Photo Cafe' Beach Lounge
~ Chat Transcript ~
9th October, 2021
H.11:00 AM SLT[ The following Episode #4 will be on:
Sat, the 23rd of Oct H.11.00 AM SLT! ]
[11:11] Duraya: Soooo hello everyone, welcome to photo café #3, I hope you all are fine and curious about this new round.
[11:12] Duraya: At the start Kika will present our idea how to connect artists and models safely, Kika will you please enlighten us?
[11:13] Kika Yongho: Do you remember the “model-problem” from our previous meetings? It was: how to find a willing model-volunteer to pose for your photo?
[11:13] Kika Yongho: Our amazing Photo Cafe’ chat members volunteered themselves for a list of models / photographers, for a start! Now: who’d keep the lists and – most important – how to access them on need?
[11:13] Kika Yongho: Technology can be your friend and in fact I am here to introduce to you our PhotoModels Board!
Located at the Info point (it is shaped as a notices board, between the ridable horse and the Info gazebo), it hosts two lists of trusted people: Photographers and Models.
[11:14] Kika Yongho: People on Photographers list can access the list of Models, and vice versa. They are not mutually exclusive: you can be registered as both roles.
[11:14] Kika Yongho: Clicking on the board – after I have added you to a list – will give you a menu with your options.
[11:14] Kika Yongho: Say you’re a Photographer and you click on “Models” button, in local chat – and to you only! – a list of the available listed models will appear, with their online status (online/offline) and link to their profile. You can then directly IM to see if they are free to pose!
[11:15] Kika Yongho: Magic! 🙂
[11:15] Kika Yongho: Note: this is a FREE service. People in these lists can’t request you for money. If anyone does, please report it: they will be removed.
[11:15] Kika Yongho: To be added on a list, IM me and I will do so. Enjoy!
[11:15] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): Q
[11:15] Duraya: yes once – you have a question for Kika?
[11:16] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): yes
[11:17] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): I need to know if we are obliged to be photographers or models or can we choose whether to do it depending on the type of photo people ask us to do or pose and so on? I hope to has been clear
[11:18] Kika Yongho: Yes it’s clear. No, you can refuse to take a photo 🙂
[11:18] Duraya: more questions?
[11:18] Kika Yongho: The PhotoModels board is just a tool to get in touch 🙂
[11:19] Kika Yongho: c
[11:19] Duraya: yes Kika
[11:20] Kika Yongho: If anyone would like to be added/removed, just IM me 🙂
[11:20] Kika Yongho: done :))
[11:20] Duraya: Thank you so much Kika – please use the boards and even if you never worked with a model before, don’t be shy, give it a try!
[11:21] Kika Yongho nods
[11:21] Duraya: AAAAAAAAAND – if there are any questions, please IM Kika, Kapaan or me also between our meetings
[11:22] Duraya: So main point for today: workflow
[11:22] Duraya: When we planned today’s agenda, we decided to offer a little input on craftsmanship, thus balancing artistic spirit and skill.
[11:22] Duraya: We had been talking about tools for editing – you have to find out which one you prefer and what they can do for you and your art but there is an overall aspect we want to take up today, the workflow.
[11:23] Duraya: if you don’t have the list of tools yet Kapaan will give it to you.
[11:24] Duraya: It was planned he will introduce some steps that seem promising in order to get a satisfying outcome.
[11:24] Duraya: So Kapaan – are you ready for your part?
[11:24] Kapaan: I am 🙂
[11:25] Kapaan: Thank you everyone for coming 🙂 I wanted to share a bit around workflow in the context of editing
[11:25] Kapaan: When I started taking pictures, I quickly realized that editing them afterwards adds a new life to them. However, my editing went something like this: Sharpen, Saturation and crop … and that was it. Of course, there was some issues especially when I wanted to re-use the photo or when I realized my editing damaged some details.
