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!

Digital Art - The Sad Pit Bull

Hi There!

This time I want to show you my latest work, using line art. Line art is a fun kind of technique - if you want to transform a photo to a line art, you need to figure which lines are best defining your image, and to draw them. I won't give here a tutorial, but if you like to see one, go to melissaevans.com (the tutorial section).

As I told you in previous posts, even if you are not a professional, or don't have the best equipment, the most important thing in photography or digital art, to my opinion, is the composition. I don't consider myself as a professional in the line art field, but, I knew I could pull it off with a good composed photo.
so... I decided to make a line art picture of my dog. I have several shots of him in various situations, and I chose an emotional one. In this shot he looks very sad and sorry, you can really feel the emotion there!
take a look :

I pointed all the important lines, and drew them on the canvas, especially I tried to seize the emotion of the original photo - The secret is in the eyes, and the eyebrows. If you can deliver the emotion, you have done 80 percent of the work.
Take a look at the line art :

:

It was pretty good, with some basic lines I could deliver the emotion and the original photo's essence. I thought to myself, how can I improve it? should I paint the picture? I never done that - painting a line art, and I was curious how it's going to turn out.
Take a look :

I was really amazed, it was pretty easy, and now the dog looks more alive, the picture is much more vibrant and appealing! I was so happy that I decided to make some more line arts of this beautiful Pit Bull, and I'm going to publish them in future posts.

Hope you enjoyed the art!

If you like to see or purchase my art you are welcome to visit me on my online store or to check out my portfolio on "The Untapped Source" art gallery.


Have a wonderful day :)

Photography/Digital Art - The Importance of Composition

Hi there!

This post is dedicated to the importance of composition, in photography and in art.
Now's days we have many applications and software that help us improve our photos - to enhance the color, to retouch the pic, to make it retro/vintage style and more... We can even find a camera that can take a perfectly focused picture, so we don't have to master all the photography techniques - the technology will help us with most of them.

All of these apps and gadgets ARE helpful, but they cannot transform a boring picture to a more interesting one. If you don't have a good composition, you could make the picture prettier, but it still going to look boring, nobody will give it a second glance. The other way around is different, if you have a good composition, most chances are that people will tolerate (to some point) a poor focus, light or noise.

Let's look at these photos:

Good light and color, poor composition

Poor light and color, good composition

Which picture is better? Most of us will find the second picture more interesting. The composition is much more appealing (the movement and the position of the bar), even though that the light is poor. On the other hand we can't do magic with the first picture, it has a better light and a stronger color, but that is it! Take a look at the second picture after a little bit of lighting, crop and contrast...

Good composition, light and color

I had the same situation, the other day. I was walking in a rural area, looking for an interesting place to take some pictures. Suddenly, two cyclists popped up in front of me... my camera was off, and I tried to capture them as quick as I could. The picture was blurry and the light wasn't perfect, but the composition... it was awesome! The minute I saw the picture, I knew that it has a great potential.

Let's look at the evolution of that pic.

The original - interesting composition, far from perfect focus, light and contrast

Improved light and contrast, better but still imperfect focus

The post processed result was better, but still I thought that this composition needs a better presentation.
So I decided to think out of the box, and to change the photo to a digitized impressionist paint... I had to experiment some filters and to adjust some variables, but the final result was exactly as I imagined - bright colors, noticeable brush strokes and a well presented nature.

Digital impressionist paint

The cyclists and the green background also gave me an idea for a logo - created with vector art.

So, (I'm sure that you already know) in my opinion a good composition is a major (maybe the most important) part of photography and art. You can play with the filters, light and the focus, they are the side dishes... the composition (as shown) is the main course.

That's it for now!  Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you enjoyed it :)

You can find more of my art at my Zazzle store, feel free to browse around!

You can find more art pieces at my Squidoo lenses :
Pop Art
Abstract Art
Still Life