Photography - A Wise Use of Filter Apps

Hi there,

In previous posts I've mentioned that the whole filter apps trend is overused. Many times even the most beautiful filter cannot save the picture from being boring. As I mentioned before, we must maintain the basic photography rules, and the most important : the composition.

When we know for sure that we have a well composed photo, we can use the filters in order to add more ambiance. Remember, we will only use a filter if it would give an added value to our photo, otherwise it might even ruin it.

Here are some photos that I took yesterday, before and after the filter app. I use Pixlr-o-Matic, it's a great app! (What about Instagram? nothing, I just hate the buzz around it :P)

The Original - Black and White

The original photo was shot in black and white. The pose on the couple, their eyes and the hug are creating a good composition. If you isolate them from the rest of the room, you can really see a 'moment' there. After I adjusted a little bit the original photo in Photoshop, The result was this:

Photoshopped - Cropped and Sharpened 

Better already! Wasn't too hard. To complete the atmosphere, I decided to add a metallic filter, just to make the picture more special.

Filtered 

It was just like adding a little bit of pepper to a dish.

Most of the pictures yesterday were shot in Black and White, I especially wanted to create a 70s atmosphere in the next picture. In this one and several other that I took, I was going back to my childhood in the 70s. I was trying to reproduce the happiness, the carefree reality and the innocence in a 2012 child.
Take a look:

The Original - Black and White

This picture says it all. The child's eyes, the smiles and the general atmosphere were perfect for me. No Photoshop was needed there. I decided to run some filters, to find out if I can add more 70s/vintage atmosphere. Take a look:

Filtered

I really love the result. The picture is definitely more special, and unforgettable.

Last one was kind of a joke, I used a wide angle to shoot my jeans and the All Star sneakers. It was silly, I know, but I liked it anyway.   

Original

The perspective on this picture was cool, and of course you already know (or not) that I like the classic Converse All Star . So... in the 70s atmosphere roll, I filtered this one too. Here is the result:

Filtered

Kept it simple and silly in this photo :)

Well, that's it for now. I hope that you enjoyed the post (please share it if you like it:)).

Use the filters apps cleverly!

Feel free to send me comments with links to your filtered pictures, I will be happy to see them :)

And as always, you are welcome to visit my online store or my Facebook fan page for more original Photography and Digital Art.

Thank you for visiting, have a lovely day!

Photography - Live Shows, Some Tips

Hello everyone.

A few days ago I read an article about photography and photo filters. In that article we learned how to use the filters to improve an existing fairly good picture, to a great one. In other words, to make a lemonade from the lemons that our camera produced.

I thought to myself, in which of my photos over the years, I didn't have to use a "heavy artillery" as filters or complex photoshop techniques? and the answer popped immediately - in live shows!

As for me, I love music since I was a child. I played the trumpet, played in some bands and orchestras all over the country and over seas. I will always remember the excitement that I had while I entered the stage. The lights, the red curtains or the smoke. And come to think about that, that setting will always look good on photos!

So what do we have here..   an ambiance, a good light, a theme, some props, an energy from the crowd, and many more... all we have to do is to click!  right?

Wrong! although we have some great conditions to have a perfect picture, we must follow some simple rules.

Turn Off The Flash!  

Personally, I hate to use a flash when I'm taking pictures. It ruins the natural light, and doesn't produce the same atmosphere, nor even represents the scenery well. don't get me wrong, sometimes the flash is really needed, and if your purpose is just to take a picture of your friends, or just to have fun with the camera it is ok. But It seems to me that many people use it automatically, even professionals, and though you may see every wrinkle on the object's face, you will lose the atmosphere completely. So my humble advice is just to save the flash for the real hard cases.

In a show, we have the setting, the colorful lights, the energy, so PLEASE, accept that gift, turn off the flash and show the world what your eyes have really seen. You may have to play a little bit with the f-stop (lower numbers), or the shutter speed (slower), but it's totally worth it!

you'll be the judge                    
                                           

as seen on demais music blog

It's the same singer - Maria Rita , the same stage, the same show.  But you can easily think that the left picture was taken at a junior high prom, while the other one gives us the real deal  - colors, lights, and magic. and to be clear, I am not talking about the composition, just the flash factor.

Let's see another example.

This picture was taken on street theater festival. With the flash on, we can see a heavy use of make up, and we can't see anything special or magical about that image. We can obviously see the object clearly, we don't miss any detail and as a common facebook photo it serves well.

But if we will turn off the flash, we will see that :

and that     

A completely different image. We can actually see the golden tones, the make up fits well, and the whole image looks much more romantic, and dreamy...   All that without any effort.

A Little Editing Will Do

When you have such great components in your photos, all you have to do is to tweak and adjust some little things. To make your photo a little bit more appealing and interesting, you should crop sometimes, play a little bit with the saturation, maybe to sharpen every now and then. But that's it ! suitable for beginners as well as lazy people (as me).

Here are 2 examples

The original photo

A little crop to the right and a tiny desaturation - and you're good to go!

The original photo

A little bit of crop, brightness/contrast and a sharpen filter
 and the result is much more dramatic.

Feel The Groove!

This is the best tip I can give.

You can have the best looking picture, with the best composition, but it is worth nothing with out the feel!

You have to feel the music, spot the expressions of your objects, try to visualize what would be their next step and shoot! A good picture will throw you back to the moment, you will relive the concert again, the sounds, the sweat - everything!

Here some examples,

. 

Well, as you all understand I really think that live shows can give you a lot of great photo opportunities, without a big post production hustle. I hope my advises will help you in your next shooting session !

Thanks for your time, see you soon!

Idan.


Btw: if you like to see more of my work, you can take a look (and even purchase if you'd like to)