Not a Wildflower

This is a greenhouse flower photographed against the dining room wall.  The light is coming from a diffused window to the left and a couple of feet away.  Diffused window light is a classic way to light people for photographs and paintings.  I took a photography course recently at a wildflower festival where the instructor said that photographing flowers is like taking a portrait.  It struck a chord with me so I tried portrait light on this flower.

Taking some Time Off

If you follow this blog regularly you know I haven't posted in a while.  It's just that I've been too busy doing other things and this blog takes some time.  If you'd like to see my latest photos, then check out my regular blog Apparently Random Traveller.  If you want to know how I took or post processed a photo just leave a comment and I'll respond.  Meanwhile, maybe I'll get back to finishing the rest of the 50 Photo Projects someday so check in from time to time if you are interested.

The Shadow Knows

Week 37

This week's topic was suggested by my daughter and while the subject matter was probably the last thing I would have chosen if left to my own it was more fun than just about anything else I've tried lately.  You have to break out of your shell every once in a while...

The camera and setting don't really matter so I'm not even going to get into that.  It is all about shape, light,  and some sort of emotion.

The book covers architectural shadow, urban settings, and objects.  I started with that but once I got started photographing my own shadown I couldn't stop.  I did lots of post - they've been darkened because I liked what it did to the mood.  The two shadows on the sidewalk were manipulated with the Topaz 4 Dark - Ghost filter.

Try it, all you need is the sun.... 

Idea based on Shadowplay, pages 114-115 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Vertical Egret

Week 36

Among my favorite birds are the cranes and egrets.  This is a great white egret in Hermann Park, Houston, Texas.  It is standing on a rock in the Japanese Garden and reminds me of Japanese scrolls I have seen with cranes painted on them.  Accordingly, I have cropped it in a long vertical manner which suits not only the bird but the inspiration.

The camera, is a Nikon D3 in aperture priority mode, f/3.2, ISO 800, and a -0.7 exposure bias that probably should have been a tad lower.  The negative bias was set to keep the feathers from burning out (always remember to check for this on a white bird).  I had it at ISO 800 because I'd been shooting another egret in shade a moment before and wanted to capture the bird in flight when it jumped up.  I could have had it lower here, but the D3 does pretty good at ISO 800.  The resulting shutter speed was 1/8000 second which was certainly fast enough to freeze action on a standing bird. The lens is the AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm 1:2.8G VRII ED at focal length 200mm.

In post I cropped, added "micro contrast" to the bird only in Topaz Adjust 4, then a vignette.  Adjust 4 is a great Photoshop plug-in and I find myself using it a lot.  Sharpening was applied to the bird and rock.

Idea based on Vertical Limit, pages 156-157 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Graphic

Week 35

Megan and I have been doing some creative assignments where a topic is selected and we go out and shoot it.  This week I suggested 3 shots of one object from 3 different positions and this is what I came up with.

The subject is an ornamental windmill in the Eau Claire area of Calgary close to the river.  The sky was overcast and the windmill had a very graphic appearance.  I selected 3 views that taken together are somewhat symmetrical with me in front of, to the side, and behind the subject.

Graphic shots need to be simple - it is the shape that it is important.  Maybe these are a little busy due to the detail in the windmill.  In post processing I bumped the contrast way up and made it B&W as the shape is what matters.  There is still some texture and detail in it when you look closely which I like.

Camera is a Nikon D3 in aperture mode, f/8, ISO 200, 1/800 second or so.  The lens is my trusty AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED.  The focal length is varying 40-50mm or so depending on where I was standing.

In post I distorted the middle frame to make it fit where I wanted.  I turned it into a triptych in vertical format just to be different.

Idea based on Go Graphic, pages 44-45 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Canada in the style of Norman Rockwell

Week 34

This week's picture is full of cliches of Canada - Hockey, the grand hotel at Lake Louise, and of course winter.  The idea is to pick a theme that instantly tells you where the shot was taken.  This one kind of seems a bit like Norman Rockwell to me it is so old fashioned.

They are playing out on open ice which you really don't see much any more.  I don't really know hockey, but in this format there are only 3 people per team on the ice at any one time.  The goal is unguarded.  The Chiefs were playing the Slapsticks and they were killing them.

The camera is a Nikon D3 in aperture priority at f/8, ISO 200, which results in a shutter speed of 1/640.  I might should have set ISO to 400 to get shutter speed over 1/1000 but it is still pretty sharp.  The lens is the AF-S Nikkor 24-70 1:2.8G ED.  I find I use this lens more than any other.  It was a cloudy day and thus not too contrasty to get both the sky, ice, and people fairly well exposed.

