February 15, 2015

Meet Facetune - The perfect portrait and selfie editor in your pocket

You can easily retouch your portraits and selfies like a pro using powerful desktop software suites like photoshop and lightroom. Imagine a situation where you don't have access to your laptop and you feel the urge to retouch a group of photographs you just got clicked with your friends. The standard photo editors that come pre-installed on your devices are just too austere for a professional magazine level retouch. Isn't it? Here's where the facetune app enters to your rescue. With facetune installed on your device, you carry flawless retouching capabilities in your pocket. Forget about photoshop and lightroom. You can't ask more from a mobile app like this one. Seriously friends!

Here's what you can do with facetune -

1. Say goodbye to facial marks and blemishes

Using the "patch tool" in the app, you can get rid of all the unwanted facial marks, spots and blemishes.


2. Look clean-shaven (for guys, obviously :p)

Does your facial stubble in the picture make you look shabby? Don't worry. Use the "smooth tool" in the app to get that clean shaven look!


3. Whiten your teeth

Pale teeth can be embarrassing. Use the "whiten teeth" tool to get that flawless smile :)


4. Remove red eyes

Clicking a selfie in low natural light with flash turned on is the main reason why you see that red eye in your photo. With the "red eye" tool, all that you have to do is to just tap on the red eyes, and they're gone! 


5. Look slim

Get rid of that double chin and fat belly using the "reshape tool"

6. Look younger

Using the "smooth tool" & "patch tool", you can reverse all the signs of aging!


6. Color your hair and clothes

Using the "tone picker", you can easily change the color of your hair and clothes to whatever you like.

7. Defocus/Blur the background

With a DSLR, you can easily click a portrait with shallow depth of field. But if you don't have one or if you simply forgot to introduce the effect with your DSLR while shooting the photographs, this app can help. 

8. Plus, a variety of amazing effects!!!






















Grab it. It's available for just $4 on Android and iOS.

June 22, 2014

4 Steps To Make Colors Pop In Photoshop

Color is very important information when it comes to photography. A good amount of color balance can really make your photograph pop out. In this tutorial I will show you how u can make your photographs more vivid with very simple steps.

We usually work on RGB colors mode, which has three channels, RED, GREEN and BLUE. For printing it’s the CYMK which has 4 channels Cyan, Yellow , Magenta and Black. In this tutorial we will be working on LAB color mode. Follow the stepwise process to achieve vividness in your photographs.

Step 1

Change the color mode from RGB to LAB mode from IMAGE > Mode > LAB color mode. The advantage is, LAB offers separate channels for colors and exposure.

mode

 

Step 2

LAB color mode has two channels A and B for colors where channel A control Magenta and cyan and B controls blue and yellow. The separate channel Lightness controls the exposure of the photograph. When you increase the color you don’t change the exposure of the images.

Now all that you need to do is to increase the contrast of both the channel. When you increase the contrast of these two channels they only affects the color but not the luminance of the color. Luminance is the level of brightness of any color.

Lab curves

Step 3

Select the channel A and apply the contrast either by going to image>Contrast or applying ‘s’ curves. Now repeat the same process for channel B. You can see the difference now. If you have used adjustment layers you can use the opacity slider to control the amount of vividness and makes sure to merge it down.

Labs curve channel a

Labs curve channel b

Step 4

Change the color mode back to RGB from LAB color mode.

See the before and after in the image below

before and after image

Anup Ghimre

About the Guest Author:

Anup Ghimire is a Nepal based photographer & re-toucher, blogger and
educator. He is mostly interested in landscape and fashion
photography. He also has a blog pixeltut.com and has been doing
video tutorials for lightroom and photoshop. You can follow him on
twitter @anupg44.


 

June 09, 2014

The merits of flash as opposed to HDR in event photography

Event photography is one of the most exciting branches in the field of professional photography. As a photographer, each event you have the good fortune of photographing will be different, as will be the kind of ambient light you face at each event. You will find an equal mix of indoor as well as outdoor events; therefore, it becomes necessary to equip yourself with all you need to get some beautiful shots at the event.

HDR and flash are among the two most used features when it comes to shooting photographs in a dimly lit environment. Let us take a moment to understand the meaning of each of these terms and what they can do for your photographs.

Flash

Flash Photography

Flash is just a very powerful light applied to illuminate a dimly lit picture. Complete with a startling color temperature of about 5500 Kelvins; flash has the ability to help you freeze the frame when you capture objects in motion. The bright light that emanates from a flash usually lasts for about 1/1000th of a second. Although flash originated from the single use of halogen flashbulbs, it has now progressed to an electronic version. Most of the digital cameras nowadays, come with a built-in flash, while SLR’s have a popup flash that is not as effective as your regular flash.

