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    Anstellos' Official FAQ

    "If you have more questions you can send them here
    and I will ad them to the official FAQ.



    Who are you? What is this Anstellos name about?

    Anstellos is my online nickname and artist name. I use it since so a so long time that I don't remember how it all started :). Picture Editing & photography are some of my hobbies (I like sport, art, travelling & mangas). Its not my daily-job. I'm a marketing manager and a CG Artist in the food industry. As a CG Artist I'm specialised into pre-press and color management. I discovered the world of color while working on prints and just loved it. Since that time I'm a color freak!

    So during the week I work on very colorful and natural pictures of food (I'm always starving when I go home ^^). The pictures must look how the real food is - not more, not less, not tricks allowed! Perfectly accurate, no fancies. Getting a precise print color is a true job that I like. At night I make my picture editing + shooting models on the Week-end. So basically I have two lifes ! Sleeping less and less and less !


    How did it began?


    What do you use to make your pictures? What should I buy?

    Short answer : You should buy nothing! Buying franzy is a trap. There is as many way for making a picture than there is people on this planet. So I cannot say what you need, what is on your budget, its very relative, so here is a non exhaustive list of the gear I currently use (early 2009). Keep in mind its not the gear that makes the picture but ultimatly you make it.

    model article 1

    You thought in the first place about stuffs you could buy to get same results Huh? My first weapon of choice is everyday training even if I don't want to, even if the result doesn't work. Don't under estimate your own research. Shoot shoot shoot until the shuter breaks (I will change my camera when mine will break)! Same thing with software, train until you understand how the tools work, until you forget them (thats a long time, I know). One hour tutorial/ training a day even if you don't get the result at the end. Thats at least 300 hours a year... 3 000 hours in 10 years time. Adobe Photoshop is that demanding beast. And one day you will wake up and say I know Photoshop (or kung-fu).

    I remember the first time I launched Adobe Photoshop. I was so scared by the user interface that I turned it down ! I mean during several months : launch > OMG ! turn down ^^ it was close! The principle of layers and opacity made me crazy... I started picture editing with paint, photo impact and corel draw (without layers and history/ always turned of for hardcore training).

    Use your software (really what ever) until you know it, until you forget it.

    Everything is online, most of it is free, start learning today! See my links.

    Don't forget to check NAPP Tv. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals podcast with Scott Kelby, President of the NAPP, Adobe Photoshop official instructor and simply one of the photoshop guy out there that know the best how this software work. If you want to understand how the tools work check out the weekly show. No I'm not paid for this. Hey Scott ! Get me a deal on my next Photoshop copy ^^! He is THE Guy period.

    Getting knowledge for free is alright but if you want to learn fast, you have to pay to get the answers you need, or to hear you were just doing wrong and understand why.

    Most camera are better than the photographer (so is mine!). You dont need to buy the latest one out there. I'm always amazed by the results I see on Deviant Art of many photographers using just entry level camera, beeing far far away better than what I do. What I bought is already overkill. So my advice, don't spend too much on the camera body and save for some good lenses. Train, learn, shoot and shoot again to know them.

    You won't believe how much a good os can help you achiving great results. And I have been a PC guy for a decade! But OS X will make you forget the computer.

    Here you can see how I work: Bridge for quick picture browsing and batch processing, Camera Raw to process my raw files (I never shoot jpeg) and then photoshop for further editing. Portraiture is my all time favorite plug-in. It can create smooth skins quickly. Of course almost anything a plug-in will do, you can already do it in photoshop... but you will gain a lot of time with a plug-in. Basically plug-ins are for post processing like noise reduction (noiseware), size enhancement (Genuine Fractals), Grain control, (Real Grain), Enhanced black & white (Silver Efex)

    I almost never use Lightroom because its not useful for my own workflow : I just work on a few pictures doing advanced tweaks on them; but I believe Lightroom is a wonderful software for most photographers. In fact when people ask me what they should use, I think about apps like Lightroom or Aperture. Its easy to understand and you can have incredible results very fast. Its a pro piece of software at a small price (its basically like camera raw but easier to use). So if you are on a budget but want to deliver oustanding results, try this one!


    How do you achieve sharp pictures?

    Hell of a lot of people are asking me how do I achieve sharp pictures. In fact you cannot make a picture sharper than it is. But you can give the illusion its sharper. Here is the trick! The main idea is thinking about what you whant to show. Let say you shoot a portrait. Here is how humans brain see what is the most important. Of course it may vary from people to people but ... basically no matter who you are, where you live or your personnal tastes we all see a scene following the same scheme, about what is important and what is not.

    Here is a list begninning with what people notice less to what they are really attracted to

    Its something we do automatically, without thinking about it. It means on a portrait you will look at the eyes, the face, the model, then the accessories and at the end the overall scene. So what's the link with image sharpenning? To give the illusion a picture is sharp you dont especially need to work on everything. Let say you make the eyes sharper... the whole image will look sharper ! Because our mind tells us the eyes are sharp, so "is" the picture. It's an illusion.

    So how to create this illusion? You cannot make "really" an element sharper than it is. I know there is sharpenning software out there, but its not the point here. I mean you cannot create a detail that was NEVER THERE. So if you cannot make sharp or crisp, you can make un-sharp. And here is the intereresting thing about the list I just made. Lets say you take our portrait, you now know that people will look at the eyes and the face first and .. the background at the end.

    So here is the trick create a contrast between your model and the background, it could be a light contrast, a color contrast, a blur contrast... no matter ! Create a contrast and the model will become "sharper" because the background is no more ! So basically what you need to do is increasing the way people look at things. And because you cannot create details that arent there, you destroy details from the part of the picture you need less. I always say Love is Destructive, My Art aswell. Try you will get punchier, sharper images in no time.

    Could you teach me?

    I teached one year in a photo club. I made some online and video tutorials. If you are REALLY SERIOUS about pictures, I'm giving paid trainning. Contact me for rates and availability

    I'm writing some tricks & tips about making picture and making picture editing, it's called Anstellosized. Plus for people who really want to learn I'm posting some tutorials videos on my youtube account. Check out Anstellos' Channel.


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