Photoshop on the Go

I came across a few applications on Adobe’s website they offer photoshop editing through the browser called Photoshop Express. It allows you to do basic photoshop editing such as cropping, hue, black and white and various others.  Best of all its free to use. The website can be found here http://www.photoshop.com/tools.

Photoshop Express

Adobe has also created Photoshop for mobile devices for  Android phones and Apple phones. Both apps for either phone are free.
For Android:  http://mobile.photoshop.com/android/
For Apple iPhone/iPad:  http://mobile.photoshop.com/iphone/

author: SSINGH

Depth of Field in a Nutshell

“If you are new to photography, you have probably heard the term depth of field being mentioned in various photography websites, blogs or forums. You would probably be wondering what depth of field means and how it can help you in taking better pictures. Whether you are into portrait, landscape, sports, wedding or other forms of photography, depth of field is an important concept you have to understand. It is not complicated to understand and can become one of your best tools in photography.

"Yorkshire Grit" captured by Tony Taffinder

Depth of field or DOF in short, refers to the range of distance within a scene that is considerably sharp. To achieve that effect, we have to understand how it works, now that we know the definition. There are scientific ways to explain DOF but I will not try to bore you with it. I will use simple layman terms to explain what it is and how you can use it to your advantage to produce stunning pictures.

"Rua do Comércio" captured by José mbrito

Have you ever seen landscape pictures that are sharp across the entire scene? There are several reasons to this. One of the main reason for the sharpness is due to deep depth of field. Deep DOF means the range of distance within a scene that is considerably sharp, is wide, covering a wider depth in the scene. This resulted in a picture that is considerably sharp across the entire scene.

"Town Walks" captured by Alex Lewis

Deep DOF is important when taking pictures of landscape as you want all details from the foreground through to the background in the scene to be reasonably sharp. It is also important when taking group shots as you do not want anybody in the picture to be out of focus.”

I chose this artcle just beacuse just like my last artcile about aperture these are the types of photos that I really like and plan to use both techniques when putting together my book. To read the rest of the article visit http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/depth-of-field-in-a-nutshell/.

author: SSINGH

Light Painting

Light Painting, also know as light graffiti or light drawing, is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand held light source or by moving the camera.

The first known photographer was Emmanuel Radnitzky, better known as “Man Ray,” in his series “Space Writing in 1935. The photographer Ellen Carey discovered Man Ray’s pictures nearly 74yrs after the pictures had been taken.

Ever since I discovered light paintings I have been amazed with how creative and beautifuls pictures that use this technique can be. I have always been a fan of fiction and of achieving the unimaginable, so to see these kind of pictures only furthers my interests in photography and in fiction. I think this will interest others for the very same reason, simply because these photos are so beautiful and creative that they don’t look real, but are.

Post By: Andrew McMahon

amcmaho3@dtcc.edu

Sources:

www.thecoolist.com/light-graffiti-masters-of-light-paiting-photography/

www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-capture-motion-blur-in-photography

jasondpage.blogspot.com/2010/01/man-ray-writings-first-light-paintings.html

The Art of Sailing Art

 Sharon Green, for more than 25 years, has been a world renowned photographer for shooting national and international sailing competitions and makes a substantial living selling her work in many mediums, most noteably, eagerly anticipated calendars. Many yacht sailors and sailing crew find themselves published in their sailing glory.

The drama of the bow meeting ocean

I wanted to share her work as a sports action photographer who got her start as a teenager. As a competitive sailor and continued interest in sports and maritime photography, I find her work not only inspirational but a study in the art of shooting in extreme conditions of weather, winds, action and drama.

Dynamic colors are the rule

The approach to shooting sailing competitions requires a walk on the thin line of safety and clearance of the vessels under full power around the race course. Many high level professionals make use of helicopters, high speed power boats, professional crew, and sophisticated navigation. Sharon has been known to put on a diving suit and with waterproof gear shoots at areas where the racing teams are rounding the buoys while swimming about to get the low angle shots.

