Category: technical

Selective Color, Part III

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The Tuesday tutorial for this week is the final installment in making selections based on a specific color, or range of colors. The first demonstrated how to use the Magic Wand and Lasso tools to copy an item onto it’s own layer, while preserving the rest of the image for editing.

Part II looked at using the history brush to bring back color in a specific part of an image for a unique way of identifying one colorful object of an image.

In this final installment, I use the Color Range method to demonstrate how you can make a selection based on the range of color.

The Quicktime version is up and ready for download via the link provided or in iTunes. The flash-based version is uploading right now, but will likely not be finished before the 7pm deadline. For those that prefer the flash web-based version, check back later this evening, as the linked path should be finalized by then. Tune in tomorrow for more web gems. In the meantime, I would like to give another round of thanks for all that are tuning in to the show and sharing their thoughts, comments and feedback with me both personally and in the comments area. That’s all for today. Happy shooting out there and watch your apertures:

ETA:  Flash-based version is up – thanks for the patience! 🙂

Selective Color, Part III

Re-visiting stock versus fine art photography (does noise matter)?

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I mentioned briefly in a post last week about a discussion that took place in the forums section of a prominent stock agency.  The question was raised (by me) about whether fine art photography can co-exist and sell as “stock” when the agency itself is marketed as a stock site rather than as fine art photography.  The question never had a clear resolution, but some common ideas did seem to bubble to the surface.

First, there is the idea that if a photo does not meet certain criteria in terms of noise, sharpness, chromatic aberations, etc, then it does not qualify as a “stock” photo.  The question of whether it qualifies as art really doesn’t matter in this context, because it would never get in the front door.

The other idea that emerged seems to suggest that the term “fine art” and even “art” is very subjective, and usually a function of the beliefs of either the artist and/or the viewer.  This portion of the discussion is what never was resolved., and likely never will be, since there are obviously so many dynamics of defining “art”.   The question then turned to one of excusing photographic imperfections such as noise, grain, sharpness and such under the guise of believing something is fine art.  After the fact, the shooter can always say “Yeah, I wanted it that way…it’s there by intent.”  While we can never second-guess the intent, it still leaves me wondering, do things like grain, noise and such have a place in a fine art community?

From the discussion, I found out about a site called Red Bubble.  It was intriguing enough that I decided to join and share a few of my images as a “test” of sorts.  All seem to have been received fairly well as I’ve heard cordial and pleasant remarks about them.  In perusing some of the other work on this site, it seems equally clear that the better quality images do tend to get more visibility, and are likely viewed, commented on, and as a consequence, sold more often.  There were very few images I found that had visible grain, noise or other clearly intentional imperfections.  So, while the “stock versus fine art” question may have been at least partially addressed, the lingering question of noise still lingers.  What do you think?  Please share your thoughts in the comments, as I’d be very interested in feedback on this subject.

So, that’s the “Thursday Thoughts” for this week.  Feel free to visit Red Bubble and enjoy the imagery that artists are offering there.  A link to the few shots I shared is also available on the side panel for Canon Blogger.  Happy shooting and watch your apertures!

Weekly Web Walk

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As promised, here’s my weekly walk around the web…although I must admit the tune “Window on the World” as sung by Jimmy Buffet is running through my head now. Anyway, to get things started, the PMA show for 2008 was this last weekend. We’ve all heard the big news events, including the Canon XSi, the Nikon D60 and the new lenses each is adding to their market. But, what might be nice is a complete rundown of the new bodies released, and reviews of those new additions to the marketplace. Well, no fear, I found one such resource here: PMA Reviews

In related news, Scott Sherman and Michael Stein report back from their hotel room at PMA to bring us recent and exciting news from PMA, including an interview with Rudy Winston. Who’s Rudy you ask? One word should suffice – Canon! So, in keeping with the Canonite tradition of stopping to listen when Canon speaks, I encourage you all to tune in to their podcast over at The Digital Photography Show.

As always, Scott Kelby has some good resources listed over at his blog, The Photoshop Insider, so stop over there, although he’s taking the day off today. I guess even the best get sick from time to time. Of special interest was his recent reference and link to the annual contest that Popular Photography runs for Photoshop enthusiasts, but CB wasn’t around last year to report on it, so I’m adding my proverbial “report” to the fray.: the contest is underway! Be sure to visit the contest site for additional information and to download the images here. Download and start getting creative! 🙂

A really cool video was published just yesterday over at Strobist, about 7 minutes long that gives a short intro on the nuts and bolts of flash and camera lighting. Thanks to David Hobby for letting us know about it and to Paul Duncan for putting it together in the first place.

In other news (for me anyway), I came across a site called Red Bubble. This place is apparently quite well known for artwork, including photography. If you need a picture of a pencil or a frog, then yes, stock sites like iStock may be your answer. However, Red Bubble seems to fill a void for those looking to find some fine art imagery to cover a wall. Stop over and see what each artist has to offer – some of the work is quite inspiring and moving. Fair warning though, some of the work is definitely “out there” and even NSFW, so surf responsibly.

