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Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Fall is coming. Do you know where your pictures are?

Fall Colours are coming!

We all have our favourite spots for taking fall pictures. And we all know of spots we'd like to visit, Every year I say "I'm not going to shoot the colours again" and yet every year I do!

Obviously, the bright colours are the most addictive: but why? Bright colours are all around us, what is it about the autumn leaves?

Obviously I used Topaz Impression 2 (my favourite preset is "Impasto") on this image, but there's more to it than that! I did a lot of extra technical work to make this picture look like what I had in mind when I shot it. For one thing, it's an HDR merge of 5 bracketed shots so that I could work with the full dynamic range. And I used some secret sauce (see below) to bring out the colours of the foliage which were not anywhere near that intense so early in the season. I actually muted and blurred the background just a bit to enhance the foreground subject.

I think the answer lies in the colour palette. I don't know enough about colour theory but from my painting experience, I know that the basic fall colours all come from the same set of basic pigments: reds and yellows and greens. They're balanced by the skies and the water. I wish I could achieve this look with brushes and oil paint. I've taken a sabbatical from painting for a while to get past this frustration, but looking at scenes like the one above is tempting me to take them out again.

So: two things. First, a few years ago, I wrote a "Guide to Shooting Fall Colours" and I published it as a pdf book online. Here's a free link to the guide: http://www.photography.to/fallguid.pdf. Enjoy. All I ask is that you find me on Facebook (search for "faczen") and tell me what you thought of it. Feel free to share: I've given up trying to make any money from these publications, I share them in the spirit of education! (well, if you decide to donate something, you could follow the link at the beginning of the book!). And if you're not a subscriber to my newsletter, do the right thing! Click the link at the top right of this blog.

The second thing: I watched a presentation by Scott Kelby that he gave a few years ago at B&H Photo. Towards the end, he did a segment on enhancing fall colours in Photoshop. He demonstrated a simple technique which really works, although I don't really understand why! It's only 4 steps: here goes!

You need Photoshop for this. Do it on a copied layer (ctrl-J or cmd-J on a Mac) so you can change the intensity easily later. Here's the starting image:

Remember you can click on any image to blow it up full size

convert your image from RGB to LAB colour

Apply the image

Change the blend mode to "Overlay" (you can experiment with other modes, like "Soft Light" for more and less intense effect); and select the "b" channel. This menu pops up when you click "apply image" in the previous step.

Now simply switch back to RGB so you can continue editing, or output a normal Jpeg. If you did this on a fresh layer copy, you can now change the opacity or blend mode, or you can mask areas as you wish.

Here's the resulting image after those four steps.

I used that brilliant free stitching program from Microsoft that I wrote about last week, again (what a convoluted sentence!). This is another shot from the marina where I dock my boat, like the first picture on today's blog.

This was carefully cropped and straightened up using the perspective cropping tool in Photoshop (People don't seem to know about this tool. It's simple to use and so effective!) . The original image was an amazing 266 Mp in size; this crop is almost 60 Mp! Again I used Impression/Impasto, and I added some texture using Topaz Texture Effects.

Here's the link to that Microsoft stitching program, "Image Composite Editor" or "ICE":
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/ice/

Here's the blog banner I just replaced. I need to do this so that the old one doesn't just disappear into cyberspace:

Gales of November: less than a month away and I'm excited because (a) there are some outstanding people attending and (b) we have some fantastic venues to shoot and some great programs planned!

Despite several last-minute inquiries, we still have two spaces available in the first weekend (October 20-23) AND a lodge room has opened up. Also there are still 4 spaces on the second weekend. Jump on it, folks! YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO BE THERE.

Visit www.photography.to/gales for details and if you want the first weekend, email me directly. The October 27-30 session can be booked directly online.

Open Canoe Races

The open canoe event took place on the Gull River at the Minden Wildwater Preserve last weekend and several camera club members came out to take some pictures. Here are my two favourite shots from the event:

A picture is worth 1000 words.I don't need any words for these pictures, do I?

