Autumnal Atmosphere

Autumn is incontrovertibly beautiful. The loss of chlorophyll gives great variety to the apparent monotony. As if the colored leaves weren't admirable enough, the light turns even more red during dusk. Therefore, autumn is doubtlessly my favorite season of the year.

Most importantly, I love how photographs turn out when being shot in autumn. Here are some of my latest nature shots involving that reddish light.

Gadgets I used:

Canon EOS 550D
EF 50mm f1.4 USM

If you have questions pertaining to my techniques, leave a comment below. Thanks for visiting.

Bye, Marcel.

Explore the world.

Photoshooting 30-09-12 Fairytales

Photoshooting: Fairytales

As counterproductive as usual Sundays use to be, this time I put my time to a good use. As opposed to spending my time on not doing anything, a friend of mine drove me to a particular forest. Surprisingly, she also loaded up her car with medieval costumes.

I can't await getting the driver license myself.

When we arrived I was amazed by the forest's atmosphere. It looked truly mythical because it was quite foggy.

(Red) Riding Hood

Snow White

Medieval Times

The Black Witch

Gadgets I used:

Canon EOS 550D

EF 50mm f1.4 USM

I hope you liked the shots. It was fun to shoot. :)

Bye, Marcel.

Explore the world.

PhotoShooting 23-09-12 Baking & Photographing

Last Sunday was amazing. I spent the entire day baking and photographing with my aunt. Admittedly, she was the one who baked while I was taking pictures. I'm unfortunately not as talented as she is in terms of baking. Anyway, I guess I'm better off than her because I merely take pictures and get to eat the cupcakes as well.

Anyway, who would I be if I withheld you the deliciousnesses my aunt had baked?

Gadgets I used:

Canon EOS 60D (my aunt's)

Canon EOS 550D

Canon EF 20mm f2.8 USM (my aunt's)

Canon EF 50mm f1.4 USM

Canon EF 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS

I hope you could recognize how delicious the cupcakes were. I'd love to be able to bake that well..

Bye, Marcel.
Explore the world.

How to put EXTRA in front of ORDINARY

Sooner or later, all of us encounter photographs seeming to have been taken in daily life, which is true in the majority of cases. However, when we try to reconstruct such pictures they rarely end up as desired. These alleged failures often make us despair or doubt our ability to photograph.

At first, you should never doubt both your abilities and yourself in any way. Anything's possible which numerous people have proven enough times and you're just like them a human being.

Anyway, if you want your pictures also seem interesting, although they deal with daily things, you need to alter something that makes people be under the impression there's something special about them. The best and easiest opportunity to accomplish this is to use editing programs. By using such programs you add your personality to your pictures, because you edit them how they'd appeal to you which represents you.

Here's an example of my previously taken pictures I slightly edited:

As you can see the right picture is more impressive than the other one. I merely applied some simple effects and filters that I liked and found appropriate.

If you like to know the way I processed here's the history:

Raw file and unedited:

Added it to an editing program and proceeded with simply corrections as you can see at the right of the editing program surface:

Afterwards, I did some lighting corrections:

Then I changed the temperature of the colors:

And also altered the wight balance:

Toward the end, I added some additional light sources that brightened the top of the picture:

Ultimately, I cropped it and regarded the rule of thirds which implies that focus points should be set where two lines cross each other:

Thereby, this is my result:

Gadgets I used:

Canon EOS 550D

EF 50mm f1.4 USM

(for editing purposes: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4)

I hope you liked my way of processing and I also left you under some impression. For questions or suggestions, I'm happy to read them, comment below.

Bye, Marcel.

Explore the world.

Projects To Improve Your Skills

Last year, I commenced the 365 Days Project on flickr. It's meant to challenge a photographer in its both creativity and flexibility, because if you start this project you have to upload a new picture everyday. They needn't be connected with each other, because it's more important to come up with new  ideas.

Amazingly, I've already got quite far. This is day 296 of 365

Admittedly, I haven't uploaded a picture strictly everyday because sometimes I was terribly stressed by school or I was simply on vacation and during these days I was impeded from uploading new photographs. I actually started in April, 2011.

