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Posts Tagged ‘Journey’

Documenting humanity’s journey into space: Over 2,400 iconic space images are up for auction

13 Nov
Lead image: ‘The ‘Blue Marble’, the first human-taken photograph of the Earth fully illuminated, December 7-19, 1972, Harrison Schmitt [Apollo 17]. Estimate: £15,000-31,500. Offered in Voyage to Another World: The Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection, November 6-19, 2020, Online’ Caption and image courtesy of CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2020

Christie’s has placed up for auction a massive collection of images, many of which document the American space program from the 1940s through the 1970s. The collection, ‘Voyage to Another World: The Victor-Martin Malburet Photograph Collection,’ includes 700 lots comprising more than 2,400 separate items.

Bidding began on November 6 and continues until November 19 for lots 1-325 and November 20 for the remaining lots. Christie’s states that the collection traces ‘the artistic heritage of the Apollo Missions and Golden Age of space exploration.’

‘The first photograph of man in space [Large Format], Ed White’s first American EVA over Hawaii, June 3-7, 1965, James McDivitt [Gemini IV]. Estimate: £6,000-8,000. Offered in Voyage to Another World: The Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection, November 6-19, 2020, Online’ Caption and image courtesy of CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2020

Martin-Malburet has built this collection over the last 15 years. He has been interested in images captured in space since he accompanied his father to an auction. ‘It was a sale of astronautical artifacts,’ says Martin-Malburet, ‘We bought various things, including an autograph of Yuri Gagarin. But the item that impressed me most was a photograph, the famous shot of Buzz Aldrin on the moon with the lunar module reflected in his visor. It is such a powerful image: one lonely figure in another world. And since Aldrin is anonymous inside his spacesuit, he seems to represent all humanity.’

Victor ultimately studied mathematics and physics at university, and he says he wanted to blur the boundary between art and science. Martin-Malburet says of the moon landing photos in particular, ‘Between 1968 and 1972, 24 privileged humans traveled a quarter of a million miles to a place that was not Earth and a record of it all exists. But the complete story has not been told. At the time, only a tiny fraction of the material was released to the media. The rest remained in Houston, unpublished.’

‘First human-taken photograph from space; orbital sunset, February 20, 1962, John Glenn [Mercury Atlas 6]. Estimate: £3,000-5,000. Offered in Voyage to Another World: The Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection, November 6-19, 2020, Online’ Caption and image courtesy of CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2020

Many of the images in the collection have not been seen by people outside of NASA and various research institutions. Many images didn’t include accompanying information, leaving Martin-Malburet to dig through NASA’s transcripts of space missions to determine when each photograph in the collection was captured, such as whether it was on the way into space or on the way back to Earth, information NASA didn’t record. Martin-Malburet also often had to determine who the photographer of each image was, as ‘crediting the author’ is very important to him. By collating the available information and filling in the gaps, we now, for the first time, have a more complete story of many important moments in our history of space exploration.

There are many great images in the collection, including a photograph of Neil Armstrong on the moon, seen below. For decades, even NASA didn’t know this image existed. Martin-Malburet determined that Buzz Aldrin picked up the camera only once and it was to record this photograph of the first man on the moon. Otherwise, Armstrong himself was the photographer for the duration of the mission.

‘The only photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, July 16-24, 1969, Buzz Aldrin [Apollo 11]. Estimate: £30,000-50,000. Offered in Voyage to Another World: The Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection, November 6-19, 2020, Online’ Caption and image courtesy of CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2020

Further ‘firsts’ in the collection include the first image of the earth rising over the moon’s horizon. Ed White’s first spacewalk, seen is recorded as well, and is the first full-face portrait of the Earth itself captured during the very last Apollo mission.

Christie’s writes that ‘Anyone looking at such photographs is bound to feel awestruck.’ It continues, ‘So are they genuine art objects?’ To that question, Martin-Malburet answers, ‘They are absolutely works of art. Artists strive for new ways to express themselves, a visual vocabulary. The astronauts had the blank vistas of space as their subject and their canvas. And the fact that you have humans behind the camera is really important. They saw themselves as scientists, but somehow they embraced the sublime. Through them, art broke free of gravity.’

