Never Mind, Where to Start!... Where to Finish?
Never Mind, Where to Start!... Where do you finish?
Bit of a follow up to my last blog post I guess. But one good source of information when learning a new skill is to see how someone else successfully did it. For this reason, I love to see before and after photos. I see them as one of the best resources when starting out in photography. It helped me to see where other people were starting and where they ended up with their final processed image. I still very much consider myself a beginner photographer with so much to learn about the photographic world, processes, techniques, styles, the history, and everything else that takes everyday photography and makes it into an artform. Although now for me I suppose I find it a bit easier to find a starting point when capturing a scene thanks to the inspiration taken from seeing other people’s before and after photos, the trouble for me now is that I sometimes don’t know how far to push the process. I don’t always know if I’m pushing the edit too far, (Overcooking) the image, or not pushing the edit to it’s full potential (Undercooking) the image. And the only practical way I can see around this is just cook it to taste. Do what feels right to you and then let practice and experience over time guide you to know when to finish your post process.
Exposure Blend/Bracketed Exposure to capture the highlights and the Shadows details in the scene as well as the final processed images. (source) Darlene Hildebrandt - https://www.digitalphotomentor.com/exposure-blending-in-photoshop-a-beginners-tutorial/
Granted, fine art photography and bright colourful dreamy landscape images are not for everyone, but it’s what I love and what inspires me to get out with the camera and try and create something that I like, something that I would love to put on my own wall at home.
As mentioned above with this comes the point where I often find myself. how far do I push the processing in this photo to create the image that I’m visualizing in my head? I try so hard sometimes to keep the scene as close to how I actually did see it when taking the shot in order to keep an element of reality there, but I feel that this might be holding back the potential for each image. (I don’t know! I’m just really bad for over-thinking everything and really need to just let go sometimes, I think).
But anyway, A prime example of where I’m coming from here was from a photographer whose work has always really inspired me, A photographer who really captured my imagination with his phenomenal work and that photographer is Daniel Laan – Laanscapes.com, I followed his work from starting out in photography and was always amazed at the work he produced. So, one day while in college I was researching some images for a report when I noticed a photo of a tree and thought to myself, I recognize that tree!? I remembered it from about a year before, but it looked a lot different. (I have a strange messed up mind for remembering insignificant details, leave me alone!!! lol)
Anyway, right away I thought I remembered it as a shot belonging to Daniel Laan, so I instantly searched through his web site and social media till I found it and low and behold I was right. The photo was titled ‘Catch the Spirit’ and as you can see from them side by side, they are a little bit different.
Daniel Laan - 'Catch the Spirit' Before and After
This made me feel a little relieved, as the before photo showed a scene that was similar to what I was getting out of the camera myself. But rather than feel disappointed by Daniel’s work this got me exited and full of inspiration, as it helped me realise that the potential was there to take an everyday photograph with very little atmosphere and turn it into a one of a kind dream like forest scene filled with drama and atmosphere. It made me realise that the in the field photography side was where you master your camera to get as much of a technically sound photograph as you can. A photo with a solid foundation is just as important as the processioning techniques are. As, the more you push and pull your photo in post processing the more degradation you do to the data of that image. So non-destructive processing techniques and a technically strong photo are equally important here. Seeing this before and after pushed me to research more non-destructive post processing techniques in order to try and create these wonderful images for myself (not there yet! but still loving the learning curve).
So seeing other peoples work in a before and after scenario really helped me to try and push myself to be more creative with my own work, it means you have a target for where you might want to start when taking the shot in the first place and also inspires you to see what it could potentially become. There are multiple tutorials out there for mastering these techniques. Much of it is freely available on Youtube which is where I’ve done most of my own learning and research, but if you really want to learn from the masters who inspire you, then try and see if they have a website or Youtube Channel that offers their own tutorials on how they created their masterpieces. You can find examples of Daniel’s work on his website as well as loads of amazing tutorials so why not check them out.
https://www.laanscapes.com/
Here are some more examples of some before and after comparison photos that have inspired me in the past.
I like the simplicity of the final image here as well as the simplicity of the process. By simply removing the horizon and the sky it’s isolated the subject which is the small wooden pier and makes the overall scene seem more calming and peaceful.
Dean Maguire - Fine art photography sky and horizon removal - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oOSASQ7kiE
There are so many photographers in my inspiration list, but Ted Gore is right up there, some of his images are still to this day some of my favourite landscape images. This is one from one of his tutorials available on his website, this one is called ‘Dawns Starburst’. And what’s not to love in this photograph!? The texture in the rocks in the immediate foreground, the depth from the distant forest and mountains in the mid ground, and the detail of the stars in the morning sky in the background. And that’s just in the original photograph. But the tones, contrast, sharpness and texture of the final image is just phenomenal! This......! this right here is what inspires me as a photographer.
Ted Gore – Dawn Starburst tutorial - http://www.tedgorecreative.com/processingvideos
Fine art black and white architecture photography has always been a fascinating genre of photography for me, work by the likes of Julia Anna Gospodarou, Irene Kung and Scottish Photographer Billy Currie among some of my favourites. This next step by step series from start to finish image is by Julia Anna Gospodarou, titled 'Ode to Black I' (in my view), really helps to train your eye for what to look for when out in the field, I’m not the most imaginative or artistic minded person really so seeing the before shot alongside the after shot helps train my eye and helps me to find that starting point. What you do with that image from there is what makes it (your) image.
Julia Anna Gospodarou – Ode to Black I – (source) https://blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/complete-guide-black-and-white-fine-art-photography/
Julia Anna Gospodarou – Ode to Black I – (source) https://blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/complete-guide-black-and-white-fine-art-photography/
I also get so much inspiration from a technique that transcends both photography and videography and that technique is colour grading. It’s amazing just how much a photo or video clip can be changed simply by the adjustment of some colours. The contrast shift alone simply by using well place complimentary colours can take a flat lifeless photo or clip and transform it into a dramatic story. Kate Woodman is going to be the photographer I turn to here. Her ability to create a story from a single photo using mostly colour, both coloured gel lighting as well as additional colour grading is absolutely outstanding. Taking a drab dining room like the one below and adding some well-placed gelled lighting, some props and some post-production colour grading and created a story within a single image. Made all the more powerful when placed in a series of images using matching colour palette is simply mesmerising.
Kate Woodman – From Drab to Dramatic Part I – (source) http://www.katewoodman.com/blog/2018/4/15/6vkj81pmkbpfpk92fexmpb8fr95tm1
So, I would really like to say thank you so much to all the creators out there that took the time and effort to put their work out there for us. That showed us from beginning to end how they got from the out of camera shot to the final image that we see on their profiles and web sites, it’s truly the biggest factor for me when I think about being inspired by other people’s work, these before and after blogs, videos, printed tutorials and social media posts have been a big source of inspiration for me and I try to take as much from them as I can in the encouragement that they give me when trying to move forward as a photographer. Thank you all so very much!
And thank you so much if you took the time to listen to my waffling on, but writing these blogs helps me to try and put things into perspective, writing them down and trying to make sense of where I am on this photography journey sometimes helps me to understand where I want to go if that makes sense. I'm only a beginner myself and these blog posts are just my opinions, not what I think others should think or should be doing.
Best Regards
Sylvan
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