More About Why I Teach Photography

More About Why I Teach Photography

by William Lulow

I have been teaching photography for many years now and continue to offer lessons and workshops in my studio in Livingston, New Jersey these days. I recently completed a trip back to some of my old haunts in Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Colorado is a place I still know pretty well from the time I lived there in the early 1970s. So, this trip I had in mind to re-photograph some of the places and things I did all those many years ago. My motivation was to see if I could capture how things had changed and how they had remained the same. This time, I was armed with all my digital equipment, lenses and the knowledge I have gained about the digital process in the last twenty years or so. (I switched from film to digital photography back in 2001 or so and with what I have learned about Adobe Photoshop and post-processing methods, I was able to make some very significant changes in my techniques).

Because I have always loved teaching whatever I have learned to others, I always make an effort to document my techniques and methods so that they can be taught to my students. So, first things first. Whenever I travel these days, I always have an extra, external flash with me for the times it becomes necessary. On a trip to Hawaii last October, I wound up using the camera’s built-in flash to heighten some colors on local plants and to help balance overall exposure. I continue to teach about what is referred to as “The Triangle of Exposure.” The three sides of this triangle are ISO number, shutter speed and lens aperture (f/stops). But I sometimes refer to a “fourth side of the triangle” which is the addition of light. So, if you can’t achieve the exposure you want by changing the first three, then the only solution left is to raise the light level of the scene so that you can. You do this by adding light! One example of how this works is the following image:

This image of a Ti plant on the island of Maui was made by adding some light from the camera’s flash in order to render the colors correctly while, at the same time, including the sunset. What I saw in the camera’s viewfinder was a great shot of the sunset but the plant itself, was way too dark. I did a similar thing with the shot of the Aspen leaf below, photographed in Taos, New Mexico recently:

Without the presence of some additional light, this image would not have the detail on the leaves shown here. They would have been just a green color with no detail. This is a technique that I have employed often. You sometimes need to add light in order to make the image you have in mind.

These are some of the little “tricks of the trade” that I try to teach to somewhat more advanced students. Once a student masters the art of achieving a great exposure and is familiar enough with the camera and most of what it can do, and these days it involves more “after capture” work, the next step in the process of learning photography is trying to master some of the principles of lighting.

One of the other things I have known from the days of view cameras is to have a tripod handy whenever I travel. I have found a small, easily portable tripod that I now take with me whenever I travel anywhere:

Here I am with it in Hawaii. It is small enough, when compacted (it is only 15″ when folded up) and it can extend to a bit more than five feet. It can also support my DLSR with my long 135mm lens. It probably isn’t sturdy enough for my old view camera, though.

It fits neatly into the suitcase that I normally use as checked baggage on airline flights.

Here I am with the tripod at the Snake River location in Wyoming. (Photo by Judie Lulow).

I have always thought that it was important to teach photographic technique and these days I feel even stronger about it because with the proliferation of iPhones and other camera phones as well as the great number of digital cameras out there, many people are disappointed with their results because they often leave it to the computer chip in these devices to decide what kind of images will be made automatically, and typically, they are not as good as when a photographer knows what he or she is doing and how to use equipment properly to achieve the intended images.

So, if you want to improve your photographs, I am always ready and eager to teach what I know to photographers who want to learn. Also, this blog is not asking you to sign up for a class or series of classes. Everything I publish here is the same information I teach during my workshops and private classes and IT IS FREE! You might just have to wait for information you are looking for to be published here, or you can search the archives for a particular topic. Everyone benefits when people are taught the correct way to do things, and that is especially true about making images.