From basics to fine art pdf download

From basics to fine art pdf download

From Basics To Fine Art – Black and White Photography – Architecture and Beyond – Best-selling Book,BOOK PREVIEW

From Basics to Fine Art by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel blogger.com From Basics to Fine Art by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel blogger.com Click the start the download DOWNLOAD PDF Report this file Description Download From Basics to Fine Art by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel blogger.com Free in pdf format Oct 10,  · joel tjintjelaar - from basics to fine art Home Documents Joel Tjintjelaar - From Basics to Fine Art Post on Oct views Category: Documents 4 download Tags: Oct 10,  · The answer is simple: although archi- tectural photography is the main subject matter, it is only a pretext, it merely serves to illustrate the generic principles behind fine-art, DOWNLOAD PDF. Report this file. Description Download From Basics to Fine Art - Black and White Photography - by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar Free in pdf format. Every aspect of the internet, we believe, ought to be free. As a consequence, this utility was developed for free document downloads from the internet. Our domain name, blogger.com, is ... read more

This is one of the most effective ways of driving the eye of the viewer where we want it to be. In these cases the best thing one can do is to take a step back and watch the whole, understand how the parts interact with each other and, in the case of architectural photography, understand the function of the spaces, which is generally the thing that generates the need for a space, thus the shape and other characteristics of the volume. In both architecture and photography the way to study your subject is going from the whole towards the detail. This will, in both cases, provide a deeper understanding of the space and will make it easier to show the due respect to it and follow its rules, which comes always with a reward: the ability of using space as a tool to express yourself in either volumes, as an architect, or in images, as a photographer. This was happening almost years ago, in , and that makes architectural photography the genre with the longest history among all styles of photography.

Just a trivia or not, fact is that architecture was always one of the most fascinating and challenging subjects in photography. To reveal the beauty and complexity of a building in an image is a challenge for the photographer; to appreciate it is a source of fascination for the viewer. It also requires a thorough understanding of the theory and practice of photography and a good eye for geometry. Making the viewer identify himself with an unfamiliar object, as for instance a modern building, requires far more object study, precision and subtlety in composition, care for proportions and light rendering and also courage to attempt it. I like to compare the effect that a long exposure abstract architectural photograph has on the viewer with the effect a deconstructivist building has when seen for the first time.

This happens because the less trained viewer cannot identify with a subject he is not familiar with. This is not happening though with classical architecture and even in the case of classical modern architecture this is a phenomenon far less likely to occur than in the case of more recent architectural objects. The reason for this is because modern and contemporary architecture has not been here long enough to be able to pass into the collective conscience, into the basic vocabulary and the typical and general imagery of society. In other words it is too new and like all new things it finds resistance in being accepted and loved.

This is exactly the role of the photographer dealing with subjects from the area of modern architecture: to educate the viewer and help him identify with a new subject and with an abstract way of presenting it. Not an easy task, but someone has to do it. There was always someone doing the first steps in every phase in the history of art. And it was never easy to make a new art form be accepted, with examples of resistance that sometimes go beyond any stretch of imagination and we can even talk about cases of destroying objects of art that were considered too radical. Not exactly the case with fine art architectural photography, but interesting to know where not being accustomed to a new form of art can lead.

That means its place in the world of art and in the mind of the common viewer is still fragile and its statute is not yet established, and if one takes a look around, it will be evident that the large public the public outside the photographic circles is still not aware about what exactly long exposure fine art photography is, and even less aware about the architectural side of it. Most of the times this kind of photography is very personal and many times the final image has little to do with the real object seen in its original environment, from which it just keeps the main idea and tries to convey it by using volumes, light and time. But of course there are also the trained viewers of long exposure abstract architectural photography.

These trained viewers will understand that abstract is the first expression of life and nature and that techniques like long exposure aim not to estrange us from the object and its surroundings, but on the contrary to connect us with it through the invisible dimension that is time and which long exposure photography transforms into a visible component. It also aims to connect us with the unseen part of our minds, the part that is controlling us without us being able to control it. For those who pass the line of estrangement and step out of their comfort zone without fear it will come much easier to understand more in depth the magic of showing such a stable and immovable subject as a building on a background that represents just the opposite: the movement of the world and the passing of time.

For those viewers the real beauty of this extreme art form will be evident and overwhelming. What Schopenhauer means in his famous phrase is that the world is a dream, the world is an image. Also that the world is unique for each of us, our interpretation of it being based on our personal experiences and beliefs, our personal feelings and sensibility. This applies particularly to artists since they use this image they have of the world to recreate the material world in their images aiming to present not so much the material side of it, but mostly the immaterial one, the side that relates to how they perceive the world when they come in contact with it, the side that will provoke emotion and response from the viewers. Creating fine art means creating something very personal and unique. Not unique in the sense that you are the first or the only one touching the subject or using a certain technique, but you are the first one that presents the subject in a way that suits yourself and no one else.

There is no one else in the world who thinks and feels exactly the way you do and your uniqueness as artist will give authenticity and originality to your work and will create an object of art. What you create following your vision is an object that cannot be reproduced because it represents yourself and it bear your personal style. A vision is what gives authenticity to an image, as long as it is well translated in the photograph. Therefore you need a vision to be able to create in the first place, and then to create something that will express your idiosyncrasy and your idea about the world in a way that can be understood by the viewer and can stir emotion.

What is the first ingredient we need to accomplish this? It is that sparkle of genius and divinity called VISION. There is no other purpose of art than to express the inner world of an artist. WHY DO YOU NEED VISION You need a vision to communicate through art. Fine art photography and vision are synonym terms. THE ULTIMATE PURPOSE OF A HUMAN BEING. Reality might have a thousand faces, one for each person that looks at it, a theory which was for the first time formulated a long ago by the philosopher Democritus in Ancient Greece. This representation of the world and of truth, which is highly personal and subjective, is what determines our vision and defines how we will communicate it.

We need it in order to communicate, in order to help us relate to and understand the world we come in contact with. Vision is the first step in a process of expressing ourselves through art, of understanding ourselves through the eyes of those who experience our creations. We are all a mystery for everyone around us and even more for ourselves. Some do not care to solve the mystery, some others do not even know that there is a mystery to be solved, but there are some who cannot live without trying to solve it and they use art to search for an answer, they create a persona for that mystery. I am talking here about a "persona" in a sense close to the meaning the Jungian psychology gives to the word, where "persona" is defined as the projection of the "self" into the world through an image meant to present the person to others.

With a difference though, while Jung considers the persona to be a mask meant to hide the true self, the persona I'm talking about here is a projection of the self meant to rather reveal it and not conceal it, meant to "unmask" rather than mask the inner world of the artist. This "un-masking" is thought not a direct and straight-forward process, but an indirect one achieved through the symbolism of art. We may say that the artist is un-hiding or is revealing his "self" through hiding or encoding it in his own artistic symbols. The persona created to embody the mystery an artist sees in the world is the object of art and the driving force behind creating it is what we call vision.

Vision is at the same time based on INTENTION. It is what differentiates the fact of creating images just with the purpose of showing to others what we see, from the fact of creating images art in general with the purpose of showing how we feel about what we see, and sometimes even about what we do not see. Intention is an essential ingredient of creating art. Art does not just happen, art is not possible if we do not intend to communicate something through our vision by using the tools we have at hand, one of them being fine art photography. Vision is the most elementary part of creating art, in any form. Many artists have written about vision and they are all more or less right. I am not pretending to have the ultimate view on vision, just my personal view that is shared by many photographers I admire. My co-author Julia Anna Gospodarou has a very beautiful description of what vision is and as you could read, she refers to the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer to make her point.

In fact this title is very much the essence of vision. We see the world as an individual with our own eyes, mind and personal experience. Even if you look at the same object as I do, we will never see exactly the same object. Because the world is a representation. If you succeed in isolating your unique view on the world and express it in a way that can be recognized by the viewer but true to your own view, true to your vision, then you have created art. A view on the external world through the eyes and heart of an individual. Vision is what we really see, what we really experience, not something that others want us to see or experience. Closely related to the concept of vision, or maybe it is all one and the same, is the concept of art, or fine-art. It is not an easy read but I am very much influenced by it, it is a must-read.

Stieglitz says that the artist is trying to express his inner world by using objects from the outside world as symbols. it is not what you capture that matters, it is how you interpret it that matters and will elevate it from a snapshot to a work of art. How do we know what our vision is? As for finding my unique vision I have this notion that the more you move away from objective reality, the more you come closer to your own unique interpretation of the world as a representation. I have defined my own steps of moving away from reality in photography: 1. First step is using black and white in a personal and creative way as opposed to using it via a pre-programmed way by either using the black and white in-camera setting or a preset in Photoshop : the world is in colour, by stripping away the colours we take the first step away from reality.