It’s a wonderful collection. To view the entire collection, visit Christie’s. While the images themselves certainly hold a lot of value, Martin-Malburet’s work in contextualizing each photograph and determining the photographer adds a lot. As mentioned earlier, bidding is ongoing and ends on November 19 or 20, depending on the lot in question. Each lot includes an estimated value, and the estimates range from around $ 1,000 USD to over $ 60,000.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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A visual and auditory journey through the shutter sounds of vintage film cameras

28 Oct

Photographer Ace Noguera has published a video highlighting not only the great style of vintage cameras but also their distinct shutter sounds. It’s a satisfying watch and listen.

Of his video, Noguera told DPReview, ‘The video came from an idea I’ve had for a while, to simply showcase how shutter sounds and technology has changed over the years. I thought it would be cool and entertaining to put it in a visual format and share with others how not only designs have changed over the years, but how we’ve been able to integrate electronics to help automate how we take photos.’

In total, the video below showcases the look and sound of nine cameras, dating back to the 1940s. The cameras come from Noguera’s collection with some additions from his friend, Patch Agan. It’s fascinating to hear how shutter sounds have changed over the years. There’s something particularly satisfying about the Olympus Trip XB3 from 1996.

While the video isn’t overly comprehensive in the cameras it covers, Noguera assures us there are more shutter sounds on the way, telling us, ‘I do plan on making another video that will also include some digital cameras as well as just further show the advancement in the tech and design of cameras. I plan to somewhat pick up where this video left off and showcase the next 20 years of sounds and cameras.’

Noguera hopes to record medium format cameras as well. He continues, ‘I think it would be awesome to be able to record some medium format cameras like the iconic Pentax 67 or even the modern medium format like Hasselblads as well.’ Hopefully, some photographers near Noguera in Atlanta will be able to help him out.

To see more from Noguera, follow him on Instagram and check out his YouTube channel. On his YouTube channel, you will find tutorials, lens reviews and much more.

Do you have a favorite camera shutter sound? Do you miss the physical shutter sound when using an electronic shutter in many modern cameras? Let us know in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Film Fridays: Plaubel Makina 67 – The beginning and end of a journey into medium format

17 Apr
Photo: 35mmc.com

We’ve got medium format on our minds – check out some 120 samples in our recent Acros 100 II film gallery – and thought we’d continue the theme by featuring a medium format camera review from our friends at 35mmc.com for this week’s Film Friday.

In this review, a dedicated 35mm photographer and medium format skeptic gets his hands on the lust-worthy Plaubel Makina 67 camera and finds lots to love about its design – and the format in general. But it’s not all a bed of roses. Get the full scoop on this cool, collapsible medium format rangefinder from the link below.

Read: Plaubel Makina 67 – The beginning and end of my medium format journey

About Film Fridays: We recently launched an analog forum and in a continuing effort to promote the fun of the medium, we’ll be sharing film-related content on Fridays, including articles from our friends at 35mmc.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Journey Summertime Camps For college students

06 Mar

Exclusive camps are made available to young children, small children and grownups in the course of their summers. sleep away camps in Maine are distinctive camps which appear up with out of doors education and learning, youth & women retreat and many other special adventures for the people. The occasion campaign is an organized program conducted for the duration of summers for a specialized period of time. Generally, this kind of campaigns will be conducted in almost every country across the world to meet the demands of the people and satisfy their requirement successfully. The summer months campaigns conducted by the institution will be licensed, insured and recognized as per the statute of the state and federal government.

The experience campaigns are said to be the best for the students to spend their holidays reasonably. Special trainers are appointed in these programs to make the courses more meaningful and perfect. The trainers appear up with qualification, experience and knowledge in this field and expose their skills to the pupils required. The campaign will be offered to all age group people and restrictions of events will be enforced as per the age groups. Generally, everybody can participate in the journey, sports program but certain age limit is fixed for the exercise. Generally, the campaigns will takes place in separate places where no disturbances will be there.

Variety of summer camps will be provided to the people and differs with regards to each institution. The programs, schedule, courses, age limit, timing and prices will be different from institution to institution. Campaigns are conducted especially for young ones, children and older people using qualified, experienced trainers to enable the pupils to come up with other extra curricular activities. Individual attention will spent on the pupils and coaches or training will be provided as per the capacity of the students. The main purpose of conducting summer months camps is to develop the environment with every possibilities and opportunity available.

Foods, accommodations are also provided in the camps to reach the college students very soon and enable them to increase their potential very earlier. The prices charged for summer season camps will be reasonable and competitive. The price chargeable by the institution campaign will differ from one individual to another. This campaign offers more special advantage to the customers and huge number of people hires the benefit provided by the organization. It is an organized institution where programs and training will be presented using unique equipments and techniques. It ensures good interactions with others and develops self confidence to the students with extra curricular activities for competitive prices.

