PhotoProject :: Seeing more with your photos

I have become convinced that there are two opposing objectives when you are collecting photographic reference material for creating art works. Firstly the documentary aspects, the objective recording of important visual details, form, shape, lighting etc. An aide-memorie. Such tasks are really performed well with a digital camera or smart phone. However there is a second subjective/expressive side of how you feel about the scene, the atmosphere or your connection to the place. Single photographs will seldom capture these things. Whereas a sketch or small plein-air painting probably will.

I suspect ignoring the second component when painting from a single photo is why they so often look bland and lifeless.

I had already come to recommend to artist wishing to collect photographic reference that they should make at least an tonal/compositional sketch in the fields and take at least 5 photos to support it. Actually it’s better to take 10. By coincidence this ties in nicely with capturing both the objective and subjective aspects. A great metaphor is to use your hands to remember what to photograph.

Documentary

Taking an Objective View (Detailed left Brain Stuff)

1. Take the obvious snap shot.
2. What is the main subject, get as much detail as possible.
3. Take a wider view.
4. Evaluated the tonal balance.
5. Textures and surfaces

Its quiet normal to pick a snapshot type view of any new vista, It might actually be what you are going to paint to take the shot, get it out of the way. It could also be the scene you sketch, that’s fine you’ve already got a photo to copy. However now you need to look for a bit more detail of the scene. In particular detail of the main subject could really help future drawing or painting back in the studio. Therefore zoom in on the important subject details, or walk up and take some closer photos. Similarly it is wise to take a wider view, zoom out or walk back, or use a wide angle lens. Even take a few over lapping images to stitch or cut an past together. This will help you understand what part of the scene makes the best framing and composition. The last two items have a lot to do with the quality of the light. The tonal aspect are a very important in realistic art as they help the eyes more that any other visual features understand the three dimensionally of what we see. This is a bigger topic than I can even begin to cover here in a single blog post but you want to avoid just have one photo with a bleached out sky (or other highlights) and solid black shadows. It might be best to take one exposure of the sky and another of the shadows (or use HDR style exposure bracketing) or even take one photo without and with a flash providing fill light of any close subject. Perhaps you might look at using black & white to better understand the tones. The eye is also interested in edges, texture and the small detail of surfaces that help our brain identify an object, However it often ignores other information once its has found itself a satisfactory explanation. so it is a wise option to get some documentation of the dominant textures usually requires very close up detailed photo(s).

Expressive

Finding a Subjective View (big picture right brain stuff)

1. Include a photo your plein air work
2. What interests you most in the scene.
3. Look for main abstract shapes .
4. Main colours and mood
5. Atmosphere

If you have not made a sketch you won’t be able to photograph it. However a photo of your work in position with the scene in the background can be a great help in putting your sketch and colours in context, this cross reference will be a big help back in the studio. It is also a wonderful way to establish provenance, works in progress posted on social media are a better way to promote your work than yet another selfie. The next two items to attempt to photography are similar to items 2 & 3 in the documentary set but know you need to focus on what interested you the most. It may not the the old house but the path disappearing behind it. To the tree but the show it cast across the path beside it. Take you time to understand what attract your view don’t just assume it was the subject you first choose in the snapshot. Next you should look for the larger abstract shapes , They are probably defined tonally and the small composition sketch many art make are perfect here, another well established trick is to squint. However a camera can be a great help here. Deliberately put your camera out of focus. The main shapes of dark and light design will jump out at you. The final items are also related to the quality of the light but you need to consider how they affect you and what mood they invoke. Despite all the colour matching and calibration technology perception of colour can be a very personal thing and strongly connected to emotions. This is a bigger issue is not just white balance and colour temperature, but extends to colour harmony and compliments (classic colour theory). Another important aspect to remember is few experienced master painter fill there creations with endless detail a lot of the images was left with a suggestive colour, tone, texture and our eyes filling in what it thought it saw, where as way to many photographer's are obsessed with tack sharp focus and copying such photos doesn’t excite our eyes and brains so take a few photos of the distant mist, the heat haze or sun glare. 

Collecting Photographic Reference Material

Most artist have their very own way of collecting reference material for a later studio painting. Some might just take one snapshot style photo (or perhaps a few) then essentially just copy that.

