CREATIVE PHOTO CLASS ONLINE - STRETCHING YOUR FRAME OF MIND - with Joe Baraban

In part one, we talked about your new ‘Artist Palette’, and the ’elements’ of design and composition that are now (hopefully) indelibly ingrained in your visual thought process.

Negative space, Vanishing Point, Tension, Perspective, Texture, Pattern, Line, Light, and Color.  These are the ‘ingredients’ that when either used by themselves, or in pairs or groups have been proven to take our imagery “up a level”.

You are the proof. It’s your new level of photographic expertise and personal desire that has prompted me to help take your photography up to even a higher level.

Part two’s journey in the four week course will begin with the ‘Artist Palette’, and a refresher WORKSHOP on implementing those ‘elements’ into your ‘works of art’…because if you remember, you’re artists, your medium is now a camera, and the canvas is now electronic.  This will also be a good time to resurrect the “does it” list for good composition.

In the following three weeks, we’ll concentrate on LIGHT and COLOR, and how they ‘define’ these elements. 
 
In working with COLOR, I’ll talk about ways to manipulate its value, as well as the role of the ‘quality of light’ in its ability to determine and control color saturation. We’ll work with color as a way to communicate ideas, and we’ll study through assignments, the psychological effect of certain colors, and how they can set the mood in our imagery.

LIGHT is everything, and it needs to be foremost in your mind, to be evaluated first…even before you begin to frame your visual idea on your ‘canvas’.

Part II will be a more in-depth study of how light affects all the basic ‘elements’ of design, and there will be specific assignments on using back, side, and front light. We’ll  be spending time on how these different approaches to lighting changes the effect and mood of the ‘environmental portrait’.

Also, we’ll be talking about the difference between ‘incident and reflected light’, and why knowing that difference is so important in getting the various exposures in your composition where they need to be.

Extra time will be donated to my favorite way to light a subject…by putting it into the Angle of Incidence. If you remember, the ‘angle of incidence = the angle of reflection’.

In part II we’ll discuss how important ‘shadows’ are, and through exercises you’ll discover how shadows create moods, draws attention to specific areas, and alters shapes.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF GESTALT

With the theory of Gestalt a part of your photographic repertoire , you’ll learn how to control the viewer’s eye and lead it through your composition.

Finally, we’ll work on shooting in Golden Light, since it’s the best way to make everything in this entire lesson look better. Since people work, weekend will provide you with that time. Hopefully the class will take advantage of shooting at dawn to sunrise and sunset to dusk, since it’s the best way I know of to come home with a big smile on your face, and proud of what you’re downloading onto your computer.

Knowing what and where you’re going to shoot ahead of time is the only way to know for sure if you’re at the right place at the right time during ‘golden light’. This takes scouting, and sometimes pre-production.  In part II, we’ll take a close look at this concept, and assignments will follow.

I’m all for being lucky enough to wind up at a location at the right time and getting a “keeper”; it’s certainly happened to me in the past forty years. However, going to a location ahead of time with a notebook and pen, and writing down compositional ideas, and determining where the sun and shadows will be is a much better way to begin your hunt for that illusive and somewhat ‘esoteric’ “OMG” shot.

Isn’t that what’s it’s all about?

Oh, and don’t forget to bring your new “fifteen point inspection plan”!!!!!!