Joe Baraban's Digital Photography Blog

Life Before Photoshop: Pacific Bell

Look ma, no Photoshop.
Look ma, no Photoshop.

I shot corporate and advertising photography spanning a forty year career, and most of those years (the dark ages) were spend without the help of Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and the plethora of plug-ins one can find shopping on the internet; if ones needs help that much.

In fact, Adobe was a type of house in the Southwest part of the US. Thinking back, I can also remember when there weren’t even computers, and as they came into being companies were quick to include photography of their new (freezing) computer room to go out to stockholders in the form of annual reports; to assure them that they were on the leading edge of technology. It’s amazing to think that my maxed out iMac27Retina is probably as powerful than the entire room full of giant machines.

Most of my fellow photographers that take my online classes with the BPSOP, and take my “Stretching Your frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet became photographers during the digital age and have no idea that you can actually “make” good photos before clicking the shutter.

A million years ago, right after the dinosaurs disappeared,  I was shooting an advertising campaign for Pacific Bell, the California based telephone company. I was sent to three locations: Nameless, Tennessee, Remote, Oregon, and Home, Pennsylvania. Three very small but real places spread across the US. With me, I had a phone booth a wall phone and a phone that was mounted on a stand and placed where people could drive up to it.

Before I left my studio, I had a sign made up to look like it was a sign you would see on a road stating the miles left to a particular town or city; in this case Home, PA. I had an idea in mind so in case I found the right location, I would have the prop I needed.

Using my Sunpath coordinates I found just the road I wanted where the sun would set just to one side and down the road apiece!!

We set up the sign and with a portable generator, lit it up.

I remember it missing something and was going to put the rent car driving away from the phone, but at that moment an Amish man drove by and saved the day. As Eddie Adams once said, “When you get lucky, be ready”.

I know that in today’s world, the phone and sign would have been shot in a studio, and the back end of the Amish buggy would have been bought from some stock agency and added after the fact.

I consider myself very lucky that I started out in the film days when you were able to use your head and imagination to solve problems… in the camera where it was fun instead of in front of a computer.

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.

Keep sending in those photos and questions to: AskjoeB@gmail.com, and i’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

Personal Pearl of Wisdom: 25X4=100

I looked to my right.
I looked to my right.

In both my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop I conduct around our planet, I have my Pearls of Wisdom that my fellow photographers have become to know and I dare say…grown to love?

Maybe.

One of my all-time attention grabbers is when I say it’s all about 25X4, and I especially remember using it a lot in my last “Springtime in Sicily” workshop. I used it every day that we were walking around Palermo, Siracusa, Cefulu’ on the West side of Sicily and Catania, Taormina, and Ortygia on the Eastside.

As I do in my workshops, I show people how to see things occurring all around them. As Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not what you look at, it’s what you see”. I’ll suggest they look at things with the right side of their brain, the creative side instead of the left side which is the analytical side.

The analytical side sees a tree, and the right side sees texture, patterns, lines, color, light, shapes, and form; all basic elements of visual design.

Having said all that, if you just look straight ahead while you’re walking, you’re only using twenty-five percent of your possible vision that has an immediate correlation to photo ops that either surround you or you pass by. I can say from years of experience, the majority of photographers do just that; it just doesn’t make sense.

It reminds me of the blinders that some racehorse trainers have their horses wear to keep them focused on what’s in front of them rather than what’s behind them or on each side. It keeps them focused on the race rather than the distractions around them.

YIKES!!! Is that what you want to be compared to…a racehorse with no distractions? I think not!!

OK, when I’m walking around hunting that elusive “keeper”, looking for the light in all the right places, I use 100% of the potential shooting area that’s always there following me down the street. In other words, I look straight ahead twenty-five percent of the time for a few steps, then to my right side (a few more steps) twenty-five percent of the time, to the left twenty-five percent of the time and behind me twenty-five percent of the time…now that sure makes sense to me.

