Photography forum image of the month – Jan. 2010

Every month on our photography forum members nominate images that they like. Then at the end of the month I choose an excellent image and talk about why it rocks. The photo I choose is not necessarily the best one of the month. I’ve come to realize it’s not really logical to pit images from totally different genres against each other. That’s why there are categories in photo contests. I just choose a photo that has extremely strong elements that we can learn from.

This month’s choice The Conversation is by casil403.

I chose this image for several reasons.
First and foremost, I was drawn in by the unusual angle and point of view of this shot. This angle works very well for me! I love how just above the left statue’s head the office windows are nicely lit. This gives me the feeling of a well-told story, better than the similar story told by the straight on shot seen many, many times. The story is office politics/or work talk etc.

I very much like the lines of the building’s roof and the lines created by the windows. I’m loving this interesting composition. The way that ‘roof-line’ cuts out of the scene to create an isosceles-like triangle at top left (hey I dug geometry) is fan-friggen-tastic. It adds interest to this scene and makes it dynamic.

The sky is beautifully controlled here. It adds flavour to the shot without overwhelming it in any way.

The black and white is very well controlled here and works for me with this subject matter. If I had one teeny nit, I might bring up the highlights in the statues’ faces and hand.

Thousands of people pass these statues every day and scores of tourists are likely snapping away daily… and none of them are likely to lie down on the ground or get on their knees to get this superb angle.

For all these reasons, this is my choice for image of the month.

Since we all have opinions, some members may disagree with my choice. That’s cool but THIS thread is not the place for debate over my pick, NOR is it the place to further critique the image. The purpose here is to suggest strong elements in the photo that we may learn from.

Congrats again casil403 for creating this beautiful image!

Tags: image of the month, photography

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• Photography.ca winning member images from May 2009
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Fed Up With Fake Photography ?

Whether an image is “too” photoshopped, or overly retouched is a huge issue for both photographers and non-photographers. We’ve talked about it many times on our forum. It’s an issue for photographers because our medium is in the midst of a dramatic change. Photography has gone digital. Everyone has a digital camera. Every image is fodder for manipulation. Many photographers over-manipulate.

The problem is that there is no consensus on how much manipulation is too much. Some photographers say over manipulation occurs with anything over and above basic editing (contrast and tonal control, cropping and some dodging and burning). Others say we are craftsman and that Photoshop is a tool like any other tool, so there is no limit. (Personally I don’t buy this for a second).

Certainly when you look at a photo, you often cannot tell what level of manipulation was done and nowhere is the level of manipulation revealed. Sometimes though, you can EASILY tell when an image is over-retouched or manipulated.

This is less of a big deal when you are creating a photograph for artistic reasons, but it’s damn serious when young girls want to look like models that don’t exist. The models exist of course but their images are over manipulated to the point of fraud. Impressionable girls want to look like these models hawking beauty-cream. They feel bad/sad when they can’t look like these models. Here is just one recent Newsweek article on this over-manipulation (hat tip to AcadieLibre from our forum). If this trend continues, it won’t be long till we’ll be selling anti-wrinkle cream to ten year olds or freckle remover for red headed babies.  All it will take is a couple of  before and after photos showing the ‘improvement’ in their appearances. Even babies and ten year olds want to feel ‘better’ about themselves.

But people are catching on, they are getting fed up with this manipulation/fraud/cheating. This week in London England, Conservative party leader David Cameron was blasted for a campaign election poster where he looks 20 years younger than he does. Here’s the original poster, a spoof poster and what Cameron looks like on a normal day.

Over manipulation in photography

So what say you? Are you fed up with fake photography………?  Or am I just whining because I have no Elvis hair to style?

Tags: over retouching in photography, over-manipulation in photography, photography

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77 – Neutral density filters – Graduated neutral density filters – Interview with D. Wiggett

Photography podcast #77 features an interview with Darwin Wiggett where we talk about neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters. Darwin explains why we use these filters and how to use these filters effectively. We discuss hard edge versus soft edge, physical versus software filters, we even talk about reverse graduated neutral density filters. For newbie photographers that have just hatched, Darwin goes over polarizing filters as well.

