Monday Fashionista-ism

[crankyoldman]

So I have a camera now and I can subject you to more of these. But I will also give you some fun relevant links so it's not just boring pictures of myself! XD

- Style and the social self.
- You're not normal. (but I don't think you're a special snowflake either. :P)
- FYI, beauty ideals change.
- On Good Authority: An Affordable Wardrobe Something for the mens.
- And Vivien Westwood bases her new menswear off the homeless Put down the crack pipe, Viv.

And less relevant:

- How Do I Become a Grownup? Yes, I have asked the same thing myself a few times. Still working on that one.

Now the pictures. Apparently I can't put an image from flickr on here anymore. :/ So here's some links:

My New Year's outfit.
That hat was a Christmas present from my parents that they picked up in Austin (there is a super fab hat shop in Austin and I saw that hat and was disappointed that it wasn't in my price range... so I was very excited to see they'd bought it). The sequined lapel jacket was something I saw at Kohl's during my "using gift cards" time and ah... so I have a jacket problem. Yes, I have worn it to work too, and it looked fab. Those shoes are pimp, no? Silly mirror picture in same outfit.

Something for the office, I woke up that morning thinking "wow today I feel like going in a little Victorian".
Somehow between me and Biology Maven the other chicks have started to dress up more a little too. Interesting, no? That tuxedo jacket with the tails is the foundation piece for my steampunk!Reno costume, btw. And basically my favorite jacket now ever. The little pin on the lapel is from the Aero department goodie bag I got upon graduating. XD And yes, I try to wear the hat as often as possible, whatever gives you that idea? Actually I got three new hats for Christmas, hence my ah, selling/giving away some. Closeup for hat and scarf.

Comments

[nebulosity]

Oh, is that a canon DSLR? Are you planning on learning more about photography? :D

[crankyoldman]

Yes I am! I have a telescopic lens too that i haven't had a chance yet to play with. I used to be very into photography like Freshman/Sophomore year, and had a little powershot that I used to try and make look professional (ish) but then it broke and well, engineering was crazy and my parents got me this wonderful Canon (with all the extras, because it was a graduation present) so now I can pick it up again!

These are some of my favorite photographs I'd taken.

Getting the camera has aided in a lot of things, like finally starting my etsy. XD

[nebulosity]

Ohh! Thanks for posting a link. I browsed around that gallery, and for some reason, 90% of those images are showing up with broken links. Am I doing something wrong?

[crankyoldman]

Deviantart is weird sometimes. They're a couple years old by now, so... no idea. XD Coming back later in the day may make them show up.

Other than that, I have no idea. It's not you, it does it for me too.

[nebulosity]

Okies. Glad to know it's not just me. XD

Of the very few that I can see, I thought this one was interesting: http://litheba.deviantart.com/art/The-Place-11211541

What are some of your favorite techniques when you take pictures? And do you use a flash?

We have a professional flash, but it currently outsmarts me, so I just take pictures without a flash. I've figured out how to vary shutter speed, iso and aperature to get a nice photo in low light without a flash. :D

[crankyoldman]

I like to play with lighting the most, so on my old camera I got good at messing with the shutter speed and iso. On this new one I've just figured out how to do the iso and manual focus.

I'm trying to figure out how to NOT have flash on a lot of settings. XD So currently I'm mostly using flash. Before that I tried to avoid it, I like natural light or a good setting to account for artificial light. I think my product pictures for etsy came out fine with flash, though, so I dunno!

I got one decent lowlight picture but I had to use a tripod as apparently I have wicked unsteady hands or it's just that sensitive. Thankfully I have a good tripod. XD

[nebulosity]

That lowlight photo is great!

And yes, EXPECT to not be able to take a low light picture without a tripod or massively amazing steady grip. I have a trick where I sit down and rest my elbows on my knees, essentially making myself into a tripod. I also stack up boxes to rest the camera on, like I did for the pictures of the alcohol bottles.

We should talk more about photography! Everyone I know that does photography is advanced at it and they're not really interested in talking to a beginning. XD Maybe we can relate. lol

And YES I have an awesome tripod too!! :D

[nebulosity]

You know what we should do is set out a theme or something to take a picture of, and then we should go off and see what we can do, and then we can come back and talk about what worked and what didn't work. That way we'd be working with a lot of the same settings! That would be fun too, because each theme could focus on a particular setting, like ISO or aperture, for example. Each set would be study. That's what I've been doing so far. :D

[crankyoldman]

Sounds like a good plan, actually. So far I've just been taking pictures of things I need to (like product pictures of my etsy stuff) and wanted to (like the ornaments, and a family portrait, and outfit/silly pics).

