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When taking a photograph, part two: Lighting,

February 8, 2010

there’s a few things to consider. We’ll look at a couple of photographs and compare them in these categories.

  • Subject
  • Lighting
  • Background
  • Foreground
  • Color (or lack thereof)
  • Focus
  • The way the eye moves

Click on the following images for larger versions:

This photograph is of my family on Mother’s Day.

This is a photograph of a flower through a shoebox

These images have dramatically different subjects, and dramatically different shooting styles. The first one is a family portrait, and the second is a landscape, shot through a shoebox. However, while the styles are different, you must consider the same things when shooting them.

Lighting

Lighting usually is just thought about as the artificial light in the room or the natural light outside. However, in every situation one must think about all different kinds of light, and what one wants the final product to look like. For example, the color of light, while usually unnoticeable to the human eye unless you look for it, is important. Fluorescent bulbs burn at a different color than incandescent, and that’s different from natural sunlight, which is different from those ‘cool white’ bulbs, which is different from colored bulbs, which are different from halogen bulbs, which are different from… well, you get the idea. Basically, everything is slightly different. You can notice this if you take a piece of white paper, or a bowl of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese from a incandescent light to a fluorescent and then outside. The color of the white paper or the yellow mac & cheese will be slightly different. (Oh, and you don’t even want to know how difficult it is to get color right when you’re shooting in a room with a bunch of different types of bulbs and natural light.)… But I’m getting slightly off topic here…

Beyond the different types of light, you need to think about how you can use light (or lack of light) to your advantage. Some of my favorite photos aren’t very bright- it’s the darkness of them that gives an intimate feel. Sometimes it’s the lack of light that makes something better. It’s the wondering about what is just to the left or right, what is that that is just slightly too dark to make out, that makes people come back for more of your photographs.

#1) This has a lot of things going on. It has a vignette, the blacks were boosted, it was converted from color to black and white, exposure has been changed, brightness and contrast have been changed, and the color temperature has been adjusted. Some of this we’ll discuss in Color (or lack thereof) later on, namely color temperature and the black and white conversion.

So, this was shot under incandescent bulbs. But really, for this, that doesn’t particularly matter. We’re converting it to black and white, and so what we really want to do is to just get it to look right. The vignette and increasing the blacks in the image (such as, making the blacks blacker, thus some greys went to black) helps to bring focus to the center of the image, and since the blacks were increased, helps to bring focus to the brighter areas of the image. Adjusting the exposure, brightness and contrast helped to do even more of this, making the whole image brighter (exposure & brightness), increased the definition of the whites and the blacks, and reduced the amount of dull greys (contrast).

#2) In this image, the exposure, blacks and tone curve were adjusted.

What is the tone curve?
Well, check out the screenshot to the right–>. Basically, it allows you to change the brightness of the different tones (Highlights, Lights, Darks, and Shadows). By increasing the brightness of the highlights, you automatically change the brightness of everything else (hence the curve aspect). You can think of it as a rubber band stretched between two fingers.. If you push out on the rubber band with another finger, the whole thing changes, not just the spot you’ve pushed out on. Another thing to notice in this screenshot is the light mountain behind the curve: that’s what tones are most predominate in the image. So, in this image, I don’t have very many highlights, which is why I increased them to bring them out as much as possible, and I have a lot of shadows and darks, which is why I slightly decreased them to give more oomph to the lights and highlights. The tone curve allows you to fine tune the brightness of the image. Usually it’s said that you’re looking for a nice S shape in the tone curve.

Here’s the steps to the process.. This goes left to right, top to bottom. Click the images for larger versions.



  • The first one is straight out of camera. Notice how the magnifying glass puts the image onto the tracing paper- looks really cool just like this I think…
  • The second one, I’ve cropped the top and bottom of the box out, applied a Lightroom preset that I have.
  • The third, I’ve cropped it a bit tighter and adjusted the exposure up a bit.
  • The fourth, the black level has been bumped up  to 5.
  • The fifth, I start playing with tones. First, shadow tones get a boost.
  • The sixth, Highlight tones get a boost…
  • Finally, Light tones. And it’s the final image.

I hope the preceeding images have given you a sense of the power of a good photo editing program. The changes–when looked at step by step– are subtle.. But comparing the first image with the final one, it’s a huge difference.

Next time, Background.

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When taking a photograph, part one,

February 8, 2010

there’s a few things to consider. We’ll look at a couple of photographs and compare them in these categories.

