but another drop dead date was today as tomorrow we have our first showing after listing the house on the market. My task of the day (it seems I am getting more and more of these)…clean the garage. So, to make it really worth my while, I told Tracy that if that’s the case I needed a Shop-Vac (and a good one) to get all the standing water out that had dripped off the tires onto the garage floor – it just wouldn’t get clean without that.
It worked! Not only did I get a clean (relatively) garage floor – I also got a brand new 14 gallon ShopVac from Lowes. A few extra attachments and a spare filter only set me back about $120, so all in all, it was a good deal! (Although I realized how much junk I’d managed to accrue over the last 16 months…) Just goes to show you that with all the gadgetry in the world, there is always something out there you still want and/or need! Ladies and Gentlemen…I give to you – my new ShopVac (and now clean garage!):
Ain’t she pretty? And the job she did on the garage was pretty amazing too!
Okay, sorry for the photo interruption, but I just had to share now that I have a clean garage space – first time in over a year…back to photography:
Stay tuned tomorrow for my full write-up on the new Canon Rebel (the 2T I think), and some great creative challenges for you heading into the weekend. In the meantime – anyone else have any non-photo gadgets that they got and suddenly realized they should never have been without? Mine is definitely the Shop-Vac!
We’ve talked a lot about various rules of composition – what they are (Rule of Thirds, Golden Mean, etc) and when to adhere versus eschew them to create dramatic effect. One thing we’ve not talked much about is the idea of changing your angle of view. We have mentioned the concept in the past, suggesting that to get a good perspective to look up, look down, look behind you, and in new directions to get a unique view on things. While this is always a good practice to remind yourself that there are other perspectives, it’s never really been discussed or illustrated in depth.
So, what I did was take a pretty ordinary object – my coffee mug – and take ten different pictures of it. I challenged myself to look at one thing in ten unique ways – at different angles, and to try and find one that showed me something different than what I would usually expect to see. I did get ten different angles, so technically I accomplished the objective. Since some were very close to one another though, I am sharing here six different angles of view to help illustrate the purpose behind the exercise:
I used my 70-200 f4 and a tripod. The white background you see in some pictures is just a piece of foam packing that was used to ship prints to me a while back. I had my flash on the hot shoe, pointing up and to the rear most of the time. Camera settings were 1/250th, at f4, and an ISO of 400.
It was pretty fun actually because I drink coffee every day! So, taking this regular object that I usually don’t even think twice about (although I am a coffee hound so I do have quite a collection of mugs to choose from…), I took 6 distinctly different angles of view. Some are more boring than others, sure! But some are actually kinda cool – in particular I am fond of the one with the mug handle sticking in the air! To keep it in place I simply stuck my lenscap behind the mug as a prop! It’s a fun exercise, and can make you see regular objects and scenes in new ways. This is just one way to force yourself to think creatively.
So now, it’s reader assignment time – go find something regular, anything! Whether it’s a coffee mug, a screwdriver, a telephone or a clock radio…pick something then force yourself to take ten different shots of it. Zoom in close, go super wide. Drop your aperture way open for more blur and selective focus. Use a totally different lens than you normally would. Going with the 70-200 I forced myself to back up. I could have swapped to the 10-22mm and gotten something totally different…and the same goes for the 70mm macro. Whether you live in an apartment, a house, or……an airstream (do you really know anyone that would live in an airstream?), there are tons of ways to think creatively that surround you! Seek them out, and you will find a piece of yourself – share it with the world!
Post your creativity exercise shots up on Flickr in the LDP pool – show that creative side and happy shooting! Until tomorrow, keep them shutters clicking, and watch out for a new Audioboo about the new Canon T2 Rebel – gonna be a fun clip on what Canon has been up to! 🙂
The most common questions I get here on the blog center around the idea of how to take better pictures. Whether those “better pictures” are better landscapes, or portraits, wildlife or events, everyone wants suggestions on how to approach the practice of taking pictures better. Esoteric and creative considerations aside, there are some fundamental “tricks of the trade” that, by and large, will almost always improve your craft in pretty much any genre. So, today, I thought I would take a moment to share 5 “tricks” I’ve learned that always lead to better landscapes: Continue reading “5 Tips to Better Landscapes”→
We all see them every day – the sun rises and the sun sets. Most of the time, it’s nothing too spectacular, perhaps some pretty colors are cast with various hues of orange and blue, or red and purple hazes…it’s all well and good. We may even see some spectacular ones…a crimson or scarlett red, or fire-y orange ones. They may also have an added impact if they are reflected in a lake, the ocean, or dramatized by their surroundings – palm trees, mountains, boats, or whatever happens to be there.
