Rembrandt. So many photographers use his lighting, or try to. Not many actually understand it. Caravaggio may have mastered chiaroscuro but Rembrandt perfected it.
There’s a saying I heard years ago that goes something like this: amateur photographers think about gear; pros think about work; artists think about light.
Friend of mine years ago, when I was just an early hobbiest, showed me a stunning picture of a leaf, and I remarked, the lighting is amazing, and his reply was, "that's the whole thing, isn't it?" and that stuck with me
When someone asks, "How do I learn photography?" I always tell them, go to a museum and look at how painters use light. Without light there is nothing.
I absolutely love your work on this subject , Painting with light and what apply to photographer's work . True artists look at the light and the source of artistic mind flourish . I follow your work with pleasure and learning experience .
After the episode on Ripley this is a must. I'd studied classic painting when I was young but I was'n't specially drawn to Caravaggio. Years later now, with some life perspective I'm able to really appreciate the dramatic and raw beauty of his paintings. Thank you for this .
Many years ago, when I was struggling with my lighting I started looking to the renaissance time period, and Carrivagio defiantly became my favourite. Some of my work is defiantly influenced by his work. Last year I got to visit Rome and the highlight for me was to see his works in person. Thank you for this video, well done
You are an amazing presenter and teacher. I value your video’s greatly. Your research analysis and how you present is so unique and thorough. Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for this video. I certainly like this style of image consideration and analysis. I firmly believe that great painters can teach us a lot about the use of light and space in an image. Certainly, when I was self-studying photography before I embarked on it as a career many decades ago, I spent a lot of time in art galleries and museums just sitting and pondering over how an image is considered and composed. For me, the big difference is that a painting is constructed by adding to a blank canvas the elements one wants to express; while for a lot of photography it is often a subtractive art - reducing down existing elements to concentrate the viewer on what the photographer wants to express. In that respect techniques like chiaroscuro become very powerful - those shadows frame and shape the light by which we sense and see the material presented.
Great points Trevor. I agree with you in many of them and same with me, when I began taking photography more seriously, I started looking at movies, painting and other sources to understand light. Thank you for watching!
wonderful video. One of my photography mentors here in Trinidad Desmond Clark introduced me to Caravaggio decades ago when he encouraged us to study the work of the Master Painters. I have been lucky to see a few of his works in person over the years. Thanks Tatiana!
Thank you for a wonderful video. I actually saw my first Caravaggio here in Rome just yesterday on my travels! It was the first one you highlighted with Matthew- I was very moved and it was quite a powerful moment I was not expecting! I also did not expect to see a video on your channel about it the next day. On my way back to Rome next week I plan to visit the Borghese to see more.
Yes, this was great! As a photographer, I've long since learned to study great painters in order to enhance my photography and general appreciation of art and life. A painter I would like to recommend is one who is my favorite. That is Andrew Wyeth. His compositional style, how he highlights his subjects, the level to which he uses texture and mood, sometimes using a minimalist aesthetic, really resonates with me. Just a suggestion.
Oh yes Andrew Wyeth is one of my personal favourites too, appreciate the suggestion and I definitely need to talk about him here on the channel, thank you so much for watching & commenting!
Loved this. I always look at painters work for references. I would recommend to everyone in the comments to check out John Milton’s work on Paradise lost and Frank Frazetta.
Really great video. Caravaggio is one of those painters with the ability to literally take your breath away when you stand in front of one of his works. Some photographers immediately spring to mind who's work echoes his. Alex Webb is the first - he even called his collected works 'The Suffering of Light'. Probably the most Caravaggio-esque of them all! Fan Ho - worked in black and white but his use of light with deep shadows and bright highlights in the streets of Hong Kong is similar. Luc Delahaye's monograph 'Winterreise', photographs of post-Soviet Russia, depends a lot on light and shade. Stunning. There must be plenty more I guess in photography 'high contrast' could be a synonym for chiaroscuro, but I think there's more to it than that. Have to give that some thought. More videos like this - yes please! Possible subjects? Edward Hopper (American vernacular with echoes in the likes of Walker Evans) would be a great choice. Keep up the great work!
Excellent exposé on light and contrast! Great paintings. Jamie Windsor did a video some time ago regarding 'chiaroscuro'. I will have to re-watch that, as well. Thanks!
Thanks for the video, I am a big fan of Caravaggio & always mesmerised by how he directed attention to the light/subject using dark shadows. I think the next closest to Caravaggio is Artemisia Gentileschi.
