Marc Silber's Blog, page 4
September 4, 2020
5 Tips I Wish I Knew & 5 Mistakes I Made When Starting as a Photographer feat. Daniel Milnor – Ep 51
Daniel Milnor spent twenty-five-years as a full-time photographer but is currently “Creative Evangelist” for Blurb, Inc. the world’s premiere print-on-demand publishing platform. He splits his time between the smog-choked arteries of Southern California and the spiritual landscape of New Mexico where he’s been known to hike, paddle, climb, ski, ride and explore all the spaces in between. Milnor is a complete and total nonbeliever in social media and feels these platforms have done irreparable damage to human communication skills and attention span while unleashing a level of consumerism the planet simply cannot survive.
Show Notes
Five Things I Wish I Knew:
I wish I had appreciated analog photography
I wish I’d known how hard being a professional photographer would be. I would have shot more, and worked harder
I wish I knew how little gear decides how good your images are
I wish I’d expanded outside of photography
I wish I’d used my major to do something photography related but not directly photography
Five Mistakes I Made:
Joining the Photojournalism department instead of the Photography department in university
Not collaborating with other artists
Not working outside of photography
I didn’t take images that were mine
I didn’t diversify my knowledge of the art community as a whole
Important Links
Use our link here to get 25% off your next Bay Photo order.
Connect with Daniel Milnor
Website | Twitter | Shifter
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post 5 Tips I Wish I Knew & 5 Mistakes I Made When Starting as a Photographer feat. Daniel Milnor – Ep 51 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
10 Hacks to Help You Improve Your Photography feat. Marc Silber Ep 50
Get 25% off your next Bay Photo order!
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Join the AYP Club and become part of the community!
Check out our new FREE course which gives an introduction to the Cycle of Photography!
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post 10 Hacks to Help You Improve Your Photography feat. Marc Silber Ep 50 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
August 26, 2020
Tips to Improve Your Photography from Commercial Photographer Vincent Laforet – Ep 49
Commercial Photographer and Filmmaker Vincent Laforet joins us to talk about his approach to photography. For years he has created stunning images in various genres of photography, from fine art, commercial and photo journalism.
Important Links
Get 25% off your first Bay Photo order!
Connect with Vincent Laforet
Website | Instagram| Facebook | Twitter
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
More content from this episode:
Tips on Street Photography and Working with People
Tips for Black and White Photo Editing
Black and White Photo Editing Tips
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post Tips to Improve Your Photography from Commercial Photographer Vincent Laforet – Ep 49 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
August 4, 2020
Black and White Photo Editing Tips feat. Documentary and Street Photographer Dotan Saguy
How do you process images to achieve deep and stunning black and white photographs? I recently interviewed Dotan Saguy, a very talented street and documentary photographer about his photography. During the interview, he gave us a demonstration using Silver Efex Pro from the NIK Software Collection made by DxO labs. I’ve been using their collection for years and recommended it for black and white processing in my book Advancing Your Photography. He gave us his workflow along with his tips and advice:
Image Before Black and White Processing. Image by Dotan Saguy.
Editing Steps
Look at the exposure of the image in Lightroom using the histogram to make sure nothing is under or over exposed that needs correction.
With black and white images he often underexposes to preserve details and corrects this in Lightroom.
Right click in Lightroom then click on “Edit in,” this brings up a dialog.
Choose to edit as a Tiff file so that you can make changes to it later.
It now opens in Silver Efex Pro.
On the left side, pre-visualize your image by choosing a preset to use as a starting point. You can pick your favorites from their Preset Library of 48. Having your favorites saved makes it easy to press the down arrow through each and find the one that you feel is the best fit for your image.
Now that you have chosen your preset as a base, you can close the preset pane by clicking on the rectangle with a left arrow at the top (see screen shot). This allows you to regain the full “real estate” of the screen.
Now you’ll be working in the right side panels, starting with the Global Adjustments selection. Dotan suggests that you click the arrows down to the left of each section (Brightness, Contrast, Structure) so that you see all the controls.
He often recommends turning off Tonality Protection by sliding shadows and highlights to the left. This helps create a high contrast image. He wants a full range from pure black to pure white and has found that leaving this on can prevent this in some images. He also wants to see the changes he is making and not have them be protected.
Look at the different parts of the image: Determine what you what to say with it and if anything gets in the way of your story telling. You can now adjust the other siders to suit your vision of the image. A note about Soft Contrast, which is a very powerful adjustment: By moving it all the way to the left and right you can see the results can get pretty drastic so make careful and subtitle adjustments with it.
Click on Selective Adjustments to add control points to create local adjustments to support your vision of the image. For example, you may want to bring down the brightness in a part of the image that would pull the viewer’s eye away from what you want them to see.
