Red Rose Digital Art Photography Blog

RAW rules!

2011-12-21T17:14:00.001+10:00

Instant images have never been easier to obtain than now. There is a seemingly unending plethora of cameras on the market that will do everything for you. However, if you read the specifications before you buy, you may notice that many of the lower cost cameras save their still images as JPEGs only. “Well, what’s wrong with that?” I hear you ask. Well, on the face of it, absolutely nothing. These cameras will give you a reasonably acceptable image that you can print out immediately without any requirement to process it. However, there are inherent problems. JPEGs are small files and that small size is achieved because the JPEG format is “lossy”. This means that enormous amounts of image information are actually thrown away during saving by use of an algorithm that compares colour information in adjacent pixels and discards nearly identical information. Taken to extreme, this can result in images with noticeable little blocks in them. Even JPEGs saved at the best setting your camera offers will have little flecks in them that are visible when the image is viewed at higher magnification. This may not matter so much if you only want to print the image as a 4 x 6 inch print but if you want print the image as an A3 print or larger, or if you want to crop the image and only print a portion of it, you may be unhappy with the results.

So, what is the solution? Well, if your camera also can save images in RAW format (many premium compact and all DSLR cameras can), then switch that option on and read on. RAW format is precisely what it says. Just the image data – the camera has not made any permanent decisions for you on settings such as white balance, exposure (within certain generous limits), saturation etc. It has also saved ALL of the pixel information. Yes, you can’t fit as many RAW files on your memory card as you can JPEGS, but memory cards are relatively inexpensive.

What about image processing? The good news is that if your camera has the RAW image option, then your camera manufacturer will have provided you with free software so that you can process the images. Alternatively, third party software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paintshop Pro, also process RAW images with ease. Let’s look at how you do this in Photoshop.

You will have already thoroughly vetted your images so that only images with genuine promise are still around to process (See Be Ruthless for more on this subject). Open the file using Adobe Camera Raw, either by launching Photoshop or directly from Adobe Bridge. My example today is a macro shot of some Australian native daisies taken with my “handbag” camera, a Canon Powershot S95 compact camera. This camera is tiny but has excellent image quality and also saves images in RAW format (the reason I bought it). Quick disclaimer – I am not affiliated with Canon but I genuinely like the products.

Golden Daisies (really, really flat) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

OK, this definitely does not look like the world’s best image. It was just about to rain so the light was low and flat. If I had saved this as a JPEG, I doubt very much that it could have been salvaged and it certainly would have been full of artefacts, but I shot it in RAW format so there was a good chance here.

Click now on Camera Calibration (the little “camera”) and choose the camera profile that you like best. I nearly always choose Camera Standard but there can be good reasons for checking the others out. The image still looks flat.

Next choose Lens Corrections (the sixth tab from the left). This is immensely useful. Every camera lens will have inherent distortion problems, especially zoom lenses, which will be manifested in the image as either barrel or pincushion distortion i.e. straight lines in the image will look either bowed out or in. In addition, lens all have varying amounts of chromatic aberrations which can be seen as solid colour lines on high contrast margins. Needless to say, the cheaper the lens or the bigger the zoom, the worse the distortion. These issues can be counteracted either partially or completely by locating the correct lens profile for your camera or lens. I chose the Canon Powershot S95 lens profile and a slight inherent barrel distortion was corrected. Yes, the image still looks flat.

Golden Daisies (still really flat) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

Next choose Detail (the third tab from the left). Here you can deal with any noise in your image and can also sharpen it. I prefer to deal with both noise and sharpening in Photoshop. So I drag the sharpening and noise reduction sliders all the way to left and set them to 0. The image still looks flat – mind you, you have spent less than one minute so far on the image to get it to this point.

Now click on Basic (the first tab from the left). Now you can get busy with non-destructively improving the image, ensuring a good range of tones and suitable contrast and colour. With this image, I applied the following settings:

White Balance: I left the setting at “As Shot” which meant that the Temperature was 5200K and the Tint at +9. This is a fairly standard Daylight White Balance.
Exposure: I left this at 0 since there was already a full tonal range, slightly clipped for blue in extreme shadows (not enough to worry about).
Recovery: I set this at 43 to compress the Highlights in order to improve the spread of tones.
Fill Light: I set this at 8 – no point trying to correct the saturated blues in the shadows.
Blacks: I also left the Blacks at 5 (the default).
Brightness: This is now where the great improvements start to happen. I shifted the Brightness up to +50. This made the mid-tones lighter rather than just the highlights which is what would have happened if I had increased the value for the Exposure. The image is now much brighter but still flat.
Contrast: This was set at +25.
Clarity, Vibrance and Saturation: Clarity and Vibrance were both set to +10 to improve local contrast and the saturation of the less saturated colours, respectively. Saturation was left at 0 since the yellows were already quite strong.

At this point, the image has been improved quite considerably and is now ready for one more tweak.

Golden Daisies (much better now) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

Click on Tone Curve (the second tab from the left). Here we can tweak the Highlights, Lights, Darks and Shadows individually to improve the image further. I chose the following settings by sliding the sliders around until I was happy with the results:

Highlights: +24
Lights: +9
Darks: -21
Shadows:-14

This resulted in a stronger, vibrant image with no artefacts even at high magnification, ready for further minor edits and printing in Photoshop.

Golden Daisies (nearly finished) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

The final image: I opened it in Photoshop, applied a very small amount of noise reduction using Topaz DeNoise 5 and gave the image a little more punch using Topaz Adjust 4 (both from Topaz Labs – again, I just like the products). This image is now vibrant and alive, a far cry from the dull, flat image I started with. It also only took a few minutes to complete this series of edits.

Golden Daisies - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

As you can see, an image that would have been ready for the bin as a JPEG was able to be turned into an attractive vibrant image, just by having shot it in RAW format and a few minutes of editing. If you have RAW format available on your camera, try switching it on and enjoy the improvement in image quality!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out the rest of my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo galleries directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/, http://redrosedigitalart.artistwebsites.com/ and http://www.redbubble.com/people/rrda or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

Silky Waterfalls or the Art of Long Exposure Daylight Photography

2011-11-06T15:47:00.000+10:00

Landscape photography is so rewarding. Very often, all I want to do is to capture an incredible vista that is sharp from a couple of feet in front of me to the horizon. However, there are times when sharpness is not your friend.

We have all stood near a waterfall and snapped off some images, somewhat like this one I captured recently from the lookout at Zillie Falls, Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland, Australia. Quick aside – this is a truly beautiful part of the world, in the tropical rainforest zone of my home state, Queensland.

Zillie Falls (sharp) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

It’s an OK image but it’s lacking a certain something. The water is frozen in mid-air which really affects its long-term appeal. But what if it could look like this?

Zillie Falls, Atherton Tableland, Far North Queensland, Australia - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

Same spot, three minutes later – super-silky water, everything else pretty much the same. So, how did I do it?

Step 1: Capture the first image that I showed. Yes, it does seem counter-intuitive to capture an image you know is not going to be great but it’s quite instructive and helps a lot at the next step. My Canon 7D DSLR (with a Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens) was placed firmly on my tripod. I set the Exposure Program to Aperture Priority and the aperture to f/5. This resulted in a shutter speed of 1/125 seconds. I also used Auto-focus for this image as well as Mirror Lockup and a two second delay on the shutter.

Step 2: Without moving the camera (very important), I changed the Exposure Program to Manual, the aperture to f/10 and switched the lens to manual focus since I didn’t want the lens to try to refocus. I also set the shutter speed to 30 seconds. At this point, you’re probably wondering why my second image isn’t completely white! The last thing I did was very carefully screw on to the lens a Solid Neutral Density ND10 Filter. This effectively cut the amount of light reaching the camera sensor down to 1/1000 of what had been coming in before. It allowed for a very long exposure in the early afternoon which resulted in the beautiful silky waterfall. This filter is effectively black so you have to set up the shot first, including focus, and only then attach the filter.

