Latest Fine art photography Podcast Episodes
HT1873 - Maximum Black Is Not Magic
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 20, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1873 - Maximum Black Is Not Magic In my youth, I thought the magic was to achieve a maximum black. It took me several years to learn that the magic is not in maximum black but rather in beautiful gray tones and chords of tones that please the eye. Increasing contrast and overprinting the bla...
HT1872 - Print Size and the Wall
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 19, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1872 - Print Size and the Wall Once Stieglitz decided that photography was best consumed as art on the wall, like painting, he set in motion the pursuit of large prints. If it weren't for our predisposition to exhibit photographs on the wall, I wonder if there would ever have been a push for...
HT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 18, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1871 - The Competition for Eyeballs All media include an element of narcissism. With every photograph we make, we are essentially competing for attention. Each photograph screams, "Look at me!" This intense competition for eyeballs leads to a secondary phenomenon I think of as "the advertisi...
HT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 17, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1870 - Stages of Creative Thought I've talked before about the solutions to problems that pop up from seemingly nowhere. I've recently been reading The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. I found there a fascination quote that discusses this proce...
HT1869 - Artwork Left Behind
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 16, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1869 - Artwork Left Behind I remember years ago hearing of a photographer who would leave small prints wherever he happened to find himself. He would leave his artwork on a bus bench, a restaurant table, a seat in the library, literally anywhere the spirit so moved him. I was so fascinated w...
LW1397 - Looking for Photographs
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 15, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1397 - Looking for Photographs When you want to make a photograph, what do you do? Probably you set out into the world somewhere and start looking for things you might photograph. You are on the hunt for potential. What if you were to point yourself to your Lightroom catalog rather than the ...
HT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 15, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1868 - The Absolutely Necessary The ideal kit includes everything I might need. The opposite of how much gear can I take is how little gear can I get by with. Perhaps it's a function of my aging knees and back, but I find myself brainstorming about the least amount of gear I can take with me...
HT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 14, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1867 - Feedback and the Pressure to Conform Yesterday I was talking about feedback and the way the digital workflow makes getting feedback about our work so much easier. Not unexpectedly, there is a downside to such easy feedback; the pressure to conform. All previous episodes of Here's a T...
HT1856 - Every Wish Has Been Granted
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 03, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1856 - Every Wish Has Been Granted There is that old bumper sticker wisdom that advises us to be careful what we wish for: we might just get it! For most of my photographic life I wanted faster, smoother, sharper, better. Now that I have all of that in today's amazing photographic tools, I s...
HT1855 - Adapting to What We Can Do
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 02, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1855 - Adapting to What We Can Do Do you have a photographic fantasy of something you would love to do? I suspect we all have such thoughts. Then reality sets in and we realize that those fondest desires may simply not be practical. Do we give up based on the fact that we can't achieve our f...
HT1854 - The Terrible, Awful, Horrible Non-Problem of Diffraction
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 01, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1854 - The Terrible, Awful, Horrible Non-Problem of Diffraction With some regularity, we are advised by the wise leaders in photography to avoid using the smallest apertures because of the introduction of that focus softening known as diffraction. My advice is to ignore their advice. Not tha...
LW1395 - The Pace of Creativity
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - April 01, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1395 - The Pace of Creativity I've noticed that I've developed a really bad habit in my photography. Sometimes, with some locations, I get so excited about all that I am seeing that I work too fast, too frenetically, too voluminously. I end up firing away rather than taking a moment to feel ...
HT1853 - The Disappearing Megapixels
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 31, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1853 - The Disappearing Megapixels Congratulations on your new 42 megapixel (or 60 megapixel) camera. You can now make giant prints. Good for you. But what happens to those megapixels if you don't make giant prints? What happens if you make a 13x19", or even a 17x22" print? All those capture...
HT1852 - PPI For Printing
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 30, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1852 - PPI For Printing Experts who seem to know a lot more than I do recommend one of three resolutions for high detail printing. Most commonly I've seen 360 PPI recommended, but also 300 PPI, and 240 PPI. Not knowing which to use, I decided to evaluate using the good old-fashioned method o...
HT1851 - Long Shutter Work Around
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 29, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1851 - Long Shutter Work Around These days, I'm using a tripod less and less. One area that has plagued me is long exposure photography, for example, lacy waterfalls. I've accidentally discovered an interesting workaround that produced surprisingly good results.
