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| Editor’s Moment to Shine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What Determines the Value of Your Photograph? One view is that the price of an image should be commensurate with where and So what matters to you in your quest to get the most value for your work?
A word about stock. Again, the uniqueness of an image plays a major role in determining its value; however, too many photographers look upon stock sales as found money. They are not considering the greater value it has to the client. If more people had subscribed to the idea that some stock is not only as valuable as assignment photography but even more so, there might not have been as big a bite taken out of the assignment market as there has been. Which would have probably made it a bit more difficult for Corbis and Getty to reduce the value of imagery to $20.00. I can’t say this enough - please get behind the value of your work and the contribution you are making to the marketplace. |
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| This Week in Pro Series: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1) Mastering Aperture 2) Mastering Black & White Compositions 3) Great Photographer series: Understanding Ansel Adams 4) Upcoming Photography Events |
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| 1) Mastering Aperture | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What Is Aperture?The main function of a camera lens is to collect light. The aperture of a lens is the diameter of the lens opening and is usually controlled by an iris. The larger the diameter of the aperture, the more light reaches the film / image sensor.Aperture is expressed as F-stop, e.g. F2.8 or f/2.8. The smaller the F-stop number (or f/value), the larger the lens opening (aperture). [Note: Many camera user manuals today will refer to the aperture in terms of "aperture value" instead of f/value. I'm not sure when this trend started but don't get confused between "aperture" and "aperture value." Aperture value" is simply another way of saying f/value.] In practice, unless you are dealing with a fixed-aperture lens (many simple point-and-shoot cameras have only one fixed aperture), the aperture of a lens is usually expressed as a range of f-stops. When you read the specifications of a camera, the aperture may be expressed in a number of different ways, the following three being the most common: •Maximum Aperture: |
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| Max. Aperture | F2.8 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| his simply states that the maximum aperture for the lens is F2.8. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| •Maximum Aperture: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aperture Range | F2.8-F8.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This states the max. and min. aperture, the assumption being that there are standard increments between them. |
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| Maximum Wide-Angle and Telephoto Apertures: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Aperture | F2.8-3.5 or F2.8(W)-F3.5(T) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This gives the max. aperture for the wide-angle (F2.8) and telephoto (F3.5) focal lengths of a zoom lens. It is usually not too difficult to figure out that a stated range deals with maximum apertures and not max and min apertures: the minimum aperture should be quite small at F8, F11, F16 or F22. A "fast" lens is one that has a large maximum aperture (F2.4, F2.0 for current digital cameras; F1.4, F1.2 for 35mm film cameras). |
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| Quick Quiz: which lens has a larger opening (aperture): one with an aperture of F1.8 or one with an aperture of F2.8? Answer: F1.8 (remember, the smaller the F-stop, the larger the aperture) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A Good Aperture Range My personal preference for a 'good' aperture range is:
This tells us that the camera has an aperture range of F1.8 to F16; the maximum aperture is F1.8, and the minimum aperture is F16. There are 5 f-stops between the max and min aperture. If your camera's lens is currently set at an aperture of F5.6, closing it by 1 f-stop would mean selecting F8; opening it up by 1 f-stop would mean selecting F4.
How Is A Large Maximum Aperture Relevant? A large maximum aperture is preferable to a smaller one since it gives the photographer more latitude in the kind of pictures that can be taken. For example, it is pretty obvious that the larger the aperture, the better your digital camera will perform in low-light situations, since a larger lens opening is able to admit more light than a smaller lens opening. A larger max. aperture also allows you to use a faster shutter speed to freeze action. So, let's say the light meter in your digital camera calculates that for proper exposure in that indoor arena, you need an aperture of F4 and a shutter speed of 1/60 sec.
To use a faster shutter speed (say, 1/250 sec.) to freeze action, you have to open up the aperture to allow more light in for that shorter amount of time. For every shutter speed increment we go up, we need to open up a f-stop of aperture. From 1/60 sec. to 1/250 sec. there are 2 increments, so we open up the aperture by 2 f-stops, going from F4 to F1.8. Note that the camera would give proper exposure at 1/60 sec. at F4, 1/125 sec. at F2.8, and 1/250 sec. at F1.8, since all three aperture/shutter speed combinations allow the same amount of light into the camera. [Some digital cameras provide a 'Program Shift' function to allow that very shifting of aperture/shutter speed combinations in tandem.]
