August 18th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
I have made a video tutorial! For me this is tromendously exciting. For you, less so perhaps.
Anyway I would love it if you could have a look and let me know what you think, give me some constructive feedback (I know that I sound like a bell end so there’s no need to point that out) then that’d be super awesome.
I picked a nice easy technique to make a tutorial about to start with - faking tilt shift using Photoshop.
Video Tutorial - Fake Tilt Shift (Quicktime MOV - 1024×768 - 92mb)
Things I have noted that I need to work on in the future include:
- I don’t actually explain what Depth of Field is, I just sort of assume that people will know what I’m talking about - this is probably bad.
- When explaining what tilt shift is via the wonder of wikipedia, I click on a link that I’m looking at for the first time during the tutorial - it’s pretty obvious that that’s what I’m doing, I think, and I sort of pause and stumble a bit when I’m doing it. This also is probably bad.
- The cursor doesn’t show up very well in Photoshop when I’m trying to explain things by motioning with it - could probably do something about that.
- The sound clips nastily a few times - need to run a limiter and normalize!
Posted in Technique, Uncategorized, Video Tutorials | 3 Comments »
August 4th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
I went to see the Arsenal vs Real Madrid pre-season warm up game on Sunday last with some work mates. It was a tepid game with little to write home about, though my friend Ash bought his 2 year old son along to his first football match, which was lovely to see. I used a fake tilt-shift effect in Photoshop for the main image above, which makes it look like an image of a tiny model.
Sorry that this description is so tired sounding but it’s late and I’ve just been for a run and then eaten two massive burgers, so I’m a bit wiped!
Here’s a tutorial about how to apply fake tilt shift in Photoshop.
Posted in London, Photography | No Comments »
August 3rd, 2008 Chris Beaumont
Hackney. Beautiful Hackney. I don’t know if it’s true for all cities, but London has a way of pushing people up against each other that’s very appealing. A row of Georgian houses costing the best part of a million pounds each will rub up against sprawling council estates, and while there’s obviously crime and societal problems a plenty, for the most part, everyone just seems to get along.
This image is a panorama, stitched together automagically by Photoshop. It’s the first time I’ve used Photoshop to perform the task. Previously I used a little app called Autostitch. It feels a little dirty using Photoshop - like shopping at Tesco’s because it’s just down the street when you could be using the little independent deli round the corner. Convenience is king, though, wot wot?
Photoshop does the task admirably. The problems this image has are to do with the way I took the shots rather than Photoshop not being up to the task. I was waiting for a train at Cabridge Heath train station having attended a talk about Sylvia Plath by the Last Tuesday Society (rah!), and had had a couple of drinks (Gin served from Teapots, specifically), and it was dusk and there was no light, and the train was about to arrive, and I rushed it, basically. The shots were taken on an 800 iso, which left an undesirable amount of grain that showed up horribly in the colour version, so I went for black and white and broke out the dodge and burn brushes in Photoshop.
I like the final image, but I’d like more to go back with a tripod and take the shots properly. Of course, Hackney being what it is, setting up shop with a tripod and an expensive camera might not be the smartest idea.
Posted in London, Photography | No Comments »
August 2nd, 2008 Chris Beaumont
This was an experiment in taking a portrait using a longer focal length, which I’ve oft heard quoted as rule number one for portraiture.
The only lens I have is a 17-85mm zoom lens, and this was taken all the way out at 85mm. The idea is to compress the background and flatten out the space between subject and surroundings.
It definitely works - much more impactful.
Posted in People, Photography, Technique | No Comments »
July 21st, 2008 Chris Beaumont
Posted in London, Photography | No Comments »
July 20th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
A few weeks ago, renowned photographer Vincent Laforet wrote an excellent and insightful article about the situation facing professional photographers in today’s digital world. The article beautifully summed up the impact the digital age is having on the traditional structures of print publishing, and went on to make a few predictions about what the future might hold.
