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Outdoor Photography: Using Available Light

Lesson 2 from: Outdoor Photography

Andy Katz

Outdoor Photography: Using Available Light

Lesson 2 from: Outdoor Photography

Andy Katz

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Lesson Info

2. Outdoor Photography: Using Available Light

Lesson Info

Outdoor Photography: Using Available Light

we're gonna be talking a lot about Well, my favorite subject, which is photography. And from you know, I used to do studio work, and, uh, what I found is great Studio work looks like natural light. So I decided hello, I'm getting is the natural light. So I travel all over the world and, ah, photograph in and I'm outdoors a lot. An outdoor light presents phenomenal opportunities. But there's times unlike if we're a painter, we could go out at noon and shoot and, you know, paint this beautiful, gorgeous yellow light as photographers. As you know, the only time you get that gorgeous light is really early in the morning and really late in the afternoon. So that's when we have to go out and shoot. I mean, there's just very little, um, ways around it. That's that's when the gorgeous light is so if you're going to learn anything from me, it is wake up early, which is, believe me, I love sleeping. I'm a huge advocate of sleeping, but you just have to do that in order to catch that light, and y...

ou wanna wake up and get to a place about 1/2 an hour 40 minutes before the sun comes up, because right before the sun comes up, you also get some gorgeous gorgeous light. And if you go out and if you photograph in beautiful light, I guarantee you your photography will improve 1000% in order to get a You know, In my opinion, all this is my opinion is that there's three aspects to get a great photograph. One is content. It's gotta be something interesting. You know, if I shot this wall with the most beautiful light in the world, the chances are it's not exciting, uh, to his composition. You've got to compose it correctly. And three, What brings it all together is light and light. Can kill a photo or enhance a photo. Um, and it's just makes such a huge, huge difference. Uh, and there's ways to get around. In other words, a few ah, great exercise that I always do is tow. Have students photograph a friend or an enemy if they want ah, and photograph at noon and then take that same situation and put the person in a shadow situation. Once you're in shadow or if the sky is overcast and, uh it produces a very, very soft light. And soft light to me is gorgeous. It's not quite as dramatic as the sun set light of the sun rise light, but it's still very, very nice. Beautiful light to photograph. So when you're traveling, when you're doing something, when you're photographing, always and the light is bad and you can tell you can train your eye to see what the lights going to be doing and that's that's a lot of practice. It's like photography's like like playing an instrument. You know, the longer you're, the more you play the piano, the better you get. The more you shoot, the better you're gonna get. So when you out there, uh, learn, try to see what that light is going to do to your end results. In other words, you look at it and then with digital, you know, in the film days there's a whole different thing with digital. You can take a picture and look and to see what is on the screen and see what the light is doing. How does that shadow look? Um, what do the highlights doing? Etcetera, etcetera. So, um, but when you you always have options. There's always shadows. There's always a tree that's got a shadow. There's always a market. There's always something that's covered up, and no matter what, you will find some very, very pretty light there. A lot of these photos that I'm showing you now were taken either late afternoon or early morning light, and but some of them are just in diffused light. The other thing I want to say is all questions air Great. So let's just have a really good time. And if you have a question, just ask it, because there's no such thing as a stupid question, I promise. And I'll try to answer that. But, uh, yeah, I've just found that that, uh, it's a very interesting thing when you have light on your side. When you have like working for you, as opposed to working against you just completely changes all of your photography. Um, this photograph here was taken, um, with just a tiny window in a Buddhist temple in India, and it's the light is just very simple. But it's it's it's just window light is gorgeous, gorgeous light. I mean, if you ever want toe take a beautiful picture of ah, friend, Put the person in front of a north facing window like guaranteed gorgeous, gorgeous light. Even if you're doing, you know, pictures of, ah, still life, you know, apples, fruits of the anything like that flowers Put it in front of a light like that and you'll find it to be just really, really fantastic light. Uh, the biggest nemesis to me is a clear bright day because you have a couple of minutes and importing to shoot, and then you've got this clear, bright contrast today and then you get sunset and usually there's not clouds, the sunsets, not that good. So I mean, I remember I was traveling in South Africa and, uh, I was with some people and they said, Oh, my gosh, that, you know, it's kind of funky out, and this is gonna be terrible for you. And I said, no, this is this is happening. This is this is absolutely great. This photograph that I took in Namibia, I'm doing a project. Ah, Book on Namibia now. And this photo was taken about 12 noon. Now, obviously, this was not taken in sun 12 noon, and I found this woman that had this magnificent pink dress and it was just fantastic outfit these gorgeous hands. And I asked her if she could move over into this shadowed area. And I think that the light from really horrible became really, really stunning light. Um, the other thing, well, which is something a little bit on a different subject but were all photographers is when you have a great subject. When you're shooting something, work with it. Don't take one picture and leave. You know, if you have somebody is willing to be photographed and work with that person as much as you can. And the way I approach it is I get the photo that I want. Okay, This was the first photo I did, and then I went and did the other one. But get the photo you want and then come up with some different ideas and eventually the person's gonna be sick of getting their photo take, and then they say, Okay, enough. But until that happens, work with it because there's in order to produce. I mean, what I love to do and photography. What I try to do in photography is have images that I want to put up in a gallery, sell in galleries, and that's where I want. I want something in the on the wall that I'm very proud of. And, um, if you have a subject that you think is worthy of really working on, take take your time with it. Get the image immediately that you need and then work with it. Change direction of where you are. A lot of times people are. When I teach workshops, people are walking in one direction. You have to turn around the light. Going this way is going to be very different from like, Oh, in that way or the light go in this way or the light going this way It's the same thing is most of the time we shoot with a camera right here. There's no law that says that you can't shoot down here or get something to stand on to. You know, different angles or really, really effective in photography. There's nothing that beats a great sunset. I mean, you know, a lot of ah, photography is luck. But like anything else, the harder you work, the luckier you get. And, uh, when I'm traveling, I always an absolutely there for early morning light in late afternoon light. If I sleep during the day, I'm out to pet it. But that those two times of light are just absolutely, absolutely critical. This was in South Africa and I went to this spot and, um, the other thing, that that is very important. Uh, with available light. Photography is patients because you know what the sun is gonna be doing. The sun's going to be coming up coming down. Otherwise we're all in deep trouble. But so you're in an area and you see something that you like. I can't emphasize this enough. Stay there. Don't. If you have something you think is gonna be a great photograph, stay there and work with it. Don't just take a picture because, as you can see with this image as the sun goes down, this is gonna be a completely different image. As a cloud goes in front of the sun, it's going to be completely different image. If I started with the sun up there and shot this image to me, it would be a strong is the image that I ended up with. So if you see something that you like work with it. Don't just click and go, um, again. Shadows are something that are fantastic were with shadows and I love backlit photography. And that's why when you're shooting, you always need to turn around because you go in the front, lit, you turn around and it's backwards, and something from this angle