Perfect Composition : FAKER!!!

Working with animals is pretty hard even if they are your pets! Its hard to get them to sit still and stay in one place while you focus and take those pictures (unless their cats)

Achieving a composition like this one would take an extremely LONG time to possition all the dogs or even be able to get the dogs to stand still while all in frame at once. Luckily there are cheats...

You'll need a Tripod for this one. And it simply involves waiting for the right moment and when each dog walks into the spot you want it, then snap the picture.. Edit it and cut out the doggies so they all appear to be in the frame at once. 

It isn't a very hard process, but some people forget this technique when trying to achieve that perfect composition. 

(those tiny dogs in the corner just would not sit still, so I left the camera on video mode and placed those dogs there myself) 

This photo is done the same way as the one above

the patterns in the couch make is easier to do a sloppy job! yay

If you're having trouble composing a perfect shot with moving subjects and you happen to have a 

tripod or a table to set your camera on, just remember this technique. 

Cause like 70% of the things on the internet are doctored anyways right? 

Food Photography

well I gave it a shot (get it)... but I'm no pro

YEAH IT ALWAYS LOOK BETTER IN PICTURES THAN IN REAL LIFE...

here's my before

I removed the bun crack, brightened the colors and added a Gluttony in the background for comedic effect.

Without a Reflector:
you can see how moody this burger looks when you do the same editing to it as above... ewww so sad... 

so I didn't have a second reflector... Whatever... I used something! (its my mothers shopping bag! okay?!)

My main source of light was the window...

and if you're wonfering what this tasty hamburger looks like from behind check out this video ;)

Using Reflectors : Cat Images

Cat pictures! :3 

using a reflector...

The reflector is more useful than I first though... Back in high school they had a 

Film broadcast and everytime they interviewed people

you could totaly see the bright glare from them using a reflector...

he's not too interested in reflectors... little does he know the curtain also doubles as a reflector!

so for a while I was against it.. This is my first time using a Neewer reflector

I got of amazon for $8 

use the reflector whenn you can!! XD 

it makes a huge difference!!

Get as close to the subject as you possibly can without getting the reflector in the shot... 

or unless you want to use the reflector as a white background! ;) 

well this would be more educational if I added a with and without picture... hold up I'll go do it now.. 

but its late so I don't have any Natural Light to work with... and my cat's sleeping in a dark spot of the house... ugh.. okay hold on... 

okay so here's without the reflector. The photo is more contrasy and if you want a dark, lonely mood

then using no reflector is good :P  

it also looks crappy out of context so maybe moody isn't good... 

This is with the reflector. 

no settings on the camera were changed and both images were processed the same. (curves and sharpness)

but this one has a happier, more colorful mood. Also the Mega64 artwork gets some light shed on it... 

(perhaps I'll use a tripod one day... cause I did NOT move the cat.. blame it on the light...) 

Lazy Linus

 Perhaps the coolest cat I've ever owned, now I'm not going to try to turn this into a photography lesson or anything, because sometimes its not about using special techniques and rule of thirds...

 Sometimes the only thing that matters is whats in front of the camera... no matter how awesome your angle is, how fast your shutter speed it or how much DOF you have in the shot... none of that matters if your subject is boring ;)

Blending in is the only way I can survive...

oh yeah... 

Zzzzzzzzzzzz

if you really want something out of this post it would be this:

Don't waste too much time learning techniques and stuff, sure its important, but a lot of your time should also be spent with the side that "normal people" actually care about - subjects...

Dynamic Lighting - Moody Flowers

Short - Sweet - To the Point! :)

Dynamic Lighting is lighting where there is ONE definitive, bold, light source that creates an uneven lighting contrast of bright brights and dark shadows...

this isn't the harshest of lighting conditions, but it still emphasizes detail in the flower as well as in the cloth

a little harsher?

window as dynamic light source

 the main light source for the first picture was the window, the rest of the room was dark for the most part even though there were other light sources (windows). The flower is a little lower than the window. (light source)

The light source for the second picture was the same window, though the position was much farther away from the window. The flower is level with the window...

of course the lighting doesn't always have to be 90 degree angles... The light source (sun) is almost directly facing the camera, revealing detail on the window and wood, that would not otherwise be visible had there been other light sources present (say on the other side of the window...) ...or had there been a bottle of windex nearby... 

Below is a great tutorial on how to do FAKE Dynamic lighting with some editing...

http://psd.tutsplus.com/tutorials/photo-effects-tutorials/add-dynamic-lighting-to-a-flat-photograph/

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...