Left - Screw on neutral density filter. Right - The Cokin system

Left - Lake with no filter. Right - Lake with polarizer and-2-stop hard edge grad. Notice how much 'poppier' this shot is. The grad reduces the sky's intensity. The polarizer adds contrast to the clouds in the sky and intensifies its colour. It also removes the water's reflections thus saturating its colours. © Darwin Wiggett

Left - Tire with Polarizer and-2-stop-hard-grad. Right - Tire with a Polarizing filter plus a 2-stop-hard-edge grad and-a 5-stop solid-ND filter. Note the movement of the foreground brush and the softness in the clouds. This was achieved by using the solid ND filter to get a slow shutter speed. © Darwin Wiggett.

The effect of a polarizer on its own. Left - No polarizing filter. Right - The polarizing filter lets you see through the water by eliminating the water's reflectivity. With the reflections removed, the colour is much more saturated. © Darwin Wiggett

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Seven Rules for Effectively Using a Polarizer
Filters, holders and vignetting: building a filter system that works with your lenses
The Terrific Triple Threat
Fields of Gold (or was that blue?) Three Camera Filters all Digital Photographers Should be Using
Filters for Outdoor Photography
January’s macro or close-up assignment on the Photography.ca forum
Cokin filters at B&H (Disclosure – Aff links – help support our site)
Singh-Ray filters at B&H
Lee filters at B&H

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile – Feel free to “friend” me – please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page – I will follow you if you follow me – Let’s connect – PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to jacklabel, AcadieLibre and Mars observer who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca – Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. I Subscribe with iTunes I Subscribe via RSS feed I Subscribe with Google Reader I Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast – Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tags: GND, graduated neutral density filters, ND, neutral density filters, photography, polarizing filters

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What’s Up With Darwin Wiggett?

Good friend to Photography.ca, Darwin Wiggett is offering a very reasonably priced 2 day seminar in Canmore, Alberta on April 24-25 2010.  I’m a HUGE Darwin fan and I highly recommend his work. Although I haven’t yet taken a seminar with Darwin, I expect to within the next year.

Darwin has also just announced a new photo contest (The Canadian Landscape Photo Contest) on his blog where the winning image gets published in Outdoor Photography Canada.

NMP9850 - Cochrane, Alberta - Frosted tree, fence and field near Cochrane, Alberta - © Darwin Wiggett - All rights reserved.

Finally, Darwin will also be featured in our next photography podcast where he will share his insight on neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters. This podcast should be recorded, edited and published next week so stay tuned for more Darwin.

Tags: Darwin wiggett

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76 – Point and shoot cameras – Review of Canon G11

Photography podcast #76 talks about point and shoot cameras and reviews the Canon G11. We talk about the advantages and limitations of point and shoot cameras. We also talk about the most important reason for photographers to get a point and shoot camera and that reason is NOT quality.  Finally I give a quick review of the Canon G11. I recommend this camera but I’m also brutal about its faults.

Image from Canon G11 - ISO 100, F-7.1, 1/100

Canon G11 manually focused at ISO 100 - Click to see the nice noise

Canon G11 manually focused at ISO 800 - Click to see lots of noise

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Canon G11 at B&H (Disclosure – Aff links – helps support our site)
January’s macro or close-up assignment on the Photography.ca forum

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile – Feel free to “friend” me – please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page – I will follow you if you follow me – Let’s connect – PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Glenn Euloth (Iguanasan), Fortytwo, Crystalb, jacklabel, Bambi, JuiCe and Yisehaq who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca – Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. I Subscribe with iTunes I Subscribe via RSS feed I Subscribe with Google Reader I Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast – Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tags: Canon G11, point and shoot, point and shoot cameras

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Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all the photographers that read our blog and listen to the podcasts! More photography information is on its way! Feel free to connect with me through this blog or our facebook fan page or twitter!

- Join the new Photography.ca Facebook page
- Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/markokulik

All the best in 2010!

No tag for this post.

