Project 5: The final image
Back-ups
My back up routine consists of acting on the prompts from Photoshop's Organiser to back up the catalogue. I use an external hard drive for keeping the back-ups. I know this is not an entirerly safe method, as the external hard drive is kept in the same room as my computer. But for now this is the method I'm using.
My back up routine consists of acting on the prompts from Photoshop's Organiser to back up the catalogue. I use an external hard drive for keeping the back-ups. I know this is not an entirerly safe method, as the external hard drive is kept in the same room as my computer. But for now this is the method I'm using.
Exercise 24: Sharpening for print
The image below is a part of an image which was magnified to 100%, containing both smooth and detailed texture. The images were sharpened to various degrees and then printed. The thumbnails don't show much difference, but by clicking on them it's easier to see the various degrees of sharpening.
The image below is a part of an image which was magnified to 100%, containing both smooth and detailed texture. The images were sharpened to various degrees and then printed. The thumbnails don't show much difference, but by clicking on them it's easier to see the various degrees of sharpening.
This is the reference image, where no sharpening has been applied.
Enhance > Unsharp Mask >
Amount 30% - This controls how much darker or lighter the pixels at the edges are rendered.
Radius 0.2 pixels - This controls the width of the edge that is affected by the Amount slider.
Threshold 0 levels - This prevents sharpening the noise withing the image.
Amount 30% - This controls how much darker or lighter the pixels at the edges are rendered.
Radius 0.2 pixels - This controls the width of the edge that is affected by the Amount slider.
Threshold 0 levels - This prevents sharpening the noise withing the image.
Amount 100%
Radius 0.2 pixels
Threshold 0 levels
Radius 0.2 pixels
Threshold 0 levels
Amount 200% - agressive sharpening.
Radius 0.2 pixels
Threshold 0 levels
As the amount of sharpening increases, the noise in the image also increases. Whereas the first and second image look too soft, the last image looks too grainy and noisy. The best sharpening seems to be the image with 100% sharpening.
While comparing the printed images and the versions on the computer screen, it is also interesting to notice that the image on the screen looks more agressive with the same amount of sharpening, compared to the printed version. I conclude that the sharpening process must be applied differently depending on if the image is intended for the screen or printing.
While comparing the printed images and the versions on the computer screen, it is also interesting to notice that the image on the screen looks more agressive with the same amount of sharpening, compared to the printed version. I conclude that the sharpening process must be applied differently depending on if the image is intended for the screen or printing.
Exercise 25 - A web gallery
Why might photographers want to create a dedicated website for their photos?
Some reasons might be:
What makes a good website?
How to go about creating a website
If you are willing to spend money on a photography website, one option could be using http://www.photoshelter.com/ Photoshelter is a platform which would provide a template and maintain the workflow when uploading and selling photos. They have also optimised their layouts to attract viewings. Photoshelter is obviously a commercial service, but for professional photographers who are looking to make money it might be an option.
If your aim is to show your photographs and seek comments, a photoblog is an option. Good examples of this is Shutter Maki: http://www.shuttermaki.com
and Minimalistics http://www.coppercoastworkshops.com/minimalistics/
There are various platforms for creating a photoblog, such as http://www.pixelpost.org/ and http://wordpress.org/
Another simple and free way to create a photography website is to use platforms such as
http://www.webs.com/
http://www.webspawner.com/
http://www.weebly.com/
http://www.wix.com/
It is easy to get started with these, and you don’t need any programming knowledge. There are many templates to choose between, but it will also limit you to the layout of these templates.
Some other simple ways to make an online gallery is Picasa web album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rskC6c_5L1M
or online album using Photoshop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHROF1ws6XA
Looking through the templates on Photoshop, I found them too gimmicky for my purpose.
What am I looking to achieve by creating a photography website?
At this stage I am not prepared to spend money on a website and likewise I am not looking to make money from it. But it would be nice to promote some of my images, to show people what I am about.
While researching for this exercise, these two articles have been very informative:
http://www.magicalplacesfineart.com/blog/2008/11/how-to-build-a-photography-website-in-3-easy-and-one-difficult-steps/
http://www.magicalplacesfineart.com/blog/2008/10/11-reasons-every-photographer-needs-a-website-or-blog/
Examples of good websites
There are different types of websites, depending on the purpose. Working photographers (less known) use their websites to promote themselves and their business. Their websites contain their portfolio, what they can do for a client, contact information and sometimes a pricelist.
