by Jim Krause
If you shoot photos commercially, take a look at the images in this chapter and consider their income-producing potential. Photos that do not feature clearly identifiable people (or infringe on other proper-use taboos) can generally be used for commercial projects without securing release forms. Consider using images like these for projects of your own, or offering them for sale to graphic designers and advertising artists.
19
Hints of Humans
Ever been spooked by the human-like silhouette of a tree in a dimly lit forest? Ever had your attention snagged by a mannequin in a window (and then done a double take to see whether or not it was a real person)? And what about statues? Have you ever been delighted or moved by a piece of wood, stone or plastic that had been sculpted into the form of an amusing, beautiful or poignantly engaging human? For most of us, this sort of thing happens regularly enough; a hyper-awareness of the human form seems to be hard-wired into our brains as a matter of design.
If you enjoy taking pictures of people, consider adding this category of photos to your cache of collected images: photos that convey the idea of people without necessarily featuring any.
During a week-long visit to Charleston, South Carolina, I passed this building several times before noticing the two headless figures keeping watch from its upper-floor windows. A note to self (that you may want to apply to your self): When traveling through cities with your camera in hand, keep your eyes moving side to side and up and down in search of photo opportunities.
Stark, minimalist and modern: Fine-arts photographers have been known to fill galleries with images featuring understated visual and conceptual content. Graphic designers, too, often find particular value in photos of this kind — as when they are able to pair them with similarly unembellished works of journalism, advertising, prose and poetry.
Rare is the downtown setting that does not offer an abundance of inanimate subject matter capable of delivering unmistakable connotations of living, breathing people. What about trekking through a downtown environment for a morning or afternoon with the specific purpose of noticing — and photographing — material of this kind? Do this a time or two and you'll find your awareness of this type of subject matter forever sharpened.
Some scenes practically beg to be photographed and captioned by a clever (and/or twisted) mind. How about setting up a folder on your hard drive for photos that seem ready-made for a sassy greeting card or a humorous piece of correspondence?
This page features one of the many intriguing characters sculpted by Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511–1592) that encircle the grand Fountain of Neptune in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio. One advantage of photographing expressive sculptures (as opposed to taking pictures of expressive people) is that beings of stone and bronze hold their poses much longer — and with greater patience — than their flesh-and-blood counterparts.
Here, a collection of colorful personalities have been cropped from photos taken of the sculpted characters that cap an antique merry-go-round in Santa Barbara, California. Photoshop's BLACK AND WHITE effect was used to convert the original images into strongly tinted monochromes (one original is featured to the left of the circular photos on this page).
A pair of sandals lie in the damp grass among leaves and party debris the morning after an outdoor reception. The discarded footwear conveys a reminder of the prior evening's events even though its participants have departed. The inhabitant of the adjacent photo (an image borrowed) has been converted to a colorless void after her form was selected and deleted using Photoshop's LASSO tool.
A human being's presence within a photo can be established — even if the only visual evidence of her participation in a scene is a pair of ankles and feet. In this image, a well-dressed dog hangs out with his chaperone at a Halloween dress-up party. More photos featuring glimpses of humans can be found in chapter 4, Parts and Pieces.
Empty chairs, vacant tables, hanging laundry, resting mopeds, moving cars and congregating shadows: The images on this spread are inhabited by suggestions of humans, rather than by actual people. Imagine filling the pages of an entire album with photos that deliver only conveyances of people and their habitat. What about covering an entire wall with images of this kind?
Capturing people-free photos in a place favored by travelers often means getting out of bed an hour or two before throngs of tourists have done the same. It may also mean waiting patiently until a break in the flow of humanity presents an unpopulated view of an interesting scene.
Life at ground level: A discarded bicycle frame, some unwanted building supplies and a bin of recyclables have been carried around back by the occupants of this downtown apartment. The scene caught my eye as a nice aesthetic mix of lines, shapes, tones and textures. The inherent suggestions of human participation in the composition's structure add notes of relevance and interest to the scene.
