What I would like to do over the course of the next several months is share with you what I think it takes to make each of you a better photographer. I will begin with my six step plan, each a generalization on a more in-depth subject and each month I will elaborate on these six points.

Learn ALL the details about your equipment

Before you take your first shot, read your manual – I know, trust me, do this one thing and you will forever thank me. Get to know your equipment, intimately, learn how to make adjustments and setting changes while looking thru the viewfinder. Then practice. I don’t mean take 10 shots of your dog running in the yard, take hundreds. The more you use your camera, the more comfortable it will become. And if the truth be known, it will tell you things, and the two of you will become one. Get comfortable changing lenses and learn how to take care of your equipment and buy a good camera bag to protect it.

Think like a “master painter”

We “see” in three dimensions, the camera only “sees” in two. Because of this, composition becomes paramount when creating a compelling image. Every master painter begins with a plan which is usually based on precise mathematical calculations. I don’t want to bore you with all the details, but if you can learn how to compose your shots your work will evolve much quicker and you will begin receiving rave reviews on a regular basis. Think of composition as components properly arranged in time/space. There are three things to keep in mind while composing, point of view, crop and the rule of thirds. I will spend many more words on each of these during future postings.

Learn to Control the Light

There are only two types of light, natural lighting and artificial light. What you need to know about these two sources of illumination is that each has a unique color and that color will affect the outcome of your final image. They each have intensity which will affect your exposure, which will affect the image as well. You can control each aspect of light with the tools on your camera. Learn to look at the light and see its intensity or lack thereof. Learn to notice light shifts, especially as large clouds roll over. Watch the effect on the objects the light illuminates. Once you begin to understand the nuances of light, controlling it becomes fun and your images will pop.

Learn about Tonal Range

The tonal range of an image is simply the range of grey tones between the lightest and darkest areas of an image.  The trick is to capture detail in a full range of tones. Our eyes “see” up to 24 ranges of tone while our digital cameras only see about 10. That is why many times we see an image that we think will make the perfect photo and after we view it we find that some of the elements that made it the perfect photo seem to be missing. Learning to manage your exposure will help increase the tonal range when we need it and decrease it when we want that effect.

Understand Color

Grab six of your closest friends and do a color test and you will get at least seven different results. No one will agree and if you pal with “A” type personalities like I do, arguments may ensue. Color and its affect on photography is a complex issue and none of us see color in the same way. What we see is controlled by the cones in our eye, and none of us have the same amount or types of cones. For a photographer, it’s all about cones. Understanding color and how to use it in your work will take some time, but worth the effort when you see the improvement it will make in your photography.

Find the Moment

Henri Cartier Bresson said “the most important thing about his photography is recognizing the exact right moment to take a picture.” Everything we shoot has a “right moment” and when we tune into that our work becomes art.  Finding this paradisiacal moment of time cannot be taught, you have to learn it by doing. If you want to shoot kids, go where they go, get down in the dirt with them and pace what your eye sees with their movement. Learning when and how to press the release at the right moment is Zen like and when you connect it is truly awesome.

Next time:

The relationship between Aperture (f-stop), ISO and Shutter Speed.

The area got the name from a fur trader named John Meares. He saw the headland and tried to cross over the bar into the Columbia River. When he missed, he named the area Cape Disappointment. This area has become known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. Originally, locals cut the tops of trees and used a white flag to create a daymark. At night they would set trees on fire to mark the entrance. By 1848, the Government agreed that a lighthouse was needed, but it would still be almost another eight years before a lighthouse was built.

One of the keepers, Joel Munson is credited with organizing a lifesaving crew at the lighthouse. He rebuilt a wooden lifeboat of a foundered ship that would be used by the crew. Later, the Government would create a permanent lifesaving station at nearby Fort Canby. Initially, the lighthouse was outfitted with a first-order Fresnel lens. This was used in the lighthouse until the North Head Lighthouse was built in 1898.

