Up, up and away

Swirl
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

Time to set the coffee maker timer before going to bed so you can get up early to join us for the next Photowalking Utah event. We're going to watch the hot air balloons launch at the Provo Freedom Festival this Friday the 4th. They start early so we're meeting at 6:30am. Here's a map to the launch site; the address is Fox Field, 1100 North Freedom Boulevard, Provo, UT.

How to prepare for a photowalk

I've never been on a photowalk before. How do I prepare?

This great question was recently raised on the Photowalking Utah discussion forum. I figured I could do a quick Google search and point the questioner to a couple answers. Surprisingly, I didn't find any, so here are some of my thoughts on the subject.

First, unless you know how to take photos without a camera, you will need one. This can be anything you want to use. Bring something you're comfortable with or want to learn to use better. Photowalks are not intended to be gear competitions. I've seen everything from cell phone cameras to five figure DSLR rigs to medium format film cameras used. There is no disgrace in having a point and shoot and there's no superiority in bringing the most expensive thing on the market. The goal is to have fun and learn to use what you have better.

Most cameras these days have batteries. Make sure they're charged. A backup would be a good idea. And don't forget to top off the batteries in accessories too.

There aren't many things more frustrating than getting the blinking "CF full" message in your viewfinder. Make sure you have enough space in your memory cards. Carry extra; better more than you need than not enough. Of course if you shoot film, memory cards won't do you much good; just have enough film for the trip.

Photowalking is a compound word. You need to take photos and you need to walk. A good pair of shoes appropriate for the location allows you to focus on shooting. The wrong pair will be a distraction. Make sure you fall in the first category. Some walking/sport shoes in an urban setting are probably a good choice. On the other hand, in a rocky environment some hiking boots might be better. I really appreciated the organizers of a recent photowalk letting us know there were some marshy areas around where we were going so I could bring some footwear appropriate for that environment.

Dress appropriately for the weather and check the forecast just before you leave. If there's going to be a wide swing in temperatures, use multiple light layers to add or remove insulation as needed. If there's going to be precipitation, don't not go. Rather take protection and have fun with the reflections and moody environment. Things look completely different in the rain. You might want to have a change of clothes in the car though so you don't have to drive home soggy.

Take care of your body. Walking is exercise and staying hydrated is important. Particularly outdoors during summer, make sure you have some sort of liquid available. This may be having some cash to pop into a local market to buy it on the fly if you're in town or carrying a bottle of water or canteen if you're out in the rough. In any case, make sure you know your limits and the environment and plan accordingly.

Know where and when the photowalk starts. Everyone misses out if the group leaves without you. You lose the synergy generated by the group and the group misses your input. There are several web sites that give time and distance between two points. (Here's one and here's another.) You enter your address and the address of the photowalk's start and you get back directions with estimated average driving time; adjust for weather and local road conditions. And then leave 10 minutes early.

The items above are the most important things to consider. If you want to go light, that's about it. Now let's cover some optional items.

First, taking optional items will probably require something to carry them. Depending on your load, a backpack, camera bag or large pockets will be suffice.

A hard-drive based media viewer is a really useful tool. My work flow is to start with two empty CF cards and the viewer (also typically empty). When I fill a card, I swap CF cards in the camera. I then put the full one in the viewer and start the backup. I can then continue shooting. When the backup is finished, I clear that card and have it ready for when the second card is filled. Repeat as needed. When I'm done with the photowalk it all gets downloaded to the computer and cleared from the portable devices.

Depending on the location, sometimes a tripod is useful. I've been on some photowalks where I've used it quite a bit. I've been on others where I haven't used it at all. Others fall in between. Sometimes I've not used it and should have. It all depends on personal style and the types of shots you're taking. I tend to err on the side of over planning and typically take it.

Lastly, consider the location and plan for possible needed accessories. If you're going to someplace during the day with lots of reflections, for example a car show or a lake or a river, a circular polarizer filter will help you cut out some of those reflections. If you're going to be catching a sunrise or sunset, some people like a graduated neutral density filter. A standard neutral density filter can give you interesting effects by blurring movement in bright light. Even during daylight, I always carry a flash and radio remotes, with charged batteries. You never know when a fill light will be just what you want.

