"Raw & Unedited"/by KLMoore
Welcome to my blog. Please keep in mind as you read my blogs (my disclaimer), I’m not a writer and thus the name of my blog, “Raw & Unedited"/by KLMoore. Somebody once compared my writing to a bad novel gone horribly wrong. Also, keep in mind that I would feel more comfortable talking to a room full of people than sit down and write anything and I’m really an introvert. Now is your chance to stop reading if you want. You’ve been warned. I'm just a professional photographer always trying to learn new things and share a little bit of what I've learned along the way.
http://www.mooreshots.com http://www.facebook.com/mooreshots http://www.twitter.com/klmooreshots
The Kitchen: Part 3
The Kitchen: Part 3
Ok, if you’ve been following along with Part 1 and Part 2 of my blog, you’ve learned a little about some of the tools I use to take what I see in my head and translate it into the visions I create with my images. Today, Part 3 is looking at some of the lessons that I’ve learned along the way. There are two aspects to these lessons. One aspect is that you don’t need the best equipment to produce the best images. The second aspect is to learn how to use what you do have.
I learned a valuable lesson during one of my first photography classes. A guy came into class that first day with the absolute best pro-level equipment that money could buy. In his bag was easily $20,000 worth of gear. Any photographer would have coveted what he had in his bag. I did! I thought surely this guy was already a master guru and wondered why he was here. The funny thing about this is, he didn’t have a clue how to use any of it and others in the class with basic cameras were posting far better pictures. The reason I’m mentioning this is that you don’t have to have the best to produce good images. Better equipment always helps, but you have to start somewhere, you have to learn how to use what you have, and I think more importantly, you have to have an eye for it.
Here's just a simple picture taken and edited with my iPhone.
Another lesson I learned that didn’t require any new equipment was to use the Internet to seek out forums of people with similar interests. One forum I refer to frequently is at: fredmiranda.com. They have a sports forum, a people forum, and a wedding forum that I visit frequently. People will post their images for others to critique and learn. The sports forum was extremely interesting for me because of my love of sports and I wanted to see what other people were doing and learn what to do or what not to do. I also spent time in the people section and found some good ideas on the use of lighting and posing techniques to help with my senior photos. The other section I found extremely interesting was the wedding forum. I shot one wedding awhile back and quickly discovered that I have no desire to be a wedding photographer ever. It’s not my thing. What I did find in that forum were some absolutely amazing photographers. What I learned from them could apply to all other aspects of what I do like to shoot with regards to composition, lighting, and visual presentation.
Here's an example of an image I was proud enough to save from back in 2005. (Hmmm, why did I even keep this one???)
That's Tyler by the way above and here's Tyler from this Spring. (Now this is what I keep today!)
The next lesson I learned (and still do every day) is to learn how to use what you have. Take a photography class or a series of classes. Learn how your camera works and what all the settings do. Shooting in auto mode just doesn’t work for me. I needed and wanted to learn how to translate the images I saw in my head to produce an image in the camera. I always see things in my head (that’s why people always said I was a little special) and learning how to really use my camera allowed me the ability to translate that vision into a workable image. Now I have a good foundation when I approach a photo shoot to get an idea of what settings I need to start with in my camera.
Ok, here's an example of a row of trees my wife and I saw driving through the country on that particular day and the way it looked when I first saw it.
Above was what I saw with my eyes. Below is what I saw in my head. (That vision thing I said I see in my head!)
The last piece we’ll touch on today is the basis of why I’m where I am today. Learning and improving. I took some of my best football pictures this last fall. At the time, my shooting and gear had improved, and I felt like the images I produced were top-notch compared to what I had done in the past. However, as I go back and look at those pictures today, there are a few things I’d do to improve them. They were good for what I knew and could do then. Things that I’ve learned in LR now, that I didn’t know how to do better then, like better noise reduction control make a big difference. I know that what I’m doing now will be better 6 months from now. Again, learn how to use what you have now. Learn how to use Photoshop and learn how to use Lightroom.
Here's another example of something I saw in Piedmont Park and the way it looked as my wife said, "yep, that's a bridge."
Below is what I saw in my head and now with learning how to really use Lightroom I was able to translate into my own image.
There are new little secrets that I’m learning all the time. Some of the lessons I’ve learned were by watching tutorials and then some by just simply exploring through my own trial and error. It’s just like my photography; I’m learning new things all the time and trying to apply those lessons to help me improve. Pictures that were taken a year or two ago are not up to my standards today. Always look for ways to improve. It’s a constant education process for me. Do you need everything that I’ve mentioned in my kitchen? No. Start with Lightroom4 and add a Wacom tablet when you can.
Ok, if you’ve read this far, thanks for following me and again welcome to my kitchen. To some, I know this may be like watching a bad movie, you’re only curious to see how this bad thing will end. Hopefully, I’ll get better at this too. I’m not the best by any means. I don’t know everything. I’m just trying to improve and constantly get better by first using the tools that I do have and secondly, learning how to use them better.
The Kitchen: Part 2
The Kitchen: Part 2
Thanks for checking out my blog “Raw & Unedited”/by KLMoore for Part 2 of my opening series on what’s in my kitchen. In Part 1, we looked at some of the tools that I work with and now in Part 2 we’ll look at the two main programs I use or my ovens where everything gets cooked up. Those would be Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom4.
