Nat Coalson's Photography Blog

I’m partnering with Professional Photographers of Colorado to present a full day class detailing all the essential aspects of the modern photography workflow.

We’ll cover everything from editing shoots in Lightroom to advanced image processing with Photoshop. We’ll also talk a lot about using metadata and other best-practices for pro or aspiring photographers.

The class is in downtown Denver, all day Sunday Feb 21. PPC is offering special pricing for the event. For more info and registration click here.

Today’s photo for critique was sent in by Joe Saladino of Sarasota, Florida:

Here are my thoughts:

This image has great impact. On first glance it is very striking. Though tiny frogs are a popular subject, and I’ve seen lots of photos of them, this one is unique and visually interesting to me.

The exposure looks spot on; you did a good job processing this photo for both tone and color. And it’s very sharp, at least at the resolution I received it.

I’m torn about the depth of field you chose. On one hand, I like that the sharpness falling off towards the back of the frog helps really emphasize the face and eyes, which to me is clearly the center of interest.

On the other hand, the bumps (warts?) on the back do represent some potentially interesting detail that helps tell more of the “story”.

So I would have liked to see a version with more depth of field.

Now for the composition. I think the comp would be stronger with more room on the right side of the frame, for a couple of reasons. First, The Eyeball. Clearly, the frog’s right eye, in the center of the frame, is the main focal point of the shot. However, notice how the fact that it is nearly dead-center creates a “bullseye” effect that attracts the viewer’s eye and makes it somewhat difficult to scan the rest of the frame.

Second, notice the (invisible) directional lines created by the way the frog is looking to one side. When you have a subject that appears to be “pointing” one direction, you generally should leave room to balance the composition and allow the viewer’s eye to move around. In this comp, the directional lines may take the viewers eye toward the right side of the frame too quickly, which becomes a distraction. You’ll find that careful inclusion of negative or empty space can really balance a composition and give it a more “solid” feel.

One thing I really like about the comp is how the curve of the leaf mimics the much smaller curves inside the frogs eye. Incorporating graphic elements of similar characteristics like this can really strengthen a composition, as it does here. The downward curve, and the space at the bottom, adds some very nice visual weight that anchors the comp at the bottom.

Toward the top, a little more space between the hind end of the frog and the frame edge would also be nice. See how the large, bright triangular shape of the frog’s back looks like an arrow, pointing up to the frame edge? This is another example of directional cues that the viewer’s eye will follow, and in this case it draws too much attention to the top edge ofe the frame. The combination of the frog’s back and legs create a “pinching” effect that also draw the eye upward.

Overall, I think the shot works. The lighting is really nice and the color is fantastic. Your careful approach to getting the shot and processing it well shows.

Thank you for submitting your photo. Keep up the good work!

Next Thursday I’m teaching a class titled “Websites for Photographers” here in Denver; if you’re contemplating a new site this is essential stuff.
http://illuminateworkshops.com/workshops/websites.html

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first release of the now-ubiquitous Photoshop.

Robert Scoble recently did an interesting video interview with John Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop http://scobleizer.com/

I’ve just returned from Nashville and the 2010 session of PPA’s Imaging USA… I’m feeling a strange combination of excitement and exhaustion. It was a high-intensity experience! Over the years, I’ve attended countless trade shows and conventions and I can say without a doubt this was the most rewarding, productive convention I’ve been to. Kudos to PPA for putting on a really great event!

Over the past year or so I’ve been hearing of the notable decline of trade shows across the board – smaller venues, fewer people, lots of compaies pulling out and not having booths due to falling cost/benefit ratios. In this way, Imaging USA 2010 was remarkable… several PPA folks told me they were surprised (and overjoyed) by the attendance, for which I heard estimates between 10 and 12 thousand people! In a “down economy” that speaks volumes.

What I saw at the show was a very determined effort by photographers and suppliers to push their businesses forward this year. The folks at the corporate booths were thrilled at the frenzy of activity surrounding their products, and the photographers were intently interested in both the products and the fantastic educational offerings.

On the trade show floor, dominated by print labs and camera accessory vendors, the activity was inspiring. WHCC (White House Custom Colour) had a constant stream of visitors, as did the booths for Canon, NIK Software and many others. The people in the booths kept the level of interest high with ongoing demos and presentations and people were just eating it up!

One of the more interesting presentations I saw was about shooting high-def video with the Canon 5D Mark II. I’m looking forward to doing travel video on my trips this year. Steven Inglima, a really nice guy who runs Canon’s Explorers of Light program, spent some time with me, explaining how their training programs operate. He’s put together a top notch roster of photographers who speak around the country giving demos and presentations featuring Canon’s photography solutions.

I also spent some time at the Luma Vue Arts booth, talking to Steve Knudsen, the inventor and owner of the company. These lightboxes are beautiful, and I’ll soon be offering my prints in ready-to-hang lightboxes. On the more “traditional” print side, I saw samples of the beautiful new paper from Canson called Baryta Photographique. I looked at the latest printer offerings from Epson and Canon and was really impressed with both. I’m considering buying a new printer this year, and it’s going to be a tough call, but at this point I think I’m still leaning toward the Epson 9900.

