Tutorial: Cloud 9

• Difficulty: Medium (Basic photoshop 2019 skill required)

• The application used: Photoshop 2019 and Pixaloop

• Time spent: 45 minutes

Visual art has no definite rule to follow and go by as it is very subjective. It entirely depends on person to person how it wishes to see the image and how to go about. After a lot of trial and error, I have come to mine and often I follow the path the reverse way. This very image Cloud 9 (just thought to steal the name) is composed of a landscape image I captured on my way to Goa, India and later added the moving elements in Pixaloop.

If you ask me what is Pixaloop? It is a fun application which let you give a moving or living element in your still photograph. This application comes with fun sky replacement themes, moving elements like clouds, animals to many more and few other gickmicks. The best part with the pro-version is it keeps updating itself with many more elements from time to time.

• Available for both Apple and Andriod users, pro-version against standard fees giving you lifetime access.

• The application doesn't give you rights to use it for professional/commercial purposes.

I have to admit being a commercial photographer I need to go through a lot and lots of work to seek inspiration and Pinterest, Instagram and google have been my best mentor so far. With thousands of talented people to follow and seek understanding from there is nothing much space left for a block to happen in mind yet it does from time to time. My way of going about has been traditional so far and I love re-enacting what others have done yet I keep a few elements true to myself. My advertising venture is not always straight forward and often I am asked to show what I can do and visualize more than the ordinary. Manipulation and surrealism do go by side and I love doing both.

So let's get started!

STEP 1: For the given tutorial I have used a panoramic landscape with a vast grassland and an open sky (merged in photoshop). I have edited the image in terms of colour correction, contrast and eventually thought to remove a few elements like clouds and a tree positioned at the right of the image. Just wanted to remove few distractions. I used a combination of spot healing, a clone stamp tool and content-aware in photoshop.

STEP 2: I found the sky little uneven in terms of the horizon, hence decided to even it out. Using the clone stamp tool with low opacity (10% is my personal preference) gives a smooth gradation. It helps to avoid any kind of patches.

It is indeed a simple concept, a plain canvas for the elements to stand out and give a dimension to the image. Again my composition is pretty straight forward and I love keeping things simple for the viewer to enjoy in most of my cases. I do love layering things and keeping certain conscious and subconscious elements which let people stare a little more and they eventually discover things one by one making it more engaging.

A fun aspect is always a good way to go about when doing surrealism. People love playing games and solving the mystery, it makes them look smart and people love being called smart.

• I edit an image at 16bit at 300dpi. The dimension of the given image is 7645 by 5285 pixels. This part is completely subjective to your end-users and where you are going to publish it. I primarily kept it for my personal website and Instagram. Pixaloop doesn't restrain you with dimension. I love this part of the application!

STEP 3: To fill the empty space of my extended composition, I selected a part of the sky and stretched it to the top. You can feel free to use a clone stamp tool to do the same.

COMPOSITION TIP: I wanted the moving element in the middle of the sky, for the cloud to have enough breathing space around. It is always a good idea to think about the final image you have in mind.

STEP 4: Coming to the fun part and where I start my surreal journey, using a wrapping tool in photoshop I decided to give a convex feel to the grassland, you can very well do the opposite. Just keep it wacky and fun.

STEP 5: Everyone loves filters and the vintage feel. Pixaloop though has a new feature to do the same but I am not exactly convinced as it makes the images pretty pixilated hence I love the manual control photoshop gives. Colour correction, Vibrance and the selective colour is a great tool to add a feel to the image.

I have shared my calculations and feel free to copy it or tweak it as per your need. There is no rule to follow the above in the given direction, it's quite a lot of permutation and combination and it entirely depends what you think looks good, add value and mood to the image.

COMPOSITION TIP: A warm tone like yellow, orange and red is always about happiness and cool tones like blue and grey give a gloomy feeling.

I give a bit of sharpening and export my image suited for web and keep it within a range of 2500 pixels wide or 3mb in file size max, for the mobile processor to work over it without hanging on. Avoid uploading a heavy file to prevent the application from crashing.

STEP 6: As the application is mobile-based you need to transfer the image to your mobile, I own a Pixel2 and I upload my images in Photos (cloud storage). Post that I opened the image in Pixaloop. To start with I go to the sky menu of the app and for the given image I decided to use Dancing Aurora with Horizon: 77 and Opacity: 100. Feel free to tweak as per the image. A smooth transition is all that you should look for.

