Door Knocker in Paris © Harold Davis

What lies behind the door?

Update: I’ve learned that this knocker is on one of the doors at 57 Rue de Varenne, the Hotel Matignon, the official residence of the Prime Minister of France.

La Loire © Harold Davis

The shot above is through a very old leaded glass window looking out on a rainy day from a tower in the Chateau d’Amboise towards the Loire. Below, you’ll see a more abstract composition from my home, discussed on my blog in an earlier story, Patterns on my windows.

Steamed Window Glyph © Harold Davis

Click here for information about the iPhonography de Paris portfolio. © Harold Davis. All rights reserved. Shot and processed on my iPhone 5.

Moonight on the Seine © Harold Davis

I shot this view in Paris of the Seine River by moonlight looking towards the Ile de la Citie from the Passerelle des Artes using my iPhone 5 and the Slow Shutter Cam app.  I processed the image on my iPhone using Snapseed, Plastic Bullet and Lo-Mob. I particularly like the tied-off barges along the quai on the right.

Chateau de Nazelles 2 © Harold Davis

A companion photo, blogged in an earlier story and shown below, presents the backwards view to this image. In other words, it is shot looking back at the camera position of this photo, as though one were leaving rather than entering the compound.

Chateau de Nazelles 1 by Harold Davis

This is a special offer on pre-orders of both the print and eBook versions of The Way of the Digital Photographer directly from the publisher, Peachpit. I have arranged this discount as a way to say thanks for your support and reading my blog. To receive the 30% discount from Peachpit, be sure to use the discount code PP-DAVIS30 (this code is case sensitive) after you add my book to your shopping cart when you proceed to check-out. Click here to order The Way of the Digital Photographer now!

Book description: In The Way of the Digital Photographer, master photographer and digital artist Harold Davis shows you how to make digital photography an art form. Great digital photographs need both camera and computer to be truly extraordinary. Using detailed examples and case studies from his own work, Davis provides myriad ideas you can use in your own work, and he shows you how to unlock your own creativity to make those special images you have always dreamed of! Readers discover how to effectively use post-processing techniques and gain insight as to how the techniques and steps involved can inform their choices when making a photo and in post-production workflow.

Pre-order your copy of The Way of the Digital Photographer: Walking the Photoshop post-production path to more creative photography!

 Table of Contents

Introduction

Your digital camera probably resembles a film camera in both appearance and basic functionality. Like a film camera, your digital camera has a lens with aperture and shutter controls that can be used to decide how much light penetrates into the body of the camera for each shot.

But that’s where the similarities between film and digital cameras end. Despite the similarity in appearance of the hardware device used to make the exposures, digital photography is an entirely new medium compared to film photography.

Historically, chemical properties of film and developing were used to record light that entered the camera. Today with a digital camera, the light is captured as a digital signal by a sensor. Digital signal data recorded by the sensor can be processed by the computer in your camera. More powerfully, and here’s where the fun really begins, image data saved by your camera can be processed on a standalone computer after you upload your files.

People don’t fully understand this new digital medium that consists of the camera-computer partnership. They’re still hooked on the fact that their hand-held computer with a lens (a.k.a. a digital single-lens-reflex, or DSLR) looks like
a good old-fashioned film camera—and if it looks like one, it must work like one. Not so. For those who get over this misunderstanding the door is wide open for experimentation and new approaches.

Digital is different. Very different.

One of the main goals of The Way of the Digital Photographer is to show you how to take advantage of this difference to enrich your own work.

…

In The Way of the Digital Photographer, you’ll discover how to effectively use several of the post-processing techniques that I use to create the final versions of my own imagery.

These techniques are presented as case studies in the context of actual examples, so you can understand what each step does. More important, I want you to gain insight into how the techniques and steps involved can inform your choices when you make a photo and in your post-production workflow. (For a discussion of workflow and to understand how best to adapt your workflow to the digital world, turn to page 107.)

…

Digital photography and post-production techniques that are used to inform one another—how you take a photograph with an idea or pre-visualization in mind, knowing what you can do to it later in post-production—are the basis of this new digital medium. If you can see a photograph in your mind’s eye before you take it and know how you can process it later to achieve your vision, then nothing can hold your imagery back. Truly, the sky’s the limit!

Technique without heart is banal and useless. I’ve found in the workshops I give that many people come to digital photography precisely because they enjoy—and are good at—working with technology. Indeed, perhaps these folks work in technology related industries.

But even if you are a technocrat it is important not to lose the creative aspects of digital photography. Often the people who start with digital photography because they are comfortable with the gear find some resistance to fully engaging their creative powers. They may be more comfortable with measuring pixels and navigating software than with conveying emotion.

If this describes you, be of good cheer. Provided that you approach image making in the spirit that anything is possible, you may be amazed by what you can achieve.

Along with the post-production case studies in The Way of the Digital Photographer, you will find thoughts and exercises, presented as Meditations. These Meditations will help you with the conceptual and emotional side of digital photography and also guide you in pre-visualizing your photographs with the idea of post-production in mind.

As you walk down the path of the digital photographer, you will find that photography is about your creative vision and your notions about art. Digital photography is also a way to show others your very personal view of the world. By combining your pre-visualization with your photography and appropriate post-production techniques, you can fully render anything you can imagine.

Please keep in mind the 30% pre-publication discount from the publisher for The Way of the Digital Photographer. Use discount code PP-DAVIS30 (case sensitive) at checkout to get your discount.

Chartres © Harold Davis

Exposure data: 10.5mm digital fisheye lens, nine exposures at shutter speeds from 1/6 of a second to 13 seconds, each exposure at f/9 and ISO 200, tripod mounted; processed and combined in Photoshop and Nik HDR Efex Pro; converted to monochromatic using Photoshop, Nik Silver Efex, and the Topaz plugin.

Les Lumières de Paris © Harold Davis

Be that as it may, from above the Parisian cityscape is special. I shot this view from the roof deck at the Tour Montparnasse as twilight turned to night. Behind la tour Eiffel, you can see the modern towers of La Défense. Napoleon’s tomb at Les Invalides is visible on the right, along with the Arc de Triomphe if you look carefully.

According to one recent email, “Enough of Paris already Harold. Come down to earth!” On this topic, I make no promises.

Please keep in mind the 30% pre-publication discount from the publisher for my new book, The Way of the Digital Photographer. Use discount code PP-DAVIS30 (case sensitive) at checkout to get your discount.

Wouldn’t you like to know my night photography processing secrets? Star Circle Academy is offering  for a limited time $5 off my Creative Night Photography Post-Processing Video with Harold Davis, which features a night shot from above the East River in New York City. Use the coupon code 5$harold (case sensitive) at checkout to get your discount.

Saint-Sulpice © Harold Davis

Exposure data: 10.5mm digital fisheye lens, ten exposures at shutter speeds from five seconds to 1/80 of a second, each exposure at f/9 and ISO 200, tripod mounted; exposures combined using Nik HDR Efex Pro and processed in Photoshop.

Please keep in mind the 30% pre-publication discount from the publisher for my new book, The Way of the Digital Photographer. Use discount code PP-DAVIS30 (case sensitive) at checkout to get your discount.

Also, Star Circle Academy is offering  for a limited time $5 off my Creative Night Photography Post-Processing Video with Harold Davis. Use the coupon code 5$harold (case sensitive) at checkout to get your discount.