Creating Silhouettes

Silhouettes can be some of the most beautiful images a photographer can take. So, what’s the secret behind getting this effect in your photos? It’s all about lighting and position of the subject.

Think backwards

As a general rule, we want the source of light in our images to come from in front of the subject and to be project on them facing toward the camera. With silhouettes, this is actually not the case. For a good silhouette, you need the light source to be coming from behind the subject. This is why many of these images seem to be in front of windows with natural light for example.

Time of day can matter too

In some case, the time of day you shoot can make a big difference. I find that for outdoor silhouettes, it works best if you are shooting as the sun is going down but still very strong. I suppose this is because it minimizes the light in front of the subject and emphasizes it behind.

Black and white

In general, silhouettes seem to look better in black and white so I would suggest adjusting your final image to a grayscale setting of some sort.

The Canvas (A Poem)

This is my latest poem and I hope you like it.

The Canvas

The canvas set before the stars
A color palette ever pure
New revisions with each moment
Pastels to long endure

Perfect in it’s simplicity
Yet detailed beyond compare
The sky lit by sunlight
With colors oh so fare

Never has there been
A piece of art so grand
From and sea or ocean
To any edge of land

Painting Eye

An incredibly silly “instructional” video filled with sensory overload like you’ve never seen.

What exactly is a GWC?

In photography circles, especially when it comes to working with models, many photographers work hard to be professional and produce high quality work. However, a few bad apples sometimes give the rest of us a bad name. These are sometimes what has been granted the acronym GWC.

So what is a GWC?

It is short for the term “Guy With Camera” (although in rare occasions I suppose it could apply to females as well). As Urban Dictionary defines it – “Commonly used in the modelling/photographer biz, ‘GWC’ is any poser/creep with a digital camera pretending to be a pro/semi-pro photographer.”

This is not a bad definition but a little more needs to be addressed here. The basic facts are that a guy (or girl) with camera is:

1. Is primarily interested in getting their subject naked or scantly clad with no real regard for art.
2. Is overall unprofessional in their approach.

This means that a GWC can be a photographer of any skill level or experience using any type or camera, including very high end ones.

Conversely,  a professional attitude and artistic outlook can make even those with less experience and a low end camera or equipment not a GWC.

The basic lesson here is two-fold:

For models –

Avoid working with GWCs

For photographers –

Avoid being one

Fun with Food Photography

It probably won’t come as a surprise to just about anyone out there that there are several different sub-sections within the art of photography. Of course, there are landscape photographers, those who work with portraits, people who take photos for journalist purposes, fashion photographers and many, many more. One sub-section that may sometimes get overlooked a bit is food photography.

Whether you pick up on it or not, food photography is everywhere. From art exhibits to advertisements and even the images that line the walls in your favorite restaurants, it’s hard to miss if you really take the time to notice it.

With all that in mind, here are a few tips for taking appealing images of food that will make you want to say “yum.”

Lighting

Just like in every other form of this artistic method, lighting is crucial. Obviously, you are going to want to make sure the image is bright enough to effectively show the culinary goods but not so bright as to washout the image. The more you can adjust the lighting to conform to the most natural looking colors within the food, the better. For example, if you’re lighting is in cool tones of a somewhat bluish tint, it’s probably not going to work out well for a photo of a basket of apples.

Detail

One of the most appealing things about food it the detail, specifically when it comes to things like texture and shape. For example, if you are shooting a photo of an uncooked steak, the image becomes much more appealing if you can capture the marble coloration of the mixture of fat and lean. For those of you who prefer the veggies, making sure to emphasize the crumpled effect of lettuce in a salad really helps as well.

No distractions

Just like with other photography work, if the subject of the image is surrounded by other items that can be a distraction, it takes away from the purpose and goal of the shot. Basically, the photo becomes too “busy” if you will and results in over stimulation. Do what you can to remove objects that may fight for attention with the subject from the background as well as anywhere else.

Moisture

Showing a wetness or moisture in your food images can go a long way in making them stand out to the viewer as well. This is especially true when it comes to foods that are typically expected to be juicy. In many cases, food photographers make a few enhancements if you will like using a spray bottle to add some droplets on whole fruits or veggies or any number of other substances, edible or not, to meats and pancakes with syrup.