Second step away from reality is using long exposure techniques to capture what the eye cannot see: water frozen by time, blurred clouds or people. My personal third step away from reality is creating presence by altering tonal relationships and creating luminosity. But basically it is about the difference between luminance what we see and luminosity what we perceive or between depth and volume and lack of that. I have added a fourth personal step recently by altering light and shadows in a way that reflects my mood and aesthetic preference. For example: what do I see or feel inside when I look at an architectural object without trying to explain why I see and feel that? For some reason I always envision an architectural object coming out of the darkness, as if it is floating in emptiness surrounded and silenced by shadows.

It is an image that intrigues me: emerging from the dark, out of nothing. It is a dramatic and intriguing image that says something about me. Light and shadows, but especially shadows and darkness have always intrigued me, they define forms, depth, create mystery, create silence. Moving as many steps away from reality as possible is my way to reveal my unique vision: it is a road that leads to my unique vision. If I had stopped at step 2 then I do not think my images would look different from the masses. I think my personal signature style is reflected in step 3 but even more so in step 4. What if I would find a step 5? Maybe you could try different steps instead after the first two steps that are more commonly used. It can be interesting and insightful. But is it not more interesting to know WHY we visualize it the way we do? That is the true meaning of vision in art. The point here is that I often miss why we have this specific vision and not another one.

Why we create this dramatic low-key image of a landscape with a lone bench in it for example and not a high key version of it. What drives you to create this image in this specific way? If you know what drives you and what you want to express, then your vision will emerge in your photo. You do not have to describe it anymore. Go out and shoot something that has your interest. And ask yourself why it has your interest. Then process it to black and white in a way that you think will express what you have really seen when shooting the object.

Then include the following with your photo: A few thoughts and a recommended approach to finding vision: Vision is a much used word in the world of photography and probably also, in my view, a word that represents an element in photography that is not used correctly or not understood correctly. Try to describe for yourself why you have decided to process it like you have done. Why did you create that look and feel? What method did you use on your way to finding your vision? Did you move away from reality? Or did you do something else to find that thing that characterizes you and that you wanted to express in the photo? It is about describing what we want the world to see, which is of course what we intend to do with visual arts. Why did you choose this subject? Whatever you do when you shoot or process photos, try at some point to move from the HOW to the WHY. That is when you start creating with vision and the fine-art approach. com, is a new name I gave to photography, or more precisely to fine art photography.

en Visionography is the New Photography, It is photography the way we do it in the digital era, which is something almost totally different from what we used to call photography in the film days. Fine art photography and photography in general are almost totally different in the digital era from what they were in the time when only the analog cameras existed. The difference is so big that they could be given different names and could be considered two different arts if they were not both dealing with light and image. What made photography transform so dramatically in a couple of decades after functioning more or less by the same rules for almost two centuries? The first big difference between analog and digital, the main change photography had to undergo, is a difference that changed the way we do photography. This was the replacement of the base where we capture the image. Instead of a film sensitive to light, as in the past, the new cameras are equipped with an electronic sensor, still sensitive to light but in a different way and with different results.

The second fundamental thing that changed is the tools we use to process the RAW image the equivalent to film in the digital era in order to create the final result. These two changes are so important that the process a photograph goes through before it reaches the final image is an entirely different one in the digital era and needs an entirely new way of approach and realization. Therefore a new name would be needed in order to differentiate the two. While in the case of traditional photography we rely on the outer world to take the photograph and we are very limited in how we can transform it through editing, since we can only use classical developing techniques, in the case of digital photography we have much more freedom in interpreting and transforming the image to suit our vision, since we can rely much more on processing and on using processing software to create the image we envision.

What the software introduces in photography is a much greater freedom of expression, since now there are practically no limits to how much one can transform an image from the point of view of light and volume shaping. This freedom leads to vision having a much greater role in the process of the creation of photographs. The most important is that we have much more freedom now than we had with film cameras and with developing the photos in the traditional darkroom. And freedom means vision, it means what we think can be more easily put in practice, we can more easily realize the images our imagination creates. That is why now it is more about who we are and what we envision than about what we see. We are slowly becoming like painters, building our frames the way we imagine, not necessarily the way they are in the outside world.

An example and a comparison between a film photograph taken in in Paris, when I was still shooting film and a digital image taken in in Patras and processed with the method of Photography Drawing. In other words, a comparison between creating a photograph based on the light we can capture in the scene, thus being dependent on this light, and creating a photograph by manipulating light and shadows in such a way so to embody our personal vision and not be dependent on what the light in the scene allows us to capture but only on our vision about the scene we see and interpret.

The process of creating images by using a camera and software and not a camera and film that is developed afterwards, changed photography and transformed its essence. In only a few years photography went from using light as a principal ingredient in creating images to using vision as principal ingredient in doing so. It is a subtle delimitation but I think, if you see it like this, the difference in nuance and sense is clear. Even if I am talking about myself now, because this is a very personal process, I know I speak for many, I speak for all the en Visionographers in the world, either they know they are such, or they will find out in the future.

I hope the fact that I am writing about this will help others to reach that level of en Visioning too and feel the magic of touching their real self. A place where he can create en Visionography. Which transforms en Visionography in a very important word and notion. The way en Visionography is written is a continuation of the above mentioned, it is a visual statement just as much as a linguistic and conceptual one. Just think about DaDa, MoMa and other movements or art institutions that communicate something not only with what their name says but also with what it shows visually. It is happening the same with en Visionography. Yes, language principles combined with visual representations, this is what en Visionography means: a new artistic world where nothing is forbidden or impossible, where everything can freely blend together to create our personal reality, the artistic world within us.

en Visionography CORRECT way of writing! Envisionography Now you know why this is the WRONG way of writing! The way en Visionography is written is a declaration, a manifest. The way en Visionography is written is the Manifest of en Visionography, as new way of seeing and showing the world through photography. Eventually he only depends in creating his en Visionography on the representation he gives to the scene in front of him and is only guided by his imagination and creative skills. I am an en Visionographer myself and I find that this term is much more suited for what I do than photographer because it describes much more accurately the process I am going through when I am creating, the principles of what I do and the way I am using the tools I have at my disposal when transforming my vision into image.

The result of the process I and other en Visionographers are going through when creating, the result of en Visionography, is a fusion of reality and imagination, where the image starts by being a white board where I design and build my photograph by using from reality only those elements that help me convey my vision and the idea I want to present in the final image. It is the way I get from nothing to something meaningful, to something that will express me as a person and artist and present my vision about the world. It is the way I take things from the world and use them as base for my creations, the way I transform them according to how they make me feel and give them back to the world in a different and unique form, in the form of my vision.

This process usually starts with a thought, an idea, an impression or a feeling and this triggers every step that I will make till transforming it into an image that re presents it. The thought leads to finding an image that is suited to my vision and capturing it in the camera, but from then to the final result the image still has to go through different phases of transformation to finally match my inner world, to become a visual representation of it. THIS IS WHY I DO IT My opinion is that art is a selfish act, we do not do it for anyone else than ourselves, we do not try to please anyone else than ourselves when doing it. The process I go through is similar to other visual artists working in the field of photography, therefore I will generalize by saying that: en Visionography is the way one can transform his vision into image by using a camera and a processing software.

It is not only photography, it is much more. It is not only photography because it is not only based on a camera and a sensitive base for capturing the image, but also and even more on a means of transforming the image that was captured in the camera so it becomes something else, namely the idea from which the artist started. This process is more a need than a conscious decision and leads me to creating the things I create. Making art releases my emotional and intellectual tensions and gives an answer to my existentialist quests. The colour is there to be transformed in black, white and the gray shades that unite them, the shapes and volumes are there to be transformed and adapted to my idea of perfection and the light is there to draw my idea on paper.

I do use light in en Visionography, just like in the case of photography, but I do not depend on the light as in the case of traditional photography, I create my own light instead and use it exactly where and how I need it in order for the image I am creating to resemble not the reality I see in front of me and that I captured in the camera, but to resemble myself and how I feel about this reality. Let me tell you in a few words what was my vision about this series and how this translated in en Visionography. Ode to Black Black Hope started as a light and volume study in , long before the decision I made to create a series with this subject.

