Meanderings
Random thoughts that creep into the head
Findingviews
Picture sales and an open notebook of thoughts from Orginal Robart
In the UK as a general rule we don’t see a great deal of snow. True there are some northerly areas where snow is pretty much guaranteed. However over the last couple of days pretty much all of the UK has been covered in snow. As per normal schools have been closed, roads have been closed and people are enjoying the joys of being at home during the day (also called I can’t believe what they putting on daytime TV these days).
Of course its also a chance to get some pictures in and of the snow.
Except that none of us actually now how to take pictures in the snow.
So here are some top tips for taking pictures in the snow.
- If you’re camera has a snow setting – use it. Snow is bright and contrasting environment. Having your camera set for this will help. If you don’t have a snow setting, then try a beach setting. Beaches and snowfields are oddly similar places. If your camera doesn’t support these scenes try reducing exposure compensation a little. This should help
- Use a flash to photograph falling snowflakes. You’ll need plenty of light to help fix the position of the snowflakes.
- Snow is very monochrome. Find something that has a bright colour to it and include this in your photograph. This will help create an interesting looking photograph. Red works well in the snow.
- Snow presents a rare and changing environment. Keep a camera handy. If you see something that looks interesting take the picture then and there. You don’t know how long the scene will last.
- Snow also means fewer people around. This means quieter looking streets and roads and this may lend itself to some interesting atmospheres for your photographs. Remember this if you thing you photograph seems ordinary. It may not look so mundane when you come to print the
photograph. - Beware of shadows! Snow is very good at picking up shadows and suddenly your pristine white piece of snow can have a dirty great shadow on it. Keep your eyes open to avoid this.
- Check your white balance. Use auto white balance or manually set the white balance by taking a picture of some snow. Whatever you do do not use a white balance set for artificial light this will put an unsightly colour cast on your images.
- Wrap up warm, snow is cold. Your hands will get cold when handling the camera so make sure you can keep warm.
Of course the most important thing – enjoy yourself.
Image via Wikipedia
I’ve recently been working on a photo of a Japanese temple guardian that was taken at Narita. Quick travel tip – if you do to Japan don’t just use Narita as an airport. It is a charming town with a wonderful complex of temples.
Now back to the point.
What I wanted to do was make the Guardian become unnaturally in your face without looking .. well wrong. After my first run at the editing I wasn’t convinced by the picture. There areas that were too bright and blown out, and possibly evidence of over sharpening.
At this point I put down the picture and saved it for future reference. There comes a point in editing, be it an image or an article that you no longer see what you have done. Everything sort of blurs together and it kind of feels just good or bad. When this happens I always recommend walking away and coming back afresh sometime later.
However this time when I came back and wasn’t quite so sure about the picture. The technical questions were still there and now I wondered if this was a worthwhile endeavour. Normally when i create something I do it for myself in the hope that someone else likes it. This is I believe artistically wise. Not so sure if its commercially a great idea as my tastes may not be that commercial. Normally I live with this and things go ok. This I started to worry if what I was doing was mightily disconnected from what people want. After all if people have no chance of liking what I produce why produce. It was a moment of self doubt.
Then I remembered this – its the reason why many people do not progress artistically. It is the self doubt that prevents action.
What do I do?
Work on something I feel better about and go back to the temple guardian at some point in the future. I might even post it on Facebook and see if a discussion ensues. You mustn’t let self doubt stop you. You must just keep on at it.
I’ve just created a Facebook page to cover my digital art and photography work. I thought it might be a good idea to explain why
First of all here it is: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Original-RobArt/168860968583
Not the most romantic of URLs is it, but that’s way off topic.
Lets get back to talking about facebook. When I first logged onto facebook, I thought it interesting but of limited value. I went through the stage of considering it a ti
me waster full of silly applications. Over recent months facebook has been reconfiguring itself as a communication medium. This is really working for me. There is something almost intimate about keeping in touch people through direct messages and updates. So figuring that facebook was turning into a communicator I decent to test the pages feature by adding one for SharedCreation.com. This went well and the page has allowed for additional interaction with people that would not happen through the blogs pages and I have found this very valuable. To be honest I was surprised as to how useful the odd like or comment would be.
