I recently had a blog follower ask me to post one of his all time favorite posts that I wrote almost eight years ago. WOW! That’s a long time to remember something, especially when I can’t remember what I was doing last week.

It was on the 101 things I think all photographers should know about photography and the art of taking pictures.

I was “surfing the world wide web”, and I came across an interesting post on things to know about photography. It listed things I’ve been teaching, thinking and talking about for over twenty-five years in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, and in the past two years with my online class with the BPSOP.

While a few were on my list, there were several I didn’t agree with or were left out. In any event, it inspired me to share not only the link to the post, but to reveal my own personal 101 list as well.

Here’s my list, enjoy:

101 things to know about photography:

1. It’s not the camera; it’s the ten inches behind it that’s important.

2. Never photograph a child without asking permission from a parent first.

3. “When you get lucky, be ready”…Eddie Adams.

4. Be sure to always have a tripod with you.

5. Light is everything.

6. Remove the Histogram from your camera; it’s not what you want to be looking at when you have seconds of light left.

7. Get up close and personal to your subject.

8. Always have a roll of duct tape and WD-40 with you.

9. Crop in the camera so you’ll know where the edges of your frame and the four corners are.

10. Shadows are your best friend.

11. Clip the highlights.

12. See past first impressions.

13. Always consider the scene and its outcome.

14. It’s not what you put into a picture that counts, it’s what you don’t put in that matters.

15. Always carry a camera with you.

16. Marry someone whose father owns a big camera store.

17. Bracketing in the camera will make you a better photographer.

18. It’s ok to get dirt on the front of your shirt when you’re composing a photo.

19. Always shoot in RAW.

20. Lens shades help.

21. Pick up the trash in your composition before shooting.

22. Sometimes a pretty sunset to you is just another pretty sunset to someone else.

23. Challenge yourself. Try shooting with your least favorite lens.

24. Only show your best photographs.

25. Study the ‘Masters’, they were here before you.

26. Pre-visualize. Try to see it in your mind first.

27. Use the elements of visual design and composition when taking pictures.

28. Shoot on manual, don’t ever let the camera tell you what to do.

29. Take an online class or a workshop to hone your skills.

30. Break all the rules you can, but first I suggest you find out what they are.

31. Have your camera body facing down when changing lens to keep the dust out.

32. In photography, bigger (cameras) is not better.

33. Take along a big golf umbrella and shoot in the rain.

34. Pictures make great Christmas gifts.

35. Golden light is the prettiest light.

36. Don’t let your camera fall into a Lava Pool.

37. Manufacturing excuses for your photos is not in your best interest.

38. Underexposing looks better than overexposing.

39. Make pictures, don’t take them.

40. Martinis and photography don’t mix very well.

41. Taking art classes will improve your photography.

42. The Rule of Thirds is boring.

43. The Horizon Line is the most important line.

44. You need not go any farther than your bathroom to take good photos.

45. Sometimes asking forgiveness is better than asking permission.

46. A copyright stamp won’t protect you unless your photo is registered with the library of Congress.

47. Taking a great photograph is a lot like scoring a touchdown. Never tell anyone it was your first one.

48. A camera on a tripod is like a canvas on an easel.

49. Make the viewer an active participant in your imagery so he’ll stick around longer.

50. Let someone that knows what they’re doing clean your sensor.

51. “ You can’t depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus”…Mark Twain.

52. You find the Light, and you’ll find the shot.

53. When you buy a new camera, read the manual.

54. Good pictures are like good jokes. If you have to explain them, they’re not so good.

55.  Shoot to live, live to shoot.

56. Stick with one ISO, and you’ll never have to worry about switching back and forth.

57. Back up all your images all the time.

58. Controlled distortion can work.

59. Always brake for photographs.

60. “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes”…Marcel Proust.

