How Bob Ross Can Improve Your Photography

Bob Ross -- you know, the guy who showed us how to paint happy little trees -- is a good guy to have live on your DVR. He's taught me a lot about how to improve my photography, how to think about it. It sounds crazy, but you can learn a lot by watching him paint. Ross' style is distinct, not only his style of painting but his style of teaching. He's so relaxed, confident and at peace with his canvas. You also hear him talk a lot about some very important things, most notably economy. Simple strokes can create the "illusion of distance," "the illusion of mist," the "impression of little trees." Ross' use of economy is so important to all forms of art, from writing to movies to photography. Less is more. Ross also talks about light directly, showing how you need dark to show light. You need shadow to show shape and depth, things that apply directly to photography. Simple applications of paint over paint can create the illusion of light shining through other elements. Beautiful. The purpose of watching Ross isn't to repeat concepts we already know. It's to see the craft of photography in a new light and maybe help us think about it in a new way to push our images to a higher level. Sometimes it's easier to see how a principle applies, or what it means for your own work, when you see it used somewhere else -- in this case painting. Ross also understood values, another term he used frequently. Values are essentially the brightness of the color you're using. This applies so well to photography because the most important thing in photography is the use of light. Light gives us form, texture, color, emotion, beauty. And what Ross did with values, it would benefit us to do with light -- use it to shape, form, define, illuminate, inspire, tell a story. Ansel Adams also understood this, which is why he helped create the Zone System for placing different elements of a photograph in different value zones, from shadow to highlight. You can't actually store light on film or paper any more than you can put a tree into a painting. You can only create an impression of it, and you do that with values. You know a photograph is great when you can see the quality of light at play. If you can, catch a Bob Ross episode or buy one of his DVDs. He'll show you all about visual art that you can apply to photography. If you're stuck in your photography, consider this: The light is the paintbrush and the camera sensor is the canvas.