Yoga mats
Saturday, February 16th, 2008
New Preston, Connecticut. Anne and I were getting ready to leave after a great yoga class this morning and our "his and hers" yoga mats were crying out to be photographed. His is the orange one, more tightly wound (like him) and hers is the yellow one, looser and more optimistic. they do best leaning on each other lest they both go flat.
ricci -
wow, love the photo w/the “blur” above them (sorry, unsure of the artistic term) as well as your astute comment of how their particular roll-up styles reflect aspects of who you and anne are…two great folks!
will
Will, glad you like it. The blur is just that, blur. Sometimes it’s called “bokeh” but blur is fine.
Yeah, our styles are pretty much just like that.
Richard,
fantastic! The depth-of-field and the colours of this photo are amazing. I love geometric forms and bright colours. Hence I might be prejudiced, but I believe that you truly have a very good photographic vision (i.e. spotting the right scenes) and that you are mastering the digital darkroom too.
I already wanted to get in touch with you when I saw the photographs of the beer glasses and ask you whether you have some useful tips with regard to post-processing in Lightroom or Photoshop. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations (i.e. techniques that you use, websites with tips and tricks, articles or books), because I would like to improve my digital darkroom skills and like the look of your photos.
All the best wishes,
Andy
Andy, I am sincerely flattered that you’re liking my photographs, it makes me very happy.
I’ve never owned or used Photoshop in my life. I have nothing against it, it’s just too complex a program for me and I’ve used less “industrial strength” image editors for years because I do most of my work in the camera, less on the computer.
I then moved to Aperture (I’m a Mac user) and as you may have read here I moved to Lightroom as it runs better on this computer and I like its tools a bit better.
All of this stuff is personal choice and if iPhoto (a consumer grade image editor and database for the Mac) handled RAW processing better I’d be happy with it.
I shoot in RAW and have been doing so for over a year now. Very simply, shooting in RAW produces a file that has more information in it and that allows software that can read that information to continue allowing adjustments even after the photograph is taken.
A great example of this is white balance. If I take a photograph of a glass of beer in a restaurant, at night, with incandescent lights on, I can either tell the camera about the lighting by adjusting its white balance (to tungsten) or I can just let it be and make a simple adjustment in Lightroom that adjusts the white balance so that it’s not overly warm (which incandescent light tends to do). RAW enables this. You can do it with a jpeg but it’s easier and more effective with RAW.
But, this image didn’t need any adjustments like that. This image is all about composition and technique.
There are two windows on the wall behind the mats and their reflection is making the halo around the back of the mats. I planned for that. Usually I hate those windows as they make taking pictures of yoga poses tough but here they added something.
I shot this with an 85mm f/1.2 lens wide open which gave me a very shallow depth of field which is what I wanted in blurring the mats behind their front edges.
I got down on the floor so that I was as square as possible to the rolled ends of the mats but not so low I couldn’t see the rolls behind the ends as I knew I wanted them fading into the blur.
I took 10 shots of the mats and the others are interesting too but this one worked the best so it’s the one I used.
In Lightroom I did a few levels adjustments to get a bit more light on the mats, did a small amount of sharpening and that was it. Exported as a jpeg and put it up on flickr and blogged it here.
Once you wrap your head around a technique, in this case shallow depth of field, then you can start using it creatively. I’ve been working on this technique for years now, having learned it by looking at the images of some excellent flickr photographers. If you search back through this blog for “rosemary” you’ll find my initial discovery of this technique and subsequent tracking of her magnificent images. I’ve never met her, she’s in Japan and speaks little English, but I’m a fan. There are others too but she’s the one who got me started, so to speak.
I hope that helps a bit. Again, it’s mostly in the camera and in your head, the image editor can only do so much.
Thanks again, and have a great Sunday.
Richard,
thank you so much for this long and very helpful post!
I truly admire your photos. I very much like the yoga-related photos (i.e. your wife’s feet) and images of plants. They are very inspirational and make me think about the technique. For example I try to analyse the lighting and settings. As you stated, Flickr is an amazing resource. It is not only a place where very talented photographers showcase their works, it often provides access to the camera settings, which is very useful for reconstructing the capture process. Furthermore it is such an amazing place for getting in touch with other photographers and sharing knowledge. I am just starting to explore all those possibilities. So far I have only browsed through Flickr, websites and blogs like yours. People like you are so generous in providing advice and this is one of the aspects that I very much like about personal sites like blogs and communities like Flickr.
