Today’s Post by Joe Farace
I don’t have to take a trip around the world or be on a yacht in the Mediterranean to have happiness. I can find it in the little things, like looking out into my backyard and seeing deer in the fields.”—Queen Latifah
I don’t need to look into any fields to see deer strolling by my house. I can watch them in my backyard as they gobble away an my trees and bushes.
When making an image, I don’t always have a specific goal or objective in mind. I just go our with an attitude that “I’d like to make a nice photo.” My friend Matt Staver is an amazingly talented photographer and once asked me about one of my images, “what was your objective in making that photograph?” I didn’t have a good answer for him because really didn’t know that I had any kind of objective. I guess that’s just how my mind works…or doesn’t.
At the FOTOfusion conference a few years ago I conducted a workshop called “Right in Your Own Backyard” that was based on the premise that you don’t have to travel halfway around the world to make interesting images when there are all kinds photo ops close to home. During the workshop, I was showing an image that was made literally in my backyard one of the students asked, “What was going through your mind when you made that photograph?” Answering him was difficult for me because it addressed the thought processes that might or might not have been going on in my head while I was capturing that image. I didn’t have a good answer for him but I never got that question out of my head and so decided to show how and why a specific “backyard” photograph was made.
How I Made this Photo: This portrait of my wife Mary (above) was made in the actual back yard of our former home using a Hasselblad Xpan film camera and is the full image of the camera’s 35mm panoramic frame that measures 24x65mm. It was created as a homage to the work of Phil Borges who is not only a gifted photographer but a great humanitarian. One of the techniques that Mr. Borges uses is called selective toning which is different from split toning although the effect is similar but different because the image maker gets to determine which specific areas of the photograph is toned in different colors or tones by using masking techniques.
In the traditional darkroom the effect can be achieved by coating the areas of the print you don’t wish to tone in a particular color with liquid rubber cement. You carefully apply this goopy stuff with a brush, let it dry and then immerse the print in the toner solution. After washing and drying the rubber cement is peeled off and you apply rubber cement to the areas you just toned and then re-tone the print in another color. If all that sounds complicated and messy it is but the effects can be dramatic but it’s much easier to accomplish with digital techniques using layers. Here two layers were created; one was toned one way, another was toned another way. Then I erased everything on one layer but Mary’s face and hands. I’m not Mr, Borges and never will be but this was a fun exercise.
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