Author: Jason

Back to Basics

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Today as I am getting back into the swing of things after a day or so of downtime, I have a couple miscellaneous items that may be of use…  A lot of it is basic stuff, but there is a common thread to it as they all involve some concept of “back”.  So, here is a Friday Foursome of tips to improve your photos.  The theme:  Back to Basics

 

  1. Back story – provide some background on how you got the shot.  Give it a personal meaning or significance for the viewer.  Often times connections with imagery are because of a personal tie to it – and if you give people a hint of the “who, what, where, when why, how” element of your photos that you share, it can increase the impact.  Just remember, keep back stories short – if it takes two pages to set the stage, the show will almost always disappoint.
  2. Backgrounds – speaking of backgrounds, take a look at the backgrounds in your photos.  Are there any elements there that draw your eye?  If so, that is likely a detractor.  Keep backgrounds simple.  If shooting a lot of family members at a dinner, keep the lower edge of your camera above the table line to avoid the distraction of glasses, plates, food, centerpieces, etc.  Likewise, look where people are.  Is it a crowded subway or is it a meadow of daisies?  Either can serve to enhance or detract from your image because the background can take emphasis away from the subject or it can help focus on your subject.  Generally speaking, the simpler the background, the better the picture!
  3. Backsides – in family or group shot settings, can you see anyone’s backside?  If so, then their face is not likely facing the camera.  We tend to prefer shots of people where we can see their faces, so if you see someone’s backside, hold off on taking that shot – get them to turn around a little.
  4. Backups – It’s been said before, but the importance of backing up your files can never be understated.  When do you backup?  I do it three times – on first import to the computer, after I sort through and delete out unwanted images, and then after I process for print and web.  Typically the latter two will be purged after a month or so of inactivity.  By purge, I mean relegated to the RAID side of the house, rather than the active folder I keep on my desktop.

 

So, that’s the Back to Basics for Friday.  Any other tips out there I missed where you can incorporate the term “back” into the subject?  I had four, but surely there’s more!  (Heh, if it’s not alliterative, at least it rhymes, right?)  Happy shooting, everyone!  Watch those apertures and we’ll see you back here Monday!

 

P.S.  Don’t forget about the Photographing Freedom contest now underway here at CB – day 7 of 30!

What’s This? Week 5 – or is it 6?

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This last week have been rather hectic for me, so I honestly don’t remember what week we are on for the “What’s This?” theme.   I think it’s Week5, but perhaps someone could confirm this for me in the comments.  Truth be told, I also have not had the luxury of much surf time so I don’t have much in the way of web traffic to point people to. Just a couple links to float out there for you.  First, this is day 6 of the first ever CB photo contest “Photographing Freedom”, so keep that in mind.  News and info on that available from the July 3 post here.

In web news, I will say that there was an amazing post by a guest writer at Scott Kelby’s blog today. (I am going to refrain from my personal thoughts on the subject, but it’s worth reading – especially if you have a background in higher education like I do). I’d be interested in hearing what others think on this subject in the comments.

The other fun bit of news also involved another guest writing on Scott’s blog, courtesy of John Nack, one of the senior staff over at Adobe.  He wrote on his appearance about the desire for transparent windows and was met with a little bit of ruffled feathers from others in the field.  Check out the respective posts to the discussion here, here, and here to get Matt K.’s take, John’s take, and then Jeff Revel’s take.  Interesting world we live in.  Three people all with direct ties to “the man” and three different opinions on it.  I wonder which way Adobe is going to go on this?  While I realize that there is some agreement on parts of it, and alternatives vary depending on whether you’re talking about transparency or translucency, but to me, it’s a window that I have off on my second monitor anyway, so I don’t really care.  Go with John’s approach and devote R&D to other more meaningful improvements.  But, I said this would be a quick post today, and this is starting to ramble, so I’l leave it up to the readers:  Where do you think PS development should go?

So, moving quickly to the “What’s This?” subject for this week, I went through some of my own archives to see if I could find an interesting crop (and I did), so here is a crop of a much larger image. I’ve tried to keep some of the context, but at the same time make it intriguing to guess what this is. So, without further ado…What’s This?:

What's This - Week 5?

