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What is Camera RAW?

September 24th, 2008    Subscribe To Our Feed

Convert Your Photos to Artwork

June 15th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Chances are you have tons of photographs lying around. Some may be digital, others traditional photographs. Many of us would like to convert photos to oil painting but aren’t sure “how” to do this.

When we were younger, artists would simply gaze at photos and magically convert them to oil paintings by eye. Artists would use the photo as a frame of reference and sketch the photo, fill it and paint it…layer by layer.

Nowadays, the scene has changed. With the introduction of digital software programs like Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop and PaintShop Pro, many people are attempting to paint their photos. They quickly realized it is not easy and requires great skill.

The majority of people that give painting a shot give up. You see, the same principles that apply to the old days still applies to the digital age. You have to be gifted with art to create your own paintings by yourself. So the next obvious choice is outsourcing, or asking someone else to paint your photos.

With the introduction of the internet, you no longer need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars trying to retain a local artist to convert your photo to an oil painting. Today there are tons of website that house artists from around the world to paint in record time with great results. These artists are quite skilled and will make any photo come alive with beautiful colors, brush strokes and modern painting methods.

So the next logical question still remains. With all the websites out there, which one can I trust the most to convert a photo to an oil painting? Luckily, the team at PhotoPainting.us has gone through all the rigorous testing and found the 3 big winners. We looked at artwork quality, delivery time and other factors to find the big winner. Visit www.PhotoPainting.us to see our top results.

How To Transform Your Cherished Photos Into Canvas Artwork

June 15th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Ever wondered how to make the best use of your cherished photographs in your home? Technology today affects every aspect of human lives, and photography is not an exception. Now, using photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop and Picasa, you can digitally add effects that can instantly turn your photos into gorgeous works of art.

Canvas artworks are classic in the interior design communityBecause of their elegant and attractive nature, they never go out of style. Commissioned classical artworks, however, can be very expensive.Photographs mounted on canvas are a great alternative to this. Photos on  canvas easily brighten up any living space and bring a burst of colour and life in to the room, and still give the same look and feel of a commissioned artwork.

With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can turn your own photographs into your own masterpieces. Let your creativity kick in as you play with Photoshop’s various filtering effects. You can render your photographs to look like traditional artworks. Other things you can do are adding textures to your photos, playing with your photos’ colours and saturation, have it distorted and even transform it into an abstract art.

Artistic Effects. Have your photos edited as if it has been painted in water colour or in oil paint. You can even convert them into a coloured pencil drawing and charcoal sketches. Most photo editing software allow you to play with these effects through various options such as brush strokes length and strength, the amount of light and shadows, and even paper brightness.

Distortion. Distortion effects include ‘diffuse glow’, ‘glass’ and ‘ocean ripple’. Diffuse glow gives your photographs a fog-like effect. You can edit the amount of graininess and glow to your preference. Glass effect gives your photos a look as if you’re looking at it through a glass panel or even through an ice block.Ocean ripple creates an ocean-like surface on your photograph.

Textures. You can add various textures in your photographs to make it look as if it had been printed into various textiles.Such textile includes craquelure, grain, mosaic tiles, patchwork, texturizer, and stained glass.

Colour. You can edit your photos’ colours through the many options available. Play with your photos’ hue and saturation, render them as a classic black and white picture using the desaturate option, or transform them into pop art by using colour variations. You can even give you photos an antique feel by applying sepia tone.

Blurring. You can easily change the depth of field of your picture by playing with the various blurring and smudging tools on most photo editing software. Solid lines of your subject’s features can be softened through the use of different blur filters, such as ‘radial blur’, which gives a hazy circular blur on your photo and ‘motion blur’, which gives off movement effects.

By experimenting with various effects and filters, you can come up with an artwork worthy to be mounted on canvas and displayed for everyone to enjoy. What’s more, your beautiful stretched  canvas art print can not only be used to decorate your walls, but it can also be a wonderful gift to family and friends.