So I’ve turned from Facebook tolerant, to someone who see’s it as something far stronger than email, basically a place to combine communication and community and my first foray into pages brought some good things.
I suppose that with these experiences behind adding another page was an inevitable step. You see via this blog, Redbubble and Facebook I not only want to introduce people to what I do but also open a dialog. The more I think about, the more I feel that doing anything on the web requires a conversation and openness that perhaps could not happen previously. So I have created a Facebook fan page to use the strengths of facebook – the conversation.
I hope you find the page useful.
Image by ♥ China ♥ guccio via Flickr
Last week I was taking photographs for the social media photomarathon. (This is now over – and I will shortly be posting my closing post on this event over at Shared Creation.) My final picture was a representation of cosy using a wine glass and a gas fire. I had the idea and then tried the shot out immediately using my mobile phone. This reminded me that at times I have used my phone to take pictures when I haven’t had a larger camera about. Some of these shots I have worked up significant images.
This got me thinking about the camera on my phone. Its always with me. I use it to take pictures or to record picture ideas. In effect its become a both a photographic tool and the equivalent of carrying a sketchbook. Artists have long carried and used sketchbooks for the very purpose of exploring the idea of a picture before it is committed to canvas. My phone now does that – taking odd pictures, capturing textures or small and useful images if I do not have a larger camera about. Its useful to do a quick and unsophisticated capture. After all it is impossible to guarantee remembering all ideas, but a phone with a gallery does a good job of being a concept list.
Of course you can always add to that.
I also use the mobile version of Evernote to jot down ideas and add context to what I have been taking.
So never forget – in your pocket is a small device that can record ideas.
Here is the picture that started this train of thought
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Recently work took me near to beautiful Talybont on Usk, home of a deservedly famous reservoir. The Talybont Reservoir was built in the 1920’s and 1930’s though today it is best known as one on of the most photographed parts of Wales. As you might imagine being in the location meant that I simply couldn’t avoid miss the opportunity to visit the reservoir. It simply had to be done.
You should now be asking why is this post called ‘Working with What You’ve Got’ when you are in an incredible location. Well the combination of work and weather had left me little time and not the best light conditions. So I had an incredible location and not the most time or best of conditions to take full advantage of it. That was not going to stop me. I parked up near the damn and started to see that I could do.
The trick I decided was to focus on a couple of key views, and fall back on my favourite setting of Aperture Priority. The advantage of a setting you like is prediction. You know what expect as you work with it. I decide a few pictures from the lay by and then to work the dam. I had it in my mind to work with the classic valve tower. It is an architectural classic of its kind and has all the character of a super model.
It was character and the classics that got me to the next decision. A stark black and white perspective shot look towards the tower with the reservoir as a backdrop. I decided if I didn’t have time to explore, then I would go for character.
That’s how we ended up with this picture – great location combined with bad circumstances equals a stark black and white.
I’ve recently been thinking about how to take better photographs of products – i.e. things that you want to sell. I’m suggesting that these suggestions are a bible – but I find bearing these points in mind does lead to better results.
- Keep the Camera Steady – use a tripod or a rest
- Keep lighting soft. avoid the build in flash on the camera and angle lights so that the product is well lit with getting any glare. Sunlight coming in from a window is useful but avoid a bright sun as this will increase the contrast and make a harsh image.
- Make use of post processing software (free examples include Google Picasa or Microsoft live gallery, pricier options include Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop) to enhance the photograph
- Make sure that background your product is resting is plain and is a neutral or complimentary colour to the product
- White or black make good backgrounds colours. Remember to use opposing colours. a dark object should be shot against black. a bright object is best shot against a black background.
- Use a colour scheme generator to work out the complimentary colours for the main colour in the product. a good colour scheme designer is : http://colorschemedesigner.com/
- Use a fill light. what this means have the main (soft) lights on the product. use another light to illuminate to the side or behind the product to give an even or fill light.
