New e-Book - 'The Digital Darkroom'

The Digital DarkroomImage Interpretation Techniques

£9.99 

I'm very pleased to announce the release of my new e-book ' The Digital-Darkroom'. This e-book is concerned with the art of image manipulation. Please read on.

As part of my photographic workshops, I like to spend time with the participants each day, doing image reviews. My image reviews are not just about commenting on composition or exposure - as part of the afternoon critique sessions, I also show how I would approach editing the work at hand.

I'd been wanting to expand on this for some time, and had thought that running some digital-darkroom workshops later this year would be the best way forward. I was surprised to see that the demand for such a workshop was very poor. I think this is because many people hold the belief that photography is mainly about being out in the field and learning the art of capture.

A great deal of work goes into creating good images out in the field, but just a much care and attention should go into the editing stage. I find the digital-darkroom an essential component of the image making process and it's a highly creative environment to get immersed in.

Good editing is not an easy thing to do. It requires years or learning to get good results and I've been learning for over a decade, and each year I learn new things.

Anyway, as part of my preparation for my digital-darkroom workshops,  I decided to put what I know about editing images  into an e-Book format, and began working on this a year ago. Only, the way to convey what I wanted, seemed to evade me. It only became clear to me once I'd written the 'fast-track to Photoshop' e-book how best to approach this subject. I realised I need not worry about the technicalities of how to edit work, and could instead focus on the real questions - what to edit and why.

So this ebook is application neutral. In fact, I don't mention any applications at all. It's all about looking at the underlying structure of images - how they work, and how to edit them based on this knowledge. This is all done with one aim: to convey that image editing is not a case of 'twiddling the knobs until it looks good', but instead, is more a considered study of what the image has to offer.

You'll find a comprehensive list of contents to the e-book below. I do hope you enjoy this e-book, as It has been a very long labour of love for me.

£9.99 

Table of Contents _____________________________

Part 1 Image Interpretation reading the structure of an image

Photographic Interpretation the de-construction of scenery

How does your eye move around an image? your eye tends to enjoy images if it can scan diagonally

Image Flow Overview leading your eye through the image

Image Flow Interruptions reducing the effect of flow blockages - the eye is attracted to dominant bright tones

Image Flow Interruptions reducing the effect of flow blockages - the eye is attracted to dominant dark tones

Image Flow Interruptions the eye is attracted to high contrast areas of the scene

Image Flow Interruptions the eye is distracted by conflicting or overly demanding colours

Image Flow Interruptions rotating an image horizontally can often reveal compositional imbalances

Image Flow Interruptions turning an image upside down can often reveal compositional distractions

Summary feeling on edge means something is wrong

________________________________________________

Part 2 Case Studies Image Interpretations

Tonal Balance Overview balancing one part of the frame with another

Tonal Balance 1 balancing sky with ground

Tonal Balance 2 grading the foreground

Tonal Balance 3 diagonal balancing

Tonal balance 4 a tunnel of light

Tonal balance 5 tonal dominance

Tonal Balance 6 emphasising horizons

Tonal Balance 7 the inverted tonal balance

Flow & Localised Contrast creating flow through an image & somewhere for the eye to settle

Flow Introduced by Burn-In creating flow through the use of burning in

Localised Presence bringing presence to particular objects

Localised Contrast cementing tonal relationships

Localised Saturation / Desaturation desaturating areas of the frame to reduce distraction

Vignettes give them more thought than usual - they’re very creative

Creative Vignette localised presence

A Parting Thought - going full circle there should be little difference between what you do in the darkroom, and what you do out in the field

£9.99 

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Image Selection in the digital darkroom

As I'm nearing the end of writing my 'Digital Darkroom' ebook, one or two subjects have come to light which I feel I should include. So I'm back to adding these ideas into the text at the moment. One such topic I feel is needed in the book, is a discussion on the implications of choosing certain images over others to work on. What this can mean to our work in general, and the kinds of pitfalls that can come forth from a lack of consideration for the work you decide to ignore over the work you do choose to use.

So here are my tip key points I feel that should be observed during the 'selection process' if you have such a thing. Maybe you just react to particular images, and give little thought to the ones you've discarded? Let's see.....

You are a different person each day

I guess this is my no.1 mantra, when it comes to choosing images to work on. I never consider that my 'selection' is final. What I chose one day, may leave me cold the next. I am considerate to the fact that I may have got it wrong the previous day, so I'm always open to reviewing the work again, and considering different shots. Also, I think that once I've been through all the images I've shot a few times, a particular 'story' begins to form in my mind as to how the completed set of images are going to work out. I get a feel for the overall character. This is a great way to work, but it can also be limiting because once you've set things in stone, its hard to see another story in your unedited work. So I like to go back and review, and I do this over a few days, or even a week or so down the line, I will look at the negatives again and realise there are others in the work that I overlooked for one reason or another. It's iterative, and I keep cycling back over the body of work over time to see if there's something I've missed. I know that Eliot Eriwtt for instance still scours contact sheets of work he made 40 years ago and still finds new images in there.... you are a different person each day. Use this to your advantage to see something new in older work.

