To Become a Good Photographer.

You always hear different opinions on this one and it's no wonder, as you meet a lot of people with different view, different aims and different achievements, but all of those opinions that are worth paying attention to usually include this:

Flexibility - be comfortable with the ever-changing technology and do not be afraid to be a step behind. You way better of trying to master yesterday's technology, than misusing the equipment of tomorrow.

Vision - develop your sense of composition. The overall composition, the proportions of layout, denotes importance of the elements. Only you can decide which features appeals to you, and how best to emphasize them. This means knowing when a scene is lacking something and also when it's way too busy. You might end up in situations when enough is too much sometimes, thus knowing what to exclude is just as importing as knowing what to include. Anything that isn't a part of the subject or its context is only a distraction, cluttering up the image and diluting the message. What you have to do is eliminate extraneous surroundings - usually by moving closer to the subject - and make a clear, tidy shot. Painters create art by addition - adding more paint - whereas a photographer creates art by subtraction - removing unnecessary elements.

Sensitivity - Learn to recognize the subtleties of colour, texture, and lighting.

We first notice the subject's colour or tone - calming blue, natural green, foreboding black. Then we see shape: soft curves, hard edges, sweeping lines. You, as a photographer, can manipulate this by searching for shades and shadows, shifting intensities of tone and hues. Skilled photographers develop a "light style", learning to recognize a particular type or quality of light that they prefer - and then exploiting it to the full. This is a highly refined sensitivity to light quality that only a few fortunate photographers ever achieve. Experiment, because developing a comprehension of and sensitivity to light in all its forms requires an investment of substantial time and effort, but understanding light is without question the most difficult aspect of photography - and the most important.

Learn from your mistakes and don't be too proud to look at them critically. Be interested in what you're doing, get used to follow the photography news and filter them in a way to adapt the technology for your own needs.

The qualities of a good photographer are many, but the most important thing is to possess an ability to put your object of photography on a level of comfort both with yourself and with the ambience. This is the most important criterion for a good photograph. A good photographer should be creative and also be willing to explore the potentialities of his subject. The most important message to convey is not just the subject of the photograph but the feelings that can be received from it. This means you not only have to show what the camera snapped, but also try and reveal what you saw in your heart.

Qualities of a Good Photographer 

Flexibiltiy:
Being comfortable with the ever-changing technology and not being afraid to be a step behind. It's better to master yesterday's technology than misuse today's.

Humility:
Learning from the mistakes we all make and not being too proud to look at them critically.

Vision:
Having a sense of composition. Knowing when a scene is lacking and also when it's way too busy. Sometimes enough is too much.

Sensitivity:
Recognizing the subtleties of color, texture, and lighting. Knowing not all photography looks like paparazzi shots.

Understanding:
Know your subject. Whether it's feeling the awesome splendor of a landscape, anticipating the sudden impact of a ball or player on the field, developing a trust with a frightened child, peeling away the layers of anxiety from a beautiful face, or finding ways to bring out the love that someone else sees in an inanimate object.

Dedication:
And finally, having the patience to take hours to prepare and days to define the perfect image. Not showing what the camera snapped, but revealing what you saw in your heart.

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Beginning Digital Painting with Photoshop

Beginning Digital Painting with Photoshop

Bronze Dragon (detail) by Keyem Beyit

After painting exclusively in Corel Painter for five years, I decided to finally learn how to paint using Photoshop. I found Painter pretty intuitive to learn, since the brushes and papers act very much like their real-world counterparts. Not the case with Photoshop. Without going into a lot of technical detail, here’s a simplified explanation of the difference between brushes in Painter and in Photoshop.

Painter: The brushes interact with color on the canvas, as in traditional media. Blenders allow you to “smear” pixels around, like a brush or fingertip. Some of the brushes, such as the newer Real Bristle brushes, use computer power to mimic real brush behavior. The downside is that these brushes are often too pokey to use, even on a powerful computer.
Photoshop:The brushes here act like rubber stamps, in that a single bitmap image (the brush tip shape) is repeated over and over rapidly to simulate a brushstroke. Strokes can interact somewhat with colors already on the canvas, by sophisticated use of blending modes, but nowhere to the extent you’ll find in Painter. The “rubber stamp” quality, however, is a great strength when it comes to painting textured surfaces. Photoshop’s blending tools are, surprisingly, not very good.
As you can see, each application has positives and negatives. Indeed, there are artists who use both to create a single painting, getting the best of both worlds. (Here’s an example.) Methods and techniques for painting in Photoshop are quite different from Painter and traditional media, due to the “rubber stamp” method it uses. I spent quite a bit of time searching the web for good Photoshop digital painting tutorials for beginners, and I’ve collected them all below. I wish there were more, but good beginner’s tutorials are rare.

