Monument Cove and Otter Cliffs in Maine’s Acadia National Park. The curve of the shoreline in this photo adds a peaceful line that leads the viewer’s eye to the cliffs.
Lines, real and implied are an important component in any photo’s composition. Lines can be straight (horizontal, vertical, or at an oblique angle,) or curved. All lines work to divide your image into distinct parts, so you need to study your compositions carefully to see how these divisions work. Do they cut an image in half, creating a static feel, or do they divide the image into unequal parts which can provide an asymmetrical balance and more dynamic feel?
In general, horizontal lines are relatively calm. Vertical lines possess more energy, and diagonal or oblique lines are the most energetic of all. Lines also take the viewer on a journey through your photographs, as they provide a natural path for the viewer’s eye to follow while looking at your photo. Diagonal lines in particular, move your viewer along at a quick pace. Curved lines also give this sense of motion to a photo, but in a more peaceful, gentle way than a straight diagonal line.
Dawn over the Atlantic Ocean at Wallis Sands State Park in Rye, New Hampshire. I repositioned my camera for this photo so that the lines in the rock were at an oblique angle to give the photo more energy.
Whenever I’m composing a photo, I’m constantly repositioning my camera to take advantage of curved lines, and to change vertical or horizontal lines to oblique angled lines. The only exception to this is that I generally try to keep my horizon line or the vertical lines of trees, plants, and buildings straight (although purposely angling these lines can add more energy to a photo, and I’ll often choose that energy over a straight horizon line in an adventure photo.)
Waterfall at Castle in the Clouds in Moultonboro, New Hampshire. The relatively vertical flow of this photo has less of a sense of motion than the version below.
Waterfall at Castle in the Clouds in Moultonboro, New Hampshire. By recomposing this photo so that the water flows from top right to bottom left, gives the image a greater sense of motion and energy.
A man hikes over a footbridge near the Presumpscot River in Portland, Maine.The implied line (at an oblique angle) between the sun and the hiker adds to the sense of energy and movement in this photo.
Photos also have implied lines that you need to pay attention to. In many photos you will have a main subject as well as a secondary subject and if there is an oblique line between the two, the photo will have more energy than if that implied line is horizontal or vertical. Sometimes, all it takes is repositioning the camera by one or two feet to change this implied line and improve the image.
A woman kayaking in New Castle, New Hampshire.
In the above photo, the kayaker is the main subject, with the lighthouse serving as a strong secondary subject. The implied line between the two is slightly oblique. It’s a nice photo, but I think it could be better with a little more separation between the kayaker and the light.
Canoeing in Lily Bay at sunrise, Moosehead Lake, Maine.
In this paddling shot, the canoe and sun are the two subjects, and the implied oblique line between the two adds some needed energy to a photo that has a peaceful feeling due the horizontal lines formed by the horizon and the canoe.
Any questions? Please post them in the comments section below.
Cheers! -Jerry
Find out more about Jerry at his website, and follow him on Twitter at @jerrymonkman
I passed by a local Real Estate office to admire their beautiful garden bed filled with a variety of tulips and thought I would create a few images. In processing I toned down the bright red tulip behind the left petal with the clone tool set to approx 30% opacity. This is very easy to do using a simple layer and mask:
Bring your image into Photoshop and then create a duplicate layer by hitting Control J or Cmd J for MAC. It will show up as Layer 1. You can now clone as you normally would using the Clone Stamp Tool without worrying that you will clone on your subject because if you do you can easily clean it up with a layer mask. To do so add a regular layer mask to Layer 1. The Layer Mask should be filled with white. Now select a soft brush so that it feathers the paint slightly. Make sure that the foreground (the top color square- which is the color you will be painting with) is set to black. Touch up as needed. Note you can paint with white if you revealed too much from the bottom layer.
