I spend at least a few hours every morning checking some blogs that I frequent to see what is going on in the photographic community. On occasion I allow my self to get sucked into the potentially endless stream of clicks that lead you to all kinds of interesting discoveries. Today my interest was peaked by a look into my own past. I was born in Berlin, Germany…West Berlin at the time and this morning Rob Galbraith posted some links to a few galleries showing photographs of the wall. One such link led me to MAGNUM PHOTOS, where I was able to delightfully rediscover some of the work that drew me to photography to begin with. David Alan Harvey is an amazingly talented photographer with a vision that has inspired me for years and I hope that some of you will take the time to view some of his work the next time you “let your mouse do the clicking”. For some interesting reading check out Burn Magazines Dialogue Section. David Alan Harvey is the editor and this is his new blog in place of the old Road Trip Blog.

There are many factors that go into every photograph, the most basic of which is Exposure. The one thing in every photograph that can be controlled is the exposure or the amount of light that is recorded by the light sensitive material. The light sensitive material can be a digital cameras sensor, a piece of film, or anything else that reacts when introduced to light. From here on however, I will be referring to the digital camera’s sensor. So what determines a “Correct” exposure? Well, for the sake of argument a correct exposure would record each color tone as it appears in real life. You will often hear people referring to a “Grey Card”. This is simply a card that reflects 18% of all light that hits it. If you point your camera at this card and fill the view finder with just the card, you would have a “Correct” exposure when the light meter was at 0 or centered. It is really a pretty simple concept, your camera has a light meter in it. This measures the amount of light being reflected off of the subject. Based on the amount of light being reflected the meter determines what the object will look like if you take the photograph with your current settings and displays that tonal value to you on a chart. The chart (for most of you reading this) is on the bottom edge of your viewfinder and has a + sign at one side, a – sign at the other and a 0 in the middle.

• +||||||0||||||- Nikon
• 
   
• -||||||0||||||+ Cannon

So if the indicator is on the + side of 0 then the image will be brighter or closer to white and if the indicator is on the – side of 0 then the image will be darker or closer to black. This means, if you are photographing a white wall you want the indicator to be all the way to the + sign without going over and if you are photographing a black wall you want the indicator to be all the way to the – sign without going over. The light meter we find in the viewfinder helps us to get the exposure right before we take the picture but what about after. The LCD display on the back of the camera is NOT an accurate rendition of the image that we have captured so how do we know if we got what we wanted? That is where the histogram comes in. That thing that looks like a photo of jagged mountains, that is important. (more…)

I am constantly looking at other photographers work and trying to find some inspiration that will lead to a project that every facebook and twitter user will comment on. Bringing my work in front of every photo buyer in the nation and thus propelling my career like a rocket in an instant. This is unlikely to actually occur, but along the way I come across all types of work. Good, bad… everything in between and it shocks me how high the percentage is of good work being shown at the F Stop Magazine. They find all types of photographers and display their work to the world. I am not sure what their readership is like, but any one that isnt watching them should be. Here is a link to the most recent article they have posted. Check it out if you get a chance and don’t forget to bookmark their RSS.