61. We perceive in a 2X3 ratio (a rectangle).

62. An active imagination is the Fountain of Youth.

63. See, feel and sense the ever-changing Light.

64. The background is just as important.

65. Have your subject walking or looking out of the frame.

66. Don’t show the sky in bad light.

67. Vertical formats have more energy than horizontals.

68. Make sure that when you format your card, you really wanted to.

69. Sometimes when more’s better, too much is just right.

70. Always know the direction of the light.

71. Make your life simpler. Set your camera on AWB and ‘Fuhgetaboutit’.

72. Never leave any of your equipment in your photographs.

73. Including Patterns in our photos is a good thing; breaking the rhythm of the pattern is even better.

74. Shooting in the Blue Hour is a lot of fun.

75. A triple colored mat won’t make a bad photograph look better.

76. A glass of wine after a great sunset shoot is intoxicating.

77. Balance the Negative Space and Positive Space.

78. “Been there shot that” is not a good thing to say.

79. Create ‘energy’ in your photographs.

80. Try to lead the viewer around your composition.

81. Photoshop is a good thing, used sparingly.

82. If you really want to be a better photographer, shoot on manual.

83. Buy your kid a toy camera on his first birthday, then start upgrading.

84. Be objective not subjective when editing your pictures.

85. There’s nothing like seeing the world through a viewfinder.

86. 1/60^th of a second at F/8 is the same exposure as 1/125^th of a second at F/5.6.

87. Color communicates ideas.

88. If you had to choose between Lightroom and Photoshop, pick Lightroom.

89. Follow Photography Blogs.

90. Don’t loan equipment to friends without including the phrase, “you break it, and it’s yours.”

91. Take portraits with wide-angle lens.

92. Learn “The Decisive Moment” by studying Henri Cartier-Bresson.

93. Give the viewer several ways to enter and leave the frame.

94. Don’t forget about silhouettes.

95. Setting your WB to cloudy on an overcast day won’t necessarily make your picture look better.

96. More shots per hour.

97. HDR prints sell like hotcakes on the sale table in the decorative center of your local Wal-Mart.

98. The early bird always catches the best light as well as the worm.

99. Use gesture to communicate an emotional response.

100. When you have a gray day, be funny. Humor conquers all.

101. Never come home with an empty flash card.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I’ve a couple of openings in my Springtime in Berlin workshop next May 23rd. A fantastic city with so many great locations we’re going to be shooting.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB

I don’t know about you but I like to have people stick around spending time looking at my photos. Now, I suppose there are photographers out there that shoot solely for their own gratification and never share their images for whatever reason. However, if we go on the assumption that photographers are artists that have chosen the camera as the medium, then it stands to reason that said photographers like to have people admire their work; I for one as an example.

Having said that, we can’t expect the viewer to spend very much time looking (unless they are wives, mothers, aunts, and sometimes even siblings) unless we give him something that makes it worthwhile; people just don’t have the time anymore.

One of the best ways is to add an editorial slant to your composition, and I talk about this a lot both in my online class with the BPSOP and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the place.

Ok, so what do I mean by editorial? The word editorialize means to express or form an opinion; to ask the viewer to pose a question.

In the photos above I have added a slide bar so you can go from one photographic thought to another. I shot the swing first by itself, then added one of my grandkid’s shoes. This concept is predicated on the idea of making the viewer an active participant. In other words, keeping him involved will keep him around longer. This is about taking control of how the viewer perceives and processes information we give to him in the form of a photograph.

When you look at the swing by itself, you’re looking at a fairly interesting image mostly as a result of the dramatic way it’s backlit, the texture of the grass, the leaves, and the shadow.

When you use your cursor to move the slide from left to right, it reveals an entirely different photograph. Simply by adding a red sneaker, I ask the viewer to raise a question. What question do you think it conjures up?

To me, it asks: Why is that one shoe there? Why just one? Who does it belong to? What happened to make him forget or lose one shoe? Was he hurt? Is he going to get into trouble? Etc., etc. It’s the Who What Where When, and Why” of photography.

So next time you’re out shooting take some props with you and try to add an editorial element. Remember that you’re an artist whose camera on a tripod is not unlike a blank canvas on an easel; you’re a painter, so paint.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me some time and we’ll editorialize together.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB

Here’s a very interesting concept I created that I want to share with all of you. Something to think about when you’re shooting:

There are two men swimming in the ocean, and while doing so one of the men sees a gray spot against a calm blue horizon. That man decides to swim to shore, the other man doesn’t and is eaten by a huge shark. By reacting to something different, the man that swam to shore survived. He saw something different!!!

