Ed Schlotzhauer

An artists journey

Tag: Artist

Ethics of Editing
I thought this question was completely discussed and laid to rest. But just in the last week I have seen 3 posts questioning the ethics of editing images. Not really saying it is wrong, just questioning it in general.
Let me give you my conclusion so you can stop reading if you disagree: the question is wrong. It is not an ethical issue for art.
Are photographs special?
Because of its nature of recording the scene in front of the camera, some people still assume that photography is some kind of “pure” imaging form. That is, that what you see is reality. It is not and never has been.
You would never make that assumption of a painting. It is clear to everyone that it is a constructed image. Even if it was painted as “plein air”, the artist would leave out things that distract and freely put in things that “should” be there.
Just because the sensor (or film) images everything in the field of view of the lens does not certify that the resulting image is “truth”. And speaking of the field of view, changing it is a valid and common way to change the story you are telling. Zooming in on a small part or moving to the side a little may completely alter the message of the image. Is that ethical?
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Modifying darkroom prints
Prints were routinely modified even from the days of film and darkroom printing. Filters made serious modification to tonal renderings in the captured negatives. Negatives were spotted to remove dust (or distractions). Dodging and burning further altered the tonality of the original scene.
If you are familiar with Photoshop, you know that one of the layer blend modes is Screen. Do you know where this name came from? A way of compositing film images was to project 2 images together onto a screen, then re-photograph the resulting combined image.
Photographers are resourceful. They find a way to make the image they need or want to make. Even if the result departs from the original.
Modifying digital images
But it is so much easier to alter digital images. Does that somehow make it unethical to do it?
We have wonderful technology in our computers and image processing software. But would we be better artists if we printed our images “straight” – unmodified in any way?
No, we would not. Digital sensors are amazing, but the straight output of a RAW file is bland, low contrast, probably with a bad color cast, and it has dust spots and distractions. You could never sell an image like this, and it would be foolish to even show it to viewers in this state. Other than to make a point about how important correction is.
Even black & white prints are an advanced modification of color images. It is no longer a throwback to simpler and more pure times.
We are expected to correct the color and contrast, to remove spots and distractions, to alter the lighting and tonality to make it more pleasing. You could never win a contest or be admitted to a gallery without doing at least those steps.
Beyond that, pixels can be processed and combined much more freely than film images ever could. To say that it is wrong to do that with digital images is like saying that writing should only use the grammar and vocabulary of 19th Century English, because it was more pure.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Why do it?
Is it too simple to say, “because we can”? Simple but true. We can. Pixels are raw material. They can be modified or combined or stretched or colored at our will. The same way that a painter can use any colors or put any brush strokes down on his canvas.
What we choose to do depends on the image. Sometimes we compose the “final” shot almost entirely in camera. We recognize what we want to do, and we can make it happen in the field. These images still need a lot of work to bring out the quality we want, but the result may be very close to the scene as shot.
But sometimes I go out shooting what I call “raw material”. These images are deliberately not intended to be a finished image by itself. They become parts blended or composited together with other parts to form a final image concept. Is that valid? Is it ethical? To me, completely.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
When not to do it
There are times that images should be labeled as “truth”. If you are representing the work as photojournalism or documentary, it should relatively unmodified. Relatively in the sense that it may be cropped or spotted or exposure balanced. Things like that that do not seriously alter the result that is presented to the viewer.
Even so, there are the issues of point of view and field of view. I discussed field of view. For journalism what the photographer chooses not to show may completely change the ‘truth” of an image. And anyone, even a seasoned journalist, has a point of view they bring to the shoot. That POV determines how they represent the scenes, what to feature, how to frame it, etc.
So, we must accept that what we see is the truth from their point of view.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Ethics?
One of the articles I read recently asks “how much we can ethically alter a photograph?” My response is that only photojournalists and documentary photographers should be expected to “tell the truth”. Other than that, there are no ethics involved. The concept does not even apply to art.
