Story by Vicki White

 

Jan Lightfoot, our talented guest speaker, stated “Less is More“ is how she likes to see things. While this is the third time she's spoken to our group, her images were again exciting and fresh.

 

She led off the presentation with her slideshow containing images of her experiences in 2015. Death Valley, Yellowstone during Winter, a cruise to New England and Quebec, wild horses, autumn colors and winter scenes were part of her many experiences.

 

What Lightfoot looks for first and foremost is light. “It's all about light and shadow.” It is the main thing that draws her into a subject. Eureka Dunes was her first example of light and shadow. She also likes shooting chairs in front of windows for the unique example of how light affects a mood, a feeling, an experience. The Oregon Dunes were another example of how light and shadows make a “snapshot” a photo.

 

Pre-vision is important in getting a good shot. Keeping in mind the end result of your shot makes it much easier to achieve that result. Choosing to shoot a panorama or use HDR, or incorporate elements from a different shot into one image are examples of using pre-vision to capture the best shots for that final image.

 

A “separation of elements” is also a look she tries to achieve. Space between the elements in a photo is important. She demonstrated this concept with pictures of donkeys, and another of geese. If the geese were touching it wouldn’t have looked so compelling.

Another concept she practices is to get in close to the subject - a close-up of part of an object or place is much more interesting than the entire scene in many cases. Isolate what is appealing to you in the scene and focus on that.

 

She also looks for “leading lines” and “negative space”. While the number of elements is important, odd numbers are best - three, five, seven, etc. Seven is about the limit or the effect becomes something else. Lightfoot talked about subtle influences - the “nuance in compositions” and showed a picture of an elephant with a small bird at its’ feet.

 

Another valuable hint is to check edges, corners and backgrounds. A stray branch, a part of a person in the photo, can ruin a composition. A conscious choice of perspective - thinking of different ways to view a scene often results in a better shot than shooting from a conventional angle.

 

Lightfoot shared some of her practices in getting prepared - “it only comes together with the correct settings on a camera”. Aperture is important and depth of field is inherently shallow when doing macros or for bringing the shot closer to you. She likes to shoot with a variety of lenses and the “blue hour” is her favorite time to shoot.

 

She shoots lots of square format shots but also uses the 16x9 aspect ratio for landscapes. Lightfoot’s favorite plug-ins include NIK’s Topaz and Detail Extractor plug-ins; onOne is also a go to plug-in; and uses Lightroom for 85 to 90% of post processing. She cautions that you should never never print something the minute you finish post processing. It will look different "in the morning”. She ended her presentation by saying “photography is about the journey for me”.