The Art begins with the process of discovery. Finding the subjects for my work involves a state of mind not dissimilar to the prescient Zen writings that talk of the path to take in life itself.

Go - not knowing where
Seek - not knowing what

I usually pick places of extremes. They tend to have more opportunities for subjects with striking colors that express nature in bold strokes and with essential clarity. I can wander in these places for days and see nothing and then suddenly find 5 totally unique and exciting subjects within a hundred feet of each other.

The subject for my works cannot be predicted. They come out of the true process of creative discovery. They are where they are. To find them I must stay present in the moment and stay open to "seeing beyond the obvious."

See like the film

When I find a subject I think has potential to express something beyond itself, I must see it as the film sees it to understand what power the image has within it.

Put as simply as I can, the human eye sees 12 discreet shades of tone - from black dark to bright white. Photographic film can only see 5 of these connected shades at a time. If you expose the film to see the brightest shades correctly, all the darker shades after the five will fall to black. If you expose for the "shadow" shades, all of the brighter ones "burn out" and turn white. If you expose to the middle range, the darker and brighter shades on both sides will collapse to black and white.

Since solid black and white have no shades within them, they carry no real "picture information" in those areas. So the final picture on film is not "reality" the way we see it, but is a representation of what we see in much higher contrast. In a sense, it is the image seen with a different "sense" than the eye. It is a new image - the one the film sees. And the art starts with that image which already carries a range of the artist’s choices and perceptions in the very act of capturing. It is something new - not seen by the eye, but seen by the inner vision of the artist.

I have learned to see as the film sees. Some subjects may not be greatly exciting to the eye, but I know they will transform into something powerful when collapsed by the film. Conversely, many things that are strong to the eye are lost when translated by film.

The physical world

When you shoot in nature it becomes profoundly clear that the world is alive. Nothing stays the same, even moment to moment. The light is ever changing - time of year, time of day, the disposition of the sky, all constantly changing.

Part of the art is choosing the exact time when, because of the angle of the sun, the shadows are best and the nature of the light is best to create the image you imagine. If you want strong shadows, and the sky is bland with overcast, you must wait for another time. Waiting is a powerful creative force. Working in nature is a lesson in patience and attention to detail.

There are many connected and minute processes you must get right to get the image on film. Not the least of which is achieving absolute steadiness of the camera and tripod. And then of course, the slightest breeze may affect the subject. There is nothing that feels more "Zen" than standing poised and in perfect readiness for the camera and subject to be stilled by the wind. I have stood with the complete readiness of a runner in the blocks for as long as 30 minutes waiting for that split second when both camera and subject were stilled and the image could be captured without blur.

The image on film

Once exposed, a professional lab with tightly controlled processes develops the film. I often end up with 10 to fifty versions of an image, all expressing slightly different variations of what was possible. I usually pour over these for hours over a period of days before I'm satisfied I understand the image and its potential enough to choose the final exposure to work with. Then, before I can begin the next stage of my work, I must get the image scanned.

Transforming the image

In transparency form, the image is held in dyes. To get total control of the image to bring it to life in a print, I need this "dye" information transferred to digital information. Scanners analyze the slide film and create a "copy" of the colors it "sees" into a digital file that can be worked with on a computer. There can be huge differences in the quality of this copy from one type of scanner to another and from one operator to another. The quality of the scan is critical to maximizing the potential in the piece.

Once you open the scan in photoshop, it's like actually meeting a new friend for the first time. Now I can settle myself into the image and understand it on a new level.

Working the image

Perhaps someday there will be something better than Photoshop for working with digital images. But it's hard to imagine. With Photoshop you have, essentially, complete control over the image information in a visual file.

It would require a whole book to describe how I use Photoshop to work with a file to prepare it to print with my desired results. Since there are already many good books available, I'm not going to write my own version. But I will discuss a few important issues.

I usually work with each image for anywhere from 40 to 100 hours before I'm satisfied it is printing with the full potential in the image. An artist can use "artistic license" to do anything to an image that can be imagined. But my personal working style is to not to manipulate an image away from reality, but to do what is needed to bring that reality to life and craft the image to project the full power I see in it.

Getting an image to print with that powerful presence you feel when looking at a beautifully exposed transparency is far from straightforward! The perceived brightness in an image on paper, whether produced with photographic dyes or inks, is primarily a result of the reflecting qualities of the dye, ink and paper.

White paper cannot achieve the same effect as real light pouring through the dyes in the emulsion of a transparency. So you have to "force" saturation and color to create an effect that comes as close as possible. Even then, a picture must be lit directly with bright halogen light to even get close to the effect you see in real life or in a beautiful backlit slide.

Though some real nudging is needed, it is very easy to "overdo" the image. One of the most common mistakes you see in images output from Photoshop is oversaturation of the color spectrum. Some saturation is needed to emulate the "brightness" of the slide. But too much saturation makes an image "candy" and phony looking.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Photoshop capabilities are so powerful, it's easy to get carried away. As with other forms of art, an essential part of the "art" is knowing when to stop!

The monitor and accurate color

There seems to be an inexhaustible number of theories and opinions about how to get the monitor to accurately represent how the image will look when output. Before I focused on my artwork, I owned and ran a small, high-level branding, advertising and design firm. Getting things to print properly was always important, and over a period of 15 years, I learned about working with color from Arno Ruben, the owner of Repro- Media. This gentle Swiss color master is so good he has clients who travel from the East coast just for his color expertise.

Arno taught me the "real" secret to monitor accuracy. It's so simple it's stunning. But I have found few people who know. I will simplify it to the core. The question you come across over and over is, "How do I calibrate my monitor to be completely accurate so I can trust the color I'm looking at to print the way I see it?

YOU DON'T!!!

Invariably, you are trying to work a file so it will print out from a certain printer the way you want it to. And naturally you want the monitor to reflect your changes so you will know how it will print on that specific machine.

My monitor process

Calibrate your monitor in one of the conventional ways to get the best general color you can. On the newer Macs, there is a simple built in application that will do this automatically. This feature creates a well-balanced, believable, pleasing color balance. Then, have your file of choice printed by the machine and with the paper you intend to use.

When you get your print back. View it under 5000K light near your computer so you can see it and the monitor. This first print shows you how your file looks printed on the machine of your choice.

Now you just reverse engineer the "gamma" to make the image on the monitor match the printed piece. On a Mac this entails moving the RGB sliders in the gamma window until you get the monitor version to look as close as possible to the print. Then save the new gamma setting with a name you will remember, i.e. "lightjet emulation" and use that gama whenever you are working on files to print on that paper and machine. When the monitor matches your print, you are as close as you can get to creating a correspondence between your monitor and your print results!

It's that straightforward, and it works like a charm.

(More to come)

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