Place the control point on the area you want to adjust and then adjust the size of the area by clicking the top “bullseye” and adjusting the slider to make it larger or smaller to adjust that exact area
Now adjust any of the individual sliders in the Control Point: Brightness, Contrast, Structure (similar to Clarity = midtone contrast in Lr) Amplify Whites, Blacks, Fine Structure and Selective Colorization (adds color back to the point.
Your viewer’s eyes are drawn to bright areas, if that’s not what you want, use a Selective Adjustment to reduce brightness
Avoid bright spots on the edges of the image which are a “recipe for disaster” and pull the viewers eyes right out of the image. Use Selective Adjustments in the corners to reduce brightness.
Tip: Once you have a Control Point set the way you want it, you can duplicate it by clicking on it while holding Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and moving the duplicate to the new location.
Look for anything that might distract from the subject and adjust accordingly.
Another tip: As you darken certain areas of the image you might find areas get darker that you didn’t intend. You can drop a control point on those points that you don’t want to be as dark, this by default is a “neutral control point,” which brings the brightness back to normal. You may need to adjust brightness further.
If there is structure and detail in the image that is distracting, use your Control Points and reduce Structure.
Keep fine-tuning your image to make it tell your story!
Image After Black and White Processing. Image by Dotan Saguy.
Check out our video to see Dotan’s full demonstration on his black and white editing. You can also learn more about Silver Efex Pro and the entire NIK collection made by DxO Labs and get a free 30 day trial here.
Learn More about Dotan Saguy :
Website
Dotan’s Books
Dotan’s Street Photography Course
Instagram
More videos with Dotan Saguy:
Full Interview with Dotan Saguy
Tips on Street Photography and Working with People
Join the AYP Club!
Find all our past podcasts here.
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The post Black and White Photo Editing Tips feat. Documentary and Street Photographer Dotan Saguy appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
August 3, 2020
Adapting Our Photography to Our Uncertain Times feat. Documentary Photographer Daniel Milnor – Ep 47
Daniel Milnor spent twenty-five-years as a full-time photographer but is currently “Creative Evangelist” for Blurb, Inc. the world’s premiere print-on-demand publishing platform. He splits his time between the smog-choked arteries of Southern California and the spiritual landscape of New Mexico where he’s been known to hike, paddle, climb, ski, ride and explore all the spaces in between. Milnor is a complete and total nonbeliever in social media and feels these platforms have done irreparable damage to human communication skills and attention span while unleashing a level of consumerism the planet simply cannot survive.
Show Notes
We need to think as a collective and not put people at risk
Five Ways to Adapt
Study – If you’re going to do documentary work, you have to do research
Journal – Write down your experiences
Write – Take projects where you would have taken more photos, and write about them to develop ideas. Also create a newsletter
Mix Your Media – Don’t limit yourself to just photography for your art, and mix it with writing, drawing and other forms of media
Create a Challenge – Create a conceptual project that doesn’t require people to photograph
Important Links
Use our link here to get 25% off your next Bay Photo order.
Connect with Daniel Milnor
Website | Twitter | Shifter
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post Adapting Our Photography to Our Uncertain Times feat. Documentary Photographer Daniel Milnor – Ep 47 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
July 24, 2020
Tips for Getting Inspired as a Photographer feat. National Geographic Photographer Bob Holmes – Ep 46
Robert Holmes career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific travel photographers has extended over 35 years. He was the first photographer to be honored twice by the Society of American Travel Writers with their Travel Photographer of the Year Award and he is the only photographer to be given the award 5 times, most recently for 2017.
Notes
To create truly great work, inspiration is important
Location shouldn’t be your sole inspiration
Looking through photography books is a great way to get inspired
Creativity comes from seeing, rather than making
People featured:
Alex Webb
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Howard Hodgkin
Franz Kline
Sebastião Salgado
Fan Ho
Important Links
Use our link here to get 25% off your next Bay Photo order.
Connect with Bob Holmes
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Connect with Andrea Johnson
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Find out more about Bob Holmes new Online Class
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Check out our new FREE course which gives an introduction to the Cycle of Photography!
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post Tips for Getting Inspired as a Photographer feat. National Geographic Photographer Bob Holmes – Ep 46 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
Tips to on Weather and Inspiration from Travel Photographers Bob Holmes and Andrea Johnson – Ep 48
Robert Holmes career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific travel photographers has extended over 35 years. He was the first photographer to be honored twice by the Society of American Travel Writers with their Travel Photographer of the Year Award and he is the only photographer to be given the award 5 times, most recently for 2017.
