"to see the world in a grain of sand..."
HDR (high dynamic range) photography has kinda run its course as a trend – I think the effect was so obvious that it lost its lustre pretty fast. I’ve heard so many people groan, “Oh no not another HDR image!” whenever they see the distinctive and obvious HDR look.
And I agree – to a point. HDR can be done with great effect, though, when it’s not totally overdone, like we see most of the time these days.
Here’s an example (of my kind of HDR):
I’ve talked about tryptichs and wall decor before, but here’s a new example with abstracts.
Imagine your office space or reception area with some large “real” artwork, and not those cheesy “motivational” posters. Soooo passe now!
Nature, when you look close enough is truly an artist!Continue Reading
All right, it’s Friday and looks like Patio Season is over (at least for now). So now that you have some spare time on your hands, here’s a little weekend assignment for you warriors. It’s the worms eye view exercise, should you choose to accept it. And it’s not impossible at all.
All you need to do is identify 10 cool things to shoot this weekend, but shoot them on your belly. You’ll have to either point your camera skyward, find something interesting from the macro perspective, or otherwise find a cool way to shoot your subject from this strange angle. Try a variety of lenses. I’ll post my results here on Monday. Post yours here. We can compare notes!
You’ll be surprised at your results.
Have a good weekend regardless of the angle you’re seeing the world from.
ciao.
As a photographer, you may one day be asked to shoot headshots for clients for their websites and promo materials. Often if they want to use a photo of themselves on their website, it may often be part of the banner of the site. This means that you will have to “knock out” the background.
In the studio, if you know in advance that you need a white background, you can set up your shot easily. But you never know what client’s will want to do with that photo in the future, and if they want a transparent background after the shoot it’s really hard to get rid of a white backround. The solution is that we will shoot on a special green or blue background which is relatively easy to get rid of on Photoshop. The reason is that green and blue aren’t found in human skin tones so the various selections methods in post production will be easier and more accurate selecting JUST the green. (Make sure your client isn`t wearing green or blue!) It’s called chromakey, it’s how all the cool SGI stuff is made in movies – actors are on harnesses flying through the air like Superman, on a green background which is later replaced with a digital sky or space or whatever.
But what happens if you are on a location shoot outdoors with no green studio background available? And you just know the client will sooner or later ask for a cut out or knocked out background? I’m going to share with you my best secret for doing exactly this and you don’t need any new equipment!
I’m going to use an example from a recent shoot I did with my friend Chris, who owns the most excellent FUDE Restaurant, and is also a great marketing consultant. He needed a new headshot for his new marketing website.
Ah, the Friday of a long weekend at the height of summer…
The best time of the year for photography around here. The sunsets are long and there’s usually dust in the air from haying activities, or construction so the colour of the light is redder and warmer. And what could be better that spending an evening with dogs? I love dogs – I love smart dogs…
I had the extreme pleasure of photographing some beautiful and highly intellegent gun dogs last night in the fading light of the day. We started at about 7:45 and finished up an hour later. I used a WB setting a little oranger than the regular setting for sunlight. Click here if you don’t know how to change your defualt WB settings – not available on all cameras though…)
Here’s my fav.
Here’s another. WARNING: in the next shots, the dogs is doing what they are supposed to do. It is a little disturbing, at least for me who is not a hunter or a fan of hunting, and an extreme animal lover. However, trained dogs are far better than untrained dogs, and the ability of these dogs to ensure that every bird is retrieved ensures that no bird will suffer, and that whatever is shot will be consumed and not unneccessarily wasted.
If you ARE a hunter I think you will appreciate the moment.