In the above photo taken after my workshop in Sicily in Lisbon, if I hadn’t been looking from side to side instead of straight ahead, I would have never seen this guy mixed in with several of his friends….missing what would soon be one of my favorite photos/examples.

BTW, I will also look up and down, and have discovered many of my best shots doing just that.

So there you have it, my 25X4 pearl of wisdom. I can guarantee you that if you make a conscious effort to follow my advice, a whole new set of photo opportunities will open up for you, and it will be a lot more fun.

🙂

Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com and be sure to check out my 2016-17 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

Keep those eyes wide open and always moving around,

JoeB

Anecdotes:

They could have been brothers.
They could have been brothers.

I was shooting a series of ads for Dewars Scotch in Edinburgh, Scotland, and one of the ads featured two men exchanging their secret fly-fishing spots to one another.

We scoured the city for an authentic Scottish pub that fit the layout that had previously been approved by the client…without any luck. It seems that all the old antique wooden bars, tables, and paneling had been bought up by entrepreneurs in the US to use in their new restaurants being built.

We found a room in the back of a boy’s prep school that fit the layout. The only problem was that it was an empty room and needed a lot of help to convert it to a typical Scottish pub. As I tell my online students with the BPSOP, and also my fellow photographers that take my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind”, if you’re going to use props and set things up (which I always encourage) make it look like you didn’t. It’s gotta look real to the viewer. Right before they click the shutter I have them ask themselves…”Do I believe it?”.

While we were dressing the room, my producer went out on the street to look for a couple of men we could use in the ad. Fairly easy since all the older men could have come straight out of central casting; everyone looked great. We picked out two separate men, total strangers, who agreed to play the role of the two fly-fishermen for a fee of $250.00 each.

I had a 12K HMI (a very large daylight balanced twelve thousand watt motion picture light) outside the window to act as the late afternoon light. To bounce light back into the men, I set up a roll of white seamless paper between us and cut a small hole in it to stick my 20mm lens through. That done, I couldn’t see anything except what I saw in the viewfinder. To make it more realistic and to get the men loosened up we use the real thing…a bottle of Dewars.

We had been shooting for quite a while and every time their glasses looked empty, my assistant would fill them up again. Finally, when I saw their glasses needed to be refilled I mentioned it, whereas I was told that the bottle was empty. They had consumed the entire bottle, drinking it ‘neat’ or in other words without anything mixed in it including ice.

It was over!

The two men, who never laid eyes on one another in their lives, were so drunk that they were laughing and falling over each other…and in a matter of an hour and a half had become close enough to be brothers. In fact, so drunk that they could barely walk and were in no condition to find their way home. It made us so nervous that we renting two private cars to drive each one home.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2016-17 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime and I’ll buy you a drink!

Keep sending in your photos and questions to: AskJoeB@gmail.com and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

Food for digital Thought: It’s not what you put in a picture that counts, it’s what you don’t put in that matters.

What else did I need to say pharmaceuticals lab?
What else did I need to say to represent a pharmaceutical lab in a photo?

Photography is the “art of subtraction”. Unlike painting where you start out with a blank canvas on an easel and fill it in until you have a finished work of art, the camera on a tripod starts out with everything the lens can see, and you take things out until you have a finished photo.

The key to finishing up with a finished photograph, worthy of being on a wall is, in knowing what to take out and what to leave in. To me, this is one of the most difficult parts of the process; from the first idea/composition to the final act of clicking the shutter.

I’ve been teaching an online class with the BPSOP for five years, and conducting my personal “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops for over forty years, and one thing that hasn’t changes is that my fellow photographers don’t know when to quit. When to say ok I’m comfortable with what I have so it’s time to let go and click the shutter.

I’ve found that people have a tendency to not trust their judgment and with that comes an insecurity in what they’re doing, and while they’re doing it..therefore their thought process centers around more is better.