It is an exploration based on architectural visual elements, elements used to express my inner world, to communicate my feelings to the outer world and to translate them so the viewer can understand them. Together with the architectural object used as subject they form a language to communicate with the viewer, the same artistic language that I mentioned in the chapter about Vision in Fine Art Photography. The images of the series follow a sequence from I to V and they took their names from the main Archetypes of Jung, that will be discussed in a following chapter. The artistic intention was to give them the same role Jung gave to his archetypes and archetypal events — to express my subconscious world and tell a story. The names of the images are, in order: 1.

Ode to Black Black Hope I - Self Black 2. Ode to Black Black Hope I - Anima Black 3. Ode to Black Black Hope I - Animus Black 4. Ode to Black Black Hope I - Shadow Black 5. These rules come from my experience as a photographer and visual artist, from studying the work of other artists photographers but not only and from understanding what helped me and others to reach the point where I can say that I can express my own vision in the art I am making. WHAT WE NEED TO DO FIRST IS TO FIND THAT VOICE AND THEN FOLLOW IT AND TRANSFORM IT INTO IMAGES As I mentioned before, each one of us travels a different path, since each one has a different vision and sees the world in a unique way, this is what gives us the freedom to create and to have a voice of our own.

What we need to do first is to find that voice and I will explain here how we can do this and then follow it and transform it into images. There are two things an artist has to remember before anything else: first, be honest and brave so as to be able to create from your heart and second, have faith in your vision no matter the difficulties you might have to express it sometimes. Spend time to discover what is your idea about the world around you, about what reality means to you and how you would like to transform it to suit your idea about a perfect world. Use this in your creative process aiming to transform the reality you capture with your camera the same way you would transform it in the real world if you had the power.

Use the tools you have to match what you see in the outer world with what you see in your inner world. Landscape photography, portraits or architecture may be at times trendy subjects that everyone likes to see. This is not enough reason for you to embrace that particular style though, if it is not what you love to do, if you do not have a real passion for it. You will only manage to find and express your vision in a photographic genre you really love and feel close to your personality. Read books on art art history, art theory , photography, aesthetics. Even literature and philosophy can give you part of the aesthetic education you need. DO NOT LOSE FOCUS. Once you realize that you have to find your artistic vision, concentrate on it. A better camera for a photographer is like a better paintbrush for a painter, it will only make a difference when you consider the details, it will never replace INTENTION, VISION and PERSONAL STYLE.

You may even want to make a promise to yourself to not upgrade your gear until you find your true vision, this will help you concentrate on the theoretical part of the artistic process and make you reflect more than try out new lenses. Study your subject from aesthetical, historical, social and even philosophical point of view so you can be as familiar as you can with it and the context in which it exists. Do not just produce photographs to accumulate images. Fill in the blanks every time you start creating an image and do not start if you cannot give an answer to why you do it or till you find that answer. You are the only one that sees the world in your own way. Search for that unicity, let it be your guide and express it in your work.

Show your true personality in your art and this will become your own style and the best way to express your ideas. No one can express what you feel better than yourself, you are the most appropriate person to create your art, use that. You have a unique chance to create a perfect world in your images, your perfect world; to show not what you SEE out there, but what you would WANT to see. There is only one way we can do this and be real enough but also close to what we consider in our mind to be a perfect world: by using our imagination and create an object of art. Art is the only field that is allowed to present a world that does not exist elsewhere than in our mind. This is why we are called artists and not mad people. Even if some see these two terms as equivalents and not only when they joke about it. This is one of the best ways of expressing yourself through your images. Be unconventional and photograph your subjects like that even if some will not identify with them, because they are not what one would expect from that particular subject.

They will give you a frame which has to do with common sense and is the result of the long experience that those who created them artists and art theoreticians have in studying art. You can modify this frame in time to suit your own system of values but having this base makes it easier for the mind to concentrate on INTENTION and VISION and not have to reinvent a world that has already been invented. No need to know Photoshop by heart, no one does, but you have to be very confident about your processing style and be able to reproduce anything you imagine using your processing skills. Craftsmanship is instrumental in transforming your vision from idea to final image. It is the most important step after having a vision and having captured an image to be the base for your creation. A painter needs to know his colours and brushes, a photographer needs to know his camera and software.

These are your tools and there is no excuse for not knowing how to use them well other than not being interested enough in communicating your vision. Read materials about new techniques and tools, read or watch tutorials concerning your genre and generally. You do not need to take anything new for granted, but do not reject it either without having tried it. Then choose a style and concentrate on it. You will need to concentrate on the style you choose until you learn everything there is to learn about it, theoretically and practically too. Affiliate to a style, a genre, an artistic movement and use the general frame of that movement to guide your quest for vision. Having ready the visual tools that a genre can offer will remove the stress of finding them and you can be free to concentrate on expressing yourself by using those tools.

Then, when you are sure of yourself and have found something unique, you can go on by yourself and even create new ways of thinking, new currents, genres etc. Chances are that you will eventually find a way to express exactly what you feel and think about it if you become familiar enough with it to be able to reach its essence and show its soul in your image. This is usually the easiest way to be original when presenting a subject, because you will develop a tight relationship with it, thus be able to go beyond its usual representations and find that unique view you are looking for. Do not start shooting right away when you reached your subject.

Look at the subject with and without the camera. Look through the viewfinder without clicking the shutter, just to discover angles and try out compositions, snap some test shots of the best angles and compositions afterwards, study them to see how they can be improved and when you know exactly what you want, just then take the final photograph that will be much closer to your vi-sion than the one you would have taken without having studied the subject. There is no other way to learn your tools and discover a way of expression than by doing what you do constantly, by practicing until you become one with your art and can easily express yourself using specific tools: images in the case of photography.

From experience I can tell you that nothing good comes without a lot of work and on the other side, with a lot of work there will always be something good coming. There is no exception to this rule, believe me. If you dedicate yourself body and soul to what you do and if you do what you love, there is only one way the things can unfold eventually: you WILL get there! This stands with life in general but especially with art. Always have this in mind in times of doubt. You will go through times like this in art, expect them to come, otherwise you are not an artist. This happens because art is so subjective that sometimes you will be the only one believing in what you do and understanding it.

Stick to it and you will convince everyone if you try hard enough. CHANGE YOUR APPROACH TOWARDS THE PROCESS OF CREATION. Combine photography with writing, drawing, music, painting or any other art. You can do this either by practicing more than one kind of art, but mostly in the indirect sense of combining them on a more basic level, in the sense of drawing inspiration from other arts or by combining the principles of different arts to create a new form of expression. Try to make a connection between what you think when you imagine a new photograph, what you do when processing and what you see as a printed result. Always conceive and work on your images having in mind that they will be printed on paper and not seen on a monitor. It gives you a totally different perspective that can determine the way you will create from then on. This is a very effective way of finding originality, when you try to have a different voice than the ones you hear around you.

Even when you do find something in the work of others that you could use in your own, use it only after adapting it to your style and only if it expresses what you feel and not only because you like it. We may like a different artistic expression but this does not mean it suits our personal style. Nothing new is accepted from the beginning. The aesthetic inertia should never stop you put your ideas into practice. You do not need the approval of anyone else than yourself to create what you need to create, as unconventional as it may be. Do it for you! Do not get discouraged by random criticism and choose very carefully the ones you will accept criticism from, they have to be on the same wavelength and artists that you admire and could consider as mentors. Do not try to please everyone, just try to please yourself and make yourself feel happy with what you do. As they say you are your worst critic, so if you really please yourself then it means that you achieved your goal.

Be honest to yourself and always try to understand after you finished working on an image if you gave to your vision the shape you intended, through the way you captured and processed your photograph. Some work for years to find what they are looking for in art. There is a common saying that speaks about one needing 10, hours of study and practice to get to the level of really mastering his field. While there are ways to speed this process up, this rule is generally true in the case of fine art photography, considering that besides the practical skills one needs to cultivate his eye through study and acquire theoretical knowledge too. It is often experience and rather many artistic experiences combined that will get you to the point where you can say you found your vision and this process needs some time to be accomplished. This framework will give you a safe space where your vision can unfold all its potential.

It will be a space where you can be free but not living in anarchy. The rules of the series create enough order for you to feel safe and free to search for and express your vision. You may have to defend your vision, your methods and approach in front of many naysayers or in front of those who cannot see it and try to replace it with what they understand. Art history is full of examples of artists that were not understood, this is a risk you have to take and many times this is more likely to happen than being understood, especially in the beginning, if you come up with something new. Stand by your vision and you will eventually attain your goal and make yourself understood. To be precise, you never find the absolute truth, you just find versions of it and then you start searching again. This is art, a constant quest. But the manner you will search for this truth and the results of this search will show in your work and will reflect in and be determined by your vision.

