This journal page is the contemporaneous record of May 2020’s contribution to my ten thousand hours of deliberate practice fine art photography apprenticeship.
Hours 3,643 to 3,778
31st May 2020
Hours 3,776 to 3,778
An hour selecting potential CPAGB candidate images, preparing Jpegs and sending to my newly appointed advisor: Ray Brammall ARPS DPAGB APAGB EFIAPb BPE3*.
An hour shooting followed by an hour processing the following “Joiner” for this weeks Amersham Beyond Meeting on Thursday.
30th May 2020
Hours 3,773 to 3,775
Half an hour updating this journal and then another half on the “LAB Colour” post.
An hour shooting cutlery for last weeks Karl Taylor challenge, using just about every bit of kit I own, tried to create gradient lighting. controlling reflections is very difficult.
An hour processing a focus-stacked image of the above.
29th May 2020
Hours 3,770 to 3772
Two hours working on the “LAB Colour” post.
One hour selecting images for my CPAGB submission, very little overlap with the previous Failed Submission.
28th May 2020
Hours 3,767 to 3,769
An hour before breakfast working on the “LAB Colour” post.
Second hour working on the above post.
An hour watching YouTubes about early abstract painters including:
27th May 2020
Hours 3,762 to 3,766
An hour finally finding references for the “Opponent Process” which explains how the Ganglions in the retina convert the RGB signal from the cones into the LAB signal sent to the brain.
An hour updating this journal and the draft “LAB Colour” post in the light of the above reference.
Three further hours working on the “LAB Colour” post.
26th May 2020
Hour 3,761
Half an hour watching the Ri lecture “How we see colour“. Half an hour writing up this journal.
25th May 2020
Hours 3,757 to 3,760
Half an hour, before breakfast, drafting a post about LAB colour.
A further hour and a half drafting the above post, and two hours researching how we see which is more complicated than I previously thought. In fact what I previously though may be completely wrong.
Have learnt a lot about the biology and psychology of how we see:
- Nearly all the cones in the retina are concentrated in a relatively small area called the central fovea, which also contains very few rods
- Size wise, the central fovea approximately represent the area of the retina looking at the palm of a hand held at arms length
- Peripheral vision is our main visual input
- What we think we “see” is a mental model which is a combination of:
- information from the eyes
- What our brain expects to be there, i.e., filling in the gaps.
- Our mental model is therefore easily fooled. Hence all the optical illusions.
24th May 2020
Hours 3,752 to 3,756
An hour and a half entering the Manhattan 2020 International salon of photography.
Then an hour and a half entering the Pacific-Atlantic circuit of 3 FIAP salons. [I’m getting more efficient at these applications, previously they took over 2 hours each.]
An hour producing some more recolourised multiple exposures. Had the idea of creating a panel of images shot last summer and reprocessed during this lockdown period. Reflections on the excitement of travelling to London.
An hour updating the social media site associated with his journal, particularly adding images to the Impressions of London Flickr album.
23rd May 2020
Hours 3,748 to 3,751
An hour seeking feedback on my new technique from a respected contact at the Amersham Photographic Society.
An hour experimenting and, following an accident, coming up with the following extreme version of an image of Canary Wharf.
Two hours entering the Grup Fotogràfic d´Almenara FIAP Salon.
22nd May 2020
Hours 3,744 to 3,747
Four hours experimenting with LAB colourising techniques including applying to some old favourite night multiple exposures.
21th May 2020
Hours 3,740 to 3,743
An hour updating this journal with images from the last few days.
An hour and a half Karl Taylor Education webinar on Focus-Stacking; all about the lighting. Make two images one with the subject optimally lit even though this may include bits of lighting paraphernalia, and another without. Then blend the two.
An hour creating further recolourised versions of old Shift Pictures.
Half an hour YouTube from Artists in School:
20th May 2020
Hours 3,736 to 3,739
First hour and a half hour producing a new version of my “I want my time with you” multiple exposure image shot at St Pancras Station.
Then half an hour updating this journal.
