I felt better yesterday, though still sick, I managed to get a lot of work done.
I also went outside in the rain to get some pictures with my roommate’s fancy tripod (don’t worry, I was well covered).
It was funny to see people wondering wtf I am doing. There’s a street fair setup by the park. I might pop in sometime this week to try to get light painting pics of the attractions. I should have with the rain, but I didn’t want to get sicker and there wasn’t much shielding from the rain over there.
These are the pics:
Some people asked me how I get this type of pictures. They are all long exposures. For the most part, manual settings: 4 second shutter, f stop 8.0, ISO 100. You can play with the f-stop/ISO depending on how dark it is and most dSLRs and other cameras will allow you to change the shutter speed to more than a second.
YOU WILL NEED A TRIPOD. The sturdier that fucker, the better.
Set the camera to a timer so you don’t shake it when you press the shutter (or get a shutter release cable or remote). Wait 4 seconds (or whatever speed you set it at) and tada!
It’s very basic. I’m not that good and can do way better. I still don’t even shoot RAW (I started doing it and then went back to JPGs…)
And yes. Obviously after that there is some editing. And my edits are very basic as well. This is what the original image looked like before editing.
I used Snapseed on my iPad to edit and then post on IG (I don’t use any shit on IG). IG still destroys pretty much all the quality of the pic, but it looks good on mobile. And again, I’m not that good.
What I did here was fuck with the levels. Yep. Basically do that until it looks what you like it too look. I fucked with the shadows, highlights, and warmth. I rarely fuck with warmth, but lowering it gave it a blue tinge that made it more rainy like (the first two images I barely reduced warmth, the last is around 40% reduced). Saturation I rarely fuck with it, and if I do, I lower it.
Fuck around with the sharpen, clarity, structure, and what not. Add some shitty vignette if you like and TADA! You get the style of pics I’ve been doing.
Extra tip: It’s always best to shoot darker/under exposed images than over exposed. The first image the buildings are not that visible, pop the shadows up and a bit of a brightness and it’s not bad because it was under exposed. If you shoot RAW, you can EDIT the fuck out of an under exposed image. It’s amazing how with RAW you can salvage any fucking image with some editing skills.
Wow. When I started writing this blog entry I didn’t even think about explaining photography shit. But that was fun.
It’s Friday and it doesn’t feel like it. I’m waiting for my brother to call me to go help him with some stuff. Then I’ll be back home finishing the Spanglish story. I feel like I am almost done with it and I am hoping they accept it. I’m still in a very rough draft, but I like how I’m putting it together piece by piece. Just need to finish it up, then edit the fuck out of it, send and let’s hope that the editor digs it!
Uncertainty again!
But at least… TOUR TOMORROW!
I’m still sick. I’m still coughing like a fucking dog. And I have a roll of TP next to me to blow my nose. It’s less and less, but still fucking sick. I haven’t drank a drop of alcohol… but TOUR TOMORROW!
I’ll make some money, tour around some guys from New York, drink some beers, eat great food, and improvise to see how shit goes! There is a 94.3% chance that it will be a real fun tour. But you never know!
Matingas 