Snow pics

Hi guys! Yes, I think this is my first entry this year just about! I took this in a place just outside Chicago with my G9. I kinda liked it, what do you guys think? I also will be taking a number of snow pics in the next 5 days as I'm in the Rockies at the moment. So any tips on snow photography would be hugely appreciated.

Mandy

Merry Christmas and stuff

All the best to all of you for the new year!

And some time for c&c too. I tried a long exposure shot in Cape Town the other day. Please let me know where I can improve.

Last month we flew with Mango to Cape Town for a little holiday. We stayed at Table View, from where one has a stunning view of the beautiful Table Mountain. In September 2009, the Seli 1, a Turkish freight ship ran aground in the bay, and was still stranded there when we visited the area. It received some negative media attention because of fear of pollution should the ship break up, and indeed it actually added some eeriness to a beautiful sunset.

The photo was taken using a shutter speed of 20 seconds, f/11, ISO 100, 18-55 mm Nikkor VR lens, set at 18 mm

Kind regards,

Nick

E's Macro's

Late, as usual, but in nonetheless. Here are my macro shots for last month's theme: The bottom image is of a lynx (?) spider in Isimangaliso (Side lighting from a single flash with a home-made softbox), Middle image, fly in the same field a month later with the same lighting setup and the top image of two mating locusts is in the Drakensberg...lighting is curtesy of a passing cloud to soften the harsh sun. All shot with a 105mm macro lens, bottom two on a tripod, top, handheld. One thing i quite like about the bottom two is hte mix of flash and ambient. I purposefully stretch the exposure past handheld limits. The flash captures everything in sharp focus but occasionally there is a slight halo blur around the edges of legs etc. which creates the impression of movement (most obvious in the spider shot) and also allows some of the ambient light to bring colour to the background rather than the tell-tale 'blackout' of a flashed macro shot. Any c and c always welcome.

Cheers
E

Documentary Style Photography

Ok – something new after all the excellent wildlife photography! I have very little experience of documentary photography, an area I want to explore more in the new year. Anyway, here are three documentary style pictures shot over the last 18 months – what do you think? I guess Paul is the expert here, comments? I have used PS – normal stuff, levels, curves etc – but have also sharpened and boosted the contrast of the eyes in all these shots, and obviously converted one to B&W.

The B&W image is of a cane cutter in KZN, the child was photographed last week at Fort Brown (having lunch!) and the other chap is a farm labourer from Gariep.

Cheers,

Neil.

Sharp enough or not???

Dear all, panning is not my greatest skill and I haven't shot many panned photos. Now I did one but don't really know what is acceptable or not in assessing sharpness levels in a panned photo. I would like to ask you for your opinion: Is this photo sharp enough or not? Is this photo good, okay or rubbish?

Kind regards,

Nick

The past two weeks were good for me in terms of photography

Here we are again... The photos from my previous post were photos taken before I knew about the macro theme. Yet I felt that with this new theme, I should actually be encouraged to go out and specifically shoot some macro stuff to practice. Especially since I bought a second hand macro lens a few months ago that I haven't used much yet. So here some shots of the past two weeks.

Leaf mantid nymph, 55 mm macro prime lens, an old bugger with an aperture ring and no light meter... But good optics! F 3.5, 1/20 sec, ISO 125 Weather: cloudy and rainy. And some determined hot pursuit mode as these insects have the habit of mimicking a twig moving in the wind. Can you imagine me whispering "For heavens sake, sit still for a moment please!" while adjusting aperture rings etc. while that thing obviously keeps on rocking back and forth....

Parasitic wasp with caterpillar that it is about to bury. Not such a fantastic shot perhaps, but I like the 'unique animal behavior' shown here.

Tech specs: 100mm F2.8 prime lens, Old bugger too, aperture ring set at F8 if I remember correctly, 1/800 sec. Bright sunny weather. But then I wanted to hang myself when I found out I forgot to turn the ISO down and was shooting ISO 400, and then the wasp was just finished burying his prize and flew away... No wonder you could shoot at 1/800 sec... Idiot!

Once again a not so special shot, but for me a first of a close up macro of a flower. Never really done flowers before, but they can be quite nice. Will practice these things more. Advice please... I don't know yet what I am doing...

Tech specs: that macro lens again aperture set at 3.5 or 5.6. 1/160 sec. ISO 400. Flower in heavy shade

I know, super cliché, everybody has such a shot, but I still like it. Game drive vehicle in eye of impala. 70-300 VR lens set at 300, F5.6 1/60 sec. ISO 200 Sunny day but yet a little fill in flash.