An hour YouTubes:
- Liam Wong: “Escaping your comfort zone“
- Learn something new
- Put yourself out there
- Surround yourself with talent
- “How to give your photos the cyberpunk look in Photoshop” – lots of cool technique
- Create a flat HDR effect by lowering highlights and boosting shadows
- Split toning with funky colours
- Add local pools of colour relating to the signs
- Add mist using a smoke brush
- Highlight neon signs with a brushed stroke and outer glow layer styles – press ESC to divide a single path into sub paths
- “How to create cinematic dreamlike effects in photoshop“
- The Orton Effect:
- Copy layer (background)
- Image:Apply Image; Blend mode: Multiply
- Set layer blend mode to Screen
- Gaussian Blur – Radius = number of pixels on camera sensor – rough rule of thumb, but whatever looks good
- Manually mask out silhouettes and foreground
- Colourise using a radial mask over a warm colour – again mask away silhouettes
- The Orton Effect:
- Artist in School: “Marc Chagall“
- Contemporary of Picasso, Mattise, Malevich and Mondrian
- Although influenced by the surrealists, cubists and suprematists he never fully identified with any one group.
An hour working on new potential candidates for FIAP including the Silver Birch at First Light that did well at Amersham on Monday and some alternative Gaucho images.
19th May 2020
Hours 3,733 to 3,735
First hour creating some images with LAB colour space adjustments to emulate the style of Liam Wong.
Two hours on the Zoom Webinar with Karl Taylor education looking at how one can identify the lighting used in portrait and product photographs. Key elements:
- Reflections in eyes are a complete give away. However, these are often changed in post production
- Specularity often indicates the hardness of the light
- Shadows indicate direction of lighting
18th May 2020
Hours 3,729 to 3,732
Half an hour updating this journal.
An hour looking at YouTubes about Photoshop LAB colour space, including:
Two hours and a half at the Amersham Photographic Society’s virtual impromptu PDI competition. Another excellent session jointly judged by Chris Palmer and Steve Smith. My entries below:
| Image | Comments | |
 | “First Light at Stoke Common” Held back – 18. 3rd. Generally applauded. | |
 | “Aspects of Dog” Initially well received and held back – 17. Joint 5th “Quite a lot of repetition.” Perhaps fewer shots of a more animated dog would have helped. |
17th May 2020
Hours 3,727 to 3,728
An hour, various YouTubes including:
An hour studying Liam Wong’s “TO:KY:OO” which was lean to me by a friend. Absolutely a fan, Liam Wong is now one of my favourite photographers.
- Background as a graphics designer creating computer games
- Highly colour saturated Street/ Urban Landscape
- Complementary colours.
16th May 2020
Hours 3,724 to 3,726
First hour updating this journal and associated social media sites.
Two hours watching and wring up the Karl Taylor interview/ conversation with the portrait photographer, Tom Oldham, where they discuss their favourite portraits from Richard Avedon, through Platon to some newer photographers such as Laura Stevens and Jack Davidson.
15th May 2020
Hours 3,720 to 3,723
An hour updating this journal, mainly with comments about my images from yesterday’s mono group meeting.
Two hours updating the images discussed and preparing the Harley x 24 for Monday’s competition.
Following Two images submitted for the impromptu PDI competition at the Amersham Photographic Society on Monday – let’s see!
An hour studying “The Sufferings of Light – 30 Years of Photography by Alex Webb”.
14th May 2020
Hours 3,714 to 3,719
Half an hour updating this journal. Half an hour preparing images for this evening’s virtual Mono Group from Amersham.
Two hours planning, shooting and processing the following “shoes” image for the Karl Taylor Weekly Challenge.
An hour’s YouTube from Karl Taylor:
Two hours at the Amersham Mono Group Zoom meeting.
| Image | Comments | |
 | Highlights on the trucks of the trees look as though they are burnt out. Too much distracting foreground. | |
 | Tap area of the image is messy. High risk, “marmite” image. |
13th May 2020
Hours 3,709 to 3,713
Half an hour creating the following version of the Mock Cider advert with feathered horizon at the edges and overall warmer tones. One issue when I can to save the file. which had 15 layers, is that it exceeded the 5gb limit for TIFF files. Resolved by merging some of the base layers.
Half an hour updating this journal, mainly with thoughts about yesterday’s YouTube on Typography.