I also used this filter very effectively at Josephine Falls, also in Far North Queensland:

Before:

Josephine Falls (sharp) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

After:

Josephine Falls, Far North Queensland, Australia - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

However, this filter can be just too much at times. Then, you can whip out your trusty ND2 and/or ND4 filters. These are grey filters so they can be fixed in place prior to focusing. For this image I captured at Elinjaa Falls, just up the road from Zillie Falls, I layered my ND2 and ND4 filters, which allowed for a shutter speed of 0.3 seconds when combined with an aperture of f/18. This worked a treat, allowing for a little of structure in the water which really suited this waterfall on this day.

Waterfall Lace - Elinjaa Falls, Far North Queensland - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

As you can see, with just a couple of extra lens accessories, you can change your waterfall shots from Ho-hum to Wow. So, the next time you’re near some fast-paced water, give it a try!

NB: Some of what I have discussed in this post is quite possible to do using a premium compact camera. Check with a reputable camera dealer on your best filter choices.

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out the rest of my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo galleries directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/, http://redrosedigitalart.artistwebsites.com/ and http://www.redbubble.com/people/rrda or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

The Zen of Floral Photography

2011-09-03T17:09:00.003+10:00

For me, photography offers the ability to capture beauty. I want to preserve it for my enjoyment and also to share with others. I love the challenge of landscape and animal photography but floral photography in all its forms remains my “first love”! There is nothing better than capturing gorgeous flowers at the height of their beauty.

Flower photography in gardens is enormous fun, whether on vacation or at home. For example, I was in France last year at the Château de Versailles and captured these blush roses in the marvellous gardens surrounding the palace.

Blush Rose Trio - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

However, sometimes I want to create a modern, very strong image with absolutely no clutter and for that, complete control is required. Roses may be my signature flowers, however, gerberas are a very close second. They are also bright, stylish flowers that lend themselves to contemporary images.

Glowing Pin Wheel - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

For this image, everything was controlled. I used a piece of black velvet as the background and placed the gerbera in a bud vase not far from a set of enormous windows to get good natural light but no sun. I used my DSLR camera firmly attached to a tripod, together with a 90 mm macro lens. The camera’s exposure program was set to Aperture Priority with an ISO of 100 and the lens was set to an F-stop of f/13 so that as much as possible of the flower was in focus. This resulted in a shutter speed of 0.4 seconds, once I dialled in a slight under-exposure in order to keep the velvet black rather than dark grey. The camera was set with mirror lockup and also to a 10 second shutter delay in order to minimise camera shake and ensure a tack-sharp image. I also decided to take an unconventional photograph of this flower by focusing on the back of the flower rather than the more usual front. All of the preparation resulted in a strong, detailed image highlighting a part of the gerbera flower we don’t usually see. Once it was cropped to a square during post-processing, it became a minimalist, very “zen” image.

Can you do with this your trusty compact camera? Yes, you can if you have one that features the semi-automatic modes Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. These cameras usually have Exposure Compensation so that you can slightly under-expose your shot and they all have a macro mode (the little tulip symbol). These cameras don't have a mirror in them so no need for mirror lockup. The main thing is place your camera on something solid, preferably a tripod, and program in a time delay on your shutter. So, in short, switch the camera to Macro mode and Av mode, dial in the desired aperture, slightly reduce the exposure via Exposure Compensation, set up the time delay, place the camera where it can't move and snap!

This style of photography is a lot of fun and, because you can do it inside, you control your surroundings and always get the shot! So, the next time you’re thinking of some floral photography, try the “zen” approach. You are sure to love the result!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out the rest of my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo galleries directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/, http://redrosedigitalart.artistwebsites.com/ and http://www.redbubble.com/people/rrda or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

A Positive Spin on Negative Space

2011-08-21T11:32:00.001+10:00

As photographers, we so often follow the mantra “Fill the frame”. Most of the time, this really works and is fantastic advice. However, there are times when the subject of your image needs space around it to “breathe”, thus introducing the concept of Negative Space.

In art, negative space surrounds your main subject. This space accentuates your main subject and actually can make it stronger. Here is an example drawn from my own image collection:

To use the “fill the frame” concept for this image of a very small blue and green tropical bird, I cropped the image down just to show the bird:

Emerald and Turquoise (cropped) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

It’s OK-ish – after all the bird has amazing plumage but it feels enclosed, like the bird has nowhere to go. In addition, it’s now looking out of the frame which I don’t like either.

Here is the original, uncropped version:

Emerald and Turquoise - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

Now there is plenty of space around the main subject, the gorgeous bird; the white negative space is emphasising the amazing strong colouring of the bird. It's also looking into the frame – much better! If you apply the “Rule of Thirds” (see my earlier post “The Rule”) to this image, you will see that the bird is now positioned over the bottom-right point of power:

Emerald and Turquoise (gridded) - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

For this image, all of the white space – the negative space – is an absolute positive. It focuses our attention on the bird and its magnificent plumage. It also emphasises just how small it is. So, the next time you’re out with your trusty compact or DSLR camera, try leaving some negative space around your subject. You may positively love the result!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out the rest of my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo galleries directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/, http://redrosedigitalart.artistwebsites.com/ and http://www.redbubble.com/people/rrda or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

How to photograph fireworks with flair

2011-08-06T15:47:00.000+10:00

Fireworks! They represent all manner of celebrations from New Year through to National Days and are lots of fun to watch but they also are challenging to photograph well. So, today’s post is devoted to what you need to do to get great images of fireworks every time.

What equipment do you need?
This is one time when compromise is not your friend. At a bare minimum, you will need a camera that has a “fireworks” setting and you MUST have a tripod. For better results, use a premium compact or DSLR camera where you can manually control both the aperture and shutter speed AND set a timer delay. For the best results, use a DSLR camera and also set the mirror lock-up function.

A real world scenario
Earlier this year, I was able to put theory into practice and actually shoot some fireworks, the Wintersköl fireworks in Aspen, Colorado, USA. This is how I did it:

I found a good position to see the fireworks. I also was very warmly dressed since it was both dark and very cold – well below freezing!
I then set up my camera:

I ensured that I had a freshly formatted, empty memory card since I knew that I would be capturing numerous images and that there was no way to change the memory card while the fireworks were on.
The camera was then attached to my tripod. I also made sure that the mirror lock-up function was set and also set the camera to a 10 second delay, all in order to minimise camera shake.
I also set the ISO to 100 to minimise noise, the lens aperture to f/8 and the shutter speed to 10 sec.
In order to maintain image quality, I also used RAW format, rather than JPEG.

I manually focused where I knew the fireworks would be let off so that the autofocus would not ruin the images by hunting for something to focus on – it was dark after all!
Then I just started shooting as I watched the wonderful show. At the end, I had numerous pin-sharp images, some of which had very pleasing compositions.

My favourite image ended up being a composite of two sequential images that I had captured. In order to do this, I layered the two images in Photoshop CS5, setting the top layer to Lighten so that both images could be seen at once – in effect a digital “double exposure”. I then merged the layers, adjusted the brightness and contrast slightly and also sharpened the image slightly. Voila!

Wintersköl goes out with a bang! - © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

I also decided that this image and one of my other images were ideal for New Year’s greeting cards – New Year celebrations all around the globe have fireworks!

So, as you can see, with a bit of preparation, you can have pin-sharp fireworks images and also enjoy the fabulous show. This technique also works brilliantly for many other “after dark” scenes. Have a go – you’ll definitely love the results!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo galleries directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ and http://redrosedigitalart.artistwebsites.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

It’s a great image but is it a great greeting card?

2011-07-17T15:26:00.000+10:00

Tracie Kaska of Photography TK Designs has very kindly asked me to write a guest blog post at her photography and greeting card blog at http://photographytkdesigns.blogspot.com/. You will find my post "It’s a great image but is it a great greeting card" there. Tracie is a talented photographer and greeting card designer whose progress is wonderful to follow as she undertakes her "365-day" photography challenge. Be sure to have a good wander through her blog!

I have included here three recent greeting cards from Photography TK Designs that really illustrate Tracie's talent. There's plenty more!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly now at http://redrosedigitalart.artistwebsites.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

Summer’s too much fun to just sit on the beach!

