Photography.ca » Photography tips

137 — 5 Photography Resolutions For the New year

Marko Kulik — Sat, 31 Dec 2016 08:57:53 +0000

Photography podcast #137 finally returns to offer up 5 realistic photography resolutions that we can make for the upcoming year. Happy New year Everyone!!!

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to or download this (almost)10 minute podcast.

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Thanks for all the support emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!!

136 — Lube up your Old Filters

Marko Kulik — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 13:03:03 +0000

Photography podcast #136 talks about creating dreamy images by placing Vaseline or petroleum jelly on an old UV filter attached to your lens. By doing this you are often able to create dreamy, impressionistic images. The procedure is simple; take an OLD UV filter (because removing the vaseline from the filter after use might damage its coating) and screw it onto a lens. Then place a wee bit of petroleum jelly (just a bit goes a long way) on your finger and apply it to the front of the UV filter. Take a few images and see what you get. Play with the level and position of the blur by removing some Vaseline or moving it around with your finger.

It goes without saying that you need to do this carefully so as not to allow the Vaseline to touch your camera or lens. The Vaseline should only be on the front of the filter. When you’re done shooting, remove the filter immediately and place it in a plastic bag. Then clean it (I just used regular dish soap) when you get home. If you have a few wet wipes along with a dry cloth (to thoroughly wipe your finger between moving the vaseline around and touching the shutter release button) and an extra plastic bag or two, you should have no problem doing this.

Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment or sharing/liking this post in some way.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) this 9.5 minute podcast.

Here are some of the photographs I was able to make with this technique;

Crossing Ducks — Lafontaine Park Montreal — Image shot with a 50mm lens using a UV filter coated with petroleum jelly

Dreamy Carmy — Laurier Park Montreal — Vaseline in front of an old polarizing filter

Lily pads — In this series of images I took a straight shot and then 2 vaseline shots over the UV filter. You can see how completely different the 2 vaseline images look from one another. This difference is simply due to the quantity and position/pattern of the Vaseline on the filter

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Exhibition and Film on Impressionism and Photography (Lorin’s comment from podcast 135)
Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgement of Pictures by Henry Rankin Poore

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

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If you are still lurking on our forum,
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Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred — Thanks Lorin Duckman, Dave Johnson and Jane Chesebrough! Thanks for all the support emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

135 — Photographers — Get Thee To a Museum

Marko Kulik — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 02:33:11 +0000

Photography podcast #135 discusses how going to museums to study painters and paintings can improve your photography. After all, both painting and photography are 2D media trying to represent a 3D world. When photographers study the compositional and lighting techniques used by painting masters, their own photographs often improve.

Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment or sharing/liking this post in some way.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) this 15 minute podcast.

Caravaggio — The Conversion on the way to Damascus — 1601
Look how the scene and the subjects’ faces are lit, look at the gestures of the subjects and the overall composition. Photographers can learn a lot from the master painters that lived long ago.

When it comes to lighting portraits in photography, painters have been thinking about the lighting for their own subjects many hundreds of years before photography was invented. Photographers can learn so much about lighting by studying the great portrait painters.

Rembrandt — Self-Portrait — 1630 — Rembrandt is well known for his portrait lighting style. The triangle of light on the darker side of the face is one of Rembrandt’s signatures. Photographers love this lighting technique and it has become a basic portrait lighting style in photography.

Rembrandt — Jacob Blessing the Children of Joseph 1656 — Lovely lighting, great gestures and interesting compositions work well in photography as well as in painting.

When it comes to photographing mountains and other landscapes, photographers often zoom right into them as their first instinct and of course that’s a good thing to do for a shot or two, but then what? By studying the compositional techniques of landscape painters, we see that they often include lots of elements that compliment the main focal point in their images.

A.Y. Jackson — Winter Charlevoix County — 1932–33 - We can see that this painting has a mountain in the background. But it’s the way that Jackson ties in the foreground and midground with their visually interesting elements that help make this landscape painting interesting.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Outline of painting history
Caravaggio
Rembrandt
A. Y. Jackson
Group of Seven (artists)

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
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Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks for all the support emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Photo Backup Strategy While Travelling

Marko Kulik — Fri, 22 May 2015 18:45:17 +0000

Hi there photography lovers!

It’s been a while since my last post and podcast and I hope to make up for it– shortly.

I’m lucky enough to be travelling on a photography holiday right now (I’m in Prague, CZ) and because this is a photo holiday, the photographs I am taking are precious and irreplaceable. I’d like to think that most serious photographers feel the same way and so I thought I’d share my photo backup strategy while travelling.

Bubbles, Kids and the Tyn Church — Prague CZ

Let me say up front that I am not uploading my RAW files to ‘the cloud’ — because uploading huge files (30 megs per file in my case) only works well when you have a super fast connection and a fast computer. Even then, it can take a looooong time to upload 50–100 files. So far I have been to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague. The wifi connections, on average, have been spotty everywhere I have been. (I’ve been using quality airbnb’s but so far my wifi has never ever been flawless). Therefore, uploading is out of the question and I’m basically going old school.

Here’s my simple method; The memory cards that hold the files (I brought 4 cards of 32 GB each) NEVER leave my sight. They are with me 100% of the time and easily fit into my pocket at all times when not inside my camera at my side. When my camera is not by my side, the cards are removed and go in my pocket.

In addition, I backup those files to a small portable Western Digital 2GB drive that I purchased for 79 dollars before I left. It’s around the size of a pack of 25 cigarettes. Then I usually hide that drive somewhere in the room I’m staying. This method is quite fast and efficient and it makes me feel safe. There would have to be 2 catastrophes for me to lose my data.

One last thing to note — You need a decent laptop computer to do this kind of thing. Tablets and Ipads are pure JUNK for photo editing.

If anyone has additional suggestions to share — I’d love to hear them. Thanks and many more pics to follow when I return.

134 — Finding Your Unique Photography style — Interview with Bret Culp

Marko Kulik — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 13:37:23 +0000

Photography podcast #134 features an interview with Toronto, Ontario fine art photographer Bret Culp. During the interview we talk about finding and developing your own photography or shooting style. Bret offers up some practical tips on how to make this process easier.

Feel free to add to the conversation by leaving a comment or sharing/liking this post in some way.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 30ish minute podcast.

Monolith, The face of Half Dome (1927) by Ansel Adams

Clearing Winter Storm (1938) by Ansel Adams

The Dark Hedges, Antrim, Northern Ireland, 2011 by Bret Culp

Dunluce Castle, Antrim, Northern Ireland, 2012 by Bret Culp

Bret shares his own Artist Statement on his Irish portfolio just to give listeners/readers an example on how developing an Artist Statement can focus you.

