Photocamp Utah 2009: WWMD

I am humbled, honored and excited to lead a workshop at the first Photocamp Utah event. This is an all day conference on Saturday, March 14th, starting at 8am and going until evening. The scheduled events end at 5pm, but there will be groups going out for dinner and photowalking the Provo area afterward for those interested. We have a great organizing team who are doing a fabulous job getting the facilities, speakers and all the other details that go into making something like this come together.

As of this morning, registrations hit the original limit. After speaking with the facility owners, it was decided to allow another 75 registrations. If you are planning on going, make sure to register soon because seats are going fast.

My presentation is entitled WWMD: Using everyday objects in photography. I am planning to talk about and demonstrate a handful of easy to make gadgets, useful in your photographic endeavors. I have yet to finalize on exactly what I am going to present, but at least some of the projects built in the workshop will be given to attendees.

Hope to see you there!

Photowalking Utah: Studio lighting and Photocamp Utah 2009

There are several photography events approaching.

First, this week: on Thursday, Rich Legg presents a mini-clinic on How to Get Great Studio Lighting Results for Under $250. He will use low-cost lights and inexpensive light modifiers with a number of different setups to get great portraits. He will have his camera tethered to a computer with a projector, so attendees can immediately see the results from each configuration.

Date: Thursday, February 19th
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 pm
Location: Salt Lake City Main Library - 210 E 400 South, Conf. room #4, 4th floor
Cost: Free

Second thing this week: on Saturday, following many requests, there will be a repeat of last year's successful Studio Lighting Photowalk. Six areas will be setup in a large room with studio lights, backdrops and models. Participants will be able try out the different lighting equipment with their own cameras.

Date: Saturday February 21st
Time: 10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Gateway Community Church, 584 E 12300 South - Draper
Cost: Free (though a suggested model tip of $3-5 is appreciated)

Go here to ask questions or RSVP for these events.

Finally, next month is the much anticipated Photocamp Utah 2009. This is a one day event filled with keynote speakers, workshops and several vendors supporting the photographic community. The full schedule is here. At the end of the day, we'll have an evening photowalk. Cost is $10 to cover facilities expenses. There will be lunch and dinner breaks but food is not included. Seating is limited so be sure to pre-register to ensure your seat. If you're interested in spreading the word, there are flyers available for download.

Photoshop CS4 action: Lightning

I had this image I wanted to create. I already had the photo of the hands with a glowing orb but needed some lightning type effects to make it what I envisioned. A short bit of searching took me to this Photoshop Cafe tutorial. It was a simple six step process but I needed multiple "bolts" and did not want to keep repeating myself. So I created a simple action to do it for me.

This CS4 action can be downloaded here.

To use it, save it to your computer. In Photoshop, on the Actions menu, select Load actions. In the open file dialog, go to the location the file is saved, select and open the file. You should get a action group called HP3's special effects with a single Lightning action in it.

To test it, create a new, empty image. Click on the Lightning action to select it and click the Play button at the bottom of the actions list. You should get a new group called "Lightning" with a number of layers in it and something looking like lightning running from the top right to bottom left corners. Close this group and click the play button again. You should get another group. If you change this second group's blending mode to Lighten, you should see both bolts you just made. Each time you run the script, you will get a new group, different from the one before.

You can change the color of each bolt. To do this, open the group and select the Hue/Saturation layer. In the adjustments panel, changing the hue slider will adjust the color while changing the saturation slider will give you more or less of that color.

You can change the amount of the corona effect by selecting the Levels adjustment layer and moving the position of the black and grey sliders.

If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, leave a comment and I'll try to address the issue. Have fun!

January 2009 PhotoChallenge wrapup

Well, yesterday marked the end of another PhotoChallenge month shooting and posting a photo a day. Missed 4 days in all, not as good as I would have liked, but not terrible either.