2011-06-13T09:35:00.009+10:00

Summer is long in Australia. We are completely surrounded by water – we have our own continent! In addition, a significant part of the population lives on the coastal fringe. So, it is hardly surprising that most Australians adore the beach. Beach photography is an art form in itself which I will go into further into a future post, but today I would like to share a tutorial I have developed on a fun way of displaying action photography captured at the beach. I was inspired by an excellent article I read in the Spring edition 2011 of PhotoPlus, a Canon-centric photography magazine from the UK.

In South-East Queensland, we have easy access to both the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. These seemingly endless stretches of beach bordering the Pacific Ocean are very popular with swimmers, surfers, sail boarders, kite surfers, yachties and jet-skiers. However, it can be hard to convey fast movement just in one shot, particularly with jet-skiers. However, a “time lapse” series can solve that problem.

How to do it in an ideal world

Set your camera on a tripod in a safe place on the beach front.
Ensure that you have set your shutter speed to at least 1/1000 second and the aperture to narrower than f/8.
Set your camera to high-speed continuous shooting using an autofocus mode that tracks with a moving object. Ensure that you are using RAW for maximum detail.
Signal your model to start their run on the jet-ski. Repeat until satisfied.

How to do it in the real world

I would love to say that I followed these “rules” in the following example but I have to admit that the only one I got right was that I was using RAW and that's only because I was already using it. I was casually taking some photographs at Mooloolaba Beach on the Sunshine Coast, SE Queensland and spotted a jet-skier haring along roughly parallel to the beach. Without thinking too much about it, I braced my arms against my body to steady the camera, focused on the jet-skier and just started pressing the shutter. Within a matter of a few seconds, I had eight images and the jet-skier was gone, never to be seen again.

How to turn a series of images into a “time lapse” image using Photoshop CS5

This should also work in Photoshop Elements and other photo editing programs with layers but you may have to manually align your images.

Select the RAW images and open in Camera RAW. Ensure that all images are selected during your adjustments which will be unique to your group of images. Open the images in Photoshop. If your series of images are JPGs then open them in Photoshop and process them identically.

2. Choose File >> Scripts >> Load Files into Stack …

3. Click on “Add Open Files” and click on the check box next to “Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images”. Click on OK.

4. Photoshop will do its thing and a Panorama document will open containing all of your source images in layers. You will see that they require a quick crop to get rid of the rough edges so do that now. You can now close your source images to free up memory.

5. In order to see the jet-skier from every layer, add a layer mask to each layer except the bottom layer. Switch off all layers except the bottom two. Paint with black on the layer mask until you can just see the “second” jet-skier. Switch on the layer above and repeat to reveal the “third” jet-skier and so on until “all” jet-skiers are visible.

6. Merge all of the layers to a single new layer and fine tune the levels and contrast. I checked the horizon to ensure that was straight, cloned out some distant yachts that were small distractions in the image and sharpened the image slightly. Voila!

“Jet-skier” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu

This is a fun summer project for your beach action shots. Don’t forget that your beach action images deserve pride of place in your “Summer” photo album and also make excellent greeting cards. Here are five of my own and five from fellow free-lance artists at Greeting Card Universe:

As you can see, the beach is a great place for action shots and there are fun projects to be done with them. Have a go!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

Simplicity

2011-05-29T13:28:00.001+10:00

So often when we capture images, there’s a lot going on in the shot. We can reach a point when we seriously have no idea where to look first! One way to avoid the “What was I taking a photo of again” question is to simplify the shot, that is, take away anything extraneous until it’s really obvious what the point of the shot is.

Example 1: Portraits

A portrait should always be about the person or the animal. The environment should always be secondary. If possible, exclude it completely! This Lion-tailed Macaque provided an amazing hairstyle that just begged to be captured. By filling the frame completely, I ensured that it could have maximum impact.

“Coiffure Extraordinaire” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Example 2: Landscapes or Seascapes

There is usually a reasonable amount to look at in a landscape or seascape, but sometimes there can be almost nothing. I was at Cleveland on Moreton Bay, near Brisbane (Queensland, Australia), looking out over the bay. It was so serene and quiet and I wanted to capture that but, unfortunately, it all looked rather bland through the viewfinder. Suddenly, the yacht tacked into my shot, provided a focal point and absolutely made the shot.

“Blue Serenity” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Example 3: Nature

Sometimes simplicity really brings out the beauty of nature. This twig was just staying above the deep snow. By ensuring that only the snow and twig were in the shot, I was able to focus the point of the shot on to the twig and its survival despite the winter snow.

“Resilience” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

As you can see, simplicity in an image can help provide a focus and, ultimately, will give you better results. So, go ahead, leave something out!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedRoseDigitalArt. Come and say “Hi”!

Animals – the best and worst models

2011-05-15T14:33:00.002+10:00

Quite a while back, I touched on animal photography in my blog post “Practice,Practice, Practice”. I thought it was time to expand on this after my rather prolonged absence from this blog! We love to photograph animals, whether they are our pets, exotic animals in a zoo or actual non-domestic, non-tame animals out in their environment. However, we have all experienced the totally non-wondrous feeling of having missed a shot due to phaffing around with the settings on your camera while the animal has evaporated and the non-planned, useless, blurry shot taken as the animal has scooted past us! Even with the best laid plans, this will happen but there are things we can do to minimize “rubbish” shots.

Review your camera – can it actually do the job?

Animals of just about every type move fast, especially when you don’t want them to. So, it is a good idea to review your DSLR camera and lens combination or your compact camera before you head out.

a. Animals move quickly – can you increase your shutter speed? Do you need to increase the ISO in order get that fast shutter speed? Can you live with the noise that increased ISO brings with it?

b. How close will you be able to get? Check that your zoom lens is long enough i.e. in excess of 200 mm. Most professional photographers use super long (expensive) lenses together with extenders but you can turn the megapixel race to your advantage by using creative crops to bring the animal “closer” during post-production.

c. Back to animals moving fast. If your camera can do this, set it for continuous shooting and a form of autofocus that will track with the animal once locked.

Think about the background and how you want the animal presented

I was in Denver in January and came across some gorgeous Fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) cavorting in a park in the centre of the CBD. There was a lot of snow on the ground and it made a perfect foil for the rich colouring of the fur. This particular squirrel was very good – she played in the snow near me for ages. Even so, I had my Canon 7D DSLR set with an aperture value of f/6.3 to blur the background, a shutter speed of 1/500 second (set by the camera since I was using Aperture Priority) and my superzoom lens racked out to 270 mm. Given the 1.6x crop value for the sensor in this camera, the lens had an effective length of 432 mm. In addition, I had the camera set to high speed continuous shooting which allowed me to get a shot when she was momentarily still, and I was crouched down which made me smaller and less threatening from the squirrel’s point of view and allowed for an eye-level shot. This image is in my on-line gallery and I have already used other images of the group of squirrels for greeting cards.


“Snow Squirrel” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Humorous squirrel - Happy Birthday Greeting Card

Patience is a virtue

Animals will do what they want, when they want, if they want and how they want. When I visited the Denver Zoo on the same trip, I was enchanted to discover that the Siberian Tigress had four half-grown cubs. I sat for a long time in front of their enclosure and took many photos with similar settings as described above. However, I wanted a classic heroic portrait of the mama tigress so I just had to wait. Eventually, she settled down and her cubs took a break from jumping on her. I got the shot I wanted just as one of her cubs was walking behind her. A bit of post-production to focus attention squarely on her and I had an image I was very happy with. This image resides in my on-line gallery and I have also used it for greeting cards.

“Golden Majesty” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Tiger - congratulations on your promotion Greeting Card

Never underestimate the power of luck

This particularly applies to flying birds. I was photographing some little birds (unknown species) at sunset near home in Australia. My camera settings were again very similar to those above except that the shutter speed was 1/800 second and I had raised the ISO slightly to 250. One of the birds had been hopping about at the top of a palm tree (the large spike in the image) and then suddenly launched itself into space. Without high-speed continuous shooting, this image would never have happened.

“Full Flight” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Flying bird - congratulations on your new job Greeting Card

As you can see, with a bit of preparation you can achieve the animal shots you want without too much drama. As I said back in my “Practice, Practice, Practice” post, ‘after all, it’s all about getting “that shot”, isn’t it?’