Irish Portfolio Artist Statement

“The mythic Irish landscape and its people have had a profound impact on one another. The Celts saw the land as a living source of wisdom, beauty and transformative spiritual power. Among the first to believe in the eternal nature of the human spirit they constructed monuments to death, rebirth and the cycles of the seasons and stars. Castles, fortresses and ruins are evidence of untold invasions and conflicts throughout a tumultuous history. These vestiges of the past continue to resonate through the countryside today. Beautifully poignant in the process of decay they tell their own story and possess their own mortality. Nothing that belongs to the earth is ever free from it. The sacred connection between the landscape of Ireland and its people has not disappeared over the centuries.” —Bret Culp

Overall Body Of Work Statement

“The transitory nature of existence binds everything in the material world. Careful observation reveals the beauty within each fleeting moment.” —Bret Culp

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Bret Culp’s Irish Portfolio
Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

If you are still lurking on our forum,
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Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Tim Mackle and Ruth M for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the photography.ca forum!

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

133 — Essential Camera Features — Interview with Royce Howland

Marko Kulik — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 20:17:45 +0000

Photography podcast #133 features an interview with Canadian fine art photographer Royce Howland. During the interview we discuss what camera features we think are essential. There are loads of extra bells and whistles on cameras these days and even though both Royce and I have kick-butt camera gear, we ignore the majority of the new features and focus on the essentials. We also discuss essential camera modes and touch on essential lenses.

Of course feel free to let us know if you feel we missed something essential.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 44ish minute podcast.

I Should Be So Industrious by Royce Howland

Royce wanted to mention something about this image because it relates to a cool feature of some new screens on cameras.

“Something we’re seeing more commonly, and the Pentax 645Z also has it, is a camera LCD that pops out with tilt or tilt-swivel movements so you can see it from different angles. I think this idea is great.….

…This sea holly bloom and bees were about 18 inches off the ground. I wanted a shooting angle of more or less straight across, rather than steeply downwards or whatever. That would have been very awkward (or even painful!) to shoot through the camera viewfinder, having to contort my neck, back, knees, etc. to work through the viewfinder for any length of time. Even using a normal, non-moving LCD would have been a bit of a challenge to see from above. Instead, I was able to put the camera on a stable tripod, sit on a short 3-legged stool, and pop out the LCD to a comfortable angle that I could see just by looking down. No neck or back strain even though I photographed from the low shooting angle for about an hour.”

Nick Cave Osheaga 2014 by Marko Kulik — This high ISO image was made using aperture priority and I moved the focus points over the hand invading Nick’s shirt. Moving those focus points is my favourite essential camera feature.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Royce Howland’s Photography / workshops
Tours-courses by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Sandra Foster for her comment from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

131– The Lensbaby Composer Review

Marko Kulik — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:44:09 +0000

Photography podcast #131 reviews a Lensbaby lens. Lensbaby lenses are special in that they have a sweet spot of sharp focus in the center of the lens and blur out toward the edges. In addition to this (and where the magic truly lives), you can actually bend the lens to move that sweet spot of focus around the frame. The particular lens I tested was a 50mm Lensbaby Composer with double glass optic. It’s great fun and fairly easy to use though you need to know in advance that it’s a manual lens. It will still help you figure out exposure based on your ISO and aperture ring you select, but you’ll be going old school and manually focusing this bad-boy. It’s worth it though as you can make some really creative in-camera images with this lens. It’s a fabulous lens to juice up your creativity.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast and for allowing me to test this lens.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 11ish minute podcast.

My hairless cat Baci with the Lensbaby Composer. Note his sharp central eye while everything else fades to blur

This is an image of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal, Quebec. It was very easy to see and capture this effect in camera.

An image of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal, Quebec. Because the bridge was not centered in the lens, I had to physically move the sharp sweet spot of focus by actually bending the lens and thus the image took longer to compose.

Norco Bicycle shot with the Lensbaby Composer

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Lensbaby Composer user guide
The Lensbaby Composer and other Lensbabies at The Camera Store
Tilt shift lenses for landscape photography
Lensbaby 3G review

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Barefoot, Troy Borque and Terry Babij for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

130 — The Big Stopper Filter Review

Marko Kulik — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 12:40:02 +0000

Photography podcast #130 reviews the Big Stopper by Lee filters. The big stopper is a 10 stop glass filter that slows down shutter speeds in order to accentuate movement. Both clouds and water are classic subjects for use with this filter and the resulting photographs tend to be ethereal and dreamy. Aside from reviewing the filter, I offer up 6 tips on how to use it effectively.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 18ish minute podcast.

This evening image of Rue Laurier in Montreal is a long exposure image using the big stopper. You can see movement in the clouds, and in the cars. The people look ‘ghostlike’ because they moved (somewhat) in place while waiting for the traffic light. Notice the traffic light has all 3 colours lit because the traffic light cycled during this 30 second exposure. Exif data — ISO 100, f/11, 30 second shutter speed.

Fast moving water at Chutes Dorwin in Rawdon, QC. Canada. In the top image I used my lowest ISO (50) with my smallest aperture (f/32) and this yielded a shutter speed of .4 seconds. The water does look dreamy. But when I used the big stopper, I was able to get much slower shutter speeds and the lower image was exposed for 15 seconds. It’s much dreamier and more ethereal looking but the filter must be used with care. If you look at the top of the bottom image you can see a rainbowish arc and this where flare entered my camera. As discussed in the podcast, this is easily solved with a hat (or postprocessing).

Fountain at Parc Lafontaine in Montreal, QC., Canada — The slowest shutter speed I could get without a filter was 1/60 in this light. When I put the big stopper on, It extends the available shutter speeds big time. The image on the right was a 15 second exposure using the big stopper and look how dreamy the water looks.

How the Lee filter system works

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Podcast 77 - On Neutral density filters and graduated neutral density filters
Podcast 84 - Back Button autofocus
The big stopper at The Camera Store
Regular forum assignment — Repetition
Level 2 photography assignment — Forced perspective

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

129 — How to Photograph Strangers

Marko Kulik — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 13:04:45 +0000

Photography podcast #129 talks about how to photograph strangers in public so that your images are stronger and more interesting. I offer up 4 easy tips on how to make this process easier so that your shots have more punch at the end. These photographs were mostly taken over a period of 1 week. In the podcast I discuss the differences between when the subject is aware and unaware of the photographer’s presence.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 11ish minute podcast.

Tens of thousands of cyclists lining up to start the Tour de L’isle. All it took was me waving my hand, and cyclists did the same. There is much more engagement than if I had not waved my hand and all the cyclists were looking in random directions. I was not an official photographer for the event. I had the same access as everyone else.

I shot Raphael Aubry from the band Waiting Game at the Montreal Jazzfest. I had the same access as everyone else. I just waited patiently for this moment of eye contact while I was framing the scene.

Every Sunday in Montreal, thousands of people gather at Mont-Royale for drumming, dancing etc. This image has no eye contact, but a strong gesture which for me, carries the image.

Just as a test for a group of adults i was giving a course to, I asked 5–6 people walking down the street if I could take their portrait. 100% of them said yes. Take a deep breath if you feel shy about this, people are flattered and tend to agree over 90% of the time when I simply ask them for permission.

