by Dan Hare (dhare)
Jun 20 2004

Where do you live?

I live in Hickory, North Carolina. Hickory is located in the western part of the state in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Tell us about your family/friends. Have you met anyone from DPC?

My immediate family also lives here in Hickory. My parents live about 5 miles from me and my sister and her family also live in town. I have aunts, uncles, and cousins spread out all over the country.

I have met a few other DPC people. The first one I met was Amy Halucha (PhotosByAyme). Amy lives in Orlando, Florida and she was kind enough to spend a day with me and my 9-year old niece at Disney World when I visited there in March of 2003.

Most recently, I met another group of DPC-ers on my trip to Washington DC. Clara (blemt), Ben (Maverick), David (DJLuba), Rich (RichTerrell), Drake (fstopopen), Derek (durkovic), Kollin (magnetic9999), Terry (ClubJuggle), Steve (mcrochip), and myself got together for some shooting fun. We did an overnight shoot of some of the national monuments in Washington, D.C. It was great fun to finally meet these people.

What is your occupation?

I’m an unemployed computer network administrator. I have been unemployed since the end of March and I’m considering changing careers. I’m just not sure what I want to do yet.

How long have you been involved in photography?

“Involved” is a tough definition. I have been “around” photography all my life. My father was a professional photographer. I have had access to cameras as far back as I can remember, but I had never taken a real interest in “artistic” photography until I discovered DPChallenge in April of 2002.

Have you won any photographic competitions outside of DPC?

Yes. I have won online competitions in several places such as DigitalPhotoContest.com. I have also won several print competitions within my local camera club.

What's your favourite movie?

Favorite movies would be like favorite photographs. I could never limit it to just one. One of my favorite movies in recent history is “A Beautiful Mind.”

What music do you listen to? Do you listen to music while post processing?

My preferences are classical music and new age jazz. I have some sort of music going on in the background all the time and that does include post processing time. As I answer this question, I’m listening to a CD by Ray Lynch entitled “Deep Breakfast”.

Whats your favourite food?

Beer.

You have your own website, can I list it here?

Yes. http://www.setzler.net/

Take us through a history of your camera purchases, both film and digital.

Ummmm.....

A Keystone point and shoot no frills 35mm camera -- circa 1980 (Junior High School)

A Polaroid instant camera -- circa 1982 (freshman year of high school)

A Canon water/weather resistant 35mm point and shoot circa 1992 (don’t remember the model)

A Pentax IQ 135mm Zoom point and shoot 35mm camera circa 1994

A Nikon N60 SLR circa 1997

A Sony Mavica FD-95 2.1 megapixel digital camera in February 2001

A Sony Cybershot DSC-F707 5 megapixel digital camera in February 2002

A Canon EOS 10D 6 megapixel digital SLR in October 2003

You currently use a Canon EOS-10D, are you happy with this camera?

I’m extremely happy with this camera. It meets every need that I have with room to spare. I don’t find myself lacking any capabilities with this camera.

Since you own an DSLR, it would be great if you would list the lenses you own, what you think of each lens, and how often each one gets used.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II - This is a great lens. It’s cheap and it produces extremely sharp images. The wide aperture capability works well in low light situations. I don’t use this lens that often for several reasons. First of all, this lens translates to about 80mm on the 10D. That’s simply too long for a lot of shots that I do. Secondly, since it is not a zoom lens, it’s more difficult to use because I have to physically move around to compose my shots. I do not have the luxury of composing with a zoom with this lens. Finally, I have recently added some additional lenses to my bag that produce images as good or better than this lens. Before I purchased my Canon 24-70, this would be my lens of choice ONLY when I could make the composition I needed with it. If I could not physically move into a good compositional position with my camera, I would have to resort to another lens choice.

Sigma EX 105mm f/2.8 Macro -- “Composition is something that I spend a lot of time considering before I make any photo. When I find a subject that I want to photograph, there must be some reason I want to photograph it.” This is a great lens for 1:1 macro work. It produces sharp images. When I compared this lens to the Canon equivalent, this lens won out for a couple of reasons. It was priced about $100 less than the Canon and the image quality was comparable. The autofocus on this lens is very slow compared to the Canon, but when I’m doing macro work, I never use autofocus. Come to think of it, I don’t use autofocus on a majority of my photographs. I use this lens for any macro work I need to do and it also works relatively well as a portrait lens if I have enough room between me and my subject. This lens translates to about 170mm on the 10D, and that’s pretty long for portrait work.

