I have previously posted about the fact that I like taking photos of interesting wall murals. I recently had the opportunity to make this photo of a terrific mural in Braddock, PA. I love the way the city scene becomes the woman.
This is the first image that I have processed since reading David DuChemin's Lightroom book that I reviewed in my last post. In doing so, I took a lot of his suggestions to heart. For example, in this image I first asked myself what drew my eye to the scene and used that information to help direct me through the image processing.
Leaf And Wooden DoorThere are many books on Lightroom 'out there' and though some are better than others they are, for the most part, pretty similar. This slider is for this, that slider is for that, be careful pushing slider x above 70 etc. Not that such books aren't useful....they surely are for people who are unfamiliar with the software or are beginners in how to develop an image from RAW format.
But recently there appeared on the scene a totally different type of Lightroom book entitled Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (Voices That Matter)
The book starts out with a discussion about artistic vision and it's expression, moves on to a discussion about how to use Lightroom as interpretive software to give voice to one's vision, and then uses 20 photographs to demonstrate 'real-life' examples of the prior discussion (the RAW files are also available for download to more carefully follow their development). To be clear, this is not a book of recipes or presets, it is a book that aims at nothing short of starting the reader off on a journey to think more carefully about what they are trying to express with their photography and to enable them to translate that expression into the final print.
This book is quite different from any other Photoshop or Lightroom books that I have read and I highly recommend it as a 'must have'. (Truth in advertising.....as an Amazon associate I get a few cents credited to my account if you click on the above link and end up purchasing the book).
It goes without saying that a photographer needs a website to share his or her work with the world. Many years ago, I had coded a website using a program called Namo Web Editor. It was, in my opinion, a reasonable site for that era but was a bit difficult to update and I found myself not adding to it as much as I would have liked.
Some years later, I purchased a template for an artist's website with plans to build my site based on that template. However, I found that the template contained so many options that I was going into the code to eliminate or change these options and that I was likewise changing code to allow more images to be posted to the galleries. The exercise became frustrating and I abandoned it.
I ended up moving my website over to Visual Server with one of their online artist's templates, forcing my vision into their options. This has served reasonably well, but I still find myself wanting more from a website and have been thinking about building my own, from scratch, by learning how to use Dreamweaver.
I know that, given time limitations, it might take awhile to complete the project and thought that I would, intermittently, write some posts about the process. My initial step is to think carefully about what I want out of a website and what is not being provided by my current host, while trying to incorporate 'best practices' for a new site.
Here are some of the thoughts that I had regarding the 'big picture' planning of the site:
1) First and foremost, I believe it is important to keep it simple and clean looking. Flashy with lots of bells and whistles might be useful for some type of sites, but I believe that for a photo site the images, and not the platter on which they are served up, should be what speak . Additionally, a lot of fancy add-ons don't necessarily function well on all platforms.
2) Easy navigation. I dislike when I get to some sites and I can't figure out what to do next.
3) Set it up so that it will look good on multiple platforms and screen resolutions, to the extent that this is possible.
4) Able to be easily updated.
5) Because of the frequency and consistency of my blog posting, my blog has more visits and has higher Alexa rankings than my website. I would like to be able to integrate my blog into my website. I am not certain if this is still easier to do with WordPress than Blogger, though I know this used to be the case.
6) Have the ability to make PDF files available for download.
7) Have the ability to add on audio and video files should I wish to make these available in the future.
8) I believe that telling 'the story' behind the photograph helps viewers to become involved with an image and would like to have an opportunity to present 'the stories', in brief, along with the images.
This is likely going to be a slow moving and long term undertaking. I would certainly appreciate any comments, tips, ideas etc from those that have already worked through this type of website building project!
This post is going to be a bit on the technical side and specific to Canon cameras, which I am sure will interest some readers but give others a big yawn. Nonetheless, here we go.
