You are not offering testimony to the existence of something, you are bringing something into existence―something that did not exist before, and that would not exist if it were not for you. ~Guy Tal The first step to creating an expressive photograph happens before you even click the shutter: it is the act of visualizing an image in your mind’s eye. Once composed and captured, the data recorded by the camera is then transformed in processing to match the visualized image. To become a better expressive photographer means, among other things, to become a better visualizer. This requires more than just technical skill, but also an understanding of what art is, what it means to be an artist, and how to translate your thoughts, feelings, and experiences into visual creations. In The Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Photoshop: A Visualization-Driven Workflow, Guy Tal provides a broad theoretical foundation for digital landscape photography as an expressive visual art, and for understanding how art and technology come together to serve your creative purpose. He then offers a roadmap for a visualization-driven approach to processing images in Photoshop. Topics include: • An overview of the history of art and of photography as art • A deeper understanding of creativity and visualization, and of the technical underpinnings of digital imaging • Techniques to effectively apply visualization in creating and processing your images • How to perform “gap analysis” to identify the gaps between the image at any point in time and the desired outcome • How to convert your RAW files using Adobe Camera Raw prior to editing in Photoshop • How best to employ many of Photoshop’s tools and features • How to leverage Layers and Masks to accomplish your visualized results • How to control and adjust contrast, color, and tone • Image blending techniques to extend dynamic range and for focus stacking • Processing strategies for black-and-white conversions, including toning your images • Printing and other output techniques including sizing, sharpening, noise reduction, and color management Bringing all of these techniques together, Guy presents a detailed case study, beginning with his initial visualization for the final image and working through his processing steps from RAW conversion to the final print.

The Landscape Photographer's Guide to Photoshop: A Visualization-Driven Workflow

Arts & Photography

Tal, Guy

Photography & Video

Rocky Nook

A deeper look at the creativity, art, expression, craft, and philosophy of landscape photography. More Than a Rock, 2nd Edition is a passionate and personal book about creativity and expression. In this series of over 70 brief essays, photographer and teacher Guy Tal shares his thoughts and experiences as an artist who seeks to express more in his images than the mere appearance of the subject portrayed. Following up on the success of the first edition, this revised edition contains updated imagery, a new essay in each of the book's four sections--Art, Craft, Experiences, and Meditations--and is presented in a beautiful hardcover format. Tal makes an argument to consider creative landscape photography--expressing something of the photographer's conception through the use of natural aesthetics--as a form of visual art that is distinct from the mere representation of beautiful natural scenes. Tal covers topics such as the art of photography, approaches to landscape photography, and the experiences of a working photographic artist. His essays also include reflections on nature and man's place in it, living a meaningful life, and living as an artist in today's world. The book is decidedly non-technical and focuses on philosophy, nature, and visual expression. It was written for those photographers with a passion and interest in creative photography. Anyone who is pursuing their work as art, is in need of inspiration, or is interested in the writings of a full-time working photographic artist will benefit from reading this book. The book is visually punctuated with Tal's inspiring and breathtaking photography. "Some images look like things, while others feel like things; some images are of things, while others are about things. A creative image is not a record of a scene nor a substitute for a real experience. Rather, it is an experience in itself--an aesthetic experience--something new that the artist has given the world, rather than a contrived view of something that already existed independent of them." --Guy Tal "The medium of photography has a long tradition of practitioners who were not only masterful photographers, but were also insightful and thoughtful writers--the thinking man's photographers. Among them we find such greats as John Szarkowski, Minor White, Bill Jay, and Robert Adams. It is no exaggeration to include Guy Tal on this esteemed list." -- From the Foreword, by Chuck Kimmerle

More Than a Rock, 2nd Edition: Essays on Art, Creativity, Photography, Nature, and Life

