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Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Photograph Amazing Silhouettes in 4 Easy Steps

Posted by Unknown, on 23:58

A family standing at sunset in silhouette

A beautiful silhouette can sometimes be one of the most engaging, creative types of photos. I love a crisp, colorful background with a dark, precise silhouette line in contrast. Maternity portraits are fairly easy subjects to photograph in silhouette, for example. Most pregnant women don’t care to see themselves at 36 weeks of pregnancy, so silhouettes are welcomed, showing off the shape of the belly nicely. Shoot fabulous silhouette images with these 4 tips:

1. Set Your Camera

Set your manual settings as if you were shooting the bright sky without someone in front of the camera. After all, it is the sky that we want to capture in all its colorful, properly exposed glory.

I often start with an ISO around 100 on a bright sunny day, and set my f-stop around 7.1 or so. Take a sample shot to expose for the bright sky, then adjust the shutter according to what you see. After you get a great photo of the sky without the person, add the person in and take another with the same settings. You still may have to play a bit, but that setting gives you a strong start.

2. Position the Subject

Two types of spots work especially well when shooting a silhouette:

Put the subject in the shade

In this first example, the subject is under a tree. It was a bright sunny day, and my best option was to be in the shade and shoot out to the sunlit spot. If there’s distracting clutter in the background, get very low to the ground (don;t be afraid to put your ear on the pavement). This separates the person from the distractions in the background and ensures the subject doesn’t cross lines with building lines. In this image, I used an 85mm lens with ISO 125, aperture, f 5.0 shutter speed 1/5000

Put the subject in an open field at sunset

In this image, I was shooting in the evening sun, without the option of a tree overhang. The sun was low, so I positioned my subject in front of the sun to block it. I think these type of shots are always so beautiful if you can catch even a little of the sunset color and clouds in the sky. I used the 28-75 lens at 68mm with ISO 200 aperture, f 9 shutter speed 1/250. Settings vary depending on the brightness of the sun, but these are great for starting off the shot.

3. Pose Your Subject

When just one person is being photographed, position her arm back awkwardly to avoid creating an image without arms.
If the subject has longer hair, have the subject pull her hair back in a ponytail to reveal the neck and facial features.
Ask the subject to put her second hand out of sight, straight down by her side, so it doesn’t look odd.

4. Edit Your Silhouette

Finally, you can finalize your photo afterwards on your computer. Darken the shadow a bit (for example, you can use the Levels or exposure sliders in Photoshop or some other photo editor). Also, consider brightening the background. In addition, saturate the color to make sunsets more colorful.

Artical Arts

Painting a Simple Snowy Pine With Watercolors

Posted by Unknown, on 23:54

One of the more thoughtful gifts people can receive is something handmade. It signifies the giver as having put forth time and effort to create something that doesn’t need to be elaborate or perfect, as the mere thought is what makes a handmade gift one to be cherished.

Things You’ll Need
Watercolor paint (I used Winsor & Newton professional series)
Flat brush No. 16
Fine-tipped brush No. 6
Watercolor paper or heavy cardstock
White wax crayon
Salt (optional)
Glue (optional)
Glitter (optional)

Select the desired size watercolor paper, and fold it in half.

Working within an imaginary triangle, lightly draw irregular shapes representing where the snow would collect on the branches of a pine tree (note: the shapes appear darker here than suggested, for illustrative purposes).

Using a white wax crayon, fill in the areas. Known as resist, the technique will result in the areas remaining white after you add color.

Prepare your color palette, using a mixture of greens and blues.

Using your flat brush,

paint in the sky using the blue mixture. Add a simple streak of gray below the tree.

Add green to the tree, always working within the imaginary triangle.

Optional: While the paint is wet, sprinkle salt onto the blue paint.

With your No. 6 brush,

add a few lines to detail the branches. Allow the paint to dry thoroughly. If you sprinkled salt onto the paint, you can now wipe it off. The salt adds extra texture to the painting and resembles falling snow. Please note: It’s very important that the paint is completely dry prior to wiping the salt off, as you otherwise risk smudging the paint.