photography by wasim.

Tag: filters

How Instagram’s Cheesy Photo Filters Have Made Us More Creative

I know.
I was one of those people.
But after rediscovering Instagram the past few months since deleting my original account two years ago as a futile act of defiance after the billion dollar Facebook acquisition, I’ve come to realize, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s far from cheating and it’s actually quite the contrary, it’s incredibly liberating…which just so happens to be a prerequisite for the most creative of all art!
Basically, here’s my take: just because I don’t know how to make something look like an old western scratched sepia photo print in Photoshop, or I don’t have an old western camera with old western film and old western chemicals and an old western darkroom to process in, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be allowed to express a vision that happens to be in the style of an old western scratched sepia photo print. If I had to learn how to do it, or save up to buy all them old western stuffs, I’d end up spending hours, if not days, or perhaps even months, detracting from continuing to engage the original spark of that imagination by developing the story or idea. When I see something and want to see it in an old western scratched sepia photo print sorta way, I can do it with the tap of a button, allowing me more energy to concentrate on refining the overall vision. This, consequently, allows me to be more creative without the fear of technical gibberish slowing me down.
Essentially, with the quick one step filters we actually have tools to help us express a creative vision that runs quicker and closer to the speed that our mind conjures it up. In many cases, it even gives us ideas that we wouldn’t have had before, conjuring up certain emotions and feelings based on how that image looks based on how we decided to treat it. Our imagination becomes something that stays ‘on’ at all times, allowing us to visualize and create and refine and build upon the wily creative spark when the elusive bugger decides to actually show up. Moreover, in my case, it’s allowed me to retool and re-envision many images I already have, and present them to an entirely new audience who may never have seen them otherwise.
And I think we’re all starting to catch up with these sorts of thoughts. Yes, when these ‘toys’ were first brought to market, it was easy to dismiss them as meaningless and short-lived and a ‘fad’ and all that gobbledegook. But heck, we didn’t know any better because we’ve never quite seen anything like that on a mass consumed scale. But since then, even institutions that have prided for over a century about the quality of their images and media output, like National Geographic and Smithsonian and Getty Images, have adopted Instagram and Twitter accounts, and in National Geographic’s case, even has a section in their digital publication format surrounded by that iconic yellow border, dedicated to the Instagram feeds of their photographers in the field. And some of my favorite professional photographers have embraced the mediums as well. In a short 4 years, Instagram has become an institution in itself – creating celebrity Instagrammers that have led to extremely profitable small businesses based on their feeds, while simultaneously building a rabid fan base large and influential enough to command a billion dollar pricetage by Facebook. And, well, if Facebook bought a toy, well, it was a damn expensive one!
Additionally, the fact that most ‘professional’ and ‘prosumer’ cameras these days are equipped with built-in wifi, like the Samsung NX30 and Samsung NXMini I’ve been using lately as part of the Imagelogger program, allows you to immediately take a high quality photo and transfer it to your mobile device for processing and sharing…an idea that seemed preposterously foreign just 5 years ago.
Anyhow, I suppose what I’m getting at here is that I’m finally beginning to let go of the idea that things need to stay the way they are or the way they’ve ‘been.’ After all, in reality, nothing at all has ever stayed the way it’s ‘been.’ Ever. And heck, who would really want it to!? So if I, as a creative, don’t adapt and embrace the tools (and toys) that are available to us in these insanely exciting days, then, well, I’m just gonna end up left by the wayside, while everyone else has all the fun.
Screw that. I wanna have some fun too!
For more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

July 24, 2014
What The Heck Are The Different Photography Filters Used For?

It eventually happens to every new photographer. You’re out in the field. You’re setting up to make a shot, and you see others around you setting up for a shot, only, some of these people have these strange contraptions attached to the front of their lens. It looks like a huge piece of square glass. You sit there. You stare. You wonder. And when you get back home, you Google ‘square things on lens.’ The first time this happened to me, I was set up to shoot some images of Bonsai Rock in Lake Tahoe, California several years back. It’s a rock about a hundred yards offshore that has miniature trees growing on it as a result of the trees roots not being able to penetrate the rock, effectively stunting their growth. Anyhow, I had my positioning, tripod locked down, and others began to show up and set up, and a few of them set up with these aforementioned chunks of glass. I had to know what they were, so I asked the photographer next to me, who kindly explained what they do and the effect they give. They lent me one, showed me a crude way of using it by holding it front of my lens (they had special holders for theirs) and I was immediately blown away. Everything became so clear to me. All those crazy images I see on 500px.com and around the web with milky smooth water and skye and clouds…I get it now.

The one they let me use was a Graduated Neutral Density filter, and I explain what that does below, along with the 5 most popular photography filters used by photographers in the field.

1. UV Filter – This filter does absolutely nothing, yet, it is by far the most popular. Huh? Well, because it does nothing to the image itself, many photographers will have them on their lens to protect the glass. While a lens can be in the thousands of dollars, a basic UV filter can be under 30, so it’s a minimal investment to protect your gear. Plus, it does actually help a little bit in minimizing haze and glare. These come in circular shape and screw onto the front of your lens so you forget it’s even there. They’re sold by the size of the lens, which is demonstrated on the barrel of the lens following the ø symbol. For example, in this image, you’ll see ø67, so the size of filter I’d shop for is 67mm.

