Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
I am aiming this week at those of you first getting into photography and looking for a budget friendly way of improving your photos!
You see, this week I’m giving some love back to the age old concept of “The best camera is the one you have with you”. By that token, the best reflector is the one you have with you! So what’s small, reflective, portable and weighs less than a feather (A large one)?
This week, I have a pretty well-known tip for the manual HDR types out there.
Back in the days, landscape photographers used the shadow and highlight sliders in Photoshop to get the more details out of their files. This was kind of like making an HDR image before “HDR” existed.
In time, some started layering files with different “exposures” to bring the maximum detail out of a file.
While this is pretty common knowledge for a lot of adept Photoshop users, it’s not a particularly common technique for portrait photos.
Guys! Check this out! I own a fair few Gravity Backdrops and absolutely love them to pieces, but the problem I have is time. Sometimes I don’t have the time or the space to setup the canvas backdrop, 2 stands, cross bar, and multiple clips.
So when I’m looking for a quick access but still believable test shot, I needed a cheap alternative to go to.
Check out the result! (I know it’s dark, that’s just my style :D).
This week I wanted to touch on the subject of failure. Mistakes and times when everything just seems to go wrong. Is it possible to avoid them? Is it possible to stay positive and move forwards? Are they useful?
I managed to make a few mistakes last year that I wanted to share with you guys to show you that we all mess up and from that, lessons can be learned.
The first one was a devastating blow to my frame of mind. In essence, I’d fallen into a place where I was connected with a few people who had very different goals and expectancy than myself.
It ended in mass confusion, a lot of hurt and losing both business and personal connections for potentially a lifetime. This was one of those times where I felt like the journey itself was completely outside of my control and I was simply in it for the ride.
What drives you?
This week I wanted to venture into the ideology of our personality traits (or mine) and take a look inside to see what drives us (me). Ultimately to answer the question of whether it’s truly possible to see ourselves in a way which allows us to understand our triggers to keep creating and growing.
For anyone who has taken a look into me as a person will know that depression and humour are two of the biggest public expression I have. They are also two of the three things closest to my being and thus the keys to my drive.
The last thing, as cliche as it is. Is love.
What is a model? A set of skills? A beautiful aesthetic? A combination of both? Is there a bias in either direction? Is that bias shifted by our personal preference of what we believe to be a “beautiful subject”?
We’re taking photo’s because of first and foremost the subject matter. Take a bowl of fruit for example. Sometimes the perfect fruit might be less interesting subject matter than that of mouldy / decaying fruit.
And by attracted to I’m referring to “interested” in. Something / someone who takes your creative interest.
I recently had the pleasure of reading through Tavis Leaf Glover‘s latest book Photography Composition and Design. A book that aims to take the complex nature of composition and make it easily digestible in order to pass on 100’s if not 1000’s of years worth of information passed on through the ages.
If nobody cared, would you still take pictures?
I’ve been posing this question to myself for a while now, this idea of “If nobody cared about my work, would I still create?”. Am I creating truly for myself, or is it a hybrid between the audience’s and my own enjoyment combined?
It stems back to this idea of value. More specifically self value. Whether it comes from respect, love, friendship, art etc.
I knew the second I had the email come through offering me the chance to review Jake’s latest tutorial that I was going to be in for a marathon of content. RGG EDU are renowned for 20+ hour slabs of content and this is the first time I’ve delved in with a professional capacity for writing about it.
I had a few minutes today to run through this cool idea to turn previous season shots into a snowy place of glory! It came to me after a friend asked to buy some background plates from me for a snowy shoot that I did recently.
To save money I now have a suggestion that you guys can try!
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
can change a lens mid-rappel, swap a memory card while treading water, or use a camel as a light stand.
To see more of his work please visit his studio website blurMEDIAphotography, or follow him on Twitter, 500px, Google Plus or YouTube.
JP’s photography is available for licensing at Stocksy United.
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