The question of POST PROCESSING photos

With all the technology and software available today there are a myriad of choices to make regarding how to process your images. Some of the questions that arise are: 
What am I trying to accomplish? 
What should influence the choice of styling? 
How much is too much? And where do you start?

For me it all starts with the image itself. I try to ask myself...
What is the overall mood of the photograph? 
What are the most compelling features of the image? 
What is the best way to draw attention to those features? and 
What kind of response am I trying to elicit from the viewer? 

Some of the above questions can be hard to answer due to the subjective nature of visual arts. So, at the end of the day I have to trust my own instincts and produce what I think works best. (This of course, is assuming you're not shooting on commission for somebody, who's personal taste will often dictate the final style).

There are times when I can be a little indecisive about this, or I can go back to an image a day or 2 later and decide that I don't really like the style I've applied to an image or the way I've processed it. Take this image for example:

My initial instinct was to process this image as I did in pic.2. I must admit I was rushing the decision a bit, in an effort to share it with friends as soon as possible following a recent event. I knew it was a great shot but on reflection I decided I hadn't carefully thought through the best way of processing it. 

It turns out that I'm not the only one who likes the image. Most of the feedback I got was very positive and revolved around the central figure in the picture where all eyes are focussed. She's a beautiful woman and my initial attempt at processing the image didn't address this aspect of the shot. I was more focussed on the fun that was taking place (it was a game of musical chairs).

As I mentioned above, this can be very subjective, everybody sees something different. So I'm interested to know what you think. Please feel free to make a comment.

More on Selling Canvas

Following on from my last post about 'being seen in the right place', one of the marketing avenues I’ve thought about for my photography is to take the plunge and start producing my own framed canvases and try selling them direct to the public. This is not a new idea of course, but I'm guessing there are a number of pros and cons associated with this method of selling.

Not that I’m a negative person, but the first thing that comes to mind is the RISK. Compared to online selling where canvases are printed to order from a huge catalogue of pieces, this way of selling requires the artist to risk printing out something that someone may never buy. There’s a lot of money’s worth of time and materials tied up in stock just waiting for a chance sale, which probably explains why in the picture above they’re being sold ‘unframed’.

This factor makes it imperative that you know what the market wants in order to minimise the risk, which sounds like it would require more in the way of ‘crystal ball gazing’ than meaningful research, as people’s tastes in art can be very fickle and hard to explain or even understand.

I mentioned there are pros. In the event that you do get ‘lucky’ and let's face it, that’s what it boils down to in the end, there is a much larger profit margin on each sale as well as an opportunity to meet those who love your work face to face. I’ve been told that art buyers like to know whose work they’re buying. It’s not uncommon for such art buyers to buy more than one piece. The important thing is getting your artwork in front of real people.

I put this to the test recently. After selecting 3 pieces to sell I duly set about printing them out on canvas on my Epson printer, which does a brilliant job but I’m limited to a width of 17inches.

Each print got a Museum Grade coating of matt varnish before stretching onto frames.

Then I entered them into a local gallery exhibition with high hopes of making a sale. Unfortunately they were exhibited alongside 150 other pieces, many of which were much larger in size. I must admit that once I saw how they were presented, I wasn’t too hopeful about making a sale and sadly I was right.

For now I’ve resorted to loaning them to friends to hang on their walls seeing as all my walls are full. But I have a few more ideas up my sleeve about what to do next. I’ll do another post about that later.

Being Seen in the Right Place

When I first started getting into photography, a very important thing I needed to figure out was what to do with my images once I had some that I thought were worth sharing.

Besides the 2 main social networks Facebook and Google+ which have their uses, there are many other options to choose from, and at first it's hard to know which one's the right one. If you've read any of my other blog posts here, then you would've heard me talk about Zazzle which is where I sell all my t-shirt designs and other souvenirs. At first I just automatically tried selling my photography as framed art prints on Zazzle, but I wasn't particularly happy with how it worked or the pricing.

So I started looking around at other options. There are many more besides the 4 I've shown on the right in the above picture. But these are the 4 I have experience with so far. So I thought I would share my observations about each of these forums for selling photography, as they all have something different to offer.

