christmas morning stills

as I was talking with my wife, I told her I wasn't going to pull out the video camera this year. Firstly, I wanted to enjoy being there, not behind a camera continually. Secondly, I didn't want to edit more video (it takes too long). So here are a few of the pictures from opening presents. And here is the lighting scheme. These flashes were set on TTL (through the lens) so they let the camera do the thinking. The 1st flash through umbrella was set about 4 feet up on a stand and the 2nd one was down at about 2 feet high. This allowed for a dichotomy of light (brighter from the 2nd flash)
And even though I am normally shooting in M mode or A mode, this time I used P mode and was pleased with what the camera gave me.











This shot of Amber was just holding the flash pointing straight up in the room in my left hand.

The shot of Scott sitting on carpet was on camera flash pointed at ceiling.

PICK OF THE DAY

Shooting Tethered

So I have seen lots of people, via the internet, shooting tethered. What is that? Well, here's what it looks like.


Forgive the quick and dirty (GIMP'd) image on the laptop.
What happens is the image you shoot goes directly to a file on your computer almost instantly after taking the shot. This seems to be especially useful for portraits... it is a controlled environment, and you want to ensure you have a well lit, sharply focused shot.
The benefit is that the computer screen gives you a larger viewing area than your LCD on the back of your camera and a more accurate idea of what this end-product really looks like. In addition, your subjects can then come over to the computer and actually see what you have shot as well.
I want to try this with a load of portraits at the ward party this weekend.
So how do you do it?

Well, I use Bridge and a Mac. As I was reading yesterday, it appeared that I needed system 10.5. But after a trial with my 10.4 system at home... it works flawless.

Here's how...

Set your camera (on Nikon it is in the Set up menu; down to USB; select PTP (there are 2 options on mine... one is mass storage and the other PTP).
Plug in your camera via USB to your computer.
Then open Automator which is found in Applications folder. You will need to download this little file which allows your computer to see grab those files from the camera and it will put them in your picture folder.
Open Bridge and select to view the picture folder.
You will see the pictures come onto the screen as you shoot. So cool!

By the way, it still stores the pictures on your camera as well as sending them to the computer instantly and automatically.

If you use Lightroom

If you use Aperture

Sorry, I didn't include PC usage, but I have read that it is equally possible with Windows

Photoshop Friday

Hmmm, where did that week go? Well, I am going to cut back on blogging to this site... I am going to try 1 or 2 a week. That's probably enough to ruminate on anyway.

Photo today is one we took in Zion National Park on a canyon called Mystery.
This shot was taken by my friend who had a great little PAS camera. The quality of these images was fabulous, but the vibrance of colors was lacking.

If you have photoshop CS3 or CS4 they have included, in Camera Raw, a similar function called Vibrance next to the Saturation slider. For some landscape shots, and if you don't have CS3 or 4, this little action is great. Here is the download

Let's take this image from our trip...


When I apply that action, it makes 3 additional layers... each one having more vibrance. Click off of the 3 square boost for this image. You will see a little better balance. Now change the layer opacity down to about 55%... your layers palette should look like this...


And you image now should look like this...

And this vibrance shift really illustrates the true colors of that wall. We were in awe... and it's nice when you can more closely match that brilliance.
SIDE NOTE: The LabBoost1square is just 1 square instead of 3. If I use this technique with portraits, I only hit them with 1 square, so I made this action for portraits.

Pick of the day--
found on flickr
This shot was taken with a PAS camera but they used an f-stop of 4 which led to the nice depth of field. Well done with a PAS camera. These were just below the top of Timp

Photoshop Friday - early

Since I am taking off Thur-Mon for Thanksgiving, I thought I would jump to a photoshop Friday early.


At the risk of using a friend's image without permission, I go forth with a photoshop tutorial today.

Lens Blur tool (DIY depth of focus)

Jason is, in my opinion, a great photographer; I really like the way he captures people and feelings. He recently posted this engagement picture that he took. I really like the perspective and the lighting is superb. Great capture. This image is perfect for illustrating a photoshop'd focal length blur.

