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Project Educate: Dragonfly-oli on Still Life`dragonfly-oli is fast becoming one of the most well known Still Life Photographers on deviantART. Whilst she has only been here for 2 years her artwork has certainly made its mark on the community. Here she shares a bit of insight into what she does and why.

:icondragonfly-oli:
Tell us about your style...
I do really like close-ups, as you can see in my other shots. So I tend to take pictures of little objects. All in all I do really like to do conceptual shots, because I cannot implement my ideas in nature photography.

What are the trials and tribulations of Still Life Photography in your opinion?
Well, it's easier than taking pictures of people or nature! It's a challenge to search for the right object to make a conceptual piece out of it. The light and composition are essential for a good photo here, because people look for the message and the technique in general.
Merits are th

Project Educate: Expressing and EmotingEssentially, these are mostly the same thing with a few minor differences which are explained below. But before we move onto that, there's an important message to share when it comes to categorising your work. To get the best out of the photography galleries it's vitally important that you categorise your work properly. That' why these weeks exist in some respects, to help educate you through that. With regards to Daily Deviations - Community Volunteers will not give features to pieces of work that are mis-categorised. They might assist you by moving your work or explaining where it should go, but seeing a deliberate miscat is a bit off-putting when it comes to choosing pieces to showcase. Take some time to have a look through your gallery (I'm going to do the same!) and figure out if everything is in the right place. If you're struggling, just ask. We're here to help. What we won't do is rearrange your whole gallery for you. We will however, work with you to try and straighten things

Photography Weekly: Edition Thirty ThreePhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
"Why are YOU reading this?"
-This- little bit of space right up here at the top of the weekly Photography Article is usually filled with a newsworthy topic, or a question. And it nearly always gets ignored!! So many of you look at this article, favourite it and comment on it - but what are you looking at it for? Are you gazing at the images? The news? The links? You're certainly not looking at the paragraph right up here that can sometimes be the juiciest bit of the whole article!! As a reader, you're important. Without your input and without positive stats, this article would dwindle - so it's here for you. Tell me what you want to see...

More Images

More discussion

Bi-weekly instead of weekly

Something else
Many of you will know of Gimp - and many likely use the editing program which has been considered a freee condensed version of Photoshop. Well G

Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty SevenPhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD

"Eyes like a Shutter, mind like a Lens" - Anon
This week the general thoughts come from =Eitvys200 who brought up the topic of Too many cameras around?! It's one that baffles many from amateur to professional in deciding what we, as artists, want to use as our tools. Hopefully one of our community volunteers will cover that in greater depth next week in an article all about choosing your next or even first camera. But for now the confusion comes when you're lining up to take a shot and somebody next to you with a mobile/cell phone is taking the same one and truth be told - it might even turn out better. I broached the subject a while ago of standing at a wedding and being the 'pro' but not the only one with a £500 camera. How do you make yourself unique in a digital world that's fast developing beyond our means and capabilities? Well, you work with

Photography Weekly Edition Twenty FivePhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
"The one surefire way to get nothing is to not bother looking" - Joe McNally
Research carried out by Nikon has estimated that an amazing 332 million jubilee related photos will be taken on the day of the Thamas River Pageant on June 3rd. That's amazing. It even tops the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton last year. The upcoming Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth has sparked patriotism in the most unlikely places meaning that driving down a normal street turns into an epic photo opportunity with the various bunting, flags and other bits and pieces. So whether or not you're local to London and able to join in the four days of pomp and ceremony that the British are allegedly famed for - you might find that there are events and things local to you that will bring out the journalistic candid photographer that's screaming inside to get out! But in this day and age, when every second perso

Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty EightPhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
“What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.”

―
Karl Lagerfeld
This week I spied an awesome topic in *Fuzzypiggy's journal and knew instantly that it was what I would talk about for edition twenty eight. "Underground train system bosses are set to ban all photos under new proposals that have angered photographers.." You can read the full article for yourself here but I would love to get some discussion going amongst us all as to whether or not the proposed ban would effect you. I'm personally quite pleased that the latest articles report a U-turn in the proposals so it doesn't look

CR Newsletter - May & June 2012Table of Contents
1. New Faces
2. Daily Deviations: Listing Suggesters
3. Volunteer Openings
4. Share Your Opinions
5. Community Projects
6. Official Contests
7 Project Educate 2011/2012
8. Art History Project
9. News from the Chats and Forums
10. News from the Galleries
1. New Faces
We welcomed many new faces onto the Community Volunteer team this month! Please join us in welcoming them and I encourage you to reach out and get to know these fantastic people:
^ladygagz - DeviantART Related
`IsacGoulart - Photography
`RockstarVanity - Darkroom Photography
^laserbeast - Chat & Forums
^Athos-of-Light - Chat & Forums
^JZLobo - Fan Fiction
^SylwiaTelari - Traditional Art
^DaPineapple - Chats & Forums
`dekorAdum - Chats & Forums
^Talty - Artisan Crafts
^princepal - Designs & Interfaces
^SRudy - Traditional Art
`krazykel - Chats

Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty FourPhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
"If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera"
- Lewis Hine
This week I happened across a Photographer who shoots the economy - currently in the UK. If you ever wondered what Economy looks like - and what the recession looks like - in the Photographic sense then wonder no more. Simon Robert's has it captured. What really struck me though, aside from the complete normality and sometimes mundane life that made the photographs, was the comments on the Article that I read about Simon. The BBC Wrote about him yesterday and nearly all the comments were from people advocating boredom. The Irony is that Simon Robert's had, in full colour, photographed our lives. And the general consensus was that it was dull and unimaginative. How very English we are.
Copyright Simon Robert's

Project Educate: Classic Portrait PhotographyClassic Portraits are Photographs of people in traditional pose. These are often formal, refined and restrained in style. As you will see within the Gallery they often involve a plain and simple background which is a popular feature of Classic Portraiture. One of the most notable things within the Classic Portrait Photography Gallery is that there are a lot of art nudes. This actually occurs across the board with People & Portraits and I cannot stress enough - that if your work features nudity, it belongs within the artistic nude gallery!

