To Be Creative

TSB23: Richard Harrington and John Andersson talk Photography and CGI

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:57:00 +0000

TSB23: Richard Harrington and John Andersson talk Photography and CGI

Got interviewed by Victor C on Typical shutter bug. It was my first Interview ever only had some talks at schools before so this was a new experience.

I really love to contribute and help people and want to get this blog more updated and I will really work to give you interesting content.

Please if you want to know anything how I made an image send me a comment and I will work to show you the work process.

Take care!

Keep your self Calibrated

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:32:00 +0000

Why do usually images looking different screen to screen and why don't the printed image look the same as on your computer? Also why do my image in my editing software look different when I post is on the web?

As a professional Image Creator I often get questions from my friends why this, why that and I hope by this I also can answer some of your questions.

I will mention some softwares and hardware that I use. There are loads of companies out there that produce similar stuff that works as well.

Basis:
When we start talking about profiles there are some of them you should know where they are used.
sRGB - This is a color profile that is mostly used on the internet but also for screens and printing.

AdobeRGB - This is a more common profile for pictures and Print. Also used more for Screens.

CMYK - This is used as the main color model for printing. Within CMYK you have several profiles.

Ok I throw you in to the deep end but I ensure you that after this you will understand what i mean. I talk about color moddel and profiles. Yes they are different where Color model is telling how many colors samples you are using and profiles are telling what colors you can get out of that mix also called color space.
Each profile have its limitations of how big span of colors it can show.

Where to start:

First of we need to calibrate your screen.
By calibrating your screen you create a Monitor profile that translate the image profile so it is shown on your screen correctly. Without this the image will look different from screen to screen. An important note is that you can never 100% calibrate your screen so it will be exact. This is dependent on the age and quality of the screen & calibrator you are using.

I use a Eizo ColorEdge CG245W screen with built in calibrator and an external calibrator X-rite eye-one PRO for my other screens and print verification.

When you buy a calibrator you will get a software with it that help you do your calibration. What you should think of when you do a calibration is that when you calibrate your screen it often takes in to consideration the ambient light in the room at that point in time. So if the ambient light change your calibration loose it's accuracy.
For the best result as possible you should sit in a neutral room with no light reflecting in the screen. No outdoor light and 50% grey walls/environment and you is using 50% grey clothes. That is over the top an I don't have it like that except for the outdoor light. It can be good to sit in a room without windows sometimes...

What now:
Now when you have gone thru the process of calibrating your screen lets get started looking on your image. Now I explain this for a photographer point of view but it works the same for everyone.

Some cameras shot in sRGB or you can change it to adobe RGB as I recommend you to do or even better you shoot in RAW. As you do right...?
As long as you working with your raw files the image have not got assigned a color profile until you export it. So lets say you want to publish the image on the internet. To se what happens you can export over the image to photoshop in either ProPhoto RGB or AdobeRGB 1998. These two profiles have a larger color space then sRGB so if you need to do adjustments you have a good amount of color information.
Photoshop have a nice way of illustrating how the image will look when exported with the "File > save for web & Devices" this automatically change the profile to sRGB and show you a before and after conversion. If you see a change you can ether save the image out and the reopen it and do necessary adjustments or you press cancel and use Edit > Convert to profile. Here you can chose between every color profile you have on your computer. Use the list and change it to sRGB. Now you can see a preview how the image will look like. Press ok and the image will get converted. Sometimes this works better then using save for web and devices.

If you don't get happy with the result and the image get grayish in the red/blue or any other color it because the sRGB cant keep that color because it is outside it's color space. When a color is outside the profiles color space it recalculate the colors so they end up inside the color space but with the side effect that the vibrance and contrast is getting lost.
What you can do is reduce the vibrance before the conversion and the put it back or do the adjustments afterwards. This can sometimes be a bit tricky but sometimes it needs to be done.

When you are happy you can post it on the internet.
But why did we just go thru that? Why cant i just use AdobeRGB?
sRGB have a long history and have been standardized on the web and therefore if you upload your image in AdobeRGB or any other color profile your image may not be presented correctly. So by doing this you know that the colors is shown correctly as long as the person on the other side have a calibrated screen.
The problem sometimes is that I for example have done images that is spot on and looks great on calibrated screens. But when I show the image on a friends computer that is both old and not calibrated the images look dull and not very exiting. So this is always a problem that is hard to get around.

I want to print my images:
You now know how to calibrate your screen and how to change color profile. Now lets get your print ready for print.
If you are going to send of the print to a printing company on the more proffesional ones you can get color profiles for that specific machine and paper. So what you want to do is download that profile and put it in Mac: /library/colorsync/profiles PC: (to be updated).
Now you can convert your image to that profile and adjust it to how you want it to look. Some difference can still occur but often better the not doing this.

