RW Pike

               For this weeks blog I found the website/blog of Rodney Pike, or more known as RWPike. He distorts images in a caricature-istic way, not only is his images caricatures of famous people but they also appears photorealisitic and so detailed, that if you didn't know better you could think that this is how the people actually looks like. As he says in his introduction of himself, "My work is a bit different than your average photo manipulator." He does all kinds of photo manipulations but his focus right now is political satire and caricature illustration. "I specialize in photo-manipulated caricatured illustrations perfect for magazines, books, posters etc" For his work he uses Photoshop CS2 without any extras.

I think that his work is really well done and fun to look at. Here is some examples from his works but if you want to see more, check out his photo gallery. 

George Wein, Rodney Pike

"Napoleon Dynamite", Rodney Pike

Rolling Stones, Rodney Pike

Woody Allen, Rodney Pike

                

"Photography, etymologically speaking, means writing with light"

                 


                       As the water is essential for a swimmer, the light is the most important for a photographer, it's as simple as, no light, no picture. As a professional photographer you become more aware of the light sources and how to use it with it's full potential. I have read four articles about composing with light. In the first one, Composing with light, Part 1 , Alain Briot brings up several good points of how to work with light when you are offered different types of natural light sources. It points out several times that light is what is most important when we are photographing, "For a photographer the quality of the light is the one thing that can never be ignored. It is everything." light is what we have to adjust after and thinking of first, before deciding where to put the object in the picture. Light is basically what we first have to consider while composing a picture. In this article they claim that "light is composition". However, a great picture requires great light, and with the best light you'll get the best photograph. But even if you do have perfect light, you still need to be able to include object and elements in your composition. Finding the best light for your personal style is "both a matter of personal experience and knowledge and a matter of using the right tools." In the matter of experience, a photographer is going to notice that the light that we usually prefer is not always the best light for a photo session. The bad weather can actually be the best weather. "Bad weather is a tremendous help in our quest to find good light." A tip is to not stay in the house or your hotel room a rainy, cloudy or stormy day, wait until the storm is over, then go outside and capture the amazing sky. In some other pictures, it is the light that creates the composition. 


              To get the right light is also to know when and where the sun is going to be and where it should be so you can get a great picture out of it. There is many application's to help you knowing where and when you can get the best sunlight. In part 2 of this article Briot talks about just that. For example you can use a compass, the old farmers almanac, a gps, Focalware (iPhone app), or a downloadable full-fledged astronomical software Equinox 6. In this article you can find several links to websites that offers features of where sunrise and sunset will appear at what time. However, there is so much more than just learning about the sun, since the sky also include "clouds, haze lightning, rain, rainbows, snow and snowstorms, reflections, sun stars, star trails, halos, light shafts, rims of light, comets and other astronomical events as well as a myriad of other lighting conditions." After reading this section and by looking at the pictures it struck me how different a photograph appears with different natural light sources, an image of the same object with the camera at the same exact spot at different times of the day differs a lot. Something boring can all of a sudden become really amazing in the photo if the light is right and vice versa. With help from light you can also find various things to make the image better, example of that is reflection in water, silhouettes, and different patterns shaped from shade. 




           This article helps you understand more about light and how you can best use the natural light sources. In Part 3 and 4 you can find the pictures where Briot shows similar pictures with different light sources, as I said before, it's really cool to see the differences. When he compared places from sunrise to dusk or to sunset I think that I like the ones taken at dusk better. The light is much softer and nothing in the picture really stands out as a distraction from the sun brightening up parts in the landscape as in the pictures taken at sunset. However, the pictures taking in at sunrise gives an effect that makes the light look warmer and cooler (more cool). I have never really felt like getting up at dawn to take pictures, but after reading this article it makes me wanna explore the light more and even set my alarm clock at a time that is otherwise far too early..
  

Composing with light article:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

            

Motion Blur in Photography

For this week I read this article,  Tips & Tricks for Motion blur Photography. It is about how you can use the feature of the camera that is usually just annoying - the blur in pictures - and make it to amazing photographs.


There is seven things that this article brings up:
         Charge your reflects
         Know your surroundings
         Use shutter speed priority mode
         Following the subject
         Use panning image stabilization
         Using lower ISO
         Try to keep yourself steady


So what you need to keep in mind is; be alert and prepared with your camera before your subject is gone. Be aware of your background so you don't get to much distraction in your image. To help you capture sharp subjects, follow your subject throughout the subjects motion. As an image stabilization, use panning mode, which exists in most digital cameras. Hold the camera still to prevent unwanted motion in the picture.


A simple article but with good "reminding"-points. Under are two example of motion blur photographs.

Mariano Kamp

Designzzz.com

Continuing on Lifestyle Assignment

Here is two more photos for the Lifestyle assignment. The model is once again Odessa and the two first pictures (which is the "same" picture) is taken by Matt. The settings for that picture is, ISO: 6400, F-stop: f/5.0 and exposure time is 1/6 sec. What I've done in photoshop is; croped the picture, add some sharpness on the glasses, made is black and white and then added red and yellow and then decreased the saturation to get a sepia tone, I've also added the Ray-Ban logo and written "change your view". I tried to get ridd of some noise in the picture but to keep more feeling in it I left some in it.

The picture below is taken by me, and what I've done is, I've cropped it and moved the blurred out lights in the background to make the picture more interesting. The setting for that picture is,  ISO: 6400, F-stop: f/11, exposure time: 1/4 sec. For both picture a flash was fired. 

Playing around. . .

Today I tried to learn how to make a photo in cartoon, just for fun... This is the results, hopefully I'll get better with time. I learned this from this website which, was really easy to learn from

Lifestyle Photography

                    My contribution for this assignment is the first two pictures below. The settings for that photo (photos) is: Exposure time: 30.00 seconds, F-stop: f/5.00, ISO: 100. The light sources that is used is a A flashlight to write "iPod" and a flashlight to brighten up the model, Odessa in the end of the exposure time. The iPod that she is holding in her hand is also used to make a movement of light from her arm. I have added an iPod in the photo, even though there already was one in the picture, I wanted it to appear more. In the second picture I also added an Apple logo. As you can see by comparing the original picture (the third one) with the two edited ones, I have darkened the picture and added contrast, also reformatting the letters in the word "iPod" and taken the "P" from another picture. The models shirt is changed in to pink to make a better color combination in the picture since the iPod is also pink.

                    The two last photos is just experiments from the photo shot, in the last one you should be able to see a face in the circle...

Photo: Matt Richardson Edit: Malin Johansson

"Back to the Future" - Irina Werning

              While I was looking at fotosidan.se - a Swedish website for both amateur and professional photographers - I found a project by a Spanish photographer named Irina Werning that I really liked. Her project is called "back to the future", which is based on letting different people relive their happiest childhood photograph. A few months ago Irina Werning decided to invest in the project with old photographs of children and started inviting people to go back to its future. On her website she writes about the project. "I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today...", 
            
             I myself really like old pictures too, and this project that Irina is doing right now is really fascinating. Not only because I like the emotions that a good old picture gives me but this project is more than that, you can see what 50 or 20 years have done to a persons look and appearance. I'm really going to step by her website to see if there's any new pictures in that project. Beneath is a few examples from her project. 

                                                        : Nico in 1986 & 2010, Buenos Aires,Irina Werning

                                                               Ato 1992 & 2010, Buenos Aires, Irina Werning

                                                        : MECHI IN 1990 & 2010, Buenos Aires, Irina Werning

                                            PANCHO IN 1983 & 2010, Buenos Aires, Irina Werning