10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills
By Trey Ratcliff (aka Stuck in Customs), one of the most famous and renowned HDR photographers on Flickr. In his article Trey describes some professional insights and useful photography tips that he collected over the years of his career.
A camera does not work like an eye; film does not work like memory. There is a fine line between a photo that is quite nice and one that is quite breathtaking. At some unknown point, a photo can cross the Rubicon and be forever a piece of beautiful art. That hinterland between a regular photo and evocative art is a shifting area from person to person and taste to taste. However, that zone can be narrowed a bit once you start to consider the way the brain stores memories and emotions.
And yes, it gets a bit touchy-feely here trying to determine if your work has crossed that line. With rigorous practice and peer feedback, you can start to appreciate where that zone is and, consequently, improve your hit ratio.
The back of the Taj Mahal during a summer sunset.
The good news is that divining your way to more beautiful photos does not require rune rites of scapulimancy. There are some basic things and mantras to keep in mind as you practice and fail, then practice and succeed, then practice and fail, then practice and succeed, and rinse and repeat. We’ll detail a few of these below.
1. Think About The Brain
I’ve always thought about photography differently. I grew up seeing out of only one eye, thanks to several botched surgeries in the 1970s using refurbished archaeological tools of the Australopithecus medicine men.
When you see out of one eye your whole life and then start using a camera in your mid-30s, something happens to you! You come to realize that a camera works nothing like the eye. Forget 3D; I’m talking about the way the brain stores images and scenes.
Upon birth, you have legs, but it takes a few years for your legs to get along with your brain well enough to actually walk you around the savanna a bit. The eyes are the same. They get wired faster than the legs, but the neural pathways from the optic nerve to the parts of the brain that matter take a while to find their chemical trails. You start to sense light levels, then shapes, then edges, then relative positions and the like. And then, around the age 2 or 3, you finally come up with a tagging system that allows you to know generally what a “barn” looks like. Your brain has been working nonstop over that time to give you the visual and memory infrastructure to enable this watershed event.
Fourth of July on Lake Austin: the first HDR photograph to hang in the Smithsonian.
Now, let’s fast forward to today. You’re older, your brain is more or less fully formed, and you happen upon a barn in a field. But it’s not just any barn: it’s the barn you’ve been wanting to see your entire life. And in the distance, a storm is brewing as a gentle sun sets. It’s beautiful; you lock it into memory. The way you lock it into memory is nothing like the way a camera records the image on film (or a CCD). This is what I quickly came to realize as I sat there, looking at a photo I took with a fabulously expensive Nikon and showing it to a friend. “Well, you really had to be there.” I’m sure you’ve all said that!
Now, this first step is a big step: it’s a philosophical re-assessment of how the camera works in contrast to how the memory maps a scene, the latter being a process of layering visual reality with the emotions and memories linked to that scene. You see, you are not just remembering that barn but are remembering every barn; you are not just remembering that storm but are remembering every storm. A beautiful photo must tell the epic tale of the memory, linked with the other emotions that fold into a whole.
2. Engage In The New Global Salon
In the 1860s, all art roads led to the Salon in Paris, which was the most important judged competition of art in the western world. During a period of just over 10 years, the Impressionist masters battled it out in a competitive and cooperative tour de force that created a panoply of creations that we now cannot imagine the world without.
The reason Paris became the center of the art world and an explosion of new art is the combination of new technology in travel and communications combined with Napoleon III’s focus on infrastructure around the Salon.
Hong Kong from a peak on a summer night as the city comes alive.
Today the same thing is happening, although perhaps not everyone really realizes it in a grand historical sense. It’s called Flickr. Flickr has become a techno-Salon, allowing the world to easily use the Internet to enter the competition and force each other to evolve and improve their art. The automated “Explore Algorithm” does a pretty good job of automatically filtering the best photos that are uploaded every day. Go ahead and look at some of the current best of the last 7 days.
Click “Reload” a few times and I promise you will have seen something that impresses. It is quite unbelievable the level of art and beauty that is created every single day. Now, all of this amazing art on Flickr can either inspire or intimidate you, depending on your mindset for competition. I hope it inspires you to upload one photo a day and see if you can make it in the top 500 or even the top 10. And don’t give up. Competition makes everyone better; this is an undeniable truth, and you are not realizing your full potential if you remove yourself from the process.
I can think of a number of things Flickr can do to improve this new global competition. Its AI algorithm to find the most interesting new artists still makes many mistakes. Maybe I will save that for another article! But in many ways, Flickr is close to squandering an amazing opportunity to set the art world on fire.
3. Get Rid Of Your Toy Camera
Oh, look at that camera you have! It’s so tiny and slim and techno-looking. Look! It fits right in your pocket! Oh my, you can take it to parties and sporting events, and it’s so convenient. Oh, it is 10 megapixels, too? Oh my. Well, that is a good camera then!
No, it’s not. It’s a toy: give it to your kids or the nearest gradeschooler (for whom it was designed) and get serious. I know that 19-year-old punk at Best Buy told you that your compact camera is really neat and just what you need. But are you gonna listen to him or me?
Get yourself a DSLR (I have suggestions on my page that aren’t very expensive for people just starting out). For those of you who don’t know, a DSLR is one of those cameras you see the pros carrying, but it doesn’t have to be a giant one like what you see in the NFL endzone.
Sorry to be rude about the toy thing, but you want to take more beautiful pictures, no? Well, a decent DSLR has such a good sensor chip, combined with more flexible lenses, that your batting average will dramatically improve.
An ancient Hindu temple at sunset in the jungles of Indonesia.
Also (people with DSLRs already know this), it is important to have a good wide-angle lens for landscapes. Beautiful photography does not have to be of a landscape, but it commonly is, and this is what many people envision when they want to make their own beautiful photos. So, we should talk about wide-angle lenses here for a moment.
