Kushagra T's Digital Photo Blog

1. What do you like/dislike about Sagmeister's work? - I like his immense creativity. His design for 'Everything Happens' was a stroke of genius. I also thought his use of cryptic pictograms with the decoder on the CD was amazing. 2. What is Sagmeister's profession? - Sagmeister is a graphic designer who specializes in designing music album covers. 3. Who created the art for Hozier's album cover in the video? -  Hozier's mother, Raine Hosier-Byrne, created the album cover.

(All photos are taken and edited by me. Can produce RAW files if necessary)

1. What do you like about your image? - I like how cleanly I managed to select the shoe from the background. I also like the use of black and white, although the product doesn't actually look like that. 2. What would you have done differently to change the outcome of the image? - I would have loved to use a tripod. I was shooting in pitch-darkness, save for a desk lamp, so there was a limit to how far I could bend while hand-holding the shot. A tripod would have allowed for a lower ISO, too. I would have also liked to experiment with more extreme light angles for even more of a contrasty, low-key image. 3. What photoshop techniques did you use? - I used Select and Mask to feather my selection, camera raw filter to get the contrast right (and also to convert from the RAW file), the B/W adjustment layer, and Bevel & Emboss for the Nike logo. Here's the same picture without the B/W adjustment layer, just in case I get called out for false advertising :)

What do you like about each image and what would you have done differently? - For the first image, I'm not sure if it fits into the still life genre. I found the little glass ornament in a junk drawer, and I thought it would be interesting to shoot the reflection in the glass. It came out reasonably well, and the blurred background looks great.  If I had the chance, I would have loved to have used a tripod and a macro lens to get the shot closer with a lower ISO. - For the second image, I just rearranged the stuff that was already on my desk. I like the deep shadows and stark contrast.  If I could have done something different, maybe I could have found a different angle, or used a tripod.

Mount Williamson from Manzanar - Ansel Adams What I like about this image: Technically, this shot is excellent. It utilizes the rule of thirds by  having the mountains and the sky cover the top third of the frame. It shows an incredible range of values. Everything in the shot, from the rocks in the foreground to the clouds in the back, is pin sharp. I love the way the rocks lead my eyes towards the mountains in the background. The visible light rays in the background make the mountains seem even more majestic. 

* This image was taken in July at Yosemite National Park How it uses the Rule of Thirds: When I took the photo, I did not intend to use the rule of thirds. Looking at it later, though, I noticed that the rocks on the left cover approximately one third of the frame. The sky in the left half of the frame also covers about a third before it is interrupted by the mountain on the right. About the focus: I tried to have the entire frame in focus by using a small aperture (f/11). Despite this, the fact that this landscape goes from very close to very far means that some parts of the shot are blurry. The lens I used is also not very sharp in the corners, and this shows in the image. Why it has good exposure; In this shot, everything looks natural as if seen by the human eye. The shadows of the rocks have the darkest blacks and the snow on the mountains in the background has the brightest whites. Principle of design: I think this shot uses variety because we see a lake, rocks, m