The spectacular ones are typically the ones we see in print, on calendars, and in magazines. Yet every day, we find our eyes gazing toward that first and last light…knowing that we could see something magical. Does this make the ones with more vibrant colors more magical? The ones with fewer colors less magical? Perhaps, but consider this – we are always looking for it. Consider this project: take a picture of the sunrise and/or sunset every day for a week, month, or even a few months. Take it from the same spot every day. Find yourself some nice vantage point with some nice accents to the main subject (that being the sunset). Then, after your specified time period is up, peruse the results and see how many “great” sunsets (or sunrises) you saw.
It could be a fun project not only to help you gauge when the sky will be well suited to sunrises and sunsets, but also to exercise some discipline in taking the same shot from the same vantage point, if only to understand when conditions are ideal. This could be termed “scouting” in a sense, because you’ve found a nice place, set things up, planned, and then you just wait for the right light. So many photographers talk about the light, and we hear terms bandied about like “seeing the light”, or “painting with light”. I’ve heard a few mention the idea of “waiting for the right light”, and it mostly has come from landscape photographers. This is what they do…they take the same scene over and over and over.
With practice, they can anticipate when the conditions will be favorable. Their sense are more attuned to things like clouds, weather, and distractions. Rather than relying on luck and serendipity, they plan, research, and study the scene for long periods of time before they find “the right light”. Sure, you can manufacture it, and we’ve all seen the wonder shots in the galleries of others – but if you think about the time and energy that goes into capturing that perfect sunrise or sunset, imagine all the “almost” shots, and the time and energy that went into them, I would suspect that many landscape photographers would say there is value in every sunrise or sunset. Because, even if they didn’t get the light just right in their location, someone – somewhere – when the sun set, nailed it perfectly!
Have you captured your perfect sunrise or sunset yet? Was it planned or by accident? Sound off in the comments and let me know if you think there is still value in sunrises and sunsets. If you’ve got a shot you would like to share, feel free to post that via the upload link too (also in the comments). Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.
Oh yeah, did anyone in Colorado see the sunset today? 🙂 Nothing spectacular to write home about, but it was kind of cool colors, and worthy of showing here to indicate that just because it’s not a portfolio shot, sunset shots (in my mind) have value! What do you think?
P.S. Don’t forget, the January Flickr Giveaway is in progress…submit your photos for a chance to win a free copy of Photomatix Pro from the folks at HDR Soft.
The trumpets sound! The chorus rings, and the internet shall stop and take notice!
Why you ask? We have a winner for the December Giveaway! I am happy to announce that the winner of the December Giveaway Bonanza is none other than:
Frank Sammut!
Frank’s shot of a childs hand, offering up a gift perfectly symbolized the concept of giving, and his blurred bokeh of the holiday theme in the background was just beautiful! He’s got some great work on his Flickr page too, so stop by and check it out and tell him congrats!
Congratulations to Frank for winning the giveaway package! Frank, if you could drop me an email: jason <AT> canonblogger <DOT> com, I’ll get you all the information and relay you to the donors for the giveaway. Thank you to everyone for participating, and especially to the sponsors, including:
David DuChemin (for a free copy of both Within the Frame, and VisionMongers)
MPIX (for a free 16×20 gallery wrap print of Frank’s choice)
HDRsoft (for the license to a copy of Photomatix Pro)
It’s also time to anounce the theme for the January giveaway. We’re going to move away from the seasonally tied themes, so people don’t feel restricted there as different areas are in different seasons. Instead, we’ll be going with something that is going to inspire some dynamite entries for sure: Circles
That’s right, we’re going with a shape! It should be interesting to see what comes in. As always the standard guidelines apply:
Make sure your image is between 600-800px on the longest side.
