Bryan Peterson Photography: A Master Class in Creating Outstanding Images 077043309X, 9780770433093

Table of contents :
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
1: The Photographic Triangle
Shutter Speed
Aperture
Challenging Exposures
2: Understanding the Wide-Angle Lens
3: It’s an Equipment Issue
Lenses
Flash
4: Expanding Your Vision
5: Composition
6: The Use of Filters
Polarizing Filters
FLW Magenta Filters
Graduated Neutral-Density Filters
7: Photoshop
Dedication
About the Author
Index

Citation preview

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Text copyright © 2021 by Bryan Peterson Photographs copyright © 2021 by Bryan Peterson All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Watson-Guptill Publications, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. www.watsonguptill.com WATSON-GUPTILL and the HORSE HEAD colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC. Names: Peterson, Bryan, 1952- author. Title: Bryan Peterson photography school : a master class in creating outstanding images / Bryan Peterson. Description: First. | Emeryville : Watson-Guptill, 2021. Identifiers: LCCN 2020047758 (print) | LCCN 2020047759 (ebook) | ISBN 9780770433093 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780770433109 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Photography—Technique. | Photography, Artistic—Study and teaching—Case studies. Classification: LCC TR146 .P42354 2021 (print) | LCC TR146 (ebook) | DDC 770—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047758 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020047759 Trade Paperback ISBN 9780770433093 Ebook ISBN 9780770433109 Editor: Emma Rudolph Print designer: Isabelle Gioffredi | Print production designer: Howie Severson Print production manager: Jane Chinn Print prepress color manager: Jane Chinn Developmental Editor: Julie Mazur Tribe | Copyeditor: Mi Ae Lipe Proofreader: Karen Levy | Indexer: Ken DellaPenta Publicist: Natalie Yera | Marketer: Windy Dorresteyn Ebook production manager: John Van Deren rhid_prh_5.7.0_c0_r0

Contents Introduction

The Photographic Triangle Shutter Speed Aperture Challenging Exposures

Understanding the Wide-Angle Lens

It’s an Equipment Issue Lenses Flash

Expanding Your Vision

Composition

The Use of Filters Polarizing Filters FLW Magenta Filters Graduated Neutral-Density Filters

Photoshop About the Author Index

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 70–300MM LENS F/22 FOR 15 SECONDS ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

SONY ALPHA a7 III SONY 24—105MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Introduction

What makes a great photograph? Without a doubt, this is the question I am asked the most, whether in my photography workshops around the world, at the slide-talk lectures I present to groups from six to five thousand people, or in the countless photography classes at my online school (BPSOP.com). Is it the technical aspects of an image—lens choice, exposure, point of view, composition? Yes, those things are important. But ultimately what makes a great photograph is the intention behind the image. What did the photographer intend to capture? And was that intention made obvious and compelling for the viewer? A great photograph is one that brings joy or sadness to not only the photographer but others as well. In effect, a great photograph is one that makes us feel deeply. Over the past forty-five years, I have taught thousands upon thousands of enthusiastic and passionate amateur photographers, and the methodology of my workshops generally follows the same format. After a meet-and-greet, we spend the next two, five, or more days together photographing various scenes. As we do this, it is common for me, following a student’s attempt to photograph a given scene, to take their camera and photograph what we affectionately call the “Bryan Peterson version” of the same scene, showing small changes that produce the kind of photograph they had hoped to achieve. (I use their camera so that they can keep my images as teaching tools.) Sometimes I adjust exposure fundamentals, such as aperture choice or shutter speed. At other times, it’s about shifting the point of view or waiting just a few more moments (or, in some cases, hours) for the “right” light. By showing them my version of the same scene or guiding them to an improved version of their own, we bridge that little bit of distance in their ongoing journey toward making compelling photographs. It’s often only a simple adjustment that is needed to make an ordinary image extraordinary, one that will stop the viewer in their tracks, inspiring shock, laughter, or tears—in other words, moving the emotional meter. This book brings you inside that workshop process, sharing more than eighty student photographs that missed the mark (sometimes by mere inches), each paired with a more successful version and an explanation of what changed, along with solutions for avoiding the same mistakes in your own images. You’ll read repeatedly about my belief that successful photographs must have a combination of balance and tension, and hear my mantra that while great light rarely salvages a poor composition, a compelling composition almost always salvages poor light. You’ll be, in effect,

sitting next to the students, hearing the stories behind their photographs, and learning along with them how to bring that photograph across the finish line. As far as subjects go, this book covers most, if not all, of them. Whether you’re interested in photographing landscapes, flowers, abstracts, wildlife, people, sunsets, trees, oceans, mountains, sports, or inclement weather, they’re all here. These are the photographs most people want to take and can clearly see before them, yet often fall short of making compelling or creating what I call the “creatively correct” exposure. Don’t be surprised if much of what you read and see in this book resonates with your personal photographic journey, shortcomings and all. Although you will find a number of exercises throughout this book to help you better understand both exposure and composition, you might find it beneficial to refer to my previous books, such as Understanding Exposure, Understanding Shutter Speed, Learning to See Creatively, and Understanding Composition, for more indepth explanations. Understanding Exposure, now in its fourth edition, helps readers understand the difference between a correct exposure and a “creatively correct” exposure, offering comprehensive explanations of, for example, a “Who cares?” aperture versus a “storytelling” aperture. The students in this book have made a number of technical exposure mistakes and Understanding Exposure is a useful companion to understanding my critiques of those images. Now, needless to say, you may be wondering what gives me the authority to speak about another’s work. And it’s true that any photograph—or critique of that photograph—is very subjective. Some might respond to a photograph of a nude with disdain, just as others might yawn at a photograph of a flower or sunset. I’m fully aware that I am just one person and my comments are subjective, even based as they are on many years of joy and heartache behind the camera. That said, the critiques in this book generally represent not only my opinions but also the collective voice of my students, as we generally discuss the images together at the end of each workshop. Only rarely do I disagree with the overall sense of whether or not a photograph is successful. The fact is, almost everything I’ve learned about the art of image-making I’ve learned directly and indirectly from my students. So while the critiques are written by me, they are in many respects a collective writing from the group. One more point to keep in mind is that unlike a “blind” critique, in most cases I had the benefit of participating in workshops with these students, getting to know them over the course of two, five, or more days, particularly with repeat students. This has given me insight into their intentions, techniques, and feelings about their photographs that I would not normally be afforded and that has been included in these critiques. Every comment made about a student’s work in Bryan Peterson Photography School is intended to help the student—and thus you—become a better photographer. Whether your intention is to win awards at your local camera club, pursue

photography full-time, or simply generate more likes on Instagram or Facebook, the material in this book will help you accelerate your skills, shed habits that have been keeping you from consistently producing compelling images, and feel more confident as your pursue photographic excellence. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, or if you have read any of my other books, you will recognize my voice, my passion, and, most of all, my desire to help you learn the art of image-making. I am who I am today in many respects because of readers like you. I am eternally grateful for your countless emails, comments, and stories of how much you have been helped by my books, but I also want you to know that you have helped me more as a photographer and pushed me more as a creative artist than you can possibly realize. I will be forever grateful for the tremendous support and love you have shown me over my own forty-five-year journey of pursuing photographic excellence. Until next time, this is Bryan Peterson reminding you to keep shooting!

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The Photographic Triangle

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SHUTTER SPEED Just as it was one hundred years ago, every camera, whether it’s a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) or on your smartphone, is nothing more than a lightproof box with a lens at one end and a light-sensitive device (digital sensor) at the other. When light is allowed to enter the “hole” in the lens (the “aperture”) for a certain amount of time (the “shutter speed”), an image will be recorded. This image is called an exposure. A correct exposure is a simple combination of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO (the sensor’s sensitivity to light). I refer to these three factors as the photographic triangle. In this chapter, we’ll look at common problems with each of these factors and how to solve them, starting with shutter speed. Shutter speed controls the amount of time that light is allowed through the camera’s lens to stay on the digital media. The slower the shutter speed, the more light is allowed in. Today’s cameras offer shutter speeds from a blazingly fast 1/15,000 sec. to as long as 30 seconds. Smartphone cameras have a more limited range, from approximately 1/1000 sec. to 1/60 sec. I have been fascinated with motion and shutter speed ever since I first picked up a camera in 1970. However, despite the amount of attention that I’ve given this particular subject throughout the years both in my books and workshops, the creative use of shutter speed seems to fall more often than not on deaf ears. Most of my students seem to be far more content with exacting sharpness and images that are quiet, predictable, and easy on the blood pressure. But using shutter speed creatively —whether by freezing action or suggesting motion—can bring a welcome, often surprising, tension and excitement to a picture’s overall composition. This is not to say that every photograph must involve the creative use of shutter speed, but if you’re seeking just one area that will expand your creative vision, I strongly recommend looking for opportunities to exploit motion. If there is one area that helps photographers regarding shutter speed, it would be this: When handholding your camera, make sure you use a fast enough speed to keep your image crystal-clear. If your shutter speed is too slow, no matter how incredibly fast and consistent your autofocus mechanism is, all that technology of your 57-point autofocus will go to waste. The first picture shown on this page was taken by one of my students, Steve, during a workshop in India. We were handholding our cameras while standing in a rowboat, photographing a woman cleaning herself in the Ganges River. Steve’s image fails for the most obvious of reasons: His shutter speed of 1/30 sec. was too slow, causing the overall photograph to be soft. The image on this page is my version of the

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same subject, albeit as a vertical composition. Why is my image sharper? I used a blazingly fast shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. with a wider aperture and a slightly higher ISO. The faster shutter speed not only increases the overall sharpness of the photograph but also freezes the splashing, cascading water.”

Converting Your Smartphone into a Manual Camera If you’re using a smartphone camera but would like to explore the idea of using a DSLR, a number of apps will do just that: turn your smartphone into a manual camera. Being able to use shutter speeds of up to 30 seconds can come in handy when shooting night scenes and exploring various effects, although of course you will need to attach the smartphone to a tripod.

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EXERCISE Choose the Creatively Correct Shutter Speed Shutter speed controls the amount of time that the volume of light coming through the lens is allowed to stay on the sensor. If you set the shutter speed to 500, this number represents a fraction: 1/500 sec. If you change the shutter speed to 250, this represents 1/250 sec., which (perhaps confusingly) is double the amount of time. Each time you increase from one shutter speed to the next, such as from 1/500 to 1/250 to 1/125 sec., the amount of time that light is exposed to the lens is doubled. Likewise, if you decrease your shutter speed, such as from 1/125 to 1/250 sec., the amount of time that light is exposed to the lens is halved. Each halving or doubling of light is referred to as a full stop. This is important to note, since many cameras offer onethird-stop shutter speed increments: 1/500 sec., 1/400 sec., 1/320 sec., 1/250 sec., 1/200 sec., 1/160 sec., 1/125 sec., 1/100 sec., 1/80 sec., 1/60 sec., and so on. (The bold numbers represent the original, basic stops while the others are the newer one-third options often now available.) These one-third-stop options reflect the camera industry’s attempts to make it easier to achieve “perfect” exposures—fine-tuning, if you will. But as you’ll learn, it’s rare that you’ll want a perfectly fine-tuned exposure each and every time. Here is a fun exercise to see just how influential shutter speed can be. Get a friend and go to the nearest outside wall, such as the side of your house, a nearby school building, or even a place with graffiti. With your camera in Manual Mode and your ISO set to 400, select a fast shutter speed, such as 1/1000 sec. Turn the aperture dial until you see that little black dot at or very close to zero. Ask your friend to jump in the air and take a picture when they’re totally off the ground. Now, set your shutter speed to 1/60 sec., again adjusting your aperture dial until that little black dot is at or very near zero. Have your friend jump again and fire away. What do you notice? Both exposures are identical in their exposure tonality, color, and brightness, but in the first one, your

friend’s jump is recorded in exacting sharpness while in the other, your friend is a bit blurred. You just learned that with a super-fast shutter speed, such as a 1/1000 sec., you can freeze action, while a slower 1/60 sec. shutter speed is not a good choice for fast-moving subjects that you wish to freeze. More importantly, you learned that while a number of combinations of aperture and shutter speed can produce a correct exposure, there is usually only one, maybe two, that will produce the most creatively correct exposure. Motion-filled photographic opportunities are everywhere. To capture them, you’ll find yourself on either end of the shutter speed spectrum: using fast speeds (between 1/500 and 1/1000 sec.) to freeze the action in crisp, sharp detail, or slow speeds (1/4 sec. to 8 seconds) and the resulting blur to suggest motion. There is rarely a middle ground when it comes to the motion-filled world. With my camera and an 80–400mm NIKKOR zoom lens mounted on a tripod, with the lens set to 300mm, I shot the image on this page at f/4 and 1/1000 sec. The image on this page was shot at f/32 and 1/15 sec. Both exposures are exactly the same in terms of quantitative value but quite different in the arena of creative exposure. Note how at the faster shutter speed, the splash is frozen in exacting detail. At the slower shutter speed, the sharp detail has given way to a blurring of the moving water, conveying a greater sense of movement. Neither of these exposures is “better”; the decision is yours. Whenever you’re photographing motion, ask yourself: Which shutter speed will give me the most visually compelling creative exposure?”

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Panning is a technique that calls upon the use of a somewhat slow shutter speed while following the path of a moving subject with your camera and pressing the shutter release as the subject flies past. If you’ve tried your hand at panning, then not only do you understand the deep level of frustration but also that it’s entirely possible you’ve given up all hope of ever succeeding with it! I want to stress, however, that it’s important to get back out there and fight on. Many times, I’ve witnessed the deep joy that comes when a student finally accomplishes what some might consider a monumental feat in the photographic world. Am I suggesting that panning is tricky? Absolutely! It is one of the most difficult creative shutter speed techniques. But as with all difficult tasks, once it is accomplished, the sense of gratification is akin to having climbed Mount Everest. In one of my India workshops, I worked with a wonderful returning student named Megan. As much as Megan tried and tried to create a successful panning composition, she continually came up short, but on this particular morning, all that was about to change. And when it did, I heard all about it! She was as excited as if she’d won the hundred-million-dollar lottery. The first three examples here were taken from several hundred images that fell short while Megan stood shooting at an intersection near Old Delhi over the course of one hour. The lessons she learned were to keep the moving subject in the same spot of the frame while moving the camera’s viewfinder from left to right (or right to left), as well as to use a shutter speed of 1/20, 1/25, or 1/30 sec. Most of all, Megan learned that what really mattered was being persistent!”

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How to Pan

The keys to panning are:

Cradle the camera so that its base sits flat in the palm of your hand. With your other hand, hold the camera firmly from the side. If your lens has an image stabilization (IS) or vibration reduction (VR) switch, make sure it is in the “on” position, as this will help stabilize the camera.

Choose an area of moving subjects that can be framed against a busy background, such as a wall of graffiti or city storefronts. Do not attempt to pan against a solid-colored wall, since effective panning relies on the contrast between the moving subject and the background.

As the subject enters the frame, move in the same left-to-right (or right-to-left) direction and at the same speed as the subject. If possible, always keep the moving subject in the first third of your frame. Consider shooting a series of shots at 1/30 sec., 1/25 sec., 1/20 sec., and 1/15 sec. You will see a clear difference in overall sharpness of the moving subject as well as a difference in the streaked background.

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Our world is one of nonstop movement, with activity not only surrounding us but also that we ourselves are engaged in. Hidden motion surrounds us all, if we just pay attention. Here is an example to show you what I mean. During a workshop in the great city of New York, my students and I set up our cameras and 24–70mm or 24–105mm street-zoom lenses on our tripods in Brooklyn Bridge Park, in preparation for the blue hour. (We’d arrived about thirty minutes before sunset, an absolute must in the summer if you want a seat on the short amphitheater-like steps that allow a comfortable position to shoot the Manhattan skyline across the East River.) As the blue hour began, the students began shooting in earnest. Soon, a large party boat covered in lights moved in from the right, about to enter everyone’s composition. I didn’t think twice about it, saying, “This is fantastic! An unexpected and welcome ‘brushstroke of colorful electricity’ is being afforded to all of us.” One of my students, Ben, said, “I’m not going to shoot it.” When I asked why, he said, “Those ‘lines’ are going to ruin the shot!” His image is shown on this page. The following evening, as we sat down to critique the previous day’s work, I could sense Ben’s frustration almost immediately when we began looking at the other students’ images with the “electrified lines of color” from the party boat. His face said it all. He vowed never to pass up a passing boat again! Ben was kind enough to share his photograph here; you can see how my image conveys what is arguably some welcome “electricity” to the composition (see this page). Note that I also used an FLW magenta filter to impart a magenta cast to the image, which we’ll discuss on this page.”

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Every picture-taking opportunity has no fewer than six possible correct exposures. What do I mean by that? Let me explain. My students and I arrived at the Trocadéro, a large elevated pedestrian plaza in Paris, about thirty minutes before sunset, assuring our front-row seats and an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower. As the blue hour arrived, we began to shoot. Right next to me stood David, who had read my books and several others and had commented earlier in the workshop that he now understood which aperture to use; it was no longer confusing, he’d said. Now he turned to me and said excitedly, “I know this is a classic ‘Who cares?’ aperture choice, since everything is at the same focused distance!” He proceeded to take three or four shots using f/8 for 2 seconds, one of which is shown on this page. I, on the other hand, shot the same scene at f/22 for 15 seconds (see this page). As you compare our pictures, two things need to be stated. First, they are both the “same” exposure, meaning that the quantitative value is the same. David’s aperture (lens opening) of f/8 was much larger than my opening of f/22. When you go from f/8 to f/11, you reduce the size of the lens opening by half. If you then go from f/11 to f/16, you halve it again. And from f/16 to f/22, it is halved a third time. We call this a three-stop reduction in light, meaning that an aperture of f/22 admits three stops less light through the lens opening than David’s aperture of f/8. To adjust for this difference and maintain the “same” correct exposure, I needed to add three stops of light to the shutter speed, so the same amount of light would reach my lens. From 2 seconds to 4 seconds is doubled (one stop); from 4 seconds to 8 seconds is doubled again (two stops); and finally from 8 to 15 seconds is doubled again (three stops). (DSLR cameras do not offer a 16-second shutter speed choice. After 15 seconds, the doubling resumes with the offer of a 30-second exposure time.) And again, as you look at both images side by side, the quantitative value of the overall exposure is the same. Note that I was using a Nikon camera and lens while David was using Canon; he was also using Auto White Balance (WB) while I was using Direct Sunlight/Daylight WB, which accounts for some degree of color difference between our images. However, there’s a much larger difference between them. Mine shows far more traffic moving under the Eiffel Tower than David’s, simply because my 15-second exposure allowed more traffic to flow across the sensor than David’s brief 2-second exposure. When David said he didn’t need my input about f-stops because he understood them, he was right, but in his attempt to do the correct thing relative to aperture, he failed to notice a bigger opportunity—to use a longer shutter speed for a much more energized composition. When you approach any scene, always ask yourself: Are there any depth-of-field concerns or shutter speed opportunities? The answer will dictate which of these two

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will be the star of the show—although to be clear, sometimes it can be both!”

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term I often use to describe the effect of a colorful moving object entering an “ Aotherwise quiet, sharp composition is “brushstroke of color.” The resulting brushstroke can add an extraordinary voice, a tension that elevates the composition, if the right shutter speed is used. During one of my workshops in the Netherlands, Arthur was shooting what he called a minimalist composition of the Dutch landscape, limited to nothing more than the vertical lines of trees, a strip of green grass, and a striking line of red, which in fact was a distant field of tulips. As I was commending Arthur for his composition, I heard the distant roar of a large truck coming down the narrow roadway. I suggested that he was about to be given a tremendous gift if he was prepared and ready to shoot with an exposure of 1/30 sec. when the truck entered the same exact scene. Arthur, being a naturalist, was not too excited about photographing a large industrial truck at any time, let alone within his quiet composition of color and line, and yet when it arrived about 20 seconds later, he was ready! As the truck entered the frame, he fired several exposures; the best of the lot is shown on this page. It was Arthur’s first-ever brushstroke and he sheepishly admitted that he loved the effect. Once again, this is an example of how motion is everywhere. Why not be on the lookout for the opportunities to shoot colorful brushstrokes of color?”

