Focus On Lighting Photos Focus on the Fundamentals.pdf

it is silly to spend hours to perfect
lighting we could correct in a few
minutes with digital tools.
The image we capture is seldom
the final product. Should
the image be cropped to make
it more dynamic? Does it need
color correction? Do portions
need to be dodged (lightened)
or burned (darkened) to draw
the viewer’s eye to a spot or
away from it? Should we blur
the image a bit or sharpen a
portion?
<strong>On</strong>ce, post was essential to all
photography. We had to process
the film. We had to make a
print. While we were at it, why
not make some improvements
along the way. Now, with the
right equipment, we can send our
pictures directly from the camera
to the printer, with no darkroom,
no real computer, no adjustment.
In other words, no post. That’s
one of the biggest problems with
novice photography today, but
it’s also one of the easiest problems
to fix. Not everyone wants to
invest in the most powerful computer
or the latest version of <strong>Photos</strong>hop,
nor should they. (Serious
professionals should, however.)
Still, most of us have computers
now, and there is cheap or public
domain image editing software
that, at a minimum, all photographers
need to use in order to
improve their lighting.
In the days of film and before
software got involved, we would
do much of this processing in
the darkroom and then some
additional work by hand, either
retouching with brush and
photographic dyes or airbrushing.
Today, most of us—even
when shooting film, which we
then scan—make these changes
using software. Adobe <strong>Photos</strong>hop
is probably the best known, but
there are others out there as well.
We can now take a photograph
and make it look as if it was
done in oils or watercolor. We
have a wide range of papers with
different textures. We can selectively
blur portions of a portrait,
while keeping the eyes and
mouth sharp.
Ansel Adams not only shot
images over and over again
in the same spot seeking the
perfect light and angle, but he
also printed the negatives over
and over again over the course
of many years, making different
decisions as how to best bring
out his vision of the scene. As we
age, we “see” things differently
(hopefully as a result of growing
knowledge). Life experience influences
our decisions. We need to
fight getting stuck in a rut. Using
the software available today is
incredibly fun and helpful, and as
a result it not only helps us create
better images but also keeps our
eye fresh.
The hardest part of using the
software is knowing when to stop.
If we simply use the computer to
do the same things we used to do
in the darkroom, fine. If we come
up with a whole new image that
never could have been done with
any previous techniques, better.
If we use standard digital filters
to make a photograph look like,
say, an impressionist painting,
stop right now. Either get back to
photography or go learn impressionist
painting.
High dynamic range
imaging
The best way to deal with a scene
that has both extremely bright
and extremely dark areas is to
light it so that everything falls
into the limited dynamic range
of the camera. Still, sometimes
we simply can’t do that. We can’t
light a mountain above a valley.
We may not even be able to light
The Future Is Now? 177