I must be from a more plein-air background, I much prefer to do a sketch or two (or three) on location. There is more time to breath in the atmosphere, listen to the sounds and get a real sense of the place, than just pressing a shutter button and moving on. More significant you still generally have only limited time so you have to gloss over the less important details, ones you might be tempted to copy from a photo. Instead you have to concentrate on what will be your subject/centre of interest, getting the relative tonality right and pulling together the colour palette. This requires keen direct observation, but with a little practise it come easy. In my initial pencil sketches I could see I needed to include the distant people to consolidate the vastness of the beach (Seven Mile Beach near Gerroa, South Coast of NSW )
Where a photograph will just reproduce the colours (and detail in a scene) within the technical limits of a camera, an artist will usually refine the colour palette to enhance or subdue the atmospherics. Possibly tweak the relative tonality to emphasize the subject. I always feel even rough sketches capture the essence of a place and are fresher than just a photo.

Take 5

However it doesn’t hurt to have some extra detail and this is where photography can be a great assets for any artist. My advice is always Take 5 

1. The snapshot (first impression of the scene)
2. Wider perspective (wide angle, panorama, or just adjacent overlapping shoots)
3. Zoom in on your subject
4. Take some atmosphere (eg the sky, the surf)
5. Look behind you (ok not literally but do look around and get a context photo or two of the place).

You may as well get the obvious snapshot out of the way. However next spend a bit of time looking for a wider view. Camera phones are already slightly wide angle but unlike a DLSR you can’t change lenses but there are lots of panorama apps that will allow to get a wider view. Alternatively you can take several overlapping photos and use a stitching program to join them. The next option is to zoom in close (most phones can do digital zooming) and a DSLR with a good zoom lens will save you leg work. Otherwise just walk in to get a closer view. It is also wise to take a couple of atmospheric photos, if it is a cloudy sky, take a photo just of some of the clouds. If the light is intense take some photos showing deep shadows, A blue sky is a lot of blue but it will give you a good reference for tonal changes, particularly towards the horizon, Make sure you can record the direction of light (shadows in photos will help here). Don’t forget to look around, sometimes what's behind you can make a stronger picture.

Make that 10

That set of five type of references should give you a big start back in the studio, but why stop there. Here are a further set of optional photos you should consider as well. You don't have to follow my suggestions here exactly these steps they should just be an excuse to do something different, perhaps more create.

Take a photo of the sketch in place

Try a range of different framing options

Try a range of exposure options (eg EV bracketing)

Look for Abstract shapes (or lines) and focus on them

Get in really close, record interesting texture (this could be very close up or plants, rocks, ripples in the sand or a stream)

The photo of your sketch in position will give a great reference of understand any difference in the colours captured by your camera versus what your sketch recorded. If nothing else any white background of your sketch book will be perfect to do a white balance on the photo later (which decent software should let you can carry to your other reference photos). Next is the idea of trying different framing options (its a little like steps 2 & 3 but instead of focusing on the subject you should move the frame around shifting the subject up and down or to right and left).  You might like to change your position so you are looking up or looking down (eg standing or sitting on a beach makes a big difference to perspective). Perhaps you can find a track, fence line that leads you nicely to the subject. Walk around. Perhaps a portrait orientation (vertical) may be better than a landscape (horizontal) orientation. Your camera viewfinder or phone screen are fixed aspects but you might like an image with a slightly different aspect. For example I am finding many sunny vistas lend themselves to a super wide format and I even sketch across two pages (3:1 aspect), so why not take two or more photos and join them later.
A lot of folk don’t like the default HDR style of photos (chunky detail and over vivid colours) but taking a set of images at different exposures can give you details in the shadows right through to delicate highlights. A single photo even when perfectly exposed can not provide these in a very contrasty situtaion. Learning to use HDR methods/software in a constrained manner can deliver photos that are much closer to what you remembered of the light & colour. Most DSLR have bracketing options and now many phone camera apps do as well or can do HDR multi-exposures directly on the phone. You don’t have to put up with bleach out skies and blown out highlights anymore.
The second last task is slightly obscure but it relates to balancing the tonal areas in your final painting. You can use your camera to help find the dominant shapes of dark and light. It requires looking at the scene in a more abstract manner. Its a lot like the advice to half blur your eyes in order to better see tone. If you have a DSLR put it in manual focus mode and then blur the image until you just see abstract shapes. Strong diagonals, curved lines and edges or sharp shapes can lead the eyes of the viewer. Try framing those shapes such that the lightest light against the darkest tone become the centre of interest (such contrast is generally what involuntarily draws a viewer’s eye first). Then refocus the camera and take that view. Mobile phone cameras generally don’t have a manual focus but you can resort to any of those camera/filter apps that change what is displayed on the screen as you take your photo. Changing the camera display to black & white or using a posterizing filter with only a few steps will help make it easier to see the tonal shapes. If you don’t have a phone with such apps find a some software that can help you perform these steps (I have used Paint.net on my computer and Snapseed on my phone) This is much the same step as doing a small tonal composition/notan sketch. As with the framing step it pays to move your view around, even a little. It can also help you zero in on what contributes  to an interesting composition and what can become just a broad area of tone, and perhaps a little texture.
Finally a few really close ups that record pattern & texture and/or some of the details you particular want included in your painting, a few quick detail sketches of such items might be useful as well. After realising I needed some people to give me scale I took a few difference photos of people both near and far walking on the beach.

