Joe Baraban’s Digital Photography Blog

Look ma, no Photoshop.

Here’s another photo in my ongoing category to show those of my fellow photographers how it was when Adobe was a type of house prevalent in the Southwest. Both in my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, the vast majority of my students became interested in Photography after the demise of film and the cameras that shot it.

These same students think that computers with Photoshop, Lightroom, and all the available plug-ins downloaded into them are a necessary part of the new digital age. To some, it’s the only way to create photographs. While it’s true that Photoshop and Lightroom have been an important part of my photography, I can also tell you that you don’t need any of it to make memorable pictures.

On the first day of my classes, I tell people that for the duration of the course, whether it be the four weeks of my online class, or my one week workshops, they’re not allowed to use any post-processing of any kind. I can’t tell you how many people freaks out!!! “What? Are you kidding? No way I can do that”, just to mention the three most popular come-backs.

FYI, auto focus is a luxury, not a necessity. That really has them baffled.

The above photo was taken for a company that was building a mid-level high rise in Houston. Since the building hadn’t been built, they wanted to show what amenities there would be in the area for those that would live there. One of the ideas was to create a photo that suggested Fine Dining in the area.

I created this photo in the wine cellar of a well known restaurant in the area. With the bottles of wine in the background, I set up a table and arranged the wine glasses and tulips from edge to edge. That was the easy part. I wanted to show a hand coming into the frame lighting one of the candles. Trying to open the shutter and exposing for the table setting and then having the hand light the candle proved to be impossible. I just couldn’t get the flame to stand up and look delicate. Remember that this was before the days of Photoshop, where it would now be soooooooo easy to create it on the computer.

I finally figured out a way to make it work. I had the waiter hold his hand in position with an unlit match in it. I turned off the modeling light and fired the flash to record everything. While the shutter was still open, I placed a black card in front of the lens and lit the match with another one. Once the smoke cleared and just the flame was showing I removed the black card and exposed for the flame.

What you see here was shot on one piece of film and one exposure.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I always pay attention

If it ain’t helping, get rid of it.

Ok, now that I put the emphasis on what this post is about, I can further explain.

I’ve been writing posts here since 2011. For those that are just now tuning in, I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I conduct workshops all over the place. I can tell you from personal experience that so many of my fellow photographers don’t pay attention to what’s going on inside the four walls of your composition…or barely outside.

Your field of vision narrows down to your subject or your center of interest, without considering what else is going on. One of the best ways to help with this problem is what I’ve been teaching forever. It’s called my 15 Point Protection Plan. 

There’s two ways to use it effectively. The first is easy, just move your camera up a little, down a little, move to the right or left, take a step forwards or backwards.

The second comes when the first one can’t be accomplished. First, let me say what I’ve been telling students as long as I’ve been teaching. Make no mistake, you and I are artists who has chosen the camera as our medium. The camera on a tripod is the same as a blank canvas on an easel.

We paint. What that means at least what it means to me, is that like a blank canvas we add pigment until we feel like we have painted our ‘work of art’. In photography, the art of subtraction, we add or subtract things in our compositions until we have create our ‘work of art’.

What that means is that if something is in the way, move it out of the frame. If you need something that’s out of your composition, move it in.

Of course this is predicated whether you needed to obtain permission or not. I know…I know…I know, that there are people out there that call themselves a purist, and wouldn’t think about doing something so utterly distasteful. Those same so called purists have no qualms about using Lightroom or Photoshop to enhance their photo.

Don’t get me started!!!

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out any new workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I loved the POV!!!

Now that I’m semi-retired from fifty-three years of shooting advertising, editorial, and corporate photography, I can devote my time to teaching with the online class BPSOP and conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around the planet.

There was a period of about thirty years when I traveled up to two-hundred and fifty days out of the year, and for those days I always traveled with my first assistant. When we got to a city, I would pick up a free-lancer who knew the city and could get things for me as I needed them.

My first assistant went everywhere with me and was responsible for the equipment, and the liaison between the free-lancer and myself. He was always right by my side, giving me the ever-changing exposures readings from a one degree external meter made by Minolta.

When the assistant I had at the time gave me his two-week notice (the best ones would only work for two years before going off on their own), I would begin to advertise through several channels I had at the time. When they applied for the job, they would have a portfolio with them that I basically looked at the backs to see how neat they were.  If they didn’t take care of their own work, they wouldn’t take care of mine, and there was just too much money involved for the assistant to be sloppy.  Their subject matter didn’t matter since they would not do any shooting.