The post Journey Summertime Camps For college students appeared first on Photonovice.

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Panono no more: 360-degree camera maker sold after ‘amazing but also exhausting journey’

05 Jul
Jonas Pfeil demonstrates the size and design differences between the working prototype Panono camera (right) and the design model of the final production unit (left). In a letter to backers he has confirmed that the company is to be sold, after only delivering around 400 cameras.

It’s official: Panono, maker of an innovative 360-degree camera, is to be sold after only managing to deliver around 400 cameras to its backers. The company filed for bankrupcy in May, but in a letter to backers, co-founder Jonas Pfeil has confirmed that the sale of Panono’s assets is expected to be finalized very soon.

As he explains, ‘assets’ in this context means ‘inventory, software, the rights to the hardware, almost all employee contracts, IP rights etc., […] but not the obligations towards external parties’. External parties like the Indiegogo backers that funded the Panono camera. In other words: if you backed Panono and you didn’t get your camera yet, you’re officially out of luck.

Thanking backers for their support and understanding, Pfeil called the experience ‘an amazing but also exhausting journey’. He stressed that, as shareholders, ‘the [outgoing] founders will […] not profit from this sale, as the money will be used by the insolvency administrator to pay outstanding invoices and other debt first.’

Meanwhile, there’s some good news for the 400 or so backers that did get their cameras – after some initial uncertainty, it seems that the cloud service supporting the device will continue to be maintained.

We really liked the Panono when we tested it last year, and we’re sorry to see it go. Were you one of the backers? Did you receive a camera? We’d like to hear from you.

Read our review of the Panono 360-degree camera (July 2016)

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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A colorful journey through Morocco with the iPhone 7 Plus

20 Nov

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Resource Travel Editor Michael Bonocore loves the Northern African country of Morocco, having traveled there previously to lead a team for The Giving Lens. So when an opportunity came along to return to Morocco this October, Bonocore couldn’t resist.

Although he normally travels with a Sony a7R II, Bonocore noticed that he always managed to come home with lots photos taken on his mobile phone, so he challenged himself to try a new approach to travel photography. Could he tell a beautiful and cohesive story about his journey through Morocco using only his new iPhone 7 Plus? Based on his portfolio of images, we think you’ll agree that the answer is yes.

Read the full article and see more of Bonocore’s photos at Resource Travel

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How Birds Can Help You Learn About Your Photography Journey

05 Oct

When you feel like you don’t know what to do, what’s the next step? Frustrating, isn’t it? I think wisdom is found anywhere, from renaissance statues to butterflies, and even birds. Speaking of which, here’s a weird photography insight that I got by observing them.

Photography Journey

Why birds are amazing

Birds are really awesome. Well, I guess they are, depending on what aspect you are looking at. I mean, we all know they can litter a lot, right? But one thing that has always amazed me is how birds can reach their destination halfway around the world, without ever having been there nor knowing how to get there. Take the Arctic Tern, for example, it’s a bird that goes from Greenland all the way to Antarctica. They make the trip without ever knowing where it is.

Life will find a way?

There’s this scene in Jurassic Park where raptors that were not supposed to reproduce ended up making babies on their own. That’s when Jeff Goldblum said, “Life will find a way”. That is weird but it is true. Birds fly miles upon miles, butterflies too and even turtles. They all reach their destinations without knowing how to get there.

Now, call me crazy but I think that the same hand that made them also made me and you. And if these animals have an internal GPS, I am sure I have one too and so do you. A GPS that allows us to reach our destination as a photographer, wherever that may be. I don’t think any of us have any problem with that GPS concept. But between where we are and where we want to be is a big, scary gap, it’s called process. And if there’s something I’ve learned from nature, it is to embrace it.

Photography Journey

Embrace the process

Try to think like the birds think (don’t worry it’s not that hard with your brain not being larger than theirs). They probably feel a strong urge to go in a certain direction, and I am pretty sure that’s it. They can’t possibly know 100% how to get to their destination for sure because they’ve never been there. All they did was start, and also began embracing the process of life.

Normally when someone talks about the process of photography, they usually refer to stuff like exposure and the making of photographs. But what I would like to talk about here is more about the overall process of photography. I think it is all about accepting where you are and knowing paths will open up along the way. It is up to us to be open to it, and to be brave enough to take step after step, just like millions of birds, butterflies, and turtles.