Thank you so much for pointing me at Rosemary’s work. I did not know her work yet. I just browsed through her photo collection on Flickr and I am very impressed. Her photographs of flowers and the use of very shallow depth of field is fabulous. I will visiting her account frequently to learn more and gain inspiration, because I recently started taking macro photos of flowers.
My mother was given a beautiful rose, which I photographed. I experimented with depth of field, blur and lighting. At the moment I am “struggling” a bit with getting the colours and “look” (i.e. contrast, saturation, etc.) right in Lightroom. When I am totally satisfied with the result and have the courage to post it on the internet, I am going to open an account with Flickr, post it and let you know.
George Jardine provided a very helpful hint on using Lightroom in his podcast. He suggested playing with the sliders. For example moving the temperature or tint sliders back and forth into each direction. First starting with a wider range, then gradually reducing the extent of the movement around a desired and appropriate target setting. Thereby one narrows down the possible looks. So far I am still experimenting. At the moment I have the feeling that I don’t get the settings totally “correct” in the first instance. When I examine an edited photo in Lightroom after a break of an hour, half a day, a day or several days, I notice aspects that can be improve or changed. Apparently this happens to the most experienced professionals.
What I gathered from your post, photography is a craft and one needs to continuously practice it in order to improve or master it. This essence, which I extracted from your statement, is very helpful, as it encourages me to experiment with my camera, subjects and in Lightroom.
Richard, your post was very helpful and I am grateful that I found your blog by chance. It was also very kind to make me aware of Rosemary’s work.
I hope you don’t mind me asking you more specific questions in future.
You are very generous and kind!!
Have a lovely Sunday and a good start in the next week.
All the best,
Andy
Andy: feel free to ask me anything you like, either as a comment on an image or in email.
You’re right, one aspect of photography is craft but there’s also the “art” part which has more to do with choosing what to shoot and what angle and lighting to shoot in from and with. There are no rights or wrongs in any of this, just what your personal eye likes. Don’t be swayed by others, just be true to what you like and grow.
If you go up to my profile in flickr you’ll notice I have a group of contacts, friends and family and others. The folks in friends and family are people I track closely, either because they are friends or because they are exceptional in some way and I like tracking their work. Feel free to use that list as you like, good folks in there.
And, sometimes you will need to do very little with Lightroom. Just because you CAN change things doesn’t mean that you NEED to change things. Many shots look fine right out of the camera and should be left alone. Or, make a virtual copy and play with that, thus creating versions of a single image.
Have fun with it Andy and remember, you can ask anything you want either publicly or privately here, I’ll never make you feel stupid (on purpose).
I love this picture Richard. Very creative!
Anne
Thanks Anne, your class got my creative side aligned perfectly.
Great photo and caption Richard!
Thanks LJ, I had a feeling you might enjoy this one. Hope all’s going well on the new machine.
Richard, thank you very much for your encouragement, your advice and for being so kind to act as a source of knowledge with your feedback, which is greatly appreciated!!
I will definately check the photos of your Flickr friends, as I believe there are many more jewels like Rosemary, waiting to being discovered.
Have a great week with many photographic opportunities!
Andy
It’s so cute!
Andy and Gedas: thanks for stopping by.
Hi Richard, I love your photo of the yoga mats! Can I please use it for a printed Course Overview in The Netherlands? Hope to hear from you! Thanks in advance, Monique.
Monique: You’re welcome to use it under the following conditions:
1. you cite me inside the cover someplace:
Yoga Mats photograph © Richard Wanderman
2. You send me a copy of the brochure.
Let me know if that works for you and if you want a higher resolution copy of the image.
Hi Richard,
Thanks, that would work for us. As our brochure/paper is in Dutch, I suggest I cite you: foto Yoga Mats © Richard Wanderman
Hope to hear from you! Regards from the Netherlands! Bye, Monique
Monique: That citation is fine.
When the brochure is done email me and I’ll give you my mailing address:
rwanderman at gmail dot com.
Hi Richard, that’s great. I only would need a larger size. Could you send it to me? Thanks in advance! My address is Monique at strackvanschijndel dot com Bye, Monique