PHOTOGRAPHY

Stock photography: http://us.fotolia.com/

Creating a visual resume.

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Types of Photography

1. Creative photography provides original images for reproduction and is a product of commercial photographers, art studios and creative art departments in printing companies.

2. Graphic arts photography is used in the reproduction of art and copy and is an integral part of the printing process.  The main problem in printing is the wide discrepancy in the tone range of the original and the printed reproduction.

Photo processes

Light-sensitive photographic materials consist of: 1) a base which may be paper, plastic film or glass 2) a light-sensitive coating known as a photographic emulsion, which is composed essentially of silver salts (halides) in gelatin.  The usual product of the photographic process is negative in which heavy represents the light portions of the copy or dark deposits of the copy are light or transparent.  When negatives are printed on paper or film they produce positives in which the tone values are similar to the original copy.

Any photograph, wash drawing, oil painting, etc. consisting of a broad range of tones or gradation of tones is known as continuous tone.  Halftone principal- an optical illusion in which tones are represented by a large number of small dots of different sizes with equal spacing between centers.  Graphic arts camera consists of a copy board, lens board, lens, bellows, camera back and independent camera bed or suspension.  Lenses are coated and usually of symmetrical design to eliminate distortion in the images.  All process lenses are achromatic or fully corrected for the visible spectrum.

Lights used for exposure must be high-intensity because of the slow exposure speed of the high contrast, high-resolution films used for graphic arts.  Exposure controls include light integrators, which are used to control exposures in photography and platemaking.  Films-stable base films are used where dimensional stability is critical, as in color separation photography.  Special high contrasts emulsions of silver halides in gelatin, known as lithium, are used for line and halftone photography.  Development of latent images, which are created in the gelatin-silver halide emulsion during exposure, is done by immersing the film in a special developer that converts the silver halide to metallic silver in proportion to the amount of exposure received.  Line photography consists of solids, lines, figures and text matter.  Contact prints are used extensively in film assembly.

Halftone photography

Contact screens are on film bases and are usually made from glass screens.  Special computer programs, called screening algorithms, for electronic scanners and prepress systems to produce halftone images, do electronic dot generation.

Contact Screen Photography

The contrast of reproduction can be varied within limits by techniques known as flashing and no-screen exposure.  Flash exposures are used to reduce contrast, especially in the shadows by producing a dot over the whole film and are made by exposing the film to a bulb or light.  The on-screen or bump exposure is used for increasing the contrast in the highlights and is done by removing the screen during a short part of the exposure.

Screened prints

Copy-dot reproduction- used for printing newspapers, house organs, school annuals, real estate catalogs and other types of work where ease of makeup is desirable and speed is essential.

High contrast results when two or three steps in the shadow end print solid and several steps in the highlight end are white with a corresponding increase in density difference between other steps of the scale.  Low contrast results when the scale contains 80-90 percent dots in the shadows and 10-20 percent dots in the highlights with the corresponding decrease in density difference between other steps in scale.

Simply put, the Rule of Thirds divides an image into nine squares. (It’s basically like putting a  Tic-Tac-Toe board over an image.) Many digital cameras will show you the grid on the screen as you’re taking the photo, but if not, it will appear in any photo editor when you try to crop an image.

Use the macro setting on your camera to take close-ups, and use a photo editing site to add cool effects).

The subject of a photo should ALWAYS be located at one of the four places where the lines on the grid cross, instead of in the middle of the frame. It will make your photo look more balanced.

There are TONS of different programs that you can use to edit your photos. Some, such as Adobe Photoshop, are expensive and complicated. Others, such as Pixelmator, are more reasonably priced but still a little difficult to master.

For beginners, I recommend using a free website called Ribbet. Creating an account is easy, and you won’t have to download any special programs for your computer. Also, the site will store your 100 most recent photos in your online library.

• Natural lighting.  No flash unless it’s absolutely necessary.
• Styled composition. Not just the cover shot of your product. Put it in a setting that suggests ways of using it or a way of life you’re promoting with your product.

Etsy photography articles on the web:

• Etsy.com Shop Makeover Series
• Decor8 Blog