Here's a thought…

HT2124 - Montage

In 2016, we launched the idea of six-image projects we called Seeing in SIXES. We presented them in book format with one image per page in a six-page sequence. A variation of that idea has intrigued me of late. Why not place six images into a montage layout on a single sheet of paper?

HT2125 - The Stunning Image Has Been Replaced

If we look back at the history of photography and concentrate on what we now call "fine art photograph," we see that a great deal of the success of a photograph was its technological accomplishment. We'd look at a print and say, "Wowee, how did they do that?" In my youth, that question launched a pursuit of knowledge and craft that consumed many hours of my young photographic life. These days, I rarely see anyone receiving accolades for their print quality.

HT2126 - About Backgrounds, Sort Of

We need a new word other than "background" to describe what I want to discuss in today's commentary. We normally think of the background of a photograph as that part that's not the subject but is still inside the borders of the image. But every photograph has another background that is either the mat board of a framed print, or the margins around the image in a book.

HT2127 - Tiny Prints

I remember visiting the Art Institute of Chicago in the 1980s and seeing on display a collection of tiny prints in very large frames. As I recall, they were 35mm contact prints presented and framed in 16x20 matboard. The exhibition was unusual, but watching people view these prints was especially interesting. I noticed that everyone got very close to see the images, probably as close as they were comfortable focusing.

HT2130 - The One Perfect Size

I've witnessed numerous discussions in which a photographer has proposed the idea that there is one perfect size for every image. Making that image smaller or larger somehow diminishes it. I don't bring this topic up to attack or defend it, but rather to ask the simple question how do they know? In order to determine that there's one perfect size for a given image we would need to make it in every possible size to determine which one is the best! I don't ever recall anyone actually doing this. Perhaps the best size is the one you make.

HT2131 - Framing Is a Decor Decision

There was a period in my creative life in which I sold prints matted and framed, ready for the wall. I regularly received the most curious feedback, however, that people would unframe my print and put it in a frame of their choice, a frame that matched the decor of their room. I've even had people removed my print from the mat board and re-mat it in a style and color of their choosing.

HT2132 - Focus and Sharpness Are Not the Same Thing

Perhaps there are technical definitions for focus and sharpness I should know, but my intuition tells me there is a difference. Focus is an optical relationship between the lens and the sensor or film plane. Sharpness is a visual sensation about the smallest details.

HT2133 - There Is No Bad Light

You've probably all heard that old outdoorsman's canard that there is no such thing as bad weather, there's just bad clothing. I think the same logic can apply to light and photography. There is no such thing as bad light, there are, however, subjects that look better in one kind of light compared to another.

HT2134 - Nude Workshops

In 1998 when we announced a series of LensWork workshops, we received a call from a famous workshop instructor who complimented us on our offerings but advised that if we wanted to make money with a workshop program we had to offer nude workshops. By that I assume he meant nudes as models, not nude photographers. I thought about his suggestion for three nanoseconds and rejected it.

HT2135 - Opacity and Bleed Through

All physical prints exist on a substrate, usually paper. It's a good idea to know a bit about paper and to pay close attention to the way it affects your image. Especially important for books are the two characteristics known as opacity and bleed through.

HT2138 - Three Cameras Are Better Than One

Before I went to China for the first time in 2009, I developed a deep-seated fear that I would discover my camera was broken and that my trip to that far off land would result in no photographs. To reduce that risk, I purchased a second camera, thus beginning my two-camera strategy. More recently, I've added a third camera to my basics, but for a different reason entirely.

HT2139 - Lost Glory

I've been revisiting the work of some of my photographic heroes. This is the work I loved, cherished and emulated in my youth. Lots of that work (and some of those masters) have not aged well. It's clear to me with the passage of time that they and their photographs were a product of their times. By today's standard, their accomplishments seem, well, quaint and/or primitive. Is it fair to judge their work by today's standards?

HT2140 - The Audio Archive

I know that some of you have been listening to my musings on photography for years, but I also know there are a lot of you who are new listeners. Allow me a moment here to draw your attention to the archive that is available to LensWork Online members of every podcast and every Here's a Thought going back to the earliest days. There are currently over 1,400 long-form podcasts and over 2,100 short Here's A Thought commentaries. Have fun exploring them!

HT2141 - Panorama Images in Books

An almost unsolvable problem exists with the challenge of including panorama images in books. On a single page, they are so small. Splitting the image onto facing pages implies that awkward jump in the gutter. A folded so-called "gate fold" is expensive.

HT2145 - A Thousand and One Diversions

There is a scene in the 1991 movie City Slickers when the cowboy, Curly, is asked the secret of life. He holds up his index finger and says do one thing. Great advice, but very difficult to accomplish in this age of multitasking and a thousand diversions

HT2146 - George Tice, RIP

I think because I grew up in Oregon on the West Coast, my introduction to photography was the grand landscape and those photographers who emphasized the beauty of nature. Somewhat later, discovering the work of George Tice became a crucially important step in my personal development. Tice made images that were just as exquisite as the landscape crowd, but his subject was very East Coast, yet mesmerizing.

HT2147 - Completely Manual Mode

Just as a curiosity, I set my camera to completely Manual Mode to remember what it was like to be a photographer in my youth. Manual focus, manual aperture, manual shutter speed. I have no idea how we ever succeeded with all-manual cameras. I think "f/8 and be there" was not just a strategy, it was a survival mechanism.

HT2148 - Post-exposure Chimping vs Focus Peaking

One of my frustrations with current cameras has to do with checking the focus once I've captured the image. When I magnify the image in the viewfinder or on the screen, the image degrades to the point I cannot determine whether or not the image is sharp. The blue "focus peaking" markers are a much better gauge, but are not available on all cameras.

HT2152 - So-called Decorative Arts

I don't often hear people use the term "decorative arts" anymore. Is photography a decorative art? Or, is photography a medium for more personal artistic expressions? Or is it both, thereby confusing both producers and consumers?

HT2153 - Within the Necessary Requirements - Teleconverters vs Cropping

Any time we throw away pixels — for example, in cropping an image — we know we are limiting ourselves with that image. But, is it a problem? I was doing a little math about this and came up with some surprising results. As long as what is left is with the necessary requirements, we haven't lost a thing.

HT2154 - To What Degree of Not Perfect

Every time we press that shutter button we do so because we think we are about to capture a winner. You wouldn't press the shutter release if you thought you were about to capture a loser. And then something happens between the time we press the shutter to the time we reject the image in Lightroom or Photoshop. Where did we make a mistake?