Post consisted of adding micro contrast with the Topaz Adjust 3 plug-in to PhotoShop, adjusting red saturation to make the jerseys pop, lighten the faces, and a gradient to the sky with soft light to give the clouds more drama.  It is cropped of course in a horizontal pano format.

Idea based on It's in the Detail, pages 54-5 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Fishy Business

Week 33

The Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle is a great place to take a photo and I couldn't pass it by this last weekend. Food markets and fish in general are photogenic I think. They are probably my favorite place to take candid pictures of people.

The picture was taken in natural light (a mix of tungsten, fluorescent, and I don't know what) with a Nikon D3 and an AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 D lens. This is Nikon's cheapest lens but a good one. It is fast and sharp. I carry it always because it is so light weight. The camera ISO is set at 400, aperture is f/4 and shutter speed is 1/60 seconds.

I cropped the photo in post and did some work with the clone stamp tool on the sign in the top right to get rid of some bad glare. The Topaz Adjust 3 plug-in was used to get the HDR like effect.

Idea based on Food for Thought, pages 40-41 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Three Horses

Week 32

These three horses were walking in the snow near Rocky Mountain House, a historic trading post in Alberta. Things in threes look natural and appealing. Three is lucky in most cultures and I've always considered it my lucky number (I have a 3 in my name, there are three brothers, and it just seems things come in threes).

We normally think of, and present, a photo as a single entity. But things occur over time and in different locations. Often a story works better with more than one picture. And artists have done pictures in threes (or triptychs) for a very long time. Early altar paintings in churches were often done in triptchs. I've even used them before myself, like in this fireworks display taken on the Buddha's Birthday in Brisbane.

This triptych actually started as one photograph. It was cloudy and snowing when I took the picture. The sun is behind me but because of the clouds the light is soft and kind of flat. The camera is a Nikon D3 in aperture preferred mode set at f/8 with an exposure bias of +1 stop which gets the snow white (I bracketed the shot) and the camera chose 1/80 second. ISO is 200 - I might should have had it at 400 to get that extra sharpness but it isn't bad. The lens is an AF-S Nikkor 70-300 1:4.5-5.6 zoomed to 140mm. The key here is to expose a bit more here than what the meter says in order to get the snow right.

To make a triptych I divided the shot up into 3 layers, each one with a horse. I then resized the 3 layers a little smaller and moved them on the background to where I wanted them. I used layer effects to drop a shadow on the background and make them appear to float on it. Then I rendered some cloud effects on the background and darkened it so the layers with horses would pop a little more.

Idea based on Three of a Kind, pages 134-135 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Banff Snails

Week 31

This is one of the stranger posts I'll probably make on this site. The swirling masses, green and white, are algae in a sulfurous hot spring. The eyes and nose are rocks. The little pimples are the endangered Banff snail, who lives only in these springs.

One of the sections of the book is about sands on the beach. We don't have any seashores in Alberta, but we do have sulfurous hot springs with algae in them so that is what I shot. Sand moved by water and wind has abstract patterns, textures, shadows, and subtle color. So does algae. And the rare snails add extra interest.

The camera is a D3, ISO 200, in aperture preferred mode. The camera chose a shutter speed of 1/80 second. The lens is my new AF-S Nikkor 70-200 1:2.8GII ED at 200mm to zoom as close as I could from the rail I was behind. I hand held and steadied the camera on the rail.

Post was a crop and some saturation boost.

Idea from Sands of Time, pages 106-107 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Simplicity

Week 30

I have been looking for a good minimalist image for sometime now. It seems like it would be easy, but this is the first one I thought might be good enough to publish here.

The idea is to get rid of the clutter. Only retain what is necessary. Reduce shapes and color to a minimum and leave some space. No need for fancy lighting here.

This tree was poking out of about a meter or more of snow on the shoreline of Lake Louise. The lake is in the background, frozen over, and covered with snow. The texture in the background are old footprints from someone crossing the lake.

Technically taking the picture is easy. I'll give you the settings but it is seeing the picture that I find hard.

The camera is a Nikon D3 with an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED lens. The camera is in aperture preferred mode, auto focusing, and set at ISO 200. The lens is at f/2.8 to minimize depth of field and the camera chose 1/1000 of a second. I checked the histogram and had plenty of room top and bottom because of the cloudy conditions. Look at the very soft shadows and you'll see that the sun is behind the tree and a bit to the right.

