adjustment has never been easier with the new feature Upright, introduced in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CC. It’s virtually automated. The results are often magic. How Upright knows what it knows and how and when it decides to work are somewhat predictable, but sometimes mysterious. 

Found in the Lens Corrections panel, Upright also uses lens profile metadata and works in conjunction with the Enable Profile Corrections. If you activate Enable Profile Corrections after using Upright, for best results click Reanalyze. You can also use Upright without lens profile metadata or corrections.

Upright has four settings: Level, Vertical, Full and Auto. Level straightens horizontal lines. Vertical straightens vertical lines. Full straightens both horizontal and vertical lines. Auto attempts to find a pleasing balance between both horizontal and vertical distortions, often aligning neither perfectly, but still delivering impressive improvements. Upright offers buttons, not sliders. In other words, it’s all or nothing—there are no in-between settings. Nonetheless, there are many ways to finesse the results you get with Upright, in Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop …

Read more on Digital Photo Pro.

Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Category: Magazine - Digital Photo Pro

Angel-with-Lit-Wing

27 Quotes By Photographer Joyce Tenneson

Here’s a collection of my favorite quotes by Joyce Tenneson.

“If I had to pick a single word to describe what my pictures are all about, I would say ‘secrets.’ As a child I always had a secret world and my favorite book was “A Secret Garden.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I have always been fascinated by the life cycle, the way skin metamorphoses over time. I am mesmerized by skin and that’s why I’ve been attracted to the nude. I do think people show their soul when they are stripped down psychically. There is something wondrous that happens when we relate on that level – and I am interested in that depth.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I seek what lies beneath surface beauty. What interests me are intimate human complexities – the darkness as well as the light. I cannot will this kind of transcendent communication into existence. I have to be open and truly present, and if I am lucky, grace descends. My best photographs are an honest collaboration, and when the viewer also connects, I feel the circle is complete.” – Joyce Tenneson

“Through a portrait, we can potentially see everything — the history and depth of a person’s life, as well as evidence of a primal universal presence. I have dedicated my life and creative energy to capturing these transcendent moments in which a connection is made between the subject, the photographer, and the viewer.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I try to neutralize my figures; I want them to be mythic and timeless. I want them to exist beyond time. I’ve used the skull caps or cowls to banish hair, which is distracting. I want to isolate the face and concentrate on what is really going on deep within my subjects.” – Joyce Tenneson

“Over the years I have photographed thousands of people. I have never stopped being curious and trying to discover new worlds. I have used my camera as a mirror for my subjects as well. I remember photographing a woman in her 80s for my book, Wise Women, who told me it had been a long time since anyone had really been interested in “seeing” or photographing her. When she saw the picture, she burst into tears. She saw something in the photograph, an inner beauty and soul, she felt had long ago vanished.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I want to allow others to reveal and celebrate aspects of themselves that are usually hidden. My camera is a witness. It holds a light up for my subjects to help them feel their own essence, and gives them the courage to collaborate in the recording of these revelations.” – Joyce Tenneson

“Have the utmost respect for your subjects. Love them.” – Joyce Tenneson

“The people I work with, the people I photograph, become a kind of family for me.” – Joyce Tenneson

“A true portrait can never hide the inner life of its subject. It is interesting that in our culture we hide and cover the body, yet our faces are naked. Through a person’s face we can potentially see everything—the history and depth of that person’s life as well as their connection to an even deeper universal presence.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I love feeling that I am opening new worlds for people who don’t have time to investigate these things themselves.” – Joyce Tenneson

“It’s true that I’m attracted to people and I like people, but in my work it goes beyond that. It’s really that I’m attracted to a certain unlayering, like peeling back an artichoke and getting to the center of it. I’m very attracted to discovering, to taking off veils or looking into the looking glass; all the devices that allow us to get to whatever that mysterious kernel is. Sometimes that mysterious kernel, as in an oyster, is a pearl. But sometimes, as in an artichoke, right before you get to the heart there are spikes. You can assault yourself if you don’t know how to get around them and navigate. I guess that’s the excitement about it.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I would never censor something to please someone. I don’t play games.” – Joyce Tenneson

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“Michaelangelo said the mirror is our greatest teacher. My use of mirrors in my work helps me uncover psychic layers. Often, the face is distorted in the mirror so it is much more than a simple reflection. Sometimes something surprising emerges – some darkness or secret appears without us knowing why or giving it permission.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I’ve heard many times that with all good artists it’s ultimately a self-portrait even if it’s an abstraction. I feel my work is very much who I am. I didn’t try to make it that way; it just is. It reflects who I am and also my interests.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I’ve always been obsessed with penetrating the female psyche. When I shoot, I’m like a tornado. I never sit down, never take a break, never eat. I’m focused on getting that moment of revelation, of insight, of poignancy, of meaning.” – Joyce Tenneson

“My early self-portraits appeared effortlessly and seemed like equivalents for my deeper emotions. Many critics remarked that the images had an almost other-worldly haunting presence. For me, they were simply my own reality at that point in my life. What I was trying to reveal was my inner soul in all its fragile complexity. Without knowing it, I was trying to peel back the layers that shroud and bind us all as we struggle to reveal our own authentic selves.”