I started using Photoshop about 10-12 years ago. It wasn’t until about a year ago that I really started, I mean really started, using Photoshop to a larger degree. I knew how to do a little retouching of photographs, but nothing like I do today. Today, I use Photoshop to create my composites and as a tool to fine-tune, manipulate, and apply the finishing touches to my images. Am I proficient in Photoshop? Not by a long shot and I work hard to learn new things all the time.
This is one my recent posters using some of the composite techniques that I've just recently started to learn.
At first, Photoshop seemed to be an overwhelming program to learn and use. One of the first things I did was to purchase a Photoshop “how-to” book that had articles on retouching, color correction, and other topics that were pertinent to what I wanted to learn. This book was fantastic because it gave me step-by-step instructions with pictures (I’m a visual person) to show exactly how to do a specific task. As long as I could follow instructions, then I could learn a few of the techniques. I didn’t really understand much of the “why” it worked the way it did, but I could get the results I needed. As a result of the book, I was just starting to scratch the surface of what Photoshop could do and I could get by with a few of the basic things.
What happened next was what really helped me become a little more proficient. I joined the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. I spent a lot of time pouring through the site to pull out information that I wanted and that’s when I finally started to learn why things worked the way they did.
This is from a Senior shoot that I did where I first processed the image in LR, then took it into PS to add the composites of him playing basketball, plus a couple of other touches and then back into LR for final processing.
It was through the NAPP that I became acquainted more with Lightroom. Like my tablet, this is the one piece of software that I couldn’t do without. Everything I do starts here. It started with Lightroom3 because I kept hearing from other photographers that they used it. So I decided if they did, then I needed to look into it if I was going to be serious about photography. As with anything new, I started with learning and understanding the basics of LR3. Through constant reading, experimenting, and learning, I have learned more and more each day. When LR4 came out recently, I listened to what the upgrades presented and decided to upgrade. I love LR for the flexibility it affords me in manipulating images. It is such a powerful program that I work on all of my scenic images and baseball images here without the need to do anything in Photoshop. Even with my portraits, I will do about 80-90% in LR and then pull them into Photoshop for whatever final touchups or adjustments are needed.
This is an example of one of my favorite images from one of my favorite trips with my wife that was all done in LR.
In fact, I am such a huge fan of Lightroom that it was one of the presents I gave my wife for her birthday this past month and I am excited for what she’ll be able to do with it in her photography. Most of my favorite art images were processed totally in LR and I’m always experimenting with what else I can do. Also, most of what I’ll be talking about in some of the blogs in the future (like my double-baked potatoes) will be dependent on LR. Am I proficient in LR? Nope, but I’m learning.
Part 3 is coming next and that section will include some of the lessons that I’ve learned along the way.
The Kitchen: Part 1
Welcome to my kitchen. Actually it’s my desk, but this is where most of the work goes on when I take what gets captured in my camera and the magic begins to appear. Please keep in mind as you read my blogs (my disclaimer), I’m not a writer and thus the name of my blog, “Raw & Unedited"/by KLMoore. My wife is, but I’m not. She could put together a masterful piece of prose in 10 minutes what would take me 5 hours and I still couldn’t come close to her work. Somebody once compared my writing to a bad novel gone horribly wrong. Also, keep in mind that I would feel more comfortable talking to a room full of people than sit down and write anything and I’m really an introvert. Now is your chance to stop reading if you want. You’ve been warned.
I’ve wanted to start putting together my recipes for the way I do things with post-processing for a little while now. However, before I could dive right into what goes in to what I do, I felt I needed to back up and detail what I’m working with and maybe why. I call this my kitchen, because this is the place where everything gets cooked or put together. It may start with an idea in my mind, but it ultimately happens here. So what’s in my kitchen?
The first thing you see is my birthday present from my wife, my new Mac display.
I have been working off of my 15” MacBook Pro after making the switch to Apple late last year. I love my Mac and didn’t really want to add another computer to the equation, but wanted a bigger viewing area to work on. That’s why I opted to go the Mac display route versus an iMac. With this setup, my MacBook is used in a docking station setup and when I travel, everything is still contained on the laptop (and external drives). Neat and tidy and I always have my work with me. This display allows me to see on a larger scale what I’m doing and not miss some of the details. That is very important for me and something we’ll talk about later so you'll know why.
The next thing you see is my Wacom tablet.
This is the one piece of equipment that has probably been the most valuable tool I use constantly. I had heard about tablets for quite some time and this was one piece that my wife insisted (actually demanded) I get and learn to use. Boy am I glad I listen to my wife. She was right. After stumbling through the learning sessions on how to use a tablet, I now find myself where it has made such a huge difference in the way I work. For one thing, I’m left-handed and always used a mouse with my right hand. That worked ok for me for doing everything else but working on pictures. The tablet gives me complete control over what I’m working on to the degree never possible with using the mouse alone. Plus, being left-handed, it feels so natural for me to use. Why does it work for me? First, I am now drawing when I work on pictures instead of stabbing at it with the mouse and second, the pen allows me to use pressure to create bigger or smaller lines as I’m working. That part alone is huge for me to get the control I need and wanted to work on the fine details. There are also controls built into the tablet that are programed for different functions depending on what program I’m working in.
The above are basically my pots, pans, and knives. For Part 2, we’ll look at what I’d consider the ovens since these software programs are what I use to cook everything. Part 3 will look at a couple of lessons that I’ve learned along the way and then follow that with a little background on what I see and how it influences my style. If you’re still interested at that point, we’ll get to the magic and some recipes.