An hour practicing using the pen tool and brushes, on both my pop-art self portrait and a blank canvas.
An hour YouTube:
- CaptureOne “Quick Live – Focus on Black and White“
- Karl Taylor Education: “Backgrounds and How to Make Them“
- The Bite Shot: “Dark Food Photography“.
Two hours completing an entry for the 2020 Georgian Grag – many IT issues.
12th May 2020
Hours 3,703 to 3,708
An hour and a half reviewing and updating April 2020 and the start of this month’s journal post to update the time analysis spreadsheet and correct the adding up errors. Reviewing old posts is very valuable.
Half an hour reading and taking notes on the following:
Key reference: Harvard Business Review: “The Making of an Expert” by
From the July–August 2007 Issue
“The journey to truly superior performance is neither for the faint of heart nor for the impatient. The development of genuine expertise requires struggle, sacrifice, and honest, often painful self-assessment. There are no shortcuts. It will take you at least a decade to achieve expertise, and you will need to invest that time wisely, by engaging in “deliberate” practice—practice that focuses on tasks beyond your current level of competence and comfort.”
“Research across domains shows that it is only by working at what you can’t do that you turn into the expert you want to become.”
“Real experts seek out constructive, even painful feedback. They’re also skilled at understanding when and if a coach’s advice doesn’t work for them.”
Quote from the above article.
An expert must pass the following three tests:
- performance consistently super to that expert’s peers
- produce concrete results
- product of measurable quality.
Half an hour uploading my Steam Punk Amplifier to the Karl Taylor Facebook group and my Flickr site.
My anticipated criticism of the above is:
- too dark
- would have been better to see at least the outline of the amplifier in full.
Karl’s comments: “Oh my gosh, there’s a lot going on here, and I’m not really sure what it’s about! Leaving the iPod showing the battery symbol is a bit strange.”
[The title might have helped, he didn’t read it, and I appreciate that the image should stand alone.]
An hour working on my Pop Art self portrait using stroked paths to create an Andy Warhol style paint strokes.
An hour and a half watching, then writing up, the webinar on website critique from Karl Taylor Education. Perspective is working with advertising clients:
- show work straight away
- clear and consistent style
- one topic only
- at least 20 images per gallery.
An hour watching the YouTubes:
- The art of Design: “Paula Scher – Typography” the meaning conveyed by font choice/ design
- A few tutorials on using stroked paths and brushes in general.
11th May 2020
Hours 3,696 to 3,702
An hour watching then writing up YouTube about “Using LAB colour for sharpening and colour correction“. It strikes me that LAB colour represents the way we see at a deeper, post-ganglion, level than just the rod and cone activation in our retinas:
- Lightness: tone (effectively a black and white version of the image)
- A: “Warmth” yellow to blue variation
- B: “Tint” green to magenta
Using curves with the above channels provides a natural way to correct colour casts in a way that relates to how we “see” an image.
An hour producing the following extended version of the able image for the mock cider advert.
An hour reviewing/ re-editing the February and March 2020 pages of this journal and updating my time analysis spreadsheet. The spreadsheet also sever the function of checking my adding up of hours spent on this project. 4 hour error over these two months.
An hour producing the following with lots of use of the pen tool for making selections during editing:
An hour’s YouTube:
- Capture One: “Quick Edit #8“
- On the Sofa with Martin Parr: “Cristina de Middel” famous for “Afronauts” the photo book about the Zambian space programme
Two hours virtual meeting with the Amersham Photographic Society – lecture – Polina Plotnikova FRPS: “Flower and Still-life Photography”. Notes:
- Flower lighting – use a soft box as a background and a single light in front
- combine ICM and sharp images
- composition for still life should be perfect as it’s entirely under the author’s control – build up triangles and maintain balance.
Polina recommended the Wimberley Plamp which is an extension arm for holding macro subjects in the field/ studio.
10th May 2020
Hours 3,690 to 3,695
An hour producing version II of the mock cider advert. This time requiring only 5 layers as opposed to about 9 in the previous version
Potential criticism:
- The dark line between the fence panels at the top is where the text is likely to go
- Light parches of the chopping board and fence panel near the edge are untidy and distracting
- Apple looks as though it’s going a little brown in places despite the lemon juice that was applied at the time.