could look nice. And when you turn around and look magnificent or you turn around and you go, this is a magnificent. But when that sun hits that area, it's gonna be amazing. So that's what you really want to dio, um, one of the tricks that I use It's not necessarily a trick is, you know, a lot of times when the sun is right, you're in your camera, you get a bunch of flair, and, you know, sometimes that's good. Sometimes that's what you want. But you can always put something in front of it to protect from the flare, which also creates obviously, uh, these great great shadows. And this is something that sometimes you really, uh, you know, wide angle lenses really useful in situations like this, we want to get a much expanses possible again. This is something that if I was a little bit over to this side or a little bit over to that side. It would just be flair and you wouldn't get that that that light, this was Ah, Vineyard, And I've done a lot of books on wine. I also what? Love drinking wine? Uh, one of the great things about photograph in doing books on wine is one. There's always wine, which is huge TV, and two, There's always great food, and generally it's beautiful. So you got wind, you got food and you got beauty. So I'm a happy camper. Um, this wasn't India. And the other thing about traveling or just photographing around, make sure that you have an idea. When you're carrying your camera around, you don't want toe. This thing happened very, very quickly. I mean, all the sudden this guy started doing this, I'm going. What's going on? You don't want to take your camera out and start fumbling with it and try to figure out what the F stop is, what the shutter speed speed is. Do I have the right? I s O so at all times when your travel I want to travel when you're shooting your shooting available like make sure that you're looking at your camera and that you've got everything that you want. You kind of have the lens you think you're going to use. Maybe it's not gonna be one, but at least you, you know, you're making an educated guess. You have the f stop that you think you're going to use and you have the shutter speed that you think you're going to use. Um, and I'm a big advocate of, um and this could I could take questions on this, or I could go on on about this, but shooting manually. And the reason why I shoot manually is that if if the light sources on me and I have a shiny object, there will be one exposure. If you put a black backdrop there, then you'd be overexposed by two or three sets of me of me, me when you're gonna be photographed, the light falling on me is what's important. You don't care about the background. So figuring out your exposure and keep it on manual to me is really a great advantage, because once you put on shutter priority, aperture priority and cameras do a very good job with that. And if you're beginning photographer, sometimes it's better just to put it on an aperture or shutter priority. So you don't worry too much about the technical stuff, and all you're worried about is this subject. But if you are going to ah, you know, do this very seriously. And I know that most people that are watching this are I strongly suggest that you keep this on manual. And also everyone should be shooting rod or no if anybody shoots J pegs. But it makes no sense to shoot J pegs when it cameras, allowing you all this information, cutting it 90% of the information throwing away absolutely makes no sense. And the reason why you want to shoot raw is that especially for if there's anything where you have a tremendous contrast difference your photograph in, Let's say, a man or woman of blond hair and the hair gets a little overexposed or blown out with raw, you could bring that back with J. Peg. It is what it is. Um, this was, ah, photograph that I took in Greece, and, um, it was in a dark area. Was wouldn't it was on wood and had a crack in. And I thought, It's amazing how it went through, uh, the I. So I had a tripod, and we'll talk about tripods in a little bit, but, um, I had the trust of the shutter open for a long period time, and I took a candle and kept on going up and down the back of it to get that growth through that. So, you know, there's a lot of things that you know you can do. But again, this photograph without pretty light is really gonna be nothing that exciting. Kind of the same with this. It's this is in Namibia. And, you know, I got lucky. I got great light that night. Yes, please. Yes. To this later on. But, um, filters, you know, Are you Do you Are you using particular filters for some of these shots? Do you have the drop in our screw on? There's so many different kind. Able to variable, neutral density or specific neutral density or polarizer. Kind of what? Your your thoughts when it comes to filters, I would say about 95% of the time, I do not use any filters. I don't use a UV filter. I'll have a polarizing filter with me that I'll use sometimes that there's glass or there's water. I do have a neutral density filter with me that I use once in a while, but generally I don't but graduated neutral density. I'm thinking, if he's the sunset, the skies bright. But what's in front of you? Maybe darker you are because you're photos are gorgeous, and I've just been wondering, especially the sons that time. Yeah, I get it. I do it once a while, but to be on, it's actually probably a good idea. I'm not saying anything against that. And if you're going to use the graduated neutral density filters, it's much better to use a square one thing around, because the square when you can actually move it up and down and they work very effectively and I do use that's sometimes. But generally I've gotten really spoiled because some of these sensors, um, you know, obviously shooting the Sony the sensors air so damn good that can really take care of a lot of highlight detail. I'll show you an image towards the end, where have got amazing shadow and amazing highlight detail. It was all in there. And you just said that you don't use UV shelters. A reason for the you know, you've got a lens that is like a $1600 lens. And, um, I shouldn't say this, but camera stores really push UV filters because it doesn't cost them anything, and they could make a lot of money on it. It is what it is. You. So what's your opinion? Right, So it's it's my back, and what they say it is true is it does protect the ones. Well, I mean, I've been shooting for way too many years, and I've never really had a problem with scratch my lens or, you know, so I have tons of lens caps, but you're taking another element on. And like I say, the photographs that I'm doing that I'm producing are large images there 30 by 40 images. So if you're gonna produce large images, every little thing helps, so you want to keep It is pure as possible, so once you put a filter, you're taking a piece of glass. It's not as good as the glass you have and put it in front of it and the UV port, I think is almost relevant. This for us. That's good question. Um, again, Early morning and shadows. I mean, it's just kind of a re occurring theme, but I always have to look I mean, shadows really do make a photograph or break a photograph. And, um and you know that just that's warm, soft light is just so it's so beautiful. Thio Thio deal with, um the other thing that that sometimes that I look for is a way for your eye to move forward or to move sideways. And, uh, you know, obviously rows of things really help out with that. And, um, again, most of these photographs that I've just shown you it was soft, diffused light. Uh, this one in Namibia, it had been raining, and then it stopped raining. One of the really fun things that you can do. And you have to have a tripod for this and everyone really should have a tripod. Um, it's a very, very important piece of equipment, cause there's the image. Stabilization in this camera is absolutely extraordinary. I can hold a 400 millimeter lens at 1/30 of a second with film. There's no way I would even consider doing that. It's it's uncanny. How could And it sharpens, help what I do when I do that. I mean, I don't try to make a habit of it, but what I do, if I'm shooting something like that, I don't have a try. A partner is my bracket to see how steady I am. So I'll shoot six or seven photos and really, you know, hold yourself really, really tight and do that, and I do that if I'm shooting a slow showed us being. In any case, I mean pixels were free. There's no reason why not to. It's all shoot, you know, five or six images and guaranteed one of is going to sharper than the other, and then you then you can edit it from there. But what what a tripod does allow you to do that? Nothing conduce is, for example, this image was about a two minute exposure. You can't hold the two minute exposure, and when you and when you allow the lens to be open for a long time, magic happens. They're just incredible things that can happen with it. One is you can have to choose what f stop you want what your depth of field is. You know, if your hand holding something a long time, general, you're pretty