Focus

I’m a big fan of having a very precise Focus point in all of my photos. Specially in portraits. I always aim to the eyes and try to make them the central point of attention always keeping the background out of focus (I have a very special relationship with my 1.8 50mm lens and almost for a sure fact I will be shooting at 1.8 ((hihihihi)). 

For this shot it was a challenge to find that perfect focused eye point. I took this through a window in the intent of trying new things and ideas, as I mentioned on my previous post (it features a very handsome border collie and very nice fairy lights if you want to check that out!).

The reflections on the glass make it very difficult to find focus. But you just need to move around a little bit and maybe, if you have to, switch to manual focus. That’s what I did here and I think I got a very good focus.

I then developed this image using Adobe Lightroom and a little Photoshop afterwards.

Thanks to my beautiful model Jessica!

🙂

Fairy Lights

I recently started watching YouTube video tutorials about photography. It has been hard for me to admit it, but I’ve been feeling kind of stuck with my photography. That’s why I decided to look for tutorials, videos and stuff that could help me bring my photos to another level.

I thought I wanted to master Adobe Lightroom. So that’s what I started looking when I had a revelation. I discovered that I need to experiment more and bring new ideas to the photoshoots instead of to the post-processing of my photos.

So I started to watch videos of photoshoots ideas instead of developing and editing tutorials. I came across a YouTube channel I really, really liked and almost binged watch all of the videos. It’s Jessica’s Kobeissi’s Channel.

She’s a great fashion and portrait photographer and besides really enjoying her videos, I was inspired by her work and her attitude. So I decided I just need to practice more, be more constant with my photography and less afraid to try new things.

Right now I’m doing very little. I’m not even having one photo shoot a month (which sucks) and translates to blog abandonment and social media neglect.

I’m going to try and do at least one short photo shoot a week and try new developing tools and techniques, keep watching tutorials and keep learning. The first step was to buy some fairy lights and try new, fun things with them! Just a the photo I took of Mango.

I will keep sharing my progress with you :). Hope you have a wonderful week!

 

Little pine tree

This little pine tree was a gift from my mom from when my parents visited in December. is the first photo I take of it and I wonder how it didn’t ocurr to me before to photograph it.

The things is that, maybe, as I see it everyday I got too used to it. Which sucks. Because I was complaning about not being able to take photos for a long time because of bad weather and the fact that is getting dark so early, when the truth is that we are sourrounded by a million things that could be super interesting to shoot.

Is just that we get used to them and we almost forget they’re there. After I realized that, I though that I will try and force myself to take photos of things I see everyday around me in a different way.

I think that would make a great excercise.

Rediscovering love for black and white photography

I’ve mentioned before how I only did black and white when I started with photography. Besides making me a little bit afraid of color photography, It also made me resent black and white. It’s like when your mom forces you to eat something, then you don’t want to eat it ever again. You know?

Well, that happened to me. However, little by little I’ve started to find love for B&W photography again and I wanted to share this image with you.

Even when I took it I imagined it in black and white. I also did a color version, but I love in in monochrome. I feel it really enhances her features and her beautiful freckles.

Some photos just work in color and some just work in black and white. I plan to write a little about this in the future, but I’m waiting until I have enough examples to explain myself.

How do you feel about color VS. black and white photography? Let me know, I’ll be happy to hear what you think!

Light is everything

The most important thing in a photo is the light. Light has the ability to make or brake any shot. You might have a great camera, a great model, a great set, BUT if you don’t have great light, you have nothing. It works the other way around too.

Every time I’m about to take a photo, the thing that inspires me the most is a beautiful lightning. Is the one thing I’m constantly fixated with. And natural light is my personal favourite. When I first started with photography I was dying for the opportunity to be in a full equipped set and try out all the lights, flashed and any lighting device I could put my hands on. But once I did, I was kind of disappointed.

Even though the possibilities are great because everything is under your control, It wasn’t as fascinating as I thought. Natural light has this quality that makes it perfect and amazing for pretty much any kind of photo. Well, at least from my point of view.

Of course there are many things that contribute and affect a photo besides the light (I will talk about that in another post). But light provides the mood, the ambiance of an image. And natural light is as versatile as it comes.

I particularly like the afternoon light the best. Back in Venezuela the perfect time was around 16.00h. Here in Spain it varies a lot depending on the season and time of the year. Right now, days are very short and the light is very soft almost during the entire day and that’s great!

