I attended a pre-con class with Judy Reinford at Texas School of Photography before I taught my week-long class there. It was amazing! Judy is an Equine and Pet Photographer, educator, and national speaker. Her class combined on site equine image capture and classroom instruction. Learn more about Judy’s classes here. This article shows is one of my images from the class at Bridlewood Training Center in Texas after an Adobe Photoshop transformation.

Original capture

Jackie Rollins, our host and owner of Bridlewood Training Center, worked Fife, a Gypsy Vanner breed horse, for the photo class. I can’t imagine the work that goes into maintaining the mane and tail to keep them free-flowing. Beauteous! See the image straight out of camera below.

Transformation

First stop is Adobe Camera RAW (ACR). These are essentially the same tools which you will find in Lightroom. An overall adjustment using the Auto button gives a nice start to the process. Additional tweaking of the highlights and shadows was needed along with some contrast adjustments. Before leaving ACR, I moved to the “Masks” tab and chose “Select Sky.” It was a flat overcast day. Adding a little blue using the color slider and lowering the exposure a bit kept the sky from being too flat. Then, it was off to Adobe Photoshop.

Then comes the removal of the lead and our owner through judicious use of the Stamp Tool along with the Patch Tool.

Blending options

That sky looks a bit anemic. I added a sky photographed by me from my archive files, using a tool that many are not aware. I selected Blending Options from the F menu at the bottom of the layers palette, a.k.a Layer Style menu. “Blend If” is the key along with a layer mask. I placed the sky above the main image, then “Blend If” using the Underlying Layer. Using the slider from the shadow side, I slide it to the right. To feather click on the triangle, hold down the Alt/Option key. The travel will split in two allowing for a smoother transition. Think of the split as a feather. For more info on Blending Options, check out this link.

“Blend If” is a very powerful tool. In searching for some extra links for you, I realized this has not been tackled and the power of it shared enough. I’ll be working on and article showing uses for Blend If in the not too distant future!

Final touches

A Soft Light dodge and burn layer added some depth and dimension. With a blank layer set to Soft Light, I used the Brush Tool with black and white with a low opacity to darken and lighten.

Last, I made a copy of the final file. Changing the Blend Mode of that layer to Soft Light adds overall contrast. At 100% the contrast is way too much. Lower the opacity to taste and it adds a soft contrast to finish off the photo.

Yours in Creative Photography,

Bob

Introducing Shotmakers, a new series that explores the modern world of golf photography and how the people who comprise it are redefining the game’s visual language.

For Mark Cuevas the pinnacle of golf photography isn’t too different from the pinnacle of playing the sport. It’s the feeling of being in the zone, or a flow state, where everything comes naturally.

Cuevas, or Padron Smoker as he’s known on Instagram, recalls a trip to the 2023 Masters. It was his first time at the tournament, an experience commonly described as spiritual or even life changing. In the absence of most forms of modern technology (phones are famously not allowed on the grounds of Augusta National) getting in touch with one’s artistry tends to come easier. Cuevas wasn’t completely empty-handed though, he had his camera, which is allowed during practice rounds. “With golf I just let things happen…” he says, “and that’s when I play really well. The same thing goes with photography.”

This mindset doesn’t just inform his approach to shooting at the Masters, it applies to his craft as a whole. Unlike other golf photographers more recognized within the mainstream, Cuevas has a full-time job that has nothing to do with golf, managing a team of photographers for a celebrity news agency. That may be partly why his work is so well respected within the closely knit community of micro brands and creatives that are opening the sport up to a new audience. When Cuevas brings his camera to the golf course, it comes from a place of passion.

The LA resident makes a point of saying that he’s been around the game for a while, and he no longer feels the need to capture everything during his precious time spent on the course to fuel the endless cycle of content. But nonetheless, he has become one of the most in-demand photographers within the alternative and chronically online golf crowd, often working at events for Golf Gaming Club and Malbon while solidifying himself as one of the main creatives behind Students Golf’s always-stylish lookbooks.

In the second installment of Shotmakers, we teed up a conversation with Mark Cuevas to find out how he got into the sport and understand his perspective on how social media has changed the game of golf photography.

How did you become interested in golf as an artistic pursuit?

