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Image Review Part 3

Lesson 12 from: The Art of Seeing

Frans Lanting

Image Review Part 3

Lesson 12 from: The Art of Seeing

Frans Lanting

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Lesson Info

12. Image Review Part 3

Lesson Info

Image Review Part 3

does that look like the tetons again yeah yeah there's a couple of old barn stairs have been photographed quite a few times this might be one oven and this is a good example of that compositional principle that I shared with you earlier of sub dividing your frame by looking through a window but instead of looking through the window and composing it as a rectangle the photographer chills to do a diagonal composition here do we like that so it comes out like that and it's balanced out a little bit by that diagonal coming in from the other side so yeah um color spin deleted from the image I don't know what else to to do to it to improve it photographer framed it executed it quite well bald eagle in coastal canada or in alaska two thousand to the second at f six relatively short lens and the esso was cranked up because it was probably a gloomy rainy day and so that's kind of the setting that that seems appropriate for the situation um but the moment is not quite there yet it would have bee...

n nice if the eagle had been here or if it would have been here that's strong vertical line that that intersection eagle doesn't seem quite right but what do you do and I see eagle to stop or uh that's not really feasible so that is a situation where using a high frame rate is an appropriate thing to do as it is it's sharp but I don't think we can do more more to it to improve it and then there's this that's thehe mirror image to the bald eagle flying let's see it from a distance this looks like a classic backyard situation could be seated technical details here not provided the rider secretive for you but I can kind of guess at it you know the to get a hummingbird that its wing you have frozen like that that must be it least two thousandth of a second because you know any slower and other begins to blow out obviously it's coming to the feeder and that creates greater opportunities for superb hummingbird photography but to me it seems like the photographer hasn't really taken advantage of the opportunity stare but uh but I would do is to then clean up the whole situation here um yeah to create mohr opportunities for the hummingbird to fly around the nut space without these distractions and just that this is a background and yeah you can crop it out a little bit but the beauty of that kind of situation is that it happens over and over and over again because you're hummingbirds are very faithfully attracted to those feeders so you can do anything you want you can e don't know flash was attitude is thie image looks very crisp it looks almost as if there's a little bit of a pop from a field flashed in fact I think so because this is also very brightly illuminated so backyard bird photography great opportunity to stay close to home and yet to shine thirteen seconds have twenty two eighteen millimeter lens this could be the northwest or could the california um the photographer did not go far enough into the scene here on dh you know there's other pictures in here summer on yeah this kind of seems too much of a straight line that um it doesn't really belong that all this organic chaos in here on this's very I can use yeah the interaction between rock and water that's a classic theme that's been done many many times by photographers and you know you never get tired of doing it because the results look so beautiful and it uh it makes you feel like a million dollars when you do it for yourself so but you want to become really delivered about it and I have nothing against moving little twigs like that because we're creating art we're not just documenting reality the way we found it um so you know I would take that out I would move through the water and take that out and maybe I would take that out as well so I'm my own walking photo shop so on this looks a little better balanced but you know we need to go even farther in to find the two image because it's somewhere in here because this is already too dark to you too massive compared to it all the delicate balance between the smaller rocks in there so whoever made this I would say go back and try it again this looks like a uh an old covered bridge somewhere in the northeast maybe so what do you think here would it uh this is such a a serene landscape um but this improve if the if that bridge if it is a bridge indeed if it would be in the center as opposed to being in a corner in other words do we make the composition you're more symmetrical or do we keep it off balance does it matter opinions from anyone you almost first you you're looking at the trees etcetera it's almost like your your eyes drawn to the bridge secondary I'm keeping it off the center and I rather like this almost like a little easter egg so you have mike I actually feel like just what you do your eyes and quite going straight to the bridge so there's almost too much like I want someone to focus me a little more and kind of guide me there so to me it's a little distracting so as nice as the reflections are I would cut out the bottom and make it into a landscape about this year yeah I think you're right too much water in that well even high and you know I haven't quite go that tight you want to free it up a little bit at the bottom and I would open up the shadow detail a little bit in here and maybe in here is well if that is possible but I see a straight line here of a of a bridge so yep instead of opening up the left side what about his cropping all way to the bridge crop it all the way to the bridges oh too far too far how either yeah but now we're looking at these straight lines that are a little bit incidental it's a scif the photographer did not have a um on a strong enough you of what he or she wanted to accomplish its a pretty scene there's I cannae there comes from all the colors and the tranquil reflections but it's and you could take this further I think there's other images in here you could maybe do more of it the bridge so the trigger finger was a little bit too easily pleased the trigger finger gets very happy when there's a snow we all flying straight towards you right you know you can't help yourself that's cool um let's see the details here sixteen hundred of a