When photographing beautiful landscapes, the temptation is always to shoot your composition nice and wide to fit in as much of the scene as possible. In this video from Mads Peter Iversen, he takes us on a winter wonderland trip looking for simple but effective minimalist compositions using a telephoto lens.

I adore snow and all kinds of wintery scenes; it just adds this pleasing aesthetic to your images and really gives them an extra dimension. Using snowy scenes for minimalist images is a no-brainer, and Iversen has done a great job with this video.

Starting off at a stunning lone tree surrounded by snow and gorgeous light, you can instantly see the potential that this first composition has to offer. The scene is very dynamic, and there are plenty of different ways Iversen can capture this scene. Iversen’s first step is to work the scene, by finding his composition, finding the best foreground, and so on.

Iversen discusses how this tree is one he has wanted to photograph in these conditions for a long time, and that resonates with me. In this recent article, I discuss how it is a great idea to photograph the same subject across multiple seasons.

Once Iversen captured the first lone tree, he moves on to another lone tree which again is set in a dreamlike setting with amazing textures on the snow-covered ground. The light allows those textures to stand out as the light and shadows create a more dramatic scene, but yet Iversen maintains the minimalist vision.

The last scene is a tower in a more distant subject, and Iversen’s goal is to capture the sunrise behind the tower. This is a good example of how a telephoto lens can be used for compression, where you can make the sun seem larger against a foreground subject.

Photography is an art form that relies heavily on capturing and manipulating light to create stunning images. Light is the essence of photography, but at times, too much or unwanted light can be detrimental to the final result. This is where light blockers come into play, serving as indispensable tools for photographers looking to control and enhance the quality of their shots. In my last post, I mentioned diffusion, but you can also block light to create beautiful portraits.

In the above image, we were using constant studio lights. But there was a shaft of super bright light in the back right-hand corner. Sure, I could edit it out in Photoshop, but instead, I grabbed a V-flat and covered the light coming from the window.

Controlling exposure and highlights

Light blockers, also known as flags or gobos (go-betweens), are essential for photographers seeking to control exposure and manage highlights. When shooting in challenging lighting conditions such as harsh sunlight or reflective surfaces, these blockers help prevent overexposure by selectively blocking as opposed to diffusing light.

This ensures that the details in both shadows and highlights are preserved, resulting in a more balanced and visually appealing image. A simple and cost-effective light blocker is the black fabric provided in a 5-in1 reflector. Alternatively, a V-flat painted black on one side works well too.

Creating dramatic shadows and depth:

Photography is not just about capturing what is visible but also about creating a mood and telling a story. Light blockers play a crucial role in sculpting light and shadow, allowing photographers to add depth and drama to their compositions. By strategically placing blockers to cast shadows or control the direction of light, photographers can evoke emotions and convey a narrative within their images.

Enhancing composition and framing

Light blockers are versatile tools that aid in composing and framing shots effectively. They can be used to eliminate unwanted elements in the frame. This ensures that the viewer’s attention is focused on the subject.

Additionally, blockers can be employed to frame subjects, adding visual interest and guiding the viewer’s gaze toward specific areas of the photograph. This helps in creating a more engaging and aesthetically pleasing composition.

It can also block out unwanted elements or light where it is not required. Even in a studio environment, light from windows and other sources can encroach onto your background, adding unwanted elements.

Achieving creative effects

Experimentation is at the heart of photography, and light blockers provide photographers with a means to achieve creative effects. By manipulating light sources through blockers, photographers can produce unique and artistic results.

Whether it’s creating patterns of light and shadow or adding a touch of mystery to a portrait. The use of light blockers opens up a realm of possibilities for photographers to explore and express their creativity.

Adapting to various environments

Photographers often find themselves in diverse shooting environments, each presenting its own set of lighting challenges. Light blockers are invaluable in such situations, allowing photographers to adapt quickly and efficiently. From outdoor shoots under the glaring sun to indoor setups with artificial lighting, the ability to control and modify light using blockers ensures consistent and high-quality results across different settings.

Conclusion

In the world of photography where light is both the medium and the message, using light blockers is a fundamental skill. These unassuming tools empower photographers to control exposure, shape compositions, and infuse their work with a touch of creativity.

Aspiring photographers and seasoned professionals alike should consider light blockers. They work great not just as accessories but as indispensable instruments that unlock the full potential of their craft. Embrace the magic of light manipulation and watch your photography reach new heights.