To me it was just about showcasing a vibe and the people that I play with. Early on it definitely attracted more people that were interested in the type of golf that I like to play, which is muni golf. I like walking, I like carrying my bag, I’m somewhat nostalgic in terms of fashion but also modern and somewhat urban.

I enjoy meeting new people and understanding what got them into golf or why they chose a set of clubs. Why did they choose that bag? What about those shoes? And truthfully, it all comes back to my roots of playing golf. When I first started playing, I would get paired up with random people and spend four to five and a half hours on a golf course with someone. You’re gonna start to understand who that person is, and I think that’s why golf is one of the best games in the world.

What’s your favorite place to shoot?

You know, honestly, there really is no particular thing. I definitely enjoy golf architecture and some of the roots behind some of the courses, but I’m more concerned about what time of day I’m shooting. Usually that’s twilight or in the evening before the sun goes down, because when you’re playing in the middle of the day the sun is right above you and it’s just harsh as hell.

On what basis do you typically judge your work?

I think at the end of the day it’s about emotion, the hardest thing for me is trying to capture a story within one photo.

I’ll give you a perfect example. This last week I was shooting Golf Gaming Club in Las Vegas for their Players Cup, and I must have shot 2,500 photos, but there was one from the after party that stood out because it had so much chaos going on. It featured one person who people know in that space, and it spoke to who he is as an individual and what people love about him. As cheesy as it may sound like, that to me is my favorite photo.

Are there any other photos you have pinned up on your wall?

I have one specifically at a really cool par-3 course here in LA, it’s called Terranea Golf Resort, and I would normally go there after work and play nine with a homie of mine. I got a sunset photo of him teeing off on number 8, he’s hitting towards the ocean, there’s a big oil rig behind it in the distance and the sunset is just perfect. It’s just a perfect type of photo.

Tell us what it was like to go to the Masters for the first time.

I tried to take it in as much as I could, especially just being a regular patron and not being there on credentials. But looking back, I probably preferred it that way because my perspective is always as a viewer, so I wanted to make it feel like a patron being there and seeing it the way I saw it.

I’m also not one to showcase all of my work, especially on my Instagram feed. But I literally made a post before I left and I jumped on the plane, and then when I landed my phone was just blowing up and I was just totally taken aback by the love and support. So looking back there are definitely some things from the Masters that I’m very proud of.

What’s your approach when you’re at a live event?

I try to explain it just like golf, the less that I think the better stuff that I produce. At the Masters I was on cloud nine just being on property and I wasn’t even really thinking ‘I need to shoot this person, or I need to shoot this or I need to capture this.’ I was just trusting my intuition and again, trying to think of the patron perspective and capturing what it’s like to see it in your own eyes the first time.

What other events would you like to shoot in the future?

I would love to shoot more LPGA events to be honest with you. I say that because I’ve been around golf for a long time and I’ve seen the pro game for so long, and truthfully, I’m bored of it.

I just think the LPGA is growing. It’s the fastest growing sector in the golf space and it has so much more room to grow, but it needs to be showcased a little bit more, especially to the younger generation. I also want to showcase some of these girls because they’re just so good, and unfortunately I don’t think people realize how good they are.

Tell us about some of the other work you’ve done in golf fashion, and particularly Students.

Last year I started shooting the lookbooks and campaigns for Students, and that’s basically turned into me being their photographer now.

Students has been my mainstay and I love it that (Students founder) Michael [Huynh] gives me a little bit of freedom with what we shoot, he’s very collaborative in that way. I owe him a lot quite honestly, because I never really did a lot of branding and it’s really opened my eyes to get better at that stuff. I think for the most part people would recognize me as more of a golf lifestyle photographer now and a lot of that is thanks to Students.

How different is that from the work you’ve done in the past?

Doing studio and branding kind of stuff takes a little bit more time even though it doesn’t seem like it, especially with the use of light, artificial light, location scouting and things like that. Students has definitely given me an opportunity to expand my photography portfolio.

Finally, how do you think the industry has changed post-COVID?

You know, being around the game for so long and seeing this whole new wave since social media came into play, I don’t necessarily look at it as an opportunity to jump on as opposed to a lot of people do. I think a lot of that has to do with me being a golfer first, but also being passionate about all things photography, not just golf lifestyle.

It’s definitely interesting to see the new wave of what people call content creators, I don’t necessarily look at myself like that. But it is definitely still a passion, and it’s nice that I can actually generate some income from it now as well.

