'From Basics to FIne Art B&W photography ...' - A review

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“From Basics to Fine Art - Black and White Photography – Architecture and Beyond”, by Joel Tjintjelaar and Julia Anna Gospodarou – a personal view

By Chris Leeland


As some folk will know I have been very impressed with the 'From Basics ...' book and so I have prepared a review of it.

I will try to post it on here but it is most likely too long to feature in one single post so I may be trying to split it up.

If I don't succeed you may end up with only part of it.

Please don't post any comments or reply on this thread until you see that I have marked 'THE END' in a final post.

EDIT: Review now fully posted so please feel free to comment


I plan to post this on Elements Village and the B&W forum too, so it is intended for a broad audience.

http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/index.php

http://bthedigitalmonochromeforum.runboard.com/

(START OF REVIEW PROPER)

Introduction

This book is excellent.

In that view I do not differ from great photographers who, in various ways, have said the same. For example in the foreword to the book:

• George DeWolfe
• Charles Paul Azzopardi

or on Julia Anna Gospodarou’s website - http://blog.juliaannagospodarou.com/from-basics-to-fine-art/:

• Ian Barber
• Jack Torcello
• Richard Terpolilli
• Andrew Gibson
• Antony Nortcut
• Marcell van Aswegan

So what can I add to the comments of these leading photographers? Especially as I would describe myself as an ‘advanced novice’, who:

• does not have ‘full’ Photoshop (I have Photoshop Elements 11 and the NIK collection),

• has never been placed first in the local camera club competitions, and

• makes lots of mistakes when taking photographs (eg forgetting to check the histogram).

Well … it is precisely because of those factors that I believe that I DO have something relevant to say.

The Introduction to the book says it is:

• Meant for beginners, intermediate and advanced photographers

So I am very much in the book’s target audience.

I am basing my comments on the e-version of the book which I bought in August 2014.

General scope and purpose of my comments

The book has over 400 pages. To comment on the book in detail would be onerous so I have decided to restrict myself to commenting in a way that I hope will be helpful to people like me – non-experts.
 
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Commentary on the main types of content

Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7


Aspects covered

Fine art photography

What it is

Vision

Discovering a personal vision and style

Comments

I come from the ’I don’t know much about art but I know what I like’ school of thinking.

I tend not to like airy fairy discussions. However I approached this section with an open mind simply because the images that the authors produce are so amazing and beautiful that it would be short-sighted not to listen to what they have to say.

And in the event, I found these parts of the book surprisingly interesting – helped by the liberal use of specimen images - not necessarily to illustrate a point but as a part of the overall design of the book at the bottom of most pages.

Also the ideas in these parts of the book are referred to later and so are reinforced. This is not a case of ‘Let’s get the theoretical stuff out of the way and then we can forget about it.’

You are encouraged to adopt a broad point of view adapting and learning from other disciplines eg:

• Art history
• Art theory
• Aesthetics
• Literature
• Philosophy

As well as other more conventional sources eg other photographers and artists.

And I have found that in trying to do this (primarily from buying second-hand books) I have broadened my interests. Whether or not it improves my photography remains to be seen.

Despite the theoretical nature of this early part of the book it never the less includes practical exercises eg on shooting images under different light conditions. And they continue with further practical advice and tips in the remainder.

The authors introduce the idea of using a captured image solely as the starting point for a piece of fine art.

You begin to get the idea that the book has an integrated, holistic approach to photography .
 
Chapter 5

Aspects covered

(en)Visionography

Comments

This is one of the book’s important contributions.

If you like your photographs to show ‘what was actually there’, then you won’t like this concept. On the other hand, maybe you should know more about it before you dismiss it.

To me, the essence of (en)Visionography is that you need not, must not, be bound by what you actually see. Instead you need to exercise your freedom to change anything and everything to show how you would want it to look in your perfect world.

And so this is starting to tie in with the theoretical stuff on ‘vision’.

Chapter 8

Aspects covered

Composition


Comments

The best collection of principles/guidance I have seen, and it includes suggestions that I have not come across anywhere else.