Let’s define terms, before we begin: “digital painting” does not mean photo manipulation, cloning, or paint overs. We’re talking “from scratch” here. A “good tutorial” is, for our purposes here as beginners, one that doesn’t assume anything. Brush settings and methods are explained, not glossed over. Most digital painting “tutorials” are more accurately described as walkthroughs. They explain process and thinking, but not methods and technique in any detail.
Now, on to the tutes! I’ve arranged these in order, starting with simplest beginner, and progressing from there. The further down the list you go, generally speaking, the less hand-holding. Enjoy!

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Digital Photography Technology

Digital Photography Technology has taken over the world. Everyone wants a digital camera. The advantages of Digital Photography Technology are phenomenal. You have the ability with a digital camera to take a picture and immediately look at the finished image, so it can then be sent it anywhere in the world within minutes or make a print. That is something that was not even considered just a few years ago.

There is no reason why any person can not take a good picture with the wide range of digital cameras that are available. Cameras for Digital Photography Technology are available in a price range starting from one hundred to thousands of dollars and will all take quality pictures.

Digital cameras are so popular today because they are so much fun to use and so versatile. Just pick up the digital camera, point and shoot and in a matter of seconds you have a high-quality digital photo.

Digital cameras as to film cameras use electronic devices to record the image as binary data. This facilitates storage and editing of the images on personal computers and also the ability to show and delete unsuccessful images immediately on the camera itself.

Digital cameras now outsell film cameras and include features not found in film cameras, such as, to shoot video and record audio. Some other devices, such as mobile phones, now include digital photography technology features.

Taking pictures with a digital camera is no different than with a film camera, except there is no film to change. Inserting a new memory card can be changed in the brightest of light. Hundreds to over thousands of pictures can be taken on a single digital memory card depending on its size.

Some advantages of digital photography are.

• Instant review of pictures, with no waiting for the film to be developed. If there is a problem with a picture, the photographer can immediately correct the problem and take another picture.

• Only acceptable or quality pictures need to be printed. This allows you to take numerous shots of the same scene with slightly different settings, and choose the best one. This review and revise process is impossible with traditional film because of the time and equipment to develop the film.

• Minimal ongoing costs for those wishing to capture hundreds of photographs for digital use, such as computer storage and e-mailing, but not for printing.

• If you already own a newer computer, permanent storage on digital media is considerably less expensive than film.

• Images may be copied from one media to another without any degradation in quality.

• Pictures do not need to be scanned before viewing them on a computer.

• Ability to print your own pictures using a computer and consumer-grade printer.

The capability to print your own digital photos using printers that can communicate directly with the camera, or its memory card, for printing without a computer.

This web site will attempt to tell you everything about digital photography. This will include digital cameras and their features, the variety of accessories that can be used to enhance your photography and the different types of photography.

There will be a variety of articles on all the facets of photography with credits given to the writer.

It won’t be far fetched to say that digital photography has revolutionized photography and brought it mainstream into the hands of common people. With mobile phones, cheap cameras and computers in homes, capturing memories is no big deal anymore.

What is Digital Photography? [Technology Explained]

posted on February 22, 2010 by Varun Kashyap

It has always been the desire of humans to be able to capture a moment and then perhaps re-live it sometime down the line. Up until a few years ago, photography used to be limited to a select few professionals or people willing to own and maintain a camera, film and then develop them into photographs.
It won’t be far fetched to say that digital photography has revolutionized photography and brought it mainstream into the hands of common people. With mobile phones, cheap cameras and computers in homes, capturing memories is no big deal anymore.
Let’s have a look at what is digital photography and how it works.
So what is so revolutionary about digital photography? For starters, you need not know anything about aperture, shutter speed, white balance and jargon like that. Point the camera at the subject, press the button and you are done. While ease of this kind started with the film cameras as well, it was the digital camera that hit the nail on the head and made it real easy to take and view photos.
In short, if your camera uses digital technology to create images, then it is digital photography. Generally (not always), this is the case if your camera doesn’t require adding a special photographic film to record images, you are most likely using a digital camera.

How Does Digital Photography Work?

To gain an understanding of how things work with regards to digital photography you should know a thing or two about how photos are taken in a film-based cameras. As is the case with our eyes, same with the camera. A camera sees an object because of the light which is reflected off it and into the camera’s lens. The lens of the camera is used to channel this light onto a plane, where it can be recorded and a photo created by one way or the other. This is the basic principle of photography.