Pro photographers have been known to prefer the use of studio lights that you either plug in or use with a battery pack.

High Dynamic Range or HDR

HDRThis specific shutterbug feature represents the distinction between the faintest and most prominent of lights in a particular room. The camera has a dynamic range that captures the picture. Once the objects in the frame go past the camera’s range, highlights mellow down to whites; while the darker areas fall to the shadows. HDR basically helps you achieve a picture with a wide dynamic range or lighting that would be impossible without it.

A photographer has to take several photos at varying levels of exposure and then go on to process them together to get the desired effect.

The distinction

The HDR feature requires the photographer to click a wide range of bracketed shots; which is basically the same photograph with different shutter speeds. The photographer then has to merge the different photos with post-processing to get one well illuminated photo. There are several types of photo-merging software’s like the Photomatix available to HDR enthusiasts today.

A flash succeeds in illuminating the picture frame so that you get a bright picture of the subject to start with. You can then go on to tinker at the photograph during post-processing and make any more changes. Some cameras today, come with an electronic flash that has a tube full of xenon gas. It works by shooting a high voltage electric current creating an electrical arc; which essentially emits a brief flash of light for you to take your picture in.

If you’re shooting an indoor event, your best option is probably the flash as you can truly capture some compelling images with such a dominant source of brightness.

The nature of the HDR feature prevents its use for objects that move; especially with the exposure bracketing you will probably be better off with a flash. HDR is more of a suitable option for those dabbling in real estate photography, as they can take the time to use HDR to get some fantastic shots of interiors.

Several digital cameras including the new range of DSLR’s have a very powerful flash option as well as great HDR setting. Do remember to experiment and let your creative genius run free in the field of special events photography, leading you to a bright future!

About the Guest Author:

Aaron Ho is a professional photographer based in Sydney. He provides top notch event photography Sydney to people so they can cherish their every special event!

March 01, 2014

Product Photography Tips

Hello readers! Today’s post has been contributed by my friend Heena Verma, a passionate beauty blogger behind Vanity Case Box. She takes exceptionally good photographs of her beauty and makeup products. Through this post, she shares with us, the top 5 tips to take ‘wow’ photos of your products :)

Tip 1. Lighting Is Very Important

lighting importance

swatch lighting

If you have a good lighting, you have done more than half of the job. I always prefer natural light to photograph my products. It only means you have a clearer picture and a picture that depicts its true colours which is very important while photographing beauty products. You don’t want your bright pink eye shadow to be looking like a light pink eye shadow and fool your readers! Along with that, natural lighting also helps in bringing out true swatches of the products. Even in natural light, experiment with your camera settings to bring the swatch as close to the accurate shade of the makeup.

 

Tip 2. Avoid Using Flash

I also avoid using flash since it washes out the colours terribly and brings out another picture. The more you explore your camera and play with its settings, the more you will realize that how much good a plain digital camera can be!

 

Tip 3. Retouch, If Necessary

Also, when the weather is really gloomy and it’s getting tough to capture pictures nicely, you can always use a touch of photo editing software to brighten up the pictures in such a way that does not alters the product image drastically.

3 4

 

Tip 4. Get Creative!

taking photos from different anglesTaking creative pictures is one of the most satisfying things for me in my blog. Think about different angles, different composition, and different backgrounds. Different angles mean as to in what way you want to capture your product i.e. sitting, lying, vertically, open or closed. You don’t want to place your product far in the picture. The product’s ratio should have a good balance with the picture frame.

 

Tip 5. Take A Look At The Background

using balloons as propsMake sure that the product doesn’t get distracted by the background. Take a clean background. I have seen many pictures with the products being showcased in a very messy background. Avoid it. It causes distractions. You can use different locations and even different types of pretty handmade sheets to capture beautiful pictures. Many-a-times, you can also use different props to enhance images. Just make sure that you place them in a way that doesn’t interfere with the product and goes with the personality of the product. For example, while capturing skincare and bath care products, you can use towels and candles along side. Similarly, while capturing lipsticks or nail polishes, use can use jewellery behind them but in a sober manner!

jewellery behind lipstick

pearl in the background

glitter sheets in the background

Lastly to make sure that you get the most out of your digital camera, make sure that you are well acquainted with all of its functions!

 

About the Guest Author:

Heena  owns a makeup and beauty blog – vanitycasebox.com. She loves to take creative photographs on her blog. Hop on to her blog to see more of the pretty pictures

June 19, 2013

Learning What Can’t be Self-Taught: What a Photography Education Can Teach You

You will find a lot of columns and articles on the web featuring photographers outlining the ways in which going to a photography school and earning a photography degree is deficient in preparing a (future) photographer for the realities of a career as a shutterbug. And those articles and columns make a lot of good points.