DECIDE THE DIRECTION YOU WANT TO GO WITH YOUR ART AND STICK TO IT ONCE YOU FOUND IT. More, bigger, newer, fancier cameras and lenses, smarter software will not bring more imagination or emotion in your work. Learn your gear very well so you know what you require from it to create the kind of art that you imagine, but try to rather limit it in order to rely more on yourself and less on your gear to create. This way you will focus more on being creative than on counting pixels and comparing lens distortions. The same approach applies to software, learn it very well but do not expect it to create in your place. Follow a subject for a longer time, at least a few months, in which to try to create meaningful relations between the pieces of the puzzle, your photographs.

But do try different techniques to discover which one suits your artistic goals better, finding the right tool that you can handle with ease will allow you to concentrate on expressing your vision and style and not on searching for a way to express it. Do not wait to become proficient in Photoshop either, both discovering a vision and a personal style as well as becoming better in processing have to be pursued in parallel. Because this is how you will learn the skills faster. If you need them to express yourself and to create what you have in mind, you will work harder to acquire processing skills than if your only goal was to learn a new technique. PRODUCE LESS, BUT BETTER. SPEND MORE TIME ON EACH IMAGE, EVEN IF YOU WILL CREATE LESS. It is more likely that you will find your vision if you spend more time searching for it than if you rush to finish your work before it becomes perfect.

You are creating art, art needs time to be created. How long do you think a painter spends on a single painting? Could be months. Aim to spend just as much as you need and you will give yourself time to discover your vision and express it. Imagine that you are creating your Mona Lisa every time you work on an image. It is that important! Your vision might be a product of your mind and imagination, but everything starts in your heart. We need our mind to process and interpret emotion so we are able to communicate it, but this emotion is triggered by what is happening in our heart and it aims to being understood by another heart not necessarily by another mind. So it is very important to understand what is happening at the base when the emotion is being born and to allow for the process of creation to start from our heart. LAST BUT NOT LEAST DO NOT FORGET TO HAVE FUN WHILE CREATING.

CREATE FOR YOURSELF AND FOR NO ONE ELSE. Try to first please yourself with your art and do not bother about what others will believe. As long as you are not working on paid assignments, you have total freedom of expression, from choosing the subject to the manner you will present it. Feeling good about what you do and the results of your work will make you unleash your creativity much easier and in a much more powerful way. Use this to your advantage and leave yourself free to express your inner world. As a consequence you will start being in love with your own work and find inspiration in it. How can you use processing to accomplish it? How do you talk to the world outside, to your audience about how you feel about the scenes you photograph, how do you transmit the representation you have about the world to the world itself?

A few questions I will try to answer to in this chapter. How do you do all these? Not by using words, that is for sure. If you used words you would be a writer, but you are a photographer. So you need images, this is your expression tool. But how do you do in order for these images to make the viewer resonate to the message, to the sensation and the impression you had while producing the image, from the idea till the final print? You need to invent a language, a visual language that will convey to the outer world what you feel in your inner world. A language that will help you express yourself. And once you find this language you will have to use it as many times as needed till the viewer learns it and you can communicate with him through this language.

The language you invented to express yourself and that you use when creating your work will be your personal style. The first who realized that this is the way in which an image can speak to the viewer was Alfred Stieglitz. The removal of known elements as people, landscape, buildings from the image frees it from conventional representations and this makes the message easier to access and understand. The viewer is more likely to use his imagination, his cultural background and life experiences to come in contact with an image that does not tell him what he must see, as would happen with a conventional representation of the world. He will have freed himself from clichés and will look at the image with a fresh eye. What happens then is that the viewer will identify himself with an element or more in the photograph, based on what we mentioned before: his imagination, his cultural background and life experiences, with the result that he will feel the emotion the photographer felt when creating the photograph.

By this the viewer will have access to the vision of the artist who created the image, ultimately he will have access to the inner world of the artist and his representation of the world. The archetypes are defined by Jung as archaic patterns and images which reside in the collective unconscious of humanity and that are common for all humans. These images come to surface by entering the consciousness in different ways that are related to the cultural baggage and the life experiences of every person and these particularities give the final shape that these patterns and images will take, which can be different by case but having the same base: the source image in the unconscious.

That explains why, while we and the artist are different persons, with different representations of the world, we can still communicate and we can have access to his representations and feel the artistic emotion even if we do not know his intention and his vision for his work. To a big extent, this language will be your processing even if you work with film, since film photographs are also shown digitally nowadays. So you have to find or develop a processing technique, a processing style that, together with the way you photograph, can translate your vision to the viewer in the best way possible. In the first phase you need to identify the elements you can use to create your photographic language, the language you use to communicate to your viewer. This might be a characteristic way of processing in which you use a certain type of lighting, or some specific tones predominantly to create a certain atmosphere that can be found in all your images and that express your artistic credo and idiosyncrasy.

Together with the way you capture your work: the use of certain subjects, shapes, points of view, even the use of certain lenses, your processing style will create a specific language, a characteristic personal style. In essence, this language you invented and you use to communicate is your personal style, your signature, your own inner world shaped in symbols. It is not artistic arrogance, it is not because the critics say so or because you need to enter the history and be known for something characteristic. It is because you need to invent a language, your own language, to communicate with the viewer. You see all these in his works and you do not need to read anything about his life to understand what you see, because he managed to create his own language which is able to speak through his images for himself.

But what van Gogh did, in essence, was to use his tools in an unique and meaningful way so to convey his ideas through works created with these tools. It is a concept. Composition can create a strong and compelling photograph or a weak and uninteresting one. A good composition is what will keep the viewer in the photograph to discover the vision of the artist and the message he wants to convey. The aim of the compositional rules is to improve the balance, the interest, the harmony in the image, to help the viewer reach the point of interest in the frame and understand the message of the photograph, either the message is something complex and abstract or simply beauty. By learning the general rules of composition we educate our eye to discover much easier in real life the potential of an image and by that to identify interesting frames and not miss great shots. Knowing the classic rules of composition will help you find that exceptional element in the frame which leads to breaking the rules, because it becomes more powerful than them, so powerful that it can create a new rule by itself.

There is never just one good or proper way to compose a scene. Even when photographing from the same point and not changing anything but the way we look at the scene, even more though if we change the point of view and try to discover new angles, we can come up with various good compositions, but to manage that, we first have to learn to see, to see the strong points of the scene and how to combine them to create a compelling image. This is what composition rules try to teach: different examples of good composition that will educate the eye and help you discover new ways of seeing.

Most of the rules I am referring to here are empiric rules, as most rules in art are, formulated after many centuries of observing the real scenes and also after studying all the visual arts depicting them, and by identifying and studying the impact each kind of image had on its viewers. They can be easily identified in many works of art and in the good photography we see around us and in many cases they can explain why we like a certain image but dislike another. Some of the ideas here are well-known and evident, some others are personal considerations that I have discovered after working in the field of image, of architecture and photography, after studying and admiring art for the longest time. Paintings can also tell us countless things about composition. ALWAYS FILTER REALITY THROUGH YOUR MIND AND SOUL, SO YOU CAN RECREATE IT IN A PERSONAL WAY All great masters compose their frames perfectly, they know exactly what to keep inside and what to leave out, and also how to hierarchize the relations between objects in the frame to make the eye stay there and explore it till it assimilates all the meanings.

What is most important is to realize that the masters of painting do not copy what they see in front of them, but always filter reality through their mind and soul, so they can recreate it in a personal way. They use reality as a base for creation and composition is one of their most powerful tools for reinterpreting reality and creating a compelling and unique object of art, an object that will represent them. I love abstract art, but you cannot easily study classic theory and composition rules on it, modern art is though a very interesting way of learning about how to break these rules.

Studying the classic masters of painting is the best way to learn the basic rules of any art, including photography. Being able to feel and apply these rules will make breaking them a possibility to create a special effect or an unexpected look in an image. Mastering these rules is actually so primordial that they come before even knowing how to use your camera. You can always learn about ISO or exposure or depth of field by experimenting yourself, but you would never create a compelling image without knowing what makes a compelling image in the first place, and this is composition and light. Look at photographs, but also at paintings and sculptures, drawings, architecture or just pure nature. The secret here is to have seen so much of everything that it becomes a second nature, a second mother tongue. It is like learning a language, the more you practice, the more you use it subconsciously, without even thinking about what you do. And only then you can break the rules knowing what you are doing and not improvising.

