Advancing Your Photography. Marc Silber
as a photographer far outstripped the failures.
When I learned to process my images and turn them into prints, I became a “Photographer” with a capital P!
Although the process is far easier in the digital darkroom (and believe me, I don’t miss breathing chemicals and getting them on my skin), the darkroom process is mimicked in the process of creation using Photoshop and LightRoom.
Here’s more good news: It’s far easier to become skilled at LightRoom than it ever was to work in a darkroom. Also, once you work out the settings for your “development” they remain that way until you change them, making the process so much easier.
“But Marc, what about all those sliders, panels, and menus? How will I ever learn all that?!” Hold on, just as I told you that there are only about five key control points for a camera that you need to master, there are a limited number for processing that you need to understand and be able to control.
The number of these comes to about a dozen or so, but taking it step by step, you’ll get there with practice so that you can develop images that you’re really happy with, and hopefully love!
Now you’re ready for the final stage of sharing your photographs. The key point is that it’s not enough for you to be in love with your own photographs, you need to share them and show the world what you have created!
The process of visualization guides your sharing as well: when you first had the idea for your image, what did you intend to do with it at the end of the cycle? You might have thought it would make a cool post for Instagram or Facebook, or perhaps during the processing stage you realized it would make a great print for your wall.
Now you’re going to decide where and how to share it. It’s easy to share to social media using Lightroom. This is made even easier because you can sync the desktop version of the software with your smartphone, which makes it really simple to post your images.
I also want you to make your best images into prints, in keeping with the long heritage of photography. There is something so satisfying about having the photographs you have envisioned printed and in your hands. You’ll never have the same feeling from looking at them on a computer screen. Then take the ones you really love and have them framed, or frame them yourself, and hang them well, sharing your work in your environment. It fully completes the cycle of photography when others view your work and experience an emotional impact from it.
Before you get discouraged by now having yet another whole new set of skills to learn to make professional prints, let me tell you we’re not going there. I use a lab to make these prints. It’s far easier and more cost-effective to send photos to a lab to get high-quality prints without the hassle and expense of setting up your own printing. Some will argue with me on this point, and those who do can certainly go ahead and make their own prints. But for most of us, it simply doesn’t make sense. I’ll give you some options for working with your lab in a hands-on way when we get to that chapter.
I feel the same way about framing. I used to do it myself, but for many years now I have teamed up with a professional framer to help me carry out this final stage of visualization of my image. We’ll talk about these options as well later on.
What if you want to get your work into shows, or into stores? Yes, I’ll give you some easy advice on how to get started. You may well find that you want to go professional and make photography your career or a second job. Once you have mastered the above steps, you can go in that direction.
CRASH COURSE/SUMMARY
1. Photography is writing with light to tell a story, following a natural cycle of five stages.
2. It begins with you and your ability to visualize the image that you want to capture, and that process will guide you through all the other steps.
3. Closely study others’ work to build a visual collection in your mind.
4. Your next step is to learn the key controls of your camera and other equipment.
5. Once you master these points you will learn to capture the image you love.
6. You’ll then be ready to process that image digitally, concentrating on the basics so you can get right to work in your “Digital Darkroom.”
7. Finally, you’ll learn about how to share your work in many ways.
Think of moving along on these stages as a spiral staircase rather than an elevator that goes one floor at a time. By climbing the staircase, you will find yourself back at the position where you started, but at a higher level each time you climb up. Each step of the cycle of photography operates interactively with the others. For example, you’ll find learning to process will help you to improve your visualization skills. Also, by sharing with others, you’ll find out what they see and feel when looking at your images, and of course that helps you refine the whole process to better communicate your vision.
I’m happy to be here to help you with your lifelong journey of learning and improving your skills as a photographer.
“VISUALIZE THIS THING THAT YOU WANT, SEE IT, FEEL IT,
BELIEVE IN IT. MAKE YOUR MENTAL BLUEPRINT, AND
BEGIN TO BUILD.”
— ROBERT COLLIER, AUTHOR.
The first and most important part of the cycle of photography is “visualization.” This term dates from 1883 and means “the action or fact of visualizing; the power or process of forming a mental picture or vision of something not actually present to the sight; a picture thus formed.” Oxford Dictionary. It comes from a Latin word meaning “sight” and an earlier word meaning “to see.” It’s another way of saying “using your ability to imagine or get a mental view of something.”
Can you remember a time when you visualized a photograph before you pressed the shutter and then took the photograph? This is taking the photograph with definite purpose or intention, rather that just letting it happen and hoping you’ll get what you want or just taking snapshots.
With all of the steps of photography, why is visualization the central and most important part in the whole process? Because it guides every single step of the process, without which it would be like trying to build a house without plans, or make a movie with no script, or sail a boat without charts. In all of these activities, you would end up wandering around and never achieving your goals, which would be wasteful and very frustrating.
» Rainbow, Near Rifle, CO, Huntington Witherill
Before we look at the last century’s masters, let me introduce you to Huntington Witherill, a very creative and eclectic photographer who was named “Artist of the Year.” He told me, “What I try to do with visualization is to use my imagination, together with a variety of photographic tools – in order to take what is already out there in the world and to transform it into a composition that will render a given scene as being visually compelling beyond a strict literal translation.”
I can’t emphasize strongly enough that the fastest way to elevate the quality of your photography is to visualize the final photograph before you press the shutter. But before you go out and start