This week on my blog: I am running excerpts from my latest book, Creative Visualization for Photographers. Both the paperback and Kindle versions are now available!
Excerpt #3
“Photography and the death of reality” is not a new topic, but as we move more and more into digital darkroom enhancements, the topic becomes more and more important.
Since the early days of photography, people with cameras have made images that don’t represent reality, even when they tried. That’s due, in part, to the way cameras record light, and how lenses bend light and compress or widen a scene or subject – not to mention that we see in 3D and camera see in 2D, and that our eyes have a dynamic range of about 13 f/stop compared to the six f-stops or so our digital cameras see (in a single exposure without digital enhancements).
A chapter in the book, Photography and the Death of Reality, has three main messages:
One, to encourage you to make your most creative images ever, and not to be afraid to follow your heart when it comes to making digital enhancements.
Two, it’s important to consider the reality of your photographs and the photographs of others.
Three, photographers are somewhat like magicians, or illusionists, if you will. The creative process of image making is like the art of doing a magic trick. If you don’t know the trick, the tick is amazing. If you know the trick, you know that it’s a relatively simple procedure.
I took the opening photograph for this post on my Provence, France photography workshop. On site, I liked the way the horses were running through the water, but the light was dull and flat. Rather than increase the contrast and sharpness of the image in Photoshop, I soften it using the Pastel filter in Nik Color Efex Pro.
If you go to Provence, you will not see horses running through the water at the beach – unless you have an assistant who will release them upon your command . . . so you can create your own reality.
Click here to order Creative Visualization for Photographers.
Explore the light,
Rick