Sigma EX 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 Wide Angle -- I needed a lens for wide-angle work. Since we are dealing with a 1.6x crop factor with the 10D (and most other digital SLR cameras in its class), getting decent wide angle is tough. The 12-24mm lens translates to a 19-38mm lens on the 10D. 19mm is decent wide angle. I use this lens for a variety of things such as landscapes and architecture photos. The wide-angle lens also creates some interesting distortion. It makes things that are close to the camera appear larger than they really are compared to things that are in the distance. It’s definitely a “specialty” lens and I don’t use it as often as some of my others.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM -- This is my baby... This lens probably gets the most use out of anything I own. It’s fast and it produces sharp images. It’s a great general-purpose lens and the wide aperture makes it a decent lens in low light also. It’s heavy and bulky though. You won’t pull off any clandestine photographs with this one...

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM -- This is another great lens. It’s big and bulky also at nearly 3 pounds. The wide aperture on this lens allows me to get nice telephoto shots in lower light situations. I also purchased the Canon 1.4x extender to go with this lens when 200mm is not long enough. This is the second most used lens in my bag. It runs a close race with my 24-70 for usage though.

Are you considering another camera purchase in the near future? If so, what?

No. The 10D is an excellent camera and there is nothing else out there I would rather have at this point. The new Canon Mark II is too expensive for the extra features it would offer me. An additional $3000 would have to provide me with something I could actually use and benefit from. The Mark II does have “benefits” over the 10D, but not $3000 worth. Currently, there are no other cameras on the market that interest me. With the amount of money spent on that lens list I just provided, I have to stay with Canon bodies at this point.

Do you still own/use any compact digicams for their ease of use and less weight?

Yes. I recently purchased the Canon S500 Digital Elph. This is a pocket-sized 5 megapixel digital camera that works rather well for the money I spent on it. It’s convenient and easy to use when my objective is snapshots. I bought the 5 megapixel model just in case I accidentally shoot something worth printing with it.

What size memory cards do you have?

I have one 1gb and one 512mb compact flash cards. I also have a “Kanguru” portable hard drive that I can carry into the field. It holds up to 20gb. I can copy the contents of my compact flash cards to this drive, then reformat the cards and keep shooting.

Do you shoot in JPG or RAW mode?

Primarily, RAW. I like being able to adjust the white balance after the shot. It’s much simpler to do if you are working with a RAW file. RAW also gives me the capability of not losing any image quality due to compression. I never create a JPG file until all my post processing is complete.

Have you ever lost any images on memory cards?

No. I believe that certain precautions prevent this. I was worried about this issue when I moved from my Sony 707 to the 10D. I had heard lots of nightmare stories about losing data on compact flash cards. After using compact flash for a while, I started to see issues that are probably the root causes for many people losing data on compact flash cards.

If you turn your camera off while data is being written to the card, you will probably lose more than just one image.

If you remove your CF card from a CF card reader before your computer has allowed that “cache” to clear, you can lose data and corrupt the card. Most current Windows-based operating systems allow you to disable write caching to the drives. Disabling this caching practically eliminates this as a problem.

If you format your compact flash card in the camera before each use, you will eliminate the possibility of writing a bunch of new photos to a card that could be corrupt.

What does your home studio consist of, in terms of lighting, backgrounds, etc.

My home studio is definitely nothing sophisticated. I generally use foam core poster board for surfaces and backgrounds. I have occasionally used a mirror as a surface as well. My lighting consists of a few table and desk lamps with standard 100W light bulbs. I am currently learning to use my flash units for lighting but I’m still in a learning mode with those. They take a little more patience and practice.

Do you use any software for organising your digital pictures?

Sadly enough, I don’t have any type of formal organization system. When I come home from a shoot, I create a folder that has a name like this:

2004-06-19 -- Ducks and Geese

I dump my RAW files into this folder. Any of those files that I choose to process get placed in a new folder within the original called “Develops”, which becomes my working folder. As the number of folders and size of the files within increase, I will archive them to a DVD when I feel that I won’t be doing any more processing to those images.