STEP 7: I just love fooling around with the application. Jokes apart, I knew it has a new element of clouds and it fitted perfectly to my landscape. I always have this love for animals especially the not so usual for many and thought to use a frog for it to be lost in the grassland under the sky with majestic aurora and stars. Placed the frog as per a suitable perspective yet easy to notice. I added the cloud at the centre and made it large enough to dominate the image. To add a little of drama I added some lightning. The steps are pretty much after a lot of combinations from the available list. You should feel free to create your own version. The elements have options like dimension and opacity. Play until you like to your liking.

STEP 8: Gadgets have their own colour profile and it depends on the brand of your phone hence you may find the colour a little off, what you saw on your computer screen. I was happy with the composition, yet found the image a little off in terms of colour gradation. Corrected the needed in the application. See image for calculations.

STEP 9: The application gives enough flexibility regarding the export option and I prefer keeping it at the highest resolution possible for any future needs and record. You can choose to tweak it as per your need. I personally love keeping the dimension intact, Duration around 18 seconds and quality 2k.

Woah! You have it done it so far fantastically and I hope you enjoyed the process. I loved creating this image and sharing the journey with you. There is nothing more that gives me contentment than creating something fresh and learning something new.

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Hii, I am Shovona Karmakar, a freelance commercial photographer, presently based out of Mumbai, India. As an artist, freelancer, and businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

To note: My tutorials are mine from my own experience.

I am open for any portrait, corporate, food, product | people photography related queries/services, or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer #tutorial #pixaloop #cinemagraph #movingimages

Freelance

The word freelance according to google "A Basic Definition. Essentially, a freelance job is one where a person works for themselves, rather than for a company. While freelancers do take on contract work for companies and organizations, they are ultimately self-employed"

Freelancing is a lifestyle, is a life choice that you have as a side hustle or a full-time job. Everything you do is building up for yourself hence it is a selfish act yet it has many benefits.

I have mentioned various articles over my blog regarding freelancing, how to go about it, and what to expect. As a freelancer, I see the world, the people around me a little more critically than many seeking a job may think and see. My life is nothing to do with security and I have to have the social contentment in me every day with a mere line of

Things happens for good!

Everyone has its own journey to be one and it is worth reading and observe everyone possible and learn the things we can as down the line the situations are not newborn yet it recycles from one person to another.

Photography and product styling remain my primary source of income and rest is on the way to an exploration of finding the target audience who will like to hire me and help me pay my bills. Here I do not exactly wish to talk about freelancing and how to go about it rather there are many things I learned a little faster than else.

An adult and growing up to be an adult is a choice and I chose to be a child who is curious as long as possible. I have realized how being an adult is a trap and how being a child leads to a better world. A child, in general, doesn't look for perfection and adapts anyone unless it hurts. A child is more venerable and open to get molded and re-shaped. A child leads to discovery very new to itself.

Then why are we asked to grow up and how well it is important?

There is a difference between growing up and being a child and they are pretty broad lined.

As a grown-up, we are expected to understand things and be careful with our words. We are expected to earn and be compassionate and less venerable to being emotional and anxious. We are more aware of the rights and less aware of the very subconscious mind. Having the content attitude is a sign of being an adult for many and we choose to be choosy with the kind of people we should be with and shape our lives. We find being sad and low as a sign of being weak and less worthy to be with and successful people to be the ones you should look up to.

We complicate ourselves more than ever. We behave as a complicated being yet calling self the simplest and minimalistic of all just because we are not ambitious and we don't let our mind wander madly.

You have to understand if things are crazy in your head and you see it exist then it was always a part of being a human.

A child, on the contrary, is new to the world and everyday it tends to evolve, biologically it goes through a cycle of being a human, being a specie which is advanced and more mobile than anyone else. It discovers everything cause it is new to it, every word it says and everything it sees is new to it and the cycle will continue unless it is forced to be a grownup.

Very recently I have been rejected by someone I potentially saw as one worth to be a partner. I was exploring you see and my past has not been kind enough to me and it floats upon the surface the moment I find someone finally understanding me and giving me time to let them know the best part of me being me but it seems it was too late. The person was looking for a quick fix and he moved on and I eventually kept thinking that he will be back.

I let myself be venerable and I am thankful for it coz I wouldn't have been productive the way I am now just to overcome the feeling of being abandoned all over again. As a child, I rant, I take chances and I let people come into my life and I rest my trust in them easily. I let myself mold the way one wants me to and on the way, I discover the best of me.

Now with everything possible said what is the connection of everything above with being a freelancer, and the answer is simple it all depends on you and just you how you shape your freelancing career. There is the right way to be content and do things that work and keep life as safe as possible. There is another right way to let your child be alive to discover every possibility to raise your bar and aspect of your skill and talent. Be complicated, be difficult, be moody and keep ranting about things but at the end make sure you discover for better tomorrow.