HT1857 - Toned vs False Color
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 28, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1857 - Toned vs False Color When a black and white image is toned, the mood shifts but the believability does not. There is a reason that a color image that deviates from reality is referred to as false color. But we never hear a toned black and white image referred to as a false black and w...
HT1850 - The Myth of Universal Vision
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 28, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1850 - The Myth of Universal Vision The premise with which we make our photographs is that there is a view that is best. We sweat bullets over the perfect tones, color balance, contrast ratios, etc. We do so under the assumption that when we get it right everybody will see what we see. But t...
HT1849 - Massive Projects
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 27, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1849 - Massive Projects It seems that every photographer I know has at least one massive project, maybe more, that resists completion. Maybe it's the fact that it is so massive, so overwhelming, so unmanageable that makes it so difficult. Is there a strategy that helps manage these massive p...
HT1848 - Camera to Eye, or Eye to Camera
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 26, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1848 - Camera to Eye, or Eye to Camera There is a reason why an overwhelming majority of pictures are made from 5 to 6 ft off the ground. Strangely enough, it doesn't have anything to do with that being the best way to view the world. It has to do with camera design which encourages us to li...
HT1847 - Translation
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 25, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1847 - Translation In human communication, the role of the translator is a fascinating one. Do they merely convert words from one language to another? Or, do they accept the higher responsibility of conveying the meaning and subtleties in their translation. This is exactly the same question ...
LW1394 - Your Intent Is Paramount
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 25, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1394 - Your Intent Is Paramount The other day, I heard once again, for the billionth time, a photographer say that however a viewer wanted to interpret their work was okay with them. Why are photographers so reluctant to make a declarative statement that is unambiguous? If you leave it up to...
HT1846 - Details and the Inverse Square Law
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 24, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1846 - Details and the Inverse Square Law Probably most of you are aware of the Inverse Square Law relative to lighting and maybe relative to audio recording. I like to apply it to the optical quality of my images, too. Move twice as far away and the objects shrink to 1/4th the size. Convers...
HT1845 - Old Training vs The World Today
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 23, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1845 - Old Training vs The World Today A lot of what I learned in my view camera days is still relevant and useful. Some of those early lessons I find are now habits and ways of thinking that are now obstacles based on training that is downright illogical. ISO is a good example.
HT1844 - Spinal Tap Meets Photography
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 22, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1844 - Spinal Tap Meets Photography If you hang around photography long enough, you'll begin to discern the patterns that sweep over the photographic world like waves in a tsunami. I automatically resist such fads and eventually come to detest them. Please, photographic world, stop oversatur...
HT1843 - Our Creative Life as a Series of Completions
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 21, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1843 - Our Creative Life as a Series of Completions With each new album they released, The Beatles defined their evolving career. Painters are said to have "periods" that define their evolving vision. I'm not sure if this is a model we photographers should follow, or if it's just something t...
HT1842 - Another Way to Increase Sharpness
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 20, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1842 - Another Way to Increase Sharpness Is there a lesson about sharpness we can learn from comic strip artists? Perhaps. They hand draw their comic strips much larger than we see in the newspaper. The image is then reduced to fit the size we see in print. That size reduction increases visu...
HT1841 - Identify the Barriers
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 19, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1841 - Identify the Barriers There are things we want to do, and there are things that prevent us from doing it. A good first step is to identify the barriers. Write them down. Make them concrete. Then explore the possibilities of your work if that barrier were completely eliminated. Not res...
LW1393 - On Destinations
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 18, 2024 04:00 - 12 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsLW1393 - On Destinations In an overly simplistic way, I tend to divide the arena of fine art photography into two camps. For some photographers, the destination/location is the thing they pursue to make the best photographs. For others (myself included), the pursuit of ideas/response/connectio...
HT1840 - Textured Paper
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 18, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1840 - Textured Paper One of the reasons I like folios, chapbooks, and other handheld photographic media is because of the tactile sense of texture that can come through with certain papers. But tactile texture is not the only texture: we can also have visual texture, which is often the only...
HT1839 - Your Cloud Inventory
LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process - March 17, 2024 04:00 - 2 minutes ★★★★★ - 359 ratingsHT1839 - Your Cloud Inventory Photoshop's relatively new Sky Replacement tool is a fantastic addition for fine art photographers. It also motivates us to collect an inventory of cloud images that we can use with other pictures. Another great example of gathering assets! All previous episodes...
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