Half an hour producing the following revised version of the above image.
Criticism of the above:
- Scratches to the left of the chopping board are distracting
- Still some distracting light patches around the edge of the chopping board
- Area behind apples to the right, too bright.
An hour and a half working on the third set of images, which were shot using a focus stacking rail. This didn’t work very well on top on the table top tripod; all a bit flimsy for a heavy camera and lens combo.
Having given up on image three – produced 2b addressing the above issues.
Total of an hour (qualifying time) watching:
- video from Karl Taylor Education about running a photography business “How to survive the hard times” (not really learning the art of photography)
- Nigel Danson “Why these three locations are a photographer’s dream“, promoting his for-sale map of exact locations of 50 top photography sites
- Art of design “Bjarke Ingles: Architecture“.
Two hour submitting an entry to the Bucharest International Salon.
9th May 2020
Hours 3,683 to 3,689
First hour and a half working with the textures shot yesterday for the Apple Advert exercise. Interesting observation regarding the quality of images produced by my 100mm Macro lens (Sony SAL100M28) as below.
 |  | |
| ISO 400 1/4 s f/9 100mm | ISO 400 1/40 s f/2.8 100mm |
The file size of the image shot at f/9 is about 10% larger than that of the image shot at f/2.8 suggesting that it is sharper. The f/9 image also looks to be the sharpest which is perhaps slightly surprising given that they were both hand held.
Note to self – when shooting textures be careful about:
- ensure that the edges are free from lighter distractions
- subject is straight and contains the right amount of material
- lighting is even across the frame
- subject is clean, e.g., fence does not have bird poop on it, or house floor tiles, dog hairs!
Reshooting the floor tiles.
Four hour processing a first attempt at the Karl Taylor mock cider advert brief.
An hour and a half shooting and processing the Karl Taylor weekly challenge: “Technology”.
8th May 2020
Hours 3,679 to 3,682
Half an hour updating this journal, mainly with thoughts and comments from yesterday’s Amersham Beyond zoom meeting. An hour and a half updating the Argentinian Salt Flats monochromes and processing other semi-abstract landscapes shot from the plane to El Calafate on the 13th January this year.
Two hours shooting images for the Karl Taylor mock brief from an advertising agency.
7th May 2020
Hours 3,672 to 3,678
An hour planning the Karl Taylor “Working to a Brief: Cider Advert”:
- Materials:
- Red Apples – ideally large with some size variation. Try the Co-op, Sainsburys, or Farm shop – clean with fairy liquid to remove wax and restore a more matt texture
- Wooden base – chopping board possible although this doesn’t shout “rustic”
- Plainish background – must not be black – could shoot black then add colour in post processing and composite a texture. Better if this were done with lighting rather than photoshop.
- Lighting:
- set up on kitchen unit in front of window
- subject at toaster end
- flag the light with card from a cereal box
- Camera setup:
- shoot tethered to laptop for immediate review
- camera on tabletop tripod
- use a 135mm prime or 100mm macro lens
- final image very precisely defined in terms of relative dimensions in the Art Director’s sketch
- Note comment: “If possible, additional space should be provided on the left, right and top compared to what is shown in the provided sketch.”
Bold text above indicates items that really need to be addressed.
Two hours working on semi-abstract rock formations from the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina originally shot on 13th January this year.
Two hours entering the TIVAT Circuit on the recommendation of Yin Wong.
Two hours at the Amersham Beyond zoom meeting. Next month’s challenge: David Hockney style “Joiners”.
“There is nothing wrong with photography, if you don’t mind the perspective of a paralysed Cyclops.”
David Hockney
Joiners seek to show a subject from slightly different angles and at slightly different times, such that the resultant image is capable of holding the viewers attention for a longer period of time.
6th May 2020
Hours 3,668 to 3,671
Half an hour updating the January journal page with images from South America, plus half an hour creating some monochrome images of the Argentinian Salt Flats shot from the plan.