Parting Shot

Here's a fall sunflower on the side of the road that called out to me to have its picture made.

—30—

Saturday, January 16, 2016

The Gales of November site is LIVE!

The Gales of November site is LIVE!

We've settled on the weekend of October 20th, 2016. There's room for a dozen photographers and as I write this, I know of 5 who have already booked, and Rock Island Lodge implied that there are a couple of others they haven't told me about yet.

So if you want to attend, you'd best hop to it. First come, first served.

(I COULD do a second weekend if enough people want me to.)

Here's the link: check it out!

Revised Banner shot
If you check out the banner picture at the top of the blog, it's an abstract rendering of a shot I was trying to make on New Year's Eve but then I experimented after the fact in Photoshop. The original was an attempt to isolate the dead tree against the snowy background... it was "OK", but needed something.

Here's the old blog banner that I replaced (I post the old ones in the blog so they don't disappear forever):

Haven't tried it yet...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that when doing timelapses using my iphone to drive the camera through TriggerTrap, the phone battery was the limiting factor. I could only do about an hour and a half, the camera battery lasted longer. So I searched eBay for an external battery pack and paid the princely sum of $5.88 US including shipping for this one:

not my picture. Screen capture from the eBay page.

The specs say it's got about 3x the capacity of the regular iPhone battery so it should do. Now I need to wait for some clear skies for a chance to give it a try. It was a little confusing at first because the cable didn't match the new "Lightning" connector on the phone (which I like because you don't have to worry about which way around it is, it plugs in both ways, but I dislike it because none of my old charging cables will fit!). Then I realized you use the regular iPhone charging cable and plug it into the USB connector on the power pack.

If I want to do serious day-long timelapses, I'll have to look into external power for the camera too. On the list...

It comes in various colours. I was going to buy pink but then I though...

I wrote that a few days ago. I have tried it now and it works... but I haven't pushed it to see how much power it's providing. I ran about 200 images for a timelapse and had 93% power left on the iPhone. I'll do more later.

More Pine Marten pictures!

They're so deceivingly cute. I went up to Algonquin Park yesterday with Ron Goodlin and Rob Kline in search of wildlife, and I'm glad they weren't disappointed! Neither of them had seen Pine Martens before and the machine gun sound of Ron's D4 at 11 fps or whatever was more or less continuous!

I commented to someone that I was tired of seeing someone's endless cat pictures (s/he shall remain nameless). Cute enough, if you like cats – which I don't – but the're all the same. The response was, "yeah, should we talk about Pine Martens"? Guilty as charged!

Frankly, I don't understand how he does it. I went with the pressure and when I got home, discovered that I had shot 340 images. But as I culled and rated them there were so many identical. It was hard to decide which to keep and which to discard. I ended up throwing out about 200 shots. That said, there was one sequence where s/he opened and closed his or her mouth and I might have missed this shot if I hadn't been shooting in burst (my D800 only does about 4 fps — enough for me!).

I opined that these animals (Pine Martens are members of the weasel family. They may look cute but they're really mean like minks and fishers. They're carnivores, but these particular ones have become too accustomed to humans and our garbage.

Still, they make fine photo subjects, so here are a few more shots.

I suspect these are siblings from this year's litter. I posted this image on FB with the caption, "OK, here's the plan, sis. I'm going to run that way and stop and pose for the cameras every now and then. You go the other way and see if you can pick up some food for us without them spotting you. Ready? On 3...."

I think this is my favourite from this batch. I've long known that wide angle shots which include more of the environment tell a story better than closeups. I took some artistic liberties with the background to make it stand out less.

By the way, some people preferred to shoot other things. To each his own...

Ten feet away from where the Pine Martens were playing, this was set up to photograph chickadees. Sorry, I don't get it! There are a million of these around everyone's bird feeders, why go to Algonquin and ignore the martens to shoot these. Bird photographers are quirky!

