P#19 Q7: Can You Suggest One or Two Exercises That Our Listeners Can Do To Improve Their Fall Photos?

Isolate Your View

Jim Zuckerman: That's a very good question. Here's what I would suggest...

A lot of people have difficulty composing pictures and finding compelling things to shoot, especially in a situation where you have a lot of forest material. One thing that you can do is take a piece of paper and roll it up into a tube and look through it.

What you're doing is cropping your scene like a telephoto would, so you can look at a forest and look at trees, look at branch patterns, look at leaves on rocks, look at a section of a pond and move it all around until you like something.

What this is doing is something that I call "thinking as the lens sees." The point is the camera really doesn't capture what we see. It does come close. A normal lens comes the closest. A telephoto lens, however, crops elements so if you can learn to see the scene in your mind's eye through a telephoto lens, that will really help you.

Rolling up this piece of paper helps you do that. It helps you isolate different areas of the scene.

Open Up with a Wide Angle

A wide angle exaggerates perspective. It elongates things, it makes things seem disproportionately close to the camera and disproportionately large when they really aren't. The only way you can really train your eye to do that is just by looking through a wide angle.

If you can try to compose the scene or parts of the scene in your mind's eye as the lens sees it, not as your brain sees it, that will really help you.

Audri Lanford: Excellent. Those are great suggestions.

Jim Zuckerman: I spent a lot of time trying to think how I can help people see better. This is about the closest I've come to explaining to them that they can't look at a scene and then put the camera up to their eye and expect to see the same thing. You have to see as the lens sees.

The Most Important Thing

Audri Lanford: We've talked about a lot of different things today, Jim. What's the one thing you most want people to remember from today's interview that will make the biggest difference in improving their fall photos?

Jim Zuckerman: Shoot in soft and diffused lighting and be extremely aware of the shapes of the things that you're photographing. Reduce a forest into shapes - a tree branch, a tree trunk, even arranging a group of leaves on the ground into a nice design. Choose perfect leaves and just put them into a shape. Just think shape.

Audri Lanford: Thank you so much! If people want to learn more about all the things you have to offer, what's the best way for them to do that?

Jim Zuckerman: They can go to my Web site, JimZuckerman.com and there's a large button link on the home page there that takes them to all of the activities that I participate in -- the photo tours I lead, the workshops, and the lectures for camera clubs. They're all listed right there.

Also at the top of the homepage, there's a link for my online courses. They can see what I teach online.

The newest thing that I'm offering now is a Photoshop workshop in my home. I'm really excited about that because it will be nice to have students at my home. It's a very personal environment. I just love teaching and love Photoshop. I love creativity and sharing this enthusiasm with other people.

Audri Lanford: Great. We'll put links to those in our Show Notes. I know you also have a free e-mail newsletter.

Jim Zuckerman: Yes, the sign-up is right on the homepage. You can get a free newsletter once a month where I talk about various techniques and photography tips.

I also have a little feature there where I do a sub critique. Many times, when people critique their own work, egos can get in the way and other factors can interfere with an honest assessment. I put up pictures and with no holds barred I tell people what I think is good or what's not good about my own pictures.

In Closing

Jim Zuckerman taught us quite a lot during his 7 Photography Questions interview. The most important? Learn to reduce the scenery you're shooting in into shapes. It's how Jim creates such stunning and amazing fall photos, and how you can do it too.