Years ago, perhaps a million of them, I was represented by The Stock Market”, one of the first, largest, and most popular stock photography agency in the world. The co-owner and photo editor told me that what she liked about my pictures was that I knew what not to to put into a photograph.

For the most part, I’ve always tried to “keep it clean”. If something in your composition isn’t helping it then more than likely it’s probably hurting it…or at the least taking up unnecessary space. Sometimes you don’t even realize it until you’re sitting in front of a computer, and maybe you can fix it then; which doesn’t make you a good photographer.

I do suggest three ways to help you out on that: My fifteen point protection plan, the border patrol, and the four corner checkoff. At least it might get you to see those pesky UFO’s…those parts of things that invade the edges of your frame – i.e., a part of someone’s hand or foot, the last three letters of a sign, half a light post, etc.

The viewer will fill in the rest of the plant.
The viewer will fill in the rest of the plant.

Sometimes you don’t need the entire horse running through the field, maybe it’s just the neck and head. What if it’s just the grill of a 57′ Chevy? Try it sometime, and let the viewer work at filling in the missing pieces to the puzzle you left him.

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

Keep those photos and questions coming to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique of your photo.

JoeB

My Favorite Quotes: Henri Matisse

Coloring outside the lines takes courage.
Coloring outside the lines takes courage.

I’ve enjoyed writing poss for this category for some time, the first one going back three years. As my fellow photographers that follow my blog know, I don’t limit these quotes to just photographers. Artists of all types and genres are my sources, and as long as their quotes make an impact (as it relates to teaching) on me, then I want to share it with everyone.

My background is in painting and design, so part of my education was spent in Art History; specifically in the study of painting. Among my favorites was the French painter Henri Matisse. Not only known for his use of color, but he was also a printmaker and sculptor. Matisse once said, “Creativity takes courage”.

Until the death of Bryan Peterson, the founder of BPSOP, (the Bryan Peterson school of photography) of which I taught at since 2011, I had often talked to photographers that took my online classes, and my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I still conduct around our planet, about stepping out from the coattails of photography past and present and those that would lead you down the path to mediocrity; and photographic purgatory.

I’m talking about those that follow (with the strictest regularity) rules meant to hinder any chance to being creative; they are the shackles of any original artistry. Creative in the sense of following your own path instead of those others have blazed a million years before..at least during the onset of camera clubs…and now the ruts are are beginning to be too deep to climb out of.

Coloring outsides the lines instead of listening to bad advise offered by those that are too afraid to do so themselves takes courage. We have become a  nation of sheep, and find it easier to go with the flow than follow the beat of a different drummer.

For the most part, I’ve found that photographers want/need  to be safe in their approach to creativity and strive for that first, second, or third place ribbon awarded to those that follow the rules laid out in their respective clubs; or perhaps a big smile and gentle pat on the back from friends or family members…that love you unconditionally.

Without the revolution started by these influential impressionist painters: Pisarro, Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Bazille, art may have never been so radically changed; they challenged the art world and although scorned at first finally won. As photographers we should consider ourselves as painters who have chosen a camera as our medium; our cameras on a tripod is the same as a blank canvas on an easel.

Break all those silly rules that I’m sure all of you at one time or another have either read about or someone has been whispering in your ear; for the most part it’s really bad advice.  If your photos are constantly being degraded from fellow photo club members because they don’t follow their rules…start your own club and enlist only those that dare to be courageous.

FYI, I know of people that have done just that.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and check out my 2016-17 workshop at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime and we’ll be creative together.

Don’t forget to send me a photo and question to; AskjoeB@gmail.com and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

Quick Photo Tip: Making one person stand out

Isolating just the woman executive takes time.
Isolating just the woman executive takes time.

I’m not sure how many of my fellow photographers out there ever have the need to light and shoot a group of people and make just one of them stand out without the others knowing; and still make the lighting even on everyone. As they now say, “Being politically correct”.