Example of this is http://www.pwfoto.com which is Paulina Westerlind’s website. The above website has a quite nice layout. I found her colour sets very inspiring. She has put together photos of similar colour into different sets. The objects are of different characters but still fit together nicely as a set. A negative point is that you need to click quite a lot to navigate.
Another photographer’s website is http://www.small.ie/ belonging to “Small Photography”. Again they show what they can do for clients in weddings, portraiture and commercial photography. I thought their “About” page was particularly nice and very personal. It’s interesting to read how a professional photographer developed. http://small.ie/aboutUs/
For more established (famous) photographers a website can be more like an online gallery or museum. They don’t need to sell themselves, only show their success.
Example of this is Linda Lieberman who is a contemporary artist, and her website is http://www.lindalieberman.com. It is very sparse and only contain some series of photos. Her contact details and background information are not clearly advertised. But it’s there if you really look for it. I quite like her black and white images of the human body which remind me of Lee Miller’s photography.
Another artist, Kelvin Hayes who I found through Hotshoe Magazine, has a myspace website. http://www.myspace.com/kelvinhayesofficial
This kind of website does not inspire me as much. It looks a bit messy and a bit childish. (Sorry)
Lennart Nilsson’s website: http://www.lennartnilsson.com
The website include headings like News, Biography, Articles, Images, Order and Contact. I think his website is really good, because the navigation frame and the black background make it very clear.
Other websites I like:
http://www.gavingough.com/
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/gavingough/gallery/Street-Portraits/G0000hANpEK2tivQ
http://www.alexandersteiner.com
But for me, the website of Nina Berman http://www.ninaberman.com serves the best as an inspiration for my own website. Her website is very clear, with a heading in a column to the left, which takes you through various sets of photographs. Against a black background, the viewer can click through the images. This is what I want for my own website!
I do like the division of different sets within the portfolio. I have recently become quite tired of looking at stand alone images out of their context. It gives the viewer so much more (not only a visual experience) if the image is seen within a context, conveying something more. It’s like music albums, where a song can mean so much more if you hear in together with the other songs on the album and can consider the time and circumstances it was recorded.
I am contemplating what would be best for my website, examples from my assignments or “The Essential Victoria Rahm”. I don't have as many good images as an established artists, so I would like to use many of the photos from assignment 5 of this course. All those images are monochrome which would keep the theme of the web gallery coherent. The images are also quite minimalistic which is why the layout I have chosen also is minimalistic. The background is simply grey and is very easy to navigate. I have used the same web platform as for this learning blog which is www.weebly.com.
As for the preparation of the images for the web gallery, I have used the processes as described in the text for Assignment 5. Something I learnt specifically, was the size of the image in pixels. I noticed that if the horizontal images were taller than 600 pixels they were too large to be seen on screen.
The web site I created can be found here:
http://victoriarahm.weebly.com/
Why might photographers want to create a dedicated website for their photos?
Some reasons might be:
- Display their photos in an attractive and approachable manner – self promotion.
- Looks more professional and impressive.
- Promote their work in order to sell photos or get assignments. Examples of this could be events, gigs, portraits (wedding etc)
- Sell directly from their website, instead of from a stock agency.
- Rank highly in web search engines to attract business and interest.
What makes a good website?
- Clean and clear. One website I visited had flash images and music – and my computer crashed.
- Quick to load
- Use galleries to group together similar concepts.
- Always keep navigation tool visible.
- Use small thumbnails, so that it’s easy to scroll to the photos that interest you, with the possibility to enlarge the chosen thumbnail.
- Black, grey or white background looks good and the photos stand out.
- Copyright watermark should be very light or transparent, not too dominating,
- Fix arrow size at the bottom of the page, in a medium size.
- Embed search terms into all pages and photos.
- Don’t mix verticals and horizontals too much.
- Take the pixel size of a photo into consideration
- Fit the whole image into the screen.
- Make your contact info clear, easy to find
- Flash-based introduction to the website
- Textured or graphical backgrounds
- Cluttered lay out.
- Avoid too many colors / graphics that interfere with the images.
- Avoid arrows that appear only when you hover over them. Make it easy for the viewer.
- Google ads, as these will clutter the page.
- Broken links are very irritating.
How to go about creating a website
If you are willing to spend money on a photography website, one option could be using http://www.photoshelter.com/ Photoshelter is a platform which would provide a template and maintain the workflow when uploading and selling photos. They have also optimised their layouts to attract viewings. Photoshelter is obviously a commercial service, but for professional photographers who are looking to make money it might be an option.
