Light and Land : Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom by Michael Frye

Any photographic writings that open with an Ansel Adams quote will get my attention and Light and Land : Landscapes In The Digital Darkroom is no exception. Actually, this latest Craft and Vision release captured my attention with the outstanding wintry landscape on the cover. Living as I do in a tropical country, the closest I get to landscapes like that is through the photographs of others, which is good seeing as anything under about 15 degrees celsius is colder than I like. Anyway, this release sees another author join the Craft and Vision ranks. Michael Frye is a landscape and nature photographer who lives in California just outside Yosemite National Park.

Light and Land takes you on a walkthrough of five different images each processed in Adobe Lightroom. The actual steps aren’t as important as the underlying vision and aesthetic guiding it. There are reasons why certain tools are used at certain times but the end goal is to “squeeze every ounce of beauty, emotion and inspiration out of your photographs”.

The ebook begins by looking at some of the considerations to keep in mind when it comes to landscape photography. Issues such as contast and how much or how little should be included. Highlight and shadow detail are important – do you sacrifice contrast in order to show unnecessary shadow detail for example? What about dodging and burning – do they still have as much of a role in landscape photography now as they did in Ansel’s time? Black points and white points – where do they fit? Should there be pure black and/or pure white in the photograph? Answers to all of these will differ depending on a number factors, not least of which is your vision and the feeling you want to convey.

Light and Land by Michael Frye

Workflow is an essential part of photography. Some see it as a chore but if you have an efficient, managed workflow, the editing and processing becomes a breeze. Frye outlines one such method that he uses beginning with cropping and spotting dust and moving through the RAW edit with profiles, tonal adjustments, color, local adjustments and more.

Following that comes a detailed look at tonal curves. These are the most powerful tool at a photographer’s disposal but many don’t really know how to use them properly. Frye gives you an overview of how curves work and what the various shapes and settings do to an image. This point alone is worth the $5 for the ebook. From there, he goes over the basic defaults and why his personal default is different from the Lightroom default.

Now it’s time to jump into the 5 images for development. Included are a hilly landscape, a Sierra Nevada lakeside sunrise, a waterfall, an arty looking river reflection and a winter mountain landscape. Each image has the same workflow behind it, moving from evaluation through cropping, cloning, profile and white balance, dodging and burning and so on. Different images require different things and an understanding of why certain things are done here is more valuable than simply knowing the numbers used.

Finally, to conclude Michael offers some age-old advice that many people today have forgotten. One of the best ways to improve your photographs is by looking at good prints. Go to a gallery or museum and spend some time with the images, paying attention to the contrast, the color balance, the saturation and so on.

For the first four days only, if you use the promotional code LAND4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Light & Land for only $4 OR use the code LAND20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST December 19, 2010.

Click here to visit Craft And Vision.

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