Learning 

1023 creative works found

• 

  A Fish Out of Water
  by Carrie Glenn

  US$4.66–US$106.40

  Airbrush and mixed media Featured on the Home Page / (Thanks Everyone!) Featured In Pop Art / (Thanks Kitsmumma) Featured in I ♥ Patterns / (Thanks Jemimalovesbigted & Natalie) Featured In C.O.R.E. / (Thanks Ushna & theyellowfury) Featured In Dream & Fantasy Art / (Thanks Ana & Hal Featured In # 1 Artists Of RedBubble / (Thanks Isa & Everyone!) There’s more ocean in fish than fish in the ocean… Nature is wise, but Mankind… just bumbling fools. Learn from the living, watch water in motion, Don’t waste your time staring at small stagnant pools. Fish are content to live their life in water, Water is after all their life’s element. There’s no need for them to be an “achiever,” Living, staying alive… that’s accomplishment. But there was one fish wanting something “better”, He wanted “achievement,” he wanted a “first.” He leapt out of water, fins in quick flutter, Taking fast to the sky… but soon died of thirst… / / Poem by Peter. J. Oszmann © 2003 / (Check out his other written works they are a delight!) A.K.A. ” Alfred Fishcock ” For The Great Gregory You can contact Carrie at: carrie@carrieglennstudios.com and please visit Carrie Glenn Studios /

• 

  Learning how to play soccer.
  by Ellen

  US$3.99–US$91.20

  I was inspired by the European Soccer games this last june. (not really to be honest :) / Only wished the light was better.

• TUTORIALS:Bling Bling for bubbling
  by D R Moore

  Here is the Table of Contents for my How-to’s on Customizing your Redbubble profile and bubblesite. ” *Working with text [Formatting…

  Here is the Table of Contents for my How-to’s on Customizing your Redbubble profile and bubblesite. Working with text [Formatting] More…... redbubble Formatting [Text wrapping images] Creating Links Etc…on redbubble Adding Calendars to your bubblesite Using Small Product Previews Quick (Redbubble) Search Bookmarklet Repeat post Time Saver Framed image on Bubblesite home page feedjit Live Traffic Feed Edit your Slideshow widget. Edit your Sales Widget… Using promotional image Banner Using tags on Redbubble Using a Paypal button on redbubble Add a Slide show to your Redbubble Profile/Bubblesite Visitor counter on your bubblesite or profile page Mapco visitor counter on your profile/bubblesite Redbubble toolbar / Host or Co-Host Tutorials Featuring the easy way Need more Help? / Chat with me on Skype User Name / envelope150 More…...Coming Soon! ( Still converting them from my blog ) / See the ones not converted below these are on my blog creating thumbnails for grouping images / My first how-to post How to Customize Redbubble / Get the Firefox and Internet Explorer Tool bar for Redbubble Here / See more info Happy Bubbling (with Bling Bling) / Dan

• 

  Learning To Fly
  by RavenSoul

  US$33.25–US$106.40

  My Favorite little model, Kolleen. She is becoming a very big girl and spreading her wings, which at times can be frustrating for all lol. But watching her soar will be the greatest thing ever!

• 

  Inclusive Homeschooler
  by Hazelberry

  US$24.94

  Whether you are new or old to the homeschooling world make your statement as an inclusive homeschooler…really inclusive.

• 

  The Flow of Technology
  by Paul Francis

  US$26.22

  Striking artistic representation of how the flow of technology advances is viewed by the artistic mind. The view is horrible and huge.