In a past post, I reviewed the Promote Control device which can be used for HDR exposure bracketing since Canon cameras are (seemingly purposefully) hindered by the limitation of only being able to do a three exposure auto-bracket. In addition, if one is bracketing by 1 EV then the most you can auto-bracket is up to +/- 3 EV. In order to bracket to +/- 4 EV you must bracket in 2 EV increments. All in all, it makes HDR bracketing inordinately and unnecessarily complex. In my review, I mentioned that the Promote Control simply did not fit very well into my workflow and for that reason I had returned my unit.
Another partial solution for Canon users has been to use 'Custom Settings', of which three are able to be pre-programmed into the camera. When using these, you could, for example, pre-program +/- 4EV bracketing into the camera and save the setting so that by simply turning a knob on top of the camera the +/- 4EV autobracket is set.
By setting one Custom setting like this and another at o,-1, -2 EV one could conceivably take an autobracket at +1, +2, +3 then switch the custom setting knob to do 0, -1, -2, then switch again to do -4, 0, +4 and then take one image at -3.....well, you get the point. If one wants a series of 1 EV bracketed images to +/- 4 it gets far too complicated.
It gets a bit easier if you want to go with 2EV units and shoot -2, 0 +2 and then 0, +4, -4 but even then you have to use at least one Custom Setting or go back into the menu. In experimenting with the Custom Settings, I have found that the white balance, ISO, aperture etc that the Custom Setting installs are the ones that were there when the Custom Setting was saved, as opposed to drawing these values from the otherwise current camera settings. For someone like me, who not infrequently screws up a setting by not being careful, this is a recipe for disaster. I am sure that I would inevitably end up with a useless autobracketed series with different apertures, ISO etc than my original bracket settings.
All in all, despite the fact that I really enjoy using my Canon gear, I feel that Canon has really left those of us that use many of their models with a mess when it comes to HDR imaging. And the mess, I would think, is easily fixable in firmware if Canon did not want to cripple their non-1 series dSLRs in this way. With Nikon making so many gains and competing with Canon so well, I really am surprised that they have not fixed this. Were I currently purchasing a digital system, I would have to seriously consider going with Nikon for this reason alone.
One of the things I would like to try to do this fall season is to make some unusual and abstract fall images along with some of the more straightforward ones. This particular abstract was made by moving the camera back and forth at an angle during the exposure while it was still mounted on the tripod.
I have previously written two posts about dragging one's self out of bed to make early morning sunrise photographs. Those prior two posts can be read here and here. I mentioned I would occasionally post some more images from that one morning.
A short post today with a link to some inspirational thoughts about composition.
Here are 15 great tips for photographic composition by photographer Alain Briot that are definitely worth reading.
No matter where one lives, there are historical artifacts to be found. As many may know, Pittsburgh was once a major center of steel production. While the majority of the steel mills are now closed, their artifacts remain.
Some of these closed historic manufacturing facilities are difficult to get into to photograph. However, there are some remnants of the industrial age that have easy access for photography. One of the older mills land was sold off to make a shopping center near my home, but the mills' chimneys were not taken down. Rather, they were kept as an artifact of that age and stand as an aesthetic focal point of the mall.
Let me be clear that I am not at all a fan of building malls, nor a fan of steel mills and the pollution they produce. As a matter of fact, I find myself lamenting the fact that every large city in the US is starting to look the same with essentially identical malls and chain stores. Nonetheless, I am glad that in this instance it was decided to at least preserve the remnant of what once stood in this place.
Back in the beginning of the month, I wrote a post about the benefits to be had by dragging one's self out of bed to photograph in the early morning and how those benefits outweigh the pain of getting out of bed at relatively ungodly hours. The early morning photography from that day motivated me to write that post, which can be read here.
I thought that over several scattered posts I would offer some more images from that inspiring morning.
I also forgot to mention one additional benefit of going out to photograph with friends in the early morning. In addition to having to show up to meet the others, there is also the benefit of a great breakfast with camaraderie following the sunrise....you just have to have friends that know which of the local restaurants are the right ones to go to (thanks Bob).
