Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
I guess it is no big secret that two of my photography passions are children photography and using small strobes. In fact, lots of images in DIYP are images of my son and daughter and were taken with off camera lighting.
This why I am so exited about two new series by two great guest authors starting this week:
Exploring Small Strobes by Yanik Chauvin and Baby’s Growth Stages Captured in Photography by Shannon Kietzman.[Read More…]
I really like the Lomo Action Sampler. I shoot digital today, but there is a warm spot in my heart kept for the Action sampler. I’ve been wanting to write an Action Sampler post for a long time now, and the 50$ camera project initiated by Brian Auer from Epic Edits, just gave me enough of a kick to go and make this post. (Brian was also so kind and asked me to be one of the judges along with the excellent Jim Talkinton).
[Read More…]
UPDATE2: For a Flickr picture to be eligible to participate it must
have a short (or long explanation on why you took the portrait / the
person means something for you)
UPDATE1: See some Q&A at the bottom. I’ll update those as more questions come in.
A little while back, Alasdair Townsend, one of the makers of Portrait Professional, sent me a copy of Portrait Professional 8 to play with. Apart from the great fun that I had with the software (review coming soon), he also suggested to give three copies of Portrait Professional 8 as contest prizes.
– No Way!
– Way! And to make it even better, I’ll make those giveaways the studio high end version. (Valued at 239.95 USD).
So what do you have to do to win one of those three copies? You have three options to submit an entry:
So, you finally have the time to shoot but lacking inspiration? Need a fresh flow of new Ideas? Here are 25 ways to get your photography creativity going.
Movies are great inspiration. Before you go, prepare yourself mentally. You can
find inspiration in the story of the movie, in the photography, in the
morals, in one of the characters and in the dialogs.
One of flickr’s most interesting features is the explore page. In this page you’ll see some of the images that flickr ranks as “interesting“. 99 out of 100 times those are great photos. Take a look at these photos to get inspiration. Do not try to copy them but ask, “What do I like about it?”; “How can I make it better” or “What twist can I add on top of this picture?” (Of course, a nice bonus is to get your image in Flick’s explore)
Sometimes you can get inspiration not by focusing on the what (the subject), but by focusing on the how. even if you shoot a boring neutral subject in an interesting way, you can get a great picture. The Strobist is a great place to learn about lighting, and you can get some lighting ideas here as well.
Almost every town has a club that you can join and go out for a have-fun-together session. Your benefit is threefold: 1. You will be forced to get out of that couch. 2. You’ll interact with other photographers. 3. You’ll get some shooting ideas. Rich is having a group in Utah, flickr is running a bunch, and there is a photo walking site – really, they are all around – you just have to get another photog and go out the door to have one. (This is how I started, long, long ago).
Getting ideas from other photographers can be very inspirational. When you look at a fellow photographer blog or gallery you expose yourself to new ideas, photography styles and techniques. You can later employ those ideas on your photography. If you see anything you like, ask: how I would have taken this image, or how can I use this technique to make a say of my own. This is my list of sites. Chase has one great list as well and Brian held a good list too. Now go surfin’.
One of the ways to get your inspiration going is to tap to other great creators and their creations. By browsing your CDs (does anybody still has CDs? or have everyone gone to iPods??!!!) you get a double kick. You get to watch the work of great photographers who shot the covers. You also get to find some great lost music that can get you inspired. Shooting a new cover to an “old” CD is a great project. (And you can always alphabetize the collection as you promised to yourself on new years eve)
While you are going through the covers, find one artist that really inspires you and put it in the player. Try to think what image can describe best one of the songs; The first verse; A single line; the mood of the entire CD.
Sometimes what you need to get your inspiration going is a little push. A great push is a photo-a-day project. In such project you commit to take one picture each day. Such projects has various themes and lengths. Some of the projects are portrait oriented (or self portrait); some are generic; some have a general theme. Some are a month long, some are a year long and some are a picture a week. No matter which one you choose, the need to create something new on a deadline can give your creativity that little push it needs.
Actually you can read n Art / Fashion / Fun magazine. Magazines like wired can trigger new ideas just cuz they are so packed and full of inspirational stuff. Fashion magazines like Elle or Vogue often has lots of great photos that one can try and analyze both for technique and composition. (Heck, even the advertisements are shot in a great way).