2. Polarizer – Essentially this one is most commonly used to darken and saturate skies, as well as reduce reflections in reflective surfaces such as water and glass. They can also be extremely effective in making colors pop in overcast conditions. Polarizers, like UV filters, also usually comes in the circular screw-on format. Once you screw it on, you can turn it and see the effects immediately through your viewfinder or LCD panel. On sunny days, they work best the closer you are to a 90 degree angle from the sun (when the sun is directly overhead or to either side of you).

3. Graduated Neutral Density (Grad ND) – It’s basically a piece of glass that gradually moves from no tint to a dark tint, with a discernible line along the middle. What this does is it allows the proper amount of light through the part of the glass where there is no tint, to letting less light in the part of the glass with the tint. Essentially, this makes it so that whatever is under the tint is underexposed, allowing you to increase your exposure time to still get a proper exposure for the scene. Basically, you can decrease your shutter speed, allowing for a longer exposure in the lighter areas without overexposing the full image. For example, in the shot of Bonsai Rock, the sky was much brighter than the water and the foreground in my image, so it would have been impossible to get a good exposure of the entire scene. So I wanted to be able to allow less light into the bright areas while I expose for the darker areas. By placing the filter so that the dark tint is on the top half (or horizon) of my scene and darkening my sky, I am able to get a proper exposure preserving detail in both halves of the scene. These filters typically need a filter holder as explained below.

4. Neutral Density (ND) – This is almost the same as the graduated neutral density filter described above. The only difference is that on a regular neutral density filter, the entire glass is one tint. They come in various degrees of tints, called stops. This is in relations to your f-stop, so a 3-stop ND filter will allow you to expose for 3 additional f-stops to get a proper exposure, a 6-stop ND will allow you to expose for 6 additional f-stops, and so on (which also applies for the Graduated Neutral Density filters). Neutral Density filters are best used on very bright days when you want to accomplish a long-exposure. This way, the filter darkens the glass, creating the opportunity to keep your shutter open for a longer exposure. Neutral Density filters also usually require a filter holder.

5. Infrared – Madness! That’s what these create. Essentially, what Infrared filters do is block infrared light while letting through visible light. By blocking out certain spectrums of light, IR filters allow us to view spectrums of light that are normally lost to the human eye. Using an IR-transmitting filter will result in almost monochromatic surreal images with colors that we don’t normally see to the naked eye. The detail the provide can be insane! Click here for a few examples. (Edit: As pointed out by Google Plus user Jonathan Allen, “most cameras have built in infrared filters. Removing the infrared filter is what produces the effects in the photos you linked to under the infrared filter.” He is correct, to a degree. There are actually two things going on here. There is an IR-blocking filter, and an IR-transmitting filter. the IR-blocking filter is what the camera is equipped with in order to block the infrared spectrum from coming to the sensor and making your images unnatural looking. The IR-transmitting filter is what allows the infrared spectrum to hit the sensor, giving that surreal effect. It’s the same effect you’d get if you had the IR-filter that is built into the camera removed).

So there’s the basic breakdown of five of the more popular filters. The other element here is the filter holder and that depends on your lens. Certain ones are made for wide angle lenses, others are made for more standard focal length lenses. They basically screw onto the front of your lens and then the filter slips into the grooves provided.

While many manufacturers make them, the ones I use are the Cokin filter holders.

And some of the best filter brands out there include Singh-Ray, Hoya, and Lee.

If you’re on a budget and want to affordably play around a bit before committing to the higher-end brands and options, Cokin and Tiffen are worth checking out.

And recently, I’ve been introduced to Haida, and got myself a 10-stop Neutral Density filter. They’re designed to compete with Lee’s Big Stopper and THEY DO THE TRICK!!! Here’s one, shot in Hawaii, literally at high noon, and I was able to get this gorgeous 30-second exposure shown here on the right.

Try to stay away from the plastic filters and stick to the glass ones – you WILL notice the difference in quality.

While I learned the lesson of the power of the filter in the field, that wasn’t the only lesson I learned on that shoot. The other was that no matter how warm the weather, do NOT ever ever EVER wear flip-flops, especially when you have to scale a small cliff to get into position. I tore the sucker on the way down and climbing with photo gear half-bare-foot along a rocky lakeside isn’t…eh…comfortable.

Regardless, my resulting shot was worth it (or at least I thought so…).