There is also a 52 Weeks Project you could try out, which works similarly. However, as the name already gives away you only need to upload one picture per week for one year, ergo 52 weeks.

I highly recommend you to commence such projects, because when challenging yourself you will soon perceive how fast you improve your photography skills. Due to being continuously challenged coming up with new concepts and ideas, you will equally fast improve. Sometimes, it doesn't even take to reflect on new concepts. Simply go outside and photograph what seems interesting to you. Try out new angles, other system preferences, other filters, another environment, etc. Believe me, you're pretty unlikely to run out of subjects for new photographs.

If you feel like being uninspired, I urge you to check out Flickr and Tumblr. On both pages, you will find amazing photographers. In order to find great photographers on Flickr, you merely need to go to the groups section and search for relevant ones such as groups about portraiture, macro photography, etc. and on Tumblr it's even easier, you simply type in a tag. After typing in, abundant relevant photographs will appear.

Bye, Marcel.
Explore the world.

PHOTOSHOP - Kali, the Goddess Of Change

In all probability, Photoshop is the most powerful tool to edit photographs. At the first sight, it seems to be quite complicated because you are unaware of the tools and possibilities it provides us with. Admittedly, it can be fairly confusing at the beginning. However, such as in life you should not give up only because things are harder to be dealt with. Fortunately, we are never exclusively on our own. On YouTube, there have been abundant tutorials posted that help you handle Photoshop.

In this post, I want to show you one of my favorite photograph manipulations I have ever done. If the title is not revelatory enough, I will not give it away either. I hope you will scroll down with excitement. However, first there are several facts I want to tell you about Kali before proceeding. You needn't be worried, I will not waste your precious time. Therefore, I will merely give some basic information away for the sake of brevity.

Kali is a Hindu goddess and the incarnation of death and destruction, ergo change. Her name derives from 'kala' which means 'black'. She is also considered to be the master of time, which makes her to one  of the most influential goddesses.

However, my fascination toward her does not derive from her violent and brutal actions. Change is often considered to be bad, because we incline to make things persist as well as possible. Thereby, we forget how important changes are. Without change we weren't born and without change new lives cannot emerge. There wouldn't be any progress at all. And this ambiguity fascinates me immensely. Perhaps thinking of death this way, it may be easier to deal with it.

Anyway, I don't want to be distracted. Here are several manipulated shots depicting Kali:

Gadgets I used:
Canon EOS 550D
EF 75-300mm f4-5.6 USM (1st and 2nd shot)
EF 50mm f1.4 USM (3rd shot)

I hope you like them. :)

Bye, Marcel.

Explore the world.

How To Get the Light Effect

In my last post, I showed you an out-take of my series that combine nature and sunset-like light. I have frequently been asked how to get this effect in your own pictures. Due to the fact that light is the major part of a picture because you are enabled to add a particular mood, which is quite effective. Such photographs seem to be more expressive. This is why I use to go outside photographing not before five pm. I do not know when the sun sets in your area, but you can easily figure that out by visiting this page and simply typing in your location.

As you probably guessed it right already, to guarantee the maximum of getting this effect you should start to take pictures when this period of time known as Golden Hour is about to begin. The corresponding opposite is known as Blue Hour. During this period of time, your pictures similarly turn out to look quite unique due to the temperature of light. According to my experience, this light is exceptionally suited for panorama shots. Especially, if you are lucky to live close to the sea I urge you to go there very early and capture the sunrise. Believe me, getting up earlier to get this shot is worth it for sure. If not.. No, that is impossible to turn out bad.

Once, you are outside there are merely any steps you need to follow in order to get this effect.
What you need:                             -Your camera

That is all you need. I used both digital cameras and DSLRs and I always achieved the effect I wanted.
What you do:                                 -Search for a location where the sun directly shines to you
                                                       -Reassure that the light either directly shines into your camera
                                                         or onto something you focused on
                                                       -Press the shutter button

That is exactly how it is done. If you are still not content with your images, then you have the possibility to alter the temperature of your photograph.

