Crop or Retouch ?

Magazine - Digital Photo Pro  Comment
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As visual communicators, we’re responsible for everything that’s in the frame; we’re also responsible for everything that’s not in the frame. Deciding what’s in the frame and what’s out is a critical decision that can make or break an image. Here are two essential framing strategies.
1.?Use the frame to eliminate distracting information around a subject.
Take extra care with image information that touches the frame, as it will draw extra attention. Do this with significant compositional elements.
2.?Eliminate space around a subject to focus a viewer’s attention.
A lot of space between the subject and the frame can be used to call on psychological associations with space, such as freedom or isolation. Some space between the subject and the frame can give the appearance of the subject resting gracefully within the frame. Touching the subject with the frame strongly focuses the attention of the viewer and may seem claustrophobic. Cropping the subject with the frame can focus the attention of the viewer on specific aspects of the subject and/or give an image a tense quality, evoking evasion and incompleteness—this often seems accidental if less than half the subject is revealed.
There’s more than one way to apply these strategies. While cropping techniques are simple to practice, the reasons for their application and the choices made about how to apply them, as well as the final effects, may be exceptionally complex. You have two choices ..
1. Reposition the frame before exposure.
2. Contract the position of the borders of an image after exposure
If you plan to retouch, you’ll frame and crop differently …
Read more at Digital Photo Pro.
Find more digital photography techniques here.
Learn more in my digital photography worskhops.

The View Project – Joyce Tenneson

Books, Books - Blurb  Comment
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“The View Project is about photographs that mirror something in the photographer’s inner life – images that are personal and powerful, yet perhaps not clearly understood, even to the viewer/photographer” – Joyce Tenneson
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The View Project, conceived and organized by Joyce Tenneson, is an exploration of why certain places or photographs that have such a powerful effect on us as individuals. What is it – beyond surface beauty – that makes specific visual moments so indelible in our memory?
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Photographs and comments by a wide array of photographers are included – John Paul Caponigro, Sean Kernan, Douglas Kirkland, George Lepp, Jack Resnicki, Rick Sammon, Joyce Tenneson, Jerry Uelsmann, and many more.
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A travelling exhibit will soon open.
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Debating Modern Photography – Triumph of Group f/64

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In the 1930s, a small group of California photographers challenged the painterly, soft-focus Pictorialist style of the day. They argued that photography could only advance as an art if its practitioners exploited characteristics inherent to the camera’s mechanical nature. This small association of innovators created Group f/64, named after the camera aperture which produces great depth of field and sharp focus. The exhibition revisits this debate and includes images by photographers in Group f/64 such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, Sonya Noskowiak, and Willard Van Dyke, as well as images by such Pictorialists such as Anne Brigman, William Dassonville, Johan Hagemeyer, William Mortensen, and Karl Struss. With 90 works by 16 artists, Debating Modern Photography offers a feast for the eyes while illustrating both sides of a high-stakes debate. Outstanding examples of the clean edges and bold forms of Group f/64 stand in sharp contrast to the romantic, hand-crafted Pictorialist work that includes ­elegant portraits, tonalist landscapes, and allegorical studies.
The exhibit is open (Mon-Fri 9-7) through Dec 5.
Learn more at Maine’s Portland Museum of Art.

Photographing Maine – Ten Years Later

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In 2000, CMCA mounted the most comprehensive exhibition of Maine photography ever: Photographing Maine: 1840-2000. The project was presented in two parts: photography from 1950-2000 in August and September and earlier historical work from the 1840s to 1950 in mid-October to mid-December.
During the past decade, the activity among Maine photographers has grown exponentially. In this digital age there are more and more people seriously committed to fine art photography using both new and traditional darkroom techniques. The goal of the invitational exhibition Photographing Maine: Ten Years Later is to pay homage to the two exhibitions in 2000 by showing a sampling of works by 150 Maine photographers created between 2000 and 2009. Each photographer is exhibiting a single work in the invitational exhibition. In addition, four images from each of the 150 photographers are part of an online exhibition (see below), which is also available to view on computer at the exhibition.
The exhibit in Rockport, Maine runs from October 02 – December 05, 2010.

iPhone At Play – Charles Adams

Creativity - Exercises, iPhone, Photographers, Photography, Workshop  Comment
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My assistant, Charles Adams, spent this years Maine Fall Foliage Workshop photographing with the iPhone. Below he talks about his experience.
“Making images with an iPhone can be a terrific creative exercise. If you regularly shoot with a DSLR, the iPhone can simplify things and offer a new experience. I found this to be the case during this years fall foliage workshop. I left my Canon in the car along with all of the photographic requirements and responsibilities that I usually attach to it. It was a freeing experience. Suddenly the pressure to make the best photographs of my life was no longer there. I was free to play.
Being able to process your images seconds after shooting them is also key to the iPhone experience. The many apps available make it possible to shoot, edit, share, and get feedback before even getting back in the car. In my case, apps had a direct effect on which pictures I chose to make. I knew I was going to apply water color and oil painting filters to my images, so I tried to shoot accordingly. I set out to find good compositions with strong “bones.” “Bones” meaning solid structure that could benefit from the addition of dramatic effects.
The resulting images were fun to create. Changing the tools you use to make your images can offer new insights into your own photography. I strongly recommend allowing yourself to play.”
Visit Charles’ website here.
Find out about my digital photography workshops here.

Walk With Someone

Images - Photographs, Photography, Workshop  Comment
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Paul Tornaquindici (top) and I (bottom) walked together many times in Namibia.
Standing a few feet apart, we made very different images.

 

Walk with someone and photograph together.

Then compare the results.

You’ll see a different way of looking at the world.

You’ll also have an opportunity to see how you see more clearly.

Even when the images you make are the same, you’ll learn that some results are driven by convention and this can prompt you to push further, to find something new, and to make your images more personal. Sometimes these differences can be found in context with your other images.

The comparisons and contrasts you’ll see by photographing with someone else can be extremely useful.

Find more resources on Creativity here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.