To Crop or not to Crop, that is the question…

 

Going back to basics and that perennial chestnut of whether to crop or not to crop, that is the question. 

Like every medium, photography suffers from a series of unwritten rules and set beliefs which underpin the art of taking a picture. Stray away from these and purists will  dismiss the image and the photographer as either irrelevant or not a serious photographer.  

But in an age where every image appears to have been manipulated to a pixel of its life, it does seem somewhat outdated and even trite to be holding to such beliefs. None more so than the issue of cropping. ‘You must always crop in the viewfinder’ is the mantra decried by some ardent followers of the dark arts.  

This will often be followed with the ubiquitous example of Henri Cartier Bresson, who famously said; ‘if you have to crop, move closer’…. or words to that effect.  That’s fine, except, one of his most celebrated images of the man stepping over a puddle, was in fact cropped.  

Rumour has it – and there is an image which shows the original frame – that the photograph was taken through a gap in a wall and to the left of the image, a wall or plank of wood is clearly visible.  Yet, the final image we are all familiar with, has done away with the obstacle.  It was cropped out. So, if its good enough for Bresson….  

More recently, whilst watching a critique of interiors by a very popular ‘Youtube photographer’ who, it must be said and to his credit, was extraordinarily brave to have his work critiqued by a ‘professional’ architectural photographer, proclaimed: “I don’t crop”.  I had to laugh as the amount of ‘post’ he does on other images kind of negates this purist attitude.  

It also didn’t help his cause that his images were being torn to shreds by the professional photographer who suggested his photographs could do with some judicious cropping, which is why he is a professional and not someone who earns a living pretending to be one.  

If you need to crop then crop. When you view something through the viewfinder, you are already mentally and even physically, cropping the image within the camera. Your eye blocks out all the distractions and focuses on the subject to hand. Its only when you have the photograph on your monitor that you can study and focus on what is superfluous and what is essential to capture the subject matter.  

It can be that your lens was not long enough, or something had strayed into the frame that you hadn’t noticed at the time or even, it was not practical to get in closer. In Bresson’s days, cameras were still something of a novelty. the luxury of being able to move freely, unhindered, unmolested in order to capture the moment have sadly long gone. There cannot be many places left where people are not familiar with the photographic camera. 

So, if you have to crop, feel free.  Those who pretend to be purists following in the traditions of past masters are merely deluded, living in some fantasy world espousing nonsense purely for effect.

 

 

Youtube photographers struggle under isolation

With everyone but press photographers stuck at home in lockdown due to the Coronavirus – or more commonly referred to as the Chinese Virus, you would think the army of Youtube photographers would have a captured market…well, think again.

As the Covid-19 bites harder, the plethora of Youtubers or educators have struggled to get to grips with their new environment.  Some, who use their channels to educate viewers on the latest techniques in post processing, appear to be able to provide a ‘normal service’ whilst others have gone into complete meltdown.

Unable to venture out or test the latest bit of kit, there have been some peculiar postings in recent weeks as they struggle to find suitable subject matter for content.  Somehow, the newest, fastest camera lens or ultra lightweight tripod seems a little trite under current conditions and besides, who will be able to afford to spend any money with so many out of work or suffering huge financial penalties due to the virus?

It is a sad reality that with so many amatuer and professional photographers seeing their incomes slashed, the idea of buying anything at the moment may appear like wishful thinking.

What is intriguing as a complete newbie to the Youtube ‘educators’ is the amount of vitriol that flows and ebbs between the hosts.  Many of whom, as I have been discovering, are not actually working photographers and by that I mean, photographers who earn a living by using their skills as a photographer, but are merely presenters using cameras to demonstrate one thing or another.  They don’t have clients, they don’t shoot editorials, they just talk about photography.

How long they can continue their valuable income stream through the medium of Youtube is questionable as people turn their attentions to more pressing matters. For genuine photographers, the industry will recover and their skills will once again be required.  For the ‘educators’ they might have to rebuild their subscriber fanbase all over again.  But for now, it’s interesting to see how this will all play out….

 

Covid-19 stay at home photographers

We are in unprecedented times, which is kind of stating the obvious, but the current climate of staying at home and self isolation has presented a number of challenges for photographers.

Working photographers in the commercial field of weddings, public relations, advertising etc, have all had to cease trading, leaving all but the photojournalist and press photographer out and about to carry on as before and with that, running the real risk of catching the Coronavirus.

Then we have the ‘other’ genre of photographer, who is not so much a working photographer but more of a virtual snapper or ‘educator’ as they refer to themselves.  Those that appear on the internet offering advice and opinions and who for the past few weeks, appear to have struggled to provide any ‘meaningful’ content on their video channels.

