Welcome to Peter Pham's Blog

The mission statement of this blog will be to share items of interest with my students, family, and friends. I have managed many blogs in the past, and for a while dumped them all in favor of other emergent social media (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter)  The current state of Social media posting (the ability to block/ignore/sometimes not even see feeds, people with hundreds or thousands of friends, etc.) I have decided to revisit the blog, in the hopes to better share items I believe to be helpful.

While this is a personal blog, there is so much crossover in my daily life with my career (instructor in the technical college system) that most of the posts are related to my work life, moreover the discussion of philosophical and design-related ideas that permeate my brain. The items posted here are not officially endorsed or supported by GTC. I welcome all netizens of like interests to follow and share.

Unexpected Backgrounds 2…err…em… Behind the scenes

Often the finished photo is built upon some unexpected "roots," as discussed in the earlier "unexpected backgrounds" post. One of the things I do a lot of as an instructor is read articles (and journals, and tech reports).
One night I stumbled across this article on another blog: "Bored Panda"(a really good blog btw).
On the blog, the photographer featured (LUGAR PHOTO- Gilmar Silva), generously shares his behind the camera scenes.
To all those who feel they need a huge crew, or a lot of equipment and a really fancy studio… here's some ideas.

https://www.boredpanda.com/professional-photography-behind-the-scenes-gilmar-silva/?page_numb=3&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=BPFacebook

The NEXUS between CREATIVITY and TECHNOLOGY…

 

I was recently at the GATEWAY TECHNICAL COLLEGE S.C. JOHNSON iMET CENTER, hangin' out in their FABLab.  John Zehren (of the FabLAB ) had sent out an invite to folks to stop by and apply the technologies to artistic printing processes… something he,  David Jones (of the Center for Collaborative Research in Kenosha), and others had been piloting at the iMET center's FabLAB.

Its a refreshing application of a technology that "standard thinking" could lead you to believe is reserved primarily for Industrial Design early prototype fabrication.  

I instantly recognized Jones from a trip I had made with Carthage undergrad and graduate classmates many years prior to Chicago's Columbia College Printmaking space, which he had been operating at the time.

Its a wonderful thing when the utilization of a set of tools can expand beyond one's presumptions. I was able, with Jones and Zehren's support, to make some wood block prints of a design I created in Adobe Illustrator.

I intend to take my students there in the future.

"UNEXPECTED BACKGROUNDS"

I remember seeing a Scott Robert Lim video (he is a Big Time Photographer  with a truly inspiring  story) where he recounts the tale of one of his visually potent photos. He was with an Asian-American couple on their wedding day, driving around between the ceremonies and reception. Red (and gold) are potent colors in many Asian Cultures, and Lim wanted the couple against a striking background that would communicate well with the couples' outfits.

As I recall, Lim says he saw a convenience store or gas station sign (and it looked a bit run down), and asked the driver to pull over to take a photo of the couple. The couple looked a bit puzzled and concerned… had Lim lost his mind?

The result was an amazing photo of the couple in front of a striking red background. The lens compression and the cropping gave no indication where the actual environment was. The result spoke volumes for the method.

Flash forward several years, and this image (shared by "DrBatookhan") graphically communicated the exact same principle. The top is the "roadside setup," and the  bottom is the result (click to enlarge).

Nothing cooler to me than to see how these guys think when they compose.

A REALLY good PODCAST!

A REALLY GOOD POSCAST [or two]!

I'm a visual communicator. I got edjuhmacated in the 1980's, when the nom-de-mode was graphic designer. I'll admit that graphic designer  has a certain 'cachet' about it that 'visual communicator' seems to lack.  It somehow implies a discipline that is more purely visual, with less dependency or regard for the mass-communicative (and also 'marketing' goal-based) properties of the field.

That being said, for my undergrad we had two solid years of fine-arts curriculum. So perhaps Graphic Designer is a more appropriate name for what I am. 

I was fortunate enough to attend college when they had a gaggle of Bauhaus instructors– one of my professors actually met Gropius, and another had been a product/disciple of the Black Mountain School. This for the price of a public university education!

So there is certainly a thread of the fine artist that runs through my soul.

You can imagine my joy when, on an afternoon car trip, I got to hear this podcast.
I highly encourage you to check it out.

and in the same vein…

I heard this podcast about the disagreeable relationship between Gropius (the Bauhaus founder) and the wife of Lazlo Moholy-Nagy.

