Stephen D’Agostino: The Photo Impressionism Project

Stephen D'Agostino is a world-wide published Canadian photographer. He is well known for his impressionistic technique, which he uses to create stunning images, turning photography into pure art. It's worth spending time perusing through his website, where you can see a beautiful display of his work, and where you can learn all about his technique.

Stephen also runs and curates Photoimpressionism Project blog, where he invites other photographers to share their images and techniques. It is a truly inspirational project, so when Stephen contacted me and asked me to contribute to it, I was really chuffed and very happy to share the image that he chose. Here is the link to my little contribution, and the full text with the image below.

Light In The Dark Of The Forest

Over the years photography for me became much more than recording where I have been. Conveying the impression that the scene in front of me leaves on my mind became more important than a purely literal representation.

In my photographs I strive to capture the atmosphere and emotions that the surrounding world evokes in me, and hopefully pass on the feeling to the viewers. Photo impressionism is one of the techniques that allows to simplify the subject down to its essence, and reveal the sense that it creates. Similarly to when you glance at a scene without focusing on detail. The impression it leaves is that of colours, shapes and textures.

Therefore I dedicated a part of my work to experimenting with the intentional camera movement (ICM) and multiple exposure techniques commonly used in photo impressionism.

This image is a result of using these techniques. I was standing at the edge of a woodland, when I spotted the regular pattern created by the tree trunks, interspersed by the autumnal colours of the leaves on the forest floor. The colours were gradually merging into the darkness of the thick forest with no distracting highlights. A perfect combination of colours and shapes to paint with the camera.

I experimented with ICM, however I was not very happy with the results, which were simply streaks of colours. I wanted to preserve a little bit of texture in the leaves and tree trunks. Therefore I decided to use the double exposure functionality of my camera. The first exposure was a straight image with f5.6 aperture, focused on the trees closest to the camera. For the second exposure I chose a smaller aperture f16 to increase the shutter speed and to be able to capture the camera movement.

I post-processed the image in Adobe Lightroom 5, where I increased the contrast and clarity. I used the radial tool to darken the edges. Then I brought the image into Adobe Photoshop CS6 to further enhance the contrast and colours using the curves and NikSoftware ColorPro plugin.

The result is just enough detail to portray a late autumnal day in a forest, but without all the distractions that our minds tend to dwell on when observing the real world.

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