The boy in this image never knew he was being photographed. The second I saw him engage in this behaviour I saw a story. (click to enlarge this image)

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Photography forum assignments

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Nuno C., Barefoot and Christopher Steven B. for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

128 — Your First Lens Should be a Nifty 50mm

Marko Kulik — Tue, 27 May 2014 18:56:48 +0000

Photography podcast #128 talks about five reasons why I think the 50mm lens is the first lens you should get for your SLR or DSLR. Two of these reasons are all the aperture advantages this lens has to offer has and the fact that it’s one of the most affordable brand new lenses you are likely to find (that aren’t garbage).

If you have a full frame camera the 50mm will act as the conventional 50mm lens from the film camera days. On a crop sensor camera the lens will act more like a 75mm or 80mm lens and many people are using this lens to make wonderful portraits.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 8ish minute podcast.

This is a 50mm lens — It’s the first lens you should buy for your DSLR or SLR.

This image was shot on a full frame DSLR using a 50mm lens at Palais Des Congres in Montreal, QC, Canada. The exposure was ISO 400 f/1.8 at 1/2500

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Good comments from our last podcast - Point and Shoot Cameras Suck for Learning Photography

The Canon 50mm at The Camera Store
The Nikon 50mm at The Camera Store
Reversing rings at The Camera Store

The Canon 50mm at B&H
The Nikon 50mm at B&H
Reversing rings at B&H

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Many thanks to Alain Casault, Lisa Osta, and Tom Trottier for their comments from the last podcast. Thanks as well for the emails and welcome to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

127 — Point and Shoot Cameras Suck for Learning Photography

Marko Kulik — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:04:20 +0000

Photography podcast #127 goes into why point and shoot cameras suck for learning photography. I actually rag on point and shoot cameras quite a bit in this podcast but it’s because photography should be fun and learning photography on a point and shoot camera is rarely fun and almost never user-friendly. At the beginning stages of learning photography you need your camera to be user-friendly and it’s nice when your camera can handle any shooting situation. Point and shoots are inferior to any new DSLRs when it comes to photographing things that move. Given that precious memories (that involve movement) like your child walking/running are missed with a point and shoot, it’s an inferior tool.

That lovely intro aside, I do recommend a few user friendly Point and shoots for photographers that are comfortable with a Point and shoot’s limitations. They definitely are portable and can be handy in capable hands.

Click the player at the end of this post to listen to (or download) the 13ish minute podcast.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

This point and shoot camera is not a good camera for learning photography

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Podcast # 76 - Point and shoot cameras — Review of Canon G11
Exposure exposed — Easily master camera exposure and make stunning photos by Marko Kulik
Photo tours — private photo instruction in Montreal
Canon G16 at The Camera Store
Nikon P7800 at The Camera Store
The Eos Rebel T5 at The Camera Store
The Nikon D3200 at The Camera Store

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

126 — 6 Tips to Improve the Edges of Your Photos

Marko Kulik — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 13:57:38 +0000

Photography podcast #126 discusses the importance of the four edges of your photographs. They are seriously important and paying attention to them will improve your photography. The podcast offers up 6 (actually a few more than 6) practical tips on how to improve the edges of your photographs.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

A sneak peek to one of the 6 tips which is useful to photographers of all levels is to check out the work of master painters. They knew about the edges, about the overall composition, and the rules of composition. Those rules directly apply to photography. This famous painting below done by Rembrandt shows dark edges all around which is of course no accident. He did it all the time. Notice where your eye ends up in the painting; on the wave at left and this too is no accident. When we can apply some of these principles to photography, our images almost always improve.

1633 — Rembrandt (1606–1669) Christ in the Storm on the Lake of Galilee.

Talk about how edges can add interest! This image by Selena Rhodes Scofield from our forum is framed in an extremely creative way and the unusual perspective just adds to the visual interest. In addition, both the seagull’s neck and its wing are creating interesting positive and negative shapes as they intersect with the edges and the rest of the image. Being on the lookout for these shapes is another way to spicify your photography.

seagull 3 by Selena Rhodes Scofield

Of course when you want to break guidelines, you break them whenever you want to. Just be aware that you are doing so. In this image below, Canadian Master photographer and teacher Freeman Patterson does just that.

From his book Photography and the Art of Seeing he wrote: “I saw this elderly lady as passing away from me and my world, so I photographed her through a window clouded by reflections and curtains. The shallow depth of field, which throws the reflections and curtains out of focus, creates a sense of the surreal and the unknown. The hand of the woman’s friend appears in the lower right corner. By all traditional standards of composition, the hand should not be there because it looks amputated. Yet it seems strangely appropriate, representing support that may be needed in the present, while at the same time adding to the impression of the world dissolving”

Photograph by Freeman Patterson from The Art of Seeing.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Photography and the Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson. If you can only afford one photography book this year, buy this one.
Composition Basics by oopoomoo

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks as well to Don Crasco and Daniel Cybulskie who posted comments directly on the blog. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

124 — Luminosity Masks — Interview with Tony Kuyper

Marko Kulik — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 13:53:20 +0000

Photography podcast #124 features an interview with Arizona fine art photographer Tony Kuyper. After years of experimentation Tony has developed an intermediate post processing technique NOT based on the pixels that make up the image but rather the brightness levels or tones that make up the image. One of the game changing reasons to work in this way is the tonal control and level of precision you can achieve with your selections and the fact that these selections are naturally perfectly feathered. This is accomplished by creating a luminosity mask (in Gimp, Photoshop Elements or Photoshop) and Tony describes how and why to do this in the podcast.

Although this is an intermediate level podcast, newer photographers might want to listen to get ideas for future study and post-processing play. Tony explains the concepts clearly!

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast.

Here are some of Tony’s images processed with and without luminosity masks. You can see that the images processed with the masks ‘sing’ louder.

Brine Stones by Tony Kuyper — processed without luminosity masks

Brine Stones by Tony Kuyper — processed with luminosity masks

Elephant’s Feet by Tony Kuyper processed without luminosity masks

Elephant’s Feet by Tony Kuyper processed with luminosity masks

Navajo Bridge by Tony Kuyper processed without luminosity masks

Navajo Bridge by Tony Kuyper processed with luminosity masks

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Luminosity masks — Tutorial on Tony’s site
Tony’s tutorials page
GIMP luminosity mask tutorial
Photography assignment on our forum — Space
Level 2 photography assignment on our forum — Diptychs
Illuminight — Photography exhibition by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks as well to Mike Bons, Lucy 72, Jimmy Brown, and Darnell B who posted comments directly on the blog. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

A Good Day by Michael Orton

Marko Kulik — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 11:47:10 +0000

Today was one of those days. After 35 years of carrying a camera I consider myself fortunate indeed to have experienced some of these days, when everything seems to align, the weather, the light, the season, the location, and let’s not forget, the photographer. After all, without the act of making the decision to set out, nothing will be created. While working in the stock photo business my workflow was quite different from today . My goal was to create marketable concept images and I would research locations to shoot specific images. I would have to place myself in the right location, at the right time with the best light which was not always easy. Remarkably I did have some of ” those days ” back then, but not like the ones that have occurred since I became immersed in ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) these last years. I have an intimate knowledge of the landscape within a close distance from home and can almost visualize before setting out the likelihood of there being the type of subject matter that will feed my imagination. And of course the more I explore the more data I have to draw from. With ICM the required “raw material”, unlike making a conventional photograph, is not a specific object or recognizable scene, but rather the starting point, like a piece of clay , shapeless until forged and formed into shape. This is the essence of working in this fashion. It has little to do with the actual technique of moving the camera and everything to do with how you can imagine and explore that which is the starting point, the raw material.

