Haiku Inspiration

Balance one's work life
from packaging of the fruit
to watering root
 -Charlie Wang

Photography Class Notes - Common Misconception of Post Productions

Hello everyone! Today, I like to clarify common misconceptions of the term "editing" and "retouching".

The other day, my friend Chris Bahn at Put That Back asked me if I retouch with Photoshop? I said, "Always". Then he responded with "That would take a long time." It got me thinking, what did he meant? When I pressed retouch all of his event pictures.

That's when the I connected to the what he was saying what he actually meant.

"Oh! You meant editing, not retouching! Yeah, I don't use Photoshop for that. I use Lightroom, or Bridge."

So what's the difference you asked?

Beginner's Photography Classes: Blog Post 02-08

Hello dear readers. I hope everyone is warm and cozy in our unusual winter weather.

After many long nights thinking about the best way serve you, it will have to be video tutorials. So...

Check out these raw files from my last shoot at Fila. While still in middle of a production for a few ad campaigns, I was able to sneak in these shots above for my next tutorial. This will be a comprehensive video tutorial that will be divided into two parts. First part video will be how to pre-light shots and let the creativity flow once you're there. And the second part video will be how to edit and retouch to final product. I hope to show you good production habits to get the best out of your camera and reduce post-production time.

Subscribe to Charlie Wang's YouTube Channel to get latest video uploads.
And follow me on to see the latest projects I'm working on.

Until my next post.

Happy shooting!

Still Alive

Dear Readers,

First and foremost, I am still alive and will keep on posting. Keeping this blog was just a little hobby that really turned into wonderful passion as it blended my other passion - Photography. All your wonderful emails and correspondences have been very encouraging. And my promise to you is to resume my lessons.

In the recent months, my life have been a whirlwind of wonderful events - both personally and professionally. (You're currently reading a blog from the new Senior Photographer for Fila.) However, that took a lot of time away from keeping up with blogging. As one toiling away, from the inside it's hard to see what others are seeing from the outside. For me, it was really frustrating to keep a scheduled updates and lesson plan. I really thought about giving up, until I started receiving "thank you" emails from readers. I even ran into a complete stranger at a camera store and he recognized my face from my blog. It was truly wonderful that I got meet my readers, and encouraging emails really help!

So, it's back to the drawing board. Along with my lessons, I will start posting more of these random posts about my thoughts. Keeping the page fresh even if there are no new lessons. Like resources or videos that I find particularly useful.

And lastly, I will start hosting photography meetups group at meetup.com. It will start in NYC. I feel everyone benefits more from shooting and learning in person. Oh yeah, and it's free.

Until then, please stay safe. And happy shooting.

Yours,

Charlie Wang
Photographer

Photography Classes' Notes - How to Become a Photographer (The Series)

Welcome to How to Become a Photographer the Series.

I got this idea from John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur On Fire podcasts. The idea was the last question that's part of his lightning round, when he asked his interviewee how they would start all over again in a new world, and that they have their skills, some cash and laptop. I modified the questions a little for photographers and started this series.

Photography Classes' Notes - To TFP or Not TFP, That's The Question.

Hello, everyone.

When you start to get better and better at photography, you will start to see the term TF* start to pop up here and there as an offer to you. Should you take this offer? What is TFP and TFCD anyway? Well sit tight, in today's post I will debunk some ideas floating around on the interweb about TFP, and why and why not you should take this offer.

TFP stands for "Time for Print". Traditionally it's a barter system between a photographer and model, where the photographer create prints for both parties' portfolio in trade for the model's time.

Photography Classes' Lesson 4 - Camera Control (part 1)

Camera Control (part 1)

This lesson took much longer than I had anticipated, so I am going to break it down to several mini-posts.

Getting started with handling your camera

To take beautiful photographs with your digital camera is to understand the basic functions of your camera. However, you're a creative person and all these technical nuances are stopping you from being the creative photographer you want to be. Right about now, the digital dSLR camera must look more complicated than it needs to be, but let me reassure you that this is by design for the future photographer you will be. The photographer who will require the quick dedicated buttons to respond to every situation. Functions that I will touch upon in this post.

Photography Classes' Notes - Unglamorous Life of a Photographer

For many new aspiring photographers going off to college this September, I like to give a friendly reminder the life of a career photographer is not as glamorous as those you read or watch about. Not even close! So before you go in thinking that the lifestyle is going to be fabulous, consider yourself warned. If you're going to school that is... or learn online from the world’s top pro photographers!

Now that being said, welcome to the world of photography! I'm excited that you'll be on this journey as I have many, many moons ago. I compile a list of things that might help your journey. So here goes...

Photography Classes' Notes - 5 Lenses You Must Have for Canon EOS 7D (Guest Post)

5 Lenses You Must Have for Canon EOS 7D
Guest Post by Raphael Chieza

If you've got a Canon EOS 7D, you've either got the body only version or one of the 3 lens kits with either the EF-S 15-85mm lens, the EF-S 18-135mm lens or the EF 28-135mm lens. They are all decent options but you have to be honest that kit lenses are just not on the same par as most of the lenses you have to purchase separately. I will make one exception with that being the 24-105mm L lens that is sold with the Canon 5D Mark II but let's digress. Our pick for the 5 lenses you must have is balanced between quality and budget. Look to the end of you want to know what to get regardless of price.

Photography Classes' Notes - Photoshop, Photography, and Passion

While Lightroom and Elements are designed for Photographers. Photoshop opens doors for you to the creative industry. 

Digital Photography and Adobe Photoshop today come hand-in-hand. There are no questions about it. When you're getting serious in photography, you will need to get serious about Photoshop. That means you also need a computer that's powerful enough to handle the program in addition to a Wacom tablet. There are other choices, such as Gimp.org and poorly made tablets, but if you plan on getting serious about photography to make a career out of it. Then, you will need to start practicing with Photoshop with a Wacom tablet as these tools are industry gold standard.