Be More Detailed Oriented

     Obviously, things like exposure and basic composition are very important in photography. But the little details in a photograph that are less obvious can also make or break a picture. Training the eye to spot those little details in camera while taking the photos instead of when looking back at them a few days later is a vital skill that can take a lot of time and effort to achieve. But when it is attained, it can make your photographs more mature (Peterson 220).

     Little details can be things like a distraction in the background, a slightly tilted horizon line, the subject blocking something in the background, and so on. It's important that photographers have an eye that will "pick up places where just a minor shift may lead to a major and positive change in the photograph's overall appeal" (Peterson 219). In the first image on the left, the horizon line wasn't quite straight. In the second image, the horizon line is rotated a tiny bit so that the whole composition looks straighter and more even.

     Another example of small yet important details are in these two photographs of snowflakes. In the first image, the snowflake is composed on the reflection of the cloudy sky, which doesn't provide a lot of contrast for the snowflake's detail to show up. In next image, I shifted the camera over slightly so that the snowflake would be on the reflection of the tree, which made the snowflake's detail sharper. I also used a vertical composition because it cut out the partial tree on the left, which was a distraction.

What other small changes can be made to a photograph that create a big impact? Let me know in the comments below!

Snowflakes up close and personal :)

It Was Framed!

     When people hang pictures on a wall, more often than not, they will use a frame. But what if photographers can frame their subjects in a photo? Could that be used in place of a frame on the wall? 

     Maybe not, but the technique of framing is still valuable in photography. It can enhance and draw attention to the subject. However, it's important that the frame won't be a distraction (Peterson 206). Basically, the frame should be simple enough that the subject is what the viewer's eye is drawn to.

The flames of the fire in this image draw
attention to the hot coal by surrounding it.

      Framing doesn't have to be so obvious either. Sometimes it can be more subtle, like a suggestion of a frame rather than a clearly cut out one. Doing this "is one of the simplest ways to create both depth and perspective in a composition" (Peterson 205). I used a large aperture and the snow on a fence to create this photo of a snowy swimming pool.

The out of focus snow in the foreground "hides" the swimming
pool, which creates an image that feels more private.

What other kinds of frames can you think of to include in your photography? Let me know in the comments!

An extra picture that shows the difference between a
subject that's framed and one that's not :)

Overcoming your fears

Fear

As said in the book Art and Fear, written by David Bayles and Ted Orland, "Fear's about artmaking fall into two families: fears about yourself, and fears about your reception by others". Fear is one of the main components that prevents people from being confident in their work and being willing to publish it to the world. Many people are scared to fail, and although it is completely understandable, it often prevents people from reaching their full potential. We need art in this world, to tell a story, to teach the future generations, and etc, but if people are too scared of other's opinions then no art will be made, and we wouldn't know much about the past and the world would be very dull. Whether it be paintings, pictures, music, or dancing, someone has to do it to keep us sane from the dullness that would be the world without those things. Photography is the way that I, personally, can portray stories (especially considering I don't have the coordination to dance or the patience to paint).

No matter what happens, people will always have different opinions on art, and no one piece of art can satisfy everyone. Some people don't like the Mona Lisa, some people don't like rap, while other's do. One of the hardest parts of doing art is reaching an audience that understands the meanings behind your work. And one of the main parts of this is going out and doing what you do, the way that you do it. You have to make it you're own, and as soon as you appreciate it, so will others.

Thanks for joining me on this journey of photography.

I See Double (Exposure)

One of the limitations of taking photos on a mobile device is the lack of dynamic range. The small sensor in the camera just simply does not do it justice. There is a way, however, to blend the highlights of a dark image with the shadow area of a light image to capture a much wider range.

High dynamic range, or HDR, is a technique that is normally shot with a DSLR, as “its visual interest lies in its large dynamic range and its foreground to background range” (Marcolina 106). HDR refers to a scene that includes both dark and light elements in a foreground to background range. 