What I did care about and was the first question I would ask someone that I was interested in was if they were afraid of heights. If they were, then the interview was over. They needed to be willing to do whatever I needed them to, and I never asked anyone to do something I wouldn’t do myself. The question had a tendency to shake someone up, to the point of thinking I was kidding…which I wasn’t.

It usually brought the macho out of the guy and no one would ever say no. That is until we were in a position to test their testosterone quotient…as in out in the field.

The above photo was taken on the Elissa. A tall ship anchored in Galveston, and it was shot for National Geographic’s World Magazine. My assistant was fairly new and had not been field-tested. I wanted a portrait of this kid that was spending the summer on board.

The kid told me some of his duties, and right then I knew the photo I wanted to take of him. When I explained what I was going to do to my assistant, the blood drained out of his face; which in itself was fairly scary/funny. The three of us climbed out on the mast to get the shot.  The next day my brand new first assistant quit…his face was still white!!!

His last shoot with me.

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

JoeB

So many Elements of visual design in this photo!!

Dawn, a photographer from the West coast, submitted this photo of three girls standing on what appears to be a bridge of some kind.

Ok Dawn, here’s my take on this photo:

You obviously know what you’re doing, you have a keen sense of design, and you have a very good knowledge of the Elements of Visual design…why, you ask?  Because there are several present in this photograph:

These Elements are what I teach online with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

NEGATIVE SPACE: since everything that’s not positive space is negative space, the negative space I’m referring to is that space that Defines the positive space and gives it meaning. What that means is that the negative space in and around the three girls defines them. It’s that negative space that makes the three girls…three girls. Each one of their shapes is well defined by the use of the negative space, and it’s what I call a “Quick read”.

TENSION: by minimizing the negative space between the outside girls and the bridge, you’ve created Tension, as well as the stark contrast between the girls and the background. Framing the subject within a frame is another way to generate Tension.

VANISHING POINT: By having the parallel liners begin behind the camera and converge at an implied line on the horizon.

PATTERN: Both the floor and the sides of the bridge are Patterns.

TEXTURE: The Texture inside the Patterns.

LIGHT: I love the blown out light behind the girls!!! Also the band of light in front of them.

When you can combine this many Elements, you stand an excellent chance of your photo not only being “up a notch”, but one that will be remembered.

A very strong image Dawn, and I’ll certainly remember it. Thanks for sharing it.

Visit my website at:www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule. Come shoot with me sometime and learn about the Elements of Visual Design.

JoeB

Thilo, a photographer living in Holland, sent me another spider so I wanted to get it close to the other spider that was submitted before moving on to the next submission. He wanted to know how you would show how big this spider is.

In the first spider shot, I suggested Soumyajit show scale as a way of making her spider a quicker read. Since her photo was so busy and the viewer somewhat distracted by everything around it, the spider became less important. In Thilo’s submission, that’s not an issue. It’s a quick read, and the spider is so scary that it’s size becomes less important as Arachnophobia has taken over scale!!!

If Thilo wanted to show scale, he would need to show it next to something that the viewer will immediately recognize and know right away it’s size by comparison. For example, it’s soon to be dinner like a fly, or a moth. If the web was against something recognizable like a fencepost or between barbed wire. By the way, the spider won’t touch it if it’s already dead.

Another way to imply scale is through the use of Tension. In my online class with the BPSOP, and the “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, We work on implementing the elements of visual design and composition into our imagery, and one of the elements is Tension. I’m not talking about the garden variety type of Tension caused by mental or emotional strain. I’m talking about the Tension resulting when forces are acting in opposition to one another.

Three of the ways to generate Tension are to place the subject close to the edge of the frame, to minimize the Negative Space surrounding it, and the use of light. When Thilo used all three in this photo, he made the spider look larger than it might be in person whereas Soumyajit, by placing her spider in the middle of the frame, didn’t create scale through the use of Tension.

In this submission as it the last one, black was used to hide the background. It’s believable in this photo, where it wasn’t in the first spider submission. It’s also much better lit. Also, this spider looks like it could swallow Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Thilo, one last thought to create scale would be to put your finger right next to it!!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog and come shoot with me some time…but not spiders!!!

