Early this year we released OUR new miniseries, PHOTOGRAPHICS, covering everything from composition, to line, light and history. You can also watch here on YouTube.
There’s a great lack of photographic history out there and knowing where we came from can truly change how we work. Today we’re releasing the entire history segment from PHOTOGRAPHICS for no cost. We hope you’ll check out the entire series, but you certainly don’t want to miss this historical overview of photography. Perhaps someday we’ll be able produce a full history miniseries on the topic.
In the next 20 minutes you’ll get the basics and we encourage you to take it further by joining organizations like the International Photography Hall of Fame and taking deeper studies of painting and history to discover makes our craft so beautiful. You can also check out the full trailer for PHOTOGRAPHICS and get the rest of the 3 hour series here. — Seim
Artists Sunset – Ken Whitmire in Pacific City Oregon. Fall 2011 by Gavin Seim.
It was one of those Sunsets. The ones with stunning clouds and radiant colors that seem to last forever. Like a great song that keeps on playing. I was on a road trip to the Oregon Coast with Ken Whitmire, the renown portraitist. Ken was working with a family on the beach in Pacific City and I assisted, while getting images and video for a project we were working on.
About halfway through Ken was on his ladder, having this family of five walk down the beach. I just stood back and watched. A bit envious of the amazing portraits he was going to take home. It was a stunning evening. I took in the incredible ocean landscape with some awe. In between video clips, I decided to go vertical and try to illustrate Ken as the working professional in his environment. I hoped for a sort of memorable feel that that artists and photographers could relate to.
This has been really well received. I admit, I did not realize it would strike such a chord, but I’m glad it did. To me this says something about creative craftsmanship and taking your time. It reminds us to take the extra steps up that ladder to make an image Great. That’s what Ken Whitmire has done for over fifty years and I’m glad I got to be a small part of that.
Our road trip was a memorable one in more ways than one. In fact by brother and I wrote a short short story about this trip. You can read that here on the Brothers Seim blog.
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Gavin Seim: The folks at Nikon got a little too enthusiastic yesterday and posted this on their FB page, telling us that “A photographer is only as good as the equipment he uses” Perhaps they were momentarily blinded by how the world seems to actually look at photography these days and forgot that it’s actually a skill. Oh wait, I guess it was companies like them that promoted that idea 😉
Don’t get me wrong, quality optics and the like are important considerations. But the best gear is of no value at all, unless your good enough to make it sing. If I play a Stradivarius, it still sounds something akin to cats being run over by trucks.
I’m not sure what’s more scary. That Nikon posted this. Or that 1695 people Like it. Thanks for sending us this Greg. We still love you Nikon (sorta), but really. Teach your social team about photography.
by Gavin Seim: Help a friend this season. Camera abuse will effect over 950 million people (probably a lot more) this year alone. It most commonly occurs when a person buys a camera, makes business cards, a website, and decides they should start pressing random buttons, as they pretend they suddenly understand a skill that takes years to master.
We understand, as cameras are really cool. But aside from the suffering the camera must endure. Children, individuals, couples and families, will be subjected to poor lighting, posing, composition, false confidence, bad retouching, and often outright lies, as an abuser pretends to know what he or she is doing. While the abuser may trip over a few good photos. Tears will flow in the end.
Stop Camera Abuse. Help the victims and help the abusers. It’s cool that they love their cameras. Just help them learn to fly before they jump out of the airplane. Send a friend educational books, to real workshops, or to long hours of practice, before unleashing them on the masses. Take the batteries out and even burn the business cards, if it’s bad enough.
Art is subjective. Experience is less so. It’s time to be honest. Friends don’t let friends camera abuse. Spread the word and start change now. History will thank you. And your friends will too.
This message brought to you by Gavin Seim and Pro Photo Show. Note: Please be careful when burning business cards. Fire is also awesome, but can be dangerous. Check local laws.
Updated 12/11. Never has raising the bar on quality been so relevant to photography than in today’s crowded market. But never have the tools at our disposal been so powerful either. So today I want to share a few quick ideas on inching that bar up, each time we release the shutter. And few tips to help us shoot better and make our images as perfect as they can be.
1. Visualization. Really seeing.
It’s often said it starts in the camera. Well in truth it starts before that. I’m certainly no pioneer in visualizing, but I’ve learned how valuable it is. Sometimes our digital generation brushes aside with a chuckle the tried and true techniques, as if they were insignificant. As if because we have cameras with screens, it’s no longer necessary understand such things. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in nearly 15 years of pursuing photography. It’s don’t ignore the techniques of the old masters. My generation sometimes thinks they have a better way. They usually don’t.
I recently recorded a short podcast on how I use visualization right here. But the bottom line is you have to do more than just look and click. Visualizing takes practice. It’s NOT about not just seeing something that’s in front of you, or even just seeing an object or composition. It’s about seeing what you want in your final image. Everything you want. The objects, the lines, the tone light and dark of various elements, the colors, the composition. Even down to seeing in your mind the edits you plan to do in the real, or the digital darkroom.
I find using the Zone System to help visualize your scene and place the tonal ranges helps a great deal. Not to mention helping you expose better. But even if you don’t use the Zone System at every step, the zone scale can be invaluable in visualizing. And with practice will become second nature and will effect your work at every stage. You can learn about the Zone system in my article about Zones. Also here’s a classic video with Ansel himself talking about it.
Sunsets Hidden Falls, 2010. Having a pre-visualization of the scene I wanted helped me plan the exposures and edit this properly. More on this image at.. http://bit.ly/bVa0hm
2. The Camera.
This is step 2. These first two could go together. But visualization deserved that first category. Do it before you raise that camera, because it’s easy to get caught in the moment and forget about truly visualizing. But after that visualization, the camera is where a great image is captured. Not the computer. You have a visual for what you want to capture, now you need to use your tools to make it happen.
Consider what you’re trying to do and how you need to leverage your equipment. Shutter speeds, supports, aperture, focus, timing, light. Read the Six Keys To Photographic Image Quality for more thoughts on the technical side of this. And of course, don’t forget your visualization and composition to help make it all happen. This is something to think about in a digital age where we tend to spray and pray. I’m a firm believer that as a whole, our industry needs to slow down. More images does not make better quality and I find taking your time with your camera and image setup makes a great deal if difference in your final result.
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