If you have your own printer it gets a bit harder. Ink's can dry up so you should always do test prints before you start so you make sure that no nozzle is clogged. Some printers have profiles for that printer with certain papers. Use these if you can't make your own ICC profiles. For making your own profiles you need really fancy/expensive softwares but you can still use the Eye-one calibrator. If you want to do this all calibrators is not made for it so double check that.

What you also can do is using your calibrator to verify the prints with a color strip on each print. This is over kill if you not doing Proofs and that is a totally different post.

I hope this will help you with your digital creations and to show it to the world or family.
Pleas leave a comment if you have any questions or want to add anything.

New Layout

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:16:00 +0000

As you might see I have changed the layout a bit to a more flexible one.
This resulted in some older posts got corrupted or got disarranged.

Ether i delete it or I keep it as it is.

A trip to Gotland

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 09:13:00 +0000

Hi everyone

It was a while a go since i wrote anything here but my goal is to speed things up allot the rest of the year.

I have just been on a holiday on Gotland Sweden. The weather was pretty bad during the whole time but I focused on taking as many shots as possible while I was there.

I used my Canon G10 for everything and that have been my camera for off work stuff. It is a great camera.
I have used three exposures to do every shot and Photomatix pro and Lightroom as the only softwares. I will probably on some of them go in and do some photoshop work but will keep it to a minimum. The reason is that i want to focus more on shooting what I want on my spear time and keep the postproduction to a minimum. Always at work I do quite heavy post production but that is a slow and time consuming process that I wanted to avoid.

Here are some of the shoots. Enjoy.

Google Logo Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:07:00 +0000

It is always fun to go in and see the new google loggo showing up in your web browser. On this link you can have a look on most of the logos google have. I really like how they show what is happening in the world. Enjoy.

Light painting and a have fun

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 06:51:00 +0000

Using long Exposures and then play around with some lights. We all have done it, and it is loads of found. But using it for something more useful creativity these guys/girls really done it. Richie Thimmaiah at Richworks have put together a great amount of images to get your mind going.

Read his blogpost here.

FluidPaint: An Interactive Digital Painting System using Real Wet Brushes

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:54:00 +0000

An interesting interactive system for the artist that want to leave the canvas behind and go digital. I love this free minded idea and that the belief that still want to use real brushes and not a wacom. The idea is very similar so it was probably just a matter of time.

Are you "just" in your field. Think again.

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:39:00 +0000

This is a start of episode from PSFK with high ranked agency people. In this episode they are talking about "planers" but it still involves Photographers, Designers, 3d artist and manny more. Just having a speciality in only one field limits you to what you can do in the process and the competition gets harder and harder you have to bring more to the table.

By understanding the processes as an AD when doing a photoshoot he/she know what possible to do or by working with a photographer or 3d artist that can implement other forms of media gives so much more room for creativity and freedom.

Short by Tim Bollinger

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:23:00 +0000

Tim Bollinger have made a great short film that is a mix of several techniques.

The fun theory by Volkswagen

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:59:00 +0000

Viral videos is spreading over the internet and companies have realized the power of them.
The swedish commercial agency DDB did three viral videos for Volkswagen with the idea that fun can change the way we do things. These three videos show that it is possible. All the text is in Swedish but you will get the idea anyway.

Creative search engine

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:50:00 +0000

Creative Search is a Great search engine if you quick and easy want to find images, videos, articles, blogs and much more.The interface is dynamic and you can move the boxes around after you own priority. I have just started to use this one but i really like it. Try it out and come back and say what you think.

Tip of the day: camera strap by Blackrapid

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:42:00 +0000

As you all probably know I'm a photographer. And as any photographer I have a camera. But caring it around and be ready with it is not always comfortable, or the time to get the camera up is way to long and you miss the shot. The creator of Blackrapid have the solution. They have created three different camera straps that cover most your needs.

The RS-4 model is a strap for one camera and have a low profile and is lightweight. It is quick and easy to adjust. It have quick access pocket for memory cards.

The RS-5 This is the RS-4 model on steroids. It gives you access to 9+ memory cards. Extra on the front for telephone, walkie-talkie or anything you can fit in the pocet. It is made in a silent material so if your shooting wildlife you wont alert them while approaching. This is just a great replacement to the camera bag when you don't need to carry with you more then one lens.

The RS DR-1 double strap is just something ells. I have been shooting so many weddings and often i have two cameras with me were one have a short lens and the other a tele lens. With the regular type of camera straps having both ready for shooting or a quick change without any risk of dropping or damaging the cameras is not easy. The DR-1 make it possible to do quick changes and is ergonomically design so the weight is spread out evenly. With this strap system I would have the right camera in my hand at the right time and help me take that shoot.