All other photographers are creating something artificial. The resulting image is a creative work of fiction. Trying to say that there is some artificial ethical limit on what they do is like saying all writers must only tell the absolute factual truth. I hope not. I like reading fiction.
There are many reasons for creating images. A few uses of them should maintain a semblance of truth. Most do not have any link to truth.
My images are only truth in the sense that I created them (no AI involved), they are my product, and they represent what I felt or believed at the moment. Any ethical questions are within my mind and based solely on my values. If anyone else raises an ethical concern about my work, I thank them for being interested, I might want to find out their concerns, but I would tell them to apply their ethical anxieties to their own work.
Of all the things there might be to worry about in the world, the ethics of altering my images is not one of them.
The real ethical dilemma
There is a serious ethical issue that needs a lot more discussion. That is AI generated work and creating images that deliberately lie about events. But I am out of room here.
June 18, 2025
Pull Out a Moment
Isn’t that what we do so well with photography, to pull out a moment of time to examine? Most art does this, but photography excels at it.
Time
Time flows continually. It so envelops and controls us that we often do not even consider it. But we cannot escape it. It carries us along with it whether we want it to or not.
Some of us live for the future, planning for a “someday” when things will slow down or be better. Some live only for now, trying to experience life or just have fun with little regard for what may come in the future. Others are stuck in the past. Living in memories or regrets for past events.
Regardless of our attitude about it, time keeps flowing relentlessly along. No one is rich enough to buy more time. No one is powerful enough to command it to slow down or speed up. We each have the same number of seconds in a day.
But photographers seemingly have a power over time, to freeze it or stretch it and to pull moments out to keep forever. This is an amazing ability for mere mortals.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Artists view
To an artist, time can seem like a continuous series of pictures. We look at things happening and think that may have never been seen like that before and it may never happen like that again. We better capture it now before it is gone.
Much of art is based on capturing moments. Paintings are usually of a moment in time. Sculptures often depict a moment of action or a grand pose.
But photographs do it better. After all, a painting or a sculpture of a moment is probably based on photographs the artist took to record it. So the photograph is the prime material, the basis of the art.
That is because photographs have a unique ability to record moments in time. We should be proud of that and use it to our advantage and to make our art more unique.
Manipulate time
Time flows constantly and at the same speed for everyone. But through photography we can look at time differently, depending on how we choose to see it.
We can slice it very fine at 1/1000 of a second or even faster. This will freeze an instant so we can examine things happening too fast for. us to perceive in real time. Birds in flight, a waterfall, a galloping horse, even a bullet in flight are frozen into a clear moment. We can see the details of the action, the turbulence, the skill.
At the other extreme, we can compress time. Any reasonable length of time can be imaged into a single frame. This allows us to visualize or see the effects of action happening over an extended amount of time. Car lights at night streaking into a long trail. A waterfall smoothing into a velvety flow. We might be able to capture multiple lightning flashes in one frame during a thunderstorm.
All of these and more help us see action over time. It visualizes what we can only imagine without the aid of photography.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Keep a time
Whether short exposures or long exposures or a “normal” speed, this slice we capture is preserved for us to examine and contemplate at our leisure. We have plucked it out of the stream of time and kept it for ourselves.
It is said that in a fire or flood, one of the first thing people try to save is the family pictures. These are our history, our memory. Moments that are important to us. (Many online sites tell us at length how to prepare a “go bag“; it’s a good idea; but the emotional reaction is to grab important memories in an emergency.)
And they keep us together as humans. A friend told me recently about getting together for a rare visit with his brother and sister. One of them had digitized old pictures their parents took of them as children. They spent hours looking at them and sharing stories and memories. Most of these were originally shot 60-70 years ago. They still have power of moments.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
View differently
Obviously, family pictures have special memories for us. But how about art?
As I mentioned before, most art involves the capture of moments that we can look at or think about whenever we want. Photography is uniquely suited for this.