If your aim is to show your photographs and seek comments, a photoblog is an option. Good examples of this is Shutter Maki: http://www.shuttermaki.com
and Minimalistics http://www.coppercoastworkshops.com/minimalistics/
There are various platforms for creating a photoblog, such as http://www.pixelpost.org/ and http://wordpress.org/
Another simple and free way to create a photography website is to use platforms such as
http://www.webs.com/
http://www.webspawner.com/
http://www.weebly.com/
http://www.wix.com/
It is easy to get started with these, and you don’t need any programming knowledge. There are many templates to choose between, but it will also limit you to the layout of these templates.
Some other simple ways to make an online gallery is Picasa web album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rskC6c_5L1M
or online album using Photoshop. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHROF1ws6XA
Looking through the templates on Photoshop, I found them too gimmicky for my purpose.
What am I looking to achieve by creating a photography website?
At this stage I am not prepared to spend money on a website and likewise I am not looking to make money from it. But it would be nice to promote some of my images, to show people what I am about.
While researching for this exercise, these two articles have been very informative:
http://www.magicalplacesfineart.com/blog/2008/11/how-to-build-a-photography-website-in-3-easy-and-one-difficult-steps/
http://www.magicalplacesfineart.com/blog/2008/10/11-reasons-every-photographer-needs-a-website-or-blog/
Examples of good websites
There are different types of websites, depending on the purpose. Working photographers (less known) use their websites to promote themselves and their business. Their websites contain their portfolio, what they can do for a client, contact information and sometimes a pricelist.
Example of this is http://www.pwfoto.com which is Paulina Westerlind’s website. The above website has a quite nice layout. I found her colour sets very inspiring. She has put together photos of similar colour into different sets. The objects are of different characters but still fit together nicely as a set. A negative point is that you need to click quite a lot to navigate.
Another photographer’s website is http://www.small.ie/ belonging to “Small Photography”. Again they show what they can do for clients in weddings, portraiture and commercial photography. I thought their “About” page was particularly nice and very personal. It’s interesting to read how a professional photographer developed. http://small.ie/aboutUs/
For more established (famous) photographers a website can be more like an online gallery or museum. They don’t need to sell themselves, only show their success.
Example of this is Linda Lieberman who is a contemporary artist, and her website is http://www.lindalieberman.com. It is very sparse and only contain some series of photos. Her contact details and background information are not clearly advertised. But it’s there if you really look for it. I quite like her black and white images of the human body which remind me of Lee Miller’s photography.
Another artist, Kelvin Hayes who I found through Hotshoe Magazine, has a myspace website. http://www.myspace.com/kelvinhayesofficial
This kind of website does not inspire me as much. It looks a bit messy and a bit childish. (Sorry)
Lennart Nilsson’s website: http://www.lennartnilsson.com
The website include headings like News, Biography, Articles, Images, Order and Contact. I think his website is really good, because the navigation frame and the black background make it very clear.
Other websites I like:
http://www.gavingough.com/
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/gavingough/gallery/Street-Portraits/G0000hANpEK2tivQ
http://www.alexandersteiner.com
But for me, the website of Nina Berman http://www.ninaberman.com serves the best as an inspiration for my own website. Her website is very clear, with a heading in a column to the left, which takes you through various sets of photographs. Against a black background, the viewer can click through the images. This is what I want for my own website!
I do like the division of different sets within the portfolio. I have recently become quite tired of looking at stand alone images out of their context. It gives the viewer so much more (not only a visual experience) if the image is seen within a context, conveying something more. It’s like music albums, where a song can mean so much more if you hear in together with the other songs on the album and can consider the time and circumstances it was recorded.
I am contemplating what would be best for my website, examples from my assignments or “The Essential Victoria Rahm”. I don't have as many good images as an established artists, so I would like to use many of the photos from assignment 5 of this course. All those images are monochrome which would keep the theme of the web gallery coherent. The images are also quite minimalistic which is why the layout I have chosen also is minimalistic. The background is simply grey and is very easy to navigate. I have used the same web platform as for this learning blog which is www.weebly.com.
As for the preparation of the images for the web gallery, I have used the processes as described in the text for Assignment 5. Something I learnt specifically, was the size of the image in pixels. I noticed that if the horizontal images were taller than 600 pixels they were too large to be seen on screen.
The web site I created can be found here:
http://victoriarahm.weebly.com/
Assignment 5 - The Final Image
Below are the images for the last assignment. All details about this assignment are in the report to my tutor.