Do you use Photoshop or an alternative? If so what version?

I use Photoshop CS.

What Photoshop skills do you consider to be essential to digital photography?

This one is difficult for me to answer. I’m definitely not very talented with Photoshop. There are some basic skills that I have with it and I think they do form a good basic workflow.

Levels

A serious photographer who wants to make the most of his/her digital images will need to have a fundamental understanding of how to use the levels tool in Photoshop. This goes along with understanding what a “Histogram” is and exactly what the histogram is telling you. Contrary to popular belief, there is no “perfect” histogram and there is no specific way a histogram should look. What the histogram looks like is based entirely on what you photographed.

Contrast

I also think it’s important to understand and effectively use the contrast tool. Some images don’t need it but some do benefit from some very minor contrast adjustments.

The Unsharp Mask

A lot of people are afraid of this tool and don’t understand it very well. I’m one of those who doesn’t understand it very well, but I do use it frequently. I was recently made aware of a general “formula” that works very nicely on the unsharp mask tool. The settings for it are as follows:

Amount: 100%

Radius: .1% of the number of pixels on the longest side of your image

Threshold: 2

Don’t ask me what this really means, but it really seems to work nicely on most of my photographs. Since my photographs come out of the camera at 3072x2048 pixels, My settings are 100, 3.1, and 2 on the unsharp mask.

Dodge and Burn

It’s often very nice to be able to darken and lighten specific areas within the photograph. Your camera can’t always make the exposure you wish it could. The only problem with dodge/burn is learning NOT to overuse it. You can’t use it to salvage a bad exposure. For that matter, you can’t use Photoshop in general to salvage a bad exposure. It’s important to make the exposure properly in camera.

Clone/Heal

Learning to clone out spots, specks, and other unwanted garbage from a photograph is very important. It’s also very important to learn how to do it so that the editing is not visible in the image. Bad editing, to me, is worse than a bad photograph.

Numbers 4 and 5 in this list make up my basic work flow in Photoshop. I rarely do more than that to a photograph. The first three items in my list are taken care of in another program that I will discuss briefly in one of the upcoming questions.

Gaussian Blur

I have done away with my camera’s soft focus filters in favor of using gaussian blur layers in Photoshop. When I feel a need for soft focus, do all of my standard post processing to the image first. I then duplicate the image onto a new layer. I generally apply a 30-40 pixel gaussian blur to that layer and then change the opacity of that layer down to between 20-30%, depending on the image and the amount of soft focus that I want.

Out of your own entries on DPC, what photo had the most digital editing?

I pushed the contrast and the levels on this photo way beyond the actual feel of the original photograph. The effect I wanted for this image was not achievable in camera so I used Photoshop to create that effect.

As I think about this question, I’m not entirely sure what answer you may be looking for. In the “Exclusion” photograph, I spent a total of about 2 minutes doing the post processing, so as far as “time” is concerned, there is very little involved with that one.

This image doesn’t have a feel of a heavily post-processed image, but time-wise, I probably spent more time on this one than any of my other DPC entries. I used the healing brush and the clone tool in Photoshop to remove several jet trails from the sky and also removed some lens flare from the right-hand side of the image.

Based on these two images, which would YOU say has had the most digital editing? In the first image, the visibility of the editing is fairly obvious. In the second, it is not. If you look through all of my DPChallenge entries, you won’t see a lot of obvious post processing.

Do you use any other software in relation to digital photos? If so, what?

Yes. I use Capture One SE to do a majority of the post processing to my RAW files from the camera. I use that to adjust my white balance, make any necessary exposure adjustments, level adjustments, and sharpness adjustments.

On the whole, do you prefer a minimalist approach to post editing, a no rules approach, or somewhere in between?

I hate this question :)

In order to answer this question, we have to go back to the common discussion/argument over “What is photography?” and “What is digital art?” When I consider this question in terms of DPChallenge, I believe that the current Advanced Editing Rules are just about perfect. At DPChallenge, PHOTOGRAPHY is supposed to be the fundamental element of the presented work. To me, “photographic integrity” should be maintained, and this means that you should not use software to create the impact of your image. When you add an element to an image that creates some amount of impact that was not present in the original image, I believe the line has been crossed and photographic integrity has been lost.

