My new way of shooting……Overexposing.
When I teach my classes I talk about how you may eventually start shooting differently when you work in photo encaustics. At first we obviously start with the images that we have. We learn the techniques and we envision where we want our work to go. But as time progresses….we think differently about our images.
Over the years I have certainly solidified my vision when it comes to working with the horses. And sometimes I feel like I’ve become ‘sloppy’ when shooting as I no longer look at all four corners of the viewfinder. My only concern is the horse and his/her movement. Many, many times I’ve got cars, barns, trailers, and other people in the shot. But my focus is on the horse. And then I pain stakingly photoshop out the extraneous elements. And I do mean pain stakingly as my photoshop skills are minimal….at best. After years of doing this it only recently dawned on me to overexpose the image and save myself hours of work.
Above is a raw image from last nights shoot. I also love how overexposing leaves more mystery to the image. The loss of detail is exactly what I want. And my manipulation after the fact allows for more loss of detail. Personally, I want the intrigue and mystery. And I will further lose detail (and punch other details) when I work with the image embedded in the beeswax and pigments.
This is just the first step. I’m not 100% committed to the version of this image. It may take on some different iterations. I may crop the image or I may use the entire horse. I have to sit with them for a little bit to get a feel for the direction. But this took less than 15 minutes to manipulate!
But I’ve gotta say, this new way of shooting is a godsend to me.
So, don’t be afraid to try new things and possibly shoot your images differently. Overexposing isn’t the right technique for all my work. But for the horses, I think it works.
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below. Have you started to shoot differently when thinking about your photo encaustic work? If so, what are you doing differently?
Please pass this along to your friends who might be interested in photo encaustic.
Be well….be creative,
Clare, you must have been reading my mind while writing your post today… I have been wondering and experimenting on how to shoot different for photo encaustics( ever since I took your class).
Many of my ‘regular” shots have a lot of heavy background such as the dark woods,trees, fences, and distracting junk. exhausting to remove in photoshop. I guess when we shoot for singular subjects this is what we face.
Ive tried the single lens shots for their blurry backgrounds , beautiful bokeh, not always good for encaustics. So to read your post today has given me some new directions in which to shoot….Ill give it a try.
Thanks for being so sharing with your trials and thoughts.
I love when that happens……glad it was a timely post for you:) Couldn’t agree more…..exhausting to remove in photoshop. Also glad that you have some new ideas to try!
This is great – and it’s simple and exciting technique for those of us who don’t have your extensive photography background, Clare. I love the idea of manipulating with light in the original format – thanks, as always – I’m going to experiment with some of my own subjects – unfortunately, no horses, but I do have cats 🙂
Cats are ALWAYS good models:)
I totally love this Clare, thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve been paying attention to a similar look…. not necessarily horses but people.
Thanks Tanya. Yes, I’ve always been drawn to the overexposed image…..not sure why I didn’t figure out it would work great with my horses until recently…..but alas now I’ve got it.
Thank you, we’re on the same wavelength as I was wondering how to remove most of the background from photographs without necessarily doing the tissue paper technique that I learned from you in your workshop.
Definitely give this a try Vera……it saves me so much time:)
Love your work and your insight.
Thanks Jeannette….
Hey Clare, LOVE this, have been experimenting myself. Also working on shooting at night with only car lights, memories of Imogene Cunningham.
Keep up the great creative work.
Thanks Francesca…..funny you should mention shooting at night. A group of us are going to shoot this weekend with horses and car lights. I’m not sure it will work for my encaustic vision….but I’m always up for going out shooting and experimenting!