I am friends with many professional photographers. Some of them are really famous, while others like myself, are in the process of making names for themselves. The amazing thing that transcends all of them is the fact that none of them believe they know it all and at the same time they are all willing to share the aspects of knowledge that they specialize in. I can actually say that I do not have a friend in the photography world that hasn’t inspired me at one point or another.

I have been traveling for a ridiculous amount of time. Pretty much non-stop since September. While this allows me very little time in the office it does afford me some time on airplanes and in hotels. Instead of sitting there and losing my mind, I tend to work my butt off. One of my missions is always to learn more and figure out how to implement what I have learned into my professional career and business. On a recent Alaska Air flight I managed to read two great e-books by two of my well respected friends and photographers.

Creative Processing Techniques in Nature Photography Cover

The first book is Creative Processing Techniques in Nature Photography by Guy Tal. As some of you might have read from a previous post, Guy’s first book was a personal favorite of mine explaining concepts and ideas that I didn’t even understand in a clear and concise way. Creative Processing Techniques continues Guy’s search for excellence. His images and writings connect the very place in which he lives to the very being of his existence. I understand why he is so successful at what he does because his surroundings give him the driving force and inspiration to do so.

Creative Processing Techniques not only explains how computer image processing works, but it dives into the often forgotten why. Guy defines why he uses one technique over another and suggests that you the reader define your personal goals for your images prior to even opening a photograph in Lightroom or Photoshop. Every chapter is followed by an exercise that will help you understand what was previously written about on your own. He also includes an extensive overview of how Photoshop works and how it is an integral part of his image making process. He walks you through using Curves, Saturation, and Layers. This book is packed full of explanations and techniques that not only the beginner, but the seasoned pro can benefit from, and like his previous book, I learned something–a new way to blend two different exposure valued images.

Photographing the 4th Dimension--Time Cover

The second book is by Jim Goldstein entitled Photographing the 4th Dimension–Time. Jim is one of the most intelligent people that I know. He not only understands the creative side of photography, but he truly grasps the technical side as well. I guess that is why I email him every time I need advice on social media and the way the web works in regards to photography. I was in California during my travels this fall and made some time one evening to have dinner with Jim in San Francisco. During dinner he told me about the book he was working on. It was one of those situations where my jaw dropped and the straw to my margarita fell out of my mouth. Now why didn’t I think of that great idea? Because Jay, you are a dumbass.

Photographing the 4th Dimension not only explains the techniques in a simple vocabulary, but it explains how the human perception of time works. The how-to for star trails, time-lapse, and a technique that I have never even heard of–Cinemagraphs are covered with great detail. Cinemagraphs are a way of using Photoshop to illustrate a motion sequence within a still photograph. Really cool. Jim’s book also gave me a script for a technique that I am currently using to create star trails. This is going to help me speed up the process of creating those images ten fold now. The last two pages of the book include a folding field checklist that you can print and take with you to make sure you remember everything while you are out in the wilds at night. Yet again, life made easier by reading.

I am hoping that you have yet to purchase a holiday gift for yourself or someone you know because both of these e-books will keep your bank account full while giving you the knowledge to take your photography skills to the next level. Again, beginner through pro there is something here for each and every one of us to utilize.

Well, what are you waiting for…begin downloading.

Looking Out at the View © Jay Goodrich

So there I was staring down the barrel of over 14 hours in modern aluminum tubes dubbed “airplanes”. Crossing the sky at over five hundred miles an hour at 30,000 feet. If you know me, you know that I don’t sit still for five minutes. I don’t even sleep like a normal person. Six, seven hour tops. I was going to have an aneurism or some other kind of psychotic episode. Drooling like my son as he gets ready to cut a new tooth. This was no biggie I had been there before. I had gotten hammered, hung over, and drunk again, that never worked. I tried to sleep, that never worked. I tried to sit patiently, that never worked. I figured out what did work on long flights was actually, work. Pile the list from the task master sky high and then before you knew it they would have to take me off of the plane kicking and screaming because there was just one thing left on the list.

Earlier this year my flight to China was this exact scenario. I chose to do something never before accomplished by me, read an entire book. That book was The Hotshoe Diaries by Joe McNally. I read his stories. His connections to the human connection. Every step of the way sprinkled with humor and, well, Joe. During the whole read, I never wanted to stop. I was actually entertained and being trained…although I didn’t know it. I had no way of verifying anything he wrote about. Not yet anyway.

Jump ahead four or five months. Back home in Washington. Up in the Cascades near Mount Baker Ski Area. A hike. A hike in a shitload of snow. Dinner with the wife and kids on a half snow submerged picnic table and then…time to play. The kids went running. I went running. And Heather sat reading a book. That was until I saw something unfolding. A scene of sorts. A girl. My daughter. Staring. Staring at a view of where her father had skied all winter long. A place she has openly discussed going when she knows how to ski better. Heather Meadows. The Baker backcountry. The Cascades. Only one problem. The sunset was fading by some low clouds on the horizon. What to do?