If you are used to using a toy camera, then you have never really seen the world through a good 10 to 24mm lens. It’s almost the difference between regular TV and HDTV. The vistas are wide and bold; the clouds, sun and mountains all fit; the river and bridge are easy to compose; and so on. Once you go wide-angle, your landscape will never be the same!
4. Carry A Tripod For Those Beautiful Sunsets And Sunrises
Oh, what’s that? You don’t want to carry a tripod? What are you, a 9-year-old? Now, come on. You’re a grown-up, and you want to take some seriously beautiful photos. Do you think pros carry around tripods because they like the extra weight? No, of course not. They know what the heck they’re doing.
If you bit off on getting a DSLR, then you are going to need a tripod, especially for sunset and night shots. Unless you have the steady hand of a T-1000, you are going to get some camera shake.
A tripod allows you to do the following things with landscape photography (in no particular order): set up and take your time to compose a photo with serious intent; keep noise low as the shutter stays open longer; look cool as you carry it around; keep the shutter open for 5 or more seconds for those fleeting sunrise and sunset shots; use it as a weapon in a tight spot while traveling (not kidding).
Dresden, Germany
So, are you still worried about carrying it around? The problem, you understand, is mostly your attitude. Let me provide a different perspective. Nothing in life is worth doing unless you’re serious about it. Believe that you are going to shoot that sunset, and you are going to take your nice DSLR and tripod out there and make it happen, and no one is going to stop you. You’re carrying that tripod around because you’re serious about it. Otherwise, you could just go sit on a pretty beach at sunset and drink beer with your friends and not be serious about it. Go ahead… but you won’t be getting any beautiful photography out of it.
5. Admire Impressionism
I spoke earlier about the Salon of Paris and what happened during the Impressionist movement. While the process and examples of what happens when artists start cooperating and competing is interesting from a social-group evolutionary perspective, this section is more about the art itself.
Early critics of the art form found it crude, sloppy and unconventional, to the point that they felt it didn’t even deserve to be placed alongside the classic masters. But the public was awestruck by the new art form. It doesn’t take a critic to know good art, but it does take a careful and discerning eye.
Consider the colors and styles of Degas, Cézanne, Monet and Renoir. There is not a single detail about any well-known Impressionist painting that is the slightest bit “realistic.” But yet, the rough shapes and colors still make sense. Something about it just feels right. What is that something?
An icy lake at sunrise, fed from the seasonal melt at Glacier National Park; a panorama of 90 shots.
To me, what feels right about Impressionism is what we discussed above. These Impressionist images go deep into viewers’ brains and evoke memories of shared scenes and events. The memory is in fact an Impressionist playground of fleeting colors, shapes and edges. A face here, a blur there, a hint of something almost there, but not quite.
Look at Monet’s work. Think about how the yellows of a sun in the distance is the same yellow as an up-close flower. But something about the colors makes the sun feel brighter than the flower. How does he do that? Can you get closer to achieving this with your photography?
As you look at Impressionist paintings, juxtapose them with your own photography. If you want to evoke the same sort of feelings, then consider how it was done without resorting to realism.
6. Practice With HDR
What is HDR? It’s short for High Dynamic Range photography, and it’s all the rage. I have a tutorial on HDR on my blog. But here, I’ll explain HDR in a circuitous but meaningful way.
About 80% of my photos are in HDR, but I do something a little different. As you start looking into HDR (many of you already have), you will begin to notice how absolutely horrible most HDR looks. When many people begin experimenting with it (myself included), it is overdone and looks too psychedelic. Over time, mine have improved via rigorous self-examination and an evolving methodology.
Remember that bit about me growing up and seeing the world with one eye? Now, we come to the second part of this daring mini-biography as we are cross the stepping stones to my point. My background in college was Computer Science and Math, so I’ve always thought about things in terms of algorithms and software. The very first time I used a DSLR camera, when I was 35 or so, I very quickly came to the realization that something was missing.
A young Amish boy allows me to freeze time after I help him carry wood with his sisters.
That missing something was the “software” layer between the eye and the memory. Consider what you do with the barn and apply it to how the camera works. You survey the scene. Your eye jumps around from interesting object to interesting object, sometimes moving slowly, sometimes quickly. Your eye lets in more light in some areas, less in others as your pupil dilates. You squint into the setting sun and see warm colors splashed across the clouds, grass and barn. You remember other barns, other storms, other sunsets. You may have been with someone or were alone, but you certainly remember. You lock it all up in your mind’s eye forever.
Because we are visual creatures, a photo or painting can evoke great memories. But the only way to trigger some of those intense memories on a deep level is to adjust the light levels in the photograph, so that the light levels and color match those buried in your head. The HDR process can help achieve these goals.
7. Take Your Camera Everywhere
Don’t just take your camera out on those rare occasions when you actually decide to set aside a portion of your day for photography. Face it: we’re all busy people with real lives, and setting aside three to four hours for anything extracurricular is tough. But it takes only a few seconds to get inspired for a photo, and it’s no good if your camera is back home.
Gulfoss in Iceland. Catholic theologians of old believed this was the entrance to hell.
Keep it in the trunk of your car in a fun little photo backpack, with a small selection of lenses. You never know when you will see something wonderful. Use this opportunity to take at least one photo a day. It doesn’t have to be a grand landscape; just something small and nice that you may not have noticed before.
8. Understand The Fantasy/Reality Membrane
Do you have kids? Are you a kid at heart? Think about when you were a kid and what happened when you turned into a jaded old grown-up. Maybe by the end of this section you can ask yourself some new questions about reality.
Kids have this remarkable “membrane” between fantasy and reality. They can jump back and forth between the two in an effortless way. In fact, the membrane itself is wonderfully “thick,” in that there is a vast dream-state wilderness where the world is both fantasy and reality. When pressed, kids will tell you what is real and what is pretend, but that is often a painful process that pries them from the escapism they felt so viscerally just a few moments before.