Also of note in the last week were Sigma’s announcements of their latest releases to accommodate the increasing interest in 3rd party lenses. Of particular interest may be the new 200-500! This could be the new “Bigma”! Stop over to their site to read all about it. Granted, it’s no Canon 800mm, but sufficiently impressive nonetheless. Thanks to 1001 Noisy Cameras for the heads up on their latest contributions.

Other fun video stuff is a Swedish journalist interviewing Canon’s Chuck Westfall on a range of subjects including the 5D, how Canon will respond to the Nikon D3 and other body and gear news. Definitely worth the snippets of Swedish that intersperse the interview , conducted in English (thankfully). My sister spent a year in Sweden, and I am not sure how much she can remember, but I have an email in to her to translate the Swedish portion of the broadcast.

Finally, as an admitted Canon-loyalist, here’s a rundown of the gear they introduced at PMA:

That should be enough to tide you over for the day. Happy shooting, and as always, watch your apertures!

Big Blue Bowl – Selective Color, Part 2

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The tutorial for this week is the second in what will hopefully be a three-part series showing the various ways that you can approach selective coloring in Photoshop. Last week, I went over the technique of using the lasso and selection tools to select your color component and then putting that on its own layer. This week, I look at the history brush. You can quickly see the differences between each and how each has its advantages and disadvantages.

I gave a shout-out to Scott Sherman and Michael Stein’s Digital Photography Show on the video, but you really do need to listen in. Rudy Winston from Canon is on this week and according to the show notes, gives some really good insights and dialog on the Canon line. Kudos to Scott and Michael for incorporating the info into their podcast – I can’t wait to listen to it tomorrow during the commute. Additionally, I spoke with Scott on the phone today too, so that was a neat experience to actually talk to one of the established regulars of the photography community – if you’re reading, thanks for taking the time to chat with me Scott!

For those that prefer the flash version, here it is: Selective Color, Part 2

For the others, the Quicktime version is linked as a media file, and is also available in iTunes. Here’s a sample image of the final product as a teaser:

Selective Color applied to a Blue Bowl

Don’t forget, you can now sign up for email notifications of new posts to the blog. No worries about spam or hokey solicitations from me, I don’t even see that stuff. It’s all automated, and this way you can save space on your toolbar and widget space. One more thing that is done for you, so sign up for it today! As a final note, thanks to all the listeners who have been downloading and watching the videos. I’ve received several kind emails with ideas for future tips, so plenty of creativity is on its way for 2008.

Well, that’s about all for today. Tune in tomorrow for my trip around the web, compiling all the news and reports trickling out of PMA. Happy shooting, and as always, watch those apertures!

Printing your pictures online

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I know it’s unusual for me to make posts on the weekends, but I felt this subject warranted an extra post.  One of the things that’s always a hassle to deal with is taking your prints from not only the camera to the computer, but then from the computer to the printer.  Often times we are limited by the quality of our desktop printers.  To combat that, we turn to local printing outlets.  Even more so, in this day of technology, online printing has become much more consumer-oriented, with a lot of the mystique and confusion, (i.o.w. – hassle), alleviated.  Since this subject is certainly not a new one, rather than re-visit it completely, it always helps to refer to the works of others.  Why re-invent the wheel if it already works?  To that end – recently one of the online forms that I participate in raised a question of which online printers give the best results.  For about a year now, I’ve relied on a rating done by the folks over at Popular Photography.  I referred to it in the forums, and decided it would be a good idea to share that here.

onlineprinters.jpg

With those results from a little over a year ago, perhaps it is time to re-visit the subject once again.  If you would like to see another evaluation of online printers, feel free to give the folks at PopPhoto your thoughts.  I believe they have a contact email address on their website.  For the time being though, I would venture to guess that the results of the above have likely not changed all that much.   Tune in tomorrow for a wrap-up of the PMA show around the web.   Now, on to more important things – GO GIANTS!  🙂  For those attending parties, remember to party smartly – don’t drink and drive!

Selective Coloring: Method #1

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The task of selecting a single object in an image to highlight by means of leaving that color intact while altering the surrounding elements is nothing new to photography…and there are several ways to do this, with varying levels of success and usability for each. The tutorial for this week looks at the simplest of ways, by putting that object on its own layer. The nice thing here is that the technique is portable to multiple versions of Photoshop. Having recently upgraded myself to CS3 Extended, I am trying to keep tutorials cross-functional across multiple versions for usability. Enjoy, and see you next week, for the second method. Don’t forget to vote in the polls!

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Canon in the News – XSi body to be released

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Well, since I am an admitted Canonite, and the blog name has Canon as part of the identity, I guess I should also chime in with a report on the announcement that Canon is adding a new body to it’s SLR lineup. The XSi was announced last Thursday by Canon, and this is apparently an incremental upgrade to the XTi that now serves as the baseline consumer grade SLR. Designed to compete with the Nikon D40, it offers a slightly larger pixel count, and makes the transition from CF cards to SD cards. I’m not sure if existing Canon shooters would be compelled to go out and purchase this, as I own the XT, and cannot see a need to own this. The camera instead seems as an attempt by Canon to recapture the lead market share for entry level SLR cameras from Nikon.

The reason I call this an incremental upgrade is because not much changes. The only things to change really are pixel count and screen size. I did a quick comparison chart of the bodies in the same range, so you can see where the “upgrades” are. Really, it seems more like they took this part of one body, that part of another body, and left other parts unchanged across the board (shutter speed, fps, ISO, etc…) Kind of a non-news item for me, but for those interested in entering the market, I can see where it’d be a decent option. Anyway, here’s my comparison chart to other Canon bodies:

canon-bodies1.JPG

For those interested in it’s specs, here’s a link to Canon’s official page for the new XSi.

Wednesday Weblinks

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As I corrected the missing links from yesterday’s podcast, I started surfing my usual photo sites, and I came across this neat site sponsored by Kingston, called Icons Of Photography (IOP). Four well-known photographers offer up their professional albeit short critiques of user-submitted images. I read through a few and all seemed very well-meaning and kind in their deliveries. What a great resource for the budding photographer: Icons of Photography Thanks to the contributors, Harry Benson, Colin Findlay, Gerd Ludwig, and Peter Read Miller for their generosity in sharing views and perspectives on their contributions to the field.

For those of you equestrian aficionados, there’s a new photo contest for 2008 tailored to your interests from the folks over at Equestrian Magazine. (I personally have tried to take a few photographs of some horses and they make for challenging subjects sometimes, so good luck!) Here’s the contest link for those that are interested. Good luck!

Another little tidbit for photo news of the week – as a former graduate student in Political Science – I watch political news fairly regularly. While I try to stay away from divisive content and hotly debated subjects, I do have reason to share a political story here: New Photos from Lincoln’s second inauguration have been discovered and added to the repository for the Library of Congress. Truly amazing shots and in great detail considering the era: 22MG tiff files are available with no constraints on usage (in other words, they’re in the public domain!). Rather than try to reproduce smaller thumbnails here that simply will not do them justice, here’s links to the Library of Congress Announcement and the 4 images:

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

Last but not least – my last hobby before photography was scuba diving (I can never seem to take up something cheap like writing poems or anything along those lines), so I try to peruse news about scuba from time to time. While underwater housings have been around for a while, a company named Aquatica has confirmed they are making an underwater housing for the Canon Mark III. I went to the company’s website, and they have quite the variety of housings that are guaranteed to protect your gear underwater. Like all high quality gear though – it has a price. On the order of $2 G’s US. (That’s two thousand dollars…) Very cool website though and makes me think about mirroring the two hobbies together once again. (I am sure my wife would divorce me though…)

That’s it for today. What photo news have you heard today? Sound off in the comments or to me via email.

Thanks, and as always, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Friday Filter Fretting (and a funny)

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Well, I’ve decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on two purchases… first on an ultra wide angle lens that has been noticably missing from my bag thus far. The winner of my internal mental anguish is the Sigma 10-20mm lens. With the free shipping thanks to my NAPP membership, I’ll be picking this up from B&H Photo (which I would probably use even w/out the bonus of free shipping – B&H rocks!). Canon just did not make a wide angle that would fill my needs (nor fit my budget), so this Canon Blogger could theoretically be called a Canon/Sigma Blogger as I have an equal number of both vendor lenses in my gear bag.

The other is an accessory item – a graduated Neutral Density filter. Knowing how expensive they are, I figured it might be a good idea to make this purchase all at once since I know the wide angle will be most most for landscape photography. I am still torn here though between a B+W one or the Tiffen one. I’ll freely admit to not knowing my head from a hole in the ground when it comes to filters, so thought I would make the Friday post a user-driven one. Which filter would be better suited for use with this lens? Both B+W and Tiffen make the 77mm filter in the graduated ND variety, and both are non-coated filters, with a 2 stop loss of light overall and a glass rating of .6 With only a $20 price difference between these I am wondering if there is a certain element (pardon the pun) of distinction between brand names that I am missing. So….what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments or with me via email (jason [at] canonblogger [dot] com).

Last, but not least, as many photo-types do, here’s the weekly funny from WTD:

Happy Friday, Happy Shooting, and don’t forget to watch your apertures! 🙂

Maintenance Post

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Tonight around midnight, the blog may go offline briefly or look a little funny as I go through some maintenance updates on the blog, both from the WordPress side, as well as some of the plugins.  For those who have been following the blog for a while now, you may have noticed that the “Feed Me” graphic I created for the feed link is no longer showing.  I suspect that is due in part to an outdated plugin.  In addition, the atom feed seems to have a <rel link=’self’> tag that is not formatted correctly, and that is native to WordPress.  There’s a few other “behind-the-scenes” things I’m going to try and get done tonight as well, so if the content suddenly disappears, don’t worry (I’ll be the one worrying!  LOL), it should be back up before Sunday morning.

Happy Shooting all!  Be careful out there and watch your apertures! 🙂