The Better the Color, the Better the Black and White

Got to discussing with someone how I make black and white images in the digital age. What I do is this: get the fullest range of colors and color contrast possible, and then convert to black and white. As in the image to the left. Photography has always been in color - it's the materials that dictated the output.
A full range of tones, with details in the shadows and the highlights is the ideal. And since we have the advent of 16 bit color, we are dealing with a huge number of colors. ]
The Zone System made it possible, for the first time, to represent a contrast range that the naked eye could not see - if one squinted to make out the highlights, the shadows vanished, and vice versa.
Note: I am not referring to HDR which has it's place. Just not sure where...Given the movement of clouds, leaves, water and people HDR can be problematic. To squeeze the most out of any given fame is my goal.

Upcoming Show

After a long, and I mean long, hiatus, I am starting to show my work again...
It's taking the form of a small start in an OIA sponsored show at New York Law School in November of this year.

The images shown are from a couple of years ago and while I am really excited about showing, I look at the work from a different perspective than that of my newer stuff.

There's a gap between making and showing work which allows me to detach, and helps propel me forward.

Two of the images were shot digitally, one is a scan from film. The digital images were shot on an eight megapixel camera and the color negative was scanned commercially (didn't have a decent scanner at the time). Reprinting them on better paper, and more in line with the way I see now, reminded me a little of trying to milk the most quality out of 35mm negatives. It's easier to get better detail, color, contrast range, etc. out of medium and large format film. It's now easier getting the above from full sized sensors and 20+ megapixel cameras.
However...
Learning to get the best quality from the the smallest, when applied to larger files or formats, only improves the work. I don't tend to coast on the image size alone.















I'll post opening dates as soon as I get them...

Tools and Intent

Last night, as I lay abed considering the fate of the universe, I started to think about issues of tools and techniques in photography.
The conclusion arrived at was - the closer one can bring one's intent to the tools at hand, the better the image will be. This requires an ability to see what the image will look like before the camera is in front, and long before it is opened in whatever editor y'all use. It is also the place where pushing buttons to see what happens moves from automatic art making to considered use of the controls of the software and the camera.

Does Difficulty Define Aesthetics?

In the past, before the dawn of the digital age, the powers that be in the world of criticism and aesthetics had clamped a set of definitions and rules, which in hindsight, seem to be more related to the difficulty of manipulating images than about pure aesthetics.

I'm not going anywhere near the realm of editorial or journalistic ethics, this is about imagery as art.

Shooting with film sets certain limits on what can be accomplished reasonably quickly and at reasonable cost. It is then, far easier to work within the limits, and let the limits start to define the medium.

A photograph can now be manipulated in a staggering number of ways, any one of which, and possibly all, are as valid, and powerful as the "pure" photograph. Whatever that might be...

Another Month Gone By....

One light at a time...
I've never managed to do the multiple lighting set ups that I've read about - even when I followed directions to the letter I'd end up with all sorts of extra shadows and blown highlights.
So, for years and years and years I've used one light, and done just fine.
Most of the time the complex multi light/reflector set ups are for advertising.
Intense levels of freak-out panic, worry and perfectionism, and all for something that will be seen for a week - maybe - and forgotten - rapidly.
No, I don't like advertising. Dislike it at best, mostly detest it.
The few friends I've had who have ventured into advertising got caught up in the ad itself - completely forgetting the subject. And I've seen too many promising artists foul up their talent.
Gah.

More and more and more good stuff

www.robertdanielullmann.com is my oldest site, and now, my newest, with a complete overhaul.

Here are the rest

http://robertdanielullmann.ugallery.com

http://robert-ullmann.artistwebsites.com/

http://www.robertullmannphotodigital.com/

Keyworded, meta-tagged and all that kind of good stuff.

Fine Art America and UGallery are absolute gifts of the gods... I'd recommend them to any and all.

Where You Are There You Are

There beautiful and powerful images all around us. All it requires is the presence of mind to see and the nerve to take the picture. Since film is no longer an issue, SHOOT!
And shoot some more.

I've found that I am not filling up my memory card the way I used to when I first started shooting digital, and this is good.

I went to one of my favorite gardens yesterday to shoot (it's part of the NY City Park System, so all manner of rues are in place. One of them is about commercial activity, the other requires permits to use tripods. There was a photography class standing at the gates, surrounding the teacher, who was yelling into his cell at a parks department official and having his class shout, in unison into the phone. He apparently had been told he couldn't have twenty five students with tripods in the garden all at once without a permit.

Public areas are not free for all kinds of uses at all times. Photographers have enough problems with the image of being rude, intrusive and pushy as it is...