Don't even know whether this falls under macro as this shot is also taken with the 70-300 VR lens, set at 116mm F7.1 and 1/160 sec. Bright sunny day. But I like the metallic shine of the beetle that is so clearly visible in this light.

Well, whether the images are good or not, I leave that up to you to decide (and please let me know so I can learn), I enjoyed putting a lot of effort in this months theme. Looking forward to seeing your macro shots too.

Nick again.

Macro Frog(nohopper) & Zebra

Hi there,

I am almost ashamed to post again, after 'promising' that I would post a stunning image for the painting with time entry, and then never doing it. Like Paul, let me tell a little story too: I had this great idea of getting a model to jog in the evening, and it would run into my 'image' that I was taking with a long shutter speed. Then in the middle of my image/frame, she had to stop right there and then with jogging, and stay as still as she could, and then continue to run. My idea was that there would be motion coming in, then a somehow sharp jogger frozen in mid air, and then a blur again moving out.

If this would work, then I would get the model to dress up in a dress, and run in the surf doing the same thing. But it never worked out... I spend 3 hours actually trying all sorts of things, but they all looked rubbish, blurred or with no 'motion blur' at all. Then tried various other things to come up with at least some image for this entry, from photographing a spinning egg coming to a standstill, to amarula being poured over ice. I can tell you one thing, i had a great evening trying all this and learned loads and drank a lot of amarula, but no shot was even close to being a 'nice image'. Sorry...

The Macro entry brings me back to my favorite subject, being wildlife. Here I post two images, no true macro shots, and not nearly as sophisticated as Paul's image, but I like them nevertheless. Would be good to get some feedback from you guys to improve on these images. For example, I think a little fill in flash would have helped to bring alive the eye of the zebra. The frog image I like because of the soft 'lines' of the leafy background, but I am sure you can come up with something where I can improve.

By the way, I also made a little website for some of my images. If you want you can have a look at www.nuphotography.co.za It is quite a simple one, but I am quite new to making websites. Concerning the images, please keep in mind I am still an amateur! Perhaps you would like to tell me which image you like, and which one you don't.

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Nick

70-300 VR lens, set at 300, F 5.6, Exp 1/60

Rainy cloudy day in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park

18-55 lens, set at 55, F5.6, Exp: 1/20

Sunny day, frog sits in shade of canopy of surrounding trees

Macro Froghopper

This is a froghopper. I took it with a 100mm macro lens. Exposure details: F/16 at 1 sec. Manually fired flash, under powered to about 50%.


Ahh... forget it! Back to my long winded self! :) I took this month or so ago and had to work quite hard. As far as froghoppers go this guy was huge measuring in at a whopping 2cm! As froghoppers tend to do, this chap kept scooting around the twig forcing me to engage "determined-hot-pursuit-mode", tripod and miniscule depth of field not withstanding. I was able to herd the beast by moving my hand towards it from the opposite side. Of course returing and sliding my flash baring hand forward into position saw the frogster slide round the twig again. Repeat performance ad infinatum!
Then it started raining! But this was a great thing! I taped an umbrella to the tripod and the froghopper, less determined than I, was also less willing to scoot round the twig if it meant getting wet! Yes, the umbrella was strategically placed! So I was finally able to compose a halfway decent image. But wait! There is more (and I will try and be brief!)
The background was brick and burglar bars. So I rectified this by plucking a bunch of agapantha leaves and waving them around, about a meter behind the scene. Crucifiction-like, I was still able to reach forward and fire the flash from camera side (But I had to tuck my rain coat into my Jean pant!)
The Froghopper lived in case you were wondering. Next I am going to photograph an apple, and when I am bigger I wanna do birds in flight :)
And if you have read this far...... it tells me you too are determined, and could conquer froghoppers also.
Paul the Abrupt.

New Theme - Macro

Thanks to the few images from last month's theme, painting with time. This month the set theme is macro, so have fun chasing critters in the garden, or possibly even getting in close for abstract views of things we take for granted. The world up close has a habit of surprising those who are incapable of contemplating the small :)

E

Couple at Sunset

Couple walking at sunset in Langebaan. Taken with a Canon 400D. I am afraid I have lost the image details.
George Barrett

Paternoster Flowers

This photo was taken at Paternoster a few weeks ago. The colours were wonderful.
George Barrett

Painting With Time Entry

My attempts at painting with time. In the first shot I was trying to show the grass moving - really tricky and I've yet to get it right. Second image (another, oh look how pretty the water looks with slow shutter speeds cliche, I know!) is 39 Steps in Hogsback. Only problem was waiting for a still moment, so as to stop movement in the red berries. I think we should start adding technical information to our posts - first image 2.5 seconds, F18, ND4 (I think?) and ISO 100 (should really have dropped this to ISO 50) second image 2.5 seconds, F18 with polariser, ISO 200 (which shows I was not really that awake when I took it!).

