Friday, September 9, 2011

Useless Things Can Be The Most FUN!

   The first consideration that I take into account is the final purpose of the picture...If you like, this is the point where you can "State your Concept". Thereby making it an "official" piece of Art;capital"A". Or "I'm making another page for my Vacation/Graduation/Wedding scrapbook.
Personally, I have set myself to using a squarish format. I guess that might be considered a Concept...maybe not. It suits Instagram and is pleasing to my eye....and that's the most important part of the equasion.  If your own art doesn't make you say "Cool..." (at the very least)...it won't make anyone else say that either...and most often, they'll say a lot worse. (Like..."YOU SUCK!...Dear Sir/Madam, Kill yourself/Cut off your hands/Quit fucking with stuff you don't know anything about, ASSHOLE!/Why do you even bother?!?!?!?!?"...You smell what I'm cooking here, right?)
   Ok...back to the point...The crop can really be your best friend...it can rescue a mediocre shot.  But it can also kill a great shot, if you're not careful.
I use Photoshop on my PC laptop...and, yes, it's an older version..CS or PS7, whatever it was called.  I'm not a snob, I don't need the latest update of every single thing. As long as I have tools that will execute my version of "Cool..." that works for me.  Maybe I'm missing out on some really esoteric adjustment that I can't make without the new upgrade (read:$1,000.00)...but, I'm willing to risk it.
   First off, choose a focal point for the shot...and place that in one of the power points.  "The rule of thirds" applies here.  Look it up if it isn't obvious to you how this works....and really, who cares what it's called. The "rule of thirds" power point just looks right to me in most cases...so I use it.
Make sure that you crop for shape and focus before deciding the actual dimensions...width X height....Otherwise, you could be limiting your options for the final output size. Choose wisely, especially when making a drastic crop from a not so big original. You can quickly lose your resolution.
   Speaking of Order of Operations...the order in which you choose to make the adjustments is very important as well. If you decide to adjust your exposure in the camera at the time of the actual picture taking...that's a first link in the chain of events that will be your final product. Feel free to make this chain of events as long as you like...or just leave exactly what you capture with the physical lens. Done. I prefer to use a "real" camera to capture. My trusty Pentax K100d, at 6Mp, is plenty of resolution for my taste...I'm not making big, overly technical work (no shit!), and I tend to be attracted to a more vintage/rough/distressed look. Double digit megapixels would be overkill for what I do. You can do whatever you want here...I couldn't care less. Whatever trips your trigger.
   My approach is basically "Beauty before Age"...I like to apply contrast adjustments, and such, first; the Beauty steps. Making is easy on the eyes. Then, apply any aging steps. Again, my current way of doing business is to do most of my editing with the iPhone4...using filters and what not, ie...OldPhotoPRO, Pixlromatic, and Pic Grunger right now.
   Picking a direction for your initial exposure settings depends largely on what the filters you use actually do to the shot.  Some Distressing filters add a hard amount of contrast, or remove contrast altogether. If the filter makes the shot markedly darker, you can start with a much more washed out picture and get something closer to a standard contrast when processed. This is really an exercise in experimentation and experience within your chosen editing program. Like I said, I'm using the iPhone4 as my primary editor for aging and other filters.  This is a matter of taste, Photoshop will do all the same things as the iPhone, but, the sheer convenience of the "1 touch, idiot proof" method really appeals to my lazy nature. I would surely spend my life tweaking parameter after parameter in PS...and I'm happy with the results of the iPhone....go figure.
    When I'm all done with the editing part...sometimes pretty quickly, other times it's a small ordeal...I'll slap a watermark or label on. Why? Because I'm an attention whore that needs to sign everything. Especially on Instagram...Call it what you will...Branding, Name recognition, Selling out...any or all of these apply at any given time.  I refer to it as an Alter Ego...Good, Bad, Indifferent...
    Does this mean that I will eventually try to sell you something? Probably. Will you buy the hype? Probably not. Will you buy the swag? Hopefully.
    Art vs. Commerce...is there really any question who wins that fight? Welcome to American Life...Either way, I continue to just do what I do...Have fun in the process...and hopefully make it a worthy project in the eyes of my worst critic...ME.



  Well...Did you get any useful information from this? If so...please take time to leave me a quick note...even if you thought this was a colossal waste of time...leave me a shitty note....you'll feel better for having wasted your precious internet time on a dork like me.
     So...here's a nice big picture of a butt....as a reward for making it this far.
Thanks, 

Professor Electromagnet 

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Instagram!

Plenty of fun with Instagram...the filters are pretty cool...the instant feedback is the best part.
Welcome followers!
Here is the first group of pics....
Some of the pics are re-edits from my older source material....
Here are a few of the pics, paired with their Instagram version...
















Hope that you enjoy the eye candy, Stop back from time to time and see what's new!