The strategy I set for myself of having a daily topic worked pretty well. I didn't always follow the day's topic, but it did serve its purpose of getting the creative juices flowing.

All in all, I had fun, got out and made some pictures and stayed up too late way too often by procrastinating until the last minute. I'm looking forward to hearing what the March challenge is going to be.

January 2009 PhotoChallenge: first week

January 2009 PhotoChallenge: first week
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

The first full week and a partial week, 10 days, is finished and so far I've only missed one day. Not perfect but not too bad either. My creative schedule for doing different sub-topics each day has worked pretty well to focus me a bit even though I haven't followed it very well.

Here are the links for the individual days:
1. Burning
2. Boxed in
3. Harley in the Hood(ie)
4. Half full or half empty?
5. Silhouette line
6. Just me
7. Trapped in crystal ball
8. What are you doing?
9. Not available
10. Snowshoeing

January 2009 PhotoChallenge

Trevor Carpenter over at PhotoChallenge.org runs bi-monthly photo-taking challenges. The idea of each challenge is to make, process and upload a photo a day for a month, all related in some way to the month's topic. Some of the past topics have included colors, lamps, portraits and people at work. I have been involved in some of the challenges but not others, typically based on interest in the subject and time requirements.

This month's challenge, which I'm going to take on, is to do a self-portrait a day. I started off about 14 months ago on a weekly self-portrait project that I kind of fizzled out on about 10 months into it. Hopefully, I'll be able to use this month to jump start the finishing off of the other project.

As I was thinking about doing this month's challenge, it occurred to me that more structure would make things a bit easier day to day. I was reminded of the Colors challenge last year where each week had a different color. At first I considered having weekly sub-topics. But then I thought that might get a bit boring day to day and would still only give me 24 hours to come up with a new concept in the same genre. So, I have rotated the matrix and chosen daily sub-topics that repeat week to week. They are:

• Sunday: Surreal
• Monday: Body parts
• Tuesday: High key
• Wednesday: Environmental
• Thursday: Low key
• Friday: Unusual pose
• Saturday: Dramatic lighting

Come on and join the challenge!

Photowalking Utah: Temple Square

Temple Square 2
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

It's time again for our 2nd "Christmas Lights at Temple Square" walk and last event for this year. This time we're going to try something a little bit different. We're meeting at the City library on 4th South for a mini-clinic on low-light photography. Then we'll take the train up to Temple Square to put into practice what we've learned. (The train ride from the Library up to Temple Square is free.) You are welcome to come to one or both parts as time allows.

The date is this Thursday, December 18th. The clinic will run from 6:00pm to 7:00pm and be in Conference Room A, located on the lower level beneath the library foyer. It's accessible using the foyer staircase (down the stairs and to the left) or using the elevator next to the auditorium. The practical part will be from 7:30pm to 9:00pm.

Sunset is at 5:01pm that day, so if you want sunset and twilight shots, you might want to head down there early for a pre-clinic warm-up walk. You'll probably run into some others doing the same thing.

Here's the official announcement and here's the Flickr discussion. Please add a note to the discussion so we can get a head count for the room.

Astronomy Safari

Star trails
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

The December Utah Photo Safari meet will be this Wednesday, December 17th. Starting at 6:30pm, we're going to have a short course in astro-photography. We're meeting in front of the physics building in President's Circle at the University of Utah (125 S. 1400 E. Salt Lake City, UT 84112). From there we're going to the outdoor observatory.

Since we'll be outside, be sure to dress appropriately: gloves, jacket, hats, battery powered sockets; whatever you need to stay warm. Equipment-wise suggestions include tripod, long lens and a flashlight. No flashes will be allowed.

Canon owners have a special bonus: there will be telescopes available with Canon mounts to be able to get up close on some night-time sky objects.

The official announcement and discussion are on this Flickr thread.

Hope to see you there!

