The Brix Life

Monday, December 15, 2008

The Day The Waters Stood Still

the day the waters stood still
Originally uploaded by me!

I've been getting some rave comments in my flickr account with this picture. I don't know if it's because of the timely title because The Day The Earth Stood Still opened in the theaters just a couple of days ago but whatever the reason is I'm quite surprised it's getting so much attention. For those who are curious, this is in Harbor Square in Manila where the Manila Yacht Club is located. I used my Lomo Holga camera for this shot loaded with Fuji Provia Film.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Converting Over/Under Exposed Shots to B&W

I've mentioned in my previous post that I convert my Over/Under exposed shots to black and white when it's not possible to adjust the exposure through Photoshop or Lightroom without totally ruining the colors of the image. I won't be able to detail how I mixed it up through my photo editor since I can hardly recall the exact amount of adjustments I made with contrasts and brightness etc. There is no really exact way to do this but to trust your eyesight and your vision on how the picture should represent the image you have in your mind. You also have to consider that not all pictures converted to B&W will yield nice results. There are pictures that are really made to be seen in color. Below are some examples of the images that I converted through black and white, to the left is the original picture and to the right is the black and white conversion.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

In Mono

They say black and white film is great for portraits and for portraits only. This might be true in a way because when you look at a B&W image, you tend to focus more on composition and detail instead of being overwhelmed by colors. For the same reason, I find it easier to shoot using black and white films. I don't need to have a subject that's full of color, all I worry about is framing my shot in the view finder once I see something that is worth shooting. Black and white is also a scapegoat and last option for me when I have colored pictures that are too under/over exposed and cannot be repaired using Adobe Lightroom, I just convert it to black and white and the problem is solved.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Water Bearers

The picture shown at the left is entitled as "Water Bearers" which I took using my Holga camera. I'm proud to say that it was included at HolgaBlog.com's The best Holga Photos from Flickr-November 2008! I feel honored to be included on that list because as a Lomographer, it's always nice to see your work be appreciated by other people. This comes as a surprise to me because I felt there are other pictures in my photostream that looks much better than this but I guess beauty is relevant and such an abstract thing to quantify.