Joe Baraban’s Digital Photography Blog

Worked like a charm

I would say that the most common phrase for getting over the hump is that past the midpoint of the week, Wednesdays, are considered the Hump; as in halfway to the weekend.

I don’t know about you, but to me, there’s a lot of other kinds of humps one has to get over in life. For example, that first piece of sushi that actually has fish in it. Your first attempt at riding a bicycle, or the first time you try to parallel park.

Ok, now getting over the hump in photography. In both my online classes with the BPSOP and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the planet, I often talk to my students about getting over the hump. This means different things to different people. For example, one student keeps forgetting to straighten the horizon (the epitome of distraction), while another might not understand the concept of balancing the Negative and Positive Space until he does it for the first time; figuring out that it makes his photos stronger. All photographers have some sort of hump to transcend.

I will tell you this, all my students forget to incorporate my “fifteen Point Protection Plan”, checking the four corners, and the Border Patrol until they use it for the first time and understands how important it is. Btw, that doesn’t mean they won’t forget it the next time…because more than likely they will!!

One of my all-time favorite expressions is, ” I don’t photograph what I see because I never see what I want, so I photograph what I’d like to see. If I’m composing a photo, and I need to change something or ask someone (usually a stranger) to move over a step so a pole isn’t growing out of their head, I have no problem asking…not if it will make for a better photograph.

If I had to list one hump that the majority of my students have a very hard time getting over, it’s approaching a stranger to ask them something that would improve their photo; or to even take their picture.

Another one that might rival it is using a tripod. What I often see is someone carrying the tripod in one hand and the camera in the other. It’s a pain to stop, put the tripod in place, take the camera and attach it, compose your shot and then take the camera off the tripod, put it back in your hand and the camera over your shoulder or in your hand.

No wonder people don’t take a tripod when they need to, and when it comes to being freaked out because everyone is watching you, it’s still another hurdle to get over.

When I use a tripod, it’s usually during the Blue Hour, sunrise and sunset, when you’re shooting with a slow shutter speed. I keep the camera on the tripod and then put it over my shoulder. It becomes one piece of equipment and thus much easier and faster to use.

I guess I’ve been doing it for so long it has become second nature to me. I figure that all they can say is no. The key is to not walk up to someone with the camera in your hand, which is sure to intimidate…especially nowadays when everyone’s personal space is up for grabs.

In the above photo, I was walking inside this tent at a festival and saw these two people right outside it. I was an interesting shot, filled with visual interest., The guy was moving around for her and for the most part, the lines forming the windows were always going right through his eyes.

I told them what I was trying to do and if he would listen to me directing him so that I could get his head unobstructed in the window..worked like a charm!!

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

What I saw, or what I wanted to see?

One of the most important Pearls of Wisdom I share with my online class with the BPSOP, and with my “Stretching Your Frame Of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet is, “I don’t photograph what I see, I photograph what I’d like to see”.

Don’t get me wrong, I do photograph what I see all the time. I’m perfectly happy to walk around using my Artist Palette which has all the basic elements of visual design on it. I’m able to use the right side of my brain (the creative side) to see what’s all around me.

However, I don’t know about you but for me, it’s not often that I can just come upon a location, situation, or subject where all I have to do is bring the camera up to my eye and click the shutter; and walk away with a great photo.

So not being a patient person, I’m just not going to wait for that to happen. I’m going to make it happen!!! I’m going to take the old proverbial bull by the horns.

I graduated college with a BA in Journalism and a minor in art, and starting back in middle school through high school and ending in my senior year I was very involved in painting and design. In virtually all those years the medium was painting, pencil drawing, watercolor, pastels,  and printmaking; I even stretched my own canvas.

My tools were: brushes, colored pencils, pastel sticks, and an occasional printing press.  I would start out with a blank piece of paper on a drawing table or a canvas on an easel. I added subject matter and a background of some sort until I thought I had a finished “work of art”.

Fifty-three years ago I switched the medium to a camera (it was instant gratification), and I still consider myself a painter/artist. Now, instead of a canvas on an easel, I have a camera on a tripod. I’m still painting, and that’s where the “photographing what I’d like to see” comes in.

Now, I know that there are photographers out there that would never alter anything in a scene/location they come upon because they call themselves purists; they always photograph what they see.