My personal foray over the last year into learning how to draw.
When we are all grown up and serious, that membrane is razor thin, and there is little tolerance of “pretend” and “fantasy.” Why is this? Is it because we are surrounded by other serious people and want to conform? Is it because fantastic escapades are what “kids” do and thus not pertinent to our lives?
Obviously, we can all still get into that fantasy zone, and we all love it. That’s why movies are still such a potent force; they give us social permission to be like kids for two hours, once a week. It also explains the growing relevance of online games.
But when we start talking about photography — well now, that is a different subject! Photography is a serious art form, practiced by classically trained masters whose reality is quite serious indeed! There mustn’t be anything fantastical in the art form. The process goes from camera straight to the film, you see!
Poppycock.
9. Learn To Draw
This is a weird one, eh? Who on Earth has time to learn to draw? Well, you would have time if you stopped wasting it on less important activities. You’ve got one life here, so you might as well start applying yourself. “I don’t have any time! I have kids to look after, a full-time job, a bunch of cool games to play, books to read, exercising to do, a bit of photography, and blah blah blah.”
As a personal experiment, I wanted to see if anyone could learn to draw. This is similar to an earlier experiment I did on myself to see if I could take something I hated and turn it into something I enjoyed. That experiment was with coffee, but I was afraid that learning to draw would be harder, particularly because of the jitteryness introduced from the first experiment.
A tame wild-haired horse on the windy fjords of Iceland.
I’ve always admired people who can just grab a pencil and paper and make something amazing. Man, I’ve always wanted to be able to do that! I began the experiment with the hypothesis that great natural artists can draw anything without any instruction whatsoever. These are true masters, and I was unlikely unlikely to reach that level. However, I thought I could become adequate at drawing and be at least satisfied with myself. A great side-effect, I envisioned, would be new insight into photography: into line, shape, light and composition.
All of this turned out to be true. So, if you have hit a rough spot or are in the doldrums with photography, take up drawing. A few instructional books out there are practical hands-on guides that give you basic pointers. I think you will be quite impressed by how it starts to bleed into your photographic art!
10. Make Mistakes
Make a lot of mistakes. Throw yourself and your art out there and see what works and what doesn’t. Show your stuff to true friends who will give you frank feedback.
Don’t be like those sorry saps on American Idol who make fools of themselves in big auditions because they’ve spent their whole life listening to their tone-deaf mom tell them they are incredible at singing “Over the Rainbow” or because Aunt Mabel enjoyed it so much during the grade 2 play.
Get yourself online and begin making friends by finding other photographers who you respect. Beg and plead for them to come look at one or two of your photos and give frank feedback. They will cut you apart, but just take your medicine, lick your wounds, and go out there and improve.
Fin
And there we have it: 10 things to shake up your world a little bit. I’m no Baudelaire when it comes to writing these sorts of polemics. However, just as he drove Manet to be Manet, perhaps I can do my own little part to stoke the fires and help drive a new art revolution. Evolve and evoke, or whither into nothingness.
Extra Credit
To end off, here is a random selection of some of my other favorites.
The Lonely Trinity
An elderly woman, who has never cut her hair, ascends the stairs to her daily Hindu pilgrimage
Dante’s Gates of Hell, a sculpture by Rodin, captured in proper lighting
(al)
Stephen
February 17th, 2009 4:06 pmGreat tips for both amateur and professionals alike
gawibowo
February 17th, 2009 4:07 pmwow.. HDR photos are absolutely amazing…
thanks for your great tips
nicky
February 17th, 2009 4:14 pmGreat info! Thanks!
MikenSohn
February 17th, 2009 4:17 pmNice to see some advanced photography-related articles on SM! Thank you, guys.
Jason
February 17th, 2009 4:20 pmUgh. Too much HDR. I’m sick of it. Reality is where it’s at.
valerio vaz
February 17th, 2009 4:24 pmReally nice article! Hope to see more photo-related in Smashing Mag!
Great job
Matt
February 17th, 2009 4:27 pmI’ve always loved smashing magazine but I’m on HDR overload. Its beautiful, in moderation. Easy does it next time :)
Joannae
February 17th, 2009 4:28 pmThe author is such a toss pot! How much self-important crap can you fit into one article? Stop taking yourself so damn seriously! Get a life.
Joe
February 17th, 2009 4:30 pmAmazing list! Really makes you start thinking about the simple yet dramatic photos that can come out of following these steps.
And definitely some amazing photos as well. Will be sure to follow your work!
Konrad
February 17th, 2009 4:30 pmI’m sorry, but that’s a piece of crap! The whole idea of HDR technique is to produce a NATURAL LOOKING high-dynamic-range photo. These photos shown here are good example how NOT to tone-map your pictures…
Mike
February 17th, 2010 6:39 pmI agree
Gomi
February 17th, 2009 4:38 pmThe best and most expensive DSLRs in the world will not make up for an “artistic eye”. I’ve seen photographs taken with “toy” cameras and cellphones that are truly inspiring and beautiful.
@Jason: I agree, too much HDR. It’s like they’re trying to make up for the lack of talent with too much color. Just look at the Hong Kong skyline photo, it would just be ordinary if it wasn’t HDR.
Minerva
February 17th, 2009 4:40 pmThe camera does not make the photographer. There are some photographers that take AMAZING photos with a point and shoot (or toy camera, as the author said).
I’m done with crappy HDR… like most of the photos “featured” in this article.
Mupper Butts
February 17th, 2009 4:44 pmMan, what a load of cr4p. I am so over HDR and you dont need a DSLR to take good pictures. Just look at all the fanastic low res stuff on flickr taken with ‘toy’ cameras.