This is terrific mini documentary about n amazing renaissance painter. Caravaggio learned how to capture light onto the canvas. No doubt Caravaggio was an inspiration to photographer George Hurrell. Your recommendation of John Alton's tutorial on cinematography is a good one. As with Caravaggio, John Alton knew how use to light in setting the mood or atmosphere in such film noir movies as T-Men, Raw Deal (1948), He Walked by Night, The Amazing Mr. X and my favorite film noir movie; 'The Big Combo'.
Yes! I’m such a big fan of film noir and for me it was like a must to mention John Alton in the end, he has a fantastic body of work many of which you pointed out there and he was influenced by this tenebrism / chiaroscuro technique. Thank you so much for watching! 🙏🏻
Hello Tatiana, Jose from Puerto Rico. I really enjoyed this one. Caravaggio was a master at his craft and one of my favorite painters. David Hockney, the British painter has a theory that the old masters used Chiaro Oscuro and the camera lucida instrument to make their paintings so precise. There is a video titled "Secret Knowledge" where he explains his theory.
Thank you Jose, I must watch that video because it most definitely sounds like I would take something from it and also because I watched a documentary with Hockney before and I enjoyed his takes on art and life. Thank you for watching and much love to Puerto Rico!
Excellent! I enjoy your videos with regard to painters very much. The lighting is so helpful in photography to me. I watched Ripley & the lighting was superb.
Great video ! I have maybe a special one to request, Charles Matton, because he was not only a painter but had also explored sculpture, illustration, photography, video....
Great video Tatiana. I have always been a fan of Caravaggio's work since high school. You pointed out many key points that I found interesting as well as intriguing that makes me want to look into a bit more. I would also love to see you pursue this series of painters and there works. On a side note, I watched a very interesting Orson Wells film called "The Trial" (1962) the other night, it was very abstract and the lighting was totally amazing. Thought you may like to check it out if you haven't already. Not sure where you can watch it where you are at but if you can find it you may just like it. Another one I watched was "The Third Man" that Orson Wells was involved in also. Please disregard if you have already made videos on these, it's hard for me to keep up sometimes. 😊
Thank you Rich! The Trial is one of my favourite movies by Orson Welles, I read the novel and so I was very interested in the movie! Appreciate your comment and insights as always, much appreciated! 🙏🏻
Great video. You have such an easy way of bringing art history to light (pun intended). Seeing some of your photographs makes me think it would be nice for you to present your own portfolio and your inspirations.
Caravaggio,you could easily make a 60 minute video about his influences and techniques. To me the light is theatrical from a modern point of view. It was certainly controversial when his works were produced. I think his style brought the viewer into the scene being depicted.
« Please sir, I want some more. », said Oliver Twist. The music, the visuals [paintings and clips from the Derek Jarman film [1986]), the commentary and paintings are all of a piece. A transgressive artist. See the influence of his work in the Netflix series Ripley. After all photography has been referred to as « painting with light » [Katja Michael]
Tatiana, it is such a pleasure to have a cultural person like you in the low-brow photography circles. I am totally fed up with the megapixel monomanes and Leica fetishists. You tell me things I did not know! I can hear that you actually prepare your presentations. You learn, I learn, world gets slightly better. Beauty is God. Stay awesome, OK? A question: How would you approach chiaroscuro with the equipment you have? I am tickling with the thought of doing sfumato, chiaroscuro, naturaliistic, Academic, impressionist series in a group. Could you make a workshop like that? Is it an idea?
For some reason I can’t edit my comment, yes that would be a great idea, I’m tackling with some ideas for workshops / courses for this year still… so that’s a good idea thank you!
What a beautiful video Tatiana, thank you so much, moving stuff! I would suggest you diving into Pieter Bruegel the Elder! You can connect it to your beloved Tarkovsky which you made references in the past… see I pay attention to class 😂 Or making a list for us of painters we can follow something like that!
Ahaha well done A+ my friend. Really good idea and actually the list would make it more accessible to touch on different painters, thank you for watching and for your support 🙏🏻
I think that's all I have to say. I am an academic photographer who has been on exhibition and is working on my master's thesis. Because I studied photography at university, I always recommend going to university if you want to do photography properly. All of this is taught in the first year. Classical art is a no-brainer. Most people think they are photographers, but university is great because you don't pick up a camera for the first few weeks while you learn about masters. Today's photographers aren't educated that way. They just click here and there. However, there is no story, composition, or point of departure.It is good you are helping out the amateur UA-cam photographers.
Dear Tatiana, please, please do not use gothic fonts only in capitals. this is almost a typographical crime. especially since nobody used gothic fonts in italy during the renaissance.
📌 What other painters would you like to see here on the channel?
Love Goya, someone else also recommended it on a previous vid!