Underexposed

Overexposed

To create an HDR effect, you need two similar photos with different exposures—one should be a little underexposed and the other should be a little overexposed. You can do this in two ways. The first would be to manually shoot a dark picture and then a light one right after. I personally find this quite challenging. “The process works best on contrasty scenes shot with the camera on a tripod or propped up on a table” (104). Since I do not own a tripod nor is a table always convenient when taking pictures (especially nature shots), I have found that taking one photo and editing it to mimic two different exposures is much easier. 

The next step after obtaining two photos would be to merge them together. There is a number of apps out there that can do this, but the double exposure feature in Rookie Cam has worked best for me. I blended the images together and tweaked the results with its excellent post tools.

What are other editing apps you use and what are their advantages or features?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

Giving Images Their Soul

Light is the most crucial element of a picture. It gives images their soul. Light can greatly impact an image’s tone or mood, so if a picture’s soul can be saved by adding a little “spark” in post, then do it (Marcolina 132). So how exactly do you add light in post? Adding light can mean adding or accentuating a sunburst or lens flare, or even stimulating an old camera defect, such as adding a light leak along the edge of an image.

After reading about the different techniques of adding light, I decided to try it out on this picture:

Unedited

I shot this on a road trip a while back, and I didn’t think much of it when I took it. Snapping a photo in the backseat of a moving car, I was really surprised by the image quality and resolution. It didn’t turn out nearly as blurry as I thought it would. As Marcolina said, “Trust your instincts when you get the urge to take a picture; don’t always ask yourself the reason for doing it” (134). I’m glad I took this picture because it has become one of my favorites, especially after editing. 

Edited!

Not much was done in the alteration of this image. All I did was fix the little bit of misalignment and add lens flare with the PicsArt app. I added the lens flare with restraints so it looks sort of natural and does not come across as cheesy. You can see this effect in the upper middle of this picture.

What are some other situations in which you can add light (in editing of course)?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

Don't Lose Focus!

Finding Inspiration

Many people think that in order to produce art, you need to be born with the talent needed to produce such meaningful art. This assumption, made by most people, is very false. All you need in order to produce meaningful art that makes people stop and think is to make the image mean something to you. This is the by far the most difficult step, as for many it takes years to truly understand yourself and to be able to make your work personal and distinctive. Having your work mean something important to you is the only way to get others to appreciate it as much as you do, which is why it takes a lot of consideration and tweaking before you publish an image. The work you produce has to have a story behind it in order for it to be good, and as a photographer my job is to record the feelings and emotions that come from the story behind the image.

This is why I enjoy portrait photography so much, because seeing people being themselves in their natural habit is one of the best ways to portray who they are and how the photographer feels about them. My photography teacher, Mr. Royce Thompson, once told me that "The way the photographer captures their subject often shows how the photographer feels about said subject." I abide by these words when working on an image, both when I'm am there, taking the picture, and when I am post-processing. While I have yet to reach my potential and realize my unique style, I am getting closer to it by the minute, and soon enough I will be able to shoot things very personal to me with full comfort.

Finding what makes you passionate isn't as hard as many may think. It isn't hard to track down in our past what attracts us to certain things, and it most likely comes from one specific memory. In the book Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, the author (one of them, doesn't say which one) describes how they can "remember to within one heartbeat the moment I first saw an Edward Weston print." He describes how seeing the image changed his view on photography and changed his style entirely, turning it into something that he did not know he had within him. Finding inspiration in your photos is much easier than many people think, yet so many people have a lot of trouble finding it. Finding what you enjoy doing and what speaks to you is something that takes a lot of time and patience in order to properly understand who you are as a person and how your photos define you.

Things Aren't Always Clear

     In everyday life, clarity is something that's emphasized. This is especially true in photography. Most of the time, photographers will look at a photo that is blurry and immediately toss it out. Usually, this is the right choice, but sometimes blur can make a photograph more artistic. Today I will be exploring and embracing blur in my photography.

     One way to capture motion is by using blur. Using "a slow shutter speed... we get a blurry, sweeping, brushstroke effect and a much more active image" (Peterson 268). To experiment with this idea, I moved my camera in the same direction as my brother while he jumped off of a swing. This made his hands in focus, while everything else is blurry and out of focus.