wide open because you're worried about moving the camera when you have a tripod. If you if you need the depth of field and you want to shoot F 11 you can do it. Just keep the thing open for a long time. And what that does is creates amazing color and just incredible things happened. This was a situation where this is a cover of a book that I did called Burgundy and its wines. And I was riding a bicycle of my son at the time who is now winemaker, which is kind of funny. And so, uh, yeah, most Jews want their kids to be doctors and lawyers. I want mind winemaking. So I saw this and that the house it's lit up is the house that I was renting when I did my book on Burgundy and I told my son, Just run down, turn on every light in the house. So I turned on the light, every light in the house and you can see on the big print him looking out to make sure he did. A good job is about 13 years old at that time. But again, you can see what what light does when you when you have the lens open for a long time. It's really It's just unbelievable things that you can do with the tribe. But I always have a try. But even they're making really good. Um um, light tripods, thes days. I mean, I used to carry around these big monsters, and it was used to shoot medium format just about all the time. So I was shooting these, You know, these big Mama Mia's or is ease and carrying him. And now you know, it's things were lighten. The results are amazing. It's this the greatest time to be a photographer. It's just absolutely extraordinary how lucky we are that technology is so damn good. This was another very long exposures about a three minute exposure, and this was in New Zealand. I did a book on museum and that Sam Neill, the actor, did introduction for which was very nice, and this was a really long exposure, and I got nailed by mosquitoes when I had, I did this which is kind of funny because in the realm of if, I mean, if I was next to a war photographer and they said, Oh, poor guy got bitten by a mosquito. I was doing a head of show in New York and I was talking to this woman and, um, in Namibia, you're you're on roads. I showed you that one road that was that was the highway. Most of roads are on dirt and you can pop a tire and you can drive in Namibia for six or seven hours without seeing someone. And I was talking to this woman has got Yeah, you get one tire and it's popped, and then you pop another and you could be on the side of the road for six or seven hours. I said, What do you do? Because I just got back from Afghanistan shooting. And don't worry about that. Tired. I was just kidding about the tired, Um, again, this this had to be Well, I actually this could be done with with a hand held camera, but it was much better to do this with with a tripod because it was a long exposure that I wanted movement with the flags as well as I really wanted to have depth of field, which is very, very important. Um, this was Thistle is a really good example of a time where you really have to be prepared and be ready to go. Because this gentleman was this was in India. I spent about a year and half doing a book on India, and this gentleman was walking down this path and the sun was just about to hit the bottom of a hill. So I jumped out of the car and grab this and this This was actually taken into 30th 2nd I've got the metadata to prove it because I had to have a little bit of depth of field. So I shot about six or seven of of him and two minutes later, Same thing. This image is same thing. I woke up early in the morning. The sun came up. It was bright, bright red. It created this unbelievable or of light for about 10 or 15 seconds. And then that was it. And I really like this image. Came back two days afterwards to the same spot. And I never got anywhere near as good. A light is that, um that's that's another thing that I think is very important. If you do find an area or a spot, I mean that you that you really love go back a couple of times because you'll find that the light is gonna be different for sure. No matter what, it's gonna be different. Your angle might be different. And if you find something you like, really, really work with it and in photography if you want to become a better photographer, I mean, a lot of times how we all become successful is flukes. And if somebody says, uh, can I see your photos And you go, Yeah, I've got Let's see, I got one over here and then one over here. It just It just doesn't look that cool. If you have a portfolio, a really nice group of photos, you're looking incredibly professional, and then you present them. Okay, this is this and that and have, like, 10 photos. Start with 10 of your favorite photographs, and then when you find something when you produce something, you've got this gorgeous light. You've got this beautiful photograph. Take one of the 10 that you don't like us much and replace it until the until the point were you got to do 12 then you have 12 then you have to do 15. But it's such a great discipline, because if you go six months without replacing those 10 photos, you need to kick yourself in the button. Gotten to take photos, because that should change every month, every two months at least, to have different images in your portfolio. But it's critically, critically important. I can't tell you how many times just amazingly fluky things happen where a nice presentation got me a job where if I didn't have a nice presentation, I wouldn't get the job. And as you know, in photography, every job counts. Yes, please. You can ask me a while. Question The previous photo you showed you mentioned the beautiful warm, like the first thing in the morning. It disappears, of course, of the cool light of morning. Uh, Howard. And then, of course, late in the day, the warm again. How do you manage the color balance in your camera? Are you using choosing your own temperature? I'm sure the wrong So I do that all after the fact Yeah, I do that all in white room. Yeah. Are you on Ottawa Auto White balance in. See the thing that the thing that's a little bit dangerous about white balance is what White Balance is trying to do A lot of times is balance it for a certain situation. Well, if you're waking up at four in the morning waiting there and you get this really gorgeous yellow light, you don't want to balance that light to take the yellow that you want to use that. So it's It's a little slippery slope. There's no real rule on white balancing. I mean, what I try to do is I try to balance light the way I remember seeing the light. Now, this is totally different from any other kind of photography. If I'm shooting for ah product, if I'm shooting ah, wedding. If I'm shooting skin tone, then it's critical that well, I mean skin tone. You can alter that. Ah, a little bit. I mean, sometimes that yellow light is quite pretty, but if you're shooting a product, they want the white of their box to look white. They don't want it to, so but But this is somewhat subjective and ah, yes. So to neutralize everything is probably not what you want to do that make sense, E. I wonder what your starting point was. If you like in this scene, would you choose your temperature for your white balance or read When I was photographing there, I just shoot right that I don't even do anything with it. I just shoot raw. There's no, You know, basically what raw does is take all the information, puts it in a pocket, and then you can open the pocket, and then all this information flies out and then you adjust from there. Yeah. Now, with J pegs, you can adjust that. Now I see that you have cameras out there on the desk and plan to talk about what kind of camera you shoot with their way tonal range with love. Basically, I'm shooting with Sony. I mean, the there they're making fantastic cameras. And there the image stabilization in this camera, second to none. And I love that because I can, you know, a lot of times of you going to church or temple or something that tripods were not allowed, and this allows me to shoot both high I esos with image stabilization. So it's fantastic. Which which model of the This is the Alfa 99? And then there is the any X seven, which is kind of a small, uh, light point shoot. But it's 24 megapixel. It's a fantastic everyday camera, and the new this This camera here is absolutely spectacular. It's just came out. This is called the Rx one. It's got the same sensors. This it weighs absolutely nothing. It's got a fix 35 millimeters Iceland. So if you engineer, um, one lens to a sensor, you can tweak it down to the finest finest, uh, you know, minute detail where this one, you know, you've got to take this off and then you gotta replace this eso Each lens is not the same so that they've got to do more of a general type of thing. So this this is the most amazing can. I can't even tell you how much I love this camera. And when I'm traveling, the lens that I use the most, which I probably could just survive on this lens is a 24 to 70 f 28 I mean, I I don't use assistance. I mean, I don't even know what an assistant would do. They just go doing a card or the sun's coming