Post consisted of a bit of color balancing to get rid of some but not all the blue cast and an exposure adjustment in camera raw. I smoothed the snow a bit with a blur in the background in Photoshop but left shading and the diagonal footprints.

Idea from Keep it Simple Stupid, pages 60-61 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Just Forks

Week 29

Repetition. Patterns. It draws our attention. I probably don't use patterns enough in my photography now that I think of it. The idea here is that repeating features draw our attention, and we look for sense in it.

I was looking for something to photograph and the kitchen drawer came to mind. Just one fork wouldn't do so I picked five and arranged them carefully on a white paper background.

The trick with shiny things is lighting of course, and the light is overhead in a softbox, a single SB-600 in TTL mode with no exposure bias. I put white styrofoam on each side to assure even lighting.

The camera is my D3 at ASA 200 and 1/30 seconds. I wanted to push the exposure to the right to get the background white instead of grey (but not so far the blinkies showed up) so the exposure bias on camera is +1. The lens is a AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm VR set at f/16.

Post consisted of cleaning up specks and spots - they really sow up in a close up of shiny things - and a crooked crop. That seemed to help the compositon a bit. I also tweaked it in curves to brighten the background a bit more without losing the shadows.

Idea based on Repeat after me, pages 100-101 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

It's All a Blur

Week 28

I like sharp photos. I normally don't like photos with blur unless it is subtle and showing movement (here is an exception). But this week's post is about intentional blur.

The blur can be for intentional softness, to show movement, or just to add interest as I've tried to do here. To get the blur you can set the shutter speed low, shake the camera, zoom it during the exposure, or pan it. You can add a foggy filter or just make it out of focus.

For this shot I moved the camera and added something a little extra - I set my flash to go off during the camera movement. Setting a slower shutter speed when using flash is also known as "dragging the shutter".

The cool thing about this is that the flash freezes things the instant it goes off due to the short duration. In my picture only the christmas lights hanging from the trees show the blur. The light was low enough that the tree, people, etc. weren't lit by ambient and showed up only when the flash went off.

The camera is a Nikon D3 in aperture priority at f/3.5 with ISO fixed at 400. Exposure was 1/5 second. The flash is a SB-600 in TTL mode so the camera was doing all the hard work. The lens is a AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED zoomed all the way out to 24mm.

There is very little post processing. I cropped the shot and added a little contrast.

Idea based on Blur, Blur, Blur, pages 14-15 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Tower Project

Week 27

This week I'm starting a project that shows the Calgary Tower from different angles, locations, lenses, times of the day and year, etc.

To see the rest (at least as it exists today) click here.

I did a series with the Seattle Space Needle but this idea is to return time after time...

Idea taken from Long-Term Project, pages 70-71 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Christmas Theme

Week 26

It is really cold right now in Calgary, around -25 degrees C and although I have gotten out to photograph a bit it is a lot more pleasant inside. When it gets cold, rainy, or miserably hot then one way to exercise your photographic eye is indoors, in the house, and that is what I chose to do this week. And since it is getting close to Christmas, I had an array of seasonal things to chose from.

Now the thing about photographing reflective round things is that they are prone to hot spots and of course they reflect things you may not want in the picture. One solution is even lighting all around, another is to carefully place things to minimize reflection or at least have it where you want it. I chose even lighting.

I put down a sheet of white card to act as a seamless background and then moved my softbox right on top of it and surrounded it with styrofoam. My softbox is a medium sized Photoflex LiteDome and I used a Nikon SB-600 flash. The SB-600 can drive a medium softbox if the subject is moderately close. I stuck one more SB-600 inside this contraption and bounced it off the front styrofoam. The SB-800 on my camera was used solely as a master for the two SB-600s. Both SB-600s were in i-TTL mode with no further adjustment to flash.

The camera is a D3 set as follows ISO 200, aperture priority f/16, and shutter speed 1/30 second (why wasn't it at 1/200? because I forgot). I was at f/16 to increase the depth of field. I probably should have put it in manual mode to get more even exposure. Exposure compensation was set at +1 stop on camera to lighten up the background a bit. Then lens is a Nikon AF-S Micro Nikkor 105mm1:2.8G ED so I can get close.