• 

  Scarification in Africa
  by Anthony Asael

  US$6.65–US$152.00

  Scarification is a means of permanently marking the skin by cutting alone, without the use of pigments. The scars may be lighter or darker than your original skin tone and may raise up (keloid scarring). There are many ways to produce a scar but the cut must always penetrate the dermis if a scar is to be produced. The result depends as much on your skin as the method used. Black skin in particular is very good at producing pronounced keloid scars and this is a popular alternative to tattooing for people with very dark skin, for whom a tattoo might not show up very well. In many parts of Africa these scars are marks of beauty and a way to identify someone belonging to a particular group. Scarification also may mark one’s status as a civilized being, adult, or member of a specific ethnic group or initiation association. I spend a day in his school in a remote village of Benin to work on the Art in All of Us activities (www.artinallofus.org). I had really a great time thanks to the kids creativity. Please see some of their works on Benin Gallery ! hope you enjoy !! All proceeds from sales of pictures will go to the art education project of Art in All of Us (WWW.ARTINALLOFUS.ORG)

• TUTORIAL:Creating Links Etc...on redbubble
  by D R Moore

  Creating Text Links / To make your text clickable or link to a web address / Put quotation symbols ” ” on each side of the word/sentence …

  Creating Text Links / To make your text clickable or link to a web address / Put quotation symbols ” ” on each side of the word/sentence you want to make Clickable and then a Colon : (no spaces), Now put the url (web address) of where you want the clicker to go. / EXAMPLE: "View My Gallery":http//example.redbubble.com / Will give you this View My Gallery / You can also make a Text box appear when hovering over the link by adding text in brackets / Like this "View My Gallery(Go to My Gallery)":http//example.redbubble.com / The text above in ( ) will appear in a box if someone hovers over the link / Like this ( put your mouse over the link but do not click it ) / View My Gallery / To use formatting with your text link. Add a space between the formatting symbols and the “ / EXAMPLE: "Space*View My Gallery*space":http//example.redbubble.com / will give you this / View My Gallery Using images in your descriptions ,profile page,etc / First you must know where the image is located (web address) / Example: http://www.mypicture is here.jpg / To use a framed, laminated print, card etc.. image from redbubble click the “show public view” in your “Art” section / / then click the “Buy/Preview” Button / / Set the image as you wish to use it, Card, Framed print etc…once you are done follow the instructions below to get the web address If using firefox simply right click the image and select “copy image location” Using Internet explorer right click the image then select “Properties” A Properties box will appear copy the Address(URL) High lighted in blue / “right click” the Highlighted text then choose “copy” / or once it is highlighted hold the “control(CTRL)” key and press “C” You can now paste the image location in the location where you want to use it (right click and select “paste” or hold the Control key and press “V” on your key board) Now put a ! before an after the image location like this !http://www.mypicture is here.jpg! / To make it clickable or linked add the colon : and web address after the ! / like this :http://www.your going here.com / The final entry Will look like below / !http://www.mypicture is here.jpg!:http://www.your going here.com / The text box mentioned above can be used here as well by adding your text in ( ) / Like This !http://www.mypicture is here.jpg(Have a Look)!:http://www.your going here.com / Will give you this ( Put your mouse over image but do not click to see ) / Using Just the Image / To use only the image go to you art section by clicking “My Bubble” then “art” / on you art page find the image you want to use and get the image address or URL as described above / EXAMPLE http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/cropped/size:xsmall/view:main/2903258-2-magnolia.jpg = !http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/cropped/size:xsmall/view:main/2903258-2-magnolia.jpg! To change the size of the image replace the size:xsmall to one of the values shown on the right. / (Click the links for a preview of the size cropped version ) / xsmall = 60px × 60px / small = 135px × 135px / xmedium = 200px × 200px / medium = 300px × 300px / large = 550px × 550px / xlarge = 663px × 663px watermarked to use this one you need to remove the /cropped from the image URL Cropped Version / / Not Cropped / You can also remove cropped/ from the image address to maintain the shape of your image. / Note the sizes may vary depending on your image shape. / Here is a good example why you may want to remove the cropped/ from the image / Notice the cropped version cuts off the cards in his hands but doing this has changed the thumbnail size. To create a Larger preview link use some text or an image and link it to the xlarge view. / Here is an Image Example be sure to remove the /cropped from the xlarge view How it works The text I used !http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/cropped/size:xsmall/view:main/2412521-3-pink-rose.jpg(View Larger image)!:http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/size:xlarge/view:main/2412521-3-pink-rose.jpg To create a large product preview add /pixelsize:875×440 as shown below / Click here to see BEFORE and AFTER EXAMPLE (laminated print) URL: http://images-3.redbubble.net/img/art/backgroundcolor:d1d1d1/border:whitewithdetail/pixelsize:875×440/product:laminated-print/size:large/view:preview/2099882-6-resting.jpg / Click Here to preview larger size Create a contact link or e-mail me link / Example: "contact me":mailto:myname@myemailaddress.com / Your bubblesite has a contact option, to turn it on / Go to your profile edit page Click here / then scroll down to the e-mail section / and click the box next to / Allow people to contact me via email / Allows visitors to contact you with a form on your BubbleSite. Your email address will not be displayed After you click it you can go to your bubblesite and on the top where the links are you will see these links / Home Gallery About Contact / Clicking the Contact link will open a new window with the Contact form / If you want to use it on redbubble then use the code below. / but change the username to yours / "Contact me by E-Mail":http://username.redbubble.com/contact / Contact me by E-Mail Leave me a comment if you still need some Help or Chat with me on Skype My User Name / envelope150 To use a Skype live status link copy and paste this text and change the username in bold / Leave two blank lines before and after the code |Chat with me on Skype| / |!http://mystatus.skype.com/balloon/username.png!|My User Name / username| Once you get the hang of creating links and posting images give my other tutorial a try. More…… redbubble Formatting [Text wrapping images] Beware this one will frustrate you Happy Bubbling / Dan Get the Firefox and Internet Explorer Tool bar for Redbubble Here / See more Toolbar info See all my How-to’s Here Includes “Framed image on Bubblesite home page”, “Adding Calendars to your bubblesite”, “feedjit Live Traffic Feed”, “Using tags on Redbubble”, “Add a visitor counter to your bubblesite or profile page” and More © D R Moore This written work cannot be reproduced or posted on the web without my written permission