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75 – How to buy your first DSLR

Photography podcast #75 is geared toward photography enthusiasts that have not yet purchased their first DSLR camera. It encourages you to save money on your first DSLR camera body because you’ll need it for the lenses and accessories as you improve.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Canon 50D at B&H (Disclosure – Aff links – helps support our site)
Eos Rebel XSI (450D) at B&H
Nikon D3000 at B&H
Photography forum discussion on buying your first DSLR
December’s night photography assignment on the Photography.ca forum

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile – Feel free to “friend” me – please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page – I will follow you if you follow me – Let’s connect – PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Greg Nuspel, Benny, jacklabel, Jimmy Brown, Michael Van der Tol, Aaron Hockley, raiven, Antz, Dominic, Bambi, Fortytwo, Crystalb, Yisehaq and Kent Wilson  who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca – Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. I Subscribe with iTunes I Subscribe via RSS feed I Subscribe with Google Reader I Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast – Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tags: Buying your first DSLR

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Adding the copyright © symbol to photos

Do you ever search for something repeadly, forgetting the “trick” to the answer you’ve already searched. This has happened to me a few times to me already when I want to add the copyright symbol © to an image.

© © © © ©

Searching on Google says just press ALT while pressing the numbers 0169, so you try it and it doesn’t work. WHY?

HERE’S THE TRICK – On my Windows machine running Vista at least, the 0169 MUST BE PRESSED FROM THE NUMBER PAD NOT the line of numbers above the letters.

Just as an FYI this © symbol by pressing ALT while pressing 0169 works in Photoshop, Word, Notepad and likely many other programs.

Tags: adding the copyright symbol, copyright symbol

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Should I ditch photography School?

Recently on our photography forum this question (To go or not to go to photography school) was brought up by forum member kat. She wondered whether it was worth it to take a photography program at the university level.

It’s a very interesting question and it brought me back to my own university days and reminded me of something a statistics professor once told me. He said that the WORST thing you can do (ON AVERAGE for the average person) for your lifetime earnings is to go to university. This is because while you are going into university you are racking up debt and not making money. Obviously for professional degrees (accounting, medicine, law etc.) there is no other way, but photography is different. You can either go to photography school or learn photography by yourself, online, by taking workshops, apprenticing etc.

As for myself, I did go to photography school and completed a 2.5 year program after university in the mid 90’s. I don’t regret it one bit, I love knowledge and photo school trained my eye quite well.

However – If I were in this position today would I do the same thing?….Honestly, I doubt I would.

The world these days is digital, and there’s SO much excellent online learning that wasn’t there when I studied, plus the darkroom work that was so important then, has been replaced by digital.

I really think I’d recommend workshops and self-learning over a full on program that takes 2-3 years. Keep in mind that AFTER the 2-3 years nobody will be waiting to give you a job, you will have to hustle BIG TIME and market yourself  BIG TIME..or else, on average you will fail.

Another sobering stat from back in the day is that 2 years AFTER graduating from photography school, only 20-25% of the graduates will be working photographers. That stat still seems accurate to me today based on what I  see.

So what do you think – Is photography school a waste of time?

Tags: photo school, photography school

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74 – Hyperfocal distance – How to use the hyperfocal distance

Photography podcast #74 is all about the hyperfocal distance and how to use it in landscape photography. In a nutshell, hyperfocal distance is the distance you focus at to get greater depth of field when focusing on an object in the distance. In this podcast we define what hyperfocal distance is and how to use it for both traditional (film) photography and in digital photography with new DSLRs and lenses.  We also talk about when not to use the hyperfocal distance in landscape photography.

Hyperfocal distance chart from dofmaster.com – used by permission; thanks Don Fleming!  This beautiful application from the dofmaster.com site clearly shows that by focusing at the hyperfocal distance you gain over 4 feet of sharpness toward the foreground when you use a 5omm lens at F-16 and focus at 27.1 feet instead of  where the object actually is at 50 feet.. Try this test for yourself; shoot 1 shot the regular way and 1 shot using the hyperfocal distance. This application already lists the most common digital cameras and takes their crop factors into account.