Of course, in a digital camera set on Auto mode, you can select Sports scene mode, and the camera will automatically select a fast shutter speed and the appropriate aperture. Likewise, in Shutter-Priority mode, you can choose which shutter speed you want (fast or slow), and the camera will select the appropriate aperture for proper exposure. In our example above, let's say the lens on your digital camera only opens up to a max. aperture of F2.8. If you now select 1/250 sec. (in Shutter-Priority mode), the camera will not be able to select an aperture larger than F2.8 (in our example, it really needs F1.8). It would then give you an "underexposure" warning. If you go ahead and take the picture anyway, your picture would be 1 f-stop underexposed (i.e. you really needed to open up the aperture by 1 more f-stop for correct exposure). Similarly, if you select a shutter speed of 1/4 sec. and the lens only closes down to a min. aperture of F8 (in our example, it really needs F16), the camera would give you an "overexposure" warning. If you go ahead and take a picture anyway, your picture would be 2 f-stops overexposed (i.e. you really needed to close down the aperture by 2 more f-stops for correct exposure). [Editor's note: There is a third variable in the above example which we have purposefully not introduced. This is the sensitivity of the image sensor -- the ISO. We'll cover this in a later tutorial.] How Is A Small Minimum Aperture Relevant? A small minimum aperture is preferable to a larger one since it also gives the photographer more latitude in the kind of pictures that can be taken. Suppose we want to take a picture of flowing water. As mentioned above, to depict flowing water, we usually want to use a slow shutter speed so that the water blurs. It is this blurring that makes the picture so effective in depicting water motion. So, let's say the light meter in your digital camera calculates that for proper exposure on a bright sunny day, you need an aperture of F8 and a shutter speed of 1/125 sec.
Well, if you decide to use a slower shutter speed (say, 1/30 sec.), this means that you have to compensate by closing down the aperture to allow less light in. It makes sense really. Since you have increased the time the shutter remains open to allow light in, you must compensate by allowing less light in to expose the image sensor in that longer amount of time, if you still want a properly exposed picture. But, what if the lens on your digital camera closes to a minimum of F8? You're stuck at the shutter speed of 1/125 sec. If you use 1/30 sec. at F8, your picture will be overexposed, i.e. burnt out. At 1/125 sec. and F8, your picture will be properly exposed but the fast shutter speed will freeze the water motion and you won't obtain the blurring effect you desire. If the lens in your digital camera closed down to F16, presto, your problem is solved! 1/125 sec. at F8 is equivalent to 1/30 sec. at F16, which means that you would have a perfectly exposed purposefully-blurred-for-effect flowing water shot. [If your lens does not close down to F16, you could use a Neutral Density (ND) filter to reduce the amount of light coming into the lens, and thus allowing you to use a slower shutter speed.]
[Editor's note: There is a third variable in the above example which we have purposefully not introduced. This is the sensitivity of the image sensor -- the ISO. We'll cover this in a later tutorial.] Aperture and Depth of Field (DOF) We mentioned this above but feel it is important enough to repeat in its own paragraph. The Depth of Field is the distance wherein objects are in focus. There are times when you desire a great depth of field, i.e. where objects both close to you and far from you are in focus. This is especially true when you are taking a landscape picture and want as much as possible to be in crisp focus. Then there are times when you want to isolate your subject, as when you are taking a portrait and want your subject to be in sharp focus but the background to be out of focus. In this case, you desire a shallow depth of field. One way to influence DOF is by selecting the appropriate aperture. The rule of thumb is this: . Select a large aperture (or small f/value or small aperture value), e.g. f/2.8, to obtain a shallow DOF Here are some real images that demonstrate the use of aperture to influence DOF:
Note: Since we are on the subject of DOF, DOF also changes with focal length. Use a small focal length to increase DOF, a longer focal length obtain a shallower DOF. I.E. if you zoom, the DOF decreases. [OK, to be technically correct, focal length does not really affect DOF, but gives the effect that it does. And, that's good enough for us since that's what we're after. We'll cover DOF in a later tutorial.] Due to the small image sensors used, digital cameras use such small focal lengths that it is very difficult to obtain shallow depth of field even when using a large aperture. In the example above, we used a large aperture AND a long focal length (telephoto macro) to achieve a shallow DOF. Recap
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| 2) Mastering Black & White Compositions | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Here are 5 critical tips to master B & W Compositions: 1. Shoot in RAW I know many readers of DPS can’t shoot in RAW (because their camera doesn’t offer it) or don’t shoot in RAW (because they either don’t know how or don’t like to) but for the most control in the post production phase of converting your color images into black and white ones - you’ll want to shoot in RAW if your camera does allow it. Of course shooting in JPEG doesn’t stop you shooting in black and white - but if it’s an option, give RAW a go, you might be surprised by what it offers you in post production. 2. Shoot in Color If your camera doesn’t allow you to shoot in RAW (or you choose not to) - shoot in color and do your conversion to black and white later on your computer. While most digital cameras offer you the option to shoot in Black and White (and can produce some reasonable results) you have more control over your end results if you have the color data to work with in your conversion on your computer. Update: There is an exception to shooting in Color and it’s when you’re taking note of point 1 above (shooting in RAW). When shooting in RAW and switching to Black and White mode you see your results in the LCD in black and white but the camera actually records all of the information (including color) - the best of both worlds. But if you’re shooting in JPEG - shoot in color and do the conversion later.