down. I'm a really get my tripod and a couple of cameras, and that's it. Um, so this is This is my main my main lenses to 24 to 70 F two eights Iceland's, which I feel is the best lens ever made. It's It's beyond extraordinary the woman's hands that I showed you. Um, I printed that 40 by 50 for photo plus two years ago, and it's every piece of cloth quite a quite amazing. This is the 72 200 which is a relatively light lends considering to 72 200 there's a 16 to 35 eso it's you know, this all could go into one bag. It's not. It's not like the old days where you know my R C 67 a lens that was about that length was about that much and weighed that much. And that's why I'm like this again. This is long exposures. E. I just think that the long exposures just adds so much to the option of photography and we're talking about filters. You asking about filters before neutral density filters? Well, that's when they're very effective. If you want to do a really long exposure and there's, too, it's too bright out. And even if you dial the I s oh, back to the minimum and you put the f stop it F 22 they're still shooted in 1/15 of a second. You want to shoot for two seconds? That's when in neutral density filter really works quite well. But this was in the evening and this was a long, long exposure. Um, this was a crazy long exposure. I mean, this was this was such a long exposure that, um uh you could barely see the water with your eyes. I mean, you can barely decipher the water on the rocks. This is about a 30 minute, maybe 12 minutes in New Zealand handheld. Long exposure is about as long as I could hold. It was probably about an eighth of a second. This was taken in Israel around the Wailing Wall. I did a project on vanishing Jewish decide Is this was quite a long time ago was, um uh show that went around the world and I went to a lot of areas, were there were a lot of Jews and because the Holocaust. So I was in Eastern Europe and Russia and then went to Israel. So this is part of that project and but just, you know, available light, slow shutter speed. There's so many things that you can do out there to just kind of swap things out just a little bit. You know, once once there's movement, it's completely changes the image. Uh, once it's a long exposure, completely changes the image, so there's a lot to think about when you're doing that. But the main thing is finding an area of interest, something that you really, really like and really focusing on that really work that area lot. I can't emphasize that enough that when you find something you like, really work it and single light sources fantastic. Yeah, certainly. I was just curious, like specifically, What did you do? I'm just trying to figure out what you did in this specific image with a there. And then they moved. Is that what happened? Well, they were dancing other than their dancing. I was on a tripod. Yeah. So is this a long exposure? And, you know, with long exposures, a lot of it. It's magic. That happens. I probably took 20 exposures of them dancing, and some of them you couldn't tell what the hell they're doing. And, you know, some worked, uh, single light source, you know, just a great, uh Ah, great way of lighting. Something is just, you know, one single lights where it's a lot of times. This was in Varanasi and was very, very early in the morning. And, uh, there was obviously there's no other light. And you had to, you know, push the I s o up quite a bit depth of field. Uh, this, you know, is also, you know, part of part of the whole process of light and shooting. And, you know, sometimes you want very, um, you know, you want to shoot it. F 14 F two on shallow depth of field. Sometimes you want absolutely everything sharp. And that's something that you need to determine or figure out. Or if you're not sure, try it. Try both. Try to try to see what you could do. Experimenting is really, really important in this field. And, um, sometimes with experimental, you'll find something that really clicks with you. It's like, Wow, I really like doing this. I really like shooting at night, you know, seven minute exposures at night. And I found this areas that I love to do it. And it would be completely great to start ah, portfolio on that. And, you know, going back to getting those prints together. Um, if you have another idea, you can have your 10 favorite prints, then start doing sub chapters of that. I'm gonna do my temin exposure portfolio, and I'm gonna give myself four months to do that and giving yourself I have to have an assignment. I always have to be doing something. You know, I just finished now, I don't know. I finished my book on Namibia in India, and I've got nothing in going on. So if anybody has any ideas, but I have to have a project, I've got to do something. It's like, you know, having a baby. You got it. You gotta have a new baby. Three other thing. That's just great in in this field Now with this incredible technology is the conversion from colored a black, a white and a lot of times light makes a little bit of a difference. Whether it is color or black white, you know it's going to really change what you're looking at, and there's some fantastic, fantastic programs of converting very simply color images to black away. And a lot of times the way I approach it is is this helping the image of the color or hindering the image? And a lot of times it's very obvious to me. It's like this color is doing nothing Black White would be a much stronger, more powerful image, and I started the black white photographer, Um, and now I'm shooting more color. But in this day and age, it's just so fantastic where you can go from one to another or you go back. You know, which one do I like better and some of our very obvious, And some of them are very subtle, but it's definitely worthwhile to figure out, um, which you're feeling better about Andi. It's and it's a it's a really fun process. I mean, this is one of the great things when you have an image you really love and all the sudden. It's like, What am I gonna do? This image and I'm not a big fan in spending a lot of time with images. I mean, I, to be quite honest, I haven't open up photo shop and probably a year and 1/2 or two years I used light room. I don't tweet my images very much, but you know, for something like this, I certainly like that better than that that that that I think, is a stronger image. But some of them, it's just very subtle. You just don't know, but it is a lot of fun doing that. Um, window light is fantastic. I adore window light, and the thing about it is, when you're in an area like this, it's really difficult to overexpose. You just let that the lens open. You're not worried about that window being blasted or you know too much light because you don't care about that. It's it's it's a relevant and you'll never get that unless you do HD or and sometimes that looks a little funky, and so just open it up and see what the light does, and you know you can bracket by doing one minute five minutes, 10 minutes and it just completely changes. And you have all these amazing options. It's a lot of fun again. Really, really simple. Simple light. And I always find that to be the most beautiful light is the simple light. This was I was invited. It deals in India. It was invited into somebody's house. And once you're invited into somebody's house, it's just you and they know you that you're shooting. It's a, uh um it's kind of an invitation to photograph, you know, that that you've got a friendly environment. So I was photographing them, and there was just one light source and was just so, um so pretty This this, uh um Anyway, each each part of of the these portrait's there just light, just kind of changes in it. And I really just loved it. And we do have actually a question, certainly. Here on I'm trying to figure out who it was from. I apologize. I can't find your name who was asking about how you approach people because you had some amazing shots of people in here. And when you're out traveling, how do you approach people toe? Ask a great question How do you get invited into their house? Well, yeah, I know the way I approach photographing people is, um, I've done this for a long time, and I have a pretty good idea if someone's gonna be okay with and I don't go and say, Can I take your picture? I basically bring my camera up and I'm not a paparazzi. I mean, when I'm taking someone's photograph, I'm not shooting with 400. I'm shooting close to them, so they know I'm taking the picture, so I'll go up and I'll start shooting if they don't want their picture taken. What I'll do is simply put my camera down to their No, I'm not trying to sneak something. I'll just put my hand up, smile and walk away and give him there because I don't believe in photograph and somebody that doesn't want to be photographed so I'll give him that space. But that's happened so infrequently. People are honored to have their photo taken. They really are. I think what people don't like having their photo taken with a 400 millimeter lens when they're not looking. And generally