Having complete control of both your exposure and shutter speed is essential, to pull it off. In this executive portrait, I set up in an empty room in the company’s offices. By using  black board in between the lights that are on each of the temporary stand in models (we used so we wouldn’t take up too much of the real executives time), I was able to control the reflected light hitting each one separately. Using my Minolta One Degree Spot Meter model ‘F’ for both ambient and electronic flash readings I matched the light on all three executives.

Now having the light readings the same, I then could control my DOF. I could have all three in focus, just the man in the middle, or the man on the left end. In this situation, the woman was the key executive, and the one the company wanted to feature in their annual report to the stockholders.

By using a 300mm telephoto lens, I could isolate the woman at F/2.8 even though the next man was sitting close to her. I did this by getting as close to her as the lens would focus, approx. twelve feet.

Then it was time for the real executives to come in and make it look as though they were in a real meeting; instead of looking at a whole lot of diffusion material. I tried countless variations where I had each executive doing something different; as though it was an actual working meeting.

Remember that lighting takes a lot of time to make your photos look good. So many of my online students with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet just don’t take the time necessary when you’re using flash; either inside or outside. They tend to only think about the main subject and let everything else fall where it may…not a very good idea.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2016-17 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

Keep sending in your photos and questions to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

Life Before Photoshop: Budweiser

The finished product.
The finished product.

Looking back through all my post in this category, brings to mind all the years I spent without the help of Lightroom and Photoshop. I’m closing in on fifty years of shooting advertising and corporate photography, and I would say that three-quarters of those years were spent without their help. These years were during the period of time when computers were not invented, in their infancy stage, and later on when Adobe was a type of house in the Southwest part of the country.

I was recently talking to a woman that had taken both my online class with the BPSOP, and several of my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet. One of the things she said was, “I can’t imagine shooting and not seeing what you’ve captured while it is being developed.  That in itself, has to make one think very carefully before clicking the shutter. ”

She’s right, but it was a lot scarier than that!!!

Imagine a large production shot that included an out of town location, people, interior lighting you had to make believable, and important props that helped tell the story. Now imagine getting everything in the frame to be withing one stop of one another; from the front to the back, and from one side to the other…that’s not counting the exposure on the faces of the subjects. All this on one 35mm Kodachrome transparency.

Now, imagine not being able to see your finished photo until you got back home, sent the film to the lab, then waited nervously until you saw the first three to four frame clips. I only knew it would be close ahead of time based on the countless meter readings I took with my Minolta One-degree Spot Meter and bracketing in one third intervals. Had it not been for this meter, I would have never been as successful as I was…plain and simple.

In the photo of the boxer, Budweiser sent me a layout depicting a young Hispanic man posing with his trainer and manager, to be taken in the gym they worked out in. These were not to be models, but the real deal. I sent a location scout to San Antonio to check out his gym to see if it fit all the requirements. In other words, if it looked real. Needless to say I was exited when I saw the photos and quickly set up a date to take their portraits.

Knowing from the photos that the room was going to be too dark to really work with, I took virtually all the lighting I had in my studio; I wound up using everything I took.

Here’s the finished production photo with a video of how I achieved it with out the help of any post processing. Everything was created in the camera on one piece of film.

http://www.screencast.com/t/lLw6jNdZiS

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

Keep those photos and questions coming to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique of your photo.

JoeB

Personal Pearl of Wisdom: Hurry Up and Wait

What I was waiting for.
What I was waiting for.

When I’m out walking the streets whether it be in Paris, Lisbon, New York, recently in Cuba, or in my own backyard, I pretty much follow the same routine. That is, I look for all the elements of Visual Design, light, and color. Any of these are what I call pieces to a puzzle, and when I can get enough of these pieces, I look for something that can tie them all together. The final touch, the glue, the last “layer of interest” that can complete my work of art…my photo.

If I see something that fits the bill, and I have the time to wait, I’ll find a nice comfortable place to sit (hopefully) or stand and wait. The hurry up part is to get what I think is the best exposure and lock it in to my manual settings. I arrange my composition to allow for that certain something, and when it comes I’ll know it.

