I learned about warm-toning in the mid-1980s. At that time, everybody created selenium-toned images that had a slight purple cast. Contrary to the popular zeitgeist of the times, I discovered Kodak Brown Toner and Kodak Polytoner and fell in love with warm-toned images. In the digital workflow, warm toning is very tricky because brown is such an odd color.

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My approach to processing is that with every image, the end point of processing is unknown. Aesthetics can evolve, ideas can blossom, expectations can change. Perhaps counterintuitively, I find that beginning the process at the same starting point is a surprisingly useful strategy. With every image I start with input sharpening, some tone mapping to make the image look normal, and even some cropping to straighten horizon lines or verticals. Essentially, I start with a normal looking image a straight photograph, without visible processing. That common launching point provides a solid foundation for exploring more exotic processing.

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For several decades after the invention of photography, the goal for all photographers was to make an optically accurate image. That meant with technical perfection, emulating human vision. Somewhere I can't identify in the history of photography, that objective was expanded and a few photographers began thinking about the medium as something else, something more pliable, something more personally expressive. I think this evolution also occurs in each of us individually and is a watershed moment in our photographic career — assuming we recognize it and embrace it as a new way of photographing.

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My favorite capability in the digital workflow is undoubtedly Control-Z. The ability to experiment with abandon and then undo what doesn't work makes processing not only more efficient but it encourages experimentation. If, as I've proposed elsewhere, photography is a matter of choosing among variants, then the creative impulse is all about experimentation, trial and error, give it a go and see what happens. I try, at least as often as I can, to make three stylistic variants with each project before I make decisions and commitments.

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LW1498 - Announcing a New Photograph

I remember with aging nostalgia when we would feel so proud about a new image we'd created. "Wowee," we'd proclaim, "Look at what I've done!" We were told that 10 new prints a year was a good crop. Now, here in 2026, I'll receive an email announcement about once a week with this same excitement. "Announcing my new print." I wish I could be excited about such pronouncements, but they leave me feeling underwhelmed.

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You might also be interested in. . .

Every Picture Is a Compromise, a series at www.brooksjensenarts.com.

and...

"How to" tutorials and camera reviews are everywhere on YouTube, but if you're interested in photography and the creative life, you need to know about the incredible resources you can access as a member of LensWork Online.

Can you imagine what a thrill it was in the first half of the 20th century when the means of making a photograph evolved from the contact print to the enlargement? Bigger prints were breathtaking and that trend continues even to today. There is today, however, a reality about viewing fine art photography that should make us photographers a little uncomfortable. Most of our images will now be seen on a tiny screen that is smaller than a 4x5 contact print.

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I have no idea why, but I felt compelled this morning to look back through my 180 projects published in Kokoro, the first of which was completed in 2015. Ten years, 36 issues, 180 projects. I wish I could report that they were all brilliant and have withstood the test of time. The reality, however, is that there are a few projects I now see as clunkers. That's the thing about the art life, we always produce with enthusiasm but occasionally mature with a cringe.

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Here's a story about my friend, the late Kevin Raber. Whenever we would find ourselves discussing an image or a photographer, he would immediately pull out his tablet and bring up the image we were discussing. His tablet was, I think, primarily his portable gallery. He carried with him the entire set of LensWork, a good percentage of his own photography, lots of images from photographers he admired, and an assortment of images that were important to him. My portable gallery is limited to images retained in my memory. Kevin's portable gallery is a much better idea.

This RSS feed includes only the most recent seven Here's a Thought episodes. All of them — over 2500 and counting! — are available to members of LensWork Online. Try a 30-day membership for only $10 and discover the literally terabytes of content about photography and the creative process.