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart. You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Rose-Digital-Art/118513731563387. Come and say”Hi”!

The Next Rule

2010-06-22T11:15:00.003+10:00

You thought that the “Rules” had gone away after the last time, didn’t you (see The Rule)? Well, they haven’t. Another “rule” of composition I’d like to talk about is that of Leading Lines. Many images, particularly landscapes, work better if there is a line running through them, drawing the eye “through” the image. It can be the difference between a good image and a great one.

Example 1
I was having a little rest at the bottom of the M1 ski run at Coronet Peak, South Island, New Zealand (it's a long run!) and playing with my trusty drop-proof, snow-proof compact camera when I captured this image of a lone skier near the bottom of said ski run. It was a dull day but what caught my eye was the contrast between the one skier coming down the run and the hordes of skiers going up on the chairlift. Where was everyone? The diagonal line made by the chairlift helps to differentiate the sky (white) from the ground (white again) and provides additional interest to the shot. Quite frankly, without the line, the point of the shot could have been lost and it might have all been a little blah. I must say, though, I’m still wondering where everyone was!

“Lone Skier” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Example 2
I was experimenting with photographing fern fronds. They provide oodles of interesting lines and spirals so you get two for the price of one. This image presents the fern frond on the diagonal with additional diagonals being created by the pinnae. These form little spirals at the tips so there is a lot to look at in what seems to be a very simple, very green image.

“Spiral Ferns” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Example 3
Leading lines even work with animals. When I was at the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California, USA, I saw these Cordon-Bleu Waxbills (a type of finch), all sitting in a row on a perch. I focused on the one with the nesting material in its beak so the others were all blurred. The perch and the blurred birds again form a diagonal line which leads you back and forth through the image, so that you get to look at the industrious one on each pass.

“Turquoise Row” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

Example 4
My final example is another landscape. This one was captured at Broadbeach on our fabulous Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, looking north up the beach towards Surfers Paradise. It was only 7.45 am but it was January (the middle of our summer), hence the crowds. The line of the skyscrapers pulls you through the shot, as does the line created by the two sets of lifesavers’ flags. This is one of my favourite landscapes – I have it framed in my home and it was also included in the Redbubble book “The City” (page 6). It also features in my on-line gallery, as do the other images I presented here.

“Skyscrapers and Sea” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

As you can see, there are leading lines everywhere around us, just waiting to be harnessed. If you capture a leading line in your next image, you’re bound to have made a good image into a great one!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

Grid-tastic Posters or How to get really, really large themed poster prints from a handful of standard sized images

2010-06-10T20:05:00.005+10:00

Back in the day (oh, maybe a few months ago, it seems), camera images were quite small. Of course, now the megapixel race has given us much larger images but there is still a limit to the size you can print them at. A technique that exploits small images and results in large posters is preparing a themed poster from a set of related images, all of which can be quite small. This works for old family images, flowers, your pet, wildlife and definitely for your favourite small human! You can do this project using an image processing program that supports layers. The usual suspects (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro) are perfect for this.

Example
Rainbow Lorikeets (Trichoglossus haematodus) are mid-sized Australian parrots that are literally all colours of the rainbow. They are nectar and pollen feeders, and are quite common where I live in South East Queensland, in the sub-tropics of Australia. The Australian native trees lining the grass verges on my street are also very colourful when in flower. They are Golden Penda trees (Xanthostemon chrysanthus) and have the most amazing golden flowers that are shaped like balls. They are full of nectar and pollen so, naturally, they are bee-magnets and also pull in every other nectar feeder such as honey-eaters and lorikeets (here endeth the natural history lesson). So, I was ecstatic when the planets aligned and, somehow, the Golden Pendas were in flower, the lorikeets arrived en masse and it was a bright, sunny Sunday morning so I could rush out into the street with my DSLR camera and longest lens, take lots of photos and not have to dodge cars!

The lorikeets were all wonderful but there was one particular lorikeet who was the super-star. It was an extremely cooperative model, which you can see in my Lorikeet Series images in my on-line gallery. Here are a couple of them:

“My tree! – The Lorikeet Series” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

“Upside Down – The Lorikeet Series” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

However, you don’t necessarily get a sense of the bird moving in these images, even it was constantly in motion. A themed grid poster allowed me to use a series of images and also convey a sense of movement.

1.    Choose images with either similar subject or colour for your poster. In my case, it was also important that the bird be roughly the same size in each image and that the images all had very similar exposures. You also need to work out what type of grid you want to use – I chose a 4 x 3 grid.

2.    Once I had chosen my images, I processed them identically in Photoshop in order not to accidently introduce exposure artifacts or colour changes. I also cropped each image to a square that was exactly the same size. Because of the size of the final grid poster, I also converted each image to a highest quality JPEG so that my computer would not crash during the assembly process (I need/want more RAM!).

3.    Now for the fun part. In a new very large Photoshop document I copied each image in its own layer. I switched on the grid, and aligned each image so that they were all an equal distance apart, both vertically and horizontally. I then copied the Background layer and filled it with black. I placed all of the layers in a Group so that everything I did afterwards would affect all of the layers, not just the top one.

“Lorikeet Highway – The Lorikeet Series (under construction)” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

4. Both the exposure and the saturation needed a small adjustment because I had employed a very conservative procedure during the individual processing earlier (if I wanted to make this poster monochrome, this is when I would do the conversion). I then merged all of the layers to a new layer and duplicated it. This top layer I set to Soft Light in order to make the colours a little richer again. After a final merging to a new layer, I carefully sharpened the image and it was ready.

“Lorikeet Highway – The Lorikeet Series” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

5. This poster is now big enough to print at A2 size at your friendly neighbourhood printing shop without any compromise on image quality. A little trim and it would be ready for custom framing or laminating.

“Lorikeet Highway – The Lorikeet Series (professional printing)” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

As you can see, making a grid poster is a fun way to present many themed images to great advantage. It works for so many subjects, both in colour and monochrome (see my earlier post on Monochrome Magic for monochrome conversion techniques). So, why not try making a Grid-tastic Poster – I bet you can’t stop at one!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart/.

Monochrome Magic

2010-05-29T14:47:00.003+10:00

We see the world in full colour every day. However, sometimes colour can obscure the true beauty and elegance in an image. Of course, the early master photographers presented so much of their work in black and white, at first by necessity and then by choice. So, if we remove colour from an image, we can (1) pretend that we too are like Ansel Adams and (2) reveal additional detail obscured by the colour and make a stronger image.

There are a few criteria for successful conversion of a colour image to a monochrome one. Firstly, your image has to have a wide tonal range. If not, the resulting conversion will most likely be quite insipid. Secondly, you need to choose your conversion technique carefully. Up front, I will say that “Desaturate” is never the answer. Simple removal of colour tends to also result in an insipid image. There are now some excellent plugins that work within Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, etc. for black and white conversions but the Channel Mixer and the more recent Black & White Filter in Photoshop (Convert to Black and White ... in Elements) work brilliantly. Both work on manipulating the tones in your image based on the colours present. If you think about it, this is precisely what the great landscape photographers of the past did (and some still do!) by placing coloured filters in front of the lens to alter the tones captured by the black and white film (or camera sensor with in camera black and white conversion).

Example: I captured this coloured image of a lone tree at Lake Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand. I was shooting into the sun because I had no option but to do that (can you see the lens flare?) and the time of day was not ideal, but, hey, that’s when I was there! I do like it but I think that a black and white conversion would do it more justice, particularly since the tonal range is very wide.

“Lone Tree at Lake Wanaka (in colour)” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

To create the black and white image, I increased the contrast slightly and then played with the sliders in the Black & White Adjustment Filter until I was happy with it. Using adjustment filters is great because you can always come back to them another time and alter your settings without changing your underlying image pixels. If you do this in Elements, copy your image layer first.

“Lone Tree at Lake Wanaka being adjusted” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

I increased the red and magenta and dropped the green and cyan right back. This darkened the sky and the tree, making the clouds and the water ripples more distinctive. You could do this in camera with a red filter but then you would not have the colour image as well. This image has become much more distinctive and now resides in my on-line gallery.