About Andrea Johnson
Andrea Johnson is a photographer and director specializing in the wine, agriculture, and adventure travel industries. With a base in Portland, Oregon surrounded by abundant natural beauty, she has traveled the globe creating custom photography image libraries, magazine stories, documentary films, video campaigns, and leading photography tours.
Important Links
Use our link here to get 25% off your next Bay Photo order.
Connect with Bob Holmes
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Connect with Andrea Johnson
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Find out more about Bob Holmes new Online Class
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Check out our new FREE course which gives an introduction to the Cycle of Photography!
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post Tips to on Weather and Inspiration from Travel Photographers Bob Holmes and Andrea Johnson – Ep 48 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
July 18, 2020
Documentary and Street Photography Tips for Editing feat. Photographer Dotan Saguy – Ep 45
Dotan Saguy was born in a small kibbutz five miles south of Israel’s Lebanese border. Dotan grew-up in a diverse working class Parisian suburb, lived in Lower Manhattan during 9/11 and moved to Los Angeles in 2003. In 2015 Dotan decided to focus on his lifelong passion for photography after a successful career as a high-tech entrepreneur. Since then Dotan attended the prestigious Eddie Adams Workshop, Missouri Photo Workshop and studied photojournalism at Santa Monica College.
Show Notes
Keep a simple setup
If you use a single camera and lens setup, you can begin to know what the photos will look like without looking through your view finder
Blend into the background to capture powerful images
Complicated shots can take a degree of planning, even in street photography
Important Links
Learn more about the NIK Collection here.
Use Coupon Code ADVANCING for 10% off Dotan’s Class!
Connect with Dotan Saguy
Website | Instagram| Facebook | YouTube | Books | Course
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post Documentary and Street Photography Tips for Editing feat. Photographer Dotan Saguy – Ep 45 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
July 11, 2020
What Do Great Photographers Have in Common? feat. Documentary Photographer Daniel Milnor – Ep 44
Daniel Milnor spent twenty-five-years as a full-time photographer but is currently “Creative Evangelist” for Blurb, Inc. the world’s premiere print-on-demand publishing platform. He splits his time between the smog-choked arteries of Southern California and the spiritual landscape of New Mexico where he’s been known to hike, paddle, climb, ski, ride and explore all the spaces in between. Milnor is a complete and total nonbeliever in social media and feels these platforms have done irreparable damage to human communication skills and attention span while unleashing a level of consumerism the planet simply cannot survive.
Show Notes
The 11 words that describe great photographers:
Compassion: Martín Chambi
Patience: Howard Bingham
Intelligence: Susan Meiselas
Tenacity: W. Eugene Smith
Curiosity: Dan Winters
Positivity: Kirk Douglas
Scale: Sebastião Salgado
More: Sara Terry
Originality: Joel-Peter Witkin
Risk: Ron Haviv and Catherine Leroy
Location: Trent Parke
Additional Photographer: Kurt Markus
Reading is a great source of inspiration. Other photographers can be a great source of inspiration as well.
Mentioned Books by Daniel Milnor and Marc Silber
World Without Mind
Asia’s Cauldron
On the Road
The Rum Diary
Blood Meridian
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
The Razor’s Edge
The Imagination Warriors
A Moveable Feast
The Old Man and The Sea
Catcher in the Rye
Travels with Charley in Search of America
Blue Highways
Important Links
Use our link here to get 25% off your next Bay Photo order.
Connect with Daniel Milnor
Website | Twitter | Shifter
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post What Do Great Photographers Have in Common? feat. Documentary Photographer Daniel Milnor – Ep 44 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
Photography Tips from Travel Photographers Bob Holmes and Andrea Johnson – Ep 43
Robert Holmes career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific travel photographers has extended over 35 years. He was the first photographer to be honored twice by the Society of American Travel Writers with their Travel Photographer of the Year Award and he is the only photographer to be given the award 5 times, most recently for 2017.
About Andrea Johnson
Andrea Johnson is a photographer and director specializing in the wine, agriculture, and adventure travel industries. With a base in Portland, Oregon surrounded by abundant natural beauty, she has traveled the globe creating custom photography image libraries, magazine stories, documentary films, video campaigns, and leading photography tours.
Important Links
Use our link here to get 25% off your next Bay Photo order.
Connect with Bob Holmes
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Connect with Andrea Johnson
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
Find out more about Bob Holmes new Online Class
Connect with Marc Silber
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube
Check out our new FREE course which gives an introduction to the Cycle of Photography!
Buy Create book here
Check out our merchandise
The post Photography Tips from Travel Photographers Bob Holmes and Andrea Johnson – Ep 43 appeared first on Advancing Your Photography.