Get over yourself, per-lease…
B
February 17th, 2009 4:48 pmI totally disagree with the comment about having to purchase a DSLR. I personally have one, but my inspiration comes from this guy from Japan Kishimi He takes most of his shots with the PowerShot G9. All of his photos are pure awesomeness. DSLRs are great, but only if you know how to work it. This guy from Japan doesn’t need a DSLR…he’s got a natural eye and with that you can use whatever you want to shoot with.
sergiu
February 21st, 2011 2:38 pmIf your personal inspiration comes from this guy, you should change your inspiration source :). That’s just bright lenses used at wide aperture. Nothing really fancy down there, nothing close to a “natural eye” :).
CarlosP
February 17th, 2009 4:58 pmI’m with Jason here.. way too much HDR.
Tyra
February 17th, 2009 5:04 pmWow, 1st time I completely disagree with an article on this website. Please let this author enjoy his flickr fame with these horrible pictures but don’t let him pollute SM again.
arielm
February 17th, 2009 5:04 pmagree with the commenters, where’s the link between “advanced photography” and hdr photoshopping? i think hdr is just a hyped thing that will soon be considered lame and disappear
arielm
February 17th, 2009 5:13 pmah and btw.. flickr have nothing to do with an art salon, and yes with popular preference. all you have to do is follow the very link provided here (best of the last 7 days) and see how really crappy pictures make it to the top. i got a picture of sugar made birds, a heart with some toys, and a kid with a black eye.
Darren
February 17th, 2009 5:17 pmOh, now I understand what HDR is. You take a great photo and then digitally manipulate it to the point where it looks as if some B-grade graphic designer whipped it up in Photoshop on their coffee break. Cool. What was the point again?
Does anyone think this HDR thing is a bit like 80s fashion? That we’ll all – especially the author – will look back on this trend and be really, really embarrassed in about 10 years time. Heck, I’m embarrassed now.
Tim Collier
February 17th, 2009 5:17 pmSome interesting points here – I teach students at degree level and at times are amazed at how unengaged they are. An article like this simply states how it is; get out, get working, be serious and passionate about what you do. Make mistakes and learn from them, enjoy the challenge of learning a new language – visual language – and begin to explore who you really are.
The ten points mentioned are all relevant but particularly the one about drawing – It gets you looking and understanding relationships between the essential elements that make up an image and it also teaches you that most important point about translating 3 dimensions back into 2. All photography is an illusion – it’s how much we realize this that makes the difference.
I also run a photography blog that deals with similar themes – I’m just starting out so some subscribers and comments would be welcome! You can check it out here:
hb2
February 17th, 2009 5:22 pmthe ancient Hindu temple above is call “Candi Prambanan” … very dramatic indeed
Eneza
February 17th, 2009 5:27 pmI like the DREADLOCKED person
Matta
February 17th, 2009 5:37 pmPlease. No more hdr.
Ag
February 17th, 2009 5:40 pmI’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who is completely sick of the ‘HDR look.’ HDR is a very powerful tool, but the work above is trite and boring. In addition, the author’s masking skills in photoshop are terrible. You should not be able to see halos around buildings if the photographer knows what they are doing.
There’s a lot of capable photographers out there. I’m sure Smashing Magazine can find somebody who can really contribute some skills. How about David from the Strobist blog? That guy has contributed more to modern photography than all the HDR shooters in the world…
Trey Ratcliff
February 17th, 2009 6:08 pmOh boy a little controversy and some constructive criticism I see! :)
It’s all good… thanks for the feedback. I think if you want traditional photography advice, there are hundreds of books on the matter. I obviously have my own set of thoughts on the matter, and I’m perfectly at ease with people that disagree. I’m convinced that people see the world differently… I notice this in many arenas. Whenever people DON’T see the world like you (whether it is in visual photos, politics, religion, or whatever), they are always very ready to tell you that you are wrong and the way they see the world is right. Anyway, it’s okay and I take it all in stride.
One other comment on HDR photography that I did not throw in… I’m also sure that the pupil needs to move around in order to accept different light levels (just like on the scene). Sometimes, with a small thumbnail, like here or on Flickr, the eye/mind auto rejects so many light levels at once. This is a finer point, but one that I think is important… this is why I keep the pics at 900 pixels across on my blog, so that they eye can traverse the photo, like the eye does when really on location.
Dan Denney
February 17th, 2009 6:16 pmThank you so much for this! I am awestruck by HDR photos and haven’t yet figured out to get the look out of my SLR. Yes, I’m a poser! It’s awesome that my #1 web design blog is becoming one of my favorite photography blogs too…
Brian Park
February 17th, 2009 6:19 pmWow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard worse advice.
mavis
February 17th, 2009 6:36 pmgreat article, and even more awe-inspiring photographs! good job!
tim
February 17th, 2009 6:39 pmI prefer my photos to be natural. Not look like they were done in 3-D studio max. Ease up on the HDR. You mentioned something about taking feedback from friends and others.. well… here you have it. I’m pretty sure the masses have spoken. Out with the HDR. The Amish kid photo looks like something my nephew did for his first Photoshop project. There’s potential in the images… just don’t try so hard.
I do agree with three things: draw, bring your camera everywhere and well, just always be prepared.
Stephen
February 17th, 2009 7:09 pmMr. Ratcliff…you are so amazing. Such a fabulous artist. Ever since I stumbled upon your work I have loved it. Thank you for sharing this insight. You are such an inspiration…I’m gonna take my camera out right now and hopefully *hopefully* fire off a good, non-over-processed HDR. Chances are slim, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.
Stephen
February 17th, 2009 7:12 pmOh and I’m sure tim (sic) didn’t mean to sound so mean. I doubt he’s really looked into your HDRs…they really are splendid. The photo of the young Amish boy truly is breathtaking. And if his nephew takes shots like that for his first Photoshop project then, man, I’d really love to see his work, and I’m left wondering why he hasn’t had multiple photos hang in the Smithsonian castle…
Glar
February 17th, 2009 7:26 pmHDR photography, like many other digital photo fads, will eventually be consigned to the dustbin of history. As it should, because HDR is anti-art.