Well, that’s all well and good, but what happens if they never come across anything they like? Do they just settle for whatever is there? To me, reality is not like Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory where everything you see looks great and good enough to eat…not so far it isn’t.

Since I usually don’t see what I want, for me photography is about making pictures not taking them; if I were ever to have a creed/motto I would print on a t-shirt, that would be it.

I add, subtract, or just move things around within my frame for a variety of reasons, and whatever I do comes from using the elements of design that appear on my ‘Artist Palette’.

I’m also cognizant of the six principles of Gestalt and how to use them to create stronger more memorable photographs. I’ve written about them in an article for Adorama (Here’s the link: http://www.adorama.com/alc/0013706/article/6-Principles-of-Gestalt-Psychology-That-Can-Improve-Your-Photography ).

For example, I use negative space to define the positive space and I usually strive for a balance between them. Sometimes that means moving an object to the right or left. I’ll get up close and personal so I can anchor the subject in the foreground using Perspective to create layers of interest.

I’ll generate Visual Tension by placing or moving the subject close to the edge of the frame, or any of the other methods to create Tension that I teach. I’ll wet things down to create reflections. Line, Shape, Texture, Pattern, and Form are always at the back of my mind. I’m also a big believer in creating directional lines or Vanishing Points to lead the viewer through my frame.

Sometimes I travel with colorful props in the event I need something to communicate an idea or to provide more visual interest to my photo; or I’ll just move something colorful into my frame. Since I’m always saying that “Light is everything”, I’ll move things around alter the direction of the existing light to create a mood or add depth.

I know that a lot of photographers either don’t think about moving something (after asking permission, if need be), or they might be afraid to, or perhaps there’s a touch of the “lazy” in them.

These are just a few of the things I’m constantly thinking about when I start composing.

All I can say is to give it a try. Imagine your self a painter and you’re putting the finishing touches on your masterpiece. If it’s a matter of  getting over the hump then just do it!!! You’ll be sooooo glad you did; I promise you won’t go to hell.

Here are a few more completely random examples of making pictures. In each case, I either saw it the way it was or the way I wanted it to be. You decide!!

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Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and watch for my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come make some pictures with me sometime.

JoeB

Humor and color on a gray day

I teach people how to use the elements of visual design and composition to create stronger and more memorable images. Images that people won’t forget in the moments just after looking at your photo. Images that are compelling and will leave impression days, weeks and yes, even months afterward.

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the (round) planet, I stress the fact that “light is everything”, and should be considered first when composing your photo. One of my Personal Pearls of Wisdom is, “You find the light and you’ll find the shot”.

Now I’m not referring to the shooters that like to prowl the city streets looking to capture an emotional photo that has some kind of consequence, a moment in someone’s life or as followers of Henri Cartier-Bresson work would say, “The Decisive Moment”. These are the type of photos that rely more on a quick finger hitting the shutter release and timing than of light. Instead, I’m talking about the type of photographers that likes to create beautiful photographs in any other genre that are timeless representations of reality. To me, these are the type of photos that require great light. Landscapes, Architecture, environmental portraits, to name a few.

OK, here’s where the Quick Photo Tip comes in. As I tell my students and fellow photographers, there is one genre that doesn’t need quality light to be memorable and that’s Humor. Humor is the one concept that can replace a day of flat, gray, and un-inspiring light. Whether it be a funny situation, an awkward expression on a loved one’s face, or perhaps something as simple as a misspelled word on a sign, if it’s funny that’s all you might need.!!!

One more thing I always tell my fellow photographers and is to look to include color on an equally bad day, and when you can achieve both, you just might have something.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me some time and we’ll have a few laughs.

JoeB

Look ma, no Photoshop!

Well, I’m back again with yet another example of what it was like when Adobe was a type of house in the Southwest part of the US. In this Life Before Photoshop post, we’ll look at how we made things look as if they were screaming down the road back before we could just do it on the computer; before there were personal computers.

In my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I want my students and fellow photographers to work on getting as much in the camera as they can…why? Because it will make them a more rounded photographer. One that depends on his or her skill with the camera, their ability to use the right side (the creative side) of their brain. Someone that cares more about “making pictures” than being a good computer artist. For me that’s the fun, to challenge myself every time I go out shooting knowing that I can come back with the illusive “OMG” photo that everyone hopes for each and every time they go out…without any help!!!

