Paterson Photography Ltd.

I am sure that I have written about this before but I guess it is time again.

I have had a couple people come in with camera issues in the past two months.  One person actually sent his camera and lens back to Canon (3 times) as they were not working correctly and Canon could not fix it and another person was just plain frustrated and ready to give up.

What had happened?

Both people either took a course or listened on-line to a “Expert” tell them how they should be shooting. They then made changes to their cameras following this advice and did not understand why they did it or how to undo the changes.

One person was told that “on the lens you should NEVER use the AF setting”, unfortunately they never explained that if you use the MF setting you need to manually focus the lens.  He was getting all out of focus pictures (okay a couple were in focus just by the fact that if your lens is set to 20′ sometime your subject will be at 20′). This was an easy fix (put lens back on AF) but I had to argue with him for 20 minutes that it would make his pictures better.  Once done he was so happy but confused how a “professional” would mislead him, I had to tell him that it was one person’s preference on how to shoot a specific situation and he only got a part of the information.

The second person was told that he should change a number of his custom settings, SO he did!  I understand why the teacher said to do that (again it was for a specific shooting situation and was not to be used for ALL photography), but with a novice photographer all he did was to confuse him, the changes were made and he could not get the camera back to the correct settings.  After changing the custom settings he was not able to get his camera to correctly focus or to get an exposure close to what it should be.  He sent his lens and camera back to Canon 3 times and each time was told it was fine (it was as long as you knew that it was no longer focusing using the shutter button, that the mirror lock up was on and a number of other changes were made).  In his case I reset of all the camera settings and he was back to having a great camera and lens.

PLEASE – before you make any changes to your camera, lens, or menus make a note of the changes (what and how) and if it doesn’t make it better set it back.  If someone tells you to make changes make sure that you understand why before you do so.

Several comments over the past year got me thinking about photography and more so what is the job of a photographer and are we doing that job today?  First I am not talking about getting in-focus, properly exposed images – this is the basics for anyone that call themselves a photographer.  What I am talking about is something a lot deeper and something that the great photographers do regularly. What is this magic? It is to portray an emotion in images they / we take, whether it is a picture of a wedding, newborn, graduation, nature or wildlife.

I was hanging a print on the wall at the studio the other day of some Elk in Waterton when a client came in and made a comment that it looks like the picture was taken on a warm fall day. Funny thing was that it was a cold, damp, windy day that had me thinking that I was nuts to be out in that kind of weather in the first place (actually was headed for home a few minutes before I shot the picture but then I decided to stay and I got the image).  A few days after the first comment another person made the same comment on that picture and another one, the second one is of a waterfall that had me soaked to the skin on a cool summer day.  That is when I realized that it really doesn’t matter the situation that we are shooting in (hot, cold, wind, rain), it doesn’t matter the type of subject or the location, the thing that really matters is the feeling that the image leaves with the viewer when they see it.

We can quote all we want about the rule of thirds, shooting in RAW, camera types, lens types and sizes and while they all have an effect on the image they really have very little to do with the viewers overall feelings.  I was looking back on some old photos that I really admire from before I became a photographer, and one thing that I noticed looking at them this time is that they show a place and a time but really not a lot about what was happening to the photographer.  It could be a picture of the Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton many years ago and the print is amazing, but you really do not feel what it was like to take the picture.  You feel what the photographer wants you to feel and that is the important part of taking pictures.  I was also looking at some wedding photos taken by another photographer many years ago and I love the pictures, they make me feel warm and happy and some even make me laugh, but I have very little information about what was really happening to the photographer or even in the overall day of the couple.

I think that this is a part of photography that is being lost today.  We can take so many pictures with our digital cameras, cell phones, tablets, etc. but we are not putting any thought into the pictures themselves. The pictures that we are getting do not have any emotion to them.  We shoot a rock on the shore of a frozen lake and it is boring, we do not even feel the cold. A beautiful sunset or sunrise and doesn’t bring any feelings as it is not cropped properly or color corrected.  Part of this I believe is how the image is edited, we need to know what and how much to edit a photo (Photoshop does not have to be a bad word if done correctly) but more so it is taking the time to figure out what makes this scene exciting and how to capture it before pushing the shutter button.  Shooting 500 horrible pictures can be blown away by one amazing picture that the photographer took his or her time to get right, something that I mention time and time again when I am judging photography contests.

So a challenge for this year for our photography is to get back to more of the way pictures were taken in the past – take a few extra seconds, minutes or even hours to find out what makes a scene (okay hours will not work with weddings or portraits as the client will not be very impressed, but it can be done by scouting a location before hand – something that I have taught for years).  Then work on capturing that in pictures.  This may require us to miss some shots while finding others, it may also require us to come back to a location when the light is right. Then once the picture is taken to do it justice in the editing.  I hope that many photographers will also do this, instead of shooting just to get pictures lets take some time to capture memories and emotions!

A quick way to help you manage your files and avoid disasters is to rename your digital camera files.   I get a number of people coming to me that have problems finding their digital files, they have folders full of files with the camera file number only. Some have written over old files with new ones as the file name was the same.

Take a second and rename the files to be more specific and you will know what the images are of and the file numbers will always be different.  Some programs will do this for you adding the date you transferred the files or use a program to add something like “jan1512waterton21″.

Well some things I miss from the olden days (food that tasted like real food, being able to talk to someone without them texting, etc, etc.), some things I do not miss (having to find a pay phone to call home when on assignment, dial up Internet, etc).  One BIG thing that I do not miss is darkrooms.  Sure there was some fun in getting a perfect print after a lot of experimentation, but it was a lot of work to mix chemicals, wash prints and hang them to dry.  One thing that I have heard from many people was that they could not get a good Black & White print with digital.  Well no more!!!  Last year I did a lot of testing with our new printer and have come up with some amazing b&w settings and media.  I found a high gloss media that makes amazing b&w’s.  True blacks (no yellow or blues mixed in), GREAT contrast and details so amazing that I do think they pass the quality of old darkroom prints.  If you want to see some samples stop by the Lethbridge studio, I have a couple printed and am working on some more samples.

Well I had a chance the other day to sit down and talk to a lady that was asking for some help with displaying some prints in her house.  The prints that she got were from a photographer in northern Alberta and she was concerned about how dark they were (she wanted to take them back to talk to the photographer but the drive was too far to make it worth the trip).  I took a look and found they were very dark (even in my studio under strong lighting).  When I put them on the wall in the studio I could hardly see the details in the faces.  When she did the same thing at her house she said that most of the image was so dark she could not see anything.

This is not the first time I have heard this from people, I have heard from a number of people that they have prints that are way too dark to be able to see the details in the print (people portraits, wildlife, nature, etc.). This is a good time to remind everyone that when you are getting printing done remember that the place that the print is displayed is important.  Many homes have poor lighting and if you are printing your work dark then it will even appear darker on the walls.