BrianT's photos - UPDATE --> a few more photos

[BrianT]

NEW PICTURES AT BOTTOM


This is the 2nd time I post on this thread. I'm an amatuer photographer, but a professional artist. Attached are some photos I've taken over the past few years. All photos taken with my Canon Powershot S30.



A lake in the Rocky Mountains - Alberta, Canada


The beach in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada


The coast in Olympic National Park, Washington, USA


Death clouds looming over downtown Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada


An old historic building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada


A co-workers Harley Davidson


A Horse carraige in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada


Modified photo of a Lamborghini Murcielago on the road


Night photo taken in New Brunswick, Canada


A picture of my Mazda3!


Old military tanks at the War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada


The ocean southwest of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada


Close-up of a fluffy flower


Rocks!


A bus in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada


A highway in Washington, USA


Downtown Vancouver's West End

[madpencil]

I like the composition on these, the only thing I don't like is that they look over-saturated. Often times natural color is just fine. Saturating is cool but over doing looks well...over done.

[BrianT]

Hello Madpencil, thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm guilty of adoring color, although a B&W photo is sometimes nice too! I'm guessing your monitor is better than mine, and therefore the color is more vibrant - like an LCD?. I have a shitty monitor...

[madpencil]

Actually I use a CRT monitor, the color on CRTs is always better than LCDs, the same is true with TVs. Don't get me wrong I love color too, color is great. One thing I've learned and continue to learn as a professional artist is to appreciate the subtleties of the real world and apply them to art. That's not to say that over saturating a photo for artistic reasons is a bad thing. But when it's an obvious trend in a body of work it looks more like a cheap trick. After all not all photos call for the same treatment due to the simple fact that each photo carries a different message and therefore each message is conveyed differently. In my opinion, as a photographer you can have a style defined by mood or common subject matter throughout your work and still have a wide range of variety of interpretation. Although if you're showing a group of photos that represent a project as a whole, some uniformity is expected.

[BrianT]

I use CRT's as well. It's just that LCD's (atleast good ones) tend to have boosted color. I suppose it's a way for the manufacturer to impress people with their LCD's, since the contrast on most of them is poor.

The photos I posted here are not any whole project, rather just various photos I've taken - as the subject title states. For what it counts, yes, I agree a project must have uniformity.

I tend NOT to strive for reality in any photo. A trend you may notice in my photos is a surreal feeling. That's because they're all edited in photoshop, some more heavily than others. I treat the photo like a painting, with the photographic elements the paint. I try to make photos have a fantastical feel, which often includes adding more color to what the camera exposed. Take a look at the yellow bus. The back is primary yellow - as yellow as it gets. This is intentional because I wanted a somewhat cartoony feel because to me the bus looked kinda cartoony. And of course composition makes a difference. If there's something in the way - out it goes! If a foreground element is needed to guide the eye - in it goes. Look at the picture of the Lamborghini. I took the picture of the car at a show under specially designed spotlights. Then there's the BG mountiains - nothing special. Mixing the 2 (in my opinion) makes the car stand out. I'm a car nut, so the feeling is that the incredible power of the Lamborghini could eat up the road ahead.

I agree that all photos do not call for the same treatment, which is why mine are not all color. There's plenty B&W ones, some with a slight color tint. I'd say almost half the photos I have are B&W! Each photo carries a different message, and therefore some are sharper than softer, more dynamic than relaxed, etc... it depends on the subject matter.

I'm not a professional photographer. I don't know how the industry of photography works. Are they allowed to edit photos? My guess is yes. I'd also bet there's a lot of photographers who refuse to touch Photoshop, just as there are those who won't touch a digital camera. I tend to take the approach of film compositing -- build an image using various elements so it works for the scene. All I use to take the pictures is a little digital camera (Canon Powershot S30) with a little zoom lens. Of course, I intend to get a better camera soon!

Hey Madpencil, I looked at your website. Nice drawings. Great character posing.

Here's another recent pic:

[madpencil]

Keep it up dude, you have talent.

[Fl3wk]

I need to move to another country.... Britain is too plain.

[mollyduker]

you are gonna say that no matter wher eyou go. for example, i would love to take pictures in britain but am getting sick of claytong missouri USA.

BrainT- these are awesome. jealousy here! :-D keep it up and keep posting!

[claudeEGYPT]

Some of these are very beautiful, i like the Bus one, and Downtown Vancouver's west end.
Claude

[BrianT]

I love my country - Canada. I wouldn't move for anything. I've lived in central Canada, Eastern Canada, and I now live in Vancouver (Western Canada). Vancouver is rated among the best cities worldwide. If you move to Canada come here

Here are more photos:


Taken in Steveston, BC - fisherman's wharf


Casey!


Casey again! Am I crazy?


Good ol' railroad. This caboose is retired.


Elk in Banff, Alberta, Canada. These Elk are so common in the Banff area you could probably walk up to them and touch them, but it's not recommended.