We could make a little DW comm so we don't spam our f-list?

[nebulosity]

We could make a little DW comm so we don't spam our f-list?

Um, I think a community would be a fun idea, but I was planning on only doing about 1-2 photoshoots a week and putting more than two photos under a cut, so I wasn't planning on spamming my flist. XD Do you usually come up with a lot of good photos and/or do you do a lot of photography? I only have about 2 hours a week to play around with the stuff.

I was thinking we could do one theme a week to start off and see how it goes. If you end up having a lot of good theme ideas and end up doing more than two photoshoots a week, I might try to jump on the band wagon (when inspiration hits, all else is lost, LOL).

If you want to create a community, I'm cool with that though. I'd want it to be more of a private community between you and I (and perhaps our group of friends). Were you thinking of a public community with open membership?

[crankyoldman]

Oh, that's about the frequency I do, unless it's a matter of "I made something, need to stick it on etsy, take pics lol".

So yeah, I could totally just post here. XD I wasn't sure how much a week you wanted to do.

[nebulosity]

If we get carried away, we can always make a community! :DD

I'M SO EXCITED WE'RE GONNA TAKE PICTURES. o_o

[crankyoldman]

XD I'm still getting out of being rusty. Thankfully most Canons have similar dial bits. But yes this is exciting!

[nebulosity]

Hey, let's also have a photoshop challenge to accompany our photography theme: for example, let's try to limit what kinds of functions we can use in Photoshop!

Allow me to explain. For example, if we're doing product photography this week, we should limit ourselves to curves/brightness/contrast/levels and sharpness, as well as say "no blurring functions allowed." Why? Because it will challenge us to get our macrophotography down without relying on photoshop.

If we were having a theme where we were trying to perfect our use of white balance, we could say "no color modifications/corrections such as hue/saturation/colorizing/temperature/etc." Why? Because it would challenge us to get an accurately colored photograph without using photoshop.

Also, if we have these challenges between us, we can see how we were able to do with the camera settings. If we always correct our mistakes with photoshop, it's hard to see the progress.

Of course the photos you post on Etsy can and should be edited however you like, but for our little photo theme challenge, I think adding a photoshop challenge will really help us grow in terms of learning photography. :DDD

[crankyoldman]

That totally makes sense. And I actually usually only photoshop when I'm trying ot be artsy. XD

[nebulosity]

I actually do a lot more correction in photoshop than I should, so the photoshop challenge should be good for me.

At some point we should have an artsy photoshop theme, but that will have to wait (for me) for a while until I get my photography down a little better, and become more familiar with photoshop. Remember, I've only been using PS for about 2-3 weeks. XD

[crankyoldman]

Oh totally, no rush there. I'm still on PS7, so it's not a challenge for me as much. XD

[nebulosity]

Hey, let's make our first theme "Product"!

I want to get in some good close-up product pictures. Also, I think that would be convenient for your etsy photo pursuit. :)

[crankyoldman]

Definitely convenient, considering the resistor (as in, old 80s electronics resistors) earrings I made this weekend.

[nebulosity]

Ooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh

YES GAME ON.

I'm going to take and post some pictures too!

Ready???? SET??

GO! :D

[crankyoldman]

Oh and that picture was done using an almost overexposed light setting and ah, a "fake infrared" thingie I learned to do in photoshop. I want a REAL infrared lens someday, as it's one of my favorite looks for a photo.

[nebulosity]

I think what attracted me to the photo was the wood texture. SO interesting!

[crankyoldman]

My interest in digital photography started when my CGT friends in college got me a pirated copy of Photoshop 7 (which I still have, as I didn't have a chance to pirate/buy a newer version, ha ha). Unlike a lot of purists, I think that photoshop and digital photography are great learning tools.

[nebulosity]

Unlike a lot of purists, I think that photoshop and digital photography are great learning tools.

Yeah, my friend gave me a copy of her PSP7 back in 1999, and then when PSP8 came out, I actually bought it. I had been using that for years until I switched to mac in 2006. Then I used GIMP until we got Photoshop CS4(?) about a couple weeks ago, which we bought a student version of. Actually we got the entire Adobe collection, which I'm currently drooling over. Amazing software to be sure!

It's my work with photo editors that has taught me what to look for when I'm taking pictures with my camera. For example, I'll think "oh this is over saturated," or this is "over exposed," and I learned those things from photo editing. :)

[nebulosity]

And OMG I just noticed your icon. WIN!