I guess all your creative heroes die.
I learned the truth about Hitchcock a couple of years ago, and now Manet and Gropius join him in the realm of being "merely human." If someone finds some stuff on Hopper,  I will probably sink into a depression.

[link will take you to the article page, click in the "play" triangle in the upper lefthand part of the photo for  the podcast.]

TIPS ON "INSTAGRAM-ing"

Here are some tips on creating Instagram photos.
A lot of photographers are increasing their use of mobile phones in photography (some are even using them exclusively)… and with the new features [controlling f-stop appearance, dof effects, and virtual shutterspeeds] the phone-direct-to-Instagram route is as popular as ever. While a camera is  shown here, you can certainly use the principles with almost anything.

IMPROVING INSTAGRAM PHOTOS on the Photoblogger

YOUR FIRST HOME PHOTO STUDIO

Photography can be expensive…but it doesn't necessarily have to be.
If your a pro, you more than likely need pro equipment—and it ain't cheap.
BUT
if you are an amateur, or a part-timer (maybe a graphic designer who does a handful of product shots and the odd headshot or two here and there;-) you can set up your studio with some "McGyver" ingenuity and a few bucks.

There are tons of "photo-teacher-celebrities" now on Youtube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion who have some great ideas of how to start. I personally have enjoyed the "stick-n-stones" photo studio guy, Joe Edelman with his T-8 fluorescent (pseudo kinoflo) track panels [and later LED ones btw], and many, many others.

I personally have discovered the joy of reading labels. For example, not any fluorescent tubes can be used! T8 fluorescent tubes (with their higher refresh rate, 85 or better CRI rating, and daylight color-balance  of 5800 -6200K) are best.

The SLANTED LENS offered this one up a while ago, but with several students asking how to get by "on-the-cheap,"  I think it bears re-examining.

F-stoppers article on "HOW TO CRITIQUE"

Anyone who has ever taught a class (or taken one for that matter) can feel the pain of a poor critique.

There is always the one student who "likes it," or "just doesn't like it," without any clarification as to what specifically they are identifying, and as to whether it is a personal preference or an overriding technical or compositional error.

Then there is the other who is worried about being perceived as "the jerk," preferring to identify every single piece as worthy of hanging in the MET… whether that is the case or not.

You often have to give guidelines for critiques, and this article by F-Stoppers' Mark Bowers focuses primarily on photography, but much of it rings true throughout all visual art.

iPHONE-ography?

The following is a blog post from ERIC KIM. In it, he makes some compelling arguments about iPHONE/Smartphone photography (after all… the best camera is the one that you always have on you) while mixing in some common sense photography foundations, and advice on how to achieve those foundations in a smartphone sphere.

He also sells products (workshops and literature), but I think the free stuff on this site is incredibly useful for budding iPhone-photographers.

While I'll readily admit that the commercial market may not be ready for product shots done on a smartphone (save for viral marketing/social media campaign types of things), in the fine-arts sphere, It is no less valid than any other form of image production.

With entire group shows at fine arts galleries across the world, and even full-length movies being done on smartphones (and tablets), why resist the technological marvel that you likely have on you at all times. It certainly exceeds many of my early cameras.

Business Card Inspiration

As an instructor, I post quite a lot of this type of site— the "inspiration sites." I love the craft of designing a business card, and often the examples I refer to  take the format of the business card to completely new dimensions: stainless steel cards, cards printed on wood, innovative shapes, and incredible folding forms.

Every so often though, I like the more restrained. The reality of being a designer is that the vast majority of clients aren't amenable to spending a small fortune to print on custom fabricated fiber-glass and aluminum cards using specially formulated ink. The parameters of the pragmatic job also require occasional external inspiration.

Here's a site that focuses on that.

http://design4users.com/2016/08/03/d4u-inspiration-business-card-as-an-art/

10 Powerful Photoshop Techniques every Photographer Should Know

I recently came across this video on a Photography site that I frequent (Petapixel). Its provocatively entitled "10 Powerful Photoshop Techniques every Photographer Should Know."
Many times (as Petapixel contributor DL Cade states) these articles are a bit of a letdown. I found a few of the approaches in this video pretty interesting and not too basic nor too difficult.