Creativity is the gray spot. It was that which was the most different. As photographers we want the viewer to react (and will always react) to that, which is the most different.

Imagination keeps us young. It’s the gas and oil that keeps our mind running smoothly. Hopefully, the kinds of people that will look at our work do have some semblance of being creative…or they wouldn’t be bothered…so who cares about them??? That goes for ourselves as well. Let everyone else be predictable in his or her approach to shooting pictures. Remember that good photographers follow the more traditional ways and adhere to all the rules. The great photographers “follow the beat of a different drummer”, and break the rules.

Most people put a high value on creativity, but since it’s an intangible commodity it’s also misunderstood. It takes a somewhat flexible mind to even get close to realizing its importance in our society. I’ve had students in my workshops tell me that in order to be really creative you have to be original, and they also say that there aren’t any photos left that haven’t already been taken. While it’s true that there aren’t very many if any original ideas left, the creative part comes in when you take those existing ideas and show them in a new way. Marcel Proust, a French novelist said, “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but having new eyes”.

One way to see new landscapes is to what I call “Seeing past first impressions”. The great photographs that you aspire to take will come with seeing new ways to look at old ideas. Go out and be prepared for the unexpected. Eddie Adams, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer once said, “When you get lucky be ready”.

In my opinion, one of the best inventions to ever come around, hell-bent on stifling creativity is the Histogram and those pesky blinking areas in the back of your camera that tells you that in a certain part of your frame the highlights were clipped (see my post on this subject). DANGER-COMBUSTIBLE-DO NOT MIX THESE WITH CREATIVITY-HARMFUL IF SWALLOWED!!! Truth be told, they actually slow the process down and no doubt were put there because that’s our world now. If you free yourself of those things your photos will have a much better chance of moving “up a notch”.

To my way of thinking it’s going to do more harm than good, and wind up complicating those creative juices. Learn to feel/see/ find the light, then be creative with it. It’s so important to be able to sense when it’s changing all around you and make immediate corrections without looking at your Histogram because make no mistake, light is so fleeting that just a few seconds can make the difference in going home empty handed or excited because you just took the best photo of your photographic life.

Spark those creative juices. Shoot photos without looking through the viewfinder. Stand on top of something, lay on your stomach, shoot with the lens you like the least, etc. I tell people to take art classes as a way to expand your current thought process; as a way to get new ‘creative juices into your veins. This is what I always tell my online students I teach with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the planet when they ask what else they can do to take stronger photos.

If you really want to enjoy the power of creativity in it’s purest form, KNOW YOUR CAMERA,  UNDERSTAND WHAT GOOD COMPOSITION IS, MASTER THE ELEMENTS OF VISUAL DESIGN, HOW EXPOSURE WORKS, and FOLLOW THE LIGHT. In my opinion, you could forget everything else. I did and my photos still come out pretty good.

Be creative, stay thirsty, and survive my fellow photographers.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I have a couple of openings in my Springtime in Berlin workshop next May 23rd. A fantastic city with so many great locations we’re going to be shooting.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This offers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages, and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watching and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB

The beginning of August, 2017, I was conducting my latest Maine Media Workshop (also known as my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop”) for the twenty-ninth time. I always go up a day early to look around for possible ideas to add to the way I’ve already  structured the week long class.

Among other discussions I always work on getting people to see with the right side of their brain, the creative side, instead of the left side, the analytical side; this is also a big part of my online class with the BPSOP.

I was driving from Rockport where the workshop campus is located down to Rockland where the Lobster Festival was slated to start a few days later. As I passed one of many motels along scenic Route 1, I noticed several striped umbrellas grouped together that offered shade to the residents wanting to sit around and enjoy the fabulous weather.

I kept driving but after a few miles I had an epiphany, and when I have one of those while driving around with a camera next to me I immediately make a U-turn; people driving with me are usually not as excited as I am!!

As I passed these umbrellas I first saw them with the left side of my brain, the side that only saw a group of umbrellas. It didn’t take me long to switch off the left side of my brain and imagine those umbrellas with the right side. The side that saw something entirely different.

In my mind I envisioned several of the basic elements of visual design: color, shape, line, and pattern. I saw them no longer as umbrellas, but an arrangement of elements in a way that became an abstraction of a group of ordinary objects.

