There’s always a debate raging about whether or not post-processing in something like Photoshop is cheating or not. As someone that used to develop film I know that many of the things you can do in Photoshop, such as burning in, dodging, spot removal and even, if you’re technical minded enough, manipulation of the image itself are all possible when printing a negative. As such I’m firmly on the side that its not cheating.

Based on the DPS article, and the before/after examples Neil shows, I thought I’d present below a before/after of one of my shots from my recent trip to Lebanon.

As you can see there’s quite a different between the before and after shot. Although in reality all I’ve done is to amend the white balance slightly to warm the image, burnt in on the sky (ideally I would have used a graduation ND filter but didn’t have it with me that day) and boosted the colours slightly. All things that are perfectly achievable in the darkroom.

And like Neil it does help me fine tune my craft. In this case remembering to bring my ND Grad filter, but also perhaps to watch the exposure a little (that said I always tend to expose to the right a little, as should you!). However ultimately it comes down to my own personal vision I had for the shot and if tweaking the image as I did above gets me closer to what I originally intended then I see no problem with this.

What do you think? Cheating or useful?

As David duChemin is always preaching, gear is good but vision is better. Whilst I still have kit I’d like to buy (anyone care to send me a Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM for Christmas?) I’m now at the stage where I think I have (most of) the basic kit I need. As a result its time to focus on my vision. Experiencing new things and challenging myself to come back from a trip with engaging shots is far more appealing. Doing this will invariably lead to you taking better photographs.

To illustrate this, have a look at the shots below.

The first is from a 2006 trip to Guatemala and whilst I like it, I’d be the first to say its a little boring and ordinary. Compare it to the second shot from a 2010 trip to Iran.

Whilst I admit my equipment has improved over this time, I think my composition skills, focus, and post-processing abilities have seen a far greater improvement.I hope you agree that over the years my vision has improved! So next time you’re considering buying some new equipment, usually with the thought that it will help take your photography to that “next level”, why not stop and think about other alternatives to push you to improve your skills. If you can travel and put yourself in unfamiliar surroundings I can guarantee it will force you to improve your photography.

Travel photography can be great… flying around the world, experiencing different cultures. But unless you’ve won the lottery (and unfortunately I fall into this group) it’s unlikely you’ll be doing this all year. So what to do when you’re stuck at home and have finished processing all the images from your last trip?

Why not consider being a tourist in your home town/city or nearby locations?

Let’s face it, for most of us we take for granted everything in our own city. We go from home to work or the shops and back probably following the same routes as always. Many times you might know of famous landmarks near where you live but have you ever really explored them in depth? When you’re not travelling the world, it’s time to appreciate the place you live and look at it in a new light.

So how to approach being a tourist in your own town?

Well like any other trip you’d make, start with your planning. Search the web and look in guide books for things to do and locations true out of towners are directed to. Make a list of at least five of those you want to see and plan a day or two to visit them all.

If you usually drive, leave the car at home and use public transport wherever possible. Explore at different times of the day to when you usually do (for example at night). Just these simple changes will give you a new outlook on your surroundings. If you can afford it and for the real tourist experience, you might even like to go the whole hog and book into a hotel for a night!

If possible get a map so you look the part. If you know how to get from A to B, try finding a less obvious route. Tell everyone you’re visiting and ask for recommendations. Eat out in the evening at a nice restaurant (but avoid the places you regularly go to).

Finally, don’t forget your camera and take shots of the new things you see and discover, or if you really do know your city well, aim for new angles on familiar places. By changing your mindset in this way you can produce a set of “travel” photos for your home town and as well as keeping your hand in hopefully discover something new about the place you live.

Each time someone comes up with a killer new technique, the masses rush to copy it. They adopt it wholesale and use it as an un-suck filter for images that just don’t work – but wave the magic-wand-of-the-day over it and poof! its novel and new

I’ve realised that to a large degree I’ve been guilty of this, and whilst it might not be the technique of the moment that I use, I have seen Lightroom presets and thought, “Wow – that really makes that photo great”. The trouble is, the photo in the before/after shot showing the preset is not one I’ve taken and doesn’t necessarily represent what I was trying to communicate when I took my latest shot.

I don’t dispute that we’re all influenced by other work we see. It’s unavoidable.  However taking a preset that someone else has created for their own specific needs and applying it to one of your own images isn’t necessarily going to help tell the story you wanted to tell.

So for now I’m taking a step back, I’m taking a breath, and I’m trying to work with images from scratch without using presets. Looking at the shot and remembering what it was that “spoke to me” when I decided to take it and using the tools available to me to try and communicate that vision through my own digital darkroom techniques.

I must admit it’s tough. Looking back I can see how there were a handful of favourite presets that I would turn to for almost every shot. Click the preset, a few minor tweaks and upload. Now I’m finding I’m being far more scrupulous about which shots are my picks and its taking quite a bit longer to process things – but this is good! It’s forcing me to shift my thinking from “this shots is okay” to “what do I want this image to communicate and how can I strengthen that”. I’ve always been quite frugal in the shots I take (compared to some of the people I travel with) so I think I’ve always, sub-consciously looked at a scene and thought about what it “said”, but this new approach is about bringing this to the fore-front of your mind more. Especially during the development stage.