Post processing was minimal. I cropped all of the photos square to the same size and moved them on to a background layer. Once on the background, I arranged them to taste, and using curves adjusted backgrounds until they were all about the same. Then I flattened and removed sensor spots on the background (I need to clean that sensor). The background looked too dark, so I lightened the exposure overall with an exposure adjustment layer until it was a bit brighter and that was it.

Idea based on Household Chores, pages 46-47 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Fake HDR (High Dynamic Range)

Week 25

OK, I'm halfway through this exercise now with only 25 weeks more to go!

This week I'm (kind of) blogging about getting additional dynamic range out of a camera using HDR - High Dynamic Range - which are digital methods of combining one or more photographs with different exposures. Well, actually I cheated and only used one exposure but more about that later.

Why would you want to do HDR? The potential need arises when there are high contrast scenes with very bright areas as well as dark areas with important details. The human eye can handle this pretty well but a camera only has so much range. HDR manages the trick by taking exposures for dark, bright, and in-between areas as needed then blending them.

There is software, with Photomatrix being a popular one, that will do the work for you and allow easy adjustment. It can also be done in Photoshop although I've not had great luck there. There is an example here of a photograph I took in Australia and applied HDR to in Photoshop. It isn't that great, the area around the sun is burned out even with HDR. Like I said, I haven't had great luck with it. I've also done it manually where I superimposed two exposures and blocked out the over or underexposed portion with a mask.

Here are some other considerations for HDR:

1. It isn't reproducing what the eye sees - it is squashing exposures into a narrower range


2. It can give some wild colors and not look very realistic


3. It doesn't work too well if things are moving between exposures

But it can give some really neat effects when not overdone, although it isn't for everyone. Another way to handle high range is with a graduated filter, at least with some scenes where the sky tends to overexposure.

I personaly like the look when blended back. In fact, it is possible to get something of the look without using HDR and that is what I did on this week's picture. Click on it to enlarge and see what is going on. There is a lot of detail under the bridge for example that wouldn't normally be there and the clouds reflected in the glass of the building really pop. I've left some of the wild color as well as gritty detail that can occur when you use this method.

The tool I am using is a Photoshop plug-in called Topaz Adjust 3. It gives a range of effects with this being one of the cooler one. After adjusting the photo for keystoning (it is wide angle) I cropped and then applied the Topaz Adjust 3 "Psychedelic" filter, dialed back the layer, gave it a vignette, and sharpened. That was all.... The original photograph without adjustment is here.

The camera is a Nikon D3 set at ISO-200 with an exposure time of 1/250 of a second and a Nikkor AFS 14-24mm 1:2.8G ED mounted wide at 14mm with an aperture of f/8.

Idea based on Extend Your Range, pages 32-35 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Sunset over the Bow

Week 24

The sunset was really pretty this evening, and actually the sunrise was as well. This shot was taken from our balcony and I've tried it many times before and have always struggled to get the shot. I have Cokin graduated filters but to be honest I don't really like using them.

Everybody likes sunsets - I just wish they were easier to photograph. I actually do better either just after sunset like this shot in Brisbane towards Story Bridge off Kangaroo Point, or this blog posting about Modern Architecture. I really like late afternoon directional light too, but usually I'm shooting away from the sun or at least at an angle like here (also taken in Brisbane with Kangaroo Point in view).

The camera is my D3 mounted on a tripod in aperture priority at f/5.6. The camera is set to give a minimum shutter speed of 1/30 second and determined on it's own that ISO should be 250. I bracketed this shot but I used the one with no offset. The lens is a AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED zoomed to 38mm.

I pulled this up as a raw file and fooled with it a while - in the end I just took the jpg straight from the camera and posted it with a bit of straightening and cropping (you shouldn't have to straighten if you use a tripod :-). The camera was set in my custom "vivid" mode which adds some saturation to the jpg files. The main decision for me here was whether I wanted more detail in the shadow area - I decided not to and it is almost a silhouette. To get more detail I would have used the overexposed shot in a layer or HDR. I don't think the graduated filter would give me what I was looking for.

Idea based on Last Light, pages 62-64 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Stormy Day

Week 23

We were in Seattle this last weekend and it rained every day except the last afternoon when the sun broke through as we were heading back to Seattle on the ferry. It is a busy photograph but it has a lot of interesting things about Seattle in it - the needle, a seaplane, the wharfs, and skyline.

The lens is a AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm 1:4.5-5.6G VR that was hand held. The vibration reduction (gotta love it) was in active mode since I was on a moving boat. The camera is a D3 at ISO 200, focal length of 125mm, aperture of f/9, and shutter speed at 1/320 to keep things sharp.

