No award winners today, but they all help illustrate certain photographic philosophies.

When I write articles about using software to control, alter, or enhance images, much of it will be 101 to many who read this blog.  In fact much of the software that I use is getting old and very outdated.  The point of these illustrations is to show newer photographers how you can control an image to equivocate what you actually saw at the time of snapping the shutter, or what you envisioned in your mind.  Contrast levels are often my priority. For those who are way beyond this, please excuse.

When I use to print my own black & white photos, I would control contrast by burning and dodging.  In other words letting more light reach certain parts of the scene than others.  Graduated neutral density filters, burning and dodging, and techniques like you see below, all offer opportunities to control contrast.

This 1800s barn was a 35mm slide that I shot at around 12 noon on a sunny day. Those facts left me with a very contrasty scene.  Slide film is inherently contrasty in and of itself.  It has about 2 ½ real stops of latitude. My only possibility to balance the light was to use a graduated neutral density filter tipped sideways, and that would cause havoc with the sky.   I created this digital file by making an exact copy of the slide with my DSLR and a macro lens.  The top photo is that copy. For the second photo I used Photoshop’s Magic Wand tool and clicked on the dark side of the barn.  I used the brightness tool to lighten the building around 40% over the original.  I was hard to even discern what color the shaded side of the barn was, so I added red by sight, while using the color balance feature.  I saved what I had done and opened this same file up a second time. This time I used the magic wand to highlight the front of the barn.  I then reduced the light by maybe 20%.  I made this picture a long time ago but this looked about right to me.  The light on the barn is still contrasty, which is what I wanted. The corrections put it in the range of what our eyes can see. If this image was a digital original I may have chosen to make several frames at different exposures and then combine two or more with HDR imaging to bring down the contrast levels.  If this had been a nature landscape of a rock formation, I might have let the shadows fall where they may.  More shadows and more drama.  For an old barn I am satisfied with the changes I made.

I had driven past this little observatory many times without making pictures. One day I was out in the afternoon looking to make slides of birds, and a storm began to appear on the horizon.  I immediately thought about this graphically pure building.  Sure enough when I arrived the darkening sky and the bright building were creating a beautiful contrast.  The sunlight was giving a slight warm cast to the white building and after four or five images the sun disappeared behind the clouds, removing much of the visual tension that made the scene appealing.  A trip to Taco Bell and then home to get my slides ready for processing.  Today I would have those few frames edited on my computer in 30 minutes.

Contrast can be annoying and a negative in the creation of an image, or it can add drama and positive tension. It’s all about mating what nature provides with your personal vision.

Hey, this doesn’t look like it is historic or even old. As far as I know it isn’t.  My first love hands down is nature, the lover I keep on the side is historic or just old architecture. Despite that I have always photographed anything that catches my eye.

Welcome to our home. Perspective is important and I wanted the viewers to be “involved”  with this 1800s house.  The picture made in Old World Wisconsin.

This was made a long time ago in Wisconsin. Villa Louis is an early 19^th century Mississippi River mansion. I have been here many times and made images for a book on river mansions, general stock, and my own pleasure.

The first image below is the “grand view” of Villa Louis.  This used to be the “must get” image with any architecture that has interesting surroundings.  That is a disappearing concept but the Villa Louis has large and beautiful grounds, so here we are.

Getting intimate with the main house.

Many years ago Racine (my home town) had a showing of old sailing boats on the Root River and the Racine Marina.  I was disappointed to find out that there were really no vantage points to make scenic whole ship pictures.  When you love a subject you want some photos that show that subject in its entirely. Further more I was not allowed on any ships prior to group tours. They were not impressed with my auto racing press credentials. I was ready to leave but there was this one late 1700s/early 1800s ship, so I shot what jumped out at me.

Those of you on Facebook might appreciate this. When I receive a friend request I usually give it a very quick glance to see if I know the requester, and then click yes whether I do or not.  I accepted a request on Thursday.  When I went to Facebook my home page had a request at the top to share my existing friends with my new friend. There was a photo of an attractive woman and the name was NaziHeart Robert.  I quickly de-friended him/her and decided I should actually look at what I am accepting from now on.

On the good side of Facebook you might want to give Nicolas Dory Nature &Wildlife Photography (his site) a look.  The reason I remain on social media? If you love photography, you meet the best.

In my earlier days of photography, I created a lot of studio images.  Some were commercial jobs but many were my own personal projects.  It is definitely a creative exercise to build your own image from the ground up.  Everything is yours.  You decide on the subject(s), the light, the background and everything else. I would suggest this to be a worthwhile endeavor for any photographer.  One of the greatest parts of building your own image is also the worst part.  It is your personal signature on a picture, but that is all it is.  It was all about me.  I didn’t really care about the subject.  Not really. I decided I wanted to photograph subjects I cared deeply about, and then share whatever insights I could find. I wanted to discover the art within my subjects, and be good enough at my craft to share that art with others. A look into the eyes of an eagle.  A mountain sunset, or the shape and design of a flower.

I believe that photographers make pictures. When they find interesting subjects or situations, they photograph them.  Sometimes they build an image in a studio. It’s all good, but there is nothing like having a bond with what or who you point your camera at.  Your love and fascination will show in your pictures.

I think it is time for some wildlife in my next post.