The above image is a 4 image multiple exposure that I created in-camera with the new feature on my 5D Mark III. I love this new feature and have been experimenting with it a lot. I decided to create a softer look by overlapping the images instead of rotating my camera I just slightly moved it. I really liked the soft flow of the lines. This is full frame with just some contrast, clarity and saturation. I adjusted the color with Nik Color Efex 4, White Neutralizer Filter (use code BAA to save 15%)
The very top feature image is of a bunch of Forget-me-nots that I have planted along my rock wall. I have always liked the blue color of those tiny little flower bunches. I used the multiple exposure feature to create the image.
In landscape photography we often discuss the many different ingredients that go into making a successful image. Things like composition, color, mood, light, and of course subject. And while these are all essential parts, the aspect I think is underestimated and not talked about enough is the relationships between these elements.
• How does the subject interact with the rest of the composition? Is the main “character” easily defined? Imagine a movie where you couldn’t tell who the main character was, or a song that did not have a recognizable melody. How quickly would you lose interest?
• How does the color influence the balance and design of the image? Saturated color is great, but only when a harmonious relationship exists with some other part of the composition, otherwise it loses its ability to convey a strong message other than “here’s a lot of color”.
• Are the tonalities balanced in a way that leads the eye in a meaningful way? Light is a powerful force in our search for evocative landscapes, but are you controlling the light through careful composition, and removing what may be distracting?
These questions are all based on relationships and how we use them in landscape photography. I’ll be covering these ideas in-depth in an upcoming article, but for now think about these concepts the next time you are out with your camera. Even simple things like using a longer focal length can have a dramatic impact on your ability to create stronger relationships. Avoid the temptation to capture it all, and use 70, 80, or even a 100mm focal length to narrow down your field of view and work with basic shapes, lines, and color. This technique will help you recognize relationships much easier, and your images will gain clarity because of it.
“We photograph something for two reasons: for what it is, and for what else it is.” – Minor White
Check out Robert’s website for images, workshops, webinars and more: LINK
One of the hardest things for many photographers to develop is a sense of creativity. You might be the most technologically proficient person with your gear and know how to edit photos better than the best Photoshop gurus out there but what about making interesting pictures?
Creativity, according to John Cleese is not a talent, but rather a quality that can be learned by the biggest imbecile… fortunately for me. So while you might have the technical know how, where do you rate on the creative scale?
Check out this video by the very talented and humorous John Cleese. Many of you may know him from Monty Python fame, but what you may not know about him, is that he is a highly educated, imaginative, and persuasive writer and educator. Maybe this video will help you to unlock your own creative abilities and also allow you a little laugh or two. Its a little over 30 minutes long, but full of useful info regardless if you’re a photographer, an artist, an engineer or a teacher!
Sometimes it is good to leave a little to the imagination. Some of the most intriguing movies or books are the ones that make you wonder or keep you guessing. I remember an image of a wolf that I saw a few years back. The wolf as walking into the frame with its head turning back as if something or someone was following it. The entire body of the wolf was not in view and I wondered if it was hurt, what had happened to it. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that the image has stayed with me for years–it had impact. Why? It didn’t tell the whole story. Have we as photographers been so trained that we feel the image needs to be complete, that it needs to tell the whole story. Imagination is a very powerful thing and maybe adding a little by taking away a little is a good thing.
This great info graphic has been making its rounds on the internet, first on Seth Godin’s blog, and also on Chase Jarvis’ blog, and I recommend you read both for their individual takes on this subject. When I saw it I immediately smiled because it proves that a picture is worth a thousand words! The vast majority of my time is spent away from doing what I love most, which is exploring ways to be creative and tell stories with my camera. The longer I do this, the more I have come to realize and appreciate this is exactly what it is. And it is this clarity of defining it that helps me stay focused and motivated to handle the other aspects of the business where I spend the majority of my time. Would I love to out source some if this as Seth recommends? Sure I would, and I am slowly moving in that direction. Being smart about what you should do vs what you should get someone else to do is a vital aspect of running any business where time is the most valuable resource, and I would dare anyone to find a case where that is more true than in landscape photography.
That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the other “stuff”, on the contrary I do. The realization that I am living my dream life, and that each day I have to pinch myself that it is for real makes dealing with the “stuff” a little easier. For sure there are some great benefits – the greatest for me is that I get to spend much more time with my family. I was a stay at home Dad for the first 3 years of my son’s life, and that alone is something I would not trade for anything.