In closing, mentally plan your trip. Think about the location and environment and the types of shots you want to get. Consider a new technique you've been wanting to try but haven't and plan to use it. I know people with very extensive DSLR setups who have attended with simple point and shoot cameras to limit their equipment options and focus on composition. Other's have attended with a new piece of equipment specifically to experiment with them. Some who are comfortable in the automatic modes on their camera, use the expertise of others on the walk to get more comfortable with aperture priority or manual modes. Finally, plan enough to get out there and have fun, but not so much that you lose spontaneity.

If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to share them in the comments.

Flash isn't just for night

Put your mouse over the image to see the effect of flash.

Most people realize the flash helps pictures at night and indoors. It is sometimes missed how it can help in bright daylight. The image above, straight from the camera, was shot at 5:30 on a summer's evening with bright light. Due to the low sun, the back side of her head is brightly lit but the face is in shadow. This is an example of a non-obvious place where flash will help. (Put your mouse over the image to see the difference.)

Without making any adjustments to the exposure on the camera, I turned on my flash in manual mode and set it for full power. (The flash was on a radio remote trigger.) I set the timer on the camera and triggered the shutter. I then walked over a couple steps and held the flash so it was opposite the sun. This lit the shadow areas on her face and front of the dress, allowing the viewer to see more detail without losing the highlights from the sun.

Here's a close-up view of just her face to see the difference with a bit more clarity.

Put your mouse over the image to see the effect of flash.

Thanks to www.webdevelopersnotes.com for directions on how to do the mouse over trick.

May Photochallenge Week 4 Recap

May Photochallenge Week 4 Recap
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

May's PhotoChallenge is in full swing and heading into the final week. After a slow start the first partial week, I've been able to keep up with the daily shots for the last three weeks. I'm a bit pleased with myself for this, since daily consistency is not something I'm terribly good at.

Last week's topic was a bit more abstract in that what we shot each day was seven items rather than the same item all week, as we have for the rest of the month. I don't know if it was not having the same item every day to work with or something else, but I found this week harder than the others and I'm not as pleased with my photos. That said, I really do like the last two.

The Flags shot I "saw" when I passed a new big-box store decorated for its grand opening. It was on the evening commute in daylight about an hour before sunset. I knew the image I wanted required darkness, so I went back the next night and took it. I ran into more difficulties than expected because when I went, even though it was after 11pm, they still had the parking lot lights on.

The Photographers shot I took on a Photowalking Utah event. We were crossing the street and as I walked, I pointed the camera over my shoulder and triggered the shutter. There was absolutely zero composition. Typically when I do this, the results are about the same as the effort I put into them: nothing. This one actually turned out pretty decent and I love the bonus with the walk sign.

Next week's topic is My thumb; this ought to be interesting.

Photowalk Utah: Memorial Park on Memorial Day Weekend

Brick chapel
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

This month's Photowalking Utah walk-about will be from City Creek park up stream to Memorial Grove and then up hill to the Capitol building here in Salt Lake City. Rain or shine, it's scheduled for this Saturday, May 24th starting at 5:00pm. We're meeting at the entrance to City Creek park on the north-east corner of State Street and North Temple.

Please leave a comment here if you plan on being there. As always, this is open to anyone with a camera regardless of skill level or equipment. We're an informal, non-competitive group looking to have fun with and learn from each other.

How to fake a miniature in Corel's Paint Shop Pro Photo XI

I first saw fake miniatures (aka tilt-shift effect) on my friend Rich Legg's blog last year. Since then I've had it in the back of my mind to try it out. At a recent Photowalking Utah event I saw the perfect shot and took it. (Apparently I wasn't alone in my assessment.)

When I finally got around to doing the post-processing, I couldn't find a good, complete tutorial for Paint Shop Pro XI, so I decided to write up what I did. None of this technique is really original to me, but I did have to do some searching and adapt what I found elsewhere in a couple places. Hopefully, having this consolidated will help someone else.

First, a brief overview. The idea is to trick the brain's perception of the image to think it's looking at something smaller than it actually is. This is done by changing the queues the brain uses to gauge size. To start, this technique works best where the perspective is from above, looking down on the main scene. Secondly, we emulate a narrow depth of field, typical of macro shots. Finally, we boost the color saturation and decrease some detail, typical of models.