Nikon D5/D500

Nikon has announced the new D5 ($6500 US) and D500 ($2000 US, same processor and sensor, but DX not FX and "Prosumer" not professional build. It's the successor to the D300). Available in March. OUTRAGEOUS ISO capability: ISO 3,480,000 and 1,280,000 respectively. I remember thinking you could shoot 1/1,000,000 sec at f/16 in the dark!

I haven't yet seen any images posted of any high-ISO shots, other than a sneak peek someone caught of an LCD at the Consumer Electronics Show. But I'm just imagining the noise performance at more "normal" levels like ISO 6400 or 12,800. I think these cameras are going to mitigate the need for big aperture lenses for certain applications – I'm thinking about those $15000 monster telephotos. You'll be able to shoot at f/8 all day.

We live in interesting times!

...speaking of Snowy Owls...

We were, right? My bad, I guess not!

Only one I've seen so far this year

When I came across this ladybird, there was a group of conservation types hanging around. They were there, banding the owls. I asked how! They use traps baited with pigeons. I hung around for a while (until it was too dark!) hoping they would capture one so I could photograph the affair: that would be awesome! Too bad they didn't.

While I was waiting, the setting sun illuminated these greenhouses behind me. Check it out!

It actually looked even BETTER through the viewfinder but this was the best I could do, with a multi-shot HDR and Topaz software.

One for the road.

Snowflakes are TOUGH! There's quite a bit of post-processing work in this one and I haven't yet really nailed the focus. Thought I'd share anyway!

— 30 —

Monday, December 07, 2015

Announcing the NEW "Gales of November" Workshop!

The Gales of November

One of the longest running photography workshops around has been the "Gales of November" at the Rock Island Lodge in Wawa, on the shores of Lake Superior or 'Gitchigumi' as the natives call it. The area offers the most outstanding and spectacular landscape and outdoor photography in the Province. It has run for some 10 years under the expert tutelage of Rob Stimpson.

Due to some other commitments, particularly his trips to Antarctica, Rob has been forced to give it up and I have accepted the responsibility of facilitating this stellar photo-op and workshop opportunity.

Sunset view from the Rock Island Lodge

Last year, the workshop was re-named, "The Gales of November Come Early" because it was scheduled for October! (That's like Oktoberfest in Munich: it's held in September because they can't wait!). The reasoning is to allow the lodge to close for the winter a bit earlier. We're still working out the details, but we're looking at one of two weekend dates, either October 8th or October 22nd, 2016. I'd like to do the earlier one because I think there will be fall colours in evidence at that time (who knows? This year was weird...) however that is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and I don't know if that's going to be a plus or a minus.

A small corner of High Falls on the Magpie River

I might even do a Spring 2016 session up there if enough people are interested.

The basic premises for the workshop are as follows:

3 nights at the superb Rock Island Lodge, great accommodations, all-inclusive
Inexpensive. The final price hasn't been set yet but it will be affordable.
Limited to about a dozen photographers. There are some nearby accommodations also available when the Lodge itself fills up.
This is for experienced photographers who already know their cameras and basic post-processing. Depending on demand, we may make a separate session for those who need more guidance.
Some physical limitations are not a problem, although there is ample opportunity for those more active to explore more challenging venues by hiking or kayaking or canoeing, etc.
Limited teaching: I plan to set some challenges and assignments so people can step up to a new level. But Rob told me the following: "I found for the most part the last few years, people were looking to shoot and edit with like minded people - take them to places they otherwise would never get to".

One of the rooms in the Lodge

There's a web page in progress (Link here). I would ask my gentle readers to go there and give me some feedback: I need to choose dates, etc. For now, there's a two-minute survey there, please respond if there's even a remote chance you might be able to join us!

I'm really excited about this. Some think it might be just an excuse for me to get back up there again... maybe a germ of truth in that! I absolutely love this area.

