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Create Amazing Distortion With Photoshop’s Liquify Filter

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Awareness of the distortions produced by angle of view and lens choice is the beginning of using them creatively. Curiously, permission is the beginning of using distortion in post-processing creatively. Many people have been told that it’s inappropriate to do so. Why? Why accept an unintended mechanical by-product, but not a consciously intended effect? Why take such a powerful tool for expression off the table? Even the subtlest applications of distortion can produce powerful results. Once you understand what kinds of distortions are possible during post-processing, you may even find yourself changing your angle of view during exposure.

There are many reasons why you might want to distort an image. Here are four:

1. Correct Optical Distortion
It can be produced by many things, including lens choice, angle of view, motion, panoramic stitches, etc. You can choose to make the selection of a wide-angle lens less about distortion and more about including more.

2. Modify Proportion
Adjust the height and/or width of objects and/or areas. Just for starters, take off the 10 pounds that the camera adds on.

3. Change Proximity
Reduce or increase the spaces between objects. Make things feel more or less related.

4. Enhance Or Change Gesture
Make a leaning object more tilted or straighten it out. Think of this as adding the words “very” or “less” into a sentence.

When exploring the many distortion tools in Photoshop, you’ll find that the Liquify filter is one of the most powerful. The Liquify filter is so powerful that, when in use, it offers its own toolbar and menus, somewhat like Camera Raw. To get the most of the Liquify filter, it’s worth taking the full tour …

Read all the details on Digital Photo Pro.

Photoshop’s sophisticated distortion capabilities are relatively new to photography, and so is the mindset of using them to photographers. Both are worth acquiring. Everyone can find a use for them at one time or another, if not on every image. As every photographer uses distortion to one degree or another, ultimately, what separates photographers is not whether they use distortion but when, how, and why they use it. The same tools can be used to achieve entirely different effects. There’s a world of difference between using distortion to remove process artifacts for more accurate representations, using distortion to aesthetically refine the formal qualities of images, and using distortion to interpret subjects expressively. Intent is everything. Practice is a reflection of intent. Simply asking yourself how far you are and aren’t willing to go and, finally, why will help clarify yours. Consider these questions seriously, and you’ll find your vision will grow stronger and clearer.

Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Free eBook – Maine Destinations

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Download your free copy here.

From the solitary summit of Katahdin, to the deeps of more than 22,000 lakes and ponds, to the 3,500 miles of tidal coastline, the wild beauty of Maine is irresistibly beautiful. Inland you’ll find sweeping mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, and farms. Along the rocky coast, you’ll find countless islands, beaches, lighthouses, and fishing villages.
This ebook collects images of Maine made in the locations that I have returned to photograph most often for more than 25 years.
Each image is accompanied by a short description of the location.
Interactive links access Google Maps and additional resources.
This valuable resource will help you make the most of your explorations of Maine.

22 images

22 pages

Download your free copy here.

Find out about my Maine workshops here.

Exhibit – Picturing Maine – Opens Oct 3

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From the nineteenth century on, Maine and its scenic beauty has drawn some of the nation’s most prominent photographers to depict its many natural wonders, and its people, and to look beyond to the realm of the imagination. This exhibition, drawn  The Farnsworth Art Museum’s collection in Rockland, Maine, showcases past and present perspectives by photographers who have worked in Maine including Berenice Abbott, John Paul Caponigro, Paul Caponigro, Eliot Porter, Joyce Tenneson and many others.
Picturing Maine opens October 03, 2015  and closes March 27, 2016.
Plus, see more photographs in the exhibit Maine Collects through March 6, 2016.
Find out more here.

48 Great Quotes On Wonder

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Enjoy this collection on wonder.
“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.” – St. Thomas Aquinas
“As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.” – Charles Morgan
“Wisdom begins in wonder.” – Socrates
“What was wonderful about childhood is that anything in it was a wonder. It was not merely a world full of miracles; it was a miraculous world.” ― G.K. Chesterton
“The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion.” – Ralph Sockman
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Alumni Doug Eng's Exhibit Streaming South

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Alumni Doug Eng discusses his new exhibit Streaming South.
“Last spring, paddling a kayak became the first steps of my journey home. My birthplace and residence is Jacksonville, FL, on the St. Johns River, a 310 mile artery dotted with spring fed creeks. I often photographed a glimpse of a creek from a bridge or trail and always wondered what lay beyond what I saw.
“Streaming South” started as a desire to produce a series of intimate landscapes of individual creeks, depicting remote places in the style of early 19th century landscape painters who visited Florida and found an unspoiled paradise. Florida has changed dramatically since those times but I knew that a version of the “real” Florida may lay deep within these creeks and I wanted to find out.
Over the course of one year, I experienced the seasonal characteristics of the landscape in 33 visits to 12 creeks. I created thousands of images and started a blog, streamingsouth.com, to record each outing with comments and additional writings.
Once I began my explorations, my outward excitement about what I was seeing shifted to a personal introspection concerned with ethics, morality, respect, care, and gratitude. Not only was I given a gift of incredible beauty, peace, and solitude, but I was exposed to neglect, disrespect, and violations that stirred deep emotions. I always appreciated where I lived but never had an attachment to anything specific. I never cried when I saw trees being cut or became resentful of a dock or bulkhead on a riverbank. I never laughed at otters eyeing my passage or spent time collecting discarded bottles lodged in the roots of trees. I never witnessed the awe in a perfect reflection of over-arching trees forming a cathedral in the middle of a stream. Now things are different, I have changed.
When photographing the “environment” you make choices. Do you focus on beauty or despair or exactly what exists? It’s an easy decision for me. Beauty and peace connected me to my home. Not the plastic bottles, beer cans, old tires, and keep out signs. I believe that my advocacy for attention to these rare places must appeal to what is positive and good about our home. First connection, then care. That’s how it worked for me.
As a result of this project, I have developed a special connection to my Home. Connection is about participation, hands on experience, and being present. You must step out your door and cross the line. To really care about a place, to cherish it for what it does to our hearts and souls, to really connect with all that it is, creates the cognizance necessary for responsible, actionable stewardship. These are only pictures, but they represent in a very real way what is here and now and beautiful about our earth and where we live. This work is my advocacy. I am grateful for finding a glimmer of enlightenment through photography for myself and to share with others. The journey continues.”
Find out more about Streaming South here.
Find out more about Doug Eng here.

30 Great Quotes On Depth

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Enjoy this collection of quotes on Depth.
“It is not length of life, but depth of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The length of your education is less important than its breadth, and the length of your life is less important than its depth” – Marilyn vos Savant
“You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth” – Henry Louis Mencken
“What matters is not the idea a man holds, but the depth at which he holds it.” – Ezra Pound
”Like the sea itself, the unconscious yields an endless and self-replenishing abundance of creatures, a wealth beyond our fathoming.” – C.G. Jung
“The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.” – Julien Green
“It’s our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting. Are they fun when they happen? No. But they are what make us unique. And that’s what I know for sure… I think.” – Ellen DeGeneres
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Alumni Scott Tansey Featured On Leica Blog

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Alumni Scott Tansey describes his recent feature on The Leica Camera Blog.
“I took these images on a Fall Color Workshop given by John Paul Caponigro at Acadia National Park. I had recently completed a huge five-year project taking panoramic images of Los Angeles (my home town). It was time for a change, and I needed a creative spark to do something different. As I mentioned previously I had attended a printing workshop given by John Paul Caponigro, which changed my photographic direction, and I thought his workshop would give me kick-start on my creativity. It did, but not in the way I intended. I was going to shoot the fall colors. Southern California is not as noted for its fall colors as Maine is. However, when I went to shoot the fall colors, they did little to inspire me. The light was lousy, and we missed the peak by a few days. On the second day of the workshop, after much frustration, I went to our last stop that was a rock pile. Oh, wow! The evening light and the colors and the patterns of the rocks spoke to me. For the rest of the trip I focused mainly on taking close-up images of rocks on the Maine coastline.”
Read more on The Leica Camera Blog.
Read a second feature on The Leica Camera Blog.
Find out more about my Maine Fall Foliage Workshop here.

23 Quotes By Photographer Paul Strand

 
Enjoy this collection of quotes by photographer Paul Strand.
“Your photography is a record of your living, for anyone who really sees.” – Paul Strand
“I’ve always wanted to be aware of what’s going on around me, and I’ve wanted to use photography as an instrument of research into and reporting on the life of my own time.” – Paul Strand
“Your photography is a record of your living – for anyone who really sees. You may see and be affected by other people’s ways, you may even use them to find your own, but you will have eventually to free yourself of them. That is what Nietzche meant when he said, ‘I have just read Schopenhauer, now I have to get rid of him.’ He knew how insidious other people’s ways could be, particularly those which have the forcefulness of profound experience, if you let them get between you and your own personal vision.” – Paul Strand
“Look at the things around you, the immediate world around you. If you are alive, it will mean something to you, and if you care enough about photography, and if you know how to use it, you will want to photograph that meaningness. If you let other people’s vision get between the world and your own, you will achieve that extremely common and worthless thing, a pictorial photograph.” – Paul Strand
“The material of the artist lies not within himself nor in the fabrications of his imagination, but in the world around him. The element which gives life to the great Picassos and Cezannes, to the paintings of Van Gogh, is the relationship of the artist to context, to the truth of the real world. It is the way he sees this world and translates it into art that determines whether the work of art becomes a new and active force within reality, to widen and transform man’s experience. The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” – Paul Strand
“The camera machine cannot evade the objects which are in front of it. When the photographer selects this movement, the light, the objects, he must be true to them. If he includes in his space a strip of grass, it must be felt as the living differentiated thing it is and so recorded. It must take its proper but no less important place as a shape and a texture in relationship to the mountain tree or what not, which are included.” – Paul Strand
“The decision as to when to photograph, the actual click of the shutter, is partly controlled from the outside, by the flow of life, but it also comes from the mind and the heart of the artist. The photograph is his vision of the world and expresses, however subtly, his values and convictions.” – Paul Strand
“I go and get the camera and do it. Photography is a medium in which if you don’t do it then, very often you don’t do it at all, because it doesn’t happen twice. A rock will probably always be more or less there juts the way you saw it yesterday. But other things change, they’re not always there the day after or the week after. Either you do it or you don’t. Certainly with things as changeable as shy and landscape with moving clouds and so on, if they look wonderful to you on a certain day and if you don’t do it then, you may never see them again for the rest of your life. So as a photographer you become very conscious – at least I do – that everything is in movement.” – Paul Strand
“The documentary photographer aims his camera at the real world to record truthfulness. At the same time, he must strive for form, to devise effective ways of organizing and using the material. For content and form are interrelated. The problems presented by content and form must be so developed that the result is fundimentally true to the realities of life as we know it. The chief problem is to find a form that adequately represents the reality.” – Paul Strand
“All good art is abstract in its structure.” – Paul Strand
“Objectivity is of the very essence of photography, its contribution and at the same time its limitation…” – Paul Strand
“Honesty no less than intensity of vision is the prerequisite of a living expression. This means a real respect for the thing in front of… the photographer… this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation through the use of straight photographic methods…” – Paul Strand
“The existence of a medium, after all, is its absolute justification, if as so many seem to think, it needs one and all comparison of potentialities is useless and irrelevant. Whether a water-color is inferior to an oil, or whether a drawing, an etching, or a photograph is not as important as either, is inconsequent. To have to despise something in order to respect something else is a sign of impotence. [emphasis added] Let us rather accept joyously and with gratitude everything through which the spirit of man seeks to an ever fuller and more intense self-realization.” – Paul Strand
“Did I express my personality? I think that’s quite unimportant because it’s not people’s selves but what they have to say about life that’s important.” – Paul Strand
“It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.” – Paul Strand
“No matter what lens you use, no matter what speed the film, no matter how you develop it, no matter how you print it, you cannot say more than you can see.” – Paul Strand
“The important thing is, you have to have something important to say about the world.” – Paul Strand
“The artist is one who makes a concentrated statement about the world in which he lives and that statement tends to become impersonal—it tends to become universal and enduring because it comes out of something very particular.” – Paul Strand
“It has always been my belief that the true artist, like the true scientist, is a researcher using materials and techniques to dig into the truth and meaning of the world in which he himself lives; and what he creates, or better perhaps, brings back, are the objective results of his explorations. The measure of his talent––of his genius, if you will––is the richness he finds in such a life’s voyage of discovery and the effectiveness with which he is able to embody it through his chosen medium.” – Paul Strand
“And if you can find out something about the laws of your own growth and vision as well as those of photography you may be able to relate the two, create an object that has a life of its own, which transcends craftsmanship. That is a long road, and because it must be your own road nobody can teach it to you or find it for you. There are no shortcuts, no rules.” – Paul Strand
“The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” – Paul Strand
“If the photographer is not a discoverer, then he is not an artist.” – Paul Strand
“Photography is only a new road from a different direction, but moving toward the common goal, which is life.” – Paul Strand
“I think of myself as an explorer who has spent his life on a long voyage of discovery.” – Paul Strand
View 12 Great Photographs By Paul Strand.
View A Documentary On Paul Strand.
View more 12 Great Photographs By Great Photographers.
Explore The Essential Collection Of Quotes By Photographers.