“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Aristotle

This morning I met with some friends of mine for coffee. My buddy Hans tossed out this quote he’d recently read in a runner’s magazine of all places. He thought it might spur some challenging conversation. We were discussing this more from a theological bent and how this effect our life, work and art.  So, in the tradition of Socratic dialogue I offer you the same.

The first part of this is really the premise and the second part the application. The premise is “We are what we repeatedly do.” A lazy man derives his title because he’s lazy. A hard-working man, the same. A painter or a photographer because that is what they do. Maybe this is the case for you, do spend more time taking photos than just about anything else or is it just a weekend hobby for you? What makes this difficult for me to hear is I spend more time writing a blog, tweeting, working with Lightroom and keywording photos than taking photos. But then, just maybe, that’s what a photographer is these days or maybe, that’s what a working photographer is (I hesitate using the word “professional”.)  How much time are you actually spending on your craft?  Most photographers I know are almost addicted to taking pictures. They can’t help but, it’s in their blood, “it’s what they do”, thus it is what they are.  I worked with a guy that used to say, “if you want to know someone’s real values, you watch how they spend their time (not listen to their opinions or posturing). Ouch!

It’s the second part of the statement but I find the most intriguing. “Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  I think what Aristotle is saying here, is that excellence is not an accident or a fluke. It is not a one time thing. Oh, sure, you can have an excellent photograph. But that does not make you an excellent photographer. The excellent photograph might very well be a fluke and you, on the other hand be a lousy photographer. Give a monkey a camera and eventually he’ll come up with an award-winning photograph. Quite frankly, there’s probably a lot of monkeys with cameras out there dubbing themselves excellent photographers. No, I think Aristotle is absolutely right here. Excellence is gained by habitually working at your art. Aristotle goes on to say;

“Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.”

Now there is a lot of words! But I think he is saying, you are excellent at something when you have the means to be able to choose to do it well and to do that thing well over and over again. He doesn’t just leaving it there, the last part says “in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.” In other words you’ve made right choices by what you know and the results are excellence. This ability to choose excellence time and time again, gives you the moniker of excellent at your craft.

So, how do you achieve excellence so that you can choose it? Aristotle answers that as well, when he says, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.” (interesting that he calls excellence an art.) This one is pretty straightforward. You train at being great and you make it a habit. This kind of goes back to the whole Zen aspect of things we’ve talked about before. You do something over and over again until it becomes a part of you and you can do it without thinking about it. I’ve had several e-mails lately asking about composition and how do I frame an image etc. The fact is, most of the time I don’t think about it, it just comes naturally when I put the camera to my eye. But it wasn’t always that way. I had to work at it. I used the rule of thirds to train me. I use the concept of visual weight to beat my creative eye into submission. I consciously thought about it while framing images, over and over again until now it just happens. Wax on, wax off. Take off the jacket. Drop the jacket. Hang the jacket. Are you working at becoming an excellent photographer? Don’t think it will just come easy?

Related posts

• No related posts.

Photographers can cause ripples.

Recently I had an email from a reader who had some basic photography questions. He was dealing with some pretty common issues that most beginners deal with. He has been frustrated that his images, though taken in some very exotic locations don’t seem to grab the viewer. After I looked over some of his images and made some strong suggestions, I got the email below.  His questions are typical for where he is in his photographic journey. I figured the answers I would give might be helpful for others in the same place. So, I thought I would share them with you. I hope any beginners reading this, will find them helpful.

Beginner: Regarding composition — is there a book that you would recommend above the others?

Matt: Yes, several. But the one to start with is by Michael Freeman called “The Photographer’s Eye” from Larks Books. Michael goes into great depth covering composition and design. This book has really become a standard for beginners and advanced photographers alike, and no better place to start.

Beginner: The human side of my struggle in composition. A lot of the time I am walking around through a market etc and taking a lot of pictures on the fly.  I am not looking at the images after I take them but just trying to get the scene before people start to react to the camera.

Matt: This reminds me of an old joke. A guy walks into see his doctor and tells him, “Doc, it hurts when I do this.” The Doctor replies wisely, “Well, stop doing that!” The answer is stop walking through the market and stop and experience the market and it’s life. You will never get more than”snaps” if all you do is breeze through a place and take snaps. We get good images because we seek them out, we watch for them, we observe life around us. If you are there for a few minutes and raise a camera to your face, snap a picture and then move on, yes, people will react. But, the converse is true if you slow down and join in what is happening around you. Buy some fruit. Ask questions. Show them you are genuinely interested in them, once they see that, they drop their guard and you can take plenty of photos. You will find most of them will not mind you taking their image. The bonus is that many of them will go about their daily business and pay no attention to you. Now your subjects are relaxed around you, they don’t feel threatened and you get candid images that you can take your time making, frame in the camera and not feel rushed.

