Unfiltered : Live with Joe Cornish - A landscape photography conversation with Paul Reiffer

[@WalterRowePhoto]

Terrific interview @paul reiffer .. sincerely appreciate the time Joe took to speak with you.

[@Paulreiffer]

Legends rule ;-)

[@fafnorcal]

I never tire of listening to Joe Cornish and always come away with multiple new nuggets of knowledge. I especially connected to his discussion of image optimization today, aimed at a more subtle rendition of colors and contrast, than were ever possible in the days of chrome transparencies. Too, Joe is so incredibly generous with his valuable time. Paul, thanks for such an ably conducted interview. Well done!.

[@timwootton4649]

Joe is always interesting to listen to, great interview!

[@HRRGA]

It is always an absolute delight to watch Joe Cornish in interview. His voice is just as eloquent as his photographic style. One of the true masters of his craft. Thanks!

[@martinoberstein8431]

Great talk, thank you both very much for the opportunity to get a look inside the attitude of the both of you. As a systemic psychologist I share many of Mr Cornish‘s thoughts on individual unique ways of perception and being part of uncountable relations, and how this thoughts contribute to his work as an artist. Hope for more of such interesting interviews, Paul. Heartwarming stuff indeed.

[@michael-thomashunold4483]

A big thank you to Joe and Paul for this conversation. Hopefully there's more of this kind of interview coming.

[@Paulreiffer]

For sure - although Joe still remains one of my favourite people... Big shoes to fill with future guests!

[@michael-thomashunold4483]

@@Paulreiffer whoever will be your guest, I am sure he'll give fascinating insights and be interesting. You are a great host!

[@iaincphotography6051]

Thanks to both of you for an entertaining chat and insight.

[@deepaksamani]

What a lovely and insightful conversation. Thank you

[@carlhem4463]

Many thanks to Joe Cornish and David Noton for inspired me.

[@chbrownie18]

This was an amazing interview. It's not often that we have the privilege of listening & learning about important issues which are dear to our collective heart. The photography is of course a bonus!

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@lightscolors7554]

As a big fan of Joe Cornish, I can't thank you enough Paul for having him on your channel. His presence is quite low on the internet so to me this is a rare occasion to see 2 pros talking together. I've been following up with your work for quite sometime and I believe I'm becoming a fan already!

[@MarkRomine]

Paul, I’m obviously a bit late to the party but I wanted to thank you for organizing and doing a such great job on the interview. My favorite part/question was the one asked by the engineer (don’t remember his name) about not being moved emotionally by his own pictures, that is me exactly. Other than feeling awe on rare occasions when capturing a grand landscape that takes my breath away I rarely connect with any feelings. I enjoy the time spent during the capture, the editing and even looking at the results but other than occasional feeling of awe there is not much happening. Joe’s comments as an answer to that question was interesting. Again, thanks for putting this all together.

[@thevalleywalker]

I have seen quite a few of Joe's interviews online and in person and apart from his very easy to listen to narrative he always manages to feed some knowledge or thought process that is fresh & insightful. I - I think this is his ability to listen to each interviewer or audience member and react to questions almost in a one to one scenario. He doesn't have a ready made answer to questions that he has probably heard many times before, he is reactive solely to the question at that time if that makes sense? Very enjoyable Paul. Atb Alan

[@timwootton4649]

One of the best interviews with Joe Cornish yet! Thank You both from Downunder!

[@Paulreiffer]

Great to hear Tim - hopefully it inspires lots of others!

[@10stopphotography]

Great interview and presentation. really interesting.

[@tomaswilde5481]

Congratulations ! It has been a fantastic interview! Thanks so much !

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@alan20063]

Exceptional interview. Thank you Paul and Joe for all your efforts and for being such an inspiration.

[@Paulreiffer]

Glad you enjoyed it Alan - and thanks for taking the time out to join us :-)

[@pannhandle]

Truly fabulous.

[@timpamment]

Brilliant interview

[@barryj7478]

You know it's good when Paul say's, "And that was way overtime", and I'm thinking there's another 30 mins. to go. Very enjoyable!