For more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Twitter: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

Between A Rock And A Busted Flip Flop

July 22, 2014
A Quick, Easy And Effective Alternative Method Of Sharpening Your Images

When most people think sharpening in Photoshop, they understandably default to the ’Sharpen’ or ‘Unsharp Mask’ filters. But since I learned this trick a few years back, I don’t believe I’ve opened a single one of Photoshop’s native sharpen plugins a single time. Instead, I’ve relied on one of the ‘Other’ filters in that ‘Filter’ menu – the ‘High Pass’ filter.
Essentially, you’ll make a duplicate layer of the image layer. Then navigate to the ‘Filter’ menu, down to ‘Other,’ and choose ‘High Pass.’ What you’ll see might startle you at first, but don’t worry, you’ll learn to love that gray mask that ‘ruined’ your picture in just a minute. Using that dialog box that pops up, I’ll usually enter a radius of between 2-5 pixels, depending on the image. The more sharp edges and lines I have in an image, the higher of that 1-5 scale I’ll go. Anymore above that will usually result in the dreadfully obvious over sharpened image. If you zoom in closely on the image, you can see exactly what is being sharpened and by how much. You can see the level of sharpening of those pixels through that grey mask on the image. In portraiture, I’m usually between 2-3 pixels at most, mostly to help accent eyelashes and eyeballs.

Wasim_Muklashy_Photography_High_Pass_Sharpening_1

Wasim_Muklashy_Photography_High_Pass_Sharpening_2

Once you decide how much sharpening you’d like, hit ‘Ok.’ Now the top layer will be that High Pass filter. Go to the ‘Blending Mode’ drop down menu above the filters, which is usually set at default to ‘Normal,’ and navigate through those options. I usually stick with ‘Soft Light,’ as it provides the most natural look, especially for portraits and architecture, however, you can play with the various other options, including ‘Vivid Light’ and ‘Hard Light.’ Once you scroll through them, you can see the different way each blending mode affects the high pass filter. The great part here is that you can also control the opacity of that layer, even further fine tuning the sharpening.

Wasim_Muklashy_Photography_High_Pass_Sharpening_4

So that has become my preferred method of sharpening. It just seems to offer the most manual control over the sharpening process and once you get used to it, it’ll start to come as second nature. Here’s the before and after, you can see it best in the eyes:

Wasim_Muklashy_Photography_High_Pass_Sharpening_Before_After

The image used here was shot on a Samsung NX30 with a Samsung 60mm/f2.8 lens. The model above is the stunning and popular social media star, Julia Kelly. You can find her on Instagram,Twitter, and Vine.

For more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Twitter: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

July 9, 2014
Should Your Photographs Reflect The Way You See The World Or The Way You Choose To See The World?

It’s almost hard to ignore in today’s photography discussions. The ‘purist’ versus the ‘artist’ argument. What is a real photograph? What is a fake photograph? What is a photograph? When are filters and plugins appropriate? When are they not? When have you used too many?

Here’s the thing: never! None of that matters. At all. The only people it matters to are the people it matters to. Think about that sentence – The only people it matters to are the people it matters to. Basically, it’s not up to anyone but you to tell you what you like.

Sure, there are cases, especially in editorial or documentary and news photography, when your job is strictly to document the world the way that it is, and any embellishments or alterations are simply immoral and disrespectful, but if you are picking up a camera as a tool for art, I am a firm believer that you are free to do whatever you want and however you want.

You are the artist.

The thing about art is that it is never complete, and it always evolves. This means that, well, perhaps you did use a bit too much filter on your images in the past, but, well, no one can judge that but you, and no one can choose when you decide that. It’s part of the artistic process – so be it. Embrace it. Allow it to happen, because if it doesn’t, it means that it’s something that you’re holding in, and as an artist, the last thing you want is to hold back, especially when it’s other people’s opinions that you should. If you do, you will not be fulfilled through your art, and if that’s the case, then, well, what’s the point? In other words, if you hold back, how do you expect to move forward?

When I first started dabbling in digital photography, I applied a ‘lomo’ preset on EVERY image I ever made. Every single one. Literally…all of them. And this was before Instagram and iPhone apps and all the tools that have made these filters commonplace. I had a photographer friend of mine tell me perhaps I ought try not to use that lomo filter even just once. But I liked that filter. So I resisted. And that went on for at least another half year. And then I discovered HDR photography (insert sigh here…). And admittedly, more often than not, I went waaaaaaay overboard with it. But still, I loved it!! I went nuts with it. It went from every image having a lomo filter applied to every image being an HDR image. Heck, sometimes I even applied the lomo filter on the HDR image.

And this went on for about a year.

Now, I don’t remember the last time made an HDR image, however, I have learned to enfuse several exposures in certain situations, especially when working with real estate and architectural photography, without pushing it to the surreal out of control limits. And same with the lomo filter, I haven’t used that bugger in quite some time in my professional working photography, but, well, I use a version of it all the time in Instagram! Basically, I think I’ve managed to get better at picking and choosing my situations for various purposes.

And I think all of these things are a necessary part of the process that leads to whether you evolve or get stuck. So any of those voices that insist that you’re doing too much of this, or too much of that, or not enough of this and that, have either already evolved past those very same things, or, more likely, have yet to even begin the process of letting go and moving forward in their own processes.

Either way, I’ve admittedly got a long way to go, but instead of dreading the ‘phases’ that I have to go through, I’ve grown to become eager and excited about them. Because that means I’m one step closer to the world I see when I look at it the way I choose to see it.

And, for me, it doesn’t get anymore real than that.

For more of my madness:
Instagram: @wasimofnazareth
Twitter: @wasimofnazareth
Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy
Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

July 8, 2014