• InternetLove or 'How we learned that you're the best community we could have hoped for, Anne van Alkemade in particular'
  by RedBubble

  2.14pm – Wednesday afternoon The keys on this plastic alphabet are sticky. The seat has no back and the minutes are expensive. The sub…

  2.14pm – Wednesday afternoon The keys on this plastic alphabet are sticky. The seat has no back and the minutes are expensive. The sub audible hum of ten thousand anxious people reverberate through the terminal floor. The timeless neon glow of Gates 31-40, Baggage Claim, Toilets and a Foodcourt burn into my pores. A voice informs me that Mr Nigel Sankey should really hurry along to Gate 36, because all the people already wedged onto the plane are getting seriously annoyed. In another life our original flight had not suffered the generic ‘engineering difficulties’ and we were already home, but in this life we were destined to spend half a day in Sydney airport at an internet cafe, so still in this life I wrench the keyboard from a neighbouring computer and walk resolutely towards the mannequins at the Virgin Service Desk, a blank look in my eye. / How did it come to this? 7.55am – Earlier that same day El Presidente and I burst into the breakfast room of the Shangri La hotel in Sydney, where NetGuide are holding the ceremony of their yearly internet awards. The room goes slightly quiet, the dog in the corner ceases playing the piano, and the 100% suited and booted occupants turn to look at these last minute arrivals, one in a vibrant red limited edition RedBubble tee, the other in a faux-Napoleonic military jacket. I wave my cane in the direction of some empty seats and we take our place between the MD of eBay and a man from the Bureau of Meteorology. A general air that we may be ‘chancers’ prevails. The ceremony begins, and decorum is held in fine corporate silence, broken by an intermittent golf clap as another nervous individual waddles up to claim their glass shard. The 14th prize is for Best New Site, and it is won by a company called Web Menu, but also has a Highly Commended Category, which RedBubble wins. None of the other categories really have second place awards, and so we still appear like we are here for the free breakfast. The final two awards, however, are a little more prestigious, and they begin with the ‘People’s Choice’ which NetGuide are very proud of, and after building it up to unprecendented heights they announce that RedBubble has conquered it without question. You can hear the room inhale in unison, then vigourously clap. Afterwards everyone was very friendly, coming over to congratulate and talk details, I was even accosted by one man in the gents but I requested he wait until I finish, I think he had something to do with the ceremony. We hand out some t-shirts and greetings cards and even some bubbles, which could be seen floating around the room towards the end of the event. 9.45am After a suitably cheesy photoshoot, we jump into a taxi and head for the airport and hopefully, a quick flight home. —-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—— I’d just like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the whole team, to thank all of you, and not just all of you who managed to read this whole post, or even all of you who voted for us, but ALL of you. Because you really do make this site as vibrant as it is, without you we’re nothing, well, not nothing, we’d be a bunch of nerds in a room with some flashy computers and an endless biscuit supply, but I don’t think there’s an award for that. / So thanks and don’t stop now, we’re just getting warmed up. onetonshadow, and everybody else Oh and big up to NetGuide for the whole event, bacon and free mousemats, here’s what they have to say about it Addendum / I’d also like to thank the mighty Anne van Alkemade for stumbling across the competition in the first place and alerting our eager community. May your days be filled with fine wines and tasty cakes.

• 

  Learning to Fly
  by Bogac Erguvenc

  US$5.16–US$117.80

  A tribute to Pink Floyd…

• 

  Watch & Learn
  by Gene Praag

  US$4.32–US$98.80

  Wild horses in Utah’s west desert. Looks like the little one is trying to figure out what is going on.