A lot of the summation was pretty depressing reading for anyone hoping to make money out of photography. The reasons Laforet gives are well trodden ground, briefly summarised it goes something like this …
Online content is the future, and it is, on the whole, free to consume. Virtually all print publications have websites where they give their content away for free, and consequently we’re seeing a massive reduction, and in all likelihood the eventual death, of print publications. That’s not the real problem though, as the money gained from actually selling a newspaper or magazine only really covers the cost of the paper it’s printed on. The real problem lies in the fact that online advertising doesn’t (yet) provide the kind of revenues needed to fund the type of journalism, photographic or otherwise, that the traditional models have supported up until now. Couple that with the perception from the publishing industry, and the public at large, that photography is somehow easier and cheaper to produce than it used to be, fuelled in part by the proliferation of professionally equipped amateurs willing to work for free, and the problem has compounded; there’s not a lot of money around for your traditional professional photographer these days.
What’s more, people’s tastes appear to be changing …
As newspaper and magazines disappear - so will a lot of the photography - forever. The truth is that while photography is one of the most popular hobbies and growth sectors out there - most people seem to want a richer media experience on the web.
Still photographs will always be around - we will see a slide show on a website 10-20 years from now - but it will likely incorporate video, sound and a variety of other artistic media into something we just haven’t quite seen yet.
…
Photographers will have to think of themselves as visual storytellers - not just as still photographers. Photographers will become much more adept at producing multimedia content - not just boring slide shows w/ music - but ones that are truly engaging and original - basically they need to invent the next generation of storytelling - something we haven’t seen before (i.e. they need to differentiate themselves from HBO Documentaries, and the other broadcast giants - not try to compete with them…) And this is key: Photographers need to brainstorm new ways to connect with their audiences and find new and original ways of generating income with these new “connections.”
‘The Cloud is Falling’ by Vincent Laforet, written for SportsShooter.com
When I first read the article, what popped into my mind immediately was a Magnum photostory that I’d seen a couple of years previously by Simon Wheatley. It was the first time I’d seen photography presented in this way; the images displayed as a slide-show, narrated by the photographer. The presentation of the images combined with the heartfelt words behind the stories of those in them was a mesmerising, powerful and inspiring concoction. I immediately watched a few more, the most memorable of which was Paul Fusco’s incredibly moving story of the effects still being felt by the Chernobyl disaster.
Two days ago I came across the Bombay Flying Club via Bert Stephani’s Confessions of a Photographer blog, and then today I got around to watching some of MediaStorm’s photo-stories. Both these sites follow a similar pattern - photojournalism told via multimedia slide-shows, with narration and video interviews from photographers, journalists and the subjects of the stories themselves. It’s a highly intoxicating mix. I defy anyone to watch the Bombay Flying Club’s “Bucharest Below Ground” and “The Ardoyne Suicides“, and MediaStorm’s “The Marlboro Marine” and not feel engaged and moved. It’s true that the subject matter of all these photo-stories is immensely weighty, and by their nature alone it’s possible to feel moved, but there’s something about the multimedia nature of these presentations that’s unique and unlike anything I’ve experienced before.
Having watched these presentations, and having gone back to look at the Magnum stories two years after first seeing them to see the level of impact they have had with people who have left comments, all of a sudden Vincent Laforet’s assertion that photographers “need to invent the next generation of storytelling” - “ones that are truly engaging” seems slightly out of date - the next generation of storytelling has already begun, it seems.
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July 19th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
Posted in People, Photography | 1 Comment »
July 16th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
Sometimes when I’m on my way home from work, I hold my camera down by my side, and as I’m walking, I randomly fire off the trigger when people pass me.
I feel a bit like paparazi when I’m doing it, like I’m invading people’s privacy, and nine times out of ten I get nothing but sky, but occasionally, it lands just right 
Posted in London, People, Photography | No Comments »
July 15th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
This is Hugo - he’s a friend of a friend, who owns a little night spot in Hackney that’s not really a night spot but actually where he lives! He puts on parties and exhibitions from time to time to help pay the rent.
He was a great guy. I had hoped to put a night on with him, but it all came to nothing in the end, as these things often do.
His place was amazing. You can only see a small portion of it here, but behind the camera is a large open space, the walls adorned similarly to the walls you can see in this image. Speakers, wires, cables … all manner of brick-a-brack. There was also a stage where bands could perform.
Being there reminded me of my favourite Jeff Wall image:
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July 14th, 2008 Chris Beaumont
Taken on Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands. I’m not sure what it was that bit the dust on the moorland, but it had feathers, and had been picked clean.
This one was processed using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop - lots of really heavy dodging and burning.
Posted in Landscapes, Photography | No Comments »
