Category: Tips & Techniques

Thus creating an image that communicates with viewers beyond what is in front of the lens is more challenging and difficult workflow, one that requires visualization, composition, capture craft and patience.  While all photographs arise from some level of reality our post production tools— Lightroom and Photoshop— allows us to alter that reality to invoke perceptions…

It’s the New Year, a new decade, and it is a common practice to make New Year’s Resolutions. But failure to keep our resolutions is not an uncommon outcome. For Photographers, some resolutions might be: “This year I’m really going to take my work to the next level;”  “I’m going to get out there and shoot more;” …

During a post-production session at a recent Mojave First Horizon Workshop several photographers  asked why I teach them to start with the black slider in Adobe Lightrooms’ development module first. Here is Why: When we adjust the black slider, we find the darkest area of the image that will still hold detail…

Sharp pain in my left hip, unable to move my left leg, unable to sit up, labored breathing were all indicators of something broken or severely bruised. Jonathan, who has many years of experience leading Outward-Bound Classes and Cross-Country Bike Tours took all the appropriate actions— back pack removal, position stabilization, situational awareness checks, and water, were all critical tasks as we were many miles from help.

The American Landscape is a vast array of interlinked details and immense wide-open spaces compressed into a web of real and imagined suggestions. Every location is its own special vision or nightmare, filled with all of those huge, clear and unique details that are exquisite and crystal clear while you are in it.

It’s not the first time that the DSLR has been declared dead, but it may be the first time that a CEO of major camera manufacturer has made it clear that his company cannot compete against smartphone cameras. It was all over the press last …

Within the visual arts, we define Visualization as the practice of seeing in the mind’s eye a finished piece of artwork before it is created. It is a particularly important skill for Art Photographers to learn, and Ansel Adams described the process as follows:

“When I’m ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my mind’s eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I’m interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without.” — Ansel Adams

The Dehaze slider in Lightroom is one of the most powerful and useful tools and produces contrast far beyond what we can do with curves, clarity sliders in Lightroom, or third-party plugins. It brings dynamic contrast to thin or washed out skies and reveals details that you cannot see with your own eyes.