Rembrandt. So many photographers use his lighting, or try to. Not many actually understand it. Caravaggio may have mastered chiaroscuro but Rembrandt perfected it.
I have been to Remembrandt’s museum and I highly recommend, his work is marvellous and definitely another master we can learn from, good shout John!
Edward Hopper
Oh yes please!
There’s a saying I heard years ago that goes something like this: amateur photographers think about gear; pros think about work; artists think about light.
Absolutely in agreement. I was told that by a teacher before and never forgot about it.
And great artists think about stealing, according to Picasso.
Friend of mine years ago, when I was just an early hobbiest, showed me a stunning picture of a leaf, and I remarked, the lighting is amazing, and his reply was, "that's the whole thing, isn't it?" and that stuck with me
Exactly, you're 100 percent correct. @frame25_ren
Im always confused about gear, my friends love talking about cameras and other equipment that you attach in cameras
When someone asks, "How do I learn photography?" I always tell them, go to a museum and look at how painters use light. Without light there is nothing.
Absolutely Terry!
I’d love (really love) to see more videos about painters.
I absolutely love your work on this subject , Painting with light and what apply to photographer's work . True artists look at the light and the source of artistic mind flourish . I follow your work with pleasure and learning experience .
Thank you so much! I appreciate your comment and I’m glad you much like many others here love to look at light, thank you for watching!
After the episode on Ripley this is a must. I'd studied classic painting when I was young but I was'n't specially drawn to Caravaggio. Years later now, with some life perspective I'm able to really appreciate the dramatic and raw beauty of his paintings. Thank you for this .
Thank you for watching 🙏🏻
Many years ago, when I was struggling with my lighting I started looking to the renaissance time period, and Carrivagio defiantly became my favourite. Some of my work is defiantly influenced by his work. Last year I got to visit Rome and the highlight for me was to see his works in person. Thank you for this video, well done
You are an amazing presenter and teacher. I value your video’s greatly. Your research analysis and how you present is so unique and thorough. Thank you for what you do.
Thank you so much Brad 🤝🏻
Thank you for this video. I certainly like this style of image consideration and analysis. I firmly believe that great painters can teach us a lot about the use of light and space in an image.
Certainly, when I was self-studying photography before I embarked on it as a career many decades ago, I spent a lot of time in art galleries and museums just sitting and pondering over how an image is considered and composed.
For me, the big difference is that a painting is constructed by adding to a blank canvas the elements one wants to express; while for a lot of photography it is often a subtractive art - reducing down existing elements to concentrate the viewer on what the photographer wants to express. In that respect techniques like chiaroscuro become very powerful - those shadows frame and shape the light by which we sense and see the material presented.
Great points Trevor. I agree with you in many of them and same with me, when I began taking photography more seriously, I started looking at movies, painting and other sources to understand light. Thank you for watching!
when you stand in front of one of these works in a gallery or museum they are quite literally breathtaking.
Agreed, I loved going to the Uffizi gallery a few years back and seeing a great number of his paintings! Breathtaking indeed!
wonderful video. One of my photography mentors here in Trinidad Desmond Clark introduced me to Caravaggio decades ago when he encouraged us to study the work of the Master Painters. I have been lucky to see a few of his works in person over the years. Thanks Tatiana!
Vermeer would be fun to explore
Great suggestion! 🤝🏻
Thank you for a wonderful video. I actually saw my first Caravaggio here in Rome just yesterday on my travels! It was the first one you highlighted with Matthew- I was very moved and it was quite a powerful moment I was not expecting! I also did not expect to see a video on your channel about it the next day. On my way back to Rome next week I plan to visit the Borghese to see more.
Discovered your channel last night and I love it. Each video is so well done and informative. I was looking forward to watching more today.
... in fact, it might be interesting to compare and contrast the use of light and shadow in Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer and Eakins.
Another nicely put together and informative video!
Appreciate it Sebastian, hope you’ve been keeping well 🙏🏻
Yes, this was great! As a photographer, I've long since learned to study great painters in order to enhance my photography and general appreciation of art and life. A painter I would like to recommend is one who is my favorite. That is Andrew Wyeth. His compositional style, how he highlights his subjects, the level to which he uses texture and mood, sometimes using a minimalist aesthetic, really resonates with me. Just a suggestion.
Oh yes Andrew Wyeth is one of my personal favourites too, appreciate the suggestion and I definitely need to talk about him here on the channel, thank you so much for watching & commenting!
Excellent! It makes me wonder what Vermeer would have done without a window!🤣
Ahahah cheers!
Loved this. I always look at painters work for references. I would recommend to everyone in the comments to check out John Milton’s work on Paradise lost and Frank Frazetta.
