An ode to Photoshop

When I first started shooting with a digital camera, I was very anti-Photoshop.  "Hmph," I sniffed, "Photoshop is used by people who don't know how to take photos.  Besides, the digital manipulation of photography is just plain dishonest."   And then I would turn my heel and vanish in a cloud of self-righteousness, retreating to my little cave, while secretly lamenting the fact that every photo I shot didn't look anything like I thought it looked like when I first framed it in the viewfinder of my camera.

Then one day, I was at my local camera shop, confessing to one of the guys that I worked there that I really wished I could get the kinds of images other people got.  "Like that one," I said, pointing to the display image behind him.  "Why don't my photographs look like that?"

"That?" he smiled.  "It's a great shot, agreed, but you realize that that's been digitally manipulated, right?"

"NO!" I responded, in horror.  "Seriously?  That's not just the shot he took?  How... how... disappointing!"

"Why?" he asked, genuinly confused.  "There's nothing wrong with Photoshop, Karen.  It's just processing - similar to what we used to do with chemicals, back in the olden days.  I mean, do you really think Ansel Adams really shot those beautiful pictures without dodging and burning and manipulating the processing of the photograph?"

 As soon as he said this, I felt the clouds part, and angels singing on high.  Of COURSE.  Photoshop isn't a tool of dishonesty and deception, after all -- it can actually be used to convey what the photographer saw through the lens.

Since then, I've become a huge fan of Photoshop, and find myself seeking out the work of other photographers who use Photoshop -- some are true artists with the software.  One of my favourites is Mark Tucker:  what he does with Photoshop is truly magical, but I'm always on the lookout for more. 

Who are some of your favourite Photoshop magicians?

Finding my Center

What drives me to see photographic images everywhere I look? How, when life can be messy and the world ugly, can I just put my blinders and find beauty in even the unlikely places? Why is it impossible for me not to seek little tidbits of delight in the most mundane moments? When am I not captivated by the way light gives shape to a landscape, illuminates my children or highlights something ordinary that sits on my coffee table?

The answers aren’t clear to me and I don’t really know why I’m asking. But there is something curious here. I do know I am not alone. There is a community of us in which these same questions resonate. The reasons behind them do exist yet they are different for each of us.

For me, I believe that is in these details of daily life that I am delivered. Where there is beauty, there is peace. If I can look around my home, jam packed with vibrant family life (aka, dirty dishes, toys, books, mail, shoes, a ring around the bathtub—need I go on?) and look past the chaos, amidst what often overwhelms me and discover a tiny whisper of wonder, of calm, I am transported to the place within myself where reverie lives.

What about you? How do you answer the whys?

The kidnapping

I overstate for dramatic value. Kidnapping wasn’t necessary, nor was Nova Scotian saltwater torture. Jeanette is a willing avalanche of photographic tricksiness, and a good thing too, because I’m fresh out of ski masks.

K: This shot is so evocative, almost like a painting. How much of it came alive in post-processing, and how much was just chance and light and voodoo?

J: This picture is definitely one that came alive in Photoshop. The final shot is representative of what my heart saw when I took the picture, but my camera does not have the ability to capture that.

I probably used additional adjustment layers/layer masks here to intensify the colours beyond my usual, more natural processing. I also used both the burn and sponge tools to bring out the layers of colours that I could see that night but that were not apparent in the original image.

If you look closely at areas of the sky, you would actually see that areas of this image are somewhat degraded by processing. In this case, the artifacts of the burn/sponge tools were not only acceptable to me, but desired, as I wanted this image to have a more surreal, almost painted look. Normally though, I would not take such a heavy hand with these tools, as the final image quality would suffer.

K: In captures like your shot of Evan, subjects' eyes are watery, reflective pools. How do you capitalize on catchlights?

J: It's all about the light, and training yourself to make the most of it by how you position both yourself and your subject. Practice. Take an agreeable subject (probably not a two year old!) and position them outside in open shade. Circle around them, watching the shape and position of the light reflecting in their eyes.

As far as post processing goes, if a catchlight isn't there in your original capture, there’s not much you can do to create one that will look realistic. However, a catchlight can be enhanced and brought out by using the dodge tool in Photoshop. I use a soft brush set to about a third of the size of the eyes, and have the dodge tool set to midtones, and around 9-11%. Then I just lightly sweep the brush across the eyes, brightening the whites of the eyes slightly, bringing out the catchlights. This technique is one that can be easily overdone though—so have a light hand and make sure it still looks natural.

K: Can you share a few of your most admired photostreams, and tell us why they inspire you?

J: I'll just pick a few quickly, but there are so many more...

My good friend Brenda — her style is fresh, fun and nostalgic. Can't ever get enough of her work!

Tina Louise — her timeless, evocative portraits have made her one of my most admired photographers from the very beginning.

Jefra — She was the first photographer to teach me to think less and shoot more instinctively and her stream is a testament to this 'blink' style of shooting.

LaraJade — It's hard to believe such edge-pushing, raw portraiture can come from one so young. Her work blows me away.

Polaroid Love

It's about the moment, not the circumstances. It's about the people, not the scenery. It's about truth, and not about perfection. Instants of gleeful nonsense, innocuous reflections of the soul, unabashed postures and peculiar faces wrapped in 3.5 X 4.2 in. films. It embodies the essence of now without tainting it. The confluence of emotions, whether you're waddling and quaking like a duck or reluctantly trying to look natural, is framed and extended indefinitely. The evidence of our ever substantial need to treasure what we had.

I love Polaroid photos because this is exactly how I want my life to be like.

Love Thursday: January 3rd, 2008

Happy Love Thursday, everyone.  Please share your links of your images depicting love, in its myriad forms, below.  And remember:  love is everywhere, if only you look.