Breakfast has never been so enjoyable now you guys accompany my daily porridge. Super stuff. Btw, Cole do you still do your newsletters? You kind of started a couple of years or more ago....
Great video! As you say, one must have a vision to make the techniques effective and useful in it's execution. Ironic that achieving simplicity is best accomplished by a detailed and sometimes complex plan of elimination (and illumination).
Simply chaotic. Lol. Loved them all but those power lines really were amazing. Great tips to not be afraid to break the “rules”, under expose, over expose, to show what you see in your mind. Thanks guys!
I’m first again! This is a Cole presentation so as much as it pains me to say…. It was awesome!! A few years back (before I could spell Cole) I wanted to simplify my images whenever I could. Lone trees are my favorite! The act of trying to simplify my images is so much fun. I agree completely about the technique without vision is like putting lipstick on a pig…. I agree! Thanks for sharing Cole, it was great and the images are wonderful.
Jason is back!!! WOO HOO!!! Seriously Jason, this is hands down the best episode of our show for sure and it is all because of Cole. Glad you enjoyed it!
I always gravitated towards minimalism and photography is a tough medium for a minimalist. Photography is very chatty and because of it rarely represents what we experienced when looking at the scene in person at the moment of pressing the shutter button. For me simplifying an image and making it visually appealing while trying to tell a story is walking a thin line between a photograph as such and a photograph as an illustration. There is nothing wrong with a photograph being an illustration providing that it is what you are trying to do. (By illustration I mean a picture in which the idea is more important than the image with its aesthetic qualities.) On the other end of the spectrum is using the medium of photography to create an abstract image that doesn't represent anything that is recognizable as reality, with no documentary quality which is the raison d'etre of the medium. I would much rather overstep into the latter realm than unintentionally commit an illustration. That space in between the two extremes is my playground (or sometimes a battleground). Einstein said it with something different in mind (paraphrasing) "make it as simple as possible but no simpler". A photographic image of the type discussed here needs to speak with tone transitions, colors, lines, shapes and tell a story using the documentary aspect of the medium at the same time. That duality is why I love photography.
Great presentation Cole, I enjoy your images and what you have shared about your process. I agree it all starts with vision. Now I hope John does not start misrepresenting this as simple Cole and the two element rule…😊
@@colethompson1906 Now would I lie to you, Cole? The context was about simplifying one's life, but since Thoreau also saw life as an art and in aesthetic terms, the quote remains apt, in my view. "Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail . . . Simplify, simplify." I recall being struck by this as an impressionable teenager and underlining the passage.
@@colethompson1906 As with most things in Photoshop, Cole, there are about a thousand ways to do dodging and burning, but you only need to know the way that works for you. Great presentation - obviously you applied your idea of simplifying to that as well as to your images. Keep up the great work.
@@colethompson1906 There is the simple way of using the dodge and burn by switching back and forth between the black and white buttons to lighten or darken with a brush. But there is also at least one method of using individual layers, one for dodging, one for burning and using a 50% gray mode for each one.
Nice photos, not presented in a professional manner that respects the audience. I wish each technique had a heading infront of the photos which highlight the same technique. Only a few techniques had section labels
Thanks for watching. Your comment makes me wonder if you've watched many of our shows.... We are just two guys who love to chat about photography. We don't have a need or desire to make this a polished channel here on RU-vid. Both of us do live presentations that are indeed very polished. If you've not seen Cole's "Why B&W" find a way to do so! It is extraordinary.
@@thecoleandjohnshow7236 thank you for the reply. Yes I have not seen any content from you before and understand it I not easy for a few people to create polished content all the time. The mix of section headings and none, when presenting a topic is just confusing to the audience as the speaker can be seen as just babbling during one section, when I n fact they have moved on to the next section - since there was no visible markings or indicator. Think of a paragraph without periods or capitalization - same idea. That is my main point