Today is a late fall day. Leaves had been falling for weeks, morning mists were beginning to appear, skies were a patchy blue. If I’m lucky this time of year lasts a few weeks. I love working when there are spaces in the trees and the branches contrast with the interspersed leaves. I set out to walk the edge of a river not far away. There are a variety of trees, bushes and growth, with logs, large and small stones lining the shoreline. (And the salmon are running ) I made many more than the four images shown, but these I selected because they were made standing in almost the same spot.

“A Good Day” — Image 1 by Michael Orton

Image one is the light reflected off of the leaves of a small bush , which I rendered into hundreds of shards of light with a fast camera movement and short shutter speed. When viewed at full size this image has remarkable complexity and blending . The bush was a short distance to my left.

“A Good Day” — Image 2 by Michael Orton

Image two is simply fallen leaves on a spread of medium sized round stones with the sand washed from between them. They are in the shade , and the blue comes from the reflected blue of the sky. The sky had some clouds which occasionally gave me overcast light. - 1/2 second with what I refer to as medium camera movement speed , using a somewhat oblique line and changing focal length during exposure. When I move my camera most often I do not swivel from a fixed point but move it in a similar fashion to a movie camera on a track. These stones and leaves where just to my right.

“A Good Day” — Image 3 by Michael Orton

Image three is looking across the river . You can see the sandy embankment rendered as a softened wash while the trees and their reflection remain somewhat recognizable. I used an extended oval motion at 2 seconds to retain the vertical lines.

“A Good Day” — Image 4 by Michael Orton

Image four is, yes wait for it, a photograph, and was taken standing in exactly the same spot as # 3 . Sometimes you just take what you are given and make the best of it. I took the polarizer and ND filter off, kneeled down and scooped this image from the surface of the river.The intricate, jagged lines of the reflected trees and a hint blue from the sky were to good to pass up. Handheld at 1/125.

So yes it was a good day. One that I wish every photographer could experience, because when you do, it will fuel your passion . This is what keeps us looking.

The video ” A Walk In The Palm Grove ” on our website is another good example of what can be created at one location.

There is no substitute for seeing… Michael

The preceding article is copyrighted and written by Canadian fine art landscape photographer Michael Orton. You can see more of his work at michaelortonphotography.com

The Nikon 105 with Defocus Control is Dreamy

Marko Kulik — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:59:24 +0000

The Nikon 105 f2.0 DC lens is one of the most interesting lenses that I’ve ever tried. I just tested one from The Camera Store. This lens is super-solidly constructed, mostly of metal, and feels great both in your hand and on the camera. It has a built in lens hood which I found convenient but the highlight of this lens is the defocus control which brings its coolness factor to eleven. What’s cool about this DC (Defocus Control) lens, is that you can defocus the foreground or the background to accentuate the bokeh (zone of blurriness/creaminess/dreaminess) in the foreground or the background. It takes a little bit of play and the results are subtle, but if you are into this type of subtlety and you are prepared to pay more than a grand, you won’t be disappointed. This lens is in a class all by itself.

Nikon AF DC 105mm f/2.0 D Lens

Let me say immediately that this specialty lens is not for everyone. It is made in my estimation for portrait, landscape or fine art photographers that love to play with selective focus and who want to be in supreme control of their bokeh. If this last sentence was confusing then you are probably not ready for this lens. But if you already love bokeh and want to play in the bokeh-olympics, this might be the finest tool available.

But Doesn’t Nikon Have Another 105mm Lens That Also Does Macro?

Yes they do and that lens is another fabulous portrait lens that does true macro. The Nikon AF-S 105 mm F2.8 Micro is a lens that I’ve owned for a number of years and it’s about 300. cheaper than the DC lens. It’s razor sharp, has Vibration Reduction (VR) and does true 1:1 Macro. If you like to do portraits as well as Macro work, get this lens instead.

But if you don’t do that much Macro and want a fabulously unique tool that is great for portraits and bokeh-play, the DC may be the better choice for an experienced photographer. The DC lens is also an f/2 lens. The f/2 is brighter in the viewfinder and always delivers more bokeh than f/2.8 all things being equal.

In terms of head to head sharpness and autofocus speed, I found the autofocus a bit faster on the Micro (Macro — Nikon calls their Macro lenses Micro just to be special) lens and I found the sharpness to be a hint sharper. The 105 DC lens is also razor sharp (but has no VR) and has very fast autofocus, but head to head with the 105 Micro, it loses by the smallest of margins to my eye. Please be aware that I only tested this lens on 2 shoots in coldish Montreal weather which unfortunately limited my play.

How does it work?

The instruction leaflet that comes with the lens is near useless. You’ll want to play with this sucker for a while. But basically, to get good bokeh effects you need a large aperture so you’ll choose an aperture like f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4, or f/5.6. Once you set that aperture, you’ll focus on your subject. Then you’ll decide if you want to defocus what’s in front of the subject, what’s behind the subject, or not defocus at all. The defocusing simply softens the background or foreground more than it would be with other lenses. The effect is subtle and not everyone will even notice it especially novice photographers. Personally though, I love this lens and I made a mistake when I purchased the f/2.8 Macro lens. I don’t do that much macro and would have gotten more use and joy from the bokeh play offered by this lens.

From L to R — Zero defocus, defocused foreground, defocused background — Click to enlarge

The images above were shot against a giant Christmas tree. The middle image makes the foreground lights around the neck have an interesting glow due to the defocused foreground, but the eyes lost sharpness. In general I found that defocusing the foreground looked weird most of the time. To my eye the normal setting and the defocused background settings are the best looking in this set and in general. The non defocused images looked superb actually. But a lens like this is usually bought for the ability to defocus it.

Left image had no defocus. Middle Image had background defocused to f/4 but aperture was f/2.0. The image at right was shot with the 105 Macro lens at f/2.8 its widest aperture — Click to enlarge.

The reason to get the Nikon 105mm DC lens is for the (De)focus play that it offers and normally you’ll set the defocus to the same aperture you are shooting on. But you don’t have to follow that rule and when you break it, it throws the background or foreground into an even softer or dreamier state. In the set of images above, the left image shows beautiful f/2.0 bokeh with a very sharp headstone and no defocus was used. The middle image was shot at f/2.0 but the rear defocus was set to f/4 which thinned out the zone of sharpness in the foreground in this case and softened the background to an even dreamier state compared to the previous shot. For comparison purposes the shot at right was shot with the 105 Macro lens that has no defocus control. It still shows excellent sharpness in the headstone and lovely bokeh in the background, but it is limited to f/2.8 without defocus control, and so it can’t be as dreamy as the DC 105mm.

Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal. Rear Defocus used on the Nikon 105mm DC — Click to enlarge

In summary, if you are just starting out in photography and you want an awesome fast portrait lens that also offers macro, the 105mm f/2.8 with VR is probably a better choice for you and it’s 300 dollars cheaper. If you just love bokeh and experimentation and are a more experienced photographer that rarely uses Macro, you might well want to try the Nikon 105mm f2.0 DC lens. It’s a one of a kind lens that will retain and go up in value in the future due to its uniqueness. I plan on adding it to my arsenal in the very near future.

Two Photo Accessories Reviewed

Marko Kulik — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 13:37:02 +0000

Hi photo lovers!

I’ve tried a couple of photo accessories recently that I’d like to share with you because they make my life easier.

1 — The S&F deluxe technical belt by Lowepro.

Lowepro S&F deluxe technical belt

My wife picked this up for me recently as a gift and I’m loving it. As mentioned in previous posts and podcasts, I’m a big fan of lens pouches and I use them almost exclusively (versus carrying a camera bag) on most personal photo shoots. Usually I have 3 lenses on me and 2 of them are carried in lens pouches. Until a few weeks ago I simply clipped the pouches onto an actual belt that goes through my jeans. It works well enough but getting into the jean pockets is difficult and my wife felt I looked all dishevelled especially if I needed to wear a jacket. She was right.

I have to say, the technical belt is WAY better than clipping the pouches to a regular pants belt. It is so much more comfortable and you can see the solid back support if offers, it’s a pure joy to wear. Especially when going from shooting to the car, the whole belt comes off in a flash with the pouches firmly secured onto them. If you do need to get into your pants pockets you just slide the belt around. In addition, it looks and feels great when you have to wear a jacket. It might well be my favourite accessory of 2013. It can be purchased immediately at B&H in the USA or at the The Camera Store within about 1 week.

2 - PhotoRepublik Twin Speedlite Holder — This accessory was loaned to me for review by our sponsor The Camera Store and I find it to be an extremely well built accessory. Some of the common gripes people have with flash holding accessories are their overall ‘dinkiness’ and that the actual point of contact between the flash and the holding shoe is flimsy (read risky) and difficult to control. Good new or used flashes are at least 100–600 dollars, why would you want to attach it to a bracket with a flimsy flash shoe holder that looks like it costs less than a nickel. One careless bump into the light stand can snag the bottom part of the flash right off.

This twin flash holder is crazy solid in all respects and operates smoothly. The point of attachment to the flash as well as the whole unit (except the knobs which are still very solid) is made of steel and operates very smoothly to attach to your flash. It feels safe and that will make you feel more secure about the setup. There’s place for an umbrella holder and it tilts from front to back for easier angling of light. It’s a perfect attachment for shooting with an umbrella when when you need more punch than one flash can offer.

PhotoRepublik Twin Speedlite Holder — Comes with a threaded mounting screw (shown in between the 2 flash holding units)

123 — Entry Level Camera Trigger Showdown — PocketWizard versus Cactus

Marko Kulik — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 12:49:54 +0000

Photography podcast #123 compares 2 entry level triggering devices for your camera. A ‘trigger’ is simply a device that allows your camera to fire nearly any portable flash, monolight or studio flash while it is OFF-camera. The ability to fire a flash or other light source while OFF-camera allows you to modify the direction and the quality of the light(s) to produce much more creative and professional looking photography versus direct on-camera flash. The 2 units tested are the PocketWizard Plus X and the Cactus V5 Duo.

The PocketWizard Plus X transceiver (sold as a single unit for $99.00) and the Cactus V5 Duo (2 transceivers for $99.00 or sold individiually at $59.00)

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast and for loaning me the test equipment for this week’s podcast!

Both these units do the identical job with identical (100%) reliability in both my indoor and outdoor tests. The top photo shows how the Cactus transceiver attaches to both the camera and to an off-camera flash. The bottom photo shows how the PocketWizard Plus X transceiver attaches to both the camera and to an off-camera flash. The main difference is that the PocketWizard is missing the extra hot shoe so it attaches to the off camera flash with (an included) sync-wire.

The build quality of the PocketWizard is slightly more robust than the Cactus V5 and its legendary reliability (PocketWizards have been around for decades) and the fact that they work with every other PocketWizard ever made are its main advantages.

Where the Cactus V5 duo really shines is with the addition of the extra hot shoe on the unit. Here the flash will act as an on axis-fill flash to fill in shadows created by another light, and it fits snugly into the hot shoe on top of the Cactus V5. At left is the PocketWizard attempting the same task but because it has no extra hot shoe it must be attached to the camera’s flash via an included sync-wire

Both these units will do the identical job, but the Cactus’s design (at right) is more elegant, easier to attach and the Cactus V5 Duo is half the price of the PocketWizard Plus X. Unfortunately the Cactus V5 will NOT work with PocketWizards or even different Cactus models.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

The PocketWizard Plus X at The Camera Store
The Cactus V5 Duo at The Camera Store
Illuminight — Photography exhibition by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

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Thanks as well to Enrique Waizel, Bernard Dallaire, Jason, Darnell B and Royce Howland who posted comments directly on the blog. Although ALL comments are appreciated, commenting directly in this blog is preferred. Thanks as well to all the new members of the bulletin board.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

122 — How Big Can I print that Photo — Interview with Royce Howland

Marko Kulik — Mon, 23 Sep 2013 01:14:22 +0000

Photography podcast #122 features an interview with Royce Howland where we discuss how large we can print our photos. These days cameras of all kinds are everywhere and if we want to make big enlargements from those cameras we need to know how big we can print the image before it starts to look bad. Royce offers up tips on how to make ‘the best enlargement’, ‘a better enlargement’ or ‘a good enlargement’ based on the camera, the printing material, the subject matter and some other factors.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast!

To recap the math in this podcast the best images get 300 pixels per inch. 200 pixels per inch gets you better enlargements and 100 pixels per inch yields good results. To get an idea of the possible enlargement range, we divide the image pixels of our camera by the PPI to get inches of print size.

Our theoretical 6 megapixel camera produced images of 3000 x 2000 pixels. So a good enlargement could be 30 x 20 inches, better could be 15 x 10 inches, and best 6.7 x 10 inches.

If we look at a 12 megapixel image (from a Canon 5D for example) the pixels are 4000 x 2666. So a good enlargement could be 40 x 26.7 inches, better could be 20 x 13.3 inches, and best 13.3 x 8.9 inches.

If we look at a 24 megapixel camera the pixels are 6000 x 4000 so we could have a good enlargement of 60 x 40 inches, better one of 30 x 20 inches and best one of 20 x 13.3 inches.

7.5 megapixel camera phone shot by Royce Howland. This image could easily be printed 20 inches high.