What most do not see is the endless challenge of marketing and selling your work when the mortgage depends on it. The camera seems to stay in the bag for weeks at a time. Health insurance remains out of reach. But nothing in life is guaranteed, and the time we have been given can never be replaced. Spend it wisely, strive to do what you love, and take a moment to appreciate your last breath – there are many that do not have that simple but profound opportunity. It’s all in the simple details.
Check out Robert’s website for images, workshops, webinars and more: LINK
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what steps I’ve taken over the last 11 years to become the world’s most reknowned landscape and adventure photographer. Clearly, I’ve also been daydreaming quite a bit. Seriously though, here are a five things I’ve done that have contributed to making me a better photographer.
1) Be Studious
I’ve looked at a whole bunch of photos. Thousands of them. And I don’t just look at them. I study them. I pick them apart and try to figure out what makes one photo stupendous while another one just sucks. How many times have you seen a photo of Half Dome, Delicate Arch or the Tetons from Snake River Overlook? Of all the images you’ve seen from these iconic locations which ones stand out and why? Was it the light or some nuance of the composition? Next time you’re sitting at home with nothing to do, scoot on down to the local bookstore. Grab a few coffee table photo books by your favorite photographers, sink into one of their comfy chairs and analyze a few of your favorite photos. Do this often enough and you’ll soon find yourself making the same analyses as you compose images in the field.
2) Photograph Often
Spend as much time as you can in the field. In 2000, just over a year after getting serious about photography, I had the opportunity to spend 5 weeks on the road. In that time I learned several valuable lessons, one of which was what that mysterious “depth of field preview” button actually does when you press it. I used my camera daily and by the end of the trip I knew where every control was and what it did, and I could operate the camera intuitively. There’s no substitute for knowing your camera inside and out.
This was in the pre-digital days, i.e. film, and I lost the photo album from that trip to an ex. But I remember looking at the photos from beginning to end and being blown away by the difference in the quality of images from the beginning of the trip to the end. Photographing something every day for 5 weeks had a profound impact on my creativity. Of course I realize we can’t all jet off on a 5 week road trip. But I believe that if you make a concerted effort to get out as often as possible, you will see improvement in your photography.
3) Mix It Up
After moving from Arizona to Colorado in 2002 I made the conscious decision to focus less time on photographing the grand landscape and more time on intimate scenes. Most people, even non-photographers, can see the beauty in autumnal aspens below a snow capped peak. Hell, even snapshots of a scene like that are likely to induce “oohs” and “aahs” from casual viewers. I wanted to be able to walk into the aspen forest and walk out with a successful image of those beautiful trees, with no mountain in sight.
My first few hundred efforts at intimate landscape photography weren’t so good. Actually, they sucked. But, I took those slides (still in the film days here), put them on a light table and studied them a la my first point. Doing this, and forcing myself to look at the world around me with a narrower focus, helped me develop a more refined eye for composition. I eventually got to the point where I was creating some pretty nice intimate landscapes. In doing so, I found that my grand landscapes also improved as I spent more time crafting cohesive compositions. The key is to really focus your attention on an aspect of photography that is entirely new to you. If you’re a macro photographer, try grand landscapes. If your wide angle lens has never actually been detached from your camera put on a telephoto and practice seeing the natural world through it. Just mix it up a little bit.
Raindrops on False Hellebore, by Bret Edge.
4) Don’t Fear the Critique
I’ve touched on this one before but it fits with this topic as one of the pivotal moments in my photography career came after a paid critique session. Bear with me as this story is a little long.
While living in Arizona I took a trip to Flagstaff with the ex who stole (and probably burned) the aforementioned photo album. It was fall, the San Francisco Peaks were dusted in snow and the aspen leaves were bright yellow. I had just switched from print to slide film. I shot a few rolls and dropped them off at the lab which, if memory serves me, was actually named “The Lab”. The next day I headed over on my lunch break to pick up the slides.