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was the last time you deliberately photographed the wind? You might be “ When thinking, how do I photograph something invisible? But what I really mean to ask is, when was the last time you photographed evidence of the wind? This is one of those opportunities to exploit shutter speed in a way that certainly violates the old school of photography, where it was understood, almost mandated, that any absence of sharpness within a composition was grounds for being disbarred from the photographic community. Needless to say, a great deal has changed since those early days where tack sharpness from top to bottom, side to side, was the major requirement of a successful photograph. Countless photographers have attempted to photograph flowers blowing in the wind. With the camera on a tripod and a low ISO combined with a small aperture (and, if it is a bright day, a neutral-density [ND] filter), photographers are able to shoot correct exposures at 1/2 sec., 1 second, or even 4 seconds, pressing the shutter as the wind blows to capture the essence of a breezy outing in a field of flowers. I will warn you that the ratio of success when pursuing truly compelling compositions of flowers blowing in the wind is dismally low, but, similar to panning, the emotional rewards are high. That was certainly the situation during a workshop in Delhi, India, several years ago. Thomas and I found ourselves in a narrow alleyway on an unusually stormy day, with gusts of wind blowing at around twenty miles an hour. A framed poster of Hindu gods was on display with what looked like plastic leis hanging in front of it. When I asked Thomas why he wasn’t shooting when the wind gusts came through the alleyway, he said, “I don’t want to have blurry leis ‘flying’ about these Hindu gods. I want everything to be sharp.” Fair enough, so I proceeded to shoot during the gusts and Thomas shot without any gusts. Ultimately, you can be the judge of which image you feel is more compelling. The next time you’re shooting outdoors when the wind is blowing, ask yourself, “Why am I waiting for the wind to die down? Is there an opportunity to exploit the wind?” And this isn’t, of course, limited to flowers. Some of the best portraits I’ve ever shot are of subjects with long hair blowing freely in the wind, taken while using a slow shutter speed.”

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we choose to freeze action, whether at the skateboard park or the swimming “ When pool, more often than not we combine blazingly fast shutter speeds (such as 1/1000 sec.) with a high frame rate. In other words, firing as many frames as possible while you depress the shutter release. Most cameras today can fire between five and seven frames per second, and some are capable of upward of fourteen frames per second. If you’re using a smartphone, do this by continuously pressing the button on your screen. No matter which camera you’re using, you can end up with tens if not hundreds of shots. So I’d like to take a moment to address the need for editing—and by “editing,” I’m not referring to adjusting the exposure or color, but to the need to toss out almost every image except that one most decisive, most telling, most actionfilled moment. Countless students have shared with me the contents of their laptops and external hard drives, telling me that they keep everything. They’re also quick to add that they know they have to eventually throw stuff away, but what to throw away and what to keep? I’ll be the first to admit that editing is laborious, even tedious, and does require an investment of time. But I also embrace the idea of pulling off the Band-Aid as quickly as possible. Unless you’re planning on making a time-lapse video, now is the time to throw away all those shots that lead up to and follow the real prizewinner, that one image of an action-filled, decisive moment. It was in a Maui workshop when we were fortunate to have one of the students volunteer as a model, willing to take the hit of a wave. In fact, you may know her. This is Michelle, my business partner in my online photography school. Dorothy, one of my students, was kind enough to share a small sampling of the many photographs she shot of Michelle on this particular morning. Let’s assume for a moment that these are photographs of a friend or family member. Do you really need more than just the one epic photograph of her taking a hit from a wave? Two, three, or four shots will become repetitive and quickly lose their impact (no pun intended). Show your audience only the one prizewinner. Be a ruthless editor!”

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of the simplest opportunities to exploit motion is presented to you each and “ One every time you find yourself shooting with an exposure time of 1/4 sec. or longer. During a workshop in Vancouver, BC, while my students and I were photographing the evening Vancouver skyline using 8-second exposures, I asked if any of them had zoomed their lenses during their exposure. Not a single hand went up, and the only response was a few confused looks and comments along the lines of “I’ve heard about that, but I’m not sure how to do it.” I explained that you can zoom out during the exposure, starting with the widest focal length and zooming to the narrowest. Most of my students were using a 70– 200mm or 70–300mm lens, so in their case it meant starting at the 70mm mark, but this can be done regardless of lens. Given that we were using an 8-second exposure, I suggested that everyone press their shutter releases, wait 2 seconds for their exposures to begin, and then slowly zoom out their lenses as fluidly as possible until they heard their shutters close. Eight seconds later, you could hear giddy laughter coupled with words like “Wow,” “This is cool,” “I didn’t know I could do this,” and “This was so fun.” Both examples shown on this page were shot by my student Beverly, and the emotional impact of her second image is what one might call explosive. Try it the next time you’re out shooting long exposures, whether it’s a fast zoom effect at 1/4 sec. or a slow, deliberate, fluid zoom at 8 seconds or longer.”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 60D CANON 70–200MM LENS F/11 FOR 8 SECONDS ISO 100 CLOUDY WB WITH FLW MAGENTA FILTER

On the Subject of RAW Everyone who is new to the digital photography world is familiar with the option of shooting in JPEG format or shooting in the RAW format. Every student of mine is encouraged to shoot in the RAW format when attending my online school and in-person workshops. The RAW format is simply capable of capturing far more data, such as exposure of light and dark, as well as color, hue, and tonality. And because of this greater amount of data that the RAW format offers, one can expect to have the option of adding or subtracting spices to the RAW image before finally “cooking the meat,” versus the JPEG format which is essentially pre-cooked fast food with its limited “flavors.” I am often asked by my students which White Balance I use, and they are often surprised to discover that I do in fact select a given White Balance for most of my shooting throughout the day which is most often Daylight/Sunny WB. There are many students who have been taught that it is best to shoot in Auto White Balance and since they are shooting in the RAW format, they can “change and adjust the White Balance later in post-processing.” It is a valid argument but simply one that I do not agree with, since most Auto White Balances seem to offer up an overall Blue cast to the image, producing a cooler image than what is normally seen with the naked eye. But when I shoot with the White Balance set to Daylight/Sunny, that bluish cast gives way to a more realistic portrayal of the color and tone of the subject before me and, as a result, I seldom if ever need to adjust the White Balance further in post-processing. I want to also add that, when shooting city skylines during the blue hour I will often select the Fluorescent White Balance setting because it not only cleans up the greenish cast often seen in office building interiors but also imparts a welcomed magenta/blue cast to the sky. Again, to be clear, I am fully aware that one can make these same adjustments in post-processing, but why would you need to if you can do it in camera? I have had some students tell me that understanding the role of

I have had some students tell me that understanding the role of aperture and depth of field is moot because Photoshop allows one to call upon blur tools that can render a great deal of the scene out of focus, thus creating a kind of isolation/singular theme effect that is akin to using a large lens opening such as f/1.4 or f/2 but again, WHY would you do that when that effect is easily achieved in camera? Clearly I am “old school” in my belief that the camera, not Photoshop, is the main tool for creating images, the main tool that should be “driving” your creativity. Photoshop is no doubt an important and necessary tool even if used minimally, but in my mind Photoshop should be used to expand your camera’s capabilities, not replace your camera’s capabilities.

you have multiple light sources and an exposure time of at least 2 “ Whenever seconds, another fun (if not almost completely forgotten) technique is simply twirling, rotating, twisting, or turning your camera while handholding it. Depending upon the movement, you’ll generate a multitude of abstract colors, light streaks, and a highly energized, color-filled composition. I recommend this technique to anyone who likes to create slide shows of their travels to share with friends and family. Putting this kind of image in your slide show every twenty slides or so will certainly wake up your audience! Cynthia had just finished photographing the Hong Kong harbor from the terrace of our hotel when I said, “But you’re not done!” There was one more opportunity to consider before she called it a night. I suggested she take her camera off the tripod and, using the same exposure she’d used for the other shots, point it in the same direction but twist and twirl as well as raise it up and down and side to side. Heck, while she was at it, pretend the lens is a pen and write the letter C (or any letter) during the exposure. Cynthia retired for the night more excited about this photograph than the more predictable blue-hour ones she’d taken at first. The lesson is simple enough: Start with the question, “What if?” and be open to experimentation.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D7200 NIKKOR 24–85MM LENS F/16 FOR 15 SECONDS ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

of the greatest rewards as an instructor is to witness the photographic maturity “ One of a student. On this particular evening in Paris, we were all using tripods, photographing near the base of the Eiffel Tower. Some of us were employing moderate wide angles while others were using what I call “street zooms,” such as a 24–105mm lens. We were all trying various compositions, but for the most part, everyone was shooting straightforward blue-hour exposures from 4 to 15 seconds, such as my first image shown on this page—well, everyone except Henry, a student who had attended a few of my previous workshops. Imagine my surprise when Henry gleefully came up to me sharing this single exposure that combined both an in-focus Eiffel Tower and the electrifying and energizing lights nearby (see this page). How did Henry do it? It is actually a very simple technique. Henry knew from prior experience what results he could expect from twisting, turning, and spelling out letters during a long exposure. He also knew how to shoot long exposures using a tripod during the blue hour. But it wasn’t until Paris that it occurred to him to combine the two techniques. Using a 15-second exposure, Henry started with his camera on the tripod and then, at about the 8-second mark, he pulled it off the tripod with the shutter still open and twisted and turned it while pointing it at the surrounding lights. In fairness, Henry was quick to tell me that his two prior attempts were not nearly as effective as the third one shown here. To try this technique yourself, using any exposure of 8 seconds or longer, simply remove the camera from the tripod halfway through the exposure and then twist, turn, and move the camera as you continue pointing it toward the light source, and see what kind of crazy excitement rises to the surface.”

CANON 7D SIGMA FULL FRAME FISH-EYE LENS F/16 FOR 15 SECONDS 100 ISO CLOUDY WB

CANON 7D SIGMA FULL FRAME FISH-EYE LENS F/16 FOR 15 SECONDS 100 ISO CLOUDY WB

refer to this technique as the “Monet effect,” after the nineteenth-century French “ IImpressionist painter Claude Monet. This is another effect achieved with a slow exposure time of 1 second or more. The Monet effect can produce a strikingly painterly effect and is particularly suited to images of flowers, so it wasn’t surprising when Joanna, a student in my San Francisco workshop, couldn’t wait to try it while we photographed the gardens at Golden Gate Park, her result shown on this page. To create the Monet effect, handhold your camera while using a deliberately slow 1-second exposure, then move your hand during the exposure, almost as if you’re trembling or have hand tremors. Note that if you’re trying this on a bright sunny day, you’ll need to use a neutral-density (ND) filter on your lens, as Joanna did here, to achieve the correct exposure at these very slow shutter speeds. ND filters are akin to putting on dark sunglasses, turning a bright day into nearly dusk. (For more about these and other filters, see this page.) I’ll be the first to admit that the Monet effect is not for everyone, and it does not work all the time—meaning that it may not always result in compelling images. The effect seems to have a mind of its own, so expect some dry spells in between your successes. (I returned to the garden the next day and did my best to document the same spot, see this page.)”

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON REBEL T5I CANON 100MM MACRO LENS F/22 FOR 1 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH 3-STOP ND FILTER

APERTURE Whether you push buttons, turn a wheel, or rotate a ring on the lens to select the aperture, you’ll see a series of numbers in the viewfinder or on the lens itself. Take special note of the following numbers: 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, and maybe even 32 if you have it. (On smartphones, these numbers are usually only seen when you choose the Portrait Mode setting.) Each of these numbers corresponds to a specific opening in your lens, called an f-stop. In photographic terms, the 4 is called f/4, the 5.6 is f/5.6, and so on. The primary function of these lens openings is to control the volume of light that reaches the digital sensor during an exposure. The smaller the f-stop number (for example, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6), the larger the lens opening and the more light is let in. The larger the f-stop number (for example, f/16 or f/22), the smaller the lens opening and less light enters.

Each time you descend from one aperture opening to the next, such as from f/4 to f/5.6, the volume of light entering the lens is cut in half. Likewise, if you change from an opening of f/11 to f/8, the volume of light entering the lens doubles. As with shutter speed, each halving or doubling of light is referred to as one full stop. Many cameras today offer not only full stops but also the ability to set the aperture at one-third-stop intervals—i.e., f/4, f/4.5, f/5, f/5.6, f/6.3, f/7.1, f/8, f/9, f/10, f/11, and so on. (The bold numbers represent the original, basic stops while the others are the newer one-third options found with most of today’s DSLR cameras.) One of more frequently overlooked visual effects of compositional opportunity has to do with the aperture. A large aperture opening, when employed with a telephoto lens (at least 200mm, preferably closer to 300mm), offers the photographer an opportunity to call upon selective focus, rendering definable foregrounds and backgrounds as out-of-focus tones and shapes of color that frame and call attention to the focused subject. The key to using this powerful visual technique is to be close enough to the foreground to render it out of focus, eliminating any sense of what it consists of. Or, in the case of backgrounds, make sure the focused subject is far enough in front to ensure that the background is rendered as a wash of nothing more than out-of-focus tone, color, and shape. More often than not, problems arise when either of these important guidelines is not followed. During a workshop in Bagan, Myanmar, we photographed the model Wassana Jonjun near one of Bagan’s three thousand pagodas, many of which are surrounded by flowering bougainvillea. Our goal was to shoot through the foreground flowers and foliage in such a way that the magenta flowers accentuated and framed Wassana, who held a similarly colored umbrella as a prop and wore a lilac dress. The out-of-focus foreground would create a three-dimensional effect in an otherwise two-dimensional image. In the first attempt by my student Mary Lou (this page, top), it’s fair to say that she had the right idea and used the correct aperture, but she failed to either move in or zoom close enough. In her second attempt (this page, bottom), she moved in but the composition shows that she’s attempting to focus through a bougainvillea plant. The angle of view is not narrow enough and she’s still not close enough to the flowers. In my image (this page), the chief difference is that I both zoomed in much closer and walked a few feet closer to the flowers, reducing them to nothing more than outof-focus color that compliments the overall composition. Selective focus is a powerful tool that owes its success or failure in large measure to a large lens opening and a point of view that, when combined with a 200–300mm lens, leaves the foreground blurred and ghostlike, without any opportunity to reveal itself.”

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CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–200MM LENS F/4 FOR 1/1800 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/400 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

EXERCISE Choose the Creatively Correct Aperture How do we ever know which aperture to use—or does it really matter? Let’s try an easy exercise to discover how to select the creatively correct f-stop for the subject before you. See if you can find a friend who is willing to pose for you in your own backyard or at a local park. Position your friend at least ten feet in front of a house, some playground equipment, a tree, or some shrubs, but not against a plain-colored wall; you need a somewhat busy, chaotic background to see the power of your fstops at work. With your camera in Manual Mode and your ISO set to 400, set the aperture to f/4 or f/5.6 and frame up your friend so their head is in the middle of the frame, with a lot of room around it. Now, adjust your shutter speed until you’re at “zero” and take an exposure. Next, set your aperture to f/22. Because the opening in the lens is now much smaller (remember, bigger numbers make smaller holes), less light is coming through the lens, so you must increase your exposure time. Once again, adjust your shutter speed until that little black dot is on “zero” and take another exposure. In both examples, the exposures are quantitatively the same, but if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that the background clutter is more visible in the second one. What you’ve just discovered is an optical phenomena called depth of field. Put simply, the bigger the aperture number (such as f/22), the larger the area of sharpness in front of and behind your subject; the depth of field increases. I call these “storytelling” apertures, as they enable you to keep all of the visual information—from foreground to background—in sharp focus. A smaller aperture number (f/4) gives you less sharpness in front of and behind your subject, creating a shallower depth of field. I call these “singulartheme” apertures, as they allow you to isolate one piece of visual

information (hopefully your subject) and focus the viewer’s attention. And what about when everything in your frame is the same distance away? In these situations, depth of field isn’t a concern. The best apertures for critical sharpness and great contrast in these situations are what I call the “Who cares?” apertures of f/8 and f/11. I tend to refer to three main types of aperture settings: singular-theme, storytelling, and “Who cares?” For the image of the lone tulip, I wanted to isolate the flower and render the busy background into an out-of-focus blur to eliminate distractions. To do this, I needed to call on a singular-focus aperture setting—in other words, a wide aperture—for a shallow depth of field. This is done with a low aperture number of f/2 to f/4.5. In the image of the field and sky, on the other hand, I wanted as much front-to-back sharpness as possible, so I called on my “storytelling” aperture of f/22 for a massive depth of field (especially when teamed up with a wideangle lens). Finally, the images of the lone woman in a doorway and the osprey are both examples of what I affectionately call “Who cares?” apertures (f/8 to f/11). These apertures are arguably ambivalent because they offer neither a massive nor a shallow depth of field. But, truth be told, they are the apertures that offer the greatest clarity, sharpness, detail, contrast, and color. So any time you have a scene for which depth of field is not an issue—in other words, when the overall scene is relatively flat—then by all means run to a “Who cares?” aperture.”

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NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/4.5 FOR 1/800 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/320 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 200—500MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/1000 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24—120MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

our lunch period at the Eco Lodge in my Bhutan workshop, my student “ During Barbara was attempting to photograph one of the lodge’s employees, Sita Rai, with the sun directly overhead. I was nearby, resting in a lawn chair and enjoying a fabulous view of the valley below, and Barbara came over to ask what I thought of the first photograph shown on this page, top. I commended her for exposing the backlit, midday light but was quick to point out that she wasn’t nearly close enough, compositionally speaking. I suggested she move in much tighter to place all of the attention on Sita’s warm, inviting face. No more than five minutes later, Barbara came back to show me the second photograph (see this page, bottom), an amazing improvement. When I asked why she hadn’t done that in the first place, she said that while she knew she should fill the frame and get in closer, she’d felt shy about asking Sita to come closer. “Why would you ask Sita to walk closer, instead of you simply walking closer to her?” I asked. “Because I knew if I walked closer to her, I would see greater detail in the stone wall behind her,” she said, “and I remember reading about keeping the background out of focus in one of your books. You said to pull the subject at least thirty feet away from any background to render an out-of-focus background.” Needless to say, I was not only impressed that Barbara had overcome her shyness barrier but also that she’d employed my advice about rendering backgrounds out of focus by having the subject come away from the background and using a wide aperture. The result is a background without a single stone distracting our attention from the beautiful Sita Rai.”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–200MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/1250 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

you understand the power of selective focus and singular-theme “ Once compositions, your biggest challenge will be choosing your point of view. Even a shift of just a few inches can turn a chaotic, distracting background or foreground into an absolute masterpiece. My advice is to stay in manual focus and move constantly and ever so slightly, keeping your eye on what’s out of focus. This is not the time to use autofocus—if you do, you’ll end up as frustrated as a mouse on a treadmill. In Lafayette, Wisconsin, one of my summer workshops offered the opportunity to photograph an explosion of lupine flowers and, for the better part of the morning, my students and I had a fabulous time exploring singular-theme compositions. As you compare these two photographs taken by Sally, notice how her first example (this page) falls short. The out-of-focus lupine on the right is darn near the same size as the focused lupine, as distracting as someone frantically waving their arms behind a television reporter giving a live report from the scene of a catastrophe. For her second photograph (this page), however, she discovered that by simply moving several inches to her left and walking a few feet closer, she eliminated that distracting lupine to achieve a much cleaner, more defined composition.”

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18-300MM LENS F/5.5 AT 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT WB

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–300MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/640 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–300MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/640 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

fall 2017, a group of students and I visited Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park. A “ Insmall turnout in the park affords a postcard view of North Falls, which has a vertical drop of 136 feet. Numerous park visitors have no doubt stopped at this turnout, gotten out of their car to click a picture or two, and kept driving, assured that they too now had the postcard view. I assured my students that we were not at this turnout to shoot postcards. I then asked them what singular idea came to mind that might be completely different from what any other photographer would do when presented with a scene like this. Several suggestions were made, including zooming during a slow exposure, which I thought was actually quite inventive. Another student suggested moving the camera up during a slow exposure to create a sense of vertical lift, an idea I did not warm up to. (Motion shots of the forest have been overdone—time to move on!) Not surprisingly, as the idea was not obvious, no one suggested that we do a composition involving selective focus. This is also because, as you can see in the first photograph (this page, left), there was no foreground to shoot through! But why not create an out-of-focus foreground yourself? It’s surprisingly easy to do. All around us on the forest floor were large maple leaves. I encouraged each of the students to find a large leaf and then poke a small hole in it, no bigger than the size of a quarter. Holding the leaf approximately four to six inches in front of our telephoto lens, at the 200–300mm focal length, and using a wide-open aperture, that leaf was rendered as a colorful out-of-focus frame for the distant waterfall. Here you can see my student Roger’s results (this page, right), with different frames created by moving the out-offocus leaf just a fraction. Are we having fun or what?”

ALL IMAGES CANON 5D MARK IV CANON 70–300MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/400 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

is another hidden artistic technique exclusive to aperture: the starburst effect, “ Here created by shooting into the sun with an aperture of f/22. Now, don’t be surprised if your first attempts at using this technique fall short of your expectations. More often than not, photographers experience frustration when they attempt to do this—myself included, even after forty years of shooting. To do this technique effectively, set your aperture to f/22 and remove any filter on your lens, including a UV or skylight filter. If your lens is dirty, clean it carefully, as dirt or grease on your lens will show up as what is commonly referred to as lens flare, rather than a starburst. (Lens flare can show up even if your lens is clean, depending on the quality of your lens.) Next, find a composition that allows you to shoot into the sun. If all goes well, the resulting image will have a pleasing “twinkle-in-the-eye” effect. Lens choice plays a huge role in this technique, with wide-angle lenses assuring the shortest route to success. The reason is simple: Wide-angle lenses have massive angles of view, anywhere from 75 degrees to the mind-boggling 180-degree angle of view found on an 8mm fish-eye lens. Because of this, the normally large, blinding ball of fire that we call the sun is reduced to a brilliantly bright, yet very small speck of light. This small speck doesn’t blast the overall composition; it’s more like the mild spray of a garden hose compared with the forceful pressure of a fire hose. It was in Washington State’s Hoh Rain Forest where my students and I spent several hours enjoying the beautiful moss-covered forest floor and surrounding trees, as well as the Clark’s nutcrackers (commonly called grey jays) that alit on our extended arms and perched on our hands to take the peanuts we offered. In the first image on this page, my student Michelle is lying on the ground to shoot up through a fern. She is using a Canon 5D Mark IV with a super-wide 16–35mm lens at the 16mm focal length and an aperture of f/22, purposely allowing only a fraction of the light to come through the trees and through a narrow opening in the fern. When Michelle got up and began to look at her work, including the second image shown on this page, she was elated. I shared her elation, yet I was also quick to point out that the composition was a bit too centered. I suggested that she recompose the scene as a vertical, thus creating a composition of converging parallels. Michelle told me that she’d had enough and didn’t want to hang out with the insects and mice on the forest floor any longer. I then proceeded to take my turn, and as you can see in the next example (this page), the resulting image is arguably better. When I shared this photo with Michelle, she said, “Yes, I see what you did, and I do like it. I will just crop mine later when I get home.” Those are words I absolutely hate to hear. They’re like fingernails on a chalkboard. Why would you crop the photo later when its subject is literally at your feet and you have a chance to get it right, in-camera, now?