Have a think about the shots you take and how you develop them. Are you guilty of over-using certain techniques or presets or getting complacent in developing your images? If so, try forcing yourself to think more deeply about why you took a shot and rather than rely on someone else’s settings, try to develop it to match your vision and voice (oh and of course the book I mentioned helps!)

Sometimes I set out without a clue what I’m going to shoot. I pick a destination, pack my camera bag with a selection of items I hope will cover most eventualities, and head off not knowing what I’m going to find. I’m also sure I’m not alone in this and those of you that keep your (hopefully smaller and lighter) camera in your bag at all times are probably very familiar with this.

Over the recent long weekend I was determined to get out for a wander somewhere. Most of my friends were busy or not interested so I headed to a familiar haunt - Thruscross Reservoir, near Harrogate in the UK. Its a large body of water and it takes a solid two to three hours to walk the full circuit. My favourite part is about half way around when you move into the woods. Many other reservoirs seem to have cleared much of the forests around them but Thruscross still has some nice woodland.

I had no idea of what to shoot when I arrived. As mentioned its somewhere I’ve been several times, in good weather and bad, and morning noon and night. Its also somewhere that has always surprised. One of the last times I was there, I narrowly managed to avoid a massive rainstorm, but it made for some great photos. As I walked around this time, and particularly when I started to enter the more heavily wooded areas, I noticed a great many mushrooms had sprouted. Unfortunately a large number had been kicked over or damaged but there were enough to decide that this would be my theme for the day.

Annoyingly I’d forgotten to bring a mat, and following recent rains the ground was wet and pretty muddy. Of course for the best shots of mushrooms you need to get down nice and low, which did provide a bit of a challenge. However despite not being able to lie out on the ground with my camera, I still managed to get some nice shots to build up my existing mushroom collection.

So ultimately, even if you have no specific objective in mind, I would still always recommend you take your camera with you. You never know when inspiration might strike and what you might find.

Obviously its unlikely you’ll want to take everything with you. However pack too much and you’ll be carrying a heavy bag of equipment that provides no use other than improving your fitness and stamina levels! But pack too little and you risk leaving behind something essential that you find out you need when arriving at your destination. So here’s my handy packing lists broken down by (i) a weekend away, (ii) short haul/short break and (iii) long haul experiences.

A Weekend Away

When you head away for a long weekend, you generally know where you’re going and what you’re going to see. Its likely you’ll be staying within a reasonably small geographic area and a little research should provide you with a fairly accurate forecast of the weather. As such you should be able to pack light and keep your kit to a minimum.

• Your camera!
• A good zoom lens (for a city break you might consider something around 18-55mm)
• A reasonably sized (4Gb) memory card + spare (just in case!)
• Lens cloth/Small cleaning kit
• Small daypack/rucksack

Short Haul/Short Break

Heading somewhere slightly further afield, for perhaps up to a week, needs a little more thought. Its likely you’ll be exploring a range of locations and as the forecast won’t be as accurate over longer periods you’re more at risk from the weather. You’ll probably be taking more photos as well so extra memory is important as well.

• Your camera
• A couple of lenses (I’d suggest the 18-55mm mentioned before and something with a larger zoom)
• Lightweight tripod (this depends on what you may be shooting)
• 3-4 memory cards (4Gb or 8Gb)
• Lens cloth/cleaning kit
• Filters (definitely a polariser and perhaps others)
• Remote release (especially if you take a tripod)
• Spare batteries
• Rucksack

Long Haul Experiences

As the trips get longer, there’s a good chance they are more likely to become special places you’ll not return to often (if at all) – and so the ability to capture your experiences becomes more important. The equipment you take with you needs to reflect this and you don’t want to miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity because you didn’t bring something to get the shot you wanted. The longer you’re away, the need to be able to back up your images securely also becomes a core requirement. The last thing you want is to return home and find you’ve lost or damaged a memory card!

• Your camera
• Wide angle lens and zoom lens (plus prime 50mm)
• Lightweight tripod
• Filters (polarisers, ND graduated filters plus holders)
• Flashgun
• Spare batteries and charger
• 4+ memory cards (preferably 8Gb+)
• Laptop and card reader, or memory card backup device
• Remote release
• Lens cloth and lens and sensor cleaning kits
• Large rucksack

Of course these are just suggestions and your own requirements are going to vary depending on where you’re heading to. If you’re going somewhere very cold – take extra batteries as they won’t last long. If you’re going to be around water (rain, on rivers, the sea) -  include waterproofing. But as a rough guide to get you started I hope the above lists prove at a minimum something to serve as a base to work from.

As travel became easier and tourism to these same places took off Travel Photography changed from being a glimpse of the exotic and strange to providing enticing and aspirational images for brochures and travel guides. However until relatively recently it was still the work of a few professional photographers who would head out to locations at the request of tour companies and travel guide publishers.