  • Subject
  • Lighting
  • Background
  • Foreground
  • Color (or lack thereof)
  • Focus
  • The way the eye moves

Click on the following images for larger versions:

This photograph is of my family on Mother’s Day.

This is a photograph of a flower through a shoebox

These images have dramatically different subjects, and dramatically different shooting styles. The first one is a family portrait, and the second is a landscape, shot through a shoebox. However, while the styles are different, you must consider the same things when shooting them.

Subject

#1) Obviously this is of people. However, who exactly is the subject? While, yes, you can have multiple people be the subject of a photograph, in this case there is only one real subject, and the others are less important. In this case, the true subject is my Grandmother. Everyone else is looking away from the camera, doing their own thing– in motion, you might say (and I do). Everyone else is simply providing lines in the image. You’ll notice pretty much everyone is looking at grandma, or in her general vicinity. Keeping your photographs interesting is very important: and this one most definitely does that. You’re probably wondering, as I am now (since this photo is a few years old and I don’t remember the context) what everyone is doing, and what they’re thinking about. If you look closely you’ll see what seems to be a cup in front on grandma, and so you’ll guess that maybe they’ve just finished a meal. Or maybe they’re looking at each other and are mad because no one will cop to eating the last piece of pie. Or dropping the mashed potatoes all over the floor. Whatever you’re thinking, that’s the magic of photography. Photography was created for this kind of a shot: movement. Never before could you accurately capture people in action, everything was from memory or completely staged to look like it was action. While some painters got really good at it, it was photography that did it perfectly.

#2) This one is, clearly, of a flower. While this isn’t the best thing I’ve ever done, I still like it. I recommend clicking on it to see a larger version. This was shot using a shoebox.

I’m not sure, but I think the amazingly talented (and French) Remi invented this. See some of his brilliant videos on vimeo here… Sadly, it looks like he hasn’t been posting for awhile. Basically, you take a magnifying glass, some tracing paper, and a shoebox and put them together. Result: Really cool pictures and videos with a small area for your subject. Using one of these basically automatically gives you a vignette (dark fading border around the edges), which pulls the viewer’s eye toward the center.

Check out the next post for Lighting (and more talk of vignettes).

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Hello & Welcome.

January 24, 2010

So, I’ve decided to write about photography for English Comp II. There will be a smattering of posts on:

  • History
  • Terminology
  • Techniques
  • Using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom
  • And how amazing Baked Ruffles Sour Cream & Onion and Jones Soda is.

One thing you may notice is I probably won’t ever mention Nikon cameras. It’s not that I dislike them, but I started on Canons, and have never really used a Nikon.

The Beginning…

There are several types of cameras, and I shall list a couple of the most-used now.

  • P&S (Point and Shoot): The type of camera you probably own. Things like a Canon Digital Elph. A cell phone camera can be classified as a P&S. Generally these don’t have many settings, and are rather cheap.
  • SLR (Single Lens Reflex): SLR cameras are larger, and have many more settings and options, such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, AF (autofocus) mode, file format, and AF location. SLRs are used by most professional photographers (cameras like the Canon 1Ds Mark III or 5d). SLRs are being used by many consumers too, people who are looking for better image quality, less shutter lag, and more options. (Canon Rebel XSi).

There is a lot of  photo editing software out there, but the applications I will be using are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. There’s Apple Aperture, iPhoto, Google’s Picasa, and may others too.

My Gear

I shoot with two cameras: a Canon Digital Rebel XT, and a Leica D-Lux 3 (click to see the new D-Lux 4).
For the Canon, I have a few lenses, four of which I love: the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM, the cheap as chips (but still amazingly sharp) Canon EF 50mm f/1.8, and the Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM. I carry (but don’t use often) a Canon 580ex Flash as well.

Myself

I’ve done some professional photography work for some companies, having my work published in some newspapers, many ads, websites and promotional materials. I also keep an online portfolio (which hasn’t been updated in ages) here. I also post my photographs on Flickr. I’ve been featured in Schmaps’ East Coast Guide, too.

I don’t think I’m a great photographer, and at this point I’m kinda rusty as I haven’t had time to do any photo work in about a year, but I know my stuff, and generally everyone says I’m great. So I think I’m fairly good. I’m particularly happy with my Portrait of a Park series (which is ongoing), and my a form of minimalism series is shaping up quite well too.

I love so many photographs & photographers. To even try to come up with a list would take years. So, for a sampling of the most amazing photographs I have ever seen, check out my Flickr favorites. You won’t be disappointed.

Enough about me..