I knew that what I was originally looking at was not what I was going to get, which was why I made the decision to go back and take a closer look.

To my fellow photographers my point here is to look at the world around you not with the left side of your brain, the analytical side, but with the right side, the creative side. When you can start doing that, a whole new world will open up and you be able to see things not as they are, but what they could be.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I’ve a couple of openings in my Springtime in Berlin workshop next May 23rd. A fantastic city with so many great locations we’re going to be shooting.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better

JoeB

I often refer to photography as the art of taking, making, or creating pictures. In fact, these three concepts can determine the strength of your composition. They will decide on how long the viewer will look at your images and if they will even be remembered.

First let’s look at the approach my fellow photographers take when they either submit their photos in my online class with the BPSOP or during the daily critiques in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct.

For the most part, when I see their photos the one thing that usually stands out is that I find these photographers taking pictures. In other words they stand there and bring their camera up to their eye and start shooting without thinking about how to keep the viewer around; because of the visual interest and tension needed to do just that.

I have found a common thread between these types of pictures and it stems from always shooting at the same height, the same POV, the same F/stop, the same direction of the light, the same lens, and letting the camera decide on the exposure…which is usually the wrong advice.

My desire as a teacher is to show photographers the difference between taking and making pictures, and try to get them to stop the practice of taking pictures and move them forward to making them.

Making pictures is all about looking a your subject differently. Putting the light up front and among the most important aspects of your photographic vision. Unless you’re street shooting where capturing the moment is critical, light is everything!!!

I show my students how to incorporate the Elements of Visual Design into their imagery, and these elements are put on an imaginary ‘Artist Palette’. The same ‘Artist Palette’ I’ve been carrying around in the back of my mind for the past forty-nine years.

When I’m out shooting I look for things not immediately visible without the help of my palette. I look for: Light, Texture, Patterns, Shapes, Vanishing Points, Perspective, Color, and most important Line.

I look for different ways to show the subject, whether it’s lying on my stomach and getting dirt on my shirt, or finding a way to shoot down on objects. Maybe panning is the answer, or a slow shutter speed, or using lens not necessarily meant for what I’m thinking about; a 100mm macro lens or a 300mm for portraiture as one example.

I look for ways to use Negative Space to define my subjects, as well as balancing my composition. I use lines to move the viewer around the frame, especially if I can introduce a Vanishing Point. I introduce Color on overcast days, and I also use color to communicate ideas. I see a tree, and I look for what else it is.

This is making pictures and a hell of a lot more fun than just bringing the camera up to my eyes and clicking the shutter.

Finally, there’s creating pictures, and this is my favorite way to shoot. To me, my camera on a tripod is the same as a blank canvas on an easel.

Creating pictures means adding a prop, asking someone to pose for me, or moving things around to gain more interest and tension. The above photo was taken during my Maine Media Workshop I conduct every year at the end of July beginning of August.

This was at the Lobster Festival in Rockland. I saw the couple outside of the tent taking turns shooting each others picture so I asked them if they would mind if I took a picture of the young woman taking a picture of her boyfriend. I had first noticed the wonderful light creating silhouettes from others walking by and the wonderful squares (shapes) that were backlit.

I placed the woman so all I would see is her silhouette, and I put the man so his face would appear in one of the squares. I then told them to forget I was here and continue taking pictures. The blank canvas was in my mind so I began creating my art.

So now you’ve read about three approaches to the art of photography. You can continue to take pictures and travel the well worn road to mediocrity, you can begin making pictures and experience a whole new way to gain attention to your images, or you can create pictures and really have fun…even reaching Nirvana!!!!

🙂

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I can promise you a lot of fun, reaching Nirvana might be a little more difficult. I’ve a couple of openings in my Springtime in Berlin workshop next May 23rd. A fantastic city with so many great locations we’re going to be shooting.

This coming July 29th will be my 30th anniversary teaching at the Maine Media Workshop. I’ve always picked this time as it’s the week of the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland. This ofers a unique set of photo ops, different from the Maine Coast, fishing villages and lighthouses. The Lobster Festival is all about color, design, light, energy, people watchng and environmental portraits everywhere you look; some people are there in costumes and loved to be photographed.