Since everything except his hands are blurred,
there is a sense of motion in this image.

     Using blur can also be a way to show creative expression (Peterson 268). In the image below, I set my camera to a slow shutter speed of 2.5 seconds to create light trails. This is tells more of a story than taking photos of the lights without moving the camera. 

The arches in this image seem to be drawing you in
closer to the depths of the photograph.

Do you think blur can be artistic? Will you try to use it in your photography? Let me know in the comments!

Blur in everyday life :)

Peterson, Bryan. Bryan Peterson's Understanding Composition Field Guide. New York: Amphoto, 2012. Print.

The Analog Look of Film

If you were able to read my previous blog, you saw that I wrote about grunge and covered the basics of that particular photography style. And as for this third blog post, I have decided to continue along those lines and attempt to create film-resembling photographs. There is just something about the look of film that catches my interest. These types of images tend to give off the glowy impressions that they were taken out of an old photo album (Marcolina 72). I’m not exactly sure why this aged, vintage look appeals to me. Perhaps it is the soft, dark edges, the raw grain, or the enchanting light leaks. Whatever it is, let’s move on and get into film looks.

On a recent trip back from Leavenworth with my family, we made a little pit stop and unintentionally came across a waterfall. The pictures I took on my phone were mediocre. The photo quality was not great and although I’m sure I did not touch the zoom settings, the pictures turned out a little grainy. I figured I might as well embrace the graininess and edit it accordingly. I cursorily flipped through iPhone Obsessed and found the perfect editing style for the situation—film. “By adding a film look you can give an image instant credibility along with a touch of nostalgia and an overall warm feeling” (72). The way I see film is that it resembles a thin sheet of finely grained wood. If you were to merge a digital picture with a film-like veneer, you would result with some unique and interesting images.

 

Although film looks are usually applied to shots with a single subject (both close-up and medium shots), I decided to try this technique on a few nature shots. The book did not provide a definite set of steps to follow in order to achieve the film look, so I just edited the pictures to how I found fit. First, I tuned the images to add color and saturation. I lightened and opened up shadows. Then, I added sharpness and strengthened the warm, yellow tone. Finally, I applied vintage and a grainy film.

Do you have any critiques on the pictures, and what is your opinion on film looks?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

Looking Through the Eyes of a Painter

     If I had to name one thing that can make the difference between a mediocre photograph and a great one, it would be the background. A subject awkwardly placed in front of the background, clutter, and too much going on can all make the photograph confusing, which makes people not want to look at the image. 

     This can be avoided by learning to see what Bryan Peterson calls the empty canvas. In the same way a painter starts with a blank slate, photographers should look for the blank canvas before taking a picture (Peterson 82). This means that paying attention to the background and placing the subject with consideration of the background should be a priority.

     For my first attempt at photographing a blank canvas, I used a strand of Christmas lights against the sky, because "on sunny days you can always turn your attention to the empty canvas of the... blue sky above, and shoot any number of subjects against it" (Peterson 83). The sky on the right creates a clean background for the lights.

The diagonal line the lights create between the sky 
and the roof adds to the strength of the composition.

     But blank canvases don't have to be so generic. Anything can be an empty canvas if the photo is composed correctly. In this image I used a person's hand as the empty background and a small teacup as the subject. This created a simple yet compelling photograph.

A hand worked as the blank canvas because it didn't
cause any distractions from the subject.

What else can be used as a blank canvas? Do you agree that the background is just as important as the subject? Let me know in the comments!

Bonus picture of using the ground as a blank canvas :)

Peterson, Bryan. Bryan Peterson's Understanding Composition Field Guide. New York: Amphoto, 2012. Print.

Post Processing and Assumptions About it

Post Processing

Lightroom

Lightroom is often peoples first steps to editing photos. After taking pictures, people import them into lightroom to do minor editing and to see what the picture actually looks like on a screen. This is an important thing to do, because when pictures are taken, they aren't necessarily the best that they can be, whether it be that they are under/over exposed or that their is some sort of blemish in the picture. I use lightroom every time I have a shoot to make a contact sheet, which is a piece of paper with all the images on it, just printed small. This way you can see how they will end up when printed later on. Also, it helps to see which images are blurry or in focus.