Model Posing Techniques: Arms

June 15th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

A posing model’s arms can make a shot or break it.  It is all about positioning.  While the legs may often be a focal point, an area of interest, the arms offer balance, create an artistic tone and lend support to expression.

Arms should receive a great deal of attention in model posing because they can make the overall shot more attractive.

At times, your model may be unsure about posing arms.  This can leave you with a series of shots that are awkward and the focus is pulled off of the subject.  While the arms may be all over the place, the frame of the shot is putting limits on the range of motion.

While this may be a bit tricky, it doesn’t have to be difficult.  If you break down the arm area into three segments of upper arm, forearm and hand, you can begin to see the arms as viable props within a shot.

The camera can pose interesting challenges in composition.  To illustrate this, try to imagine the arm as flattened, as if cut out of cardboard.  Divide the arm by three segments: the upper arm, forearm and hand, joined at the shoulder, elbow and wrist.  Each segment can rotate up or down, but never move away from or toward the camera.

It this were the case, for posing model the arms would never be an issue.

But it doesn’t work that way.  Arms are flesh and bone, three dimensional.  Their range of motion is typically much more advanced and the possibilities are endless.  While it is a best practice in certain types of photography such as commercial and glamour, is to limit the motion of the arm toward and away from the camera, the side to side, up and down motions are boundless.

We limit the movement of the arm toward and away from the camera for a very simple reason, distortion.  The camera does not see like the human eye, which is connected to the brain and adjusts the depth of an object, keeping it in relative proportion to the objects surrounding it (most of the time anyway).  The camera sees objects within its scope as near or far.  This means that an arm that a model pose is a little too close to the lens will look very large and disproportionate to the model.  Likewise, if the arm is moved too far away from the lens, it can look abnormally small in relation to the model.

The restrictions that the camera sets, however, can be manipulated and used in a creative format where the distortion and off set perspective are intentional.  This is seen in more artistic compositions, but is present in some commercial photography.  The smart photographer and model will have a grasp of the camera’s restrictions and work to keep movement within the boundaries of the frame, limiting posing to that area.

Depending on the aperature setting of the camera, the model may have a very restricted range of motion toward the camera and away from it.  On the other hand, smaller setting will give her a broader range within which to work.  However, in a typical shot with the F stop set at 10, she will have limited forward/back ranged of motion, but almost unlimited up, down and side to side range of motion.  She can drop her arms, swinging them at her sides, raise them to meet overhead or cross her body at various heights and levels.

This is when it becomes apparent that the so called restrictions are not necessarily set in stone.  Each arm does have its own rather broad range of motion within the limitations.  Even as the forearm and upper arm are limited in movement as far as depth is concerned, there are still many very interesting, attractive positions that are available for each arm.

Upper Arm positions are directed from the elbow which acts as a point of reference for the arm’s position within the frame.  For instance, with the body facing front, the upper arm may move out which carries the elbow up and away from the body.  It can also move up, in, so that the elbow is somewhere across the center of the body and down to a resting position.

This circuit of sorts, sets the stage for many different positions that fall within these four primary positions.

The normal position for the upper arm is hanging down from the shoulder.  This is the natural position for the arm.  However, care must be taken to critically view the arm as it lies in relation to the body.  For instance, if the model raises her arms and crosses her wrists behind her head (much nicer and more relaxed than placing them on her head), the upper arm position is critical.  If it is too close to her face, she looks as if she is being compressed.  If it is too far away, she looks as if she is about to take flight.  Minute changes in position can make all the difference.

While the hands are indeed a part of the arm, for these purposes, only the upper arm and forearm will be discussed here.

Forearm positions are directed from the wrist and where it lies in relation to the elbow.  With the elbow acting as the pivot point, it is usually best practice to set the upper arm prior to setting the forearm.

The normal, resting position of the forearm is hanging down at the side.  This segment, too, has the same four basic positions as the upper arm.