“Lone Tree at Lake Wanaka” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

This technique can work brilliantly on non-landscape images too. This red rose image looks great in colour (“Ruby Rose”), but it really rocks after a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer conversion (100% green + 20% red).

“Black Rose being adjusted” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

I now have the proverbial black rose!

“Black Rose” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

As you can see, images can often be improved by judicious use of black and white conversion. It’s also lots of fun. So, how about bringing a little monochrome magic to your images?

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart/.

Let there be prints!

2010-05-20T20:48:00.008+10:00

It’s a perennial question. “Now that I have my images, what can I do with them?” Here’s an idea - let’s print them! Yes, it does seem obvious but I’ll bet if I did a poll, most people (including me) have thousands of images on their computer hard drives and maybe not so many images printed. You can print any time, right? Whether you print them as 6 x 4s or A4s or even A3s and larger, you will really see detail in your images that you are unlikely to see on screen.

Printing images yourself is lots of fun. I have already discussed how to color-manage your camera, monitor and printer so that you get great results so please see Did you really want that sand to be magenta? for a refresher! Today, I’d like to share a technique that you can use to make very professional-looking A4 prints that you can print at home.

First of all, identify a “five star” image that really need to be admired by your adoring family and friends. I’m using as my example a landscape that I captured in New Zealand. This was taken on the shore of Lake Wakatipu between Glenorchy and Queenstown at dusk. The clouds had come in but there was still a little light from the sun curling in around the edge. This image resides in my on-line gallery in the “Mountains and Lakes” category.

“Glenorchy Dusk” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

So, here we go - “How to make an A4 gallery print using Adobe Photoshop”. This procedure can also be used in Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro and other similar programs.

1.    Open a copy of your gorgeous file in Photoshop. Make sure that it IS a copy because you are going start messing with it and, repeat after me, we never mess with anything other than a copy.
2.    Crop the photo to 223 mm x 139 mm @300ppi and then flatten the image (yes, I am mixing metric and imperial measurements). This will give you the right proportions at the end. Believe me, it took ages to work out these settings.
3.    Press the letter D to set your Foreground/Background colours to their defaults (black and white, respectively), and then press Control-A (Mac: Command-A) to put a selection around the entire photo.
4.    With the selection in place, press Shift-Control-J (Mac: Shift-Command-J) to cut the photo from the Background layer and place it on its own separate layer.
5.    Add 0.5 cm of white space around the photo by choosing Canvas Size from the Image menu. Ensure that the Relative check box is selected, White being the Canvas Extension Color.
6.    Choose Stroke from the Edit menu and enter a 2 px black line (location: inside). This places a black line around the edge of your image. Flatten your image.
7.    Select the image again using Control-A (Mac: Command-A) and then copy it again to its own layer with Shift-Control-J (Mac: Shift-Command-J).
8.    Choose Stroke from the Edit menu and enter a 2 px black line (location: inside) and flatten the image again. This places a black line around the white space.
9.    Select the image again using Control-A (Mac: Command-A) and then copy it again to its own layer with Shift-Control-J (Mac: Shift-Command-J).
10.    Add 4 cm of white space around the photo by choosing Canvas Size from the Image menu. Ensure that the Relative check box is selected, White being the Canvas Extension Color.
11.    Choose Canvas Size again and enter 2 cm for Height, click on the top-centre square in the Anchor grid and click OK. Flatten the image. You will now have your image on a white canvas with a black line around it, as if the image were surrounded by a mat board. You could stop here, but, wait, there’s more!

“ Matted Glenorchy Dusk” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

12. Drag two guides out from the edge of the document and align them with the vertical lines from your Stroke lines. Add a third guide in the centre of your image by choosing View, New Guide, Orientation Vertical and Position 50%. These are optional but they will help you align the text you’ll add in the next step.

“Guided Glenorchy Dusk” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

13. Add text layers with your title, the date captured and your name (personal or business). I named this image “Glenorchy Dusk”, it was captured in August 2008 and you all know that I am Red Rose Digital Art!

“Glenorchy Dusk” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu (A4 gallery print).

14. Adjust the Page setup to A4 Landscape (or US Letter) and proof-print on normal paper. Make your final print on Premium Glossy Paper, letting Photoshop provide the Colour Management and using Relative Colorimetric and Black Point compensation. Voila!

As you can see, there are a quite a few steps in producing an A4 gallery print but the results are really worth it. Your print can take pride of place in a portfolio or you can easily frame it (no mat board required). Have a go, after all, your images are too good to just sit on your hard drive!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart/.

Compact cameras – good things in small packages

2010-05-13T20:07:00.005+10:00

It’s quite tempting to be a camera snob, isn’t it? “You only get good images from a DSLR” or “You’re not a serious photographer unless you use a DSLR” or (my personal favorite) “You take snapshots but I take photographs” (DSLR owner to compact camera owner). However, we know that’s just not the case. I touched on this subject in my earlier post F8 and be there, but I’ll expand on this a bit more today.

Compact cameras are what most photographers own. They are the cameras that live in handbags and pockets. They are the ones that come out at weddings and other family occasions. They are the cameras that most of us initially learn photography with. So, even you aspire to own (or already own) a DSLR, there is much your compact camera can teach you and do for you. I still cherish numerous images I captured with my very first compact camera, a little Nikon 4 megapixel beauty (acquired a bit over seven years ago), a few of which I’ll share below:

Example 1: Contrary to popular opinion, reading the manual is not boring! You need to understand the various settings. Even if your compact camera can be fully automatic, there are still some controls you can set yourself. For a start, there are oodles of “Scene Modes” to choose from. Make sure you understand what each of them is suitable for and how they work. The Scene Modes have much to teach you that can be applied if or when you acquire a DSLR camera.

“The Golden Gate Bridge” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

This image was captured on a cruise around the Bay in San Francisco, California, USA. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the world’s iconic bridges – right up there with our own “Coat Hanger” across Sydney Harbour in Australia! I used the Landscape Scene Mode which sets the focus at infinity, switches off the flash and tends to boost blues and greens. My major issue was to get into position and press the shutter button at just the right moment which was right after we passed under the bridge. I already had acquired some knowledge about composition so I was able to capture an image I am still proud of today.

Example 2: Small camera = quick reaction time. F8 and be there was all about this concept. DSLRs produce high quality images but are not so quick to set up, particularly if you don’t use Automatic mode.

“This has sooo ruined my blow-dry!” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

My cat, Rani, who starred in my last post Practice, Practice, Practice, gets to star again. It was a very windy day in what passes for winter where I live and she had followed me into the garden for reasons best known to herself. She loathes the wind and had just turned into it so that her fur would not be blown forward. I happened to have my compact camera in my hand so I quickly turned it on and captured her priceless facial expression before she scurried inside. This is one of my favorite images of Rani and tends to get a laugh out of anyone who sees it.

Example 3: Have compact camera, will travel. A compact camera is easy to travel with. Even though now I often cart my DSLR and associated paraphernalia with me when I travel, sometimes it just isn’t practical or possible.

“Anything you can do, I can do better!” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

These guys would be familiar to anyone who either lives in the Bay area or has visited San Francisco – the sea lions at Pier 39. I was hanging over the railing with my compact camera at Pier 39 as the young sea lions were playing “King of the Castle”, otherwise known as “Throw everyone in range into the sea” and the older ones were posing. This image inspired my first foray into spinning a little story about an image:

“My name is Larry and I’m a California sea lion. I hang out here at Pier 39 in San Francisco Bay every single day with the guys. You know, before we all head down the coast and meet up with the gals. The guys are complete slobs so I decided that they really needed makeovers and where better to start than with posture? You know, I’ve demonstrating good posture to the guys for ages now and nobody took any notice until this new young guy came along. At first, I was flattered – after all I always thought of myself as a mentor – but he’s getting’ too good now. How much longer can I keep doin’ this??”

Yes, these really are wild California sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco and I’m betting his name really is Larry!