Emmedibi
February 17th, 2009 7:28 pmI think that the author really knows how to make ^normal^ pictures, hdr is a tool, and you can agree or not but he really master it. Some people say too much hdr…but he was one of the first to use this techique and he always helps others to learn…i suggest to see the non hdr pictures on his flickr-s page and then we can talk.
novia
February 17th, 2009 7:37 pmI find it endlessly fascinating that people can simultaneously condemn HDR photography and praise toy camera photography when they are essentially after the same thing–creating a photograph that is more than a snapshot and is instead a piece of art. If you quit looking at Mr. Ratliff’s photography expecting “realism”, and instead understand that his creation is about evoking a feeling–which is exactly what art is–you’ll learn to appreciate so much more than your tiny universe has allowed thus far.
Federico Capoano
August 13th, 2010 8:58 amHey we have someone here that understood the concept of Mr. Ratcliff!
Brian Gottier
February 17th, 2009 7:39 pmRegarding (3. Get Rid Of Your Toy Camera), I have a nice Canon DSLR, and after a while it has begun to sit in the closet because it’s just easier to use a point-and-shoot. I firmly believe in having both.
shaymein
February 17th, 2009 7:50 pmtake a look at joey lawrence photography… that guy’s techniques and pics can really teach you how to capture an image.. even if it is with a disposable…
Kyle
February 17th, 2009 7:58 pmPeople criticizing HDR here: did you even read the article? Or did you just scroll down the page glancing at the images and then proceed to add your anti-HDR rhetoric? Constructive criticism is indeed useful for any artist, but calling something “anti-art”… what does that even mean? I personally find Trey’s take on HDR to be quite intriguing… and would love to hear differing opinions on the subject from someone who actually took the time to read the article.
Kent
February 17th, 2009 8:03 pmWow, if you don’t like HDR then don’t read an article about it and then spend time bashing it. I’m not a big fan of blurred out lens baby shots, but I’ll tell you I don’t spend any time writing negative comments on fans of them. HDR can be subtle or blown out. It’s art so there is no right or wrong. Good article and thanks for sharing your perspective Trey.
Ron Evans
February 17th, 2009 8:07 pmAll those HDR photos are not really photos. They are digital paintings. For so much talk about the eye and the brain, I finally see what Jeffrey Friedl meant when he said your brain knows that HDR is so much smoke and mirrors.
Don’t get me wrong these HDR paintings are nice but they are no different from a Toulousse LeTrec painting or Maxfield Parish. Stunningly beautiful works of art but they are maybe creeping outside of photograhpy and into the realm of digital design.
The camera is a limited medium so I won’t knock this guy too much. Spend some more time working with the photograph and less time with the photoshop.
THe HDR amish kid looks good. All the others are the latest craze. Remember solarized prints? Put HDR in that same bin.
Jakob
February 17th, 2009 8:13 pmWow, I have never read so many dumb comments to an article.
I have been following Trey’s photography for years now, and it is truly inspiring what he does. Nobody is forcing you to shoot HDR or gives a damn if you like it or not.
It’s really interesting to see that so many people comment and waste time to do that if they don’t like it all.
Trey, never mind these weirdos, there’s many people who love your pics.
aj
February 17th, 2009 8:16 pmSteps to advance your photography skills – all good! Just would of been good to include things on 3rds / lighting and use natural ( NON PHOTOSHOP IMAGES )
If you’re a sports press photographer – you have to count on your PHOTOGRAPHY skills not your cs4 skils
osiris
February 17th, 2009 8:16 pmthis is not HDR, this is a sucky attempt at hdr.
sorry for adding an adress but THIS is true HDR http://www.debevec.org/Research/HDR/
i like some photos in this post. other not that much. but still, there’s a difference from photoshop and HDR.
Bill
February 17th, 2009 8:19 pmIt’s easy to be critical, but venom does not replace constructive advice, it just points out the mental limitations of the commenter.
I found the article interesting, educational and informative, especially as a novice in photography, for whom I suspect the article was intended.
I found some of the comments to be totally unhelpful and a waste of my reading time. I once met a great artist who used cigar ash as a medium, but his best works were using the whole palette. similarly you can certainly take good photos with cheap cameras, but better ones with the right equipment..
And Joannae, a toss pot is (from the urban dictionary):
“An old English double-noun which, because of the use of the word, toss and its own synonymous resonance with masturbation and wank, does not mean “a wanker”.
A toss-pot is a drunkard, a toper; a would-be alcoholic still managing to function in society.”
Is that what you meant?
Cheers
Bill
columbine
February 17th, 2009 8:25 pmAll this HDR is utter trash. How can anyone take you seriously when this is your work? There is something useful in having an extended dynamic range of light to work with, but when you compress it all into such a narrow visual space, I’m sorry, it looks like surreal digital garbage. These huge glowing halos around anything that meets the sky should tell you that you’re overdoing your effect tremendously, so much that even the algorithms can’t give you the color compression you’re trying to drag out of those images. It’s honestly hard to tell you if a photo is decent or not when the postprocess retouching has gone absolutely mad and blown out every single pixel in the image to a max-sautation impossible-contrast mess.
Awesh
February 17th, 2009 8:45 pmWOW.. awesome article… a good article on smashing after a long time.. wonderful..
jake
February 17th, 2009 9:12 pmit’s interesting seeing all these comments from people who are so against HDR. Although I must agree with them that it is overused and abysmally abused by many, many photographers, Trey is a pioneer and a master of the HDR technique.
You have to keep in mind that the intention here is not to get a xerox of the world – it’s to convey a particular person’s impression of the world. There is always going to be a little of the oversaturated, the unreal, when doing this. Did Picasso’s pictures look like an exact image of what they were representing? No, of course not – but they did convey his impression of whatever it was.
