Here's an interesting take on portrait photography. New York photographer Richard Renaldi finds random people on the streets of NYC, none of whom know each other, and he poses them as if they were intimately involved as couples, good friends or family. It's quite fascinating what he comes up with.
The subjects are only asked to look like they are showing a brief amount of affection, but the facial expressions and body language within the photos make it seem like these strangers not only know each other, but also share some sort of genuine bond.
Steve Hartman from "On The Road" films Renaldi at work.
Get Totally Rad, software I purchased but have yet to use, published on its blog the "Sunny 16 Rule", which I thought I'd share, so that I can come back and refer to it when needed.
A term from the pre-digital, film days, Totally Rad came up with a handy, dandy infographic with tips on how to shoot outdoors on a clear, sunny day without a light meter.
The basic rule is, "On a sunny day set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the [reciprocal of the] ISO film speed [or ISO setting] for a subject in direct sunlight."[1] For example:
On a sunny day and with ISO 100 film / setting in the camera, one sets the aperture to f/16 and the shutter speed to 1/100 or 1/125 second (on some cameras 1/125 second is the available setting nearest to 1/100 second).
On a sunny day with ISO 200 film / setting and aperture at f/16, set shutter speed to 1/200 or 1/250.
On a sunny day with ISO 400 film / setting and aperture at f/16, set shutter speed to 1/400 or 1/500.
Or, for other lighting conditions, Wikipedia has this great little graphic.
The Slanted Lens has some great tutorials on photo lighting mainly for portraits and headshots. This video, however, has more to do with how different focal lengths effect the shape of the face. And boy does it make a difference.
The lens or focal length of the lens you choose has a profound impact on the image. It effects the perspective, background and features of the subject. In this lesson everyone should understand what the different focal lengths do to the human face and how they change the background. Why do you choose a 135 mm lens to shoot a head shot of a beautiful woman but use a 24mm to shoot a clown. Keeping the head the same size in the frame and changing the focal length of the lens, I will shoot a series of images that demonstrate how focal length effects the features of the human face and how it changes perspective which effects the background. We will go on to demonstrate a simple 2 light and one reflector fashion lighting set up. I learned a lot from this exercise and I hope you do to.
We know that almost every published print ad has probably had some major editing/airbrushing work done to make it more appealing, at least to the eye of the advertiser. But not all photo re-touchers are created equal, as we can see in this Huffington Post gallery of some of the more memorable epic Photoshop fails. Some are downright laughable, like the SimplyBe ad directly below, where the model's hand looks more like some alien claw. The Talbot model in the second photo seems to be missing a leg. And last but not least, the Blomingdale model's elbow looks like it belongs to an extra-terrestrial, rather than a human.
For almost ten years Dove has been producing ads focusing on 'Real Beauty'. It all started in 2004 with the launching of "The Campaign for Real Beauty", and I remember being rather impressed with who they were featuring as models. They weren't quite what one would expect- tall, young, skinny and gorgeous- they were real women: young, old, some even chunky.
From the Dove website:
2004: The Campaign for Real Beauty launched in September 2004 with a much talked-about ad campaign featuring real women whose appearances are outside the stereotypical norms of beauty. The ads asked viewers to judge the women’s looks (oversized or outstanding? and wrinkled or wonderful?), and invited them to cast their votes at campaignforrealbeauty.com.
2005: Dove® kicked off the second and most iconic phase of the Campaign for Real Beauty in June 2005, with advertising featuring six real women with real bodies and real curves. The phase of the campaign was created to debunk the stereotype that only thin is beautiful and it drove
thousands of women to campaignforrealbeauty.com to discuss beauty issues.
This year, in collaboration with the Ogilvy ad agency in Toronto, Canada, Dove decided to draw attention to the habit of overly Photoshopping models to make them look thinner, more beautiful, less wrinkled. In order to make art directors, graphic designers and photo re-touchers more aware, they created a Photoshop action that was supposed to create a "skin effect glow", but which actually reverted the photo back to its original form along with the message: Don't manipulate our perceptions of real beauty. They posted the "Beautify Action" on all the various sites that offer free actions, knowing that it would be downloaded by those who manipulate beauty for ad campaigns etc.
I doubt this little hack will change the industry, for those who might have downloaded and used it, but it was an interesting ploy. We do need to change our perception about what constitutes real beauty.
I did find this rather interesting article from 2008, however, accusing The Campaign For Real Beauty of allegedly Photoshopping the heck out of the models.
Some Photoshopping is okay, removing blemishes that aren't normally there, lightening dark circles, removing stray hairs, but when you virtually change what a person actually looks like. Not cool.
Beautifully compiled retrospective of the major happenings during 2012. Produced by Jean-Louis Nguyen, it's entitled: 2012: What Brought Us Together.
It was a year of breakthroughs, adversity, accomplishments. And the web shared all of it. From the highest sky-dive to the fastest running man, a first vote or last mission, joys and tragedies, grumpy cats and flash mobs, from silly to serious; whatever it is that we shared in 2012, here is a compilation.
I admit, some of these events I missed, but Nguyen kindly put together a list and links to the original YouTube clips. You can find that here.
Petapixel's Michael Zhang had an interesting post about criticism, featuring this snippet from the the Pixar movie "Ratatouille", where the character Anton Ego, a reformed critic, imparts these words of wisdom:
In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.
If you are involved in any way with the arts- be that visual, performing or written- you are subject to criticism. As an actress I have been very blessed, for the most part, with lovely reviews, but I have seen critics mercilessly skewer individuals or shows undeservedly so. My photography has yet to be critiqued negatively, but apparently that too happens.
Zhang focuses on the plethora of anonymous criticism we receive in online forums:
The Internet can be a tough place for photographers. One can pour an immeasurable amount of time, money, energy, blood, sweat, and tears into a picture (or a series of pictures), only to have his or her hard work torn to shreds by nameless and faceless commenters who hide behind the veil of anonymity.
He then refers to Anton Ego's wisdom.
Zhang continues:
The next time you see a photograph online, offered up to your judgement by its maker, take some time to consider that the person may have invested a good deal of himself or herself into putting that picture on your screen. At the very least, even if you hate what they have to offer you, you can be respectful and offer encouraging words of helpful criticism.
I'll add this:
If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it.
Do not offer criticism if it is not solicited.
If asked, find something positive to say. There has to be one thing you can praise, if not as Zhang says "offer encouraging words of helpful criticism."