I love using my DSLR but I also value what using each of my compact cameras has taught me. My current one, a shock-proof, water-proof little number which I carry in my handbag everyday and in my pocket when I’m skiing, really comes in its own when one of those “opportunity” photos comes along, particularly those that come along on the top of snowy mountains! After all, what’s the point being a camera snob?

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-05-06T20:45:00.001+10:00

“Practice makes perfect”. It’s an oldie but a goodie, that one! It’s also incredibly true. When you get a new camera, a new lens, when you’ve read about a new technique, try it out at home, or least locally, before you take it to the big, wide world.

Example 1: Macro photography
Macro photography is something you can easily practice in your living room or garden. One would think that it’s easy but it’s not just as simple as switching your compact camera to the little flower icon or attaching your macro lens to your DSLR. Good macro photography should involve a rock-steady tripod, a self-timer or remote release and, if you’re using a DSLR, mirror lock-up.

“Purple Pinwheel” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

This is one of the first macro images I ever captured – the flowers of some garlic chives in my herb garden. It was taken about seven years ago with my first ever digital camera which could produce “massive” 4 megapixel images. I was wandering around my garden with my camera, looking for possible subjects. I flicked the switch to “flower”, pointed the camera straight down and clicked. Considering my neophyte status at the time, not a bad image, even if I say so myself! However, it’s not quite as sharp as it really should be and now, after lots of practice, I do things a bit differently.

“Pink Chalice” – © Red Rose Digital Art - Rosanne E. Casu.

I captured this image during a recent “photo-shoot” of a bouquet of pink gerberas in my living room. I now use a DSLR with a 1:1 macro lens which gives me much more control, and always use a tripod. Mirror lock-up is also a must and I always use the self-timer to minimize camera vibrations. This gave me the ability to specify a very narrow aperture (f/32.0), a very long shutter speed (15 seconds) and to set the Exposure Compensation to -0.67 to keep the background black by slightly underexposing the image. The image is tack-sharp with a lot of detail and it now resides in my on-line gallery. Yes, it is true that I now use more sophisticated equipment than back in the day (again more practice in my living room) but, if I were to do this now with my compact camera, my practising has taught me that to get a superior result, I need minimize all movement of the camera. So, I would use a tripod and the self-timer at a bare minimum.

Example 2: Animal photography
Animals (and small children) … They have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to photography so practice is vital. They also have a tendency to do exactly what they want when, if and how they want. Practise as much as you can on your pets, your neighbour’s pets or other tractable animals so that you will be confident when an animal you have absolutely no control over presents itself.
Note to self: try to impress upon “She who must be obeyed”, otherwise known as Rani, the 14 year old Blue Birman cat, that I, otherwise known as “slave”, am really in control.

Speaking of “She who must be obeyed”, this image is of Rani, my Blue Birman, supervising me while I was taking photos of some flowers I had set up in my living room. She is not normally a cooperative model but, luckily, I already had the camera on the tripod and was able to swing it around on to her without her deciding to leave immediately. I managed to get her to look at me at the right moment and captured this shot. Even though the aperture is wide (f/2.8), her face and especially her eyes are in focus. I have practiced a lot on Rani but this is one of my most successful portraits of her.

All this practice stood me in good stead when I visited San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California, USA. The panda exhibit is one of the most popular and one doesn’t get much time there due to the crowds. Pandas also seem to spend so much time asleep! Luckily, when I was there, the male panda was not only awake but indulging in his breakfast. No tripod (I wish!) but I held the camera as steady as I could and fired off a number of shots before he decided that breakfast (and the photo-shoot) was over and he needed to snooze. In this shot, he was looking straight at me but the jaws were still in motion! He looks completely adorable and I’m glad to have this image in my on-line gallery.

Practising your photography is not only fun but will also help you hone your skills. You will get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your equipment, refine new techniques and also learn various tricks to help you capitalize on unique situations that present themselves. After all, it’s all about getting “that shot”, isn’t it?

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery directly at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

HDR – What, why, how and wow!

2010-04-30T05:27:00.004+10:00

HDR? What is it and why is it everywhere all of sudden? Any time you see a hyper-realistic image or one with a vast range of tones, odds on you’re looking at an HDR image.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, “the human eye is truly miraculous. It can detect enormous tonal and colour ranges, far beyond that of any camera” (see Did you really want that sand to be magenta? for where those statements lead to). Therefore, in a typical landscape image, you can lose tonal information in the highlights, mid-tones and shadows, depending on how you expose for them. Expose to retain tonal information in the highlights and chances are the mid-tones will be underexposed and the shadows solid black. Do the opposite and expose for the shadows and the mid-tones may be overexposed and the highlights blown. The compromise solution would be to expose for the mid-tones but then they would be fine and both the highlights and shadows could be compromised.

It doesn’t sound very promising, does it? But, never fear, there is a solution! Enter the high dynamic range or HDR image. In order to obtain a result you’ll be happy with, this is one time when spending a little extra cash on a program dedicated to the production of HDR images is really worth it. Unfortunately, I find that Photoshop is not particularly good at producing quality HDR images, even though there is the facility within Photoshop to do it. I use both Dynamic-Photo HDR (http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/index.html) and Photomatix Pro 3.0 (http://www.hdrsoft.com/), and they both achieve excellent results. Free trial versions are available for both programs so you can decide whether you like them prior to purchase.

Example 1: An HDR using three images.

Well, as you may have guessed, the classic way to produce an HDR image is to use at least three images that are identical for content but differ in exposure. This will require you to use a camera that offers some degree of manual control, that is, one that can offer some form of exposure compensation. The most ideal way to achieve this is to mount your camera on a tripod and either manually or automatically fire off your three exposures, maintaining focus lock, retaining the same aperture but varying the shutter speed. I usually set my DSLR to produce three images in quick succession, one at EV-2, another at EV0 and the third at EV+2 (or -1, 0, +1, or other variations) using Auto Exposure Bracketing. I also use RAW capture rather than JPEG capture due to the higher quality present in those images (more about RAW and why it’s fabulous another time), however, this technique does work with JPEGs.

Using either Dynamic-Photo HDR or Photomatix Pro 3.0, I combine the three images to and save the resulting file as a Radiance file. This cannot be dealt with satisfactorily by any monitor or output device, but the second phase of processing reveals the beauty. This is “Tone Mapping” and it’s where you can start to get creative or realistic, whichever you choose. Then output your image to a TIF file, import into Photoshop and embellish further (or not)!

I captured these images of The Remarkables on the side of the road between Arrowtown and Queenstown in the South Island, New Zealand in mid-winter. It was late afternoon and part of this view was already in the shadows. I knew that one image would not contain the tonal range or colour that the scene had in real life. Unfortunately, I did not have my tripod with me but I held my DSLR camera as steady as I could and fired off three exposures in quick succession using Auto Exposure Bracketing – I’m glad that I have steady hands! These were at EV-2.00, 0 and +2.00. As you can see, the mid-tones are OK in the first image, but the shadows are underexposed and the snow (most of the highlights) is overexposed. In the second image, the highlights are good but the mid-tones and shadows are just about solid black. The highlights in the third image are well and truly blown and the mid-tones are overexposed, but the detail in the shadows is good. My camera had managed to obliterate the lovely golden hues caused by the late afternoon sun in all three images. I already knew from inspecting my images on my camera’s LCD that an HDR image was the only way to go. So, I combined the three images in Photomatix Pro 3.0, tone mapped them and then opened the TIF file in Photoshop. A bit of sharpening and I was done. I now had recreated the scene that had made me stop the car and leap out with my camera in the first place. This popular landscape now resides in my on-line gallery.

Example 2: An HDR using one image.

Aha, you say, I thought you said that HDRs were for when there was not enough tonal range in the one image! Yes, I did, but RAW files often contain additional detail hiding in the shadows and highlights that can be rescued by processing an individual RAW file as an HDR image.

I captured this image of an Australian pelican on the Broadwater (Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia). It is a perfectly acceptable image as is, but, unfortunately, the tonal range is somewhat restricted due to the lighting. Much of the detail in the black and white feathers is invisible. Of course, I could not take three images in quick succession – the bird was moving, after all – but I wanted to recapture the beautiful colours and tones that my camera had not been able to deal with.