However in this age of digital photography and cheap access to the technology to take potentially stunning pictures I think Travel Photography needs to redefined again. When many locals in destinations that you or I might visit have access to photography and don’t have to travel anywhere to take great shots of their local area (which they also have a better knowledge of) the core market for Travel Photography becomes saturated with a surfeit of shots. As David duChemin mentioned on his blog a while back:

…the market is saturated, and anyone who wants an image of Taj Mahal can go to Flickr and find 100 photographers who’ve shot the same shot from the same angle on the same camera, and they’ll fight for the chance to give the image away in hopes of garnering a publishing credit.

So what is a Travel Photographer to do? Personally I think there are two options: quality specific shots and photo-essays.

Whilst sites like Flickr might abound with images of key landmarks and locations, a serious photographer is going to look for a different angle on a familiar subject to present it in a new and captivating light. And speaking of light, they are far more likely to work with it. Waiting for the right quality and direction of light. Overall this is hopefully going to result in a far more studied composition; a higher quality image. There will also probably be a fairly specific requirement from a client requesting images of the location in question.

The second option is photo-essays and this is where I now think the more modern definition of Travel Photography sits most comfortably.

By photo-essays I mean a collection of images that have a cohesiveness and tell a story, whether that is about the trip itself, or a culture or its history. A gallery that takes the reader along for the ride. Although you have to be careful that they are creative quality images and not just a collection of your holiday snaps. As a result this means having an idea of what you want the final output to be and conducting your research before going. (However its always advisable to remain flexible to adapt to conditions/experiences on your travels).

Personally, I don’t think the Travel Photography genre is going to disappear any time soon. But it’s clear that from its origins in the mid-1800s its definition has changed and adapted as both the available equipment and ability to travel have improved.

Back when I first started in photography I shot on black and white film. It was cheaper, and easier for me to develop and print myself (which allowed me to correct a large number of the mistakes I made when I took the shot!).

To this day I still like black and white photography, however with the move away from film and the advent of cheap digital cameras it seems few people take black and white shots nowadays. In this post I’m hoping to talk a bit about the difference between colour and black and white photography and encourage some of you to try seeing the world in monochrome.

When shooting in colour your primary focus is the colours in the scene. Are they complimentary or do they clash? Saturated or muted? Is there something in the image who’s colour will attract (or distract) the viewer?

When you switch to black and white the composition simplifies to contrast, light and texture.

However, although it might seem strange, if you camera has a black and white mode I would not recommend using it. Shoot in colour and switch to black and white during post-processing. The reason for this is although you might have a good idea in your mind how the scene you are about to shoot will look in black and white, taking the shot in colour gives you greater flexibility to tweak the contrast (via manipulation of individual colours in the conversion process) in your final image.

Light in black and white photography is perhaps more important than in colour. An evenly lit subject will often look flat in black and white and contrast is usually needed to bring out key details and shapes and to separate your subject from the background. Black and white can also be more forgiving. Skies on a bright overcast day can often be a disappointment in colour shots, but are more easily ignored/overlooked in black and white, where the focus is more on form and texture.

If you’re shooting portraits, think about what your subjects will wear. Patterned clothing does not always suit black and white photography and solid block colours can produce a far stronger final image.

Landscapes lend themselves especially well to black and white. You only have to think of the greats – Ansel Adams, Bill Bandt, Ralph Gibson – to see this.

So next time you’re out shooting, why not deliberately try to take some shots for final black and white output. If you can ignore the colour of a scene in front of you it helps train the mind to the composition and various textures in the scene which  ultimately (in my opinion) creates better all round photography.  As inspiration, here’s a collection of some great black and white images.

…the belief that the ultimate goal in photography is to get a pretty picture. Not just any pretty picture, the prettiest of pretty pictures, the most beautiful of the beautiful, the most stunning of the stunning, the most jaw dropping of the dropped jaws photos. The bestest ever.

That is everyone’s goal—yours too, admit it. That is why we always go out for yet another sunset or sunrise. This might be the sunset that beats all other sunsets, you think and if that happens you’ll be there and, even better, you’ll be set for life. You’ll be celebrated by all your photo buddies and envied by all your photo competitors. You’ll be recognized as that guy or gal that took the best shot ever and money and fame will surely follow wherever you go.

In some ways I agree, but do think its a little over-simplified.

The article proposes your approach should be to focus more on themes (or stories as they call it). A collection of related images that hang together as a whole around a specific theme. I guess the theme could be technical, stylistic or subject based. I don’t think it matters so long as all the images, when viewed together, form a coherent whole.

If you’d like to make up your own mind you can read the full article at the link below.

The Biggest Myth in Photography

This is definitely the case with one Flickr user – Dippold – who has shared a template to build your own camera. A perfect little project to keep you from gorging on all those chocolate Easter eggs this holiday!

All you need is a printer, some paper, a rubber band and a couple of rolls of 35mm film and you too can make your own pin-hole camera. Even better, Dippold has even added a nifty chart providing guideline exposure times.

Follow the link below to view Dippold’s Flickr stream and get the template yourself.

Dippold: Pin-hole Camera Tutorial & Template