37 megapixel medium format camera image by Royce Howland. This image could easily be printed 45 inches high.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

The Digital Negative by Jeff Schewe
Perfect Resize
Qimage Ultimate
September regular assignment — Shoot from a high perspective
September level 2 assignment — Shoot into the light
Illuminite — Photography exhibition by Marko Kulik

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

121 — Make Better Self Portraits

Marko Kulik — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 13:01:37 +0000

Photography podcast #121 offers up 6 tips on how to make better self portraits in photography. Making a self portrait, sometimes known as an autoportrait has a long history in photography and many past and modern photography Masters (Man Ray, Robert Mapplethorpe and the extremely prolific self portraitist Cindy Sherman for example) have produced fabulous self portraits. Please know in advance that we are not referring to ‘selfies’…which I rant on about for a little bit in this podcast. We are referring to self-portraits which require deliberate framing and thinking about the light, environment etc.

Thanks to The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) for sponsoring the Photography.ca podcast!

Angst — Self portrait by Marko Kulik — 2000

Self Portrait as a Parisian by Marko and Carmy — 2009

Self Portrait as a Dock Worker by Marko and Carmy — 2013

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Styrofoam heads on Google (helps with focusing the camera)
Cindy Sherman’a 2012 exhibition at MoMA

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to Royce Howland, Ken Wolter and Alvin who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

120 — How to Create Interesting Stories Through Your Photography

Marko Kulik — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:56:25 +0000

Photography podcast #120 provides tips on how to create, craft and tell more interesting stories through photography. Some of the aspects we talk about include being active with framing, hunting down the gestures and watching the edges.

I’m super-pleased to welcome The Camera Store (The largest camera store in Calgary, Alberta, Canada) as a sponsor of The Photography.ca podcast! I’ve been buying my own gear there and recommending them for a few years now, and I’m a fussy bugger when it comes to both gear and recommendations. Their customer service is simply awesome and I often find that they have the best prices in Canada. They ship all over Canada.

Both these images were taken within the same minute. The bottom image however, tells a stronger story due to the dramatic gesture of the axe in the air, the smoke coming from the side of the roof and the fireman on the right of the roof that’s facing the camera. The top image isn’t bad, but it easily loses in a poker match when it goes head to head with the bottom image.

Winter’s Meeting — I waited in a window and actively composed this scene last winter. There is a strong suggestion of story here because the person in the background appears to be waiting for the foreground woman. I clicked the shutter only when I felt the timing was right compositionally.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Long exposure images — Photography.ca forum’s regular assignment — July 2013
Macro photography — Photography.ca forum’s level 2 assignment — June 2013
Layering images with interesting elements — Photography podcast #102
Shoot in any light - Photography podcast #100

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to Ben W who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

You can download this photography podcast directly by clicking the preceding link or listen to it almost immediately with the embedded player below.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Restrictions on Aperture — I Felt Restricted

Marko Kulik — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:39:01 +0000

Ten days or so ago I posted on Facebook that it was going to be an f/2.8 day (using large apertures) and a strange thing happened — it was quite unexpected actually. What happened was that I found myself handcuffed — unable to shoot. This seemed strange to me because I’ve put restrictions on myself for fun a few times in the past but never an aperture restriction. In the past it was shooting with a specific focal length or deliberately using an extra-high ISO or shooting with a specific theme in mind.

But this aperture restriction was different for me and in retrospect I can see why. It depends on what playground you hang out in. If you are mainly a portrait person, you shoot creative portraits wide open; that’s cool and fun…but it’s easier because there is already some guidance with regard to subject matter. But when you go out ‘just to shoot’ and you’ll shoot just about anything that’s visually interesting, then it gets harder.

For some crazy reason I found myself searching for scenes that I felt were worthy of what f/2.8 can do bokeh wise. I was placing this single aspect of the lens above all else and it was tainting my experience of looking for scenes to shoot. It was slowing me down and sucking from the joy of photography for pure pleasure.

So for this reason — I didn’t like this particular aperture restriction exercise even though I DO like the concept of restriction exercises in general. Maybe it’s also because I feel like I should have been able to overcome the restriction more easily. Truth is, I really didn’t feel like I had anything of value on day 1. Then life gets busy and so I took a few days and waited more patiently for scenes where a large aperture seemed more appropriate. Here are a few that I liked. These were all taken near f/2.8 (I say near because I used a couple of different lenses whose largest apertures were near f/2.8).

Vorsky — ISO 200, f/1.8, 1/100

Belle Gueule — Beer Kitteh — ISO 3200, f/2.5, 1/80

Not Recommended — ISO 200, f/2.8, 0.3

Light Trip — Palais Des Congres — Montreal — ISO 200, f/1.8, 1/2500

Past Reflections — ISO 200, F/1.8, 1/200

117 — Noise Halos and Chromatic Aberration — Interview with Royce Howland

Marko Kulik — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 13:03:21 +0000

Photography podcast #117 features an interview with fine art photographer Royce Howland where we discuss the ‘junk’ that can get into our photographs. In particular we discuss and dissect noise, halos and chromatic aberration in photography. We talk about how to avoid getting these problems, how to fix these problems and how for some photographers — these aren’t problems at all but rather, deliberate creative choices.

Royce does an AWESOME job of explaining these problems so that they are understandable to anyone.

This is the longest podcast I’ve published to date and it clocks in at around 70 minutes. We spend roughly 20 minutes on each of the 3 topics. We cover halos first, then noise, then chromatic aberration. Each of the 3 issues have very different causes and solutions.

Scroll to the BOTTOM of this post to find the player to immediately listen to the audio podcast.

On the Rocks, Moraine Lake by Royce Howland — An HDR example where Royce controlled the settings to make sure no halos appeared in the sky or water.

Fall at Abraham Lake by Royce Howland — Another HDR example where Royce left the haloing in the sky, and in fact accentuated it a bit more via a Photoshop Curves adjustment, to give a sense of glow over the mountains. So sometimes halos are not a flaw, they’re a creative choice.

Looming, Abraham Lake by Royce Howland — An HDR example involving a high contrast backlit scene. The trees were deeply shadowed. Even on a Pentax 645D medium format camera, there’s noise in those trees in a normal single exposure. Bottom left — A 100% crop of a single exposure that went into the image above showing the level of noise in the trees. Bottom right — A 100% crop of the final image. Using a combination of HDR technique and a touch of additional noise reduction, I was able to subtly boost the contrast in the deep shadows, preserve all of the genuine detail, and also virtually eliminate the digital noise. Without HDR technique, just using a noise reduction filter can take the digital noise down but generally also will sacrifice legitimate detail as well.