Good photography is more than just taking a pretty picture.  It is about the artistic development of the shot, the positioning of the various parts that make up the model and the composition of the shot.  It is important to keep in mind not only the position of the arms in relation to the lens, but also their position in relation to the model.  Arms that are too close to the sides or too close to the face can give the area a compressed, unnatural look.  By the same token, arms that are too far away from the face or body can be just as unappealing.  Don’t be afraid to try different positions, even moving one part of the arm or the other one degree at a time.  Great arms can give you great shots.

Lighting For Studio Photography

June 15th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Photo Lighting

In photography, both the skill of the photographer and their knowledge and use of proper angles and the use of available light help them to achieve the best shots possible consistently.

For newer or intermediate photographer’s to be able to produce better photo’s, particularly indoor photo’s can depend on what type of photography studio equipment they choose to use.Such items as the type of lighting for studio's or home that may be needed, between either flash or continuous lighting.  Along with other equipment to consider, such as a background or backdrop for instance if they wanted to produce portraits or product shots.

 

For portraits many photographer’s, in particular professional photographer’s at pro studio’s use either a strobe flash light fastened onto a light stand along with an umbrella or a soft box to diffuse the lighting and possibly a separate backlight to eliminate shadowing.  Or they will choose to go with a full photo studio equipment package with multiple strobe lights and a backdrop.Using flash lighting for photography can produce incredible results; though it does require the photographer to sync their camera with the flash so they work together in perfect timing.

 

Beginning photographer’s sometimes find it much easier to go with continuous lighting instead initially because it gives them the light that they need without having to sync their camera with a flash light or flash lighting kit to get the desired result.  The most well known types of photography equipment for continuous lighting are halogen, sometimes referred to as tungsten lighting and fluorescent lighting. 

 

Fluorescent lighting is considered by many to be the best available continuous lighting source that you can use for still photography or video production.  One of the features of fluorescent lighting is the coolness that they operate with.Both non heat producing and economical, fluorescent photo or video lighting units simulate sunlight safely. 

 

Halogen or tungsten lighting can produce great results as well, however if you are in a smaller studio or in a room in your home, the heat generated by these halogen lights will certainly warm up the scene literally without proper ventilation.  Regardless of what type of lighting and accessories photographers decide on.  The marked improvement of photo quality that can be produced with additional photography equipment can change what might be an ordinary photograph into a professional quality photo

Rule of Thirds

June 15th, 2009    Subscribe To Our Feed

Understanding the Rule of Thirds 

Knowledge of the rule of thirds can substantially improve the appeal of your photographic images. Over time it has been noted that artworks that have the main subject, horizon or the point in the picture that you want to feature is positioned using the rule of thirds often results in being more pleasing to the eye.

To get a handle on the rule of thirds just take an A4 piece of paper and draw 2 vertical lines that divide it into equal thirds and then repeat the process with 2 horizontal lines. The result is some thing that appears like a naughts and crosses game.

Now envisage that the piece of paper is the view finder in your camera. The points where they intersect and the lines themselves are the powerful points in an image.

Knowing the rule of thirds will prompt you to access your subject and try to identify what is the most fascinating characteristic that you are endeavouring to capture.

Following are some ideas that may help you apply the rule of thirds:

1. Landscape or seascape try positioning the horizon on the top line or the bottom line in the view finder.Use the bottom line if the sky is the most interesting feature in the image, if the land or sea is the dynamic factor use the top line.

2. Try to position the eyes of a subject near or on the top line ifor a portrait.

3. Position the main feature of your picture on one of the line intersections.

4. When a person is on the beach or out in the open when photographing them try positioning them looking into the image on one of the vertical lines.

 

Have a look at some of your own images and see if by cropping them using your knowledge of the rule of thirds you can make them more pleasing to the eye.

Finally remember that even though we call it the rule of thirds use it as a guide and when you can find good reason to break the rules don’t let it stand in the way of your natural creativity.

 

To find more photography tips visit CanvasPrintsOnline.com

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