The American painter Thomas Eakins is another one who uses raked light to great effect. Thanks, as always--!
The beginning is epic! Such a well thought out and innovative video! Outstanding as always
Thank you so much Sophie 🙏🏻🤍
Really great video. Caravaggio is one of those painters with the ability to literally take your breath away when you stand in front of one of his works. Some photographers immediately spring to mind who's work echoes his. Alex Webb is the first - he even called his collected works 'The Suffering of Light'. Probably the most Caravaggio-esque of them all! Fan Ho - worked in black and white but his use of light with deep shadows and bright highlights in the streets of Hong Kong is similar. Luc Delahaye's monograph 'Winterreise', photographs of post-Soviet Russia, depends a lot on light and shade. Stunning. There must be plenty more I guess in photography 'high contrast' could be a synonym for chiaroscuro, but I think there's more to it than that. Have to give that some thought. More videos like this - yes please! Possible subjects? Edward Hopper (American vernacular with echoes in the likes of Walker Evans) would be a great choice. Keep up the great work!
Excellent exposé on light and contrast! Great paintings. Jamie Windsor did a video some time ago regarding 'chiaroscuro'. I will have to re-watch that, as well. Thanks!
The master of chiaroscuro! I love his work. Just Awesome!
Thank you for watching Tony!
Thanks for the video, I am a big fan of Caravaggio & always mesmerised by how he directed attention to the light/subject using dark shadows. I think the next closest to Caravaggio is Artemisia Gentileschi.
Thank you Peter! I really appreciate it, big fan too and I’m glad you enjoyed the video. Agreed on the Gentileschi point, they are indeed very close!
Yes and thank you.
Another great video. I love the external references that relate to photography
Thank you so much for watching 🙏🏻
Fantastic video Tatiana, loved it. And the music of course.
Thank you so much Winston! 🙏🏻
Beautiful short introduction. Thank you
Thank you for watching!
Beautiful video❤
I love this! One of my favourite artists and probably one of your best videos!
Thank you so much Vanessa!
This is terrific mini documentary about n amazing renaissance painter. Caravaggio learned how to capture light onto the canvas. No doubt Caravaggio was an inspiration to photographer George Hurrell. Your recommendation of John Alton's tutorial on cinematography is a good one. As with Caravaggio, John Alton knew how use to light in setting the mood or atmosphere in such film noir movies as T-Men, Raw Deal (1948), He Walked by Night, The Amazing Mr. X and my favorite film noir movie; 'The Big Combo'.
Yes! I’m such a big fan of film noir and for me it was like a must to mention John Alton in the end, he has a fantastic body of work many of which you pointed out there and he was influenced by this tenebrism / chiaroscuro technique. Thank you so much for watching! 🙏🏻
Hello Tatiana, Jose from Puerto Rico. I really enjoyed this one. Caravaggio was a master at his craft and one of my favorite painters. David Hockney, the British painter has a theory that the old masters used Chiaro Oscuro and the camera lucida instrument to make their paintings so precise. There is a video titled "Secret Knowledge" where he explains his theory.
Thank you Jose, I must watch that video because it most definitely sounds like I would take something from it and also because I watched a documentary with Hockney before and I enjoyed his takes on art and life. Thank you for watching and much love to Puerto Rico!
Looks like you are back to making clear concise videos. More like this.
Excellent! I enjoy your videos with regard to painters very much. The lighting is so helpful in photography to me. I watched Ripley & the lighting was superb.
Ripley made me make this video and many of the comments in the video I made about Ripley :)
Great video Tatiana 👍
Thank you so much James!
Great video ! I have maybe a special one to request, Charles Matton, because he was not only a painter but had also explored sculpture, illustration, photography, video....
Outstanding, and yes, please do more Videos like this one.
Thank you! Will do 🙏🏻
Great job as always!
Thank you so much!
Vermeer sees the light
Vermeer is indeed a great master of light too.
Thanks for introducing me to an artist I did not know much about.
Thank you for giving it a watch!
Thank you! I've been saying this for years 🤣🤣👍🏼👍🏼
¡Brillante!. ¡Muchas gracias!
One of my favorites!
Cheers!
@@TatianaHopper Cheers!
Great video Tatiana. I have always been a fan of Caravaggio's work since high school. You pointed out many key points that I found interesting as well as intriguing that makes me want to look into a bit more. I would also love to see you pursue this series of painters and there works.
