Busy day today, hardly time to take a photo let alone write up edit notes. So here’s my image or January 12, 2012
So as my work day ended I raced outside to see if I could catch some clouds in the sky. Sadly there weren’t too many clouds in the sky, but I did find some cool light on this palm tree. I chose to use the TrueHDR app on my iPhone for most of the processing but i did use a little bit of Perfect Photo Studio for some subtle changes..
Here’s today’s photo:
ISO 125 ƒ/2.4 1/20 with iPhone 4S
Here’s the original file saved out the TrueHDR app:
So into OnOneSoftware’s Perfect Effects 3 for a couple of filters:
When I saved this file back to Aperture(Mac App Link), I noticed the sky was a bit noisy, so I decided to open the image up in Nik Software’s Dfine 2.0 to help reduce the noise in the sky. Over all i’m happy with this image, probably didn’t need to use the extra steps, but it’s fun to see how subtle the changes can be.
Today was family picture a day. I asked the kids what I should take a picture of and the winning vote was the Albert Pujols Cardinal Build a Bear. Nobody in my household cares that Mr. Pujols is no longer a Cardinal, so it seems. My son started watching Albert during the World Series and time will tell if he is truly a Cardinal fan or will he come over to the other side and end up a Cub fan, only time will tell. His Dad and Grampy will make it difficult to be a Cardinal fan.
ISO 1000 ƒ/2.8 t 1/50 with a little off camera flash bounced into the ceiling
Here’s the original JPG from the saved RAW file:
Not a whole lot of edits needed but I dabbled a little anyways…
I ended up doing a little bit of cross processing which helped to bring out the details of his fur.
This post isn’t anything new it’s just common sense, over and over again I hear friends claim they’ll get started when the new gear comes out or when they finally learn how to use the gear they already have. Mainly talking about photography gear, but it really could be any kind of gear for anything. Running shoes, hiking boots, bicycles, etc., you get the idea.
I remember thinking, my camera isn’t good enough. If I could get a new camera that was easier to use i’d take more pictures. I should take a class. Ultimately, my desire for new gear wasn’t about the new gear, it was the warped thought that it would somehow magically create beautiful photographs without me.
The problem is that there is always new gear. Sure there are features about the latest gear that makes it easier but in the end it really doesn’t matter. What I’ve been amazed as I’ve embarked on year two of taking a photo a day is the wide diversity of what people use for their pictures of all skill levels. Some have great, expensive gear, many just use the gear they have on hand at that time. Maybe that’s a phone with a camera or a polaroid, not really, but you get the idea! Most of the time I never notice what equipment was used to capture the image, I notice things like composition, color, focus, textures and a slew of other things that have nothing to do with what was used to capture the image. My camera is over 5 years old, it has it’s quirks, but it still works for me and keeps me going. I’m very excited to see my sister start her Photo a Day project with her iPhone. Photo communities are everywhere online today. Instagram, Google+(hint use the search bar to search for photography, or whatever), Smugmug(I love smugmug, use code:8v0X3g7f8J58s for $5 off), and Flickr are great places to find inspiration.
For the longest time I hesitated using portrait photography in my dental practice, because I didn’t have room for a portrait studio in my office. Honestly, it wasn’t the fact that I didn’t have room for a studio, it was fear of not knowing how to properly set up lights or use a flash or the correct background. Finally I decided it was time to forget about what I didn’t have or didn’t know and think about what gear and skills I already had. So I started to take portraits in my office. I still have lots to learn, but i’m learning along the way. As I’m learning I’m also learning about pieces of gear that are helpful along the way. Adding gear as necessary, not waiting until I have all the gear I think I need. Here’s a photo from a recent portrait photo shoot.
So what are you going to start doing, I mean learning today? If you’ve already started what got you started?
Today was one of those days, when you pull the memory card out of the reader and hit the delete key on every image take so far today because they was nothing worthy of showing anyone, let alone myself. Which is when I usually ask my kids for ideas. So here’s my son enjoying a banana. I had to do a little work in the post as this was initially poorly underexposed, mainly due to the poor lighting conditions in my dining room! Here’s my photo for day #9
Here’s the saved JPG from the RAW file(yes, there is a little more wiggle room with a RAW file, but i’ve had this work equally as well using High JPG’s):
It’s just a bit dark, because of time I just used Aperture(Mac App Link) for the processing:
I adjusted the exposure so that the histogram was just touching the right hand side and played around with a few others tools as you can see in the screen shot above.