Ok, let’s talk about the above photo and how we use to make things appear to be moving fast all on one frame of film; and just one exposure.

If there was a decent budget, I would rent a camera car that had all the bells and whistles, and cranes to position yourself in the front, the side, or the rear of the vehicle you were shooting. If there wasn’t a budget, perhaps because it was for a regional and not a national market, we renting what use to be called “The poor man’s camera car”.

That was a Lincoln Town Car, and it worked like a charm, especially if you were doing a 2/3’s frontal view and the client wanted to have the car coming at you down the road. The best part about the Lincoln was that it had an extremely smooth ride and a unique stabilization system. You could be in the trunk of the car and it would be as smooth as a camera car at five times cheaper. Did I say trunk??? Yes, that’s where my assistant and I shot from.

In the above photo, we had wet down the road, then I got in the trunk. We moved at the exact same speed so I could make the car sharp while blurring the rest of the scene. We didn’t have to go very fast. In fact, in the above photo, we were moving together at approx. 10 to 15 miles per hour. The blur and movement come to play from the slow shutter speed. I would vary that to create different looks, and the shutter speeds ranged from 1/4 of a second to 1/30th; depending on the speed of the two moving cars.

FYI, if you’re wondering why the emblem and the rest of the front of the VW are bright, there is a small convertible to the left of the Town car and in front of the VW. In that convertible are a couple of my assistants holding a large silver reflector bouncing light into it.

It was great fun, and one hell of a challenge!!! Now, the car is shot in a studio on a blue screen, made to look like it was moving and the background is usually put in after the fact. How sad…how very sad.

🙁

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

Tells a story

I often find myself in a situation where I’m standing or looking out at an incredible landscape. The word incredible not just comes with the territory, but because I’m usually shooting at sunrise or sunset when the sun is lower on the horizon, and the light is much softer, warmer, and with longer shadows…your best friend.

Over the years I will also find myself in a situation where I’m able to shoot a landscape for the sheer reason of showing a beautiful vast area; a true landscape.

So, what do I mean by a pure landscape? According to the dictionary, the definition of a landscape is: “All the visible features of an area, or countryside, or land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.”

Further, Wikipedia states that ” Many landscape photographers show little or no human activity in their photos, striving to attain pure, unsullied landscapes that are devoid of human influence, using instead subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light.”

Just a landscape

I don’t always fall under that variety of photographers. My background is in painting and design, with a BA in the field of Journalism; I’m a storyteller. So, while following the purist ways, which is one genre, I’m also looking for a way to editorialize, which is another genre.

By adding a person, my landscape becomes more of a story. The viewer will ask why is that person there, what’s he doing there, etc., and when the viewer discovers my person or object, I’ve included a touch of Gestalt. Simply said, the more things the viewer discovers in our photography, the more he or she will stick around. Isn’t that just what we want him to do?

In the two photos, I took out the man diving so you’ll see a landscape. In the other photo, I left him in so now it’s more editorial. Still a landscape in my opinion, but now there’s a story to it.

Now, I realize that the ‘purist’, the photographer that shoots landscapes for the sake of landscapes, would have a big problem with adding a story to his/her photo, and that’s perfectly OK with me; a true landscape is just that.

Hopefully, there’s room for both images in the scheme of things.

In my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my personal “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet My fellow photographers are always saying that they just couldn’t do anything about that person that shows up in their photo; they’ll just take him/her out later.

What I usually say is that by adding that person or old beat-up car, or sailboat, you’re not hurting the photo…you just might be saving it. It may be what you’ve always thought, but try looking at things a little differently.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot some scale with me.

JoeB

non-human gesture

I talk to my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct throughout the world about the importance of a gesture in your imagery; it’s one of the ways to create Visual Tension.

The actual definition of a gesture is “a movement of a part of the body, especially a hand or the head, to express an idea. It’s an action performed to convey one’s feelings.”

Visual Tension is generated when you stop an action, as in a gesture, and leave it uncompleted. I’m always on the lookout for someone using a gesture either while talking or even pointing. That said, I don’t like to take photos of people pointing unless I have positioned them close to the edge of the frame so they’re pointing out. Tha way the viewer doesn’t know what they’re pointing out.