I’m aware that it’s far too soon to say that HDR will be elevated to the same realm as impressionism, cubism, and the like. On the other hand, it is worth noting that these were also not accepted as true art when they first appeared, and that it’s far too soon to write HDR off as a fad, particularly as it truly is in it’s infancy still, and still has a long way to go in becoming a technique that is properly understood and implemented by most people.
JimmyCrackCorn
February 17th, 2009 9:28 pmGREAT CAPTURE!
berky93
February 17th, 2009 9:31 pmI have also found its important to know how to touch-up a picture. I don’t mean adding sucks to the lake picture you took, I mean adjusting the light levels of that sunset picture you took to make the colors stand out more, and how to selectively darken/lighten areas of a photo to make it more dramatic.
HighlyDynamicPhotography.com
February 17th, 2009 9:36 pmIts funny, people either LOVE hdr or HATE it. Seems most who hate are purists (or closet HDR wannabes who can’t figure out all those sliders!! Oh my!). Dude, love your article, it’s tough love, but eloquent truth. A good camera is a big start, but the artist is what makes the image. If you want to be good you have to think about everything, always. And get the right tools like a tripod and a decent camera. People don’t want to hear that, they want to whip out a toy and take a stuckincustoms™ style awesome picture. Without using photoshop or other software. Or using their brain. I hear from people all the time “oooh, nice picture, did you use photoshop?” Then wrinkling their nose when the answer is yes. Its like asking a mathematician if he uses a calculator then looking down on him when he says yes. Or she.
Anyway dude, awesome article — even if its too high-level for most :)
Herbalizer
February 17th, 2009 9:50 pmyou skipped a step: Exploitation. Seriously man, get your own style instead of trying to hijack HDR. “The very first time I used a DSLR camera, when I was 35 or so, I very quickly came to the realization that something was missing.” You make it sound like you thought this up or something. Quit glossing over the fact that you hopped on the bandwagon like everyone else.
angryrat
February 17th, 2009 9:50 pmStop with the HDR, please. Great photography is NOT nightscape through HDR. It works once, twice, but not the whole time.
It’s hard to take the message seriously.
gr8pixel
February 17th, 2009 9:51 pmGreat info.. Thanks! Now let’s go back to a web design/developing article :D
Cody
February 17th, 2009 9:58 pmUgggh. HDR is a great tool to bring life to a photo, something to have in your bag of tricks when needed. But this, this is too much. Your eye can see a greater dynamic range than your camera, great HDR compensates for that. It should make a landscape look how you remembered it not like it came from some comic book.
TM
February 17th, 2009 10:36 pmHDR overblow out here.
I am not impressed by people that can manipulate an image with photoshop and nor am I impressed by HDR.
I am impressed by beauty, light, energy, color and SUBJECT. What is in the FRAME – is it real?
Or does it look like a comic book as stated by an above poster…
Matt
February 17th, 2009 10:57 pmWhoa, whoa Herbalizer. Saying that Trey “jumped on the bandwagon of HDR” really says to everyone else that you know very little of his work, and especially the HDR scene. Trey is a pioneer with this evolution of photography. I can track his HDR use all the way back into early 2006. So unless you can bring some meat with your own photo gallery, all I can say to you is: Don’t be jealous boy.
ray
February 17th, 2009 11:08 pmhmmm.. cool… im very new to photography and it would have been cooler if the article talks about advanced techniques in getting photos and not PPeds or whatever.
Gerrit
February 17th, 2009 11:11 pmBefore buying expensive camera gear and editing every single shot in PS is not what makes good photography. You CAN do serious shots with a “toy camera”. Photograhpy starts where most of today’s digital photographers fail: No Photoshop, but good exposure, perspective/point of view, arrangemenet/composition.
Anyway this list isn’t that wrong at all…
Cheers
Gerrit
Federico Capoano
August 13th, 2010 9:06 amThis is true bullshit, you have to have a good camera, being some kind of compact or a DSLR, but it has to be a camera specialized for some kind of photography, not just a normal camera that costs 80€ to take snapshots.. cos the images delivered by this type of camera are very low quality, a good composition with a bad quality looks just silly.
Sacha
February 17th, 2009 11:26 pmI like the article, but I think the photo choice were unfortunate. From the title of the article + the photos, you’d think that “Advanced Photography skills” = HDR.
I guess this means there’s never been any “advanced” photographer before the invention of HDR a few years back.. :p
William Hacker
February 17th, 2009 11:32 pmGeez! to all these haters above me! i think you all are the ones that need to chill! These images are wonderful and they reflect Trey Ratcliffs perspectives on the world. You call yourselves artists but your not open to anything that isnt exactly like yours or “natural” one word!! Jealous
Jon
February 17th, 2009 11:35 pmIgnoring the take it or leave HDR aspects of this article, I agree with quite a few others that it has been poorly thought out and badly researched (if at all).
As has been said, “toy camers” can take brilliant photos. There are examples on flickr of people taking brilliant photos using camera phones for examples.
You are far better off learning to use your camera and learning how to compose and view a scene properly than spending out on a DLSR. A camera with more features doesn’t take better photos, the photographer does.
The tripod comments were also badly put. You need a tripod for longer exposures, ie, at night/low light, or for blurring water. Though I may point out there are ways around that as well. No point lugging a tripod about if it stops you getting somewhere to take that amazing shot. Perhaps for merging exposures it is handy to have the frames all lined up, to save you doing that as well as merging the pictures. You certainly don’t need a tripod for sunrise and sunset shots as standard.
I think the title was misleading for the article. It seems clear to me this was about HDR, and the authors site also seems to be prominent in that technique. So put me in the camp of being disappointed by this article. Some perspective on the points made would have been better than waxing lyrical about 19 year old sales people.
Matthew
February 17th, 2009 11:43 pmFirst of all, what ignorance. Second, what is normal? Anyone want to tackle how you take a normal image?
