SG Photography & Wall Art

Try this for a change

sil63 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:36:13 +0000

Remember the old good days of film cameras? Scott Kelby found a way to challenge yourself in his Old School Photo Challenge. I find this a great exercise and may try it myself.

Colored walls and a cloud

sil63 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:47:35 +0000

Colored walls and a cloud, a photo by silviaganora on Flickr.

I really love this image I shot a few days ago. Of course I made colors more vivid in PS but this is just how I intended this image to be the moment I pressed the shutter.

There are so many hidden treasures around you. Just don’t stop looking for them. Sometimes it’s worth looking up too! It was great to find that cloud hanging over the buildings in a perfect blue sky.

Via Flickr:
Shot in my hometown. It was just too perfect to ignore it…
♦♦♦♦
Would you like a print?

Update – Added new works to Japan relief collection + Photographers for Japan

sil63 — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 14:05:57 +0000

Fifteen and mailbox - ©Silvia Ganora	Nineteen and the mysterious symbol - ©Silvia Ganora
Narcissi II - ©Silvia Ganora	Petals - ©Silvia Ganora

I’ve just added these four new works to my Japan relief collection on Redbubble. As I’ve written before, I will donate 50% of my sales proceeds to the Italian Red Cross and then document my donation here on the blog, as I’ve already done last year for Haiti.

I think we all need to do something to help the Japanese people in this terrible moment. That’s why I was really happy when I came across the Photographers for Japan initiative launched by photographer Oliver Fluck. If you don’t find any works that suits you in my collection, please consider these other participating photographers who will be taking their profits and give them to the Red Cross :

If you want to contribute as a donating photographer, just visit this page. Thank you!

Talking about Spring over at V&V blog

sil63 — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 07:46:11 +0000

It’s my writing day over at V&V blog! This time I’m writing about Spring. Join me!

Poll – Your favorite black and white conversion technique

sil63 — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 17:15:00 +0000

Yesterday I was watching an introductory video on black and white conversion techniques (you can find it here but it’s in Italian) and started wandering what technique works best for you. Here’s… a little poll to let me know:

View This Poll

I usually convert my images using BWstyler, a nice photoshop plugin. I confess I’ve tried using the channel mixer but did not get satisfactory results – my fault, I know… Some people even prefer to shoot directly with their camera set to black and white mode. Though it sounds appealing at first, I think the best way to get a great black and white image is to start from a color shot, possibly captured in raw. As the guy in the video said, not every color image can turn into a beautiful black and white. A bad image stays a bad one even in monochrome. Much depends also on the subject, the composition and the overall tonal range, how all these elements visually interact to make a picture stand out from the crowd.

Most of the images I’ve converted so far were landscapes with great contrast, possibly a cloudy and dramatic sky – I’m a sucker for huge, ominous clouds! –, or subjects with lots of sky I love to turn pitch black with the use of a digital red filter. You can see a selection below. You can buy more black and white images as prints or cards on Redbubble.

Here you can find an interesting article on black and white conversion.