Outside of DPChallenge, I believe that the photographer should do whatever he/she feels is necessary to complete his/her vision. I like to use the term “Photographic Art” instead of “Photography” in most cases. A photograph is a starting point for a work of art.

I choose to stay within the realms of my own idea of photographic integrity. I want my results to look like a photograph. I don’t want them to appear heavily edited. In some cases, I go beyond this, but it’s rare.

If I had to choose one of your three choices in this question, I would say “somewhere in between”. I prefer whatever it takes to realize my intent.

Your most popular image on DPC is 'Liberty And Justice', an intriguing shot that obviously strikes a lot of emotion in a lot of people. What were you trying to achieve with this shot, and how did you come up with the idea and composition?

“Liberty And Justice” was an execution of a technique that I had seen done many times, but never tried it myself. The idea was simply based on the technique. I was planning to use another subject behind the glass instead of a flag. I was out shopping for props with my girlfriend (ex girlfriend now -- rumttugger on DPC) for this photo and she actually suggested the flag, because this shot was being done during the week of Independence Day here in the US. I took her advice and it paid off. DPChallenge had not seen this technique before and the strength of the technique, coupled with the Independence Day theme probably awarded me a ribbon and popularity for that photograph. It suffered its share of low votes though. Unknown to me, there was an almost identical photo to mine in the July 2002 issue of Popular Photo and I got accused of being a “rip-off” artist. I think there are some comments to that effect on the photo. Flags and American patriotism don’t sit well with a lot of folks outside the US. They don’t sit well with some folks in the US either. To each his own. I’m proud of that image.

Crayon Galaxy

This was my original idea for this shot instead of the flag.

My personal favourite of all your images is 'Foliage'. The composition and clarity is one of a kind. Did you have any technical difficulties with this image? Do you miss the old 707? :-)

That photograph was a bit of a challenge. The first problem I encountered was getting water to bead up on a leaf. I tried everything. I even waxed the surface of the leaf with no luck. I’m not exactly sure how I thought to try this, but I turned the leaf over and sprayed water on the back side and it beaded up perfectly.

The second problem I encountered was getting enough light to create dark shadows. I resorted to using a 500w halogen work light. The light was positioned about 3 feet away from the leaf to make it bright enough to give me the result I was looking for.

I don’t miss the Sony 707 but it was/still is a great camera. That camera produced great photographs. I learned how to work with its strengths and avoid its weaknesses. It’s really hard to “miss” that camera when I have what I have now.

I feel 'Liquid Logic' is perhaps on of your most underrated images. Do you have any comments about the voting on DPC, and what you feel the results really represent? Please give us some background information on this image.

I don’t think that “Liquid Logic” is underrated as far as DPChallenge is concerned. 7th place with a score of 6.9 is fairly respectable around here.

Background info.... Hmmmm.... I had photographed the insides of a hard disk drive a few times before.

“Condition Critical”

“Liquid Logic” is one of those photos I mentioned earlier where I was learning to use my flash as a light source for a still life image. This particular image works well in the arena of contrast and clarity. I thought that spraying water on it would simply create something a bit unique and add a theme to it that would not have been there otherwise. As you already know, water drops are quite popular and they seem to create something special when coupled with electronics.

I also try to avoid “analyzing” the voting on DPChallenge. The demographics of this site are simply too diverse for me to accurately assess the results of the vote. I think the only real assessment you can make is “overall appeal”. It’s like putting a glass of beer in front of a rabbi, a priest, and a truck driver. Assumptions about their reactions to it may be pointless.

Your first image on DPC was 'Stallions at the Speed of Light'. If you could critique it now, what would you say about it?

Quite honestly, I wouldn’t change much about it. I still like that one as much as I did the day I submitted it. I would have post processed the image a little differently based on what I know now. The overall contrast in that photo is a bit weak for my taste. I would love to re-shoot that photograph with my new equipment. I would fire a second curtain sync flash and freeze the motion at the end of the exposure. I went back to this carousel in the local shopping mall a bit later to make some more photos...

I got in trouble for making photos of the carousel since I did not have a child riding it. They asked me to stop making photos. I purchased a token to ride the carousel so I cold make some photos on it and they wouldn’t let me ride and escorted me out of the mall. I haven’t been back since to attempt any more photos.