In conjunction with The Santa Fe Workshops, October 2nd I’ll be leading a group in San Miguel de Allende. A beautiful oasis and artist colony, and the entire city is a UNESCO site.

Come join me for a week of fun and photography…what could be better?

JoeB

It’s amazing how often I see photos that were taken either for my online class with the PPSOP, or in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, that appear to be taken from the exact same height; that height being the distance from their eyes to the ground.

In other words, my fellow photographers shoot from the same POV (point of view) all the time….why you ask?

Two reasons:

The first is because it’s the easiest and laziest  way to take a photo. All you have to do is raise the camera up to your eyes, aim, then pull the trigger (Texas talk for clicking the shutter). Simple and quick, am I right? The second reason is because most of my fellow photographers take instead of make pictures. Part of that is what I refer to in a past post as “I came, I shot, I left“.

🙁

If I can make a suggestion, that will help take your photos what I always refer to as “up a notch”, change your point of view the next time you go out shooting. Instead of bringing the camera up to your eye and shooting from the same height as always, think about getting down low to the ground. Look all around, there might be a railing or balcony you can shoot from. How about shooting through a window or the windshield in your car? Is there a ladder nearby? If you’re shooting flowers, get down to their level. Get some dirt on the front of your shirt!!!

The next time you’re shooting your kids, or your friends kids, or your grand kids, don’t just stand over them and point your camera down. Get on their level, and you’ll immediately see how much more powerful your photo is.

The above photo was taken while I was conducting a workshop in Myanmar. Our guide had these small girls that were about to go in a convent to become nuns pose for my fellow photographers. They all had fun taking various portraits of individual girls and as a group. When they were all done I asked our guide to have them sit next to each other on the curb. I put on my 17-40mm Canon lens and stood on my tiptoes above them.

I had pre-visualized the photo in my mind so it took just a few seconds to shoot it. This photo is one of my favorite, if not the number one favorite, of everything I had taken while in the country.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I’ve a couple of openings in my Springtime in Berlin workshop next May 23rd. A fantastic city with so many great locations we’re going to be shooting.

Don’t forget to send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com.

JoeB

Yes you’re reading that right..while the sun doesn’t shine not while the sun does shine. The original expression is an idiom that’s been around for a long time. Basically, it means to grab an opportunity when the time and conditions are perfect.

In my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct I often hear from my fellow photographers that since it was a overcast day, or even raining, there wasn’t any reason to go out…that’s just an excuse to watch TV because that’s just not true!!!

Btw, throughout my career, I’ve gone out countless times when it was gray, or even raining only to get lucky and have the sky open up; perhaps for only a minute or two…and that’s all you need to get that one shot off that winds up being one for the wall.

If it’s overcast then don’t show the sky or very little of it. A gray day will produce either a white or light gray sky; if it’s raining take an umbrella. If you have a camera similar to the one I use in these situation (a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX7) you can easily walk around with the umbrella in one hand while holding your camera in the other. Give it a try sometime, you’ll thank me down the road.

If you were familiar with my workshop and class overview, you would know that I teach people how to incorporate the basic elements of visual design into their imagery. When it all said and done, these elements and other compositional tools are firmly planted on what I call my Artist Palette.

What’s good about these elements and various tools: Line, Pattern, Texture, Shapes, Balance, Negative Space, Vanishing Points, Silhouettes, Shadows, and Color, is that they can help you out on overcast crummy gray days not just sunny good days; shadows being the possible exception!!

Getting back to my personal workshops, we will often spend time walking the streets of some village, town, or big city. Street shooting is one genre that doesn’t necessarily require good light; it’s more about capturing a moment in time. In fact, shooting in the streets at night can reward the photographer with some real keepers; especially after it rains and those wonderful reflections from wet streets are fun to find.

I’ve always found that using a long lens and a very shallow DOF (Figure-Ground) on a gray day can result in good photos, especially if you combine color with it.

Overcast light can be extremely beneficial when you are required to shoot in the middle of the day; weddings for one example. For the most part midday sun can be a real problem shooting portraits because the contrast between the shadows and the highlights can be too extreme. Looking for natural shade in this harsh light is important. A gray day can save you from dealing  with this type of light by the fact that the contrast has been negated.