With time, the lens got better, the technology got better and the “plane” used to record the photos evolved as well. In a traditional film-based camera, this plane surface is a photographic film. The photographic film is nothing but a film coated with light sensitive material. So when the light from an object is directed onto this surface, it leaves an impression in the form of a photo.
In digital photography, the photographic film is replaced by a silicon chip which is often called a sensor. While the film is limited in the sense that every exposure results in a photograph and each barrel of film can only produce 36 images; the silicon chip sensor can be used again and again — thereby giving you the ability to experiment with your photos in a way which was never possible with the film camera.
So now most of the processing is electronic in the form of 0s and 1s as opposed to the mechanical and chemical operation in the traditional cameras. The cameras that operate based on this principle are known as digital cameras and the art of making digital images is called digital photography.

The Megapixel Myth

If you have been in the market to buy a digital camera, surely you have heard a thing or two about pixels or more commonly referred to as megapixels. Let’s try and demystify this. A digital image is made up of small dots known as pixels. Each pixel represents the tiny-iest unit of the photograph. The pixels combine and form the entire image. At this point if you are thinking that more pixels results in a sharper image, I don’t blame you — that is the general misinterpretation. The amount of pixels in a photograph only determines the maximum output size of the resulting image in print.
A higher pixel count does not represent higher quality images. Read about David Pogue’s experiment and findings over at NYT about the Megapixel Myth for more.

via Wikimedia Commons

What is good digital camera then?

Answering this question will require a separate article. That said, the one bit of advice that can’t be stressed upon enough is “Don’t fall prey to the Megapixel Myth”. You really don’t need all those extra pixels if you are viewing the photos on your computer or taking a medium-sized print of the odd photo. Instead, look for features like image stabilization, auto focus, face recognition, file format support and other favourable features. These would have a greater impact on your photos, especially if you are just starting out.
Do you own a digital camera? We would be pleased if you shared your experience and tips with the world.

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Becoming a Film Editor

Becoming a Film Editor

Skills Required of a Film Editor

If you don't like long hours, rush assignments or working alone, being a film editor isn't for you. At the same time, if you can't work well with others, are looking for personal artistic acclaim or aren't willing to keep up with changing technology, you'll be happier in another job than movie editor.

But if you like detail work and being part of a major production in the film industry, film editing may be the career for you. If you're interested in becoming an established feature film editor, here are some of the film editor skills you'll need:

© Ryan McVay/Photodisc/Getty Images Film editors often rely on director's notes to use when editing a film.
• Knowledge of the film industry and movie production
• Knowledge of editing equipment and a willingness to keep up with changes in that technology
• A good photographic eye for camera angles and special effects, as well as knowledge of audio effects
• Ability to work alone on detailed and sometimes tedious work
• Problem-solving skills to make film sequences work well or to work with the available footage
  
• Strong interpersonal skills to work well with directors, cinematographers, sound editors, special effects editors and music producers
• Flexibility to deal with production delays, unexpected problems and varied personality types
• Ability to remain calm and confident in high-stress or crisis situations
• Willingness to work long hours on rush assignments
• A commitment to high-quality work and to continuing to improve your own skills and knowledge
• A personal code of ethics and commitment to following the director's vision rather than altering material to make a personal artistic statement

[sources: State of California Occupational Guide and Learner]

­­Even established feature film editors find their skills stretched by the demands of complex movies heavy with visual effects, like the Matrix Trilogy. Zach Staenberg, film editor for the trilogy, won an Oscar for "The Matrix" (1999) and edited all three films in only four years, with "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions" both released in 2003.
He found himself sorting out footage shot at the same time and location for two different films ("Reloaded" and "Revolutions") -- and editing both films simultaneously. To make that happen, he worked with a staff of seven, several focused primarily on special effects.
Staenberg also had to work 440 visual effects shots into "The Matrix," 1,100 into "Reloaded" and 750 into "Revolutions." Every time the editors got a visual effects shot, he told an Editors Guild writer, they had to make changes to the film, ranging from switching a few frames to rearranging the entire sequence. Adapting to that ever-changing workflow was the biggest challenge in editing the trilogy, he said [source: Editors Guild].

Do you think you have the skills and the interest to be a film editor? Keep reading to find out the type of training and experience you'll need.

­If you’re eager to become a film editor, you probably need to slow down and start with some schooling to learn about the industry and the technology used in film editing. Beyond that, you’ll need to gain experience working in the movie industry. And if you want to become an established feature film editor, you’ll need to start in a more modest film-editing job and work your way up.

© Lucy Nicholson/AFP/Getty Images

Walter Murch started his career as a sound editor on "Godfather III." He is right with Francis Ford Coppola, left, at an Oscars party.

Movie editors have to know the art, the business and the technology of filmmaking. One way to get the knowledge you’ll need is to attend a two- or four-year college that offers programs focused on the filmmaking industry. There you’ll find classes in other aspects of the business, such as directing, cinematography and movie production, as well as film editing.

Schools also offer the chance to work on student projects and job assistance through placement and internship programs. And many schools provide editing systems, like Avid and Final Cut Pro, and equipment that you can use to become more experienced.