Despite my insistence that she return to the forest floor, Michelle explained that it had taken tremendous courage to lie down in the first place, critters and all, and she had pushed herself to the edge of her anxiety level. Given this, I made an exception and obviously supported her decision to crop the image later in Photoshop, but not before I took her camera and shot several tighter compositions to serve as guidance for when she returned home.”

CANON 5D MARK IV 16–35MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 17–35MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

magical as it is to create that f/22 starburst, I can’t stress enough that this “ As technique is for the most part limited to very-wide-angle lenses that reduce the size of the incoming sun. When you attempt to do this with something beyond a wideangle lens, as my student Michael did here with his 35–70mm zoom at a 70mm focal length, it becomes incredibly important that you do not allow any portion of the sunlight to come through. In Michael’s first image (this page, top), the two high-fiving hands are separated and the sunlight creates a “spilled-milk” effect that spoils the composition. In the second image (this page, bottom), Michael repositioned the hands to block the sunlight, creating an outline of the two men and their bikes and a clean, compelling design of shape and color. As far as exposure goes, it was a simple matter of choosing an aperture of f/16 and then adjusting the shutter speed until a −2/3 exposure was indicated. Because we shot into a strongly backlit scene, we were assured of recording nothing but a silhouetted shape of the two bicyclers.”

Why Underexpose by −2/3? You’ll notice throughout this book that I have a penchant for shooting exposures at −2/3, basically underexposing them. This has much to do with an old method of recording a more saturated image back in the days when I shot color slides. Even now, shooting digitally, I still feel it offers more vivid color and contrast. Yes, I know one can make these same adjustments in postprocessing, but I’m old-school and like to see the result of my adjustments on the camera’s monitor so that I can tweak the exposure right then and there if necessary.

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D300S NIKKOR 35–70MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/500 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB

EXERCISE Understand ISO The third part of the photographic triangle is ISO, or the sensitivity of your film or digital sensor to light. To better understand its influence on exposure, think of ISO as a group of “Individual Seeing Objects” sitting atop your camera’s digital sensor, waiting for the light that will soon pass through the hole in your lens and into their waiting arms. Let’s say that I use ISO 100, so I have 100 individual light gatherers sitting on my sensor. And let’s say that you use ISO 200, giving you 200 individual light gatherers on yours. If we both set our lenses at an aperture of f/5.6 (so that the same volume of light comes through our lenses), who will record the image most quickly, you or me? You will, since you have twice as many light-gathering individuals. How does this relate to shutter speed? Let’s assume we’re photographing a lone flower on an overcast day. Remember, your camera is set to ISO 200 and mine to ISO 100, both with an aperture of f/5.6. When you adjust your shutter speed for a correct exposure, you get a 1/250 sec., but when I adjust my shutter speed for a correct exposure, I get a 1/125 sec.—twice as long as your exposure. This is because your 200 individuals need only half as much time as my 100 to make the image. Here’s an exercise to bring this home. Whether you’re in Manual or Aperture Priority Mode, set the ISO to 200. Now, set your aperture opening to f/8 and, with the camera pointed at something that’s well illuminated, adjust your shutter speed until the camera meter indicates a correct exposure, and write down this shutter speed. Then, change your ISO to 400, leaving the aperture at f/8, and again point the camera at the same subject. Your light meter will now indicate a different shutter speed for a correct exposure. Again, write down this shutter speed. Finally, change the ISO to 800 and repeat the steps above. What did you notice? When you changed the ISO from 100 to 200, your shutter speed changed, such as from 1/125 sec. to 1/250 sec. This is because when you increased the number of

individuals (the ISO) from 100 to 200, you cut the time necessary to get the job done in half. As a result, you needed a shutter speed only half as long. If you set the ISO to 400, you would halve it yet again. You just earned a great passing grade on exposure math! you’ve been out at night away from city lights with an inspiring “ Perhaps view of the Milky Way and tried to shoot it, but to no avail. Our Earth is constantly moving, which means that if you attempt to shoot the Milky Way with an exposure longer than 15 seconds, it will be impossible to get an infocus shot. In addition to using a tripod and a large lens opening, you must set a very high ISO. Those with a prime lens, such as a 20mm using an aperture of f/1.8 sec., might get away with an ISO of 1600, thanks to the large aperture. But most of us will be hard-pressed to use any aperture larger than f/4 and will need to call upon ISOs of 4000, 5000, or even 6400. This was the case when my students and I were shooting the night sky above the Proctor Community Center in Proctor, Montana (see this page). Most of us were shooting exposures of f/4 or f/5.6 for 15 seconds with ISOs of 5000 or 6400. If we had attempted to use a lower ISO, such as 1600, our exposure times would have easily doubled to 30 to 60 seconds, resulting in very blurry exposures because of the Earth’s rotation. On the opposite end of the ISO spectrum are the low ISOs, which allow us to record exacting sharpness and motion-filled images such as coastal surf and waterfalls. From an outdoor terrace, I shot the streets below in San Francisco, capturing a passing bus as a brushstroke of color, thanks to a low ISO of 50. When I combined it with a small aperture of f/16, I was able to record the 1/2-sec. exposure you see on this page.”

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 14–24MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 15 SECONDS ISO 5000 FLUORESCENT WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/2 SECOND ISO 50 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CHALLENGING EXPOSURES Today’s cameras are truly magnificent machines with some pretty amazing technology, particularly in the area of what is called dynamic range. Dynamic range refers to a camera’s ability to simultaneously record details in both shadows and sunlight. These days, a few cameras are approaching the ability to shoot within a dynamic range of 9, 10, and even 11 stops. Let me explain what that means. Way back in the days of film, color slide film was able to record a dynamic range of roughly 5 stops (on a good day). This meant that when you photographed a person standing in sunlight but against a background of shadow, the lit person would be correctly exposed but the area of shadow in the background would record as absolute darkness. With all of the advances in the arena of dynamic range today, that same scene can be rendered with not only the sunlit subject correctly exposed, but also with never-before-seen details in the shadows—sometimes details we’d rather not include! So, what is the best way to expose a scene with dramatic differences in light and shadow? Another type of exposure that I’ve seen frustrate students time and again are scenes of very white subjects, such as snow-covered landscapes and white wedding gowns, as well as very dark ones, such as a dark-skinned subject in low light. Despite the advances made in today’s DSLR cameras, light meters still have trouble with these types of situations and, as you’ll see, the solutions can be counterintuitive. Call me old-school, but there are still exposure situations for which I prefer black backgrounds. The good news is that this is still possible. The bad news is that you have to work a bit harder to make it happen. During one Ethiopia workshop, my student Danielle and I were shooting in a small village. A woman was seated in her doorway, feeding her child and catching a cool breeze on a very hot summer day. As you can see in Danielle’s first photograph (this page), she included the doorway as a compositional frame, which focused attention on the woman. Notice what the dynamic range of her camera’s light meter attempted to do: As it gathered information from the scene, it recognized a bright doorway, a moderately bright woman and child, and a substantially darker background. It chose an average of these tones to render, within an acceptable range, a “correct” dynamic range of all three subjects. However, as the picture clearly illustrates, this did not result in a beautiful exposure. When Danielle shared the photograph with me, I suggested that she move in much tighter, framing the mother and child without the brighter doorway and, with her camera still set to Manual Mode and a −2/3 exposure, fill the frame with only the

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mother’s neutral-toned dress. Danielle set that exposure and recomposed, and she was immediately excited by the better exposure and cleaner composition (this page). I don’t want to suggest that dynamic range and all of its advances are a road I would rather not go down, as there are other situations in which dynamic range is welcome, such as when shooting backlit scenes or ocean sunsets. But as new cameras evolve, I wish there were some kind of dial to more precisely adjust the light meter’s dynamic range, as there will continue to be situations in which we do not want to capture anything remotely close to a 9-, 10-, or 11-stop dynamic range of light and dark.”

Shooting Challenging Exposures with a Smartphone The dynamic range of most smartphone cameras is greater than that of DSLRs, making these types of exposures less of an issue. The best way to set your exposure with a smartphone is to simply touch your subject on the screen so that the camera exposes for that subject.

NIKON D7200 NIKKOR 18–140MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB

NIKON D7200 NIKKOR 18–140MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB

to create black backgrounds surround us at every turn, but you have “ Opportunities to move quickly because advances in camera metering technology will eventually eliminate their possibility! During a workshop in Mandalay, Myanmar, my students and I were invited to join a celebration of the seventh-grade boys’ soccer team’s citywide victory, with more than two hundred children available for shooting portraits. One of my students, Vicki, expressed how happy she was with the first photograph you see here (this page). She even commented about how odd it was that the young girl had voluntarily brought her hand up to her face, as if to expand on the pose. Vicki suggested that perhaps she had been in front of a camera countless times before. Looking at Vicki’s first image, I could not help but notice the golden opportunity she had missed; the black doorway behind the girl provided a naturally seamless background, almost as if someone had hung a black cloth behind her. I suggested to Vicki that she get in much closer to fill the frame. Since her meter reading was set for the much brighter girl, the dark open doorway would be rendered black. We walked back over to the girl and I introduced myself as Vicki’s teacher. As was the case with most schoolchildren in Myanmar, she spoke some English and I asked if she would mind posing again. She said she would be happy to, and it was then that I learned that her father was a local photographer. Vicki changed to a longer telephoto lens as well as shifted her point of view, crouching so that she could position the young girl’s head in front of the doorway. As you can see in the next example (this page), she succeeded in creating a super-clean composition. Studio photographers have been using black seamless backgrounds almost since the beginning of photography, and yet we don’t think of calling upon the many seamless backgrounds out in the field, simply because we don’t notice them. Perhaps now you can use them more frequently to create compelling exposures and compositions.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D810 NIKKOR 28–300MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/320 SECOND

ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

photographers are shooting backlight, they’re usually looking to achieve “ When one of two things: a clean silhouette (such as of a couple sharing a kiss against an ocean sunset), or a diamond-like starburst, as in the examples on this page and this page. But rare is the photographer who deliberately shoots a portrait into backlight and overexposes that backlight stops to render a correct exposure of the subject. In Bagan, Myanmar, my student Brent and I were photographing the model Wassana Jonjun, again with her umbrella, this time under a wide sweeping tree against the strong backlight of late-afternoon sun. When Brent looked through his viewfinder, he could clearly see Wassana and the foliage around her, yet when he had his camera in Manual Mode and used his light meter to set his exposure, the resulting image was way too dark (see this page). He was perplexed. “Why is it so dark? I have the camera meter set to zero. I look through the camera and I can see Wassana and all the backlit details and colors—yet my camera recorded a much darker image.” I talked earlier about the dynamic range of some cameras being 9, 10, or even 11 stops, but the human eye has a 16-stop dynamic range. We have the innate ability to see light and dark simultaneously. Because of this, we’re seduced into believing that what we see through the camera’s viewfinder is close to what we’re going to record— but nothing could be further from the truth when shooting a strongly backlit subject. In this case, Brent was seeing a 16-stop range of light, while his camera had a dynamic range of only about 7 stops. I explained that in my experience, overexposing the scene by +4 stops would record an exposure more in line with what he was seeing. “Four stops overexposed?” he asked, surprised. “Won’t that produce a washed-out image?” But as the second photo on this page clearly illustrates, this resulted in a much better exposure. The argument could be made that some areas of this second image are clearly overexposed, and yet I would counter by asking whether the primary subject, Wassana, is overexposed, underexposed, or correctly exposed. Obviously, she is correctly exposed. When you’re faced with a backlit scene, get into the habit of asking yourself whether it would benefit from a deliberate overexposure. It’s just one more way to expand your opportunity to create compelling images.”

Exposing for Mixed Light and Shadow The light meter in all cameras and smartphones is what we call a reflected light meter—it reads reflected light. And regardless of whether your camera or smartphone left the factory thirty years ago or last week, that light meter was primarily programmed to generate

a reading based on the simple principle that the world is a neutral gray color, from the North Pole to the South Pole. When light hits a neutral gray color, approximately 82 percent of the light is absorbed and 18 percent is reflected. And, whether the light is direct sunlight or light on an overcast day, it is true that most of the time, the light we see is in fact reflected light equaling that of the 18-percent reflectance of a gray card. However, you’ll encounter numerous compositions that are a combination of sunlight and shadow. These can be tricky, not only for you but also for your camera’s light meter. Since this is not a book about science, I will cut to the chase. When you’re confronted with a mix of light and shadow, such as in a sidelit scene, look at your subject. Is it in sunlight or in shade? Or is your subject under an umbrella of equally distributed light from an overcast day? Whatever the dominant light source is for your subject—full sun or open shade —set your exposure exclusively for that light, assuming, of course, that you want to record the most dramatic exposure. Determine your subject, determine the light on your subject, and expose exclusively for that light.

CANON 7D MARK II CANON 24–105MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/800 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 7D MARK II CANON 24–105MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

one of my India workshops, my students and I photographed one of the “ During other students, a makeup artist and photographer, at the Red Mosque in Old Delhi. Like many photographers, my student Phyllis prefers to shoot in Aperture Priority Mode 99 percent of the time. Not surprisingly, Phyllis occasionally encounters challenging exposures that Aperture Priority gets completely wrong. As you look at Phyllis’s first photograph (this page), for example, you can see that while she recorded a composition of the model basking in strong sunlight from the clear skies overhead, she also recorded details in the areas of normally dark shadow. Her exposure was too bright and nowhere close to what she was trying to convey. Frustrated, she said, “I’m determined to understand, once and for all, how to avoid making this mistake!” She explained that while she loved the ease of shooting in Aperture Priority, she didn’t know how to overcome its obvious shortcomings. I told Phyllis that her shortest route to success was to switch to Manual Mode and use what I call a “Brother Blue Sky” meter reading. First, I asked her, would she agree that this was a classic “Who cares?” composition in which there were no depth-offield concerns? Given that it was, we set the aperture to f/11. With the camera in Manual Mode, I suggested she tilt it up and fill the frame with nothing but the blue sky above the model (below), then adjust the shutter speed until a −2/3 exposure was indicated. We exposed off the sky because the bright light above was the same light falling upon our subject (this page).

Phyllis then refocused on the willing model. Just before pressing the shutter release, she remarked that her camera’s exposure meter was now indicating that the image was way underexposed. I explained why this was happening: Her light meter recognized that the scene had become substantially darker and was suggesting she change her settings to be “correct,” assuming that she wanted to record detail in the shadows—but of course she did not! Phyllis pressed the shutter release and was

relieved to see that, in fact, she’d recorded a much more dramatic exposure (this page). If your goal is to shoot dramatic exposures that are consistently correct, always look at your overall composition and first determine what the most important aspect of the exposure is—that is, what is your subject? Using Manual Mode, meter for whatever the dominant light source is on your subject (whether it’s sunlight or shadow) and set your exposure accordingly.”

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

can’t begin to tell you how many times this scenario has played out in my “ Iworkshops. I’m talking about the two biggest problem areas in photographic exposure: metering for white and metering for very dark, including black. Let’s begin with a classic example from a recent Norway workshop. During a severe snowstorm, we came upon a farm scene, stopped the car, and proceeded to make foreground compositions of a small fence that led the eye toward red, yellow, and gray houses in the distance. We all know that snow is white, and yet in the first exposure shown on this page, it is gray. Robert was shooting in Aperture Priority Mode, which allowed the camera to set the exposure for him. Perplexed, Robert looked at me and asked, “Why is this scene so dark?” After all, he reasoned, it wasn’t that dark outside and yet he was looking at an exposure of gray snow. When I showed him my photograph (this page), he said, “Oh, you’ve obviously got a much brighter monitor on your camera!” This is not an uncommon response when comparing a dark exposure to a brighter one from two different cameras. But it had nothing to do with my camera’s monitor and everything to do with my realization years ago that when metering snow scenes or any predominantly white subject, I must set my camera’s meter reading to at least 1 stop overexposed, and in some cases 2 stops. I overexpose by at least 1 stop when it’s an overcast day (with or without snowfall) and by 2 stops when the sun is out and there is nothing but blue sky. Robert’s camera recorded a much darker exposure because its metering system is designed to render all subject matter as a neutral gray tone. Remember, your camera’s light meter is also convinced that the world is neutral gray. When it comes across a white subject, it sees it as too bright, as not being neutral gray, so it suggests an exposure to make it darker, resulting in a gray exposure of white snow.”

NIKON D7200 NIKKOR 16–35MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/30 SECOND (OVEREXPOSED BY 1 STOP) ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

about dark subjects? During my Ethiopia workshop, we came upon a young “ What boy working at a coffee shop. A narrow opening in a nearby window cast a stream of light across a fraction of his face, while behind him the light was also quite dim. Looking through the viewfinder at this scene, you might say to yourself, “I can see all that darkness,” and common sense even tells you to overexpose in an attempt to record the darkness. If you leave your camera in Aperture Priority Mode or set a Manual Mode exposure based on this thinking, the meter will overexpose the scene because its job is to lighten black or dark subjects into gray ones, because that’s the way its world is. In other words, it overexposes black to get gray. And as you can see in Mary Lu’s example on this page, this is exactly what happened, while my exposure —deliberately underexposed by −1 ⅓—is much more dramatic (see this page). As with the white snow scene, you have to intervene to trick your light meter, this time underexposing for a dark subject. I know it seems counterintuitive, but it’s the only way to achieve a dramatic effect, especially in a case like this, with beautiful sidelight falling on the dark skin of a young man who’s also in a somewhat darkened room. The bottom line: If you want white, set an overexposure, and if you want black or very dark, set an underexposure.”

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120 LENS F/8 FOR 1/160 SECOND (UNDEREXPOSED BY −1 1/3 STOPS) ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Understanding the Wide-Angle Lens

CANON 7D MARK II CANON 17–40MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH A POLARIZING FILTER

Many years ago, while speaking at a photo conference, I was asked if I felt there was one specific area in which most photographers could benefit from a simple piece of advice. What do I consider one of the weakest, if not the weakest, visual narrative that most photographers suffer from? My answer was (and still is) an inability to fully understand and appreciate the visual characteristics of the wide-angle lens. Many photographers share an aversion to wide angle lenses, complaining that all they seem to do is make everything small and distant. And in fact, most shooters today seem to call upon their wide-angle lenses only to compose the night sky. While these are no doubt extremely exciting times to shoot the night sky, and I’ll be the first to applaud any decision to purchase a super-wide-angle lens for this purpose, this is only one of many opportunities to put such a lens to great use. I’ve said it countless times and will say it again: Your wide-angle lens is without question the greatest close-up lens in your camera bag. In fact, the wider the angle, the better the close-up! Not surprisingly, this is shocking news to some photographers, particularly macro photographers. Let me explain. One of the biggest advantages the wide-angle lens has over telephoto and macro lenses is its ability to render a commandingly wide, sweeping vision while also allowing an up-close-and-personal experience. Generally speaking, a wide-angle lens begins at the 28mm focal length and goes all the way down to 14mm. Focal length describes the physical length of a lens as well as its magnification power. The greater the number (for example, 200mm versus 28mm), the higher the degree of magnification. A 200mm lens makes the sun look much larger than a 28mm lens—big lens, big sun; small lens, small sun. (Here, I’m talking about full-frame sensors. If you have a crop sensor camera, then I’m speaking about 8–16mm lenses.) So yes, the wide angle does push everything in a scene to the background, so to speak, to offer a wider angle of view. But it does this because it is expecting you to place something of great importance in that now empty and immediate foreground. Depending on the exact lens, your wide angle may focus as close as nine to thirteen inches, which means it can offer an immediate and sometimes much larger foreground with more depth of field than you would ever get when shooting with a telephoto lens. This is storytelling imagery at its most intimate! I can’t stress “immediate foreground” enough, since therein lies the key. In addition, you want your close-up subject to have a sense of place, such as a mushroom on a forest floor. The up-close-and-personal shot of the mushroom is a way to tell a story about the larger forest, versus a composition limited to only the mushroom. Imagine that you’re getting your living room ready for a party. What do you do with all of the furniture? You might find yourself pushing it against the back wall, opening space on the floor for everyone to mingle and dance. Before your guests arrive, the empty floor looks wrong. But here comes one guest, followed by another

and another, and before you know it the floor is filled with dancing feet. Now it looks like a fun place to be. Start thinking of using your wide-angle lens in the same way. The vision of the wide angle pushes everything back, but only so you can have a dance party in what is initially empty foreground—although not for long! Wide angle lenses offer a front-row seat—in other words, a close-up point of view—for whatever sweeping vision is unfolding. As with a Broadway play or a Rolling Stones concert, your viewer will get the experience of a lifetime, a heightened intensity that only those in the premium seats experience. Imagine for a moment sitting down at a restaurant and ordering your favorite meal, only to see the server deliver it to a table six feet away from where you’re sitting. Obviously, you’d suggest that the server had made a mistake. Only once it was placed in front of you would you be in a position to enjoy its enticing aromas and tasty flavors. The same is true of these tulips, photographed by my student Nicki in the Netherlands. We want to present them within nose length, so the viewer can feel compelled to stop and smell them. After Nicki took the first example (this page), I asked her why she was standing to capture the scene instead of kneeling down with her wide-angle lens. She replied that she didn’t want to get her pants dirty and, truth be told, getting down low and then standing back up again wasn’t as easy as it used to be. Needless to say, Nikki did get down low for the second photograph (this page), this time serving up a large helping of beautiful pink tulips for the viewer against an equally compelling background. And I was more than happy to help Nikki get back up once she was finished!”

