Dissecting the Work of Others
Posted on 27 April 2010
Lately I’ve been studying the work of well-known, contemporary photographers and designers and there’s been a side-effect that I wanted to share.
I have enjoyed NAPP’s Photoshop training since the beginning, and the 1-day Photoshop seminars before that, long before I was NAPP’s Exec Director. And over the years, Scott, Dave, Matt and countless columnists and trainers have shown me (and everyone else) techniques for achieving various effects with Photoshop and with my camera. In all that time it has been rare that I’ve come across an effect or “look” that I couldn’t duplicate, and in many cases, there were already complete tutorials about the technique in question.
Lately though, I’ve been studying a couple of contemporary photographers who have really impressive bodies of work and who have a particular “look” which people recognize as their style. And a couple of these guys have achieved their look as the result of numerous inter-woven techniques. When they get their look with layer upon layer of special effects, combined with first rate photography, the dissection process is more than just a matter of finding the right single tutorial to understand what they did. As a result, most people just say, “Wow, they’re good! There’s so much going on here I could never duplicate that look,” and leave it at that. I’ve been trying to go a little deeper and completely replicate their “style” (but not attempt to copy any particular piece). – The image above was shot at 5pm with unremarkable light, and all of the atmospheric elements and saturated colors were created in Photoshop. Yeah, I know I still have a long way to go, but the experiment taught me a lot.
The Three Reasons to Try Recreating Someone’s Style
By dissecting these works and trying to duplicate the style, it causes you to think more analytically about that artist’s work and your own work as well. The better you understand the various elements of a composition, the better you will be when planning a shoot or working on a project. You’ll have a better eye for composition and vision for the finished piece.
Second, it makes you consider the planning that went into the photo shoot to have all of the necessary elements to create the image you want.
Third, it causes you to explore Photoshop in ways you hadn’t before. In your search for a special look or technique, you will learn things about Photoshop and image manipulation/enhancement that you would never learn any other way. You might even stumble on something you like even better than what you were searching for. And all of these things you’ve learned can become elements of your own new work.
In the beginning you might feel like you’re copying someone else’s work, but really you’re learning style, composition, and finishing effects from them. (It’s like going to great restaurants and studying great recipes so you have new inspiration and ideas when you create your own recipes.) With that extra level of Photoshop and photographic understanding, you’ll be able to use some of the elements you’ve learned and develop your own creations with some borrowed and some new elements. Maybe you’ll be a better Photoshop user or photographer, or maybe you’ll develop some new style that people will name after you.
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8 responses to Dissecting the Work of Others
Larry,
I totally agree about dissecting images that I like. Many of us simply do not have the opportunity to go out and shoot similar setups, but here is a work around: critique (constructively) the images of others. I have learned so much by an in depth look at photographs taken by others. It is more than just I like it or don’t like it. Look at the elements of composition, what they did right in the camera and what they did wrong. Analyze their post (this will help with your Lightroom & Photoshop techniques) and determine what they could have done to make the image better. When I critique images I take a lot more time and really study the image to determine what would make it better. There are a number of critique sites around the internet and I tend to do some critiques during down time when cards are downloading or images are printing. This has had a profound effect on my photography as I tend to learn from the mistakes of others and not repeat them in my photography. A side benefit to this is the spark of creativity I sometimes get from someone else’s work.
Gary
I was wondering if you would mind sharing who inspired you with this image.
Uh, oh. Calling me out on my inspiration. Well, at the risk of totally embarrassing myself by showing the gulf between my current work and that of the artist I admire, I’ll begrudgingly admit that the artist is an Indonesian photographer named Rarindra Prakarsa. He’s a gifted shooter and collage artist. He doesn’t speak English, so his forum replies are very limited and the 2 interviews I found with him don’t even touch on his technique. In fact, any time he’s asked how he does this stuff, his reply is, “I hope you visit my country and I’d be happy to answer questions about your visit.” or something like that. It seems that his biggest “official” collection is posted here:
http://photo.net/photos/rarindra
Oh, and just a note about the fact that I believe that many of these images are collages rather than single image captures, I have a collection of links to 3 of his images with an identical tree (every single leaf is the same) yet the foreground in each is dramatically different. He is masterful, and he is a photographer as well as a collage artist.
Thats a cool post — I just subscribed to your feed through Google reader and I am glad I found it. Its so weird that I am reading this because I have been struggling to figure out how one of my Flickr contacts post processes his images. I am admittedly not so good at Photoshop (am working on it) so the way he creates those smokey backgrounds and lights rays is beyond me still. I won’t overlook teh fact that many of his omages are just stunning to begin with. He is from Pakistan as well - must be something in the water over there… whatever it is I’d like to take a sip.
Here is his ling to his Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lalkhan/
Looks like they went to the same post-processing school.
I want to learn this stuff and be able to do it fairly well and then see if I can’t come up with a “spin” or adaptation that makes it my own.
My end game is NOT to be seen as the guy who can mimic Rarindra, rather, I want to use some aspects of his style combined with my own style, lighting, locations, etc. to make up my own style. - And in the end, maybe my style will have nothing to do with the Rarindra inspiration and this will just be a good learning experience.
Larry, I am on the same page as you with this dissecting thing. I am in constant “how was this done” mode when I look at other folks photography. I always go through all the comments on Scott’s and Dave’s, etc. sites and click to the commenter’s web sites and look at their stuff. Many times I email them to find out how they did certain photographs (what’s the worst they can do except tell me to go jump). I wished more people who do tech blogs would get into deeper explanation of the photos they create.
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Larry, I love TRYING to duplicate others effects even if I fail in the process. It’s a great learning experience and they you learn to appreciate the technique and artist even more as a result.