I mock only because I am still reeling at the vast array of ‘youtube photographers who rely on their channel to earn a living and not photography per-se.  But I digress.  In these times it is all too easy to throw your hands in the air and fall into a never ending spiral of despair as you gaze hopelessly at the endless news coverage predicting the end of civilization as we know it.

And yet, I say not all is lost. Yes, income will have taken a beating and that is enough to send anyone into a state of catatonic melancholy, but why not use this time to do the things you have always put off for another day.

I suspect this will only really apply to photographers of a certain age, but if like me, you have been working as a photographer before the genie was released from the bottle and remember the days of analogue, telephone landlines and film, then you will undoubtedly have boxes full of dust covered negs and slides.

There can be no better reason or opportunity than now to take a deep breath and bite that bullet. Be it a dedicated scanner or a home rig – I have yet to decide which  – now is the time to get scanning. After all, what else are you going to do?

Raw vs Jpeg

This is an argument I have seen played out on many occasions between photographers, most recently on social media and in particular on my favourite new fix: YouTube, where there is no shortage of advice and opinions.

Two high profile ‘educators’ or vloggers, (not sure if they are working photographers or just YouTubers) publicly slugged it out via their video channels, each arguing the case for either format.  None of their arguments made much sense but that’s probably just as well. However, the fundamental point of which is better, completely missed the point.

Just like the cameras and lenses photographers choose to use for a specific job, so too can be said of which format a photographer should use be it RAW or Jpeg.  I would go further and to be fair, this point was made…sort of, a beginner would do well to learn as much as they can before shooting in RAW, for no other reason than there is a certain amount of post processing required to extrapolate what they have shot in-camera before they can use the image.

It stands to reason therefore, that a person just starting out in photography will have little if no experience on how to process a RAW file and would be better served shooting Jpegs until such time that they have gained the required level of skill to extract all the detail from a RAW file.

And to be honest, this is an area that I have yet to fully exploit as my skill level in post is pretty basic as I have never needed to use photoshop other than the basic tweaks and for captioning.

To this end, the only time anyone would readily choose to shoot Jpegs would be those working as a press photographer, where the single most critical aspect when on a job -apart from the obvious – is speed.  They do not have the luxury of trawling through hundreds of images converting RAW files into Jpegs before transmitting them to their respective publication or agency.

Of course speed is all relative. When I was working on assignments back in the day of film, speed could be a matter of hours or in some cases days. Naturally, this was before the age of the internet and lead times were much longer. You had time to return to your publication, pop into the darkroom, place your rolls into the drop tanks of developer and so on…

If further afield, you had the option of handing your undeveloped rolls of film to a courier who would then either jump onto a bike or in extreme cases if abroad, onto a flight back to base. 

Then we had portable scanners and wire transmitting equipment and things became a lot faster until we finally reached the point of rolling news and the internet and speed was down to a matter of minutes.

Today, everyone from fashion to landscape to wedding photographers and most probably everything in between, should be shooting in RAW to maximize the full potential of the image they have captured.  And despite what anyone says or tells you, maximize they will and do.

Obsession with fast lenses

I’ve been back on Youtube once again watching countless photography related videos on everything, from which camera one should buy to the best way to save and store your precious images.  There are a plethora of ‘photographers’ or as they now refer to themselves ‘educators‘, offering advice and opinions and making a small fortune in the process.

One of the recurring topics seems to be the obsession with ultra fast lenses and woe is you if you do not have a collection of 1.2 glass in your camera bag. Well, that’s fine if you are sponsored for producing these content videos for your Youtube sites, but many photographers – and I’ll caveat that by saying amateurs and serious, and semi-professional photographers – will probably not be able to afford splashing out on these super fast lenses.

Camera manufacturers are derided when they fail to produce a 1.2 or 1.4 glass for their latest releases and I have to wonder, are these people living in the real world?  These vlogs are not aimed at the professional but everyone else, but as a professional, I watch these episodes – a newbie to this world – for the entertainment factor and with a certain degree of incredulity.

What the enthusiast must understand is that owning an ultra fast lens is not the be-all and end-all of achieving photographic greatness or mastery of the dark arts.  I’ve said it in a previous post, but mastering what you already own as well as the use of image processing software is far more important than saving up for the latest, fastest, greatest lens or whatever bit of kit these vloggers are pushing.