Beginner: In practice how do you deal with this?  How do you try to really compose the picture well while at the same time mitigate against the scene changing with the introduction of the camera. How much time do you spend framing a shot vs cropping later?

Matt: As I said above, you really need to slow down and experience the scene. At the risk of sounding rather Zen, imagine it this way. If you throw a stone into a puddle you will make quite the splash and plenty of ripples. But wait and those ripples subside and everything goes back to normal except, the stone is in the middle of the puddle. Think of yourself as that stone. When you first enter a scene you create quite a stir. The best thing you can do is calmly wait with your camera at your side. Let the ripples subside and eventually people get used to you being around and start to relax and soon you will be allowed to shoot without much changes in the scene around you. As for the second part of your question; I frame the image I want in the camera. If I have to crop in Lightroom it usually is only around 5- 10% of the image.

Beginner: For rule of thirds and off center subjects, how do you setup your cameras auto focus system for times when you are doing “quick shots” and moving fast?  Typically I set it to use the center point so that with my old camera it wouldn’t pick the wrong thing to focus on.  What do you do?  Do you let the camera decide where the best focus point is in those situations?  Are you able to just really quickly change the auto focus points on the camera?  Or do you focus lock and then frame?

Matt: It is not a good thing to ever let the camera decide things. The camera is rather stupid, it doesn’t have a very big brain. This is the very reason we don’t shoot JPEG. We don’t want the camera making decisions on how the image should look, right? So, for heavens sake, why would you let the camera decide the focal point of the image? You have two choices as you mentioned and I do both. You can scroll through your AF points and set the one point that corresponds to the composition you think you will be shooting. I only do this if you have time and good contrast. The outer focal points are not as sensitive to contrast as the center point and thus not as quick to focus. The other way, is  to keep the center AF point your active point; focus and then recompose. Using the center point will give you a better chance at nailing that focus as it is more sensitive to contrast and focuses quicker. However, be careful. The fact is if you are using a very narrow depth of field and you are close to the subject, you can in fact focus on say someones eyes, then recompose and then be out of focus. The film plan is a flat surface and if you are close to a subject, when you tilt the camera to the eyes and then recompose you change the distance of the film plane to the subjects eye. The change is very slight, but if you are working with a 1.2 lens like I often do, then you might see a difference. It really comes down to using the technique that works for you for that moment. But, do me a favor, don’t ever keep all the AF points active and thing you cover all your focal bases. If that is your method, you are in for some out of focus images.

Beginner: So far I typically snap the picture as quickly as possible (and keep moving) and then crop later.  But I am betting there is a better way.

Matt: There’s that snatch and grab thing going again. Take your time, compose in the frame, and savor the moment. Observe your surroundings. Save your pixels and compose in the camera.

Beginner: I guess in the end I see the distractions (telephone lines etc) but I am not always sure how to change the composition without changing the shot by my presence.

Matt: You just answered your own question. You have to change your presence as you put it. I would simply say change your position. When looking through a lens and composing an image, often – maybe even most of the time – distractions can be eliminated by shifting a few inches or feet. Look at the example below. The first image had all kinds of distracting elements behind the woman. But, by moving over to the right a few feet, not only did I find a cleaner background, I also (and this is a big thing!) found much better light. Remember, when you move, the quality of the light changes. The fact is, the light stays the same but the angle you view the light changes. So, beware of  the background as well as the light quality. I will change my position for either or both, as in this case.

Beginner: Last question –  I have lightroom, but I don’t have the full version of Photoshop do I need it?

Matt: No. In fact 95 to 98% of my work never leaves Lightroom anymore. Lightroom is so incredably powerful you only really need Photoshop to do a few things like cloning  or perhaps some difficult spot removal. I will say this, that the new Photoshop CS5 has Content aware delete and cloning that is remarkable. I have never seen anything like it. But, in short, no. You really can get by on Lightroom alone. Do your self a big favor and make sure you have Lightroom 3. There are some really great books that can be of some great help. Scott Kelby’s, “Lightroom 3 book for digital photographers” and Martin Evening’s “The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book, The Complete Guide for Photographers” Both look like real winners. I just got both of these yesterday from my buddies at PeachPit. Then of course, I can’t mention Lightroom 3 with out talking about David duChemin’s new book hot off the press, “Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom“. I don’t have it yet. But David gave me a sneak peak sometime back and, like all David’s books, it promises to be the one you keep returning to. More than a “how-to” book on Lightroom. This book promises to help you use Lightroom to express your vision that you had when you took the image to begin with.