Open up the brain and knowledge base for a few minutes. Dust off the 40+ year old hard drive and bam. Light it like Joe would. Make him proud. Show him that I learned something. One of camera flash at +3 TTL. One AV setting of -1 2/3. One full CTO gel. One angry wife-book had to be put down to hold the flash. And one bribe. “Jade there is an extra desert cookie for you if you hold that pose.” One shot. The first shot. Beginners luck, maybe, but because of Joe McNally I had the brain power to create my sunset. Thank you Joe McNally, thank you.

Easy Listening. Well hopefully, as long as it is not easy-listening, elevator music. Scott Sheppard interviewed me for the Nik Radio Podcast last week. We talked about everything from workshops to architecture photography. Have a listen and let us know what you think.

Goblin Valley at Night © Jay Goodrich

Last night I was in Goblin Valley State Park shooting the afternoon light, sunset, and then stars and star trails as day became night. The night before when Brendan and I were shooting the residence in Colorado we were talking about how to shoot star trails, so I have decided to post an image and explain how.

In the past, during the film days, this very image would have been impossible due to the grain generated with a high speed film in the realm of ISO 3200. Now all we have to due is ramp our ISO up to 3200, and capture. The unfortunate sacrifice with digital is that we cannot shoot a single eight hour exposure to get those amazing star trails that photographers like Art Wolfe used to capture. This is due largely impart to the noise that is generated with such an action in digital. We can however, take many exposures and fuse them together in Photoshop though. Floris van Breugel has a great article on NPN that explains how to do just that.

This image was taken at 8:05pm in complete darkness. I needed to use my camping head lamp to light up the formation so I could compose my frame and line the feature up with the Milky Way above. The formation itself was illuminated by the waxing crescent moon that was out last night. The camera was of course on a tripod, with an interval timer and 16-35mm lens attached. The lens was zoomed out at 16mm and set to f2.8. My ISO was at 3200 and I captured the image with a calculated 30 second shutter speed. Other than that nothing else was used. I did process the image through Nik’s Dfine software for noise and then mastered it in Photoshop.

I spent the day in Arches National Park and I am planning on making another post tomorrow, stay tuned.

I spent last week confined to my office staring at my computer monitor, miscellaneous papers, and books. My goal was a self-inflicted intense week of learning. I have been gathering tons of information on Photoshop techniques, flash techniques, and HDR techniques over the course of the past few months, and it was time to finally educate myself and then practice what I learned.

Courthouse Towers Region, Arches National Park, Utah © Jay Goodrich

My week began learning how to use Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks, Dodge/Burn techniques, Saturation Masks, and Web Sharpening actions. Tony is an extremely talented photographer residing in Arizona and his images of the desert are just breathtaking. He will send you all of his photoshop tutorials plus the actions that create them for an unbelievably small donation to his PayPal account. Once you get the hang of working with the Luminosity Masks they will quickly become part of your workflow. In a nutshell, almost all of Tony’s processes allow for self-feathering tonal selections of your images. This makes it really easy to adjust contrast, brightness, color, and saturation. It’s pretty amazing.

Tony Kuyper Masks and Photomatix Image © Jay Goodrich

Photomatix Only Image © Jay Goodrich

Kitchen of Eagle House with Portable Flash © Jay Goodrich

Once I got the hang of using Tony’s tutorials, I wanted to better learn how to use Photomatix Pro for HDR image processing. I love the imagery that fellow photographers Tony Sweet and Trey Ratcliff are producing using Photomatix, but I was looking for a less dreamy approach to my imagery. Basically, I want to incorporate this innovative software into my landscapes and commercial architecture work. I needed to figure out how to achieve that, and it took some working through. I finally came up with a solution through a combination of Photomatix and Tony Kuyper’s Saturation Masks.

As if that wasn’t enough, the next item on my list was an architecture lighting technique used by many of the photographers from Strobist. Strobist is a website/blog that is dedicated to “Learning how to use off-camera flash with your dSLR to take your photos to the next level. Or the next ten levels. Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about how to more effectively use your small speedlights…” There are many photographers on this site using portable off-camera flash to light an architectural space. The attraction here for me is the portability feature and the speed at which you can light an architectural interior. After a bunch of reading and studying, I came up with this image of my kitchen as a final exam. Currently, I only own three flashes, no wireless triggers other than the infrared built-in to the flashes, and no gels, but I figured I could make do to at least see if I liked the possibilities. As the photos here demonstrate, I do, and now I need to purchase some more gear. This is just another tool to add to my repertoire to allow me to photograph any subject that catches my eye.

Finally, I wanted to test out the new 5D Mark II that I borrowed from Canon. Although I am not sure if this camera will make it into my equipment base, I am really interested in this tool for its video capability. The photos are pretty amazing too. I am noticing a bit more contrast in the images than I am used to coming from Canon’s dSLRs, but I am glad to see it. I have always felt that digital images have lacked contrast in their initial capture. Here is a shot that I took at the Teva games in Vail and, of course, using what I have learned over the course of this past week, I have applied some of Tony’s masking techniques. I will include more images and some video from my test in an upcoming equipment post.

The moral of my story lies within the fact that you can teach an old dog new tricks, so why not refresh the skill set every so often. I am looking forward to utilizing my new-found knowledge with every upcoming project. I have already decided on some additional upcoming learning experiences for myself, and they are going to include learning Apple’s Final Cut Pro, creating really large prints- 40 by 60 inchers from 10 megapixels, and more creative speedlite imagery. Stay tuned!