Here’s a bit of a commentary on how I approach my photography. Let me start with my full artist statement, a shortened form of which I published on my danmanganimage.com website. I’ve worked and re-worked this statement over the years to try to put into words the essence of what I am trying to achieve with my photography.
“My goal is to create distinctive art through digital photographic and imaging processes. As such, the exposure may be only the beginning of a process: if I deem it worthwhile, art can be built by subtle increments on the platform of the original exposure, much as a painter uses a palette. Or I may be completely satisfied with the original exposure and leave well enough alone. While I don’t consider digital as a replacement for film photography, I believe it has quickly achieved co-equal status for one elemental reason: digital allows the photographer to dive headlong into the creative darkroom process without the muss, fuss, and expense of the darkroom. As such, the process couples serious photography with an expansive (and blessedly adjustable, even reversible) range of creative editing tools to achieve pleasing artistic results. As with anything worth doing, much of my enjoyment is in working the process of this wonderful phenomenon. “But without a good, solid exposure to build on, the end product won’t resonate despite the digital toy chest. To that end, my eye is drawn to line and form, geometric patterning, rich color, and the powerful interplay of light and shadow. Once transferred to my Apple computer, another facet of creation takes over — all while remaining essentially true to the subject before the lens. “For me, photography requires concentrated focus, and thus goes far toward fulfilling my meditative requirement. I aim to funnel the beauty I see through a lens, and then re-interpret it onto a screen or photographic paper. In that sense, photography represents an essential adjunct to my sense of sight, and to my deep-seated wonder at the beauty inherent in our surroundings, and indeed within each of us. My hope is that others viewing my work will see a rich window on not only my world, but theirs as well.”
And on the technical aspects:
“Each Giclée print originates with a Canon 20D single lens reflex digital camera and Canon lenses. Edits are done with Apple iPhoto and Adobe Photoshop CS technologies, all the while remaining essentially true to the subject as originally exposed. The prints, all originals, are produced on an Epson Stylus Photo 2200 printer and printed on 10 mil, RC-based Epson Premium Luster paper. The printer utilizes seven-color Epson UltraChrome™ archival pigment inks applied with Advanced Micro Piezo® printing technology at 2880 x 1440 dots per inch. When displayed indoors under glass, the prints will retain their color permanence for 100-plus years.”
As noted above, I use a Canon 20D digital camera, which works just fine for my purposes. It’s a semi-professional model, about three years old, for which I paid about $1,200US. My basic lens is a Canon EF-S 17-85mm F/4-5.6. IS USM, and my telephoto is a Canon EF-70-300mm F/4-5.6 IS USM. I just purchased a very nice Canon macro lens, which I am anxious to start using. My main intent for this lens is to take ultra-closeups of botanicals (flowers, etc.) to reveal the beautiful geometry of subjects.
A high percentage of my exposures are enhanced through photo editing, either through the iPhoto (Apple software embedded in my Macintosh 17-inch PowerBook laptop computer), or Adobe Photoshop CS, which I most often use for special effects. The great majority of these enhancements involve slight adjustments in saturation, contrast, sharpness, or Kelvin temperature (cooler blues ranging to warmer golds, depending on the subject and my mood at the time). One of the signatures of my work is a concentration on the interplay of light and shadow; you can see the results with many of my images on my “Botanicals and Florals” portfolio on my website.
As you will see in my “Fantasia” section, the colors are false (e.g. a blue rose). I achieve this effect with a special filter in Adobe Photoshop CS which allows me to substitute two colors of my choosing (among thousands of shadings) for the original coloring of the image. Most of the time when I do this, the results are a mushy mess. The ones that “work” I included in “Fantasia”. This is extremely subjective — in other words, I like it, and hope that others find as much beauty in the image as I do. They may not see what I see, of course, but that is the risk I take (“Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”)
As you will see in most of my work, especially in “Perceptions of Nicaragua,” proper cropping is essential. In other words, get rid of anything which doesn’t enhance the overall purpose you’re trying to achieve. Crop tight, and by all means use the “rule of thirds” in your images, i.e. don’t place your main subject right in the center of the frame — put it off to the side, unless centering enhances your purpose (see Girl of Santa Rosa del Peñon in the Nicaragua section, the young child in the right lower corner of the frame, with a large banana plant filling the left and center thirds of the frame).
ISO: In my camera, my ISO range is from 100 to 3200, with the latter available in extremely low-light situations. It’s a great thing to have a camera good enough to change ISO to adapt to differing amounts of light. But of course there is a penalty for increasing ISO, both for film and for digital: the higher the ISO, the more noise or grain the image will have. My software contains a filter that reduces or eliminates noise, but often with an undesirable effect of excessively softening the image. So I try to use the lowest ISO possible, with the crispest result. If the image comes out too dark, I can always lighten it with my photo editing software. That said, bracketing is useful, i.e. shoot the same exposure using several different ISO settings, and also opening the aperture to increasingly wider F-stops. Depth of field is also useful, but not usually a big factor in the kinds of shots I make. As I progress in bird photography, a sharp foreground image with a highly blurred background will be something I will strive to achieve.
Using flash: use sparingly, particularly where “fill flash” is essential to put a bit more light on human faces, and where the subject is backlit. I use a Speedlite flash particular to my Canon model, and try to bounce the flash off a ceiling to soften the “blast”. But if at all possible, use available light shooting, which provides depth and texture to faces, whereas a flash will flatten the subject. The result with the latter is like a passport photo, not an artistic photograph. For a good example of available light human photography, see my image in the Nicaragua section: Young Artists, Taller Artistico Xuchialt, León. Here I shot the boys, indoors, next to a doorway with light coming in from the side, using an ISO is around 800. Only part of their faces is fully illuminated, with just a hint of light on the other side of their faces. Make your viewer imagine what’s in the shadows (also see “Dahlia, Shadow and Light” in the Botanicals and Florals section). I believe it adds interest, and a bit of intrigue. Here you will find some techniques to become a great photographer.
Dan Mangan, Photographer
New York, United States