second at two eight two hundred millimeter lens so that birth is very close and it's tax sharp the al very conveniently flew straight towards center of the photographers composition so that makes it easy for an auto focus lens to actually perform um so this is a little bit distracting because you know the branches overlap with uh you know what the wing of the snowy owl could we do anything about it yes we could you know you could de emphasize thisyou could feather it out and still keep it physical if you don't want to go very far but you make it a bit lighter than it is now and then you emphasize a little bit more of thie of the al itself gorgeous image otherwise this is a for you for a second that f sixteen um looks like a lighthouse someplace I don't recognize where it is is it a lighthouse yeah um okay indeed it isthe uh does anyone here claimed this image nobody does let's look at it from a distance nice black and white conversion um gorgeous cloud pattern but the compositions a little bit incidental there's interesting stuff going on in the foreground I can't quite make out what this is is it snow looks like snow doesn't it or is it not I can't quite make it out but I feel that um yeah there's something here in the foreground that could have provided mohr uh a more of an anchor for the rest of the composition this has done that a twenty millimeter lens and I probably would have come much closer to this here sung through my knees and anchor dissing a foreground and then created space between the snow bank in the foreground and the lighthouse in the background and still people the sky in there cece into t towns to doesn't look like it this looks um someplace else maybe colorado are maybe body I don't think it's body california doesn't look like the style but I could be wrong but not that doesn't matter settings eightieth of a second twenty two millimeters f seven what was the photographer trying to do here is what I'm asking myself it's an old barn but test the photographer dunmore did it it goes back to that original question that I invited you to ask yourself then you stand someplace what is my subject and then what do I do with the subject so the subject to stare that's unmistakable but I don't see enough of a creative treatment in it not could be that the barn is very meaningful to that person then of course everything changes because then it's a personal relationship that goes outside the scope of the viewfinder but um not the there's some stuff lying around here lying around here yeah it's an abandoned site but I think as a photographer I began to look in here that's what the patterns are or maybe there is something graphically interesting in here where you're looking out at the scenery and it is framed by those rectangular patterns provided by that old porch well maybe there's another angle maybe there's something else but I find this a subject without a point of view and this unmistakably is half the home in yellowstone but I'm getting tired so it is half dome um one of the most gorgeous places on the planet um and you know you can't help yourself and you dare video camera you know your trigger finger says yes yes yes yes uh the easiest thing in photography is to say yes the hardest thing is to say no because pixels are free right and yet on you have to discipline yourself a little bit because otherwise you're doing the same thing as all these millions of other visitors have come to yosemite before and as a photographer yet I say you want to push yourself into a more personal expression so I think there are other opportunities here um pick a vantage point where half dome is more reflected in the water maybe considerate as vertical may be coming closer try to abstract it on half domes definitely a mature subject just like a cheat days you don't have to show everything else at the same time getting close maybe show something like this but take a step beyond the obvious t that's already more interesting ideally for me you just created leading lines when you did that so there's definitely some pictures in there on dh see how easy it is just discipline that trigger finger this looks like a shoreline maybe in uh I don't the west coast of canada are on the east coast of canada can't quite make it out nice open scene that's a very strong compositional element with that three just hanging off the rock and I really like the rocks in here but the compositions a little bit too incidental the photographer didn't quite step close enough to the rocks didn't do enough with these rocks in combination with that so we could start cropping it but I think my comments pretty simple this search for something that ties it all together even then he cropped the sky out it still doesn't look uh strong enough considering what is there so this is a wild dog in wagons and public all right one of the places to still see them amazing creatures expert hunters and not that easy to find anymore so tell us about this was it just one dog one of a back no it was a pack one that conservation project in the park trash regularly lee and there were probably six or seven of them and they were out hunting but sort of more loping around they had they had just been denning so they had pups to feed back at the ranch so they were sort of out and this is a challenging environment because it's not like I can get closer lay on the ground they'd run off so it was sort of like what can you do what you're hanging out a truck window how much is what I was doing when I got that shot I did drop it already okay tweaked it a little bit but I love his ear sam her ears does it look like it's leaning a little bit to the right because you were sure yeah I was hanging out the window okay so I would straighten it a little bit uh it looks like the image is sharp enough that you can crop it and it actually emphasizes that nice blue background a little bit more I see your opportunities at six three you probably could have opened it up a little bit and blurred background out a little bit more and then the same thing that the foreground because it's begins to share more definition than than I would like to see ideally so on now color looks a little bit thin but that's probably an accurate reflection of the way itwas so we can be better is a black and white do you think you could do that is a black and mine but I kind of yeah yeah what do you think of this I would say go backto one game and find more dogs what an excuse right exactly yeah