Close-up of a blue bird. I think it's a Blue Jay. I could be wrong though, since I know nothing about birds.


An Emu picture taken at the zoo.


Top of the world. I climbed all the way to the top of this mountian and all I got was this lousy photo. Seriously though, going down the mountain was harder than climbing up!


Old farmland in New Brunswick, Canada.


Landscape...


Mountains close to Banff, Alberta, Canada.


Somewhere around the western coast of British Columbia.


This photo was taken at 1:30 in the afternoon.

See my painting thread: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58713

[claudeEGYPT]

Casey And British Columbia are very good.

Claude

[Iiori]

Wow,I love canada... Im so close but yet so far. beautiful Pictures.

I agree that some might have been a bit too saturated. I have that problem as well. I have an lcd monitor so everything looks normal to me, but to other people they look like the contrast is all funky.

The last few have gotten better. I really like the farmish forest ones a lot.

[Morbid]

I love the blue lake and mountain shot in the last post. Nice natural frame with the trees.

It looks like you have blurred out the background in some shots, the one from New Brunswick for example. To me it looks a bit fake.

You have a nice variety of shots!

[ShadeOfDawn]

i've been meaning to comment here for SO long and i thought i actually did but maybe that was in my dreams or head or something heh.

First of all i love your Photographs. All of these photos are very good, but some of them are simply amazing. Your first photograph looks like a computer render - not fully sure why, something about the way the detail looks in the trees and the light on the water, but i mean that in a good way.

Some people werent big fans of what you've done with the colour in these, but i really like the colours. For example i love the colours in Lake A and Rocky Sunset - both are somewhat surreal and feel like they came from a movie.

I just have to comment on the composition in Redearth A (im not sure if the A is part of the name as some have it and some dont - is there a B?) I think its amazing. The tree on the very left grabs your attention which then follows the trees all around and into the mountains. The water is also interesting. The only flaw in that picture i think is the clouds in the upper left. The entire Scene looks amazing. An with this thread you're perpetuating a stereotype of Canada heh - at least its a good one! No igloos here. I live in Canada and never get to see that - i really need to travel my country more. I've been to victoria Airport and thats it for anything West of London Ontario. I've been around Quebec a little and been to a few places in Ontario but other than that nothing. I really want to go to B.C. one day as it is a very beautiful place. BTW not all of Canada is like that - Canada is too large to have any comonalities in the land. Theres the rockies in the West, the plains in the middle, the frozez lands up North, several major Metropolitans the largest of which is Toronto (4.5 million people). and then East theres Quebec which has different language and architecture and history - Old Quebec city is very nice. Further eas theres the much more rural areas like PEI which is a small island province with a small population (small to me coming from Ontario). Theres also Newfoundland with fisheries and a much more folk oriented culture. Its a great diverse country with a little (or well i guess its more like a lot) of many types of land. Yeah that was my patriotic pitch i guess heh heh. Back to the topic - Great photos!

[BrianT]

ShadeofDawn - Redearth_A_small.jpg means:

a) "Redearth" is a hiking/horse trail near Banff, Alberta. The trail is kinda boring, but the lake & mountains are a nice sight to see (as pictured). Not far away from the pictured lake is lodge, which is accessable by walking, horseback, or helicopter. Stay at the lodge and you can enjoy the sight of my photo every day you're there!

b) "_A" means it's the first version of this photo I have. This is how I organize my files. There is no Redearth_B. If I make changes to a photo, like for example I were to make Redearth_A with a blue cast over the entire image, then the new image would become Redearth_A_02. Same picture, but slightly different tweaks. Get it? Sometimes I save a PSD (photoshop file) with multiple layers of these tweaks.

c) "_small" means this version is resized and compressed for posting on the web.

Sorry for giving the false impression that ALL of Canada is a wondrous place. There are crappy areas, but MOST of it's pretty nice, I promise.

As you can see from my photos I like to take pictures of nature, and landscapes. I travel whenever I get the chance. This allows me to become exposed to a lot of different things, and types of nature. When I retire, all I'm gonna do is travel around North America, take pictures, and paint things.

Here are more photos:


Bananas


A modified Mustang at the 2005 Detroit Auto Show.


Some kind of ferns.


Thick forest taken on Vancouver Island.


Copper in Banff.


Old house in Miramichi, New Brunswick.


Field of cat tails.


Highway to Jasper. Somewhere around the Columbia Icefield.


Highway to Jasper again.


Head carved in a stump in Stanley Park, Vancouver.


a couple paintings: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58713

[Morbid]

Highway to Jesper - amazing scenery!!
Copper in Banff - very nice!!
Great stuff, you know what to do if you get sick of drawing.

[CopyWrite]

Love the last ONE!

very nice head.

[ChrisM]

I love your stuff. It looks like you go to great lengths to take these.