White balance is a fundamental image property that can dramatically affect the mood and overall look of a shot. While achieving a technically neutral white balance is important for accurate color representation, many photographers also use white balance creatively to enhance the artistic impact of their images.

Coming to you from Christian Möhrle – The Phlog Photography, this informative video explores the creative use of white balance adjustments in Lightroom. Möhrle begins by emphasizing the importance of establishing a proper base exposure before diving into white balance adjustments. He demonstrates how adjusting the temperature and tint sliders can create a warmer or colder feel, ultimately influencing the overall mood of the image. He then goes on to show how masks can be used to make targeted adjustments to the white balance. For example, he uses a linear gradient mask to create a color contrast by making the top part of the sky colder while keeping the bottom part warm.

Möhrle also highlights the importance of considering the impact of white balance adjustments on other elements within the scene. For instance, significantly altering the white balance can affect the natural colors of elements like trees or foliage. He demonstrates how color range masks can be used to correct any unwanted color casts that may result from global white balance adjustments. By isolating specific areas, such as a blue color cast in a tree, Möhrle shows how to selectively adjust the temperature and saturation to restore natural colors.

This detailed approach to white balance adjustments allows for a high level of control and precision, making it easier to fine-tune the overall mood and aesthetic of their images. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle. 
 

Former Dallas Morning News photographer David Woo will discuss his third book, WOO! The Decisive Moment, on June 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Allen Public Library.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist’s book covers his travels to four continents, multiple Super Bowls, Pope John Paul II’s 1979 visit to Mexico and the 1993 Branch Davidian siege near Waco, along with portraits of local sports legends, political figures and more.

He’ll show dozens of his photos at the event.

The free program will be streamed live on the city of Allen’s ACTV at ACTV.org and youtube.com/AllenCityTV.

The library is at 300 N. Allen Dr. in Allen. For more information, call 214-509-4911.

Vladimir Putin, Muammar Gaddafi, Mark Zuckerberg. Presidents and Hollywood stars; political dissidents, abuse survivors and immigrants. One thing unites them all: a slightly scuffed, white wooden box.

“More world leaders have sat on that box than any chair in history,” the photographer Platon, owner of that very box, told CNN in an interview conducted over Zoom. For some world leaders, the scarcity of his set — sitting on the box in front of a plain black or white sheet of paper — can be intimidating, stripping them of their usual grandeur. For others it’s liberating, allowing the human to shine through the professional storyteller. For the subjects of Platon’s new book “The Defenders,” the box became an opportunity.

“There’s a statement that’s quite common in the human rights community,” Platon said. “‘Giving a voice to the voiceless’. I have learned through my experiences that it’s not right to say that. They have beautiful, powerful, strong voices; the issue is that those voices have been ignored.” Through his work, he explained his mission is to help amplify people’s stories, tuning into their humanity as though they were “an old-fashioned radio”.

Unseating power

Born in Greece in 1968, Platon Antoniou moved to the UK aged eight and completed his studies in photography at the Royal College of Art, before leaving London for a career in New York. There, he worked on George magazine with John Kennedy Jr. and as a staff photographer at the New Yorker magazine.

“The Defenders” takes a different tack to Platon’s earlier work. As a young photographer, he confessed he was dazzled by the world of politicians and celebrities he was working with, walking the corridors of the Kremlin and Downing Street and “having a chat about life” in George Clooney’s garden. Turning his lens to the powerless, by contrast, has upturned his ideas of power altogether.

“Having photographed all these world leaders, often the people I meet in the trenches of the human rights movement are proper leaders,” he said. “They transform their adversity into compassion for others. And that’s something I very rarely see on that level in the political sphere. So I called them — I call the book — “The Defenders,” because it’s a superhero title. These are ordinary people who do extraordinary things, and I do think of them as superheroes. Changing the narrative is very important for me.”

Among “The Defenders” are Burmese and Egyptian dissidents, the imprisoned Russian punk band Pussy Riot, and survivors of sexual violence at Dr. Denis Mukwege’s Panzi Hospital in Congo. One of the girls that Platon photographed there was Esther Faraja. She appeared in an episode of Netflix’s “Abstract: The Art of Design,” profiling Platon, although he said the details of the trauma she suffered were “too harsh to put in the film.”