Right Place, Right Time … now where is the camera?

I was visiting the New Eastland and there was a lot of special entrainment in each of the mall. These performers dressed in complete black where standing like statues and then moving in an elaborate synchronized dance. Wonderfully creative photo opportunity, but where was my DSLR?

However most of us always have a smartphone in our pocket. So I pulled out my LG Android and suddenly there was a crowd all filming on their smart phones, making it a little difficult to get in the prime position for the best composition. So please excuse the clutter and people in the backgrounds.

   

I have the flickr app on my phone so it also loads the phone capture up to flickr, as private, once I have WiFi connection. Which is a nice feature however when I went to straighten the images in aviary (ie within flickr) I was surprised to find there was no small adjustment rotation, aka straightening tool). These may not be wonderful photos but the are great figure gesture sketch reference photos.

The moral of the story is, don’t miss a good photo opportunity, if you don’t have your regular camera hand use your camera phone.

PhotoProject :: A better day on the beach

A better beach day, but still collecting photo references and sketches 

More on Collection Photo Reference & Even More Sketching

I like the idea of the 50 50 rule, where it recommends you only spend 50% of the time getting the intended (or standard “postcard”) view and then go onto the next 50% of the time looking for something a little more create. Chances are if you are looking for reference material for your art this will be easy, zoom in look for texture, zoom out and take a number of different compositions, walk into the scene and get close to the subject. Turn around and take what is behind you. The 50 50 rule approach shouldn’t finish there, when you are loading the reference art into a collection of album (probably but not necessarily on a computer) don’t just flag the best image(s) for post processing, flag a few for creative post processing (perhaps at some later date)

Collecting Photographic Reference for Paintings

I was fascinated with the contorted shapes of the branches of some of the mature trees along the coastal walk (the promenade at Point Lonsdale) and felt they could make an interesting series of paintings. I carry a very small sketch book (A7 sized) in my camera bag (and in fact did a few scribbles as I had a coffee over he road). A digital camera can be a vey hand thing for an artist. However I like to use mine as a sketch book taking down important details giving and overall view, I shot many photos that may never see lightroom and printing, they are more an aide-mémoire. I also like to capture at least a couple of bracketed sets to be able some additional tonal investigation when I have a chance.

This tree, possibly a very mature bearded heath, overhangs the path. I original figured I could make a “joiner” collage, but the HDR worked out well so I got an autostiched HDR panorama, Now hopefully I have a better memory to inspire a wonderful painting?

Sketchbook or Photographic Reference?

I have pretty much always carried a sketchbook and some form of sketching media. It is a very relaxing way to enjoy and location. some time ago I found a discounted set of A7 samples of various sketch pads and paper types. These little sketch books fit nicely into the back of my camera bag(s) so I don’t need an extra pouch of sketching gear. Perhaps the spiral binding is a fraction distracting but the sketch is more for me than for preparing a final at work.

“The concentration needed to make a successful sketch makes a much more lasting impression on the mind than simply taking a photograph,”

… Jason Bowyer, writing in The Artist, March 2014

Whilst my objective in my art has never really been to produce a photo realistic rendering I do aim to capture the feeling of the place or the theme. So time spent gathering the key details, leaving out distraction and putting them down in even a crude sketch helps my understanding of what attracts me to the image in the first place. Having said that I do like to capture a few images of the place and perhaps a little extra detail.

