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Why ems?

If the world were an ideal place, we’d all use pixels. But it’s not, we have the broken browser to contend with. IE/Win will not allow readers to resize text that has been sized in pixels. Like it or not, your readers will want to resize text at some point. Perhaps they are short-sighted, doing a presentation, using a ridiculously high resolution laptop or simply have tired eyes. So unless you know (not think) your audience won’t be using IE/Win or will never wish to resize their text then pixels are not yet a viable solution.

Keyword-based text sizing will allow all browsers to resize text so this is a possibility, but I don’t find it gives me the precision that pixels would give me. Using ems however, allows all browsers to resize text and also provides pixel-level precision and so they tend to be my unit of choice.

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I once had a great professor tell me that in order for a photographer to make a strong edit, sometimes you have to kill your babies.   This is probably some of the best advice all photographers should take.  Photographers should never make edits themselves- they’re too close the work which makes it hard to get rid of mediocre pictures and just stick to the great ones.  Photographers have to learn to kill the pictures they love, and leave them out, for pictures that are stronger and more cohesive with the rest of the work  you’re showing.  You can have your favorites, sure, just keep them out of the edit unless they’re good enough.

I had to start thinking about all this again as I’m starting to re-edit my book to start sending out.  I’m nervous, and I keep putting it off, but the sooner I get it done, the sooner I can either start facing rejection, or getting jobs.  Hopefully the latter.  I’m also facing another problem with the direction my book should take.  It’s the whole fine art versus editorial/commercial conundrum, and well, I don’t know, I’m stuck.  This is where I need a strong edit.  I’m sure theres a way I can mix both, but I’m still working on it.  I’ll post my final edit, or edits in between, and you can feel free to write and let me know what you think.  Just remember, stab in the front…

Here’s a great article I was reading earlier today on Exposure Compensation about portfolio editing.

Also one of my favourites, A Photo Editor, was talking about how everyone takes bad photos:

Yes it’s true. Everyone. All the top editorial photographers take bad photos.
They just don’t show it to me. Ever.

This really stuck for me.  Read the rest here.

…make sure you go and check out work by Jesper Ulvelius. Better yet, click through his photo diary here. You will not be disappointed. His photos are simple, but that’s partly why they’re so great. They’re not so much about the technique, but about the content, and his subjects. He takes beautiful portraits. There is a comment thread in A Photo Editor that discusses “visually acceptable” photography, and one commenter says:

Without the content, or copying someone’s images because they have the look of the day, seems like chasing after someone else’s dream. Examples that I remember are the Hosemaster Phase in the late eighties, the overpower the sun Octabank phase in nineties, the make the subject look like an idiot short-lived fad in business magazines in the eighties to the lens-baby throw it out of focus trend, the over-exposed FL look on color-negative, the list goes on and on.

If the image has content and a purpose, then you remember it or are impacted by it. If it is just the trend of the moment, it glosses by.

Jesper’s images are just this. There is a lot of this point and shoot style going around right now (I’m guilty of shooting this way too), and I’m not quite sure if it’s a fad, or a cop out (more on this later), but when you throw out the complications of bulky equipment and fancy cameras, what you’re left with is pretty much a raw image. What you see is what you get, and this where the content becomes important. Take a look at Jesper’s pictures and see for yourself. I think you’ll agree that his content is what carries his pictures.

William Hundley takes pictures of ghost, and I really like them.

*all photos on this post © William Hundley

Davin Youngs, check him out. He has some beautiful work over at his site thesearemypictures.com. This Midwestern boy takes pictures in Chicago, and you should really check him out. Here are some of the gems I found…

*All images on this post © Davin Youngs