Monthly Archives: January 2012
My goals, ideas and knowledge have all been growing and improving since I first picked up a camera all those years ago.
But for the first time ever, I feel as if I have a direction for my photography to go in.
It’s like a solving a Rubiks’ Cube. Every twist and turn is technically progress, and getting you closer to solving the puzzle, but it’s not until the pieces start to click together that you are starting to see and achieve your goal.
I feel like everything I learnt and experinced in 2011, was vital and important progress, but nothing really “clicked” together.
But in the last month, things have started to fall in to place in my head and heart, so much that I feel so energised and excited by what direction I want to go in.
For the first time ever, I know what I want to do. I finally have my photography dream.
I want this blog to be great.
I mean really great. I want it to be a source of inspiration and useful ideas, for as many photographers as I can possibly share it with. I want to return the favour to all of those amazing photographers I have learned from so far, and help out those new artists who, like me, had no idea what I was doing at the beginning.
I want my photos to be special.
I want to take special, timeless, beautiful portraits. I want to rely on natural light and beautiful prime lenses, to bring out the emotion and spirit in my subjects. I want my images to be timeless and beautiful, more like a classical painting than a digital image. I want to shoot film. I want to make big pictures out of the little things in life.…
Regular readers to this blog will know that some of the stuff I blog about can be a bit…eclectic.
From camera buying advice to photography tips, I always try to share information that I find useful, that I would have really liked to have known when I was just starting out with photography.
The thing is, it’s often hard to guess what sort of questions people will have, and I would hate to think someone visited this site, and eventually left without having their question answered.
Which is why, I am now appealing to you, out there, anyone who stumbles across this blog, that if you have a question about photography, no matter how silly or basic you think it is; I really want to hear from you.
If the answer needs to go into some detail, I will do a blog post about it, so that everyone will be able to benefit from your curiosity.
Everything I know about photography, and so much of my inspiration has come from others, especially those who were willing to share their experience with the world.
Now I want to continue that idea and help others develop as photographers. I want to help you develop as a photographer.
You can tweet me, email me or Facebook message me.
So please, go on. Ask Me Anything.
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This post is about a few cool tips and tricks I have picked up for doing realistic and convincing vignette effects in Adobe Lightroom.
Vignetting (also know as light fall-off) is often caused by the camera’s lens, either in it’s optical design, or in the design of the aperture mechanism. Basically, it means the corners of the image, will be a varying degree darker than the centre of the image. A bit like looking down a tunnel.
Almost all lenses made have some amount of vignetting, but generally, the more you pay for a lens, the less vignetting you get.
This is kinda stupid though, because most photographers actually want some vignetting in their images, as it can be a benefit.
The dark edges are perfect for leading the viewers eye towards the centre of frame, usually where your subject would be.
Vignetting, when done right, can work wonders for portraits and street photography. But when it does go wrong, it just looks fake and awful, and actually detracts from the image.
In Adobe Lightroom, there are 2 ways to apply a vignette. You can use the vignette controls in the “Effects” tab, or you can use the slightly more hidden Vignette controls in the “Lens Correction” tab. (See Below)
The difference between the two is pretty straight forward. The Effects Vignette Control gives you quite few more options and sliders to customise how the Vignette is applied. The effects is then applied to your image, but it sits on top of all of your other adjustments. Using these sliders you should be able to get the look you want, but be warned; less is defiantly more.
For me personally, I always use the second option. The Lens Correction sliders provide a lot less control in terms of shape and strength, but what these controls do is even better; they alter the amount of automatic corrections applied to the lens.…
Making the most of the unusually good weather this weekend, me and Helen went for a brief walk around the woods just outside Painswick, a few miles from our home in Gloucester.
The sun was shining, but it was still bitterly cold, so we weren’t outside for long. But it did give me just enough time to take few shots of Helen and test out my new Nikon 85mm f1.4 G.
I just thoughtI would share some of my favourites with you.
Like most of my portraits shoots so far, they were completely unplanned and spontaneous, but that doesn’t really matter. I’m just happy to be able to practice my technique for posing and lighting portraits. After all, practice makes perfect.
If you are a local to the Gloucestershire area, and would like to model for me, I’d love to hear from you!
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Towards the end of 2011, I started to realise I pattern, no a preference to taking pictures. My heavier, more expensive lenses were being left at home, and my cheapest, lightest and smallest 50mm lens was clearly my favourite, and being used more and more every day. My aesthetic had changed; what I found attractive in a photograph, whether it be one I had taken, or other photographers, had developed and grown beyond what it had been 12 months prior.
I decided it was time to change my camera equipment to match my new style as a photographer. And today, the first half of my new camera setup arrived. This brand new, Nikkor AF-S 85mm f1.4, together with the 35mm f1.4 (coming in a month or two), will become my bread and butter lenses. Comparatively small, very bright, sharp and able to produce wonderful bokeh, while not sacrificing the durability needed of any possible future paid work I do, these two lenses will cover everything my style of shooting needs.
I cannot wait to get out and use this 85mm f1.4. I have some really good projects lined up this month, and I hope to make the most of this beautiful piece of glass.
My favourite 50mm may have some competition…..
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One of my big goals for 2012 was to find my Photographic Confidence. I realised that my photographic journey was being held back, not by a lack of knowledge or enthusiasm, but from a lack of confidence. Somedays, I’m really not sure on what I’m doing with my photography, and I’m reluctant to take on new ideas because I think they won’t work.
This has to stop. I’m not going to be successful photographer without a bit of a confidence boost.
One of the ways I had hoped to improve my confidence was by reading “The Shy Photographers Guide to Confidence“, a completely free and fantastic eBook from the lovely guys at Photo Concentrate!
I love this book!
This book was so useful, and so full of great information and ideas, it has really helped me. And it was so nice to know that I’m not the only shy photographer out there.
If you are a photographer, and feel that your work suffers because of a lack of confidence, I seriously recommend checking out Photo Concentrate’s eBook. (Oh, and the rest of the website is full of great stuff too!)
Well, at the end of the eBook, there is a Q&A, designed to get you thinking about where you want to go with your photography.
I figured it couldn’t hurt to show you guys my answers to these questions, which are below. These are my honest answers as I wrote them. I haven’t edited or taken stuff out.
The Q&A has really got me thinking about what I should be doing, to succeed at photography and work towards my dream. It was well worth the half hour I spent answering the questions.
As a photographer or business person, when was the last time you asked yourselves some of these questions?…
ABOUT THIS BLOG
This is the blog of Chris Scuffins, a hardworking, creative photographer from Gloucestershire.
With years of experience in landscape and commercial still life photography, his focus now lies on capturing creative, natural and beautiful fashion and lifestyle portraiture, as well as a fun, relaxed approach to photojournalistic wedding photography.
FEATURED POSTS
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- Wedding | James & Arjia | Milton Keynes
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- Wedding | Natalie And Andrew | Tewkesbury Park Hotel
A Gloucestershire Wedding | St Marks Church, Cheltenham...
POPULAR POSTS
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Just a few short months after making the decision to...
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