Winds of Winter

Winds of Winter :: Massachusetts

This was one of those beautiful, chaotic moments in nature where you feel both overwhelmed and at peace with the colors, textures and the cold breath of the season.  Mother Nature is truly an artist.

This image is also a prime example of why I love clouds and sky texture so damn much. 🙂

Attention to Detail

Connecticut Colors

Although I tend to love big sweeping landscapes, often, its the little details that make those scenes work.  Patterns, textures, colors, catching something at just the right moment…  They are just as important as a good sunset or a nice foreground.  Macros and details are an art form and skill set in their own right.

Peruvian Salt Harvest

A while back, I began putting together my “Free Banner Thank You’s”…just a little way to say I appreciate you guys.  My gift to you?  A spruced up FB page.  Now, when I go out on photo excursions, I try to keep a full eye our for nice landscape compositions, and half an eye out for “detail” shots.

Factory Folige Facebook Banner

I happened to be going through my “to-be-edited-still” photo folders, and it occurred to me that often, those very same “details taken with a purpose” shots are some of my favorite.  They’re not a big moody landscape or an emotional portrait…but they’re cozy, they’re interesting and they have a quiet confidence to them that I like.

West Coast Shamrock

For those of you who haven’t done so, check out my FB Page, like it, and then enjoy the banners folder.  For those of you who already have liked my page, you have my gratitude.  Word of mouth is my only form of marketing.  Your support is my inspiration…it helps me make time for just one more edit when I’m tired, and just one more photo-trip when I’m poor, and just one more sunrise when the warm bed is calling.  Your support helps me book weddings, and music promo gigs, and keep food on my table.  I couldn’t do this without you guys.  I’m so glad we’re taking this photo journey together. ❤

Sending gratitude your way.

XO

Shannon

Silence

The Sound of Silence

I think one of the best things about the monthly collaborative photo challenges that I co-host with Nick at Nick Exposed is that it encourages us to think outside of the box.  Not every idea we come up with will be a home run, but the experience we gain will be incrementally invaluable.

For June’s challenge – a photo Scavenger Hunt – the category of “Silence” had me scratching my head.  It was another scenario where we had to create an image of an intanglible concept.

To me, the opposite of silence is communication, and visual communication is the written…um…in this case, typed…word.  Therefore, the visual yin to communication’s yang is a blank sheet.  The unwritten.

**Speaking of photo challenges, as a reminder for those of you participating in the 10-Minute-Mini-Challenge that I am hosting with Will, make sure to have your entries in to wheretowillie@gmail.com by midnight CST tomorrow night!

Room With a View

Room With a View

This past weekend, I took a nice photowalk with my good friend Jared of Ramsdell Photography.  Our topic du jour was “old mills”.  I can’t speak for all of New England, but our little corner of the region seems to be full of old textile mills that pretty much beg to be photographed.

This particular building was loaded with texture and color, but the thing my eyes kept going back to was the penthouse suite.

So what did I do?  Crawl through some brush, using my body to push it back from the camera lens while I contorted myself into a pretzel to see through the viewfinder on an low, upward facing camera (managing to avoid something that looked suspiciously like poison ivy at the same time!)

Maybe I should re-name it a “Yoga-walk”? 😉

The Stanley Cup Playoffs!

Oh.  Wait.  That’s what I’m watching, not what this blog is about. (Go B’s!)

This blog is about a little thing called texture as it pertains to photography. Visual texture is the illusion of having physical texture. (Apparently no one told The Wik you can’t define a word with the word. So, as a supplement to that…)

Texture [teks-cher] (noun): the imitation of the tactile quality of represented objects. (Dictionary.com with the assist! Do they have assists in hockey?)

Ok, so now that we know what it issssss, how does it apply to photography?  And more importantly, why?

Texture – or rather, the appearance of texture – is generally applied to photos to either add interest and mood, or to help emphasize and isolate the subject of an image.  The first instance – of adding interest or mood – works in conjunction with color balance an image.  I’ve talked about that in the past here.  The texture aspect of it helps to give the viewer an impression of something.  For example, a grungy texture by itself may give the original image an edge to it.  Combine that with an underexposed image, desaturated colors or a color balance heavy on the blues, and you have instant moodiness!  It’s another tool in your arsenal to convey a message with your art.

If your intent is to help isolate a subject, rather than direct an emotion, then the texture is applied with a similar mindset as vignetting. You want to use the textures to draw the eye to the subject by creating white noise – which your brain will ignore – throughout the rest of the photo.  The part of the image that is left without texture…aka, the subject…will be the focal point.

The term texture can apply to pretty much anything that you would care to layer on top of a photograph for the aforementioned purposes.  This can be anything from a built in texture option in PhotoShop to another image – bokeh, crinkled paper, patterned fabric, greenery, construction materials…whatever – layered on top of the original photo.

The quick version of “how” is to open your original photo in Photoshop (or any editing software that does layers), and to create extra layers with the textures you want to include.  From there, you adjust the opacity sliders and mask out the sections that you want to leave untouched.  You may also want to adjust things like the warmth and contrast of the image.

There is no “right” way to texture an image.  Just like all other aspects of art, it’s a matter of taste.  You have to find what works for you, and the individual photo.  In this particular case, the intent was to emphasize the cement behind the subject, and to add to the moodiness of the image.  I used both Film Grain and Dust/Scratches options found in PhotoShop.  The image was desaturated and color balanced, and the normal portrait edits were made to remove obvious blemishes, sharpen, etc.

With Film Grain and Dust

And for comparison purposes, the image without texture.

No Textures