you're not gonna get us powerful of image There's no interaction when you're shooting with the 400 millimeter lens, where if you're shooting with a close lands, you're photographing the person. And then I mean, I think I've traveled like 90 different countries all over the world most, and I could barely speak English. Other languages. I just can't do it all. So when I'm foot when Im, I'll still talk to people, I will carry out a conversation even though they have no idea what I'm talking about. So I'm trying to get some sort of a reaction from them, and then I'll shoot him. And if it's a subject that I really love on day seem to be up for, you know, ask him, Can you move over here or can you move over there? And the worst thing they could do is say no. Yeah, and a lot of developing nations where people actually want money. You take their photo especially sometimes you know, little kids or, you know, some of the real poor areas that seem to have run in that quite a bit. I was wondering if you had went into that. Any thoughts on kind of how you would handle that situation. Yeah, it's difficult, especially with kids, because once once you do the money thing, then your photograph is room because then all the kids come up and it's it's very difficult. So I What I try to do is to carry around a lot of protein bars and stuff like that. I rarely give. I hardly ever give money, but I also try to go to areas that are is remote as possible and trying to get off the beaten pat path a little bit. And then they're not as aware of that because one, as you know, once you do that, it's a slippery slope and it's it's, you know, then you get all these people and then, yeah, it is difficult. The other thing that that I take you to a lot of times you'll take a picture and then you'll show them in the back. Once you do that, the session's over because every time you take a picture, they're gonna want to see it, and so is the family, and so is everyone around. So don't show them photographs until you're absolutely finished, and then do and then have a ball zoom in and they'll think it's funny and this and that, but it is a very difficult situation when money is involved and it's not. It's not the money part, but it's a lot of times it changes the whole vibe of the photo sessions. So what I've tried to do is try to get Teoh. Areas are really far away as remote, which you know might not. You're not gonna find that here in the States, and you will find that Third World Countries for sure window light again. It's just it's just beautiful, beautiful light. And you know, there's are there so many, there's so many images out there, they're out there. We just have to find him. I mean, it's just unbelievable what's out there. But when you have an area that's that's cool E you can bring you know things into your little set your old design set and do that, like for this window. Uh, you know, I put that there. Generally, I don't mess with things too much, cause things natural looks so great. Um, window light with portrait's phenomenal absolutely, just great. Um and, uh, you one of the things when you have this gorgeous light and this guy obviously invited me into his place again. Work it. But I have photographs of him turning this way and then haven't turned this way, and it's just completely changes its a different photograph of the different feel to different and then moving around. And this is a pretty good indication of how good thes sensors are because you're getting the bright highlights of the of the door you're captured ever. There's nothing blown out there, and you're captured all the detail in the room itself. The one thing Teoh getting on a little bit of a technical situation here. A lot of times, cameras have the blink, ease, and a lot of times, as soon as the blinky happens, people freak out. Well, the blink ease are blinking for a compress. J peg. If you're shooting raw, you could expose a lot mawr thin those blink, ease and an ideal situation if you can look at a history Graham and the history and will tell you when something is completely blown out. But what you want is Aziz. Much exposure is possible without blowing out the highlights, because what happens if you're shooting, you know as soon as to see a blinky and then you shoot it and then you've got these really, really dark shadows. That's where you get noise. And you know, you're trying to avoid noise as much as possible. There's ways to get rid of it. They're effective. But then they defused the image, you know, So, uh, that's pretty critically important is trying to get as much meat on your exposure is possible. And, um, yeah, it might not look as good in the screen, but when you make a final print, it's gonna be quite a bit better. Yes, and we do have a couple questions. Sarah, 19 NZ. I really want to know what kind of editing he does. I'm guessing he does very little. As you talked about earlier you mentioned you don't do a lot. So what are kind of the things that you are standing in the camera in, like like in post in post? Well, yeah, I use light room. It's, you know, I'm comfortable with it. I love it, and it's something that probably not that good. It's really interesting. It's really good for other people to see your work because you get kind of Lee kind of emotionally involved in a photograph. It's like that photograph. I had to wake up at four. And I had to do this hike in this. And if somebody goes, I don't care. It's not that good. It's like, All right, OK, good. Yeah, That's good to hear. You know, a lot of times you get emotionally involved in a photograph that were not necessarily should, um So I edit, um, a lot of people at it with stars. 54321 I'm either a five star. Either I wanted or I don't want it. There's nothing in between. So I'll do five stars with ones that I like and then do just a minor minor. You know, maybe push the shadows up a little bit if I needle more shadow detail or bring the highlights down, But I spend um I don't two minutes on an image. Yeah. Yeah, not much time. Um, yeah. Again. One white source. Let it, you know, long exposure. Let it fill the room. Um, this, um, image here was taken. It was one of the reasons why I love I think I told you a couple of reasons why I love photographing wine books. But, uh, the other thing is Aiken photograph pretty much anything. None of the books that I've done on wine Is there people drinking wine? Is there a wine glasses or wine bottle, etcetera. But this is the house of a famous winemaker, and I thought, Well, it's a cool house, and I'm gonna use in the book, and I did. And again, this was a very long exposure. Um, at night it was, you know, you could see the leaves, but you couldn't see him really well, and it just brings out this great color and automatically balances for the inside. It was a little bit lucky. Um, this is in northern India, and, um, I was shooting. I was with my son, my son, the winemaker, And, uh, I was photographing in the sun. You could see where the sun is going down, and I was just not getting enough pop in those flags. So he had a little Sony point and shoot, and I had my camera on the tripod. And I said, When I tell you, pop the flash I had about a five second exposure and he popped it, and we did that about 20 times and got the image that I wanted because it's got nice, soft, diffuse light. But then it's got that the brightness and the kick to it. Another long, long exposure. It's not that great a photo. But if it's just unbelievable, I mean, you look at that. It's just like Oh, my gosh, um, again, these, you know, uh, there's so many options, especially water has got more options in anything. You can freeze the water. You can make the water, Uh, you know, become ribbon e. You can go halfway in between. It is really a fantastic, fantastic process. Um, one of the great things to look for light is pin. You know, sometimes there's just a little area of light coming out, and that's always where you gonna find some really, really gorgeous light and a lot of times, you see gorgeous light. Then you gotta find a subject. And I do that all the time. And sometimes I'm successful. Sometimes I'm not its most frustrating when you've got this amazing light and you can't find something to put in the light. So I'm like running around trying to find something to put in the light. But, you know, sometimes you were there and then the light kicks in and it's just so like I said, the beginning. All these pieces have to come together. I mean, you could have fantastic light, the boring photographs, and that could be anything you can have fantastic light and kind of Ah, ah, great, interesting photograph and just crop it all weird. And that's gonna mess up. You got. You got to get it all together. This was a really long exposure. These air prayer flags in northern India and again, Um, just a very, very long time That cheddar is open was probably at least minutes, and then once it's open for 20 minutes, it takes about 20 minutes to process. So it's a It's a long process to do it, but you get you get great results. And the other thing is, when