AR-Graphics

Looking for a Model?   Some time ago I was involved in a discussion in a group. It revolved primarily around the apparent lack of models and problems getting to work with them, especially on a TFP basis. I personally felt that many of the difficulties were down to the way the approaches to models are made. In particular where and how.   With a number of new personal projects I plan to undertake, I recently decided to seek out some extra new people to work with. Although there were a number I wanted to contact directly, I also decided to put out a general casting in order to get an idea of the interest there may be. I also thought it would be interesting to see where might be the most productive places to do such a casting. Therefore I posted the same casting on 6 Facebook groups (all location specific) and 8 model directory web sites.   Although the original post is now about a month old, I am still receiving new contacts, and so far have well over a dozen ...

Let There Be Light! The other day I stood waiting for my children to finish school and admiring the light. It had recently stopped raining and now the sun was intermittently peeking through broken cloud. Opposite the sky was still dark from the storm. The low afternoon sun coupled with the lack of normal fill from a clear or cloudy sky, gave the light a very rare quality that gave lovely contrast and enriched the colours. The light was constantly changing though, as the clouds varied in their coverage of the sun. I watched fascinated by the subtly with which the shadows and colours changed, before being brought back down to earth by my 8 year old son jumping on my back, announcing school was out!   Light is the most fundamental building block of all the visual arts, without it images cannot be captured. Camera settings, lighting modifiers, etc, are just tools we use to shape the way our subjects are affected by it. It's many forms, whether natural or artificial, can be use...

Finding your images Once we let our creations loose onto the wilds of the internet there is no telling where they will roam and who will entice them onto their domain. Keeping track of our images is an almost impossible task. The likes of Google image search and Tineye are fine for the occasional search but hardly solves the overall problem. However a relatively new company by the name of Pixsy aims to help address the problem somewhat. I believe they have been somewhat surprised by the interest in there service as I had to wait a few months whilst they upgraded before they sent through my invitation to join . https://www.pixsy.com/   So how does it work? Once you set up your account, you supply it with a list of URLs where your images are stored. This can be places such as your web site, Flickr, 500px accounts etc. It will then go and catalogue all the images it finds at those sites and once done off it goes searching the internet for copies. Up to 5000 pictures can be ...

Is everything as it seems? I have been asked by a number of people to give some tips on what to look out for with regards to photographers etc that may not be quite what they appear. Today's cameras allow even the most inexperienced user to produce a technically good image, which has lead to a huge increase of people taking on the mantle of "photographer". Whilst the majority of these are legitimate, and content with developing their craft or offering a good service, there are unfortunately a few who possibly have more dubious intentions. It's a sad fact that I regularly seem to find social media posts and web sites where things just don't add up and not everything is what it seems! After 40 odd years of doing, and studying photography it can often seem very obvious to me when something is not right. However it is mostly a case of common sense and here are some things that you may want to look for... Are the images consistent and "right"? It...

Getting & Giving Photograph Critiques For what it's worth, some of my thoughts on critiques beyond the usual stuff, along with some real life examples I have experienced.   To The Receiver.... Please remember that especially on FaceBook comments can be made from people with a wide range of experience and expertise. Anyone from seasoned professional to new camera phone user can feel empowered to comment on your work. Before taking anything to heart, try and work out how much value you place on their view.  Not all critiques are really applicable. I once had a comment of "I don't like this the aspect ratio looks old fashioned"! Such seemingly off the wall remarks are probably best ignored. However if they are made by someone you know and respect, or are agreed and echoed by others then it's probably something you should look at. Critiques can and often are influenced by personal opinion. Someone once commented on one of my images "I don...

Welcome to the AR-Graphics Blog  For over 40 years I have had a passion for photography and have used it to capture not only the world before my eyes, but also to realise images conjured up by my mind's eye. Throughout this time I have constantly striven to learn all I can and develop my skills in an attempt to gain some degree of mastery over the medium. I am also fortunate to have experienced the huge change, and paradigm shifts, that came about as photography moved into the digital age. This has all lead me to accumulate a wealth of knowledge and personal insights, that I've always been happy to share. I have found that putting forward such information in the form of posts or comments has been helpful in allowing me to rationalise and reinforce my thoughts on a subject, as well as hopefully being of help to others. Until now I have done this via various social media, however I have now decided to formalise it somewhat into this blog which will in turn be sh...