[Barret_wallace]

Mountains close to Banff, Alberta, Canada.

wohaa! thats a great picture!!
large version please!

[Morbid]

A tip when doing DOF blurring in photoshop:
Use a mask to get smoother transition in areas where there is much foreshortening. Make a mask which is white in all areas that are supposed to be blurred, and smudge it where you want a smoother selection. Then make the mask a selection and blur.
I'm specifically thinking of "Close-up of a blue bird" where the branches look a bit odd. I don't think it hurts the picture though but it's something to think about.

[BrianT]

Thanks for all the comments.

Morbid - I use feathered selections to do what you are talking about. The only disadvantage is that the feather falloff is a maximum of 250 pixels, and it is a linear gradation. But it works fine most of the time.

I commonly blur (and sometimes, lower contrast, sharpness, and saturation) in areas where I DO NOT want the eye to go. Or, in other words, simplify the detail in some areas. For example, in painting, I wouldn't paint every single area of the picture with equivialant detail. And because I think of the same artistic philosophies with my photos, I tend to blur some areas. Actually, it's not always a blur, but could be some other effect--either hand-painted or PS filter. Of course, I don't do this with every single photo. It's a type of effect I like to use with some photos.

The advantage of doing DOP in photoshop is that you can do whatever you wish. Lens, shutter speed, and aperature do not matter. And with photoshop you can select specific areas to blur and so on. You can even do multiple depths of field, which doesn't technically make any sense, but can work to your advantage. I'm not saying that camera DOP is not useful. And I'm not saying that photoshop fake DOP is even the same. Some camera DOP might be nearly impossible to achive in photoshop. Two different effects from different 'mediums'. I try as much as I can to take advantage of any tool to best serve the image.

Below are more images. I've nearly uploaded all my best photos. I haven't taken many pictures lately. I'll need to get out with my camera.



BC ferry crossing to Vancouver Island.


Pond.


English Bay, Stanley Park seawall - Vancouver.


See my paintings:

Cave painting: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...276#post716276

Sci-fi ship taking off: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...478#post711478

2 sci-fi characters: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...886#post702886

[ChrisM]

ever thought about selling these shots to tourists? they'd make great postcards and even better calendars.

[Morbid]

I hope I didn't come off as offensive, I do really like your work. To the casual observer it probably doesn't matter since he wouldn't notice if the DOF is "optically" correct, and in this case it would just improve the image.

[BrianT]

Morbid - Hehe, no you're not offensive! I simply tend to type a lot, in this case about DOP.

Anyway, below are some new photos of my dog Morgan. He is a 7 month old Black Labrador Retriever. I'm dog crazy!

1.



2.



3.



4.


It's hard to get Morgan to sit still for more than 2 seconds because he's still a puppy!


See my paintings:

Discovery: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60926
Cave: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59829
Ship: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59580
Spacemarine A & B: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58713

See my sketches:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60853


BrianT

[JustinBeckett]

Cool pix dude. You livin or visiting Vancouver? I am living in Vancouver or around the area.

[BrianT]

I live in downtown Vancouver in Coal Harbor, where the Morgan pictures were taken.

[claudeEGYPT]

Brian! I love that Ferry one, beautiful, okay maybe u slightly oversaturated it, but it's great! Also the second one of your dog where his collar stands out. Good work.

[Barret_wallace]

i love the pictures of Morgan, puppy's is hard to take a good picture of
but you do it so well

i like your nature photos to, and especially the ferry
but i believe that many of your pictures is over saturated.
is this intended?

[Jaunty]

I'm in love with your use of (and omition of ) colour. It gives the pieces such a strong feel.

[BrianT]

As far as saturation goes, yes, I think some of them are oversaturated. I bought a new monitor, calibrated it (because I'm running dual monitor again). Everything looks better. But this is not an excuse.

For example, look at the picture of the 'BC ferry crossing to Vancouver Island'. For me, this is NOT oversaturated - even though I boosted the color from what the camera recorded. I wanted to catch the ferry on a crisp, cool day over the water, so the blue exemplifies that. The color scheme is analogous, blue being the dominant color with deeper shades of blue and blue-green in the distance. I think it works.

Looking at the wide photo 'English Bay, Stanley Park seawall - Vancouver', the sky on the left near the horizon IS oversaturated. The water is fine, but the strong red & orange hues pop out a little too much. Perhaps I will correct this.

Because I edit every photo in Photoshop, I will be more careful with saturation. Spring is coming soon, and the skies have cleared up, so the outdoor lighting is defining everything nicely. I can't wait to get out with my camera.

In the meantime, below are more photos I took this week:

1.

Sailboats in Coal Harbor.


2.

Cloud formation...


3.

Canadian Geese


4.

Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver, BC


See my paintings:

Native: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=61288
Discovery: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60926
Cave: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59829
Ship: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59580
Spacemarines: http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=58713

See my sketches:

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=60853

BrianT