Street photography gives us insightful glimpses of people in their daily life. Landscape photography captures moments of beauty or awe in the natural world. Portraits give us a formal view of people. Whether abstract or realistic or black & white or an alternative process or any other rendering, they capture a moment.
When we capture moments, we have the opportunity to study the moments at our leisure. Time ceases to flow for these images. Taking the moment out of the stream of time gives us a unique chance to spend all the time we want with the moment. We see and understand it differently.
Years from now, that moment will still be there for us to bring out and examine again. Or our descendants may look at them and see a glimpse of what we saw, maybe even what we felt.
Time is a key component in our photography. Photography is perhaps the best of the arts for capturing and manipulating time. Other forms of art rely on the artist seeing or imagining something, then representing it. Photography allows us to see things that could not otherwise be seen.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Reflect
We see a potential image and take it. What is it for? Who is it for? Does it matter how many people see it?
It is quite possible it does not have more of a purpose than that we were compelled to make art. If we are making art, it may be sufficient that it fulfilled something in us.
Most of us would love for great numbers of people to view our work and give us lots of compliments. Especially the compliment of buying it. But is that why we do it?
Perhaps these moments in time are painting our history, marking our journey, filling our memory bank. Maybe their significance could not be apparent to anyone else.
Or maybe something is compelling us to capture these moments so that someday we can begin to understand them ourselves.
Regardless, we are compelled. We pluck these moments out of time and set them aside for reasons we may not understand. Or perhaps it is enough that they are beautiful, at least, to us.
Every time we press the shutter release, we are capturing a moment. Be very aware of that. They are our moments. They have meaning to us. Sharing them with other people is an intimate act.
“Life is a collection of moments; cherish them, embrace them, and create more of them.”
June 4, 2025
Go to a Forest, Again
Go to a forest. It is good for you in many ways and it can benefit your photography. I say “again” because I wrote about this before, but it has been over 4 years and I decided to update my thoughts.
Forest Bathing
I am a believer in what is called forest bathing. This was my practice before I ever heard the term.
Some research shows that just being in a forest, experiencing the sights, sounds, smells, and feel of nature will improve our physical and mental health.
Forests are a magnet for me. Every place I travel to, I try to get out into the local forests. The different trees are special to me and are refreshing, each in their own way.
My previous article talked a lot about forest bathing, but it is not just an idea. We can’t just put it on our to do list and try to fit it in somewhere, maybe as we listen to a podcast.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Silent Walk
Just being in a forest is not magically going to make all our problems go away. Actually, nothing is going to magically make them go away. Things like forest bathing can help. Some people are proposing a parallel stress reducing plan called silent walking.
We seem so totally controlled by our technology these days that it can even impact our forest experience. To get the most from the forest exposure, or any calming moment, we have to unplug.
To get the benefits of being in the forest, we have to actually be there in the forest, physically and mentally. Leave the distractions behind. It is great that you love your music, but when you are in the forest, leave your headphones behind. Listen to the birds and the wind in the trees. Hear the sound of the river flowing by. And it is not a time for your run. That is great to do for exercise some other time, but try just taking it easy. Relax. Set a slow pace. This is a time to unwind.
Promise yourself you will not pick up your phone while you are in the forest. Except maybe to take a picture. But them put it back away and don’t post the picture until later.
Benefits
Here are some benefits of being in nature as noted in an article quoting Allison Chase, PhD, CEDS-S, Regional Clinical Director at Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center in Austin, Texas. She is more gentle and articulate than I am.
“Spending time in nature, with more serene and slower paced stimuli, can be very calming to the nervous system, where stress and cortisol levels are impacted.”
But to get this result, it requires being completely present. “The key is to slow down and take in the environment and its natural beauty,” which also helps the body calm down. “Without the input of screens and other modern or electronic stimuli, one’s brain [aka neurons] can calm down. This slows down the entire body to be more calm and relaxed.”
