MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR FIELD PHOTOS: SHOOTING, PROCESSING, AND RETRIEVING (Invited Presentation)

Most geologists enjoy using photos from their personal collections to illustrate lectures and public talks. After a first step of being composed and captured in the field, these images also need processing and a filing system for easy retrieval.

The most useful images typically start with good lighting and clear composition. However, light quality, so critical to fine art, offers a wider latitude for useful geologic images, which tend to be more journalistic/documentary. Still, it’s best to be aware of changing light conditions to avoid overly harsh or flat light, even though field work or field trips seldom give the luxury of time to wait until conditions are ideal. In these cases, pragmatism might be the best approach, where it’s often better to take a photo in poor light than none at all.

Composition improves with a clear definition of the subject matter, and positioning it within the frame so that other elements of the photo enhance rather than distract. Where appropriate, most photographers subconsciously apply the rule of thirds, which places the subject off-center, and use “leading lines”, which are linear features to direct our eyes to the subject. Many also find that viewfinders allow them to engage more fully with their composition than the back of a screen.

Most photo software applications, including Apple Photos, Adobe Photoshop Elements, and Lightroom, offer easy post-processing to improve an image’s exposure, contrast and even composition after it’s taken. The exposure histogram can help “clean up” otherwise low-contrast and dull lighting conditions. The cropping tool permits recomposing hastily shot images to better highlight the subject. With today’s high resolution images, most images can be cropped significantly and still be useful for powerpoint. Importantly, these programs also allow the creation of low resolution copies of the original image to prevent overly large file sizes.

Finally, retrieval. It helps to employ a consistent numbering and filing scheme, such as the date and/or location and to use an organizing application like Lightroom. Moreover, posting images to a photo-sharing website makes them searchable and available for download –and can prompt your memory when all else fails!