Introduction

Sometimes you read a book and you understand it, and sometimes you read a book and it understands you.

—Bjork

In the past, when I bought “how-to” books, I bought them by weight. The equation was a simple one: I assumed that the heavier the book, the more knowledge it contained. Over the years I accumulated lots of answers, I just didn’t know any of the questions. I had the how, but no idea of the why. What I have discovered is that the why is more important than the how. If you know what you want to do and why you want to do it, discovering how becomes mere detail.

This book is not intended to teach you how Photoshop works, nor does it offer a “12-steps-to-perfect-photos,” one-size-fits-all workflow. Rather, this book is about engaging in a conversation that will lead to teaching yourself to be able to make magic, starting at the point of capture. There is a circularness to photography. Because you are in service of the print (the end) which is your voice, the more you know about image editing (the middle), the more informed your decisions can be when you make your captures (the beginning). We will be traveling in a circle, but we will be doing it in a straight line.

This is a book about exploring how to express your vision. No one can teach you how to become an artist. Art, and being called an artist, are social terms. You don’t create art by deciding that’s what you are going to do today, and you don’t become an artist by proclaiming yourself as one. In my eyes, nothing I do is art. For me, it’s expression. It becomes art when other people call it so. In the moment that “art” happens for the viewer of my work, I am an artist.

It is of ultimate importance that you create only those images that you find worthy. Others cannot like what you do not. I know that my harshest critic sits in the same chair I do. I offer you this thought—there are enough people in the world who want to beat you up; don’t help them. Create images that please you. If you think you have an image with unfulfilled potential, don’t discard it as worthless. Determine what about the image should be different and then transform it so it becomes an expression of your voice.

The experience that this book is designed to create is one that mimics, as closely as possible, the real-world experience of image editing. To this end, included with this book, you have received full-resolution, 16-bit source files (not 72-dot-per-inch low-resolution work files) on which to work. In case the computer with which you are working has less horsepower than you would like, there is also an 8-bit set of source files. Additionally, there is a 100-ppi version of the source file that was created during the writing of each chapter’s lesson, so that you can see what these files look like in your environment, that is, on your calibrated monitor on your computer.

There is one basic assumption that I made when I wrote this book. I assumed that you are working on a monitor that is calibrated with a hardware-based monitor calibration device, like a GretagMacbeth Eye-One device or the Monaco XBR. Other than that, I assume nothing other than that you believe that the journey is the destination.

What digital photography has shown me is that impossible is just an opinion. For the first time in my creative life, I can realize my vision and express it for others to see. This is the journey on which I wish to take you. It is the reason that I wrote this book.

The Core Concepts of a Cinematic Approach to Digital Still Photography

Though this book’s entire focus is on the why and how of developing a cinematic approach to digital still photography with Photoshop, what follows are the core concepts that are the foundation of this approach.

Photoshop is not a verb. It is a noun. It is the means to an end, not the end itself. Photoshop is not the reason you take a picture, it is a tool to help you realize your vision. Photoshop, though one of the most inspired pieces of software ever written, was not meant to be used as a jackhammer; it was intended to be used as an emery board. Should you ever be asked whether or not you altered an image in Photoshop, you want it to be a question, not an accusation.

A still photograph is called a still photograph because the picture doesn’t move, not because the objects in the picture are not in motion. This is the single most important consideration when taking a photograph. What occurs in a properly executed still photograph is that motion is captured with stillness. If we were to take a 35mm movie camera, place a flower that was just beginning to bud in front of it, let the movie camera fire off one frame a minute for two weeks while the flower blossomed, develop the film, and play what we shot at 28 frames per second, we would see the flower open up before our eyes and then the petals drop off. At no time did the flower stop moving; what was stopped was the motion of the flower. Things happen at the speed of life. They do not happen at one frame a second or even 8.5 or 28 frames a second.

“RGB is not a color. RGB is a formula to mix color.” If you can see it with your eye, it’s a color. How you control color is one of the elements that will determine how the viewer’s eye moves across a print. From the moment of capture, understanding the formula to mix color will make your images more successful when they are printed.

There are two “eyes” that view an image, the unconscious eye and the conscious eye. The unconscious eye is an optical organic device that “sees” in a predictable manner. By controlling how the unconscious eye moves across an image, you can determine the story that the conscious eye perceives.

If something you see moves you, take a picture of it. Do not hesitate. If you hesitate, the moment is lost. The moments of life happen, they don’t re-happen. Viola Spolin said, “In absolute spontaneity, you get absolute truth. You can only be one way when you are spontaneous, and that’s truthful.” By staying in the moment and allowing the spontaneity of your experience to cause the shutter to be fired, all of your images will have in them the truth of what you felt and saw. If you preconceive what you are going to shoot, the images lose that truth, that reality.

Visualize the finished image in your mind’s eye as you are taking the picture and not a moment before. You do this so that when you get to the image editing process, you already have the end in mind. When you approach shooting images this way, you can remove everything that is not your vision. But even though you want to hold a clear vision of what you want the image to be, don’t start with preconceptions about what you are going to shoot. Walk into the taking of pictures open to what is out there, without any preconceptions.

Get it right in the camera. If it doesn’t look good through the lens, it will not look good coming out of the printer. Even if you find yourself in a situation that does not allow you to make the captures as you would have liked, get as much right in camera as you can. Make informed decisions as you shoot, keeping in mind what images you might need when you get to image editing in Photoshop, so that your choices are not compromises.

Compose your images, don’t crop them. Cinematographers do not have the luxury of cropping an image in the darkroom or the computer. What they see in the viewfinder is the canvas on which they have to paint. You are responsible for every millimeter of every image frame you create. Fill it! Place your subject in places other than the center of the frame. Bulls-eye composition is great if you are a marksman, but in the creation of a photograph, it is generally not considered to be a preferable style choice.

Workflow starts at the point of capturing the image and is dynamic, not static. No two images are the same, therefore no two workflows are the same. Be adaptive. Always pro-act, don’t react. Be willing to improvise, and you will find the impossible within your reach.

In the ensuing chapters, just a few of the subjects we will explore are: light, gesture, shape, time, color, and the formula to mix color. It is my hope that when you arrive at the last word of the last chapter in this book, you will have attained the same skill set as I have. Your vision is not limited by your skills—only by your imagination. Your skills help you to communicate your vision to others. With that said, we begin.