Joseph Parry, Author at DIY Photography

Lighting direction as a tool: Popping vs blending your subject within a scene

April 30, 2016 by Joseph Parry 7 Comments

As someone who shoots on location a lot I’m often given a choice on what I like to call “popping” or “blending” a subject into a scene, in short this really as as simple as using your main light source to either complement the direction of a natural / embedded light source in a scene (a candle, window, lights etc) or contrasting it completely so that the subject “pops” out and suspends the belief that they are illuminated within the scene naturally.

Here’s what I mean:

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A lesson in color grading

April 28, 2016 by Joseph Parry 8 Comments

If Shakespeare were a photographer today, he’d have lost so many jobs to his “To tone or not to tone” predicament that in comparison you’d probably be able to catch more snowflakes in your mouth during a 20 second freak blizzard than he would have landed paid work.

Today I’m here with a video for you on that age old subject of “Colour Toning” and with a method I think most of you may find not only easy, but incredibly powerful. No, it doesn’t use curves, or levels, though it does include a lot of awesome.

Let’s crack on!

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Here’s a simple exercise you can do to find inspiration

April 25, 2016 by Joseph Parry 1 Comment

Inspiration, much like emotion, happens to be one of those things we can often get lost within and struggle to recall without the helpful nudge of others around us. The problem with this when it comes to creating new work, is that it relies on you to remain as current or observant as possible in order to find things around you to spring board from.

That approach isn’t exactly a problem per se, I mean hell, who doesn’t find inspiration in the world around them? Be it movies, music, lyrics, sounds, other photographers works, comics etc… there’s truly an endless field to pick your flowers from but sometimes we want to start from a fresh foundation. A new idea, something more unique or off the cuff.

Here’s what I propose in order to get some new ideas off the ground. Write yourself 3 random categories right next to to each other, they can be anything, I’ll go for: Prop, Mood, Colour.

Now write yourself random words that you think of under each category:
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