Best Time to Check out a Woman

I’ve a couple of friends who are still looking for Mrs. Right. (Yes, you can mail me an application ☺). One of them just spent this weekend with us. He was telling me about how a colleague at work tried hooking him up. He was all excited about this new girl but he thinks he visited her at the wrong time. He saw her straight out of bed and didn’t like the sight.
As a photographer, he didn’t need to say much. I’ve seen too many ordinary girls transform into supermodels just by spending a few minutes in the hands of a good make up artist. There, however, are some women who look awesome, even STRAIGHT OUT OF BED.

Photography is not very different. 99.9% of all the pictures you see from photographers online are photoshopped. They look great because someone has taken the time to give it make up. In competitions like the World Press Photo, when judges aren’t sure, they ask for the raw file. In other words, they request too see the photograph- STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA. It is not uncommon to find a winner disqualified after they find out the photo is heavily manipulated.
Nyani, a fellow photographer and friend, was talking about how he feels there are too many photoshoppers and very few photographers online. We decided instead of creating more photoshoppers, we will create photographers with our course, which we’ll be running soon.

So today, I went to photograph the beach again and here are some of the photographs STRAIGHT OUT OF CAMERA. I only put my watermark on them and resized files for the web. No image manipulation is done on these photographs.
SOOC Story
SOOC Story
SOOC Story
SOOC Story

Comments

hehe@ "women" not looking so great when they've just gotten out of bed. Can we make that "humans?". 'Cos i've seen a few scary men in my lifetime. lol
Kokoroko said…
This is an issue i have been thinking about myself...considering that, does photoshopping really matter? do you enhance your pictures with equipment or software? \who cares?..I really need is some briefing.
Lady Jaye said…
That last one is precious!
Ms. C, I can make it "humans" but that will totally kill the story. First, the story about my friend's account is a true one. Secondly, I don't know that many men who wear make up. On the hand, I don't know that many women, who don't wear make up. I hope you don't consider this post offensive to women?
Kokoroko, it is a long standing debate that will never end.

For young photographers, the general advise is that they must first learn to make good photographs ( exposure, composition, concept etc), once they master that, they can then use softwares like photoshop to transform them into even greater photographs.

I use photoshop but at least from these photos, you can tell I first learnt to make good pictures. Do I make sense?
Lady Jaye, that is my fave too. They are young acrobats, praying before a performance.
Felix said…
The horizon 'line' seems to be in the middle for the 2nd and 3rd. Making it difficult for me to know which one u were trying to emphasize. Unless you meant it to be like this. I admire your work very much. keep it up.
Felix, these photographs are not about lines or rule of thirds at all.

Can you see the guy playing soccer in the filth at what should be a lovely location?

Don't you wonder where the people are going on the beach? Why is someone carrying someone? Won't you like to know what is happening?

Photograph is art. Photography is science. But most importantly, photography is a medium. It is a tool in the hands of a story teller.
Nana Yaa said…
I will be the first to say that I DON'T WEAR MAKE UP. Never have. I just recently started wearing eye shadow and that is pretty much it. Most of my friends don't wear makeup either ;)
Nana Yaa, eye shadow alone can make a big difference ;) Do all your friends wear just eye shadow too? Hehehehe
Again more gorgeous pictures. I love the last one...and oddly enough the one with loads of washed up rubbish. It's moving somehow.
Teddy said…
Hi Nana,

Lovely pictures. I particularly like the 3rd and 4th ones. They all tell a different story indeed, others more stories in one. Nice captures. Also like the way you break the rule of thirds in number 3. Rules are meant to be broken and in this case, the horizon where it is, shows the scale of the picture and its subjects.

Keep them coming.
Teddy

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