I hope this has been helpful. If nothing more than a gentle reminder that you can’t stand with your feet nailed to the floor and expect to get great images. You have to work the scene and the light. Spend time with your subjects and learn to see the image in the camera when you take it.

Related posts

• Composition: Prescriptive or Descriptive? (2)
• The Photo Essay: Give it Your Best Shot (33)
• Self Promotion (0)
• QUICK! Worldwide Photo Walk Register Now! (0)
• Location Scouting (5)

Photo by Ramy Salem

I talk to myself.
There – I’ve said it. I know, you think I’m nuts. That’s not new news–but that’s a whole other topic.
The fact is, I talk to myself. Whenever I put the camera to my face, I talk to myself. Sometimes audibly, all the time in my head. I ask myself what am I shooting? Where is the picture? Where’s the story? What’s the story? Is this the best angle? And so many other questions. Maybe some photographers look at a scene and can view it through the lens of their mind. I can’t. I need to have the camera to my face. I need to look through the camera and view it through the lens that’s on it. I can get a guesstimate without putting it to my face. In fact, that’s how I choose what lens to put on the camera, by experience. I know pretty close what it will look like with a 17 mm lens or 200 mm lens. I know the amount of distortion an object will have with a 17 mm and I know from experience if that’s what I want or not to help tell the story. I know the compression I get with the 200 mm lens and whether or not that will help tell the story. But there are so many other questions left unanswered. So I raise the camera and lens to my face and I talk to myself while I frame the subject.

Do you talk to yourself? Is that something that you do to help you take your photos? If it’s not, it probably should be. You should be asking yourself all kinds of questions when you look through the lens of your camera. Not just about what you see, but what you don’t see. Is this the best angle? Is there anything distracting behind the subject? Maybe I should move three steps to the left. Is that bit of sky going to be too bright behind my subject? Is there a pole running through someone’s head? Is there a horizon line or horizontal line of any kind going through my subject head? These are all important things to be asking. You don’t find the answers without asking the questions.

We’re talking about being observant with purpose. Asking yourself specific questions to help develop your eye. Get into the habit and I promise you’ll have better images and you’ll tell a better story.

Related posts

• What’s all this talk about vision? (13)
• Dear Beginner, You make ripples! (4)
• Composition: Prescriptive or Descriptive? (2)

There are several things taking my time up lately and most of them are rather mundane. I’m spending a lot of time keywording photographs. For some of you, this is not very important, all you need to do is keyword an image so you can find it quickly in your library. However, for many of us, this task, however painful and boring is critical. It ensures that others who are looking for a photograph can find what they are looking for. So someone who’s looking for a story, a concept or even a thought that needs to be illustrated with an image, will be able to type  into a search engine a word that hopefully illustrates that point and presto, an image fitting their need pops up!

Here is how it might work. Lets say an in-flight magazine for an airlines like Egypt Air or Gulf Air is writing an article about an Egyptian destination, and they’re looking for photographs to illustrate it, they may have specific things in mind. Lets put ourselves in the shoes of an editor for a minute. We need a few photographs that  illustrates traditional Egyptian culture. So we go to a stock house like PhotoShelter and type in some keywords that we think might link us to some images that will illustrate our article. In this case, we type in Egypt and galabeya (the long traditional Egyptian cloak worn by the men). What do we get? Well, several picture from Marco Ryan and hopefully the photo up above and a few more.  The point is, you need to second-guess what terms people will be using to search. Actually, for the photo above the keywords are;

carpet, Egypt, galabeya, headdress, headgear, Islam, Male, Man, Muslim, Nile, Nubian, oriental rug, persian rug, robe, rug, sand, sunset, traditional, village, white

Good keywording helps sell your images.  The trick to all this is consistency and quite frankly tenacity.  Consistency is really another  term for a controlled vocabulary. By maintaining a controlled vocabulary it makes searching easier.  An example given by the folks over at controlledvocabulary.com (yes there really is a website by that name) is the Yellow Pages. Most everyone has used Yellow Pages in a phone book. When you look up “Car Dealers” you fine a notation to “see Automobile Dealers.” In a simple way this is what were talking about. Now, I’m not going to go into details on how controlled vocabulary works for two reasons:  first, I don’t fully understand it myself, and second, the people at controlledvocabulary.com already understand it and have a whole website explaining it.  By tenacity I mean, tenacity–sticking to it. It’s boring and tedious work to keyword photographs. But if you want to sell your images you need to have good keywording. Quite frankly, almost any keywords are better than no keywords.