Ratings and Reviews

Melissa
 

I was very excited to be chosen as one of the two students to be in the field shooting for this course. I have been shooting for a long time, but to be in the field with a world renowned nature photographer like Frans Lanting is a bit intimidating to say the least! However when we met that morning at 5:30AM to start shooting, Frans could not have been more charming. He put everyone at ease, and his enthusiasm to go capture fantastic images was infectious. He is an excellent instructor and has a way of sharing his knowledge that is very effective. It was truly inspiring to be involved (in a small way) in creating this course and also being a part of the live studio audience. Thank you again to Frans and the CreativeLive team. I have learned so much in a very short period of time and have been truly inspired by being around all of you. It was an invaluable experience that I will not soon forget!Keep up the great courses – clearly you are filling an important need for many people all over the world. CreativeLive rocks !

Kyrana
 

In response to the person who made the comment about the attendees not taking a lot of notes: I was an attendee. I believe every person had something to take notes with. I can't speak for anyone else, but for me, when I was told the attendees would be getting the class in our "My classes"; area and I could review it anytime I wanted, I chose to focus on the moment and not take a ton of notes. The Art of Seeing isn't a class chocked full of camera settings and gear guides; it is about figuring about what impact you want to make with your images and then creating those images followed up with examples and then refining your vision - telling a story. If the presentation had been more of a technical how-to, I might have taken more notes in class. I would encourage people not to be distracted by attendees not taking notes and I would hope after 2 days of instruction, if I enjoyed the presenter, that an informational list of his/her work or upcoming events would be posted so I could find out more. Frans Lanting is a fantastic storyteller. His willingness to show his vision and share his wisdom says much about who he is. He is one of the greatest photographers of our time. His desire to be eye to eye with the animals shows us the humanity in them, and in doing that, slowly helps to erase the line between Them and Us, making us all One. Just like Ansel Adams exposed us to and charged us with the knowledge of things we didn't know existed, therefore making us responsible for their safekeeping, Frans reveals animals to us that most of us will never have contact with outside of a zoo. He takes us into their living room, introduces us, enchants us, and then exposes how our actions impact them. But more than that, he doesn't just take us to far off and fantastic places, he looks in his very own community. Not all of us can be a National Geographic photographer, but this class shares with us how we all can make a difference in our own communities. And THAT, well, we are all capable of that.

Robert Felice
 

This was a very good course, I learned a lot from the lectures, and I also picked up some good tips. Frans spent a bit of time trying to convince us that being a National Geographic photographer is nowhere as glamorous as you imagined it to be. He also emphasized just how much time it takes to capture a great image. I found the Field Trip lessons were useful demonstrations of how to work a scene, The last three lessons were about Frans' LIFE project, which I found interesting, but somewhat incidental to the main subject of the course. The images were breathtaking, however, and perhaps they will inspire me.

Student Work

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