Decoding secrets of good visuals - What makes some images and photographs stand out from the crowd

Some tips, tricks and subjects of images, graphics and photographs which is bound to cast a spell

1)     B&W background subject with semi-transparent bright techno/pop color in      foreground

2)     Picture with range of depth and focus

3)     Green appeal in innovative way

4)     Lush rainy/moist green landscape in terra incognita

5)     Realistic corporate affair capturing the mood of subject and vibes of business  minus ( - ) plastic smiles

6)     Simple things in perspective view

7)     Pattern or geometry unseen before

8)     A well framed shot of pets or wildlife with serious engaging looks

9)     Capturing Interactive and playful pets

10)  Green appeal in innovative way

11)  Bird’s eye view of Rooftop innovation

12)  Well framed commercial subject

13)  Black & Yellow Composition

14)  A well framed worm’s eye view of skyscraper or anything towering

15)  Caves or any undulating interior, lit with bright morning sun displaying    excellent interplay of light and shadow

16)  Translucent colored containers

17)  Hand drawn-water color effect in this era of 3D Simulation

18)  Morning sun rays filtered through simply anything

19)  Innumerable colorful interplay of sunlight and cloud at dawn, dusk further  accentuated if captured in hills

20)  Laughing giggling girls

21)  Asymmetrically captured frame of symmetrical building or symmetrical  something

22)  Translucent building glowing from inside - filtered hint of colors further acts  as charm

23)  White doodle on black background, call it old school blackboard nostalgia or  whatever!

24)  Futuristic ambiance and setting seemingly within reach in near future, not  just another fancy unreachable idiosyncrasy

25)  Anything overwhelmingly luxurious and classic specially interiors

More to come….

You might also like-

15 things I learned in 10 minutes about photography - Flipping through a reputed travel guide book

Check out new Blog Page dedicated to World Education

Educ@ti.ON  - Rethinking Education for a "lightened up world"!! 

Click on image to go to page-

Visit Page at following Link: http://planningurbanoregional.blogspot.in/p/eduction.html

More Coming....

Why architectural clients should be more demanding today?

Need of "Creative demand" and false in-vogue benchmark of "what is good!"

In a time of century when you should be asking for interactive customizable digital walls for your indoors as a client you are still busy choosing wall colors and wallpaper patterns, in a time when you should be demanding multiple mood lighting possibilities for your every room you are apparently happy and content with your stylish off-the-shelf chandelier and much propagated energy saving CFL lighting fixtures, when you should be asking your architect what kind of living experience he or she is envisaging and designing for your home, you are busy asking what would be the effective sqft area of your house, when you should be deliberating about multi-tier security system for your hard earned asset called home,  you are busy choosing stylish looks of your door knob, when you should be looking for indoor ambiance inspired by your sun-sign, you leave this design choice to the idiosyncrasy of architect after little deliberation, who will now design "your" house inspired by his or her "own" sun sign traits - if you believe in such thing called sun sign! And there are ample other examples which demonstrate you are more or less content will "Less" when it comes to Architecture for your home.

You do demand as an architectural client but mostly in a wrong direction. And you know, you only get what you ask for.  You really need to channelize your demands towards design, ambiance, technology integration, customization and personalization and to the little architectural elements which is going to make your life better and effortless at home. All you need to do is to be little more creative in your demand. Also you need to shed this notion that “popular is good”, that’s not the case when it comes to architecture because you as an individual or a group of family might have a totally different needs and aesthetic perception than your friends, or neighbor or that guy with million dollar Mansion, so your house need not necessarily be exactly like others no matter how tempting those options are.     

You see, if you are of this opinion that insisting your architect for your favorite pink or blue color for your living room wall makes you a good client, then you need to take a look way back to realise that those cave men were more creative for their homes, decorating their caves with such amazing cave paintings or drawings, even after thousands of years later you are still struggling to decorate your living room wall with pink or blue or some painting of great artist! Have you really evolved in this large span of time or are you repeating the same old story in some way or other. That full clad digital living room wall which you can color customize everyday or on which you can write your daily to-do-list or which can remind you of unpaid bills in a flash or where you can leave a message for your loved ones while leaving home is just an example to make your realise that there are no boundaries which defines and restricts architecture or interior design. 

