Silhouette Photographs

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Today  I would like to share some interesting Silhouette Photographs.Silhouette Photographs are not easy to make. Even though the figure comes out in pitch black what surrounding it and the background are key elements of good Silhouette Photographs.

These 2 Silhouette Photographs are taken by me :) I hope you will like them too

Understanding and using METADATA

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Have you ever thought of editing metadata in your photos or to create a template to be used in ease. This tutorial will tell you how

Follow this link

http://farcry77.deviantart.com/art/Metadata-tute-Adobe-bridge-151542419

Split Toning tutorial - photoshop CS4

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Photoshop CS4 - Split toning tutorial. Click image for larger version. If not try here

Watermark or the photo??

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We all know the story of watermarks. Why they are there and what will happen to your photo if it’s not there and so on. But we all personally agree that we are here to show our work and admire others work. This is the main reason why we submit work to online galleries and going a step further we join groups and share our work as well. So we should think twice about the role of watermark in places like that.

Are you here to showcase your watermark or your photo? I hate the big watermarks. Some sites actually support to put a pre formatted watermark in your pic when you upload them. It just ruins the whole photo and its mood most of the time. If it covers up the best parts of the shot then it’s just a distraction.

Going further if you add your personnel watermark do you do the same mistake? Is it too big or fancy that your fans actually notice the watermark than the photo itself?

Think about it before placing a watermark. If you really want to have one on your photo make it small and make it simple. And place it in a place where everyone can see yet hard for anyone to remove.

And who knows it might make your shot to be admired by many !!

Creating your own style of work

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 Sunrise from the mini world end - Hunnasgiriya -Sri Lanka

Every artist in his long journey through his own path via art galaxy some day should build his own style of work. This cannot be rushed and it happens with time for many. There is always a period of learning and there is another period of self enlightenment. After all these stages are gone then there shall be a time period which comes that helps or pushes an artist to be more creative and find out where is his likeness really establish.

Since I’m particularly speaking of photography here, photography has many different styles to begin with. The most common and noticeable kind of artistic approach to photography is going black and white. Obviously this has become and option after the color film was invented only. But this is just a very vague approach of creating a style. This is some thing to do with color. But there can be other many aspects to a style as well. Some build their style keeping color as a center to build it. And some choose composition. Or what they shoot. For example some shoot people. And some get exceptionally better at shooting people and then they start to mix emotional value in to their work. Eventually a style starts to emerge.

What ever the style of your work is there will always be two kinds of fans. The kind that likes it and the kind that does not like it. This is the nature of every art. So the pillar of style is being confident of it. If you keep changing what you do just because one or two say its not good then your missing the whole point. Stick to your style and eventually with time it will evolve to be strong and make you a success.

My style of work is vivid. I rarely go black and white because I’m a color whore. I believe in color. I think color makes humans unique and the ability to create and play with color is a god given talent. Just as I said before some thinks my work is too colorful. Maybe too colorful to be true at times. Well… that’s the whole point. My style of work is not true color!!

Find your own style no matter what. I have even scene photographers who just shoot patterns on cloths and that only!!

How do you “SEE” things?

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Being a good photographer is all about the way you see things. Not only seeing but you must possess the ability to visualize something as a photographer to go a step further. Seeing and visualizing is not the same thing. We all see things. That’s one ability we posses. But different individuals see a same thing differently. It could be the angle, the way we compose it in our mind from the place from we are and the distance. But the vision comes bundled with many goodies. Its created with our past experiences, the things we have seeing before and the memories crawling under our blanket called life and living it. There for the vision will require more attention than seeing something. More experience and memories you have in life more different you may see something than others. This is called getting mature by some. As a photographer you should get mature as well.