As his new exhibition opens in London, Nachson Mimran talks about his photos of tribesmen in Kenya, creative activists in action on refugee camps, and more

February 02, 2024

From shitting in the woods with Hollywood heartthrobs to joining forces with Saint Laurent, the photographer needs to live life to the fullest

Exploring the nuances of intimate landscapes in winter photography, this awesome video tutorial looks into the art of capturing smaller, detailed scenes in a wintery woodland setting. This topic is particularly interesting, as it challenges the conventional focus on grand vistas, encouraging a more thoughtful and detailed approach to capturing the essence of a season or location.

Coming to you from Jason Friend Photography, this insightful video begins with a journey into a local woodland on a crisp winter day. The focus is not on the vast landscapes but on the small, intricate details that define the season’s beauty. Friend starts with a fallen branch covered in ice, using a polarizer to enhance the ice’s appearance against a running water backdrop. This approach exemplifies the importance of perspective in photography, demonstrating how minor elements can convey the mood and essence of a location more effectively than broader shots.

The video progresses with Friend exploring various elements of the woodland, from a multi-tiered waterfall adorned with ice to an abstract shot of a fallen trunk amid snow. These segments showcase adaptability and willingness to experiment with different compositions and techniques, like focus bracketing and stacking, to achieve the desired effect. Friend’s narration adds value, offering insights into the challenges and considerations of winter photography, such as dealing with reflected light and the implications of focus breathing on composition. This guidance is invaluable for photographers looking to deepen their understanding of landscape photography beyond traditional large-scale vistas. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Friend.

And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out our latest tutorial, “Photographing the World: Japan With Elia Locardi!” 

As a professional photographer and former advertising designer, Jim Henderson understands artists’ concerns how their work will be affected by artificial intelligence (AI), which can whip out a piece of art faster than a human artist can set up an easel and palette.

Artists complain that their own human-made art is being used to train AI programs without their permission, and that the technology could steal their ideas and work opportunities. Henderson gets all that, but thinks artists might as well learn to live in an AI world.

“It’s definitely impacting all the creative fields quite a bit,” said Henderson, 60, who lives in Eden Prairie. “The technology’s out of the bottle and we’re not going to probably go backward, so I think you need to figure out how to use it to your advantage.”

So Henderson uses AI to make people happy — and bring in a little extra cash along the way — by making poster-size portraits of their dogs. The project happened sort of by accident. Last summer, just for fun, Henderson used an AI program to create portraits of his own dogs. He labeled them with the dogs’ names, Riley and Kody, and short descriptions. He thought the finished products “looked pretty good,” so he posted them on Facebook.

“I got people that were like, ‘Oh, can you do that with my dog?'” he said. He made a few portraits of friends’ canines, and word spread. “I started getting people emailing me quite a bit.”

Making an AI-created dog portrait usually takes Henderson about three hours. Starting with a photograph of the pet, he enters a description into the AI program Midjourney, specifying the dog’s breed or mix of breeds, its size and coloration and details about its markings, body type, personality characteristics — energetic, serene, etc. — and gives instructions on the dog’s surroundings. He instructs the program to make the picture in the style of the national park posters created around 1940 by human artists in the Works Progress Administration.

He often has to adjust the prompts and try again.

“Sometimes you have to keep running it, and you have to keep tweaking your wording,” he said. “Sometimes it can go fairly quickly, and sometimes it can be kind of painful.”

He adds finishing touches by hand, including borders and type, and prints the pictures on expensive art-print paper using an ink-jet printer. The 13- by 19-inch prints are priced at $250 apiece (plus tax and shipping).

So far, Henderson has made about 70. Photography remains his main source of income, but he finds making dog portraits an enjoyable side gig.

“It’s been a fun thing,” he said. “I just invested in some new equipment, and I’m going to keep trying to grow this thing.”

Emotional resonance

AI development could alter the world in unpredictable ways, and artists aren’t the only ones who worry about it. Writers and musicians are concerned that AI could take their jobs. Teachers know that some students are turning in papers written by AI. AI deepfakes (including recent fake pornographic images of Taylor Swift) could spread misinformation without being detectable. AI can synthesize “photographs” of people that look anything but robotic.

And then there’s that rather unsettling proportion of tech experts who say there’s a chance AI could destroy humanity (thankfully, others say that fear is overblown).

Although Minnetonka artist Tom Foty creates portraits of people’s dogs the old-fashioned way, with a brush and paint, he understands that AI can be useful for artists.