Before

After

Photoshop

Photoshop is an application that we use very much when it comes major edits of a picture. When it comes to cropping, removing, or adding something to the picture, Photoshop is the first place to go for many photographers. I generally only use Photoshop for the pictures that I will end up printing because the ones that you print are the ones you want to look the best. Photoshop helps you do that because it makes it easy to remove blemishes in the picture, cropping the picture, or adding/removing something in the picture. Also. Photoshop makes it very easy to print pictures and to make sure that they come out the way that it looks on screen. The program gives you a preview before you print, and lets you see how the image looks on different types of paper, which is very beneficial if you want the image to come out the way that it looks on screen. 

Conceptions about Photoshop

Many people disagree with the use of Photoshop, whether it be for private use or in the media. The reason behind this is the fact that people believe that it is 'lying', or not telling the entire truth behind the image. While this is true, I believe that Photoshop is no more harming than a girl wearing makeup, because the main image is still present, but some of the blemishes and problems are no longer visible. Photoshop isn't meant to hide the true meaning of the image, but instead help intensify the emotions and thoughts you get from looking at the image. In the book Art and Fear, by Ted Orland and David Bayles, they talk about the difference between approval and acceptance, stating that "Acceptance means having your work counted as the real thing; approval means having people like it. It's not unusual to receive one without the other". They go on to talk about how some people spend millions on props, actors, and setting only to have the movie be a total bust later on. It counts as a movie, but the approval for it is very low. This applies to what I was saying because while people may not like the use of Photoshop, the story behind the image is still there and it comes down to the person's feelings/emotions to determine whether or not they like it.

Grunge It Up

Editing photos is not something I often do in my spare time. And just for the record, I have a very minimal understanding on this topic. (I don’t think applying text, stickers, and one-touch filters to a photo counts as much editing.) Now that I think about it, the only times I’ve actually had to use an editing app were when the pictures were either overexposed (too bright) or underexposed (too dark).

Photography has always been an interest of mine, but I have never fully committed to it. I would get into the habit of regularly taking pictures for a couple of months, but then I’d get discouraged and stop once I see all of these amazing professional-looking photos on social media. I would get bored and search for something else to do in my free time. But things will be different this time around. I’m determined to stick to this hobby for a while longer and become better at taking and editing photos.

I will start off my editing experiment with grunge photography. Grunge is a term I see used here and there, but it is not something I am very familiar with. According to iPhone Obsessed, these types of photos are often scratched, blotched, and/or desaturated (Marcolina 28). These photos generally have a sense of nostalgia or loneliness to them and involve a lot of post-processing and heavily editing. 

Here is the original photo before any editing:

In this case, I wanted to accentuate the sad and depressing tone that is sometimes associated with rain. Using the Snapseed app, I did some basic editing to try to mute some of the colors. I straightened the picture at about a +2° angle and cropped it accordingly to center the subject. Then I added vintage and a grainy film to the image.

Marcolina says, “Try going crazy with layers over layers, type and texture, saturation, blurring, and sharpening and see what happens” (Marcolina 36). I took this little piece of advice and made a second attempt at grunge. I took the edited picture I made with Snapseed and put it through another app called Pixlr. I did as Marcolina advised and experimented with different effects and filters. At the end, I added scratches, blur, a rustic frame, and a few subtle vintage filters. 

Here are the edited photos (left-Snapseed, right-Pixlr):

    

Grunge photography is one way to tell a story. How do you narrate yours through pictures and images?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.

What the F(Stop)

What is an F-Stop?

An F-Stop is also known as the aperture of a camera. This is the size of the opening in a camera when taking a picture, and usually ranges anywhere from  f/1.4 to f/36, with the larger the number the smaller the opening. Cameras usually come stock with a lens around f/3.6, and any lens below that cost more money, the lower the aperture the more money the lens generally costs. Having a lower F-Stop, thus a larger opening, allows more control over the depth of field of the picture and allows pictures to have a shallower depth compared to higher F-Stop lenses.

