Photo Printing - Matte, Luster, Glossy?

What are these Matte, Luster, and Glossy options often found at when you go to print out your photos?  

Glossy photos tend have more crisp details on a shiny flat surface.  Although the crisp detail sound like the best, glossy photo prints should be avoided if you intend to put them into a photo frame.  The chemicals on glossy are a little sticky, which is why finger prints show so easily.  And after time the chemicals start to stick to the glass of frames.  Resulting in bubbling effects and tearing if you ever try to remove the photo.  Although through history, glossy is the popular option.

Matte photos are quite the opposite of Glossy.  They are dull in shine and have a texture which removes the finger smug issue but causes a bit of a grainy look.  Although they might not pop as bright at Glossy photos, they have a better shelf life.  Matte is usually the popular option for professional photographers

As you can see there are positive and negatives to both Matte and Glossy photos.  Luster photos are a newer option that is trying to work in between the different qualities of Matt and Glossy photos.  The slight shine isn't nearly as extreme as Glossy, and the texture is lessen to limit the grainy look, while still supporting the anti-smug qualities that are popular with Matt photos.  

Cosplay Progress - Final Fantasy XIII-2 Serah Farron, Photoshop

TadA!  My cosplay is complete (although you guys may have seen it ages ago on the blog from the SakuraCon post back in April,) but here's my final post about making this cosplay.  Actually it's the post processing of this photo to make it internet worthy.

As you can see here below here is the original photo I took.  I used a timer and had to run back and forth trying many different poses and whatnot.  I probably took 40 pictures and only ended up with a handful I liked.  So how did I turn the bottom photo into the top photo?

• Layer 1, the original photo. 
• I didn't actually do any manipulation here

• Layer 2, the border
• Found a border on the DeviantArt stock images (credit  http://karma-manipulation.deviantart.com/art/Grunge-Border-156054027)
• From the stock images I inverted the colors and softy erased out the center white area.  I let the middle fade out as to not create any solid lines
  
• Layer 3 Logo
• I took the Final Fantasy XIII-2 Icon from online, removed the excess background
  
• Layer 4, the color
• I overlayed a pink color with a 20% transparency

Photographs from Behind

Who said great portraits are only taken from the front or an angled side?  I took a wonderful picture of my niece (age 5) and nephew (age 3)  from a different perspective.  I think it's a very adorable romantic photo.

I didn't even mean to have a photoshoot, but was tagging along with my cousin who was practicing his photography with the kids.  

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 7 Playing Around

During a photoshoot people are focused on getting the perfect posed shot that they end up missing some fun candid shots.

Don't forget to have some fun.

You might not have a character photo, but can still end up with some great memories

And sometimes something still artistic

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 6 Lighting and Cropping Changes

I wanted to share with you how a small change in the Lighting and Cropping makes a significant difference

Cropping

The photo on the right makes you look at the faces of the character to see their emotion.
The photo on the left makes you focus more on their stance and position, to get you to think about what they are doing.
Same pose and angle, yet they make you think different things.






Lighting

The photo on the left is slightly darker, giving a more sinister, mysterious look
The photo on the right is much brighter.  Can't help but notice her smile and happy eyes.
But the model in both photos is doing the same thing.

Photograph Assassin's Creed Part 5: Non Portrait Photo

Tip number 5:  

There's a difference between a Portrait, something you send to grandma with smiles, and an artist photo, which is hung in a gallery or printed in a design book.

Who says that a cosplay picture needs your face?  Are you taking a photo as you the person dressed up in a costume or are you taking a photo as the character (I'm very opinionated about this subject when it comes to cosplaying).  The character can be defined by their clothing, their stance, their environment.  

So let's play with angles again.  

By looking at the photos you immediately know who you are looking at (granted you know these characters already).  But these photos give a a certain mood, a vibe.  As they say "Less is More"

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 4 ColoUr Contrast

What's up with the coloUr? You might have already noticed my photos don't look quite natural in color, and I wanted to share with you how I did it.

First I augment the tone of the photo a little to the yellow/brown color.  This gives it a bit of the aged photos look, since these characters were from historical times.

Some photos I darken slightly to give it a somber look

Some photos I lighten to give it a a faded sun bleached look.  Once again to give it the photo an aged look.

Than I boost the contrast to make the light colors lighter and the dark colors darker.  This gives the object's shadows a darker frame which brings out a outlining drawn look.

Than I boost the saturation just to make sure the coloUrs pop a little extra for that added artistic feel

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 3 Bad Lighting

So like many people, I'm just beginning to learn and practice photography. And as I learn, I make mistakes. These photos I ended up with bad lighting because I didn't know how to operate the settings on my camera.

But why not make it look as if it was purposeful?  Promoting the photos as a dark mood style, these became some of my more popular photos of my series.

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 2 Style Focus

This one isn't for everyone. I wanted to focus on the character, while still keeping the wide shot of the background. To emphasis the character in the photo I used two different techniques to do so

First technique is to shadow out the photo leaving the bright spot around the character.  I like the feel of this photo, but this style it's not that popular.

This technique is quite common (in my opinion is overused).  The focus point is the only bright color in the photo, while the background is washed out.

Photograph Assassin's Creed: Part 1 Angled Shot

I've talked about this before in an earlier post.  But let's go over it again.

Want something different than your traditional shot?

Why not try taking something for a different angle, like from Above

Or from Below

Or Slanted from the Side

Photography: Different Angle Different Photo

This weekend I did my first Cosplay Photoshoot as the Photographer.  So exciting.  I did it for an Assassin's Creed duo (more pictures to come in future posts).

I wanted to share with people a tip that my dear friend Hannah taught me a few years ago.

It's made a wondrous difference in the shots I love to show off after a convention.

When taking a photo of a cosplay, don't just do a picture from the front,

but using the same pose you can get a great photo but running around them

and taking the photo from a different angle.

In this technical age, we dont have to worry about wasting film,

so ~click click click~ away

Don't forget Angles can also be from above

or from below

Don't be afraid of taking pictures from behind,

It can create a mood you wouldn't have imagined

You end up with completely different pictures, even though it's of the same subject.

I hope my pictures provided a very visual example that backs up this tip.

Thank Sam (Boy Cosplayer) and Sam (Girl Cosplayer) for helping Sammy (photographer) with examples for her blog post.

You can find more works by Sam (Boy Cosplayer) at Planetside & AntiqueLace on Facebook

Inspiration - Double Single Rose

How miraculous is nature
Notice that the core is like an infinate loop?