I see keywording a little bit like backing up your hard drive. It’s a mundane task that is essential. There is some great software out there that makes backing up the hard drive easy and painless. I wish there was some software that would do the same with keywording a photograph. But, I think we are a long way from a photo being read by a computer and having the objects in it being identified and listed as keywords. Even if it could (and that would be a great start), there are still concepts within the photo that could never be read by computer like; loneliness, anger, joy etc… Maybe someday.

Related posts

• Red Shirts and Black Smoke (3)
• Multimedia: The Camel Market of Cairo (12)
• Guest Blog: Marco Ryan (13)
• Go with the flow, or in this case the light. (10)
• Egypt: Aswan Nubian Village (11)

In yesterday’s post, someone noted in the comments that they would like to see more examples. What a perfect lead in, I had already planned on showing you some of the student’s worked from our last Lumen Dei workshop in India and at the Kumbh Mela. Most of the participants as well as Gavin Gough and myself produced a slide show. All the student’s work was all produced using the demo version of SoundSlides. You will see at the beginning of each show a brief splash screen that states it was made on the demo version. Another thing you will notice is the template that each student used was different. Some have a gray background while others a black. All but Paula have titles on their show. Paula’s has simply “headline here…”. This because she didn’t enter the name of her show, yet chose to show the title in the options. I am telling you all this to give you a peek into how the software works and what you can do even with the demo software.

Gavin and I decided that we should each do a show to demo for the students and to show what could be done using SoundSlides. You’ve already seen my essay, Wasim the Sari Maker.  Below is the show that Gavin made for the students, I think you’ll get a little a chuckle watching it.

The next example is from our only male participant on the workshop, Kevin Dowie. Kev, (I can call him Kev because he’s from Australia, and that’s the way they talk in Australia) started the trip off concerned about how to approach his subjects . He was amazed at how physically close Gavin and I got to our subjects when we were photographing them. I think you’ll see from his essay that Kevin was able to get over his inhibitions and produce a fantastic piece of work.

The next student’s essay is from Ursula Wall.  Ursula focused on one of the four elements, that is; earth, air, water and fire. She focused on fire and did so very creatively. This is a wonderful example how a simple music bed can add so much depth to a photo essay.

Lesley (not spelled with an ie) Fisher took the “every day” of India and made it special. She covered the ubiquitous chai shop. Usually just a hole in the wall that is so unremarkable, you can walk by and never see it. Yet Lesley not only saw it, but made a wonderful essay to show to the world.

Finally, our last essay was created by Paula Bulancea. Paula decided to step out of the box and shoot everything in a vertical or portrait format. For slide show like these it is often best to have everything in a horizontal format. This gives continuity to show. It’s visually jarring to see a slide show proceed from several horizontal images, to a vertical, then back to horizontal images. Yet, by creating the whole show in a vertical format, Paula was able to pull it off. She’d heard that many older people come to Varanasi to live out the remainder of their days and die on the banks of the Ganges. In her research she actually didn’t find this to be the case, but she did uncover an interesting segment of the society, that of the aging residents of Varanasi.

Remember, you have an opportunity to own the software that these people used to create these shows. Just go to the comments of the post found HERE and tell me what story you would create an slide show on if you owned SoundSlides Plus. Check back tomorrow announcing the winner on this blog.

Related posts

• Lumen Dei: Haridwar – The Kumbh Mela (3)
• Lumen Dei: Kumbh Mela Day 2 (2)
• Sadhu Portrait #2 (8)
• Multimedia: Wasim The Varanasi Sari Maker (4)
• May’s Wallpaper (0)

Matt at work. Photo by Lesley Fisher

Monday we started talking about photo essays. We began by looking at SoundSlides, a great product to use to help you produce engaging photo stories. In fact, Monday’s post marked the beginning of a giveaway that will last throughout this week and culminate on Friday with some lucky person getting a licensed copy of SoundSlides Plus. So, today I want to talk more about the actual essay itself.

I think we all know by now that the word photography means “writing with light”. But just because someone has a tool to write with doesn’t mean they know how to write. For that matter, just because someone gets published doesn’t mean they know how to write. We all know there’s plenty of pretty bad books out there. But I digress. We were talking about the photo essay. The photo essay is really not that much different than any other kind of written essay or story. A photo essay should really have a simple but clearly defined flow with a clearly defined beginning middle and end. The object is to take a limited number of photos, say 5 to 35 images, and to tell a story with them. Those images must take the viewer and unfold something akin to a plot line before them, all in a period of 3 or 4 minutes. What I hope to do in this post is to give you a list of the important elements of a photo essay. Sort of a shot list. Some people use different names than I give them, but the concept is the same.

