Technical Challenges

if you’re not interested in a technical discussion, skip down to the next section

Camera technology has always offered latitude when it comes to reproducing the colors that we see. At the same time that means there is imprecision. With film, one type produces more highly saturated colors while another does better with skin tones. Digital photography has even more latitude up front by allowing for quick adjustments in how the camera will record color. With either technology colors can be adjusted on the computer. So the color in a Fine Art print is NOT simply a WYSIWYG process. The challenge of producing an emotional connection with color starts out as a technical one, and then becomes an artistic one.

Why is color such a technical challenge? You can’t find a camera that perfectly handles white balance in every situation, and has a perfectly calibrated sensor or film, and never under or overexposes. So it’s still up to the Artist to figure out how to represent or reproduce color, whether the goal is to be completely accurate, or to represent a personal vision. In the case of the photo shown above, you’re seeing what I saw as closely as I could represent it. In this case, for me, no personal vision could compete with what was already there, at least from the perspective of color.

To add to the difficulties, JPEG, the most common file format for photography, by design throws away some of the color information in a photo in order to compress the file to make it smaller. It therefore can’t perfectly represent nuances in color. In some cases it can’t represent the color at all, because it threw away the hue of a color by averaging other colors in the same area during compression. In Fine Art color photography, where color is one of the key components, we can’t afford to throw anything away. (By the way, the RAW file format does NOT throw anything away, so that is the preferred format for Fine Art Photography) I’m not bad-mouthing JPEG though. It works just fine for other print media, like most magazines and Wedding albums.

What about the paper? Even the highest quality paper has it’s unique attributes, which means that it’s going to take the ink differently. Some papers are matte, some glossy, and others in-between, and the same print on each of these will look very different. These all have an impact on the colors.

The Emotion of color

Now to the artistic side of this discussion. Black & White photography produces a range of emotional responses, sometimes very powerful. I’m not sure that they are the same responses that color might produce. That’s hard to figure out. For me there is something different with color. Of course it’s silly to think that all emotional responses are measurable or exactly reproducible between people. Obviously emotions belong to the viewer, and they are highly personal, and often based on experience. However, there must be some commonality as lots of people tend to respond in similar ways to certain attributes of art that is well-done, especially color.

I can’t put my finger on why the Tulips photo shown above evokes such an intense feeling (in me), but I know for sure that it’s the colors that are doing it. How about the composition? There is definitely a composition, and I’m sure it plays an important role, but I’d like that to be invisible. The foreground tulip has been isolated in a background bed of supporting colors, rather than a staged black background. Just as important, there is no outside world, just color. The composition doesn’t lead me to consider the outside world. No sky, no people, no environment. Maybe that’s why I like it. Rather than looking at it compositionally, I only want to enjoy the colors and the feeling that I could live inside that scene forever. I’ll need a waiter though!

To the Designer of all designers, and the creator of color and light – Thank you!

- Mark Esposito

Comments welcome

If you’re shooting Macro, these clouds are just what you needed as they diffuse the light leaving no harsh shadows and good saturation. Usually with Macro photography we aren’t including the sky in the photo anyway.

On the other hand, not all Landscape photos need the sky. Take a look at the photo of Spiderock in my earlier blog post here. The overcast sky took away from the mood I wanted to portray, so I left it out. I had to clone in some dark grasses (in Photoshop) in a small strip at the top. (not shown)

Finally, here’s an example from my recent trip to Arizona. The site is called Church Rock. As great as Church Rock is, the clouds made the composition. I used Nikon’s super wide-angle lens Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 to exaggerate the clouds. I’m printing this on Epson Exhibition Fiber paper, which has super bright whites. Printed at 16×24, or even cropped at 16×20 it’s really beautiful.

More Info on Clouds

Wikipedia has a short article on clouds that might be helpful here.

I just ordered the following book on Amazon since it had some good reviews, and it’s inexpensive.

Click on the image to order it.

Spiderock turned out to be the most dramatic (for me) due to some great light just before sunset one night. I’m not kidding when I say that this light lasted 10 seconds. Once again it shows that the first hurdle in Landscape photography is just being there. Sounds easy, but being there at the right time often means 6:00am and 8:00pm, when most folks are sleeping or resting after dinner. Add to that a hike to get to the best location and you can see the commitment that it takes.

Let me know what you think of it by leaving a comment! Soon I’ll have a link to purchase a high quality print of this image.

Technical Details: Nikon D3, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8, 1/30 sec, ISO 200 @f16

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The reason it works (for me) is that the tree and clouds fill the top half of the photo, so there isn’t much dead space in the sky.

I was thinking about a title for this scene, and what came to mind was “Canyon Seating”. It looks like a great spot for a sleeping bag as well. That would be some scene to wake up to – if you could get past the fear of something licking your ear, or rolling down the hill into the canyon.

Interestingly this was shot with the Nikon 10.5mm Fisheye lens, which you would never guess. It’s a fantastic lens that I would recommend highly for most Nikon bodies. (except the D3/D700) In the uncropped version you can see some curvature in the horizon, but cropped I don’t see it.

Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye – Buy on Amazon

Technical Details: Nikon D200/10.5mm, 180/sec @f9
My current gear: See the Bio page

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This image had something that I really liked beyond pleasing, but I had to do some serious cropping to get the foreground right, and as such I think the print will have to stay on the smaller side.

Feel free to comment on it.

By the way, Check out Alain’s new book coming out on Composition link here

Nikon D200/12-24mm @ 14mm

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