When taking photos I really like to have a focal light point. It’s not so easy to catch it because those points appear in very specific hours of the day when the sun is lower but hasn’t started to set yet. Here are a couple of examples!

I really like how those glares look like. I feel they give the photos a little extra something! This is one of the reasons I enjoy natural light so much. You can play with it so much during a single day and season, the possibilities are endless.

Whether you prefer natural light like me, or artificial lightning, always pay close attention to it. On how you are going to use and what mood you have in mind for your photo.

Happy shooting!

Tips to improve mobile photography!

Let’s face it! The camera we have with us ALL THE TIME is the one in our mobile phones. Because we take them everywhere with us. Because is light, compact and easy to carry around.

But most of the time the photos we take with our phones don’t usually come out as we expect them to. Either it is because we are way to used to using our DSRL cameras, or whether it is because we have a hard time with phone photography in general, I wanted to share some tips based on my own experience. You can take great photos with your phone!

 

Here are some tips on how to improve your phone photography:

Natural light is your friend! 

Sunlight is the best, most beautiful light for your photos. Try to avoid taking photos with flash and lamps. It’s very difficult to manage a well illuminated image with artificial light. So any time you want to take a photo with your phone, turn the flash off and walk to the nearest window. Either is a photo of your meal, a selfie or your cat, natural light is alwas the best option. A falsh will make your subject flat and create strange shadows and non-flaterring shapes. Natural light, specially the one in the late afternoon, is soft and very flattering.

Use the zoom

Mobile phone camera lenses tend to have very wide angles. Sometimes that makes it difficult to find a different point of view or a good frame composition. That’s why it’s very wise to remember that we have the option to zoom in and play with it to find different angles!

Take care of the background

I know. This one applies to overall photography. BUT, when it comes to mobile photography we don’t get tired of seeing photos in bathrooms where the toilet decorates the background. I think this happens because, in general, people are not careful with the quality of their phone photos. So, please, when you decided to take a photo for your Instagram account or your profile, be conscious of what appears on the background. It will improve the final result SO much and you will be happier with it too!

Develop your photos

By this I don’t mean to just throw an Instagram filter. Most phones (all of them) have a few, very basic photo developing tools. After you snap, take a few minutes to play with these tools and give some love to your images. You can usually adjust exposure, light temperature, highlights and shadows. On top of giving a more final look, your images will be more personalized and you can begin developing your own style.

I hope these few advices are of use to you! It’s important that we know how to take full advantage of our phone’s cameras as we have it with us at all times. i have to admit it kind of scares me to take photos with my phone sometimes, because I don’t practice it very often and I’m afraid I wont get the result I was hoping for. But when I decided to write this post I took a few minutes to get into it and managed great shots.

Ir’s all about keeping your curious eye, Learn and practice every day!

(Thanks to my models of the day!)

 

Inspirational Instagram accounts!

Instagram is my favourite social media platform. I love discovering new accounts and filling my feed with beautiful images. Browsing through it it’s a delight and an inspiration form.

I believe all artists must stay in touch with other artist’s work to learn and keep creativity flowing. That’s why I like to fill my Instagram feed with all kinds of inspiring accounts.

Here are 7 of my favorite Instagram accounts (so far!) with no specific order.

OTOMSURF 

I loved this account since I laid eyes on it. I absolutely love how clear the images are. Their simplicity, the peace they convey, the harmony of composition and colors in every shot. He also has a beautiful Tumblr page you can follow by clicking here!

COLORBUNNY

OK, if you like colorful images, this is the account you must follow right now. This feed is AMAZING! It’s a beautiful, minimalistic gradient of colors. It started with dark purple tones and the current color is orange. The coolest thing is you can submit your own photos to be featured in the colorbunny account.

CAMERONLEEANDERSON

One of the things I like the most about photography it’s the possibility to tell stories without words. And that is exactly the thing that made me love so much this Instagram account. Beyond the fact that the colors and composition of each photo are beautifully accomplished, I feel the entire feed is telling us a story. All together, or looking at each picture individually, the stories behind these shots, must be amazing.

RUNNERKIMHALL

Let’s talk about eye candy. Because that’s exactly what this Instagram feed is! If you like pastels, minimalism and dogs, runnerkimhall‘s account is a must to follow. A glaze to this feed and you’ll feel like dreaming. It’s the perfect account to brighten even the darkest day!