Not all Photo Stories Are Created Equal

There are different types of photo essays. Some deal with a linear event that unfolds over a given time frame. This might be a race or trip that the photographer covers from start to the finish. A great example of this is the essay Kingsley’s Crossing. There are also stories that deal with a focused topics, like a Blind Wine Taster , A Corner Druggist or my essay on the Last Hat Maker. Other essays might deal with event, like Thaipusam. Whatever the type of photo essays are doing, it will still need to be filled with photos that work together to tell the story. One thing I tell class that I teach is that each photo must be good enough to stand by itself. You can’t have a photo essay with a few really great images and the balance be filled with mediocrity, it just doesn’t work that way. Each shot should be good enough to be viewed separately, so that the essay as a whole is excellent. But each image has it place in the story. Below we will talk about what that place is.

Before going into the different types of shots needed in an essay, I want to talk about the essay itself and how to prep for it. One of the things I see frequently among students who are trying their hand at creating a photo story, is they create it as they go. They go out shooting throughout the day and then as they’re out they try to think of a topic. That’s going about it backwards. The best thing you could do would be to walk around the city or subject you’re interested in photographing, all the while keeping the camera in the camera bag and just observe. “Keep your eyeballs peeled”, as my dear ole’ daddy used to say. See if you can see a theme or story emerge. Spend time with people talk to him here what’s important to them and a story might just bubbled to the surface. This is not to say a story can’t be an assignment. In fact, that’s the way most photojournalist work. They’re given an assignment and told to cover it photographically. Either way, you have to understand what it is you’re shooting before you put the camera to your face and that take time and observation.

Another helpful way to approach an essay is to create a shot list. Using the type of shots listed below, think through ideas and concepts that you want to grab photographically. After spending time with the Cheese Man of Kashmir, I knew there were several shots I had to get. One was a Detail shot of milking poured, another was of Medium shot of Chris working with his Gujjar associates. If you can, create a shot list before you go out it can be a huge help. But don’t limit yourself to the list. Better to have too many shots than not enough.

The Shot List

(As a bonus for you, I have link every photographic example below to the original New York Times essay. Enjoy!)

1. Hook Shot.

This shot is sometimes called a lead shot. It’s the shot grabs you or hook you and draws you into the essay. Sometimes it’s the first shot of the essay. Other times it appears somewhere inside the photo essay, but is used as the essay’s cover or thumbnail image. It is and image that is often very creative and leaves the viewer wanting  information about the topic.   The literary equivalent to a Hook shot is the first few words that grab you in a novel. Remember this sentence? “The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail.” – Peter Benchly, Jaws. Those first few words grabbed readers and sucked them in and they where hooked. The Hook shot should do the same.

"A Withering Harvest in Florida" Photo: Chip Litherland for The New York Times

2.  Establishing Shot.

The establishing shot does pretty much what it sounds like it does. It lays the visual context for the story. It is often a wide shot that shows the setting or the environment where the story takes place or the character lives or works. The shot often is the very first shot of the essay. If it’s not the first it will be included in one of the first few shots. The literary equivalent of this is usually found on the first page of the novel. It is when the author paints a written description of where things are taking place. ” It was a dark and stormy night…”

"Cairo Aglow at Ramadan" Photo: Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times

3.  Medium Shot.

At this point in the story there’s momentum building up. The medium shot serves to inform the viewer who are the characters and what they are doing. The shot should include both the subject and it’s surrounding. If your story has people in it, and often the shot will have two or three people and all interacting in some way. You might have an individual working with some equipment or doing some job. But the image should be wide enough to see the environment. It’s not a detail shot.

"The Resurgence of the Hazaras" Photo: Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

4. Detail Shot.

As the name implies the shot has to do with the details. These shots add flavor to the story, almost as the spices does to soup. It is the detail shot that that creates intimacy with the viewer. Can you imagine a story where characters walk through nondescript hallways and streets? It would leave readers without any sense of time or place. And so it is with a detail shot in a photo essay, it gives our viewers a sense of place. A detail shot anchors the story.

"High-Speed Connections" Photo: Laura Pedrick for The New York Tim

5.  Portrait shot.

Often a tight portrait or head shot, but can also be tight environmental portrait. This shot gives a face to your characters. It make the story personal to someone. Even if your character is not a human, a portrait can be important. Let’s say you’re doing a story on a racehorse. He would still want a portrait of the horse.

"In South Africa, a Resurfacing of Violence" Photo: Robin Hammond for The New York Times

6. The Gesture.

Others have called this the Exchange Shot. I like that title as well. But I use the word gesture because I feel like it’s more than just an exchange. It can be someone shooting basketballs or running. But, as the term exchange shot implies, often times it is interaction between two subjects in the story. There’s usually movement involved in some sort of interchange between the subjects. By having this shot in the essay we keep the essay from becoming a series of portraits. The gesture shot allows us to experience life within the essay.