Additionally, nature itself can be a great boost for your overall wellbeing. “Nature offers stimuli that can impact a number of senses, [such as] touch, sound and smell,” adds Chase. “Whenever our senses can be heightened in a healthy, positive, serene way, it is always good for the body and brain.” In fact, a study in Environmental health and preventive medicine found that forest bathing significantly lowered blood pressure and reduced negative moods.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Mindfulness
This sounds a lot like mindfulness to me. Imagine that.
I’m not a formal practitioner of mindfulness, but I believe my secular practice of it has great value. It seems I recommend it a lot in my writings.
And I will continue to recommend it. In our fast paced, high stress, over scheduled world it can help bring us back to a healthy state.
Find your place
I’m lucky. My house is about 10 miles from the edge of the Rocky mountains. In abut 20 minutes I can be in the mountains and forests. That is one of my happy places.
But not living next to a National Forest does not exclude you. As a matter of fact, I do not go up into the National Forest nearly as much as the time I spend in the parks and natural areas in my town. You probably live near parks and open spaces, too. Use them. Don’t ignore the good even if we can’t have the best.
I have come to believe it is our intent and our approach that makes the difference in what we get from our time. If we go out with the intent to slow down, calm our mind, and take in the environment with most of our senses, it will happen. If we just go for exercise, well, we will just get exercise.
©Ed Schlotzhuaer
Get out there
As I write this, spring is emerging in much of the country. Many of us are waking up, stretching, and resolving to get out and start taking pictures again.
Do it.
I hope there is nothing hindering you from picking up your camera, heading out to your local park, and getting back into nature. Or, optionally, leave the camera. Just experience the outdoors again. It is good for you
A couple of days ago while wandering through a local natural area I saw 2 sights that made me feel good. A middle aged woman wearing a backpack was approaching me going the opposite direction. I wondered if she was another photographer, since I carry my camera in a backpack. As I got closer I saw that she was on oxygen. She had a tube under her nose going back to a tank, presumably, in the pack.
In the other case, I came on a woman making her way along the trail using a walker. This was a gravel trail, not paved, so I assume it was work for her.
Both of these ladies were quite a ways away from the closest parking lot. I thought they were awesome and encouraging. They were making a determined effort to get out in nature despite some hindrances.
What is keeping you from doing it? Really.
Get back out there.
Forest bathing hack
Everybody seems to want a quick way to hack the system. OK. Here is your hack for forest bathing, again from Allison Chase.
1. Find your sanctuary
Look for a local park, nature preserve or even your own backyard if it boasts a decent tree coverage. Find a place that feels calming and allows you to disconnect from everyday life. This also means silencing your phone and tucking it away.
2. Slow down and savor
Forest bathing isn’t a race. Meander along a path at a leisurely pace, allowing yourself to truly appreciate the sights and sounds around you. Take slow, deliberate breaths of the fresh air. You can even stop and sit under a shade tree for a while. Your session doesn’t have to be long — aim for 30 minutes to start.
3. Engage your senses
Don’t just look — touch, smell, listen and really see everything around you. Take note of the soft aroma of fresh blooms, how freshly-cut grass feels against your bare feet or the vibrant colors of a passing butterfly. If worries or negative thoughts start to creep into your mind, gently guide your thoughts back to the present and the beauty surrounding you.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
On photography
Mostly I have talked about the general mental and physical benefits of being in nature. I believe there are benefits for photography also.
Being in a forest refreshes us and awakens our senses. It is invigorating. If we are better physically we have more stamina and are more capable of getting out for photo shoots.
And if we are calmer and less stressed we can better apply our creativity to our art. The more hindrances we can remove, the more we can focus on our art.
Forest bathing leads to mindfulness. Mindfulness leads to more creativity.
Note on the pictures selected
I deliberately selected black & white images for my forest pictures today. There are 2 basic reasons. One, I really love b&w. Two, I want to make a subtle point that the benefits of being in a forest are not reserved just for what we think of as “peak” comfortable, colorful summer and fall times. The forests have benefits for me all year, in all of its moods and weather.
May 21, 2025
Map vs GPS
It really is the journey, not just the destination.