Earlier I used to see a tree for its natural nature. I just wanted to find a clear view of it and snap. I never cared what’s behind it or any distracting people walking about or wires above. But later on I realized that any tree cannot be an artistic element for a photograph. The beauty of it as a photograph could be completely different than what I may see it in the real location with my naked eye. Then I started to visualize. I visualize how it will look when I remove all the distractions. I visualize how will it be in the provided light condition and how will it come out after I post process it. Adding or removing colors and giving it a more dramatic look using HDR etc. Then the whole place starts to change in front of my eyes. I click the shutter button and post process the shot several times in my mind before I click the real picture on my camera. If I feel like this shot is worth I take it. Or I will return on a different time when the light,mood and the atmosphere is ideal for a photo.

Visualizing has given me space and advantage to do what I do with confidence and do it better most of the time.

Enhance and embrace the power of seeing and visualizing. More great opportunities awaits your lens….

Photograph:  Priyantha Bandara Location: Sithulpahuwa - Sri Lanka

Do you know your camera?

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Because we humans are curious and impatient set of creatures we tend to get right in to business most of the time. soon as we bring a new TV to our home all we want to do is to plug it in and watch. It’s the same with the washing machine and the Hair drier. When we learn to put in the batteries or plug it in to a wall socket and switch the damn thing on we think that’s it. And we think the rest of the features will eventually come to play. And most of the time we are wrong. Once we realize that the basics of the machine is accomplished and it does what we mainly expect it to do we stop right there. I will say ok if you do this to your TV or your little bed side Radio. But when it comes to your camera you are doing a big mistake by stopping with the basics.

First of all its really important to realize that the little equipment you call the camera which you craved to own can do lot more than just pointing and shooting at something. It comes with a big bundle of features which can do wonders to your photography. Whatever the camera you may own it has its own ways of handling the basic aspects of photography which are controlling the light, focus etc. How many of you have read the manual which comes with the camera in the old fashioned ‘book’ method before actually start shooting with the camera? You may say yes I have read it but think and see if you can really remember what it said and the instructions given. And how many of you carry the manual with you?? I used to do that and I still do. Whenever I take my camera I take my manual as well. Because for that camera that manual is my bible.

I can’t emphasize how important it is to know your camera and its features thoroughly. Because whenever you feel like you are lost or helpless with some situation which you wanted to photograph your camera actually has some kind of a method to overcome it. Even how technically stupid or advanced your camera is it has its own built in ways to shoot different conditions. You must know your camera so well that when the right moment comes you will know how to take the maximum of it.

Most of the people does not even know how to press the shutter release button properly and keep on complaining that their pics are not sharp or not focused. I simply will say read the manual. Film and Digital cameras have different ways of focusing. Learn to do it properly as the first thing before shooting.

Thinking that changing your camera to a SLR can make good photos is a myth if you really don’t know how to handle it.

If you don’t know how to ride a cycle don’t expect a 1340cc Hayabusa to take you to a place faster.

Kinetic photography collection

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I'm quite sure that you have seeing pictures like this before. And maybe wondered how these are really made. Some stunningly looks like computer graphics or renders and some looks like the were made with some kind of motion. And the fact about these shots is that they were made with some kind of a motion. And the motion is not really with the object which is shot but with the camera it self. This technique of photography is called Kinetic photography.

When you hear the word ‘kinetic‘ for the first time, probably the first thing that comes to your mind is motion. Kinetic Photography, also known as ‘camera tossing‘, is a technique of shooting photos with the actual physical movement of the camera. However, it does not necessarily involve tossing of the camera — you can also shake, bounce, swing or spin it; the goal of the technique is to obtain unpredictable results which are sometimes fascinating, always abstract and rarely boring.

The main rule of kinetic photography is simple: do not hold your camera stationary! Obviously, it is a quite uncommon and bizarre technique that involves risk of damaging your camera. The concept is extremely simple and really fun to use. Though the outcome is uncertain, kinetic photography sometimes produces beautiful abstract, random and motion blurred images. The results often look like a computer generated graphics.

Below I present some beautiful examples of kinetic photography for your inspiration.

Post processing is a big bad Wolfe? I don’t think so

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Right at the beginning I must say that what I'm about to post about today is an controversial subject matter regarding photography which was addressed by many before me. I myself have read dozens of blog posts, journal discussions and polls of this sort. And after so much argument and disagreements to technology still the human race has agreed and abide to use it for whatever the reason they can put their hands on. So yes the topic would be the ‘modern technology and its use in photography as an art’. Or simply saying is post processing photographs are fare or total on location photography process is?