Photography Journey

Just start even if you don’t know the end yet

But unlike birds, sometimes our destination is not as we expected when we started, that’s where we need to be open. I remember a while back, when I was thinking of what to do with my life, I had no idea what to do next. I accepted that and felt that I would end up figuring it out somehow. I started with the lowest hanging fruit: Video Games. At first, I wanted to go into Video Games, then I realized what I really liked were the graphics. I did not want to spend all that time learning about art, so I entered Graphic Design. From there I got a camera on an impulse and started photography.

When I started with photography, I had no idea what I would do, nor did I have an idea of what I needed to do. All I knew was I needed to start, even if I knew not what I was doing. I had all of the intent of being a wedding shooter but now I am more a street photographer more than anything!  You see, I think photography in an overall sense works that way. Decide to be a photographer, start right now, then be open to other paths that are in front of you. Providence will take care of you. Embrace the process.

Getting past road blocks

Of course, at every turn there are frustrations. No one said this stuff would be easy! But the thing is, you can recognize that you are in the middle of a process so that you can learn to embrace it.

  • Learning your exposure is frustrating you? Embrace the process.
  • Keep missing shots? Embrace the process.
  • Still not where you want to be? Embrace the process.
  • Have no clients knocking at your door? Embrace the process.

Embracing the process is simply accepting the fact that you are where you are supposed to be right now. Once it is time for you to move on, you will. But you will never be able to move any step further if you do not accept the process. Say no clients are knocking at your door, you haven’t gone trough the process of marketing your work yet. It’s pretty simple really, your situation will probably never outgrow your own skills.

Photography Journey

Conclusion

I don’t know where you are, reading this. But I’m pretty sure you know what you want out of photography. Will you trust your inner GPS and take the first step? God only knows what’s in store for you.

All I know for sure is that you can always figure things out along the way. Embrace the Process. Be yourself, stay focused and keep on shooting. Please share your experiences in the comments below as well.

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The post How Birds Can Help You Learn About Your Photography Journey by Olivier Duong appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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A Journey From Novice to Natural Light Portrait Photographer

01 Mar

I’m here to share my photography journey that started few years ago as a novice, to where I stand today. As am amateur or hobby photographer, you may relate.

The journey from novice to advanced photographer

About two years ago, I bought an entry level DSLR, to use it as an expensive point and shoot camera. The camera decided the fate of most of my pictures. On innumerable occasions, the pictures were blurry, under or overexposed, and were of poor quality.

The urge to work on my photography skills blossomed, when I was blessed with a little girl. An utmost desire to take only the best pictures of my angel, had taken roots in me. As you may also do, I started searching the internet fervently, for ways to capture the best shots.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy

This is the kind of natural light photography I do now, but that’s not where I started. Read on to find out how I got here, and you can too.

I realized, other than going through basic photography tutorials on YouTube, the thing that helped me the most was Flickr’s discussion groups. It has large community of knowledgeable professionals, and semi-professionals, who love to take a look at your picture and provide valuable feedback. Positive suggestions and encouragement I received on the forums, helped me to experiment further, and escape out of automatic mode. If you are in the same mode as I was two years ago, I strongly recommend getting feedback for your photos, through the online forums.

Moving out of auto mode and kit lens limitations

The very first step towards improvement for me, was shifting to Aperture Priority (Av/A) mode. Initially, pictures were blurry even in Av mode, but I could see that inside my home, my kit lens at f/4.5, ISO 6400, was still unable to shoot faster than 1/30th of a second. Such a slow shutter speed caused the motion blur. Shooting outdoors normally helped me to avoid blurry pictures, but I was not sure why my images didn’t have a blurry background like I saw online. Eventually, I understood the limitations of my kit lens, in not being able to shoot at a larger f-stop, to achieve shallower depth of field.

500px Photo ID: 53404702 -

This image is very noisy, focus is on her dress rather eyes/face, the out of focus raised hand actually distracts the viewer a lot.

One thing I would realize after many months of shooting, is that the exposure triangle (aperture, shutter speed and ISO) is easy to comprehend theoretically, but really hard to apply in the field. I went out for a shoot almost every day, and started experimenting with aperture and shutter speed to get a more desired shot. On returning home, I always got an impression I should have used a different aperture or shutter speed for a better shot. The ability to learn through your mistakes is a major milestone in your journey.

