Today I have a continuation in my series that I am dubbing the Villainous Monstrosities. This will be the name for my macro series of bugs of all sorts. I intend to make a logo for the series and will write about the process of that here on my blog as well. This will be an ongoing series and I will put them into a new subcategory in my portfolio under the Other category in photography.
I will warn you now, there are some pretty nasty fellas in this series including more arachnids. I will put the spiders at the bottom, since I know so many people are bothered by them, that way, if you are, you can avoid them.
On to the creepy crawlies! (If you are ever interested in ordering a fine art print of any of these photographs, please use my print order page here.)
The header image is a really close shot of this dragonfly:
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Tags: arachnid, beetle, bug, dragonfly, fly, insect, macro, photo, photography, spider, tic
Posted in photography | 1 Comment »
I have learned through both college and work experience that one of the best ways to learn anything is through critiques of your work and other’s work. That is why, in the spirit of teaching through this blog, I am happy to critique the work of submissions from readers. If you would like a professional critique from me and learn how to better your artwork, be it photo, design, painting, et al, just read these submission guidelines and submit an image through my critique contact form. You can also email your submission to photocrit [at] chrislanephoto.com.
It’s been a little while since I’ve had a critique on the blog, so it’s about time I got back to it. This time I have a photo submissions from Elizabeth M.
I’ll be critiquing this photo of an orangutan in a zoo. First, the metadata. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: artifacting, bokeh, camera, Critique, depth-of-field, digital, GIMP, JPEG, noise, Paint.Net, photo, Photoshop, point-and-shoot, post processing, posterization, retouching
Posted in Critique, Retouched, photography | 2 Comments »
I just posted a new tutorial on how to create seamless textures in the vidcast section.
Seamless textures are pivotal in 3D applications for things like the ground, fabric, etc. In these two videos I show how to create a seamless texture all the way from taking the photo properly to making it seamless in Photoshop. Apologies for the sub par sound and video quality in the photography video. I’m working on getting a better camera with better audio for the next live action video I make. Click here if you want to download the seamless texture that I create in this video, along with the others I mention in the first video. Or click here for all of the texture packs I’ve created, all for free. The first video is 2:42, the second is 9:08. That second video was difficult to cram about 45 minutes of work into that short of time, so at times it will seem very sped up and truncated.
If you missed it, don’t forget to watch the other tutorials available here.
If you have anything to add, let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe by clicking the link to the left for any updates, new tutorials, and more.
Tags: photo, photography, Photoshop CS3, seamless, Textures, video
Posted in Free!, Textures, vidcast | No Comments »
I have learned through both college and work experience that one of the best ways to learn anything is through critiques of your work and other’s work. That is why, in the spirit of teaching through this blog, I am happy to critique the work of submissions from readers. If you would like a professional critique from me and learn how to better your artwork, be it photo, design, painting, et al, just read these submission guidelines and submit an image through my critique contact form. You can also email your submission to photocrit [at] chrislanephoto.com.
Today I have a photo from Sarah S. She said she took this photo of Prairie Smoke (aka Old Man’s Whiskers or if you are really hardcore Plantae Tracheobionta Spermatophyta Magnoliophyta Magnoliopsida Rosidae Rosales Rosaceae Geum L. Geum triflorum Pursh) in the North Dakota Badlands handheld in a shady ravine. Looking at the metadata, it was taken with a Canon PowerShot S3 IS
at f/2.7 at 1/60.
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Tags: adjustment, alteration, aperture, Badlands, Critique, curves, depth-of-field, f-number, f/, flower, levels, light, natural, North Dakota, photo, photography, Photoshop, Photoshop CS3, Praire Smoke, process, Retouched, shadows, Training, white balance
Posted in Critique, Retouched, photography | 3 Comments »
Failure to experiment leads to craft shows and chintzy work.
The whole process of creating art is completely subjective and open to interpretation at all bounds. I want to urge everyone to not be afraid to experiment in their work. Artwork can be created by the numbers, but most viewers will be able to tell it is done in a formulaic way. It won’t stand out amongst the crowd. I recently attended a local arts & craft show and I couldn’t count how many people were selling mostly the same stuff. If it wasn’t rock bracelets, it was plywood cutout figures. They might be good at what they do when making those figures, but they weren’t willing to experiment. All of them looked the same, to the point I was wondering if they weren’t homemade but rather being resold from elsewhere. That means that they were either being made from a pattern or the entire genre has simply become stagnant.
The thing about experimentation is that no one has to know. Photography, for example, is great for experimentation. It is so easy to try something new, especially with digital cameras. Try getting lower, to the point of laying in the grass, and get a shot from a worm’s eye view.
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Tags: abstract, aperture, Arbroath, camera toss, darkness, experiment, experimental, f-number, f/, light, light painting, Minolta, night, photo, photography, photos, Scotland, SLR, X-700
Posted in Art, Design, photography | No Comments »