In my last post, I discussed my discovery of the Promote Control for taking bracketed HDR exposures . It was with great enthusiasm that I awaited the arrival of the device. However, despite its apparent utility and the glowing reviews it received in the links I provided in my original post, I have found that the device simply doesn't fit into my photographic process very well.
That is not to say that it doesn't work or do what it says it will.....just that it doesn't work the way I do. It might mesh quite well with the way you photograph and so I don't mean to dissuade anyone from giving it a try. But, let me describe why it doesn't fit my workflow and perhaps that will provide some incite as to whether it will fit yours.
I tend to shoot using Live View with the camera in Aperture priority mode. However, in order to use the Promote Control, the camera must be set to Manual mode. There is a setting on the device that allows it to set the camera to Manual mode if the operator forgets to, though the manual states that this won't work on all cameras and it didn't seem to work properly on mine. However, if I accidentally left the camera in Aperture Priority mode, the Promote Control would shoot off a ton of images before stopping. So, accidentally leaving the camera in Aperture mode can get the Promote Control to do some pretty unusual stuff.
In addition, the manufacturers website FAQ states that the device can be used in Live View mode. Nonetheless, using the device in Live View, even with the camera set to Manual mode, gave me very inconsistent results, with not all the bracketed exposures being taken. By doing nothing else to the camera but turning off Live View, all the exposures were taken properly. I am not the only person to find this as an issue, as one of the reviews linked to in my initial post also notes this as a problem.
Finally, even when the camera is properly set to Manual mode the metered shutter speed needs to be entered into the Promote Control manually, or at least it wouldn't pick it up from my 5D MKII
For me, though the device could potentially solve a significant problem, it just requires too much 'futzing around' with. If it was tough for me to get it to work properly in my home, I suspect it would generate a good deal of frustration out in the field and I might potentially miss photo opportunities simply trying to get things set up properly. I thought about just getting used to always using the device as a trigger, as it can also be used as a single shot cable release. However, the need to connect it to the camera with two cables (to get the fastest response time) and its bulk (small, but still much larger than a regular cable release) just makes it inconvenient to use routinely.
I suspect that using the device would take away some of the joy of photographing and thus it is simply not something that I want to use. I have returned it and will go with my usual routine of simply resetting the auto-bracketing in camera....a pain that requires touching the camera before the full set of exposures are taken, but one that still requires far less 'futzing' than the Promote Control.
So there you have it.....a very different opinion from the ones that I was able to find on the internet. Just to reiterate.....the issue for me was the way the device failed to fit into my workflow. Your workflow might well be different.
I would be interested to find out if any readers have had experience with this device and if their experience was similar to or different from mine.
When it comes to bracketed exposures utilized for HDR, us Canon users definitely take a back seat to those with Nikon cameras. Most Canon (? all....I don't keep up with every model) cameras are only able to auto-bracket three exposures, which is less than ideal for many situations. Nikon cameras are much more functional in this regard and, depending on the model, are able to auto bracket more exposures. In the past this difference might have been relatively unimportant, but in the HDR era it really is of significance and, frankly, it seems inexcusable to me that Canon has hampered their cameras in this way. It would at least appear on the surface that this could likely be fixed with a firmware update. (The other situation in which Canon lags is in the ability to make in-camera multiple exposures......but that is another discussion).
Whenever there is a void and a need, someone will fill it! Enter a device called "Promote Control". This device connects to the camera (including Canon models) via USB and a shutter release and takes over the control of exposure sequences, overriding the ability to take only 3 bracketed exposures. There are some caveats, the main one of which is that the camera must be set in manual mode and the midpoint exposure's shutter speed needs to be set manually on the Promote Control device.
Rather than write in detail about it before I receive the one I ordered, let me refer anyone interested in this to the following reviews:
Review #1 by Brian Matiash
Another review here
And a review on youtube located here.
Finally, the manufacturer's website.
And so I will report back on my experience with the device once it arrives.