There are 2 major ways to navigate as we travel. The main choice or conflict is map vs GPS. There are alternatives, like being on a tour or “dead reckoning”, but I will rule those out for now.
GPS
By GPS, I mean, of course, a Global Positioning System app on our phone or in our car. What an astonishingly useful technology. Who would have thought not that long ago that we would have such precise navigation available to anyone, anywhere, right in our hand?
GPS is an important supporting technology that aids our great transportation system.
When we are going to an unfamiliar place, who hasn’t entered the destination in their device and welcomed the detailed, turn by turn directions? Or been annoyed by the nagging “Proceed to the route” admonition when we veer off for some reason. Even for familiar places, we often use the app, because the magic of the internet allows it to provide real time route updates to take us around congestion or road construction. Amazing.
I would say that most of us expect this level of service now. These wonderful apps will take us by the best route direct to our destination with little decision making or navigation required by us.
But that can be the problem.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Physical map
Do you remember maps? Like that image at the top of this article? You know, those folded paper things that always seem to tear when we try to open them. And spread out to cover everything around us.
Some of you may never have held an actual map.
What is it? A map is a representation of an area on a 2-dimensional print. There are limitless kinds of maps, but I am only talking about geographic maps. Usually, a Mercator Projection. Sorry. TMI, but I like detail.
A typical map shows cities and towns, roads, lakes, rivers, and oceans. Some have topographic lines to show elevation and some use shading to give an idea of elevations. It is not unusual for them to show train tracks, parks, monuments, military installations, and other features of interest.
The area the map can show is a function of the amount of detail wanted and the allowable size of the map. To “zoom in” and see more detail means it cannot cover as much area.
In a large place like the United States, a fairly detailed map may cover a state. In other places, it might show a whole country. We can also get very detailed topographic maps that cover only a few miles in great detail.
So, a map shows us a top-down view of what is there, but it is up to us to interpret and use the information and navigate to where we want to go.
That’s more work. Why would anyone choose that over a GPS app? That is where it gets interesting to me.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
What does it say about us?
Yes, indeed, why ever use a map? I think it has to do with our goals, our personality, and, if we are photographers, how we work and think.
A GPS app will take us to a destination with little thought or planning on our part. We do not have to pay much attention to where we are or what we are going through.
It does its job efficiently. It is a faithful robot that does not distract us with sightseeing suggestions or side trip possibilities.
Get there. Check it off. The destination is the goal.
A map, though, can be a storybook of possibilities. It is a tool for our curiosity. Look, there is a waterfall just a few miles away. And that small, twisty road through the National Forest looks a lot more interesting than this Interstate highway. I wonder what that is over there. Oh, there’s where that town is. I’ve wanted to visit it. It’s just a little way off this route. That is worth a look. Maybe I will even stay the night there.
A map shows the layout of everything that is around. It is kind of like browsing a buffet. I can pick a little of this, some of that, sample this other that I have wanted to try. It doesn’t try to guide us along any path. That is up to us.
There are often endless possibilities, depending on what I am interested in and how I want to use my time. I select where to go and how to get there. I know that, for me, my interests are usually in the small towns and back country rather than big cities and major highways. If I have the choice, that is what I pick.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Use the right tool
GPS and maps are both just tools. Each has strengths and weaknesses. It is up to us to choose the best tool to use for the need at hand.
If the destination is the goal and time is tight, GPS will take us there directly and give precise directions. But if we have the luxury of choosing our own path on our own schedule, maps let us see an overview of the area. It lays out the information visually for us to see and to decide and choose. I don’t think I have ever discovered anything great that I wanted to photograph just following GPS directions.
Map vs GPS. They are not actually in competition. I use both. For example, I recently got back from a 5000 mile driving trip. I used GPS to navigate to specific destinations, like to a hotel, once I got close. Otherwise, I used maps to let my imagination wander. And I did wander. Through swamps, finding a hidden winery, along back roads in the Ozarks, to some charming places I knew nothing about along the gulf coast. None of these were things my GPS would have suggested. I would have hated to miss any of them.