- Shoot from as straight onto the product as possible and zoom in close to the product. Zooming in close however does not apply when trying to place the product in context. What is important then is the composition of the whole scene
- Make sure the products best feature is shown off as much as possible in the photograph
- As there will be plenty of light set the ISO number low on the camera
- Adjust the f stop (f-number) to give as much or as little depth as needed – a low number is a high depth of field. higher numbers give medium to little depth of field. I tend to get good results with a low F number
- Remove shadows – adjust the position of the camera, product and lights to remove as much shadow as possible. If shadows to occur – remove later in post processing.
If you have other ideas or suggestions I’d love to hear from you.
When you take a photograph, you are composing a view of a something. The moment the shutter releases a moment has been captured. Later if you edit or enhance that photograph you are composing it again. Do you crop, do you alter the importance or one thing over another? As the polish goes on the photograph changes from a composition of a moment to something else. That is where it all stops, your polished photograph is an interpretation of a moment.
What happens when time goes by even further?
Weeks, months or years later you take another look at the same photograph and say – I could do better. Now that time has past you are emotionally more distant from the moment and are viewing afresh with a different point perspective. If a reasonable amount of time has past you will probably have further developed your idea of style and will have new ideas on how an image should look. Applying your new viewpoint to an old image creates something new; another interpretation.
Is this valuable? – Well yes as something genuinely good and interesting can be the result.
Are there dangers? – Yes you are mashing up the past. Make sure you do not lose the old work. It is how you got to where you are today, it may still be valuable as an image. It will always be valuable as part of the record. In a digital world there is a danger that by continuously altering past work we lose past record and only have the moment.
The way I see it, digital recording gives us unlimited scope to edit. That’s unlimited scope to revise. We should do this if something good can be achieved, but we should be careful not to erase our pasts while we do this. Losing the past puts us into Big Brother territory were all we have are moments on a screen and very little else.
How did I arrive at these thoughts. I’ve recently updated a some of my earlier works. Here are the two latest examples.
I’m lucky enough to be able to access Windows 7 ahead of the main launch. This is a good thing since my company Alpha Technical Solutions is hosting one of the Windows 7 launch parties on October 22nd, this also meant with September drawing to close I’d better gen up on Windows 7.
So earlier on today I decided to upgrade my main workstation. Upgrade is a nice way of putting since I’d decided to go for the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and that most definitely means a clean install of Windows. So after making sure all my backups were in tip top condition and using Windows Easy Transfer to secure my settings I started to install Windows 7. It turned out that the installer is Microsoft’s best yet. Clean looking, nicely designed and very easy to use. The software went in an absolute charm. Before long I was rebooting into Windows 7. It looked nice, I picked a graphical theme and made sure that my documents were all being pointed to by documents and libraries (love libraries by the way – great way of organising files).
Next step – run some of the basic software installs. After all a clean install means all your applications have to be reinstalled. I always dread this bit – mostly as I use some pretty heavy weight programs and that always means reinstalling everything takes a while. It also means that I only put on what I really need. This is a good thing. Computers tend to get bunged up with clutter – so having to reinstall from scratch is always a good way of keeping things clean and fresh.
That’s my current state – everything essential is back working again, I’ve got a few more installs to go, but these can happen over the next few days quite safely. What’s pleased me is that upgrading to Windows 7 has been so far painless.
Oh and how does it run? One word – smooth.
Image by Chesi – Fotos CC via Flickr
A few days ago I experimented with importing my RSS feed from Flickr. The good side to this was that is easy to pull in recent photographs using this service directly to Findingviews. The part of my that loves automation likes this idea. I update Flickr and the blog updates automatically. It reduces my work and Findingviews gains an update.
Oddly I’m now wondering how good an idea that is.
The reason isn’t particularly technical. Its all revolves around presentation. My general photographs and some basic notes are shared via Flickr. I also sell selected work on Red Bubble. Findingviews isn’t really about repetition of what I already release publically. Its about my thoughts and the images themselves. In other words I don’t want to repeat, repeat and then repeat more. The posts on Findingviews need to have their own intrinsic value, they have to be about something. This means that I will still import photographs from Flickr, but I will write something about these and add some value to the pictures.
I’ve decided not to use the power of RSS to bore you.
I’ve decided to try and entertain you.
Its a question of using the power of the feed in an appropriate manner.
Just because we can, doesn’t always mean we should.
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