Re: Updated My Webpage..
Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 10:26 pm
MaartenSFS wrote:Ian C. Kuzushi wrote:Damn, those pics impress the hell out of me. Self-taught, you say? Well done! What are you shooting with? I love the landscapes and people, especially that shot of your teacher on the top page. Very cool.
Good luck. The webpage layout is very nicely done. I hope you get a steady and enthusiastic group together.
I'm glad you liked them, but I really, really wish that I had time to take more.. The days were extremely long and the weather, people and animals didn't always cooperate, but I made the best of it..
One third of the work is using your photographer's eye to spot a good composition or getting lucky. The second third is taking the photo with the correct exposure settings (which means understanding those settings). Finally, the last third is post-processing it in Photoshop. Photoshop can only make a good photo great or a great photo amazing. It can't make a shitty photo into a masterpiece. The trick is to edit the photos to look more like what your eyes saw and not overdo it.
Notice that only one third of the above process depends on the camera. About a fourth of the photos were taken with a cheap Panasonic bridge camera and the rest were taken with an entry-level Canon DSLR and cheap lenses. There were also several that were taken with a cheap Fujifilm camera. If I bought a new camera now it would probably be a Canon 200D, which when paired with my excellent, but cheap 24mm pancake lense would be a great, light travel camera.
Still, you can take great photos with just about any camera in good light and good light is usually what you strive to shoot in. Make sure that your camera can shoot in RAW mode so that you can get detail out of the highlight and shadows. Another secret ingredient is using a polarising filtre to get nice colours and reduce glare. Before I went back to China in 2011 I borrowed all the books on photography that I could find at the library and learned the basics, then started to practise. Over time I learned new tricks and improved my post processing and the rest is history..
That shot of my teacher and that shot of me on the first page were the only photos not taken by me!
Interesting. Thank you for sharing.