What’s the difference between a common snapshot and a portrait? What does it take to transform a portrait into fine art? Some say that a portrait has to be oriented vertical. Others believe that the subject must look straight to the viewer or that the photo must be black and white. All these are far from being reliable criteria for judging the artistic value of a portrait.
Snapshots are candid photos taken randomly without any intent of making art. There is no or very little planning, no attention to lighting and composition. Snapshots are good for capturing everyday moments and sometimes a portrait make come out by accident. But this happens very seldom and is rather an exception. Portraits generally have a lot of creative work behind. For the artist, this work begins at the first contact with his customer. This can happen over the phone, e-mail or face-to-face. Meeting the customer in person if possible is the best way to go. This allows you to study his/behavior, gestures, posture, learn about his/her personality, likes and dislikes etc. All this information will help you in planning the photo so that it says something about the subject. It is also important to have some sort of chemistry or at least be able to work together. However, it is very common that the first face-to-face meeting takes place at the moment of the photo. While this is not optimal, it can be done. After all, not all portraits have to be works of art. Picturing the person realistically in his/her best pose is a portrait.
Good portraits are achieved by paying attention to every element including camera technique, lighting and posing. It is also important that it reflects the personality of the person being photographed. This is not typically achieved in chain store photo studios. It is much better to schedule a couple of interviews to find out more about the person. Then you can build on the conceptions for the portrait, evoking personality traits. You should portray the person in such a way as to allow the viewer to feel something about what that person is like just by looking at the photo. If you’re including more people, like families or group, it is important that the photo reflects the relationships between them.
Good portraying also requires post-production or finishing work. Before digital photography, retouching used to be made on the negatives and prints and there were limited changes you could make. Complicated chemical processes were used to improve the photos. Nowadays, everything from dodging to burning, blurring and highlighting is done on the PC using photo editing software. While it is certainly much easier than it used to, it still requires artistic vision, planning and expertise, as well as work. A photographer spends about 15-30 minutes on a photo featuring one or two persons before it is ready for print. The time is longer if you have more people in the photograph or you need to make a collage of several images.
All in all, the ingredients of a great portrait include getting to know the subject (usually through pre-interviews), thorough planning, mixing the information you have on the subject with your own artistic vision, good lighting and camera technique and guiding the subject into poses to portray his/her personality. You also need cooperation from the subject.
By: Alex Don
Posts Tagged ‘E Mail’
Issue Tracking Software
December 4th, 2009
Issue tracking software is helpful for many reasons. When it comes to running a business and keeping track of large amounts of data using scrum software, things can sometimes go wrong to the point of your not knowing how to fix them. However, with a 24-hour help desk right at your fingertips, problems with your project or database will be dealt with and solved immediately. Listed are some tips for linking issue tracking to scrum software.
Keeping Things Straight: While some people are well acquainted with their computer’s systems and inner workings, not everyone knows what to do (besides panic) when something happens to their database or their information system. It seems to be out of their control. Issue tracking software can help with this because it basically installs a help desk right into your computer.
Even though scrum project management software ensures that your data will be well taken care of, this may only mean that, in some cases, it will be kept organized and updated. There are no guarantees that your data will be protected from computer defects, hardware failures, or even viruses. Having someone at your aide can be of immense help, especially if computer maintenance is not where your strength lies.
Making It Work For You: All issues are different, and the folks on the other end of the issue tracking system know this. That’s why there is the feature of reporting the issue either over e-mail or by phone. This not only gives you the freedom to remain busy, instead of on hold for hours at a time or left lost trying to translate, but this also ensures that the help you receive will be intelligible and benefits your specific problem in a timely manner.
With some software it is necessary to get an update or add-on for different uses. Even if you are using something specialized and complex like scrum project management software, you will receive help from someone who knows about that specific software. There is always someone who is experienced with your problem waiting for your call for help.
Overview: Sometimes running large projects, organizing outrageous amounts of data, and keeping a team of hundreds in check can be stressful. But that stress only mounts when problems that you cannot fix by yourself arise. That is what issue tracking software was created to curtail–helping you with what you can’t do for yourself.
By: John Halliwell
Staying Safe With Bug Tracking Software
October 17th, 2009
Having bug tracking software on your computer is probably a very wise move. Within the past decade has come the rise of computers and databases, which also means a rise in security threats, especially when sharing such information on the internet that includes personal data, business statistics, or financial logs. In this article are some facts about the software and uses for it.
Reasons You Should Have It: While there are automated, pre-existing bugs out there can infiltrate your computer if you enter a certain website, there are many that are custom made by professional hackers. Even if a computer has a virus scanner on it, a knowledgeable hacker can easily craft a bug that can infiltrate the strongest firewall.
It is important to remember that, when you are keeping track of the ever changing market, you also want to keep track of the ever changing game plan of the cyber thieves. When your software performs changes or updates, the bugs and viruses can keep up. You always need to update your bug and virus systems, too.
With the right tracking software on your computers, even the most unique and specialized bugs can be picked out and removed before they can attach themselves to your database or stored information. When your security base includes issue tracking software, it is like having your own security desk right inside your mainframe.
Personal Help Desk: Think of the bug tracking software as the security guard of your computer, waiting inside it for pests and thieves to try to break in. Then, issue tracking software would be the security desk that oversees any other problems in your system.
Even though your data may be safe from the infiltration of bugs, other issues, such as problems with the mainframe or the hard drive, can be dealt with through the customer support help that is provided by special software. Having someone right there to help you around the clock, who is merely a phone call or e-mail away, provides relief for those who are not adept at computer or software maintenance.
Overview: When running a database of any sort, it is important to remember that you may not be the only one who wants to track the statistics and trends. There are many hackers out there, some of which are professionals, who would be obliged to make a bug just for your database in order to make a few bucks off of your work. It is a good idea to invest in bug tracking software to ensure the security of your computer.
By: John Halliwell
