Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Searsport House Under a Full Moon, Part 2

The Searsport house under a full moon
Here's a more recent edit of the Searsport house photo shoot. I know Photoshop has a bad rep from all the  over-edited and distorted images that are out there, but it really is a digital darkroom, and using it takes skill and practice. When I first started taking photographs, I thought I needed to get it right in the camera. Then I read Ansel Adams' book, Examples, and realized that half the work he did to achieve a great photo was done in the darkroom. If Ansel Adams, who I think everyone agrees was a great artist and a technical master, needed to lighten parts of a print and darken others, then I don't feel so guilty about needing to do that, too. It feels less like cheating and more like part of a process. A perfect photo right out of a digital camera is as rare as a perfect one out of a film camera. Now my goal is to get my digital photo as good as I can in-camera, and learn to use the digital darkroom tools more gracefully. The more I learn, the better my images look.

P.S. Right now I use Photoshop Elements, and have just bought Lightroom.

P.P.S. I don't get any commissions for mentioning this.

2 comments:

  1. This house has ALWAYS had a pull for me too. This photo is more spooky than the incarnation of it in my mind but I love it. I think I've had a space for the image of this house somewhere in the recesses of my mind since the late 80's when I saw it en route to Orono as a student. I also love your other sea glass, natural history collection photos. Thanks.

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  2. Hi Becky,
    It gets a little spookier every year, though, doesn't it? I used to daydream about fixing it up!

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