Sporting events are everywhere. At your local school, College or down
at the park where your little (or big) brother is playing football. It is a great opportunity to take action shots as well as portraits. It is also a great opportunity to practice action shooting if you ever want to make a career at sports shooting.
When you walk, you are always looking forward, right? As a photographer
you should get used to looking sideways, up and down. You’ll be amazed
at the amount of photo opportunities you can find on ceilings, second
floors, looking down the escalator. Reflections in puddles, car windows, shopping windows. Shadows on the floor, walls. You get the point.
You got a holiday coming? Great! Shoot something in the holiday spirit. An item related to the holiday: snow-slide; Cross; Menora; Shoot a scene from the Bible, New testimony; Koran – give it a twist.
As David says, all the old masters are not called masters for nothing. They had it when it came to lighting, composition and posing. Trying to make an image like the old masters did it, is not an easy task. You can learn allot by trying to produce a very similar image. You can also learn
allot from trying to homage art made by one of the great ones. The image on the left is a great example of such reproduction of Rene Magritte – The Lovers by Mister Rad.
Nick Wheeler, one of my all times Flickr favorites, just uploaded a new picture to DIYP pool. (And yes, it is the same Nick who brought you The DIY Strip Light and the Floor Lit Table Top Studio).
The posing on this picture is great, but the first eye catcher of this image is the Dave Hill post processing look it has.
If you don’t know Dave Hill, please, sit back and treat yourself to an hour of fine photography. Dave is known for two things: You can not forget his portraits ones you’ve seen them – the visual impact is very strong. And you can not ignore his unique post processing look, what has become to be known as “The Dave Hill Look”.
It looks like the web is all over Dave this month, as both the Stobist mail-tiviewed him and Scott Kelby gave a great tip on how to create a Dave Hill look in Lightroom.
I wanted to play a little and gave the Dave Hill look a try with a technique found in the Strobist threads. Thanks Omar for putting the thread together. (Click any of the images for bigger view)
This has been a great month for me. Although my dayjob is more demanding then ever, I was happy to discover a heaven of new sites, blogs and articles. All are great and just make me want to share.
This month was also great because a long challenge came to a successful end. Dave Ajax rose to the disposable ring flash challenge and built a Studio Grade Disposable Ring Flash.
And now, on with the links. I’m gonna post ten of then: is this to much? Not enough? Just right? Hit me in the comments for some feedback.
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Related Links:
– Speed Links for 2-23-2008
– Speed Links for 12-20-2007
– Speed Links for 12-11-2007
– Speed Links for 11-20-2007
Again a small deviation from DIY and photography. Just to tell you about the Photoshelter collection. Photoshelter is an internet based stock agency that gives a great counter balance to the familiar sell-your-image-for-a-buck microstock sites.
There are a couple of thing that I like about Photoshelter, and I am going to talk about them in just a minute. But before that I want to share why I even write about those guys in this site.[Read More…]
After discussing contrast at a very top level view, I would like to introduce two twins, closely related to contrast – High Key and Low Key.
Both High Key images and Low Key images make an intensive use of contrast, but in a very different way. When approaching a shoot of a dramatic portrait, the decision of making it a High Key, Low Key or “just” a regular image has great impact about the mood that this picture will convey. While High Key images are considered happy and will show your subject as a tooth-paste poster; Low Key portraits are dramatic and convey a lot of atmosphere and tension. Let’s explore those two dramatic lighting alternatives.[Read More…]
Bulbs, lots of bulbs. This is what you need if you are going to do this project. In the picture you see the bulb’s filament’s burning, isn’t it a pretty site. For all you pyro’s out there, this is yet another thing you can burn.
And if you can take a picture of this little fire, why not.
So here is The Full Guide for Photographing a Burning Light Bulb – have fun![Read More…]
This project had the website diyphotography.net in mind and strives to help develop it into a vibrant online community. This backdrop is similar to those sold online for a couple hundred dollars! But guess what? for around 20 bucks and about an hours time I’ve made a studio backdrop myself, and now I’ll show YOU how you can make a backdrop yourself! (And complete the DIY experiance by adding a DIY backdrop stand)[Read More…]
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