Last week, in case you hadn’t guessed it – it was a flower!  Congrats to those who knew and saved their comments for a more challenging post (ahem – today!)  Good luck, have fun, Happy Shooting and we’ll see you here tomorrow!

The 40D versus the XT

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40d versus XT

We are now in day 5 of the first ever photo contest from Canon Blogger, so keep thinking freedom as you point that lens – it could win you cold hard cash!  Check out the details from the post of July 3rd, here. In new news, I got a good long weekend with family to shoot with the 40D, and after some pretty extensive shooting (over 1500 shots in 48 hours), I’ve had a chance to get at least a good handle on the basics of the 40D.  Granted I do not have the minutia of it down pat like on the XT, but I suspect that will only come with more time behind the lens.

Anyway, I thought now might be as good a time as ever to give you the lowdown on my thoughts of the 40D as they compare to the XT.  It was definitely worth the upgrade!  I put together a short video showing a comparison of some of the benefits of the 40D over the XT, as well as one rather disappointing thing.  I should be back next week with a regular Photoshop tip – just the last few weeks have been rather crazy with prepping the house to be “show ready”.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s the 40D versus XT home video I recorded earlier today.  Enjoy and we’l see you tomorrow with the latest edition of “What’s This?”.  Happy shooting and watch those apertures!

The Beauty of Bokeh

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Happy Monday to all – before getting into this week’s first post, I’d like to take a moment and remind everone of the NEW CONTEST that CB has started.  The theme is Photograph Freedom, and there are prizes to be had.  More details can be found on the post from 7-3, linked here.

On to new news, I was thinking about subjects over the course of the weekend that could serve as useful material for fellow photographers and aspiring photographers that has not seen much coverage lately (no sense in repeating everything that everyone else has already said 10 different ways, right?).  I got to thinking about everything that makes for capturing great images, and one aspect that contributes (or detracts from) that I’ve not seen much attention on lately is that of bokeh.  So, in the spirit of putting out new and original (as well as useful) content, I did a bit of research over the weekend, and have put together an article on The Beauty of Bokeh. Any who would like to read this initial version are welcome to download the PDF file attached to this post.

In closing for Monday, I’d like to leave it to the readers out there:  what are your thoughts on the quality and nature of bokeh?  Do you clean up your bokeh or do you like the effect it has on images?  What types of bokeh appeal to you and what do you find not as appealing?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Photograph that freedom!

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United States Flag

With tomorrow being the 4th of July, I will be taking the day off from blogging. I will be taking a short trip to NY to spend some time with family and close friends over the long weekend – then it’s back to SC to finish our packing and preparations for the move to Colorado.

While many others will also be traveling and spending time with family and friends, we will all no doubt be snapping away with our cameras. We’ll likely be capturing our relatives, families and friends in various activities: eating, drinking, general merriment, perhaps a baseball game, or running with sparklers, or taking in some fireworks at the local ballpark. All of these activities are just a few of the ways in which we celebrate our freedom and the establishment of our independence as the United States of America!

The United States of America has many problems that we face. Tomorrow though, we celebrate one of the best things about this country – the establishment of our freedom from the crown of England. It’s pretty amazing if you think about it. A bunch of rough-shod farmers, a few businessmen, and political thinkers, stuck up for one another and to defend our rights. Our right to own land, unobstructed from military regimes, the right to bear arms, the freedom of speech, the freedom from religious oppression, the right to choose those who we permit to govern on our behalf – and in our best interests. Yet these days, it seems our rights to freedom are gradually eroding away. Land can be taken “for the public good”, while the country is faced with economic recession and layoffs, the military-industrial complex continues to thrive, laws continue to limit our ability to defend ourselves, speech is becoming offensive and restricted, religious zealots (or aetheists) push agendas in purely subjective directions, and elections are becoing more and more of a circus, it seems we are not as free as we once were.