[11:26] Kapaan: Setting up a workflow for yourself when editing your pictures is vital for a few reasons. Having a workflow enables you to get consistent results and creates the opportunity to improve on specific settings and patterns within your editing process.
[11:26] Kapaan: So I wanted to come and share how I approach my workflow
[11:27] Kapaan: I am sure each and everyone has their own way and I hope you will share with us all as well
[11:27] Kapaan: I always start with a Step 0 and that is to backup or save a copy of my picture
[11:29] Kapaan: Then I kick off with Step 1 where I see if there is a filter I can use to help me with what I have in mind. Sometimes I skip this step all together. If you are not sure : filters are a tool that processes your photo to result in a specific outcome and is quite fashionable these days. You can choose one you like and then work from there to give life to your idea.
[11:30] Kapaan: From here on I go into Step 2 which is where I start looking at the settings as far as light is concerned. Now you would typically work on your light and look at settings like your white balance, temperature, and exposure settings. You can use this to bring more detail (Highlights and Shadows) into a dark photo or potentially reduce detail in a bright photo. You can also work with the temperature settings to make your photo look warm or cool.
[11:32] Kapaan: When I am satisfied that the light in the photo is how I want it I then jump straight into Step 3 which is my details and colours step. Now that you have your picture as you want it, we need to start looking at the details on your picture. This is a good time to look at the vibrance and saturation of your photo or to make the colors more vibrant. Look for settings that assist you in refining\enhancing detail on your photo. Please note that detail here does not refer to the sharpening process. ALWAYS sharpen last as we will discuss in the last step.
[11:33] Kapaan: Once I have the colours and details as I need I I go ahead to step 4 where I straighten the photo and then crop it. I know lots of people crop first but I have discovered that I often see elements coming into the photo during the editing process.
[11:34] Kapaan: The final Step for me to Sharpen and resize the image if that is needed.
[11:34] Kapaan: As you know the maximum resolution for Second Life is 2048X2048. Once you have your desired size then it’s time to sharpen IF needed. Sharpening is an extremely destructive process and should be used sparingly in my opinion. Once you sharpened it, save or export your image and get ready to use it
[11:35] Kapaan: At this point my photo is ready for upload to its destination
[11:35] Kapaan: There is various blogs and articles on Photography workflow on the internet and a lot of it deals with processing RAW images in a workflow. You will also notice that various authors have different workflow recommendations but remember to find a pattern that works for you and above all sharpen last.
[11:36] Kapaan: How does everyone else approach their workflow?
[11:36] Kika Yongho: c
[11:36] Duraya: that was quite a lot Kapaan, thank you
[11:37] Duraya: yes Kika please
[11:37] cazzie (caz.lobo): c
[11:38] Kika Yongho: Thank you for sharing that Kapaan! I am still in my editing experimenting phase so I often “go with the flow” as in I don’t have a specific editing in mind.. I test filters first as you do and then I edit the details (lights and colors) and sharpen at the end too. I save some presets also
[11:38] Kika Yongho: Done 🙂
[11:39] Elfi Siemens: c
[11:39] Duraya: Thank you – your comment cazzie please
[11:39] cazzie (caz.lobo): my workflow is very much similar to your own..with the exception of sharpen. i’m not fond of it…it can be very harsh on a photo.
[11:39] Duraya nods
[11:39] cazzie (caz.lobo): done:)
[11:39] Duraya: thank you
[11:39] Kapaan: Yes sharpen is not your friend 🙂
[11:39] Duraya: Elfi will you speak now please
[11:40] Elfi Siemens: first of all: i try to work as non destructive as possible – i do that with layers
[11:41] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): c
[11:41] Elfi Siemens: i duplicate the original as a layer, then some first filtering and a wee bit of pre sharpening
[11:41] Elfi Siemens: then i duplicate THAT layer….