JoeB

Dominant vertical lines

I like to include in a post a photo and question from one of the photographers that follow my blog.

Here’s one from a photographer in Japan, and as usual, I like to show the note that he sent because I find that there are lots of photographers out there that have had similar problems with similar questions on how to fix those problems. Here’s what he had to say:

“Hi Joe,

I am posting a photograph that has to do with lines. This is a photo on the outer part of a temple in Japan. What i want to know is if there are horizontal and vertical lines in one scene, which one takes priority over the other? In this photo, I used the vertical line closest to the left side, but the distortion is still present. It seemed the wooden structure is falling/leaning over to the mountain side. I tried to correct the distortion but in the end, I am still unsure what is the correct way to see. Lens used was the 16-35mm”.

Thank you,

I tell my online students with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind Workshops” I conduct,  Line is the most important of all the elements of visual design, for without Line none of the other elements could exist. The basic elements of design such as Pattern, Texture, Shape, Form, etc. all need Line to be what they are. In fact, you and I would not exist nor would planes, trains and automobiles because we all have an outLine.

Having said that, the most important Line is the horizon line. That’s the first Line you should correct. Since I almost always shoot on a tripod, the very first thing I do is to make sure my horizon line is straight. The only time it might not be straight is if you saw it from the Space Shuttle. FYI, the “unmentionable” word around the teaching scene is that when you see a photo with a horizon line that’s not straight, it’s a sure sign that a novice took the photo…I’m just saying!!!

Once you have the horizon line straight, then you look at the other horizontal lines and the vertical lines. Never try to correct those lines beforehand since by doing so, you might render the horizon as being off-kilter. If the vertical and other horizontal lines are not correct, then leave them because something made them the way they are. For example the wind, a storm, the ground shifting, bad construction, or just plain old ‘Father Time”. As I said, the horizon line is always going to be straight…no matter what. If you wake up one day and the horizon line is not straight, it would be a good time to pay back any past debts you might owe friends because you won’t have any more use for money!!!

Now that the horizon line has been taken care of, I look for the dominant line, whether it be a vertical or a horizontal. If the vertical lines are close to the edge of the frame, I always straighten them since they are more susceptible to bend; this is especially true if you have a wide angle lens on like your 16-35mm. The wider the lens, the harder it is to use as far as making your lines straight. The wider the lens, the more curve there is in your glass which curves the lines. The key is to always tr to have your camera level.

Correcting the horizontal lines is a matter of tilting your camera to the left or right.To correct the vertical lines you simply tilt the camera up or down. Tilting the camera up and the lines go in and when you tilt your camera down, the lines go out. In the photo you posted, if you would have tilted the camera down (just a touch) you would have corrected the vertical lines WITHOUT affecting any of the horizontal lines. That is once you have the horizon straight.

Hope this helped!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe take a look at my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Negative Space, Perspective, Tension, Pattern, Shape, Light, Color, Line, and a Silhouette..

I teach people how to incorporate the Elements of Visual Design into their photography as a way to create stronger images; images that will be remembered. Isn’t that what all photographers want? For their photos to be liked enough to be committed to the viewer’s memory?

I know it’s what I’m after, but that’s just me!

In my online class I teach with the BPSOP, and the “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the planet, I use what’s referred to as my Artist Palette, and I have my students fill it with not pigment, but all the important Elements of Visual Design: Negative Space, Vanishing Point, Tension, Perspective, Pattern, Texture, Shape, Form, Line, Color, and Light.

I also teach a part II class with the school, and the above mentioned elements are reviewed, but we also spend additional time on Light (the most important element there is), Shadows, and Silhouettes as well as Line  (the next most important element). For without Line, most if not all the other elements would not exist…nor would we!

Charlie, a student of mine from San Diego, recently completed my part II class and here’s two very strong photos that I especially thought used several elements from his new Artist Palette. In the first image his assignment was to photograph Line while keeping in mind the other elements on his new Artist Palette. A striking image that was all about what I call “Seeing Past First Impressions“, a term I often refer to in my workshops. Not only is their a great example of Line, but there are several other elements as well: Negative space, Color, Light, Shadows, and Patterns.

Can you see all of them?