And a couple house keeping notes:

• Click on any image to see a larger view.
• The specific adjustment values given in this tutorial work well for this image. They may need to be adjusted for differently sized or exposed images.

We'll start with this original.

As already stated, we want something where we're looking down on a scene that's fairly well exposed. This was taken from the 12th level of a parking structure looking down on a large construction project.

The first adjustment will be to make it appear to have a limited depth of field. To do this, select the rectangular selection tool and set the feathering to a large value. For this image, I used 150 pixels.


Then select the area of the image that should be in focus plus extra for the feathering. The area needs to be large enough that the feathering does not come into the area that should be sharp.


Next invert the selection by pressing Ctrl-Shift-I or selecting Invert from the Selections menu.


Now we're going to blur the selection by selecting Gaussian Blur from the Adjust menu's Blur options. We want a number large enough to give a good blur but not enough to make all the details go away completely. For this image, I used a radius of 13.


We're done with the selection, so press Ctrl-D or select Select none from the Selections menu. Now select Edge preserving smooth from the Adjust menu's Add/Remove Noise options. The idea here is to get rid of some of the details inside objects without losing the edges. For this image, I used a smoothing about of 12.


Next we're going to boost the saturation a fair bit. Select Hue/Saturation/Lightness from the Adjust menu's Hue and Saturation options. We don't need to change the Hue or Lightness values, so they can be set to 0. The Saturation value for this image I set to 30.


Finally, we adjust the contrast some by selecting Curves from the Adjust menu's Brightness and Contrast options and set two control points to give a standard contrast increasing S-curve.


All this results in this final image.

May Photochallenge Week 3 Recap

May Photochallenge Week 3 Recap
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

This is the second full week of the May PhotoChallenge organized by Trevor Carpenter at PhotoChallenge.org. May's challenge is to shoot the same object all week and this week's topic was shoes. I chose to use my hiking boots, putting them in different situations each day.

The image I think turned out the best was "Travelers", shot in the studio with controlled lighting. The second was also shot in the studio but I couldn't seem to get the lighting as dialed in as the first one. The funniest one was "p0rn"; I laughed when I conceived the idea and chuckled as I shot it. The last one had the fewest shots to get the image I wanted. The first shot was in manual mode and way over exposed, the second was in Av mode and worked acceptably well. I took it just before the film started so I didn't take time to try to do anything fancy. In looking at it during post processing, I thought an off camera flash to camera right would help lighten some of the deep shadows and make it work a bit better. Something to learn from for next time.

This next week's topic is Seven. The preference is to get seven of something, failing that the number 7 is acceptable too.

May Photochallenge Week 2 Recap

May Photochallenge Week 2 Recap
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

I'm again participating in the monthly photo challenge put together by Trevor Carpenter at PhotoChallenge.org. This month's challenge is to shoot daily images of a subject given to us at the beginning of each week. So for a week we have the same subject each day, then we move on to the next subject.

This week's subject was "Automobile" so I choose the easiest one for me to access each day, my own. My two favorite images this week are ones I had wanted to do for a while: Heart of the machine and Beauty in the Beast. Both turned out OK, but I'd like to go back and revisit them sometime to try to improve on what I got this week.

The Tulips are Coming!

This month's Photowalking Utah event is scheduled for Saturday, April 19th from 5:00 pm to closing at 7:00 pm. We'll enjoy the blooms of spring around the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point catching the evening light. This is right in the middle of the Tulip Festival. Hopefully, they'll be at the height of their glory.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens are located just off I-15 in Lehi. Click here for a map.

As always, this is for photographers of any age and skill level to come and enjoy taking pictures with other like minded people.

There is an admission fee:
Adults: $10.00
Child (Ages 3-12): $6.00
Senior (Ages 65+): $9.00
Tickets are available online.

Afterward, we'll be meeting afterwards for dinner at some place yet to be determined.

For commercial photography, they do have a fee and a form that needs to be signed. No arrangements in this regard have been made.

PhotoChallenge: Entropy

Entropy 1: Abandoned house
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

When I first heard about the April PhotoChallenge I decided to join in and put it on the calendar. I realized today the beginning of the month had already passed and I was behind before I started. Oh, well such is life.

So today and tomorrow I'm planning on uploading two photos to catch up and then I plan to stay on track.