An hour Skyping with, and writing up notes from, my friend and mentor Yin Wong. In particular:
- Lottie’s rat superimposed next to her cat
- baiting some birds in the garden, ideally robins
An hour watching the Karl Taylor lectures on running a commercial photography business. Day rate £1,000 – 4,000 depending upon:
- the quality and relevance of the portfolio you can demonstrate
- size of the client and their project
- additional cost, e.g., hiring models, studio space. Travel time charges separately, at lower rate.
An hour Karl Taylor Briefing for a commercial product shoot of a cider advert; exactly as would be presented by an art director including:
- detailed sketch of required image
- mood boards
- rustic wooden base and muted brown background
- soft lighting as though from a large window, with no specular highlights
- shadows at either side created by flagging to give the entire image a natural vignette
- One full red apple, on half red apple (slightly smaller) placed in front with the pips showing.
5th May 2020
Hours 3,664 to 3,667
An hour editing the grid image of Harley shot yesterday.
An hour updating this journal, mainly by adding images to the January page which relates to the time I spent shooting in South America. Plus updating the associated social media; Flickr Albums.
Two hours watching (then further researchng) the YouTubes:
- Capture One “Future updates“:
- vastly improved clone and heal operation; multiple clone/ heal sources on a single layer
- before/ after tool
- “Abstract: The Art of Design – Platon: Photography“
- Shoots world leaders
- mainly against plain white (sometimes black) backgrounds
- often from slightly below eye level
- uses a film camera where he cannot immediately review the shot.
4th May 2020
Hours 3,656 to 3,663
An hour updating this journal, mainly tidying up some old posts, recategorising, etc.
Two hours creating the Patagonian Landscapes art book relating to the recent trip to South America.
An hour watching YouTubes by Martin Parr interviewing Alec Soth and Bruce Gilden.
An hour shooting and another hour processing shot of Harley in an attempt to create a 4 x 6 grid picture.
Two hours at the Amersham Photographic Society Members Evening:
- Maggie James – Music Photography
- Patrick Hudgell – photographing hares
- Laurie Turner – Photos in a gallery
- Andrew & James Bailey: Shots from Suffolk including Covehithe, c. 2 miles south of Lowestoft.
3rd May 2020
Hours 3,650 to 3,655
Two hours finalising and ordering the Family Book from the trip to South America earlier this year.
Two hours reviewing recent journal entries by way of updating the Time Analysis spreadsheet from the end of November 2019 to end of January and adding images to the journal pages.
Two hours YouTube:
- Royal Academy of Arts: “Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse“
- PIXimperfect “how to recover completely lost details in highlights” – effectively add texture from another warped, reference, document. Blend mode: multiply.
2nd May 2020
Hours 3,647 to 3,649
Two hours preparing images for and entering the Loftman Circuit, India.
An hour watching writing up and practicing the Capture One: “Quick Live: Focus on the HDR Tool”:
- The new White and Black sliders affect the more extreme part of the tonal range than the Highlight and Shadows respectively [previously I thought this was the other way round.]
- To extend the range of a slider, e.g., to add more than 100% Clarity, create a new layer and do it again, and again if necessary.
1st May 2020
Hours 3,643 to 3,646
Half an hour shooting in Gray’s Field and Hastings Meadow first thing this morning. Plus an hour and a half processing these images.
An hour updating this journal, including all the new month admin, creating a new banner image above which required revising how to make text flow along a path. Easy:
- Create path
- Select text tool
- Hover over path until cursor icon changes, click and start typing.
Minor Success Note:
- New record for the number of acceptances in a single FIAP salon: 5 from Aleksinac, Serbia. Part of the 5 salon Tower Circuit where I obtained 14 acceptances overall.
- Previous record achieved on 12th April (last month) with 4 acceptances from Goa
- Have a total of 52 acceptances against the 40 required for an AFIAP but also need four print acceptances (currently have none, as none applied for) and I need one more work with more 3 or more acceptances (4 with two each).
An hour (watching, writing up, practicing) YouTube: “Capture One, Live Guest: Paul Reiffer“. Top tips:
- Layer mask select the sky between mountains, use a combination of gradient mask and luma range
- Use the Healing Brush, on a Healing Layer, to remove lens flare.
In practice the Healing Brush work is probably better done in Photoshop where the tool is more flexible, e.g., you can have multiple heal sources on a new layer +++