• TUTORIAL:Add a Slide show to your Redbubble Profile/Bubblesite
  by D R Moore

  Adding a slide show to redbubble Ok not really a slide show but it is very close, It’s an animated gif image. / You can see one ”...

  Adding a slide show to redbubble Ok not really a slide show but it is very close, It’s an animated gif image. / You can see one My Bubblesite These images can also be linked / Doing this will require you to have software that can make an animated gif image. / And of coarse I know of a free software program that can be used and this tutorial will explain how to do this using this free software. The free software is called / unfreeze and you can Get it here / Once downloaded and installed on your / computer we are ready to go. The first step is to get the images you want to include in your slide show, I am going to use my redbubble images set in frames for my bubblesite homepage. Sign-in to your redbubble account Click “My Bubble” then “Art” find the image you want to include and click the “show public view” Now click the “buy/preview” button / Select the product format you want to use Card, Laminated print, etc.. Then save the image to your computer. Internet Explorer users “Right Click” the image and select “Save Picture As” / Firefox users “Right Click” and select “Save image as” / And choose a location on your PC where you can find it easily. / You can use as many images as you want, but remember you want them to visit your gallery so keep the number of images to a minimum. / I’m going to use 8 images for now. / You can re size your images if you like the Unfreeze software will resize your images to fit in a 375 pixels(high) X 360 pixels(wide) box but the software will not center the image. For those that want their images centered in the box, Use your photo software to edit the images / The software program (unfreeze) that I recommended above requires the images to be in gif format. Doing this in your photo software may be different than mine. But I will open the image in my photo software “Paint.net” and then click the “Save as” option and change the format (type) to gif ( Graphics Interchange Format).They will be saved in the same folder that I put the ones I downloaded from the bubble. Once the images are in the gif format. We are ready to create the animated gif (slideshow) Open the folder where your gif images are located Start “unfreeze” a small window will appear / Drag your images into the white window Then set the delay on the right, I used 60, Make sure the “Loop animation” box is checked Now click the “Make Animated Gif” button Give it a name and Click “Save” To make the images change slower add more than one of the same file The image that I created here was made using three copies of the same image,delay set to 90 / Example: drag and drop “image1.gif”,then do it again drag and drop “image1.gif “ This one has four of the same images and delay set to 60 Now the image can be uploaded to a web site, since Redbubble does not support this file type. You can use “Dropbox” / which is a free file store, share, sync software Get it Here it allows you to have 2 gig of file storage for free. Plus when I change the slide show gif I just created dropbox will take care of the rest. / So changing my slide show is as easy as making a new one and saving it using the same location and name on my pc as the one I’m using now. / Now Insert the new image on your bubblesite or profile / Use the image location (web address,web url) with a ! before and after the image location / For more on Linking images etc. see this post How to Customize Redbubble / And your done. / You can also include these in your description boxes these have been reduced in size A great way to promote your calendars on your bubblesite remember these images can be linked to the buy page. / Happy Bubbling / Dan / Get the Firefox and Internet Explorer Tool bar for Redbubble Here / See more info See all my How-to’s Here Includes “Framed image on Bubblesite home page”, “Adding Calendars to your bubblesite”, “feedjit Live Traffic Feed”, “Using tags on Redbubble”, “Add a visitor counter to your bubblesite or profile page” and More © D R Moore This written work cannot be reproduced or posted on the web without my written permission