Don’t fight it, go with the flow. Take advantage of the overcast conditions to create a unique photo that reflects the gloomy weather. For example, shooting a sad photo is a great use of overcast weather conditions.

There is one other way to create memorable photos on dreadful days is the use of humor. As far as I know, it’s one of the best ways to overcome these kinds of days.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. My next springtime workshop will Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

If you send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

Several months ago, right before the total solar eclipse, I was listening to a piece on CBS Sunday Morning. Btw, it’s one of the best programs on TV.

They were talking about the word Umbraphile which literally means a “shadow lover”, but when properly applied it means one who’s addicted to the “glory and majesty of total solar eclipses”; and will drop everything they are doing to see one…wherever it my be on the globe. I can tell you that I don’t go chasing eclipses, but I will admit to being a lover of the shadow; which, by the way,  is a photographer’s best friend.

Umbraphillia is thought by many a smart college educated person to not only be an addiction, but an affliction as well. I guess that means me…YIKES!!

I am addicted to light and shadows (and proud of it), so much so that in my online class with the BPSOP, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around the planet, students learn beforehand exactly where shadows will fall any day of the week, anywhere in the world. Using a program called Sunpath, and coupling it with a hand bearing compass called a Morin 2000 not only do they learn where the shadows will fall, but which direction the light will be coming from, when it will be coming,  how long it will be there, and when it will leave.

Once the interrelationship between light and shadow is established, a mood is set and the results can range from mysterious to downright scary. Shadows can affect how the viewer perceives and is a quick way to conjure up all kinds of emotions by giving a dramatic edge to your composition. Shadows can also be used as lines to move the viewer around your composition or as elements to point to a subject or one of your centers of interest.

Photographers usually don’t give shadows any consideration; in fact, to many they can be intimidating.  Truth be told, they are leaving out a very important part of their imagery. Shadows can suggest what we can’t see in our reality. In fact, shadows help us to “celebrate the unseen”.  Also, the next time you’re out shooting, don’t think/worry about shadows falling on people’s faces, as that creates not only visual interest, but visual tension as well; through the use of contrast.

In the above photo, I was standing right behind a barrier in Havana, Cuba when Obama drove by. I looked down and saw the shadows that to me told a story.

Here’s some ways to incorporate shadows:

1) Try making the shadow the main subject. It can tell a story on its own.
2) Try distorting the shadows.
3) Try to duplicate your silhouette with a shadow.
4) Try using a shadow to fill in an empty space in your composition. It can create interest in an otherwise boring area.
5) Try using the dark shadows to extend a dark subject. For example, the shadow coming from a tree.
6) Try using the late light from the ‘golden hour’ to reveal more about Texture, and form.
7) We know that Line can draw the viewer to the main subject. Try using shadows to do the same thing.
8) Just for fun, try turning your photo upside down, so the subject takes the place of the shadow, and vice verse.

Maybe I’ll start a new self-help organization and call it…shadow lovers anonymous!!!

🙂

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2018 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. This February in conjunction with the Santa Fe Workshops, I’ll be returning to Cuba for the fourth time. My next springtime workshop will be in Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

Send me a photo and question to: AskjoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

I’ve talked a lot about the psychology of Gestalt to both my online classes with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all over the planet. It’s about controlling what the viewer perceives and processes when looking at our photos.

One of the six concepts I discuss is “The Law of Common Fate”. This concept is about moving two or more people (in the same direction) across the frame. The viewer seems that as one unit and sharing a common destiny.

It’s all about visual direction, and by doing so, you’re making the viewer an active participant in your photos.

An arrow pointing in a direction will take control and the viewer…no matter how hard he tries…will look in the direction that it’s pointing. An arrow pointing in the opposite direction as your subject, will generate visual tension; because the viewer will not see it as part of your “directional whole”

The above photo was taken during one of my Stretching Your Frame of Mind workshops. My subject was a man that had taken my online class with the BPSOP and was now shooting with me.

To show the workshop class the power of an arrow, I had him walk in the opposite direction the arrow was pointing. This not only created visual tension, but the viewer will immediately look in the direction of the arrow (which will create even more visual tension) and disregarding the subject.