Before people think this is a political post, or a rant on the social and economic woes of the times (which it kind of has been thus far), rest assured: it’s not. Instead, I am suggesting that we photographers go out tomorrow, and over the course of the next month and look for examples of freedom. Capture the essence of freedom in a photograph. Think you got a good one? Then share it! I’ve set up a Flickr group to share pictures into with Canon Blogger. We’ll go for the next 30 days, so from July 4th to August 4th, the challenge is to go out and capture the essence of freedom in a photo.

Share it with the Canon Blogger Flickr group. Once the time window closes, I’ll go through all the pictures and put a slide show together here on the blog of all the images. Plus, the best shot will actually WIN something! That’s right, Canon Blogger will be hosting it’s first ever photo contest! I’ll choose what I think is the best image that captures the essence of freedom in a photo and give that lucky winner the first ever prize from Canon Blogger. Since this is a prize that is coming out of my own pockets, there are a few restrictions though (you knew there would be). Here they are:

  • All shots must be taken within the United States.
  • All shots must be taken between July 4th and August 4th 2008
  • While photo corrections are permitted, editing should be restricted to corrections (adjusting shadow and highlight details, a little dodging and burning here and there, etc.) only. No composites!
  • Be prepared to submit an original image with all exif data, no smaller than 800 px on the longest side.
  • All images must be submitted to (and remain shared in) the Canon Blogger thread titled “Photograph Freedom” on Flickr.
  • The decision of the judge (me) is final.
  • 2nd place, 3rd place, and Honorable mentions will also be noted for their images.
  • No person can submit more than 3 shots for consideration.
  • Shots included on Flicker should be no larger than 600px on the longest dimension.

So, the big question is still lurking in everyone’s minds: what’s the prize? Well, it’s not much, but the winner of the first ever contest from Canon Blogger will receive a $25 gift card to their choice of Amazon or B&H Photo!

Everyone who enters an image will be included in the slide show, but there will be only one grand prize winner. But wait a second, grand prize? You mean there’s more? That’s right! The 2nd, 3rd place and honorable mentioned photos will also receive accolades. Here’s the list of all prizes:

  1. 1st Place: $25 gift card to your choice of Amazon or B&H Photo
  2. 2nd Place: A DVD of all videos produced by CB thus far.
  3. 3rd Place: A CD of all articles written and shared here on CB to date.

All finalists will also get (Honorable Mentions included) a day of your photo (and website if you have one) promoted and highlighted on the blog. Naturally, all ownership of images stays with the shooter, except for the instances of display outlined above (the slide show and the day of recognition).

P.S.  While travelling I hopped online while on layover at DC, and saw a link to the blog coming from Hyperphocal.  Looks like they picked up my latest article I submitted, titled “Looking at Light”  It’s actually a pretty good read, even if I do say so myself.  But, since todays post was already on another topic, that article will likely be long gone by the time I get back from NY.  So, stop over to Hyperphocal today and check out the latest!  Happy holidays all and happy shooting!  (Keep watching those apertures…)

Wednesday Walk around the Web returns

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Surprise!

As the final hours approach me here on Tuesday, I still find myself struggling to capture something of interest that would be a fun topic for the “What’s This?”, so, a rather easy one is up for your guessing pleasure. Truth be told though, this is kind of lame, and as such, I would like more of the focus for today’s post to be the traditional “walk around the web” Here’s what’s going on this week in photo land:

  1. First, stop over to Scott Kelby’s blog – guest writer John Nack from a little company called Adobe will be filling in, and if you don’t already know who he is, and why we listen, stop over at his blog to catch up…
  2. Next, some shout outs to…well, myself sort of, but also to Scott Eggleston, over at Weekly Photo Tips. He chose an image I shared with him over on his blog as a monthly winner in his photo contest! While I am flattered to have won the prize, it’s just more germane to say that as I was packing things up the other day, I was talking to my wife about how I wished I had some convenient way to pack my AA batteries! Hello Alanis Morrisette, isn’t that ironic? He also had a post on late last week on how to shoot reflective surfaces with a YouTube video too – very informative!
  3. Next, Brian Reyman over at Professional Snapshots has his third in a series of lighting tutorials he’s posting on. Very useful and a great presentation of the info there. I’ve been reading Brian’s blog for a while now and he has a truly innovative way of thinking. Shout outs to Brian! 🙂
  4. Visual Realia continues to keep my creative juices flowing, even though I did not come up with a very good image for today./ Look at Andy’s blog any time you need a kick start for your creative voice. His last three images of normal playing cards, show how anything can be beautiful if well visioned and composed!
  5. Finally, stop over to Hyperphocal for some great reading material if you have some time. It’s becoming quite the repository of excellent photo-related articles. A couple recent articles include the subject of Getting your photos into gallery shows, and Reasons to watermark your imagery. Like I said, great reading all around!