The best part is that architects like challenges, so if you demand "more" as a client in terms of stretching the possibilities of design and innovation, they would be more than happy to help you and probably will give you something many shades better than your expectations, all you have to do is to be little more creative in your demand. 

15 things I learned in 10 minutes about photography - Flipping through a reputed travel guide book

Amazing revelations about Photography-

1)   It’s not just about Iconic structures or monuments it’s about capturing their interaction with the people

2)   If you are capturing a lively street, capturing an element of motion is a must (people, car etc.)

3)   When capturing sculptures or carved details in the open sun, wait for the right time of the day for the perfect shadow which accentuates the dimension and details of subject

4)   Capture the clouds in the background (particularly at dusk ) and half the job is done

5)   Capture  water fountain in the foreground and half the job is done

6)   Capture someone capturing others (seems a cheap trick though)

7)   If you capture street dining you must capture some element of service - something being served or by someone who is serving the thing

8)   If capturing museum or exhibition you must capture the chemistry between the exhibit and spectator, capture someone quite still and who is trying to understand and appreciate the meaning of exhibit

9)  Capturing the public spaces, capture the people and their behavior at the very intersection  of daylight and shadows (it naturally captures the human dilemma of judgment whether to go out in open sun on stay in the shadow) 

10)       When capturing motion you must have something static for reference, but for best results “that static one” has to be the one of the vary things which are moving (people, car etc.)

11)        Capture a glass building at dusk at the very moment when it gets illuminated in the evening while it is partially illuminated from outside as well from setting sun

12)       There is at least one definite location from where the famous sculpture or display (or structure) looks perfect (and usually it’s the most abused one as well, since whole world seems to capture the shot from the same point)

13)       When taking a shot of any high end restaurant  dining scene, don’t just capture the food and luxury, and candlelight, you need to capture the people having supper, with their interactions and their exaggerated animated  expressions

14)        When in vegetable market capturing a vendor interacting with customer, a price list smudged with chalk or otherwise in the backdrop is must.

15)       Shop display window + scripted shop name typo + passer by = classic shot without fail

Another series of interesting observations will be part of upcoming posts, Join me on twitter @urbanoregional for updates.  Your view and experiences are most welcome.

You might also like following post :

Top 50 books of Urban Photography,Art and Aesthetics

A to Z Satellitexted : Urban Planning Text

What does growth cycle of design industry looks like?

Design industry follows a repetitive elliptical growth path.

If you look back down the development lane of design industry especially visible in product design and fashion industry, you will witness some familiar recurring pattern of growth, repetitive, though every time in a new avatar.

More than say 90 percent of designers still use direct or derivatives of primitive or rather eternal   geometrical building blocks as raw material- shapes and surfaces, like circle, triangle, square, prism, hyperbole  etc. and remaining 10 percent relentlessly trying to unearth some divine pattern or previously unseen building blocks or magic design elements, anxiously looking here and there for some clue, looking into microscope, looking up to nature, science, nano technology, microbiology, history or mythology or whatever or simply resorting to hallucinated inspiration, so that some divine "never before design element" descends upon them out of luck, while still acknowledging that those basic geometric building blocks like triangle and circles are not going to go away anywhere soon, probably never.

So, when majority of fundamental design elements have remained exactly the same throughout the evolution of design industry, this industry is bound to follow a recurring path starting from basics, evolving on the way through innovation, reaching to maturity, taking an inspirational U-Turn and finally going back to its roots, from where it all started. Apparently a perfect circle of growth; but it goes further, we haven’t talked about technology yet, this ever evolving technology provides designers even bigger opportunities, with new materials, new textures, enhance durability and elasticity, new colors, new opacity newer viscosity and so on, which helps prolong this period of growth cycle pushing this circular trajectory to follow an even larger elliptical path, finally going back to its roots just to be born again.

You might also like this post - Artificial Sonic Urban Environment to break the monotony of City!