“My whole artistic life has been devoted to battling myself and my ability to externalize my deepest emotions. As I have gotten older, the work has become more direct, perhaps reflecting the fact that for the first time in my life I feel really free. I have been fascinated with wings all my life. I have had an obsession with transcendence, the need to push forward and metaphorically fly.” – Joyce Tenneson

“If I am lucky, something new and inexplicable often appears in front of my lens. I am always surprised by the mystery of how my best images appear. That excitement and shock of discovery makes my life at these moments a gift.”

“Our best pictures happen by grace.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I found that I wanted to be best friends with almost all the women I interviewed because they had been through something. They were closing in on the circle of their journey and they had a kind of wisdom that comes from their long life.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I very strongly believe that if you go back to your roots, if you mine that inner territory, you can bring out something that is indelibly you and authentic – like your thumbprint. Its going to have your style because there is no one like you.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I never chased after any particular school, never really had mentors; I really just did the work that was true to me.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I have the same themes over and over again. How I’m saying it keeps changing or growing.” – Joyce Tenneson

“Find the one thing you’re good at and FOCUS on it.” – Joyce Tenneson

“I think of my work as very polarizing; either people really do like it and are touched by it or they really don’t get it at all. It’s not accessible to all people at the same level.” – Joyce Tenneson

“The most important thing is to try and enjoy life because you never know when it will be gone. If you wake up in the morning and have a choice between doing the laundry and taking a walk in the park, go for the walk. You’d hate to die and realize you had spent your last day doing the laundry.” – Joyce Tenneson

Read Joyce’s favorite quotes here.

Read her quick Q&A here.

Read our extended conversation here.

Find out more about Joyce Tenneson here.

Category: Quotes - Photographers
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TennesonQuotes

Joyce Tenneson shares her favorite quotes.

This is my favorite from her selection.

“When I have a terrible need of – shall I say the word – religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.” - Vincent Van Gogh

Which is your favorite of her selected quotes?

Read more of Joyce’s favorite quotes here.

Read her quick Q&A here.

Read our extended conversation here.

Find out more about Joyce Tenneson here.

Read more Photographer’s Favorite Quotes here. 

Category: Quotes - Photographers' Favorites
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Quotes_Opportunity

Here’s a collection of my favorite quotes on opportunity.

“To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.” – John Dewey

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas A. Edison

“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” Oprah Winfrey

“The meeting of preparation with opportunity generates the offspring we call luck.” Anthony Robbins

“If you spot an opportunity and are really excited by it, throw yourself into it with everything you’ve got.” – Richard Branson

“One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“While we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity.” – Publilius Syrus

“The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.” – Paulo Coelho

“Four things come not back: The spoken word, The sped arrow, The past life, The neglected opportunity.” Arabian Proverb

“Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” – H Jackson Brown Jr

“When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, it is often no louder than the beating of your heart, and it is very easy to miss it.” ― Boris Pasternak

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

“Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.” – Kyle Chandler

“Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.” – Alexander Graham Bell

“Where one door shuts another opens.” – Miguel de Cervantes

“When one door closes another opens. But often we look so long so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us.” – Helen Keller

“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.” – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

“Opportunity often comes in disguised in the form of misfortune or temporary defeat.” – Napoleon Hill

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

“Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes.” – Henry J. Kaiser

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

“Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.” – Robert Kennedy

“It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities.” – Eric Hoffer

“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.” – Joseph Campbell

“No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.” – Harry S. Truman

“To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life.” Samuel Johnson

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” – Francois Bacon

“To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.” – Bruce Lee

“There is far more opportunity than there is ability.” – Thomas A. Edison

“Ability is of little account without opportunity.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

“It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.” – Whitney M. Young, Jr

“All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.” – Albert Einstein

“I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.” – Oprah Winfrey

Discover more quotes daily in my Twitter and Facebook streams.

Read more Creativity Quotes here.

Category: Quotes - Creativity

Reading_PhotoAppreciation2

Looking for great books on the photographic theory? 

Browse this collection of my favorites.

These soulful discussions of photography will remind you of why you do it and how to go further and deeper with your practice.

Enjoy!

Find more great books here.

Category: Books - Recommended
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Get an inside view of the mind of a photographer who has influenced a generation of photographers.

Learn more about Jay Maisel here.