"A ‘Yooper’ in the Abortion Fight" Photo: Sally Ryan for The New York Times

7.  Closure.

Except for the establishing shot which should always come at the first of the photo essay, the only other shot that has a definite place within the essay is this one. The closure, as the name implies, it is the parting shot. It draws things to an end. It’s the “ride off into the sunset” photo. This shot provides resolution for the story and puts it to bed.

"Remembering Hardware" Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

Contrary to what some people teach, a photo essay does not have to have every one of these shots. It should have most but there is no rule. You can have an effective photo essay without a detail shot or a gesture shot. I personally think the more of these you have, the chances you have at better telling the story in a compelling manner. But the goal is the story not the process. So feel free to go on break the rules.  Think through a storyline, take this list with you and go out and shoot. Trust me, you get better every time you do it.

Related posts

• Self Promotion (0)
• Depth of Field: Trey Ratcliff (9)
• GIVEAWAY + Review: SoundSlides Plus (34)
• Win a Zink Pogo Printer! (0)
• When We’re Simply Human (4)

This week we will be looking at what it takes to create a well done and communicative multimedia photo essay. I will be introducing you to some of tools it takes to create these effective presentations. We’ll also be taking a look at the type of photos you need in an essay to build the story up and keep the interest of the viewer.

As far as tools go, one of the most effective tools for integrating photos and sound into a slide show is an application called SoundSlides Plus. I have use it on almost all my slide shows. I also give demos of the software out to my workshop and most of the NGOs I coach. SoundSlides is a very intuitive, simple and effective tool for presenting your photo essay or simple slide show to the world. I’m excited to be able to give away a free copy of the full version of SoundSlides Plus to one of my lucky readers. I’ll tell you at the end of this post how you can have your chance to win a copy of SoundSlides Plus. But, before that, I want to give you a quick overview of the application.

When you open the application the first thing you see is a request for you to either open an existing project or create a new one (see fig 1). Let me create a new show just for this demonstration. We’ll title this demo “New Kumbh Mela” (fig 2). SoundSlides then creates a folder and some essential files that it will need to produce your slide show. Now you’re given the option to load your images and sound file (fig 3). Click on the JPG button  and navigate to where your images are held. SoundSlides works only with JPEGs. Once you load all your images is now time to load any audio file you want to use. Simply navigate to where your audio file is held and upload it (fig 4). As far as audio formats go SoundSlides works natively with MP3s.  After loading the JPEGs and audio files, the main window of SoundSlides opens. Here is where you will do all the editing of your shows timing and image placement as well as other things like captioning.

Believe it or not you’re about 80% done. Now all you need to do is drag and drop the thumbnails of your images into the positions you want them (fig 5).Once arranged like you want, there is a handy little option found under the tools menu that allows you to spread your images out equally (fig 6). If you don’t want your images playing all at the same rate, you can drag the edge of an image in the time line to lengthen or shorten the amount of time it shows (fig 7). At this point,  if you wanted to show your slide show you could. Basically it’s done. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

Even though your slide show may be technically done, you probably want to tweak it a little more.  There are a few more ways to tidy it up and to make it look a little bit more professional. One option is to add captions to each image. If you have captioned your images prior to importing them there is a good chance that the information is in the metadata of the image file and if it is SoundSlides will read it. So extra work on captioning may not be needed. If you haven’t captioned your images before hand, it’s not a problem. SoundSlides gives you a window called “Slide Info” here you can add captions to each slide (fig 8).

SoundSlides provides users with some pretty basic slide show templates in a “Template” window (fig 9) or you can create a custom template (fig 10). The template is really just creates the HTML code for the player and web page for your show. In the template window you have options to tweak the color of the background, the text, whether to have captions showing by default, whether to show the scrub bar or not and many other options (fig 11).  The next window to be concerned about is called, “Project Info”. Here users are given space to write in the title of the show as well any credits and copyright information (fig 12). Then, the last window is the “Audio” window. This window simply give you the option reload or delete the audio that you have in the program (fig 13). This comes in handy when you realize your audio is too long or too short or you just didn’t feel like it was appropriate and you want to change it out for a different audio bed.

