 HT0976 - Ugly Skies and the Mean Stack Technique In a LensWork Online Creative Lab I showed how to use the Mean Stack technique to eliminate high ISO noise. Guess what - - that same technique works to smooth out blotches skies created by the aggressive use of the De-haze slider.

LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

HT0976 - Ugly Skies and the Mean Stack Technique

 HT0975 - TIF vs JPG When I work on an image or even a project I'll make archive copies of all the image files for long-term storage just in case I need to go back to them at some point in the future. I know a lot of photographers store their long-term archives as Tiff files or maybe even PSD files, but I'm not sure there's any reason to do that. I use JPGs and the reasons why can be seen in the LensWork Online Creative Lab titled "Lossy File Formats in the Real World."

HT0975 - TIF vs JPG

 HT0974 - Wind I can only think of three ways to show wind in a still photograph: have an object captured in a position that's not natural on a windless day (for example, a flag); show an object bent over because of the wind (for example, prairie grass); show an object blurred due to movement. Am I missing any other ways?

HT0974 - Wind

 HT0973 - The Missing Lightroom Feature I sure wish I could lock an image in Lightroom so that no further changes could be made without unlocking it. That would give me a sense of security that I won't accidentally overwrite or lose hours of work. But because there is no way to lock an image in Lightroom we can use a couple of workarounds: virtual copies, snapshots, history.

HT0973 - The Missing Lightroom Feature

 LW1270 - The Six Genres In literature and the cinema, there are a number of genres that can be used to describe the content - - action adventure, romance, science fiction, murder mystery, etc. Almost all novels and movies will fit one category or another. Do genres exist in photography, too? What are the implications? You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1200+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2020 including Finding the Picture and Those Who Inspire Me (and Why). We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

LW1270 - The Six Genres

 HT0972 - Shuffle the Deck The essence of card games is to create order out of chaos. That chaos starts, always, by shuffling the deck. The same strategy can be used in our art life. One of the great strengths of applications like Lightroom and all the other image cataloging software is it's ability to shuffle the deck and present us with new ways to see our images.

HT0972 - Shuffle the Deck

 HT0971 - Art As Image and Idea Edmund Burke Feldman in his terrific book Varieties of Visual Experience advocates for art as image and idea. His contention is that all art has an idea behind it, informing it, giving it meaning. The power of the artwork is directly linked to the power of the idea behind it. The artwork is a conduit to the idea.

HT0971 - Art As Image and Idea

 HT0970 - Photograph as Metaphor There's simply no way around the fact that at its essence a photograph is a metaphor. It is a symbol that stands in as a representation of something. What is the something it is supposed to represent? Is it a representation of the world? Or is it a representation of some emotion or response you've had to the world?

HT0970 - Photograph as Metaphor

 HT0969 - Turning Losers into Winners Most of post-processing technology has to do with changing tones and colors. The announcement of an update to Lightroom this week by Adobe has made that even easier with new sophisticated selection tools. Is there enough to turn losers into winners? If so, is there such a thing as a loser?

HT0969 - Turning Losers into Winners

 HT0968 - Three Kinds of Triptychs Triptych in space; triptych in content; triptych in time.

HT0968 - Three Kinds of Triptychs

 HT0967 - Shorpy and Dickens Presenting history is a fine thing - - and photography does it well. But photography as a fine art is a different thing, and like Dickens, has the potential to preserve an historical view at the same time it presents ideas that are relevant today.

HT0967 - Shorpy and Dickens

 HT0966 - Purposeful Viewing So much of fine art photography is destined for the background; think of the image whose purpose is to add décor to a room. But then there is photography that is targeted to purposeful viewing, for example in books. Purposeful viewing is a subset of fine art photography.

HT0966 - Purposeful Viewing

 LW1269 - The Great Challenge The challenges of the art life are many, but perhaps the greatest of them all is making your own work that speaks from your own heart and soul - - especially when that puts you in conflict with the imagery the world expects you to make as a fine art photographer. You might also be interested in. . . Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com. and... "How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online. LensWork Online includes hundreds of hours of audio, video, and downloadable content - literally terabytes of content, content, and more content. All 1200+ of Brooks Jensen's podcasts, the complete Here's a Thought... video library, Looking at Images commentaries, Creative Labs and new channels for 2021 including Exploring the Back Issues and Q&A with Brooks and friends. We add new content literally every day. You can learn more about memberships to LensWork Online at www.lenswork.com. And don't forget that all members can download the digital versions of LensWork for your tablet or computer. LensWork Online is the most content-rich resource for ideas and inspiration you'll find anywhere on the Internet.

LW1269 - The Great Challenge

 HT0964 - The Z-axis I was going to record a new video about the z-axis when I realized I'd already discussed this as a short podcast many, many years ago. It's still valid, so forgive me if I just replay that podcast here.

HT0964 - The Z-axis

Random Observations on Art, Photography, and the Creative Process. These talks focus on the creative process in fine art photography. LensWork editor Brooks Jensen side-steps techno-talk and artspeak to offer a stimulating mix of ideas, experience, and observations from his 50 years as a fine art photographer, writer, and publisher. Topics include a wide range of subjects from finding subject matter to presenting your work, and building an audience. Included in this RSS Feed are the LensWork Podcasts — posted weekly, typically 10-20 minutes exploring a topic a bit more deeply — and our almost daily Here's a thought… audios (extracted from the videos.) Here's a thought… are snippets, fragments, morsels, and tidbits from Brooks' fertile (and sometimes swiss-cheesy) brain. Usually just a minute or two. Always about photography and the art life. Brooks Jensen is the publisher of LensWork, one of the world's most respected and award-winning photography publications, known for its museum-book quality printing and luxurious design. LensWork has subscribers in over 73 countries. He is the author of 13 books on photography and the creative life -- the latest books are The Best of the LensWork Interviews (2016), Photography, Art, and Media (2016), and the four annual volumes of Seeing in SIXES (2016-2019).

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LensWork - Photography and the Creative Process

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