Whenever I see an arrow, or an implied arrow (an arrow made up of various elements), I immediately try to figure out a way to incorporate it into my photo. That said, if the photographer looks with only the left side of the brain he won’t see the arrow. It only works when the right side of the brain is being used.

So, my fellow photographers, the next time you see an arrow and you have an opportunity to include it in your composition, you be glad you did.

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. Next February in conjunction with the Santa Fe Workshops, I’ll be returning to Cuba for the fourth time. My next springtime workshop will Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

Send me a photo and question to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

I love to push my photos right up to or beyond any kind of artistic control. What that means is to make the viewer an active participant pushing him through a series of complicated photos.

Ordinarily, I like a certain sense of order by offering up well organized subject matter that leads the same viewer around my composition…well constrained by the four edges that frames my visual input into the form of a photograph.

Not everything in the world is organized and or has order, and one’s point of view can change order into chaos. In other words seemingly random subject matter, things you seem most of your life and never thought twice about them can suddenly behave chaotically.

By showing the viewer an entirely new way of seeing a subject occurring naturally in the environment, a subject he’s been accustomed to seeing one way can become unpredictable…almost to the point of becoming unrecognizable.

Showing examples to my online classes with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet has been an important part of the ways to keep the viewer around as long as possible; to shed new light on a subject.

My mantra is to get some dirt on your shirt or knees, look at things upside down or lie on your back and lookup.

During my springtime in Portugal workshop, I decided to take the class down to a well-known area of Lisbon that was totally different than what one would expect from this enchanting city of “Seven Hills”. It was the convention area full of beautifully designed buildings.

Walking around one morning I saw off in the distance a group of flagpoles and led my fellow photographers straight to them. I stood back to see how they would all approach this somewhat common subject matter and watched as they began taking their photos.

I waited for a while to see if anyone would follow my advice and look at things not in an orderly fashion, but in a way that would shake up the viewer…so to speak.

What I started seeing was a group of people walking around trying as hard as they could to take these flagpoles and create an interesting photo with them. One that would comply with my six second rule (I hate rules); all I saw was frustration.

I gathered my flock, put them all right smack dab in the middle of them, and had them lie down on their back and look up through their viewfinder. It must have seemed a touch strange to the people that were walking by scratching their heads!!

This innocuous group of orderly poles became a pattern of chaotic lines and immediately had all of them mesmerized as a result.

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. This coming January Along with William Yu, I’ll be taking a group to China to photograph the flooded rice terraces and also the tribal villages. Next February in conjunction with the Santa Fe Workshops, I’ll be returning to Cuba for the fourth time. My next springtime workshop will Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

JoeB

Although it would be nice if everyone lived in harmony with one another, that concept will most probably have to wait. Until then I would like to talk about something that can happen right now, and that would be to seek out and use colors that are in harmony with one another in your photos.

Since my background is not in Photography but in painting and design, I’ve learned through my studies which color is in harmony with another. I taken that knowledge and have applied it to my love of photography. By the way, I still consider myself an artist, I’ve just switched the medium from a paintbrush to a camera.

I tell my students that take my online classes with the BPSOP, and those that have taken my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct all around the planet that a camera on a tripod is just like a blank canvas on an easel. I talk a lot about color since it’s a basic element of visual design, and should be thought of as a very important tool in creating those works of art…the same ones you find on a canvas.

The methods we use to gain attention to our photography will vary, but what’s important is how we manage what the viewer perceives and processes when looking at the visual information we lay out to him in the form of a photograph. Humans rely on perception of the environment that surrounds them. Visual input is a part of our everyday life. Color, and understanding how the viewer perceives color, is what we as photographers have as a tool to present this information in a way that creates a sense of harmony.

 In my opinion we spend far too much time dwelling on so called ‘Rules’ in Photography: The Rule of Thirds (the silliest of them all), The Leading in Rule, Never Clip the Highlights, are three that come to mind and I’ve written posts about them going back six years.

We also think about shutter speeds, DOF, cropping (please don’t do that!), White Balance, etc., etc., ad nauseam. I can tell you that color should be considered right alongside every other facet when composing your photo.

Color is a great resource when trying to get across an emotion, drawing the viewer into our photos, making the subject stand out against the environment he or it is in, creating visual tension, visual interest, balance, and a sense of order in our present day chaotic world.