Up to this point you have only been able to see your show within the application’s main window. But wouldn’t you like to preview it on a big screen, the way others will see it? Now comes the fun part. Just hit the test button (fig 14) at the bottom of the page and watch SoundSlides create a web page featuring your slide show (fig 15).  If you like what you see and everything seems to be the way you want it, the next step is for you to publish it. To publish the show all you have to do is hit the export button (fig 16) and SoundSlides will export your slide show to a folder called “publish_to_web”. You will find this folder located within the project folder (fig 17). Rename publish_to_web to whatever you want it called in the URL (I called mine “kumbh_short”) and then just load it to your server and your done. Click this LINK to see the show I produced for this demo hosted on it’s on page. If you are familiar with the shows I  produce here for this blog you know I usually embed them into my blog posts. To do that, SoundSlides has provided a page to create a custom embed code for your work. You can visit that page HERE.

What if you don’t want an interactive show like we have created for this demo? What if you want a simple video of your slide show? Well, the good folks at SoundSlides have provided a link HERE for you to upload your show in a zip file. They will then convert it for you for free. You will be emailed a link where you can download a MP4 version of your show.

Like I said, pretty darn easy. Of course being so easy, there are some drawbacks to the application. Things that I hope will be improved in later versions. SoundSlides doesn’t handle subtitles very intuitively. It uses something called “lower thirds” and it is very clunky. If you have to make changes to the length of a slide in the middle of the show it can be completely devastating to any slide that falls after the one you’re adjusting. The time line gets completely messed up. The workaround on is to put the time line navigator bar (for lack of a better term) over the picture you’ve just increased or decreased the time of, then go up to the menu bar and choose the option under Tools, ” Spread remaining images equally”. This is not perfect but it helps.

I’ve been told by the folks at SoundSlides, that an upgrade is coming out soon and it will have the option for creating embed code right in the player. That will be really nice for sharing your work. I would love to know what other options and changes are coming out in the next version.

Okay time to explain the giveaway. You now know the basics of how to create a SoundSlides multimedia show. So now, I want to hear from you how you would use SoundSlides? I would like you to write in the comments section on this page a very short description of a project or story you might tell using SoundSlides. All entries must be posted by Thursday May 20th, at 12 am Penang, Malaysia time ( GMT +8). I will then announce the winner on Friday’s blog post. Tell your friends; Tweet this on the wibiya bar below and tell your FaceBook friends this competition is running. Let’s spread the word!

Related posts

• Multimedia: Wasim The Varanasi Sari Maker (4)
• Lumen Dei Trophies: Examples of SoundSlides by our Students (10)
• The Photo Essay: Give it Your Best Shot (33)
• The Last Lantern Maker (29)
• Lumen Dei: Haridwar – The Kumbh Mela (3)

If you’re reading a story and everything goes according to plan, everyone gets along and there is no conflict at all in the pages of the book, that would be a very boring book. Conflict in a story, as in life can get your heart beating. Remember the time you had conflict with that particularly irritating individual?  Do you remember how your heart raced? Remember how your hands shook? You were irritated, angry and your blood boiled. Whether you were right or wrong, the fact is you felt alive. This is what conflict does. It creates emotion that helps deliver a message. It helps maintain interest. It can keep an audience captive. Part of the reason, is you don’t know what’s happening next. It’s  plays off the concept of  “the gap of knowledge”. George Loewenstein, behavior economist at Carnegie Mellon University says,“Curiosity happens when we feel gaps in our knowledge.”  This is why the classic “whodunit” is so powerful. You’re left with wondering what’s going to happen. You want to stick around to the end. You need to know!

In conflict within the image, the viewer wants to know what’s going to happen. There is an uneasiness felt. In the image above we view a rather smug looking young Muslim man standing in the doorway of a mosque. A woman behind him looks as if she wants to go in but isn’t quite sure. The man’s body language with his arms crossed, his smug look, and the fact that his standing in the middle of the doorway gives the impression that he’s barring the entrance. Whether it’s true conflict or not, it’s implied. Interestingly, this would not be as strong if you did not know a little something about Islam. The person that doesn’t know that there are religious barriers (called purdah) between men and women in this faith might not feel the conflict in the image. Sometimes this lack of understanding of the subject matter can be overcome with visual clues, as in the next image.

Here we have almost the same kind of conflict happening. Except, this time there’s no man standing as the barrier (at least not intentionally). This time it is a sign. The sign clearly states that women are not allowed inside. It doesn’t matter your views on Islam, you still experience conflict and are drawn into the image.  It would be as if I had a photograph of a green bench with a sign that said “Wet paint do not touch!”, and someone sitting next to it on the ground. Doesn’t matter what you feel about wet paint, you still are seeing conflict and are drawn into the photograph and held. In the image above, this conflict is heightened by the woman having her hands to her face as if she is crying. Actually, she has just finished praying, and in Islamic fashion she is drawing her hands over her face, as if washing in the blessing she has just received.

