A few pics from the drive:
Occasional Musings
by Murali Jayapala
Photography Tutorial: Composition
An 8 part series on composition in photography. Excellent video Below.
Here is the summary.
- part1: Composition
- “It the arrangement of the parts of a work, so as to form a unified harmonious whole”
- “It is the artists way of directing the viewers vision in a planned de-randomized fashion”
- part2: Distractions and Attractions
- Bright areas, high contrast, color contrast, area of sharpness (eyes for animals/people), colors in monochromatic space
- part3: Elements of Composition
- Lines, textures, contrast, movement, positive and negative space
- part4: Subject Placement
- Golden mean, rule of thirds/horizontal lines, proper balance (weight), framing, (as)symmetry
- part5: Different lenses
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- UWA, Normal, Telephoto: Foreground (uwa) or Background (tele) emphasis
- part6: DoF, Shutter Speed, Movement
- part7: Positioning and Camera Location: Move your feet/tripod/camera
- part8: General tips/hints
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- For portraits: Keep eyes sharp, use less distracting background, keep face out of center of the frame, dont be afraid to crop the top of head, beware of cropping at joints
- For general photography: Wait for the right moment, shoot both horizontal and vertical, keep eye out for tight mergers (intersections), run border patrol, know power of lines in photos, use depth of field button
- Most importantly, learn these rules and break them! Composition is a life long practice…
Perfect Photography Composition – Part 1 of 8 from Joe Bloggs on Vimeo.
Taking Photos in Busy Tourist Destinations with no People in the Shot
Digital Photography Tips: Digital Photography School
via Taking Photos in Busy Tourist Destinations with no People in the Shot.
As an architectural photographer and frequent traveler, I often come across scenes where I’d like the architecture or view to be the main focus of the image, free of people or cars in the shot. In busy tourist destinations or anywhere particularly interesting, this can be very difficult. There are some locations that are simply so popular that there is almost never a time where the scene has no people or distractions in it. Thankfully there is a relatively simple technique that will allow you to capture these scenes people-free. It only requires a tripod and your image editing software.
I’ll describe the basic shooting technique and principles of how to edit here, rather than getting into the technical details of any one specific image editing package, so that everyone can apply this to whichever software you use.
The basic method of shooting scenes with no people in the shot is based on the fact that people generally move throughout the scene over time. Because of this, you can capture a few photos of the scene as the people move about, and then easily combine them in software to remove the people. All you have to do is capture a few photos so that the view of any given part of the scene is unobstructed in at least one photo. Here is an illustration:
The photo below is from the viewing area on top of a skyscraper in New York City. I wanted to get a clean shot of the NYC skyline without any people in the foreground, but it is difficult as the area is often busy with groups enjoying the view. In this photo there is a person in the shot on the left of the frame, blocking the view:
A minute later the person was joined by his partner, but now they’re standing further to the right, so I took another shot. See below:
What if I could combine the two shots to take the clean right side of photo #1 and combine it with the clean left side of photo #2? That’s all you have to do to get a clean shot.
There are quite a few ways to do this. I’ll overview a few below and you can choose which works best for you with the editing software you use.
I use Corel Paint Shop Pro, so I just “copied and pasted” photo #1 on top of photo #2 which layered them on top of each other. Using the eraser brush, I simply erased over photo #1 where the person was standing, which revealed the clean “people-free” area in the layer below it. Here you can see how it looks after the first swipe with the eraser brush:
The final resulting photo is this:
If your editing software supports layers, you can use a mask layer. Just layer one photo on top of another and create a mask layer. Paint with a black brush over the people to reveal the clean layer below.
Another method that works, although a bit less precisely, is to use the clone brush. Clone the clean area of one photo onto the same area in the other photo where the people are located.
Photoshop Elements even includes a function called “Photomerge Scene Cleaner” to assist with the process.
During shooting, you may need to shoot more than just two photos to get clean areas, but the process is still the same. Repeat the editing process until you’ve cleaned all the areas of distractions.
Here is another example. The photo below is of Literary Walk in Central Park, NYC. I wanted to get a clean shot of the walkway without any people in the foreground, but it is difficult as the path is often busy with groups enjoying the park. In this photo there are a couple of people walking through the shot on the left.
A minute later the people on the left had moved on, so I took another shot. The area was still busy and someone walked through the shot, but this time on the right side of the frame. See below:
Here’s the shot after the first swipe with the eraser brush:
The final resulting photo is this:
Once you’ve mastered the technique, you’ll be able to quickly create distraction-free photos that really show off the beauty of the locations you’re photographing. Both the examples above took me less than a minute!
Paul Timpa is creator of the iPhone / Android app “Photography Trainer” which teaches users photography and he answers photography questions daily on his Facebook Page.
Post from: Digital Photography School
Reading in Digital Age
Recently there was an article from Nicholas Carr titled “Is Google Making us Stupid?” and there was much debate and arguments about it, which I am sure it can be googled very easily 🙂
But the following article I found quite interesting. Especially about contemplative thought vs analytical thought. Here is an interesting snippet.
“…This starts me wondering about the difference between contemplative and analytic thought. The former is intransitive and experiential in its nature, is for itself; the latter is transitive, is goal directed. According to the logic of transitive thought, information is a means, its increments mainly building blocks toward some synthesis or explanation. In that thought-world it’s clearly desirable to have a powerful machine that can gather and sort material in order to isolate the needed facts. But in the other, the contemplative thought-world—where reflection is itself the end, a means of testing and refining the relation to the world, a way of pursuing connection toward more affectively satisfying kinds of illumination, or insight—information is nothing without its contexts. I come to think that contemplation and analysis are not merely two kinds of thinking: they are opposed kinds of thinking. Then I realize that the Internet and the novel are opposites as well….”
More about this here: [The Link]
The Meaning of Life by Terry Eagleton
Recently came across the review of the above book. Seems like an interesting book to have a look into. Below is an excerpt from the book.
“…. here we stumble upon another hurdle – escapism. Isn’t ‘elusiveness’ just another term for avoiding the question? Eagleton considers the question of the meaning of life to be an ethical one: but it’s doubly hard to find the core values of life and struggle toward living them out without singling out any ideology from which to make ethical judgements. Ethics aim at bringing integration and harmony to human life, not vagueness, and so measuring one’s life against some kinds of ethical standards or values is central to the pursuit of life’s meaning. In this sense the question cannot be prevaricated. And ultimately, the author considers two core values as the defining features of a meaningful life: love and happiness. Readers are of course free to come up with their own values by which to measure their life’s meaningfulness (or meaninglessness). Yet the most precious advice that we get from The Meaning of Life is that using values, even the most positive values, as means to an end, is a dangerous road to travel if you really are setting out for the meaning of life. Rather, attaining meaningfulness requires that positive values be ends in themselves, not the road to some hidden destination. Practicing good values is the ultimate treasure, and no meaning surpasses it.
The Meaning of Life is an important work for all readers of serious issues, in that it invites discussion on one of the most difficult questions which concern everyone. At the end of the book Professor Eagleton reminds his readers that his discussion is not supposed to provide a final answer to the mega-question of life, nor does he expect any other treatise to do so. He does, however, succeed in reminding us that the question is there; that it is worth contemplating; and that engaging in the quest for meaning is an exciting adventure which itself constitutes part of the meanings of life as much as breathing is part of physical life.” … Ernest Dempsy.
More about this here: [The Link]