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CANON 7D MARK II CANON 17–40MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH A POLARIZING FILTER

a Holland workshop, while we were out shooting Dutch landscapes in the “ During warm, low-angled, late-afternoon light, my student Andrew came over to show me the first image on this page, top. He said he was practicing the idea of using immediate foreground and pointed to the white flowers in the lowest left foreground corner. “Why are they in the left corner?” I asked. “With the water coming in from the right and the windmill at the end of the water near the middle of the frame, it just felt like a well-balanced composition,” he responded. “Are you honestly convinced that you filled the foreground with flowers?” I asked. I applauded him for trying to use the foreground principles of a front-row seat but pointed out that the viewer was still sitting in row E. I suggested that he try again and compose the scene as if he were a butterfly alighting on one of the flowers. As you can see in the next example (this page, bottom), he accomplished this goal, providing a front-row seat for the unfolding concert of flowers, dike, and windmill. As a sidenote, the key to generating exact sharpness in photographs of this type is to use an aperture of f/22 combined with manual focus, and to focus on something approximately three feet from the lens.”

Where Should You Focus? When shooting storytelling compositions in which you want as much front-to-back sharpness as possible, students often ask, “Where should I focus?” Here is a foolproof formula guaranteed to work every time. Start by turning off the auto focus and setting the aperture to f/22. If you’re using a DX lens designed for a cropped sensor (such as a 12– 24mm or 8–16mm) and only when using the focal lengths from 8mm– 16mm, set your focus manually to one meter or three feet. If you’re using a camera with a full frame sensor (FX), then you’ll call upon the 14–24mm focal lengths; set the aperture to f/22 and set the focus manually to one meter or three feet. In both cases, you’ll record a massive depth of field of roughly 15–20 inches to all the way to infinity. Then adjust your shutter speed until a correct exposure is indicated.

Once you have set the distance to three feet, you might think I gave you some bad advice when you look through your viewfinder. Most of the image in your viewfinder will appear out of focus. You’ll be tempted to refocus—but don’t! The reason the image in the viewfinder looks out of focus is because you’re looking at the scene through a wide-open aperture, and, since you’ve focused the lens at three feet, everything else in the viewfinder should appear out of focus. But remember, once you press the shutter release, the lens will stop down to f/22 and the promised depth of field will be recorded.

BOTH IMAGES CANON 5D MARK IV CANON 16–35MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

a recent workshop in the Lofoten Islands of Norway, my student Andrea “ During showed me the first photograph on this page. I asked her about the purpose of having so much sand in the foreground and she replied that she loved the texture. I pointed out that the foreground was a bit overwhelming because it offered only one piece of information that wasn’t very helpful, while we were still some distance from the real voice of the concert happening way up there on stage. In other words, it was as if we were sitting in the back row of the concert hall. Instead, why don’t we give the viewer a front-row seat? I suggested that we kneel on the edge of a small stream that fed into the ocean, reflecting the blue sky overhead. The slow-moving water would also provide an immediate foreground of lines and textures. Andrea protested, “But my knees will get wet.” I looked at her. “Would you be more uncomfortable getting wet? Or knowing that you passed up an opportunity to create an image that would be one hundred times more compelling than the one you took a moment ago?” Well, she chose to have wet knees. To be clear, the second photograph on this page is mine. Although Andrea took a very similar composition, she felt the idea was not hers and did not want to include it here.”

NIKON D7200 NIKKOR 12–24MM LENS AT THE 24MM WIDE-ANGLE SETTING F/22 FOR 1/125 SECOND MANUAL FOCUS SET AT 1 METER ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM F/22 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

a mere several feet—if not inches—in point of view is the difference “ Sometimes between a compelling photograph and one that falls short. Both photographs here of white foamy ocean surf were taken at Uttakleiv Beach in Norway’s Lofoten Islands. I took the first horizontal photograph (this page) and was thrilled when I saw it on my monitor. Meanwhile, sitting on a different rock only a couple of feet away was my student Maja. After about ten minutes, I decided I had had enough. The clouds were lifting and I didn’t want a sky that was too bright. But Maja kept shooting, waiting for just one more wave—and as luck would have it, it proved to be the best twirling, swirling wave of the bunch! Maja’s position and her vertical composition (this page) allowed a much better area for foreground motion and, because she was still shooting, she also got the best swirls!”

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/2 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D7500 NIKKOR 12–24MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/2 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

year at my workshop in Mandalay, Myanmar, my students and I arrive at “ Every Taung Tha Man Lake an hour before sunrise to photograph a fisherman who lives in a nearby village. Over the course of a half hour, beginning just before sunrise, he throws out his large net into the water toward the two boats in which we’re all seated with cameras and wide-angle lenses at the ready. On this particular toss, it’s abundantly clear that not only was my student Michael using his magenta filter in the second image (this page), but he was also seated in a place on the boat that put him closer to the cascading net, resulting in far more striking color and composition. This is especially apparent when compared to the first image (this page) made by Richard, who shot using Daylight WB and without a filter. One could argue that the filter made the biggest difference, but even if you stripped it away, Michael’s image would be more compelling. Yes, he was physically closer to the fisherman, but he was also using a different focal length lens. Richard was set at 16mm with his 16–35mm lens and Michael was set at 21mm with is 17–40mm lens, thus also bringing the fisherman in a bit closer. Sometimes one can be too wide in your angle or view.”

CANON 5D MARK III 16–35MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/1000 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 5D MARK II WITH 17–40MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/1000 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

It’s an Equipment Issue

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 17–40MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO I00 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH CANON 580 FLASH IN TTL MODE

LENSES A number of years have passed since photographer Chase Jarvis was asked at a photo conference which camera he thought was best, and he replied, “The best camera is the one that’s with you.” While this is true, there is a reason why we have camera stores and websites with hundreds of choices of lenses, cameras, and accessories designed to aid our photographic vision. If you were going on a wildlife safari, I would be hard-pressed not to recommend that you take a super-telephoto lens; a wild animal is not going to allow you to stand three feet away to fill the frame on your smartphone. If you were going to an NFL football game with a smartphone and hoping to freeze action in highly charged sport photographs, you would probably come back with extremely disappointing results. Likewise, if you were hired to shoot extreme close-up headshots of the CEOs at the Davos summit in Switzerland and used a 14–24mm lens, you’d end up with comedic portraits of “stretched” Silly Putty–like faces. To suggest that you’ll be successful with whatever camera you have on hand is perhaps true as long as you’re not restricted by the subject matter, but the minute you have a specific idea in mind, you must have the freedom to choose whatever equipment will allow you to achieve the desired result. Criticisms are often leveled against photographers for failing to fill the frame, for example, when we discover only later that they didn’t have the right piece of equipment. And in countless workshops around the world, students have come up short solely because they did not have a certain piece of equipment available. There is a direct link between a photographer’s expanded vision and the inventory of lenses they’ve used. If you have the vision of a 600mm or a super wide-angle lens, it’s probably because you’ve worked with one. Alternatively, if your equipment is severely limited, so will your vision be. Vision is shaped in large measure by what we have sitting in our camera bag. Countless great photographs never got captured simply because photographers didn’t have the right piece of equipment at the time. The photograph on this page of a bald eagle near Fish Lake, just outside of the town of Whitehorse in Yukon, Canada, was taken by my student Nancy. The longest lens Nancy had was a 70–200mm f/4L Canon lens, which she used on her Canon 6D. I own a NIKKOR 200–500mm lens as well as TC-17E II teleconverter, and when both are attached to my Nikon D500, I have a lens with an effective focal length of roughly 600–1275mm. I was quick to share with Nancy what was possible using a longer lens, and I invited her to take out her SD card and place it in my Nikon so that

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she too could record some frame-filling eagle shots (see this page). If you’re not familiar with a teleconverter, it is simply a small optical device that, when placed between your telephoto lens and the camera body, multiplies the length, reach, and magnification of the lens. The TC-17E II, for example, multiplies a lens’s focal length by 1.7 times. Not all telephotos are designed to be used with a teleconverter, so check first with your local camera store or lens manual.”

CANON 6D CANON 70–200MM LENS F/4 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 200–500MM LENS WITH A TC-17E II TELECONVERTER F/5.6 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/CLOUDY WB

was a new photographer of just six months when he joined my “ Wolfgang workshop in Bavaria, Germany, several years ago. Born in Frankfurt, he was a big help when we needed a native German speaker as we wandered through the region’s small villages. Because Wolfgang was a newbie to the photographic world, he came with limited equipment—a Nikon 5300 and an 18–55mm “kit” lens. If I were deserted on an island and all I had was the equipment Wolfgang had, there is no question that my vision would be extremely limited. The best he could do was the first photograph shown on this page. It’s hard to see that lone, faraway tree in his composition. His landscape offers what I refer to as “unfinished business,” meaning that there’s no one point of interest. But there are a number of elements that we could be focusing on. I was using my NIKKOR 200–500mm lens, a much longer, narrower angle lens. My photograph of a tree in the same field was taken at 420mm versus 55mm for Wolfgang’s shot. I invited him to take out his SD card and put it in my camera, and he was then able to take much tighter photographs of that lone, proud tree (see this page). When anyone asks me which is the best camera or lens, my answer is whichever is needed to perform the task before me. Get the right camera and lens for whatever the job requires.”

NIKON D5300 NIKKOR 18–55MM LENS AT 55MM F/11 FOR 1/320 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 200–500MM LENS AT 420MM F/22 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

EXERCISE Learn the Vision of Your Lenses Photography allows you to create a vision. How do you achieve that vision? In large part, it’s by knowing what your lenses see. Unless you’re willing to learn the language of your lenses, you won’t be speaking to them, let alone understand when they speak to you. Chances are, you have a “street zoom” lens, such as a 24–70mm, 24–105mm, 18–140mm, 28–200mm, and so on. If you have no idea what “language” each of your lenses speaks, give this exercise a try. Depending on your lens type, set the focal length to either 28mm or 35mm, and make a point of not changing this as you do the following: Choose a subject (let’s say a favorite barn or tree) or take your spouse, friend, or child into the backyard or to the local park. Place your subject so that it falls in the middle of the frame, allowing for a lot of empty space above, below, and to both sides. With the camera still at your eye, make your first exposure and then begin walking toward your subject. At every five paces, take another exposure, staying mindful to keep the subject in focus. Keep walking closer until your lens can no longer capture the subject in sharp focus. One thing is sure to result from this exercise: Your first composition will record not only your main subject, but a lot of other stuff that probably detracts from it, while your final composition will be a close-up that cuts out the distracting stuff but maybe some important things too. Without changing the focal length, repeat the same exercise while on your knees and then again while on your belly. Finally, once you’ve gotten as close to your subject as you can, make that last shot while on your belly, and then turn over onto your back and take one more shot while shooting straight up. While walking on your knees, you no doubt discovered a far more intimate portrait of the small child or the barn, with the added drama of depth and perspective, as the golden wheat that surrounds the barn now fills up the foreground in the image

below. While on your belly, you might have discovered a wonderfully fresh composition of the surrounding park framed through the feet and lower legs of your friend or spouse. And, most of all, you learned the inherent vision, when combined with differing points of view, of your 28mm or 35mm focal-length lens. But, you’ve only just begun! Repeat the exercise above but with your focal length set at 50mm—than again at 60mm, 70mm, 80mm, 90mm, and 105mm. If you have even wider-angle lenses, do the exercise again with those various focal lengths (such as 14mm, 18mm, and 24mm). If you maintain this regimen of eye exercises once a week for three months, you’ll have a vision that is shared by fewer than 10 percent of all photographers, and it’ll be a vision that gets noticed. Once you’ve integrated the vision of your lenses into your mind’s eye, you can stand at the edge of a meadow or lake and scan the entire scene, picking out a range of compositions even before you place your camera and lens to your eye. It is my belief and strong conviction that any creative endeavor—including learning to see creatively—cannot begin as long as you’re feeling anxious or unsure about your tools. Understanding the unique vision of your lenses and differing points of view will set you on a journey of unlimited possibilities. With my 24–120mm zoom lens, I created two distinctly different compositions that use the compositional effect called “framing with a frame.” The frame—the overhanging tree branch that frames the red barn—is readily apparent in both compositions, but note how a wider angle enabled me to incorporate all of the tree plus much more sky in the image on this page. In the image on this page, I zoomed the lens closer, which narrows the overall angle of view and places more emphasis on the barn. Neither image is better than the other, but they serve as a reminder of why it’s so important to work your subject. And, of course, you can’t work your subject if you don’t understand the vision of the many lenses in your camera kit.”

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NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS AT 28MM F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–130MM LENS AT 70MM F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

FLASH The use of electronic portable flash seemed to go through a resurgence about ten years ago. Suddenly it seemed that everyone was picking up an electronic flash following a few lessons on YouTube. In fact, even I got caught up in it and not only started using flash much more but also wrote a book called Understanding Flash Photography. Now, a decade later, we’ve seen a downturn in the use of electronic flash. Many photographers are replacing flashes with small, bright, USB-chargeable LED lights, and perhaps none are more popular than the Lume Cube. I own a Lume Cube and also continue to use my Nikon SB-900 flashes; both have their uses. These days, you would be hard-pressed not to have both LED lights and an electronic flash in your camera bag. Flash and LEDs are most commonly used for shooting portraits; they fill in areas of extreme contrast or add a catchlight to the subject’s eyes. When you’re photographing your family on the beach in Maui with a setting sun in the background, a flash will fill your family with light, making them visible against the beautiful sunset instead of recording them as dark silhouetted shapes. Flash is also useful when photographing a flower deep in the shade against a bright background. If you set your exposure for the shaded flower, the bright background will be overexposed. But if you set your exposure for the bright background and use a flash, you’ll record a beautifully lit flower against a background that is correctly exposed. Let’s take a look at some of the more common flash mistakes and how to solve them. One of the most colorful city halls in the United States was once in Tucson, Arizona. Sadly, the city hall that I was madly in love with from a photographic perspective is gone, its once vibrant architecture now replaced by a block of condos. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to conduct several workshops in Tucson before the demise of this gorgeous city hall. During one of those workshops, a willing student climbed its large, wide steps and stood against an open area of full sun in a statuesque position. As you can see in the first example on this page, taken by my student Lawrence, all that darkness is a waste of leading lines and color. “We need a flash,” I said. Lawrence was quick to tell me that he had a flash but no idea how to use it. I gave him a very quick tutorial, as follows: Before starting, make certain your camera is in full Manual Mode and your flash is set to TTL (through the lens) Mode. Once you’re set up, the first rule is to choose your aperture —in this case, f/16. The second rule is to check what the flash gives you as a flash-tosubject range and make sure your subject is within it. Finally, the third rule is to ask

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yourself: Is the illumination of the flash going to be used as the exclusive light source? Or is it a supplemental or fill light that will combine with the existing ambient light? Lawrence had already manually set his exposure for the light at the top of the stairs. I told him to keep his exposure settings the same and recompose the same scene. But this time, he should handhold his flash and point it up and somewhat forward while he took another photograph. (Fortunately, Lawrence had a TTL cord, which connects to the flash at one end and the camera’s hot shoe, the area atop the camera where one can attach a portable flash, at the other, allowing him some degree of freedom to position the flash rather than having it stuck in place atop the camera’s hot shoe.) On the count of three, Lawrence fired his shutter and, as the second photograph on this page amply illustrates, the added illumination beautifully opened up the composition. It’s just another example of why a flash can be worth its weight in gold (and yellow, blue, green, red, and pink).”

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 17–40MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO I00 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 17–40MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO I00 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH CANON 580 FLASH IN TTL MODE

EXERCISE Learn the Three Rules for Flash Photography Three factors go into creating a dynamic flash exposure: (1) choosing the right aperture, (2) making certain your subject is at the right flash-to-subject distance, and (3) choosing a shutter speed to either include any ambient light present in the scene, deliberately underexposing it, or killing it entirely. First, as with any image, a correct flash exposure is determined by selecting the right aperture, whether it’s for a storytelling composition (f/16 or f/22), a singular-theme composition (f/4 or f/5.6), or a “Who cares?” composition (f/8 or f/11). Once you’ve determined which aperture makes the most sense, and with the flash in TTL Mode, you’ll see a flash range indicated on the back of your flash. It’s important to note that the wider the aperture, the longer the reach of the flash range (for example, three to eighteen feet at f/11, versus six to thirty-nine feet at f/5.6). This distance is telling you that if your subject is within three to eighteen feet from your flash, for example, a “perfect” flash exposure will be the result. Your flash range will also be influenced by the ISO, but as a general rule of thumb, most flash exposures can be achieved with an ISO of 100 or 200. If your subject is closer than three feet or much further away than eighteen feet, the flash exposure will be either overexposed or underexposed. Finally, determine whether you want to include the ambient light or cancel all the ambient light, then set the shutter speed accordingly. In other words, either choose the correct shutter speed for the ambient light or set a shutter speed that severely underexposes the ambient light, resulting in a flash exposure surrounded by all black. To practice combining flash and available light, grab your significant other or child or even that neighbor you’ve been meaning to talk to and, at the next sunset opportunity, place them against the colorful sky. With your camera in Manual Mode,

set your aperture to f/22 and your ISO to 100. Metering off the sky, adjust your shutter speed until a correct exposure is indicated. Chances are good that you’ll be somewhere around f/22 for 1/200 sec. (with 100 ISO). Attach your flash to your camera either via a TTL cord or on the camera’s hot shoe. With the flash set to TTL, fire away and enjoy the welcome surprise of seeing your subject lit up against the beautiful sunset in the background. Near the town of Valensole in Provence, France, I set up my camera and tripod right in front of some lavender flowers. Following several hours of thunderstorms, the clouds were just beginning to part as the sun set. With my wide-angle lens and an aperture of f/22, I set an exposure for the ambient light of the sunset sky, which resulted in a nice exposure of the sky but a silhouetted exposure of the flowers (this page). Because the sky was much brighter than the lavender flowers below the horizon, this was no surprise. I pulled out my flash, set it to TTL Mode, and attached it to the camera’s hot shoe using a TTL cord, allowing me to hold the flash off-camera and point it toward the flowers. The flash “knew” I was using f/22 via the TTL cord and indicated a flash-to-subject range of three to eight feet for a correct exposure. Since I wanted to maintain my exposure for the ambient light (the sunset sky), I left my shutter speed as it was. All I needed to do was to raise the flash about four feet from the flowers at a 45-degree angle (rather than straight on) to avoid a deer-in-the-headlights look. As you can see in the image on this page, I was able to record a correct exposure of both the sunset sky and the foreground lavender flowers lit by the flash.”

