Visual Arts Journal

Photographers, Musicians, Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Digital Animators, Programmers and anyone working with digital media or products
This is a site you are going to want to check out. Envato is more than a brand or a successful business model, it’s a mindset. In a few short years Envato has changed the way freelancers and product developers (referred to as authors on their site) develop skills, market their products and build a community (aka following). (continue reading…)

VAJ Blog Considers Marwencol a Must See
Marwencol’s creator Mark Hogancamp has successfully managed to manifest into the physical, something that once only he could experience. Breathing life into his figures and the township of Marwencol with such attention to detail and completeness that they are alive, albeit briefly, though his photography. The documentary (of the same name) was directed, produced and edited by Jeff Malmberg, and not only follows the dramas taking place in the pint-sized World War II-era town but also the very compelling personal story of the artist. At last check, this documentary had been awarded twenty-two national and international film awards. (continue reading…)

Replaces Neck Straps For Toting Still Cameras

Finally an intelligent way to carry cameras!! No more swinging cameras, neck aches or frayed nerves when getting in position for that perfect shot. Great for outdoor enthusiasts who want to keep the camera accessible yet safe and secure. (continue reading…)

Designed to Quickly Convert files to JPEG
I found this tip in Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography Vol.3 book. By the way, anything Scott Kelby authors is always recommended reading. This tip not only saves card space but potentially plenty of file conversion time. It effectively eliminates the need to shoot dual Raw and JPEGs when you need low resolution images. (continue reading…)

For all you videophiles, Tom Hanks (Actor/Director) posted this May 26th and I got a good laugh out of it.  He’s on the set of “Larry Crowne”.

If you want to view behind the scenes of a Major Production, then take a look at his Twitter page. http://twitter.com/tomhanks

A New Tutorial Series
Do you have a damaged or blah photo but you don’t know how to fix it? Perhaps you haven’t been please with earlier attempts to Photoshop images? Well this series is for you. This series will include concepts, best practices and some specific how-to instructions for the beginner and intermediate Photoshop or Photoshop Elements user. If you are using other software, you can still make use of most of the content by adapting the instructions to suit your software.

In this post, I’ll be referring to both restoration and enhancement but in future posts the two topics will be addressed separately within the series, so check the Blog often for multiple posts. (continue reading…)

An Industry Standard
A quality magazine that is considered a “must have” for many photographers. The content highlights two or three really cool Photoshop tutorials and an article or two. Filling out the rest of the pages are a dozen or so regular columns, a handful of photo equipment reviews, Lightroom content and a nice spread on the current featured photographer. Also present, a lot of glossy looking advertising, which as a photographer, I do selectively glance at. (continue reading…)

Tips That Payoff Big: Composition, Camera Settings, and more.

 Get a Plan: at least jot down some quick notes on paper. Very few people can successfully pull off the shoot-on-the-fly method. What makes sense to you at the moment may spell confusion for your audience or extra editing time for you. Writing it down also helps clarify concepts and point out potential problems.

 Shoot Your Age: unless you or your audience are twenty somethings, don’t shoot or edit, the rapid-fire sequence of images. For an example of this style watch the first 12 seconds of the first video here. Likewise, stay away form Snooze-pacing too. Consider what would be palatable to your audience. (continue reading…)

SilverShotz is pricy and hard to find, but it’s drop dead gorgeous. The magazine mainly profiles the artists, or rather their portfolios, by displaying numerous very large images of their work. Text is very light but who needs it. If this doesn’t provide inspiration, I don’t know what will.  They have a one page directory in the back and no other advertising. They also have a one page book review but no other columns or content, just the big name profiles and portfolios. (continue reading…)

A Postmortem Review: Camera Arts Magazine

A small but highly inspirational magazine covering all genres and specialties of photography, fine art, photo mixed-media, portraiture, photo journalistic, etc. All the articles are keepers; I found no fillers (advertising yes but no meaningless articles). The articles tend to be more visual than text oriented and the writing is concise.

Update: A Review of the Camera Arts Magazine Web Site
Once entirely gone, this magazine has been resold back to a previous owner (continue reading…)

I found this magazine on the newsstand about a month ago and really liked it. My review is based on both the first (January 2009) and second issues of this quarterly magazine. I initially thought it was the other popular magazine, but was surprised to see that APC has some sort of association with this magazine rather than the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). (continue reading…)

I went on a studio tour recently and struck up a conversation with the photographer about achieving the perfect exposure for a difficult scene. It could be a outdoor scene involving both sunlit and darkly shadowed areas; interior architectural shots with overexposed windows or any scenes that have two or more dramatically different lighting conditions. High Dynamic Range photography (HDR) captures the scene in a series of (continue reading…)