Light Rays Tutorial

Cheap and easy way to add light rays to any photograph in almost ANY photo-editor (also works for video) 

STEP 1: Create basic shape for the light ray

beautiful.... 

STEP 2: Motion Blur

I see a face...

STEP 3: Layer it 

adding multiple copies of the same ray over and over in different spots of the picture to get a nice look... (change the blending mode to "add" so make the black go away...) 

this is a darker look to emphasize the rays

more washed out

Without the picture below this is what my rays ended up looking like...

I added brighter spots at the bottom to make the light more believable and added some dust particles to give a more dreamy, fantasy look... 

I did not take this picture... 


I think one of the most important parts of adding anything to a photography, is simply, matching the color... 

Harajuku - Fashion, Beauty Besides the Skin...

Every Sunday in the area around Harajuku Station, hundreds, thousands of teenagers flock to the area...  wearing the most outlandish, awesome, crazy fashion you can think of... and also to socialize among themselves and meet new people... Being there in person... It's another story... 

The styles vary anywhere from goth, Visual Kei,  cosplay, decora, punk and many made up and mixed styles... 

contest being held at Harajuku 

:)

Many fashion styles around the word originated from Harajuku and several countries around the world have also started having fashion meetups much like Harajuku. 

Its just a for fun thing... and also another reason why getting off the computer and going out into the real world is so much more satisfying... And another reason why Japan is a step ahead of the world... 

HSL Magic! The Magic of adjusting Hue, Saturation and Lighting...

Using HSL in any photography editing program and even video editing programs, you can go from the original left photograph, to the new HSL enhanced right photograph with almost no work at all... 

feel free to copy and past the photo below, if you want to follow along with this tutorial

STEP 1:  Do all the "usual" adjustments, from the original photograph and pretty it up the way you think looks best... I usually do a brightness and Contrast adjustment with a few Color Curves to get what I thought looked pretty nice:  

Step 2: HSL adjust... 

Experimentation is the best way photographers will learn... 

THE FINISHED PRODUCT: 

Here's some other photographs edited using HSL adjustments.

Pictures by Andrew Taraba

Incredible Canon T3i/600D Example Pictures

Incredible Canon T3i/600D Example Pictures

The Canon t3i is an incredible camera both for video and photography. I fell in love with this thing since the first time I touched it. Here are some photographs I took using only the Standard 18-55mm kit lens.

All the stars are smoking cigs... or maybe... All the cigs send us to the stars....

Time to make dinner... Someone forgot to clean out the oven... House instantly got filled with smoke... PICTURE TIME!!! ;]

Nothing turns a stomach or moves my hunger more than a nice old Live Sea Urchin...

Two satellites floating in the sky...

This was my picture for the Animal Photography Contest... I later found out that the magazine article I found the add for the contest in was three months old...

Symbolism in the cymbal....

Pictures by Andrew Taraba