For many years, film editing meant cutting film apart and then taping it back together and threading it onto a Moviola, a machine that had a viewer and could hold multiple reels of film with a viewer. The process of reviewing, cutting and reassembling miles of footage was tiring and time consuming.

Now the process has shifted to digital editing technology using computers and digital systems. The Moviola Co. even offers courses on using these systems. Moving, interchanging and adding sections of footage are easier electronically, as is altering or adding animation or special effects to individual frames.

Being adept at using this technology is an important skill for a film editor. Beyond simply learning today’s technology, you’ll need to keep up with changes. That means continuing taking courses and shifting to new technology throughout your career. Even assistant editors need strong computer skills.

With your education behind you, the next step is paying your dues. That may mean working as an assistant in the film industry during school, or it may mean dues literally -- as in union dues. Hollywood film editors usually are members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

The guild may be a place to find an apprenticeship as the first step rung on the editing ladder. It also offers career information on film editing, a magazine, wage information and advice.

Another organization, American Cinema Editors, is an honorary society for film editors, whose members are allowed to list "A.C.E." after their names in film credits. While you'll be years from becoming a member, the society may help you as a beginner through seminars and the student competition that's part of its annual Eddie Awards.

To start, you'll need to build a video resume of your work. You'll also need contacts ­you've made to get a first job. That first job may have nothing to do with editing. You may find yourself a production assistant, an animation-editing assistant or an assistant to an editor.

From there, with contacts, skill and luck, you can work your way up from assistant editor to associate editor and finally film editor. Many film editors build a team of assistants to take from film to film, and directors also like to keep using the same editors. So building relationships will definitely have a positive impact on your career [source: The Princeton Review].

For lots more information about film editors and related topics, see the links below­

Lots More Information

­Related HowStuffWorks Articles

• How AVID Editing Machines Work
• ­How Cinematographers Work
• How Becoming a Movie Director Works
• How Final Cut Pro Works
• Top Five Highest Paying Jobs in the Film Industry

More Great Links

• Motion Picture Editors Guild
• American Cinema Editors

­Sources

• "A Day in the Life of a Film Editor." The Princeton Review. (http://princeton.localplacement.com/CareerPage Sas.aspx?cid=66)
• American Cinema Editors. (http://www.ace-filmeditors.org)­
• "Behind the Scenes with Film Editor Walter Murch." Norris, Michele. National Public Radio. Nov. 8, 2005. (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=4994411)
• "Bronenosets Potyomkin." Internet Movie Database. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0015648)
• Charlotte's Web. Internet Movie Database. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0413895/fullcredits)
• "Charlotte's Web Spinners." Rowe, Robin. Editors Guild Magazine. Jan.-Feb. 2007. (http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/archives/0107/features_article03.htm)
• "Film and Video Editors." State of California Occupational Guide No. 323, 2002. (http://www.calmis.ca.gov/file/occguide/filmedtr.htm)
• "How are Hollywood films made? -- Editing." Learner. org. (http://www.learner.org/interactives/cinema/editing.html)
• "Jarhead." Internet Movie Database. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/plotsummary)
• "Matrix." Internet Movie Database. (http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q-Matrix&x-0&y=0)
• Motion Picture Editors Guild. (http://www.editorsguild.com)"); //-->
• Moviola Co. (http://www.moviola.com)
• "The Technique of Film and Video Editing." Dancyger, Ken. Focal Press, 2007, page xx1. (http://books.google.com/books?id=IXZ8ROuUlBMC&pg=PR18&dq=%22film+editor%22&lr=&sig=ACfU3U38EZaZO5xAwr50xa-ss8AUKPeGgA#PPR21,M1)
• "Zach Staenberg on the Matrix Trilogy." Van Hook, Andrea. Editors Guild Magazine. Jan.-Feb. 2004. (http://www.editorsguild.com/v2/magazine/Newsletter/JanFeb04/janfeb04_matrix.html)

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Making Of Movie - Ra One (Visual fx ) 2011

Ra.One (Hindi: रा.वन) is an upcoming 2011 Hindi Superhero film directed by Anubhav Sinha, and starring Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles. It also stars Shahana Goswami, Dilip Tahil and Chinese-American actor Tom Wu in supporting roles.

The film is jointly produced under Khan's production company Red Chillies Entertainment and Eros International, and was originally scheduled to release in the summer of 2011. However, due to extensive post-production work involving special effects and its 3D conversion, the film was pushed back and is now set to release worldwide during the Diwali weekend of October 26, 2011. Ra.One is currently India's most expensive film to date and will be released in both 2D and 3D formats across 3,200 screens in India,along with its dubbed versions in Tamil, Telugu and German.

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