BACKGROUNDS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

An enjoyable client of mine is Happinez Wine Bar. Each month I am asked to do the Wine of the Month photography, which always stretches my creativity. This month's wine was a deep, dark bottle, and was perfect for a high contrast and graphic treatment.

This post is simply an encouragement to try various backgrounds that at first seem ridiculous. This bottle was photographed at our studio, on top of our ping pong table! For those who know ping pong, you will recognize the white line.

When trying various backgrounds for your subject matter, keep in mind that contrast adjustments will usually aid your photograph. In this instance, I set the camera to maximum contrast, for deep blacks and crisp whites.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

ABSTRACT PATTERNS

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

It is always wise to build up a collection of stock pattern/texture photos. This image is of a window drape with nice warm, late evening backlighting. As it is out of focus, it can be used within many different graphic design or montage experiments.

Look around your house, and when light is shining on a textured or patterned surface, photograph it slightly out of focus, and keep it for later use. The more stock images of this sort that you have, the more tools you will have at your disposal for interesting design or montage projects.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

MAGAZINE WORK

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

Even though you may not be doing magazine work now, in the future you may need to know how to create space in your photo for text. If possible, it is wise to create a few variations of the same photograph to allow for magazine titles and other text. If creating various copies is not realistic, create your composition to allow for space around the subject for graphic design work. My photo below was composed in such a way as to allow for a text addition at the bottom of the image.

Composing is easy when you have a client who gives you exact specifications. When in doubt, however, choose a wider composition. In the television industry this is called the "TV Safe Area", whereby you compose wider than necessary to account for different viewing platforms.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com

RGB COLOR

Dear reader, if this entry or my other blog entries don't answer your specific photography questions, you can call me on the phone anytime for advice by clicking here.

Before any color space experts get angry at my gross simplification, please be aware that this blog is primarily aimed at those learning photography. So . . . in easy to understand terms, your digital camera has an option of different color spaces. sRGB is the most common, and Adobe RGB is the usual choice for professional photos that will be printed.

Your camera is probably set to sRGB by default, however you may be able to change it to Adobe RGB or other color spaces. If you are not a working professional, you can probably stick with sRGB.

This blog post is an encouragement to utilize sRGB for all photos that will end up on the web. If your photo does not have a color space saved, or is in another color space, it would be wise to change the photo to sRGB prior to uploading it to the web. Open your photo in Photoshop or another image editor, and then save the photo with "save as". There should be an option to choose a color space for the photo prior to saving the image to the hard drive.

The above photo from yesterday was taken in Adobe RGB for professional printing, however for this blog I changed it to sRGB, resized it, and it is now properly displayed for the web.

Mark's photographic prints for your wall can be purchased at www.markhemmings.com
Mark can be hired as a photographer or filmmaker via www.hemmingshouse.com