It is said that it’s the journey, not the destination. I try to live that way. I’m partial to maps. GPS is excellent for getting to a destination. Maps, though help me discover a more interesting journey.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Try maps again
I encourage you to try maps again. When I see a detailed map like the section at the top, my pulse quickens, and I start getting excited. Sitting in a hotel room at night with a high quality, detailed map spread out on the table, visualizing possibilities for the journey ahead can be like reading a great story. But in this case, we are writing our own story.
After all, we are creatives. We do that.
To finish the moment, to find the journey’s end in every step of the road, to live the greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Getting maps
The image at the head of this article is a very small section of a National Geographic map of southern France. This covers about 70 miles by 50 miles. I have been to this area, and I used this very map for navigation. NatGeo has become my preferred map source.
The best map providers I know of are National Geographic and Michelin. They have an amazing catalog of detailed maps. Some are printed on a plastic coated, tear proof paper, like the France map above.
If you are in the USA and are a AAA member, you can get maps from them for free. Just go to your nearest AAA office. These are good maps, I use them, but they tear easily. But then, free…
These map provider suggestions are for your information. I do not receive any compensation.
About these images
All of these images (other than the map image, of course) are places that had to be discovered by exploring while using maps. None of these could easily have been navigated to by GPS unless someone gave you a precise location. One of them is a location on that map of France.
Try maps. They may change how you travel and photograph.
May 14, 2025
Photography is About Light
Stating the obvious? I think we sometimes forget the fundamentals of what we are doing and working with. No light, no photography. Photography is about light.
Writing with light
Remember that our word “photography” comes from 2 Greek words that together mean “writing with light”. So, from the beginning of our art form, it was understood that we were recording light on some type of photo sensitive material. Glass plates or tintype or film back then. Mostly digital sensors now.
Technology changes but still we are recording light.
Embrace that. It is what we are all about as photographers. Photography is about light.
Low light is not no light
Our technology improves all the time. It is possible to get sensors that do a fair job of imaging at 250,000 ISO. Maybe more. I don’t track the latest. The highest ISO I found with a quick scan was the Nikon D6 at 3,280,000!
A 250,000 ISO is about 11 stops of additional exposure above a nominal ISO 100 setting. Eleven stops is a huge amount as exposures go. I haven’t tried it, but at ISO 250,000 I bet you could make a properly exposed landscape shot lit only by starlight.
But the point is that very low light is not the same as no light. Have you ever been in a cavern deep underground where they turned off all lights at some point? Then we encounter the eerie experience of actual, total blackness. In those conditions it is impossible to see anything. Put your hand right in front of your face and you can’t tell it’s there. There are absolutely no photons to impinge on our retina.
We could do no photography in total blackness. Of course, other artists would be almost equally disadvantaged. I suppose, theoretically, painters could make marks on their canvas in total blackness, but they would have no way to know what they were creating. Sculptors could mold clay by feel, but they would have very limited feedback on what they were doing. But photographers cannot do anything without light.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Computational photography
One clever way to get better results in low light is used in your cell phone and by astronomers. It is generally called “computational photography”.
Computational photography does not rely on the result of one frame. Instead, tens to thousands of shots are taken and processed by computer to bring out detail.
This is how your phone takes decent pictures in low light despite having a tiny sensor. It is actually shooting bursts of dozens of frames. Then it quickly processes them in the phone. It uses averaging and other more sophisticated techniques to reduce noise and bring out the desired detail. I am surprised at how well it works.
Astronomers have special needs in photographing distant galaxies. The light levers are so low that there is nothing to see with our eye. So, they instead take hundreds, maybe thousands of images with the regular sensor on their telescope and run them through dedicated processing software. Using combinations of specialized image processing algorithms and AI, their computers “reconstruct” what is probably there.
My astronomer friends have shown me some of their new “telescopes” they got recently. These surprising instruments are generally about the size of a moderately thick hard cover book. They rely on small, cheap optics and lots of computation, but produce amazing results.
