Purple (and white) Mulberry wild fruit

Purple (and white) Mulberry wild fruit, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Kachnar Park I-8
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

Amryllis is love

Amryllis is love, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Its pretty, colorful, fragile and well, short lived
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

Man sleeping

Man sleeping, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Sleep Time series
Weight loss program includes a few other things, which are of course top secret.
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

You should now be sleeping

You should now be sleeping, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Sleep Time series
And it tops the Weight loss program
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

Test Scene Yellow Studio Lighting

Test Scene Yellow Studio Lighting, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
test scene for hdr image based lighting
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

Herbs from China, in a glass bowl [best pick]

Herbs from China, in a glass bowl [best pick], a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
A couple of organic things are of Pakistani origin. Most of the items are used to cook meat.
(best shot of day)
IMG_8231
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Photography 3 - The Editing Extremes

These posts are intended for both young and seasoned Pakistani photographers, but others can also read. This is the first post of the series. No example photos will be included in these posts, however you can post in comments :)

3. The Editing Extremes

Perhaps this sin is the most tempting and old as photography itself. You can take a picture now, and think you can enhance it later :( without a single time crossing your mind at the time of click the thing how you plan to do so.
Great photographers, when felt challenged by their subject and scene, had in mind exactly what sort of development they will perform in order to overcome the difficulties posed by the scene itself. Good days!
Now you open your hard drive one lonely day and find the ugliest looking pic.. and start an editing software (called hereinafter Photoshop or PS which would mean any standard image manipulation program) with the aim to make it pretty and post-able. These people have no idea that you can PS a photo from corner to corner in one transformation. These include histogram compression, curves, saturation, vibrance, sharpening etc etc. Instead you have every test development plugin by smallest of businesses, scripts written by amateurs to learn another thing and the crappiest of software which does more damage to quality and metadata than your imagination. No wonder you use all of it in every single frame .
These people start with burn dodge tool, go through plugin sewers and scripted slums and finish it off by defaults or auto corrects.. Then they make selections and masks. Every thing means less and changing the background means more.. a skill, an honor. One can see every known effect like soft glow, sparkles and bubbles (yes, on pictures of teen boys with pink lips). Most of these are wedding camera "mistries" (mason). Some are simply fearing rejection either in start of at some point of their photography career. Others are simply ignorants of their abilities and their camera's capabilities.
It is pertinent to mention that the new breed of software (LR) that focus on photography (not on graphic artists), doesn't have all these flaws... The earlier you get rid of nasty habits the better it would be. More and more can and should be said but lets ..
Remember : Process the whole, or dont do process at all.

Previous posts of the series

1. The Crop
2.The Equipment Owner

The Seven Sins of Photography - 2. The Equipment Owner

These posts are intended for both young and seasoned Pakistani photographers, but others can also read. This is the first post of the series. No example photos will be included in these posts, however you can post in comments :)

2. The Equipment Owner

There is a standard set of accessories that arrive with a P&S. However, the choices of extra gadgets is never ending with SLRs. Once you have a single lens- reflex camera, you have a kit lens and you reach out to other photographers on various forums and see them using every sort of filters, behind the filters are lenses of every focal length and apertures, accompanied with battery grips, batteries, memory cards, flashes, cases, cleaners, triggers, remotes, sensors, GPS and tripods.

And you immediately start thinking about what to do with your money.

And if budget allows, you keep on piling your little bag with items mentioned above, usually in the order mentioned above. And perhaps a bigger bag in the end. The list  can be almost certainly found on the profile page. Recently, another trend in the field of collecting mania is software irrespective of the quality of software and the results it produce. E-Books is another item in list to brag about on your profile. Tutorials and help videos is yet another one (and this one is the main culprit of eating away your HDD along-with thousands of ordinary shots you neatly organize in different folders).