Ghost Of Server Present, Jerome by Royce Howland — An indoor shot taken with available light in somewhat dim conditions at a supposedly haunted hotel. I’m using a bunch of creative techniques here including shallow depth of field, a reflection in a mirror, subject motion blur and extra digital blurring. Despite the softening effects of all the techniques used in this image, I also wanted a bit of texture and bit of “vintage film grain” feel. So far from removing all digital noise, I actually controlled it and then added a uniform monochromatic grain layer on top of everything in Photoshop. In print up to 16x20 size it’s difficult to see this grain, but on a nice matte paper it gives a slight feeling of texture; whereas running noise reduction as I would normally do in fact makes the results looking flat and plastic. You can see the noise detail added in the bottom detailed part of the image.

Chromatic aberration example at f/3.5 by Royce Howland — It was a bit after noon so the sun was high, and I shot straight into the light. The tree branches against a darker background show extremely high contrast edges. I was using a Sony RX100 pocket camera, which is a very high quality point & shoot with a Carl Zeiss lens. So a quality piece of kit for a compact. The first composition was at medium lens zoom and the aperture wide open — f/3.5. Bottom left — A 100% crop of the shot shows a lot of green and purple fringes are visible along the branch edges. Even towards the center of the lens, the chromatic aberration is pretty bad. This is a file converted from RAW using the latest Adobe Camera Raw in Photoshop CS6, no chromatic aberration removal. Bottom right — Now here’s the identical file, but using the green and purple fringe removal settings during RAW conversion. Quite strong settings were needed for the green fringes, not so strong for purple. Mostly the fringes were removed.

Chromatic aberration example at f/5.6 by Royce Howland — Now here is the same composition photographed again moments later in the same strong light, but stopping the lens down to f/5.6. Bottom left — Stopping the lens down just over 1 stop has actually gotten rid of many of the purple & green fringes without doing anything else. That’s because a slightly smaller aperture lets through less of the misaligned light rays that contribute to the chromatic aberration in the first place. This is a RAW file converted again with no chromatic aberration settings. Bottom right — And here’s the same file converted with a small amount of purple and green defringe settings, much less than needed in the first example and the results look better.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Royce Howland Photography
Photo realistic HDR podcast with Royce Howland
Wikipedia Chromatic Aberration
DXO Optics
Topaz Denoise
Nik DFINE 2
Noise Ninja
PTLens
Emily Carr Images - She deliberately painted in what we today call Halos. Shoreline, 1936 is an example.

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to Jared Fein and Enrique Waizel who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

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. |Subscribe with iTunes|Subscribe via RSS feed |Subscribe with Google Reader|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.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

116 — Sharpness on Steroids — Focus stacking interview with Michael Breitung

Marko Kulik — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:10:13 +0000

Photography podcast #116 features an interview with German landscape photographer Michael Breitung where we talk about why and how to do focus stacking in photography. Basically focus stacking involves taking multiple frames of the same scene but each frame is focused at a different part of the image. Then these frames are blended together using a graphics program like Gimp (free) or Photoshop (expensive). The result is sharpness and depth of field on steroids that can’t be matched by any camera lens combination on a 35mm DSLR camera at the time of this writing. Only tilt shift lenses can compete in this extreme sharpness arena, but those lenses require many saved dollars or a rich uncle. This technique is free if you have the skills and a graphics program.

Scroll to the BOTTOM of this post to find the player to immediately listen to the audio podcast.

Bloody Causeway by Michael Breitung — This focus stacked image blends 4 frames into one. Each frame was focused at a different point and then blended in Photoshop. Check out the sharpness from the closest corners all the way to the end of the causeway. This is sharpness swimming in awesome sauce. The aperture used here was f/9.5

Kraichgau at Dawn — Focus stacked photograph by Michael Breitung

Kraichgau at Dawn Details — Close up comparison by Michael Breitung — Only 2 frames were needed to create the final full-sized image above this one. One frame (left) focused at the foreground corners, gets the corners sharp in the final image. The other frame (right) focused at the midground, gets both the midground and the background sharp. Then the frames are blended in Photoshop to produce the final image. The aperture used here was f/11.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Michael Breitung Photography
Michael Breitung’s (advanced) start to finish tutorial on his (Lightroom/Photoshop) post-processing workflow and how he created the Bloody Causeway image.
Helicon Focus image stacking software
Zerene Stacker
Tilt shift lenses in landscape photography
March 2013 regular Assignment — Wet or Rain
March 2013 level 2 Assignment — Dramatic angles

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to D. Lavoie who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

Photoshop file exposure and exif data

Marko Kulik — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 15:55:08 +0000

When we are working on our images in programs like Photoshop, sometimes we forget the exposure information in the original file. We can also forget many other useful bits of information that are embedded in the file like did the flash fire, what focal length was used etc.

In Lightroom and Bridge (comes free with Photoshop) this Exif data is easy to find, the default program settings reveal this information clearly. Not so in Photoshop where it is buried under the file menu (in Windows).

File — File info.… reveals the Exif data for any image you are working on in Photoshop. Click on the Camera Data tab to see the exposure information.

The keyboard short cut (Windows) ALT + SHIFT + CTRL +I does the same thing.
The keyboard short cut (Mac) OPTION + SHIFT + COMMAND +I does the same thing.

How to find exposure or exif data in Photoshop (This is a CS6 windows screenshot)

How to find exposure or exif data in Photoshop (This is a CS5 Mac screenshot)

115 — Color spaces — monitor settings — recommended hardware — Interview with Joe Brady

Marko Kulik — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:03:54 +0000

Photography podcast #115 features an interview with Colour expert Joe Brady who works for Macgroup US.
Joe knows pretty much everything there is to know about getting accurate colour from your monitor and your printer. Joe has recorded 2 podcasts with us already about monitor calibration and those links are listed below in the shownotes. In this podcast, we tackle some colour concepts that are a source of confusion for many people. We talk about monitor settings like colour temperature, gamma, and luminance. Then we tackle the sRGB, Adobe RGB and Prophoto RGB colour spaces and explain what they are, the advantages of each and when and where they are most useful. Finally, Joe recommends some calibration tools, monitors and printers.

Scroll to the BOTTOM of this post to find the player to immediately listen to the audio podcast.

This image shows off the 3 main color spaces. You’ll note that the ProPhoto RGB color space contains the most colors. This makes it the best color space for printing your own images on a quality printer. When posting to the web, the colour space should be sRGB as that is the type of monitor that most people have.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:
Podcast 62 – Monitor – printer calibration – Interview with Joe Brady
Podcast 63 – Review of the Colormunki and the i1XTreme
Joe Brady Photography
X-Rite ColorMunki Photo Color Management Solution at B&H
X-Rite ColorMunki Display at B&H
Eizo FlexScan SX2262W at B&H
Eizo ColorEdge CG223W 22 at B&H

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to Mikey88 who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

114 — 360 degree light painting — Interview with Patrick Rochon

Marko Kulik — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 16:36:11 +0000

Photography podcast #114 features an interview with light painter Patrick Rochon who discusses his new experimental 360 degree light painting technique. In a nutshell, Patrick light paints a model who stands in the middle of a ring as 24 DSLR cameras around the ring expose the scene at the same time. The frames are then strung together with software to give the illusion of circular movement. Patrick and I talk about his new work, his older work, and we talk about Patrick’s light painting process as well.