Shoot with the lowest possible ISO possible. While this is something that most of us do in color photography it is particularly important when it comes to black and white where noise created by ISO can become even more obvious. If you’re after this ‘noise’ (or grain) you can always add it later in your post production - but it’s harder to go the other way and take noise out. 4. When to Shoot Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black and White in low contrast situations. So an dark or overcast day can be a great time to shoot out door shots. Ironically these are the days that those who shoot only in color sit at home complaining about the ‘poor light’. So next time you find yourself with a dark and gloomy day - shoot some black and white shots. 5. Composition Most of the general tips on how to compose or frame a good shot apply just as well to black and white photography as they do when shooting in color - however the main obvious difference is that you’re unable to use color to lead the eye into or around your shot. This means you need to train yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as points of interest. Pay particularly attention to shadows and highlights which will become a feature of your shot.
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 Ansel Adams was a visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation. He is seen as an environmental folk hero and a symbol of the American West, especially of Yosemite National Park. Adams' dedication to wilderness preservation, his commitment to the Sierra Club, and of course, his signature black-and-white photographs inspire an appreciation for natural beauty and a strong conservation ethic..... |
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Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was born in San Francisco four years before the great earthquake of 1906. An aftershock of the earthquake threw him to the ground, breaking his nose and marking him for life. He spent his childhood days playing in the sand dunes beyond the Golden Gate where he gained an appreciation for nature, which would become his primary source of photographic inspiration. Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916 - only 2 years after John Muir's death and 3 months before the founding of the National Park Service - and was transfixed by the beautiful valley. In 1919, at age 17, he had his first contact with the Sierra Club when he took a job as custodian of the Club's LeConte Memorial Lodge, the Club headquarters in Yosemite National Park. In 1927, Adams participated in the Club's annual outing, known as the High Trip, and, the next year, he became the Club's official trip photographer. In 1930 he became assistant manager of the outings which consisted of month-long excursions of up to 200 people. Adams' role in the Sierra Club grew rapidly and the Club became vital to his early success as a photographer. His first photographs and writings were published in the Sierra Club Bulletin. Adams also got involved politically in the Club, suggesting proposals for improving parks and wilderness, and soon became known as both an artist and defender of Yosemite. In 1934, Adams was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club, a role he maintained for 37 years. His tenure spanned the years that the Club evolved into a powerful national organization that lobbied to create national parks and protect the environment from destructive development projects. Adams' images were first used for environmental purposes when the Sierra Club was seeking the creation of a national park in the Kings River region of the Sierra Nevada. Adams lobbied Congress for a Kings Canyon National Park, the Club's priority issue in the 1930's, and created an impressive, limited-edition book, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, which influenced both Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and President Franklin Roosevelt to embrace the Kings Canyon Park idea. The park was created in 1940.