What about you? What photography do you enjoy? What do you shoot with? Do you think you’re any good? Do you have a Flickr account, or an account on a similar photo sharing website? Let us see it!

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On the standards & ethics of blogging

January 20, 2010

If you do a cursory google search, you will find thousands (around 1,120,000 actually) of mentions of blogging ethics. In the end, however, blogging ethically is the same as any other type of ethical journalism.

Are bloggers journalists?

As a blogger you may not consider yourself a journalist, but even if you’re just writing about your day or what you think about a subject, you are.
Journalism, as defined by the Random House Dictionary is:

1. A person who practices the occupation or profession of journalism.

2. A person who keeps a journal, diary, or other record of daily events.

Therefore, anyone who blogs is, by definition a journalist! (How does it feel to be a journalist? Pretty cool, eh?)

The power of blogs…

Blogs have given the public at large the power, not only in this country but the entire world. No longer do we have to rely on the “traditional” media. Too many times in world history horrible things have happened—and gone unnoticed—due to everyone relying on traditional, and in some cases, state-sponsored media. (I’m looking at you, Iran and China, and many others probably.) If it weren’t for Twitter, it’d be very unlikely that anyone would have known the full impact of the recent (and sadly, failed) Iran Revolution. How many of Hitler’s atrocities could have been stopped or could have never happened if we had this ability in the 30’s and 40’s?

Ethical Blogging

Editing previous posts

Sims recently said (and I’m paraphrasing here…) “The blog is a living, breathing thing…I know people who, and I have, gone back to posts I wrote 2 years ago to change and update them…Your ideas change, your perceptions change, and sometimes you want to reflect that in old posts.”

This really got me thinking. This is really a bad idea to spread without some caveats. Even though it is technically possible to do something, doesn’t mean it should be done. I technically can take an axe to my laptop, but I shouldn’t, as it’s still pretty new (2 years and counting…hopefully I won’t have the urge to upgrade for at least another 2, but Apple will probably come out with something so amazingly cool I won’t make it that far..), works great, and I need it for work and school. If you are going to edit previous posts, you should use Screen shot 2010-01-20 at 8.45.23 PM.pngStrikes or simply add the word EDIT: at the bottom and add text there if you want to add to it. Some (possibly all, I’m not sure) blogging platforms, when you update a post, it sends it back through the RSS feed, and people who have already read it will find it pretty odd and annoying that you’ve changed it without giving any indication of the changes. It will make you seem less truthful, and probably undermine your credibility in the long run.

Standards

As I said in my introduction, there’s around 1,200,000 mentions of blogging ethics on the web. It’s a topic that has plagued blogs since the beginning—For blogs to be taken seriously in the real world, and be a true competitor of the traditional media, bloggers must be able to convince the general public that they are credible. Too often do bloggers say “oh, it’s a blog, I don’t need to write with proper capitalization, punctuation, spelling or language”. I completely disagree. (When I say language, I mean using real words and not “foul” language.) As a blogger, you should consider every post you write as something that someone, be it a fellow blogger, your parents, a possible boss, your children might read and judge you. As far as the boss thing goes, bosses are ever increasingly checking up on social media sites for prospects and current employees… so watch out. However, this reminds me of an XKCD comic

Screen shot 2010-01-20 at 9.02.37 PM.png


It’s important for everyone to retain credibility. Even if you don’t want to gain thousands or millions in readers, the people who do read it will stop if it’s hard to read. So, always assume that someone incredibly important, someone you want—or need—to impress is reading. Who knows, they might be.

A Code of Ethics

  • Be Honest and Fair
  • Minimize Harm
  • Be Accountable

I shall leave you with a link to the first article on that Google search. It’s quite good and goes into detail of these main points.
A Bloggers’ Code of Ethics at CyberJournalist.net

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Possible overall topic

January 19, 2010
  • PHP/MySQL/JavaScript: Tutorials
  • Psychology (my major)
  • Photography (My obsession)
  • Human rights (though this could get a bit morose)
  • WWII (and relating to the above… this could get even more morose)
  • Integrating paperless (or less paper) workflows with the old mindset of paper, paper, paper in the workplace
    (this could possibly also be a research study of sorts… just without a control group…)
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Well, it’s back.

September 20, 2009

Of course, to most of you, this means nothing. So, a little history. I started The Orange Lemonade waaay back in 2004. It went on its merry way until early 2008 when I simply lost interest. I’ve been thinking about starting fresh with it again, and now I have.

It’s now hosted on wordpress.com because I simply couldn’t be bothered to install WordPress on my web host. We shall see how long it lasts this time.