Alien Skin Software has released the latest version of its flagship photography effects software. Exposure 6 now includes a ‘Bokeh’ focus and lens-simulation feature, an updated image processing engine for instant previews, enhanced user interface for quick workflow, and unlimited creative texture control. The analog film emulation and creative effects software integrates with Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, and Aperture or can be launched as a stand-alone program. Learn more
Ask the average social media user what makes a photo popular online and they’ll probably answer ‘cats’ or ‘pretty women’. That gut feeling has now been confirmed by MIT PhD candidate Aditya Khosla who has analyzed more than 2.3 million images hosted on Flickr to answer the question ‘what makes an image popular’? Learn more
I wish everyone had a safe and festive holiday season! I was able to catch up on a lot of work crossing off a lot of things on my “to do” list now that I am getting into the habit of sticking to one. It can be quite daunting to plan everything you want to achieve in a year before the year has even started, but if there’s one this that I learnt is that it’s better to have guidelines because you never know what life throws at you. I’ve also been reassessing where I am, where I want to be in terms of my career.
So what does this coming year look like for FashionPhotographyBlog.com? Well for starters, I’d like to thank this site for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences. I look forward to contributing to the pool of knowledge shared by Melissa and David. There has been a lot of planning for the year ahead and without revealing too much all at once, we would like to strive to provide a website that is the #1 resource for the fashion photography industry. All will be revealed over timed so I encourage you all to stay tuned.
Are there any resolutions for FashionPhotographyBlog.com? Well, more awesome posts showcasing great content that’s for sure. It’s time to get the engine roaring! What better time to start than in this transition phase between stepping into the New Year and embarking on the start of the new Lunar Year, The Year of the Horse. Traditionally, the new year symbolizes new beginnings whereas the new lunar year represents luck and prosperity, so it is befitting that we kick off the first entry of the year right now in this most auspicious time.
From what I heard from my friends it seemed that 2013 was quite a bumpy year for most people. I was no exception, but I had done my best to cheer them up to look forward to the new year because I say to them that “2014 is where the magic happens”.
I wish you all a hugely successful 2014, full of love, happiness and prosperity!! Stay tuned because we have exciting things to come!
Firstly, I want to share the love and wish everyone a great Valentine’s Day. Whether you are spending it with your significant other, or if that significant other is yourself I wish you all a special day. This website was built from love so it is befitting that love is the theme for this post, that is, the love of creating art and modelling, as well as sharing a little about me.
Having always highly valued creativity throughout my childhood, I started my love affair with the fashion modeling world in 2002. There are people who enter modelling for pretty out there for a variety of reasons such as for money, travel, meeting new people, being involved in the creative process, or simply for ego. My reason came from a different place that not many people actually know about because I haven’t shared the story before, only to close friends, but I am sharing it with you.
It came from, ironically, since when we are talking about Valentine’s Day, from a relationship breakup – my first and only partner to date actually. I won’t go into the sappiness of all the details but at the end of that relationship I felt lost, like I was out of touch with who I was as a person and what I wanted for my future because previously my mind was set on spending my future with this person. It was pretty naïve of me when I reflect back on that experience but, I’m extremely grateful that I went through that experience because it directed me on a path to where I am today.
After the breakup, I was on a journey of finding myself again. I had volunteered my time to numerous charity and not-for-profit organizations, ranging from youth advocacy to creative projects and events, to meet new people, learn new skills and to feel like I was making an impact to this world, as many as I could manage to keep myself so busy to drown the feeling of heartbreak.
From these organizations, it was a matter of being in the right place and the right time when they asked for models to be featured on community campaign posters, I put my hand up, I wanted to help out. I had such great experiences modeling for these shoots that I wanted to do, and once again I was in the right place, when a photography studio set up a pop-up booth at my local shopping mall, offering a promotional photo package. Which I thought why not? That too was a great experience and it became part of my first professional modeling portfolio. I posted these pictures online, such as Myspace, when it was popular, and other photographers saw them and contacted me to shoot with them.
I’d post the photos from these shoots online and then other photographers noticed them and then they asked me to shoot with them. It was like a domino effect and shoot after shoot, my portfolio got stronger but what I also discovered was that with every photo I learned something new about myself. Each photographer brought out and captured a different perspective of me and so I was able to see different sides of my personality in different photos that I didn’t realize I possessed before and so the more shoots I did the more pieces of the puzzle formed for self-discovery.