Software for your home and business

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:11:00 +0000

Two days ago I wrote about some hardware that I use in my business. Now it is time for the software that I use to do all the stuff Im doing. Because I really like to make my workflow as simple as possible I have allot of softwares but I use them all. To all the softwares I have there are also allot of third party plugins. These make often the workflow even easier.

Adobe:
This is one of the big names in the creative market with
Photoshop, Lightroom, Indesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Aftereffects. Those are just a small pice of the Master collection exept Lightroom which you need to buy separate. Lightroom is really a software for the photographer and the ease of use make it a must in any photographers arsenal, amateur as pro.

Adobe.com

Maxon:

This is the 3d software that I use. It have a really nice interface and integrates good with the softwares from Adobe. If you thinking of start working with 3d cinema is a great software to start with. Maxon is a smaller company in the big 3d business but it grows quickly and gives the other bigger and much more expensive softwares a great match.

maxon.com

Next Limit:
Is the creators of Maxwell Render. This is one of the most photorealistic renderers out there and it gives you an incredible result. The downside to it is that it is slow.

maxwellrender.com

Apple:

Have created this wonderful software that have saved me many trips to the office. This make me connect to my computer at the office and I can check the progress of the renders and also do support to my colleges quick and easy. Download the demo and try it out.

Remotedesktop

Hardware for your home and business

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:10:00 +0000

If you have your own company and starting to have more computers you soon notice that keeping track of your data is not so easy. So I will go true the key hardware I have that make my workflow easy and effective.

Computers. Yes we want them all. Im my business im using Apple computers. Why? They work and I find them more stable then PC's. I still have a PC at home and it works to but have more problems with that then all of my Mac's. If PC work better for you that is great. If you decide to use Mac a thing to remember depending on what softwares you are using you might need to use some plugins or softwares that is not compatible with Mac. Unfortunately that is a cuite common problem. Luckely the Mac gets more and more popular and thereby more and more softwares is getting compatible.

Now when you have your computers you probably want to connect them to each other and also to the internet. A nice way and very seamless way with the mac using Airport Extreme. This little box have very smart technology in it so you always have the highest speed possible to the device you are using. Normal routers adapts after the slowest unit on the network.
Setting it up is very easy and remember to encrypt your wireless.

Apple homesite

Working with Photoshop and other creative applications where you need to paint and have a flexible brush or you just want to get rid of you mouse arm the Wacom tablet is something for you. When I went from using a mouse to the wacom it took me some time before I got used it to it. But after that the mouse feel like a very blunt tool. The new series of wacom Intuos 4. The new one have allot of cool features that makes the workflow easier.

Wacom homesite

Protect yourself from power serges and peeks and by having your own UPS can save you from loosing the date you are working on. If the power goes this litte unit lets you save your data and turn the computer of.

APC homesite

This is the new Netgear ReadyNAS NVX I have the version before this ReadyNAS NV+. This one have allot of upgrades faster processor and more RAM memory. This makes it possible for you to do more transfers, folders and files without slowdowns. This is the best investment our company ever have done. By using this we can be several people that work with the same project without needing to transfer files back and forth with external hard drives. By using X-Raid you can hot swap your hard drives if anything happens to any of them. Also you can connect to it even if you not are in the office and the data is encrypted so you don't need to worry that someone unwanted to get hold of your data. A bonus is that you can hide this small unit so in case of a brake in you don't necessary lose your data.

Netgear homesite

Inspirational Logo's

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:27:00 +0000

Instantshift is a blog for Designers and Commercial people. DKumar M. is one of the authors and he have done a great collection of logo's that make the ideas flow. This loggo is made by Cnasshan.
Making your or someone else's companies loggo can be quite hard task. My company's logo you seen in the "Tutorial: From adobe ilustrator to Photoshop".

When doing a logo don't do the mistake of doing it Photoshop. The reason for that is that Photoshop is a pixel based software and Illustrator for example is a vector based software. Ok ok ok. you can do Vector graphic in Photoshop also but for me Illustrator is a much more powerful tool. If you don't know how to use Illustrator lynda.com have a tutorial's in doing logos and businesscard's.
Good luck

Tutorial: Remote shooting with canon G10 & Canon SLR

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:38:00 +0000

Why would you like to do remote shooting with a camera like canon G10 or any other camera?
And what do you need to know to do it. That is a question that for me seamed really simple I had done it several times before. But that was the thing that was going to make me spend several hours of google and the trying to understand the instruction manual.