Its worth a view on a lazy weekend, and at 36 minutes long it covers several topics.

1. Face Aware Liquify Filters | 0:53
2. Color Lookup Tables | 4:30
3. Transform a Selection | 8:07
4. Frequency Separation | 9:03
5. Calculations for Selecting Hair | 15:06
6. Selective Sharpening w/ High Pass | 20:46
7. Color Range on Live Mask | 24:12
8. Curves | 27:21
9. Combine Adjustment Layers with Blend Modes | 29:50
10. Camera RAW filter on anything (Use Dehaze for interesting contrast) | 32:28

of course, this is a sample for a product that the video's authors (Tutvid) are hawking for a small fee...but I don't mind the free teasers that these places toss to us every so often. Enjoy.

Ever want to take a Stanford Course in Digital Photography…for FREE?

Marc LeVoy, a Google employee and "visiting" lecturer at Stanford, recently put a free copy of his University Course online via Google Sites, for FREE ACCESS. While it may lack some of the full lecture support (a good deal of it, however, is in Video format via YOUTUBE) it is pretty much the Stanford Undergrad course he delivered.

Check it out here.

TYPOGRAPHY from the APPLE WWDC

Every so often, the powers that be at Mac have a HUUUGE get together in the form of their Worldwide Developer Conference. While it could be argued that this is a conference primarily for Apple Partners (especially their developers), they have incredibly informative and educational seminars and presentations.

Not that the practical type user thinks about the issues of TYPOGRAPHY in their everyday work life—but those in any graphic communication discipline ought to.

While this presentation goes near the half-hour mark, it includes an incredibly rich introduction to basic TYPOGRAPHY as it is used practically within applications. If you are at all curious about the discipline of typography, and are willing to listen to this introduction, you'll be rewarded with a very good basic introduction to typography (with a bit of application development and the integrated usage of fonts in the mix.

Check it out
[click image for link]

Going Mirrorless

I am switching to a mirrorless camera. I'm doing it with baby-steps (entry-level APSC size…although the full frame is only a few hundred extra, outside of ISO and CROP, the difference are becoming less impactful for basic image quality, and I can always upgrade).

There is, however, a learning curve with this. I find I am much more comfortable shooting with a traditional DSLR--even though the resolution and IQ are lower on them—I don't yet feel comfortable shooting (and it shows at this point). I find that the images I shoot with the DSLR look like I am more comfortable. It's hard to articulate fully, since its not just one thing (composition, technical, etc.) but things look a little stiff and safe.

There is SOOOO MUCH to learn...The menus (and sub menus, and sub-sub-menus, and hidden menus; and of course the options and sub-options for all) are dizzying. The fact that the lenses take a bit of getting use to, as well as the exciting prospect of using old lenses from a variety of manufacturers on the camera and using "assisted manual focusing" are also part of the curve.

But I KNOW that the payoff is very real. The advantages will be well worth the growing pains.

We (the human animal) love the familiar, and often have an initial fear, suspicion, or confusion associated with the new. When we move to a new location, when we get a new car, or new television (etc.) with sooo many new and unfamiliar features, we need time to assimilate.

So I will continue watching videos and reading up on the new technology. I will ignore the part of me that tries to push me backwards technologically, and push forward and embrace the new (while maintaining an objective viewpoint about those items that are not necessarily better).

Kinda like life, no?

RAW Processing test

I read an article about the differences between the various ways different RAW processors handle files, and decided I wanted to try it with a "backyard shot." The shots lack any compositional or artistic merit, but they have a range of edges and tones that simultaneously allowed me to test a new camera and lens.

I shot the scene in daylight, and then again after sunset (at 3200 iso setting). I also was simultaneously checking the autofocus on this camera and lens combo with the zoom fully wracked out at the 210mm/tele end.

Take a peak at the results and see what you think. It looks to me like Phase1 or DxO gave me the  best results—but you may find another attribute within the photos lacking.
[click image to see the Flickr gallery]

RULE OF THIRDS...

The Rule of Thirds is one of those time honored compositional norms that have been taught (and held to) for years in the world of Photographic Composition. Every once in a while, I'll get a student who will question "the rules" of composition and the need to have any rules at all. While I will conceded the rules can sometimes be broken to positive effect, more often than not they are a sort of structure for the photo that one may not even be aware of.