New Banner

When I put a new banner up top, I post the old one in the body of the blog so it doesn't disappear entirely. The new banner is an impression of the steel wool shoot in Haliburton last week. Here's the previous one:

Sharing a laugh

When my Nikon SB-600 flash died, I bought a Yongnuo YN568EX to replace it. It seems to have excellent specs, it costs about 30% of the price of the Nikon equivalent (it's available at B&H for $100 US here). The only downside is that my Gary Fong diffuser doesn't fit because the head is larger than the SB-600.

FREE! First person to request it gets it for free (just the cost of the shipping). Email me.

Here's the laugh part. This is what it says in the instruction manual:

FAST CURRENT-RETURN SYSTEM The time for full gloss output current-return will only take you 3 seconds; you can get fast current-return experience even without brand-new batteries, which will only take you 4~5 seconds.

Here's another example. This is from the "Quick Start" page:

Press [MODE] button to select TTL/M/Multi mode, holding [ZOOM} for a while to select remote trigger model, and then press [MODE] again to select Sn/Sc/S1/S2.

Nowhere in the manual does it explain what Sn/Sc/S1/S2 are. Does "n" stand for "Nikon" and "C" for "Canon"? That's my best guess. Oh, wait. I found a paragraph on "S1" mode:

It will work with the first work of the master flash synchronously with the result consistent with the use of radio slave. To use this mode correctly, the master flash should be set at manual flash and the TTL flash system with preflight function and the red-reduction function with multiple functions should not be used.

OK, folks. I've used off-camera speedlites before so I'm pretty sure I'll eventually figure this out but I wonder if someone who has never done off-camera would be able to do it! It also says it will do fast sync up to 1/8000 sec (interesting, the D800 says 1/320 sec maximum...). Anyone who has used one of these, please email me!

You would think that a company – even a Chinese one – who are a major supplier to the North American market, would be able to afford a translator who is not transliterating from the Chinese.

It is to laugh...

I'm pretty good at Lightroom and Photoshop

On Facebook, frustrated people post questions they're stumped on. Sometimes I'll watch for a while and see that nobody else seems to know the answer, even though it's obvious to me. Or people put up stupid and flat-out wrong information. That frustrates me, so I take the time to respond. The best example is "Should I output the picture at 72 dpi or 300 dpi if it's going to be printed"? (DPI doesn't matter, it's the number of pixels). Or "should I convert my pictures to CMYK to send them to the printer", or "I deleted all my pictures from the computer but I kept them in Lightroom, how come I can't output them anymore?".

I try to help out by answering many questions (but not the ones like, "which is better, Photoshop or Lightroom"?). Not blowing my own horn, but I guess I know the right answer to 95% of 'normal' questions, on either program.

I'm not pretending to be something I'm not... I certainly don't have the chops to be a Lightroom or Photoshop ACE (Adobe Certified Expert). To pass that, you have to be familiar with everything in the programs and I'm not. For instance, I've never done 3D or worked on a storyboard or tried to do a web page with slices. I don't use the print module in Lightroom, never even looked at the Map module. You have to know all that stuff to pass the ACE. But I certainly know my way around the normal (normal for me!) stuff. And I know where to look when I need to learn something new.

Maybe it's the way I'm built (wide and low to the ground?), but generally you only have to show me how to do things once, or I see them or try them once, and it sticks. Must be the fact that I was left-brained for half a century before I discovered the other side. I owe my Lightroom start to Jim Camelford who put me on the right track when I got Lightroom 1.

I love to share. And teach. Nothing turns me on more than watching the lightbulb come on, seeing someone 'getting it' (well... let's not go there!). Right now I'm doing a two-session Lightroom workshop. Session 1 is on organizing and importing images, Session 2 is on editing and exporting, because these are the things people have to do in LR and if they can do more, it's gravy. Once they can do those things, they are on the right track.

I'm also pretty good at general photography. Same thing: if I've tried it, I know how to do it, and I can probably teach you how to do it. Basic camera use; lighting; composition; visualization; shooting stars; editing images; winter shooting and more.

