Today marks the start of the 2024 SFCC Photo Arts Club Shootout event. It’s a week where we throw the class schedule out the window and spend a week in downtown Spokane based out of the historic Masonic Temple building that is now known as Riverside Place.
This is the 10th year we have done this event. It is a wonderful time to just hang out with other photographers and filmmakers and explore personal creativity. This morning I decided to run up to the 6th floor and make this image from the outdoor balcony. I’ve been studying up on Lightroom masking techniques in order to increase the artistic potential of my landscape photography. I am thinking of the original capture as just the starting point and the editing as my artistic interpretation of the scene.
Digital photography has really become another way of painting. The image is no longer tied to the limitations of what was in front of the lens. A parking lot is quickly removed and replaced with foliage. I can adjust tonality so that all the detail of the original exposure is revealed. Notice how the waterfall is almost pure white in the original capture. Mathematically there are many more details held within the data than the initial screen image shows. The human eye sees all of these details as I scan the scene but the camera cannot show them in the final image without my efforts to pull the data out through tone mapping. The magic glow of light reflecting up from the water to the bottom of the bridge is revealed through manipulation of radiant masking techniques.
Photography is like plein air painting. The photographer is present in nature just as the painter is. However it isn’t until I get into the digital darkroom that I can make my brush strokes that finalize the artwork.