There is another type of gesture that I also like to talk about and especially in a photograph, and that’s a non-human gesture. Non-human gestures can also portray an emotion or communicate an idea.

A list of non-human gestures would include contrast, a recurrence of objects, color, depth, shadows, light, and the element of surprise. Trees, waves in the ocean, flowers, and even rock formations can portray a sense of Gesture. The one idea that connects these objects and is usually necessary to show them in their reality is the use of elegance or grace.

The use of color or light to create a non-human expression is an unwritten language different than the intentional movement created by man or other living creatures. This demonstration of visual expression can be a complex form of communicating ideas and emotions to the viewer. The use of Light to create a non-human gesture can be more difficult since Light is so fleeting that it can come and go in a blink of the eye. When you can anticipate this moment, or quick enough to react, it can imply a sense of movement that will embody the essence of an object.

When you can combine these non-human gestures, with any of the elements of visual design and composition on my Artist Palette I refer to it’s a great way to find that elusive “OMG” photo we all strive to take.

Here are a few examples of non-human gesture:

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Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I spent my entire career shooting assignments around the planet, and most of the time I had been fortunate enough to have an interpreter with me. Someone from the company I was shooting for would go with us and if I have someone in the photograph, they could explain to the subject exactly what I wanted him to do.

 Occasionally, even with the interpreter explaining to the subject, it could still lose something in the translation. If I only have a few minutes of great light left, it can get a little on the stressful side of normalcy.

So, what did I do when I wanted to set up a photo with a person that didn’t speak English, and I was losing the light?  If I was lucky enough to have a translator, I simply told him to tell the subject to change places with me, and tell them to “do what I do”. Then, I actually would act out what I wanted them to do. It’s a lot easier than you might think.

In my online classes with the BPSOP, I will often tell a photographer to try doing that when he or she is trying to get their subject to do something and there’s a language barrier.

It ‘s easier to explain (by a demonstration) when I’m walking alongside someone in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place.

Just kidding!

So, my fellow photographers, If you don’t have a translator, which is usually going to be the case, give it a try. I will tell you that it will be a whole lot easier if your camera is on a tripod, and you’re shooting either at sunrise or at sunset.

They will get it immediately!!!

Visit my new website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Working with color on a gray day.

One of the recurring questions I get from students in my online class with the BPSOP, and the “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet is how do I shoot in bad light?

Whether it’s hot and bright midday light or on a gray flat day, I approach it virtually the same way. Minimize or don’t show the sky. One exception is when you have a flat location like a landscape where everything is either above or below the horizon line.

You can bring out your graduated Neutral Density filters. The reason why I say that is because if you have the same object that’s both above and below the horizon line, the part of the subject above the line will be as dark as everything else in the composition above that line, but the part below the horizon line won’t. Making the photo look contrived and fake. I’m a firm believer in not letting the viewer know what I’m doing. It has to look real!!! That is if I want to have a good night’s sleep.

If I can’t minimize the sky on a gray day, I want to put something in it or change the way the sky looks. You have to take control of how the viewer is going to perceive the morning. Make sure it won’t matter to him by making an overcast day work for you. In this photo, of the two men standing in the boat, I broke up the foggy, overcast sky into four sections and created an ‘X’ to do it with.

Introduce color to a gray day. Put it “up close and personal” to the lens and hide the gray, or arrange colors as a graphic design tool.

Try incorporating the elements of Visual Design into your composition: Pattern, Shape, Texture, and Line, will make a big difference when you make these elements the subject or one of the subjects.

Take a look at some photos I shot in not so good light:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Several adjustments and a couple of variations later

I’ve been a photographer for fifty-three years and in all those years I can count on my hand the number of times I took just one shot…of anything. The times that I did were when I was street shooting and I had one chance to get it before whatever I was going for had either changed or was gone altogether.

I virtually never take just one shot, it’s always a series of either adjustments or variations. It’s what I ‘Preach’ during my online classes with the BPSOP, or when I’m standing next to someone in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct just about everywhere on Earth.

As I’m shooting, I look all around the frame. I’m doing my Fifteen Point Protection Plan, my Border Patrol, and the Four Corner Checkoff. Each time the shutter opens and closes I’m making adjustments, Shoot adjust, shoot adjust, shoot adjust, etc., etc., etc.