My guess is that unless somebody's into photography or artwork they probably wouldn't have heard of these web sites. When I first started getting serious about photography the only one I'd heard of was Flickr, but even then I didn't really know what it was or how it worked.

So I started with Flickr, only because I'd heard of it...

Flickr's very easy to set up and use. The best part is it's FREE and it took me no time at all to upload some of my pictures so there was at least somewhere online where all my work could be viewed. You can sort your images into sets and it's a handy place to store and present your images.
However Flickr didn't seem to be designed for the purpose of selling images as artworks like I wanted to do. Also every photographer's page is layed out exactly the same, so there's little scope for personalisation, (which I must admit didn't bother me too much, so long as it worked).

That's when I heard about SmugMug...

SmugMug gives users the ability to virtually create their own unique photography website. It's very professionally designed with some nice animated transitions and other cool graphical features like slideshows, etc. Plus it has a whole shopping cart system that's geared toward sales of photos with a number of different products available including stretched canvas, framed prints, and so on.

It take's a bit longer to get your head around in order to customise it the way you want it, which can be quite time consuming, plus there's a cost attached – it's costing me $20 month.

Following this, I stumbled across FineArtDownunder...

But don't be fooled. It's actually FineArtAmerica by another name. The first thing I noticed was that the layout wasn't that flash. It looks very dated and ordinary. However it has some useful features that make it a very worthwhile tool to use. Firstly, each time you upload an image you are prompted to assign tags to your photo which enables the site to work well from an SEO point of view (Search Engine Optimisation).

Interestingly, if you Google 'photography on canvas', or words to that effect their site comes up consistently on page 1. Then the search feature makes good use of the tags it prompted you for, enabling art buyers to find your stuff. If they're interested in purchasing a pic and click on it they're taken to a page with a magnifying glass feature that enables a closer inspection, almost at pixel level. The site also allows you to set your own pricing margins. And a really great feature that's not available with any of the others is how it integrates with facebook. Each time I upload a photo it automatically updates my online shop within Facebook. The best part is it's FREE to use.

Just out of curiosity there was one more I wanted to try and that was 500px...

This site totally blew my mind. If I had to can sum it up in 1 word it would be AWESOME!
This site has been very cleverly designed. They've obviously thought of everything (except the Facebook thing). From the moment I started uploading pictures I started getting feedback from other users liking my pictures and saving to their 'favourites'. Each 'like' and 'favourite' you receive adds to a ranking – a rating out of 100%. The nearer to 100% you go the more visible your work becomes.

Having said that one of my images got up to 94% which I was pretty pleased about, but it was still a loooong waaaay from the top of the list which shows how many great images are on the site. There's some really excellent work on there. I saw more work and got more feedback from other fellow photographers in the first hour than I've received so far from all the other sites combined! Now that's saying something. The feedback was instantaneous. At first I couldn't figure out how everyone was seeing my stuff. When I finally figured out how, that's what led me to conclude that it was so well designed.

The way this site is designed encourages a striving for excellence that the other sites don't seem to do so well. Plus it has all the other features that allow for selling a variety of products, although they set a standard profit margin for all photographers which seems a bit odd. Plus it's not FREE. I'm still on a 14 day trial, so I've yet to go through the process of deciding whether to keep it or swap it for Smugmug because I can't afford both.

So, there you have it. I hope this summary has been helpful. Please feel free to share your observations or comments if you've used any of these services.

Why not take a look for yourself using the links below:
Zazzle
Flickr
SmugMug
FineArtDownunder
500px

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I wrote anything here. I haven't been doing much blogging lately. I've been a bit pre-occupied with various other things.

One of my biggest difficulties is that I have so many different interests that I can't seem to do them all justice. In recent times I've been focussing on getting up to speed with a few of the main social networking tools like Facebook and Google+. Until recently I had very little understanding of how to use them properly and what their benefits were. My main aim was to grow my audience and get a bit of visibility for some of the things that I'm doing. This is very important when it comes to marketing one's self, no matter what endeavour you're involved in.