• 

  The lesson to be learned here is - NEVER put your hand up for ANYTHING.
  by Incognita

  US$29.92

  At Miss Borgia Creed’s Academy for the Indigent Young sporting prowess was loudly acclaimed. Incognita never made any of the teams. Only in the library, a gloomy, dust-bedizened maze that no other student had been known to set foot in, could Cog forget the shame.

• 

  Learning To Fly
  by vladstudio

  US$3.99–US$91.20

  You can also use this image as desktop wallpaper: / http://www.vladstudio.com/wallpaper/?606

• 

  The Gift of Learning
  by Pip Gerard

  US$4.48–US$102.60

  I was watching the movie “The Ultimate Gift” listening to the character played by James Garner talking to his grandson when he said… ‘Learning is a gift… even if pain is your teacher”. As soon as the words had finished coming out of his mouth I honestly said out loud – YES!! Immediately I was blown away by the quote and I wrote it down and thought about its meaning for weeks. I’ve never felt so affected by a sentence before. Upon reflecting this quote I found quite confronting to realise that I spent my twenties doing everything to avoid and “run away” from my emotional pain.. Now in my 30s I’ve realised that pain was essential for me to be a more caring, less-judgemental and forgiving person. Pain seems to show us the truth in others… the truth that all people, no matter what’s on the outside… have a heart capable of breaking on the inside. It gives me great comfort that I can now view the grief of my brothers death as somewhat of a gift to me – rather than nothing but a loss FEATURED IN Prize Challenges GROUP / FEATURED IN Creative Inspirations / FEATURED IN YOU’RE ACCEPTED GROUP / FEATURED IN FIRST THINGS GROUP / FEATURED IN TYPOGRAPHY GROUP t-shirt available .

• 

  Polaroid Teachers Message
  by Pip Gerard

  US$23.54

  Thought I’d try this quote as a polaroid so it would look ok on a tee. .

• TUTORIAL: More...... redbubble Formatting [Text wrapping images]
  by D R Moore

  This how-to will briefly explain a method of using tables on redbubble to Create sets, Text aligning, Text wrapping in Descriptions,Journ…