Its laughable, when I see some vlogger haranguing some manufacturer because they haven’t released this or that. Who cares? Why is it so important? It really isn’t and at times, you have to question is this video just to create content? Photographers should not be caught up in this never ending spiral of trying to keep up with the latest bit of tech. It will not make you a better photographer.

Post processing…how much is too much?

Just how much is too much when it comes to post processing images? It’s a question I have never had to think about before now.  Coming from a photo-journalistic background, we were never allowed to do anything more than boost contrast, lighten, darken and cropping.  Anything more than that and the industry would take a very dim view.

There have been a plethora of instances in the past where photographers have been severely reprimanded after it was discovered they had manipulated their images. in the most extreme cases, photographers have been sacked, their archive removed and their reputation left in tatters.

Some of the most respected names in the business have over recent years, been quizzed over the amount of post processing in a number of their most iconic images, all have flatly denied any wrongdoing but the suspicion remains.

Yet the question remains, when and where is it acceptable and how much is too much? Commercial photography, advertising, marketing, weddings and fashion etc, all undergo a varying degree of manipulation, sometimes to the consternation of the public.  Many a fashion photographer or moreover publication, has had its knuckles rapped with the overuse of ‘air-brushing’.  But the absolute no-go area is in the field of reportage and news photography, which includes sport, where anything more than the aforementioned basic adjustments is strictly taboo.

The grey area however, is something like landscape or travel photography.  Unlike news and reportage whose immediacy usually only requires jpegs, landscape and travel photography as well as commercial photography, will nearly always be shot in RAW, in fact, they should always be shot in RAW.  This by its very nature, requires a certain degree of post processing and that’s where we get into the grey area.

Most landscape/travel photographers, from what I have observed, will say something akin to keep it ‘natural’ looking, very little ‘post’ was used, but when techniques such as stacking and stitching are employed, it’s impossible to avoid the use of photoshop or its equivalent.  There have even been cases where wildlife photographers have used the technique of compositing, which in my mind is taking things too far.

I have long advocated to young aspiring photographers, one of the key ingredients to photography is not only what you can learn handling the camera, but what you must learn when it comes to post processing, especially these days.

Landscapes photographers will always argue; ‘it’s what Ansel Adams was doing in the darkroom’ only now we use computers.  There is an element of truth in what they say, but today, what can be achieved in post goes way beyond dodging and burning. What is disingenuous, is when you read or hear photographers claim there has been little work done in post, only to discover a mountain of tweaks and adjustments in Lightroom.

It seems there is almost an embarrassment in admitting to the amount of work that has been done in post and that reflects in the mumbled confession of most photographers when discussing their images.

So what you see online or in magazines has to be taken with a certain degree of salt and not everything is as what it appears. One could argue, indeed I often do, a mastering of post processing is probably more important than the mastering of the camera.

 

 

Youtube photographers

 

For some, if not most, Youtube was once a place to watch and or download music videos and little else, but for others, it was a place of opportunity and enterprise.  In recent years however, several at least, a steady number of photographers have resorted to supplementing their incomes through Youtube.

It could even be argued that some if not all appear to earn most of their income through the medium of Youtube via the number of views and adverts they generate as opposed to selling their skills directly as a photographer.

This seems to be broken up into various groups, those who review tech, those who offer tutorials ranging from post processing to how the tech works and those who call themselves ‘Youtube Photographers’, I didn’t even know that was a thing until recently.

Vlogging is nothing new of course.  the gaming industry has spawned an entire breed of entrepreneurs making a small fortune for their video outputs; critiquing, reviewing, even playing video games, garnering hundreds of thousands of subscribers and in turn  earning them not only a small fortune but making them international stars at the same time…online at least.

We have probably all turned to Youtube for tutorials for one thing or another, everything from fixing your washing machine to how to build your own house.  But what I was not prepared for was just how many photographers appear to be making a living from videoing themselves taking images. If not taking images, then talking about taking images.

Breaking this down even further, Landscape photographers in particular, appear to have taken vlogging to a whole new level, employing such techniques as shooting ‘B’ roll footage with some videos looking like mini documentaries.  Aerial shots using drones, an array of techniques implying a camera crew were on hand to film the entire process all give the impression of a very stylized video.

At times it seems the journey to take the image is more important than the image itself, which in many instances are just secondary and an excuse to generate more videos or in other words: ‘content’ to continue with their channels.

This, coupled with ‘workshops’, again, not a new concept but one which has boomed since the explosion of Youtube photographers, has generated a very profitable revenue stream.