Generally speaking, the advantages of digital capture are now obvious to most people. Once you have memory cards you can shoot all day, every day, for free (well, lets not count the camera upgrades, computer upgrades, storage drives, software etc.). You can check your exposure via histogram and your composition via LCD and gain immediate feedback. You can work on images, molding them into your vision, without the wet darkroom 'mess'. Once the image has been processed it is easy to output as many identical copies as you want.
But what about the downside? There is one downside that seems to always haunt me, and that is that there can be too many possibilities!
What do I mean by that? Because it is easy to make so many digital photographs, I think I actually make too many of them. When I am out shooting, I now tend to take many more frames of an image than I did when using film. I find myself altering the composition ever so slightly and reshooting, making images where the point of focus is a bit different, shooting with different apertures, and refocusing manually just to make sure I get the sharpest focus possible. At the end of the day I might have so many frames of essentially the same composition that it makes picking the 'best' one to process frustratingly difficult. And the 'fear' of not picking the 'best' frame may well lead to not picking a frame at all, leaving the endeavor to 'later'.
This isn't to say that I don't have a specific vision when making a photograph.....I do. It is just that with digital it can sometimes be too easy to doubt whether that vision might be 'optimal' and to try to examine every possibility. In speaking to some of my photography friends, it turns out that I am not alone with this issue. Maybe I need to trust myself to the original vision I had when first approaching the shot or, alternatively, being happy when I find a frame I took that expresses that vision, as opposed to feeling obligated to examine each and every frame and comparing them to each other in order to find the perfect one to use.
Lets face it....it is really tough to get out of bed at 6AM on a work day, let alone at 5AM on the precious weekend, even if it is to go out and photograph. Sometimes it is just plain impossible to get up. Nonetheless, every time I force myself up, even if it turns out that there were no interesting photographs to be had, it always ends up just feeling good to have been up before the rest of the world to watch the new day dawn.
However, some days the early awakening is associated with great photos, either because conditions are just right or because the muse speaks. Some days, well, not so much! But it is never predictable........so had I slept in two weekends ago I would have missed this beautiful sunrise over Lake Arthur.
Int my last post entitled "Coincidence?", I compared the style of a portrait of keyboardist Keith Emerson (from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer) to that of the famous portrait of Igor Stravinsky taken by Newman. That post can be read here. I received a few comments, both on this blog as well as on my Facebook photography page.
I had mentioned that since ELP was at their prime in the seventies, some readers might not be familiar with them. Even though it is off topic (hey, it's my blog), I thought that I would post a few YouTube links to ELP performing so that anyone that is not familiar with them might have a look (the sound quality isn't perfect given that the recordings were made in the 1970's):
Here they are performing an acoustic version of Lake's "Lucky Man" in concert in Japan:
And here playing a small portion of their amazing piece entitled "Tarkus", also in concert in Japan:
And finally, playing a portion of their rendition of Russian composer Mussorgsky's classic "Pictures At An Exhibition":
Enjoy!
I was born in the late 1950's and thus, not too surprisingly, my musical taste leans towards 60's-80's rock. I also tend to go through phases where I really enjoy listening to a particular artist or group.
Lately, I have been going through an Emerson, Lake, and Palmer phase. For those who might be reading this that are too young to have heard of them, they are generally considered one of the earliest 'progressive rock' supergroups. If you haven't heard of them you really owe it to yourself to have a listen. Try "Lucky Man" for a more conventional 'over the radio' song, but if you really want to try something different give "Tarkus" a try.
But what has any of this to do with photography? Well, I recently was rounding out my ELP collection and ordered the album entitled "Works Volume 1". Ok, it isn't their most renowned music but I was completing my collection by purchasing albums I was missing. At any rate, I bought the CD (for essentially the same price as an i-Tunes download why not have an uncompressed hard copy as well?) and looked at the album insert. I was very surprised to find in the pamphlet this photograph of Keith Emerson taken by David Montgomery in the 1970's (the reproduction is somewhat poor as I had to scan an image that was already reproduced for the insert).
