Here's a thought…

HT1123 - Maximum Detail

Which is more important in a fine art photograph, maximum detail or maximum impact? When you look at a painting, do you judge it on the amount of detail the painter has recorded? Or is its impact that really counts?

HT1124 - Ansel Adams Fuzzy Prints

A few years ago I saw the Ansel Adams Masterworks set of prints on display in North Carolina. I was surprised how necessary it was for me to place these prints into historical context to really appreciate them. They are all products of the technology of his day and as such, looked to my eye all a bit out of focus. The definitions of sharpness has changed in the last 50 years.

HT1128 - The Most Important Component

I was just watching a photographer's presentation about "The Three Most Important Components of a Successful Photograph." They proposed the three are subject, light, and composition. I kept thinking that they had missed the even more important component: emotion, idea, content, connection, relationship.

HT1129 - A Hundred Years from Now

How much has changed in photography in the last 100 years! Just think what was happening in 1922! Now try to imagine the state of photography 100 years from now. Do you think the megapixel count of that camera of your dreams will be of any interest in that distant future? If not, what will be important when people look at our photographs 100 years from now?

HT1130 - Sharing Prints

I miss sharing prints. In the 1980s, I was part of a group in Portland, Oregon that met once a month for sharing prints and talking shop. It was invigorating and motivating. Today, we share our images via the internet to a global audience, instantaneously. It's great, but it's not the same as sitting in a room with a bunch of fellow photographers and showing each other our latest prints.

HT1131 - Keepers

In my youth, I remember thinking that if I got one picture out of a roll of 36 exposures that I should consider that a success. A whopping 2.8%. As of today in my Lightroom catalog, I've used 2.2% of my RAW captures in one project or another. I guess I'm getting pickier in my old age.

HT1135 - Tutti Fruitti Roslyn Shootie

An example that illustrates the value of producing a group portfolio. Four guys, the same weekend, all photographing the same small town, each producing work that was completely different than the other three. And we each now own a copy of the portfolio with each other's prints.

HT1136 - Invisible Technique

In his book, The Print, Ansel Adams insisted that darkroom techniques like dodging and burning were supposed to be invisible in the finished print. That premise holds true for today's digital processing, too. But what about pushing things beyond reality? I wonder what Adams would think about the current trends of oversaturated color, the sky replacement tool, or content-aware fill?

HT1137 - Your Favorite

I observed an important lesson very early once I started working in projects rather than in trophy images. My favorite image in a project was not the universal favorite. Never. In fact, the feedback I received from people who saw the project evenly divided their "favorite image," much to my surprise. If there were 10 images in the project, each one of them were "the favorite" to about 10% of the audience.

HT1138 - The Clock in Your Camera

I've discovered an important reason to be sure the clock in your camera is accurate to the time. A Lightroom plug-in I've been using for a few months now allows me to filter my images by the hour of the day they were shot. But it only works if the clock in your camera is accurately stamping the EXIF data with the correct time. Anyfilter can be found here.

HT1142 - Framing Glass, Again

Visiting a friend's house, I really wanted to admire his photographs on display on his walls. Unfortunately, I couldn't see them because of the reflections in the glass. And then he showed me some photographs framed with non-reflective glass and it was worse.

HT1143 - The Importance of the Artifact

There are good reasons that a photograph should be an artifact that exists in the physical world. But is that true for every image? There are equally good reasons that we should be making digital publications. Each has its unique advantages. That said, I still wish more photographers would make prints.

HT1144 - A Card Game Analogy

It struck me how similar it is to play a card game and to organize a project in Lightroom. In both cases we are presented with a random variety of elements that we try to arrange into a group that makes sense. Whether it's arranging our cards or our photographs, in both cases we are trying to arrange a little order from the chaos. Card games have rules and predefined goals. Can the same be said for art making?

HT1145 - Protect Those Highlights

The photographic mantra of ETTR is some pretty good advice. But like all such advice, too much of a good thing can turn into a really bad thing. Overexposed (blown) highlights are one of the worst unrecoverable mistakes you can make. I'd much rather be challenged with recovering noisy shadows than blown highlights.

HT1149 - One-click Filters

Here in the digital age, the one-click filter has always bothered me because it risks turning the art making process on its head. In my way of thinking, technique is always a function of more clearly expressing our ideas. One-click filters run the risk of creating an idea which gets imposed on our minds — which seems to me to be exactly backwards.

HT1150 - The Golden Thread

Who we choose as our heroes can illuminate what we value. My photographic heroes include Wynn Bullock, Minor White, Aaron Siskin, Paul Strand, and Paul Caponigro. What is the golden thread that all these photographers share in common? I've spent my life trying to answer that question.

HT1151 - You've Changed

For some time now, you've heard me talk about the importance of spending time looking at your images in your Lightroom catalog. I've even gone so far as to propose that a lifetime of work exists in the images you've already taken. Part of the reason I value that time spent reviewing my own images is that I've changed.

HT1152 - What versus Why

The subject of a photograph seems to be the most important consideration at first thought. I would propose that the more interesting question to explore is not what to photograph but why you choose to photograph those things that you do.