People need to realize that humans are DIFFERENT. We see things differently. I myself am color blind to cetain colors. So a normal image to me, is obviously going to be different than someone else. How can you criticize someone for how THEY see the world??? I can tell you one thing, I dont see just highlights or shadows. The human eye sees things in a form of HDR. Therfore in my opinion, HDR photography is more “normal” to the eye than a non-HDR image. Can you not at least accept this fact?
Finally, I have no problem with critiques…But at least bring a valid argument and stay away from comments that just make you sound ignorant.
basibanget
February 17th, 2009 11:51 pmby “advanced” you mean HDR? nice try!
Jack
February 18th, 2009 12:04 amThese HDR make me sick. HDR should be banned from the Internet!
gonzo
February 18th, 2009 12:08 amsorry, but HDR sucks, no matter how strongly you push the colors and the contrasts…it’s too obvious and way overdone by now. Capturing great images with “toy cameras” is way more fun, which in the end should be the main purpose…Overall, I disagree with pretty much everything you wrote except the “take your camera everywhere” part…
jedrek
February 18th, 2009 12:14 amWow, a pioneer(!) of over saturated images? Going back to 2006! Who cares that tone mapping is automated burning and dodging and that people have been doing it since the first enlargers. This is obviously new and exciting!
Matthew
February 18th, 2009 12:19 amGonzo says, “Capturing great images with “toy cameras” is way more fun, which in the end should be the main purpose…”
So having fun is what the main purpose is??? I guess that exludes people who have fun taking HDR images….
HDR is for the blind
February 18th, 2009 12:33 amSorry. HDR is a crappy trend, plain and simple. 5 years from now (I hope less) people who thought they loved it will realize it’s complete garbage. Dig deep people, it’s nothing but eye candy and that’s all. HDR has no soul. True photographic art has some meaning to it, not just “oh, look that’s neat!”.
upla dupla
February 18th, 2009 12:34 amThis article says:
DSLR+ HDR + Photoshop => the best way to be a good photographer.
In my opinion it is not true.
HDR photos like shown above are nice but simply boring. Period.
There are milions of similar photos on the web. They are made the same way, with the same tools and same plugins, according to same books or “professional” tutorials. I see no creativity in such photos. Just a mix of unnatural glows, lights and heavily oversharpen areas. Its scarry when you see nice photo like “Amish boy” spoiled by HDR resulting muddy looking artificial skin.
The best way to be better in photography is to study old masters like Ansel Adams. Its worth to make mistakes and wait couple of minutes for proper light than make a bunch of bad photos and trying to create another “HDR-monster” in Photoshop.
Quakeulf
February 18th, 2009 12:47 amWhy do most HDR-pictures have such gruesome colours? The real world never looked as distasteful as that. It’s almost as black/white-photography got its second renaissance for me with all these over-the-top messy HDR-photos.
I hope the HDR-trend will change and the propagators will start considering colour above anything else when doing their gigs.
liebesiech
February 18th, 2009 12:51 amWhy so many HDR pictures? Anyway, I like the statement about Toy cameras. Very true.
rob moody
February 18th, 2009 12:53 amI shoot pinhole…
Erik Spaan
February 18th, 2009 12:54 amInteresting article, but the title should be more on how to make advanced digital camera HDR photos. Great to see how far you can go with a photograph.
I still believe that great (and real IMHO) landscape photograpy should be done with a medium/large format film camera. Buying an (expensive) DSLR seems to be an advice from the camera makers and has “nothing” to do with making photos.
But all in all interesting article
sydo
February 18th, 2009 12:58 amhdr cloudy sky is sooooo unbelievably boring…
Kath Leomo
February 18th, 2009 1:05 amdear mister, you have just inspired me.
juro
February 18th, 2009 1:11 amHDR reminds me of those A1 posters we had in the 80s. Way too much color, saturation and “fantasy look” – in my opinion.
Unfortunately, a lot of people think that photography has something to do with the camera (it doesn’t) or the Photoshop skills (definitely not). A good photographer is someone who can frame a shot near perfect in very little time and get the light and emotion right as well – not many can (check out http://www.mb-photography.com – I am not affiliated in any way ;) ).
In my opinion, the best images are the ones that need the least post production.
But then again, the images posted here are art, so they do have merit. Good job for writing all the information!
Hannu Hurme
February 18th, 2009 1:23 amI’ve yet to see a good HDR photograph. These like many others are pretty much crap, in my opinion anyhow. It’s just more photoshop trickery that does nothing new or exciting from photographic point of view. Using HDR usually just seems to ruin a possibly good photograph and at best it just leaves the watcher focused on the after effects instead of what’s really in the picture. Photographs are composed from light and that’s exactly what HDR kills. Thus not leaving you with much if anything at all.
mums
February 18th, 2009 1:25 amthanks a lot for theses advices, very helpful!
you used a lot of french references and expressions, do you speak french?
Kal
February 18th, 2009 1:29 amI am truly surprised by all the anti-HDRites out there. I agree that HDR imagery can be overused and overdone but at the same time it can be used as a tool to create some truly awe-inspiring works of art. And, in my opinion, there is none better at achieving this using the HDR technique than Trey Ratcliff.
My foray into photography began with trying out creating my own HDRs with my first DSLR after becoming fed up with the limitations of my digital compact.
The results from my own experimentation made me see my surroundings in a completely different way. By posting my images on flickr and Facebook I engaged others to try out this technique and photography in general.
If you look at art from over the centuries you will see the use of more saturated colours and increased contrast, as you see in HDR images. These techniques are nothing new, but being able to achieve results like this using modern technology makes producing such visually captivating imagery much more accessible to everyone.