However, the difference between social networking and blogging have become quite apparent to me. In the social networking environment people seem to be in a hurry to do everything and it seems to be all about gaining "likes" and "pluses". You're basically in a situation where you're effectively competing for visibility. It's dependant on visual stimuli and I'm often left thinking how superficial the whole experience is. Neither of these tools seem to encourage meaningful dialogue or interaction between the people that use them.

Having said that, I have managed to attract a small audience of around 100 on Google+ and a combined audience of about 140 or so between the 3 facebook pages I'm running which is not a lot by any means.

But at least blogging allows for an exchange of ideas at a deeper level. You can get into the 'meat' of a matter and drill down into stuff that's of real interest. This is the kind of tool that allows for a real 'meeting of the minds' for those who need it.

So having said that, I'll be back here again soon to share more of what I've been up to — at least in the creative area.

So y'all come back now, you hear?

“Ye Auld Mug” T-Shirt

New Zealand has been abuzz with America’s Cup fever this week as we inch closer to what every New Zealander hopes will be the second time we successfully challenge for the cup.

So to get in the spirit of things I decided to create a souvenir t-shirt for all those supporters either at home or abroad who want to remember this awesome event in their own special way.

I have designed it so that the text can be customised creating a unique one-of-a-kind souvenir that allows you to put your own personal stamp on the experience. While the default text reads “OFFICIAL NEW ZEALAND SUPPORTER” this can be customised to read whatever you want it to say

It seems everybody has a comment to make on the subject and now you can too with your own “Ye Auld Mug” souvenir t-shirt.

Get yours today by clicking here 

Historic Taverns Inspire New Ideas for Artworks

One subject that seems to lend itself quite well to HDR photography is historic architecture. There are several historic buildings I’ve seen on my travels, that whenever I pass them I think about how I’d love to capture them in all their glory and turn them into a work of art for others to enjoy... like the Paeroa Hotel for example which I passed on the road on a nice sunny day recently.

These old buildings are a reminder of a by-gone era. Perhaps that’s why, for me they ellicit such emotion when I see them. I’ve applied a subtle painterly texture to this photo which may only be properly appreciated when viewed at full size on a stretched canvas print.

Click here if you’d like to purchase a Paeroa Hotel Stretched Canvas Print.

*****

While I was about it, I decided to try again to capture the Northcote Tavern, another historic building in my local area. But this time I wanted to see how it might look being turned into a badge or graphic with a bit of typography added.

If you’ve read much on this blog you will know how I can’t help myself doing this. All those years spent doing Graphic Design for labels and logos probably. But who knows, perhaps others will share my love of these old buildings and be tempted to wear a souvenir t-shirt with their image on them.

Click here if you want to purchase a Northcote Tavern T-shirt 

I’m happy to do commissions too if you have something particular in mind. Feel free to leave a comment below.

HDR Photography

Anyone reading this blog will probably know by now that I’m always keen to try something new when it comes to being creative and photography has been no different.

But anyone with a camera (or even a phone these days) can take semi-decent photos, right? So, I want to take photos with a bit of “Wow” factor.

For me, when I first started looking closely at other people’s photography it was HDR photography that always seemed to get my attention. So I decided to try understanding what this is and how to do it.

Here’s a couple of examples taken one rainy morning recently...

I think the trick is knowing what kind of subject matter suits this kind of photography. This technique doesn’t seem to work so well on everything. Of course there’s a lot of trial and error involved too.

One photographer doing a lot of HDR stuff and who’s amassed a huge online following these days is Trey Radcliffe. He puts a lot of his stuff up on Google+. Just Google his name and you’ll easily find him. He also has a blog called “Stuck In Customs”which is well worth a read. I only started noticing him since he moved to New Zealand which is where I live.

The above photos were taken only minutes from where I live, but now that I’ve figured out how to do this, I’m keen to travel further and find some new and interesting subjects to shoot. 

These are both handheld so they’re lacking a bit of sharpness — I can probably fix that by using a tripod.