Photography - Black/White and Color

Hi there,

We are all familiar with black and white photography. Color photography is obvious and more common. A combination of those two styles is becoming more popular these days, especially due to photo applications (instagram etc.). The idea behind this technique, is to emphasise an important part of the object or to highlight a certain area, and to make the whole atmosphere more dramatic and appealing.


Let's take a look at some examples.

 On the left photo we can see a pit bull staring at us. The first thing that draws our attention is the eyes, they are penetrating and have that special wolf's yellow-orange color. In order to make those eyes more dramatic, we have to get rid of the fur's red-brownish color. The result (on the right) is far more intense. The eye color is the same, but now you can REALLY feel them. Many people told me that the processed photo is too scary, and intimidating, well...after the process you cannot ignore the photo, and that is a good thing.

On the left we can see two beautiful white roses, in a nice composition. The roses are in the same color, therefore the rose in foreground loses its uniqueness and its special structure. Instead of cropping the picture and deleting the background, I decided to paint the rose, and to make it pop out as a red silky object. The background remains in black and white, and helps the red rose to be the star of the show. The new processed photo is more dramatic and romantic, you can even use it as a valentine card :)

Unfortunately I haven't kept the original photo, but you can sense that the bourbon bottle, with its tempting amber liquid, was a little bit blended in the background. The new colorless background, highlights the bottle, and makes it more appealing and even royal.



If you think that all Black/White and Color pictures look great, think again... Like in every other photo, we must be careful not to overdo things, and to use it only when we need to make a point. To my opinion, using this technique just for "show off", will make it tacky and ridiculous.
here is an example :

This photo reeks of cliche and bad taste, and was created just to make a point, so be careful! :)


Thanks for visiting my blog, if you have questions or comments please leave them here, I would love to read them :)

If you like to see more of my art, feel free to join my Facebook Fan page
or browse around my online store.

Digital Art - Making of a Vector Art Portrait (Video)

Hi there!

This post will be dedicated to Vector Art.
For those of you who have never heard about it, I can describe it as a technique of creating a picture or an image using different geometrical shapes (lines, polygons and other). The advantage of this method is the ability of enlarging the image, without damaging the image's quality, unlike other methods.
If you want to learn a little bit more you are welcome to visit my Vector Art lens

This method is easy to learn, but it takes time to practice, and... if you want to use it properly, you need to spend a lot of time in front of the computer. As we can see on the video, I've spent more or less 7.5 hours making the image, so... you have to be dedicated to your project!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Make sure to check out:
My online store
My Abstract Art, Pop Art and Still Life lenses.

Photography - Happy New Year's Blues

"It’s almost New Year, snow‘s still fallin’ down/
Yes, it’s almost New Year, the snow ‘s still fallin’ down/
And my baby ain’t here to hold me/
I’m the loneliest man in town." Lonnie Johnson - New Year's Blues


Well.. as you probably guessed, this post will be dedicated to the new year's blues. 
I guess I am not the only one having the blues this year, and therefore this post was created for all of you who have the new year's (x-mas' or birthday's) blues.

You know the drill - last year everything was perfect... You had the woman/man of your dreams, maybe you had money or a good job, you had the feeling that this is just the beginning and life is going to be even better! But, in few months everything was gone.

"Now the stage is bare, and I am standing there, with emptiness all around." 

Elvis Presley, Are You Lonesome Tonight.

Here are some photos who make the loneliness and the blues look pretty.

A Lonely Streetlight

This streetlight, actually been captured in the morning...

It is a classic 40's or so design, and I decided to give the picture a film noir touch. A darkness and a spotlight were added in order to make the streetlight stand alone with all his glory. We can feel the coldness and the darkness of the night, as well the loneliness. But... the minimalism and the clean lines, make us admire the object.

A Dry Tree

I was wandering around a field, when I found this dry tree.
It was standing all alone, with its yellow leaves. It was kind of sad to see the tree out there without any flower or a bird around it. Everything around was dead and dry, except the sky. I took the picture with a wide angle lens, my intention was to capture the gloomy brown and yellow tree with the perfect blue sky.

The contrast between them, makes the picture more interesting and optimistic.

Mr. Blue

The man is standing in front of the sea. Reflecting, thinking about his life. He doesn't look very happy, he is Mr. Blue. 

The blue tones, the texture of the water and the wood rail, give the photo a lyrical quality. It is indeed a melancholic scene, but a beautiful one.

Even though this post was a little blue, I wish you a very happy new year, may 2012 will make all your wishes come true!

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

Photography - Anti Beauty

Hi there!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder thay say, I must agree. Especially in photography, the most unatrractive scenes and objects, sometimes look apealing and interessting even more than our usual everyday eye candy.

In this post I gathered some of my Anti-Beauty gallery. Maybe you'll find some beauty here too...

I was strolling on a sunny day, looking for something interesting to shoot. It was hot and I couldn't find anything. All the flowers have gone, not a single color around, besides that dead boring brown. I thought to myself, if I can't find something worth shooting, I must find the beauty in the ugliness. Suddenly I saw a common housefly buzzing around a dried flower, with thorns around him. In my mind I was thinking, everybody wants to take the perfect photo of the beautiful flower with the bee or the butterfly around it, and I have the perfect opportunity to shoot the exact oppsite! so I did.