This is the best way to convey your message. Simple means beautiful. The less cluttered an image is, the more likely it is that the viewer will find a more profound connection to it. Because the world is a representation. If you succeed in isolating your unique view on the world and express it in a way that can be recognized by the viewer but true to your own view, true to your vision, then you have created art. Vision therefore is nothing more than the creative expression of our internal world using objects from the external world as symbols ina way that can be recognized by the viewer.

A view on the external world through the eyes and heart of an individual. Vision is what we really see, what we really experience, not something that others want us to see or experience. Closely related to the concept of vision, or maybe it is all one and the same, is the concept of art, or fine-art. I am not trying to discuss what art or fine-art is, but I would like to invite you to read Minor Whites essay on Alfred Stieglitz concept of Equivalences, The perennial trend by Minor White. Stieglitz says that the artist is trying to express his inner world by using ob- jects f rom the outside world as symbols. it is not what you capture that matters, it is how you interpret it that matters and will elevate it from a snapshot to a work of art. How do we know whatour vision is? As for finding my unique vision I have this notion that the more you move away from objective reality, the more you come closer to your own unique interpretation of the world as a representation.

I have defined my own steps of moving away from reality in photography: 1. First step is using black and white in a personal and creative way as opposed to using it via a pre-programmed way by either using the black and white in-camera setting or a preset in Photoshop : theworld is in colour, by stripping away the colours we take the first step away from reality. Second step away from reality is using long exposure techniques to capture what the eye cannot see: water frozen by time, blurred clouds or people. com, is a new name I gave to photography, or more precisely to fine art photography. en Visionography is the New Photography, It is photography the way we do it in the digital era, which is something almost totally dif- ferent from what we used to call photography in the film days.

Fine art photography and photography in general are almost totally different in the digital era from what they were in the time whenonly the analog cameras existed. The difference is so big that they could be given different names and could be considered two differ- ent arts if they were not both dealing with light and image. What made photography transform so dramatically in a couple of decades after functioningmore or less by the same rules for almost two centuries? Many things changed, much more than we acknowledge and even realize. The first big difference between analog and digital, the main change photography had to undergo, is a difference that changed the way we do photography. This was the replacement of the base where we capture the image.

Instead of a film sensitive to light, as in the past, the new cameras are equipped with an electronic sensor, still sensitive to light but in a different way and with different results. The second fundamental thing that changed is the tools we use toprocess the RAW image the equivalent to film in the digital era in order to create the final result. In this case we went from using manual methods and chemical so- lutions to develop and process the film to using electronic means software to do the same thing in a totally different way. These two changes are so important that the process a photograph goes through before it reaches the final image is an entirely different one in the digital era and needs an entirely new way of approach and realization.

Therefore a new name would be needed in order to dif- ferentiate the two. If we try to think objectively and not assume that digital and analog photography are the same only because they have the same name, we will see that from even more points of view, and not only thetwo mentioned above, the differences bet ween what we used to do in the analog era and what we do in the digital era are so important that its safe to say we are talking about two dif ferent things, two dif- ferent kinds of art, with different tools, different ways of approach- ing and even different ways of presenting it. While in the case of traditional photography we rely on the outer world to take the photograph and we are ver y limited in how we can transform it through editing, since we can only use classical devel- oping techniques, in the case of digital photography we have muchmore freedom in interpreting and transforming the image to suit our vision, since we can rely much more on processing and on using processing software to create the image we envision.

What the software introduces in photography is a much greater freedom of expression, since now there are practically no limits to how much one can transform an image from the point of view of light and volume shaping. This freedom leads to vision having a much greater role in the process of the creation of photographs. The parenthesis accentuate the prefix en within and protect it, creating a shell around it, just like art creates a shell around the artist, providing him a separate special world where he can feel secure and create freely, his personal reality, his en Vision- world. A place where he can create en Visionography. This is why the word Visionography is written with capitals, because what is more important for an artist than his vision?

Which trans- forms en Visionography in a very important word and notion. The way en Visionography is written is a continuation of the above mentioned, it is a visual statement just as much as a linguistic and conceptual one. Just think about DaDa, MoMa and other move- ments or art institutions that communicate something not only with what their name says but also with what it shows visually. It is happening the same with en Visionography. The way en Visionography is written is a declaration, a manifest. The way en Visionography is written is the Manifest of en Visionography, as new way of seeing and showing the world through photography. Yes, language principles combined with visual represen- tations, this is what en Visionography means: a new artistic world where nothing is forbidden or impossible, where everything can freely blend together to create our personal reality, the artistic world within us.

EnvisionographyNow you know why this is the WRONG way of writing! Spend time to discover what is your idea about the world around you, about what reality means to you and how you would like to transform it to suit your idea about a perfect world. Use this in your creative process aiming to transform the reality you capture with your camera the same way you would transform it in the real world if you had the power. Use the tools you have to match what you see in the outer world with what you see in your inner world. Study your subject from aesthetical, historical, social and even philo- sophical point of view so you can be as familiar as you can with it and the context in which it exists. Even literature and philosophy can give you part of the aesthetic education you need. Do not just produce photographs to accumulate images. Find the reason you want to do it by answering to the question: I need to create this photograph because Fill in the blanks every time you start creating an image and do not start if you cannot give an answer to why you do it or till you find that answer.

Landscape photography, portraits or architecture may be at times trendy subjects that everyone likes to see. This is not enough reason for you to embrace that particular style though, if it is not what you love to do, if you do not have a real passion for it. You will only manage to find and express your vision in a photo- graphic genre you really love and feel close to your personality. Do not get distracted by the ease to create in a style that sells or by the myth that better gear will make you better art. A better camera for a photographer is like a better paintbrush for a painter, it will only make a difference when you consider the details, it will never replace INTENTION, VISION and PERSONAL STYLE.

You may even want to make a promise to yourself to not upgrade your gear until you find your true vision, this will help you concentrate on the theoretical part of the artistic process and make you reflect more than try out new lenses. Jonathan Swift says somewhere Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. You are the only one that sees the world in your own way. Search for that unicity, let it be your guide and express it in your work. Show your true personality in your art and this will become your own style and the best way to express your ideas. No one can express what you feel better than yourself, you are the most appropriate person to create your art, use that. Composition can create a strong and compelling photograph or a weak and uninteresting one.

It is the first thing that matters in an image, if the composition is bad, there is no way an image can be saved. A good composition is what will keep the viewer in the photograph to discover the vision of the artist and the message he wants to convey. The aim of the compositional rules is to improve the balance, the interest, the harmony in the image, to help the viewer reach the point of interest in the frame and understand the message of the photograph, either the message is something complex and abstrac t or simply beauty. By learning the general rules of composition we educate our eye to discover much easier in real life the po- tential of an image and by that to identify interesting frames and not miss great shots. Rules are made to be broken, but before you break them, you have to know them and understand how to interpret them, so you can later break them to obtain the effect you aim for. Knowing the clas- sic rules of composition will help you find that exceptional element in the frame which leads to breaking the rules, because it becomes more powerful than them, so powerful that it can create a new rule by itself.

A good composition does not just happen, it is the outcome of the ability of the photographer to see the scene, to react at what he sees and to know what is effective in conveying the message of the image. A good composition comes partly from the photographers natural artistic abilities, partly from the amount of artistic education he has acquired, either formally or by observing and assimilating the manifestations of art around him. There is never just one good or proper way to compose a scene. Even when photographing from the same point and not changing anything but the way we look at the scene, even more though if we change the point of view and try to discover new angles, we can come up with various good compositions, but to manage that, we first have to learn to see, to see the strong points of the scene and how to combine them to create a compelling image.

This is what composition rules try to teach: different examples of good compo- sition that will educate the eye and help you discover new ways of seeing. Most of the rules I am referring to here are empiric rules, as most rules in art are, formulated after many centuries of observing the real scenes and also after studying all the visual arts depicting them, and by identifying and studying the impact each kind of image had on its viewers. They can be easily identified in many works of art and in the good photography we see around us and in many cases they can explain why we like a certain image but dislike another. Some of the ideas here are well-known and evident, some others are personal considerations that I have discovered after working in the field of im - age, of architecture and photography, after studying and admiring art for the longest time.

Edward Weston A photograph is not an accident. It is a concept. But before that I will present you a set of rules that I apply in conceiving and processing my black and white images to obtain the results I envision and the surrealistic look that can be seen in my work. These are the Rules of Photography Drawing and they are the base on which my envisioning-processing method and the core of my black and white workflow are built. I am calling the method using these principles and rules the Method of Photography Drawing and the process through which I go when creating my black and white images drawing photographs. The innovation of this method is that I am incorporating in the processing workflow the basic rules and principles used in the case of classical and architectural drawing in black pencil, principles that can stand also for other kinds of drawing and even for other visual arts and that I adapted here to photography, especially to black andwhite architectural photography.