If anyone wants me to do these sessions for them, contact me.

PS: I'm less confident teaching the right-brained stuff: I can't teach you how to play keyboard or guitar or harmonica even though I've tried those things, I'm not good at them. Or painting: I really suck! And seeing how to do it once isn't doing it for me this time. Ditto carpentry or canoeing or anything that challenges my arthritic knees! Some people think I'm pretty good at writing, but I can't teach it.

Snowflakes

After Lance sent me some images of snowflakes he had taken, I knew I wanted to try it. With a new macro lens, I gave it a shot.

It's HARD! I tried a bunch of tricks and after a while I was able to get this shot. But it took a ton of manipulation to get it to look like this. There's a lot of Topaz Texture Effects in this shot.

I can do better! With winter on its way... well watch this space!

Speaking of Texture Effects...

I was in the car, actually parked on the shoulder of South Lake Road near Minden, talking to Dr. Ron on the phone when I saw the delightful pattern formed by the snow-covered branches of this tree. I remember saying to Ron, "there are wires, and a fence... but I bet I can make a good leading line out of it". Well it took a lot of work but I got the image I wanted.

I went back over an image I shot last September up on Lake Superior ('Gitchigumi' is the Ojibwe name for it). This is consistent with my passion for creating art out of digital images. I think it tells the story of the Big Lake well, and it certainly takes me back to when I was there. It should print really well on canvas.

This is a composite image. I added the girl/dog in from another picture taken on the same beach that day, because I wondered if having a foreground interest would add to the image, which it did! FWIW, they were facing the other way, I flipped them around so they were looking into the image. And I spent some time creating drop shadows and matching the toning so they would fit in seamlessly. The textures were done in Topaz Impression starting with one of the Oil Paint presets (#IV, if anyone cares!). Oh, and I enlarged the moon. It gets pretty small when you use a wide angle lens.

— 30 —

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Screaming Heads

Proposal to affect our beloved White Water Preserve

Orillia Power is proposing to build a power generating station at the Minden Wildwater Preserve. I'm not going to go into all the details, you can find them elsewhere, but there is NO DOUBT it will affect this fabulous natural waterway, where the PanAm Games kayak and canoe slalom events were hosted, unique in the world, and a natural treasure.

I wrote a letter to the Minden Hills Town Council who are considering the proposal. I hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears:

There are many arguments for and against the project but I defy you to find one supporting it that does not have a financial aspect. Money will be made if this project goes ahead, by OPG, by those hired to do the work, by others, and likely by the Town of Minden. Fair enough.

I have failed to find even one argument against the project that has anything to do with money. Instead they centre around changes that will affect this precious resource; not only the waterway itself but also the lakes and waters both up- and down-stream. Those who use the white waters for recreation – the kayakers, the fishermen and women, even those who simply wander the banks of the river, explore the caves, watch the trilliums grow in the spring, enjoy nature at its best. There’s no denying that these gifts will be affected if this project goes ahead.

As a photographer and an artist with ties to many outside the community, I often get requests, “I’m thinking of coming up to Minden Hills for a visit, what do you recommend that I see and do?”, number one on my list is to visit the Minden Wild Water Preserve. By far. The gnarly tree roots, the warblers and cedar waxwings flitting through the trees, the pristine trails along the water’s edge… Even in February! The rushing water, leaving filigreed caps of ice on the rocks (the original “Iced Cap!”) Even before the PanAm Games, it was one of the few things that people knew about our area. “You live in Minden? Isn’t that where that fabulous white water falls is located?”. Now, after the event, it’s a calling card for visitors from all over the world to come see our natural beauty.

Who has stood on the side of the Gull river and not thought, “Wow. This is a magical place”?

And now there’s a proposal to take it all away, or at least make it less magical. Shame on Minden Council if you approve this project which will affect our natural treasure for the sake of the almighty dollar.