Art degrees do often fail to include well fleshed-out coverage of practical business practices, cultivating marketing savvy, maybe the necessary writing skills that can prove necessary for some kinds of photography work and the details of some practicalities you’d never consider. Practicalities like protecting your images from unlicensed use, fixing broken printers, dealing with unhinged customers and unscrupulous competitors and perhaps too little about navigating ethical quandaries.

In my experience photography seems to attract people with more solitary and/or self-sufficient dispositions. It’s not an art or career that requires all that much collaboration much of the time and more intangibly, Freud might argue that there’s something inherently isolating about the use of a camera. Whatever the case, I suspect that tendency is partially responsible for the popularity of downplaying the importance of an education in photography. There’s no question there are things you’ll need to learn for yourself but there’s a lot a foundational education can give you that you just won’t find elsewhere. Here are a few of them:

 

Profs with an Eye for Photography and Peers to Critique Your Work

This is a big one and can be more important than people realize. Even photographers with a great natural eye can almost always stand to improve some feature of their work - composition, light work, framing, whatever. Unless someone’s lucky enough to have a family and circle of friends who are in possession of a technical and artistic understanding photographic expertise far greater than the average person, getting their critiques and opinions can only help so much, if at all.

You may be compelled to explain or defend your choices and work which will force you to think about those choices and that work. You’ll have an opportunity to examine and critique the works of fellow students too- learning from their mistakes and masterstrokes. Being in a position where no one reviewing your work feels obligated to simply compliment it can take you out of your comfort zone but is absolutely necessary. Speaking of which…

 

Taken Out of Your Comfort Zone

GroundPhotogI shot for a college newspaper and my first year virtually everybody on staff wanted to be a sports writer or photographer. I was the exception. A couple years later, no one did. All the sports guys had graduated or left the paper and the new crop had absolutely no interest in covering the athletes of our alma mater. There was even serious talk of abolishing the sports section altogether- everyone getting fired up about retuning the paper to focus on academics, news and politics- the things that mattered. Our editor, bless her heart, though not a sports fan by any means was wise beyond her years and brought us all back down from our ivory towers,

“We are going to have a sports page. A lot of people read it and the alumni like it. Amy, you’re sports photog.” She said in paraphrase. I was miffed but sulkily complied and found that while I was never converted to True Believer lifelong sports fan, I loved going to the games. Racing up and down the field or court for good action shots was a blast and the crowd’s enthusiasm was infectious. As often, it’s a class assignment for portrait or still life, wildlife or whatever that turns someone on to something they’d never have considered if not forced to try it.

 

The Shoulders of Giants

If you look at the paintings of Picasso before he got into cubism, Pollock before his abstract impressionism, or James Joyce’s writing before he began producing stream of consciousness masterpieces, you will find the work of men with a thorough understanding of and owing a debt to classic technique. Those guys didn’t begin their careers by producing the work we’re familiar with.

JacksonPollockHowever high the evolution of their art took them and original as it was- they wouldn’t have reached those pinnacles without a boost up from the shoulders of giants. The probability is very slight that anyone becomes an Annie Liebovitz, Mick Ross, Chris Johns or a member of the Bang Bang Club without studying the work of Lumiere, Philippe Halsman, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus or Henri Cartier-Bresson.

 

Tools of the Trade

Not unlike the differing perspectives granted by a community of aspiring photographers and the professionals teach all of you, chances are you’re not going to find yourself in another situation where it’s your job to try out a great variety of cameras, styles, equipment, have easy access to a darkroom for ‘free’ (tuition notwithstanding). A good photography program can be invaluable in helping you find the equipment that will best facilitate your success. As for that community I mentioned…

 

A Community of Photographers

Friends GroupThis is a biggie. Both personally and professionally finding a group of like-minded, like-careered, likewise-neurotic (in my case) community of shutter-jockeys and forming connections with them is invaluable. Other photographers can refer you work or give you a heads-up on good leads for client-bases. Hanging out with other photographers helps keep you in the loop regarding new tech and gadgets, the aforementioned work situation, new techniques, programs, apps, gossip, what have you. As or more importantly- maintaining a circle of friends with whom you can go have a beer and decompress, confide in, or who will kick your as* into gear when you’re just not feeling it. For that alone, I will never regret my decision to get a BFA in photography.

About the Guest Author:  Amy Cobb feels most at home behind a keyboard or a snapping shutter. She's a Jill-of-All-Trades media refugee turned blogger who, since jumping ship from the Fourth Estate, blogs on all things media and media-education-related. Most recently she's worked on cataloguing which school has the best photography degree. When not writing, Amy is doing her best not to torture the flora in her square foot gardening plots and she’s always at the beck and call of her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Snarls Barkley.