[@Paulreiffer]

Ha! The ultimate dilemma - it was great to get more in, but I also don't want people to feel they need to leave before we're finished! :-)

[@robertnystrom289]

A truly fabulous conversation- really enjoyed it! At about 54 minutes the 'engineering' question popped up, and as an electrical engineer of 5 decades (!), I totally get the question. As Joe points out, there is a LOT of emphasis on not killing anyone. How about plugging in your phone charger and have it blow up in your hand? Bad. I spent my days trying to insure that every product I designed or participated in left the production line as close to the original as possible. There's always tolerances; no two are EVER alike. When I look at a toaster (or camera!), I see the inside. I see where circuit boards are placed. I see the buttons, wires, indicator lights, and flex circuits to the displays. You can't imagine the electrical complexity involved in having your rear screen pivot all around! I have to work really, really hard at actually seeing the outside of something- a tree, a scene, etc. I sympathize with "I took the picture because it was interesting to me, but I don't know why". From an engineering point of view, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, noise, are all a piece of cake. But composition, man that is tough! As Joe says, for me the best plan is to go for a walk in the woods and try to forget my conditioning. That IS the answer!

[@karlagerst111]

I really enjoyed this, and I feel like there were some real gems to think about and apply. Thank you to both of you!

[@Paulreiffer]

Our pleasure Karla!

[@marksteeples7768]

Thanks to you both for an insightful and inspiring interview. I’ve been to Joe’s gallery on several occasions and look forward to another visit soon.

[@xdamr]

Thanks

[@Paulreiffer]

You're welcome, thanks Donald :)

[@rayharrison5962]

One question for Joe that I thought about: Has his printing approach changed at all from when he did the video on "Printing Staithes" back in (I think) 2011? Or are the fundamentals he used then still the same now? I'm assuming they probably are the same, but just wondering if he'd comment. Printing is an art and science and I love the insight that different artists bring.

[@joecornish1200]

Hello Ray, My approach likely will have changed over the last ten years, as I have taught printing for several years, and so have had to articulate and explain the "why?" as well as the "how" of printing. The philosophy is fairly simple in that I aim to make the picture "live" as a print. The techniques are widely varied depending on the emphasis, but are essentially about light and dark, colour balance and relationships, and the control of texture. Pretty similar to painting really!

[@rayharrison5962]

@@joecornish1200 Thank you so much for taking the time to respond and for your insight! I find the idea of controlling texture intriguing and will definitely explore that more.

[@RalfWeyer]

This was a great session, I sincerely enjoyed it, thanks to both of you. I do have a question which I would like to get some kind of answer from both of you as well. Being an IT guy I definitely come more from a logical point of view (brain works 1 or 0), so the art of photography is the hardest part for me. I usually take pictures from scenes I like in the real world and in Post try different ways of editing until I get to a result I’m pleased with. How is your approach? Do you already have an idea about the end result before you take an image or before you edit it? And of course how do you chose what subjects you take images of? I sometimes see a scenery that look amazing in real life but turns out quite boring on the photo. So I often wonder how creative people have „developed“ their eye to see things and scenarios that work on images. And impressive as well is they sometimes start editing and you can feel they have a very precise idea of where things are going to. Same feeling I often get when seeing Paul editing.

[@michael-thomashunold4483]

That is indeed a really good question! Only on few occasions I have an idea what the outcome should look like. But most of the time I'll do it your way too. Somehow I am struggling with the compostion part in field.

[@Paulreiffer]

@@michael-thomashunold4483 So - here's a handy tip for this - ALWAYS shoot a little bit wider than you think. That way, you have more room to play with composition when reviewing the images, through different crops. The more you do this, the more "settled" you'll become and find yourself doing the same things to most shots. That then feeds back to how you shoot in the field - and you use that cycle to drive how you capture - not just the final result.