Ok, let’s first talk about ways to achieve harmony through the color wheel, which as a trivia question for you to someday know, it was invented by Sir Issac Newton….yes it’s the same guy, the one who discovered gravity.

There are four main ways to create harmony using color: Using Monochromatic, Analogous, Complementary, and Triad colors.

The word monochromatic would usually conjure up the old black and white days, but it can also apply to color. In this application it’s made up of just one color, and different shades of it. This will create a visually balanced and appealing photo, albeit one that’s low in contrast; good to use when you don’t want a particular object stand out from the rest of the environment.

 Analogous colors are those that are next to one another on the color wheel. They live in harmony because of the similar hues. They’re pleasing to the eye and appear more often in nature than monochromatic and complementary colors do. That said, if you’re looking for contrast these colors wouldn’t be my first choice…complementary colors would.

Complementary colors are those that are opposite one another on the color wheel. They generate visual tension because of the contrast of one to another.

Triadic colors on the color wheel are those that are evenly spaced on the color wheel, and will form a triangle. When using this form it’s important to achieve balance between the three colors.

Pre-visualization” is one of the guidelines in my “did it do it” list for good composition I pass out to my students. Being aware of colors that are in harmony and the effects it will have on the viewer will help you do just that…pre-visualize.

So my fellow photographers, the next time you go out think about all the tools you have on hand and make sure color and the harmony are included. Observe the effects colors have upon each another, study the color wheel and become a student of their visual relationships.

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. This coming January Along with William Yu, I’ll be taking a group to China to photograph the flooded rice terraces and also the tribal villages. Next February in conjunction with the Santa Fe Workshops, I’ll be returning to Cuba for the fourth time. My next springtime workshop will Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

If you send me a photo and question to AskJoeB@gmail.com, I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

I recently had a student taking my online class with the BPSOP submit a picture that was obviously shot under an overcast sky with no directional light. In other words no light except the gray ambient kind.

Thinking back, I also remember people taking my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops talking about shooting in the Golden Hour, but not completely understanding exactly what it meant.

In the case of the BPSOP student, she told me in her written explanation of the submitted shot that she had taken it in the Golden Hour. For her to say that, to me, was a signal ( a cry for help) that she was expressing more of a romantic expression…and then and there I had to explain to her exactly what shooting during that time actually meant.

She may well have shot this during the last hour of the day, but that’s only half of the concept. The other half is obviously the quality of the light.

Golden Hour is usually just that. The first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. I say “usually” because the time will vary depending on where you are in relation to the equator, and the time of year.

I say time of year because in the summer months the sun gets high and hot very fast and as far as I’m concerned Golden Hour is more like thirty minutes of quality light.

In the winter months the sun doesn’t get up as high and not nearly as strong, so you have a little more time when the light is right…at least for me.

When the sun is this low (either at sunrise or sunset) it will travel through more atmosphere, the angle the light travels to the Earth is longer, and there’s more water vapor that scatters the rays of the sun. This in turn warms the different hues (colors), minimizes contrast, elongates and renders the shadows light, and also keeps the highlights from becoming too overexposed.

Another way to determine Golden hour is to calculate the degrees the Sun is off the horizon. I’ve found that fifteen to twenty degrees fits into the time frame when the sun is low and warm; and what I consider the Golden Hour.

After explaining this to her she quickly picked up on the fact that shooting in the Golden hour is actually a practical phrase.

Having said all this, there are certainly times when shooting in the Golden Hour is both a romantic expression and a practical phrase, as in the photo taken above.

By the way, have you ever noticed that sunsets are usually more colorful? Want to know why? The reason the sky can be more dramatic is because of dust, debris and pollution that’s had time to build up during the day. You and I help with both!!! Just people walking around causes the dust and debris to rise into the atmosphere.

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. This coming January Along with William Yu, I’ll be taking a group to China to photograph the flooded rice terraces and also the tribal villages. Next February in conjunction with the Santa Fe Workshops, I’ll be returning to Cuba for the fourth time. My next springtime workshop will Berlin next May; an incredibly beautiful city.

If you send me a photo with a question to: AskjoeB@gmail.com, I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB