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Photo Tip #9: Silence the Photo Police (Pt.2) - Details Everywhere

In Part One I talked about how photographers like to follow rules, in particular the Rule of Thirds. For Part Two I want to discuss the unspoken rule, the one stating that all your pictures have to have detail everywhere, from the light areas to the dark areas. In photography this is always the question, “Are you holding detail?” “How much detail are you holding?” And as a photographer I always want more and I spend a lot of time bragging about how much detail I AM holding everywhere. This is why the use of HDR (High Dynamic Range) has become so popular and has become one of the “holy grails” of digital photography. If you use a tripod, have some technical knowledge of your camera, Photoshop, time and patience you can use HDR to achieve endless amounts of information in every part of your image. But the question is “Why?” Is it really necessary to ALWAYS hold detail everywhere? I think too many photographers are falling into the trap of trying to get detail and sharpness without considering the actual image. In other words is it a great image? Just as in the question of the Rule of Thirds, does it have to be in the thirds frame exactly? The answer is unequivocally NO!

If you don’t challenge this notion of holding detail you will never be able to do a silhouette, because there are no details at all in a true silhouette. And anytime you have a back lit situation you will be stumped by the lighting problem instead of going after a picture like this:New York City Photo Tour
Time to silence the photo police and get back to having fun and taking great pictures!

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