What has been the hardest image to photograph, out of all of your entries on DPC? Why?

Let me just say that this photograph was a nightmare to light and execute. Working with glass and avoiding reflections is not easy. I made over 250 attempts over a period of two days on this image. I tried different lighting and different exposures. I’m also not happy with the final result of that photo either. I can’t believe it took third place in that challenge.

The background for that photo is one piece of white and one piece of black poster board. ALL of the light had to exist between the glass and the poster board and the rest of the room had to be dark to avoid reflections on the front of the glass. I was working with two 100w bulbs in metal reflectors for light on this one. Essentially, all I had to do was light up the white portion of the poster board. The reversed refraction in the glass with the dark/light was simply a natural occurrence from the water in the round glass. If this had been an advanced editing challenge, I would have had a better image. I really would have loved to have the lemon yellow on the front, but I could not find a way to light it without creating light and reflections on the front of the glass. In an Advanced editing challenge, I could have simply removed those reflections after the shot and had a nice image :)

Please go through the composition of 'Forbidden Fruit', and explain why it works so well? Did you eat the apple after the shoot?

“Forbidden Fruit” was an interesting concept. I had envisioned this photograph a long time before I ever made it. My girlfriend at that time (rumttugger) had never even considered posing for something like this and she was a bit apprehensive about it for obvious reasons.

The composition on this photograph, IMO, is strong because all the lines and curves lead your eye to the apple. “Leading Lines”, even though they aren’t extremely obvious in this image, are a strong concept. The lighting on this photograph also plays a pretty strong role. I used a single 500w halogen work light pointed at the ceiling to bathe her in soft light. We had a black sheet suspended from a table behind her, and the sheet was angled away from her so none of the light falling across her body hit the sheet. This is one of my very few photographs that had no post processing other than a resize. What you see here is what came out of the camera.

I do like apples and I certainly would have eaten one, but, you see, THIS particular apple is not a real apple. I could not find a real apple that looked good enough to suit me for this photo. This is a plastic apple. Plastic is not tasty.

You seem to have a great talent in making still life pictures. Please tell us how you achieve this, in terms of lighting composition and post processing.

I think I covered “Two Tone Tonic” in a previous question...

“How Great Thou Art” and “Pianissimo” are both naturally lit with ambient light.

“How Great Thou Art” is a hand carved wooden statue in the foyer of my church. There is a dome-shaped sky light directly above it that lets a nice soft light fall down on the statue from directly above. The challenge in this photo was finding a composition that I liked. The lighting was already perfect. The post processing on this photograph was very simple and basic. All I did here was sharpen it and convert it to a duotone.

“Pianissimo” was lit with natural light coming into my living room from a window. It’s a simple macro photo and I did use a soft focus filter on the camera for this one. It’s also another one of my photographs that had no post processing other than a resize.

Composition is something that I spend a lot of time considering before I make any photo. When I find a subject that I want to photograph, there must be some reason I want to photograph it. I ask myself what it is about the subject that inspires me to take my camera out of the bag. On “How Great Thou Art,” there is beautiful texture on that statue that is wonderfully accented by the ambient light in that room. I wanted to focus on a part of the statue where these elements were strong. When I composed this one, I simply made a tight composition of the head and placed the eye on a nice third intersection. I wanted the eye to be a focal point. “Pianissimo” is almost identical in composition. I wanted to highlight the soft light and its interaction with the natural textures of the rose petals. I also thought that soft focus would nicely accent the natural softness of a rose bloom. “Pianissimo” is an Italian musical term for “very soft”.

You must explain this shot. Something about the red apple that is visually enticing, next to a urinal that is obviously not as enticing. A great image of contrasts that is also underrated IMHO. 'Greetings from Hickory NC'

Well....

“Greetings from Hickory, North Carolina” is a simple bit of slapstick humor that I contrived for that challenge. This photo followed “Forbidden Fruit” by a couple weeks. I don’t know if you were around when Forbidden Fruit came to be, but there were a couple of long and drawn out forum debates about nude photography and its various impacts on society.

Link 1

Link 2

At that time, I was also spending some time studying the works of Edward Weston. He has this photo that I found inspiring in some way:

Edward Weston Photo

So, the combination of being a “target” for doing “Forbidden Fruit” and my desire to find something artistic in a toilet, “Greetings from Hickory, North Carolina” was born.