Photowalking Utah: Hill Air Museum

C-48 Skytrain
Originally uploaded by hpebley3

The next Photowalking Utah outing will convene tomorrow, Saturday, December 13th at 8:00 am at the Hill Aerospace Museum. Thirty minutes north of Salt Lake City right off I-15, this is one of the premier air museums in the United States. Cost is free, but donations are gladly accepted.

Skill level is unimportant. It doesn't matter if you shoot a digital SLR, point and shoot, film camera, camera phone, whatever. Come on out, join us and spend some time hanging out with other photographers having a good time.

The original announcement is on the Photowalking Utah website and discussion is in this thread.

Hope to see you there!

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Metering: What is it? (part 1)

This is the first in a series on using the built-in meter in your camera.

What is metering?

Metering is simply the process of using a light meter to measure the brightness of a scene to determine the proper exposure. Historically it was done with separate hand-held meters that gave you a reading of the light level; the photographer would then look this up on a chart to determine the exposure settings to use and finally dial them into the camera. In time, camera manufacturers were able to shrink them down and build them into the camera's viewfinder so the photographer could more easily set the exposure while composing the image. Now, the computers in the cameras use them to automatically set the exposure for you when you're in any mode except manual.

My old Minolta had two needles on the right of the viewfinder. A thin needle moves up and down indicating the amount of light. A second, thicker needle with a circle indicates the current exposure settings. As the f/stop and shutter speed are adjusted, the second needle moves up and down. When the thin needle is centered in the larger needle's circle, you have the exposure the camera thinks is correct.

Here's the meter on the back of my digital SLR.


When active, there is a little pointer that runs along the bottom of the circled ruler. The center position is proper exposure and the two sides indicate under and over exposure. Adjusting the f/stop, shutter speed and ISO causes the pointer to move from one side to the other, indicating the current exposure relative to what the camera calculates as correct. There is a similar meter on the bottom of the viewfinder.

What are the various automatic modes?

Modern cameras have an array of light sensors built into them that they use to determine the light level in various parts of the image. In all the "creative" modes, the camera uses this information to get what it calculates is the best image for that mode. In these modes, the photographer has no control over how the computer interprets the information coming from the light meters.

In the semi-automatic modes of aperture and shutter priority, the meters are used by the computer to determine the part of the exposure equation that the photographer has left under its control. But, there are three options the photographer can set to give them finer control over how the computer uses the meters in these two modes. They mostly work the same way across all vendors, but they go by different names.

Manufacturer	Whole frame	Point mode	Center-weighted
Canon	Evaluative	Partial	Center-weighted
Nikon	Matrix	Spot	Center-weighted
Olympus	ESP	Spot	Center-weighted
Pentax	Multi-segment	Spot	Center-weighted

The first mode, Whole frame in the chart above, is called something different by each manufacturer but basically works the same in all cases. It takes multiple readings across the entire image and balances the various values to get the best exposure setting. A simplistic explanation is it sets the exposure so the brightest area is not blown out while at the same time it tries to keep darker areas from being too dark. It also tries to figure out what is a neutral grey and put it in the middle between the lightest light and darkest dark.

Point mode uses just one well defined area of the sensor to take the light reading from and expose for it. This gives the photographer control over the exposure by pointing that one area at the part of the scene they want to have properly exposed and locking in the exposure. Then they can recompose the image and click the shutter. For Canon in Partial metering mode, this well defined area of the screen is always the center of the viewfinder. For the other manufacturers with their Spot metering modes, this well defined area is the focus point that is used. This keeps you from having to use exposure lock if the focus point is correct.

In Center-weighted mode, the center of the screen is primarily used to compute the exposure with areas surrounding the center given secondary importance. The outside edges are ignored. This is frequently used in portrait photography where the person in the center is most important, but the area immediately around them also needs to be taken into consideration and the area on the outside is unimportant.

The next article will show when and how you can use these different modes. To be notified when it's published, be sure to subscribe to either the RSS feed, the e-mail list or follow the Twitter feed.