The method of Photography Drawing is related to how to shape the volumes by using light as a tool and the concept I developedis about how to process and render an image the same way you would draw it, using the same principles of shaping the light as in classical and architectural drawing, only this time putting them in practice by using different tools than in drawing: pro- cessing software instead of paper and black pencil. This is though not an exhaustive list of software to use, if you respect the principles you can find other ways, tools and means to do it that can work just as well. I will show you how you can use these principles in your own work; what you will do is that you will use the techniques you would use in drawing but this time you will use them to envision and process a photograph.

The place where the lights and shadows will be visible on a volume depends on the direction of light falling on it, the areas closer to the light will be brighter and the ones farther away from the light will be darker. A rule that stands for all kinds of visual representa- tion and that some tend to forget since it is not obvious when wewatch volumes in real life. RULE NO. How light is disposed in the frame has to do not only with correctly rendering volumes but it also affects the composition. Keep in mind that different textures and materials behave differently as for how they show light. Some absorb light, others reflect it, some create lower contrasts, others higher contrasts when they are lit. Consider their behaviour both when composing the image you capture and when you process it, so as to be able to emphasize the areas you need to emphasize and subdue the rest.

In principle you do not wantto have in the foreground an object that absorbs the light and have lower contrast surrounded by objects that reflect the light and have stronger contrast. The object in the front will seem deprived of life surrounded by the other contrasty objects. If you need to have such an object in the foreground you will need to find a way to emphasize it consciously and keep the rest of the objects at a lower contrast so they do not compete with it. You may want to change your composi- tion or point of view to improve the light balance in the image. In the case of drawing you start by adding volumes to one another to create a meaning- ful whole, while in the case of photography you already have the whole and, when using the method of Photography Drawing, you will need to subtract partial volumes from the whole, in order to pro - cess them separately, to render them one by one and then to add them back to the whole but after reshaping the light that falls on them, transforming it to suit your Intention, your VISION.

The end result might be the same in principle, or as far as physics and the light study are concerned, but the initial process is opposite. The steps I make when following the method of Photography Draw- ing are most of the times the same. Some are conscious steps, some others have become a habit I do not think about but just do what I do as an automated process. The steps I tend to make automatically are the ones that have to do with seeing in space, with analyzing volumes and considering the options I have to use volumes to cre- ate something meaningful but that will not necessarily be faithful to reality, to what I have captured with my camera, but it will have to be faithful to my own representation of reality, to my VISION.

What Ido as a first stage is to compare my vision to the reality and evaluate how much they have in common and how much I need to change in order to make the journey from reality to the final image. I will pres- ent these steps in the following paragraphs, explaining for each step what it consists of and how to practically go through the process. STEP 1 LOOK AT YOUR RAW IMAGE AND COMPARE IT WITH YOUR VISION. Compare the result you have captured in the camera with the final image you have in your mind. Try to find the differences and see what you will need to add or to remove in terms of light disposition so the image you captured becomes the image you envisioned.

This is a very important step as now you determine your assets in terms of image and set up a plan on how to work on your photograph in order to make it match your initial idea and vision. This is also the moment when you choose the image you will workon, among those you took of the subject, and this will have to do both with composition and with how you captured the light and also with how you can intervene in the image and work with this light in order to transform a lifeless RAW file into a personal piece of art. Yes, the RAW file is lifeless as long as you have not intervened in it. Starting to work on a RAW file can be compared with the mo- ment a painter sets up his canvas and looks at the scene in front of him. Nothing more. You have chosen the angle, chosen the light and clicked to capture those. You may have travelled a long way to get there, or woke up really early or done other things that seemed likean effort, but this is still not creation, it is just preparing for the ac t of creation.

This is only the beginning of the journey that will take you from an idea to a fine art photograph. The real part of creation, the visible part of it, is what starts right now. Why are some black and white photographs better than others? All questions I have been asking myself and many other photographers with me. Good composition is the strongest way of seeing, to use a familiar quote. Now I want to go into some specific black and white aspects of a photograph only in this section, assuming that when we ask our- selves what makes a good black and white photograph, that the composition is already strong. If you have a strong composition and your black and white interpretation reveals mastery, then you will have a winning combination that is hard or even impossible to beat by a colour photograph. Having set the limits of this topic here, let me start by saying that creating black and white photographs is done in post-production, not in-camera.

Due to the absence of colour, the artist needs to decide how to translate a specific colourto just one tone. What it comes down to is that, since we are talking about just one tone corresponding to one hue of color, the differ- ence between the tones will only be shown by light or the absence of light, not by saturation or other colours. In other words, what makes a great black and white photograph? I have formulated a set of prin- ciples that I will call the Rule of Grays or the 10 Monochromatic Commandments, that will help you understand what a good black and white photograph is made of. GRAY RULES There is just one colour in black and white photography that is in- teresting: gray. Not black nor white, just gray. Black is the complete absence of light and white obviously the complete presence of light. When we are talking about black and white photographs we are not really talking about a photo consisting only of a black or a white tone.

They are the least interesting. No, we talk about the gray tones. Black is the darkest gray tone, stripped of all light, white is the light- est gray tone, exposed with too much light. In both cases we do not see anything, because it is either too bright or there is no light. Add a bit of light to black and you have a dark gray tone, remove a bit of light from pure white and you have a light gray tone. There is only one pure black tone and there is only one pure white tone, but there are shades of gray. Gray rules and should be dominating a black and white photograph: the rule of grays.

The eye is always drawn to the area in a photo that has the most contrast. If there is an area in the image that has pure black against pure white, then that area will get all the attention. If you create an image with too much contrast that has not been carefully chosen then the eye will go all over the image and does not know where to look at. How to create contrast in a correct way? It is not just a matter of hitting the contrast button. It is a matter of analyzing first where you want the eye to look at.

If you do it right then you start with creating contrast by getting it right in-camera. But even if you do not do it right in-camera because the light is not perfect, then you can always create more contrast in post production in the areas in the images that you have chosen as an artist. That is one of the benefits of converting colour to black and white instead of having the black and white in-camera. You can sim- ply create contrast where there was no contrast and remove where it once was. If you have a colour photograph that has a subject with a blue shirt against a blue background, then the subject will fade away against the background. But you can decide in post-production to translate the blue background to different tonal values than the sub- ject with the blue shirt.

The freedom of black and white conversion. Creating contrast or enhancing contrast should be done carefully and very selectively and not by just brightening the whites and darken the blacks. Selective use of tonal contrast is one of the most important elements in any great black and white photograph. It shows an analysis of how to work with tonal zones and how to distribute them across the image and also how to use se lective contrast to create depth and definition in volumes. The more digital information you capture in- camera the more your mistakes will be forgiven, the more you control your black and white image.

You need all digital information available to push your black and white image to the limit. It does not affect the RAW file since it is just a JPG image separate from the original RAW file. Sharpness: many photographers have a preoccupation with sharp images. It is as if the whole essence of photography lies in the sharp- ness of an image. Sharpness often gets overrated, while it is just one of many elements in a photograph like depth of field: sometimes you need a small DoF, sometimes a larger DoF. And sometimes you need a sharp image, and sometimes you need a less sharper image. Expose to the right - make it a habit to check your histogram after every shot.

The most important quality of this lens and what makes it so popular and needed in photographing buildings and interior spaces, is the fact that it can keep the verticals of a building parallel, thus presenting the object as we see it and not with the verticals converging, as a normal or wide lens would capture it. In other words the use of tilt- shift lenses removes the wide-angle lens distortion, or rather it does not introduce it in the first place. It removes the keystone ef- fect, as the convergence of the verticals in case of tilting the camera is otherwise known.

The only other lens that can come close to the tilt-shift lens as for keeping the verticals relatively parallel is a long lens, but this lens is generally used more for details than for general shots, as we never have enough empty space in front of, around or inside a building to be able to capture general views with a long lens. Besides, a long lens will compress the perspective so much that the image will lose the depth that would be shown in the image when using a wide-an- gle lens, as the 17 mm and the 24 mm tilt-shift lenses, which are themost popular and suitable among the tilt-shift lenses for shooting architecture. See the next image example of how a long lens is com- pressing the perspective. This happens because the subject a long lens can capture has to be too far away and the lens cannot retain any foreground in the frame, which we know by now, adds depth to the image. If you see the depth in this image, you have to know that it was created in post-processing, by using light and shadow and the method of Photography Drawing in an effective way.