From on high: The red-tiled rooftops of Florence, stretching nearly as far as the eye can see, carry with them conveyances of generations of human inhabitants. A 12–24mm wide-angle lens was used to capture this expansive view just before sunset from the top of Giotto's tower. The photo was also recorded from this elevated viewpoint.
Images of the afterlife: Cemeteries and graveyards are rich with stories — some etched in stone, most left to the imagination. This photo on this page and the lower image on the opposite page were both shot in cemeteries in the heart of historic Charleston, South Carolina. The upper image on the facing page was taken at a cemetery in northwest Washington.
After being converted to monochrome, the perimeter of the far image was blurred to give it a look reminiscent of an archival photo shot with an imperfect lens. The effect was accomplished by creating a blurred duplicate of the photo's base image. A mask was added to the blurred layer, and the BRUSH tool was used to control where its effects were applied. To further enhance the aged look of the photo, the BRUSH tool was used to paint a subtle transparent “stain” around portions of the picture's edge.
On this spread, the final set of images in Photo Idea Index: People are presented with the following suggestion: Don't forget to consider adding a piece of yourself to some of the pictures you take.
On this spread, my thumb is inserted into gap in the mountains at Joshua Tree National Park; my body is reflected inside the frosty environs of a holiday ornament; my tennis-shoe-clad feet stand atop the cobbles in a Florentine piazza; and my shadow bids farewell from an ages-old vineyard in Italy's Cinque Terre.
Glossary
Note: Any Photoshop controls, functions or tools are denoted by the use of SMALL CAPS.
ADJUSTMENT LAYER. A layer added to an image in Photoshop to alter characteristics such as contrast, levels and color balance. Alterations made using an ADJUSTMENT LAYER can be revised by double-clicking on it in the LAYERS palette and readjusting its controls (an option that would not be available if the original adjustments had been applied directly to the image using a menu command). ADJUSTMENT LAYERS can also be selectively applied to an image. This is done by using the BRUSH or other rendering tools to create regions of varying opacity in the MASK layer that automatically accompanies an ADJUSTMENT LAYER when it is created. Consult Photoshop's help menu or manual for detailed information about these useful and easy-to-use image-editing tools.
Aperture. The adjustable iris-like opening inside a camera lens that controls how much light reaches the image sensor. Some cameras allow for manual control of the aperture opening — others handle its functions automatically. Aperture affects both exposure and depth of field.
Backlighting. A lighting arrangement where the subject is between the camera and the light source.
Bracketing. A technique of taking a set of photos — each shot at a slightly different exposure — to help ensure that at least one is properly exposed. Most brackets are shot in sets of three images. Full-featured digital cameras usually offer an automatic bracketing feature that shoots a burst of three differently exposed shots when the shutter button is pressed.
CHANNEL MIXER. An editing tool in Photoshop that allows the user to adjust the distribution of red, green and blue in an image. These color channels can also be isolated — by selecting the CHANNEL MIXER'S “monochrome” option — as a way of converting an image to black and white.
CMYK. Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. For most printing purposes, images need to be converted from their native RGB mode to CMYK via software.
Continuous-shooting mode. A feature of many digital cameras that allow them to take a steady stream of shots while the shutter button is held down. (Also referred to as rapid-fire mode.)
Crop. To select only a desired portion of an image for display.
CURVES. A highly adjustable Photoshop control that allows the user to control the distribution of values and hues within an image.
Depth of field. The zone in which the camera sees things as being in focus. Objects outside this zone (both nearer to and farther from the camera) appear out of focus. Depth of field is the product of several factors: the focal length of the lens being used; the distance to the object being focused on; and the aperture opening (a narrower opening means a deeper depth of field; a wider opening means a shallower depth of field).
Desaturate. To remove all color hues from an image. Full desaturation results in a black-and-white image.
Exposure. The amount of light that reaches the image sensor to create an image.
Fisheye lens. A lens with an extremely wide field of view — from 100° to 180° and beyond.
Framing. A visual term used to describe when certain elements of a composition enclose others.
Grayscale image. Another term for a black-and-white image.