If I explain the subject a bit more for the readers who has little knowledge over the specific terms which we photographers use I would say this. You go and take a picture of a sunset with your digital or film camera. On this particular location you give attention to the composition, focus and light and manages to come out with a good shot. And you are totally pleased of how it looks and thinks no further. This is on location photography process.

Another person takes the same shot go home and download it (or scan the negative if its film) to the computer and add some more details to the shot using a software. Most of you may call this Photoshoping just because it’s the most common software which is used around the globe for this task. He adds/enhances colors, lights and adjust the composition by cropping (cutting off unwanted areas) clone off (erase) unwanted details etc till he gets satisfied with the result. This is called photography post processing.

Post processing using RAW converter

So the eternal argument is what method is honestly photography. Many professional and veteran photographers and even newbie’s argue that on location photography Is what matters and the rest is cheating. And some say post processing is equally important because photography has come a long way and it needs to be tweaked and tested with the new age and technology. I’m sure you must have heard this before and was a part of this conversation somewhere with others or in your head for sure.

My intention here is not to get in to the pros and cons of on location vs. post process but to find the right balance of both these ends. I thoroughly believe on location part for any photograph is severely important for a good photograph. The reason is that even how powerful your pc is or advanced your software is some details when its lost on location you cannot retrieve or fix them at home. Same way even how powerful is your lens or advance your camera is some elements are hard or impossible to control in real location. This is where the balance between these two are important.

A modern day photographer should not be just a photographer. He must possess knowledge in photography and post processing both for him to be identified or to go beyond his limits and achieve the best work. To create the best photographs which will be forever embedded in memories of their fans. I agree once this was done purely on location. But the point which many now don’t remember or know is that there was also the place called the DARK ROOM in old age. Even from the beginning days of photography little bit of post processing was done using different methods and chemicals right inside this “covert “ dark room. So who ever believe that photos of world war i or the bombing of pearl harbor to be entirely on location and unedited, think twice. Little people know so they never complained that it was cheating.

Dark room - google images

Someone once told me that post processing is not acceptable because natural beauty of nature is what he is going after. If it’s what he wants that’s fine by me. But then again he should know that the very equipment he uses which is the digital camera has its own agenda of post processing once the light peaks through his lens and on to the censor. The camera determines the light values, color values and even the color temperature values and makes a decision to adjust what and to leave what as it is. Even you use the most sophisticated manual DSLRs this happens up to the extent which you don’t control all the aspects of the shot. So he believe that he takes a 100% natural photograph on location but the camera has done a lot for him which he gladly accept!! One photographer I know said if you don’t like post processing then go and shoot Polaroid’s. I agree with him.

There is no limit to post processing. It is completely up to the photographer or the editors choice to which extent he want to push the image. Some take a total natural shot and makes it a wonder of art in post process. Some just adjust minor details and leave it at that. Whatever it is the final result should be the image which the photographer is proud of. And the image which fans love. That’s all it matters. Even though some disagree when correctly done post processed shot looks amazing!! Each and every shot which you see on magazines and most respected websites are all have gone through some kind of a post process.

The taste for art is purely relative from person to person. Same way creating of art is also relative from artist to artist. There for finding a perfect match between and art and a fans mind getting pleased by it could be a tricky task since the options are fairly large numbered. Yet due to the similar nature of human brain we do get fans and artists who are in one line and understand each other very well which creates art which applies to a larger audience. Therefore one art is graded as more successful or great apart from another art from the way it applies to the audience. More audience it grabs more it gets popular. This is the rock bottom rule in creating art which makes the whole point.

I will write some more on widespread post processing methods and use of software in future posts. Below is an example of artistic post processing which I have done using one of my work. Over and out!!

Before

After (post process applied Hue/saturation, Color balance, Gradient,Curves,Channels)