View more Videos On Photographers here.

Read Photographer’s Quotes By Photographers here.

Category: Video - Photographers
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Novelist Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process, journeying through her childhood and family history and into the worlds of physics and chance, looking for hints of where her own creativity comes from. It’s a wild ride with a surprise ending.

View more Creativity Videos here.

Browse Creativity Quotes here.

Category: Video - Creativity
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Maisel_425

Here’s a collection of quotes by photographer Jay Maisel.

“Always carry a camera, it’s tough to shoot a picture without one.” – Jay Maisel

“Never say you’re going back – SHOOT IT NOW!” – Jay Maisel

“If you are out there shooting, things will happen for you. If you’re not out there, you’ll only hear about it.” – Jay Maisel

“Try to go out empty and let your images fill you up.” – Jay Maisel

“Allow yourself to lose your way.” – Jay Maisel

“It’s always around. You just don’t see it.” – Jay Maisel

“If you can capture the element of surprise, you’re way ahead of the game.” – Jay Maisel

“You have to have a lot of ‘overage’ so that your failures aren’t the only thing you come home with. You’ve got to have a lot of things that were magnificent failures, but you want some magnificent successes.” – Jay Maisel

“There are rules about perception, but not about photography.” – Jay Maisel

“When finding the right angle for a shot…’Move your ass.’” – Jay Maisel

“You find that you have to do many things, more than just lift up the camera and shoot, and so you get involved in it in a very physical way. You may find that the picture you want to do can only be made from a certain place, and you’re not there, so you have to physically go there. And that participation may spur you on to work harder on the thing, . . . because in the physical change of position you start seeing a whole different relationship.” – Jay Maisel

“A photographer’s art is more in his perceptions than his execution. In a painter, I think the perception is only the first step, and then you have a kind of hard road of execution.” – Jay Maisel

“Be aware of every square millimeter of your frame.” – Jay Maisel

“You are responsible for every part of your image, even the parts you’re not interested in.” – Jay Maisel

“If you’re not shooting in the right direction, it doesn’t matter how well you’re shooting.”

“If the light is great in front of you, you should turn around and see what it is doing behind you.” – Jay Maisel

“As people, we love pattern. But interrupted pattern is more interesting.” – Jay Maisel

“Every picture should have a place you can go, a home, a climax.” – Jay Maisel

“Never put lettering in your photos unless you want it read.” – Jay Maisel

“I don’t see light as something that falls, but as a positive force.” – Jay Maisel

“I’m a New Yorker. I don’t believe in air unless I can see it.” – Jay Maisel

“Each picture you take has power as long as it brings experience to the person who’s looking at it.” – Jay Maisel

“If you want to make more interesting pictures, become a more interesting person.” – Jay Maisel

Find out more about Jay Maisel here.

Read more quotes by photographers here.

View documentaries on photographers here.

Category: Quotes - Photographers
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3_Contact_Morocco_Concept

Using Smart Collections in Lightroom speeds up the process of gathering and revisiting these images. I use Smart Collections―1 Star, 2 Stars, 3 Stars, 4 Stars, 5 Stars, and 3+ Stars. These Smart Collections are critical for focusing and accelerating my visual thought process, helping me to make the most of a location in a short amount of time. I can see what’s working and what’s not, correct mistakes, figure out what it’s going to take to up my game, identify missing shots, and seek out the ones that will bring a set of images together. Smart Collections serve as a chronology of all the ranked images I’ve made. They create a unique kind of journal. Most importantly, they start the process of assembling bodies of work.

I use Collections for assembling like images to develop projects, typically grouping selected images by location or theme. Unlike Smart Collections, I find Collections’ support for a manual sort order essential. Manual sort orders enable me to create image pairs and sequences, continuities that bind groups of images together into bodies of work. (For more on Continuity, Bodies of Work, and Developing Personal Projects, download my free PDFs at Creativity / Storytelling resources here.

Unlike when I used film, where I had to make physical contact sheets to select images, I rarely print my virtual contact sheets. It’s curious to call them by the traditional name “contact sheets,” because they’re not made by contacting film to paper. But, they’re no less essential to my creative process; if anything, they’re more important. Virtual Contact Sheets allow me to edit images at higher levels of thinking. I even use them to select and sequence images for slideshows, exhibits, and books.

I save virtual contact sheets, and sometimes I even save different states of a single contact sheet. I take screenshots of Lightroom’s display of my curated Collections. So many people requested to see them that I started sharing them on my blog. Having to make remarks about my virtual contact sheets helped me obtain an even better understanding of my creative process and my results.

See more Contact Sheets here.

Read more about my Contact Sheets on B&H.

Read about Seth Resnick’s Contact Sheets on B&H.

Category: Images - Contact Sheets
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