[@Paulreiffer]

Hi @Ralf Weyer - I'll pass on to Joe for his answer, but for me, it may be slightly different. I tend to have a brief in my head from either a client - "we need a shot of X" or in my own mind "I think a shot of X will produce a sellable print" etc. So, it's a case of composing it in my mind, picking the time of year (potentially a pre-shoot trip) and then heading out to wait for the right conditions. That's a very "prescribed" shooting scenario, but it's pretty much how it works for me. The result is I know what I'm "shooting in to" as I already have the frame in mind. If for a client, there's also usually the need to leave space for copy etc, so that drives a wider composition that can be cropped. The edit itself, I know Joe touched on this - but I'm not going to be too precious about "raw from camera" in the sense that the actual (and I mean ACTUAL, not interpreted) raw data from the camera will be flat and dull in most cases. So, we're talking about "tweaking" the images to match what I saw, how it felt (was it colder than the raw suggests? cool it down, etc) - so the viewer gets the same feeling. Ironically, the way my brain works is relatively mathematic, so I sometimes struggle too (hence lots of planning!) - but every now and then, I tell myself (once I've got the shot I wanted) to remember to experiment afterwards. Often, it's the experiments/"mistakes" that make the final cut...

[@michael-thomashunold4483]

@@Paulreiffer Thank you for this advice. I'll definitely give it a try. Although this means, that I have to get way from observing the borders of the frame to exclude any distractions. But this can also been done in post with a suitable crop. But I'll have the chance to find a good composition. Cheers!

[@RalfWeyer]

@@Paulreiffer thanks a lot for the answer. There probably isn’t one way that works for everyone and I have to find my own way as everyone else has to. But one takeaway from your answer might be the planning. Very often I basically walk around without any idea in my head, let alone a plan. Maybe that leads to random shots that end up being boring. I might have to start to actually think about what I want to shoot and plan accordingly, in other words the shoots should be more on purpose, without completely ignoring amazing opportunities that might come up along the way.

[@anthonytriana4209]

Are there any resources of information regarding how to shoot with tilt shift lenses? What are the possibilities with apsc, full frame, and medium format digital? I’m guessing using a lens to body converters and focusing manually when a particular camera system doesn’t provide tilt shift lenses would be the way to do this. Thanks for this. I don’t consider this a show. I consider this a form of very very helpful photographic instruction. I shoot for a living and it’s nice to learn about a different method of photography. Thanks very much, Paul, for sharing. I very much look forward to your next episode in this vein. You and Joe are artists and craftsmen.

[@Paulreiffer]

Hi Anthony, So, there are - things like here: www.largeformatphotography.info/how-to-focus.html BUT, not necessarily for non-large-format setups. While the principles are the same, the technical details will differ, so I'll check in with Joe and see what else is out there :-)

[@anthonytriana4209]

Paul, thank you for getting back to me. Thanks again!

[@rayharrison5962]

Tim Parkin over at On Landscape has an approachable and (to me) informative video on the subject. I watched it again today after watching Paul and Joe. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXbSXq2OhN94eLM

[@grahamsmith7938]

Look up Keith Cooper on you tube for mainly videos on printing but some on tilt shift lenses. He also has a book on Amazon. "Photography with Tilt and Shift Lenses: Art and Techniques" and his web site has material on tilt shift. All of it mainly focussed on Canon Tilt shift lenses.

[@grahamsmith7938]

@@Paulreiffer Keith Cooper's book "Photography with Tilt and Shift Lenses: Art and Techniques" is a good resource for DSLR tilt shift technique.

[@gui4j]

quite amusing that joe talks about all the progress in the technology but still shoots the same images he did when he used film and large format where's the progress in technology in your images ? still needs a technical camera , digital sensors cannot do shift and tilt and swing or raise or fall, can not focusing from front to back without focusing stacking numerous images , some progress !! but yes we need 8k videos .. the world will stop turning without 8k videos or image stabilization or bracket modes , or 3000 focus points or endless menu systems offering pointless custom options ... .... think he has wasted 10's of thousands , he should have just stayed with large format and saved a pile of cash ... all digital has done is reinvented the wheel and taken 30 years to get back to the same place were we where before it started ... well done camera companies ... !!! well worth the effort .. 150mb camera to get the same quality of image as a 4*5 that's nuts . and almost no-one has or can afford a 150mb camera .. how many mb's to better a 10*8 i wonder !!.. just goes to show what we already know .. landscape photographers only need basic cameras , medium format film cameras and up are and will always be the best tool for the job .. you don't need all the fancy electronics, aids and AI and video modes to shoot , trees and rocks !! complete folly to think otherwise ... and has been proven of the course of about 150 years , you know the years pre digital ... yup joe .. just sucked into the machine and endless pointless consumer materialistic upgrade and throw away culture ...