I really like to keep it short. Don't like to have a long explanation how to do it or to have it over complicated. The manual and the stuff that i found on the internet did not really help more then finding the way not to do it. Now to the point

Get it going: With camera software by canon
For simpler cameras canon gives you the software camerawindow and RemoteCapture DC. RemoteCapture DC is the software that you have been looking for. This work great with my canon G10.
It is easy to set up and use. Setting the focus still is not solved will do an edit about that hopefully soon. But for what i will use it for it works fine with infinity. It work more or like the settings on the camera and using (M) manual is always a good when shooting time lapse or for a stopframe animation. Remember to go in under preferences to setup image naming and saving location.
For timelaps go in under menu "Shooting>Interval Timer Shooting" set amount of frames to shoot and the time interval

If you have a more advanced camera like a canon 1 DS MKII or Canon 20D like I have (this work probably with every canon SLR) Then you will use software like EOS Utility and in the submenu "remote shooting" and the setup is pretty easy. Settings like program and so on is like do it on the camera or close. press on what part you what to change and the use the arrows.
For timelapse go in under menu "Tool>Timer Shooting" check the "interval timer shooting" check box set amount of frames to shoot and the time interval .

Why?
You can make timelaps movies and stopframe animation and just let your creativity flow. Make your own Wallice and Grommit or just document an event or a sunset. as soon as the camera is set you can leve it and do it's job. Pleas if you do one write to me and I will put them as links.

Allot of work at the moment

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:26:00 +0000

Whhoo. I have allot to do at the moment. So thats why I have not posted anything for a little while.

What i have done is stock up on things that I whant to write about and things that are interesting. I hope I will have a series of post coming up within a few days.

Image of the week on Vismaster

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 08:48:00 +0000

Every week Vismaster post image of the week. It is nice to see what people do and the high quality of it.

Created by: Cat-a-pult studio – Odessa, Ukraine

Have a look. http://vismasters.wordpress.com

Tutorial: From Adobe illustrator to Photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Hi Creatives

Today i did my first official tutorial. I'm still working on the techniques and have some more to learn but hang in there. Today I'm showing how to transfer in this case my logo from illustrator to photoshop and use it as a custom shape in photoshop. Pleas leave comments if you have some thoughts or questions.

Really cool interlaced skulls

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:45:00 +0000

When I stumbled over Jim's site I got really impressed by his handiwork. Skulls have been drawn, molded and much more but this really got my attention. He have created many of these with different colors and constellations.

Have a look and hope you like it too.

Site: www.jim-skullgallery.com

Sam Jinks Impressive creations

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:38:00 +0000

Sam Jinks is an artist that have specialized in creating these human like characters. This man was a part of the instillation hanging in the far end in a room. The sad look and small body makes me shiver. The high detail on these characters looks amazing and his coloration of the skin I think is really impressive. To get the hair look real he uses real human hair.

Go to his homepage and se the rest of his creations. www.samjinks.com

AXE commersial show at slussen stockholm

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Today on the way home from a few beers with some friends I ended up at a show at Slussen in Stockholm. This band was playing for AXE INSTINCT. Incredible to see that somone went away from the classical billboard and tv commersial and did this event and I realy liked it. Unnfortiently i did not get the name of the band and if sommone knowes it im glad to post there name.

Hope that all of you have a great weekend. Maybe I will post some more but time will tell.

onOne help you with the tedious cutouts

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:38:00 +0000

This is the software that i have been looking for a long time now.

Cutouts is one of the thing that can slow down the work dramatically and make you lose your hair and creativity. At the moment Im trying out this plugin from onOne and it's a life saver.

From that i installed it it took me about 20min before i got the hang of it and thats with a short tutorial at their site. There are alot of tuttorials and helpful stuff there to get you going.

onOne have many more plugins and presets for photoshop, iphoto, Lightroom and manny more for both mac and pc. They have also released a nice little app to the Iphone that allows you to remotly control your DSLR.

Check them out.
http://www.ononesoftware.com/

EverybodyLovesSketch the future in drawing

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:38:00 +0000

Getting your ideas to papper can sometimes be the hard thing especually if you not very good at drawing like me. So often when i whant to get my ideas out on to papper i try and sketch it down and moste of the time I'm not eaven close to what i origanly had in my mind.

By just looking at this tuttorial of EverybodyLovesSketch i can see this is what i have been missing for a long time. I don't have the fancy Wacom PL tablet but a Intuos 3 tablet. Im so used to it now so using a mouse is for me to go pre fire.

This software is something that I really would like to try out. And hopfoully will soon do, time will tell.

1st time Cinema4D materials

noreply@blogger.com (John Anderson) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:11:00 +0000

Yep.

Today I tried out working with cinema4D's own renderer and its material.
I have been working with maxwell render sinse I started so Im working on learning it.

Just wanted to do a RSS loggo to this blogg. As a lerning exersise it's fine.

Need to work more on getting some effects from the lights that i want.