PhotoProject :: Collecting References Material for Your Painting

I know a lot of very good artists do most of their paintings from photos, many will even use photoshop or other software to cut and paste part of the image into the desired final composition. I’m probably not so interested in that approach. I must admit I would rather get the basics of composition, colour and what detail gives the character of the scene. Perhaps the most important part is figuring out what not to include. Many painters slavishly copy all the detail from their reference photos and I feel can easily become a little tedious and boring, whereas the en plien air equivalent may look more exciting because it tends to leave out the things that doesn’t catch the artist own eye.

Another big issue that is becoming very controversial relates to the ownership of the reference image, whilst it is probably best not to use any photos as the principal reference to you painting is you don’t have permission from the photographer. So my suggestion is to take a sketchbook and also your camera and collect your own reference photos. Using a digital camera or smartphone there will be little cost is taking many photos. Here are few recommendations of what to include.

1. Take lots of photos, look at your subject from a range of views. Don’t just use the zoom on the lens, walk around and take photos from different angles, some low etc.
2. Take some close up or flora (& fauna) or the rocks.
3. It may be wise to return to the scene at different times of the day, or in different weather conditions to choose the most appropriate lighting. However only use those photos with consistent and similar lighting (and shadows).
4. Make sure you have an extra memory card (or two) and a spare battery handy.
5. Learn to use your software, to maintain albums/collections.
6. Some artist will printout simple black & white prints and sketch on them. Others, like me,  don’t bother with printout any images and displays reference on their compute as required
7. Remember you are not trying to take one perfect photo, you want the support to do a great painting

PhotoProject :: Rethinking Digital Photography for Artist

There seems to be an even bigger gulf developing between traditional artist, (particularly painters) and photographers.Of course there are numerous exceptions and some contemporary artist have focused on photo realistic art as their special genre. Illustrators are also split with many fully embracing computer graphics with a few still promoting the idea of hand drawn as better. The explosion of “artistic” filters on phone apps and some better known photo software packages has however seemed to aggravate a raw nerve with traditional artists. I’m more perplexed, because I realise that photography and more specifically digital photography is a really great tool for any artist. I don;t mean painting from a photo. I actually think that is a bad move and seldom do it myself. As well as having amassed a large collection of digital photos I have dozens of sketch books, which are usually my first call for reference to any painting. Once you get into sketching it is actually a very pleasurable way to get to know an area or scene. Making a few sketches will in fact lead you to a more critical focus on what you actually photograph. A lot of art is about seeing, seeing the important features and perhaps leaving out the un-important clutter that does not convey the essence of the subject. Painting from a photo tends to promote a slavish focus on details,details that usually look boring and perhaps send a signal of inadequate observation, Whereas a few salient features captured in some “en plein air” sketches are more likely to character of the subject.
Having suggested sketching in the field may be more desirable, there is definitely a place to keep a series of photos of the details of some aspects. Here digital photography is a real winner because there is little cost in taking many photos, to assist as an “aide-mémorie” the downside for anyone artistic is probably managing all these reference images. Hopefully I’ll write more about this later.

A really important aspect not to forget when collecting reference photos is to remember to document your work. Photos of your work in situ (as the photo above) or you creating the art work may become very important in proving the provenance of your work.

Our eyes actually see differently to a camera lens. We have a much greater dynamic range of tones and colours we can perceive that even the most expensive cameras. Most of us have a much broader field of view than typical camera lenses. Whilst a wide angle can do this seeing around corners trick it usually distorted the image and verticals tend to become curved at the edge of the image. This is really most obvious in the traditional “landscape” view. You will never see curved verticals in an “old master” landscape. Perhaps this may relate to a slavish following of the rules of perspective and vanishing points. However a photo does the reduction of three dimensional space onto a flat two dimensional plan automatically. This is a nice way to avoid having to tackle the very technical perspective methods. A neat way around this is to employing David Hockney's solution of “joiners”, A series of conventional photos taken at slightly different orientations can be placed side by side to form a collage. If you step back the “perspective” is closer to what you see when you are there looking at the scene.My view is that digital photography is a perfect tool to help an artist learn to better interpret the visual world. It is not a substitute for seeing but it is certainly an aide to making better and lasting observations. These are only just a few important issues for any artist and I plan to cover more in upcoming post.