“As I was taking the picture, she wasn’t crying,” he recalled. “I’m a privileged, middle-aged white man, and I’m a mess. I said to her, ‘how is it that I’m crying, and you’re not crying? And yet, you’re the one that has suffered?’ And she said: ‘the reason I don’t cry in your picture is because I don’t want to make you feel sad. I don’t want anyone to feel sad when they look at a picture of me. My mommy and daddy brought me into this world to bring joy to the world. And I will keep my promise’.” Platon is as awestruck now as he was standing in front of her. “Now that is a leader,” he said. “I made a promise to her that I will deliver her message of compassion and strength, combined, to as many people as I can.”

“The Defenders” is an attempt to tell dozens of stories like hers, each captured in one 500th of a second. “Time is a very interesting concept; it doesn’t really ever exist,” Platon mused. “You try to freeze a moment that helps us understand the past and will still be relevant in the future. And yet, it was a moment in the present. And it was such a tiny fragment of a moment that if you blinked, you wouldn’t even have seen it.”

Two political giants offer obvious examples of time’s bizarre effect. Vladimir Putin, photographed by Platon for Time’s Person of the Year in 2007, initially liked the image that Platon produced. He appears powerful. In the time since its publication, however, the same image has been taken, edited, and circulated by political dissidents to mock Putin and belittle his power.

“I heard in the last two years that anyone who’s caught circulating my picture in connection with human rights issues will go to jail,” Platon said. “Now, it’s the same picture. And Putin likes it.”

Bill Clinton, on a December 2000 cover of Esquire courtesy of Platon, has also been changed with age. “At the time, that picture represented insane levels of charisma,” Platon recalled. “He was great with people — everyone says there’s no one more charismatic than Bill Clinton. We look at it through a different lens now, but it’s the same picture. When I get it right, that same picture works for everybody.”

It doesn’t work for Hillary Clinton, though. “Hillary refuses to sit for me,” Platon noted. “She’s one of the only politicians who’s ever said no. And that’s interesting. The ‘no’ now is actually as interesting as the ‘yes’.”

Great responsibility

Distilling broad, complicated, emotional human stories into one fleeting moment is a tribulation of all photography, including that of world leaders, but it was particularly difficult when it came to the sensitive topics broached in “The Defenders”. “Many of (the people photographed) risk their lives and their security telling me these stories,” Platon said. “I cannot be reckless. I cannot be — I must not be — a thrill-seeker.”

Exerting due diligence and handling sensitive subjects thoughtfully is something that Platon admits is a luxury of time; he is able to spend months on a project, producing the most considered and provoking images he can. Increasingly, however, a lot of the photography flooding social media is taken hastily, captured on phones and shared without so much as a pause for breath. In “The Defenders,” Platon remembers the Burmese politician Aung San Suu Kyi coming out of house arrest and being bewildered by the sea of smartphones pointed at her.

“Now everyone’s a photographer, and everyone’s a filmmaker,” Platon observed. “In many ways, that’s fantastic. People are holding the powers that be accountable in a new way. The danger is that there’s so much information that we’re constantly distracted. It’s very difficult to get that moment of reflection and pause, and to stand back and think for yourself. As you’re even doing that, your phone is dinging and clicking and beeping — it’s constant noise.”

In standing back, Platon was able to join the dots between the movements he was documenting; they weren’t isolated struggles, he realized, but connected ones. “Obviously each geopolitical situation is inherently different, but they are all fighting for very basic human principles,” he said. “I photographed LGBTQ+ defenders in Burma and in Russia. That’s two very, very different countries, with the same cause.”

In capturing and amplifying the stories of “The Defenders,” Platon hopes to inspire and instruct other people, just as he was inspired and instructed.

“It’s really a handbook to the new generation to say: roll up your sleeves, get involved. Society needs a new generation of activists who will think differently. They will have a different path to navigate, but the principles remain timeless and the same. It’s the principles that unite us all. The way we fight, the tools we fight with, the strategies — we have to change those, because times change. But the principles stay the same.”

“The Defenders”, published by MW Editions, is available now.

Macro photography opens up a whole new world of possibilities and subjects to photograph. In his video, Daniel Aucoin shares seven simple tricks that will elevate your macro photography to a higher level. And worry not, you don’t need fancy gear – just some stuff you already have at home and some cheap accessories.