It could come in a second, a minute, or ten minutes. The longer I’m willing to devote to it depend entirely on how important I think the photo could be. One thing I know from years of experience is that if and when it comes, I’m not going to have a lot of time to shoot; and as Eddie Adams once said, “When you get lucky, be ready”.

The above photo was taken on my recent third trip to Cuba for the Santa Fe Workshops. We were in a small town an hour outside of Havana, and it was mid morning. The sun was sky high, and it was incredibly hot with little to no shade; too hot to walk around aimlessly. Across the small square I spotted a brick wall with a grouping of buildings behind it.

I immediately saw the yellow and turquoise shapes, and what I also saw were semi-squares that created a pattern.  These are two of the basic elements of visual design. I loved the way the colors seemed to be in harmony and quickly took a vertical approach, minimizing the semi-squares that weren’t yellow. I always take into account what I always tell my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet, “It’s not what you put in your pictures that counts, it’s what you don’t put in that matters”.

What I saw.
What I saw.

Ok, the hurry-up part was done, all I needed was that certain something to happen. Several people walked by, but no one was wearing anything colorful. After a longer period of time than I wanted given the time of day and the temperature, I spotted a mother and daughter sitting on a bench behind me.

The daughter was wearing exactly what I was looking for, so I asked the mother if they would cross the street and walk by the concrete wall. The little girl began walking at a faster pace maybe ten feet in front, she suddenly stopped, and stuck her head into one of the semi-squares. I was able to get off one frame before the mom came into the frame, said something to the girl and took her away.

If I hadn’t seen past my first impression and used my Artist Palette, had my composition and exposure set, and was able to minimize an ordinary hot blue sky, I would not have been able to capture this moment in time.

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

Keep those photos and questions coming to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique of your photo.

JoeB

2016 Maine Media Workshop

Pemaquid Point lighthouse with Peter.
Pemaquid Point lighthouse with Peter.

I recently returned from my 28th year at the Maine Media Workshop. The campus is located in Rockport, Maine, and it’s one of my favorite things to do every August. I’ve picked this week every year because it’s the same week as the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland.

This year was no different and with a good group of photographers we spent a great week together shooting and discussing their images.

My workshop is called “Stretching Your Frame of Mind”, and I teach people how to incorporate the elements of visual design into their photography. I also show students that take my online class with the BPSOP how to make these same elements work for them as well.

As I’ve done in the past when I get back home, I put together a post that’s made up of entirely their photos taken over the course of the week. These photos were taken at locations I’ve been going to for many years, as in the photos taken at Pemaquid Point lighthouse…along with a photograph that calls for a production; as in the photo the class did together of Ghost face…a character in the Scream series.

Enjoy the show:

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2017 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime…come to Maine in 2017

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

JoeB

AskJoeB: A photo from a recent class.

From a recent class.
From a recent class.

Harry submitted this image for me to take a look at. I always like to show what the photographer says to me. Although it’s not in question form, here’s what he had to say:

“I took your part I and II online classes with the BPSOP over the summer and don’t think my submitted images were particularly good, but the material presented in class has stuck with me. I just finished a nature and wildlife photography class at the local college and I referred to your class material repeatedly, and I always have my artists palette with me! Here’s one of the photo’s from my recent class. Other students may not have seen this as “nature and wildlife” but I couldn’t resist the Line, Shape, Pattern and Texture, with a payoff at the end, a fisherman! I can’t thank you enough for your wit, wisdom and patience as a teacher.”

First of all thanks Harry for the kind words. Not only do I create the artist palette for people in my online classes, but also in my “Stretching your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet.

I really liked your photo and I’m pretty sure the viewer will also enjoy looking at all the elements of visual design that are so much a part of it.