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Hii, I am Shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, freelancer, and businesswoman, money, and creativity always intrigue me and I am passionate enough to share my knowledge with others too.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries, or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#coronaindia #mumbaiphotographer #femalephotographer #portraitphotographer #commercialphotographer #freelancecommercialphotographer

My worst driving skill

If I say every assignment of mine as been as smooth as a butter on bread, I am clearly lying to you all. If I say every client treated me professionally I am not honest. If I say I didn't learn and grow from the experiences I am definitely bluffing. As a freelancer in the early days of my career, I did the mistakes which come from an anxious mind, untrained attitude and the inability to trust people.

To inject it is still a little difficult to trust people but I have no choice than to calm the f**k down myself and let the flow take it along its pace.

I am here to share a few things which I did in my early days and I am sure many out there did the same and in fact, must be in the phase currently. There is no right or wrong way to go about freelancing and but there are few things I feel are basic and I wished someone would have helped me understand things better.

Communication:

Early days comes with an ego and an urge to specialize over things and one goes downhill from there, every time a client calls and if it doesn't fall your genre if you tend to say "No", you are potentially losing an opportunity to have something for yourself. Just because you feel you are good at something it doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself to that arena. Say yes to every opportunity and find a way to make it happen and when to say No, read along to know about it.

Be curious to know what the client is looking for and be humble to hear what they want from you and be patient to do things again and again.

The entire urge to bombard and get the best and do the best comes along the time so let yourself be in a learning curve as long as possible.

TRUST:

The urge to jump into a project and not keeping things over mail and often clients feel skeptical to keep it over mail led many to feel anxious about many things and up above remained the fact if they will pay one on time as per the telephonic conversation. The anxiety grows and the urge to ask for money is embarrassing, it is if one ask at the wrong time.

Many even do a mistake of not keeping the terms clear and let the client have a zone where they ask for more than agreed and with no written confirmation one gets handcuffed to do the job, that's the con of being early in the career.

Keep the information and terms and conditions as much as possible over the mail, an absence of response keeps the client in question, not you.

ANXIETY:

The overwhelming feeling of many things does rupture a lot many elements than you can imagine. Your subconscious mind has things to say and you are bound to hear to it and believe it than anyone else and there is absolutely no harm. One thing to learn along the way is anxiety is just going to degrade your image for future prospect so practice the art of being calm. F**k the calm out of yourself!

Instilling the art of meditating and building focus in your day to day work is the best thing you can gift to yourself.

CHAOS:

Creativity takes birth in chaos, a chaotic mind wanders enough to let you see things which others don't see and this is something you should not get rid of but learn to cage it enough for it to not overwhelm you when you don't want or need. Early days look like everything needs to be perfect and perfection is an enemy not a cure and frankly let the chaos be there in you in some way which helps you to bring the best out of you.

There is a clear difference between chaos and panic, the feeling of everything going out of hand to do happen in the early days but there is no cure than to breathe in and breath out and simply take things slow.

Potential Red Flags:

• When the client doesnt agree to come over mail. They tend to keep everything over a telephonic conversation.

• There is no clarity about the job description in terms of quality and quantity expectations and keeping the assignment as an open experiment.

• Raising questions to every terms and condition you have kept to work along.

• Asking too many options for one potential assignment on the job floor.

• A habit of bargaining for everything even after confirmation.

One of my personal experience dates back to 2014 and one of my initial commercial assignment where the client bargained and came to a mutual price, argued my choice of having my assistant and then later agreeing to it, Eventually flying me down and I was little taken aback with the fact of doing more than asked for and hanging me with my advance untill and unless I had to shamelessly ask for it in the middle of the work floor (don't do it). My chaotic mind led me to miss a piece of equipment back in the hotel which pushed the shoot time and I was guilty enough. I realized they pushed the agreement on the day one and I dropped a mail to state my position to do a certain aspect of the job and not been able to do other (always keep things over mail). Well eventually things went well and I ended up doing the job at my best.

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Hii, I am shovona, a freelance commercial photographer who resides in the economic hub of India, Mumbai. As an artist, I undergo the above almost every day and I am here to support others to let them feel cool about anything happening in life.

Feel free to contact me for any portrait, corporate, food, product photography related queries or just drop a hi! at

shovonakar@gmail.com

#dailyblogger #mumbaiphotographer #freelancetipsandtricks #portraitphotographer #freelancer