Conflict doesn’t have to be human. Conflict in an image can be something as simple as one horizontal line intersecting with multiple vertical lines. It doesn’t have quite the emotional impact, but nonetheless it’s unsettling and it maintains interest of the viewer. Of course, it’s more powerful anytime the conflict involves humans. Why?  Because we relate to it. We fall on one side or the other in the conflict. We have all seen the wet paint signs and want to touch the bench. We have all been barred from going someplace we’ve wanted to go.  We relate. Capturing this kind of conflict in an image is actually not that easy. But when you do find it and are able to photograph it, you can create a powerful image.

Related posts

• What some Muslims want to tell you. (0)
• Multimedia: The Last Hat Maker (5)

If there is one question I get whenever I teach or discuss composition it is, “Yeah but do you shoot with all these compositional rules in mind or is it something you see afterwards?”  To put it another way, are these compositional rules prescriptive or descriptive? And the answer, of course, is a little of both.

Now, when I run a seminar or workshop and teach a load of compositional rules, I don’t expect my students to go out and start applying all of the rules right away when they are shooting. The fact is, when we go shooting, we are thinking about the subject almost to the point of becoming myopic. We become oblivious to everything else around us. Hopefully, we will try to think about a few of the basic rules of composition at the same time, such as thinking about where the subject falls in the frame, where the lines or elements in the frame are that we can use to draw the viewers eye to the subject. But there are a whole host of compositional elements that we never think to look for in a photo. And quite frankly, most of those would fall in the category I’d call descriptive.

While cropping, positioning the subject in the frame, the use of contrast and balance, being aware of the foreground, middle ground and background, rhythm or repetition and yes, even eye-lines can all be things  that we look for in the view finder there is so much more that will help us in zeroing in on that great image once we get it into Lightroom. These are the factors that help you select powerful images.

When I am in the field, I will often take 5 to 10 images of any one subject. I work the subject for different angles, light, expression and gesture. After I import the images into Lightroom, a lot of the other compositional elements come into play. It is now that the strong images rise to the surface. There’s a chance, and over the years it’s gotten a lot more than just a chance, that I know which image is going to be the strongest before ever importing them into Lightroom. But certainly, once the images are in there, a few images will stand out among the rest. It is now that I look for strong elements of design and composition, things that I might never have seen in the viewfinder. A good example is an image I shot of some farmers winnowing their barley harvest.

This image has some very strong repetition of triangles. I saw one maybe two of the triangles when I was shooting. But later when I look at the image in Lightroom I saw many, many more. I have marked a few above, but there are still more in the frame to be found.

Much of composition is learned and reinforced with practice and self-assignments. Then later, sometimes much later, it enters into the intuitive part of the brain. One day you realize that you are not thinking about diagonal lines curves and vectors, they just start showing up in the images. This is a lot like any art or sport. You learn technique so well that it becomes second nature. I fenced in college.  I was mediocre at best. But I fenced against some of the best. I can tell you they were not thinking, perry, repost, lunge, disengage.  It just magically happened. It was all second nature. Because we practiced the techniques over and over again. And so it is with composition. The more you practice, the more you critique your own images, the more it will become second nature.

Related posts

• Line of Sight (4)
• Dear Beginner, You make ripples! (4)
• Win a Zink Pogo Printer! (0)
• When We’re Simply Human (4)
• Welcome Acratech Tripod Heads! (0)

Below is an example of two men in India looking at a book. The lines are so strong that you can not help but look at the book with them. Put your cursor over the image and see the path the eyes make the viewer take.

Another example is below. This young girl to the left is looking at her sister to the right. If the girl on the left was looking directly into camera your eyes would eventually drift to the sister on the right, but with her looking at the sister you are compelled to look at her. Here the eye-line or line of sight is an intricate part of the composition of the image.

The last example is the image my daughter Jessie took of Bruce, a friend of ours. This is an example where diagonal lines play a huge part in the composition. Bruce, my friend is looking over his left shoulder off the frame. Your eyes naturally follow his line of sight. But the diagonal lines of the red shutter are so strong that they pull the viewer back to Bruce and the process repeats.

Now here’s my challenge: Go through your images and see how many you have use this compositional technique on. I bet you’ll find like me, you don’t use it very often at all. A person that is a master of this technique is my buddy David duChemin. Check out some of his images at his gallery and you will see it use time and time again. David is a master at this.

Related posts

• Composition: Prescriptive or Descriptive? (2)
• Guest Blog: Marco Ryan (13)
• Friday Wrap Up (11)
• Depth of Field: Marco Ryan (3)
• Depth of Field: Gary Dowd (1)