Take a look:

http://screencast.com/t/tLVZTjxXFo

Thanks for the submission and I’d love to see more of your work.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my upcoming workshop description at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I have recently written the description for my next “springtime” workshop to be next May 17th, 2017. We will be spending three days in Vienna, and three days in Budapest. I hope you can join me for a wonderful week in two of Europe’s most beautiful cities…during festival time.

Keep sending in photos and questions to:AskJoeB@gmail.com and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

AskJoeB: Your Opinion

What's my opinion?
What’s my opinion?

Valeriano sent me these two photos to comment on. I usually like to  copy the question the photographers that submit photos write and some explanation of why they took it, but this time  he choose not to say anything and only wanted my opinion of the photographs.

Well, in that case let’s just get to the video critique of both images:

http://screencast.com/t/MhAKz5ODp

Here’s Valeriano’s second image and video:

 

My opinion.
My opinion.

http://screencast.com/t/di0FFxjVEHK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I tell people that take my online class with the BPSOP, and also in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, before you raise your camera up to your eye determine where the sun is in relation to your subject. If your subject is anything translucent, try to backlight it as it will appear to be glowing…as it does in Valeriano’s two images.

Really nice photos!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my upcoming workshop description at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. I have recently written the description for my next “springtime” workshop to be next May 17th, 2017. We will be spending three days in Vienna, and three days in Budapest. I hope you can join me for a wonderful week in two of Europe’s most beautiful cities…during festival time.

Keep sending in photos and questions to:AskJoeB@gmail.com and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB

Food for Digital Thought: Form

Light from 9:00 O’clock

My background is not in Photography, rather in Art. Up until I was twenty-0ne I had either a colored pencil, brush, or a piece of charcoal in my hand.

I studied just about everything there was to study as far as courses in art were concerned. Throughout my years of study, I was always interested in the elements of visual design, and how they made a drawing or painting stronger.

When I changed the medium to a camera, those elements came with me, and now as I help students in my online class with the BPSOP, and in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet become stronger photographers, these same elements play a key role in developing their eye.

One of the elements of visual design that I talk about is Form. To many of my fellow photographers, Form can be taxing and difficult for photographers to capture, although if you pay attention to where the source of the light is, it’s really quit simple.

Form simply refers to the three dimensional qualities of an object. Since the camera has just one eye, it can only see in two dimensions…height and width. Where the light is coming from is critical in creating the third dimension, depth.

Light from 3:00 o'clock
Light from 3:00 o’clock

To best create the illusion of depth, the light should be coming in from the side. On my imaginary clock, for straight sidelight the light needs to coming from either 9:00 o’clock or 3:00 o’clock.

Value refers to the lightness and darkness of an object, and it defines Form. I talk mostly about the sidelight on a subject or even a landscape, but what you also have to consider in sidelight is the shadows that will be created. The soft to strong contrast within a composition will also define the limits where the  highlights and shadows edges are placed.

It’s the shadows that give the illusion of depth, and as I always tell my students, shadows are your best friend.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2016 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. The end of July marks my twenty-eight year at the Maine Media workshops. It’s a wonderful way to immerse yourself for a week and think about nothing but photography. It’s the same week as the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland, and offers a completely different set of photo ops than the beautiful Maine coastline, amazing lighthouses, and quaint fishing villages. The full description is at the top of this blog.

The Los Angeles Center for photography has invited me to come out and conduct a three day intensive workshop over the July 15th weekend. I’ll be making a presentation of my work on Thursday July 14th and the public is invited. The full description can be see at the top of this blog, with a link to the site. I hope to spend the weekend with all of you.

I have added a new workshop to my 2016 schedule. On September 21st, ten photographers will get together with me at my evening “meet and greet” to begin a fantastic five-day workshop in New York, New York. Check out my description at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me.

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

 

The Use of Gestalt in Photography: Similarity

A sense of rhythm and harmony.
A sense of rhythm and harmony.

The psychology of Gestalt has been around since the 1920’s and was founded by a group of German psychologists. I started reading about it several years ago and began applying these six different concepts to the way I was approaching the way I took photos.