[11:41] Elfi Siemens: i know, it blows up the size of my files, but this way i can always go one step back if needed
[11:42] Elfi Siemens: then i use filters etc., produce more duplicated layers after every step (hahaha)
[11:43] Duraya: sounds reasonable – avoids a lot of frustration (I use to get)
[11:43] Elfi Siemens: and since i very often use some kind of film grain on my pics, it’s ok for me to do the sharpening in the beginning
[11:44] Duraya: 🙂
[11:44] Elfi Siemens: but yeah, always a good thing to try to be decent with the sharpening 😉
[11:44] Elfi Siemens: done
[11:44] Duraya: thank you
[11:44] Duraya: and there’s onceagain on my list
[11:45] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): first I activate inworld the preset that corresponds to what I need for the photo
[11:46] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): then most of the time I use Photoshop where I created layers to to have the same result for any kind of photo. I have created also several action for this
[11:47] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): … and I dislike sharpen.. totally in love with grain and blur.. but sometimes I like also to just leave the photo as it is.. raw
[11:48] onceagain (manoji.yachvili): Done!
[11:48] Indra Herouin: C
[11:50] Duraya: Indra now
[11:50] Indra Herouin: ty
[11:50] Indra Herouin: For me as a new photographer, the composition part is the most important, I use Black Dragon to make my snapshot.
[11:50] Indra Herouin: I use the poser to edit the pose I bought to what I have in my head. Something I learned, even after using ctrl+0 to get rid of the fishbowl effect, I will still adjust sizing of head, arms, hands to get a realistic proportion of the avatar in the frame of my snapshot.
[11:50] Indra Herouin: Then second the light/eep, I make sure the coloring of the background and my avatar match and also the light. Even tho I always do black and white, it is important to get to the right shades.
[11:51] Indra Herouin: When I take the snapshot I keep in mind the golden ratio, I made a hud to check the composition (I can share with you if you want)
Then the snapshot goes into Photoshop where I will check the sizing, angle and so on to see what looks best.
[11:51] Indra Herouin: I will check for little things that could distract the focus of the picture and blur or darken them out.
[11:51] Indra Herouin: Last but not least I make the picture Black and White with the Black and white feature in Photoshop in a custom manner, using the sliders to see what works best. I add a curves layer and then fine the different shades.
[11:52] Indra Herouin: Done!
[11:52] Duraya: thank you Indra – that was a complete overview of your approach 🙂
[11:54] Duraya: okay so – when I am done with step 4 – the cropping – I sometimes start over with filters and effects again – especially if I plan to use a lot of them for some reason – the effects appear on another part of the picture then which sometimes adds the ‘right touch’.
[11:55] Duraya: I was a free styler in the beginning – which isn’t too far back and only gradually adopt some workflow – but it makes sense of course
[11:56] Duraya: it helps me not to run wild and yes – sometimes RAW is the right thing to do
[11:56] Duraya: any other comments
[11:56] Duraya: ?
[11:57] Duraya: you are really good! three minutes left and we are done!
[11:58] Duraya: thank you so much for sharing your experience
[11:59] Duraya: we’ll meet again in a fortnight – the 23rd if I am right
[11:59] DaneAlbion: i shall need to rip up my workflow and start again 🙂
[11:59] Duraya: 🙂
[12:00] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): I think its good to experiment Dane find your own flow
[12:00] Duraya: yes Dane – experiment!
[12:00] DaneAlbion: yes but it sounds like there are technical reasons to do some things in a certain order
[12:01] Jaminda Moon (jaminda): maybe but I have found just doing what I feel can create some amazing results its just a thought 🙂
[12:01] DaneAlbion: though yes, if it gives you what you wanted then its good
[12:01] Duraya: the sharpening is best in the end – but we heard that if using graining it can be done in the beginning – it all depends what you want to achieve
[12:02] Duraya: this example is a suggestion to support you not a rule
[12:02] DaneAlbion: yes but its good to know precisely what you are impacting
[12:02] Duraya: thank you
[12:03] Duraya: and thank you Kika for making this happen
[12:04] Duraya: see you in a fortnight 😀
[12:04] Kika Yongho: See you on the 23rd! 🙂