Adams was often criticized for not including humans in his photographs and for representing an idealized wilderness that no longer exists. However, it is in large part thanks to Adams that these pristine areas have been protected for years to come. Turnage explains: "More than any other influential American of his epoch, Adams believed in both the possibility and the probability of humankind living in harmony and balance with its environment." |
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Inspiration & Influence: the Visions of Ansel Adams The year 2002 marks a symbolic milestone in the history of photography. A century ago, on February 20, 1902, Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco. (In an unusually good week for California creativity, John Steinbeck was born exactly seven days later in Salinas). A flurry of tributes, from books and documentary films to a record number of museum exhibitions, is currently honoring the centennial of America's favorite photographer. For many, he is the only photographer. The vision of Adams, with broad-brimmed hat and beard, fussing with his view camera in some rocky Sierran landscape, is one of the defining images of photography. His pictures appear among us as comforting friends on postcards, posters and calendars. But Ansel Adams did not spring fully formed from some photographic half-shell. Like all artists, he was the product of complex influences and human contacts. The inspiration of Yosemite on the budding photographer is obvious and often acknowledged, but the role of other artists, as well as his influence on younger photographers, is less often noticed. The Oakland Museum of California explores these connections in Ansel Adams: Inspiration and Influence, an exhibition which places Adams in the context of a century and a half of photographic art. A restless child who had difficulty fitting in, the young Adams nevertheless was given ample opportunity for self-expression by an indulgent father. At the age of 13 the elder Adams gave Ansel, in lieu of school, a year's pass to San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition. Adams later credited the art exhibits at the fair, which included photography, with instilling a love of art. At about this time he also began serious studies at the piano. Adams the photographer would become renowned as a dedicated and fastidious (some would say obsessive) technician. He attributed this interest in technique to the early training as a pianist, where he learned to combine long hours of practicing rudimentary skills with intuitive creativity. He was fond of musical metaphors when describing the act of making photographs. The negative, he claimed, was the score which the musician/photographer interpreted in the act of making a print. And like a score, each negative was capable of infinite variations with each "performance." For many years, Adams struggled with the dilemma of which career to pursue -- photography or music. Over numerous trips to Yosemite and the high Sierra, photography gradually won out. This gradual slide towards photography was aided by an unusually colorful, if small, community of Northern California photographers who both mentored Adams and provided a social circle. Throughout his career, from novice to elder statesman of the camera, Ansel Adams enjoyed rewarding, if sometimes prickly and competitive relationships with his photographic peers. And what peers! Besides Adams' own work, Ansel Adams: Inspiration and Influence features images by Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Edward and Brett Weston, Minor White, Wynn Bullock, Willard Van Dyke, Judy Dater, Ted Orland, Jerry Uelsmann and Don Worth, all of whom knew or worked with Adams. When Adams began his photographic career, the style known as Pictorialism was in vogue for photographers with artistic pretensions or, as with Adams, aspirations. Influenced by New York photographer Alfred Steiglitz, whom Adams called "the greatest photographic leader in the world," photographers created meticulously hand-crafted prints on soft-focus, textured papers. "Steiglitz taught me what became my first commandment," Adams recalled. "Art is the affirmation of life." Early in his career, Adams wholeheartedly embraced pictorialist techniques and materials. He never felt comfortable with the pictorialist's subject matter, however, preferring portrayals of unblemished nature to allegories, nudes and portraits. The most famous disciple of Pictorialism in Northern California was Anne Brigman, the only West Coast photographer elevated by Stieglitz to Fellowship in his group, the Photo-Secession. Like Adams, Brigman drew her primary inspiration from the high Sierra, but her approach could not have been more different, as a comparison of their work reveals. Where Brigman emphasizes a spiritual connection with nature by placing nude figures in juxtaposition with rocks and ancient trees, Adams preferred to let nature speak for herself. By the early 1930s, Adams was tiring of this type of imagery altogether. "Increasingly, I detested the common pictorial photography that was then in vogue," he wrote, "and also questioned the more sophisticated work of some San Francisco photographers because it clung to those pictorial skirts. There was nothing I responded to in this mannered style of photography." Like others on the West Coast, Adams was questing for a different form of photography, one which eschewed retouching. He wrote: "With high energy I began to explore a personal photographic direction based on the inherent qualities of the photographic process itself. I abandoned my textured photographic papers and began using the same smooth, glossy-surfaced papers used by Paul Strand and Edward Weston to reveal every possible detail of the negative.... I felt liberated...." Together with a small group of colleagues in 1932, Adams formed the legendary Group f.64. More a loose affiliation of like-minded friends than a formal organization, f.64 met at Willard Van Dyke's Oakland gallery and later mounted a controversial exhibition at the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. From