First of a series of 'photoshop' stories. I love colleges and this is just a new way of doing it.
I like the ideas of tattooing with photoshop, to get something different. Using layers makes this relatively easy. I'm not much of a writer but when I was younger I used to write down 'sound bytes' that I like. So I guess, I developed a punchy, low content style of writing.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
How digital photography changed my life
Like the tortoise in the race against the hare, I finally made the leap to digital last year. I have looked back but after a year I genuinely feel my photography has improved as a result of the move to digital.
What are the changes?
The freedom to take as many pictures as possible is a huge factor. Film is precious - despite trying to be to the contrary I was always aware that film cost. Where as digital feels free and the instant feedback encourages you to take more.
Instant feedback is also great for taking people. When I was in India last winter, the instant feedback was a real bonus. People got excited and they love seeing themselves. It made it easier to encourage people to be more expressive and to do more than just a couple of photos.
Disappointing results - I used to shot slide and with slide you get vibrant colours but with digital the results seem disappointing - especially for sharpness and colour vibrancy. Many photos looked flat. This left me scratching my head and reading lots of articles on the internet. I eventually saw that digital photography is not just about taking pictures. It's a whole process, from concept to post production. Just some rudimentary post production really improves a photo's appearance.
Discovering photoshop. While post production is inconvenient for film, it's make a whole lot easier for digital by using photoshop. At first photoshop can seem insurmountable, there are so many options! But it’s learnable and it’s extremely useful, not just for editing pictures but also for blending pictures and turning photographs into graphics etc.
I think using photoshop is having the biggest impact on my photography. I’m now moving from the idea that a photograph is the complete picture. I’m now seeing photographs as backgrounds, shapes, patterns that can be used with other photos to make something completely new. This is where I’m seeing the biggest changes and where I expect the biggest changes to be over the next six months.
The realization that digital photography isn’t free, it has its costs just like film. My laptop is struggling and I have to copy photos onto CDs, which isn’t the best way to keep photos. I will be getting a desktop soon, so that I have more space to keep photographs and photoshop files.
It's much, much easier to share and use your photos. Where as before, I had slides in photography agencies (not selling) and once every two or three years I would send off a photo to a magazine. Now, I share my photos on flickr, I can meet like minded people and have access to some great photos. I have started a couple of blogs (something, which if you work it out correctly, could become very valuable in the future) and last week I had a photograph featured in Wired Magazine.
What are the changes?
The freedom to take as many pictures as possible is a huge factor. Film is precious - despite trying to be to the contrary I was always aware that film cost. Where as digital feels free and the instant feedback encourages you to take more.
Instant feedback is also great for taking people. When I was in India last winter, the instant feedback was a real bonus. People got excited and they love seeing themselves. It made it easier to encourage people to be more expressive and to do more than just a couple of photos.
Disappointing results - I used to shot slide and with slide you get vibrant colours but with digital the results seem disappointing - especially for sharpness and colour vibrancy. Many photos looked flat. This left me scratching my head and reading lots of articles on the internet. I eventually saw that digital photography is not just about taking pictures. It's a whole process, from concept to post production. Just some rudimentary post production really improves a photo's appearance.
Discovering photoshop. While post production is inconvenient for film, it's make a whole lot easier for digital by using photoshop. At first photoshop can seem insurmountable, there are so many options! But it’s learnable and it’s extremely useful, not just for editing pictures but also for blending pictures and turning photographs into graphics etc.
I think using photoshop is having the biggest impact on my photography. I’m now moving from the idea that a photograph is the complete picture. I’m now seeing photographs as backgrounds, shapes, patterns that can be used with other photos to make something completely new. This is where I’m seeing the biggest changes and where I expect the biggest changes to be over the next six months.
The realization that digital photography isn’t free, it has its costs just like film. My laptop is struggling and I have to copy photos onto CDs, which isn’t the best way to keep photos. I will be getting a desktop soon, so that I have more space to keep photographs and photoshop files.
It's much, much easier to share and use your photos. Where as before, I had slides in photography agencies (not selling) and once every two or three years I would send off a photo to a magazine. Now, I share my photos on flickr, I can meet like minded people and have access to some great photos. I have started a couple of blogs (something, which if you work it out correctly, could become very valuable in the future) and last week I had a photograph featured in Wired Magazine.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Featured in Weird Science
This photo is in a Wired Magazine article on manmade earthquakes. To see the article, click below
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/top-5-ways-that.html
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/06/top-5-ways-that.html
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