I tore open each box and laid the slides out on the light tables that had fancy loupes attached to the counter by a wire to prevent thievery. While viewing them another photographer came in to pick up his film. He told the lab tech his name and I immediately recognized him as a frequent contributor to Arizona Highways. I was standing next to greatness! He must have seen me gawking at him instead of my slides and made a comment about the images I was ignoring on the light table. We had a short conversation, I asked him what he thought of my images and he offered a couple short critiques. He said he’d be happy to offer more in depth critiques for $50 an hour. I bit and we set up a time and place to meet. Don’t ask me who it was because I can’t remember, but I think his first name was David (no, not Muench).
This guy looked at slide after slide and gave me invaluable feedback on each one. It was an eye opener as I’d never actually had someone look at my images with a critical eye. I also learned that there are about 50 different ways to say “this sucks” in a very pleasant and constructive manner. At any rate, his critiques were solid and really helped me define what it was about an image that worked or didn’t work.
These days you can still get your work reviewed and critiqued in person, but you can also do so online in critique forums. Keep an open mind and seek critiques often. Your photography is guaranteed to improve.
5) Never Stop Learning
Anyone who believes they have reached the apex of their photography career/hobby/obsession is a sad, sad person as far as I’m concerned. No matter how much you know there is always something you don’t know.
I don’t know squat about artificial light, I can’t understand how to operate a tilt/shift lens to save my life and there are still things about Photoshop that positively mystify me. I don’t do my own printing because the whole color management/profiling/sharpening for print/selecting the right paper thing scares the BeJesus out of me. I could spend all day writing about the plethora of things I don’t know about photography but that isn’t constructive.
Read books, attend workshops, watch video tutorials, follow blogs, join photography forums and subscribe to photo magazines. Identify a technique or an aspect of photography that confuses you and vow to master it. Push yourself to learn in whatever ways are available to you. The more you expand your knowledge base the more tools you’ll have at your imaging disposal to make dynamic photographs.
There is no true roadmap to better photography but these five tips should get you pointed in the right direction. Enjoy the ride!
What has helped you become a better photographer? Share your ideas in the comments section!
If you’re looking to take a photo tour in the red rock region of Utah, check out Bret’s trips in the Moab area: http://www.moabphotoworkshops.com.
This past weekend’s warm weather made for some great night photography. I’ve lived in Chicago for nearly 15 years (on/off) and it’s a very rare evening that you can see the stars, given all the light pollution, but this past weekend was spectacular.
I decided to focus on taking a few long exposures to capture the energy and beauty of the city. The great thing about a long exposure is there’s very little that can go wrong once you have the setup nailed. The key of course is having a sturdy tripod, cable release, and lot of patience. There’s a lot of math that you can do to help achieve the right exposure, but I’m a simple kind of guy (that means math dumb) so I prefer to set my camera on B (bulb exposure), select a higher f-stop and start taking test shots. I usually start at around a minute and work my exposure time up or down depending on available light.
City of Lights
City of Lights(ISO 100, 268 secs, f/16, 20mm focal range on Canon 16-35) — This image took a significant amount of time to expose properly, tipping the scales at nearly 5 minutes. Now, I could have stopped the exposure at around 3 minutes, but I wanted an image that almost appeared overexposed, because it’s much easier to add black back into an image like this versus bumping up the lights (highlights). Later I finished this image off in Color Efex Pro 4 using several filters to bring my vision into focus. In terms of composition, I decided to leave the airplane lights in the image because I felt it added to the overall “big city” feel and energy.
Lake Shore Drive
Lake Shore Drive(ISO 100, 27secs, f/16- Zeiss 50mm) — The hardest part about this shot is getting to the right location. I guess photography shares the realtor’s adage…”location, location, location.” I took this image from a pedestrian overpass that gave me a glimpse of the John Hancock building to help solidify it’s Chicago identity. You might think you need to take this shot over a very long period of time, but in the world of long exposure, this is a very quick shot coming in at 27 secs. Whenever you have a lot of fast moving lights the longer the exposure the softer and blurrier the lights will appear. Once again, I later processed this image using Color Efex Pro 4 and a few my favorite filters.