On a side note, I watched a very interesting Orson Wells film called "The Trial" (1962) the other night, it was very abstract and the lighting was totally amazing. Thought you may like to check it out if you haven't already. Not sure where you can watch it where you are at but if you can find it you may just like it. Another one I watched was "The Third Man" that Orson Wells was involved in also. Please disregard if you have already made videos on these, it's hard for me to keep up sometimes. 😊
Thank you Rich! The Trial is one of my favourite movies by Orson Welles, I read the novel and so I was very interested in the movie! Appreciate your comment and insights as always, much appreciated! 🙏🏻
Great video. You have such an easy way of bringing art history to light (pun intended). Seeing some of your photographs makes me think it would be nice for you to present your own portfolio and your inspirations.
Good suggestion thank you Jim! 🙏🏻
It’s Rembrandt lighting before Rembrandt 😮
Yes and Rembrandt could also be a great painter to explore here on the channel!
Baroque is one my favourite periods ❤
Thank you for watching Sadie 🤍
Caravaggio,you could easily make a 60 minute video about his influences and techniques. To me the light is theatrical from a modern point of view. It was certainly controversial when his works were produced. I think his style brought the viewer into the scene being
depicted.
Agreed Paul!
A Great introduction!!!
Thank you Beatrice 🤍
Thank you, Татьяна!
Thank you Alexander! 🙏🏻
Such a good video!
Thank you so much! 🙏🏻
« Please sir, I want some more. », said Oliver Twist. The music, the visuals [paintings and clips from the Derek Jarman film [1986]), the commentary and paintings are all of a piece. A transgressive artist. See the influence of his work in the Netflix series Ripley. After all photography has been referred to as « painting with light » [Katja Michael]
💯 I made this video after my video on Ripley, if you have some time check it out (it’s the last video before this one). Thank you for watching!
Tatiana, it is such a pleasure to have a cultural person like you in the low-brow photography circles. I am totally fed up with the megapixel monomanes and Leica fetishists. You tell me things I did not know! I can hear that you actually prepare your presentations. You learn, I learn, world gets slightly better. Beauty is God.
Stay awesome, OK?
A question: How would you approach chiaroscuro with the equipment you have? I am tickling with the thought of doing sfumato, chiaroscuro, naturaliistic, Academic, impressionist series in a group. Could you make a workshop like that? Is it an idea?
Thank you so luck Martti! I appreciate your support and I’m happy that you enjoy the videos and the subject matter 🙏🏻 Beauty is God indeed!
For some reason I can’t edit my comment, yes that would be a great idea, I’m tackling with some ideas for workshops / courses for this year still… so that’s a good idea thank you!
As a member of photographic circles, I am insulted by the "low-brow" description.
Wonderful video, thank you! Would like to see more videos influenced by painters :=)
I'd certainly would love to make more!
Vilhelm Hammershoi! (A photographer whose work reminds me a bit of Caravaggio is Tomas Munitas - esp his early work in Afghanistan
Will check it out, thank you Chris! 🙏🏻
Thank you
Thank you Dan!
Without Caravaggio we wouldn't have a Fan Ho or a Eugene Smith !
How do you get better as a photographer when it comes to studying light?
Ah! You've been watching Ripley again, haven't you!
I followed it from the last video and the comments that wanted me to make a video on Caravaggio which were a lot :)
What a beautiful video Tatiana, thank you so much, moving stuff! I would suggest you diving into Pieter Bruegel the Elder! You can connect it to your beloved Tarkovsky which you made references in the past… see I pay attention to class 😂 Or making a list for us of painters we can follow something like that!
Ahaha well done A+ my friend. Really good idea and actually the list would make it more accessible to touch on different painters, thank you for watching and for your support 🙏🏻
@@TatianaHopper ❤️
Brilliant
Thank you!
Before this video and before the Ripley series, I thought Rembrandt was the only painter every photographer should know.
Now you know 2 ;)
If you want to learn from someone, learn from a master 😉
💯
I think that's all I have to say. I am an academic photographer who has been on exhibition and is working on my master's thesis. Because I studied photography at university, I always recommend going to university if you want to do photography properly. All of this is taught in the first year. Classical art is a no-brainer. Most people think they are photographers, but university is great because you don't pick up a camera for the first few weeks while you learn about masters. Today's photographers aren't educated that way. They just click here and there. However, there is no story, composition, or point of departure.It is good you are helping out the amateur UA-cam photographers.
He is not on Instagram ryt??
Jesus, right place, right moment. Mozart and Tenebrismo, why is it relevant? What a question.
True!
Dear Tatiana, please, please do not use gothic fonts only in capitals. this is almost a typographical crime. especially since nobody used gothic fonts in italy during the renaissance.
I liked the video, but the pronunciation of Caravaggio’s name threw me off all the time, and I am not even Italian 😅