I have a lot of new readers come through here, sometimes through Google, sometimes Stumble Upon, and it occurs to me that it could be hard to wade through the few years of content to find all the really good stuff. Not that all of my posts aren’t totally fantastic—because they are—but there are a select few that I recommend everyone read. On the occasions that I have people ask me for casual help getting started with their new DSLR, I send them to these same articles as a “primer,” and to save me from repeating myself a lot.

[ ](http://www.bhphotovideo.com?BI=1816&KW=BUTTONS2&KBID=2457&img=digcams.gif) I am a member of what some might call “the inner circle” over at B&H Photo. If you haven’t heard of them, B&H is only the largest photography retailer in the US—their two-story space in New York City is tens of thousands of square feet in size! I have purchased countless thousands of dollars of equipment from them through the years, and I’ve always been completely satisfied with their prices and their service.

On the path to creativity, it’s not only okay to stop and smell the roses, it’s encouraged. My approach to inspiration is not to chase it; I tend to walk around in a place or idly browse others’ works until the desire to create something strikes. Still, it’s nice to have a “toolbox” of tricks to get you past those creative lulls in life. According to psychologist Jonathan Schooler (no, really, that’s his actual name), daydreaming is one possible answer.

How many times have you held up one of your photographic prints in the light of day—actual, real day—and thought That’s not at all what I bargained for? Never? Well that’s good. You must be one of the lucky ones, or one of the blind ones.

Even with the best equipment that money can buy, ICC profiles, spectrophotometers, an iron-clad color management workflow, and a high-end monitor, your eyes are the ultimate judges of your work. But eyes, they don’t work alone; you can’t see anything without light, and the quality of the light will have as much an effect on what you see as the color of the print itself.

I got onto this topic after reading Michael Johnston’s overview of his Viewing Station. All these years I’ve been experimenting with lights in my studio space, let’s call it Single-Serving Photo HQ—or, as my friends call it, my bedroom—and I never once thought to write about it.

After the jump I’ll tell you how to dramatically increase your viewing conditions for about $15.

It’s not every day you come across photography that is simply arresting. Even in the realm of surrealism, so much is possible with software these days that few photographic creations make you look twice and wonder “How’d they do that?” Such was the effect that Gregory Crewdson’s work had on me when I first saw it. His works are (from what I’ve seen, at least) untitled, which is a subject for another article.