Workshops or experiences are taking place in virtually every field from gardening to cookery.  A top chef renowned for having a rather tempestuous reputation is offering a three night food experience in the Scottish Highlands for an eye-watering 7k – does it matter if it’s in dollars or pound sterling? Whilst a well known wildlife presenter also charges something similar for a week in Africa birdwatching.  And it’s no different with the Youtube photographers, who, through their video channels, promote photographic workshops in far flung destinations.

The point to all this is simply to question; are they really photographers or videographers as the impression one gets it is the latter.  The photography is just a means to an end. The camera of choice when it comes to video recording for a landscape photographer appears to be the stunning Fujifilm X Series XT3*, probably the finest all rounder APS-C camera on the market.

*Fujifilm have since released the XT4

 

 

End of Era: Boris Johnson

Like him or loath him, there can be few other politicians who attract more attention than Boris Johnson. As his tenure as Mayor of London comes to an end, his successor will have enormous shoes to fill and there is little doubt, that he will never have the reach of the charismatic politician with the floppy mop of blond hair.

No other politician I have photographed has ever drawn the crowds quite like Boris. Mobbed in the streets, the public clamouring for a selfie, the press corps and in particular the snappers, all desperate to grab a moment which inevitably will make the headlines.

There can be few politicians who are known simply by their first name, so much so, that even London’s bike hire scheme was hijacked and inextricably referred to as ‘Boris Bikes’ even though it was his predecessor Ken Livingstone, who initiated the scheme.

Photographers will miss Boris as the Mayor of London, game for anything much to the consternation of his aides. As a tribute to a heady few years, here are just a few images of the blustering MP for Uxbridge & Ruislip

Boris Johnson with Giorgio Loccatelli at the Taste of London show in Regent’s Park

London Mayor Boris Johnson with Big ben in background

London Mayor Boris Johnson plays table tennis during a visit to a new youth centre in Brixton

Mayor Boris Johnson on the mayoral campaign trail in Croydon South London

London Mayor Boris Jonson on his bike in London with Oyster advertising on helmet

Yes, he’s in there…Boris in chinatown London

London Mayor Boris Johnson about to get on his bike in Downing Street

Boris at Trafalgar Square signing autograph for army Veteran

Mayor Of London Boris Johnson, South London,

Mayor Boris Johnson with family celebrating the British Team Persuit at the London Prepares UCI Track Cycling World Cup at the new Velodrome in the Olympic Village London

 

Baptism of Fire: a freelancer’s behind the scenes look at covering areas of conflict is now available from Amazon as an e-book and no, you do not require a Kindle. http://tinyurl.com/l57rqa6

“Theo liasi has written an honest, no frills account of life as a war photographer. His was the reality of a freelancer with no one to cover his back. His conclusion Is surprisingly funny given the subject matter. Well worth the read especially if you are contemplating a career in this area”

 

Another bloody year for journalism

2014 was another year where journalism bore the brunt of an ever changing landscape when it comes to news reporting with 60 confirmed deaths and its no surprise where most of the deaths occurred.

What is also noteworthy are the number of foreigners or local photographers who lost their lives covering areas of conflict. For many years, the ‘western’ media have been reluctant to send staff photographers out to ‘hot spots’, partly due to cut backs and they simply do not have the staff any more and in part because there are plenty of aspiring photographers be they local or freelancers who willing to risk everything in pursuing their dream of becoming a top photojournalist.

There are the odd exceptions, with the wire agencies especially AP who have lost several photographers but on the whole, it is the freelancer or local photographer who paid the ultimate price in 2014 as in previous years.

A full report can be read on the CPJ – Committee to Protect Journalists – websitehttps://www.cpj.org/killed/2014/ it makes for depressing reading but can come as no surprise as I have been predicting this steady death toll for years.

What is just as alarming is the apathy expressed by the very people we hope to inform and educate; the public, who at best take photojournalists for granted and at worst totally ignore the foreign pages preferring instead to ruminate over Kim Kardashian’s antics, whose only talent appears to be her deformed rear-end and a home porn video allegedly leaked on the web.

Celebrity culture has won the day when it comes to news and it is the responsibility of the media to readdress this imbalance but they wont. For as long as there is this inane appetite by the public to devour the latest report on the exploits of some wannabe celebrity real news, the things that really matter will forever go virtually unnoticed.

Baptism of Fire: a freelancer’s behind the scenes look at covering areas of conflict is now available from Amazon as an e-book and no, you do not require a Kindle. http://tinyurl.com/l57rqa6

“Theo liasi has written an honest, no frills account of life as a war photographer. His was the reality of a freelancer with no one to cover his back. His conclusion Is surprisingly funny given the subject matter. Well worth the read especially if you are contemplating a career in this area”