The U.S. Coast Guard still has a station at Cape Disappointment and monitors distress calls from mariners. The Cape Disappointment lighthouse is the oldest lighthouse in Washington State and is one of the oldest standing structures in the Pacific Northwest.

“Painting is a blind man’s profession. He paints not what he sees, but what he feels, what he tells himself about what he has seen.” Pablo Picasso.

Many times I get comments like “you did something to that photo, didn’t you?” and I just look at them wondering why they can’t see what I saw when I captured the image. Sometimes I truly wish I could paint with a brush so I could answer them back “this is what I see.” I have long ago given up on waiting to hear what everyone of us aches to hear. It seems I mostly create fine art photography for me, and hope that there will be a few people out there who will agree with my eye and what it interprets.  So for those of you who want to “see” what I saw, look up, for those who wish to see the scene as an original “SnapShot” look down.

If you want to know what I did to create what I saw, leave me a note below and I will share what I can.

Choosing your wedding photographer can be daunting and very stressful.  Look for a style you both like and then interview the photographer. Remember, he or she will be with you the entire day so it’s always a good idea to know beforehand if your personalities will mesh.

My wedding photography style is a mixture of editorial, journalistic and portraiture.  I manage the color process 100% of the way and my workflow and equipment will guarantee that your images will have the look and feel you want and not end up like a snapshot. Invest in the moment, years later you will be happy you did.

I have the following services available for all my clients:

• Professional Color Correction
• Custom Invitations, Save The Date Cards
• Programs and Book Design
• Retouching and Restoration
• Slide & Negative Scanning
• Digital File Conversion
• Image Archival

Since these services are provided in-house I am able to pass the savings on to you. Additionally each of these services is available for your collection of personal images. You can expect the same quality of work we put into our own photographs.

Steve Lents Photography

Your Life, Your Way

The original image was shot with an Orbis Ring flash with the exposure dialed in a little hot (This is another one of my workflows I will share at a later time). Since I shoot everything in RAW and use PS CS5 I am able to control all of the elements I would normally have controlled in the darkroom to bring out the color and shadows the way I like. My first step was to use the Gaussian blur filter to channel the focus to her face. Once this was accomplished I brought in two of my stock textures and began the process. I never approach a shot with a finished look in mind, I let the textures “speak” to me and use the brushes to paint and complete the look I feel is right.

Actually, when I have a model like Ruth, how could I go wrong. Below you can see the difference between the original and the finished image.

My favorite thing to do, photographically, is to capture images of kids. I love being around them and my creativity soars when I have one or more of them interact with me about staging ideas. Last week I had an assignment for the Reynolds School District to cover an event at the Troutdale Elementary School. The affair was the dedication of their newly painted solar system. A local Lion’s club member helped the kids paint the solar system in front of the main entrance to their school. He brought T-Shirts with each of the planets written on them and each of the kids got to wear one and stand in front of their respective planet and tell the audience all about their heavenly body.

As you can see, my favorites were the Earth and the Moon. These two girls will no doubt be on ANTM in the not too distant future because whenever they saw me looking their way the just poured on the “smize” and struck up a pose. This image represents the best shot of the day and my favorite of the week.

The day was very overcast and I wanted the visual attention of the finished image to be squarely on the faces of these two girls so, I set my on-camera flash (yes, I still use it when the occasion calls) and set the flash for ½ power, fill only. This way the light coming from the flash would not overpower the overall look of the image, just act as a fill light. Then in Photoshop I turned the image into a B&W and made further adjustments to the red levels to smooth out their skin tones. The result is the perfect rendition of the Earth and her best friend the Moon.

What Sam Walton can teach us about vertical marketing in today’s economy. These ideas apply to the small business owner, the middle manager and those who are looking to upgrade their employment situation.

Sam Walton, the founder of WalMart and Sam’s Club, looked at his business in a very unique manner. His driving mantra was “Go where they ain’t” and it seems to have worked fairly well for him. I would like to share three ideas based on some of my favorite Sam Walton quotes that have helped me keep my revenue stream from drying up and add new clients to my customer base.