Chapters 9, 10

Aspects covered

Different types of light

Why and how it is that you can tell an object is solid when it is on a (2D) piece of paper

Comments

Introduces another important contribution – Photography Drawing.

As I see it, when you are changing the captured image to your ‘ideal world’, then you need to be able to put light and shadows in the right place, such that all shadows are consistent and give the necessary 3D effect.

Julia Anna Gospodarou is clearly a skilled drawer, as evidenced by some of her pencil sketches included in the book. Most of us are probably nowhere near her standard and so this is an aspect that many people would need to work at.

After reading this section of the book I found that going round ‘traditional art’ art galleries was more interesting than previously as I was looking at how the painter had shown light and shadows – and I found some were better than others.


Chapters 11,12


Aspects covered

How to see in black and white

Zone system

How to make a good black and white photograph

Comments


As regards ‘seeing’ in black and white my experience (and that of others) is that you need to practice shooting for black and white images.

Introduces ‘The Rule of Grays’ – a third important contribution. Some people seem to take exception to any use of the word ‘rule’ in photography, let alone art more generally. But it seems to me that the main aim is solely to give you a framework for thinking about how to improve your black and white images when processing them.

This is just one of the many parts that I need to read again. My first reading of the book was spread over three months or so.
 
Chapters 13- 21, 23 - 25

Aspects covered

Architectural photography

Comments

Lots of good practical advice on architectural photography including:

• Subject
• Shooting details
• Camera settings
• Equipment
• Shooting on location
• Tilt shift lens
• Abstract architectural photography
• Cityscapes and skylines
• Night architectural photography
• Classical and real estate architectural photography
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Exposure Fusion (EF) in architectural photography
• Infra-red photography

Inevitably architecture dominates the practical guidance in the book because that is the background and interest of the two authors.

In the title of the book, the ‘and beyond’, refers to extending the general approach (vision etc) to aspects other than architecture.

And such extensions by others will help achieve the objective of the book:

• To start an artistic revolution in photography.


Chapter 22

Aspects covered

Architectural street photography


Comments

This is not flagged up by others in the foreword or elsewhere so far as I can see, as one of the particular contributions of the book.

But for me it provides an additional part of my framework for considering the possibility of a scene for a good image.

Chapters 26, 27

Aspects covered

Long exposure photography

Comments

Over the past year or so I have had several half-hearted attempts at long exposure photography, without success.

However the advice and guidance they give encourage me to try again.

I was disappointed to learn that the so-called ‘Big Stopper’ – the 10 stop filter – is not dark enough to produce many of the images seen in the book.

They recommend getting a set of filters that goes up to 19 stops – and maybe more if you live in a very sunny climate.

Some may take exception to the recommendation to use a filter set associated with one of the authors: namely the
‘Formatt Hi-tech Prostop Long Exposure kit – Joel Tjintjelaar Signature Edition’ but, having read the book, I didn’t.
 
Chapter 28

Aspects covered

How to process captured images to get the Gospodarou/Tjintjelaar effect


Comments

This section covers another of the important contributions: iterative Selective Gradient Masks – iSGM.

Essentially it involves merging different elements from, say, three versions of the captured image:

• Neutral version
• Darker under-exposed version
• Lighter over-exposed version

And then processing with gradients and other selectively-used tools to get the effect you want.

You can produce the three versions of the original photograph manually or - for those with NIK SFX - you can get an action that works in Photoshop and Elements 11 (and subsequent versions) from Ian Barber at:

http://www.digitalblackandwhite.co.uk/product/silver-efex-pro-tone-mapping-video-series/

The action comes as part of a £5.99 package which includes a very good SFX training video.

The ‘From basics …’ book also includes a variation called iSGM2. This involves use of luminosity masks. At the moment luminosity masks are a step too far for me as I don’t know how to use them in PSE 11(assuming they can be used in PSE 11).

Good guidance is given on how to apply iSGM. But it is not a detailed exposition of which button to press or which menus in Photoshop you should use. To include such detail would probably require far too much space.