If you would like to explain any more of your images in more depth, please feel free.

A good photograph doesn’t always require an explanation. Sometimes, and explanation can help a viewer see something that would have been overlooked, but I prefer that viewers draw their own conclusions from my photos. When I post a photo to a challenge, I usually include some information in the “Photographer’s Comments’ block. I enjoy drawing my own conclusions from photos and prefer not to read explanations. This is one reason I dislike titles that are explanatory. I like to make the viewer think. Unfortunately, DPChallenge is not a good arena for that. There are so many photos in every challenge, you would be lucky to get 10 seconds of though from any individual viewer.

Are there any type of photographic styles/techniques that you don't like?

I’m very open-minded about photography in general. There are certain elements that I think are a part of any great photograph. These include shape, form, texture, patterns, perspectives, color, lack of color, contrast, subject impact, emotional impact, and various other elements. Any photograph can have strengths in any of these areas. When these various strengths combine, great images are made. Any particular style or technique that includes some of the fundamental elements that I find appealing is perfectly acceptable.

My taste in photography has changed significantly in the last two years. I used to be amazed simply by great technical savvy with the camera. Now, I look for different things. I like images that have some amount of story-telling qualities and overall strong emotional impact. I have also discovered that “technical savvy” is subjective. Grain is good. Sharp is good. Blur is good. Out of focus is good. Soft is good. Each of these can be considered bad by someone who doesn’t like them. Styles and techniques are about the personal taste of the photographer.

What is your preferred style of photo? (i.e. macro, landscape, etc)

I haven’t been into photography long enough to have developed a favorite style yet. I’m still in the stage where I photograph whatever I see that interests me in some way.

Name 5 photos on DPC that inspire you, in order of preference.

Let me conclude this by saying that these are equally inspiring and there are many more beyond this.

What are the 3 favourite shots that you have taken, and why?

What do you consider to be important aspects of photography?

This question is a bit vague. Photography is a “craft”. A skilled craftsman knows how to use his tools. He knows what those tools are capable of and he also knows their limitations.

An important aspect of photography, for me, is to produce images that I’m happy with while having a good time doing it. Since my primary objectives with photography are self-satisfaction, that’s all that really matters to me. As long as I’m happy with my results, I will keep shooting. I find a lot of peace and solitude in photography. It’s relaxing and its something I enjoy tremendously.

If this question is directed toward images instead of the craft itself, I would refer you back to one of my previous answers that gives some detail about my “fundamental elements of a good image.”

Who is your favourite photographer on DPC?

It would be unfair for me to name just one. There are quite a few who I really respect and love a majority of their work. I have a lot of good friends here.

Who is your favourite photographer outside of DPC? (both film and digital, if you like)

It’s a tie between Edward Weston and Yousuf Karsh. Too bad they are both dead.

Edward Weston

Yousuf Karsh

Do you have any photographic projects outside of DPC?

Yes. Most of my photo efforts are outside of DPChallenge. Most of my photo projects are simple personal projects. I am working on a DVD slideshow presentation for my church that may evolve into a coffee-table book at some point also.

Some critics still don't think photography is a form of art. What is your response to this?

Some artists think that critics are useless. A critic can give you nothing more than an individual opinion. If an artist is truly happy with a piece of work, criticism is not required. In fact, it can be annoying.

Any critic who believes that photography is not a form of art has no business being a critic.

You have been known to 'stir the pot' on DPC, in terms of digital manipulation of images. Do you still feel strongly about this? Do you feel DPC has modified the rules enough to prevent this in the future?

I think the current Advanced Editing Rules should work out nicely. I do feel strongly about this, but only within the context of DPChallenge. I know when a photograph goes beyond the limits of “photography.” Those who go beyond the limits also know this. Since DPChallenge is a “game” there will always be players looking for loopholes and advantages. That’s perfectly natural. I think the site council has done a good job with the new rules.

Why do you enjoy photography?

I enjoy photography because it is the only visual art that I can create. I can’t draw or paint. I also find it relaxing and it takes me to places that I may not have gone otherwise. It makes me look at things in ways that I never would have before. It helps me see the finer details in this world that go unnoticed.