I believe a significant advantage for optimal imaging is the obvious natural light of all kinds and at any hour of the day. A visual bonus is the motion of open oceans and waterways surfaces as the boats underway offer the dynamic relationship of waves to vessels. And the environmental backdrops like the mountain terrain in the above photo provides scale and elemental composition.

Hightech sailing takes a shutter speed to the hilt

Requiring high shutter speeds to create the drama of motion reveals the exciteable art of sailing. This photo of the “Moth”  in the above photo at a national regatta on the Columbia River in Oregon/ Washington comes with roaring winds driving between mountain ranges, up river from the Pacific.  Though in light and shifting winds can be the rule of the day, the shooting skills require a relaxed patience and a look at other features of the sailing underway. The below photo is a fleet sailing in tapering winds as the sun makes it’s descent.

The Golden Hour  and this tapering wind,  is oftentimes a popular shooting hour for the sailing scene. Radiant colors and shadowing gives you the romantic take on sailing; always a favorite for any enthusiast of the “art of sailing art.”

The romance and the “Golden Hour”

Posted by JuneRose JR Futcher

jfutcher@dtcc.edu

Photos by Sharon Green

Ultimate Sailing

www.ultimatesailing.com

How to use Aperature and F-Stops in Photography

“What is the aperture of our cameras? What is the use of setting a large or small one? Let’s dive into those mysterious numbers and find out what they mean. Think of the aperture as the opening of your lens. Light arrives and its photons are focused onto the sensor by the lens. The incoming analog signal gets then translated into digital numbers and written on the memory card.

"Come to me..." captured by Sean Nel

Typical F stop numbers are:

F1.4, F.1.8, F2, F2.8, F4, F5.6, F8, F11, F16, F22

As they get smaller, the opening in the lens gets larger. And vice versa.

Photo captured by Edgar Barany

The reason why this happens is because these numbers represent fractions of the diameter of the lens. For example F2 means that the entire diameter of the lens gets divided by 2. If we have a 50mm lens and we set F2 in the aperture settings, the opening of the lens will become 50/2 = 25mm. If now we set F4, the opening becomes 50mm/4=12.5mm. So setting a higher F number we obtained a smaller opening.”

Photo captured by Edgar Barany

I chose this article because my favorite shots that I like the most are those where the background is out of focus and the only thing in focus is your subject. This could be an idea I would like to use in my final project. To read the rest of this article click here http://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-use-aperture-and-f-stops-in-photography/

author: SSINGH

Critiquing

This is an entry I found online about critiquing photographs with some good thoughts.

“how exactly how do you critique photographs? As I say in my classes, “Saying wow, neat or cool is not critiquing photographs.”

“These criteria apply regardless of the photographic style, media, genre, format, etc. These criteria analyze how the viewer experiences a given photograph.”

How is the light used?

Is the light harsh or soft?

How is time or motion used?

Is the lens choice appropriate for the image?

How is the white balance? Appropriate for image?

Does the composition flow?

Is the depth of field or what is in focus help or hurt the image?

Does the viewers eye flow through the image easily?

“There are no right or wrong answers for any of these questions. The point is to be asking as many of these questions as you can about the image in front of you, so you can critique it intelligently. The long-term goal is to take that same analytical process of deconstructing images and then applying it to your making of new photographs. It is a long process, to learn how to do this automatically. But once you do, your photography will improve immensely.”

(http://thewellspoint.com/2010/04/16/how-do-you-critique-photographs/)

Corrupted Files

I found this post on the internet and found it interesting as no one wants their work to be destroyed by unworkable products.  It shows that on any given day the incompatibility of a product may affect your photos  so be aware of this.

 

Ken Rocks

Corrupted Files on MacBook Pro, Nikon Cameras and eSATA Drive

Corrupted image file. 

Over the last month, I’ve been having all kinds of problems with corrupted photographs. I first noticed it after I returned from a big workshop I ran in September, 2011 in the Olympic NP, WA. I found that a few NEF pictures had a vertical line through them and that half of the image had shifted “up” by a few pixels. At first, I assumed the problem was with the CF card I was using, so I took that card out of my photo bag just in case it was bad.