Basically, it means you can focus on something up close with the background all blurry, which can be very beneficial depending on how you use it. This is why it is very desirable for aspiring photographers (and professionals), because it can allow you to create greater quality pictures and can also broaden the limits the restrict you with a higher F-Stop lens

Recently, I purchased my own 50mm F/1.8 lens, which I believe has been very beneficial to me and has allowed me to create a lot of work that I previously could not. I believe that anyone could improve their photo skills with the simple purchase of a low F-Stop lens. The fact that lenses can be pricey is one of the main things preventing many photographers from going beyond what they believe they can do. The highly recommend to any aspiring photographer to save up and get out of their comfort zone, which many are scared of doing but it can also create very nice and surprising things. The book Art and Fear, by David Bayles and Ted Orland, often talks about the things that prevent people from reaching their full potential when it comes to any form of art. They say that "the dilemma every artist confronts, again and again, is when to stick with familiar tools and materials, and when to reach out and embrace those that offer new possibilities." This means that every artist at some point in their career has the moral issue of when to reach out and explore new things with new equipment, and when to stick with what has been working for you. I believe that it would be very beneficial for people to try new things and get out of their comfort zone, because most of the time you learn things about yourself and may in fact surprise yourself and produce work better than what you used to make.

You Need a Contrast Filter

     I've always been drawn to cameras and photography, but it was only two and a half years ago that it really became a hobby. Since then I've learned how to use manual mode, read a ridiculous number of photography books, taken a Photo 1 class, signed up for a Photo 2 class, and had one of my photographs on the Seattle Times website. Now, I want to take my photography to the next level and make meaningful and deliberate compositions.
    
     For a long time, contrast was never something I looked for when taking pictures. If I took a photo with good contrast, it was always a happy accident instead of a conscious choice. That's why I decided to focus on creating contrast in my first blog post.

     To create contrast in this photo, I used one red apple in a basket of green apples. Since red and green are complimentary colors, the green apples made the red apple stand out. Most of the time, the eye is drawn to the part of the photo with the most contrast. Then it's assumed that that area is the subject of the image, which is correct (Peterson, 130).

Without the red apple, this image would have very little contrast,
which would make it a sub-par photograph.

     Next, I used a single red leaf in a completely green composition, because "the use of a dominant color or tone is a great way to exaggerate the main subject" (Peterson, 142). By using green fabric and green apples, the one red leaf was the only spot where the color changed, so naturally our eyes go to that point first.

The contrasting color of the leaf against the other parts
of the photo make the image more interesting.

     Another way this photograph has contrast is in the distinct textures in the composition. The apples are smooth, while the leaf has jagged edges. This difference draws attention to the leaf.

     Do you think contrast a vital part of photography, or is it better to focus on other aspects in your pictures? Is color or texture contrast more important? Let me know in the comments below!

And here's a bonus picture,
just for fun :)

Peterson, Bryan. Bryan Peterson's Understanding Composition Field Guide. New York: Amphoto, 2012. Print.

Staying focused on photography

Photography 

Past experiences

I've always enjoyed photography, but I have never been that good at it. Even though I've taken many photo's throughout my life, it wasn't until last year that I decided it was a passion of mine and to pursue it as a hobby. Last year I was enrolled in the Photo 1 course at Kentridge, and this year I am in Photo 2, and will most likely continue on to more advanced classes in the years to follow. Earlier this year, I had bought my first DSLR camera, which had been a huge upgrade from just shooting on my phone. Also, I just bought a second lens, which will help to further my capabilities and the range of photos that I can take.

Current Achievements

Over the course of the two years of photography class that I have taken, I have learned a lot both about the photo and about the camera. It is important to know your camera, and it is equally important to know what you are shooting. I haven't won any awards (yet), but I still have taken some pictures that I am proud of.

These are an example of some of the photos that I took over the summer. 