LITTLEUPSIDEDOWNCAKE

The simplicity and strength of each image in this feed is unbelievable. Each photo is clean, soft and beautifully composed. One of the things I like the most about littleupsidedowncake is the light. Every frame is consistent in lighting and that provides the feed a soft, peaceful feeling. I just love browsing through this account. You can also enjoy more of this account by visiting the website http://www.littleupsidedowncake.com/

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I find inspiration in all these Instagram accounts. Sometimes I don’t feel very creative or just need to freshen my mind by looking other’s photographers work, and Instagram is a great place to do that. 

I love to discover new accounts every day! So if you have any suggestions, I would love to hear about them in the comments!

 

Trying something (a little) different

I think it’s nice to try different things every now and then. So for one of the last shoots I did, I changed a bit my style.

We put our own personal brand in everything we do. And all types or art expressions or professions are no exception to that.

A few time ago I was concerned because I felt I didn’t have a personal style to my photography. I used to see all these other photographers whose portfolios or galleries had this unified look that left no doubt that those where his/her photos.

But when I saw mine I felt something was missing. Was I bringing something unique to my photos? If I put a photo that wasn’t mine in my portfolio, would someone notice?

I got so preoccupied by this I think it started affecting my work.  Some time passed, I decided to stop obsessing about it. To just let things flow and do with my photos what I felt I liked. Period.

And before I could even realise, I noticed that my style did exist! I now I can even explain it (huhu!).

For this last photo shoot, I tried using colder tones, and less saturated colours and a little more obvious use of the chiaroscuro. I usually use very warm tones, with a little over exposure and low contrasts. I will write a post explaining that very soon!

Even though these feel very different from what I usually do, I really like how the photos turned out. The entire look feels right for the girl and the theme of her photo shoot.

Have you found your personal style yet?

“Funny” things I’ve been told as a photographer

• That’s a GREAT photo! Your camera takes amazing pictures. Or any of the following variations:
  • With that camera anyone can take good photos
  • That camera makes everything look good
• Could you send me the photos you didn’t edit? / I want more volume of photos. Don’t show me just your selection, I want to see all the photos you took. This is a very common one and I know some photographers don’t mind sending unedited material. But I believe doing so is to deliver an unfinished material. Besides, let’s face it, we all have a bad photo in every shooting. Sending RAW, unprocessed photos is damaging of one’s reputation. What happens if the client shows one of THOSE photos? Who is going to look bad? And those are just a few of the reasons I don’t send unprocessed photos.
• Don’t take too long editing. Just put a filter and be done with it. WHAT? No…no…no. No Developing photos is a very meticulous process. There is no such thing as putting a brightness, color, or anti-wriggles filter when developing photos. And, even if they are from a same photo shoot, each capture is different and needs its own processing.
• You are going to photoshop me, right? I don’t know. This one is very common too. It’s really impressive to see how people see themselves and usually feel they need to be “photoshopped”to look good.
• If I had the time, I would take the photos myself. Yes. You could take the photos yourself, but probably they are not going to be good.
• Look how good is the photo I took with my phone! You should try to take the same one! I just… I don’t even…

I know this happens with many professions, not just to photographers. What is the “funniest” comment you’ve received from someone regarding what you do?

Editing VS Developing

When I talk about processing my photos, I always talk about developing them. Not about editing (unless I feel that is exactly what I’m doing). I believe there’s a very big difference between both concepts.

I use Adobe Lightroom to develop my photos

Let’s get technical for a moment. According to the WordReference dictionary “editing” refers to: revise, rewrite, correct, alter, delete. 

While, “develop” makes reference to: improve, exploit, magnify, build up, augment, refine, enrich. 

That is exactly what I’m talking about. When we talk about editing our photos, I believe that means to change, to alter the original, raw image. For example, when we work on a specific type of fantasy photography and we want to add objects that don’t exist in real life. Or when models get retouched and edited to look a certain way in fashion photography.

When we develop our images, we are not changing them. We are enhancing, magnifying the original information of the photo. The result is that the final image is very similar to the original, only with a few tweaks.

Of course I’m not saying one method is better than the other. I believe editing and developing have completely different purposes. Depends on our own personal style as photographers, on what we wish to accomplish and the type of photography we are doing.

By the way! This is a new type of post I would like to start doing. Posts with tips and guides, personal opinions about photography and to share a little bit about my style! Hope you enjoy them!