It’s all about managing what the viewer perceives and processes when looking at the visual information we lay out to him in the form of a photograph. Visual input is a part of our everyday lives, and it’s our objective to present this information in a way that will keep the viewer around longer…looking at our photos. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I like it when people look at my images for a long time.

Besides the part I and II classes I teach online with the BPSOP, relating to the elements of visual design, I now teach my fellow photographers how to incorporate these six concepts in a class strictly on gestalt. These are also areas I talk about in my “Stretching Your Frame of mind” workshops I conduct around our planet.

One of these concepts is called Similarity.

Similarity is perhaps the easiest of all the concepts to recognize and therefore explaining it without going into too much detail.

Similarity occurs when forms, colors, sizes, and objects look enough alike to be perceived as a group or pattern in the viewer’s mind. All these different elements, when occurring in your photos, give a sense of rhythm and will connote harmony.

The viewer loves to see photos that are designed with a variety of colors, shapes, and forms, and when the viewer sees these similar characteristics, he’ll perceive the elements as being related due to the shared characteristics.

Here’s a few examples of what I mean:

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my 2016 workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime. The end of July marks my twenty-eight year at the Maine Media workshops. It’s a wonderful way to immerse yourself for a week and think about nothing but photography. It’s the same week as the Lobster Festival down the road in Rockland, and offers a completely different set of photo ops than the beautiful Maine coastline, amazing lighthouses, and quaint fishing villages. The full description is at the top of this blog.

I have added a new workshop to my 2016 schedule. On September 21st, ten photographers will get together with me at my evening “meet and greet” to begin a fantastic five-day workshop in New York, New York. Check out my description at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me.

The Los Angeles Center for photography has invited me to come out and conduct a three day intensive workshop over the July 15th weekend. I’ll be making a presentation of my work on Thursday July 14th and the public is invited. The full description can be see at the top of this blog, with a link to the site. I hope to spend the weekend with all of you.

Keep sending in photos and questions to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create  video critique for you.

JoeB

AskJoeB: Joe, what do you think about this photo?

What do you think?
What do you think?

Karen submitted this photo of three seagulls. She asked me what I thought about the photo, and I like to share what each of my fellow photographers had to say. In this case, all Karen said was ” Joe, what do you think about this photo”.

The first thing I immediately felt was how closed in the photo seemed…Why you ask? Because of the square format.

As I’m always reminding my students that take my online class with the BPSOP, and in my own “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around our planet, we don’t perceive in a square, we perceive in a rectangle; which is why I always use a 3:2 aspect ratio. In my opinion it’s very difficult to achieve visual tension in a square, especially in a landscape.

I’m not saying you can never achieve tension, because it depends on the subject matter. Diane Arbus comes to mind as someone that could generate tension in a square, and if you know her photos, you’ll know why I’m saying it. Sh also committed suicide.

Take a look at my video: http://www.screencast.com/t/c900iYDpgchJ

As I said Karen, cropping is not necessarily a cure-all for creating strong photos. There’s so much more involved as far as deciding on what’s important in your composition. I would suggest you try getting it in the camera and not cropping it later in front of a computer. It’s just one opinion, but if you strive to being a better shooter, then design your shot before you click the shutter.

Here’s what it would look like if it was in a 3:2 aspect ratio. Which one do you like?

A rectangle
A rectangle

Thanks for the submission, and I hope my critiqued helped.

I want to announe my new upcoming three day intensive workshop at the Los Angeles Center for Photography this coming July 15th with my presentation on the evening of the 14th. I hope to see some new fces out there and say hello to some old ones: https://lacphoto.org/events/stretching-your-frame-of-mind-with-joe-baraban/

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. July 31st starts my Maine Media Workshop. It will be my 28th year, and it’s a great way to immerse yourself in taking pictures for a week. Come shoot with me.

Keep sending in photos and questions to: AskJoeB@gmail.com, and I’ll create a video critique for you.

JoeB