Conversion to black and white with concentration on bringing out tones and shadows creates that timeless classic look and is often favoured by the elite artists that submit to the People & Portraits - Classic Gallery.

Whilst D-SLR's have a monochrome function, for the most part (mine h

People + Portraits Photography Talent Spotlight`Kendra-Paige has been on deviantART for over eight years now and has made a strong mark on the people and portraits gallery especially with her fashion work. Her kit consists of a Canon 5D Mark II and a Canon EF 85mm 1.2L II lens using various other lenses and focal lengths but repeatedly gravitating towards the 85mm. She uses a combination of lightroom and photoshop to post-process her work although she keeps her editing as minimal as possible as she doesn't enjoy the post-processing bit of photography!
Why did you choose people as a photographical interest?
I have always found people to be fascinating, and I have a particular interest in expressions and eyes. The eyes tend to be the focal point in a lot of my work, and typically dictate the image. Aside from this, it’s the collaborative effort that I enjoy in portraiture. When you take images of animals and nature, there is only so much control you have with the subject - a lot of it is luck

Photography Discovered #7Welcome to the sixth edition of Photography Discovered! This series was inspired by $Moonbeam13's Discovered journal series. The following deviants were found using nothing but the Discovery Tool.
~emmanueldautriche

*Somebody--else

~simsalabima

=ravador

*MyLifeThroughTheLens

Please show the artists some love and

the article if you liked it!
Previous Editions
Week One;

Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty TwoPhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
"We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us." - Winston Churchill
The general theme this week is focusing on Architecture and in particular how to drum a bit more enthusiasm for noticing what's around us and capturing it successfully on camera. Architecture is profoundly unavoidable whether we like it or not! It's there in everyday life through work, socialising, living, politics and everything in between. The Architecture Gallery here on deviantART is vast and contains a great range of inspiring artworks.
Spotlight Deviant ~LeMatos
Here for just nine months ~LeMatos has already made an impact on the Architecture Community having been spotted and suggested for this feature by `anmari the Architecture Community Volunteer!

Spotlight Group :devstunningArchitectu

Photography Weekly: Edition Twenty ThreePhotography Weekly Header created by ~TouchedD
“Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be.” - Duane Michals
Still Life is the theme of this weeks article given that it's Still Life Week over at #projecteducate! I'm living and breathing still life works right now, and actually it's quite nice. I've discovered some fantastic talent on deviantART, conducted some awesome interviews and started up a group with the wonderful *claremanson If you want a sneak peek head over to #Still-Life-Stills But really the whole definition and ideal of Still Life has eluded me for quite some time and was something I deliberately avoided because I didn't believe in it. If you take an image, you have stilled life. By rights this means that everything out there is Still Life photography. Even when you're capturing movement, you're stilling it for just a few seconds. So why then, do we hav

Enhancing Still Life Shots with LieveheersbeestjeSo you've got a still life shot but it looks nothing like those epic pieces you see hitting the front page here on deviantART - the lighting, hues and general feel of the piece is just not as good as you feel it could be. Well that's okay! Photoshop in particular helps you enhance your shots to bring out the best in them - or the worst if you're not careful.

These are basically the processes that she goes through to edit a shot - saved and uploaded to deviantART for your use (provided you read the rules.) There are many floating around - and they add that little something.
So How Do They Work?
All you need to do is download a file that contains such actions...

In this particular one =lieveheersbeestje shares her Photoshop Silver & Bronze Actions. Once you've downloaded the file you just open it as you usually would and it will go straight into photoshop ready for use

General Photography DDs December 2012:iconKaz-D:
Features by ^Kaz-D
People & Portraits

Transportation

Macro

Still Life

Conceptual

Street

Urban & Rural

Other

Abstract

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Submitted: May 18, 2012
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Project Educate: The Traditional Still Life

Fri May 18, 2012, 2:56 AM

People & Portraits

Traditional Still Life shots are few and far between in this modern era with Photoshop
becoming a vastly popular tool to soften images with and more materials becoming available to make Still Life something adventurous and different. So it was an extremely nice surprise when I stumbled across *Somebody--else's gallery to find that there were some good wholesome traditional shots there - with a few modern touches to finish it off. *Somebody--else agreed to be interviewed so that I might find out a bit more...

What area of Still Life Photography do you gravitate towards the most and why?

I don't really have a preference, maybe a tiny one for flowers and books as we can use those in many ways.

What do you find are the challenges of staging your photographs to achieve still life shots?

For me, the biggest challenge while staging photographs is to be able to emphasize an object, a flower, a drop, trying to take them out of their
context. It's not always as easy as it may seem.