I also don’t believe the article is suggesting that HDR is the be-all end-all of photography but I have to agree that using a DSLR over a compact and carrying your camera with you will result in far superior results than shooting your holiday with your iPhone. Personally, I’ve taken aspects of Trey’s tutorial and use HDR when I feel it’s appropriate and other techniques for enhancing images when I feel they will make the image more dynamic. I also agree that flickr is one of the best things to happen to modern photography – I’ve met some great people through it and learnt an array of different techniques for everything from landscape to wedding and portrait photography.
I for one would like to thank Trey for his contribution to the art world, and it is art pure and simple. And like all forms of art that have come before it’s all subjective. Some people will love it and some will hate it. It’s just a shame that the haters seem so much more vocal here!
Mustafa
February 18th, 2009 1:59 amWow Thanks!
David
February 18th, 2009 2:02 amHDR es una horterada, la saturación de color que produce … aburre y cansa al ojo del espectador
Oliver Ruehl
February 18th, 2009 2:03 amI’m not really into HDR, because it distracts us from the real substance of photography.
I guess everyone here is “advanced” enough to know what I mean.
It is a bit of a shallow post and I expected more after reading the headline.
But I like the topic – more photography stuff from smashing magazine please ;-)
Charles
February 18th, 2009 2:19 amJust a small request for the SM webmasters: would it be possible to produce PDF versions of articles so that one can download the article and eventually read it later? In my company, lots of images are filtered/blocked, consequently, I can just read text of articles. If it was in PDF format, I would be able to download the entire article.
Many thanks !
V1
February 18th, 2009 2:22 amSo what’s your opinion about using cannon powershot (g9/10) as start up camera instead a DSLR?
V1
February 18th, 2009 2:24 am@charles,
there are webservices that save websites to PDF. Just google it
insic
February 18th, 2009 2:24 amreally great post. and awesome images.
Oli
February 18th, 2009 2:29 amPoint 3 is totally wrong. Of course, some pics can’t be taken with common compact cameras, but to tell somebody “taking good pictures is only possible with an expensive DSLR and even more expensive lenses” shows the incompetence of the photographer. I’ve seen so many breathtaking pictures that were shot with compact or bridge cameras that really prove you wrong in this point.
Your problem is, that you nearly completely focus on colors and lights in your example pics, but none of them shows interesting content to think about. (except for the amish boy and the sketches. I like those pictures far more then the others).
Schmoo
February 18th, 2009 2:53 amHey Trey, fantastic insight into the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ – it’s something I’ve been trying to put my finger on for a long time, and that would appear to explain it. I’m surprised by the resistance*, especially here, but you got through to at least one person :)
* I never seem to expect Dunning-Kruger…
Patricio
February 18th, 2009 2:54 amActually I think most of the pictures you posted here are “too” HDRed and I didn’t like most of them.
Mykal
February 18th, 2009 3:06 amThe HDR here is over cooked, it looks nasty
Kevin
February 18th, 2009 3:17 amSome very good tips here. Great post!
Patrick
February 18th, 2009 3:28 amMan, there’s a lot of hate in these comments.
In fact, photography articles seem to generate more hate than anything else on SM. For those of us who aren’t photographers, wow, you guys seem a bitter bunch.
valcoholic
February 18th, 2009 3:29 amPLEASE stop believing that HDR is anything like an advanced technique!!! it’s just some kind of technique that’s misunderstood in 90% of all photographs!!
there aren’t any advanced techniques in photography because gaining techniques is only the beginning as you can see on those HDR-pictures on this site, which are all nothing but amateur-pictures. You can’t compensate the lack of individual look & feel with HDR! of course, there are quite nice things you can do with HDR, but only if you know how to use it in a decent way without ruining tha authentic and natural expression of the picture. oversaturation of course can lead to interesting results but shouldn’t be the standard procedure.
gavin will
February 18th, 2009 3:55 amEVERY DSLR is rubbish it cannot take pictures like the eye sees. You have to use photoshop (or similar, gimp corel etc) to make the picture realistic looking, however I am against HDR. Research traditional print techniques such as Clean and Boost and then apply the same principles in photoshop. Create actions to automate it and your almost there.
Cleaning works on the principle that to make something yellow appear more lifelike you would remove the other colours. example yellow take away cyan and magenta. this would make it more vivid and lifelike. Give it a shot in photoshop Image > Adjustments > Selective colour.
The advantage this has over saturation is that it doesnt change the colour over the WHOLE image, just the selective colour you are working on. Heavy saturation applied in photoshop just looks wrrong. This clean and boost technique works alot better.
People serious about photography should read up on print theory… You can learn alot
http://www.gavinwill.me.uk
Jan Caals
February 18th, 2009 3:56 amWether you like HDR or not, I think the issue with the article here is the misleading title. There are no ’10 easy steps’ to advanced photography. Advanced photography is not something you get done in 10 easy steps.
This article should have been called ’10 TIPS that could help you on your way to advanced photography’.
양동광
February 18th, 2009 3:59 amHere’s been a very good tip. Good article!
Quakeulf
February 18th, 2009 4:05 amTrey Ratcliff should work for Squeenix to help gloss up their next Final Fantasy-games.
Man, this stuff looks more like CG-renders with every applicable filter used on them than real photographs of real settings.
Ben
February 18th, 2009 4:18 amI think for 6 you meant “use HDR all the time until every picture looks the same and we’re all sick of seeing it”…
zarathustra
February 18th, 2009 4:24 amI think the best approach would be to look at the results of the work that came from this article, and then try to approach photography in exactly the opposite way then described. Hopefully then you’ll have some good photos, which will be the opposite of those presented here. Absolutely hideous.
Chris
February 18th, 2009 4:24 amMan, isn’t there anybody anymore on this planet who is not on this boring HDR trip?
Nice tutorial though, and almost all of the points are valid also for non HDR photography.
Pearl & Dean
February 18th, 2009 4:25 amWow, super smashing great article. SM does it again. Fanstastic. The HDR shown here looks like a crazy fad! The monkeys newest toy.