An adjustment can be nothing more than taking a step back to include all of the subject’s hand or foot, the rest of a tree, sign or car. It can also be moving in a step to exclude an unwanted hand or face coming into the frame, getting rid of a sign that has letters missing or some of the letters burned out on a sign; what about a streetlamp that should be on but isn’t?

The digital age has had a profound effect on photography. some good and so many not so good. One good thing that has come about is the ability to shoot a photo and immediately look at the back of your camera to check it out

The reason for adjustments? To achieve what I want in the camera, and not have to rely on a computer to fix the problems I could/should have done prior to clicking the shutter.

A variation is a different animal. The reason for a variation is to increase your chances of going home with one of those elusive ‘wall hangers’, and variations come in all types of reasons.

For example, If you’re into getting the right light, then you’re shooting from different points of view and thinking about my clock. Shoot then moving around to see how your subject looks lit from the side perhaps to bring out the texture, then decide on another variation by placing the sun behind your subject to backlight it.

I’ll occasionally (depending on how much time I have) completely change my position and lens. I’ll add or subtract people or objects, get on my knees or stomach, and anything else that comes to mind at that moment. Btw, at my age, it has to be a really good idea for me to get on my knees or stomach!!

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot some variations with me sometime.

JoeB

Do you often go out shooting on your own for the pure pleasure of creating impressionable photographs for you and others to enjoy? If the answer is not only yes, but hell yes, then “read on McDuff “.

If you go out very early one morning, you see a field of sunflowers and you decide to photograph them. Do you take a photo just because they pretty to see and they make you smile? Of course that alone is a good enough reason, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Let me backtrack and say that among some of the photographers whose work I often look at is a photographer named Minor White. who once said, “One does not photograph something simply for ‘what it is’, but ‘for what else it is.”

Over the years I have thought about that and have used the expression in various forms in my own teachings both in my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all around our (very round) planet.

Suppose you have taken your kids to Sesame Park in Dallas, and you see several yellow umbrellas set up for parents to hide under from the sun. Is it the umbrellas that interest you, or is it because you also see very big yellow triangles creating depth from overlapping each other?

How about the triangles created by the shadows in between the ridges of yellow? Or just the shadows themselves? Or even to go as far as the red, blue, and yellow colors that incidentally are the three primary (pigment) colors; not counting the red, blue, and green colors that make up primary light?

So you’re traveling and stop in a plaza in Sicily for some famous Gelato and you spot a toddler walking away from his bike. Do you try to photograph the kid or the bike? If it were me, I would take a photo of the patterns surrounding the bike that create all those fabulous diamonds and squares; and the shadows of the bike caused by the backlight.

  OK, so getting back to the sunflowers, You see a sunflower, but what else is it? It’s a flower that has petals glowing from the sun directly behind it that creates a pattern of color. It has beautiful texture that just happens to be one of the elements of visual design.

And so my fellow photographers, when you’re out ‘making’ your works of art, remember that the left side of your brain, the analytical side, sees an umbrella, a bike, and a sunflower. The right side of your brain, the creative side, sees everything else.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Break all the rules!

Before reading this post, for all of you that have taken my part I and II classes, the school is bringing back my Gestalt class for a month, starting the first week in May. Here’s the link: https://bpsop.com/courses-1/

Every so often, either during a conversation with one of my online students with the BPSOP or in one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place, I’m told by one of my fellow photographers that they were, in turn, told to not do something while taking pictures. Well, it just happened again, so while it was still fresh in my mind I thought I would share it with you.

But first I’m going to digress a touch and give you the reason for this post. One of my all-time favorite painters was Pablo Picasso. Although I could go on and on about him, he was a painter that constantly re-invented himself. He was always bringing ‘something new to the art scene.

Picasso once said, ” Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

I suppose it’s (maybe) true that we must learn the rules of photography, which to me is a complete waste of time. Rules are a hindrance to our imagination and the shackles keeping us from any creative thought. But, far be it for me to dispute one of the most imaginative and creative painters to ever have lived.

Getting back to the photographer I’m referring to, this person was obsessed with the notion that you always wanted your subject facing into the composition; leaving lots of room for him or it to walk, drive, or fly into. After a time trying to de-program him, especially since his mentor and president of the local camera club told him so, it was an aha moment for me…president of the camera club…that started to make perfect sense.

