Photography Lesson #1 - Being an Artographer
Hello Steemit Followers!
'Artography' may not be a term you have heard before?
If that is the case, you are not alone. Most people will call it Photoshop or image enhancement, but I believe this word best describes an artistic photographer.
An artist will use paint brushes and a canvas to create works of art, where as an Artographer uses digital software and photography to do the same thing, just in a more modern way.
The urban dictionary puts it this way:
An Artographer is a person who combines the elements of art and photography creatively
Yep, I think that pretty much sums it up, but what does it actually mean in a practical sense?
Let me show you!
The finished work
This first image has been edited to reflect what I saw and felt at the time of taking this photograph. There was no filter in the camera that depicted the scene I witnessed, so by using the lens I could capture the closest photo to match my thoughts, and take the resulting image on a creative journey.
I wanted to reflect the mastculinity of the bull, the mud entangled in its hide and the direct look it was giving me as if it were posing.
To achieve this look I used Photoshop to:
- Covert the image to black and white.
- Add sharpening
- Overlay an image of a salt lake to enhance the mud and look
- Lighten the eye, face and hide of the bull
- Add contrast
- Darken the foreground
You can see the difference between the two images. The original one looks flat, dark and uninteresting and is not what I saw!
The original
By using simple brushes and blending techniques like I did you can try paint a picture to reflect what you see. This is what artography is all about.
If you understand what I'm taking about let me know by commenting, upvoting or resteeming. :)
Are you a photographer or a traveller like me?
Use #myday to share your posts and let's see where this goes!
I'm Leigh, from Sydney Australia and through @steemit I'm seeing what its like to explore @myday. Not in any particular order, or particular time frame but just parts of @myday through my eyes and sometimes the cameras lens.
If you are interested in reading about myself and my beautiful partner Grace - @photooftheday then have a read of myday #0 where everything is explained. If you enjoyed reading this post I welcome you to upvote this article and follow me. Please drop me a comment as I would love to hear from you!
I have been doing edits for 30 years now (sins Photoshop 2 :) and never had a name for it, this is as good name as any. "edit" is misleading "photo manipulation" also. To tag a photo as "art" is just a personal opinion. So what does one do when like for instance if the work you ar posting really doesn't exist? Like one I'm going to post today which looks like a path in a ferry forest. That "work" I made out of about 6 photos and created this path that like I say, do not exist except in that "photo" or should I cal it photo when it really is something else? I have had this problem for a long time, not having a name for a lot of my works. Artographer is something one can call oneself, but the work? What should I cal the end result? "Artograph"? yes, maybe. Any ideas?
@bragih great question and this is something I have thought about a lot over the years. I'm in the same boat as you on this one....
I do call each work a photo. Times are changing and as long as you mention that it is a reflection of how you saw the scene there is nothing wrong with it. The only problem arises when you enter it into competitions or galleries etc, then you must disclose what you did to it and stay within the rules. Thanks for commenting and I hope that explanation helps :)
Your explanation is a great help, but also a food for thoughts.
Thanks for commenting @bragih!
My pleasure
Here you can see an exemple of what I'm thinking about:
https://steemit.com/artography/@bragih/this-path-in-a-fairy-forest-really-does-not-exist-still-it-exist-when-you-look-at-it-why
Is this being an 'Artographer' in your opinion?
So well worded and something I can truly relate to but could not have expressed so well and I think its a term I will now use as it is also what I do
to a degree I think for me it can be a mix of what I see at the time of shooting and sometimes is adjusted by how I feel at the tme of processing can have a different end result, not sure if that makes sense I do not have a good way with words as you do
@tattoodjay I totally understand what you mean. You have expressed it very well. There is an element of emotion that often is added at the time of post processing as well
Phew :)
Beginners usually think that using photo enchanting software is cheating. I was on that train many years ago. You can get picture perfect result out of camera, but only if you are extremely lucky or have ton of practice. I personally think that making good bw photo is easiest to achieve, good photographer knows how to play with colours. I think that you are one of those! Following you from my day one here and didn't find one photo that I don't like and doesn't look professional! Good work and explanation.
Thank you @dijana969! That really means a lot, especially following me from the start. Very kind words and you also offer great insight on the subject. Thanks for sharing :)
Nice tutorial. Im an artist but slowely getting into photography, it's just finding the time that's the issue
I know that feeling! Time is the biggest enemy and something I'm fighting all the time (see what i did there?). I recommend taking the batteries out of the clock and turning off the phone occasionally - it's the only way to survive!
For sure, removing distractions tends to help, a d not worrying about the actual time is useful sometimes
I like them both , but the edited one is cooler
Cheers @halo! Glad you like the edited one otherwise my inner artists would die inside ;)
Impressive - he looks like he could've been standing next to my donkey in the snow storm - good insight on being an artographer, I adopted the term Photographic Artist, but I like that as well.
Thanks @timelapse! It's a universal term, I wish I could say 'photographer' but unfortunately it has to many different meanings. Thanks for your comment.
This is BRILLIANT @myday ! I am not certain whether I have any angle of photographs to try this out yet, but I will definitely be sure to keep that in mind!
upvoted and resteemed !
Thank you @littlenewthings! I really appreciate the kind gesture of upvoting and resteeming this post :)
Recommended Reading
myday #32 - Have You Seen a Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill Before?
Thanks for the tips, what photo editing software are you using? I am following you to see your future posts.
Thanks for following me @tecnoblast. I mainly use Photoshop and occasionally use Lightroom if I can be patient... It takes to long to load everything at the moment. I have a 7 year old computer and I'm in desperate need for an upgrade!
Recommended Reading
myday #32 - Have You Seen a Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill Before?
Thanks for your advise.
Hey boo
Finally, a better name! Artagrapher is so much better than digital manipulation or photoshop because what we do is beyond that. Taking an image and recreating it isn't manipulating it, it's making an entirely new image! Thank, thank you so much for telling people we actually do more!! Yes, I understand and am following you to see what other beautiful images you have created!
Thank you for your comment @lolomarie! I'm glad you found it to be an echo of what you thought!
This looks awsome, I would love if you could use my photos when you feel like and make a different kind of art out of it - your style. mention me in the post if you made one so I can check it out!
Okay, I will certainly consider it @eliran6 :)