  This how-to will briefly explain a method of using tables on redbubble to Create sets, Text aligning, Text wrapping in Descriptions,Journals and profiles. There must be 2 blank lines between the table and other text (Press Enter two times before and after the table) To make a table insert a “|” (vertical bar) between the items to be contained in the cells. / The Examples provided below in BOLD can be copied and pasted. Then just replace the text with your links, images, text or whatever you wish. / For the basic text wrapped image use. / |text|image| / To put the title above the image use below / In order to keep a blank cell I will use   Text wrap an image | |Title w/ link| / |Description|Image w/ link| Preview Click Image to Preview it on my Bubblesite The Cattle Egrets is a popular bird with cattle ranchers for its perceived role as a bio control of cattle parasites such as ticks and flies. A study in Australia found that Cattle Egrets reduced the number of flies that bothered cattle by pecking them directly off the skin. It was the benefit to stock that prompted ranchers and the Hawaiian Board of Agriculture and Forestry to release the species in Hawaii Profile set w/ title or tag link / This also can be used in a Journal entry / For titles above the image use the table below / Note I used 6 size:xsmall images/ use size:small to match the ones already on your profile |”View my Set title or tag link”| |Title1 w/link|Title2 w/link|Title3 w/link|Title4 w/link|Title5 w/link|Title6 w/link| / |image1 w/link|image2 w/link|image3 w/link|image4 w/link|image5 w/link|image6 w/link| It will look like below or you can change the two lines and have the titles on the bottom. |image1 w/link|image2 w/link|image3 w/link|image4 w/link|image5 w/link|image6 w/link| / |Title1 w/link|Title2 w/link|Title3 w/link|Title4 w/link|Title5 w/link|Title6 w/link| View all images in My Bird Collection Screech Owl Missed a Spot Osprey II White Pelican My Girl Preening Flamingo Notice that several of my images have long titles that extend past the Xsmall image / One fix for this would be to press enter after the first word Example: |Title1 w/link|Preening / Flamingo| / |image1 w/link|image2 w/link| Preview My Girl Preening / Flamingo or Put the second word at the bottom / In order to keep a blank cell I will use   Example: \ |Title1 w/link|Preening| / |image1 w/link|image2 w/link| / | |Flamingo| Preview My Girl Preening Flamingo Looks great on your profile |image1 w/link|image2 w/link|image3 w/link| / |Title1 w/link|Title2 w/link|Title3 w/link| / Preview Jupiter Lighthouse Free Poker Lessons Missed a Spot No go forth and create that great description that really stands out more than the rest See this description on my Profile , Bubblesite This is a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird / Which is in the bird family Trochilidae, and are endemic to the Americas. They can fly backwards, and are the only group of birds able to do so. Their English name derives from the characteristic hum made by their wings.Which they can do up to 53 times a second. The extremely short legs of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird prevent it from walking or hopping. The best it can do is shuffle along a perch. To scratch its head and neck it raises its foot up and over its wing. Happy Bubbling / Dan See all my How-to’s Here Includes “Framed image on Bubblesite home page”, “Adding Calendars to your bubblesite”, “feedjit Live Traffic Feed”, “Using tags on Redbubble”, “Add a visitor counter to your bubblesite or profile page” and More Get the Firefox and Internet Explorer Tool bar for Redbubble Here / See more info Chat with me on Skype User Name / envelope150 © D R Moore This written work cannot be reproduced or posted on the web without my written permission

• Learn How To Sell Art
  by Jo O'Brien

  My primary goal for the next 3 months is to help you sell your art. Selling stuff used to be my profession, but now it is my passion. And…

  My primary goal for the next 3 months is to help you sell your art. Selling stuff used to be my profession, but now it is my passion. And I have plans about how I might help you make more money from your art and designs. But before I spend hours doing research, conducting interviews and writing articles, I’d like to know, what you want to know. I don’t profess to know it all, but I’ll be giving it my all to find out! Do you have a question about marketing or selling your own art? I’d like to hear it

• 'Snap shots' or The Art of Photography
  by Mark German

  I have recently had occasion to comment on a person’s photography, and give some advise, as I see it. As I sometimes do, I have collated …