The Future/Photography Explained

Just as any form of art, many people think that you need to be born with talent to make good art. Towards the beginning of the book I am reading, Art and Fear, it stated that "Artmaking involves skills that can be learned. The conventional wisdom here is that while 'craft' can be taught, 'art' remains a magical gift bestowed only by the gods"(Bayles, Orland, 3). This shows that the thing that we are taught from a young age is that being able to create art is genetic and is out of your reach if your parents aren't artistic. However, this isn't true. Being able to create art is something that anyone can master, so long as they set their mind to it and work hard to achieve their goal. I work hard on photography, and little by little, day by day, I am reaching my goals and sometimes accomplish things that I didn't know I have within me. 

Having nice pictures isn't just meant to look pretty and to please the eyes, but it is more about capturing the story behind that picture, and making a memorable impression on the people who see it, which is why I personally think that photography is one of the more beautiful types of art. What do you think is the most beautiful forms of art?

Bayles, David, and Ted Orland. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking. Santa Barbara: Capra, 1993. Print.

Capturing the Mobile Moment

*DISCLAIMER: The book I am reading is called iPhone Obsessed. However, I do not own an iPhone. The pictures below were taken with an Android (more specifically, a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge).

What is the mobile moment? It is the circumstances that would cause me to pull out my phone and snap a quick photo. For me, this could be anything, really, from great lighting to the natural and authentic moment of a human or animal. The mobile moment usually occurs when you least expect it to and is the moment that brings together a memorable image.

I take a lot of pictures with my phone. However, most of them are not worth sharing. Like many others, I know the fundamentals of phone photography, such as making sure the subject is in focus and fits within the frame of the screen. Easy enough, right? But here’s where it gets a little overwhelming—I begin to consider other features into my shots like framing, perspective, lighting, and exposure. I, personally, have a tendency to overthink the elements of a shot rather than just simply taking the photo, resulting in many passed opportunities.

Photographer and author Dan Marcolina would agree that this is a mistake many amateurs, like myself, make. He suggests snapping the shot and then thinking about it afterwards. There is always the option of editing it later. The perfect photo opportunity can be gone in an instant. Marcolina says it’s often the unconscious reaction to a moment that makes the most honest and impactful picture. Although the first impression will usually work best, he recommends following up with a more conscious set of angles (Marcolina 4). Marcolina’s advice has really changed the way I take pictures. Below are some unedited photos I’ve recently taken of my dogs. The top photo was taken just moments before she jumped off the bench and chased after a squirrel, and the photo on the bottom was taken of my dog mid-yawn. Had I spent time overthinking the shots, I never would’ve captured these moments.

Both pictures were achieved by applying the Rule of Thirds, which is basically breaking an image down into thirds (using both horizontal and vertical lines) so that you are left with nine parts. To make this easier, I simply went into my camera settings and turned on the grid lines. For the photo on top, I positioned the edge of the bench to one of the horizontal lines, balancing out the image and making for a more aesthetically-pleasing shot. As for the photo on the bottom, I aligned my dog’s head along a vertical line, purposely making her off center and therefore allowing me to expose more of the background.

In iPhone Obsessed, Marcolina stresses the importance of framing. “What to include in the frame and what not to include: It is that decision that really defines why still images can be more powerful than seeing the whole scene as in video” (Marcolina 2). Things to consider when quickly deciding your framing include the angle and position of the shot. What is the angle of the shot? Is it high or low? Will the shot be more dynamic if it’s taken horizontally, vertically, or squared? For both of the pictures above, I decided to take them in landscape and at eye level. This gives the viewer a sense of first person, as though he or she is experiencing the moment from his or her own perspective.

With a tap of a screen, phone photography is a hobby anyone can get into. The simplicity and practicality of a smartphone make shooting photos much easier than it would be with a bulky digital camera. This first blog was just about capturing and framing the mobile moment. I look forward to reading and discovering more tips and tricks. Over the course of the next couple of blogs, I will be trying various photography and editing techniques such as grunge, HDR (high dynamic range), and adding light. 

Any thoughts on the pictures? What are your “mobile moments”, and where do you get your inspiration from?

Marcolina, Dan. iPhone Obsessed: Photo Editing Experiments with Apps. Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2011. Print.