In the second photo, Charlie was working on the different ways to light a subject as well as Tension. One of the ways to create Tension is by “Stopping an action and leaving it un-completed”. What’s also present is one of the basic concepts from the Theory of Gestalt I also teach which is Closure. Closure is all about “filling in the blanks”. Be sure to watch for my post on Closure later this month.

Really nice photos Charlie, photos that I remembered.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.Instagram.com/barabanjoe. Come shoot with me sometime!

JoeB

Keeping it clean.

In my online class with the BPSOP and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, we work on ways to take my students photos what I refer to as “up a notch”. So many of my students try to put way tooooooooooo information into one photograph.For some reason they think that the more elements they can stuff into their composition, it stands to reason that the better the photograph will turn out.

They believe in the old adage that “if more’s better, then too much is just right”. While that’s one of my favorite (unspoken) personal pearls of wisdom and I’m a firm believer in it, I have to draw the line when it comes to photography.

In my younger days when my medium of choice was a paintbrush, I would start out with a blank canvas on an easel and proceed to fill it in until I had the desired painting. Now, I start out with a camera on a tripod and everything is in the viewfinder. I have to keep subtracting elements until I have what I think is a finished photo.  That’s why they call photography “The art of Subtraction”.

You don’t want to clutter up your frame with elements that the viewer would have a hard time understanding; especially when they’re completely un-related. Just because you know what it is does not mean that everyone else will. You won’t be around to explain what you were thinking to people looking at your photos, so they need to stand on their own…unless it was meant to be an abstract and you wanted the viewer to decide for himself what exactly  it is that he’s looking at.

Strive for balance and simplicity. Use the Negative Space along with the Positive Space. The Negative Space being anything that doesn’t have mass. The space around your subject that defines it can be as important as putting in another elements for the sake of adding just one more thing that (you think) will improve your photo.

What you don’t put into a photo can be a lot more revealing than what you do put in.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoc. heck out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

I teach my fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of Visual Design into their imagery both in my classes with the BPSOP, but also in my  workshops I conducts around the planet…the round planet!!

I also show photographers how to use visual tension. One of the ways is to place your subject close to the edge of the frame. I see no better way than to show you how through a diagram.

Visual Tension

Visit my website  at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram, www.instagram.com/barabanjoe Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

In my online class with the BPSOP, and also with my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, we work on the elements of visual design and composition, and how to use these elements to take our imagery what I call “Up a notch”. Instead of pigment placed on an artist palette, these elements replace the reds, and blues, and greens.

Joan, a student of mine had told me that she had been to this marina lots of times, but when she went back with her ‘Artist Palette’, she saw the marina like she never had before. Now with the help all the elements firmly on her palette, she was “making picture” instead of “taking pictures”.

In this one photo, there’s:

Tension (by framing within a frame), the use of Negative Space defining the Positive Space, Pattern, Leading or Directional Lines taking the viewer’s eyes to the boats, Perspective, by creating layers of interest, and Shape (those wonderful circles). Joan has given the viewer lots to discover, and the more he discovers, the longer he’ll stick around…just what we want!!!

Really nice photo Joan!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and ollow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe and check out my 2023 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime and we’ll work on your ‘Artist Palette’.

JoeB

Tension leads to more attention.

Unless you’re shooting strictly for yourself, the goal, at least for me, is to keep the viewer around for as long as possible.

There’s several ways to achieve that, and I work the ways with my students both in my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my workshops I conduct all over the planet.

I’m not talking about the tension caused by mental or emotional strain,  I’m talking about one of the most important ways to keep the viewers attention, and it’s called Visual Tension…more tension leads to more attention.

Although there’s several ways to accomplish it, one of the more lesser known ways is ‘body language’. When you mix it with contrast, you create a conflict between the person’s body language, and the environment surrounding the person.

In the above photo, I saw this woman talking on her cell phone. Hoping that she would stay long enough for me to arrange my composition, I clicked off some shots to get the exposure the way I wanted. Then I kept my camera very close to my eye and waited.

I waited ten minutes and all that time she was still talking. Then, with hope against hope, she gestured for a split second. Fortunately, it was long enough to capture her.