  I have recently had occasion to comment on a person’s photography, and give some advise, as I see it. As I sometimes do, I have collated it into this journal so that it may serve others as well. These are my own opinions, and not to be taken as coming from some authority on the subject. Hope it helps, particularly with Christmas arriving soon, and lots of family members milling around the lounge room. When shooting people, particularly when you have (a) a busy background, and (b) have not much distance to the background – a wider aperture helps isolate the subject/s. This is possibly the single-most visual and initial difference between what looks like a family snap, and a professional photo – largely because point-and-shoots do not have the ability go to very wide apertures. Wide apertures decrease the DoF (depth of field) – which is the region that is in appreciably good focus. A bit of experience (or online DoF calculators, or your DoF preview button) helps you to select the correct aperture to bring to attention the areas of a scene that you want to highlight. Narrow apertures (higher F-number) produce deeper DoF – bringing more of the scene into focus. Useful for landscapes and such – not so great for a busy lounge room. The point to the photo. / It helps to keep in mind as you work, what exactly you are trying to achieve. Lucking shots is what most people do, and being pleasantly surprised every now and then. But the truth is – there is no need for luck. A photo is a story – a visual slice of time, frozen forever in a way that cannot be accomplished by other means. A good photo maximises this concept, by bringing a message, story, emotion to the viewer. A good photographer is a storyteller. A great photo reads like a book. Light / When we shoot, we are shooting ‘light’. We are capturing how light reacts on physical objects, just as our eyes do. Learning to read, use and manipulate light sounds complex, but in fact it is not. A good professional photographer can immediately see and sense how light falls, how shadows interact, how scenes and moods change with different lighting. Using available light such as sunlight, or overhead house lights is one of the most important things one can learn. This can be accomplished from moving yourself around a subject to take advantage of the conditions, by moving your subjects, and/or by moving your light sources. Using flash or another source of artificial light is a field unto itself and is worth learning, but I won’t get too far into here, other than to say – pointing a flash at your subject and firing is the least effective and natural way to add light to a scene. Try bouncing your flash off a ceiling or wall. Focus / Obviously, your subject, or at the least, the poignant portion of your subject, should be in focus. Aside from the obvious, DoF comes into play. Widening your aperture will reduce the depth of your focus area, as well as bring in more light, allowing faster shutter speeds and/or lower ISO. When focusing, there are a few methods to ‘nail it’. There are very few times when manual focus is preferable with indoor group photos and current day cameras. One method is ‘focus & recompose’ – a system I use very often when shooting from 20’ away or greater (the further away your subject, the greater your DoF). This is performed by selecting your exact focal point on the subject (like the eye) using the centre area in your viewfinder, half depressing your shutter release button, and recomposing your photo to frame as you see fit. Alternatively, you can use a different focal point, which will minimise your recomposing, and therefore not shift your plane of view appreciably (which can shift your focus at closer ranges and wider apertures). Composition and framing / Another major difference between snapshots and great photos. When I take a photo, I instinctively imagine the image in my viewfinder hanging on someone’s wall. This is before I release the shutter. I have done this for so long, and so instinctively, that I rarely need to crop any photos. It is a good practice, saving post-processing time, allowing you to keep the entire frame (and pixels), and also satisfying. All scenes have a natural flow to them. Just as we read books, our eyes follow an image from top left to bottom right. This does not mean that all photos need to take advantage of that particular physiological trait, but it is handy to keep in mind. A good photo has balance, with areas of the scene harmonising to each other using light intensity, facial expressions, emptiness, lines, etc. In fact this is a whole huge subject in itself – the psychology of photography. Timing / Since a photograph is a slice of time, getting your timing right, particularly with moving and animate subjects – makes a whole lot of difference. It is one of the main things I look for when shooting. I think of a snapshot as a glass of milk. A well-timed shot is a Pina Colada :) / Look for expressions on faces that relate to the mood/scene/environment. Hands have expressions also, and often carry as much ‘weight’ as faces. Exposure / In my journal I have a brief commentary on exposure – it may help you. Not plugging myself here – just something I wrote quickly to save time when people ask – I point them to it instead of re-writing. Feel free to debate, query or challenge. / Hope this helps you in your Christmas photography, and have fun 