1 – “Capital isn’t scarce, vision is.” Sam understood what it takes to keep a business going and as a small business owner we have to do everything, including clean the toilets, to keep the operation solvent. Sometimes I get so bogged down by the day to day minutia that I forget to look at my compass and review my charts. In effect I lose my vision of where I had planned to go. My favorite remedy for this is to get up before sunrise and drive to the back roads until I am away from the noise of the city and all the confusion. As I focus on the morning light and my surroundings I begin to feel more connected and ideas come flowing to me about my business. Many times during this process, I receive ‘revelation’ as it were, on pressing issues that have not been resolved in my life. This is a cleansing process for me and I end up attacking these tribulations with renewed vigor. When we are able to “see” where we are supposed to go, getting there becomes more of an adventure and less a chore.

2 – “Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction.” Many years ago when I sold computer hardware and software for a living, my boss told me I had to open up several new vertical markets. I had never heard that term before, and rather than saying “wuh?” I just nodded and told her I would. The minute I was alone with a dictionary I looked up the term and realized there were millions of people looking for solutions to their unique business problems. They didn’t know where to go or who to ask for help. Conventional wisdom says go with the herd, Sam says “go where they ain’t” and small vertical niches can pay off big. Everyone in business today, especially the small business owner has distinctive talents and expertise they can tap into. Once you can “see” clearly, these personal vertical markets will open up to you.

3 – “When all else fails, put on a costume and sing a silly song. Then make everybody else sing with you.” I have the opportunity to photograph children on a regular basis and each time I do I come away from the shoot very happy and invigorated. I attribute this to the fact that in order to get the “perfect shot” I have to get down on their level and act like a kid. When I make funny noises or goofy faces it somehow frees me from my uptightness. You know what I mean, all you button-down business types. Loosen up, get in touch with your inner child and let him or her take over for a while. The real benefit is that in doing so, your vision will open up and new ideas will come pouring in. If you haven’t noticed yet, vision seems to be the key ingredient here and in order to have the optimum vision we need to be happy and at peace with ourselves and our environment.  Having fun will change your perspective; go to Disneyland with your kids and take a notebook along. You will come back with more ideas than you will be able to execute.

Your next great idea, the one that lands you that big contract or job interview is out there. I can see it, can you? Want more help? Follow these links to some truly professional organizations that will help you find your vision and help you land your next BIG deal.

I have been working on a new post processing technique over the past several months and seem be getting closer to what I want for a completed image. It seems to me that this process is a difficult one for portraits, and as of this writing, I really don’t know why. My plan is to learn how to use painting techniques from other artists and continue to preview large bodies of work each week until I can perfect this technique.

This is a portrait of Brynn. I captured this image during an outdoor shoot with her and her mom as we walked the greenway near her home. This shot was taken in the shade during a very sunny day in Portland (we don’t get many of those during the fall). I used a fill in flash to help separate the subject from the background for the finished digital.

When I got back to my studio I loaded it into Photoshop and did my normal tweakings in Camera Raw. Once I was happy with that outcome I began the layer blending process. I ended up with three layers of the original image that I manipulated using the “artist” filter in PS and three layers of textures I brought into the mix for added depth and feeling.  The final image is unique and still captures the character of this amazing little girl.

Several days ago I had the opportunity to visit our capitol city, Salem Oregon. I arrived there very early in the morning on a Saturday and decided to drive out to the capitol grounds and shoot the buildings there. This image is what I came away with after being on the grounds for several hours. To me it represents the confusion we are feeling over the lack of leadership in our government and the economy. The positioning of the water fountain and the capitol building just seem to call out to me.  When I got back to my studio I decided to add a little more emotion to the image and began adding several blended layers to the image until I ended up with the perfect illustration for the emotion I was feeling. I think it is very metaphorical too, that while I was there the water fountain was not in operation. So many things need to changed, I think I need to work on putting my life in order and restore the things I have control over.