Build a better photograph - Michael E. Stern

While many books address the equipment, techniques, and compositional approaches to image creation, few describe the steps involved in the creation of the picture idea. This book is a passport to the creative process of professional artists. The context is photography but the ideas can be applied across the board. This book emphasizes working out how to achieve the end result before we begin. A key question is what do we have to get right as we shoot and what can we achieve later in post-processing? The correct answer will drive the quality of our imagery and extend our careers.

This book is not a how-to book on making photographs. Rather, this book is about the creative process of conceptualizing ideas and executing those ideas to make a photograph. How do artists conceptualize? Where do they get their ideas? How do they incorporate those ideas into their work?

Compositing and storytelling abilities have never been easier and more difficult to achieve. Sound contradictory? It is. Illogical? It is. We will journey together to solve the many whys and hows so that the technology does not get in the way of image content and story.

As it relates to a particular topic in the text, there are discussions about photographic theory, lighting, composition, color and, of course, Photoshop. Included are examples of my work, each with a detailed examination of my creative process for that particular photograph. Again the idea here is to examine creativity in a way that demystifies the process.

Artists create. Good artists have a process. Great artists have discipline. This book is about all three.