If you want to delve more deeply into iSGM (and Long Exposure Photography) then Joel Tjintjelaar provides a video at:

https://sites.fastspring.com/fototv/instant/longexposureworkflow

(price £45.14)

If, for example, you don’t have the filters to try Long Exposure photography , but would like to develop your skills at merging photographs and making changes to contrast in selected parts of an image then the excellent video ‘Contrast Grading’ by Martin Henson may meet your needs:

http://martinhensonphotography.co.uk/otheritems.html

(£24.50 by post or download)


Chapters 30, 32

Aspects covered

Pricing guidelines for aspiring professional photographer

Their favourite gear, software and photography resources

Comments

The pricing guidelines are interesting to see but not likely to be of great practical use to people at the lower end of the skill range (like me and the target audience for this commentary).

They give options for kit both in this section and throughout the book on things such as software.


Chapter 31

Aspects covered

Gallery of images

Comments

This penultimate chapter in the book contains a total of 38 black and white images – 19 from each of the co-authors.

The images are stunning and to see so many, so close together is a real treat.
 
What didn’t I like?

So … despite my view that it is excellent, was there anything about the book that I disagreed with or that grated?

Well there was – but even that was more to do with artists in general than the book as such. And it stems from my position of ’I don’t know much about art but I know what I like’.

At one point the book says:

‘….it takes an artist’s mind to understand another artist’s mind’

And by implication you cannot ‘understand ‘art’’ if you don’t understand the mind of an artist.

This line of thought is also evident in something the book recommends as a ‘must read’:

Minor White’s essay on Alfred Stieglitz’s concept of ‘Equivalences’, called ‘The perennial trend’.

(This is in the early part of the book on vision etc.)

Apparently some people, when commenting on a picture that they find obscure or ambiguous, see something in the image that says more about them than the actual image – a bit like the well-known Rorschach ink blot test.

Minor White says that editors of art magazines are:

‘… long familiar with the letters and articles of persons who insist that they do not want to solve picture puzzles. We wonder if such persons have the emotional-intellectual equipment to solve anything.’


(My emphasis)

My starting point is that all views on ‘art’ are valid, including ’I just don’t get it’.

More broadly, in my view, if someone doesn’t receive a message then it is the responsibility of the person sending the message, not the responsibility of the receiver: ie the responsibility of the artist, not the viewer.

Concluding remarks

I doubt if I understand the mind of Julia Anna Gospodarou or Joel Tjintjelaar, or if I see the image in the way they intend; but I know that their black and white images are beautiful and that I get a great deal of pleasure from looking at them.

Chris Leeland 30 November 2014
 
THE END

Please feel free to comment
 
Bumpety bump

?anybody
 
Hi Chris

Thanks for this review. A good read/review from your perspective. I'd seen the book on JT's website. I've got his long exposure workflow videos and they are a great insight into his work and how he gets the results.

I would have been tempted by the book but when I last looked it was only an e-book and I do like my photography books to be paper based unless they are purely technical/instructional such as LR of PS.

Thanks again.
 
Hi Chris,
Great summary and review, thanks muchly! I've thought about purchasing this book as well but too often find there's not quite enough of this, or too much of that.
A preview of the book I looked at seemed to have a good page format and structure, and posts/videos from the authors elsewhere on the web give some useful information on processing, but not the whole.
I wonder if Santa's listening?
 
Thanks for commenting.

There is a 'proper' book in preparation. My guess is that it will be more expensive than the e-version.

Yes - I have heard/seen good things about the JT Long Exposure DVD but at the moment that isn't a priority for me. I 've also been told of free JAG/JT videos on you tube but not even tried looking yet.

Re the cost - yes it is expensive for an e-book but I have certainly found it excellent value because I have got so much out of it and there is a lot more for me to try out yet.

The format is good - as I mentioned, there are photos. or parts of photos, on just about every page so I found my desire to produce my own version of something like their images was continually reinforced.

As a result of their encouragement to read more widely on arty subjects I have picked up some ideas that I would like to develop and which are nothing like their particular approach (but not yet tried in earnest:))
 
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