I also had a chance to see the annual PPA Print Competition display which was really impressive. I’ll be entering some prints into the Colorado competition this year.

If you regularly present your work as slideshows, you should check out Animoto. It’s a new web-based service that allows you to upload your image files and then create high-def videos from them, complete with gorgeous transitions and pro music tracks. The videos can be downloaded, are unencrypted, and can be used any way you like.

The convention also featured a full schedule of seminars, of which I attended 4 or 5. I saw a great lighting presentation by Tony Korbell, and a very informative talk from Roy Hsu about stock and commercial assignment photography. I caught the last half of a seminar by Denver’s own Sandy Puc’, a renowned portrait artist and excellent speaker, about marketing and product sales in the portrait world. Very interesting.

I had a chance to sit and chat with Adobe’s Tom Hogarty, the Lightroom Product Manager. We discussed the upcoming release of Lightroom 3, my new book, and the training market in general. Tom’s a great guy and I look forward to working more closely with him over the coming year in helping more photographers master Lightroom. There was strong interest in Lightroom throughout the convention.

I also got to hang out with Rob Sylvan, the author of Lightroom 2 for Dummies, also published by my author, Wiley, and the technical editor for his book, Steve Holmes. Both really great guys and experts at what they do.

One of the developments I’m most excited about for the coming year is my newly forged relationship with the local chapter of PPA, called PPC or Professional Photographers of Colorado. I had some very lively and productive  conversations will Jill Bailey, PPC’s president, about all kinds of new education offerings we’re going to be partnering on. I will be presenting a digital workflow program for PPA in February, from which we’re going to start spinning off more training events, many open to the general public. Stay tuned!

My time in Nashville was time very well spent. This is the second Imaging USA I’ve been to; the first was in Tampa several years ago and was also excellent. Although PPA and Imaging USA is mainly geared toward portrait and wedding photographers, and I do travel photography, usually outdoors using natural light, I’ve found these conventions to be very worthwhile. If you haven’t been to one yet, I’d recommend you start making plans for Imaging USA 2011 in San Antonio. I’ll be there and hope to see you there too!

About PPA: Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is the world’s largest nonprofit association for professional photographers, with more than 20,000 members in 54 countries. This association seeks to increase its members’ business savvy as well as broaden their creative scope, advancing careers by providing all the tools for success…as they have since 1880. For more info visit www.PPA.com

I’m teaching “Designing the Photograph” tonight at Boulder Digital Arts

http://tinyurl.com/yzmx6j4

Hope to see you there!

A question from a reader of my Lightroom 2 book:

“I am a Nikon shooter and have been reading you book on Lightroom 2 along with Mike Hagen’s book on Capture NX 2.  Your book is excellent, you are extremely insightful and easy to understand.   After reading both books, it seems like Lightroom is the better program for importing, organizing and exporting photos, but that Capture may be better for processing NEF images.  What are your thoughts? Will this situation change when Lightroom 3 is released?   If you believe that Capture is better for processing NEF, what is the best way to integrate it into the workflow described in your book?”

Dear reader:
“Thanks for your email and for purchasing my Lightroom book. I’m glad to hear you’re finding it useful.

Your question is one I hear a lot, especially from Nikon shooters. Here are my thoughts. Read more…

I’m teaching two printing classes (with Lightroom and Photoshop) at the Moab Photo Symposium. Space is very limited so sign up soon! Click the image for details and registration.

Looks like Adobe is on track for the release of Lightroom 3, the popular photo editing software, in early 2010. The next version of Lightroom will include significant performance upgrades and many new features. There is a public Beta for Lightroom 3 and lots of information available here.

I’ve been getting questions from people about whether to start using the Beta. My answer: it depends. Read more…

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and all the best in 2010! Cheers!

Here’s a list of classes and workshops I currently have scheduled for 2010; I’ll update this list as more events are scheduled.

Jan 12 Designing the Photograph at Boulder Digital Arts
Jan 28 Web Sites for Photographers at Illuminate Workshops
April 18-20 Lightroom and Photoshop Workflow at Vermont Professional Photographers convention
April 30-May 1 Printing from Lightroom and Photoshop at Moab Photo Symposium
June 10-13 Grand Tetons Field Workshop, Jackson Hole, Wyoming
August 27-29 Photoshop for Photographers, Moab, Utah

Adobe has released updates for Lightroom 2.6 and Camera Raw 5.6. These updates provide support for many new camera models along with fixing a couple of bugs.

More info and downloads at

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates/

One of my photos is in the finalist selection for Outdoor Photographer’s Colors of Nature contest… please vote for me if you can do so with a clear conscience, and you don’t have one of your own in there, of course,  :biggrin:

Thanks!

Users of Canon’s 5D Mark II DSLR can download the firmware update here.