Out-of-line coloring is a good metaphor for when a photographer decides to take an out-of-the-ordinary leap in the genre of photography.
You will probably face resistance from some members of the purely photographic community when it comes to applying new ideas to your work in this genre, but there is still too much creative potential to be found. restrict myself to only playing by the rules, so I am, for one, a person who likes to color outside the lines. An example of this is with street photography – a genre I love. If you actually start a debate about the rules in the street photography community, you’ll see “guidelines” given up in the discussion. Street photography is often done with the understanding that it is journalistic in nature, and revealing a glimpse of society at large with major post-processing is often discouraged (and even didn’t think of staging anything!). As a journalist myself, I can really empathize with this expectation, and generations of epic street photographers have done just that and created images I could only dream of taking, but too much. Much thought is put into the idea of “should I do this?” or “should I do that?” when the correct answer is almost always: do both.
Do all? It seems like such a simple answer because it is. Unless you really want the street signals (pun intended) to come with a complete respect for the science of photography and you’re willing to forego all creative opportunities that come with thinking. Open-minded and artistic, the answer is always no, join yourself. What a wonderful realization that my street sessions can and should be a combination of journalistic methods and artistic purposes, switching between the two with flexibility, and like flexible, sometimes mixed in different proportions. If I spent a night in the city, I find myself going with more custodians, and now it’s a mix of street photography and what could be classified as art (which is heavily influenced by art). prints of street and cityscape photography).
The act of just keeping an eye on the possibilities of both behaviors is akin to expanding your creative bandwidth, because instead of opening only one type of photographic opportunity, allowing yourself to think more flexibly when Working will help you see how many opportunities are really within your reach. Feeling stymied because your street shots are downhill? Think about your other options. No one says you can only do one thing.
One of my favorite methods for transforming street work and cityscapes is to apply a purposeful blurring effect through a variety of methods. Purists would suggest playing with a slow shutter speed first. They might then suggest “intentional camera movement” or ICM as a good alternative to playing with creative methods in urban work and that’s true, but as a real person. interest in finding out how I can shape a photo to my artistic vision through post-processing, those are simply two of the tools in my pocket. Other great methods for applying blur effects for artistic purposes are through multiple exposures (in-camera or via post), and my favorite is a combination of some or all of them. . The very nature of tools like Photoshop for artists can be likened to superpowers, especially when applied responsibly.
The Path Blur Tool in Photoshop is a rich source of creative possibilities when done well, and the strong lines found in urban structures are well-suited for blurs applied with artistic purpose. On my most recent trip to the city I often shoot, I decided to use it to transform the towering buildings around me into futuristic, sometimes more abstract, scenes. Blade Runner is even more thought-provoking when viewing some of the more dramatic and moody images, and the process of creating them is simpler than what the average non-Photoshop beginner might think.
First, I always keep an eye on scenes that I think will match the great vision I have for them, and after being in the city for a few hours, I always come back with a few good choices. Once I settle into edit mode, I start by selecting a suitable image for the process and make some basic adjustments in Adobe Lightroom to adjust contrast, curves, and saturation, then I export it to Photoshop. Immediately, I duplicate the background layer so that I work only on the copy and the original is preserved.
In the filters tab, a subcategory called Blur Galleries contains the Path Blur Tool and clicking on it will take you to a new screen. Here you will first adjust the direction of the blur with the blue line, which you can delete and replace or simply adjust to your preference. I went in the vertical direction to match the construction lines. The sliders on the right change the intensity and appearance of the blur, and you can simply adjust them accordingly once your blue guide line is set correctly. When the opacity is to your liking, clicking ok will return you to the home screen and the blur effect will be applied. Next, we’ll make sure only the desired areas of the image receive the path opacity.
This is done with a layer mask, which you want to invert after applying, so instead of shading the blur we will paint it where we want by applying white to the layer mask . After you create a layer mask on your top layer and invert it, all the blurs should disappear and be effectively masked by the mask. Then I took a paintbrush, and with the opacity and flow at 100%, I started drawing the blur on the top of the tallest building in the scene. After I added some opacity at the top, I reduced the brush line by 50% and started painting the opacity even lower. I repeat this process over and over again trying to create the effect of a gradual phase between the blurred and unblurred areas of the image.
After all is said and done, the creative effect of intentional blurring for scenes like this is obvious, but be careful not to go overboard with the effect, lest you fall into the trap of the use of technique only as a trend rather than the niche tool it can be.
This is just one example of how you can broaden your perspective on shooting a genre of photography and get creative in whatever way you think is best for your work.
