Forum Takeover with Jess Santos!

[Missjessbess]

On 8/21/2024 at 11:57 PM, oljon said:

Hi Jess!

What was your biggest resource that got you started (mentor, course, book)?

Hello!

I would say a combination of youtube university and blogs. Once I was confident in my skills I did take two workshops to fine tune certain techniques, which were both really helpful in different ways. And then practice, practice, practice. I was out shooting at least once a week, and my second year as a photographer I was away from home more than half the year, just out practicing my skills. 

I will say that I also went to college for Graphic Design and I think this really helped me grasp a lot of artistic techniques that aren't readily taught on youtube or blogs as it relates to photography, for example, color theory, art history, etc. and I think all these things really helped me progress quickly and at the time I didn't realize that.

[Missjessbess]

On 8/22/2024 at 2:54 PM, alpha-jessica-a said:

What's your favorite place for photography?

And what's something unusual or unexpected that you keep in your gear bag?

Hands down my favorite place is Death Valley. Constantly changing and I like that you can be in a popular national park and at the same time find solitude in nature. Very fun and unique place to capture the desert.

Something unusual I keep in my gear bag is a sky quality meter, this device you can hold up to the night sky and measure how dark (how much light pollution) the sky is. It's not necessarily important for photography, but I'm always curious when I think to myself "this is literally the darkest place I have ever been"

[Missjessbess]

On 8/22/2024 at 6:19 PM, NoahBrown said:

Are there any common editing mistakes that you see beginners making in landscape photography?

Over-saturation, and I don't mean over-saturating all the colors so that it looks neon. I mean saturating all the colors and not paying attention to tonal depth, if we have pink flowers in a green field and we saturate both the pink and the green, the image will lack depth because tonally speaking there isn't something that is brighter than the other. A quick fix to this is to turn the image black and white for a moment and look at the contrast. If there is clear distinction between the colors then you are good to go, if not we need to de-saturate and darken one of the colors or saturate and add luminance to another, or both.

So in the case of pink flowers in a green field I would saturate and add luminance to the pinks while desaturating and darkening the greens. This is a technique I learned from drawing and it is really helpful to apply to photography as well.