Take Your Photography to the Next Level: From Inspiration to Image

Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
	Elbow Canyon
	Ice 1
1 Seeing
	On Reading Photographs
		1. Center of Interest
		2. What is the Image About?
		3. What is the Photograph About at a Deeper Level?
		4. What are the Parts of the Image and How do they Relate?
		5. Tonalities
		6. Emotional Impact
		7. Flaws
		Reading My Photographs
		What is the Photograph About?
		What is the Photograph About at a Deeper Level?
		What are the Parts of the Image and How Do They Relate?
		Tonalities
		Negative Space
		Balance
		Framing
		Emotional Impact
		Flaws
	Is Beauty Essential to Great Photographs?
	Elements of a Great Photograph
	What Photographs Well?
	Photographing Clichés
	It’s Been Done Before
	Noticing Subject Matter
	Machinery
	ADM Mill
2 Finding Images
	Working the Scene—Part 1
	Working the Scene—Part 2
	The Poison of Preconceived Ideas
	Finding Inspiration—Interest Comes First
	Rules for Looking
	Seeing Fatigue
	There’s Nothing Here to Photograph
	Where Should You Point the Camera?
	Canyon 2
	Rust Rings
3 Composing
	Sketching to Make Photographs
	Complicated doesn’t Cut It
	Does an Image Need a Center of Interest?
	How Close to Perfect is Needed?
	Decisions and Compromises
	Your Options
	Where Should You Point the Camera?
	Framing Your Images
	The Art and Religion of Cropping
	To Crop or Not to Crop, That is the Question
	Formats and Aspect Ratios
	What About Cropping Both Ways?
	Back To Framing
	Framing Assistants
	What Edges Can Do For Your Images
	Working on Edges
		Corners and What To Do With Them
		Example Images—Composing Corners and Edges
	Cropping For Good
	Summary
	Center Street
	Diagonal Sunbeam
4 Assessing Images
	Initial Disappointment
	Selecting Images for Presentation
	More on Picking Our Best Work
	Image Deficiencies
		Top Ten Reasons Why Images Fail
	Burned Stump
	Tree Reflection
5 Mind Games
	Stuck in a Rut
	Dealing with Slumps
	Twelve Ways to Challenge Yourself
	Career, Family, and Photography
	Dealing With Disappointment
		Cognitive Therapy
	Photographic Flops
	Equipment Envy
	How Good the Equipment?
	Money
	Statistics and the Odds of Success
	On Negative Thinking
	Looking for Perfection—The Price of Experimenting
	Wet Shale
	Windshield
6 Take Your Photography to the Next Level
	Introduction
	Part 1—Finding Your Level
		Measuring Print Quality
		Identifying Your Technical Level
			Technical Level 1
			Technical Level 2
			Technical Level 3
			Technical Level 4
			Technical Level 5
			Technical Level 6
		Identifying Your Aesthetic Level
			Aesthetic Level A
			Aesthetic Level B
			Aesthetic Level C
			Aesthetic Level D
			Aesthetic Level E
			Aesthetic Level F
			Aesthetic Level G
		Finding Your Level
	Part 2—Getting Help to Assess Your Level
		Assessing Your Technical and Aesthetic Skills
			Technical Levels
			Aesthetic Levels
		Self-Assessment
		Getting Help
		The Worst Kind of Feedback
		Obtaining Feedback
		But I don’t Know Anyone
		How to Translate Feedback into Levels
		Listening to Your Fellow Participants’ Critiques
		The Virtual Workshop
		Conclusion
	Part 3—Moving On, Making Better Images
		The Differences Between Levels
			Technical Level 1 to 2
			Technical Level 2 to 3
			Technical Level 3 to 4
			Technical Level 4 to 5
			Technical Level 5
		Aesthetic Skills
			Aesthetic Level A
			Aesthetic Level B
			Aesthetic Level C
			Aesthetic Level D
			Aesthetic Level E
			Aesthetic Level F
	Windowpane
My Equipment and Techniques
Epilogue
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