Light has broken through the cloud and is behind me and low in the afternoon sky.

Idea based on Storm Chaser, pages 124-127 in the book 50 Photo Projects by Lee Frost.

Pinhole Silliness

Week 22

This really is silliness. The subject is an earthenware vessel I bought in Papua New Guinea and I've photographed it with two very different lenses. The version on the left was made with an AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED and the version on the right from a plastic cup bottom with a pinhole punched in it (with of all things a pin).

I made the lens from a Nikon PK-13 extension ring that mates the plastic cup to the camera. The silliness is because I've attached a piece of plastic with a hole in it to one of the better cameras on the market today. I couldn't stand the thought of buying a decent pinhole camera and I didn't have my tools available to build a better one myself. An interesting thing about pinhole cameras is that they hold focus from front to back but aren't very sharp, especially if enlarged. People do use them for artistic purposes, and Lee Frost has some in his book I like. But they really aren't my cup of tea which is why I haven't gone any further than a plastic cup.

The subject is lit the same for both pictures. It is on a curved piece of poster paper to give a smooth background and surrounded with styroform slabs to reflect the light evenly from a single daylight balanced fluorescent bulb.

The photo has a blue cast to it because the cup bottom was blue and some of that light has seeped in. The exposure was in manual mode at 1.3 seconds with ISO set at 200. By back calculating from the other exposure I guesstimate the aperture of the pinhole is f/500 or so. The focal length might be around 35mm or so, just guessing. My hypothesis is that there is an optimal aperture, which would be an interesting experiment. I also think a pinhole with a sharp edge and no burr would make a better picture.

To make it a somewhat better shot I increased contrast in Photoshop by moving the sliders in on Levels. There is no post to the picture shot with the Nikkor lens other than some sharpening after I downsized.

I probably could have found a better subject too but I ran out of time this week. Anyway, after this experiment I am ready to go back to my better lenses....

Idea based on Pin Sharp, pages 88 to 91, in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost.

Modern Architecture

Week 21

I took this photograph on the way home this evening. With a few exceptions, when I photograph architecture it is historic or classical in nature. Among the exceptions are the Sydney Opera House .

Actually, I've photographed this location on Stephen Avenue in Calgary before and posted it here on my other blog. Modern architecture, like all architecture, is art in it's own right. Curves and free flowing shapes seem to be in vogue now. I think they tend to photograph well at night.

This shot was made with a Nikon D3 and AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm 1:2.8G ED lens. The camera was in aperture priority mode at f/3.5 and the ISO fixed at 800. The D3 has very little noise at ISO 800. I probably could have opened the lens all the way up to 2.8 but there was enough light to stop it down a little. It was right after the sun set but there was enough light in the sky to make it electric blue. I bracketed the exposure plus and minus one stop off of what the meter indicated. The one that I selected was right where the camera thought would be best at 1/20 second. Focal length is 15mm to capture everything and focus is on the giant Christmas decoration. I braced on a barricade to keep the camera steady as I didn't have a tripod with me.

In post I cropped to 8x10 and used the lab mode to increase contrast and saturation.

Idea based on Architecture with Attitude, pages 10-13, in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost.

Vacant Church

Week 20

This is the Morleyville Mission, built in 1875 on the Bow River in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies. At the time, plains indians were still hunting the buffalo and the first large cattle ranch wouldn't be established at Cochran near Calgary until 1881. The church was built by the Rev. George McDougall to serve the the native people and fur traders of the area. A town sprung up and at one time it was the largest in Southern Alberta. Today nothing remains but the mission.

Like a lot of people, old empty buildings attract me. This old church has seen sermons, celebrations, weddings, and funerals. It had deteriorated but was restored some time back and services are now held there twice a year. You can also rent it for a wedding other other gatherings.

The photograph was taken with a Nikon D3 and Nikkor 24-70mm 1:2.8G ED N lens. The sun is low this time of year and behind my left shoulder. The clouds were playing peekaboo with the light and I took this shot just as it played across the church and the hills.

The camera is in aperture priority mode at f/11 to give sufficient depth of field. ISO is 200, standard for the D3, which gave 1/400 second exposure per the cameras meter. It just so happens to match the sunny 16 rule too. Focal length is 48mm.

In Photoshop I cropped square and applied a bit of contrast and light sharpening - that was it.

Idea based on Vacant Possession, pages 152-155 in the book 50 Photo Projects, by Lee Frost