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NIKON D300S NIKKOR 12–24MM LENS AT 12MM F/22 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D300S NIKKOR 12–24MM LENS AT 12MM F/22 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH NIKON SB-900 FLASH

electronic portable flash, another common problem is failing to position it to “ With create the most flattering light. In many respects, it’s an awesome responsibility; here you’re playing God and deciding which direction the light will come from. But if you think of your flash as a miniature sun, you can decide relatively easily. The possibilities of flash direction are endless because you can position this artificial sun pretty much anywhere you choose, which in turn will flatter your subject —hopefully. That was certainly my hope when photographing my friend John in front of Wolfy’s hot dog stand in Chicago. I also had Austin with me, a student who was participating in a private instruction class. It was our last shoot of the day, one that Austin was really looking forward to, as he wanted to learn about flash. We all have our favorite styles, and I personally prefer to use flash and ambient light together, especially during the blue hour. My aim here was simply to shoot a portrait of John doing what John loves to do: eat hot dogs with lots of mustard! With my camera in Manual Mode and my flash in TTL Mode, I first set a −2/3 exposure for the dusky blue sky behind John. I put my camera and lens on a tripod, covered my lens with a diffuser, and attached it to the camera’s hot shoe with a TTL cord. John was soon bathed in soft light as I elevated the flash about 45 degrees above his face and a wee bit to his left. I fired away as I asked John to pretend to take a bite out of his hot dog (see this page). I then turned over the opportunity to photograph John to my student. Austin’s first few attempts fell quite short; the direction from which he illuminated John was clearly wrong, casting unflattering shadows on John’s face, as you can see in the image on this page. This happens a lot with people just starting to use their electronic flashes and LED lights. You must be completely focused and aware of any problems you’re creating, namely unwelcome shadows. I tell my students all the time to run the LED a full 360 degrees around the subject and note what problems, if any, the light is creating relative to the shadow contrast. After seeing several of his examples in his camera’s monitor, Austin adjusted, holding the flash in a somewhat elevated frontal position like a showerhead, the light cascading directly down over John’s face. He walked away with a compelling, evenly lit portrait.”

CANON 7D CANON 24–70MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/4 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB WITH CANON SPEEDLITE 430EX FLASH

NIKON D300 NIKKOR 12–24MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/4 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB WITH NIKON SB-900 FLASH

an image pairing of my own to show you how a flash can be used to kill the “ Here’s ambient light and create a solid black backdrop. When I caught sight of this bright yellow bearded iris, try as I might, I couldn’t isolate the flower from its background, even when shooting at f/4 with my 70–300mm lens at a 300mm focal length. The background was visually flat, with no real opportunity to render out-of-focus tones, and the soft overcast light didn’t offer any opportunities to isolate the flower via contrast. You can see my first disappointing attempt on this page. It was then that I realized that I could, in fact, isolate the flower by illuminating it with the aid of my flash—my miniature sun. If I selected a shutter speed fast enough to kill (meaning severely underexpose) the ambient light, the sole illumination would come from the flash. Setting my camera on a tripod, I attached my flash to the camera’s hot shoe using a TTL cord and set it to TTL Mode. Since depth of field was not an issue, I chose a “Who cares?” aperture of f/8. My camera indicated that 1/15 sec. would give me a correct exposure, but since I wanted to kill the ambient light, I underexposed by 4 stops, choosing 1/250 sec. All that remained was to check the flash range for my flash-to-subject distance. I held the flash about four feet directly above the iris to eliminate any risk of the flash extending beyond it to light up other nearby plants, however faintly, and voilà, the flower was now isolated from the background, as if someone had draped black fabric behind it (see this page).”

NIKON D300S NIKKOR 70–300MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/15 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/CLOUDY WB

NIKON D300S NIKKOR 70–300MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/CLOUDY WB WITH NIKON SB-900 FLASH

an overcast morning at a workshop in Old Delhi’s Chandni Chowk “ On neighborhood, we were fortunate to have with us the makeup artist and model Kung, whom we posed in front of a wonderful old door painted green with red squares. One of my students, Rebecca, was very excited about the first photograph you see on this page, which I can understand, since at first glance it seemed well exposed and perfectly composed. But when Rebecca commented that the only thing she had left to do was add catchlights to Kung’s eyes using her “white paintbrush technique” in Photoshop, I was quick to suggest that she could do something like that—and probably even do it better —if she had a very small LED light. In fact, I had recently acquired a Lume Cube, so I reached into my bag and quickly put Rebecca to work. The Lume Cube’s intensity goes up and down as you rotate the power ring, just like using a dimmer switch. By adding a white rubber diffuser over the top of the Lume Cube, Rebecca was able to cast some nice soft light onto Kung, creating a warmer and more inviting portrait (see this page). Because the Lume Cube casts a constant light, the camera’s light meter assumes it is simply another light source and meters accordingly; nothing extra needs to be done to adjust the exposure. Lume Cubes are relatively inexpensive and ridiculously small, making them extremely portable. And again, you don’t need to buy the actual Lume Cube. There are at least two or three other brands on the market that in my view are comparable and cost less. These lightweight LEDs cost substantially less than an electronic flash, but in fairness, you can do greater things in terms of overall illumination with the much more powerful flash than you could ever expect to achieve with a single Lume Cube. In my opinion, you still need both.”

NIKON D750 24–120MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 640 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D750 24–120MM LENS F/6.3 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 640 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH LUME CUBE LED LIGHT

EXERCISE Understand White Balance For many photographers, setting the white balance (WB) to Auto is the default. “I just set it to Auto and don’t worry about it!” is a constant refrain heard at my workshops—and one that is stopped cold, at least while students are with me! Manually setting your WB has a number of advantages, not least of which is the ability to alter the tone and overall color cast in your photograph while the subject is right there in front of you, thus saving time in postprocessing. During a recent workshop in Denver, I shot five 15-second exposures of the city skyline, each using a different WB. As you compare the images, notice the WB’s impact on the overall tone and color cast. Grab your camera, choose a scene, and then shoot it using each of the various WB settings. Does one of them take your image up a notch? And to be clear, this idea is not limited to city skylines. Consider trying out different WBs when shooting sunsets at the beach, waterfalls in the forest, and even close-ups of flowers in your backyard. The results might really surprise you in a positive way. images of the Denver skyline were taken with five different WB “ These settings: Fluorescent (this page, lower left), Shade (this page, lower right), Daylight/Sunny (this page, bottom left), Tungsten (this page, bottom right), and a custom WB set to 10,000K (this page).”

ALL IMAGES NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 8 SECONDS ISO 100

Expanding Your Vision

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 24–105MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/20 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Many of us are blind to the world around us. By “blind,” I’m referring to the simple fact that most of us see only a few of the vast number of photographic opportunities before us, oblivious to the much bigger picture. Part of the reason our vision is limited is to maintain our sanity. Our brains are wired in such a way that on a conscious level we see only what is necessary to get us from point A to point B. If we did not have this ability to focus, we’d be overwhelmed by visual stimulation. So first let’s assume that part of the reason we’re blind is for purely self-preservation reasons; it’s best that we do not see everything. And then there are those days when we don’t see nearly as much simply because our minds are elsewhere. Seeing requires not only concentration but also a sense of being in the present moment. We’re all guilty of sitting in a meeting attempting to listen or hiking through a forest intending to appreciate the scenery when our minds start wandering, creating visual images of something else. What I’ve said many times over the years is to stop seeking out nouns and instead strive for adjectives. Rather than looking for a flower or an old car, think about looking for textures: hard, soft, sharp, dull, rough, or smooth. When you get tired of that, do the same with lines: short, long, diagonal, crooked, thick, thin, circular, flowing, and so on. Then consider shooting nothing but patterns or shapes. Then spend days and weeks shooting only backlit scenes. Finally, consider shooting nothing but a specific color—for example, only yellow subject matter. Fill the frame with yellow—and not a yellow shirt, but just the color yellow—in such a way that a viewer has to ask if it’s a shirt. Get rid of these nouns in your compositions, at least for the purposes of this exercise. In time (and much sooner rather than later), these exercises will fine-tune your vision, making you much more aware of the environment that surrounds you. We all have them. In a group of six people, you’ll often find six “ Opinions! different viewpoints. During a workshop in the South of France, we came across an old farmhouse with closed blue shutters and a single blooming hollyhock plant. I suggested to a few of my students that they each take only one photograph of the scene, choosing a composition that they felt represented the most unique opportunity. It was important to note that each student made their photograph without being witnessed by the others, so no one was influenced by anyone else. Not surprisingly, three different “opinions” were photographed, all shown beginning on this page. My personal favorite is Kelly’s close-up image of the hollyhock framed on either side by the blue shutters (this page). Neither of the other two images on this page and this page fill the frame enough to make their intent known. They both are mindful of hearing a conversation but leaving you feeling uncertain whether the conversation is asking for your input.”

NIKON D7100 NIKKOR 24–85MM LENS F/13 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D5300 NIKKOR 55–200MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 320 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D800 NIKKOR 70–200MM LENS F/14 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Italy, I had the opportunity to work with Frank, a photographer who’d “ InbeenFlorence, shooting for roughly four years. Florence was a city on his bucket list and he arrived several days prior to the workshop’s inception. On the morning of the workshop’s first day, I noticed Frank already taking a break from shooting, contentedly sitting on a bench in a small side street. I asked him if he was okay and he enthusiastically replied, “Absolutely! I have not been this happy in a long time.” I smiled and said I was happy for him, then asked, “Did you really plan to come to Florence with the hope of sitting on a bench watching your fellow students dash about taking photographs?” Frank replied, “No, no. I’m going to keep shooting but right now I’m just relishing in the fact that I got my picture of what I always imagined to be the typical small Italian grocery store on a small street in Italy, a picture that I’ve wanted to capture for years, a picture that I’ve seen in countless travel magazines.” I asked to see his picture, the first photograph shown on this page, and understood his excitement because it was, in fact, a truly wonderful image of a small Italian grocery store. I then asked if he was done photographing the store. Frank replied, “Well, yeah, I think so. I mean, I don’t know how much more I can improve upon the overall composition. Do you have any ideas?” “You bet!” I was quick to say. I suggested that he consider shooting a few adjectives that make up the noun and he looked at me with uncertainty. I explained that he should search for frame-filling compositions of lines, textures, colors, and patterns—that is, compositions consisting of fruits and vegetables but composed to emphasize an adjective rather than the actual fruit or vegetable itself. Frank looked at me, surprised, and said that he’d been so seduced by the desire to photograph an old-fashioned European grocery store that he hadn’t seen the many other possibilities. He grabbed his camera and went back to work. This page shows a few other compositions from his memorable outing.”

ALL IMAGES CANON REBEL T5I CANON 24–70MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 800 CLOUDY WB

EXERCISE Learn to See Line, Texture, and Color Let’s try an exercise to start expanding your vision. Using any camera or smartphone, spend an hour filling the frame with only texture: tree bark, a smooth picnic table, a wall of peeling paint, a rusty metal box, a pattern of leaves lying on the ground, or sandy patterns on an ocean beach. Then do nothing but fill your frame with color; remember that at all times, your frame needs to be completely filled to eliminate any clue about what the subject might be. Turn this exercise into a visual guessing game with your friends and family. The goal of this exercise is twofold: It teaches you the compositional value of filling the frame, and it also gives you an opportunity to practice the art of creating compositional adjectives rather than nouns. Rather than photographing an entire car, for example, focus on a color or a texture by placing all of your attention on just a small area of the car. Instead of photographing an entire tree, photograph only its bark or leaves. Instead of photographing a flower, fill your frame with just its petals. I hadn’t needed to pull money out of an ATM, I might never have “ Ifnoticed the colorful reflection on the rear of this car. As I turned away from the cash machine, my eyes caught sight of a glint of light coming off the car (see this page, top). Note that because I filled the frame on this page, bottom, with lines of color, this is not an image of a noun (car), but of an adjective, an image with feeling, found on the surface of the car.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

remember my student Elizabeth fondly because she was deathly afraid of “ Iapproaching and photographing people, and yet she was courageous enough to sign up for a ten-day workshop in India in which 90 percent of our time would be spent photographing complete strangers. Could I appreciate Elizabeth’s fear? Absolutely. There was a time when I too was frightened at the prospect of photographing strangers. But eventually, fear gave way to confidence, and here I am years later having written three books on the subject of photographing people. It was on the streets of Old Delhi, India, where Elizabeth was stopped by the man you see here (you read that right—he stopped her) to ask her how she liked India. Startled but without missing a beat, she exclaimed, “I love it!” and within seconds asked if she could take a quick photo, raising her camera to her eye. She thanked the man and he was about to leave when I asked if I too could take a few photographs. Clearly, he could speak English, so I asked what he did for a living and he told us that he worked in a bicycle repair shop. I proceeded to take a much tighter headshot (see this page), more of a true portrait than the street shot Elizabeth had made on this page. My main reason for stalling the man was to show Elizabeth that when you have a captive audience, work the subject. The man was not in a hurry, so as I like to say, “Work it, work it, work it.” Take full advantage of the time your subject is willing to give because you do not know when the next person might afford you the opportunity to take a portrait, particularly in a world of strangers.”

SONY ALPHA a7 MIRRORLESS SONY 28–70MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/7.1 FOR 1/640 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

my Ethiopia workshop, my students and I spent four days living in tents “ During and spending our evenings in several tribal villages. On this particular day, we were camping in the village of the Karo tribe. With this kind of access, every student records hundreds of wonderful portraits each day and the mood is one of elation and gratitude. Joanna was quick to share with me a portrait she had made of three young boys, which she felt was among her top three images of the day. She had taken it just minutes before and the same three boys were still nearby, now being photographed by another student. I suggested to Joanna that she return to the boys and consider taking the one photograph she’d left behind: the “picture in a picture” of the boy at the bottom of the frame. The background surrounding him serves as a kind of textured frame, offering contrast and adding to his importance. As you can see by Joanna’s second image (this page), she did manage to get an additional, singular portrait of the boy. The lesson here is to work it, work it, work it. Never be afraid to keep chipping away and making additional discoveries of photographic art.”

BOTH IMAGES SONY ALPHA a7 II SONY 24–240MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

was the last time you deliberately set out to shoot nothing more than a “ When compelling abstract composition? An abstract is any subject that is rendered compositionally in such a way that the viewer is disoriented, initially uncertain as to what the subject matter is and yet is also compelled to stop and wonder what they might be looking at. It was during a Paris workshop when a few students and I came upon an old abandoned business with an absolutely beautiful, colorful doorway that had unlimited abstract potential. Two of the students, Claris and William, were eager to photograph it and, although I was not surprised, it’s fair to say that I was disappointed to see that they’d photographed only the mail slot and the doorknob (this page, middle). I asked why they both chose to shoot only those parts, but it was a rhetorical question because I already knew the answer—they’re both nouns! Why not go back and look only for compositions of texture and color? Claris returned to shoot more but William didn’t; it was clear that this wasn’t his thing. I insisted that Claris really push herself to see nothing more than striking compositions of texture, color, and line. Only ten minutes later, I was thrilled when Claris shared several of her new photographs, two of which are shown here. One of them, this page, is strong enough to stand on its own as a large print, the color scheme and overall design reminiscent of a crisp, refreshing winter day of ice and snow. An abstract of this type can easily be flipped or rotated as a vertical and still be just as striking. This is definitely one of the keys to a successful abstract and what I call the “abstract test”: If you flip or rotate the photograph, does it still have impact? If the answer is yes, you have mastered an abstract composition. And if by chance you feel that Claris’s abstract composition is not strong on its own, note that photographs like this can also be used in double exposures, either made in-camera at that moment or later in Photoshop.”

ALL IMAGES NIKON D750 NIKKOR 100MM MICRO LENS F/16 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Double Exposures Almost without fail, every student in my workshops learns how to do an in-camera double exposure if their camera allows it. Surprisingly, not all cameras do; check your manual for the Multiple Exposure function. Double exposures can be achieved by layering two distinctly different subjects that blend in a complementary way. I love suggesting to my students that they combine a portrait with something abstract, such as peeling paint or tree bark. The results can be mysterious, sensual, odd, or even ghastly, but they’re always surprising. It is in this spirit that I share an example taken by Andrea at a workshop we did in Myanmar. She photographed a small section of a metal trash bin, peeling paint and all, and then used the doubleexposure feature to combine it with a portrait of the model Wassana spinning her umbrella. Each camera manufacturer has a slightly different method for creating double exposures, so check your manual for specific instructions.

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–200MM F/11 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT WB

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–200MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/50 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT WB

THE IN-CAMERA BLEND OF THE TWO EXPOSURES ON THIS PAGE AND THIS PAGE

you think taking double exposures has potential, you just might become “ Ifobsessed with combining nine or ten exposures. Stacked, layered, and combined one atop the other, all in-camera, these multiple-exposure images are often surprising and sometimes spectacular. I was in Venice in what I affectionately call a gondola parking lot near one of the hotels behind Piazza San Marco, where my student Christopher had just taken several compositions, one of them seen on this page. This is a what I call a “record” shot— interesting, but it probably won’t be hanging in an art gallery anytime soon. Chris quickly agreed and then asked, as if sending out a challenge, “What would you do with this scene?” I suggested that he take nine photographs of the gondola parking lot as a multiple exposure, tilting his camera between each shot as if it were a second hand on a clock. I had no idea how it would look but promised him that whatever we got would be surprising. He was done shooting in a matter of seconds and we were both pleasantly surprised by the result. We both commented that at first glance, it looked like an abstract eyeball. If you find yourself in a visual rut, consider looking at the world as one gigantic multiple-exposure opportunity!”

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 17–40MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

THE IN-CAMERA BLEND OF ALL NINE EXPOSURES

had just finished a hearty fish-and-chip lunch in our hotel restaurant—one of “ We the few open in this small coastal village in Northern Ireland—when I caught sight of a large exterior window made of rippled glass, shown in the photograph below. I invited my students to spend five minutes photographing simple compositions of the glass window and see who took the most compelling, frame-filling abstract. When all was said and done, I was left with several compositions that fell a bit short. For example, the image by Hal, this page, is out of focus, and the one from Susanna, this page, leaves the top half of the frame empty. Compare those to what I consider was Stephanie’s winning composition on this page, an entire framed filled with abstract color and texture. It was a passing automobile that made this image worthy of winning the contest. The point behind this simple lesson is that photographic opportunity abounds if we’re awake to it. You might be having lunch and focused on conversations outside of photography. After lunch, you may feel tired as you get up from the table and head for the door, completely out of a photographic frame of mind, oblivious that you’ve left behind an incredible opportunity. Lunch or no lunch, every second of every hour offers a photograph to be made.”

NIKON D750 NIKKOR 28–300MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 640 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 5D MARK IV CANON 70–200MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 640 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 6D CANON 70–300MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/30 SECOND ISO 640 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

days later, when we were still in Northern Ireland and after having moved to “ Two a new town and hotel, another photographic opportunity presented itself after dinner! As several students and I walked down the hallway to head toward our rooms, I spotted a distant yet well-illuminated Ferris wheel through a rain-covered open window, below; we’d seen it earlier in the day on the edge of the beach. I suggested to the students that they hold another contest, and within minutes, two of the students had returned with their cameras and tripods. No more than ten minutes had passed when both said, “I’m done.” How did they do? You can see for yourself. Wayne chose to shoot the actual Ferris wheel (this page) while Stephen chose to shoot “evidence” of it, this page. To put it another way, Wayne shot a noun while Stephen shot an adjective. Of the two, I’m definitely partial to the adjective—Stephen’s composition of raindrops on the glass with the Ferris wheel as an out-of-focus element of color and design. As a footnote, if you’re familiar with my take on night skies, you’ll know that I’m not a huge fan of shooting any kind of city scene after the blue hour of twilight. I don’t enjoy black skies simply because they don’t impart what I feel is a necessary color contrast, whether it’s behind a skyline or a Ferris wheel. As these photographs illustrate, however, there are exceptions to my disdain of black skies.”

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NIKON D750 NIKKOR 105MM MICRO LENS F/18 FOR 1 SECOND ISO 800 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

common situation in which many photographers become blinded to the “ Another art of seeing is in popular photographic locations such as Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and so on. Compelling images posted on social media create a sort of herd mentality, exciting hundreds of others to stand in the exact same places and duplicate what’s already been done. I often ask, where is the creativity in that? It’s true that for photographers at the beginning of their journeys, recreating photos like these might be a necessary part of the learning process. But how many times have you been to Horseshoe Bend, for example, or Slot Canyons, Yosemite Valley, or Bryce Canyon? Repetitive trips to these familiar locations might be limiting your vision. A willingness to expose yourself to unfamiliar places, as well as to subjects that normally make you uncomfortable, will tremendously impact and expand your vision. In fact, it’s my hope that you’re already discovering, either through personal experience or by reading the anecdotes in this book, a desire to stretch your photographic vision. On this particular morning in Maine’s Acadia National Park, my students and I were among hundreds of photographers awaiting the sunrise. Nine of my ten students (not to mention a couple hundred others) took basically the same image, similar to Paul’s photograph shown on this page. But one student, Tony, chose to forego the sunrise and instead shot the “herd” standing against it, which is no doubt a unique composition. No one else stepped behind the herd to take this shot (see this page). How do I know? Because I was standing next to Tony when he took it and I could see several hundred people all in a row, shooting the same sunrise. The lesson here is that instead of following the crowd, with everyone creating essentially the same photograph, consider stepping away and making the crowd the subject of your composition.”