• Aluminum foil: You can use a simple piece of aluminum foil to bounce light, create specular highlights, and add bokeh to the background.
• Inverted tripod: Lower your camera so you can separate the subject from the background while also increasing your camera’s stability. If you wanna go full DIY, you can try this pan-tripod. Yes, it’s a literal frying pan.
• Use polarizer: Using a polarizing filter will reduce reflection and glare on things like mushrooms and leaves.
• Small light sources: Using smaller light sources creates micro-contrast and enhances the depth and perceived sharpness of your images. Daniel uses Lume Cubes, and you can go with any small light like this (KYU-6 is my choice for things like this).
• Colored foil: Another trick that you can whip out of your pocket (literally) is mint foil. It’s usually colored, and you can use it like aluminum foil to bounce the light – only with a splash of color.
• Mirror for reflections: You can place tiny flowers and mushrooms on a mirror splashed with some water to create macro images with some trippy reflections.
• Keep learning: Finally, Daniel points out that practicing, making mistakes, and having fun are your friends. And I couldn’t agree more. This, I’d say, is a universal “trick” for every genre of photography. 🙂

In partnership with Huawei

The scene from a farm in Auckland, New Zealand, shot by Wu Guohua through a Huawei P30 Pro smartphone lens, captures a magically spontaneous moment. Flying Rooster shows an airborne chicken, of apparently giant proportions, humans and buildings in the background dwarfed by its colourful plumage. In Autumnal Poland, a mother, walking through the city with her son, sees sunlight passing through a playground prism and illuminating the boy’s face in a kaleidoscopic pattern.

Another picture, Hand in Hand, shot by Chinese sailor Xiaosong at Qinhuangdao beach in North China’s Hebei Province, just as the sun was setting, frames a couple walking by, holding hands. ‘When I turned the photo upside down,’ says Xiaosong, ‘patterns in the sand became as beautiful as clouds in the sky.’

‘A Heartwarming World – 12 Years of Huawei Photography’

All three images were chosen for inclusion in a new exhibition that debuted in Dubai this month (8 – 10 May 2024). ‘A Heartwarming World – 12 Years of Huawei Photography’, curated by Huawei XMAGE, the brand’s mobile imaging arm, features some 300 photographs taken by keen-eyed amateurs, using Huawei smartphones. Selected from millions of submissions, the exhibition’s images convey moments of warmth, tranquillity and brightness from every corner of the globe.

They are brought together to ignite the Huawei XMAGE consumer’s imagination, and appreciation for the scope of its leading-edge imaging technology. The brand sees the creativity it enables as a way to imbue photography with a more profound emotive impact. ‘A powerful photo is not only about perfect composition, tone, and colour, but more about seeing the creator’s emotions and thoughts beyond the captured frame,’ it states. And so, this exhibition celebrates what it calls ‘the power of image’.

Huawei Pura series and image creation

Specially developed for image creation, memory and communication, the Huawei P series of smartphones has been pushing technological boundaries since it was introduced in 2012. Now comprehensively refreshed and upgraded to the Huawei Pura series, its imaging capabilities provide users with a creative canvas to produce more impactful and influential works than ever before.

Notably, the exhibition’s ‘The Power of Moments’ category – one of eight overall – is dedicated to highlighting the capabilities of the newly released Huawei Pura 70 Ultra Speed Snapshot.

Exhibition curator Chen Xiaobo, ninth vice president of the China Photographers Association, intends ‘A Heartwarming World’ as a synergy of technology and art, an exploration of photography’s ability to bear witness to the beauty of nature and humanity. ‘On an early spring night, thousands of images from Huawei users around the world flooded in,’ he says, recalling the project’s gestation. ‘To my surprise, almost every frame conveyed a certain aura – one that was both warm and illuminating. These charming moments, artfully captured by Huawei phones, poetically articulate the shared culture and emotions of humanity, as well as the tranquil essence of life that we all yearn for.’

Encouraging creators to unleash their imagination, Huawei XMAGE doesn’t define a good photograph by any specific visual style or theme. Instead, it aims to expand the photographic possibilities available to users through innovative technology.

‘A Heartwarming World – 12 Years of Huawei Photography’ debuted in Dubai, 8 – 10 May 2024, and will travel to Kuala Lumpur, Mexico City, Shanghai, and other locations.

huawei.com