Hi!

How are you? Have you found the time to photograph recently? If so, what did you shoot?

Here in Michigan, the weather is finally starting to look up after about 12 straight weeks of cold days and cloudy skies (though I’ve lived here long enough that I’m never too trusting of any improved weather conditions!).

Anyway, in this Saturday newsletter, I have some fun items for you, including:

• The dPS bi-weekly challenge
• Two photographers whose work you might enjoy
• Two more image critiques
• A question

Let’s dive right in!

The dPS bi-weekly photo challenge: Scale

From Sime: 

We’re still running “Scale” as our challenge, so we’d love to see your images that give an amazing sense of scale!

Make sure you include the hashtags #dPSWeeklyChallenge and #dPSScale in your post, in the comments of our official weekly challenge page, or over on social media. You can tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!

And you can also share your image(s) in the dPS Facebook group!

Photography to inspire you

It’s been a few weeks since I shared the names of some photographers who create deeply inspiring images, so I figured I’d take the time to send a couple of recommendations!

First up is a nature and wildlife photographer whom I’ve admired for many years: Paul Nicklen. Paul primarily photographs arctic and antarctic wildlife, and he has a knack for capturing the kind of moments that, when combined with his powerful sense of light and composition, make his subjects seem almost human. All the wildlife images on his website are breathtaking, but if you’re new to his work, I’d recommend starting with his Antarctica portfolio.

Second is Candida Höfer, a photographer who is less well-known in popular photography circles but whose images of architectural interiors often sell for huge sums on the fine-art photography market. Candida’s style is very detached - she frequently photographs rooms from the dead center, always shoots from a neutral height, and tends to maintain a significant distance from any foreground subject matter - and this can be off-putting, but if you give them a chance, her images grow on you. Unfortunately, Candida doesn’t have a website, but you can view some of her images here and here (just scroll down past the overview). 

As an aside, last December I purchased her photobook Libraries, which contains stunning large-format film images of some of the world’s most magnificent libraries. It’s quickly become one of my favorite photobooks of all time thanks to its endless pages of beautifully captured space, light, and books. If you’re a library and/or architecture lover like me (or you simply need a coffee-table book of the highest quality!), I highly recommend you check it out. If you’re interested, here’s an Amazon link.

More critiques!

As always, when I asked for images for critique, the dPS community responded with some great images for me to discuss, so the critiquing fun continues!

I’m going to try a new format this week, with a “Things I Like” and a “Things to Improve” column. Let me know what you think of it and how it compares to my previous approach to critiquing!

First up, we have a beautiful flower close-up from Victoria S:

Things I Like

• The frame-filling compositional approach. Victoria, you’ve done a great job emphasizing the flower and removing distractions; this type of close-up approach gives the image a more elegant, abstract feel
• The water droplets on the petals. They’re the cherry on top of the already beautiful flowers, and they’re nicely distributed around the flower, too!
• The colors. I’m a huge fan of those pinks, and they go beautifully with the oranges that are peeking out of the flower’s center.

Things to Improve

• The brightest areas of the photo seem to be blown out - you may be able to recover some of the missing information in a post-processing program (especially if you photographed in RAW), but my general recommendation would be to look for more even lighting. The center of the flower appears to be in a nice shade, but the areas that are hit by the bright sunlight will always be tricky to expose well (and can be slightly distracting, too). My advice is to aim to photograph flowers on cloudier days or when the sun is very low in the sky - that way, you can get more even lighting and a more balanced exposure overall!
• I love how you got in close to fill the frame, and I’d actually push this a little further to get rid of the green area in the upper right-hand corner. If your camera can’t focus any closer, you could always just crop down from the top a tad in order to remove it from the frame!

Next, we have a lovely landscape architectural photo from Peter:

Things I Like

• The frosty trees. The contrast between the white frost and the dark wood is fantastic, Peter; it really transforms the scene into something deeply memorable.
• The uncluttered and dynamic composition. You’ve done a great job of keeping this scene relatively simple; the light posts don’t overlap with the bridge or the distant building, and the bridge works well as a leading line to add depth and keep the viewer’s eye moving through the shot.
• That sky! One mistake that beginner scenic photographers often make is not paying attention to the cloud cover. A pale blue sky, even at sunrise or sunset, is often somewhat boring, but the clouds you’ve captured are fantastic.

Things to Improve

• To my eye, the editing is a little strong - I know that some people like that heavy HDR look, but I’d personally dial it back a bit. Specifically, I’d aim for a slightly more natural balance of tones as well as reduced contrast. I’d also experiment a bit with the colors; right now, I’m seeing a lot of very saturated blues and oranges, which feel a touch unnatural.
• While I really like how you’ve approached the composition, the right side of the frame is feeling heavy compared to the left, with the bridge, the posts, and the building all occupying the space. With this type of scene, it’s often helpful to walk around and test out different camera angles; you never know when you might stumble upon something even more powerful!

Victoria and Peter, thanks so much for sending in those excellent images, and I hope the critiques were helpful!

A question

In this newsletter, I’ve spent a lot of time discussing photography, but I haven’t touched heavily on post-processing. 

I’d like to offer some post-processing tips and tutorials, but before I delve into the topic, I wanted to ask:

What would be most helpful for you? Would you like editing program recommendations? Tips for a basic editing workflow? More advanced tips? Advice on how to edit like specific professional photographers?

Just hit Reply and let me know!