New Banner Picture

I replaced the banner picture. For the record, here's the old one, since otherwise it disappears into cyberspace!

Topaz ReMask special offer!

The fine folks at Topaz Labs are in the process of updating one of their most effective plugins, "ReMask". If anyone has struggled with making a selection in Photoshop (frizzy, blowaway hair is the best example, but any irregular shape also poses challenges), ReMask is an intuitive, quick and extremely effective tool.

ReMask is designed on one simple idea: To create the best quality mask with minimal input. By using ReMask’s simple 3-color tri-map technology, users have the power to quickly and easily extract even the toughest elements — hair, foliage, and transparent materials — in their photos. The new updates to ReMask 5 make it the most powerful masking software on the market. The two biggest additions are standalone capabilities and background replacement tools.

ReMask 5 works as a standalone program now, in addition to being a plugin. This means no host program is required and Lightroom integration is available. ReMask 5 also allows you to replace and edit the background of your masked image without leaving the program. Choose from transparent, solid color, or image backgrounds.

If you already have ReMask 4, the update is free. If not, you can take advantage of the sale that's now on and purchase it for $49.95, a $20 savings, between now and September 18th!

Here's the link to the ReMask product page. You can try it out for free... but complete your purchase before the 18th to take advantage of the sale price. At checkout, enter the code. "GetReMask5".

Screaming Heads

Note: this paragraph and picture added after the fact. I realized I never posted a picture of a "Screaming Head", and my intro was rather weak.

Sometimes an artist's vision is so far out of the mainstream, it defies description. Peter Camani's Screaming Heads project is like that. You have to see the place to get it.

The club had an outing to "Screaming Heads" near Burk's Falls. If you've never heard of it, it's an off-the-wall place, conceived in the creative mind of Peter Camani. You can read more about it here, or Google it to see a variety of videos and other links. There's no simple way to describe it, check out the links. On September 18th weekend, by the way, the "Harvest Festival" will be there, an event which Peter describes as something like Burning Man (Google that if you've never heard of it either!). He expects over 3000 people.

Peter Camani describing some of the features inside his Midlothian Castle home

As a challenge, I decided to shoot the entire visit with one lens only, my new Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 macro. I changed lenses only once, to do the group shot because I needed a wider angle. Otherwise everything you're about to see was shot with the one lens (although I did crop many of the pictures).

Our group. Missing is Philip Brown who was there but he disappeared sometime in the morning. Hope the witches in the castle didn't get him! I borrowed Jack's neat lightweight MeFoto tripod, set up the camera and used the TriggerTrap for the first time, controlling it with my iPhone. I set it to take a shot every 5 seconds, I did half a dozen or so before wandering back to shut it off.

Many of my shots were enhanced using various Photoshop tools, such as the Flame Generator here (there were no flames in these old lanterns!). Then I used Topaz Impression to create a painting.

Another painted image (Topaz Impression, "Turner Afternoon" preset). This is essentially a full-frame image, I was challenged by the 105mm lens and couldn't get back far enough to include the whole canoe.

You could either walk around the pond, or take the human-powered 'ferry' across! Amin is providing the muscle for this crossing. It doesn't take much – I had crossed myself earlier so I could get this shot and I sent the ferry back under the power of a little 5-year old boy! I toned this one similar to Dianne Stender's style.

Cement and other sculptures dotted the landscape. Enhanced in Topaz Impression, "Impasto" preset.

Eyes cut in the sculptures made wonderful frames to shoot through! I took some pictures of Chris and Holly looking through some eyeholes, but others have posted those so I didn't.

I did say it was a macro lens, right? So I had to shoot this grasshopper...

...and this wasp or hornet gathering nectar on a goldenrod bloom.

Amin and Gord hanging out. The 105mm gives an excellent perspective and by the way, it's really sharp! Amin is wearing the new HHCC baseball cap, the shipment came in a couple of days ago if you're a club member.