Hue. Another term for color.
HUE/SATURATION. A control within Photoshop that allows for adjustments to the color, intensity and brightness qualities of a specific hue — or all hues globally — within an image. These adjustments can be applied directly to an image through a menu command or through an ADJUSTMENT LAYER.
LASSO TOOLS. A family of tools within Photoshop that are used to manually select elements with clipping paths.
LCD. Abbreviation for liquid crystal display. A panel on the back of most digital cameras that can be used as a viewfinder, and to review images and control menu items.
LEVELS. A control within Photoshop that allows adjustments to be made to an image's range of values and color balance.
Macro lens. A lens specifically designed to take close-up photos. Most macro lenses have a magnification ratio of 1:1 or greater.
Monochromatic. An image or scene composed of values of one hue.
Overexposure. The effect that occurs when cells of the image sensor receive so much light that the corresponding areas of the image are pure white. Some photographers consider overexposure unacceptable in images — others allow it for visual or thematic effect.
Pixel. A single cell within the complex grid of individual hues that make up an image captured by a digital camera.
Resolution. The level of detail recorded by a digital camera. Also, the level of detail present in an on-screen or printed image.
RGB. Abbreviation for red, green and blue, the three colors with which digital cameras and computer monitors build images. Images in RGB format can be converted to other modes (such as CMYK) using software.
Saturation. The intensity of a hue. Highly saturated colors are at their most intense. Colors with low levels of saturation appear muted.
SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS. A control within Photoshop that allows the user to bring out details within overly dark or overly light areas of an image.
Shutter speed. The duration of time the shutter is open (and thereby allowing light to reach the image sensor) during a shot.
SLR. Abbreviation for single lens reflex. A camera whose viewfinder sees through the same lens that will be sending light to the image sensor. The lenses on most SLRs are interchangeable.
Standard zoom lens. A versatile lens that has a field of view comparable to the human eye's central viewing area. This lens is also capable of moderate image magnification.
Telephoto lens. A relatively compact lens capable of a wide range of telescopic magnifications.
Underexposure. The effect that occurs when cells of the image sensor have not received enough light to fully portray the corresponding areas of an image.
Value. The relative lightness or darkness of a color or shade compared to a scale of white to black.
Visual texture. A dense repetition of elements that form anything from an organized pattern to a freeform, chaotic assemblage.
White balance. The way in which a camera measures and records prevailing light so that whites — as well as all other colors — appear normal to the eye of the viewer.
Wide-angle lens. A lens with a broad field of view.
Thank you for taking a look at Photo Idea Index: People.
Happy picture taking,
The following is a list of the cameras and lenses used for this book's images.
CAMERAS:
Canon 5d Mark II
Canon 20d
Canon S5IS
Canon SD500
LENSES:
Canon 50mm 1:1.4
Canon 15mm 1:2.8 Fisheye
Canon 100mm 1:2.8 Macro
Canon 24–105mm 1:4
Sigma 12–24mm 1:4.5–5.6
Canon 70–200mm 1:2.8
Lensbaby Muse
Lensbaby Composer
Custom–made pinhole
Sample images from this book's companion volume
Photo Idea Index: Places
Sample images from this book's companion volume
Photo Idea Index: Things
Get the two companion books to Photo Idea Index: People!
Photo Idea Index: Places
In Photo Idea Index: Places, Jim Krause will help you find inspiration in sweeping views of natural and man-made environments, as well as intimate shots of intriguing detail. Learn new shooting techniques — both on-site and post-shooting digital treatments — so you can train your eyes to look for unique shots and remarkable compositions.
#z1590, 360 pages, paperback, ISBN: 978-1-60061-043-1
Photo Idea Index: Things
In Photo Idea Index: Things, you'll be inspired by a vast assortment of photos of household objects, plants, animals, machines, architectural details, treasure and trash. You'll learn how to use your camera to explore the world around you from different perspectives and how to capture aweinspiring digital images.
#z1591, 360 pages, paperback, ISBN: 978-1-60061-044-8
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