Category: Uncategorized

The Rule of Thirds Revisited

Jason3 Comments

We’ve all seen the term used, and the approach should not be a novel one to most of us at this point.  Heck, I’ve even talked about it here before to a certain degree.  But today, I’d like to take the Rule of Thirds and look at it from two distinct approaches:  landscape and portrait photography.  The reason is because the rule can be applied in different ways and these two genres illustrate well how the same rule can be applied completely differently.

To start, let’s just review real quick…

The Principle

The Rule of Thirds is a general rule of composition that suggests we divide our image up mentally into horizontal and vertical thirds to try and compose things interestingly.  In general, the rule suggests that you can make things more interesting by placing the subject either on a hotspot or on one of the imaginary lines.  I’d written on this in the past, so even have a demo grid to illustrate it:

Rule of Thirds Grid
Rule of Thirds Grid

The problem comes in defining what is interesting.  Do we place our subject on a hotspot or on one of the lines?  It also is a matter of which hotspot or line to place your subject on.  Think about it, we can put a subject on the lower third or upper third, but which looks better?  One person may look at the picture and say the upper third looks better, while another may say the lower does, and yet another may say that the image calls for breaking the Rule of Thirds and centering the subject!  Clearly, there are many different interpretations.  Today though, we’re focusing on the two distinct approaches of using the hotspots versus the lines.

The Results

The upshot here is that it seems the hot-spot approach works well with portraiture while the linear approach seems to work well with landscapes.  If you look back in your own image libraries, I bet your favorite landscapes have the horizon on one of the horizontal “thirds” lines.  If the horizon is on a bottom third, then the emphasis is likely on the sky, while if the horizon is on an upper third, the emphasis is more focused (pardon the pun) on the foreground.  Here’s a few examples of landscapes that incorporate the Rule of Thirds to illustrate what I am talking about…

folly_sunset
Folly Beach, SC
bull_island
Bull Island, SC

Can you see the “thirds” lines?  I could do the overlays, but think you can probably get the gist.  But now, try to visualize the hot spots in these images.  A little trickier isn’t it?  I think it’s because hot spots as subject points in landscapes are scarcer.  This is not to say they do not exist because they do, and there is sufficient evidence to support that, but overall a landscape image is more about the entire scene, and the best way to convey that scene is by composing to accent the best elements, which are often the lines – whether it’s lines of water rippling, lines of trees, or lines of mountains and such, the best way to position these is with lines rather than hotspots.

Likewise, if you are shooting portraiture, some of the best results I’ve seen have been where the subjects face (and particularly, the eyes) land on a hotspot.  Take a look at these examples here:

JoAnne
JoAnne
Armani
Armani

Can you see the hot spots and where their eyes are?  I could do the overlays but again, think you probably get the gist here.  Where are the imaginary “thirds” lines though?  Not as easy to imagine here either, and for similar reasons.  Because it seems as though portraits tend to lend themselves toward what I am calling “hot spot composition”, while landscapes seem to tend toward “thirds line composition”.

Then again, I could be completely off my rocker – so what do you think?  Is there merit in the idea?  Should I patent this, write my first book and become insanely wealthy?  Or, is this a farce?  Should I give up trying to come up with new ways of looking at classic approaches to composition?    Okay, obviously I am probably somewhere in between these two extremes, not completely off in Bizzaro world, but also not poised to make a mint either!  Regardless, I’d really like to hear the reader thoughts on this approach – do you notice certain types of photography lend themselves toward particular rules of composition?  If so, which ones go best with which rules?  What about the “why”?  Why do you think some rules seem to work better for some images and others not at all?  Or, do you tend to avoid the rules of composition and make things up as you go along?  Chime in with your thoughts in the comments or via email.

Happy Shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

Mask Pro 4.1

Jason3 Comments

Okay, I know the folks from onOne have been very generous with their contribution of a copy of the OnOne Plugin Suite for the latest giveaway here at Canon Blogger/Learning Digital Photography, but I have to say that I am literally blown away by this offer even more.  As I delve into each tool more and more, I am totally amazed at the functionality and how easily it really makes things.  For those of you that watch Photoshop User TV, you’ve seen what I’ve seen – ads from OnOne claiming that masking is made so super easy that you can swap backgrounds and composite images together in a snap – it’s a breeze, right?

Well, we all know that ads only show you the quick and flashy parts of things, not the nitty gritty.  Let me tell you here and now – the Mask Pro really has no nitty gritty – it really is that easy.  Take a look at these sequences:

First off, an image I merged together during a trip to SC last summer.  It looked like it could make for a nice HDR, so I did some tone mapping and got this result:

originalhdr

Needless to say, it didn’t really have the “wow” factor I was looking for.  (I should also throw a mention in for the folks at HDRsoft that produce Photomatix, the HDR software utility that I was testing at the time I originally put this HDR together – still working on a review of that – I lost the trial version after re-installing XP, but will get that back shortly.)  Anyway,  given the success I’d had with some other images in HDR and the background I tried, figured it was worth the effort to blend in a different background.  Here’s the results.

hackjob

Keep in mind, this was after literally hours and hours of painstakingly selecting branches, twigs, and  what not literally zoomed in to almost the pixel level.  Still, not that flattering a result and clearly a less than “stellar” job.  I relegated that to the “learn from your mistakes” folder and had not really touched it since.

So, this was my test for the Mask pro – could it do what I couldn’t after at least ten hours of agonizing masking selections and duping to repeated layers to start up the following day?  Well, let’s see, here’s what happened.

After installing Mask Pro, I loaded the tone-mapped HDR image into Photoshop.  Then, rather than taking any time to tweak, I went straight to Mask Pro (after all, it should do the work for me, right?).  After a short 7-slide presentation on the tools, my first screen looked like this:

maskpro1a

Before I go on, let me explain how the tools on the right ended up how they were.  You see, Mask pro gives you eye dropper tools to select the colors you want to keep and the ones you want to subtract.    So, I went and selected the green eye dropper to define the colors to keep.  I clicked a few parts of the branches and signage, which took the better part of 5 seconds.  The end result was this color set:

keep

Then I switched to the red eye dropper to define the colors to drop.  I clicked a few parts of the sky.  This took another 5 seconds or so.    The end result was this color set:

drop Lastly, I clicked the Magic Brush tool, from the Mask Pro tool panel maskpro_palette

and just started painting around the sky.  I certainly did not take my time, as I was running on my Windows desktop which has a single core 2.3 Ghz celeron processor (it chugs when I load my browser fer Pete’s sake).  So, I dealt with about 5 minutes of a magic brush tool as it calculated the mask to apply as I painted impatiently across the image.  (After all, I wrote these blog posts after dinner, so time = sleep here.)

So, after about 5 minutes and 10 seconds, I have a mask that looks like this:

maskpro2

Yes, that was after 5 minutes!  I could already tell this was a wickedly intuitive and powerful tool (and I mean that in the best of ways), so I just stopped there and decided to take it back to PS for final cleanup and adding the new background.  To do that, I simply clicked the File menu, then “Save/apply” (another 2 seconds)…

Now back in Photoshop with the original image.  It looks the same, but take a look at the layers palette:

layers2

I know the low-res and smallness of captures for the blog make this hard to tell, but at this point I am pretty much ready to bring in the new background.  My only last step in PS is to duplicate the layer I just created from mask Pro to clean up the big blotch in the upper right, and a few specks in the rest of the sky on the third layer.   So, now I am ready to bring in my starry background again.  I place the object in the PS document to get this (for the record, I went with a different starry background to go for a more realistic effect rather than the Harry potter look of my swimming pool shots):

layers3

Finally, I just pulled the stars layer to sit below the Mask Pro layer and here’s the resulting layout in Photoshop:

layers4

The last bit took all of another minute, tops (remember, I am working off a slow processor.  The final result, which took literally less than 10 minutes (the first took over 10 hours):

finalhdr

Such is the power of the OnOne mask Pro – just one of the multiple plugins that are available in this Suite.  If you want this kind of power and malleability in minutes, then enter the giveaway today.  it can literally save you hours, if not days, of post processing!  Here’s the Flickr page for photo entries and here’s the link to the rules.

What can I say – OnOne rocks!  Just to give you a true frame of reference – it took me about an hour and a half to write this post – and that includes getting the screen captures, then sizing them for the blog.  I also interspersed some Twitter time and surf time as well, so it’s not like I was really in any kind of “zone” or anything.  It was just another task in an evening of multi-tasking.  The original one took me over ten hours of processing and that was with no other apps running, seriously.  I was restarting the computer just to free up the RAM for usage only by PS every evening.

This feature alone can save you days of time in the digital darkroom.  Don’t delay and enter to win today! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow.

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Charge!

Jason6 Comments

The time has come to say goodbye – that’s right, the time has come.   You knew this day would happen – we all did.  It was inevitable.  It was a good run while it lasted, but there is no avoiding it.  No tears please… No cries, no weeping, no condolences, regrets, or farewell parties are needed.  As the old saying goes – all good things must come to an end.  For better or for worse, it was a tough decision to come to, but I have decided that it is time to say goodbye – there’s just not enough time left.  It’s time to charge forward into the future.

Goodbye.

There are those among you that are wondering where I am going, and what is going to happen next.  There is good news and bad news in this.  The good news is that I actually am not going anywhere.  The bad news?  I’m not going anywhere!   So, why the heartfelt goodbye?  Because my Macbook battery has finally bitten the bullet and died on me.  It’s not all the way gone, but I can barely hold a charge for more than 30 minutes before needing to plug in.  I am going with the replacement option from Apple direct, though the $129 price has me cringing.  Thank goodness for NAPP discounts!  It also has me looking at other options though for external power that is also portable.  A friend in the NAPP forums linked me to a product called the Hyperdrive, and it looks like a pretty cool option.  Here’s the link for it in case you are interested:  Hyperdrive Website

So, why is this in the hardware review section?  It’s not for lack of products to review, rather because of the timeliness of it.  As I encounter roadblocks or problems, I like to share them with you – so that we can learn and develop and grow from the shared experiences.  My lesson this time?  To always use an AC source when available.  Just because your laptop is capable of being cord-free doesn’t mean you simply must be cord-free.  If you have an AC source, use it!  As I learned, replacement batteries are expensive, and having to get a new one in under 3 years is not an easy pill to swallow. Since batteries are finite in the number of recharge cycles they can take, you don’t want to deplete your battery when not necessary, so plug in when you can!  Make sure you charge!

Here’s a couple resources from the Apple website on batteries, their conditioning, and maintenance (yes, batteries need maintenance too – perhaps I should write a maintenance schedule for batteries! 🙂 ):

So, make sure you charge, discharge, and calibrate your batteries.  I’ve done so with batteries in other devices, like my camera, flash batteries and all, but had never thought to do so for the laptop.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

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Win, Listen, and Bang!

Jason3 Comments

This week’s show is a doozy – I talk about the latest contest, (#3 for 2009), have a fun conversation with Jason Loucks, then tackle some tips on photography fireworks.  Of course the show always takes care of a couple listener questions and answers, so it’s 45 jam-packed minutes of photography fun.  Here’s the show notes:

The Third Photo Contest, sponsored by OnOne software.  Rules and entry information are posted on Tuesday’s blog, and you can enter your photos here.

Here’s the sites and twitter folk we talk about during the show:

  • www.freelanceswitch.com
  • www.smashingmagazine.com
  • www.tutsplus.com
  • www.css-tricks.com & Chris Coyer on Twitter
  • www.w3schools.com

Shooting Fireworks

  • Use a tripod
  • Make sure you have spare batteries (and fully charge all batteries)
  • Shoot with a low ISO
  • Set your shutter between 4-8 seconds for best results
  • Try adjusting the zoom in or out for attention grabbing light trails

Enjoy the show, hosted by the folks over at Personal Life Media!  Happy shooting, and be sure to share your own tips and tricks for shooting fireworks by tomorrow and I’ll try to put all of them together along with some (hopefully) inspiring photos for enjoyment.  In the spirit of the show, don’t forget the trailing question:  What was your first camera?

Creative Composition – Vignetting Photos

Jason2 Comments

In general we learn that placing your subject dead center in the frame is something to avoid – creatively speaking it can kill a picture.  While this holds true as a general rule, I was walking into work yesterday morning and the sky was a brilliant blue, with the capitol bulding of Denver right dead center in front of me, and I thought that might make an interesting attempt at breaking the rules if only I had my camera….and then it dawned on me, I did have a camera.  Granted, not my trusty 40D, but the smaller Powershot As500 IS.  So, on a whim out it came and I snapped off a few frames of it.  The vertical came out the best compositionally speaking, but it still lacked something to bring it into what I would consider the “creative” realm.  After all, it is a rather mundane shot, and something you would expect the typical tourist to capture.  So, how could I create interest…and then it dawned on me:  vignette!  That would bring the eye in more, focus attention where I want it to go. So, into Lightroom I went, and sure enough it did create a little more visual interest.  I thought I’d share that view with you here today:

vignette

Granted this is still something that I would probaby personally consider a snapshot from my library of countless snapshots, but it does serve to illustrate that post processing in software can create more visual appeal and vignetting is one way to achieve those ends.  So, the next time you are about to toss a shot, ask yourself:  Could I improve this with a little vignette?  Give it a whirl – you never know whegn a little vignette might surprise you!

On that note, it’s always helpful to remember that post production work can make or break a shot.  Yes, the better your images are to start with, the less work you have to do in post, but that is not to say that post processing is a bad thing…so regardless of whether it’s a little dodging here, burning there, perhaps a litle vignette, or even applying some plugin processing from your OnOne Plugin Suite 4.5, always be willing to explore!

Oh wait – you don’t have the OnOne Plugin Suite 4.5?  Well, go figure, just the luck – today starts the July photo contest here on the blog, and entries are now being accepted in the Flickr thread here for some lucky reader to win their very own copy of the Plugin Suite from OnOne!  Pretty cool as this is a retail value of $500 for this package, so you can imagine the creative possibilities!  Feel free to capture away, and share your favorite shot in the contest.  You can find all the rules from the announcement post yesterday, but get out and shoot for your chance to wina free copy of this great software suite!

For those of you expecting the podcast today – year-end in state work means processing financials so we were working late today to get a lot of T’s crossed and I’s dotted before the clock struck midnight – so the podcast did not roll out today, but I promise it will roll out tomorrow and I’l be talking more about the photo contest then too, as well as answering viewer and reader questions, so if you have any to throw out in the mix, now’s your last chance to get questions in before the show goes live tomorrow!  Got a questio about photography, gear, software, tips, tricks, techniques?  Share it in the comments or with me via email.  Happy shooting for now and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the podcast.

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Let me count the ways…

Jason5 Comments

The age old phrase of “let me count the ways” seemed like as good a theme as any to announce the newest contest from the blog here for the Learning Digital Photography podcast.  I just got word from the folks at OnOne software that they really liked the post on Genuine Fractals – so much that they would like to participate in a giveaway!  Can you guess the prize?  Yup, that’s right, the entire OnOne Plug-in Suite:  4.5!   This is an amazing offer, as the package normally retails for $500!  That’s five hundred big ones!  I don’t know about you, but if I had an opportunity to win a software package worth $500, I’d certainly stand up and listen…so, since we’ve got this contest announcement for the month of July that involves software, there will be no software review today.

Oh yeah, so anyway, that’s the prize package.  How do you enter?  Easy – just like the last couple of contests – it just requires a little participation.  A new thread will be set up on Flickr for people to contribute photos.  (It’s already live but entries will not be accepted until midnight Mountain time tonight.)  Here’s the rules:

  1. Since the contest sponsor is onOne – then the theme shall be Numbers.  I am not going to interpret or give any ideas here, but if your photo incorporates something to do with numbers (any number, multiple numbers, use of numbers, whatever), then it will be accepted.
  2. Join the Learning Digital Photography Flickr Group – the images will be shared in there anyway, and this is a great way to see other inspirational images from people that are regularly contributing to the common pool…just make sure you post your images in the thread titled Numbers Contest (easily linked for you right here)
  3. Photos will only be accepted for the month of July (and that are uploaded during that month, so no archived images will be accepted)  Only 31 days to enter so get clicking! 🙂
  4. One photo limit per participant.  Sorry all, but with a prize package this huge, I know there’s going to be a lot of entries, so in order to make judging easier one entry per person.
  5. Photo manipulation is acceptable – after all, it’s for a prize that encourages massaging those pixels, so edit away!  However, you just be the original copyright owner of the photo used – no “borrowing” the work of others.  People found using others images will be removed from consideration.
  6. Images should be no larger than 800 pixels on their longest side, and no shorter than 600 pixels on the longest side.  If you need to upsize a photo, use the onOne Genuine Fractals trial!  🙂  On that note, please also refrain from using digital frames to increase image dimensions – images with frames that advance will be cropped.
  7. By submitting images, you agree to allow your photos to be featured in the web gallery and here on the blog without expectation of compensation.  The three finalists will have an opportunity to have their photos link back to their Flickr Stream, website, or blog if they like as the finalists will be notified of their advancement one day in advance of being featured on the blog.
  8. The product is being offered by the folks from onOne on the basis that it is NFR – not for resale.  The prize cannot be re-sold to someone else.
  9. Judging will be done by myself and I have one representative from onOne who will also assist with making the determination.  Decisions of the judges are final.
  10. There will be three rounds of judging:
    1. As in the past, the initial pool will be whittled down to ten and the images collated into a web gallery for display here on the blog.
    2. Three finalists will then be pulled and featured here on the blog for a final day or two of consideration.
    3. Last, the grand prize winner will be declared after even more careful determination from all participating judges.  OnOne has generously donated their time for judging as well, so we’ll compare notes and come to a mutual consensus to determine the winner.

Good luck to everyone and have a Happy month of Shooting!  Thanks especially go out to the good folks at OnOne for their generous contribution of the Plugin Suite 4.5 Software for some lucky reader/listener/participant.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

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Wacom Bamboo Fun: Hardware Review

Jason12 Comments

The good folks at Wacom were kind enough to donate a Bamboo Fun to me for review on the blog a while back.  In order to really get a full handle on it though, I wanted to use it within the context of my at-home work flow.  You see, I’m not a newcomer to tablets, as at work and through  previous experience, I’ve grown quite accustomed to their usage.  I’ve had to instruct people on how to use, configure the basics, and such on their computers. as well as used them in many of their varying sizes (most recently being the Cintiq).  Having said that, I’ve never really had the need to incorporate a tablet in my home work environment for a number of reasons.  Before I get into the reasons though, let go over some of the basics…and rather than a listing of pros and cons, I am following a slightly different format this time. I should also give fair warning that there are a LOT of pictures coming, so for the graphic avoiders in feeds, you may want to visit the site…

Installation

Installing this product can’t get much easier.  Regardless of whether you are running a Windows or Macintosh environment  (it really doesn’t matter a whole heck of a lot) the system will auto-detect the drivers for your Bamboo fun.  Still, it never hurts to go through the CD installation on their provided media, so I thought I’d share with you the process (and a few bonuses) of installation.  It’s pretty much identical, but I am showing the screen shots from Windows:

Here’s the main splash screen where you can choose what to do, ranging from installation to viewing video tutorials, or browsing the CD contents…

install1

I opted to do the driver installation first, and got this following message…

install2

Then the notice that the pen drivers were being installed…

install3

Then notification that installation was complete…

install4

After finishing that, I was offered the video tutorials on how to do different things.  For first-time users, a very useful resource…

install5

And finally the extras that are included on the CD.  I am not sure about files with an extension of x32, but believe this is a carry-over from Macromedia software like Flash.  Since I do not own Flash, I can only guess based on my own research…

install6

Ad additional CD also gives you a copy of Photoshop Elements 5, Nik Color Efex Pro 2, and Corel Painter Essentials 3.0, which also help to offset the cost the the product.  I didn’t want to open this and negate the serials or licenses of the products contained, but did scan the front side so you can see what you get in the companion CD:

bamboofun0021

Configuration

The added buttons at the top of the tablet make for some very intuitive advancements in its usability and properties.  Rather than cover each of these in detail, screen views of each tab (there are four total) should be indicative enough of the control and customization you can get:

config1

config2

config3

Pop Up Configuration

The pop-up tab is probably the only tab that isn’t completely self-explanatory, so let me delve into a little more detail here. The reason why is because you can program common keyboard combinations (like the ones I referenced in my post last Friday) to be controlled from the tablet (provided you have “Pop-up menu” selected as on option on the tablet tab (seen next)…

Here’s how you do it:

First, click the drop-down to indicate what it is you want to program on the tablet.  For me, the biggest advantage would be in incorporating keyboard keystroke combos so I have to switch less between kb and tablet.

popup1

You’ll get a window now where you can define the keystrokes you want simply by typing that keystroke set in the blank space…

popup2

The tablet will detect your keystrokes and populate the fields

popup3

Then, give your keystroke set a name…

popup4

and Click OK.  You can see the ones I programmed below…

popup5

Last but not least, you can also include special keystroke combinations that are unique to your system (like Printscreen on Windows), as shown next:

popup6

So, you can see how having the pop-up tab configured with your most commonly used keyboard combinations, as you can reduce the swapping between inputs even more!  Very cool!  And here’s what the right-click menu looks like once inside Photoshop:

popup7

But, make sure you have a button set on the tablet to “drop down” (as shown next…)

config41

Mechanics

Here is where your specific work flow may have an impact.  On my Windows desktop environment, I have a 19″ and a 17″ LCD, so that’s roughly 36″ of real estate that this tablet (which measures roughly 6×4″) has to cover.  What this means is that movements on a scale that size makes everything larger proportionally speaking.  You can adjust the tablet settings under the pen mode details screen to manipulate for just one monitor instead of all screens, but if I am going to use a tablet, Idon’t want to jump between that, a keyboard AND a mouse…two inputs is all I really would want to switch between, but that’s just personal preference.  But, for those that are interested, here’s how you make that adjustment in the pen settings tab of the tablet properties.  Click on the pen tab of the tablet properties, then the details button to get this screen:

config5

From here, change the button from “All Screens” to “Monitor”.  It will default to the monitor you have set ot #1:

config6

But you can use the arrows to set it to monitor two if you prefer:

config7

On my Macbook Pro, since I only had the one monitor, the experience was quite different as I had less real estate for the tablet to cover – with only a 15″  LCD of screen space to cover.  So the pen was much less sensitive to location on the touch pad given that less than half the real estate was needed to cover the range of the screen (and I noticed greater position control even when I did just the 19″ monitor versus the 15″ LCD of the MBP – it’s just a happenstance of the tablet size, and the only way to do that would be to increase the tablet size – at the expense of desk real estate space…pick your poison, ya know?)

Usage

Tablets rock!  Let’s just get that bias out of the way right off.  If you want the ultimate in cursor control (and when I say cursor I mean movement of your tool, whether it be a brush, a pencil, an eraser, clone stamp, whatever, it’s just amazing).  The first major difference between a mouse and a tablet is touch sensitivity.  No matter how you tap a mouse, it delivers the same intensity or strength when it paints in Photoshop.  With a tablet, this is not the case at all.  How hard you press determines the strength of the brush.  This is truly remarkable as now you can apply just a touch, or go full hog on anything you want from painting, to clone stamping, and anything you want.  To demonstrate, I created a blank document and selected some brush settings to illustrate what I am talking about.  Take a look:  from left to right are light touches to hard pressing with the pen…followed by dots of the same strength top to bottom.

use1

So now you can control things like jitter, hardness, and a whole myriad of options that you didn’t have before (well, at least not to the same degree anyway) with just a mouse.  I know what you’re thinking now – “Great, for graphic design that’s super cool, but how can I use this as a photographer?”  Excellent question!   Ever catch a picture where the eyes are darker and you want to brighten them up?  Well, now you can with greater ease and control both of area, intensity of the lightening (or darkening) by using the pen tool for the Bamboo Fun.  Take a look at the sample below, where I took an underexposed picture of the dog and selectively lightened the eyes and teeth, here’s the before:

use5

and after:

use4

One of the best parts is that this functionality is there in whatever application you use that incorporates brushes.  I tried it in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Corel Painter Pro (I installed a demo version of the last one for this review).  The Bamboo Fun can also expand your ability to clone things out, say a stray light pole or some telephone wires, or even the nasty -ex that you want out of that super cool shot of you in Hawaii!  The possibilities are limitless both for graphic designers and photographers.

So, this now begets the question of why I don’t have one in my home environment.  The main reason is because I’ve never had the need at home.  Most of the time I am at work, and if I need to work that requires that level of control, the work hardware has always been there for me.  Granted I’ve also gotten used to the Wacom Cintiq which has a much larger surface area, so I have even a greater degree of control over the desktop, cross-hairs, and all brushes, so it’s also a matter of being spoiled – I just can’t afford a Cintiq at home, or justify its need – I am just not that much of a re-toucher either with photos or in graphics design creation.

Additionally, for me, the use is only really there in graphic design, because I am also of the mentality of “getting it right in camera”, so I don’t like to do a lot of edits in photos.  Of course no one is perfect so I do occasionally need to do some fine tuning that requires a tablet.  In cases when I do, I just take the photo in to work and do the retouching there as the tablet does give a much greater amount of control than any mouse or trackball will.

When I’ve not been successful in camera, it’s not that my home work flow is good enough, it’s just that the tools are already there for me if needed at work, so the financial justification really hasn’t been there.   As my personal usage has been increasing lately though, I must admit that I am thinking more and more about adding a tablet to my home work flow.   So, would I would recommend this?

Yes!  This would make a great tablet for anyone who does not have access to a tablet elsewhere, or if you are looking to enter the tablet market – the Bamboo Fun is a great entry level tablet, that takes up minimal desk space while offering a maximum range of precision and control.  I think for my own personal usage, I would probably prefer a larger tablet because I do have the desk space, and have been accustomed (as I said) to the Cintiq, so perhaps the Intuous 4 would be more easily incorporated…but only time will tell!)

Finally, as prone as we are to repetitive motions, and with conditions like Carpal Tunnel Syndrome becoming much more common, the tablet does offer a much less repeated motion tendency than a mouse or a tablet.  So, if you make the move to a tablet, you are only decreasing your chances of things like Carpal Tunnel and repetitive motion problems in your wrists.

Two thumbs up (in Siskel and Ebert style) for the Bamboo Fun from the good folks at Wacom.  Many thanks for the demo product, and I am sure the listening/reading audience appreicates their generosity as well.  Happy shooting everyone, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for an exciting software review that includes the announcement of our latest contest, which is starting in July!).

Painting with Light

Jason5 Comments

About a year ago, Joe McNally gave a talk at Google where he referenced the roots of the word photography.  The two roots are photo and graphos, and the meanings are light and write.  We so often hear of people “painting with light”, and after seeing a few people demonstrating how they use flashlights to paint and write with light, I thought it might be fun to give it a whirl.  So, I set up in my den/basement room/office/man cave with the camera on a tripod and went about the goal of writing with light.

To set the scene, I put the camera on it’s lowest aperture for the lens (f3.5), and this way everything around would get thrown out of focus.  I set the shutter to 5 seconds, and the ISO to 100.  That way I would have enough time to draw each letter, and produce little noise as possible.

Next was to set a point of focus – enter my light stand as a model.  I set the focus on that (about 6 feet away), and then switched to manual focus on the lens so the point wouldn’t change.  Next step – mark the floor so I know where to stand (anything works – for me it was a USB flash drive).  Finally, I moved the light stand out of the way and started to eliminate other sources of light, as  I also wanted the surroundings to be completely dark.  So I turned off the computer (monitors give off an amazing amount of light, closed the blinds (even at night, street lights can push stray light into your image), and shut the door to the room.  Working off the handheld flashlight now, I changed the camera to start on a 10 second delay to give me time to get into position.

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The rest is in the post processing.  Since I was in the middle of re-installing Windows and freshening things up last night, I’ve not had time to composite these together, but you get the idea of where I am heading!  Give it a try yourself – painting with light can be fun!  Have a great weekend everyone, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here Monday morning!

And the winner is…

Jason4 Comments

Blooming Orchid, by photographer John Dunne, of Ireland.  He’s got quite a nice portfolio of images too over on his Flickr photostream, so do stop over and give him a little kudos, pat on the back, congratulations, etc. as he’s won the Adobe Lightroom Contest here at Learning Digital Photography!  His winning image (surprise surprise) is a blooming orchid, shown below:

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Congratulations again to John for this beautiful shot.  I know I said it before but it is worth saying again that the decision was a very difficult one to make as there were so many excellent images contributed!  Thanks also to the folks over at Adobe for their generous contribution, and to all the participants for making this first contest a huge success!

Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

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