It’s a fun image and nice Monday save.
I’m just starting this list of books that have been helpful to me. There are Amazon links included.
Photography Books
Art of Photography-Bruce Birnbaum
Amazon Link
This book reads like a text book. It’s an exhaustive text. This book really got me thinking about the process of creating art through photography. Photography is not just about snapping a photo and hoping for the best. The setup, composition, lighting, exposure and development of the digital negative all matter. I especially enjoyed the chapters on development of the negative and creation of the print. Even though most of book mentions film photography the message applies to a digital work flow as well. Not even the film photographers print photos straight out of the camera. If you’re a fan of photography and want to expand your horizons, this is a great start.
On-Camera Flash Techniques for Digital Wedding and Portrait Photography-Neil van Niekerk
I really had no idea how to use my on camera flash until I picked up this book. I always thought on camera flash photos looked liked flash photographs. Then I picked up this book, it got me thinking about the way I use my flash and what I needed to learn to get better shots when you have no other choice but to use a flash. Wedding photographers, in my humble opinion are on camera flash pros. Receptions are usually dark places. Neil van Niekerk really explains is approach in a way that that made sense to me. He extensively discusses snoots and other flash modifiers that is helpful especially if you’re not sure what to buy.
This is my daughter hanging over the couch today! Day 8 of 366.
ISO1000 ƒ/4 T1/40
So here’s the saved JPG from the RAW file:
I liked this, but I decided to go with sepia tones and to crop the image square as well. So here’s a screenshot of my edits in Aperture
Here’s another image from today I thought was fun:
See all the fun you can have hanging over the couch!
Good friends of ours have two dogs Bella and Mitzy, the Maltese sisters. Whenever we go over for a visit my daughter wants to play with them. So today we got to play with the dogs, so I grabbed a few pics along the way.
ISO 1000 ƒ/4 T 1/100
Post processing was handled in Aperture(Mac App Link) as I was pleased with its B&W conversion. Here’s the saved jpg from the RAW file:
I liked the lighting but wanted to clean it up a bit so here’s a screenshot of my saved edits in Aperture:
As you’ll notice I did do a bit of dodging to her face and i burned the background just a bit as well in addition to the vignette, sorry I haven’t figured out to show burning and dodging in a still image. Maybe someday I’ll get brave enough to do a video screen capture.
Here are some other captures from today as well:
Had a few minutes at home today and noticed these tulips in the kitchen window. The light was fairly harsh at the time I took this photo so I decided to try a bit of processing to see what I could come up with.
ISO 1000 ƒ/7.1 T 1/2000 at 62mm
Here’s the initial jpg saved from the RAW file:
So I didn’t do a whole lot in Aperture but I did do some minor levels adjustment and added a bit of contrast as seen in the Screenshot below:
Which led to this image:
So then I opened the file up in OnOneSoftware’s Perfect Effects 3, which is included in the Perfect Photo Suite
I added 2 effects one Snappy Warm and then I added a new layer and added the Polachrome filter and adjusted the opacity to 50% on the top layer to soften it just a bit…
Tulips in black and white always intrigue me, while I love the color of tulips, there is something about the soft textures of their petals that comes out when the color is removed.
Came home from work and it was dark but I found one of my kids Piggy Bank’s. So I decided to see what I could do with it. Here’s my final image, Note if click on the image a larger image can be viewed :
ISO 100 ƒ/2.8 T 1/40 at 50mm with an off camera flash unit to camera right bounced of the slanted ceiling.
Here’s the saved JPG file from the RAW file, note I use Aperture for my initial RAW processing
A tad bit dull, but again I slightly underexposed the image to help remove the background clutter, so here are my edits in Aperture(Mac App Link):
From here I opened the file up in Perfect Photo Effects 3 from OnOneSoftware’s Perfect Photo Suite and used the Glow>Deep Forest effect for the final image. I think a few edits have been helpful.
Sadly, this piggy bank is empty.