Consider that this is not the only time you will visit this work

By accepting this as truth, it liberates you to do what you will with what you have chosen. It's so tempting to feel that what you have chosen is all there is, and this can force you to want to 'will' your selection of images to live up to your ideals of what you wished them to be, and not what they are. By accepting you will go over your negatives many times looking for work you missed, you open up your imagination to see what is there and work with what you've been given.

Decisions create paths. Going down one route may result in undesirable work

The birth of your work is a precarious endeavour. Each time we make a decision, we affect the final outcome of our work. Creativity requires you to be fluid because creativity flows. It does not sit and wait and it does not put the brakes on work that has a need to flourish. Sometimes I'm too hasty in going down a certain route though, and the further I go, the more uncomfortable I begin to feel. I've found myself on many occasions bin a complete editing session because I was not happy with how things were going. I now listen to myself. If the work is undesirable, I ask myself - is it the works fault, or is it my handling of the work? If it's the works fault - then I discard it. It's clearly not good enough to spend any time on. It might be a case of 'close but no cigar'. If on the other hand, I realise I'm tired, my creative vibes aren't where they should be, then I discard the editing session and leave my digital-darkroom work for another day. I go do something else more enjoyable. I've often found that returning to the original negative (with previous edits discarded) is a good way forward and approach the work with enthusiasm and a revitalised creative spark later on.

Emotional Investment shouldn't overrule

Sometimes after working on an image I'm really pleased with, I may find a better negative of the same location. Maybe the composition is better, or maybe the light is more dramatic. I give myself complete permission to work on this 2nd image. I don't let the first image (despite how good it is) dictate that there can't be another one that is perhaps better. I don't let myself become too emotionally attached to the first image. This is key to all work. A good artist needs to be able to be objective about what he does. This requires a strange mix of being very dedicated about what you do, but not letting your ego take you for a ride either.

 Be open, be fluid, be inquisitive

When I work on my own images, I like to leave them for a long time between shooting and editing. This I feel, gives me a sense of distance. This is really important to me, because this distance allows me to view my own work as if someone else had created it. If it's not my own, I can be more honest about it right? Yes. And also, because I really can't remember what it was I was trying to achieve with the work in the first place, I'm allowed to interpret it in any way I feel. An artist should be inquisitive. We should find surprise in what we do and investigate it. We should be flexible in how we approach our work, allow us to see new things in what we did. We need to be open to ourselves, because it's only when we are open, that creativity can flow.

Image interpretation techniques

It's been a long time in the works, but I'm almost nearing completion of an ebook about image interpretation (what most people call post-processing - except I detest that phrase).

I'm in Patagonia right now, at the end of a great trip we had to Torres del Paine national park. The weather was spectacular, and plenty of new material from it, i'm sure.

While i've been in south america, I've been working on this e-book in my downtime. I had great difficulty with this one, as I think I needed to get the Fast-Track-to-Photoshop ebook out of the way first. And I've felt that since that was done, this ebook has come really quickly to me. I expect it to be a few weeks or maybe a month or so, before it is out.

Heading home tomorrow to my own bed, Scottish tea bags, and my beloved hi-fi !

Adios amigos, Bruce

Fast-Track to Photoshop CS e-Book

When I first decided to run photographic workshops, I sat around for a few months wondering just what a workshop should entail. As my good friend Kathy said to me - 'don't copy anybody, do what you think a workshop should be all about' - this has been extremely good advice, and since then, I've taken it very much to heart in everything I've done regarding my own photography career.

So when I set up my workshops, I decided there should be some kind of structure to what I wanted to convey. One of the things I felt was a 'must', was to include a tutorial on Photoshop CS* (not elements), something that my participants could take home and walk through under their own pace. So I put together a nice tutorial that walks the reader through an entire edit of one of my images, from start to finish. The tutorial comes prepared with the TIFF image I use throughout the edit, and also a final Photoshop version for reference purposes.

I've had many participants tell me that by walking through my tutorial a few times, they were up and running using Photoshop CS! That's pretty encouraging news to hear, because Photoshop CS is not an easy application to start with, but it is, in my opinion still the best application for photo editing because the degree of control you have is very precise.

So, with this rather long pre-amble done. I wish to tell you that I've decided to offer in the form of an e-Book, my fast-track to Photoshop CS tutorial that I give all my workshop participants. It comes along with the two files I mentioned - the raw TIFF file, and also the completed Photoshop file, so you can look at the edits.

So if you're in the market for learning Photoshop CS, but you're a bit overwhelmed by the application (Photoshop CS is not intuitive), and you can't face months of reading massive books which aim to tell you everything about Photoshop CS, then this eBook is for you.

Mytutorial is condensed and tells you the core of what you need to know.

If you wish to buy it, you can buy it here.

*Please note: this e-book is for Photoshop CS. It is not suitable for Photoshop Elements.

A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process

While I've been editing, selecting and working on the many rolls of processed films from my trips this year, I've been listening to a lot more ambient music.

This has partly been influenced by a friend that I've been sharing music with. And what has come out of this, is that I think the music I listen to, while I am editing and post-processing - going through the selection process, can have a massive influence on how things unfold and evolve during the birth of new images.