This was the first image where I first noticed the data corruption. See how one side of the file is shifted “up” from the other side? 

A few weeks later, I found the problem again. However, this time it was on a JPG. Then, the problem started to get much worse. I found that approximately 5% of my photos appeared corrupted no matter what camera body or memory card combination I used.

More data corruption on a Nikon JPG file. Looks kinda like the Matrix. 

So, I started testing to see if I could figure out where the problem originated. First check was my cameras. I never saw any corrupted files on the LCD panel of my Nikon Cameras, so felt that these weren’t issue.

Next was to see if it was a specific CF card. I had corrupted files from all of my CF cards, so it wasn’t a single card problem.

Next was to determine if it was a software issue. My workflow is to ingest my files through Photo Mechanic where I then add copyright and keyword metadata. I ran a test where I brought the photos into my external disk drive through Photo Mechanic and then a separate test where I moved them manually through drag and drop. In both cases, I had corrupted files. Hmm.

Next was to determine if the problem was with my card reader. I use a Lexar Pro CF/SD UDMA card reader and I had heard that there are some incompatibilities between certain card readers and Mac computers. So, to eliminate this as a cause, I moved files to my external drive with the card reader and then again with a direct USB connection to my Nikon D700. In both cases, I had corrupted files.

Ok, at this point, it was clear that the problem wasn’t:
– Camera
– Card
– Software
– Card reader

I began to suspect that the problem might be my external disk drive. I’m currently downloading images directly to an OWC 2TB Mercury Elite Pro Quad interface external disk drive. This drive allows me to connect it to the computer via one of four methods: USB, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 or eSATA. My standard protocol is to keep it connected to my MacBook Pro via eSATA. I use an eSATA Express 34mm adapter that plugs into my Mac.

The next series of tests was to download files to my computer’s desktop and then do another download to my external hard drive. The files downloaded to my computer desktop via USB card reader had zero corrupted files. The same files downloaded to the external drive via eSATA connection had two corrupted images. Aha! It was looking like it might be my external hard drive.

It took one more test to get to the bottom of the problem. I connected the same hard drive to my computer via USB (rather than eSATA) and did the download test one more time. This time, I had zero corrupted files.

I called OWC (Other World Computing http://www.macsales.com) and told them my predicament. They immediately said that there was a specific incompatibility with my Express 34mm eSATA adapter and the model of MacBook Pro that I use. For some reason, the chipset for MacBook Pro 5, 1 (five comma one) has problems with some models of Express 34 eSATA cards. OWC said that they would replace my eSATA card with a new one and I’d be up and running within a week.

What a relief. It is really hard to be a professional photographer when you can’t trust your tools. Knowing that I might or might not get corrupted files from any of my cameras at any time, really put the damper on my photography. The kind people at OWC were wonderful to work with. I also talked a bit with Photo Mechanic (http://www.camerabits.com) and they were extremely helpful in helping to troubleshoot the problem.

Now, I’m still using the external hard drive, but I have it connected via USB or Firewire. Once the new eSATA adapter arrives, I’ll go back to high-speed data transfer.

January 6th, 2011 | Tags: CF, Corrupted pictures, eSATA, Express 34mm, files, JPG, Lexar, NEF, Nikon D300s, Nikon D700, Nikon D7000, Nikon D90, SanDisk, SD | Category: Photography, Software | Comments are closed

Pete Eckert

Here’s a cool little video about a blind photographer. His photos turn out pretty neat looking, because it looks like the majority of his photos involve moving around lights and subjects with a long shutter, sort of like lightpainting. Here’s his website also

by- Caseyd

Portraits, endless possibilities

Here are 2 videos about portraits, with exact opposite directions of approach.

First, studio lighting with setup. The second is shooting portraits on the street with strangers.

 

Which would you rather do?

 

Simplicity with Clouds

Looking for some great photographs, with a subject matter we all encounter everyday…

This is Alfred Steiglitz. Husband of famous painter Georgia O’Keefe.