Branching out

Once you are bit confident in your understanding of the basics, you start enjoying it – which is what I experienced. I started devoting time to reading topics such as composition, photography tips, and subscribed to sites like Digital Photography School. Another thing that helped me a lot, was connecting to local events and activity pages via Facebook. I started showing up at many local events and offering free photography to the organizers.

The experience of shooting events was quite chaotic and challenging, especially when there were far more people posing in front of the camera, and many arbitrary things happening – kids running around, or folks dancing to tunes of the festivities. Every such shoot gave me lot more insight into concepts of understanding concepts like plane of focus, controlling focus points, exposure compensation, tips to hand hold the camera firmly, etc.

One of my early event photos. The face and overall image is poorly lit and the face looks orange. Overall image is noisy and the eyes are not in focus. The person behind her is very distracting.

One of my early event photos. The face and overall image is poorly lit, and the face looks orange. Overall, the image is noisy, and the eyes are not in focus. The person behind her is very distracting.

Upgrading gear

It’s very easy to get overwhelmed when reading about, or watching, the type of gear that pros are using in the field. My advice would be to start with minimum possible gear, and upgrade only when you clearly understand the limitations of your existing gear. Be it body, lens, tripod, or anything. After understanding that I couldn’t shoot with very low noise in ambient light during evenings, or achieve huge shallow DOF with my canon T3i and a kit lens, I moved up to a 6D after few months, and bought a prime lens. Though I love to shoot 100% natural light, I added a flash to my gearbox as well, to use as a fill light in some situations.

Here are few things I learned so far, that you can also apply in your photography. Then I will move on to what kind of work I produce these days, and some explanation about how the results are achieved.

Understand the basics:

Read a lot about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and other beginner tutorials. Apply them as much as you can. These concepts are simple but take a lot of hands-on practice to start making some sense.

Very noisy, Focus is on the shoulder, a very bright area in the background is a huge distraction, very messy environment.

Very noisy, Focus is on the shoulder, a very bright area in the background is a huge distraction, very messy environment.

Participate:

Do share your everyday shots and learning, to online discussion groups and forums, without worrying about the quality of your work. Google knows a lot. Give it a try by typing the question the way you would ask someone in person. Once you get some clue, make sure to try it out, to experiment and confirm your understanding. As I said earlier, do volunteer photography for local charity or non profit, etc., as that is a sure way to learn, and it is much more fun.

Avoid GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome):

Avoid the mindset that you cannot do good photography without expensive gear. In the beginning, your cheapest camera is enough to get you started. Photography is not 100% driven by expensive gear. There are way many areas to catch up like composition, understanding of light, angle of shooting, etc. Learn the basics and how to use the gear you have first.

Shoot, shoot and shoot:

There is no shortcut to get good at photography. You have to keep shooting to learn, and learn more to confirm your understanding and get better.

Understand Light:

Taken in the middle of the day when sun was overhead with caring about harsh shadows. From composition point of view the image has a very busy background and viewer will be completely distracted at other elements of the image.

Taken in the middle of the day, without caring about harsh shadows when sun was overhead. From a composition point of view, the image has a very busy background and viewer will be completely distracted by other elements of the image.

It doesn’t matter what genre of photography you shoot; you need a firm understanding of light. This is a key ingredient for a good picture. So, read about the direction and quality of light, and how it affects the shape, size, shadows, and contour of objects it falls upon.

Master your camera:

This tip is especially important if you aim to shoot events, happening at fast pace like kids photography, birds, action, sports, etc. You will really miss opportunities if you are unable to change settings quickly on the fly, without looking at the controls.

Go Manual:

This needs to be your ultimate destination in terms of shooting modes. It’s true that 80% or more time you may be happy with Av mode, but ideally you should have no hesitation in switching to the manual mode in a blink.

Depth of Field:

Technically, in simple terms, aperture controls the depth of field. However, this is the area that took me the longest time to get a good grip on. It’s very hard to stop the desire to shoot at f/1.2, if you own a lens capable of that. However, lenses are not the sharpest at so small f-numbers, plus the depth of field is so thin, that it could be unusable if you are not at the right distance from the subject.

Though there is a nice catch light but looking at the distance it has been shot the f stop should have been chosen higher. The face is not completely in focus and the image does not appeal the viewer. The subject should have been moved a bit to get rid of uneven shadows.

Though there is a nice catch light, but looking closer, it has been shot with an f-stop that should have been higher. The face is not completely in focus, and the image does not appeal the viewer. The subject should have been moved a bit, to get rid of uneven shadows on his face.