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NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/320 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Composition

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What makes an amazing image? It’s a subjective question, and the answer depends on who you ask. If you ask a street photographer to judge a nature photograph, you might get a tepid reaction, and vice versa. What makes an image compelling for a particular viewer, one might argue, is its content. But what if we’re all presented with photographs that we agree are filled with beautiful content? Is it still possible for these images to fall short of being truly compelling? The answer is yes, because compelling photography is not primarily about the content! I can’t stress that enough. Compelling photography has, is, and will always be about the arrangement of that content. Think about that for a moment. Let’s say you’ve hired a makeup artist to make you look beautiful, and they’re armed with a bag full of face powders, creams, eyeliners, eye shadows, and lipsticks. We might look at that inventory of cosmetics and think, “Wow, that’s an incredible amount of content.” Now imagine a six-year-old child getting into that makeup bag—regardless of its potential, the results will be anything but compelling. This has nothing to do with the content and everything to do with a lack of experience over what to do with it. In the same way, ten photography students can be presented with the same subject matter—say, an unexpected rainbow—and, even though they’ll compose the scene in ten different ways, they can still create very mediocre compositions. Whether or not you realize it, we approach every single photographic subject with a degree of prejudice. Each of us is born with “virgin eyes” that are filled with wonder at the world around us. But it isn’t long before well-meaning parents and teachers start shaping our vision. We soon learn what’s “good” versus “bad,” “pretty” versus “ugly,” “gross” versus “compelling.” What I hope to get across in this chapter is that no matter how mundane or ugly the content, it is ultimately the arrangement of that content that makes the image compelling (or not). Whether you’re shooting Half Dome in Yosemite, a fashion model on the streets of New York, or a smashed-up beer can along the side of the road, the potential for a compelling image relies on a firm understanding of composition. For many, the pursuit of compelling composition is a lifelong journey. It’s about understanding the elements of design, such as line, texture, pattern, form, shape, and color. It’s about filling the frame (as I’ve often told a student, “You’re two feet short of a compelling image”) and adherence to guidelines such as the Rule of Thirds. Other times, it’s about simply switching the camera from a more familiar horizontal position to a vertical one, or even a 45-degree angle. It’s also about avoiding distracting contrast. The analogy I’ve used for years is that viewing a photograph with distracting contrast is like trying to focus on what the minister is saying in church with a crying baby in the pew behind you (and I do mean crying loudly). Other common problems include using the wrong aperture or a stale point of view, especially with familiar subjects. It is my hope that by sharing some of the common composition problems

that my students have encountered and overcome, this section will guide you further down the road in your pursuit of photographic excellence. There’s one other topic that I want to bring up, and it has to do with the use of Photoshop. Perhaps if I were starting my photographic career today, I would be a diehard Photoshop user, if only because the possibilities it offers are truly endless. As I’ve said on many occasions, I love Photoshop, but I love it for its intended purpose, which to my mind is not to create compelling compositions but rather to expand my vision. It is not intended to replace my vision or to correct my technical errors. Rather than relying on it, let’s get you proficient at being creative in-camera. I first picked up a camera way back in 1970, so I’ve been doing this for a really long time. Some might argue that I’m like an old dog that can’t be taught new tricks, but nothing could be further from the truth. I approach photography like a newborn, every day filled with wonder and an exciting opportunity to grow, to learn, to try something new, and to expand my vision. But the root of my creativity is firmly entrenched in a getting-it-done-in-camera mentality. As I photograph a given subject, my approach is careful, sometimes quite methodical. Sure, I now do this at lightning speed compared to when I first picked up a camera more than forty years ago, but that’s strictly experience talking. I still believe that I save a great deal of time by getting it done in-camera. But it’s not all about saving time. There is something else, something that remains important to me when it comes to creating visual records of the world I live in, and that is to have had the physical experience of getting it done in-camera. When I recall most (if not all) of the images I have recorded, emotional reminders rise quickly to the surface. It might be the texture of a subject, or the way it felt when I touched it. It might be the smell of salt spray in the air, the sound of distant thunder accompanying a flash of lightning, or the memory of a dog that almost took a bite out of my face had I not jumped up from his food dish just after shooting a wide-angle close-up. Each image is a reminder of a period in my life, both good and bad, and I prefer to preserve that reminder unchanged. I have always done just about anything necessary to get the shot in-camera, whether that means waiting for a car or person to get out of the way, placing a leaf on a rock, or asking a subject to move inside a doorway rather than sitting on a porch. Other times I’ll hire a model, ask them to wear a certain piece of clothing, walk in a certain direction, or place a chair where no chair would normally be. I’ll wait for a hoped-for rainbow or for the sun to make an appearance and flood the eastern sky with low-angled warm light as it sets. I’ve even been known to spray “dewdrops” on blades of grass because the hoped-for morning dew from Mother Nature never arrived. This is who I am. This is my approach to creating compelling compositions. It’s about being part of the experience. For me, getting a shot in-camera rather than using

presets in Photoshop is akin to preparing and eating a sumptuous meal rather than watching a cooking show on television. Every generation has its own approach to life and to photography. The lesson I want you to learn from this chapter, as well as from this entire book, is that you are the artist. Take full responsibility for your images, even if it means moving objects in a scene as one would for a still life in a studio. Some argue against this, but how often do you change your point of view by getting down low, climbing stairs, or lying on your back and shooting up? Is this not the same as moving an object in the frame? How is your moving different than an object being moved? How often do you change lenses, add a filter, or use your flash for a bit of fill light? The mere act of moving something to improve the composition—perhaps picking up a leaf from the ground and placing it on a tree stump to photograph it against the stump’s texture—is no different than using the Clone tool in Photoshop to remove something distracting. The only difference is that I took an extra second or two to do it prior to snapping the shutter. In my mind, the measure of a photograph’s success is its ability to evoke an emotional response, whether it’s joy, discomfort, elation, disgust, or sadness. In other words, it is compelling! I encourage you to use all of your skills and talents to this end, including the greatest one that you possess but perhaps do not realize it—the courage to be creative.

EXERCISE Stage a “Spontaneous” Shot Some photographers hold dear to the notion that truly compelling imagery requires nothing more than persistence and luck. If that were true, the history book of such photographs would be well under a hundred pages. A case in point is French photographer Robert Doisneau’s The Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville, one of the world’s best-known images. Taken in 1950, this image fooled most of the world for decades because it appeared to be a lucky shot of a spontaneous kiss on the streets of Paris. It was discovered only in the 1990s that the couple in the photograph were models directed by Doisneau to walk back and forth in front of a French café until he got the shot. In fact, they had attempted to do this famous photograph at three different cafés, according to one of the models who came forward after Doisneau’s death to express frustration at receiving only two hundred francs for what would become one of the twentieth century’s most iconic photographs. In my view, the real tragedy is that Doisneau could not tell the truth about the image because at that time, photography was only viewed as “art” if the image was spontaneous, not altered or staged in any way. Explore this for yourself by going out and purposefully creating a photograph to convey elation, joy, and celebration. You will, of course, be staging the photo, but try to do so in a way that looks like a spontaneous capture. This exercise has proved fun for my students over the years, but it’s also far more challenging than many of them anticipated, since again, the goal is to create a composition that does not look staged. we looking at a young woman caught in a sudden gust of wind? Or is “ Are she flipping her hair in arrogance? It can be whatever you choose, but one thing is for sure: It was all staged. At the count of three, this model flipped her head as my assistant Andrew stood ready with the flash (out of frame, of course). I underexposed by 2 stops so that only a faint bit of the green wall would record in the ambient exposure. (For more about using a

flash, see this page.)”

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH NIKON SB-900 FLASH AND AMBER GEL

among us does not like to shoot flowers? Many years ago, Kodak did a “ Who survey of amateur photographers to ask what their favorite subject was, and the top response was flowers, followed by family vacations and sunsets. I’ve seen an overwhelming number of flower compositions in my years of instruction, and the number-one problem that prevents most flower photographs from being compelling is simply a failure to move in closer. During a workshop in Oregon, we were in a small park where a number of zinnias were blooming. One of my students, Delores, who lived in the city and rarely had the opportunity to be in nature, came rushing over excitedly to show me her first flower photograph, shown on this page, top. I immediately asked if she was troubled by the stark white, out-of-focus tree trunk in the background. “There’s no tree there,” she said. “Well, what’s that white thing?” I asked. “Oh, that? I guess there is a tree there. I hadn’t noticed,” she said. Delores went back and made a second attempt, shown on this page, bottom, moving closer and shifting her point of view. However, the tree was still in the background. I suggested we clean it up. “How?” she asked. “Are we going to cut it down?” This made me laugh. “What if I told you that we could make that tree disappear by simply changing our point of view and creating a black background for the flower?” She looked at me like I had two heads. “How?” she asked. In her first photograph, notice the large swath of open shade to the left of the white tree. The reason that this area is so dark is because Delores had correctly exposed for the sunlit flower, which rendered that area behind that flower in darkness. I simply moved in closer and stepped a bit to the right to make certain that the background was composed entirely of shade. With my exposure still set for the much brighter flower, I fired away (see image on this page). Now the flower not only fills the frame, but the dark background avoids any distraction—in other words, there’s no crying baby calling attention away from the minister.”

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was shooting a field of flowers in Texas with several students, one of them “ Iunderstandably elated to be photographing the beautiful bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and blanket flowers. It wasn’t long before Robert asked me to come over to look at his “amazing” image (this page, top). Robert’s image definitely has potential, but all those stems in the background are a distraction. The flower is also too centered and there are several other bits of flowers competing for our attention in the lower left and bottom middle of the frame. After I pointed these things out, Robert went off to shoot more images. A few minutes later, he called me back over and showed me the second image (this page, bottom). This one is better and has a cleaner background, but one out-offocus flower is still distracting on the left side of the frame. Once again, Robert went off to shoot more pictures. Less than a minute later, he said, “You’re going to love this one!” And he was right—he’d nailed it (see this page)! This version uses the bluebonnets as out-of-focus tones that call attention to the blanket flower without any distractions. The color complements of the blue background and the red-and-yellow fringed flower also cannot go unnoticed. This is a composition of what we call triadic color—three colors from the color wheel that form a triangle.”

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dinner, Olga, a student at one of my Myanmar workshops, expressed elation “ Over that she had discovered a nearby pond where there seemed to be a dragonfly hatch going on. She described seeing hundreds of dragonflies and wondered if we could shoot close-ups of them in the morning. Sure enough, the following morning found us at the edge of the pond, enjoying these insects as well as the many birds snatching them off plants for breakfast. We had no problem making countless singular portraits of dragonflies, but it was Olga who had the most trouble compositionally speaking. She had all the right equipment, including a macro lens, but her problem was simple; she was making image magnifications in her mind that didn’t match what the viewfinder was recording. In other words, she was convinced that the dragonfly was filling the frame even though the resulting compositions showed otherwise. She had not yet gotten into the habit, before pressing the shutter, of making certain the dragonfly was incredibly close to, if not touching, the edges of the frame. But it didn’t take long for her to figure out that she needed to move in closer, and it made all the difference. Not only do we now have a dragonfly that fills the frame, but Olga also learned the value of contrast. By shifting a bit to the left, she captured a contrasting green tone in the background to showcase the dragonfly. Note that Olga was using a Canon 7D, and its crop sensor, when combined with her 180mm macro lens, gave her in effect an A270mm macro lens, which became the envy of all the other students in the workshop.”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 7D CANON 180MM MACRO LENS F/18 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

was helping three other students in the small village of Weyito Valley, Ethiopia, “ Iwhen Andrea rushed up to me and asked me to look at a “beautiful” shot she’d just taken (this page). I don’t enjoy raining on anyone’s parade, but I’m there to teach, so I commented that the photograph was far too chaotic. It was less a portrait than the potential for one. In fact, there was an opportunity to shoot at least two compelling compositions if she could still find the woman dressed in yellow. I wanted Andrea to take full advantage of what she thought she was accomplishing but came up short. Fortunately, we were able to find the woman and, after getting permission, asked her to go inside the yellow-walled café and stand in the window. Thus, Andrea created a far more compelling image by “framing with a frame (this page).” Before she was done, I suggested that she take a much closer portrait of the young woman’s face wrapped in her bright yellow scarf against the yellow wall. Images like this are often referred to as monochromatic because they’re composed of primarily the same color throughout. At my suggestion, Andrea went in so tight that she cropped into the top of the woman’s head (see image on this page). Why do that? It’s a style that I’ve used for years to create a sense of intimacy and of sharing a close encounter.”

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I move on, I need to throw you a curveball: Is it possible to be too close to “ Before the subject? My answer is an emphatic yes. It’s rare, but of course you can be too close. If your intent is to shoot a portrait but you cut off part of the person’s eye, you were too close (unless your intent was to show only half of the face or half of the eye). You’re too close when you fill the frame so much that you lose valuable information. Who among us, in our zeal to fill the frame over and over, hasn’t caught ourselves overstepping at least once and getting in a little too close? This was certainly the case with Nicole during a workshop in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, where we’d risen before dawn to photograph three members of the Hamar tribe. Looking at her digital monitor, I saw her photograph of this lone tree at sunrise (this page, top). I asked why she hadn’t composed the scene to show the entire tree. She felt it wasn’t necessary, plus the people looked too small. I pointed out that this was the only tree on the horizon, and so it was unique to the hillside where we were photographing. By zooming in as close as she did, she left us without that important piece of information. We’re led to believe that this is just one of many trees under which at least three people have chosen to gather. Once she pulled back and took some other frames, Nicole realized that the wider view was much better (see this page, bottom). Now the image suggests that this is a tree of great importance, perhaps one that has served as a gathering place for years. If you’re struggling with a subject’s overall photographic composition, the problem could be— although it’s rare—that you’re too close.”

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common compositional mistake is failing to notice mergers. The issue of “ Another trees and utility poles growing out of people’s heads has been written and spoken about so much that it gives me some degree of anxiety to include this. Yet I can’t argue with the fact that people’s portraits do often show up with a tree (or a telephone pole) sticking out of the subject’s head. Note that these mistake mergers are different from deliberate mergers created in the name of art, such as in the phenomenal work of photographer Vineet Vohra (@vineet_vohra). Vineet’s compositional mergers are responsible for truly showstopping compositions. When you look at the photograph on this page, top, taken by Don in my India workshop, however, it’s obvious that this was not a deliberate merger. We were invited into this woman’s home in the town of Agra, and it wasn’t more than a minute or two later when several of my students were photographing the family members in the colorfully painted interior. Don showed me this first photograph and I was quick to point out its lovely color and phenomenal content, but the merger of the woman’s head with the wall hanging impacted its composition. I suggested that he ask the woman to move several feet to the left (see this page, bottom). Gone was the merger, and the overall composition regained a welcome sense of balance and tension. You’ll also notice that the second image subscribes to the Rule of Thirds (see “Using the Rule of Thirds” on this page).”

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situation where compositional mergers commonly take place is in scenes that “ One are backlit, primarily at sunset or sunrise, such as when friends or family members are on the beach or fishing, or boats are on the horizon with birds flying in the air. Thanks to the amazing dynamic range of the human eye, when you look at a scene like this through the viewfinder, you’re able to see the subject clearly even though it’s about to become a stark silhouette. You need to “stop” your eyes from seeing this dynamic range, remind yourself that almost everything in front of the backlight is going to be a black silhouette, and then ask yourself what potential mergers must be avoided. You must keep the subject from blending into its surroundings, as happened above in this first image, taken against a strong midafternoon backlight in Northern Ireland. Following a late lunch, I commented that we had a wonderful sky and with the stark trees across the street at a local park, we could conceivably create clean, minimalistic compositions—but what was lacking was some human interest. Then one of the students volunteered to do some jumps. In the first photograph taken by Courtney, notice how the jumper’s extended right leg merges with the tree’s wooden support. Clearly we want the jumping subject to be independent and not joined with anything else, so we see a true portrayal of the person’s shape. In Courtney’s second photograph (this page, bottom), which was taken this time with a wider angle, we get a greater sense of the jumper’s exuberance and joy.”

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wanted to pair these next two examples because they mimic the kinds of “ Iphotographs many of us are guilty of taking on our family vacations. In a Paris workshop, my student Valerie wanted to photograph another student, Lucy, who was sitting on the Ponte Alexandre III bridge with the Eiffel Tower in the background. In the first example (this page), it was very apparent that Lucy was merging with the Eiffel Tower. By simply taking a few steps to the left, Valerie moved Lucy away from this landmark (this page). In another workshop halfway around the world in India, Rajiv made the same mistake while photographing his wife in front of the Taj Mahal, merging her with a long row of shrubbery (this page). I suggested he either move to the left, thus freeing his wife, or have her move to her left, resulting in a much better composition (this page). These are very simple, subtle changes to adjust the photographer’s point of view. When shooting family members or vacation photos, make it a habit to ask yourself whether the subjects are stuck like gum on a wall to something else, or are they in fact free in their own space? I remember a student a few years ago who was photographing his wife against a background of large boulders, and it looked like his wife was about to have triplets when in fact she wasn’t pregnant at all. I called him out on his merger in the presence of his nonpregnant wife; as you can imagine, he was much more attentive afterward to what was happening in the background.”

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TAKEN WITH AN IPHONE

it’s the smallest thing that makes the largest difference in a photograph’s “ Often, impact. That certainly was the case with this image of a gentleman posing in front of a shop selling hundreds of plastic chairs. I had approached this man, who was walking toward us, near a store that had stacks and stacks of chairs out front. He accepted my invitation and sat on one of the chairs to become the subject, surrounded by patterns. Teresa was on to it immediately, but in her excitement she created the cardinal sin of cutting off the man’s hands (see this page, top). As a general rule of thumb, if a subject’s hands are resting in his lap, you do not want to cut them off! If you want to go in much closer for a chest-headand-shoulders-type of portrait, crop just above the elbows. But when hands are in the lap or on the knees, let them be seen. When the arms are folded, crop below the folded arms. Once I called Teresa out on her inadvertent mistake, she shot a few more frames to correct the crop, one of which is shown here (this page, bottom).”

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was really excited to share with me a portrait he had made of the makeup “ Marvin artist Kung in front of a bicycle repair shop, explaining that he had called upon the Rule of Thirds and deliberately underexposed to create the dark background. “Do I know my stuff or what?” he said with obvious enthusiasm. He was right about the Rule of Thirds: two-thirds of the frame was composed of Kung, a black background, and some bicycle wheels, while the far right one-third featured boxes and a collapsed metal gate (see this page). “You are correct,” I said. “The Rule of Thirds is alive and well. However, the subject matter in the right third brings nothing to the photograph.” If anything, that right third is a healthy serving of distraction, with its visual weight big enough to suggest that Marvin felt it was important to include—but why? After I asked him to clarify what the subject matter was (he said it was definitely Kung), I suggested that he rotate his camera to shoot a vertical of her, plus move in a bit closer and thus eliminate that large visual weight of nothingness on the right so that all the attention would go to her (see this page). Within seconds of shooting Kung in the vertical frame, Marvin’s smile returned.”

Using the Rule of Thirds Since a compelling photograph is less about content and more about how we arrange that content, are there guidelines for creating effective compositions? Interestingly enough, there are, and one of them is what the Greeks called the Golden Section, later named the Rule of Thirds. When ancient Greek mathematicians began studying the paintings of their fellow artists, they began recognizing a pattern: Objects in a scene were often two-thirds as large as others, and landscapes often placed the horizon line with two-thirds of the landscape below it and one-third sky above it (or vice versa). In stilllife paintings, artists seemed to favor compositions in which twothirds of the frame was filled with the round shapes of fruit and the remaining third with the round shape of the bowl. This compositional arrangement became known as the Golden Section, a rule stating that when any object or shape has two distinct parts, the smaller should be one-third the size of the larger—that is, one-third sky versus two-thirds of the frame filled with the red barn, white fence, and colorful fall trees. Entire books have been written about the Rule of Thirds, and

Entire books have been written about the Rule of Thirds, and discussing it in detail is beyond the scope of this book. But I do want to emphasize that using it will more often than not lead to far more engaging and compelling photographs. Most of today’s DSLRs and many smartphone cameras include an electronic Rule-of-Thirds grid that can be turned on to show up on the back of your monitor or inside the viewfinder. To be clear, I do not believe that we must be bound by the Rule of Thirds—or as I prefer to call it, the Suggestion of Thirds. But at its core, this grid can serve you well.

BOTH IMAGES SONY ALPHA a7 III SONY 24–105MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Varanasi, India, several of my students and I came upon this orange-turbaned “ Ingentleman with a wonderful face and white beard, sitting on a small bench against the backdrop of a large, open, abandoned building. As a result, very little light was getting in behind him. After we took some wonderful frame-filling portraits, including the one by Barbara shown on this page, I noticed a beautiful yellow and cyan textured wall no more than ten feet away. Because we had already developed some degree of rapport with this elderly man, it was an easy proposition to ask if he would mind rising from the bench and moving ten feet to another bench, where he would then be sitting against that yellow and cyan wall. As you can see in the next photograph (this page), he obliged, and Barbara took another photograph of him against a completely different background. After she initially photographed the man against the much darker black background, I sensed that Barbara was ready to move on. I explained that because this man seemed to be enjoying being photographed and we’d gained his trust, this was a gold-mine opportunity to consider other locations to pose him against. When you have the attention and trust of a willing subject and no reason to believe that they’re running late for their wedding or are about to deliver a baby, the chances are good that you can invest several more minutes to take full advantage of the opportunity to add even more material to your gallery of portraits from around the world.”