When he followed it up with always put your subject in the Rule of Thirds, and make sure to check the Histogram before clicking the shutter, I knew I had a photographer that would always ‘color inside the lines’.

Showing him examples of images that broke all the rules just couldn’t pull him away…even though he really liked them he was just past the ‘point of no return’.

A retired civil engineer and a confirmed left-brain thinker, I realized that it was better to just let him be and continue on down the road well-traveled.

Well, you can’t win them all.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Look ma, no Photoshop!

Before reading this post, for all of you that have taken my part I and II classes, the school is bringing back my Gestalt class for a month, starting the first week in May. Here’s the link: https://bpsop.com/courses-1/

In my ongoing quest to enlighten those photographers that started in the digital era, I like to explain to people that there was actually a time when you had to create your image in the camera without any help from Photoshop; mainly because it wasn’t born yet. I know it’s scary to a lot of you because we talk about it in my online class with the bPSOP and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet. The thought of not being able to fix it later in front of a computer is chilling to say the least. YIKES!!!

I’m not opposed to using my Adobe CS5 program, because I tweak all my photos to some degree, but to me, the challenge is taking my visual idea and shooting it in the camera. The digital age has made photographers lazy. Why move a step to the right to take the telephone out of someone’s head when you can just use the Content Aware tool to remove it later? Why concern yourself with learning that 1/60th of a second at F/8 is going to look a stop darker than 1/60th of a second at F/5.6. there’s Lightroom to take care of that mistake.

To me, shooting on manual will make you a better photographer than setting your camera to one of many program modes. It’s a good way to learn exposure and shutter speed combinations.

In the top photo of the Saturn, everything was done in the camera. The color silver was chosen so it would reflect the ambient light of the sunset evenly without adding any additional light. My instruction to the location scout was to find a diner where the sun would set or rise directly behind it. Using my Sunpath software and my Morin 2000 hand bearing compass, I was able to know ahead of time if this location would work. Shooting close to Hollywood was always nice because I had access to any props I could conjure up in my imagination. It certainly helped here since the diner was abandoned; we added all the neon and interior lights.

The pavement looked terrible so I had a water truck come in and do what’s called a wet down. This makes the driveway not on;y hide the cracks and discoloration, but being wet, it reflected the lights from the diner.

By the way, the man sitting out in front was the agency’s Art Director. I put him there to add an editorial feel.

So, there you have it. A little pre-visualization and pre-production can achieve the same results as sitting in front of a computer for hours to create this photograph. I can assure you that you don’t have to have a big budget to be able to create in the camera. It comes down to whether being a well-rounded photographer that takes the time to challenge himself is more important that being a good digital technician. Why not have the best of both worlds?

Here’s the diner when we started to work on it:

Visit my new website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime!

JoeB

Layers of interest

Before reading this post, for all of you that have taken my part I and II classes, the school is bringing back my Gestalt class for a month, starting the first week in May. Here’s the link: https://bpsop.com/courses-1/

In my opinion, based on fifty years of being not only an Advertising, Corporate, and Editorial photographer, but a teacher for almost forty of those years as well, I’ve found that there are two kinds of pictures.

In my daily critiques during one of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all around our planet,  I see first hand the photos that are being shot. I’ll often be standing next to someone that’s actually shooting….anything!!!

I also critique countless images sent in by one of my online students with the BPSOP…so, I’ll ask them what kind of photos is this going to be for. Is this shot going into the family and friends slideshow that will be seen on a Saturday night while eating pizza and beer, or is it going to be more serious and perhaps wind up on a website?

If it’s the former, then I say shoot away and let the explanation be told with a slice of Pepperoni Pizza as your pointer. It really doesn’t have any content as far as a photo with more things to look at than a flower arrangement outside a tourist store in some village in France; or some clown with a monkey begging for spare change in some square.

However, if it’s something more important to you (while also being in the slideshow), then it will need layers of visual interest. In other words that flower arrangement now has a small child smelling one of the flowers while the owner is watering the rest of them. Now it tells a story, a visual story that doesn’t need anyone talking…while chewing.

Here’s what I suggest, don’t separate pictures into different categories. Make all of them important, and you’ll come out better for it moving forward.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB