I've made the case for imperfect photography many times in the past
I have a few videos like this one that you can watch there
today, we are gonna talk about how we can make our photography more imperfect
when I say imperfect, I mean technically imperfect
when it comes to photography as an art
clean, sharp, properly exposed, in focus images are not necessarily the best way
to convey a message, a feeling
in fact, pictures with a lot of grain, some motion blur, deep dark shadows, blown out highlights
can make for photographs full of mystery, drama
perhaps, this is one of the reasons why film has gained so much popularity over the last few years
along with Polaroids or even DigiCams lately
because one could argue that cameras are just too good nowadays
they capture reality too well
the thing is that photography is not always about
recreating every single detail on a face or on a place
but about recreating what we felt
when we saw, when we experienced, when we witnessed that magical moment
or when we were in the presence of that person
also, you already know that I like images that ask questions instead of revealing the answers
we do this by leaving enough room for the imagination to fill those gaps
so let's talk about the ways we have to achieve this both in camera, in the field
like filters, lenses, and shooting techniques
and in post-processing, of course
because as usual, there are pros and cons of doing it in camera versus in post
that's why I do a little bit of both
when we do it in camera, the results look more natural, more organic
the downside is the commitment
we commit to an effect in the field and that is going to be baked in in the image forever
it's going to be very hard to change if not impossible
in contrast, post processing gives us a lot of flexibility
we can tailor the effect to the specific image
because one photograph might call for a stronger effect
another photograph might call for a weaker effect
we can play with this in post
we can experiment without destruction
the con of course is that we can't go too far in post or it will look pretty fake
even if this last point was going to fade away
to be irrelevant in the future, because technology keeps progressing especially with AI
even if we were able to create on the computer
whatever we want to create with just a couple of clicks
I think that a more balanced approach will still be the best way to go
because we as photographers, as artists, we have no replacement for being out there
in front of those magical conditions
because it is out there when we feel what we want to create
at the same time, by embracing a little bit of post-processing we
can make our lives a little bit less frustrating
because we can tweak them a little bit, just a little bit, to get there
to create what we saw, what we felt in the field
you know, it is very ironic that technology has progressed so much
that we spend so much money on the best tools for the job
then we go out and we buy filters that actually decrease the resolution
decrease the sharpness of our gear
like this filter that I have here, this is a glimmer glass
this is just one of the many kinds of filters out there for this purpose
they are diffusion filters, like soft focus, mist filters, and glimmer glass filters
the problem with these filters, the reason why I don't use them in my photography that much
is that there are way too many of them
as I said earlier, some photographs will call for a stronger effect
and some photographs will call for a weaker effect
for example, this one is a glimmer glass rated at 1
which is somewhere in the middle, it's not too strong, it's not too weak
and that is exactly the way I feel about these filters
another option, a cheaper one, I like cheaper options
is to use a UV filter and put some grease or maybe some water in front of it
there are some special lenses out there that create beautiful effects
think of Lensbaby lenses for example
I've never used one of them, I've never tried one of them
I really want to, I've really wanted to for a long time
but I'm afraid that I'm not going to use it very much
because, again, they are very opinionated lenses
the effect is baked in the image
there is no way back from there
that is the case with this lens that I have here
this is a pinhole Holga plastic lens
it's able to create beautifully imperfect images
but again, they are pinhole images
if that's the way you want to go, that's totally fine
but for me, sometimes a pinhole image is the way
and sometimes it's not
so even though I do like this lens and I do like some of the results I've gotten in the past
it's rarely my camera bag because it's only for very, very specific and special cases
I prefer to go with way more subtle effects here
and for that manual lenses are a much better option
nowadays, all the manual lenses that you can find out there are either old back from the film era
like this Konica Minolta 40mm 1.8 lens that I have here
or they are modern cheap lenses, for the most part
so they are not the sharpest tools out there
that fact alone is going to make for some more imperfect photography
but also, because it's a manual lens, you have to manually focus
it is inevitable that at some point you're gonna miss focus
and that might create some accidental great images
there are more things that we can do in camera to create more imperfect images
like long exposures
because no matter how steady your tripod is
if you are doing a very long exposure, that is gonna inevitably add some vibration to the image
it's not going to be as sharp as it would be if you were to
shoot it at 1/500th of a second for example
it's also going to create all sorts of effects in the image
like blurring out the the clouds, smoothing out the water, and stuff like that
I love long exposures, and if you want to step it up in the imperfection scale
you can always use welding glass, as I've talked in this video right here
another technique is ICM, or intentional camera movement
I have a video from the woods of Portland from a few years ago right here that you can watch
that was really fun
but what I do on a daily basis in camera is
one, to shoot wide open no matter which camera and lens I am using
and to shoot in low light, and bad weather conditions
again, I have a video where I make the case for shooting wide open right here
but basically lenses are softer when we shoot them at the maximum aperture
which makes the photographs less perfect
and of course, the lack of light and the bad weather conditions
because it creates that beautiful mysterious atmosphere
I have a video about shooting in bad weather here as well if you want to watch that
but basically, it comes down to the same concepts
because when we shoot in foggy weather, when we shoot in rainy weather
when there are clouds rolling in and rolling out
when we shoot at night
all of those elements hide parts of the landscape
hide parts of the background
hide parts of the subject
and it's revealing different compositions that leave room for the viewer's imagination
another way to achieve this is to shoot through glass when it's raining outside
I really like that
because some parts of the frame are gonna be in focus with a lot of detail
and some parts are not
so for the most part
shooting wide open and in bad weather is going to take me where I want to be in my photography
if I don't have that beautiful light that happens on rainy days, cloudy days, foggy days
I will use faster and prime lenses
because by using that shallow depth of field I can achieve a little bit of the same effect
you know, of making just some parts of the frame very clear
and some parts of the frame not clear at all
and as I said, whatever I do, I try to keep it subtle
so I have enough room to play with the images in post
I usually have a very good idea of what I want to create in the field
but sometimes, when I sit down in front of the computer
when I'm more relaxed, when I have more time to think
that could be years down the road
well, sometimes I change my mind and I see images that I didn't see there
the same way that we get better every time we go out and take photos
we get better at finding compositions and finding a new subjects
when we edit, when we do more post-processing
this applies as well to the analog darkroom
we get better at those things
so something that we might not be able to achieve
some post-processing techniques that we are not even able to think about right now
we might be able to do them 2-3 years from now
so that's why I think it's very important to give us margin of
error and flexibility for the future ourselves
I do believe that the post-processing part of our
workflow can be as important as what we do in the field
it can be as creative and sometimes even more of what we do in the field
let's talk about it
so even though this is pretty obvious in my work
I think it's still worth pointing out that the biggest thing that I do to make...
to create a gap between reality and my photography is, by far, shooting in black and white
that's a pretty big layer of abstraction to place on top of the real world
because there are no colors
our brains are used to the color,
it's very helpful when it comes to interpret what we are seeing
but without them, without that information, when we are looking at a monochrome image
our brains have to work just slightly harder to
make their own interpretation of what they are looking at
sometimes, that is very subtle
like in this example where the fog is the one creating the atmosphere
not so much the color
but in other cases, it is more pronounced
like this photo with the American flag
without the colors, we have to think slightly more about what is that we are looking at
take this image as another example
it's pretty clear that we are looking at water and sand underwater
but when we convert it to black and white, that is not so clear
besides black and white, there are a few more things that I do in post-processing
to make my images more imperfect
we're gonna start in no particular order from this light section here in Lightroom
what I usually do is I either take the shadows way down, or the blacks way down
because I want to have deep dark shadows with no details
but as you can see here in the curves
the point is not to have pure black values in the image
but to have the lack of detail
I actually don't like to have pure black, so that's why I raise the curve a little bit here
so I don't have those black, black tones
and the same with the highlights
I don't want pure white in my images
but I still want the highlights to be a little bit blown out without details
now, we have to go much farther down to find the next things I do with my photographs
this is just a specific example for this image,
but this is something I do in most of my photographs
I usually add a lot of grain
especially when there are a lot of dark parts in the frame, or bright parts
because they have no information, no details
the grain adds a little bit of texture to that part of the image
and also, adding grain, especially when we increase the size of that grain
that decreases the detail, the sharpness of the image, and I quite like that
in the same way, I add just the tiniest amount of haze into the image
again, I fine tune this depending on the image
but that is a good foundation where to start
I also add some vignetting, to focus the attention on the
subject that is usually in the middle of the frame
if not, I will play with some masks to achieve the same effect but just not in the center
talking about masking, I want to show you
a couple of examples where I use gradients to remove more detail
to create that mystery that I've been talking about
this is a good example, this is a road in the mountains
I'll show you the original one
this is the one
so as you can see, there is plenty of details, of trees here along the road
what I saw when I was there was not all the leaves, all the branches and all the trees there
I saw the road isolated in a mountain, with all the fog
and that's what I tried to recreate here
and to do that I created a mask where I selected just the lines of the road
I kept those untouched, while I was tweaking the rest of the frame
so I was able to take all those shadows and blacks down
so there is almost no details on the trees anymore
you can still make that this is a mountain road
but all your attention is focused on the road, the fog
and that it disappears in the distance
so it makes you think about where this road is coming from, where it's going to
and you don't get, let's say, distracted by other details
that even though they might be beautiful, they are not what I'm trying to convey here in this image
and that is pretty much all I do to keep my photography imperfect
because cameras today are just too good and they capture way too much
the camera is going to record everything that was there
and I think that our goal as photographers and artists
is to capture that first feeling that we had
not necessarily what was there
I hope this all made sense, I hope you learned a little bit more about my process
I would love to know about you though
I would love to know if you make your photography imperfect in any ways as well
if you use special lenses, filters
if you do something special in camera or whatever you do in post processing or the darkroom
so please share your thoughts and what you think about this in general in the comments down below
that's all for today
thank you so much for watching
and see you in the next one!