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The other thing I teach is make notes or draw your images out from things you see. Everything I see whether its paintings or photo's give me ideas of things I've like to see and create. Lighting, composition, trees, ponds, lakes, mountains ect get throw together in my head and then I draw them as reminders of images to be created. Sometimes it has taken me 7 years to find the image, sometimes it not exactly that but a mixture of 2 images put together and everytime I go out to shoot I refresh my mind.
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I think that - no disrespect - this is beyond what most photographers understand and are prepared to do? If you are saying that this is necessary to advance to a good level then myself and others will be toiling? To me images are what I see in reality when I am out with my camera. Visualising what isn't there and trying to "create" an image from my mind isn't imo photography? I look and see what is there and if I like it I will bracket several shots from different angles and exposures and enhance them on the computer to make up the deficiencies of my camera, a Nikon D300. You are taking photography well beyond an art form?
I don't see why you are putting limits on yourself. The equipment is just a tool, meant to capture what you have put in front of it. Great lighting takes amazing amount of time and discipline. It takes a lot of patience, to wait for the right light or to hike back to the same place until the scene is where I want it.
Maybe I do take it to the extremes and pain is just part of the game to hike 80 pound pack back into the woods day after day. But as I've said a thousand times before I'd rather come back with one image that is great than one that is average.
If you wait for the right light, you don't have to expand the saturation. I lecture against that, NO AMOUNT OF PHOTOSHOP WILL OR CAN MAKE UP FOR NATURAL LIGHTING, COMPOSITION, PICKING THE RIGHT FOCAL LENGTH LENS, CHOOSING THE RIGHT DEPTH OF FIELD AND THE RIGHT ANGLE TO SHOOT IMAGE.
ITS NOT ABOUT TECH, ITS ABOUT THE PERSON BEHIND THE CAMERA.
But please give the framing card a chance. There is a reason why the master's used it before us. Try to capture it one shot, envision what you want and create it.
We have better tools for capturing photography than ever before, wider range of light, more resolution, software to control the image, and inkjet printing equipment to print it. There should be very little guess work involved.
And for God's sake never ever say the thing I hate most "let's see what I've got now" when you have shot a scene.
Start with a simple trial. Get a framing card and then single white tulip. Put that under a open shade porch so no direct light is on the tulip. Walk around the tulip with a black framing card, at one point or two the tulip will come alive with beautiful lighting. Then is you want add some background color to the shot with fabric ect. you have just started to envision the shot.
The God's every now and then give a magic in the woods, we are just there to receive and capture it. I hope this help,
My goal is always to "Capture light at its most intimate moment" have fun Tim