CANON 5D MARK IV CANON 24–105MM LENS F/10 FOR 1/80 SECOND ISO 320 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

during my first workshop in Norway’s Lofoten Islands when my students “ ItandwasI spent one morning thoroughly enjoying an unexpected opportunity to photograph wonderful designs of seashells lying atop various shades, tones, and textures along the shoreline. One student, Linda, found an opened shell with both sides still attached and made the first image that you see on this page, top. I have no problem with it at all, but I suggested that she consider picking up the shell and walking around the shoreline in search of other designs that she might consider placing the shells atop. Linda was taken aback by my suggestion. “But is that natural?” she asked. I asked what she meant. “Well, is it ‘natural’ for me just to pick up the shell and then go and put it someplace else?” “Absolutely!” I said. “For most of us, I do believe that leaning over, extending our arm, and picking up a seashell is in fact a very natural movement, so yeah, it’s natural.” We both chuckled. Yes, I knew what she was actually asking me, and I was quick to tell her that if she didn’t pick up those shells and move them to other locations in search of more compelling compositions, then I certainly would! Believe it or not, she replied that she would feel better if I picked them up and she would just watch me go around the beach and make additional compositions. So that is exactly what I did, until I came upon a heart-shaped design in the sand. I could not believe my luck. Needless to say, Linda was also quick to photograph these same two shells with the heart, including the second image you see on this page, bottom. By now she was realizing that she needed to become a more active participant in the creative process. Can you imagine being a painter who has been told that you must use only one size of canvas, stick to one color of paint, and stay within only one area of that canvas? As you go forward in your pursuit of photographic excellence, I hope you’ll take a more active role in the in-camera creative process. I mean, why not? It’s your art, right?!”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 7D MARK II CANON 100MM MACRO LENS F/14 FOR 1/160 SECOND DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

were shooting during the blue hour in the small harbor town of Hoorn in the “ We Netherlands when Allison asked me to check her exposure on her digital monitor in the first example shown on this page, top. She’d done an excellent job with it, but I wondered why she’d cut off the ends of boats on the right of the frame. When I asked her, she first said, “I didn’t cut off any boats. What are you talking about?” It was only on a second look that she said, “Oh, oops! Yeah, I guess I did cut them off.” This was an easy fix. I suggested she go a bit wider with her angle of view to get the ends of the boats in. Doing so would also shift her frame to the right, moving the twelfth-century tower out of the middle of the frame and placing it more to the left (see this page, bottom). As she went wider in her angle of view, I heard Allison say, “Oh yes, this is much better,” followed by a “Woo-hoo!” One of the greatest exclamations an instructor can hear in a workshop would have to be “woo-hoo!” in my opinion.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D7200 TAMRON SP 24–70MM LENS F/16 FOR 8 SECONDS ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

had organized a small group of men from the Karo tribe in Ethiopia to stand for a “ Igroup photo, facing west while holding their Kalashnikov rifles. (These rifles get fired but once in a blue moon, scaring off potential predators—hyenas and stray lions —who may hunger for one of the tribes many goats.) My students anxiously waited for the sun to begin setting, and when it did, the familiar clicks and whirring of camera shutter releases started in earnest, along with shouts of glee. I’m always amazed at how you can have ten people standing in front of the exact same subject and still get ten sometimes radically different compositions—and if not compositions, then surely different exposures. The first image shown on this page was taken by Seth, and the second (on this page) by April. Seth chose to shoot while he was bent down on one knee, while April lay on her stomach. Obviously, April’s lower point of view allowed her to elevate the men into a more colorful sky, in contrast to Seth’s composition, in which the men remain mostly below the horizon line, merging with that dark foreground and getting lost in the darkness. April used a magenta filter, which also partly accounts for the richer color in her photograph. Seth did not use a filter and also shot in Auto WB. I am not a fan of Auto WB because it tends to record much colder tones, even at sunset and sunrise, versus Daylight, Sunny, or even Fluorescent. If you want really warm tones, oranges, and yellows, you might consider on occasion—and I do mean on the rarest of occasions— using Shade WB. At least 90 percent of the time, my personal choice is Daylight/Sunny WB.”

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 100–400MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/320 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH FLW MAGENTA FILTER

cool, rainy autumn resulted in explosive color during one of my Oregon “ Aworkshops in Silver Falls State Park. Abundant rainfall had also filled the streams, giving us some wonderful waterfalls. Kirk was photographing one such waterfall and expressed tremendous excitement about the first image you see on this page. I was quick to compliment his exposure as well as his use of a polarizing filter to reduce, if not completely eliminate, the dull gray glare one tends to get from all those wet surfaces. But I also suggested that his composition would be far more compelling if he turned the camera vertically, as most of the left side of his horizontal frame was empty. The results, shown in the second example, on this page, left him doubly excited. As I always say, “When is the best time to shoot a vertical? Right after the horizontal!” Most landscapes (although certainly not all) feel incredibly calm, tranquil, and inviting when photographed within the confines of the horizontal frame. But this gets in the way of potentially changing the narrative with a vertical composition, which immediately turns serenity into strength, pride, and dignity. Perhaps that’s why vertical compositions don’t get called upon nearly enough in nature photography, because they make the landscape a little more vocal, more active, less quiet and serene. The choice is yours, but I firmly believe that you should at least investigate the possibility of how a given scene might look vertically. And please don’t suggest to me that you’ll decide the orientation later in Photoshop and that if you want a vertical composition, you’ll just crop the horizontal one. Hearing that is like fingernails on a chalkboard! Why would you crop it later when the scene is right before you? Making a vertical now will allow you to capture a much larger file size than the smaller vertical you’d get by cropping a horizontal file. You’ll know anyway within seconds whether or not the vertical will work. This idea of cropping later in Photoshop? Fuggedaboutit! And you can quote me on that.”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 6D CANON 17–40MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/4 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH POLARIZING FILTER

on a workshop in Iceland’s southern coast, my student Edward raised a “ While simple question about where to place the horizon line in a landscape composition. I asked Edward to go ahead and do what he thought worked best. When he reviewed the first example, shown on this page, top, Edward was convinced that he’d set the horizon in the bottom third of his frame to emphasize the beautiful clouds in the sky. He was somewhat surprised when I pointed out that his horizon line was actually fairly close to the middle. What is the determining factor for placing the horizon line toward the top or the bottom? The answer is a simple question that you can ask yourself each and every time: Is the interest greatest above the horizon line or below it? When the interest is greatest above the horizon line, bring that horizon line down near the bottom third— and in some cases the bottom fifth—of the frame. If the interest is greatest below the horizon line, elevate the horizon line near the top third or top fifth of the frame. In the second example, on this page, bottom, also taken by Edward, he brought the horizon line even lower. Ultimately, this is an image of clouds, with the farmhouse creating a sense of scale. His super-wide-angle lens also allowed him an allencompassing vision, rendering an enormous sky in the composition.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D850 NIKKOR 14–24MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/500 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

speaking, one of the things I’ve learned over the years is that “ Compositionally including the sky in a photograph attracts viewers. Emphasizing the dramatic sky can be a wise choice, but also, more often than not, it needs to be done thoughtfully. As a rule, if the sky is going to show up in your composition, it is absolutely imperative to use it to create an overall sense of balance. And yet I see countless photographs in which a snippet or portion of the sky is included when it really shouldn’t be, creating an unwelcome shift in contrast. Imagine for a moment that you’re in a darkened movie theater, enjoying the film up on the screen, when to your surprise the emergency exit door opens in the front of the theater next to the lower right corner of the screen, letting in the much brighter sunlight. If that door remained open, you would be beyond distracted, irritated not only by the shift in contrast from dark to light but also by the intrusion of the real world beyond whatever is happening on the screen. We can see that idea playing out here with a photograph taken by Ron, a student in my Oregon coast workshop a few years ago. I had photographed the horizontal image of the two dandelions moments before (see this page), and then Ron shot a vertical, shown on this page, incorporating the blue sky. Ron was kind enough to allow me to use his photograph to illustrate why including blue sky does not necessarily work. Try as you might to stay focused on these two dandelions, you just can’t. Your eye zooms right past them—at breakneck speed, no less—to launch into the wild blue yonder of the distant sky. The reason you do this is simply because of the added depth that the blue sky creates. Red is thought to be the most advancing color on the color spectrum (although it’s actually yellow), while blue is considered the most recessive. In other words, the red appears to come toward us as the blue recedes. Plus, in this composition the red is nearer to us; as our eyes travel up the vertical frame into the blue, we’re launched into space. So, yep, you lost me!”

CANON 50D CANON 100MM MACRO LENS F/22 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB

NIKON D300 NIKKOR 24–85MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 100 CLOUDY WB (A NOTE ABOUT THE WHITE BALANCE: THESE TWO IMAGES WERE TAKEN AROUND 2011, WHEN I ADVOCATED USING THE CLOUDY WB SETTING, EVEN ON SUNNY DAYS, TO ADD WARMTH TO AN OVERALL IMAGE. SINCE THEN, DIGITAL SENSORS HAVE BECOME WARMER AND THIS IS NO LONGER NECESSARY, SO NOW I RECOMMEND DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB.)

of the most memorable Holland workshops that I have ever conducted was in “ One the spring of 2016. Over the course of seven days, we experienced an incredible array of weather, from clear skies and temperatures in the 70s to freezing days of hail, snow, and sleet; rain; amazing clouds; and even rainbows—a landscape photographer’s dream week! I am confident that every student left that workshop with a much greater appreciation for the unique photographic opportunities of inclement weather. One morning, while shooting a large field of magenta tulips with a village in the background, we were bombarded with a combination of clear skies and sleet. After the storm passed, we compared our images. One student, Grant, had used a longer focal length than the rest of us and while his photograph (see this page) does show a much closer view of the village, there is absolutely no evidence that the storm was exiting. Compositionally speaking, Grant is to be commended for using the Rule of Thirds, with two-thirds of his composition flowers and one-third sky, placing all the interest on the field of flowers and the village and church at the end of the rows. Yet, when it is compared with Victoria’s image, shown on this page, we see a dramatic shift in mood. Victoria’s picture features the sky in a much larger area of the frame, with the clear blue sky above the billowing clouds making it obvious that something big has just happened. This has everything to do with her choice of what to include in the composition and where to place the horizon line. It’s fair to say that even Grant agreed that the emphasis in this particular landscape should have been on the inclement weather and not a closer view of the flowers, village, and church.”

CANON 60D 70–200MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 100 CLOUDY WB

CANON 5D MARK II 17–40MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/500 SECOND ISO 100 ISO CLOUDY WB

about twelve hours of heavy snowfall in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, the skies “ After began to clear in the late-afternoon light, and my students and I had the opportunity to photograph numerous pristine landscapes as well as simple, graphic compositions of texture and line. Bobbi elatedly shared the first photograph you see on this page, top. I suggested she go back to reshoot it, because she had split the frame in half; a small stream cut across the middle of it, but all of the visual interest remained in the top half. Near the top of the frame is an additional line, which appears to be squeezed in and thus has some difficulty “breathing.” I suggested she return to the same spot and tilt the camera up slightly to drop the middle line toward the bottom third and allow that top-third subject to breathe, thus creating a better balance. Not surprisingly, this is the Rule of Thirds at work. Within a minute, Bobbi returned with the second photograph shown on this page, bottom, emphatically agreeing that this had made a tremendous change. There’s no question that this is a photograph with minimalist content, but its impact comes from a focus on line. With regard to overall exposure when shooting bright-white scenes such as snow, it’s imperative to overexpose by at least 1 stop (if not 2). If this is not done, one can be all but assured of recording not white snow but underexposed gray snow. (For more about exposing white scenes, see this page.)”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–300MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

often use the term “simplify” in my workshops. Students ask me, “How can I “ Imake this a cleaner composition?” And I’ll ask the student to define what it is, exactly, in the overall scene that they wish to emphasize. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: Rather than photographing nouns, focus on creating compositions that emphasize adjectives. More often than not, this means relying on the elements of design—such as line, texture, pattern, shape, form, and color—as well as the proper arrangement of those elements. In this first example on this page, top, taken by my student Evelyn, there’s no question that it contains a great deal of line, color, and shape, and yet its composition remains chaotic and not quite balanced. A combination of tonal shifts prevents the mind from settling on any one thing. Yes, it is a scene of fall color on a foggy morning with a waterfall in the background, but what exactly is the subject? As you start to think about simplifying your overall content, I suggest zeroing in on a singular subject and working it against the overall background. This is what I refer to as limited content. Only then, if you choose to do so, should you begin to add other elements. You may discover that the photograph needs nothing more than the limited content. That was certainly the case here; Evelyn came to the conclusion that by limiting the content to just two elements—a branch of leaves and the waterfall— her composition of line, color, and subtle texture had much more impact (see this page, bottom). Note that with approximately two-thirds of the lower third composed of the incoming branch and the waterfall arguably encompassing a wide middle third of the frame, Evelyn is calling upon the Rule of Thirds here, too.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D5300 NIKKOR 18–55MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/2 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

an India workshop, while shooting portraits on the streets of Varanasi, my “ During student Barbara became very taken with a “wall of texture,” as she described it, and asked makeup artist Kung to pose against it for a simple portrait. After I reviewed Barbara’s first attempt (shown on this page, top), I suggested she go back and shoot it again, and this time to avoid splitting the frame in half with her dead-center placement of Kung and the drainpipe. I also recommended that she get in closer to eliminate the bricks in the lower right, which were creating a contrast shift and drawing the eye away from Kung. Although it took several minutes of working the subject, I could tell by Barbara’s enthusiasm that she’d learned a simple but valuable lesson. As the second photograph shows (see this page, bottom), by moving two steps closer and shifting a bit to the left, Barbara moved the drainpipe and Kung to the right and eliminated the oncedistracting brick texture. Often, only a subtle shift in point of view (including learning to “zoom” with your feet) is all that’s needed to transform a ho-hum photograph into one that leaves viewers singing praises. (Note that unlike the mergers on this page, top, I had no issue with the placement of the drainpipe behind Kung’s head. The drainpipe is attached to the wall that Kung is leaning against, clearly continuing up and out of the frame, making them both supporting actors in the overall compositional arrangement.)”

BOTH IMAGES CANON 5D MARK III CANON 24–105MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

years ago, in Nova Scotia’s Peggy’s Cove, my student Anthony and I “ Several found ourselves photographing some incredibly colorful crab pots. The morning was getting on, and since we’d been up since 5 a.m., the other students had all departed for their respective lodgings. But Anthony and I continued shooting, and on this day it was all about color and crab pots. To me, this was a no-brainer: a classic Rule-of-Thirds shot with two-thirds crab pots and one-third blue sky, but I felt we were missing a sense of tension in the composition. Yes, it’s colorful; yes, it’s filled with pattern; yes, it’s a striking, graphic, colorful image. But in the absence of a white puffy cloud or two, I thought perhaps just a wee bit of movement, such as from a seagull in flight, would prove beneficial. “Anthony, do you have any snacks we can use to attract some seagulls?” I asked. Anthony had no snacks, and neither did I, so it was going to be a waiting game. This was when Anthony split off and decided to get some rest. “I’ll add a seagull later in Photoshop,” he said. I chuckled. “I’m sure you will.” As for myself, I prefer to do it in-camera, and as I had nowhere to go and no one I had to meet, I chose to sit tight and wait for my seagull. About twenty minutes later— seagull success! Unlike what Anthony shot (see this page), the seagull in mine (see this page) brings welcome tension to an otherwise somewhat stale, albeit colorful and graphic, composition. Who needs Photoshop when you have the time, persistence, and a desire to get it done in-camera?”

CANON 5D MARK II CANON 24–105MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/250 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/500 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

you photograph group portraits, your greatest challenges will be to make “ When sure that everyone is looking at the camera, that there are no unsightly mergers of hands and arms and possibly legs crossing over one another, and that the facial expressions are somewhat consistent, with everybody either smiling or somber (or if you have full control over their expressions, you may choose instead to have everyone look sad with one person grinning for contrast). But there’s something else that needs your attention, and it’s the very same thing when photographing a singular subject: the background. Just as with an employer interviewing a potential new hire, a background check is incredibly important to ferret out potential skeletons in the closet. In photographic terms, we’re looking for anything that will distract the viewer. As you look at Edward’s first photograph on this page, top, see if you notice what Edward did not. Yes, I’m referring to the row of white dots visible above the young boys. Edward was quick to say, “Oh, I’ll just clone those out in Photoshop.” But why not solve the problem right then and there in-camera? I suggested that Edward get down a bit lower, literally just a few inches, to change his point of view and hide those white dots (see this page, bottom). Sure enough, Edward discovered that it’s possible to eliminate distracting backgrounds in-camera. Imagine that! Long before Photoshop, photographers had no choice but to work the subject in a way that resulted in a clean composition. Today, our reliance on Photoshop to correct the simplest of mistakes is far too great. Relying less on Photoshop is a mark of photographic maturity, not to mention a real time-saver. To be clear, I’m suggesting that you do all you can—as much as possible—in-camera and then, by all means, consider Photoshop. It’s a fantastic tool that can expand your creative vision in so many ways. But it is never my recommendation to use Photoshop to replace the vision and responsibility to create a compelling composition in-camera.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D810 NIKKOR 28–300MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

can be an absolute enemy in its ability to call attention away from your “ Contrast intended subject, but it can also be an invaluable aid in creating a compelling composition. In Mandalay, Myanmar, my students and I had the opportunity to photograph our guide’s daughter outside of a temple among a number of colored umbrellas displayed on the ground for sale. She proceeded to go into the rows of umbrellas and take a seat near the back. This allowed us to create frame-filling compositions of amazing pattern and color, and because she does not fit the overall pattern of umbrellas, she’s like the soloist in a choir, backed up by the pleasant humming of the other singers. Compare the first photograph (this page), taken by Jillian, to the other image (this page), taken by Jerry. Is it obvious what the problem is with Jillian’s composition? When I asked why she’d included all of the non-umbrella content behind our model, she said, “Yeah, I realized that after the fact, but it’s not a problem—I’ll just crop it later.” As you might guess, Jillian got an earful. We were there now, so why not just get the shot? Jillian did, in fact, get it.”

SONY ALPHA a7 II SONY 24–240MM LENS f/16 FOR 1/160 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/100 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

a workshop in Dublin, Ireland, we came upon several impressive “ During alleyways of graffiti. One of the students was a youthful part-time model, full of gymnastic energy, and over the course of twenty minutes, Maya did a series of jumps against the colorful walls. I wanted to share these two examples to call attention to a phenomenon that I don’t think I’ve addressed in any of my other books: If letters or words appear in your composition, the viewer’s eye and brain will immediately make them the primary focus of the photograph. Obviously, if the photograph is about the words or letters, I’m all for it, but when the composition has nothing to do with them, brace yourself. Your viewer will do nothing but fixate on that word or partial sentence and read it over and over. Try as we might to focus on Maya jumping in Patricia’s first photograph (this page, top), we’re unable to ignore the message “Art is what you can get away with.” Compare this with Patricia’s next photograph, on this page, bottom, taken against another wall of graffiti, just around the corner, with no words, and it becomes very apparent what a distraction they can be. If the words are not intended to be part of your overall composition, do not include them. They will keep your composition from becoming as compelling as it might otherwise be.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/1000 SECOND ISO 800 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

The Use of Filters

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/30 SECOND DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH A TRIPOD AND A POLARIZING FILTER

POLARIZING FILTERS I’m often asked what my thoughts are regarding the use of filters. Today’s photographers are more inclined to apply filter effects in postprocessing, but I am, of course, one who prefers to do as much as possible in-camera, and that includes filters. Countless filters are available on the market: colored filters, neutral-density (ND) filters, graduated filters, close-up filters, and of course protective filters such as UV and skylight filters. Yet, when it all comes down to it, I’m a fan of primarily just three of them: the polarizing filter, the FLW magenta filter, and the graduated neutraldensity (GND) filter. Let’s look at examples of when and how to use each one, starting with polarizing filters. Polarizing filters are incredibly valuable, but they’re still misunderstood by photographers worldwide. It’s not enough to simply thread the filter onto any given lens and expect it to polarize light. Rather, you have to turn the outer ring of the polarizing filter while looking through your viewfinder to see what effect it is having on your image. These filters are also effective only in the following conditions: On sunny days, the sun must be at a 90-degree angle to your subject. If you’re shooting toward the horizon at midday with the sun directly overhead, your polarizing filter will be able to reduce atmospheric haze almost without fail. But when the sun is at a low angle to the horizon, a polarizing filter will cut through haze only if you’re shooting a sidelit scene facing north or south, since those are the only situations in which a low-angled sun will be at a 90-degree angle to you. On a rainy day, particularly in a forest, when everything is wet and all of that wet is, in fact, recording a gray glare from the sky overhead. Your polarizing filter will reduce and may even completely eliminate all of that glare for a far crisper, more vivid image. the hilltops that surround Guanajuato, Mexico, the views to the city below “ From are some of the most magnificent in the world—perhaps second only to the hilltop view of Hong Kong. However, because the city sits in a valley surrounded by mountains, it does create an exposure challenge as one approaches the blue hour, with the lights in colorful Guanajuato requiring a much longer exposure than the brighter sky. Unlike a GND filter, which is colorless (neutral), there are also colored graduated density filters; I have a blue one that I call upon at times like this. It adds no extra

weight or space to my bag. Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that it rarely gets used, but if I can do it in-camera, I go for it. As you can see in the first example on this page taken by my student Roberta, the grayish sky is almost distracting because it calls attention away from an otherwise very colorful city. In fact, it wouldn’t have surprised me if Roberta simply recomposed the scene to leave out the sky or cropped the image later in postprocessing. When I made her aware of this particular filter and lent it to her, she was elated. And when you look at the difference it made in her next photograph, this page, you can understand why.”