Try to keep things within the current month. Archives are okay, but preference will be given to current photos
Images should be family/work safe
Should be posted to the Flickr thread for the current month contest
Deadline for entries is Friday, Jan. 29th (again, 3 weeks)
The folks at HDR Soft have been very generous and have offered up another copy of their Photomatix Pro bundle for the January winner – so if you are into the HDR craze, or are interested, there’s another chance to win your very own licensed copy!
The January Flickr thread is up, live and ready for entries, so get out and shoot! Happy New Year and Happy Shooting!
P.S. Can anyone tell me anything different about the site? (For you feed readers, come on over and check things out – something is different! 🙂 )
While recently participating in a Photowalk group outing to Rocky Mountain National Park, with the fellow local photogs, I learned about this great little plugin for Lightroom that allows you to export your photos directly to Flickr…all within Lightroom! It’s a pretty cool little plugin, and as you know, when I learn something new – so do you!
This plugin comes courtesy of Jeffrey Friedl, and one of the greatest features of it is the cost – absolutely free! Well, that’s not exactly true, you do need to spend one cent via Paypal, but for a penny, check out what you can do:
I started off downloading the ZIP file (and it works for Windows or Mac) and expanding the archive. Then I moved the plugin to the root of my Applications folder on the Mac (you can choose where ever you want to store plugins, you just have to tell Lightroom – and for me this is an easy place). The icon for it looks like this:
Flickr Uploader Plugin Icon
Nothing too spectacular yet, and there’s a little bit of installation and customization needed. Your needs may vary based on how you want to use the plugin, Flickr, and Lightroom, but the cool thing is that Jeffrey has put together a plugin for most online locales including Smugmug, Zenfolio, Facebook, Photobucket, and many more. So, if you use another resource, it’s worth checking out. I’ll continue here for the Flickr plugin and you can decide for yourself if it’s worth adding this tool to your workflow.
Next up, I went ahead and configured the plugin from inside of Lightroom to use my Flickr account. Here’s what I did. To start, click on Export, just as if you are exporting to disk or some other resource
Open Export Dialog
One the export dialog box is open (and here’s the tricky part), look to the far right of the gray bar across the top that says “Export to Disk”. You’ll see two little arrows which means there are menu options:
Files on Disk
If you click on those arrows, you’ll get a new dialog box (bet you didn’t know that was there – did you? 🙂 ), and the Flickr option will show up. Select the Flickr dialog one for our purposes here:
Flicker Exporter
Once you select the Flickr Exporter, you will get a new dialog box that will start the authentication process that Lightroom will use to log into Flickr. If you have multiple Flickr accounts, or specific authentication methods you prefer, these steps may change a little based on your needs. But here, I am doing things the most straightforward way:
Flickr Authentication
Next up, if you are logged into Flickr already, the plugin will open a page that will grant access to the plugin. So, it helps if you are already logged into your Flickr account on the internet. So, you’ll get a dialog box that looks something like this from the plugin to that effect:
Warning Notice from Plugin
On clicking the OK button, it will take you to the grant access page, and you’ll get another dialog box that grants the plugin access to post photos to your Flickr account (which, after all, is the goal, right?). The one notable difference you will see in yours is that my face won’t be staring back at you like here. That is the avatar for my Flickr account, so your screen should show your avatar – if it shows something different, then you are in the wrong account (but I guess that goes without saying)!
Granting Access from Flickr Side
A second confirmation screen from Flickr will also let you know that this is a 3rd party application, and just acts as a security measure to make sure you are aware of what that means. Click the button that says “OK, I’ll authorize it”, as shown below. Again, while it goes without saying at this point, your dialog will look a little different different. If it doesn’t and you see my avatar in your Flickr account, I am gonna be calling soon! 🙂
Authorization
Finally, you will get a confirmation screen on Flickr, noting what you’ve done (they make it pretty clear what you’ve done, and how to delete it if needed on the Flickr side):
Flickr Confirmation
On return to the Lightroom interface, you’ll get a confirmation screen there as well – just click it to continue:
Lightroom Confirmation
On granting access, you’ll get an authorization code, which for obvious reasons I am not going to post here, but make a note of that code and enter it back when you return to Lightroom. On completing that you will be presented with the Flickr Uploader Dialog. Here I am going to show you a few key ones that you have to scroll down to be aware of in making your uploading preferences.