• 

  Paint My Love
  by udonchow

  US$4.66–US$106.40

  An acrylic painting on wooden color palette. The song “Paint My Love” by Michael Learns To Rock happens to be Ophelia The Owl’s favourite love song! :D You can view and buy my other “Paint My Love” creations from my Zazzle Gallery:

• Lighting The Head Shot
  by John Hooton

  “If God had intended photographers to use more than one key light, he would have made more suns.” Just about every single shot includi…

  “If God had intended photographers to use more than one key light, he would have made more suns.” Just about every single shot including the food and still life shots in my portfolio was made with one light. One light in the right place. You won’t need any more except possibly to light a background. In this case make sure that they light the background, and do not spill back on to the subject. Use barn doors or large black sheets of card if necessary. Very early in my career I learnt that light bounces around all over the place in a white studio. This is unwanted light. When I worked for top food photographers and fashion photographers like Barry Lategan, we actually blacked out the studio with drapes or black screens. Great for glassware too. I ordered funeral drapes to cover an entire studio when I was asked to light a “Finish” (the dishwasher stuff) TV commercial in Milan. The essential shot was of a glass. How do you get a glass to look sparkling clean? Answer, outline it in black, make it totally transparent and have one clean reflection of light on it. How do you do that? Black out the studio; this creates the black edges which are the walls reflecting in the edges of the glass. Use one ‘window’ type light. In this instance I used a 6×4 sheet of opaque white Perspex and stuck some halogen floods behind it. Result – one clean reflection of soft light, no glass to be seen, just the black outline of one. It looks as clean as a whistle because the glass is invisible! The actor doing the demo in the commercial looked good too, with a similar lighting quality to that in my stills. The cameramen were two old hacks from Rome who scoffed in bemused wonderment at this 22 year old kid who had made the studio look set for a funeral. The drapes were all that the three funeral companies could provide. However, the results were crystal, the client was thrilled, I was a hero for a day, and I got more work from the production company who shot the ad. This lighting style was often copied after that, and is still the basis of many British commercials today. So where were we? Yes one light. One light in the right place. At John Cowan’s studio, I persuaded John to have the entire walls of the studio painted black to which he agreed. Why black? So that the light does not bounce all over the room filling in shadows where you want shadows. To start with black and then paint with light gives you much more control over your lighting. It makes you the master of it. It gives you the contrast you want without having to print on grade 4 paper, thus allowing more detail in mid tones. I painted my studio in Milan black, and would do the same today. It gives you a quality that is sharp and precise. OK so where does the One Light go? More or less above your own head and slightly above the subject. This will slim the face by putting the cheekbones in shadow if the model is facing you head on. Take a look at the head shots in my portfolio and look where the shadows are. Then figure out where the light is. Above the camera, maybe slightly to one side. This should be the side the model faces if the shot is three quarters on or the shoulders are three quarters on. When you have set up, always use a tripod to establish your camera position and then adjust the light until it is exactly where you want it. Don’t run around the model with your camera in hand. It may look good in the movies, but it will look crap in your contacts, with no consistent lighting whatsoever. Just one more thing, what sort of light you may ask? The light should be intense but soft, so a single umbrella is fine, a soft box is fine, and a bowl light is excellent. This is where the flash head is reflected into a shallow bowl and the head is shielded. If the bowl is then opaqued by a thin sheet of plastic, you will get the same quality as some of the Vogue photographers. It is a very flattering light. You can tell when it has been used by top photographers. You will see the circular highlight with a black center reflected in the model’s eyes. OK folks so that’s how I light head shots (and many of the top guys I have assisted). Give it a whirl and see if you can take some shots that stun you, the girl you are shooting, and the horse I rode in on. ‘til next time – John

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