A Rebel (or a Nikon) With a Cause

Okay, maybe "rebel" is a strong word.  How about "light rule breakers"?


Today I'd like to impart why it's not always in our best aesthetic interests to follow the rules of photography.  We're all taught those rules in first and second semester photography.  You know the ones:  "Rule of thirds!", "Keep your horizon lines straight!", "Always photograph children down on their level!".
If you didn't follow these rules, your grade suffered.


Well suffer no more!  We're bustin' out of this joint and today we're gonna run with scissors...photographically speaking.


First rule:  RULE OF THIRDS


This rule was implemented to keep folks from chopping their picture in half via horizon line.  In other words, this is unacceptable:

Why?  Because it's boring.  Half sky, half ground, all boring.
However, why must it be "Rule of Thirds"?  Why discriminate against all of those other perfectly good fractions?  Play around with it a bit.  If the sky is gorgeous, use LOTS of it!  If the ground has awesome scenery, use lots of that.

Ask yourself, "Where do I want my viewer's eye to focus in my image?"  When at all possible, frame it in the viewfinder.  Cropping is great, but it also cuts down your resolution, decreasing the largest realistic output size.




Rule #2:  ALWAYS KEEP THOSE HORIZON LINES STRAIGHT!


Okay, I'll admit it.  This one's a sore spot with me because one of my photography teachers and I butted heads over this one.  I don't even remember the image, but I remember him making a big deal about it.  All humiliations aside, I still think this is a great rule at which to thumb your nose....usually.  
But what fun are images if we must keep them level at all times?  We don't keep our heads level all of the time.  Have some fun with it!:

Rule #3:  PHOTOGRAPH CHILDREN FROM THEIR OWN LEVEL
This one is actually a good rule for a majority of child photographs.  Pictures of kids just look so much better when they are taken on their level and not from the adult's point-of-view.  But again, this blog is about being a rebel, chewing gum in the library, smokin' in the boy's room, or...um....not following the standard rules of photography 101.
With kids, ANY angle can be a fun angle!  As always, try to let the kids call the shots.  To pose them is to strip them of what makes them what they are...children.


Lay on the ground, shoot from above, emphasize thay little tushy as that ballerina takes her bow after her dance.  Anything but the "looky here and smile!":

Rule #4:  CENTER YOUR SUBJECT!
To that I give a hearty.....NOT!  Of course, for certain things it's obligatory.  The formal posed bridal images are usually (USUALLY) best composed as centered.  But there's a whole world out there that's just a little out-of-whack.  Why can't we reflect that in our imaging?

Just don't go nuts with it.  Make sure your off-centeredness serves some purpose :)


Rule #5:  WATCH THE BACKGROUND!
While this rule was designed to remind the photographer to keep the background simple and non-distracting, that would defeat the purpose of this blog!  I say, "Watch the background...and see what you catch!":

This DJ thought his singing would entertain the guests.  The flower girl thought otherwise!

So there you have the top five "rules to break" in modern photography :)

J.

Black and White conversion

Hey, Blog-ees!


I'd like to touch upon the art of converting color files to either black and white or monochrome.


Remember that a pleasing black and white image will take a lot more than just converting to grayscale.   Grayscale is called "grayscale" for a reason.  Black and white images that are flat and gray hold little appeal to the viewer.  They scream, "Next!"...and that certainly is not what we wish to hear or see.


Let's try a few conversions.  We'll start with a picture of a baby...very basic, easy lighting, great fleshtones:

The little guy's name is Eli, and we'll try a few different conversions.  We'll mostly be converting to monochrome, but we'll try something extra, too.
Here is what happens when you simply convert to grayscale:

Notice the flat, lifeless look to the image.  The depth is now gone  The photo truly is grayscale, as there are no real "whites" and no real "blacks"...just varying shades of grayness.  "Next!!"

Okay, now I imported the original, color image into Lightroom and tried a few presets, along with "tweaking" the numbers to give me the desired result.  First, I tried a preset of "Black and White, High Contrast":

I had to move the exposure down to -29, blacks up to 12, and contrast to +71.  But look at how much more depth the photo has.  Look how his little eyes actually sparkle and catch the viewer's attention.  Same photograph, same lighting, different post-production technique.


Here's another done in Sepia with the same idea:

This is done a little lower key than the black and white image.  Sepia emulates another era in photographic history where photographs had a more subdued look to them.  I wanted to preserve the depth, but not completely white-out the highlights like we did in the high-key black and white image earlier.  The only drawback to this sepia image of the boy is the loss of any real lightness to his eyes.  This is a blue eyed baby, but the technique makes his eyes look brown.  But for this image, it works.  And if anyone suggests using selective color to leave just his eyes blue, I'll thrash you with my cable release.


One last technique you can use that's not technically black and white is called "aged photo", and it's a Lightroom preset.  It gives the illusion of an old time sepia-ish image without actually converting 100% to monochrome.  See here:

A little of the original flesh tone and lip tone are preserved (as is just a hint of his eye color) while pulling out most of the color.  This image has been desaturated 71%, and was processed at a lower contrast and a recovery of about +85.  This preset is great to employ when you like the color, but don't want the color to be so distracting as to detract from the emotion.


We took one photograph of a baby and created several moods.  As the artist, it's up to you to guide the viewer's mind and tell the story, not just with your images, but with the feelings, moods, and emotions that must emanate from them.


J.