I wouldn't for one second assume that the music I've been listening to will be for everyone. But if you like ambient music - things like Brian Eno, Boards of Canada, Ulrich Schnauss, or film music from composers such as Thomas Newman, then you might like this piece of music by Stars of the Lid. I think they produce ambient-classical music :-) It has a floaty, dreamy quality to it that allows my mind to focus on what I'm doing in my digital-dark-room, while also obliterate out the real world for a few hours.

I find that listening to some kinds of music during the editing process can be a terrible distraction. I can't for some reason listen to music with any spoken words in it. It just seems to pull me away from my own thoughts, which isn't good - as I do believe that post editing requires a high-degree of self reflection, and inner dialog.

Highly repetitive music, as well as the floaty/dreamy music mentioned above - does seem to work for me. I think it's because it has a hypnotic element to it - which I believe consumes the part of my conscious mind that can't be quiet. I think repetitive music helps keep this part of my mind occupied, allowing the part of me that has zoned out, to remain in the creative flow that I'm hopefully experiencing.

I have to be aware of my thoughts, which often are only measured by my feelings. If the music is conducive to that, then it tends to help get me into the right creative zone.  We all know what that zone is like - it's when we're no longer aware of where we are, of how much time is passing by, and all the distractions of every day life have gone. In that sense, it is very similar to the creative zone we experience when we are out in the landscape - time passes by, thoughts float freely away, and we're left with an empty and calm mind that is ready to be occupied by one thing: the craft of picture making.

Pointy Hat Mountain

I'm slowly working my way through my images from Lofoten, shot this past December.

I love the process. Scanning images, allows me time to review what I shot on my light table. I take each sheet of film out and work on that, one at a time, and I don't race. I don't delve further down into the collection of films until I'm complete with the top sheet. It's a very relaxing way to work. The scanner whirs and clicks away in the back ground, and while it is busy scanning the currently chosen image, I study the ones that are currently grabbing my eye.

And every now than then, the collection of scanned and edited images are reviewed. I use LightRoom - just as a catalog preview machine. It's nice to load up all the images and rate them. Some make the grade more so than others. Take the image above of Geitelva, a mountain near Fredvang (fantastic name for a place, don't you think?). I'm not too sure about this one. I love the mountain, but I shot this under very unsatisfactory conditions. Fading light and a severe lack of colour. It does have a mood though, so It might get through to the last selection, but somehow, I don't think so.

This is the point really. I can't tell until the entire edit is done. Like a story being told, it can only be understood once all the characters in it have been presented and explained. As I add new images to the collection, it feels as though it begins to steer in a new direction. 'Ah, so it's going to be that kind of portfolio?' I'll hear myself exclaim. If the images are overly light, then I can see that the whole feel of the collection is going towards a more lighter mood, but then two days later, the images I'm working on are taking a more darker mood, and that seems to steer the collection in a new direction.... and then I find that some images work better than others.

I feel that making a collection of images work together is all about the collection being 'greater than the sum of its parts'. It should be cohesive, work together, and feel like it all belongs.

That's why I don't rush home to edit. It's also why I let the images sit for a few weeks after the edit, to see how I feel. Sometimes things I didn't see at the time of the edit start to grate. I may be aware that something feels 'on edge' about a particular image, and that's often the sign that it either doesn't fit the collection, or requires further adjustment.....

I'm off to take a break now.

The art of post edit

I received my films back from the lab yesterday (yes, I get them processed by Peak Imaging). They are currently sitting in a cardboard box in my home studio. I haven't looked at them yet, because I'm waiting for the right moment when I feel ready to do so. I simply do not feel inclined to go anywhere near a camera, a piece of film or think about image editing for a while yet. I've just been home for under a week now, and it's taken a while to settle back in.

When I approaching editing images, scanning them and reviewing the ones I want to work on, I've got to feel ready to do it. The box I have is rather large - there are around 70 rolls of film processed in there - that's quite a bit of effort.

I have two free weeks coming up soon, so I hope to use the time to get into the mode of review/scan/edit/post-review/re-edit process that I tend to get into. It has its own momentum too and I feel that having to stop mid-way, and go and do a workshop, or go away for a week - causes a sense of lost focus in what I'm doing.

I think that's because I build up a mental picture of the whole portfolio as I go along and complete an image. I think this is very similar to how I make the initial images too. When I'm out shooting, I build up a mental image of the entire portfolio I'm shooting - it helps build up a sense of focus to what I'm doing and allow me to immerse myself fully in the process.

It should be an absorbing experience, and it is for me.

So why should the post shoot review/edit/review again/re-edit stages be any different?

I find it hard to comprehend why photographers rush home and edit images quickly. Get one in before dinner time, or during a quick five minutes break in the day.... it's like rushing down your evening meal. There is no deep connection, nor any time to consider, reflect, apply a sense of objectivity to what it is we are creating in our work.

I'll be waiting for those two free weeks to come up. Before then, I do not have any decent segments of free time, with which to do my picture editing justice. To rush in there, would cause me a great deal of frustration and pain. And for that reason alone, I'm content to wait.