Techniques like these let images be created in what seems like black conditions. But the reality is, it is not black. Just very low levels of lighting. If it was actually black, no photography.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
See the light
As I said, the purpose of this is to remind us that our art is based on light. We need to develop a heightened awareness of the light around us, because it is critical to our art. It changes all the time and is different in different conditions.
it has been observed that a fish probably does not think about water. But we need to think about light, which is almost as important to us as water is to a fish.
Light has many characteristics and most all of them affect our photography.
We need to be intensely aware of the quantity of light at any time, its color, is it direct or diffuse, its angle, whether it is steady or changing, is our subject lit directly or indirectly, and many other properties. It sounds complicated. But learning the light is part of the craft. Learning to apply it creatively is part of the art.
For instance, it is almost an axiom of photography that you do not photograph in the middle of the day. Like the “rule of thirds”, this is one of those rules I take pleasure in violating. The reality is that it completely depends on what subjects you are shooting, the nature of your light source, and what your goals are. Shooting at midday often enhances the texture of materials. In a dense forest it can create interesting dappled light patterns. In a slot canyon or a cathedral, it can create beautiful light beams. And diffuse overcast light may be perfect for many subjects, with high brightness and soft, even illumination.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
And as a practical matter, I am not a National Geographic photographer on assignment. I can’t spend a week in the field waiting for the “perfect” shot I went out to find. I have to be creative enough to make the best use of what I find at the time I’m there.
There are no rules, only what you can do with what you have.
Tonality
Tonality is one of those important things we need to think about and know how to use. It simply refers to the difference of luminance of the parts of our image. The tonality is what lets us distinguish all the parts. It creates separation of various areas.
Think of a blank white piece of paper. This effectively has zero tonality. There is no image, because without tonal separation we cannot resolve anything. Any actual image we create has a range of tones.
If the tones are squished together, our image is low contrast. Not much tonal separation. Maybe this is what you want, like a foggy scene.
On a sunny day there is a wide range of tones. We refer to it as high contrast. Sometimes it can be too much. Do we need to use exposure or editing techniques to tame the contrast? But that is our creative choice
A low-key image involves pushing most of the tones down towards dark. But the remaining light tones stand out. Likewise, if we create a high-key image, with most of the tones pushed toward light, the remaining dark tones stand out.
Our eyes are very sensitive to tonality. We perceive tiny differences in illumination levels. Use of tones is a creative process. It should be part of our thought process and toolbox.
One of the ultimate expressions of pure tonality is black & white photography. All color is stripped away, leaving only tonality to create the image.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Color
Our eyes are an incredible design. The rods and cones have different purposes but work together to give us sight. But overall, our eye is less sensitive to color than to illumination levels.
Think of being in a dim room at night. We can make out the objects around us, but the colors are hard to distinguish. Turn the light on fully and the colors pop.
Similarly, in our images, good color requires good light. We can’t see vibrant, saturated color in dim light. I mentioned low key art. Have you noticed that most of it is black & white? This is a practical result of not being able to see much color in low light.
I believe some people’s artistic vision is drawn to color and some to black & white. If you are a color person you have to be doubly aware of light. Not enough and our brilliant colors fade.
©Ed Schlotzhauer
Creativity
All art processes are defined by their technology. Photography is based on light. We cannot do photography without light. To be a photographic artist, we need to be intensely aware of light and how to use it to our advantage.
Recognize it not as a limitation, but as a creative tool. Light is a marvelously varied thing. We are artists. We paint with light. Learning it and being constantly aware of it and deciding how we want to use it for any image is part of the art.
We are seldom in a place where there is no light, like the underground cavern I mentioned earlier. There is always light around. It may just be moonlight or city lights or a flash. We may decide there is not enough light to make the image we want sometimes, but there is always light to work with. Recognize it. Use it creatively.
Light is fundamental to photography. Learn to see it for what it is and learn to use it creatively. It is what you are photographing.
May 7, 2025