Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Best 10 Photography Blogs of 2010

 As the curtains draw on an eventful year in photography I wanted to share my top 10 Blogs in cyberwold (both audio as well as typed). More than the Top of the Charts this is my way acknowledging the knowledge of photography imparted to me. These are also my most visited online locations where I go to find inspiration and learn new things in Photography (not in any particular order). 
  1. Strobist – The Strobist from David Hobby (Dave) is the Mecca of the flash photographer. This blog/site is the  encyclopedia of not only flash but anything related to lighting on photography. If you were a student of photographic lighting the Strobist is the place irrespective of whether you were a junior schooler or a university researcher. The Lighting 101 content is the bootcamp, and regular content  is both insiparation and educational. I do not entirely agree with David's narrow choice of strobist gear and can fill you in with alternatives if you are keen. If I see enough comments the next blog will be called the "Cheaper and as Good Strobist". I  love David Hobby's own portfolio is an inspiration for the portrait makers.
  2. Photoshop Insider – Scott Kelby famous for the three volume "The Digital Photography Book"  is perhaps one of the most prolific writers of photography books. He is the Editor of a number of photographic journals and magazines. His blog is an insight into someone who breathes and lives photography.  His blog is great for the stunning visual compositions and what goes into making them great. Though the blog is personal, the work from Scott Kelby Media group and when he recently posted pictures of Scott Kelby media group headquarters the scale of his effort dawns on you. 
  3. Digital Photography Life – Scott Sherman and Michael Stein are enthusiasts of photography and have great individual blogs. This is the blog to accompany their once a week podcast which  is always a kick to listen to and make for perfect commute killers!  The blog is a useful reference and to figure out what have they been talking of in the pod-cast (sometime bangalore traffic can be unnerving). 
  4. Phototips - From the self confessed redneck Jimmy Beltz is an amazing show about all things photography. It is slow paced, just right if you are not an expert, is nicely broken down into sections, a theme which always seems to be of interest and great content. He is genuinely interested in making his listeners great pro-photographers and discusses the how of running a photo business in addition to the creative content. The show is backed up by a great website.
  5. Photography 101 - Scott Winterburg reminds you of your school teachers with his patient voice and almost lecture style podcast. He is actually a teacher and does bring up very interesting  student shots in a show and tell format in his video cast. The blog accompanies his video-cast, which is very informative for someone starting photography but extremely insightful for even an informed photographer. 
  6. Digital Photography Tips from the Top Floor - This would be the longest running podcast (since April 2005) on photography I have come across. Chris Marquardt "The Photo Guy" and  Leo Leporld "The Tech Guy" come together to cast this weekly show which has amazing tips, latest buzz and lots of techniques for creating better pictures.
  7. Joe McNally - Written by author of the same name is famous for the "Hot Shoe Diaries". This blog is not updated regularly but when it is it so refreshing with the quality of capture and the sheer insight that one gets here. I love his portfolio which always has amazing portraits.
  8. PhotoFocus (previously TWIP) – Led by Scott Bourne, Photofocus is not a blog per se. Instead, it is an online magazine about photography. Updated several times each day, with the intent of informing, entertaining and educating people who are interested in photography. Scott has been writing on the blog since 1998 and has been audiocasting since 2007. The blog also has great tips and content delivered regularly by Scott.   
  9. CanonBlogger - Being a Canon user and a blogger finding this blog was natural for me. Jason Anderson surprisingly is not affiliated to Canon and contrary to his blog title is pretty much camera agnostic(so i think). Interlaced with contests, news, photographic tips it his one hour podcast a week which endears me to his photographic talent. Never short of sharing his knowledge
  10. The Art of Photography - Since I started learning photography by watching the Art of Photography from Ted Forbes I could not keep him off this list though he has vanished off late from the podo-sphere and the blogosphere. His video-casts are high quality, very informative and rather than ramblings  on other shows are always well scripted and well delivered. Only if he had continued ihewould have up on this list. 
phew- its so much easier to write with light.(write = graphos, light = photo)

    Sunday, December 12, 2010

    Orton Sandwich

    Michael Orton created a new jonre of photography imitating paintings. He noticed that the landscape painters that he worked with would created a ink and charcoal sketch of their painting and then color them with water colors. He imitated this with photo-film by first taking an over-exposed image (this removes colors and is a washed image apart from the very solid shadows. The art would be to overexpose enough to retain the outline of your subject. In the second shot he would defocus the subject thus smuding color. By mixing the two he would get a watercolor type effect to his photographs.

    Digital photography, makes us loose some of the art. Digital Orton is done mostly with a Photoshop action to a single shot by creating a duplicate layer. For the first layer the exposure is manipulated and for the second blur filters do the trick. I am not a fan of this technique as the photos come out to be too perfect, very bright and nothing like the painting effect. I tried to create an Orton using the original style (two images) and blending them in photoshop. I am still to perfect the photoshop blending. When you defocus the subject image naturally zooms in a bit. This causes a mismatch in the edges. It requires a lot of patience in correcting this in Photoshop. Micheal Orton used a zoom lens and would change the zoom to compensate for the image expansion. I am still to master this.


    I attempted to shoot a building as well. Now an architectural subject requires sharp lines, so I was set-up for failure. But this being the first attempt I thought I should give it a shot. The second image does have sharp lines and the colors smudge like water paint. Leave behind your thought on this.

    Orton Image - Blurred image overwhelms here
    If you wonder what the actual building looks like for the picture below here is a link Original Building Image

    Orton image created using the Original Orton Technique








    My First Panorama Image

    This is Prestige Techpark from the terrace of my apartment

    Sunday, December 5, 2010

    Banglore Help Portait - Behind the Scenes -1

    BANGALORE HELP PORTRAIT TRANSFORMS TO PHOTOGRAPHY 101
    PV giving a crash course in photography. And within 5 min there is building up a queue of budding photographers. Children find it amazing that the photographs can be seen and they are taking shots better than most of the photographers

    MOVEOVER I WAS TRAINED BY A PRO TO TAKE THIS PHOTOGRAPH
    "If you are finished its now my turn and behind me there are three more". You are not the only people who are taking pictures here.

     HUSH-A-PUSHA WE ALL FALL DOWN

    For a moment photography was forgotten and our ace photographers joined the kids in singing "Oranges are lemons ..................." but they still won't let go of their camera bags.

    Saturday, December 4, 2010

    Banglore Help Portait - Potrait of Joy

    Experienced the sheer joy of childhood with the kids of Samarthanam a school for the disabled and under-privileged. Today more than 65 of my fellow shutter-bugs met not just to take pictures but to give these pictures back to these kids.

    I did not want to post any portrait of the shoot but this one picture so infectious with joy that I can call it the Potrait of Joy.

    SAY CHEESE 
    This is the same kid who has PV's Nikon and is creating a great portrait. That is PV's hand stabilizing the lens while the kids takes a great Portrait.