I hate to see garbage on the streets, it's an ugly habbit, just throw it to the near trah can, it's not so hard!
Saying that, I couldn't ignore the photo opportunity here... The red plastic cup laying there on the green grass. The contrast, the minimalism, the inappropriate object and the question : "why did you take that photo?!" all make it worth while.

Respect the elders!
Those two dead leaves were hanging there, in a majestic way. The sunlight was caressing them, showing every detail of their old being. All the young leaves were standing in the background in a perfect position, just to make those two oldies pop up even more.
What can I say, sometimes death is beautiful.

12 long years I was driving on the same road to the same job. Every morning I've noticed that wreck on the side of the road. Many times I thought to myself that I must go there, to look around, I really liked it, especially in the winter time. Last year I finally did. I picked a very cold and cloudy weather and examined the place.

The green grass carpet, and the grey clouds have created a perfect scenario. all I had to do was to find the right angles.

Take a look :

Well... I hope you enjoyed all the garbage and wrecks around!

Thank you for visiting my blog :)

You are welcome to visit my:

• Zazzle store where you can see more of my art.
• Abstract Art lens
• Pop Art lens
• Still Life Art lens

Photography - 1 Plant and Red Poppies

Hi there,

I am not a big fan of floral shots, I think that most of them look the same, and there are too many of those pictures anyway. Eventually you get bored looking at them. That's why I am trying to take those shots in a different way.

A rainy day is such a pleasure for me, I like the smell, the atmosphere, the clouds in the sky... everything looks more romantic and special, even the common things. I like to grab the camera and capture the obvious things who looks majestic (after the rain).

One rainy day, I was walking with a friend, we were trying to find some things to capture, and we couldn't find something special. but then... suddenly, we've noticed a small plant, not a very special one, but the rain drops on its leaves looked like pearls, or diamonds - now, that is majestic!

The same day, we haven't found much things to capture, it was a lovely day but without many results, besides of some flowers here and there. I looked at those plain red poppies, and thought to myself, how can I make them more interesting, more artistic? I started to shoot them from different angles, but they still were very simple and boring. Just before I left the place frustrated, I decided to disable the focus, and to shoot them in a blurry mode.  When I got home and looked at the photo, I liked the result, It was like a painting, a hint of red flowers in a green creamy ocean. 

Weeks later... the sun was shinning, we went to visit the same area, and discovered a huge field of poppies! it was marvelous, everywhere we looked we saw that red ocean, that was the nature at its glory. We thought that we've arrived there pretty early, and we would be the only people there, but I guess we were wrong...

That specific beautiful weekend day, the beautiful scenery and all the happy people were captured in that happy, and optimistic photo.

This photo reminds me that life is beautiful, you just have to look around, and to appreciate the little things. 

That's it for now, thank you for visiting my blog.

If you enjoyed my work you are welcome to visit my zazzle store, where you can find more of my designs and photography. 

And... if you love artת make sure to visit my Abstract, Still Life and Pop Art lenses, for some beautiful galleries of young and talented artists!

Digital Art - A Little Bit Of Abstract

Hi there!

This post will be dedicated to Abstract Art.

A word about Abstract :
Abstract art is an art form that takes the reality as we now it, and puts it aside. it could be unrecognized shapes, semi-recognized reality, or geometrical figures, but it will always take the liberty to show us a non-existing reality as we know it. Sometimes you can see, or imagine some resemblance to our known world, most of the time it will be extremely unique and exclusive. It will force you to use your imagination and feelings, to visualize... that is probably the reason why some people like it, some don't. You have to use your own mind, and recruit your life experiences in order to figure out the art by yourself, two different people will see and feel different things, and that's the beauty of this art form!

That's why I love Abstract, there is no right or wrong, good or bad, everyone can see their thing, and it's ok. For me it's way more interesting than those classic paints that look like a photo, although they have amazing details and accuracy. I guess I prefer discovering my own explanation, and to hear other people opinions regarding the art.

I would like to show you some of my recent Abstracts, with my point of view.

Circles and Squares

When I take a photo, or digitally paint an abstract, I usually feel and imagine the piece. Many times, especially when I paint, I feel like in a journey. I explore many things, correct and start all over again, until I find the destination. Sometimes it amazes me - to start a new concept, and to finish it in a completely different way. In this piece I tried to create a simple but sophisticated combination of colors and shapes, with a retro feel. I was quite happy when I saw the result.

Crazy Colors

This piece was originally created with only two colors - black and red. During my journey with that particular paint, I felt that I have to see in front of me some colorful waves, unrestrained messy happiness. At the end it was looking like a celebration of color and movement - an absolute joy.

Triangles Madness 

This one shows us the chaos and the order. we can see many colors in unrecognized shapes all over the canvas. but if we look closely we can see that the colors are placed in triangles - sinuses order. and in between we can find some figures and symbols.
Like in nature, the chaos and the order are mixed together.

Polls

In this one, I wanted to evoke a cold and unpleasant feeling. Cold black metal polls, that won't meet in a colorless framed environment. To me, it's like the modern world, many of us are communicating less with each other, and more via technology, we are working to much, and we limit our world to our well-known daily routine.










That's it folks :)
In future posts it'll be my pleasure to share with you some photography Abstracts.

You can see more of my work on my fan page on facebook.
          or on my Zazzle store, where you can purchase my art.

More art you can find on my lenses on "Pop Art", "Still Life" and "Abstract" - great art galleries, created by young and talented artists, make sure to check them out!

Have a great day !