Capture to Print: Finding Beauty in the Familiar

I take my dog on a regular hike most days of the week, and while I do try to slow down and let my curiosity wander, I’m often lost in thought, more than I care to admit. That means I’m not really paying attention to my surroundings and missing the very details that motivate me to do the same hike every day.

“Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them.” – Alan Watts

This sounds so obvious, yet it pervades almost every moment of our lives. It happens as soon as we think we know everything there is to know, or see.

Case in point: I’ve walked past this fern patch dozens of times this summer, but on this particular day, I decided to stop and spend time enjoying the beautiful design and variety of fern leaves.

There’s something about their shapes that I find mesmerizing, and soon enough, I started to see various compositional ideas for a photograph. For me, those ideas involve using the minimum amount of visual information to capture and convey the essence of what I see in a fern.

The maximum from the minimum. And while I admit that’s incredibly difficult to achieve, I think it’s the most important idea to keep in mind whenever you’re making an image.

How can I capture the least while preserving the core message I want to convey?

I only had my iPhone 15 Pro at the time, so I opened Pro Camera (my preferred RAW capture app) by pressing the Action Button on the phone and made several images, trying to fill the frame with a single leaf. The challenge is creating relationships between the four edges of the frame, the leaf, and the surrounding leaves both next to and behind the main leaf.

My approach here is to take advantage of the corners of the frame to create diagonal movement and energy that leads the viewer through and around the image. Then there’s the softness of the light, which gives the whole frame unity of color and provides the “feel” I was after.

Editing

Editing in Lightroom Classic was fairly straightforward. I cooled the image a bit to bring out more of the rich greens (versus the yellows) and added some depth by making the shadows richer. I do this mostly by adding lots of contrast, a bit of Dehaze, and lowering the blacks.

Because contrast also tends to increase color saturation, I reduced the Vibrance quite a bit in order to create a more natural look, which I prefer. I also added a vignette to lighten the center and a bit of grain, which can sometimes help iPhone images look more film-like.

No local adjustments! Again, only use what the image needs for your vision. Quite often, it will tell you if you listen carefully enough.

Printing

This seemed like a perfect image for the newly released Somerset Enhanced Watercolor Rag paper by Canson Infinity, released this summer. While I rarely use watercolor-type papers for printing, the surface on this new paper is sublime—a distinct, broad texture that isn’t too deep, meaning it complements the textures of the ferns without calling attention to itself.

Even in the shadow areas, it adds a beautiful dimensional depth that enhances this kind of image. I really like this paper and can see myself using it for many images that have lots of texture or softer light. Why softer light? Because it’s also a matte paper, which means it generates that softer, painterly look I like for many of my images and the story I want to convey.

Never underestimate the familiar. There’s always another layer to uncover, waiting to reveal something new if you take the time to look closely.