Color Management Rant.
I recently had a problem with a particular photo. After standing for an hour and a half in the cold morning weather, 9,000 feet up a mountain, the light finally hit the peak of the mountain in front of me, I took my picture, and then packed up my gear and drove home. I then proceeded to spend several hours working on the picture, tweaking the colors and light until I felt it represented what I remembered seeing with my own eyes. I was very happy with the picture. The light on the mountain was perfect. Happy story right?
The next morning I went to work and viewed the picture on my computer at work. The picture had completely changed! The subtle light that I had worked so hard to capture was gone. The richness of the leaves and trees was faded and dull. The photograph no longer represented what I had remembered experiencing.
That my friend is color management, and while you may be able to control to a reasonable degree how accurately your machine displays color, and even how well your machine will calibrate with any given printer, the truth is you have NO control over how everybody else on the internet is going to see your images. It’s annoying, unnerving, frustrating, and depressing, and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.
The end.
Characters and the 3D Artist.
I was just browsing around CG talk and realized that I am odd; 90% of the work you see 3D artists create is character work. I am unusual in that I have no interest in character art. People will ask me occasionally if I have done much character animation and I always say no, they almost seem shocked, like they wonder why anyone would do 3D if they didn’t want to do character animation, as if character animation was the only reason to get into 3D. Again I have little interest in creating character art, and even less interest in animating said characters.
Maybe it stems from my photography? I spent a few years taking pictures of people until I realized I didn’t enjoy taking pictures of people. I liked taking pictures of landscapes and other abstract subjects.
I like architecture. I like product design and rendering. I like medical work. I like mechs, robots, and spaceships, which aren’t too far off the beaten path, but you get my point? I start to feel a little bit like the odd guy at the party. Fortunately there are plenty of areas of 3D where you don’t have to be interested in characters to be successful, luckily I have found one and it has provided well for me. Just remember there is more to 3D than animating trolls and men carrying ridiculously over sized guns.
Software Rants.
I’ve written a lot of posts in the past related to software, what I love and hate about various packages. After some thinking I have decided I am not going to write those posts anymore. After working in the industry for 6 years I am finally to the point where I really don’t care what software people use.
There isn’t a single software package out there that does it all perfectly, I complain about how I wish certain areas of Max were more like Modo, then the next day I will complain that certain areas of Modo aren’t more like Max.
I am still a firm believe that the software package DOES matter. A lot of people in this industry will tell you that it’s just a tool, that a great artist could make great work in whatever package they choose. While this may or may not be true, it doesn’t tell the complete story. A great artist might be able to create great work in any package, but how fast can that artist create that work, and how easily is it going to be to change it when a client comes back and wants something tweaked? It’s not necessarily the quality of the work, but the speed, ease, and flexibility the software provides. So I have decided I will use whatever gives me the best combination of speed/quality/flexibility for whatever task I am working on, and let others do the same.
Deliberate Photography.
I love the phrase that James L. Enyeart uses in his essay about Ansel Adams.
“The art of photography for him was always a deliberate one, not an accidental process.”
This is the kind of photographer I want to be. I don’t want to shoot 5,000 pictures and just hope that one of them turns out. I want my photography to be an intentional and deliberate process. Perhaps it’s laziness, but I don’t want to spend my time sifting through entire folders of crappy images just to find one that shows potential.
I want to hike up to the lake, hike around for a few hours looking for the perfect composition. Then I want to sit there for an hour and enjoy the experience as I wait for the light to turn magical. Then I want to click the shutter once, maybe 2 or 3 times, pack up my gear and leave with the knowledge that I captured a unique moment.
Of course the light will not always cooperate, the composition may not look as good later as it did then, and a large part of landscape photography is simply being in the right place at the right time. Still, so much of what I enjoy about photography is the experience of being there and enjoying the outdoors, so this deliberate style of photography really appeals to me. Now I just need to find the time to do it!
New Site.
I thought it time that I finally started posting and getting this website finished. I have been very busy with a lot of changes in my life, but things are starting to settle down and I may finally have some time to get some personal projects done.
I have lots of cool projects in the works, and in my typical fashion am probably trying to tackle too much. If I can keep myself focused I may actually be able to finish, but the odds of that happening, if the past is any indication, are pretty slim. Still I hope to at least finish a few projects before the end of the year. Stay tuned for more.
