One of the things that makes a good photograph is simplicity. Think about what you are trying to create - what is your goal, what are you trying to say, what is the subject - and then remove/minimize all other distractions, either in camera or in processing. Reduce, streamline, boil down. Make it as visually simple as possible to tell your story and meet your goals. With this image shot in Milwaukee's Lake Park, I wanted to capture the intersection of the tracks in the snow of the rabbit and whatever the other animal was. I framed it in such a way as to show only the snow and the tracks. Any lower, I would have seen the trees in the background. If I had moved back a step, there would have been a park bench in the lower left. It's kind of a departure for me stylistically, but other than removing a few spots, a small bit of level adjustment, and making the image black and white, there is minimal processing. Keeping it simple! Day 103 of 365 Copyright 2016 Scott Norris Photography www.scottnorrisphotography.com
It was going to happen. A day within the 365 days of my project where I don't feel like going out to shoot nor do I feel too creative. Heck, it's Monday after the holidays - I don't feel like creating anything. But the project is a photo-a-day project, not a photo-on-the-days-I-feel-like-maybe-kinda-sorta-I-might-could-shoot-and-process-something project. So here is a photo I actual took about 2 weeks ago. I know, kind of a cheat, but it's my 365 project, so roll with it. It is 6 15-second exposures of Lake Michigan using my ICE 10-stop ND filter blended in camera to create one photo. It is very minimal, as the whole point of the shoot was just to test the ND filter. After just a bit of processing in Photoshop, the creative lightbulb above my head flickered ever so slightly and I thought, "Hey, this would look great as a triptych!" And with that fleeting thought, the virtual lightbulb was dark. So, for what it's worth, here is a Lake Michigan Minimalist Triptych. Day 96 of 365 Copyright 2016 Scott Norris Photography www.scottnorrisphotography.com
One of the benefits (can you call it that?) of the old, relatively uninsulated windows in our house is that when it gets really cold outside, in the morning, we get this really cool window frost. The crystals form fascinating intricate fractals patterns all over the glass. This is image started as a simple macro photograph of a small section of frost. I loved the cross or star pattern it created. Since I had to crop the image quite a bit to get this framing, I first ran the image through On1 Perfect Resize in Photoshop to enlarge the image to a workable (and printable!) size. Now this doubled the size, so I lost a bunch of detail and sharpness - something you need to be aware of when upsizing any photo. I knew when I started processing I was going to go with an impressionistic look so the lack of sharpness was not really going to be a problem. The removing of unwanted/unnecessary elements and spots/sensor dust came next. I call this border patrol and it's a good idea to do this a couple of times, especially at the end of processing. After exposure, levels, curves, and color-correction, I then added some texture (I think it was 3 or 4 textures) using a Photoshop CC extension called Adobe Paper Texture Pro. Awesome, awesome tool! You need to get it - and it's free. Finally, I combined three different iterations of Topaz Impression to create the look I wanted. Combining different factory and my own presets, blending with layer masks and blending modes is great way to get a unique look that doesn't look "out-of-the-box". Of course, I did one more border patrol pass and then saved the final "Ice Crossing" image. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments! Day 102 of 365 Copyright 2016 Scott Norris Photography www.scottnorrisphotography.com