Instead of processing the RAW image in Photoshop like I would normally do, I chose to create a Radiance file from this single RAW image using Dynamic-Photo HDR, and then tone mapped it. A little extra sharpening in Photoshop and now the pelican looked exactly the way I had seen it when I was kneeling down on the jetty that afternoon. Instead of flat black and white feathers, there were now lovely gradations of tone as well as the lovely glow of the late afternoon sun. This is now a popular image in my on-line gallery.

High dynamic range photography can help you bring out the best in your landscapes, but, of course, it works well with other images too. I enjoy it for the extra dimension and additional fun it brings to my photography. Have a go and you may never stop!

NB. I have no affiliation with either of the companies that make the software I have cited in this blog post. The opinions expressed here are purely my own and are derived from my own experience of using the software.

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

Be ruthless

2010-04-22T20:31:00.001+10:00

Digital photography is truly wonderful. It has never been so easy to take photographs. After all, once you have the memory cards, it’s free, right? So, we all capture hundreds, if not thousands, of images per year. These all require storage, and as the megapixel race continues (more on that another time), the images we store get larger and larger. So, it’s off to your friendly technology store to buy yet another hard drive and, of course, all these images have to be backed up too. We all have thousands of images sitting on our hard drives that will never be looked at again, so why do we keep them?

There is a solution. Be ruthless. Edit your images fiercely. Here is how I do it using Adobe Bridge CS4 and Photoshop CS4. This works in a similar way in Lightroom and Photoshop Elements as well as other image editing programs.

Downloading and backup
Download your images from your camera or memory card. Instead of immediately starting to “prettify” your images, back them up immediately, sight unseen. You can always adjust your backups later to remove the dross. Now that your images are safe, it’s time to get tough.

Do you really want that out-of-focus shot?
No, I’ll bet you don’t. Using Bridge, I open the folder containing my fresh images and choose “Preview”. I have customized my preview to have the image preview as large as possible.

Not one of my finest shots, to be very kind. I was photographing some bees in a magnolia blossom using continuous shooting and this was clearly a non-keeper.

If the important part of the image is out of focus or poorly composed (or both), then I choose Reject from the Label menu or simply press Alt+Delete. This labels the image as a reject. I don’t waste even another second of thought on that image.

Finding “the shot”
So, now the obvious duds are gone from my new group of images, but, if you’re like me, there will still be way too many to edit or use further. Again resist the urge to start editing, otherwise you will find yourself doing far too much work. I review my shots in either or both of the following ways.

1. Review in “Preview”
I quite like using the “star” rating system in Bridge. Ideally, I would never use anything other than “*****” to rate an image but I’m afraid I’m not quite that disciplined yet! Let’s face it though, why would one ever use “*” or “**”? Are we ever going to search for our below-average images? I thought not. So, I look through my images and rate the ones I like as either “****” or “*****”.

I view each image carefully and double-check the important parts of the image using the loupe which shows the part of the image you click on at 100%.

At this point, one of three things can happen: (1) the shot is an obvious winner - *****; (2) I consider the shot to be quite good but I’ll want to look at it again - ****; and (3) I’m neither over- nor underwhelmed by the image – no stars, probably to be rejected in the long run.

2. Review in “Review Mode”
This is something I’ve started doing very recently so I’m still getting the hang of it. If I choose Review Mode from the View menu in Bridge, then a rather groovy slideshow comes up:

I can quickly move from one image to next either using the on-screen arrows or the left and right arrow keys. If I see an image that should go, then I hit the down arrow key which removes that image from the slideshow. Ideally, I keep doing this until only “*****” images are left. These can either be made into a collection or I can designate them as “*****” as soon as I leave Review Mode.

No, you still can’t start editing your images!
You thought we were finished, didn’t you? Well, just a few minutes longer for some additional housekeeping. At this point I have my images in three groups: (1) the rejects; (2) the “****” and “*****” images; and (3) the “maybes”. The rejects go straight to the trash – no ifs, buts or maybes. After all, why would you want to see them again and why waste valuable hard drive space on them? If I’m feeling really brave, then the “maybes” go as well, particularly if I have quite a few “****” and “*****” images. Then I keyword my “****” and “*****” images so that I can easily find them again if I want to search for them.

Can I edit my images now?
Yes, you can. You are now ready to do it. Play to your heart’s content! Now you are using your valuable time on images that are so worth it instead a whole host of forgettable or sub-standard images.

Example
I recently captured a number of images of this bouquet of gerberas. I put the images through the steps above and this was one of “*****” images. It is a recent addition to my on-line gallery.

As you see, if you pull back for a minute and evaluate your images prior to editing them, you have so much to gain – time, increased enjoyment and even extra hard drive space. This is one time when being ruthless is a distinct advantage!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com/, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com/ or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

The Rule

2010-04-16T19:25:00.001+10:00

"The Rule"? What rule? Photography's creative. There cannot possibly be rules. Well, most of the time you'd be right. After all, photography is "drawing with light" and is a highly creative process. However, there are just a few rules, particularly with regard to composition. It's important to know what they are and when it's OK to break them. Well, it wouldn't be fun if you couldn’t break them! One rule that certainly gets a lot of airplay is the "Rule of Thirds".

We've all done it – pointed the camera and captured an image of what was dead centre in the frame. A horizon half-way up an image is particularly common. The result will often be quite pleasant but a subtle shift in horizon or position away from the centre of the frame can make a big difference. This is where the Rule of Thirds comes in.

It works like this: Divide what's in your field of view into thirds, both horizontally and vertically. You will end up with a large grid resembling that of "Noughts and Crosses" or Tic-Tac-Toe. The most pleasing composition will be achieved if you place your point of interest on or near one of these lines or the intersection of these lines (most of the time!). Some cameras can help with this – you may have 'grid overlay' for your viewfinder but with a bit of practice, you can do this quite easily without a grid.

Example 1: You're in the mountains and they are looking glorious today. You could just focus in the centre and get additional, possibly uninteresting, sky but if the horizon line is placed higher, the shot really highlights the mountains.

This image was captured looking across Queenstown Bay, Lake Wakatipu to The Remarkables, South Island, New Zealand in the late afternoon in mid-winter. The light on the mountains was wonderful (the sun was about to set) and I wanted it to be the focus of the shot. I placed the top of the mountains roughly two-thirds of the way in the shot which took the focus off the sky and placed it firmly on the mountains. I was very happy with the result and it features in my on-line gallery. I drew the grid below on top of the image to show the imaginary grid.

Example 2: You have some wonderful flowers to photograph but you want more than just a record shot. If you place one of them at the centre of your field of view, well, you've probably got a record shot. If you get creative and use the Rule of Thirds, you can get much more.

This image of a bouquet of bright orange gerberas was actually captured in my house. I wanted a natural but strong image. By placing the top flower on the intersection of the left vertical third and the top horizontal third (see gridded version below), the eye is drawn to straight to it. Mission accomplished! This image is one of my most successful and popular images. I have it framed for display in my own home and a poster of it on the wall of my work office – seeing it everyday makes me happy! I also have it featured in my on-line gallery and some of my most popular greeting cards – a coordinated set of bridal attendant invitations – feature this image.

Example 3: You want to break the Rule! Well, go for it but make sure that you're creative in another way.

This cactus was growing in the cactus garden at the Brisbane Botanical Gardens, Mt Coot-tha in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I was able to look straight down on it and wanted to capture its symmetry. I purposely broke the Rule of Thirds and placed the cactus in the centre of the frame, knowing that I would crop it to a square later. It's almost completely symmetrical in every way and it is a clean strong image that I have featured in my on-line gallery.

Photography is creative and the artist within us all wants to just "draw with light". However, a bit of Rule application and judicious Rule breaking will result in many more "winners" which adds greatly to the fun of photography!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

Did you really want that sand to be magenta?

2010-04-10T08:32:00.001+10:00

We’ve all heard the statement “the camera never lies”. Of course it does, all the time. Mind you, that’s nothing on the whoppers your computer’s monitor and your inkjet printer will tell you. If you don’t stop all of the in silico “lying”, it can be almost impossible to achieve a good print from the lovely image you originally envisaged.