Since others have discussed it, particularly today, it bears mentioning (at least acknowledging anyway) that Nikon has released to new bits of gear – the D700 body and the SB-900 flash. Rather than regale you with tons of links on both of these, let’s just say that since reading quite a few posts from some respected photog-types, it seems people are curious about teh new body, but almost to the tune of 75%, they are expressing more excitement over the flash. Even Michael Johnston from The Online Photographer
picks up on the news, and throws in an off-handed remark about the new flash (and two new PC lenses that I’d not even read about until hitting his blog). Just goes to show you, the bells and whistles are there to generate new interest, and in many cases, it works! Having said that, it seems more and more that the tried and true utilitarian upgrades and additions to a camera line are what pulls repeat buyers back for more.

Until tomorrow, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

As a shameless self-promotion slug, as we move toward the holiday weekend, it’s time too brush up on your night photography. Remember what apertures and shutters are and how they relate? Refresh over at The Online Photography Test , hosted right here at CB! So, stop over there to test your A&S awareness (among other things) before heading out to shoot for the day! Don’t forget to pick up the feed for CB if you haven’t already.

Backpacks, and Belts and Bags: Oh My!

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For this week (and the foreseeable future), I am continuing the “live video talks” where I share a little insight into things I use and do to with photography, and the gear that’s involved.  This week, I recall that some others have done a “What’s in Your Bag?” type of theme, and rather than just show you my gear (which is what the question basically is a lead-in for), I also share some different bags and bag systems I have used, and that I continue to use.  Bag types range from small shoulder bags, to belt systems, backpacks, and equipment bags.  One bag I did not include is one for your tripod and/or light stand.

 

Anyway, it’s kind of a bandwidth intensive episode this week at over 100 MB of download in Quicktime ® format.  Sorry, again, no flash-based version.  Until Camtasia can import .mov files and render as Flash, when I record in QT, the .mov format is all I can do.

 

With that in mind, I’d like to also open it up to the readers/viewers out there.  What kinds of bags or bag systems do you use?  Backpacks?  Belts?  Shoulder bags?  What works best for you?  Sound off in the comments!

 

Monday Muscle Failure

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Muscles

This was quite the weekend!  Two of three bedrooms have been cleaned up, packaged, and taken to an off-site storage so we can “stage” the house.  Apparently staging a house is very important when selling.  It helps “define the space” for the prospective buyer.  Anyway, as a result of all the lifting, bending, pushing, pulling, hauling, and shoving (oh yeah, we packed some boxes too!), we are very much in a state of “muscle failure”.  For the more athletically inclined, you know what I am talking about.  For the rest, when you push your muscles to the brink of not being able to work, they quiver visibly, and that is called muscle failure.  Suffice to say, our normally light-hearted fare transitioned very quickly to a Whopper with fries and an ice cold beer afterwards.

Anyway, no glory shots from the new 40D to share…sorry.  Although I am stopping by the storage unit later on today, so will likely have the camera with me.  Whilst organizing that, I did notice a few “photo opportunities” (whenever I hear that phrase, I think of Ron White and a  bit he did – see reference link from the 4:30 mark to 6:00 mark) , so may have some better post material tomorrow or later on today.  Tomorrow will be another fun video too…so a little teaser there just to keep you interested.  Until then though, take a moment and stop over at ProPhotoLife.  They put out a great video on how to light tabletop stills wit just one light and mirrors as your other light sources.  Very cool – especially for the DIYer (I am going to go retrieve a mirror I was going to throw out in the move now!)

Happy shooting, watch those apertures, and we’ll see you tomorrow!