you shooting at this long exposure, it's impossible to overexpose. You know there's no light there, so it's not like you're worried about something being overexposed. I love fog. I love funky weather. Any time that there's clouds in the sky that there's fog, you should definitely go out. If It's snowing. Go out and shoot. If it's foggy, go out and shoot these air priceless things and whether it's photographing people in five, which are incredible portrait you can do in five or vines and for anything, Treason, five. Anything that's got dense fog. You're gonna come up with a great photograph. So these times were You just should have your camera ready and you look outside you go. I'm going and that's it. And then you know that job things just gonna have to wait. Any thoughts and suggestions on metering in the snow in fog in these situations where the light is just a little extreme. Sure, I have to confess that I'm much lazier now than I used to be. I mean, I used to be a big zone system guy, and I have a one degree spot meter and this and that. Now, you know, obviously, when you're shooting and snow, you've got overexposed. You don't want grace. No. So, basically, I look, I look, take a picture to be okay. To be totally honest. What I do is, I guess, on the exposure probably not, but I've done this for a long time, and I'm usually pretty good at guessing, so I guess an exposure. Look at the history. Graham. Make sure that that I don't have blown out highlights, but it's close to blown out. Highlights that I want that white to be white and then I shoot. It's a simple is that, Yeah, it's it really is. It's a lot of times in photography, people try to make it so darn difficult. It's the technical part of photography is really not difficult. The difficult part is finding great light and find a great subject. The technical part, especially in this day and age, were it's instant gratification. I mean, you look at the back of your you know, if you're under exposed by two stops, you can see your under exposed by two stops. It's not. It's detective, I mean, in the old days, with his own system and this and that were, you know, when I was shooting black white, I would process per sheet of film that I was shooting so that she could fill my process for six minutes. This for four minutes. This is not It's not what's happening this day and age. It's just so easy and uh, clouds. Incredible. And this is what I was telling you. This was in Italy. This was in the book that I did called. Tuscany is wines, but I went back. I love this place. I went back and a totally different feel to it. But still, I love this area. Every time I'm back there all will go there to shoot. Because I really like this spot. And, you know, sometimes you get lucky, and, uh and I hate I hate to keep jumping jump a good question from Melody. And I noticed you seem to break some classic composition rules like you place your subject in the centre a lot as I notice in these two images and divide your photos in half a lot. Any insights or comments about that? Is that part of your conscious process? Yeah, I hate rules. I really dio. Even since I was a little kid, I headed ruled Andi. I think you know the idea of when I'm taking a photograph. I figured out what I want in the frame and where I want that frame to be. And if I was going to do with the rules of Third the rules of this. It just doesn't work for me. And I just think it's much better to look at your frame. Figure out what you want in the frame. Figure out what you want out of the frame and figure that out. I mean, the idea of of, uh, you you become robot like it's like, OK, here's the image. So I'm gonna put this over here away to say that doesn't work for that rule, and I'm done with rules E. I love it. Thank you. Um, early morning light. Fantastic. I mean, you know, you just have to wake up and hope the clouds do do the things that they're that they're supposed to do. And probably my favorite light is this stuff. We're you've got this black sky, it's ready to dump on you, but you still have some sun going. So it's just it's so magical because you've got this gorgeous lightning, this black ominous clouds And, uh, yeah, And I hate to do this, but I'm gonna do it for you. We got a rainbow, No kittens, Just a rainbow double rainbow. Well, yeah. But nevertheless I had to show rainbows Air Beautiful. I do of this. Um, this is, ah, situation where I was telling you that when you do have a subject, sometimes it's really nice. Teoh, take them and put them in different environments. And I found this gentleman in India, and I thought he was magnificent. He was, you know, he had this credible orange garb on. And so I immediately, you know, I photographed this photograph, and then I asked him, We move, Can I photograph? He didn't understand what the hell is talking about, But I explained to him through gestures, and he was fine with it. And I have, like, six different options for him. Uh, because I just didn't want to have one. I mean, you know, it was just hey, was he was a fantastic subject. Um, same here. This is, um, you know, I think a pretty interesting looking gentleman and I just moved around a little bit, just just to see, because amongst other things, you see what the light does. It's a very different lighting when you change a different angle. And that and that. That's what's critical. Same with this. You know, this woman was all day was taking stones from one section to another. And, um, you know, I photographed it that way, and then I photographed her that way. And, um, it just it's just a different feel. But when you're home and you have these images and you have options, you're so much better off than you have this one option or where you go. Damn, I wish I did this. You never want to go Dama. We should do this, although I do it all the time. But you shouldn't. You should try to just take something and really work with it. Change angles, change sides, change directions. Um, this is in Namibia, and this is a tribe that the woman never bathe. No water ever touches their body the whole life there. Yeah, and, uh and I spent a lot of time there. I met a guy who was, uh, Himba tribe and and he took me into the villages and I spent a lot of time with them. Was really very, very interesting. Uh, time. But, you know, I've decided to get close a lot of times a lot of people have a tendency to worry about getting close is a big mistake. Get close, Close is going to change a lot of things. I have a tendency to get too close. I have to start backing up once in a while because it's like there's other things in the image in this scene that's really nice. Don't. And when I photographed people, I just kind of zoom in on their eyes and I start getting close, and so I've gotta watch it in the opposite way. But I'd say most people have a tendency not to get close enough, and you could always get close and then back up. Even with grapes, I get close and it's just, you know, uh, just one light hits this when light hits this and just waiting for a little bit. Or, you know, if if you know if you take the Hampton just moving a little bit, it might change a little bit. You know, little little subtleties politely change what light does for you. And, you know, if you're photographing a person, if a person's looking this way, the light might be something. And this way might be really different when the difference between this and this could be pretty drastic. And between this and this, I guarantee is to be a big difference. This next photograph was taken in midday, but I found a kind of a market that had a tarp over it. So it went from really, really horrible light to really, really pretty light and, you know, eyes, you know, photographing, um, people. It's, you know, eyes and hands. And it's just such a love photographing people. I used to do record album covers for rock and roll bands, but this is much more fun again, getting getting pretty close in people's eyes. Um, I'm assuming your making sure, like the baby and the one before that face was toward the light. Or do other tricks toe. Make sure that you're making sure you get those catch lights, especially if it's like an overcast day. Or you're in a challenging situation where maybe it's, you know, not perfect. Any you could like. Speak well. I mean, in an area that has were the light source is behind you, and it's a diffused light. We're talking about diffused light. I'll always have the person looking in that because otherwise if you're looking away, it's gonna be backlit, and maybe that's what you want. But generally to fuse like, Yeah, it just wonders for for eyes and things like that. So, yeah, and Sarah 1980 along the same lines is that Do you ever use a reflector to kind of bounce in and fill up life and give Phil? Yeah, I don't I don't. Everything is is, uh, um I even think that reflectors. I think what we're used to is the sun and the sun has a has a direction of where it's going to go, and we're used to what people look like with that. And sometimes we're used to what happens when the reflector quote unquote is