I know that not everyone is privileged to have professional editing programs like Photoshop. However, who would I be if I did not help you out? Only a minority is aware of the website pixlr.com. It provides a photo editor that looks beautific like Photoshop. Fortunately, appearances are not deceptive when comparing to Photoshop itself. Its photo editor is remarkably powerful and it provides you with abundant tools and even, filters.

Now, nothing can obstruct you anymore from getting these light effects. Always look out for the undiscovered and unnoticed.

If you want to round up your pictures with frames or creating collages, this website is designed to facilitate you that. It is also very easy to use and very beautiful. You should hurry up, because it is still in beta and therefore, it is free! You needn't worry that it is in beta, there are no restrictions and it is flawless.

I hope this post was helpful for you. If I left some questions unanswered, comment below and I will as soon as possible reply and help out.

Bye, Marcel.
Explore the world.

At the Cusp Of Dusk

Contrary to the ability of our eyes to adjust the light throughout the day, cameras are incapable of such adjustments. Thereby, the light is utilizable to add an effective mood to pictures. These are several shots I took shortly before or during sunset.

Gadget I used:

Canon EOS 550D

EF 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS (used for the 1st shot)

EF 50mm f1.4 USM (used for the remaining shots)

Questions regarding my techniques? Comment below or message me.

Bye, Marcel.

Explore the world.

Equipment You Really Need To Photograph

If you are interested in photography, it will not take a long time until you decide to purchase yourself a DSLR. This is probably because it is known to produce pictures of high quality. However, is such a camera that costs about 700$ necessary to shoot good pictures at all? The answer to this question is no, you do not. Similar to life, answers mostly lead to more questions. So, what type of camera do you really need to take excellent pictures?

In order to answer this question, you have to ask yourself what you plan to shoot. That is also the sense why you can opt for different kinds of cameras. They do not solely differ from their appearances, they differ from their functions. Unless, you are insecure what brand you should go for, then appearances are also a criterion. Albeit, this only applies in terms of build quality. There are camera bodies consisting of plastic, metal, etc. Therefore, if you plan to take photographs while hiking, for example, then it would be to the advantage of the life of your camera if you chose a metal body. Sooner or later. all of us tend to drop things whether consciously or unconsciously.

Moreover, there are several other criteria you have to consider carefully in order to buy the perfect camera for your requirements. First of all, you need to determine what your subjects will be. For instance, if you want to capture moments with your family or to take pictures of your journeys then you will be soon sure what camera you need. Before you decide, it's crucial to not only consider what you need it for. You also ought to consider what you surely will not need it for. Accordingly, if you intend to take artistic shots in order to be creative or express yourself because you are interested in artistic photography, then you will need a camera that provides more capabilities.

Incase, you are the type of photographer that is uninterested in artistic features then you will probably choose an average digital camera that provides a wide range of zoom. You do not need many megapixels. This trend of high megapixels is incomprehensible for me, because it does not make a picture look better. Anyway, I stopped counting at seven. Even five megapixels are actually enough to show sharp images on your computer, unless you have got the new MacBook Pro that is provided with a Retina Display on 15 inches. Then your picture almost cannot be shown in the full solution your MacBook Pro is capable of. Thus, I recommend you to buy a digital camera that provides a highly variable zoom with a good light sensitivity for night shots.

If you are the artistic kind of photographer, then you need to invest slightly more money than usual. In order to meet your requirements, your camera must provide particular features that enable you to create a depth of field. Contrary to DSLRs, digital cameras set these features automatically. Therefore, a DSLR is probably the best solution. It is recommendable that you do not invest all of your money into the newest DSLR body. Even older ones provide filming capabilities. You should spend the majority of your money on good glass, in other words a lens.

Taking a look at the variety of lenses that exist can confuse easily. It was also quite hard for me to take root. I will soon upload my next post clarifying what your lens (and camera) should urgently provide you with.

If you already have questions or comments, do not hesitate. I'm always happy to help you and if you think I need to add something or you have improvement suggestions I'm happy to hear them because I'm not perfect either, but happy to be helped as well.

Bye, Marcel.
Explore the world.