No longer was I held back by what people said or thought about me, I was discovering for myself who I really was inside and what I was capable of, my potential, for the first time in my life.
And that’s the story of how I got started my journey into modelling and my own self-discovery. Hope that wasn’t too deep and personal for everyone, but my focus in my life is to live an inspired life and to inspire others and I’ve realized I’m not able to do so without sharing my story. Stay tuned for my next post, sticking to the Valentine’s theme, which details my love for photography.
Samyang has announced five new manual focus lenses, including a revised ‘AE’ version of its Canon-mount 35mm F1.4 which allows electronic aperture setting from the camera body. Meanwhile the Reflex 300mm F6.3 UMC CS is a mirror lens designed for APS-C SLRs, which will be available in Canon, Nikon, Sony Alpha and Four Thirds mounts. Finally there are three cinema versions of existing photo lenses – a 10mm T3.1 for APS-C SLRs, a 12mm T2.2 for mirrorless cameras, and a 7.5mm T3.8 fisheye for Micro Four Thirds.
Sony has patented the design of a series of bright zoom lenses, including a roughly F1.8-2.8 lens that would give 28-100mm equivalent coverage on a 1″-type sensor. The designs suggest the company intends to further develop its RX range of compacts. Such a lens would allow for a camera that made better use of its comparatively large sensor, even at the long end of the zoom. Learn more
AppleInsider has discovered another interesting Apple patent. This time the technology giant has patented a 3D-display system that projects digital images into a medium such as a non-linear crystal, using infrared lasers or similar technologies and accepts user input in the form of gestures. Learn more
In March, stock photography house Getty Images rocked the industry when it announced it would allow people to embed images for free on websites and other electronic uses. Clearly looking to monetize the vast collection of images currently gathering digital dust in its archives, it has launched Photos.com by Getty Images to sell prints directly to customers. Learn more
One of the ways in which you can minimize the amount of work you need to do in post-processing is to calibrate your camera. Many digital photographers are familiar with calibrating their computer monitor to help them get accurate results when adjusting images. But few think of calibrating their camera. Professional travel photographer Steve Davey explains why and how to set up a custom profile. Learn more
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this week’s Photo of The Week selection. We are so glad that we brought back this old favorite back to FashionPhotographyBlog.com because it reminded us that there is so much talent out there. We want to say a big congratulations to Amanda Lim for winning this week’s Photo Of The Week. It was a really close this week, where most of the week three photographers were neck and neck to take out the title. It was rather suspenseful. In the end Amanda’s photo was crowned.
We really love the way the photo encapsulated the theme of Valentines, with the hues of pink, but also the movement and drama created by the drapery flowing effortlessly contrasted with the static contrapposto pose of the female model. She stands strong in the picture like a divine goddess while the fabric writhes around her like a serpent around her body. So much intensity in one photo.
I think the styling and the make up suits the photo perfectly – effortless, romantic and feminine (and by feminine, I mean a strong warrior woman). The model is standing her ground while chaos or whimsy is whipping around her. There is a powerful tone present in this photo but also a sense of serenity, and I find the contrast absolutely inspiring and exciting.
The lighting that’s shining top down on the model’s face places emphasis on her majestic cheek bones and beautifully highlights the tone in her arms, the sleekness of her figure, folds in the dress as well as catching the fabric flowing around her body.
We are proud to present the first winner of our revived Photo of The Week competition. As the winner of this week, Amanda is being featured here on FashionPhotographyBlog.com and have her work critiqued. Not only that she will also appear on our social media sites as well.
This coming week we have another round of Photo Of The Week and we are continuing the Valentines theme… why just celebrate for one day when February can be the “Month of Love”? To participate and vote, make sure you “like” our Facebook page.
You will then be able to for which photographer’s photo out of the selection that you want to be Fashion Photography Blog’s Photo of the Week in the Facebook comments section. The pic with the most vote’s by the end of the week will win Photo of the Week and win the great prizes. Since FashionPhotographyBlog.com is Google’s #1 site on fashion photography this could be your entry to some great exposure if you submit your photo and win.
Voting ends at the end of the week so make sure you get voting on our Facebook page here.
Tell us in the comments below, do you agree with how this week’s voting outcome? What is your critique on this photo?
We want to here from you!