Eric Bennet
I have had the good fortune of traveling all over the world in pursuit of my art. While I spend most of my time exploring the deserts near my current home in Utah, photography has taken me to over 30 different countries, from the coastlines of Australia to the glaciers of the Arctic, in search of new experiences and landscapes. I like to think that the deep love I have for nature and exploration shows through my imagery.
I believe that landscape photography has the power to cause people to fall in love with the remarkable, natural beauty of our planet. My travels are motivated by this idea that if I can capture a place in the right way, I can give the world a glimpse of its true value in its unaltered, natural state. I hope that my imagery can inspire a desire in others to protect and conserve the little wilderness we have left.
Tutorials:
Tools of the Trade
by Eric Bennet
Essential post processing techniques that cover multiple basic and advanced concepts.
Essential Theory - Refining Composition 1
by Eric Bennet
This video focuses on the fundamental compositional principles that go into making a compelling photograph. Instead of technical aspects of photography, I explain more about the art of photography–telling a story through images and creating thought provoking photographs that move others. It consists of 7 chapters, breaking down what can specifically be done in order to create a composition that is concise and powerful. You will see detailed explanations of each principle, personal stories from the field, and many image examples where these concepts are demonstrated through both my successes and failures, so you can know how to implement them into your own photography as well as what you can avoid. You will learn how to better organize both wide and intimate scenes, understand and compose abstract scenes, create visual flow, draw attention and focus to your subjects, know what to include or exclude, pre-visualize images, and influence the viewer's eye to look exactly where you want them to. This is where it all begins, with taking a great photo in the field. These are the most important things I have learned over the last decade as a landscape photographer.
Essential Theory - Refining Composition 2
by Eric Bennet
Once you are able to see light the way I do, you will realize there is no such thing as bad light, and be able to create scenes all throughout the day–no longer limited by weather conditions and factors that are out of your control. The second installment of this series focuses on the many different qualities of both direct and indirect light that you can encounter in the field, how to anticipate them, and creative and effective ways you can utilize them in order to create compelling images with strong visual flow. It consists of 7 Chapters in order to cover my entire approach to photographing natural light from sun up until sun down. You will gain a clear understanding of the nuances of light, the role that light and shadow play in composition by accentuating certain elements and hiding others, and how to pair subject matter with the kind of lighting that will best complement it in order to create a cohesive scene with a strong sense of subject, depth, balance, visual flow, and mood. I also show several different ways you can photograph ordinary light in order to make it appear more spectacular. Capturing natural light is not only my favorite part of photography, it is the most fundamental principle of photography. Until you learn how to work with the light, it will work against you.
"Luminance" - Enhancing Soft Light
by Eric Bennet
This tutorial shows the different tools and techniques I use to enhance soft light in a bold yet natural looking way. Since soft light is the most commonly occurring kind of lighting, understanding more ways that it can be used effectively will help you to be more creative and unlock more possibilities. I show my approach to handling three different kinds of soft light: shade, overcast, and twilight. Through the four different image examples, you will see my entire workflow and how it differs in each image according to the quality of the light, subject matter, and overall feeling. You will also notice that I use some of the same techniques in all of them. You will see how I subtly build contrast through a combination of different adjustments. The main techniques demonstrated are: using luminosity masks to target specific areas and increase midtone contrast, color separation, luminance, depth, and definition in the scene in a non-destructive way. I also show ways to improve color harmony, eliminate color casts, manage saturation, increase tonality, dodge and burn, mitigate distractions, and resize and sharpen for the web. Most importantly, my concise and deliberate workflow is easy to follow and implement in your own images.
"Dark Brilliance" - Low Key Processing
by Eric Bennet
This tutorial video shows how I process high contrast scenes with intense lighting and deep shadows. I also review all the other exposures I took in the field of these scenes while the lighting was changing and articulate my process of trying different compositions and how I ended up selecting the exposures that I edited. The main techniques demonstrated are: using luminosity masks to target specific areas and add midtone contrast, color separation, depth, and definition to the scene in a non-destructive way. I also show ways to simplify the color palette, enhance light, improve tonality, add drama, time blend, minimize and clone out distractions, improve visual flow, precisely correct lens distortion, and resize and sharpen for the web. Most importantly, my concise and deliberate workflow is very easy to follow and implement in your own scenes.
"High Key Processing" - Start to Finish Video
by Eric Bennet
This tutorial video contains 4 chapters, where I first cover the theory behind High Key Processing, and then show the full workflow and techniques I used in order to process these 3 images from start to finish. I use high key processing in some of my images in order to give them a surreal, pure, and bright feeling. The main techniques covered are, but not limited to: RAW Processing, Color Management, Adding Midtone Contrast, Creating Micro Contrast, Using Luminosity Masks, Raising Exposure While Preserving Highlights, Enhancing Atmosphere, and Cloning Out Distractions. Most importantly, you will learn what kind of lighting, composition, and subject matter lend themselves best to the unique look of high key processing, so that you know when to apply it to your own images. This video is intended for photographers that have already seen some of my other videos, where I spend more time explaining basic techniques; here, I mainly spend time explaining the techniques that are not shown in my other videos.