|  |  |  | | | |  | |  | | 10/14/2007: Gaining Steam: A big thank you | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | It's a healthy feeling to watch our submission queue fill up with the works of dedicated photographers and designers. It's Sunday afternoon and really there's nothing more satisfying to do today then review more of the uploads from the people who've decided to take a chance on 'this new site Zymmetrical'.
The tricky part about analyzing website-based businesses is that one can never really tell immediately how much work has gone into the business: is the person running it one genius computer programmer, or, on the other end of the spectrum, a group of people with some business savvy who have simply spent a lot of money contracting some programmers to fulfill their 'niche market dominance web 3.0' idea? Or (shudder), is it just a compromise, the watered-down brainchild of Department A and Department H of MegaCorp Inc.?
Myself, and my partner in this business, Paul Melcher, try not to dwell on these aesthetics too much: there's only so much emotion, strategy, and personality that can be conveyed through the internet. However, since it's -possible-, but statistically not very likely, that some of the best talents in photography and design are on our block, in our city, or even our country, we continue to rely on the internet as the medium to engage and retain talent with.
To this end, the sheer volume of fantastic photos and graphics coming in every day to Zymmetrical should be an indication we've done some things right - there's no boardroom marketing teams behind our communications, just a plan for a democratic digital art marketplace.
Grassroots doesn't have to reek of 'kumbaya' and smell like a college dorm room - we think our project can and will transcend all the normal expectations of what a stock agency should be: the clients download the files so they can achieve success, the artists get compensated so they can continue doing what they do, and the agency itself continues to expand it's services.
It's one thing to build your dream business on the tropical shores of the internet, it's another to see the participants show up and start putting it to use. Thank you to all who've invested time and trust thus far, we hope to reciprocate in spades.
| | 10/2/2007: Object Photography : Making a pure white background and other random thoughts | (Published by Keith Tuomi) | Some of you like to take images of objects and food. It's great because there is lot of demand for that type of images. Unfortunately, most are taken on a less than perfect background . This creates a dilemma for image buyers that would love to use your images but would much prefer a clean white background.
No problem.
There are many ways to achieve this, some more complicated than others. For those of you using Photoshoph, you should look at this link ( it works for other software too): http://www.sitepoint.com/article/masking-techniques-photoshop
They give you very simple, step by step instructions on how to simply and quickly achieve this.
However, to make your life even simpler just keep in mind a few rules :
- Use simple and uniform background. A wooden floor doesn't do the trick. Put it on a white table clothes, for example.
- make sure the object is well lit, but not too much. Avoid burning your subject
- create contrast but avoid shadows.
- be on the borderline of saturation. People love strong colors
- Make sure the objects are clean and new. No one wants to publish pictures of dirty food or tools. However, you want to make a point that it has been uses, then make it very obvious. A few little scratches looks bad, a big one looks vintage. Exaggerate.
- Photograph food and objects that you love. You will automatically make better pictures.
- Make multiple images, upload one. The ultimate best.
- Only copy to innovate. You like an image you have seen and try to the same. It is fine only if your image is 10 x better. Be creative.
- Common food or objects are good. Rare is even better
- Think of objects and foods that can be used for numerous reasons. A knife is great to cut meat but also to kill.
- Food is very often associated with sex. Think about it when you take images. Make then sensual but NOT explicit.
- Be precise, surgical, extremely detailed oriented
- Have fun and be creative.
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