A deeply thoughtful and inspiring collectionof essays about visual expression, art, creativity, and a life in photography Photographer, teacher, and author Guy Tal hasbeen photographing the landscape for more than 30 years, and in that time hehas also been consistently contributing to the literature of photography,writing not about the technical aspects of the photograph--the gear, theexposure details, the "secrets to getting a great shot"--but about the deepertopics of visual expression, creativity, art, and life. Building on the legacy of his previousbest-selling books&nbsp;More Than a Rock&nbsp;and&nbsp;Another DayNot Wasted, as well as his work as a regular contributor to&nbsp;LensWork&nbsp;and&nbsp;OnLandscape magazines,&nbsp;The Interior Landscape&nbsp;is acollection of more than 60 brief essays, packaged in a beautiful hardcoverformat and illustrated throughout with Guy's stunning photography. Organized into four parts, Guy discusses: * Creativity and expression as the mostsignificant aspects of making art * The controversial and tenuous relationshipbetween photography (by design a medium for objective representation) and art(by definition the subjective expressions of the imagination of artists) * How he has formed a relationship with, andfound meaning in, the natural landscape, and how he expresses these meanings inhis photographs * Lessons learned from more than three decadesof practicing expressive landscape photography The Interior Landscape&nbsp;is for anyone interested in, as the titlesuggests, turning inward to explore creativity, art, expression, and thelandscape. It is sure to illuminate, educate, and inspire you on yourphotographic journey.

The Interior Landscape: The Landscape on Both Sides of the Camera: Reflections on Art, Creativity, Expression, and a Life in Photography

Ostensibly about landscape photography, More Than a Rock is a passionate and personal book about creativity and expression. In this series of essays, photographer and teacher Guy Tal shares his thoughts and experiences as an artist who seeks to express more in his images than the mere appearance of the subject portrayed. Tal makes an argument to consider creative landscape photography―expressing something of the photographer's conception through the use of natural aesthetics―as a form of visual art that is distinct from the mere representation of beautiful natural scenes. Tal covers topics such as the art of photography, approaches to landscape photography, and the experiences of a working photographic artist. His essays also include reflections on nature and man’s place in it, living a meaningful life, and living as an artist in today’s world. The book is decidedly non-technical and focuses on philosophy, nature, and visual expression. It was written for those photographers with a passion and interest in creative photography. Anyone who is pursuing their work as art, is in need of inspiration, or is interested in the writings of a full-time working photographic artist will benefit from reading this book. The book is visually punctuated with Tal’s inspiring and breathtaking photography. “Some images look like things, while others feel like things; some images are of things, while others are about things. …A creative image is not a record of a scene nor a substitute for a real experience. Rather, it is an experience in itself―an aesthetic experience―something new that the artist has given the world, rather than a contrived view of something that already existed independent of them.” ~Guy Tal **** Guy Tal’s photography is thoughtful, compassionate, and poetic; it’s no wonder then that his writings evoke similar feelings in me. If you want to be a better camera user, read your manual. If you want to be a stronger, deeper photographer, read Guy Tal. ~David duChemin

More Than a Rock: Essays on Art, Creativity, Photography, Nature, and Life

Individual Artists

The figure of the witch is familiar from the work of early modern German, Dutch, and Flemish artists, but much less so in the work of their Italian counterparts. Art and Witchcraft in Early Modern Italyseeks to explore the ways in which representations of witchcraft emerged from and coincided with the main cultural currents and artistic climate of an epoch chiefly celebrated for its humanistic and rational approaches. Through an in-depth examination of a panoply of arresting paintings, engravings, and drawings--variously portraying a hag-ridden colossal phallus, a horror-stricken necromancer dodging the devil's scrabbling claws, and a nocturnal procession presided over by an infanticidal crone--Guy Tal offers new ways of reading witchcraft images through and beyond conventional iconography. Artists such as Parmigianino, Alessandro Allori, Leonello Spada, and Angelo Caroselli effected visual commentaries on demonological notions that engaged their audience in a tantalizing experience of interpretation.

Art and Witchcraft in Early Modern Italy (Monsters and Marvels. Alterity in the Medieval and Early Modern Worlds)

History & Criticism

Amsterdam University Press

Be Extraordinary: Philosophical Advice for Photographic and Other Artists

Be Extraordinary

San Rafael : Rocky Nook, Inc.

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