Learning New Tricks

by Dotti

You learn something every day if you pay attention.

                                                           ~ Ray LeBlond

Don’t you just love learning new things?

I do and I must tell you that I have thoroughly enjoyed this month’s Dark and Moody theme – which came as something of a surprise to me. You see, even as I’ve oohed and aahed over dark and moody photos created by other photographers, I have to confess that I didn’t have much success trying it on my own photos. To be really honest, I love sharp, colorful photos with a lot of light and backlighting. But after reading Linda’s post a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take a different approach to dark and moody.

In the past, I tried to create this feel through post processing. Given the aforementioned passion for color, it didn’t work very well. But when Linda shared her techniques, I decided to challenge myself to try again. You know – if at first …

My approach is a little different than Linda’s but neither is right nor wrong, we’re just different. For one thing, I don’t underexpose as much as she does. One full stop is about as far as I’ll go and even then, it’s more likely to be a third or two-thirds of a stop. However, here’s what I found worked for me: morning and evening light. {Surprise!} Instead of utilizing backlighting techniques, I would shoot in the same direction that the light was coming from, being careful to keep my shadow out of the frame.

Much to my surprise, the whole thing began to grow on me. I like having a pop of light in my photos with the deep shadows behind and I was surprised how pretty the color orange was when given a dark and moody makeover.

Sometimes I would use presets but just as often, I would do nothing more than auto tone and lens correction along with some shadow darkening in Lightroom. Almost all my editing is done in Lightroom. And usually it doesn’t involve a lot of steps. While I used to spend a lot of time adding textures and other creative touches, I’ve moved to a simplified form of editing. This leaves more time for actually taking pictures and other fun things.

It’s not likely that dark and moody is going to become my calling card but I do like challenging myself to learn something new. As photographers, I think it’s important to do this. This keeps us fresh, it keeps us motivated and it creates wide diversity within our portfolios.

Soooo – how about you? Have you tried dark and moody lately? How did you like the results? I hope you’ve had as much fun with it as I have. It’s always fun to learn something new.

I am still learning.

                                                            ~ Michelangelo

Challenge Accepted

by Kelly

“It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

When a friend, a fellow photographer and kindred spirit whose art you both respect and admire, encourages you to try something new with your own photography...you take heed.

"Now I want to see you do a series in B&W that is wide angle, includes people, and is underexposed. I want to see the Kelly shot of that."

To my friend Pam, challenge accepted.

In her original comment, Pam referenced Henri Cartier-Bresson, so before I started on this journey, I did a little research to find out more about his life and art.  I learned that Henri was French photographer who famous for his candid, street-style photography.  He shot almost exclusively in black & white and preferred to shoot events inconspicuously.  He also preferred to focus on small details believing that "the smallest thing can be a great subject."

For Henri, the technical aspects of photography were always secondary to "seeing"...they existed only to help him express what he saw with his mind's eye.  And it was with this intention that I spent the better half of the month of June, looking for opportunities to capture the moments that touched my heart. Such as my parents dancing to Unchained Melody on my back porch.

Or an afternoon on the lake with my girl.

Even ordinary, everyday moments seem to stand out in black and white.

If you have following this blog for very long at all, you probably are aware that I rarely shoot in black and white.  But after seeing these photos, it reminds me that there is something about this format that feel timeless and special to me.  I love that.

But mostly what I love is continuing to grow as a photographer.  Finding new ways to capture the moments that touch my heart.

Thank you, Pam, for your encouragement and your friendship and for helping me to grow in my art.

All my love, 

Kelly

Focusing On You

As I was perusing our Flickr group and choosing the Focus On You image for the week, I was completely drawn into this lovely, dark and moody photograph of a simple book and a pair of glasses. It was not so much the subject as the mood that the light created to make this such a compelling photo. Kudos to Jette Baltzer. Please follow the link to view more of Jette's work on Flickr. And thank you Jette for sharing your beautiful work in our gallery.

Underexposed

by Linda

This months theme had me at hello. Delicious and dark. Magnificent and moody. Underexposed and under appreciated.

I took these shots walking around my backyard on a sunny morning. Yes, the sun was shinning and there was ample opportunity to photograph objects in full glorious light but what's the fun of that?

I know, sometimes you want to see everything. And clearly. And that is beautiful too. Sometimes you want to let the light be your guide and focus on what the light is showing you and let everything else just fall away.

Isn't that what we want? How many times have you looked through your viewfinder and thought the background was too busy and then raced around trying to remove all that stuff? Sometimes we should let the light define what we photograph. Let the light highlight the beauty of an object and let the camera remove all the things in the background that might distract a viewers eye.

The pictures above were taken with my DSLR, (I have a Canon) in broad daylight. That doesn't mean you can't get the same effect on cloudy days or after sunset. The only difference will be how the light falls in your picture and how much you have to underexpose. With my camera set to Manual mode, I used a 100mm lens set wide open(2.8) and manual focus, underexposed by 1 sometimes 2 stops, auto-white balance, ISO of 200, landscape picture style, spot-metering metering mode.

These pictures were run through Lightroom where I applied Lens Correction (I always do) and added a matte preset.

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I love spot-metering metering mode. This mode will expose for the area you decide to focus on. With my camera in manual mode, I control the shutter speed, I use the light meter that shows up in my viewfinder to determine whether I want to expose "correctly" or not. Because I am a rebel, I rarely expose correctly, underexposing gives me something that makes me happy. Spot-metering metering mode can create a dark and moody picture without underexposing. Because I was taking pictures on a bright, sunny day, I had to underexpose dramatically to compensate for the brightness.

I have created dark and moody pictures with my phone camera. It is mostly done in post processing. You have to be careful about the area that is in the light because it could look like just a white spot once you're finished editing. A few apps that I have had fun using to create dark and moody are Snapseed and Stackables. Both are easy and I have had amazing results. My favorite dark and moody app is VSCO. You can use the VSCO camera or import from your camera roll. I used VSCO for the above picture.

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Give it a try!

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Getting in the Mood

by Kelly

It’s all about the light, right?

As photographers we are trained light-seekers who are continually looking for ways to hone our vision.  But in our quest to find the light in our photography, we sometimes tend to overlook or diminish the other side to light…shadow.  Which is unfortunate because these unlit parts of a photograph are often the most intriguing.

In contrast to the light, shadows create conflict and tension and thereby add an element of mystery and drama to our images.

This style of photography is often referred to as Dark or Moody, and it is characterized by high contrast images with deep shadows and/or low light.  And moody photography works well with a variety of subjects – food, nature, still life, portraits, and even everyday photos.

There are many ways to achieve a dark and moody effect in your photos.  The simplest way I have found is to underexpose my shot.  In the image below, I underexposed this scene by two-thirds of a stop.

There are also a number of ways to get this look in your photos through post-processing.

In the photo above, I deepened the shadows, boosted the contrast, and increased clarity in Lightroom.

So this month at Focusing on Life, we encourage you to get into the mood of dark and moody photography.  And be sure to tag your images on Instagram with the #focusingonlife and/or share them with us in our Flickr pool.

Let the shadows point you to the light.  Let the shadows help you tell the story of the light.

Until next time,

Kelly