Friday, May 18, 2012

Picture of the Day


FINISHED MASTERPIECE:  In Snapseed I tweaked the Sharpness and Structure to give the picture a nice crisp appearance.  Next, I adjusted the Ambience, Saturation, Contrast and Brightness so that the image was bright, colorful and vibrant.  Next, I imported the picture in to Photoshop Express and adjusted the Sharpness again, but slightly, so that the picture did not appear over-edited.  And finally, I took out all of the color via Saturation.  I mention this because Photoshop has an adjustment in which I could just click on an icon and it converts it to Black and White, however this feature makes the picture appear a bit darker and blurrier than I care for - by simply removing all of the color via Saturation, the picture has a much better overall appearance.  I lied, that was not the final step - I had one final step:  I added a tint to the picture.  I love the light bluish green color on this, as it works well with the Italian modeled moped.  If I had used any other tint - red, yellow, blue or purple, the picture would not work as well as it does, but for some reason, bluish green works perfectly on this picture of a moped in the rain.

ORIGINAL:  A nice looking moped caught in a rare rainstorm in Austin.  The setting of a moped casting a reflection in a water puddle was perfect, but what to do with the image - how could I make it look better?  Should I make it bright and colorful, or dark and mysterious?

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Fredrico the Fly

Original:  A typical photography excursion - I go out armed with my sweet iPhone4S, take hundreds of pictures of whatever seems remotely interesting, and come home with a phone that is hot to the touch and barely has any battery power left.  Above is a typical picture - while taking countless pictures of flowers with my macro Olloclip lens, I stop at the basketball court on the way home and spy a tiny little fly.  Naturally this captures my attention because I want to see how small of an object I can capture with my sweet macro Olloclip.  Unfortunately for this fly, he was not having a very good day.  How sad.  Anyhow, he was not wanting to fly, and seemed to be, um, having issues.  That's okay for me though - he was still long enough for me to take about 2 dozen pictures.  Why so many?  Good question - when shooting with a macro lens it is almost impossible to tell if you are taking a good picture at the time, so take lots of pictures to make good use of your time.  My rule of thumb is: Always take several pictures and hope one turns out the most perfect.  Not perfect, just "the most" perfect. 
Final Masterpiece:  Wow, this looks pretty cool!  This is what a tiny little fly looks like on a concrete basketball court as the sun sets.  As you can see, I needed to jazz up the picture quite a bit to get the desired results.  That's okay - I have 10 minutes to spare, my iPad, and some really cool apps.  First, I cropped the pic so that the fly was as big as possible.  Next, I sharpened the picture, but not so much that it developed that goofy "over-sharp" look.  Then I tweaked the Brightness, Ambience, Saturation, Contrast, and added a little more Sharpness.  After that it was time to run it through the Noise Reduction cycle.  This is actually a real challenge, as too much washes out all the nice detail, and not enough makes it too grainy.  But the finished results look pretty cool - a nice iridescent shimmer on the wings, and all the delicate features and hairs are accentuated on my little fly friend.

***Editor's Note:  I am so sad - my little fly friend passed away.  :-(  Did you know that flies typically only live up to 14 days?  I think I may have taken this picture on day 13-3/4.
RIP Fredrico the fly.

When the world takes notice


     Time to restate previously stated information.  In the radio business they call it “reset the table.”  In Jimmy’s World, he refers to it as “reset the table.”  Jimmy’s World seems to be very similar to the radio business.  
     But I digress.
Original:  Normally a picture that is this blurry and lacking detail or interest would find the delete button quickly.  But not with me.
     What is Instagram?  Instagram is essentially Facebook for photographers.  And it does not matter how good of a photographer you are - if you are a teenage girl and like taking pictures of your fingernails or if you are a serious photographer and go to a lot of effort creating your shots, then Instagram has a place for you.
Finished Picture:  How to make something out of nothing.  Looks a little bit abstract and a little bit plant life - I don't know... I kinda like it and it works for me.
     Now, what you do with niche within Instagram is up to you.  Are you trying to grow a business selling your photography?  If so, Instagram is a great avenue to do so that did not exist just a year or two ago.  It is a way for anyone in the world to see your work, and the hard part is to figure out how to steer people towards it.
     Why is this important to you and your budding photography business?  Because I recently came across a posting by one of my fellow Instagrammers, and she remarked how the Huffington Post had featured her in an article with the headline, “19 Instagram Photographers that we can not get enough of.”  Or something to that effect.  But the point of this is that this photographer was just minding her own business, taking nice pictures and posting them for the world to see, and then out of the blue, the world took notice and overnight her fanbase soared.  If she had a gallery of her work on Instacanv.as, then the world could have also gone to her gallery to purchase her work.  If she had a blog, then the world could have also gone to her blog and she could have made mad money through the advertising on her blog.  The point is, is that as a photographer trying to grow their business, you need to find an avenue that works best for you, or several avenues, and it may take time before you start seeing any tangible results, but if you just keep producing the best work you are capable of, eventually you will find success.  Eventually, the world will notice your work.