the ground that comes up. But when you are seeing a photograph and you see bounce back from reflector in your mind, it's not natural. I mean, it could look great and effective in striking, but it's not. I try to make things look really, really natural, and to me, it doesn't look match. That's why I never use Strobe, because I I just don't like, um, you know, strobe on camera. I've never people do beautiful work with stroke on Cameron again. I'm talking about my opinion, but I just think that, uh that light just doesn't appeal to me. I want things to look like you're walking around seeing it. I'm not. Trust me, this I'm not saying what I do is write. I'm just telling you, this is my feeling. And what I would I like grapes of graves. These produce wine. Wine is good. Okay, so this is this is a pretty interesting lesson here. I was in Iceland. This is about four months ago, and I woke up really early morning and I was shooting and I got back to my hotel room and I had a really nice bottle of wine, and, uh, it was raining. It was miserable out, and it was about the sun was gonna set in about 1/2 an hour. That's just gonna pop this thing and I'll go out and I went out and the wind was crazy. And, um, my favorite photograph that I took in Iceland was this and this was during horrible weather. Um, and I would have missed it if I stayed at home and drank wine. And the wine could wait for me. I think the weather was so bad that I open the door and the door almost. You know where the medals it was? It was pretty miserable weather. And, uh so anyway, discipline yourself to shoot, I guess, is the is the moral of the story. You just in order to get what you're after, you have to have to shoot. You'll never get great photos If you wake up at nine. And you have dinner at six. It's just not gonna happen unless you do studio work. I'm talking about available like the doctor. Um, this we're gonna bust through Ah, a little bit faster if anybody has any questions. But this is a project that it did in India. Everything is natural light. Just waiting for the light to be right, finding a subject that I liked and then waiting for the light to be right. Uh, this snake didn't scare me at all, but the woman scared the living hell out of that. Was that that woman I paid? I would have given her my kid if she asked for whatever. Whatever you want. She she was hard core. Um, just, uh, going to these remote villages way and making sure that you go there when the light is right and magic happens. Yeah, I'll say this. This is one photograph that I took with a strobe. It was a dancer, and it was all it was in India. And they just had those fluorescent horrible lights and I just couldn't shoot the guy. And I always have a strove with me. I never use it. I've had in my back, I mean in my bag for three years and is the only time I used it. But there was a white door and I took the strobe and I bounced it against the white door and shot a slow shutter speed. So there's a little bit of ambient light and a little bit of that to me. It looks it looks okay. Just soft, soft, pretty light. I just have to show that I mean, this is not like, but it's just so amazing. I just love India so much. Check this out. I believe this. This bus will go from point A to point B, and it will get there. I might break down like six or seven times, but it'll get It's just unbelievable. Such an amazing country. And this is India to university il ity the places is amazing and landscapes. I really think that landscapes are probably the most difficult thing to photograph because, you know, everyone shoots landscapes and you really have to have something different about the image. So it doesn't look like a regular landscape, and a lot of it is just sitting and waiting. You just have to sit and wait for the light to do its thing. When clouds were moving around, that's a huge, huge advantage. And, um, but, uh, yeah, that's just what it is. No, I know we're moving through these fairly quickly, a quick question from Melody because we're seeing a large variety of types of subjects here. When you set up for a photo, do you set your values by first deciding what your objective is like? Depth of field should be shallow. Or do you just start with the lowest ISA and go from there? How was your thought process when you're initially setting up your exposure? It's a good question. It's a very good question. I do first determine how much depth of field all need and then go with E. I s So I'm not going to sacrifice step the field with low I, especially because you know these cameras now you can shoot it, you get a really could result. It's 6000. I s so I mean, it's unbelievable. What's what's happening in technology. So yeah, so I'm not going to sacrifice my image for maybe, you know, a little bit more noise. Yeah. So, um, this next image is the one that I was going to show you that I love kids. And I did a project in of Children from around the world that live on when the actress was gonna do the introduction for and it never became a book was going to be for UNICEF, and it was like I was a young kid has gone, Yeah, I'm gonna get a book done. Didn't happen. But this gives you an idea of the amazing, amazing versatility of these of these sensors. I mean, you can see the outside. You can see detail what's going on outside. And that guy's got black behind him, and you can see what he was doing. It's just spectacular, absolutely spectacular. Now, if I under exposed this, this is where exposures really critical. If I under exposed this, it would be very difficult to get him out of that black shadow. And when you're shooting something like this, you have to look at what is the most important part of the image. Do you really care that much if the kid behind the wheel is really blown out? Probably not, Which is more important to be able to see this guy. So that's a thought process that you have to do while exposing something. It's like if you're walking down the street and the light is terrible, but you've got this great shadow area and there's something really interesting in the shadow area, and then you exposed to the shadow in the area outside becomes this white light. Sometimes that's absolutely fine. You don't have to have detail in all parts of the photo visiting a circus in India. Um, these air little segments that you can do, uh, within big segments. This is a salt mine area, and I visited them early morning late afternoon for about three days in a row, and all they would do is is mine salt back and forth and they get $1 per ton of salt. Pretend is a very sad area. It's back and forth, back and forth, and color is is really, really interesting. What? How color changes with light. If this was photographed with with A with A at new with harsh light e obviously to be color. But there wouldn't be the pastel look that the background wouldn't look the same. The evenness of everything wouldn't look the same and just completely, completely changes everything. This is a so I just have to explain this very, very quickly. I was in India and I had a driver. I will never drive in India. They worst of crazy drivers. So I had this driver and he goes festival and I said, Great E said how long it goes His English wasn't great, much better than my Hindi, Um and he said five hours like 78 hours later, we arrived and it was just these naked guys with sticks. I still to this day have no idea what the hassles about except naked guys with sticks hitting each other. So this was something that I found that I like the I saw these pigeons coming in and out, and I really like the spot, and it was terrible life. So I figured out that the lights should hit it perfectly around five oclock. So, you know, from 5 to 7, or I was gonna be there, So I just set it up with a tripod. And I just photographed there knowing that I was gonna get this rich light beforehand. So actually, that's perfect. Uh, how we asked, Do you scout your locations ahead of time? Yes, Absolutely. Because when you're you're you're shooting. And, uh, during the day, I rarely shoot. So you have all this time. So then I'll go and try to find really, really beautiful spots. And I'll say this spot will probably be better in the morning. This will probably be better in the evening. I'll get here this time. And that's how I kind of come up with We're gonna go. And how do you How do you figure out which areas we're gonna be better in the evening? Which ones will be better in the morning? Just looking at which direction the light exacting from exactly. Yeah. Do I want it back with? Do I want a front lit? Doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah, Exactly. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. This These photos This was part of the Children's project that I did. This photo was taken in a taxi, these air to beggars from Sri Lanka that came up to the taxi. And, uh, this is the only studio shop that I that you've seen here. This was actually done with a strobe was in Japan, and this gentleman that I met had a little wedding business, and he had a strobe in a black backdrop, and this was his daughter, and they have these amazing grapes. So I just took a one umbrella, and that was that was that was a long time here, just all just and I didn't He exposed himself to this is in, uh, uh, Nigeria. This was the only place that I've ever been. That was really scary. And, uh, that was not I mean, it's kind of a lesson to be learned. I'll be talking about that tomorrow on the travel thing, but it's good to know where you're going on a little bit of history about that. So this this was taken, um, on a rooftop probably couldn't be taken today in Israel looking down at the Wailing Wall and again I had to be pretty prepared on this because, you know, there is three Jews going one way in, this Arab gentleman going the other way. And they were going like this, and then all of a sudden I'm going. This is gonna happen. This is gonna happen. It's cropped off a little bit. It shouldn't be cropped up like that. But when they see it at home and look right. Okay. So anyway, that's, uh that's an amazing shot. Thank you. The other thing that I do is a trained dolphins. So in my spare time, I'm getting really good at it. And this is in New Zealand, and I said, jump in the dolphin jumped in there. Was it? Uh, I was actually photographing. I mean, it was really pretty amazing. This photograph in this area Milford Sound. The dolphin just jumped out. And this was when I first started in my first book that I did digitally, and it was so great to be able to look at the back of the camera and say, Geez, sharp and everything. Uh, I'm just going to show you some, uh, Namibian photographs. Um, this is an old diamond mine. Uh, this was from the air. I rented a ah plain and I had the the door taken off and it was very expensive. I had to, you know, And, uh, I just thought, Well, you know, I think this is really think I could come up with something pretty amazing and I had the time exactly, right, So I was just over in. It's just desert and I have just had a great time and then just photographing people. I love photographing people and I it's so much more interesting letting them interact for what they're doing, because it's just fantastic. And I have to tell you a brief story that really doesn't have anything to do with this subject. But this thing has charged me, and this is the closest this is most near death experience I ever had. This is a Ryan, a black desert rhino that charged me and I'm such an idiot. And it it was like the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me, and I'm going unbelievable. I've got a rhino charging and on the photograph it, and at no time was I worried. For some reason, it's it's a long story. I'll tell you over a glass of one. Um, this was, ah, kind of, ah, spot in Morocco and I'm a big Jimi Hendrix fan. And Jimi Hendrix wrote a song called Castles Made of Sand. And this was the castle that that he wrote about. And there's there certain areas that again we'll talk about it a lot more tomorrow in the travel spot. But there's certain areas they're just almost guaranteed. You get great photos, you know, and, uh, it's just it's just a lot of fun. Um, this is called Devil Proof. And in Cuba, if you smoke cigars and drink rum, the devil can't get you. And, uh, she had plenty of room and she had a cigar, and I love her. And, uh, E spent a bit of time with her. And I went back about seven months ago to Cuba to find, and she just died about a year ago, which was two bags I really wanted. I wanted Teoh this year, so I love to answer some questions. If anybody has any any questions, you may discuss this in your seminar tomorrow, but for someone like this, you maybe try tried to find, but do you provide photos back to some of these people do. They asked me. Well, I see a photo of that. And how do you Yeah, that's really, really difficult, because, um, that's a great question, but it's almost impossible. I mean, it really is. I mean, if I was in India and I sent back photos of everyone I took, I mean, I'd have to have the secretary. They come with May toe. Yeah, it would be really difficult now. She was a different story. I did bring photos for her, and it's just a shame that I could get back to Cuba before that, but yeah, uh, quick question. We got a couple of quick technical ones surely should be really easy. We've talked about post a lot, but black and White conversion What we used to convert to Black Silver Effects Pro, which is the Nick Nick's Software than phenomenal. Phenomenal. Yeah, really, really good. And then let's see, Necklace be earlier. You mentioned monitor calibration. What system and method do you use? I use X right. And there is This is something. That's a great question. I'm so glad you brought that up because this is really, really critical because, um, in order to speak in the same language, everyone's gotta have a language to speak in. So when others of you had a monitor that was off this way and I added a monitor off this way and these port, you know, if you send something to a lab, these poor labs if you if your monitor's not calibrated According to you, that skin tone is perfect. But once it's on a calibrated monitor, it could be so yellow. It's insane. So you for I think that these you know, the code monkey years, you know, they're like, maybe $300 on get some one of the X right ones are a little bit less than that, but it may be 200 $100. It's very simple to do, and you just kind of stick this onto a monitor and it goes through the different colors and adjust your monitor. And you just have to do that. I mean, because otherwise e you have to do that if you're gonna send it to somebody else. If you're gonna send it to a lab, if you're gonna exchange images with somebody else because there's got to be a starting point. There's gotta be something that you're going to do. I mean, that that you can talk about. Not a lot of point spending a lot of time getting the light, right. If it's not going to look right, what exactly? I mean, you're you put it. Especially now, since after this you're gonna be shooting like crazy people and you're gonna wake up really early in the morning and you're gonna have these amazing images. And in order to see him, you might as well see him write letters will see him. Right. Fantastic. So we have about two minutes left. So maybe one or two final questions, stuff goes and galleries and you print huge. I mean, just a couple things about you. Do you? When you, um when you do put something together, two usually put together stories for the galleries that you do Or do you like photo? Siri's is Or do they just kind of go through? How does it work? Great question. It depends. I mean, you know, I've done like, ah, show on India for sure, and so sometimes is like that. And then just sometimes it's just missile a in these images. Yeah, it's all the above. Absolutely. I think actually, that would be a great note to end on. I would love to hear a little bit about your printing process. Who use what? What do you like to do? Well, I used to use me. I used to live in Northern California in Sonoma County, and I had a big studio and I had a 44 inch printer and everything was fine. Now I live in New York City, and if I put the 44 inch printed in my apartment, I have to sleep on the printer. So that's not gonna work. So now it's a very different thing. I've got to go to labs and have them do that, so I do. Still, I sell the gallery and Healdsburg Old Town in northern California, where I stole my printer, someone in their eye print. But when I'm in New York, I go to a lab called DeGaulle, and they print my stuff for me. So it's it Z really different because it's you're taking a little link away from yourself and, you know, I'm a little bit of a control frequent. Come to this so I'm always there, bugging him absolutely well, Andy, this has been an amazing, amazing moment segment. Just this morning, I think about the rest of it wasn't so good. Thank you so much for sharing your village in your education with us. We really appreciate it. There are a ton of people out there who are big fans now and are following you. You tell us where to find you Online. Yes, it's Andy Katz, photography dot com And Facebook is Andy Katz photography and Twitter is Andy Katz. Photo perfect. A love it. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. And thanks for the everyone here.

Ratings and Reviews

Scott H
 

Getting it right, from the start. That's what Andy Katz does in this class. Andy speaks to the audience in a way that makes you feel like your talking with an old friend. It's comfortable, and relaxed and he has a sense of humor that's colorful and engaging as well. His real world experiences are related to you in a way that makes the viewer follow along with the information he furnishes. For me as I viewed his images and listened to the back stories that went with them. Made it all "click" for me. He speaks candidly of his photographs, and travels and of his experiences. This is solid information as it relate to photography in the real world. Don't pass this one up.

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