Jared J. Kohler Photography - www.jjkohler.com

Jared J. Kohler Photography - www.jjkohler.com Your eyes in ME, Asia and beyond. Follow for beauty and challenges from around the world. Nature. Refugees. Humanity.

Once more. This time with color.
04/06/2018

Once more. This time with color.

I've been privileged to have a front row seat for so many events in a country that I love very much - Jordan. This week ...
04/06/2018

I've been privileged to have a front row seat for so many events in a country that I love very much - Jordan. This week has been an interesting new chapter in the political process in the country, and here's a few shots from the demonstrations around 4th Circle in Amman. 🇯🇴️

Zaatari Refugee Camp 2012-2018. I had such a front row seat to watching this place evolve over the years.
27/04/2018

Zaatari Refugee Camp 2012-2018. I had such a front row seat to watching this place evolve over the years.

View of the Mackinac Bridge from Star Line Mackinac Island Ferry late last year. I've always had a love affair with the ...
16/01/2018

View of the Mackinac Bridge from Star Line Mackinac Island Ferry late last year. I've always had a love affair with the Straits of Mackinac. So fierce and beautiful all at once. And that bridge... Such a stately feat of engineering.

Lake Effect.Petoskey, MI. December 2017
11/01/2018

Lake Effect.

Petoskey, MI. December 2017

After a long time away from the topic, I've recently been working with photographs of Syrian refugees again. A deep dive...
06/12/2017

After a long time away from the topic, I've recently been working with photographs of Syrian refugees again. A deep dive into my archive brought me back to these photos that I shot of urban dwelling refugees in Jordan. Each image has so many memories and stories attached.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency/Jared Kohler. 2013-2014.

One more from the Wadi Rum night.15 sec. f/4.5 ISO 3200Processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
23/10/2017

One more from the Wadi Rum night.

15 sec. f/4.5 ISO 3200
Processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Shape, texture, and color.
21/10/2017

Shape, texture, and color.

I recall that for a while after I first started photographing, I often argued with others about whether there was truly ...
09/10/2017

I recall that for a while after I first started photographing, I often argued with others about whether there was truly any value in shooting RAW. It only makes bigger files, I said - unnecessarily taking up hard drive space. This was a position born out of pure ignorance on my part. While not always necessary to shoot in RAW, the amount of image data captured by RAW is so much more significant that it can revolutionize many photo taking situations.

One of the most obvious situations where RAW shooting is beneficial is when you're faced with a scene where there is a great deal of contrast between the brightest and the darkest parts of the image. Our human eyes can easily and quickly adjust to take in all the light values - cameras struggle a lot more to capture this wide range. Usually the result is an image that is either too dark - only maintaining the bright areas - or too bright, only showing detail in the dark areas.

RAW shooting creates some solutions to these high contrast scenes. By shooting the image just a little dark (to make sure that at least some detail is captured in the brightest areas) it is usually possible to capture an image with great "latitude".

With this post you'll see an image that I shot in the Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The original image straight from the camera has beautiful light and shadow, but has completely lost all the wonderful color and detail in the stonework that had caught my eye. A few minutes in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom allowed me to keep and even recover detail outside the bright windows, while also boosting the dark areas to return some of the beautiful natural textures of the scene.

Do you have any favorite shots that incorporate bright and dark elements in the same photograph?

I got some great questions on my last post. The first from David brought up something very important. There is a common ...
05/10/2017

I got some great questions on my last post.

The first from David brought up something very important. There is a common misconception that Adobe Photoshop is the real professional editing software while Adobe Photoshop Lightroom​ is the weaker, less useful cousin. The reality could not be more different. These two softwares merely perform different functions. Lightroom is a photo organizing, reviewing, and editing software. You can use it to accept or reject shots, add keywords, etc. but you can also do everything from the Photoshop RAW module - in a workflow that I personally find simpler and more efficient.
If I need to do complex retouching, airbrushing major elements out of the photograph, or stacking different photo elements, Photoshop is still where I go. But the honest truth? About 95% of my photo editing work is all done inside of Lightroom. It is an immensely powerful software. I have been using it for years, and still keep discovering new ways to use and take advantage of its tools.

Daniel, I think the first question to ask yourself is, what are you most interested in photographing? Is there a particular topic, or style of photography that grabs your attention? The answer to this question can provide some guidance for choosing equipment, and further learning goals.
The most important thing to remember is the heart of what photography really is - painting or drawing with light. The first and best thing that you can do, is start to watch and pay attention to light every day. Light is the paint that is going onto the canvas, and step one is to get to know your medium. The least important thing is to go out and buy a lot of gear. Of course, all photographers love their (often expensive) gear, but it's easy for this to become a distraction. Sometimes I purposely limit myself to shooting with only one lens for a while, or even only on my iPhone. This forces me to step away from the gear obsession, and try to strip back my thinking to focus on what the actual essentials are for making a compelling image.

Thanks for your questions and comments. I'm happy to continue the conversation or if there are any specific questions or issues that you've been wrestling with, maybe I can try to create some tutorials.

Picture: Cappadocia, Turkey. 2014.
1/500 Sec. f/11 ISO 200

I recently posted the below photo to my Instagram account, and immediately got a comment asking one of the most common q...
03/10/2017

I recently posted the below photo to my Instagram account, and immediately got a comment asking one of the most common questions that every photographer receives: "what camera settings did you use for this picture?"
The answer is 35 Sec. f/3.5 ISO 3200 Nikon RAW
But what people often forget when they ask a question like this, is that RAW image capture allows for incredible latitude in editing. The camera captures more data than is immediately visible. Below you can see the before and after versions of this shot. One directly as captured by the camera, the other after editing in Adobe Lightroom.
What kind of questions do you have about photography that you'd like answered in more detail?

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