It was a wonderful evening and I hope you enjoy the images.
p.s. Side note: we still have a few spots open for my Chicago Workshops, where I’ll be discussing how to create images just like these. Hope to see you there!
I made a last minute decision yesterday to head back out to Ocean City NJ to photograph the 59th Street Pier this morning. Friend/client Kate Ryan met me out there and I was glad to have the company. It was a heavy overcast morning with moments of the sun breaking through. The colors were not as intense as they had been on my first visit last week, so I decided to change my view up a little and work a little tighter, concentrating on the front piers as apposed to the entire pier. This image was processed using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. In situations where the color does not appeal to you or doesn’t fit the mood consider going with B&W.
I downloaded a new iPhone app this morning: Camera Awesome by SmugMug. Above is my first Camera Awesome image, created from the original iPhone photo below of the New Croton Dam.
Original dull and boring photo by Rick Sammon
Awesome, indeed.
The free app (with paid options) offers unlimited creative control over photos you take with the iPhone, as well as photos that are in your Photos gallery on your iPhone.
Getting back to “unlimited” creative control, the app has almost 300 presets, filters, texture and frames, but you can tweet them and combine them for endless, and original, effects. Thirty-six of the effects, more than enough to start your photo fun, are free. You can buy other effects in groups of nine for 99 cents.
For the opening image for this post, I used the More Wang effect, one of the man Presents. Other cool effects/options include: Awesomize, Transform, Filters and Texture.
By the way, I chose More Wang because I wanted to add an aged-photo look to my photo of the dam, which was under construction from 1892 to 1906. It’s an aged, and aging, dam. I lead a workshop here in fall, which is an awesome photo experience.
While at the dam, I emailed the pictures to myself. Uploading pictures to SmugMug (at full resolution), Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Picasa and Photobucket are other options.
As illustrated in the above screen grabs, adding effects with a top of the screen or swipe of a slider is fast, easy – and fun.
Rick Sammon
Among the many cool feature in Camera Awesome is one that lets you apply a favorite effect to several images. For example, if you have several photos of big cats, you may want to apply the same effect to each image.
No! I did not take the photo of the lion and jaguar with my iPhone. I used my Canon digital SLRs and lenses Yes! As I mentioned, you can enhance any photo from your Photos gallery on your iPhone with Camera Awesome, too.
Enough reading already! Download the free app and awaken the artist within.
Explore the light, Rick
P.S. I have a few if my own apps, for both the iPhone and iPad, too. Check them out here. Read about the iPhone accessories I use and recommend while you are there.
Learning to Recognize Relationships in Photography
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012“Hudson Valley Trail, New York”
In landscape photography we often discuss the many different ingredients that go into making a successful image. Things like composition, color, mood, light, and of course subject. And while these are all essential parts, the aspect I think is underestimated and not talked about enough is the relationships between these elements.
• How does the subject interact with the rest of the composition? Is the main “character” easily defined? Imagine a movie where you couldn’t tell who the main character was, or a song that did not have a recognizable melody. How quickly would you lose interest?
• How does the color influence the balance and design of the image? Saturated color is great, but only when a harmonious relationship exists with some other part of the composition, otherwise it loses its ability to convey a strong message other than “here’s a lot of color”.
• Are the tonalities balanced in a way that leads the eye in a meaningful way? Light is a powerful force in our search for evocative landscapes, but are you controlling the light through careful composition, and removing what may be distracting?
These questions are all based on relationships and how we use them in landscape photography. I’ll be covering these ideas in-depth in an upcoming article, but for now think about these concepts the next time you are out with your camera. Even simple things like using a longer focal length can have a dramatic impact on your ability to create stronger relationships. Avoid the temptation to capture it all, and use 70, 80, or even a 100mm focal length to narrow down your field of view and work with basic shapes, lines, and color. This technique will help you recognize relationships much easier, and your images will gain clarity because of it.
“We photograph something for two reasons: for what it is, and for what else it is.” – Minor White
Check out Robert’s website for images, workshops, webinars and more: LINK
Tags: Craft, Landscape
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