I like to give students the analogy of kid who writes songs while strumming on his guitar: he may know chord structure, and think out a "I, IV, V chord progression" in advance.

He may also just strum and pluck in bed without the knowledge of structure. He strums and plucks until he hears something that sounds nice, and writes it down onto paper. After looking at his song (or maybe after learning chord progressions) he realizes that the I, IV, V chord progression is present.

Not every photographer will think out the composition in advance. Some will shoot and shoot and shoot, and then find that one shot in the mix that works well...to realize later than one of the compositional rules is present.

Back when I was an undergrad shooting B/W film (we walked to school barefoot, uphill both ways as well btw ;-) we had to shoot with quite a bit of forethought. Film rolls had 24 to 36 shots on them. You had to fight with the snooty grad students for developing time, and the process of developing negatives and making prints cost quite a bit of time and money. Compound that by the fact that when you took your pics, you never knew with complete certainty what you were going to get until the darkroom phase.

Fast forward to now.
Film is just a quaint artisanal remnant to many. Students have digital SLRs capable of totally blowing away my 35mm Fujica film camera...and can shoot (and even edit) right on the camera. The number of shots is limited only by your memory card, and memory is cheap these days. If you didn't nail composition in the camera, you can easily do so in post with more ease than cropping on a darkroom enlarger (and lest you think me "holier-than-thou," I am guilty as charged also).

But getting it nailed in camera is still the gold-standard. Figuring out what you are seeing, and then creating the communicative image of that is key, and composition can help to unlock it.

Without further adieu— I present the RULE OF THIRDS as explicated by Mr. Levi Sim on PHOTOFOCUS.

INFOGRAPHIC ON ESSENTIAL WEB PAGE FEATURES…

"INFOGRAPHICS" amaze me. They are the very essence of visual communication…communicating the essential information that you need to know in a quickly processed "chunk of visual deliciousness."
If I had my way, all chapters in textbooks would contain an INFOGRAPHIC at the beginning.

I stumbled upon this infographics for the "50 Features That Every Small Business Website Must Have." 
While this deals with web, it is much more about effective marketing communications, so all designers may want to take a peek. (from B2C)

http://www.business2community.com/infographics/50-features-every-small-business-website-must-infographic-01474284#bd2FwWV9mSgMzdgs.97

FREE DESIGN GOODIES!

I love finding other bloggers and blog ad digest posts with downloads for the "hungry" student. @3 sites with free stuff for you. HEY…you're a student, and there is free stuff out there. 'Nuff said.

http://www.webdesigndev.com/free-design-goodies-download/

An Open Source Workflow for Photographers?

In the 24 odd years of teaching, invariably at least one student will ask if there is an alternative to buying "industry standard software." There have always been alternatives to the industry leaders, but the fact remains that much of the industry has been structurally locked into the leader (and usually with a pretty sound logic behind it).

Let me say that I strongly advocate an industry standard workflow. The standardized plug-ins make negotiating things like color space matching very easy for beginners. And if you are doing anything that will appear in print, there is a whole other dimension to press profiles that needs to be added to the mix.

There are OPEN SOURCE software solutions. This recent PETAPIXEL article about an entire free, open-source workflow solution intrigued me. And to the student/s about to ask me the question on a Photoshop Alternative, here you go.

It really looks quite impressive and comprehensive— addressing most of the concerns in a full-process workflow.

However for me, I'll stick with the 90 plus percent marketshare leader. But I will certainly check this out (and keep it book-marked for those adventurous enough to jump into a full-on Linux workflow.

Pumpkin Cream Pies…

I try and eat a bit healthier, but my "achilles heel" is the occasional crappy food item. It's sort of an ongoing joke to those in my life. A long running joke is for my office mate Ty to inquire: "What crappy food do you have today?" with a slight wink.

I do sympathize a lot with the typical college student. I get that eating a meal quickly (prepared by someone else to save you time) at a cheap price has a value far beyond economy, and as long as it is a "controlled consumption," it has its place. Therefore, any self-righteous pronouncements that I don't eat fast food will not be on this blog.

That said, McDonald's just up its game this autumn. They released the PUMPKIN CREAM pie (a stripe of sweet creamy goodness enveloped in the pumpkin filling, baked in a crust and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar).

At the local MickyD's, they're also 2 for a buck!

Just the right snack for this holiday season.