Which shows once more how useful this method is and how well it works to trans- form an image to suit our vision. It has notbeen officially defined as such till now, but this distinction has to be made, because this genre cannot be assimilated neither with pure architectural photography nor with pure street photography. It is not something in between either, but a distinct genre with its own rules and principles. We will define it as a genre in this chapter and we will explain how its principles function and what we need to keep in mind when we are shooting architectural street photography in order for our images to be really categorized as architectural street photographs.

Depending on which of the two aspects we want to emphasize the resulting imag- es will be either classical architectural photography or architecturalstreet photography. The same principles of using light and dealing with composition ap- ply in architectural street photography as in classical architectural photography, the difference is that: in this case the architectural object will be the background, not necessarily the subject. In Architectural Street photography the main subject of theimage is the HUMAN PRESENCE. The main subject of the image is the human presence this time, that will be integrated in the image, becoming its point of interest. As you see, I am talking about the HUMAN PRESENCE and not about the PERSON as subject in architectural street photography, be- cause there is a difference between the two as far as how they are used and the results we can see in the final image. The message they convey is very different in each case. Using a human presence and not a person as subject for architectural street photography meansthat in this case we are interested in the person or persons populat- ing our image only in the measure in which they show us their rela- tion with the built environment and not as individuals.

This is the main difference between classical street photog- raphy and architectural street photography: in classical street photography the accent falls on the person as she can show us the human nature and its reactions to external stimuli environment and other individuals while in architectural street photography the ac- cent falls on the relation the inanimate built environment has withthe animate human presence that populate it or that happens to come in contact with it. From this point of view, classical street photography can be consid- ered more assertive, while architectural street photography can be seen as more contemplative and reflective. Of course besides that, notable fine art photographers like Michael Kenna, Michael Levin, Alexey Titarenko and Cole Thomp- son have been utilizing long exposure techniques in their work and that contributed to the association of long exposure photography with fine art as well.

Long exposure photography is also my favorite genre that I like to use in most of my work, mostly because of the sur- real effect and also because it is part of my personal philosophy oncreating art by moving away from reality as many steps as possible to get closer to the individual essence of the artist. I talk about that in the vision part of the book. Parts of this section on long exposure photography have earlier been published on my website www. com in in a time that such detailed information on long exposure photography and how to practically do it was very scarce and only incidentally available as paid tutorials, while the information on my website was completely free. After that many other photographers started publishing information on long exposure photography on the web or in other digital form. In the past four years long exposure photography has emerged as a very popular and almost mainstream form of photography.

All this information previously available on the authors website has now been completely updated and extended with personal experiences and is now available in this book. In this section I will go over the basics of long exposure photogra- phy, the camera gear that you need and how to set up a long ex- posure shot so you can start shooting right away. I will also discuss how differences in exposure time can result in another look and feelwhen shooting architecture for example. There are many ND filter manufacturers, some produce only light ND filters, some produce a whole range of them.

The filters come in different price ranges and in different sizes. Instead of listing them all here I think it is better to just name the most important brands, my preferred filters and a few competitors. Formatt-Hitech Formatt-Hitech produces filters for video and photography and has every filter you could possibly think of, includ-ing a great line of ND filters from 3 stops up to 10 stops, as circular screw on filters or as rectangular slide-in filters, as separate filters or as complete, value for money kits. Formatt-Hitechs state of the art line of ND filters are officially called IRND filters and are the worlds most neutral ND filters.

They are available as resin filters and as glass filters only up to 8 stops. The Joel Tjintjelaar Signature Edition long exposure filter kit comes with a set of 3 filters: a stop, a 6-stop and a 3-stop filter to give you the most commonly used com- bination for stacking filters. In practice this type of ND filters has a very neutral slightly cooler color cast that is easy to correct in postprocessing. The difference between regular ND filters and IRND fil- ters is that ND filters are just Neutral Density filters while the IRND IR stands for Infrared making it Infrared Neutral Density filters does not have a specific infrared cutoff point, but has even attenuation all the way from UV, through visible spectrum, through near infrared and infrared.

This results in a reduced color shift in the ND. The biggest result however is that the blacks appear beautifully crisp and most impor- tantly black, rather than purple or magenta. Itis very easy to stack a 10 stop filters with a 6 stop filter for example, thanks to the filter thread on both the front and the back of each filter. They are only available as rectangular filters to be used with a filter holder that is also pro- vided by Lee. The Lee has a blue color cast which is also easy to cor- rect in post-processing. The only major disadvantage of the Lee Big Stopper is that ever since their release in they were out of stock everywhere in the world and hard to get.

Singh-Ray Singh-Ray filters are among the most expensive filters in the market but they have a great range of filters. Until recently they did not have ND filters with more than 8 stops but they havemade quite an impression with their recent release of a 10 stops and even a 15 stops filter, making them the only filter manufacturer in the world to have more than 10 stops in their line-up of filters, al- though I have to admit that I have been testing a Format t-Hitech 16 stops filter in Definitely something to keep your eye on. Singh- Ray also have a so called Vari ND filter with adjustable stops varying from 1 to 8 stops. The rest Do not bother taking a look at the rest of the brands, they are relatively cheap but the quality is not up to par with the top fourof filter manufacturers listed above, although Hoya is a brand that produces some very reliable yet not very expensive filters.

Let us start by say-ing that I always shoot in RAW bit, most of the times exclusively in RAW and this is vital for how high the quality of the working file will be. Then, as image processing per se, I start in Lightroom where I do the basic settings for my image: exposure correction, white balance, contrast tweak, basic sharpening, dust spots etc. cleaning, basic lens correction I do the serious lens and perspective corrections in DxO View Point 2- a great tool for this kind of corrections, especially when you shoot with a wide angle lens. You can alternatively use DxO Film Pack 4 or NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, but I would recommend Topaz because it is a very rich in options but easy to use plugin.

DxO Film Pack 4 also has a few presets that can give you a very interesting film look and beautiful gray tones, and I like to use these presets, but it is not so extensive as Topaz BW Effects. I also use Topaz DeNoise for reducing the noise in the image a very good tool for the purpose , then Topaz Detailand Topaz Claritytoincrease sharpness and enhance definition, I combine Topaz Re- Maskwith the selection tools in Photoshop to create my selections, an extremely important part of my processing as you already know, then I do most of the rest of the work in Photoshop, using the meth- od of Photography Drawing PhtD that I explained previously in the book - meaning, in two words, rendering the volumes with light and shadow so I can create depth and make them seem real and three-dimensional.

It is a time consuming method if you want the results to be perfect but you can reach perfection if you use it correctly and with patience. Following I will analyze some of my images from the point of view of the shooting conditions, the shooting set up and the settings of my camera. Joel computación. July August 20l2jennifermcgeedesign. Chandelier ''Lartigue Chandelier". Herring Joel. Joel portfolio. Cómic Joel. Profeta joel. Fishman, Joel. Joel Osteen. Joel Migdal. JOEL SHAPIRO - Arion Press :: Fine Press Limited Edition When Hoyem had initially invited the artist Joel Shapiro and titling engraved on. Rubin, Ph. Shearing · Junior Shearer 2 Machine Shearing Crossbred Wool 3 Machine Shearing Fine Joel presentacion. Algebra Joel. Android in the Cloud Chromebooks, BYOD and Wearables Joel Isaacson Copyright Joel Isaacson joel ascender. Joel martinez.

Joel Stillerman JOEL P. The Sociology of Consumption: A Global Approach. London: Polity Books. Cárdenas, Ana, Felipe Link, and Joel Stillerman,. Instructor Profile JOEL NEILSEN - SDT Instructor Profile Joel Neilsen.

The long-awaited page eBook is now available and has become a best seller. You can purchase it at the link below. You can consult an extensive BOOK PREVIEW containing the Table of Contents and a few fragments from the book to get an idea of what the book covers. From Basics to Fine Art — Black and White Photography — The Book by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar is a book on fine art black and white photography with a focus on architectural fine art and long exposure photography eBook format. Everything about the artistic side, the practical side, the philosophical side but also the business and financial side of photography, plus… the secret to success by Julia and Joel. More than pages of knowledge from our extensive experience as fine art photographers and from the long years of studying art, architecture and everything related to image representation.