Scroll to the BOTTOM of this post to find the player to immediately listen to the audio podcast.

360 Degree light painting by Patrick Rochon

This is a Gif animation that Patrick created from one of the 360 degree light painting sessions

Light painting by Patrick Rochon — Animated Gif

This is the ‘ring’ where Patrick lit the models:

While I was at Patrick’s place recording this interview, I noticed a gallery of new light painted (non 360) photographs on his wall that were gorgeous. This image below was one that I really liked — Thx for sending it Patrick!

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

patrickrochon.com
24x360.com — Timecode Lab — Eric Paré
Podcast #82 — Light painting portraits
LPWA – Light Painting World Alliance
Light painting photography
Animated gif photography (AKA Cinemagraphs)
Aurora Crowley Light Painter
– Beginnings — New — is our regular forum assignment for January
– Light painting — light drawing is our level 2 forum assignment for January
Photo tours of Montreal

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to Photo Studios who posted a blog comment about our last podcast. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

113 — Six essential photography day trip accessories

Marko Kulik — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:38:01 +0000

Photography podcast #113 discusses what I feel are six essential accessories for day trip photography. I just came back from a super-quick trip to Nevada where I did solo day trips on 2 days to Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park.

For now, my day trips to national/state/provincial/local parks and other cool places are easy ON-TRAIL day trips and the accessories that I’ve chosen to talk about reflect this. I go into detail about why these 6 accessories are essential in the podcast. The list I’ve come up with includes a tripod, polarizing filter, hiking shoes/boots, polarized sunglasses, a lens cloth and knee-pads.

Of course I’m SUPER-CURIOUS as to any other accessories listeners may suggest, so please feel free to let me know if you think I missed something.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

REI Las Vegas - Awesome sporting store — Ask for Tommy, he’s awesome.

Tripods for photography Podcast #96

Polarizing filters and other important filters Podcast #77

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

MY APOLOGIES THAT THE WEBSITE FIELD TO COMMENT WASN’T THERE, PLEASE JUST CONNECT WITH ME TO ADD IT. I’LL GET THIS FIXED FOR THE NEXT PODCAST.

Thanks to Mac Sokulski, Dave Johnson, Enrique Waizel, Bernard Dallaire, JP, Bret Farris and Sylvain Racicot who posted blog comments about our last podcast.. Thanks as well 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

112 — Why camera bags suck

Marko Kulik — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:48:45 +0000

Photography podcast #112 addresses a question posed by Gordon Laing on Google+
The best camera bag — what do you use?

I replied to that question saying that these days I usually shoot bag free and keep my lenses that are in lens holding cases, attached to my belt as per the picture below. In case people are interested, here is a list of the items that I carry with me most of the time without a bag. Gitzo carbon fibre tripod (2540LLVL) also referred to as ‘my baby’. That’s on a Gitzo tripod shoulder strap slung diagonally around my shoulder. It’s an ‘OK’ strap, no better. I’m still hunting for the perfect tripod shoulder strap. Usually I carry 3 lenses; Nikon 14–24, Nikon 28–300, Nikon 50mm and 1 flash, the SB-800.

More details on the exact lenses and lens holders are listed in the affiliate links below from B&H.

I also carry in my pockets a cable release, spare batteries, lens cloth and a hex key for my camera bracket plate. Not shown is the flashlight that I’ll often have with me for night shoots. Not shown are the cokin filters that I sometimes keep in a pouch around my neck.

Obviously this setup will not work for many people carrying very large lenses and heavier gear — but this will work for most people that shoot with lenses that are about as large as an average 70-200mm F-2.8. This setup is also meant to give people new ideas on carrying gear.

I’m also seriously into knowing if other people have alternative gear carrying methods so please feel free to share by commenting.

Although it’s no fashion get up, this set-up allows my back to feel great and it allows me to change lenses quickly.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Lowepro S&F Lens Exchange Case 200AW at B&H - My favourite lens holding case. It’s FAB!

Pearstone Onyx 60 Lens Case — In the podcast I talk about the Lowepro 2S but it seems to be discontinued. This model seems to have similar specs.

Lowepro 50mm lens holder at B&H

Lens Changer 75 Pop Down V2.0 from Think tank for larger lenses like a 100-400mm or for shooting 70-200mm with the lens hood attached. You may need to buy their belt to use this though.

Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5–5.6G ED VR Zoom Lens at B&H — I just love the versatility of the focal range.

Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF Lens at B&H - This lens and I are having a wonderful relationship, I love her.

Gitzo GT2540LLVL Leveling Carbon Fiber Tripod at B&H - This tripod works well for me. Fairly big but not too big.

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

111 — My shit weather photo vacation

Marko Kulik — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:11:29 +0000

Photography podcast #111 is a personal account of the worst photo vacation I have ever taken and the steps I took to make the experience more enjoyable. I’d love to know how others have dealt with this issue in the past.

The Road to Nowhere — Yukon, Canada
9 out of 10 days had visibility similar to this — Serenity now was my mantra

Due to all the bad visibility in the mountains, I looked to the foreground instead which was often clear. Here I caught logs and tree stumps reflecting in the water at a small unnamed lake in Inuvik, NWT, Canada

Lake Logs — Inuvik, NWT

Details are another fun thing to shoot when the grand scenics are basking in obscurity.
This is the back of the silver pick-up truck we rented after covering 400 KM on the muddy Dempster highway.

Dempster Highway Truck — Yukon, Canada
This truck was silver before it got completely caked with thick Dempster highway mud.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Rain Photography — podcast #88

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!

110 — Crash course in black and white film photography

Marko Kulik — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 11:59:24 +0000

Photography podcast #110 gives you a full on crash course in black and white film photography in around 30 minutes. Black and white film photography is not at all dead. Many creative photographers are getting their hands wet in a traditional darkroom. If you’ve ever wanted to know what’s involved in black and white photography, I take you through the entire process. We talk about film cameras, film, developing film, printing contact sheets and printing a final print.
Thanks to John Vales from our photography.ca facebook group for suggesting this topic. Please feel free to “Like” that page.

Links /resources mentioned in this podcast:

Apug.org — Analog Photography Users Group
keh.com
Film photography podcast with John Meadows
Ilford Delta 3200
Kodak Tri-X film
Kodak T-Max film
The negative by Ansel Adams
Photo tutorial on developing film. Shows normal, under, overexposed negs
Loading film onto a reel

- Circles is our regular forum assignment for Spetember
– Self Portraits in a Mirror is our level 2 assignment for September

If you liked this podcast and want to review it on Itunes, this link gets you to the main page

If you are interested in writing for our blog please contact me photography.ca ( A T ) G m ail Dot co m (using standard email formatting)

Please join the Photography.ca fan page on Facebook

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

Thanks to Lucille B and Michael Van der Tol who posted blog comments 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. Most of the links to actual the products are affiliate links that help support this site. Thanks in advance if you purchase through those links.

Thanks for listening and keep on shooting!