these humble beginnings Adams and his colleagues (Weston, Cunningham, Alma Lavenson and Van Dyke, among others) fostered a photographic vision which became, arguably, the most influential photographic movement of the 20th century. The opportunities for influence and cross-pollination (not to mention the spur of competition) were great in such a circle. So were the opportunities for philosophical disagreement. The dissident Group f.64 was itself torn by dissension as the Great Depression worsened. Members split over the question of photography's social responsibility. How could an artist waste time with still-lifes and nudes, the argument went, when people were starving? Some (Van Dyke, Lange) believed photography had a duty to present the suffering of the poor to the larger World. Others, such as Weston and Adams, believed the artist's responsibility was to beauty and self-expression. Adams' 1935 letter to Lange, with whom he enjoyed a long if thorny friendship, stands as a summation of his attitudes toward his art: Dear Dorothea, Photography when it tells the truth, is magnificent, but it can be twisted, deformed, restricted and compromised more than any other art. Because what is before the lens always has the illusion of reality; but what is selected and put before the lens can be as false as any totalitarian lie. . . . The connotations of much of documentary photography are -- to me -- quite rigid. . . . I resent being told that certain things have significance. . . . I resent being manipulated into a politico-social formula of thought and existence. I resent the implications that unless photography has a politico-social function it is not of value to people at large. I resent the the very obvious dislike of elements of beauty. . . . I think it is just as important to bring to people the evidence of the beauty of the world of nature and of man as it is to give them a document of ugliness, squalor and despair. . You happen to be one of the very few who has brought enough deeply human emotion into your work to make it bearable for me. I wish you would try and think of yourself as a fine artist -- which you are; that is a damn sight more important to the world than being merely an extension of a sociological movement. Love, AnseI Besides the inspiration he derived from colleagues, Ansel Adams was also a student of the work of photographic pioneers. He had a keen awareness of the history of photography, unusual at a time when that history was, as yet, largely unwritten. Adams possessed a collection of daguerreotypes, the first practical form of photography, which were popular in the 1840s and '50s. He was entranced by the subtlety and sharpness of the silvery images. "In the daguerreotype the microscopic revelation of the lens was fully expressed," he wrote. "I confess that I frequently appraise my work by critical comparison with the daguerreotype image; how urgently I desire to achieve that exquisite tonality and miraculous definition of light and substance in my own prints!" The work of 19th-century landscape photographers such as Timothy O'Sullivan and Carleton Watkins naturally appealed to Adams. We know he owned an O'Sullivan album, which he lent to Beaumont Newhall's landmark exhibition on the centenary of photography in 1937. When he came to photograph the cliff dwellings at Canyon de Chelly in 1942, Adams unconsciously duplicated O'Sullivan's famous view right down to the lighting. He admired Watkins and selected some of his photographs for exhibitions he curated. Clearly appreciating the technical restrictions of these pioneers, he wrote, "how the great early photographers managed their arduous wet-plate process in Southwest heat and dust, and how the glass plates endured months of mule-back transportation without breakage, have always been beyond my comprehension!" Ansel Adams' work, a century after his birth, is becoming as distant in time as O'Sullivan's was to him. To some, his vision is nearly as quaint and historical. And yet his popularity, his fame, has never been greater. This celebrity is both a blessing and a curse, for while, nearly 20 years after his death, he is still the best-known photographer in the world, critical opinion regarding his work is divided. Adams' rigorous emphasis on technique, his devotion to beauty and, most of all, the ubiquitous presence of his imagery (particularly as they appear on products), are somehow suspect. So, too, was his reluctance to embrace social causes other than conservation. To many, his very popularity speaks against him. But this is nothing new. As early as the 1930s, Adams found it necessary to defend himself against charges of producing "superior postcards." He had many defenders willing to point out the transcendent nature of his best work. "Nature never seems so grand, romantic, sensuous, and magical elsewhere," wrote Minor White, "nor the buildings so architectural, nor the artifacts of man and details close to the ground so full of presence. . . We find, if we gaze long enough, that behind his more literal images. . . there rests a sense of awe before creation, life and death, man and nature." Against one particular charge Adams was utterly unapologetic: The creation of beautiful images. "I am not afraid of the term 'beauty,'" he wrote to his old friend, Dorothea Lange, in 1953. "By it, I do not mean prettiness. I mean intensity and clarity. I cannot see how the omission of beauty achieves anything." |
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| 4) Upcoming Photography Events | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In 1968 Adams was awarded the Conservation Service Award, the Interior Department's highest civilian honor, "in recognition of your many years of distinguished work as a photographer, artist, interpreter and conservationist, a role in which your efforts have been of profound importance in the conservation of our great natural resources." In 1980 Adams received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for "his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a national institution."