Tens of images from our portfolio, recent and from the archives dating even more than 10 years ago, explained and analyzed in a simple and clear way. A book written in simple English, so every lover of photography with medium knowledge of the language, regardless where they are, can easily understand and use the information the moment they read it. We totally agree. Subscribe to find out about updates to the book and other events related to it that we will organize in the future. While others claim to have achieved this state of aesthetic grace, this is the first time I have seen it accomplished with great skill and with a brilliant explanation of how to get there.

Joel is the modern equivalent of what Ansel Adams did for black and white photography in the film era, always exploring new horizons, new techniques, and new frontiers to explore. Julia Anna, on the other hand, is the chimera of Imogen Cunningham and Vivian Maier, merging one of the sharpest eyes in the art world with the artistic flair to make every image canvas come alive. For anyone who is both passionate and willing to understand what Fine Art Black and White Photography is all about, this book in an absolute must buy in my opinion. The way in which both Joel and Julia explain everything is easy to follow and with great detail. Not only do they explain their personal vision but also share some of their secrets in what it takes to produce some of the best Fine Art Architecture images around today.

I have been making Black and White photographs for a few years and I have learnt so much from these two photographers especially as they explain how to approach architecture, understanding the light and reaching out for a better composition. If architecture is not your thing but long exposure photography in general is, Joel and Julia explain everything there is to know about the subject including some of the pitfalls to watch out for. All in all, this is the one book which i will reach for time and time again for both interesting reading and also as a great reference source. Barnbaum managed to straddle the old wet and analogue process of photography, and the new, digital age. He gave us an insight into the art of the process, whether A or D, and his ideas are still relevant today.

Gospodarou and Tjintjelaar have finally given black and white photography a massive — not to say transcending — push into the digital age! Julia and Joel have entered an exclusive club in the world of photography once reserved for the likes of Ansel Adams, Julius Brassai, Minor White, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. They are accomplished international award-winning photographers. I can personally attest through their endeavor above all else Julia and Joel take pleasure in witnessing others become accomplished fine art photographers. Thank you both for sharing. The work of both photographers has helped define, and push the boundaries of long exposure photography, a relatively new genre in the fine art world. Julia and Joel have joined forces to write a new ebook called From Basics to Fine Art: Black and White Photography — Architecture and Beyond.

It is principally aimed at photographers interested in using long exposure techniques to photograph buildings, with some chapters being more general and having a wider appeal. No one else seems to be doing this stuff yet, or at least doing it and teaching it, so that makes some of the content unique. An almost impossible task, due to the amount and depth of content to be covered. This title simply has to be on your bookshelf. buy this book you will learn far more than you expect from it. I certainly did. One book stood out head and shoulders from the rest.

The title is self-explanatory. Lots of tips and tricks to sidestep the learning curve. I found the chapter dedicated to the proper processing of black and white conversions very helpful. Joel and Julia Anna also touch on the use of filters, other essential equipment and how to use it properly. The way you explain the vision and technique is beyond imagination, even small macro details are there. No words to describe such a great book. Chapeaux to both of you and thank you again. I was so inspired by the two of you. I am extremely happy with the purchase and the inspiration and training that the book provided. Just thought that you would like to know how people see the book and what they are able to achieve thanks to you. Thank you!!! If you are serious about your art, you need to buy the eBook From Basics to Fine Art. And with this book you hit me and this is what I like. A few weeks ago I showed a picture I have made according to your book and people liked it.

Thank you for that! The book is very special and different from all the other books about photography. It helps you create a vision for the longer time. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. You managed to cover from scratch to the cherry on top of the cake. Impressive accomplishment! I was quite surprised for you guys even sharing the business model. Congratulations for such an open will to share. For me, the shooting technique was absorbed smoothly, and although I already had some of the initial knowledge, it was quite refreshing to go through it with the connective line to reach the final goal of a fine art image.

The post-processing has bigger depth and it is still in abortion. I will have to consolidate that information with practice on some of my images. Special thanks to our graphic designer Artur J. Heller from Camerapixo who is a highly talented and creative graphic designer and to our erudite proofreader, Charles Paul Azzopardi, a Fine-art photographer himself. You can find more resources about fine art black and white photography, en Visionography, long exposure photography and architecture photography in my extensive collection of photography tutorials. To receive my future tutorials directly via email you can subscribe to my website. Learn more about how to create fine art photography, from vision to processing and the final image in my video course From Vision to Final Image — Mastering Black and White Photography Processing , in my video tutorial Long Exposure, Architecture, Fine Art Photography — Creating en Visionography , in my book From Basics to Fine Art — Black and White Photography , or by attending one of my workshops.

If you enjoy our content, please consider making a small donation, to help us continue sharing free content and offer knowledge and inspiration. You can find on our website many free extensive tutorials on all these subjects. Thousands of photographers started their journey in fine art photography here and found inspiration and practical resources that empowered them. Many have won awards for their work based on knowledge acquired here and from our books, courses, and workshops. Many are making careers in photography right now. To empower even more photographers to reach their dreams, we want to keep this resource free forever so every new or advanced photographer can have access to knowledge and inspiration. To help us in our efforts of providing knowledge and inspiration for everyone, please consider becoming a patron of this website and making a small donation.

By making a donation, you will be part of this generous effort and you can be proud of being a supporter of art and artists, like the famous Maecenas of the past. Art and artists need your support as always in the history of art and photography. FREE PRESETS This is the NEW FREE extended version of the original fine art DxO Preset Series Dark City, created by Julia Anna Gospodarou. Some of you may be familiar with the images featured here and with the first edition of my Dark City DxO presets. Others may be familiar with the subsequent versions of…. FOREWORD BLACK FRIDAY DISCOUNTS BELOW Before I start with the practical things, I want to say that I am so proud of all my students and the people who read this blog and react to my ideas. UPDATE The book has been launched and can be purchased at the link below. The sales of the long-awaited eBook… FROM BASICS TO FINE ART — Black and White Photography — Architecture and Beyond — … by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar has started and the best-selling page eBook can be purchased by clicking on the button below.

This is a recent From Basics to Fine Art Book Review by Antony Northcutt. written by me and Joel Tjintjelaar and that we published a…. Hello Julia, i am very interested in your work. I have problems trying to download the book preview file. It has 4 mb and i can only get kb downloaded. Please check out if there is any problem with the download link. Thanks in advance, Miguel Lopez-Araus. Hi Miguel! Thank you for your interest in my work. I have just checked the download link and it worked for me. I was able to download the file very quickly. Maybe it was some glitch in your case. You could clean your cookies and try again or maybe you need to make a restart on your system. Let me know if it goes well and alternatively I can send you a link in an email. Thanks Julia, finally I have done it. I dont know why, my tablet can´t download the file but here, at home, in my Pc, works fine. Thank you very much for your quick answer. Your email address will not be published. Yes, add me to your mailing list.

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From basics to fine art pdf books downloads pdf For many art collectors, the hobby becomes a lifelong journey. Related Content: Download Over Free Art Books From the Getty From Basics To Fine Art - Black And White Photography. Uploaded by: vimbo. December PDF. Preview. Full text FROM BASIC TO FINE ART BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY - ARCHITECTURE AND BEYOND George DeWolfe is a prestigious B&W fine art photographer, writer and teacher Oct 10,  · joel tjintjelaar - from basics to fine art Home Documents Joel Tjintjelaar - From Basics to Fine Art Post on Oct views Category: Documents 4 download Tags: Oct 6,  · From Basics to Fine Art – Best-selling book considered by experts as one of the best books on black and white photography of the past decades. FROM BASICS TO FINE Every aspect of the internet, we believe, ought to be free. As a consequence, this utility was developed for free document downloads from the internet. Our domain name, blogger.com, is ... read more

As for finding my unique vision I have this notion that the more you move away from objective reality, the more you come closer to your own unique interpretation of the world as a representation. From Basics to Fine Art — Black and White Photography — The Book by Julia Anna Gospodarou and Joel Tjintjelaar is a book on fine art black and white photography with a focus on architectural fine art and long exposure photography eBook format. This process usually starts with a thought, an idea, an impression or a feeling and this triggers every step that I will make till transforming it into an image that re presents it. Imagine that you are creating your Mona Lisa every time you work on an image. It is who I am, because photography is a big part of who I am.

I certainly did. To be precise, you never find the absolute truth, you just find versions of it and then you start searching again. A better camera for a photographer is like a better paintbrush for a painter, it will only make a difference when you consider the details, it will never replace INTENTION, VISION and PERSONAL STYLE. Julia has an equal passion for architecture and photography, practicing both with the same enthusiasm. A place where he can create en From basics to fine art pdf download. What started small has become a complete black and white philosophy, based on architecture, but reaching so far beyond it.