Positioning the Subject:

Another key point I have seen even very mature photographers lacking, is realizing the importance of where you should ask the subject to stand. Key mistakes are: placing subject in front of a very busy background, having undesired points of interest in the frame, a brighter large light source behind the subject, etc.

I hope you find the above tips useful. In the final part, I would like to show some images, and a bit about my thoughts on post-processing. All the below images have been published in one or the other magazine.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy 5

85mm, f/1.6, 1/1600, ISO 800

Location: Milwaukee, WI. This was taken at golden hour, with the sun facing the subject. The trees with some fall colors, are very far behind her.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy 3

85mm, f/3.2, 1/400, ISO 400

Location: Redwood Shores, CA. This was taken at golden hour with sun facing her. The intensity of the light was low, as only partial light was passing through the tree. It was shot from above at about a 45-degree angle.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy

70mm, f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 800

Location: Los Angeles, CA. This was taken in the middle of the day, in an apartment, where model was facing window light.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy 6

135mm, f/2.8, 1/400, ISO 400

Location: Palace of fine arts, CA. Taken in the middle of the day, where plenty of ambient light was available. Behind the subject is a little darker area, due to trees and pillars. I positioned her at a spot where light was just right to avoid on her face which were too dark.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy 484

85mm, f/1.8, 1/6400, ISO 100

Location: Fremont, CA. Again taken during golden hour, with a bit of shade from the door structure.

Dps fb ca viks photogrphy 4

85mm, f/2.8, 1/2000, ISO 800

Location: San Jose, CA. Taken in the middle of the day, using the shade from the ceiling above the model, and avoiding sunlight falling directly her.

Importance of Post-Production:

As a beginner you will surely hear or read a lot something similar to these statements, “I love straight out of camera pictures” or “I hate editing pictures”. However, I have found that you can delay getting into the post-processing of images, but cannot avoid it.

The extent you go to post-processing an image, is totally a different debate. Some do it to enhance the existing elements of an image, and others do it to make it into a totally different image. I am in the first category, and spend time doing things that improves the overall image appeal.

For beginners, I would advise that you stay away from it until you are comfortable with your gear and the basic concepts of photography. Always aim to get the image right in the camera.

The first step for post-processing, you can start with Adobe Lightroom, which is a great piece of software to enhance your images. Spend time in achieving mastery with Lightroom, and, once you understand its limitations, then start exploring Adobe Photoshop on a need only basis. In my typical workflow, all the images go through Lightroom, then for some final touches in Photoshop.

Your journey

So where are you in your photography journey? Did you just pick up a camera and can relate to my early experiences? Have you been practicing for a while? What is your experience, please share in the comments below.

Author Bio

Vik (Vivek) Kumar is a photographer and a software engineer. Hi started his photography a couple of years ago as an amateur landscape photographer. The hobby became serious portrait photography fun. His images are used by reputed hotel brands like Hyatt. He has been published numerous times in various fashion magazines like ICON, PUMP, Surreal Beauty Magazine, etc. See more of his work on his website or on his Instagram profile. His landscape photography work can be explored on 500px.

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The journey: Michael Brown on photography at the edge of the world

28 Feb

Michael Brown is an award-winning director and a pioneer of adventure filmmaking. He has summited peaks on all seven continents (including five summits of Mount Everest) and made first kayak descents of wild rivers in places like Bhutan and Chile, all with the camera rolling.

Brown goes into some of the world’s most hostile environments — where there’s little room for error — and comes away with stunning visual footage and stirring stories that remind us of our shared humanity. He believes that if you can imagine a goal, you can achieve it.

In his talk from PIX 2015 Michael takes us on a very personal journey to the edges of the world, including climbing Mt. Everest with blind climber Erik Weihenmayer. In the process, he shares important lessons about risks, relationships and the importance of challenging ourselves and mentoring others.

To learn more about Michael’s work you can visit his web site at Serac Adventure Films.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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PIX 2015: Benjamin Von Wong and the journey from ordinary to extraordinary

04 Dec

In his first year learning photography, Benjamin Von Wong created over 50,000 photographs, but none of them struck him as extraordinary. It wasn’t until he tried out a flash gun that he began to see new possibilities that could make his work stand out. Many more photos later, Benjamin Von Wong is well-known for imagery that blends practical effects, fantastic locations and post-processing into something surreal and extraordinary. Find out how he got his start and what inspires his elaborate shoots in his PIX 2015 talk.

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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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