Wednesday, 2 September 2009

Photoshop - A blessing? Or a curse?


I am a firm believer that photoshop is both a blessing and a curse in disguise.

On the one hand, it gives photographers the chance to take a photo and turn it into a work of art. I LOVE the creativity from directly behind the camera, but it's equally exciting for me to come back home, upload my photos, and change the picture on photoshop until it's exactly the way I like it.





I took this last week in London. I don't remember exactly what I did, but I'm sure it involved increasing the saturation, brightening it, playing with contrasts.

On the other hand, our perception of beauty is hugely affected by it, and it leaves people around the world with an unattainable standard of "perfection".




The only person I could use to demonstrate this without insulting anyone was myself haha.
The photo has been brightened, colors have been changed, contrast increased, texture added.
My nose has been made smaller, face has been reshaped, bags under eyes are gone, skin has been cleaned, hair has been extended, eyes are bigger, shoulder has been moved.
I think that's it.
Normally I never change the shape or structure of people's faces or bodies. It's just a lie, and who wants to live a lie?
I do, however, clean up the skin, fix any distractions etc etc..
It takes a long time to photoshop properly, especially when dealing with hair. I didn't want to put too much time into this, so the hair looks a bit rushed - but deal with it ;).

The truth is, photoshop allows me to be much more playful and creative with my photography. And I'm very thankful for it.

Some photographers I'm LOVING at the moment due to their amazing photography and editing skills:

Beth Jansen
She's an Oklahoma City based photographer who mainly does work photographing children. I fell in LOVE with her work the first time I saw her blog a couple of days ago. Her photos make me jealous. They're so alive, so colourful. I love them :) :) .. plus, who couldn't love with those cute babies??

Mike Shaw
His HDR work is fantastic. I've been following him on DeviantArt now for what seems like forever, and he just keeps getting better and better. He makes you see the world in a whole new light. Beautiful.

Some examples of the powers of photoshop in the media:

Dove Evolution - "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted"
I'm sure you've all seen this. It's made it's rounds on the internet.

20 Biggest Photoshop Disasters of 2008

The Power of Photoshop -
Another one I'm sure everyone has seen. But still pretty cool.

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Much love <3>

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

If I ever own a fruit farm, I hope it's just like Clives Fruit Farm ;)


Yay!!! I finally have internet! I have a few things to post, but I'll try and spread them out to keep the sanity ;).

If you're ever in the Upton Upon Severn area, you have to check out Clives Fruit Farm. They sell amazing food, all of which either comes directly from their farm, or from the local area. It's a great place. Great food, great location, great people. What more could you ask for?
























Mom and Lizzie really want chickens as pets ... (I have no idea why) ... so Lizzie and I walked up to the woman at the till and asked if they were selling any of their chickens - to which she responded that she wasn't sure, but how did we feel about buying peacocks?? Here's the momma peacock with her cute babies :):) ... (needless to say - we ended up not buying any animals that day haha)





















And here is last week's photo-a-day that I missed due to still having no internet (Thanks, Sky)

Weekly Photos

24th August, 2009
It wasn't until I got home and was scrolling through my photos from London that I found this. A normal picture of a typical red bus on some random street in London. But on closer inspection, the bus driver is pulling a face and striking a pose haha. I found this hilarious and love the guy for it. I wish I could send him this photo :) haha. It's not even that special of a photo - it was night time, my ISO was way up high, so the picture came out grainy and slightly blurry. Nonetheless, I love it, and it made me smile. Thanks Mr Bus Driver.





25th August, 2009
This is really just to show Pia the garden behind ours. There's a path through there .. whether or not you can actually pass through it, I doubt it haha.



26th August, 2009



27th August, 2009



28th August, 2009



29th August, 2009


30th August, 2009


That's everything for now :) :) ... But there's lots more to come so stay tuned ;)


Contact me at: alexbeadonphotography@googlemail.com


Wednesday, 26 August 2009

Alphabet Photography :)

A long time ago I stumbled upon Jules Bianchi's blog and was inspired by a project she did called the alphabet photography challenge. It's meant to make you see things in a different light and make you look at things a little closer.
I decided to do the same project with things found around our new house. This took me almost three hours. It was MUCH harder than I thought it would be.


































(Q credit goes to Lovis ;))





















And before I go, isn't this Kodak commercial so cute?? :)


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