This is when I wish I could do a video tutorial, because it can get a bit laborious describing and reading this explanation... so hopefully you can bare with me.

First I copy the layer (command-J) on the mac
then I make a layer mask.
I then use the gradient tool and drag a line through the mask.
Now your layers palette might look something like this...
click on the part of the layer that I have placed the big black arrow on and go to the Filter menu and down to Blur and on to Lens Blur
my settings on Lens blur look like this:
Click on the image between the faces of the couple. You should notice that their faces come into focus and the rest becomes blurred.
(feel free to click around a couple of times at different spots and notice how the area you click becomes focused while leaving the rest blurred (according to the layer mask))

Alright... I hope you're still with me.

Click on the OK button and now on the layers palette drag the layer mask to the trash and hit the DELETE button, not apply.
Make another layer mask and then you can start to paint away the blurring that you don't want. Change the opacity of your brush to give it a gradual look or use your gradient tool again if you like.
Your layers palette might look something like this now.
Here is my final product... I also added just a little bit of darkening vignette to give more attention to the couple.
Again, great picture to work with here... allowing a some fun post-processing.

Thanks Jason for allowing me to alter your image.

Pick of the day:
This image is taken from Fort Photo's flickr collection. He has some real gems.

DIY Links

So I am running a little low on free time at work today, and I wanted to keep this a morning post... Here's my best shot.

Here are some links that I have found helpful... on making your own equipment... because heaven knows, this stuff really starts to add up.

Homemade Bounce Toys

Studio Lighting Equipment -DIY

photo of homemade flash toys

Don't do this at home

And a not home-made one. This is one of those tools everyone should have. It doubles as a reflector and a diffuser. I use this to bounce my flash, bounce the sunlight, and to diffuse my flash or the sunlight. It has a silver reflector, a gold one, a silver/gold mix, and it folds up. A must have for portraits.

Pick of the Day:
I really like this perspective... the rich colors, and the lighting nailed it. I like the complimentary highlights on the tractor and the barn in the background. I also enjoy the lines in this image.

Aperture

a few thoughts on aperture...

wait... a few thoughts on LENSES first. Lenses first, because the type of lens you have decides how open you can go with aperture. There are 3 types of lenses out there, and I will try to keep my bias out of this.

1- kit lenses (these are the lenses that comes with a camera kit) i.e. purchase the Nikon D300 or D90 at your local store and it will have the option of being bundled with a lens that offers a fairly wide range of zoom and a variable f-stop (3.5-5.6). At wider angles this lens offers f3.5 but as you zoom in, the f stop is only capably of 5.6 as the largest aperture. Usually the focus motor on these kit lenses is par (not real fast and sometimes prone to wear out before the camera body does)

2- professional lenses - "fast-glass" As far as I can tell, they are called fast for 2 reasons... because they are f2.8, you have a larger aperture and allow more light in. That allows for faster shutter speeds at lower lighting conditions. Secondly, they have a faster focus motor in them. In addition, they are generally made more robust than the kit lenses. These lenses usually cost about 3 to 5 times more than the kit lenses.

3- third party lenses (like Sigma and Tamron) If you are seeking fast glass but can't afford the name brands (like Nikon or Canon) these can offer a comparable alternative. They can be had for about 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of the fast glass.

So with that out of the way...let's move into APERTURE.

Dept of focus is often a sign of a professional lens versus a kit lens, (and coincidingly, a professional looking picture and a point and shoot (PAS) look)
Question: How do I get a smaller dept of field?
3 ways - wide aperture (like f1.4 or 2.8), zoom lens, and put your subject far from their background. I don't have time to go into the details of why, but check this out for the mathematically-inclined or this site or this site for a lot of detail or this site for the basics
An example... I used all of the previous techniques in this shot... f stop of 4 (I believe), 300mm (450mm on my D50 body), and background quite far from subjects (like 50 feet or more)