Left image shot normally while right image was shot at the hyperfocal distance. Even at this small size you can see that the right shot shows a bit more sharpness in the midground while the background looks similar in both shots. The effects are more noticeable when you print at larger sizes.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Dofmaster’s awesome depth of field calculator that also calculates hyperfocal distance
Dofmaster’s depth of field calculator for free use with an iphone (need to connect to the Net – use this URL from an IPhone ONLY – NOT from your computer)
Dofmaster’s simulated depth of field calculator for free use with an Non-iphones (need to connect to the Net)
Dofmaster’s Itunes depth of field calculator App for $1.99 (No Internet connection required)
November’s ‘landscapes in portrait orientation’ assignment on the Photography.ca forum
Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook
My Facebook profile – Feel free to “friend” me – please just mention Photography.ca
My Twitter page – I will follow you if you follow me – Let’s connect – PLEASE email me and tell me who you are in case I don’t reciprocate because I think you are a spammer.

If you are still lurking on our forum,
feel free to join our friendly Photography forum

Thanks to Kat, Glenn Euloth (Iguanasan), Bambi and Alex Maxim who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as always to everyone that sent comments by email about our last podcast. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

If you are looking at this material on any other site except Photography.ca – Please hop on over to the Photography.ca blog and podcast and get this and other photography info directly from the source. I Subscribe with iTunes I Subscribe via RSS feed I Subscribe with Google Reader I Subscribe for free to the Photography podcast – Photography.ca and get all the posts/podcasts by Email
You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tags: hyperfocal distance, photography, Photography tips

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Freeman Patterson exhibition – Montreal till Nov.15/09

If you live in or near Montreal and love artistic landscape photography you OWE it to yourself to take a drive to Dollard Des Ormeaux to see the Freeman Patterson photography exhibition.

Sunrise at Kokerboomkloof - © 2006 Freeman Patterson

This exhibition is AWESOME. Freeman Patterson has been shooting landscapes around the world and teaching workshops for many decades. I’ve been a major fan of his for a good twenty years and I consider him to be a modern master landscape photography artist. Everything about this exhibition screams quality. The images themselves are gorgeous and I spent a good seventy minutes looking at each and every one. The composition of each photograph is very well thought out as you would expect. Freeman is a teacher and expert at visual design and you’ll note the attention he has paid to the foreground midground and background. There’s exciting stuff going on in all 3 of those zones.  But everything else in the photographs work too; exposure, colour and the printing. Gorgeous printing on heavy watercolour paper that reveals great tonality from pure white to deep black with excellent shadow detail in most prints.

Freeman exhibits about 18 large sized photographs that are around 20 X 30 inches. All the prints are for sale in small limited editions. The Gallery is located in the Dollard Civic Center (across the street from Marche de L’Ouest) 12001, boulevard De Salaberry, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Qc. H9B 2A7 (General Tel. # (514) 684-1011).  Look for the LIBRARY, the gallery is in the basement of the library building. Tues.-Wed. 12-4 PM, Thurs.-Fri. 2-5PM, Sat.-Sun. 1-4 PM and there are guided tours available. The gallery is closed on Nov. 11th for rememberance day.

I have seen NO publicity for this show…which is a travesty as this work is aching to be seen by photography lovers. So take a drive to the West Island and you won’t be disappointed!

Tags: Freeman patterson, landscape photography, landscapes, photography

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My new logos – Thanks a ton Sylvain Grand’Maison

I’ve been wanting a new logo for my own personal photography for quite some time now. There’s just something about ’signing your work’ that I feel is important. For me, a signature provides a sense of closure. There are so many ways to tweak/modify/enhance a photograph that sometimes you’re not sure if your version is the finished version. A signature allows you to say, OK enough now, I’m done with this image, let’s move on.

I’d like to thank Sylvain Grand’Maison BIG TIME for the great work that he did for me. For those of you that don’t know Sylvain, he has one of the most popular French Podcasts (even though he’s perfectly bilingual) in Quebec called le Quebec en Baladodiffusion. He also helps businesses and individuals get started in the social media space and works as a consultant in this regard. So why did I ask him to create my logos?  That’s because his background is in graphic design and he still takes on the occasional graphic design gig.

So now I need YOUR help. I really dig both of these logos and I think I know which one I like best but I’d like some opinions. Which one of these above logos do you like better, the left one or the right one?

In choosing these logos Sylvain presented me with a bunch of different choices on totally different themes. Here is another design Sylvain created. I love this one as well – it has a serious Russian feel. I’m not sure what I’ll use this red design for, but I do know what my next Facebook avatar will look like.

Tags: photography, photography logos, Sylvain Grand'Maison

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