What I’m really talking about is “Colour Management”. Whole books have been written on this subject with lots of physics in them, but I will concentrate on how to get it working for you.

1. Colour management in your camera.
The human eye is truly miraculous. It can detect enormous tonal and colour ranges, far beyond that of any camera. Most cameras, particularly compact cameras, use a colour management profile known as sRGB. You may have seen this in your image processing program as “sRGB IEC61966-2.1”. This colour profile is also used on the web and works well for images that you intend to post on line. However, the colour and tonal range is not particularly wide. One of the most popular colour profiles with professional photographers and one you will also find in higher-end cameras such as DSLRs is “Adobe RGB (1998)”. It offers a wider range of colours and tones than sRGB, and is the colour profile of choice if you are going to print your image on an inkjet printer. I have my DSLR camera set to use Adobe RGB (1998) for all my images.

2. Colour management of your monitor
Now that you have instructed your camera on which colour profile to use, it’s time to move on to your monitor. Monitors probably tell the biggest lies of all about colour, and what’s more, the lies change all the time. This is particularly true of the monitors that are typically sold with your CPU, or your laptop screen. The trouble is that non-profiled monitors tend to have a colour cast. If you were to look at what should be a neutral grey tone, it won’t be. It may have a green or magenta tinge to it. If you don’t do anything about it, you may end up adjusting you image to account for the colour cast of your monitor which will wreck any print you try to make from it.

Example: Before I discovered colour management for my monitor, I was processing an image with lovely sandy tones in it, similar in colour to this image of mine featuring three meerkats.

Unfortunately, when I printed it, the sand was anything but “sandy”!

Not good, is it? I thought that there was something wrong with my printer, for example, that one of the ink cartridges was blocked. So, I wasted lots of ink cleaning it. Still, didn’t fix it. Checked my workflow – yes, I was using Adobe RGB (1998), still no good. Checked the printing part of my workflow – no major crimes there. Then I discovered the concept of monitor profiling. I had a “light bulb” moment, realized that I could fix the problem by purchasing a colorimeter and profiling my monitor at least once a month. I have never had a “magenta sand” incident ever again.

3. Colour management for printing
I actually discovered this before colour management for my monitor, otherwise I would have had plenty more “magenta sand” incidents. Every type of paper your inkjet printer uses has an associated colour profile. Your printer would have come with some “canned” profiles for popular paper types from the manufacturer of your printer and you can download more from their web site. If you are using so-called “third party paper” then you can download colour profiles for those from the manufacturer. You MUST use the correct colour profile for your paper or it will really be “game over” for your print. When I first started in digital photography, I used a third party paper with an incorrect profile. Not good at all – too much ink was deposited by the printer and all of the black ink was bronze within 24 hours. I had to throw all of the prints out and start again.

The gold standard for ink jet printing is to resist the urge to use the fun-looking adjustment controls in the printer software dialog box – never, never, never use them! Yes, I mean never (enough now).When I printed my image of the three meerkats, I specified every profile possible from within Photoshop CS4 and switched off all of the colour management controls in the printer dialog box.

This can also be done with Photoshop Elements. If you use another image processing program, look for similar controls in the print dialog box.

This gave me an image that I really enjoy looking at. It features in my on-line gallery and on some of my greeting cards, and I have also given a framed print of it to my mother because she loved it too.

Colour management may seem to be a dry subject, but once mastered, it will remove a lot of uncertainty about how your images will look when you output them, either on-line or as a print. After all, you didn’t really want “magenta sand”, did you?

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

Learning to see

2010-04-01T22:53:00.001+10:00

It seems obvious, right? After all, you’re using the camera, you’re seeing, aren’t you? Well, not always. "Learning to see" describes the ability to "see" what will make a great image. So, what steps are involved in this “learning to see”? Let’s start with working out what you want the viewer of your image to see or feel.

(a) The Record Shot: "This is exactly what this (insert name of item here) looks like".
A good example here is a straight flower shot – like the one below of a bright yellow gerbera. Clean light background, no distractions, bright flower and it’s all in focus (phew!). It shows exactly what this gerbera looks like but it’s also a good strong image that can be used for a variety of purposes. I love the bright yellow so I’ve used it for a series of greeting cards and also display it in my on-line gallery.

Other classic examples of Record Shots are school photographs or a shot of an item you want to sell on eBay. No example pics for these – there’s no way you’re seeing my school photographs!

(b) The Creative Shot: "This is my interpretation of what this (insert name of object, place, etc.) looks or feels like".
This covers lots of ground and I’ll share a couple of examples.

Example 1: I captured the image below a couple of years ago and it has become one of my favorite landscapes. It shows the steamship SS Earnslaw steaming up Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, New Zealand. This lake is in the heart of the southern alpine region of New Zealand and the photograph was shot from high above Queenstown just before sunset. What else does it show?

To me, it also conveys a feeling of serenity and also the smallness of human endeavour when compared with the vastness and grandeur of nature.

Example 2: This is my most popular animal image, both in my on-line gallery and my greeting cards. This teenage giraffe was absolutely gorgeous and his “smile” makes me smile! It's a straight portrait shot but it's also happiness in a photograph.

(c) The Enhanced Shot: "I changed this image of (insert name of object, etc) after capture so that you would see it differently to what was there in the first place".
I love roses and photograph them at every opportunity. I took oodles of shots of these glorious roses and processed them completely realistically. However, I could also “see” them looking dreamy or ethereal (a very soft high key shot), an effect that I just could not achieve in the camera. After a bit of experimentation (more on that another time), I ended up with an image that had that dreamy feel to it. As a matter of fact, I have it framed in my house, it’s a popular image in my on-line gallery and I have also used it for greeting cards.

Learning to see is an ever evolving process and, indeed, a challenge! Every time I look through the viewfinder of my camera, I wonder "What will I see today?".

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.

F8 and be there

2010-03-28T16:44:00.002+10:00

"F8 and be there". This is the old photography adage that really means that you can own the fanciest camera gear in the world but if you don't have it with you or it takes too long to set up, you'll miss "the shot". Enter the much maligned compact camera. There are some situations when it's the only way to go ...

Example 1: You look out the window and see something truly miraculous. Do you (a) find your DSLR, attach the correct lens, choose the correct aperture and/or shutter speed, only to find that the miracle is now over or (b) pick up your trusty compact camera, turn it on and just shoot? When possible, I do choose option (a) but when the opportunity in the image below presented itself, I definitely went with option (b).

This opportunity presented itself at approximately 6.00 am on a midwinter's morning in Thredbo, a ski village in far southern New South Wales, Australia. I looked out the window and noticed that the dawn was breaking and the three-quarter moon was setting. I grabbed my compact camera and my parka, rushed outside and started shooting. The colours were really like this and it only lasted five minutes.

Example 2: Your DSLR is in the overhead locker (as it should be) and some truly amazing scenery is visible through the aeroplane window. Do you (a) climb over the really nice people who let you have the window seat in the first place to fetch your DSLR and then phaff around with the lens etc. or (b) whip your compact camera out of your handbag, turn it on and start shooting? On a flight to the South Island of New Zealand, I definitely chose option (b).

This image was captured out of an aeroplane window on a commercial flight not far out of Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand. My DSLR was completely out of reach but I was very pleased with the results from my compact camera.

Example 3: You are out and about doing some errands and see a gorgeous flower. Do you (a) castigate yourself that you could not take your DSLR and your macro lens to the shops (!) or (b) again pull your compact camera out and make the shot? Option (b) every time.

I was browsing in my local garden centre and just loved this red and yellow bromeliad inflorescence. No DSLR available (of course) but my compact camera sure was.

As you can see, the compact camera has its place even for a professional photographer or those of us who aspire to be one. After all, it's making the shot that counts, not exactly what kit you used to get it!

If you enjoyed this post and the images presented here, please check out my main web site at http://www.redrosedigitalart.com, my on-line photo gallery at http://redrosedigitalart.smugmug.com or my greeting cards at http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/redrosedigitalart.