Question:
What f-stop should I use for portraits?
Most of the time I use between 4 and 5.6. If you go too big on the aperture, your front row will be in focus while your back row is out of focus. Also, remember to have all of the people in your portrait about the same distance from the camera. If the group is large (8 or more people), you probably will do better to bring the end people closer (like a semi-circle) so that all the people are the same distance from the camera. This allows for the photographer to keep a 4 or 5 f-stop and maintain good lighting.
Another reasons for 4 to 5.6 is that they bring in more light than the f8-f11 and allow for faster shutter speed (less blur from movement in your subjects is pretty critical).
Also, if you are using artificial light (flashes AKA "strobes") they have only so much power to put out. As you decrease your aperture (go toward 22) your flash has to work harder and harder to give you the same amount of light. This is another discussion for another day, but the short answer is that your flash output is directly related only to your f-stop, not to your shutter speed.

Question:
When would I use Aperture priority (A) or Manual (M) mode instead of shutter priority (S)
A: when you are concerned with depth of focus, usually close-ups or portraits
Times when you would not use aperture priority is landscapes or on a vacation where you want your subject and your landscape both in focus.
Or you probably would not choose (A) when there is a lot of action because it can force the shutter speed to be slower if lighting is low

Pick of the day: found on flickr
f/22 46mm ISO 200


I love the composition of this shot. Love the framing of the rider with the horns. I like the rider looking to the side.
There are a couple of changes I would have liked to see with this shot. The sky is obviously blown out (stark white) and the brightness and focus of the mountains behind the rider are drawing attention away from the rider.
It appears that the rider was originally quite shadowed, so they hit this image with the fill light feature in Photoshop or Bridge (you can see the graininess of the rider, which shouldn't be the case with ISO 200) . Furthermore, I have noticed that fill light gives some detail back to the shadow areas (the subject) but doesn't give the subject the due attention that additional light would.
So, at your own risk of ticking off this bull with a big reflector or a flash: big silver/gold reflector lower left or an off-camera flash lower left would really help the subject stand out more. If I used a flash I would probably underexpose by a couple of stops and set my flash on plus a couple stops (this will be it's own blog). But the intention here would be to expose more correctly for the sky and decrease the attention given to the bright hills behind the subject. (Yet another blog will be on syncing your flash above shutter speed of 250). Simplified, just use a fill flash on this subject and call it good.

Photoshop Friday I

Photoshop Friday:

If you've worked with photoshop much, you probably know that there is almost always at least 3 ways to do the same job.

So here are three ways to lighten the unwanted darker parts of your picture.


First of all, the most crude way is to go down to the layer options and choose Levels...
slide those slider triangles back and forth (3 of them) and see what your image does. This can be a good place to start, but more often I go with option 2 here. I usually use a mask layer and paint or use gradient tool after this effect.

Secondly is in the Image menu go to Adjustments and down to shadows/highlights... This one works more effectively, I think.
This does a pretty good job of lightening those shadows and toning down the highlights. Play around with this one a bit. Add a mask and then on the mask layer try the gradient tool.

Thirdly is an action I made from a tip on photoshopkillertips.com
Here is the action to download... it is very simple. Here are the steps, and you can record it to your own action very simply.
Make a new blank layer with the new layer icon in the layers palette.
Hit Shift F5 or go to menu Edit and down to Fill. In the drop down box, select 50% gray and hit OK
Then choose layer style Overlay on the layers palette
(not quite done)
choose the brush tool and select your opacity to between 15 and 25% and hit the D key to make sure your color palette is black and white
Now you are ready to paint in some highlights and darken some areas. Just start brushing and hit the X key to switch from lightening to darkening.
Here is the tutorial from Matt Kloslowski - about 17mb

Have a great weekend!

Pic of the day:
comes from a friend of mine...

great treatment... the stylized look really adds to the animation of this photo. Love the lighting... no harsh shadows, simple white background and great composition. Great close up portrait. Nice job! Note the reflection in the glasses... I hope to address relfected light and family of angles in a future blog.