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/2 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/2 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

EXERCISE Experience the Effects of Your Polarizing Filter The next time you find yourself with blue skies and white puffy clouds, put a polarizing filter on your lens and head outside about two to three hours after sunrise or two to three hours before sunset. Point your camera toward the north or south and, as you turn the outer ring of the filter, notice how crisp and defined the white puffy clouds become, as well as how much the blue of the sky deepens. That is the effect of the polarizing filter. As far as setting your camera’s exposure, do not do anything differently. Meter the scene before you as usual, but notice that your light meter is now suggesting a different shutter speed than before. This is because the filter has effectively reduced the light coming into the lens, almost as if the lens were wearing sunglasses; the light meter is reacting accordingly. Kalispell, Montana, I came upon this lone home surrounded by a “ Near sea of yellow rapeseed, a plant grown for the production of vegetable oil, and with a beautiful late-afternoon sky of white clouds and patches of blue overhead. What a remarkable difference between the polarized image on this page and the nonpolarized image on this page, especially if you look at the sky. The reason the exposure is different in the two images is because without the polarizer on the lens, the overall brightness of the image has not been diminished—which is the case once the polarizer is put on the front of the lens.”

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS AT 24MM F/11 FOR 1/80 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS AT 24MM F/11 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

first example shown on this page, taken in my Norway workshop by “ The a student named Ben, was made without the use of a polarizing filter. Both the exposure and the composition are more than satisfactory, but what’s missing is overall contrast and color. When I asked Ben why he wasn’t using his polarizing filter, he said very simply and honestly that he didn’t know how or when to use it. Once Ben placed the filter on his lens, I told him to rotate the outer ring while looking at the blue sky through his viewfinder. As he did, he saw the sky go from a light blue to a darker, more vivid blue. Once you see that vivid blue, you have reached maximum polarization. I also made it clear that the only reason we were calling upon a polarizing filter for this given scene was because it was sidelit. As a general rule of thumb, when the sun is hitting one side of your face but not the other, you’re looking at a sidelit scene. And it is only sidelit scenes that benefit 100 percent from polarizing filters. As you can see in Ben’s second photograph of the same scene on this page, shot with a polarizing filter rotated for maximum color and contrast, the difference is clear.”

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 70–300MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/30 SECOND DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH A TRIPOD AND A POLARIZING FILTER

point of misunderstanding with the polarizing filter is that it should be “ Areserved exclusively for clear, sunny days when you’re looking at a sidelit scene. But rainy days can also benefit from its use as well. My student Jennifer and I were having a fantastic time photographing the Upper North Falls at Oregon’s Silver Falls State Park when she photographed the first picture you see on this page, taken without a polarizing filter. When I suggested that she use one, she asked why, since it was raining. I explained that the primary purpose of a polarizing filter is to reduce reflective glare. On sunny days, a polarizing filter reduces the glare from air pollutants reflecting off nonmetallic surfaces. But on rainy days, glare comes not so much from pollutants in the air but from the gray sky reflecting off of shiny, wet surfaces. By using a polarizing filter and rotating the outer ring, you can remove this dull gray glare. Jennifer’s next example (see this page), shot with a filter, has more depth; we now see that the fall leaves in the stream are more vivid. Why not just keep a polarizing filter on your lens all the time? Because many, many scenes are backlit, and all your polarizer will do in that case is force slower shutter speeds, since light needs to pass through the density of the filter. A slower shutter speed might not be what you want—it might require you to open your aperture (thus impacting your depth of field) or to increase your ISO. So, to be clear, you need to carry your polarizing filter with you at all times, but use it only for sidelit scenes on sunny days and on rainy days with highly reflective, wet surfaces.”

NIKON D750 NIKKOR 17–35MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/4 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB

NIKON D750 NIKKOR 17–35MM LENS F/11 FOR 1 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB WITH POLARIZING FILTER

FLW MAGENTA FILTERS My second favorite filter is the magenta-colored filter, referred to photographically as the FLW filter. This is not to be confused with the more commonly available FLD filter. Both of these are magenta, but the FLW is more vivid and denser in terms of the overall cast it imparts to a scene, particularly at sunrise, sunset, and during the blue hour. The FLW gives normally greenish city lights a warmer cast, and it’s perfect to use when there isn’t a strong dusky-blue sky. Whether you use this filter out in nature or when shooting city skylines, it will impart a welcome tone and a hue of magenta that’s often associated with the start of a new day or the close of a day well-spent. of my favorite cities in all the world to photograph is, perhaps not “ One surprisingly, New York City. Views of New York’s incredible skyline can be seen from various neighborhoods, such as Queens and Hoboken, New Jersey, but perhaps the most popular are visible from the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Over the years, I’ve taken countless students to Brooklyn Bridge Park to shoot the New York skyline during the blue hour. The first photograph shown on this page was taken by my student Jack, who was clearly excited to be in New York. It had been his dream to spend several days photographing the Big Apple, as he called it, and his elation was a joy to witness. I had already polled the students about which of them had an FLW filter, which is on my workshop’s recommended equipment list. Jack was quick to volunteer that he hadn’t been able to find the filter at his local camera shop in Iowa. I wasn’t surprised; it can be hard to find at local camera stores but is readily available at major retailers such as B&H Photo, Adorama, and Amazon. Several exposures later, Jack took notice of a few of the other students’ work, particularly those who were using FLW filters, and his mood immediately plummeted. He was like a balloon that had been soaring higher and higher only to get shot out of the sky. I was quick to let Jack borrow my FLW filter and put it on his lens—and just like that, his mood filled again with helium and headed upward. The second image, this page, is also Jack’s, this time with the filter. Obviously, the FLW filter is a personal choice, but be warned—everyone I’ve instructed who has had an opportunity to try the FLW filter refuses to stop using it, particularly at sunrise, sunset, and during the blue hour.”

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 24–105MM LENS F/11 FOR 4 SECONDS ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

CANON 5D MARK III CANON 24–105MM LENS F/11 FOR 10 SECONDS ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH FLW MAGENTA FILTER

GRADUATED NEUTRAL-DENSITY FILTERS My third must-have filter is the graduated neutral-density (GND) filter, which saves you from having to make corrections in postprocessing. In what areas does it do this, you may ask? We’ve all been confronted with landscape scenes in which the content below the horizon requires a different exposure than for the sky above. I’m referring to those times when the sky is brighter than the landscape. More often than not, that difference is around 3 stops and, not surprisingly, the most popular GND filter is the 3-stop grad. By holding the 3-stop GND filter in front of your lens, you can position it in such a way that the area of density covers the brighter sky. You then manually set an exposure for the darker landscape, and when you press the shutter and view the results, you’ll see that the sky has been neutralized, so to speak, its exposure aligned with that of the landscape. In effect, the filter has reduced the brightness of the sky by 3 stops. Yes, I’m aware that Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw both offer GND filters, but as I’ve mentioned, using a filter on location can save you extra time in postprocessing. And if I can save myself even a minute in postprocessing, it is one more minute that I have for something else, especially since chances are good that there will be not just one but a handful of images that will require this correction. a workshop in Thimphu, Bhutan, my students and I were photographing “ During the beautiful city on a day of inclement weather. After my student Mark shot the first photograph shown on this page, I asked him, why not use a GND filter to deepen the sky and bring it more in alignment with the town below? Rather than needing to make adjustments later in postprocessing, the filter would mean that once I pressed the shutter, I’d be done. Mark was hard-pressed to give me an answer. I offered to put my LEE 3-stop, hard-edged GND filter on his lens, and the results are clear in Mark’s second photograph, this page.”

SONY ALPHA a7 III SONY 24–240MM LENS F/14 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 320 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

SONY ALPHA a7 III SONY 24–240MM LENS F/14 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 320 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB WITH LEE GND FILTER

Photoshop

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 14–24MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/4 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

Fifteen years have passed since I experienced the first of many stressful encounters with the tools that the early Photoshop offered. I had already spent considerable time arguing against the need for any Photoshop, and yet beneath the surface, this argument was simply an attempt to mask my mounting insecurities that photography as I’d come to know it was rapidly changing. In 2005, most of us film shooters knew nothing about the mechanics of Photoshop, but we were realizing that it was necessary to have a basic knowledge of its intended purpose. After becoming aware of a few of its powerful tools, I came to the realization that, if one was not careful, Photoshop could easily seduce, consume, and even hijack the organic process of image-making—including that immensely satisfying feeling, after a day of patiently waiting in the rain, of watching the clouds part to reveal an intensely colorful sunset. Instead, why not just stay at home and replace that bland sky with a sunset from a different composition? Gone would be the need to plan for a full moon, since again you could easily drop a moon into any landscape or cityscape. Much has changed since 2005, not the least being my overreaction to Photoshop. Granted, there is now considerable argument about who is actually a photographer. Some say that “everyone is a photographer” while others say that only if you understand “M, f/11, 1/1250 sec., 400 ISO” can you call yourself one. The fact is that all of us who are using DSLRs must use postprocessing software to some degree, if only to “develop” the images we shoot. And in that process, we might find ourselves fine-tuning the overall exposure, adjusting brightness or contrast, elevating texture or softening skin, and removing blemishes or those pesky dust specks that always end up on our sensors no matter how careful we are while changing a lens. Beyond this, there always exists the opportunity to swap out a sky, add a moon, remove the ex from last year’s Christmas gathering, put a flock of birds in the blue sky among the white puffy clouds, change the color of someone’s eyes or a piece of clothing, and on and on it goes. can make a number of small, quick changes not only with Photoshop but also “ You with two other Adobe programs: Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw (also known as Bridge). Changes such as adding highlights, converting to black and white, and fine-tuning texture and clarity can take only seconds but make a big difference, especially when processing images of people. In this image (this page, top) of Maja, taken in a narrow alleyway in Venice, Italy, I made a few swift changes with the Texture and Clarity sliders in Adobe Camera Raw to add highlights. Although these changes are subtle, they create a different level of impact, see this page, bottom.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/5.6 FOR 1/400 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

upon this gentleman outside of the city of Mandalay, Myanmar. Following “ Ia came short discussion about his occupation (he was the village “chief,” aka mayor), I photographed him while he enjoyed his cornhusk cigar (this page). It was not until several months later that I used Texture and Clarity tools in Photoshop, resulting in a much more hardened look and a more dramatic portrait (see this page).”

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24-120MM F/8 FOR 1/200 SECOND 100 ISO DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

should come as no surprise that one of the first things I learned to do in “ ItPhotoshop was navigate the Selective Color tool. Back then, this tool was billed as the only one that could render the vivid color that film shooters like myself had grown accustomed to in color slide film such as Fujichrome Velvia and Kodachrome 25 and 64. And although my postprocessing workflow is quite minimal, I continue to use the Selective Color tool on 98 percent of all of the images I shoot digitally. Surprisingly, despite so many other Photoshop advances, the Selective Color tool is the same today as it was back in 2005. It is readily obvious that the only difference between these two images is the vividness of the colors. Note that “vivid” is not the same as “saturation.” When a color is made more vivid, it has a subtle elegance, a deeper richness. When a color has been saturated, it looks wet, messy, and even glowing; the saturation effect often runs from one color to the other. The result is an image that no longer looks believable. As a nondestructive color tool, Selective Color is a much better alternative. The first image on this page, top, is straight out of the camera. Despite all of the advances that have been made with DSLRs, they still can’t capture color quite like color slide film could. So I call upon Selective Color, and voilà, as the second image on this page, bottom, shows, the days of Fujichrome and Kodachrome are at your beck and call.”

BOTH IMAGES NIKON D500 NIKKOR 18–300MM LENS F/29 FOR 1/40 SECOND ISO 200 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

I believe Photoshop should serve a single purpose: to expand my vision, not replace it. I strive to create all of my images in-camera, short of whatever fine-tuning goes on postprocessing. I also find myself on a constant quest to create images that are possible only with the aid of Photoshop. Just because it is outside the realm of incamera possibility does not mean it can’t be created. It is important to add that I’m a fervent believer in being transparent about images that are “successful” because of Photoshop. I take pride in my ability to use it, and I don’t feel the need to keep secrets about it. I continue to be surprised at the number of photographers who do feel that regardless of how much altering is done to a photograph, in the end it does not matter. In a recent lecture to more than seven hundred photographers, I asked, “Is it important to say that an image has been substantially altered?” To my amazement, 73 percent of the audience said it was “nobody’s business.” I’m troubled by this; it suggests that we have actually entered an age of untruth. Of course, on some level, every photograph is a lie. I have been saying that for years. What I’m referring to is that in the simple act of composing, I have hopefully eliminated any subjects, animate or inanimate, that distract from what I deem to be beautiful—the subject in my overall composition. I can also manipulate the exposure, add a colored filter, or change my point of view or lens choice to further “distort” the truth—all in the name of moving or arousing the viewer, of striking a nerve inside you. That is the photography I grew up with. As far back as I can remember, I have documented what is arguably the “truth” while also showing others what is possible with a camera and lens. In this short chapter, let’s take a look at a few of my favorite Photoshop techniques. Step-by-step Photoshop tutorials are beyond the scope of this book, but detailed video tutorials are available at youkeepshooting.com/photoschool (password: WATCHNOW). Take pride in your creative ideas and, when necessary, call upon Photoshop to bring otherwise impossible ideas to life! I love wide-open spaces, and years ago I found myself in “cowboy country” near Burns, Oregon, shooting three cowboys riding across the arid plain, kicking up dust against a bright, dusky-blue eastern sky. The moon would not arrive until later that evening, so I hung around until moonrise. I used Photoshop to combine the two images on this page and this page into the single composite image on this page.”

“

NIKON D300S NIKKOR 70–300MM LENS F/8 FOR 1/125 SECOND ISO 100 CLOUDY WB

NIKON D300S NIKKOR 70–300MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/400 SECOND ISO 200 CLOUDY WB

this tight close-up of a thrity-seven-year-old peanut farmer outside “ Iofphotographed Bagan, Myanmar, a few years ago. It was not until almost two years later that I was struck with the idea of converting it into a black-and-white image—not an easy decision, since I’m clearly a color photographer, but the black-and-white image is far more emotionally charged. Don’t be surprised if a number of lackluster color images get this extra boost once they’re converted to black and white.”

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/4 FOR 1/800 SECOND ISO 400 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

an afternoon shooting the model Natasha outside under a bright “ Following overcast sky, between a white shower curtain and a clear shower curtain covered in baby powder, I felt good about what we’d done. It was not until a year later that I came upon the whitewashed window of a retail establishment in New York City and did nothing more than shoot various frame-filling compositions of the white swirls. As with other composites I have done, the idea of using these white swirls with the earlier shot of Natasha never occurred to me until much later, when I was going through some files and came upon the images of Natasha.”

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 640 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D850 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/11 FOR 1/60 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

course, it is possible to devise images of fantasy with Photoshop, and although “ Of I don’t do it with any regularity, I did create this image of goldfish caught in a small chunk of ice on Jökulsárlón (also referred to as Diamond Beach) on Iceland’s south coast. (Or did I finally solve the mystery of where dead pet goldfish go after we flush them down the toilet? Perhaps they’re caught in ocean currents that always flow north, making this a repository for goldfish cryonics.) To capture a shot like this, you need a super-wide-angle lens, such as a 14–24mm, a tripod, a massive depth of field (f/22), and a low ISO (100, but 50 would be better). When combined with f/22, the low ISO will force the slowest possible shutter speed, allowing you to showcase the rush of the incoming wave. Oh, and one more thing: You need a moderately healthy imagination and a basic understanding of how to copy and paste a layer mask in Photoshop, which is how I created this 100-percent fictitious story. (I know—too much time on my hands!)”

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 14–24MM LENS F/22 FOR 1/4 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB

NIKON D810 NIKKOR 24–120MM LENS F/16 FOR 1/200 SECOND ISO 100 DAYLIGHT/SUNNY WB (THE GOLDFISH—TWO OF MY FORMER PETS THAT PASSED AWAY FROM ICK DISEASE— WERE PLACED ON A WHITE PLEXIGLASS IN MY STUDIO AND LIT FROM ABOVE AND BELOW WITH TWO STROBES TO CREATE EVEN ILLUMINATION.)

Dedication This book is dedicated to all of my students, who have collectively taught me so much about the art of photography over these past forty years. I would not be anywhere near as enlightened as I am today without your constant push for answers about the camera and various software programs, and without witnessing your struggles as well as your triumphs. I definitely “get” you! I am, once again, deeply indebted to my “lifelong” editor, Julie Mazur Tribe, who definitely, more than anyone else, “gets” me, and also a big thanks to Kelly Snowden and Emma Rudolph at Ten Speed Press, who continue to believe that my voice is still valuable in an increasingly loud and often confusing environment of photography education. I appreciate all of them more than words will ever convey.

About the Author Bryan Peterson is a professional photographer, internationally known instructor, and founder of two extremely popular photography instruction websites, The Bryan Peterson School of Photography at BPSOP.com and You Keep Shooting at youkeepshooting.com. He is also the bestselling author of Understanding Exposure, Learning to See Creatively, Understanding Color, Exposure Solutions, Understanding Shutter Speed, Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Composition, and Bryan Peterson’s Understanding Photography Field Guide. It was Bryan who introduced the Photographic Triangle, an exposure teaching tool that has helped millions understand and implement not just a correct exposure but also the most “creative exposure.” His trademark use of color and strong graphic compositions have garnered him many photographic awards, including the New York Art Director Club’s Gold Award and honors from Communication Arts Photography Annual and Print magazine.

Index A abstract compositions, 4.1, 4.2 Adobe Camera Raw Adobe Lightroom Adobe Photoshop camera vs., 1.1, 5.1, 5.2, 7.1 composite images with Selective Color tool Texture and Clarity tools uses for vision and, 5.1, 7.1 aperture choosing depth of field and flash and f-stops selective focus and, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 singular-theme, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1 starburst effect and storytelling, intro_2.1, 1.1, 2.1, 3.1 “Who cares?, ” 2, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 3.1, 3.2 Aperture Priority Mode, 1.1, 1.2 Auto White Balance, 1.1, 3.1, 5.1

B backgrounds black, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 5.1 distracting, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 out-of-focus, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 backlight, 1.1, 5.1 “Brother Blue Sky” meter reading brushstroke of color, 1.1, 1.2

C close-ups colored graduated density filters composition camera height and contrast and cropping and, 5.1, 5.2

distracting backgrounds and, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 filling the frame, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 flowers and framing with a frame, 3.1, 5.1 horizon line and horizontal vs. vertical importance of mergers and, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 Rule of Thirds, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5 simplifying sky and, 5.1, 5.2 staging and, 5.1, 5.2 words and

D dark subjects, 1.1, 1.2 depth of field, 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 7.1 double exposures, 4.1, 4.2 dynamic range, 1.1, 1.2, 5.1

E editing exposures challenging correct, intro_2.1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 double, 4.1, 4.2 learning about meaning of multiple See also long exposures

F filters colored graduated density FLW magenta GND (graduated neutral-density) polarizing types of flash flowers FLW magenta filters focal length focus

selective, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 in storytelling compositions foregrounds out-of-focus, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 wide-angle lenses and, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 f-stops full stop

G glare, reducing GND (graduated neutral-density) filters group portraits

H horizon line

I intention, importance of ISO

J JPEG format

L LEDs, 3.1, 3.2 lenses choosing right focal length of vision and, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 wide-angle, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 lens flare light meters long exposures Monet effect and twisting and turning camera during zooming with Lume Cube, 3.1, 3.2

M magenta filters mergers, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5

Monet effect motion, photographing, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6 multiple-exposure images

N night sky, 1.1, 2.1

O overexposure, 1.1, 1.2

P panning photographic triangle. See also aperture; ISO; shutter speed Photoshop. See Adobe Photoshop polarizing filters portraits backlight and with black backgrounds cropping and double exposures and group lighting and, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 mergers in, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 Photoshop and as picture in a picture possibilities for of strangers, 4.1, 5.1 wind and

R RAW format Rule of Thirds, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5

S selective focus, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 shadow, mix of light and shutter speed choosing, 1.1, 1.2 ISO and meaning of motion and, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5

wind and See also long exposures singular-theme apertures, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1 smartphones freezing action with as manual cameras shooting challenging exposures with snow scenes, 1.1, 1.2, 5.1 starburst effect storytelling apertures, intro_2.1, 1.1, 2.1, 3.1

T teleconverters TTL Mode, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

U underexposure, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 3.2, 5.1, 5.2

V vision expanding lenses and, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Photoshop and, 5.1, 7.1

W White Balance, 1.1, 3.1, 5.1, 5.2 white subjects, 1.1, 1.2, 5.1 “Who cares?” aperture, intro_2.1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 3.1, 3.2 wide-angle lenses, 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 wind

Z zooming with long exposures

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