Its perfectly legal and normal to buy accessories, software or help material, but with passage of time, with sensing genuine requirement or a true recommendation from someone credible to expand your capabilities. But you purchase and lens or filter and don't uses it for a year, or don't utilize the potential and still keep on adding new gear.. You become an Equipment Owner, not a photographer!!

 

Previous posts of the series

1. The Crop

The seven sins of Photography - 1. The Crop

These posts are intended for both young and seasoned Pakistani photographers, but others can also read. This is the first post of the series. No example photos will be included in these posts, however you can post in comments :)

Bad, distasteful and poor cropping

How rare it is to see something in 2:3 or 3:4 (i am being kind with Pointers and Shooters, because i was once myself) from most newcomers or sometimes even "seasoned" photographers? With the explosion of cameras, camera-phones and even SLRs in hand of every other person, there are more  examples of average or bad photos than ever.

Cropping a photo after taking it can be helpful at the time of print. Or if you use a high end SLR with more effective pixels, you can sacrifice a bit of detail for composition.

Panoramas are just another way to commit this sin. Seriously, do you think to print it on The Great Wall of China? How can you effectively view a 1:10 on any screen or print in world? You can not.

But i think, square crop i.e. 1:1 is the exception, only for the fact it challenges your composition skills and results in slightly artistic images on film cameras.

If you camera doesnt have enough optical zoom, don't try to show off bigger moons and giant ants by cropping the non interesting parts.

Please respect the proportions!

3 is a crowd - Eid tour of rural Area of Bahawalpur

3 is a crowd - Eid tour of rural Area of Bahawalpur, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
And it feels so developed, just like some middle eastern city in making
I also enjoyed practicing on 50mm outdoors at evening.. feels great.
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

Onions and Art

Onions and Art, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I almost felt compelled to take this photo.
Its raining in Bahawalpur and the day became more sad, gloomy and dark despite the fact rain is celebrated in the city being a rare phenomena!!
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

Color, variety, complexity and simplicity of materials in the world

Color, variety, complexity and simplicity of materials in the world, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
I have tried to include following maxwell material concept using a simple primitive
Bi directional scatter function, layered materials, ior, bump, anisotropy, scatter, transmittance, roughness, coating, clip map, normal map, dispersion, frost, displacement, self illumination and standard grey with hdri image based lighting

And of course, dedicated to the progress of a rising photographer Abdul Waris
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

A Look into future

A Look into future, a photo by Engineer J on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Little boys!
IMG_7551
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.

For the Curators at Getty + Flickr

For the Curators at Getty + Flickr, a set on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Please note if you are strolling by my photo stream, these are images not in Artist Pick pool and i have high confidence in images as well as in Providing Model Releases and Property Releases where necessary. Thanks a lot, dear curator.

If item is already in GAP, leave a comment, will you please?

My work at Getty Images | Blog | Facebook|Twitter

Sadiq Garh Palace

Sadiq Garh Palace, a photo by Max Loxton on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
The only Palace which is far more superior to all others palaces in Bahawalpur in terms of elegance and glory is named Sadiq Gerh Palace. This Palace was established in 1882 by His Highness Nawab Sadiq Muhammad Khan (IV). This Palace was constructed under the supervision of expert engineers with a cost of fifteen lac rupees. The work of construction almost continued ten years. After the completion of the palace it was inaugurated in the presence of a majestic court.
There is huge wall all around the palace and there are lush green lawns inside it with beautiful plants having colorful flowers. This sky building is a masterpiece of beauty. There is a bastion in every corner of the palace placed like this that it seems like a soldier on his duty to protect. There is beautiful dome in the center of the building which looks more beautiful in night when it is glowing with lights of different colors.

Canon EOS 1D mk3. Canon 17-40 4L. ISO 100. f5.6 at 1/250 second.

All rights reserved - Copyright © Yasir Nisar /Max Loxton

All images are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed, written permission of the photographer.


Facebook Page | YasirNisar
© All rights reserved. Please use a license (if available) from Getty Images (click photo and see flickr page) or email me directly.