Your Flickr Account login in Lightroom
This first shot (above) shows the top part of the dialog, and shows how you are authenticating on Flickr. Now, use the scroll bar on the right side to move down through the options. First stop, the Photo Set. On authenticating, the plugin will pull your complete list of photo sets from Flickr. If you don’t have any photo sets built, then none will be here. Since I do have photo sets, it will default to the first one alphabetically. You can change the sort order, and specify what photo set (if any) you want the uploaded image to be added to, as desired. For this example, I did not add the photo to an existing set, or create a new one.
Photo Set Choice
Pretty straightforward, but let’s keep scrolling through a few more key items you will want to think about utilizing or disabling depending on your work flow. The next one I think warrants mentioning here is the groups. One of the ways you can increase the visibility of your photos on Flickr is by participating in groups. More people look at them, you’ll get more feedback, and sharing our photos with others is the goal anyway, so go ahead and add the appropriate groups here. I selected the group “CanonBlogger” for obvious reasons! 🙂
Publishing to a Group
Only a few other options that I think are useful from this plugin, so we’re almost done. Next up, is another social networking one that I tend to use fairly regularly – Twitter:
Twitter posting
Last but not least are the meta tagging options you have available to you from the plugin interface. The options are just to diverse to go into detail here, and I prefer to tag photos on Flickr differently than in Lightroom, so I leave these blank, but in the interests of full disclosure, here are some of the tagging and naming options in the plugin dialog:
Tagging Photos
If you think about it, for a penny, this is a pretty good deal (I went ahead and made a donation, which I would also encourage you to do as well – Jeffrey has clearly put a lot of time into developing these plugins, and he needs to eat, just like the rest of us). So, there you have it – the process of finding, downloading, installing, configuring and using the Lightroom Flickr uploader. As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, there are other uploaders available as well, and I am going to probably go get the one for Smugmug as I have an account there too. It just makes the sharing of your photos that much easier. (Who knows, the Facebook one may also make its way into my utility belt at some point once I get more comfortable with it…)
If you have questions or problems with the installation or the uploader itself, Jeffrey has a good FAQ page here that should answer most questions for you. If not, I am sure he has an email address available somewhere for specific questions not addressed online. For my work, I think this plugin totally rocks! It’s going to become a staple in my work flow, and if you are into social media at all, I would highly recommend it for those purposes as well.
In talking about all of this, it bears mentioning that some of us are not fans of Flickr, Twitter, or Facebook, and while I can understand the hesitation of some, it’s really a matter of personal preference, and maximizing the time you spend on your computer. if these outlets aren’t your cup of tea, that is totally fine. But if you have the Flickr plugin – it is that much easier for you to participate in the Monthly Giveaways here at Canon Blogger/Learning Digital Photography!
With those thoughts, I’ll leave well enough alone as this post has gone on long enough for one day. Happy shooting (and uploading) and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.
I know – the blog has not gotten much attention lately. My apologies – but after the job loss, and pounding the pavement, my schedule has tightened up considerably, so the “planned posts” have pretty much been exhausted as I let myself get behind. The good news is that with several opportunities on the horizon, I am a little less stressed about “real world” economics, and can dedicate some time back to the blog. A few items of note:
#1 – The Year End Blowout Bash is underway – and LDP/Canon Blogger is giving away a ton of goodies. I posted details about this last week, but in the interests of giving it a little more “face time”, I would encourage everyone to start thinking about their “giving” themed photos – could mean some seriously cool prizes coming your way to start the new year off right! More details on the prize package and such here:
#2 – The 3rd edition of the LDP Newsletter is forthcoming – with some little known tidbits about the guests on most recent podcasts, including nuggets from David DuChemin and Andie Smith, as well as the monthly roundup, great quotes and christmas/holiday ideas for the photo buff in all of us.
#3 – With many things under way both professionally and personally for this time of year – the posting schedule that I had been adhering to for most of the year (hardware, software review, composition, podcast, etc.) is likely not going to be followed as strictly as things will be done more on a “catch as catch can” sort of thing. If you like tuning in for one thing or another – keep on reading because the stuff you like will be there, just maybe not on the schedule you are accustomed to.
#4 – Last up, I’d like to point out that the donations tab is still active, and all are welcome to contribute via that conduit – but in the interests of getting some tangible things back to the reader and listeners that have been so encouraging, I am going to be coming out with some short eBooks (5-10 pages max) and there is a new link for the website to bookmark for that content: https://canonblogger.com/store While I am getting a fairly good idea of things readers and listeners would like to see/hear, feel free to send in questions, comments, suggestions and the like for store content as I am open to input.
So, with the vegetables out of the way, I’d like to delve into the “meat and ‘taters” segment of today’s post and that lies in the title: bokeh
For those of you that may not be aware, bokeh refers to the blurred portions that are out of focus behind your subject matter. The quality and nature of that out of focus portion can really enhance a photo, and can even become the subject matter itself when looked at creatively. Now, I‘ve talked here on the blog about bokeh in the past, but in the spirit of the holidays, I thought it would be fun to share some samples of images where I actually forced the entire scene out of focus, to basically make the bokeh the subject:
The Beauty of Bokeh #1
The Beauty of Bokeh #2
The Beauty of Bokeh #3
The Beauty of Bokeh #4
The Beauty of Bokeh #5
As the samples show, you can make some pretty fun use of blur and bokeh. Shapes lend themselves well, and varieties in colors, as well as monochromes too. Another thing – when getting bokeh and blur – don’t worry too much about noise and crank the ISO if need be – it’s all about your creative mind. You can remove noise if you must, but the idea is to capture something in a new way and getting bokeh this time of year specifically can be a lot of fun. A few suggestions though:
Look for shapes, as suggesting what the subject might really be can catch visual interest by teasing the eye – you know what it is by the shape…
Look for light, because without much variation in light or bright spots, the bokeh will end up looking like just some smudges of a limited tonal range
Use your best lens(es) as these produce softer bokeh – less angular edges, and more rounded or smooth textures, which is usually better for bokeh (“better for bokeh”, did I just say that?)
Shoot wide open, then switch to manual focus and intentionally blur – push the lens further out of focus for variations on your bokeh elements. Watch what happens and adjust to taste.
So, there’s a few ideas for you – there could be an eBook coming out on this later with more samples and suggestions so let me know if this whets your appetite. Do you like the idea? Want to see more? Get more tips on shooting for the abstract? Do the photos above help or hurt the idea? Do you like them or think there are better samples? Got any of your own? Feel free to post links to your own libraries of bokeh and blur for everyone to enjoy – there might even be a newsletter mention in it for ya! 🙂
That’s gonna do it for today – coming up later this week, the aforementioned newsletter, another podcast, and much more, so keep on shooting, until then, may your batteries be charged and your memory cards filled with lots of photos this holiday season. Now get out there and shoot ya some! 🙂
A few days late, but the year-end giveaway is quite exciting as there is just a ton of good stuff going into this giveaway. Here’s the inside skinny on what the winner is going to walk away with in December:
A free copy of the “Within the Frame”, the wildly successful and great book donated by David DuChemin!
A free copy of “Visionmongers”, the latest book from none other than David Duchemin!
A free copy of Photomatix, the software known for its HDR processing, donated by the folks over at HDRSoft!
A free 16″x20″ gallery wrap of a print of your choice, printed (and donated) by the folks over at MPix!
and as if that is not enough, the folks at Red River Paper have also expressed interest in joining the gievaway frenzy, so it looks like there will be a paper bundle in the mix too – (more details on the bundle specifics as those come in!)
With over $400 in free stuff, this is surely going to generate a lot of interest, so this go around, the guidelines are a little stricter than normal. Here they are:
Limit of one photo entry per person.
Also, please make sure your photos are taken during the month of December. I know – there’s a few days missing, so it’s less than a full month to shoot, but the theme is somewhat appropriate…more on that in a minute. Just remember, no archives!
The longest side of your image should be no larger than 800px or shorter than 600px. Don’t confuse this with a 800×600 aspect ratio – the second side of the photo can be any length you want – just make sure the longest side is no larger than 800px and no shorter than 600px. All entries should be posted in the Flickr Contest Thread.
All entries must be live before midnight December 31st.
So, the theme is all that remains. Since it’s a season of holidays far and wide, we’re going to go with the theme of:
GIVING
That’s it – interpret however you like. Just tie in that theme somehow, and enter your best photo in the Flickr thread. Good luck all, and may the best shot win! Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow! Many thanks to David DuChemin, Mpix, HDRSoft, and Red River Paper for their generous contributions. Now, let’s wow them with some amazing photography!
P.S. Just a little reminder that the blog is still taking donations to not only help offset the cost of maintenance, but also now to help pay the bills – the “curveballs” referenced the other day was an abrupt notice that my position was being terminated. So, please help to keep things alive and online through the holiday season! I am going to try to get some extra special content out there for everyone so you can also get some use out of this feeble old mind for any donations (or purchases…) but no guarantees there yet. (Special thanks to Rob Jones from Towner Jones Photography who has already donated very generously to the cause though…)
It’s kind of funny how things go in circles. As a regular reader of the Strobist website (as I am sure many of you are), I found it interesting that David was covering the RayFlash from ExpoImaging and comparing it to other styles of ringflahses over the last couple of days. The reason for my interest – today I am actually going to share with you some thoughts on the RayFlash specifically. Continue reading “Let Me Light the Way”→
Another month goes into the archives as we enter November for 2009. Here at the CB/LDP headquarters though, that means it’s announcement time for a couple of things, not the least of which is the latest contest news, the October newsletter, and something new for blog readers only! Let’s start with the contest news:
Fellow blogger, NAPP member, and active LDP participant, Karen Stansel was the winner of the October giveaway. She walked away with a Pro license of Noise Ninja from the folks over at Picture Code. Congrats to Karen (a.k.a. Mitzs), and thanks to Picture Code. With that contest closed, we are now into the November Giveaway. This month a pretty cool bundle is being offered up. The winner this go around will go home with the following prizes (yes, that’s plural!):
A free copy of one of Matthew Bamberg’s books on photography (don’t know who he is, listen to the latest podcast! 🙂 )
A DVD from Photoshop User TV – the best of the 11th year!
A $25 gift card to B&H Photo (just in time for the holidays)
The theme for the November contest is: Winter (surprise surprise, since Fall was last month!) The usual spate of guidelines applies, but to be sure you are getting all the latest, stop by the Flickr thread and read the first post. Then, get ready and shoot because there’s only about 3 weeks again for getting your shots in. Good luck to all!
Next up, the latest news from the podcast and blog is the October newsletter. Painstakingly assembled over the last month after some really useful feedback, it’s now ready for download by clicking on the image below:
Learning Digital Photography, Issue #2
In one final bit of photo goodness, and in keeping with what many others are doing, I am happy to announce that CB/LDP is also joining the fray of photogs that shares their images in the form of a monthly desktop calendar! Download the November Newsletter for the links to the images, or follow these links here (only temporarily linked here in the blog – going to become a newsletter-only feature starting with the December issue! I am offering up 3 sizes based on the analytics of monthly traffic. If your desktop dimensions are not featured, let me know either in the comments or via email and I can customize one for you…otherwise, here’s the 3 dimensions:
Another little nugget I just was reminded of (this is why participating in forums is a good thing): Don’t forget to adjust your in-camera settings on the date/time for the change in daylight savings in U.S. (unless of course you never changed it forward in the Spring…)! Doing so will keep your EXIF data accurate! (Thanks to Dave from the NAPP forums for the reminder!)
Last, but not least, I would be remiss if I didn’t drop a hint to read the latest issue of the PhotographyBB Online Magazine. Not only is it free, but it’s just chock full of great and useful resources. Also on the site is an active community forum of fellow photogs, full of great shots, creativity, and useful advice. All of it is worth your time, so be sure to stop in there and see everything Dave and crew has to offer…(oh yeah, I wrote an article for the October issue too!)
Tomorrow, don’t forget to tune in for a combo hardware/software review, the likes of which you’ll never believe until you read it! (Okay, nothing that fancy, but worth keeping in your feed reader, right? 🙂 ) Happy shooting all, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the latest!