In that moment, her body language created visual tension as well as visual interest. The conflict between her body language, her silhouette, the contrast between her and the lighter gray space all around her is what generates the visual tension.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagam: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my upcoming workshops at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

16  I teach a four week online class with the BPSOP, and I also  conduct my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops around the planet. What’s the single thread that connects all my fellow photographers to one another? It’s the fact that the vast majority began their love for this creative institution after the advent of the digital camera. Virtually every month , I  try to educate these students of mine that you don’t need Lightroom or Photoshop to make good photos. I’m not saying there not great tools, just that you don’t need them to make a good photo.

I recently had a student ask me if I bracketed my photos and combined them in HDR to get the “correct exposure”. This is a clear sign that validates my thinking…she had been told that there was a correct exposure….What????? First of all there’s no such thing as a correct exposure. every picture I’ve ever taken had a different “correct exposure”. How can there be a universal correct exposure? Beat’s the hell out of me. I guess it’s just another one of those things that lie just above my pay grade.

My exposures are based on what I’m feeling at the point of creation. It has solely to do with the message I want to send to the viewer. Bright and sunny, or dark and dramatic…it just all depends…doesn’t it????

Second, I’ve been shooting for forty-four years and most of that was when you bracketed and choose the best exposure. There was no other way to do it; at least when I was shooting color. HDR was the initials of a girl I went out with!!!

Ok, read my lips…YOU DON’T NEED HDR TO CREATE A CORRECT EXPOSURE. IN FACT, YOU DON’T NEED HDR AT ALL!!!

In the above photo, I was shooting a project for United Airlines. One of the toughest assignments I’ve ever had. Five weeks in Hawaii shooting pretty much whatever I wanted..oh the horror!!!

We were invited to take some photos of a popular Luau at the hotel we were staying at. My assistant was standing right next to me giving me readings from my Minolta One-Degree spot meter. Yes, it actually reads just one degree of reflected light at a time. I want to know everything about the light and when it changes. It’s why I never use the meter in my Mark III after crossing over to the digital world. It’s just not as accurate as I want it.

A new reading every few seconds.

I wanted to maintain the aperture, so my assistant kept yelling out the changes in shutter speeds., until it was too dark to show the fire-eater and the environment around him, and too slow to stop the action. I was able to achieve this on one piece of film, and one exposure.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog.  Come shoot me sometime.

JoeB

right smack dab in the middle

Since I started my photography career right after the dinosaurs disappeared, there was no information highway to get information from. I shot the way I felt when a photo op came my way without thinking about anything but what I had (subconsciously) learned studying painting and design practically my entire life.

There weren’t any rules for photographers to follow back then, or if there were I didn’t know about them; and wouldn’t have paid attention to them anyway. After teaching an online class with the BPSOP for the past seven years and conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops for the last thirty-three years, I’ve been a promoter of the idea that rules are a hindrance to creativity and the shackles of originality. There are countless rules one can read about simply by Googling up rules for Photography, but I won’t help you on that.

Who writes these rules anyway? When I click on some they’re all the same insipid articles with some changes in grammar and vocabulary. My guess is that there are photographers out there trying to become immortal and trying to stretch their fifteen minutes of fame into an eternity. I can tell you that this is one photographer’s name that you’ll never see among the others.

I’m thinking about writing an article for the internet and calling it the Anti-Rules for Proper Photography. It will contain everything you ever wanted to know about taking your own path and just letting your imagination be your guide; not some silly rules that can only lead you down a one way path to photo boredom. Or perhaps you won’t ever make it all the way to the end but wind up in some strange creative photography purgatory…YIKES that’s a sobering thought.

Here’s an example of one of my Anti-Rules: Put your subject right smack dab in the middle. How’s that for an Anti-Rule?

The first thing you’ll have to shake off is this dumb rule that’s called The Rule of Thirds, and for those of you that just can’t get it out of your mind and you need help to de-program, there’s photo therapy out there and it’s called a workshop; specifically my workshops…where you’ll see no rules attached. Actually, Ansel Adams said it best, “There are no rules for good pictures, there’s just good pictures”.

On day one we’ll work on my first anti-rule then work on all the others the internet has helped to brainwash all my fellow photographers. We’ll stand side by side in case you start to feel woozy (perfectly normal) and I’ll watch as you put your subject right smack dab in the middle of your frame. It will be hard at first, but once you realize that the difference between doing this and following the Rule of Thirds is the difference between you’re photo being remembered because of the visual interest and tension and it falling through the cracks leaving you in a state of mediocrity.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and be sure to check out my upcoming workshops. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB