Tag: photography

What’s This Returns again…

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Last week, I missed the 9th edition of “What’s This?”.  On Wednesday the rather long previous day left me without the time to prepare for it, and on Thursday I was wrapped up in the Firmware Upgrade posting, that the weekly “What’s This?” just plain slipped my mind – like Denny Crane from Boston Legal, I must have Mad Cow Disease! 🙂

Rest assured, fellow bloggers, photogs, and CB readers all, I have remembered this week to make such a post.  Since there is nothing to reveal from last week, I’ll just get right to it – here’s this week’s mystery shot.  If you can identify it, then answer in the comments for:

What’s This? – Week 9

What's This? - Week 9

The first to get it right is the winner! Until tomorrow, fellow photogs, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

ETA:  I listened to the latest episode of TWIP (over at www.twipphoto.com) and realized the Aperture  Nature Workshop Contest is almost over.  I hastily added my latest landscape image to the contest, and have virtually no hope of winning, but in case anyone else has time to upload a quality photo (or wants to stop in and vote for mine), the contest link to sign up for free and submit images (also free) is here:  http://www.photrade.com/contest/aperturenatureworkshops

Happy Labor Day

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For all those in the U.S.A., especially those who have the day off:

Happy Labor Day!  Go out and shoot!

For everyone else:

Go out and shoot anyway! 🙂

Today was a family day and I did take an hour towards sunset to go out and see what I could see through the lens.  Got a few but not sure if I had all the dials and exposure settings right, so look for them in the post tomorrow!

What’s this? – Week 6

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What's This - Week 6

So, any guesses for the latest edition of “What’s This?” Last week, the crop was from some fancy ornate crown molding in a capture from an old plantation house here in SC. It was kind of a stretch as I was pulling from my portfolio, rather than taking a shot specifically with the weekly theme in mind. This week I did a mite better though. I had hoped to have a tutorial compiled for publishing tonight too, but alas, t’was not meant to be. Someone did mention in the comments earlier this week though that the title page was notdisplaying correctly in their feed reader. Could anyone enlighten me further, as I don’t see any punctuation or anything wrong in the blog title header info. Thanks a bunch! Good luck with the theme, and we’ll see you out here again tomorrow! Happy shooting and watch those apertures…

Hot and Cold Lighting

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We all know that tungsten light is a warmer light (think regular light bulbs) and fluorescents and flash produce cooler lighting. While it makes sense, until I read an article by Peter Kolonia in Popular Photography, I have never thought of combining warm and cool light to produce different effects in a photograph. Since I’ve not tried this yet, I don’t have any sample pictures, but they should be viewable over at www.popphoto.com so stop over there to see samples in action.

Basically, the article says that by lighting your subject with one tone and the background with another, you can produce some really interesting results. For simplicity purposes, here’s a chart of what combinations produce what types of results:

Subject Light

Background Light

White Balance

Results

Tungsten lights (like a lamp)

Flash or cool window light

Tungsten

Electric Blue Background

Cool daylight or Flash

Tungsten lights (like a lamp)

Daylight

Orange Glow

Tungsten (like a lamp)

Tungsten (like a lamp)

Auto

White (or grey1)

All light

No light

Auto

Black

1For a high key (all white) effect on the background, throw more light on the background. The more light you direct to the background, the brighter the resulting background will be for your photos. Conversely, as background lights get dimmer, the background itself will be more of a gray.

Just a few reminders Peter gives us:

Use a large space so foreground light won’t spoil the background light

  • Experiment with exposure to get the right glow from the background (typically longer speeds thus necessitating a tripod)
  • Using an old-fashioned fluorescent light can result in the “grunge” look of cross-processed photos

Geographic Composition

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Jason Moore has an ongoing activity where photographers from different parts of the globe capture their perspective on various themes. I was invited to join this group of photographers a short time ago, and this is now my second contribution to the activity. It’s quite a bit of fun as it challenges you to think in new ways, and in participating you get a chance to see other perspectives and ideas. This is probably one of the most useful ways that you can challenge your creativity and to find new sources of inspiration.

Anyway, without further ado, the theme for the week ending Friday, June 13th 2008, was “Passing Down“. My shot is below, and I would encourage you to visit Jason’s blog to see the other visions for this theme. Thanks to Jason for administering this activity, and look for the next one near the end of the month!

Passing Down

Week 2: What’s This?

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For Week 2 of “What’s This?” – the image is another typical household object, so, take a gander at the image above, then take a guess in the comments or via email…This is a _____(fill in the blank)!

After a week of various responses both via email and in the comments, there was one correct guess via email, and the answer is – wait for it – a microphone! That’s right, my Sampson CO2 Condensor Mic that I record the podcast with almost every week. I zoomed in real close and didn’t even crop to produce the photo – so congrats to Thomas for guessing the right answer!

Week 1 WInner - Thomas w/ Microphone

Things are picking up for me for the remainder of the week, so a shorter post today. One thing I will suggest as a Wednesday Web Gem is to stop over at the new CB Flickr Group! I’m posting the full size pics from what’s this (the following week) and sharing photos in there as I get a chance. Stop in, register with the FLickr foolks, and share images of your own, discuss things from the blog, offer ideas, other tips and tricks, or whatever the theme for the day is! The link to the CB Flickr Group is here: CB on Flickr

Until tomorrow, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Usual becomes unusual

Jason3 Comments

Lighting Objects

The tutorial for this Tuesday, you may notice is not your typical Photoshop tip, trick, or tutorial. I took things outside of the desktop and into the real world to show you examples of thinking outside the box when it comes to lighting. By now we are all familiar with Strobist, and the methods he uses to encourage people to think about lighting and how to do things in an economically friendly way.

Today, I wanted to take a moment to share with you a few lighting ideas I’ve had and some of the effects they’ve produced. None of these home-made products cost me more than 15 cents! Anyway, I’ll let the tutorial stand alone, but did want to include the show notes:

Tune in to Strobist for anything and everything lighting you ever wanted to read – David Hobby is the lighting guru of the blog world!

David was interviewed recently on Studio Lighting, so now I’ve listened to their podcast, and it’s definitely one to return to. These guys just sound like they’re a lot of fun.

And the shots… you saw the montage up top, but here’s the individual shots from my diffused snoot:

Horizontal View

Vertical View

Angled View

So, there’s just a few examples of how to generate creative lighting by looking at usual objects in unusual ways. Tune in to the podcast to see what other stuff I’ve come up with. Because it was recorded outside of the computer though, I only have the Quicktime version. I am still looking into a decent Flash converter so I can put that together with the “intro” and “out-tro” clips, so if anyone has suggestions for that, I am all ears there too. Anyway, to close out, I’d like to pose another question: What have you come up with in the way of uses? Any everyday objects become part of your photo gear? Share ’em in the comments section!

Back to Basics – Rule of Thirds Grid

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After I recorded and started production on this tutorial my mind began to remember that perhaps I had covered this subject before. I reviewed the subjects I have posted over at the Tutorial Resource Center and did not see it covered there, so figure I am not repeating some tutorial I have already done. Having said that, this is kind of a return to the basics. Continue reading “Back to Basics – Rule of Thirds Grid” →

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Now is the month of Maying

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There is an old saying that goes something along the lines of “April showers bring May flowers.” While this is generally a principle that holds true, in the photography world, it is also the time when things start really hopping. Below is a list of just some of the activities that drive the photography industry as we move into late Spring and early Summer:

  1. Wedding season kicks into high gear (wedding photographers)
  2. High school and college graduation parties are scheduled (which is great for portrait photographers)
  3. Engagements are announced (with anticipation of #1 the following year) (portrait photographers again)
  4. Family portraits are planned in conjunction with all of the above (portrait photographers yet again)
  5. A new season of sports swings into gear such as baseball, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, and countless other summer leagues (great for sports shooters)
  6. Mating seasons begin for birds (nature photographers)
  7. Rivers, streams, and waterways are teaming with new life (landscape photographers are just ecstatic)

Continue reading “Now is the month of Maying” →

Calendar Templates, Part II

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This week I wrap up the tutorial started last week on creating a Calendar Template using Photoshop. One of the things I found most useful was performing the screen captures of each month prior to beginning the place functions inside Photoshop. As you can see in the tutorial, the results came out really nicely.

This whole project started from wanting to make a single-page calendar and in looking at the design offerings on Mpix, thought “Hey! I could make that!” The second half of the genesis came courtesy of Matt Kloskowski over fro the Photoshop Guys where he did a tutorial a while back on making a desktop calendar for a single month. So…I put the two ideas together and this is the end result of that effort. I figured it may also have some interest for other photographers in making calendars incorporating either their own prints or those of their clients. Clearly, this is a “down and dirty” version, but if anyone is interested, I do have a pretty high resolution sized template that I would be willing to share on request.

In other news, I’d like to give some shout outs to Brian over at Professional Snapshots, who just last Friday celebrated the birth of his new daughter Isabelle! Congrats to Brian, even though this means he has pretty much lost the ability to sleep through a night for at least the next 18-24 months! Yeah, this may be your fourth, but I’ve heard the stories from siblings and neighbors! Enjoy!

Also, don’t forget to stop over at Jason D. Moore’s weekly summary of all things photography! I always head there to make sure I’m not missing anything interesting.

Last, but not least, the tutorial links: Flash first and QT second…

Calendar Templates, Part II

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