“It’s a tool, and I’m not so naïve as to think it’s not an important tool,” said Foty, 68.

But for Foty, who makes commercial art, illustrations and fine art in addition to dog portraits, great art relies on a human element.

On its own, AI “only responds to what data has been put into it” — it could not, without explicit instructions, create something like Salvador Dali’s surrealist images of melting clocks in the 1931 painting, “The Persistence of Memory”. It wouldn’t come up with Jackson Pollock’s “drip technique” of making art using poured or splashed liquid household paint. It wouldn’t evolve, as Pablo Picasso did, moving from realism to cubism and then into “really weird stuff,” he said.

Given the right instructions, AI can produce perfect pictures. But great art isn’t perfect, Foty argues.

“The machine doesn’t think; it only responds to what data has been put into it,” he said. “We lose creativity. And I think we also lose the beauty of something that has errors in it— little touches, little mistakes, little flaws. … I love the beauty of the human hand doing the work, because of the emotion and the love that it conveys, even in the brush stroke or the pen mark.”

The human touch is what gives a work of art its emotional resonance, Foty said.

“If I can evoke an emotion, that’s my goal in doing my art, in twisting the color or doing something that’s a little bit different. If a lady sees the dog portrait that I created [for her] and she cries? Man, I’m just thrilled.”

People love their dogs, and Henderson likes that response, too. When he asks people to write a paragraph about their pets, even powerful CEOs write descriptions so adoring they sound “like a kid is writing it,” he said. “People are just giddy about their dogs.”

Dean Hanson ordered three of Henderson’s portraits as Christmas gifts for his kids, each of whom has a dog. “I was impressed at how he managed to capture each dog’s personality perfectly,” Hanson said. “It felt really wonderful to give a gift that expressed our feelings for the dogs so well.”

Sadly, 16-year-old Kip, the oldest of the family dogs, died about a week after his poster arrived, Hanson said. “The timing was bittersweet. … Jim gave us a something a bit more permanent and lovely to hang on our wall as a reminder of our companions. We’re grateful.”

Henderson felt good about providing Hanson’s family with that memento. All of his portraits, he said, seem to have pleased the dogs’ owners, which is one reason he likes doing them.

“On one hand you’re like, ‘I just can’t believe that I can make something like this that quickly and that well,’ ” he said, adding, “That’s kind of the terrifying part of it, too.”

Virtual in-game photography is the act of capturing a still image within a digital game space or virtual world. This started as a hobby for most, but the photographic industry is finally beginning to take this creative art form seriously, recognising and embracing its potential. The latest Virtual Photography Awards is proof of this, and the resulting images are nothing short of breathtaking. 

Yes, you could argue that virtual photography isn’t “real” photography, but what is? Especially with the rise of AI image generators and Adobe Firefly tools integrating with Photoshop, most images in our digital age either haven’t been created with a camera or don’t resemble a RAW file in the slightest. 

The Virtual Photography Awards was created by TheFourthFocus.com, and exists to celebrate the most outstanding individual images captured through in-game photography by digital artists around the globe. Virtual photography can be achieved by using fully featured Photo Mode tools, where players can tweak surroundings, freeze the action, and compose artistic shots that tell a story. 

A shared appreciation for game-derived art brings players, photographers, and studio creatives together, and plenty of careers have emerged from this modern strain of photography. There were 2,750 entries into the competition, and a judging panel of real-world photographers and game industry professionals selected the winners across six thematic categories.

The overall winner and crowned Virtual Photographer of the Year for 2023 is Takashi Yoshida from Japan, with this portrait captured in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. “This shot shows the face of my character and the hand of my friend’s character while using an emote to create this combined pose” shares Yoshida, “It is a simple composition, but one that was taken with a lot of ingenuity and time.”

The incredible images below comprise the rest of the category winners and runners-up from the Virtual Photography Awards 2023. Seeing this gallery has me tempted to jump back into virtual photography, as I used to spend hours doing this at university. Trust me, it’s really fun and addictive. You’ll get lost looking for details in the virtual worlds, and these digital game spaces are full of photographic potential.

If you’re looking to get into virtual in-game photography, you’ll need a capable console (or PC) to run the games. We have some deals below on next-gen consoles from retailers in your region. 

As their new exhibition opens in San Francisco, Zanele Muholi talks about their powerful photos of queer survivors of hate crimes, couples in everyday moments, and self-portraits referencing history

February 02, 2024