Neil.

Dodge/burn Layer tutorial

For anyone interested I have just posted a new tutorial on creating and using a separate dodge/burn layer that can be found at http://www.limephoto.co.za/Dodge_Burn_Layer_tutorial.html . For those using CS4 I intend to add (eventually) an additional tutorial showing how to dodge and burn using the greatly improved dodge/burn tools of CS4 and blending through the luminosity mode.

Any comments on how to improve the article are always welcomed.

Cheers
E

Painting with Time entry

There seems to be something of a theme going on here with panoramics :) I shot this yesterday morning for the painting with time theme. This shot consists of three images shot horizontally with an exposure of 15 sec at f16 on ISO 200. I also had a polariser, 2 stop Nd and a ND grad on the front of the lens so as to balance the sky and slow the exposure.

E

Panorama shots

Hi All,

Sorry for the long delay in publishing again. Indeed I got scared ;-) by your positive reactions and thinking that I could never live up to the expectations again. But Hell, all generals lose a battle sometimes, so I might as well get some critique and learn from it... After Emil's post on shooting panorama images I got the guts to publish some of mine. So here we are. Somehow I really like panorama images, just by their format. They suck you into the image and make you search for things in the detail. Otherwise, if there is little detail, they often create 'a feeling'. For example a peaceful,tranquil feel, like the jetty photo below. Or a more gloomy feel like the Drakensberg image from Emil. I would like to learn to create that effect on people through my images.

So what are your hints and tips on the images below? Do they create any feeling at all when you view them?

Late afternoon in Hluhluwe Game Reserve, panorama created in photoshop using 3 images. Nikon D80 with 18-55 VR Nikkor

Jetty at Catalina Bay, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, using 3 images in photoshop. I used a polarizer here. Nikon D80 with 18-55 VR Nikkor

Hippo's waiting to come out during sunset in iSimangaliso Wetland Park, 3 images stitched by panoramamaker 3.0, camera Fuji Finepix S5400

New Theme - Painting with Time

It's been a while since we had a theme in the Group. Here's one for September/October in that case: Painting with time. Painting with light obviously involves using a lightsource as a 'brush' in which details are illuminated during a long exposure. Well, painting with time is that minus the 'brush'.

For those new to painting with time, a couple of pointers - Neutral density filters help a treat in lowering exposures. If you don't have one try a polariser, or even stacking polarisers (just don't cross them as you'll get a pure black image). The polariser will reduce the exposure by 2 stops. For once the lowest aperture also makes sense, even though it's soft, for the simple reason that if there's movement during the exposure it's going to blur in any case. The longer the exposure the more 'painting with time' there is.

Have fun with those long exposures!

E

Drakensberg panoramic

Another photoshop technique I have been playing with a lot lately is panoramic stitching. To this end I have actually invested in an old Shift Lens. This shot, however, was captured using a 28-105mm zoom lens set at 28mm. It consists of three horizontal shots with quite a large overlap between each shot.

My concern is whether the image is too 'dark'. Any comments?

E

Painting with Light

For all who are interested I have just posted a new tutorial on painting with light. You can access the tutorial directly by hitting the link. All my tutorials are updated as and when I find out new techniques, obtain better illustrative images, or simply improve the way the tutorial is laid out. If you have any suggestions regarding the Painting with Light tutorial please let me know by commenting on this post. Hope you find the link useful.

E

Photoshop Shortcuts

Recently a number of students have asked for a sheet of Photoshop keyboard shortcuts. Yes, anyone can go into the shortcuts menu in PS, but often novice PS users don't even know that this menu exists. I've now posted a printable pdf of all the shortcuts that I use. You can find this on my website under the tutorials page or simply click on the link for the actual page here.

Hope you find this useful.

E

Star Trails

Been quiet on the web front lately. Here's a shot from about two months ago of a star trail over Cathedral Peak. This is a new technique that I learnt recently from an article on NPN. I've been teaching it now through my workshops in St Lucia and the Drakensberg and the results get better each time. This was the first multiple exposure star trail that I attempted. Basically set up your camera with your chosen composition and start a series of shots lasting no longer than 10 minutes each. At the end of each shot immediately take another one until you feel you have enough 'trail' in your sky. Open the whole lot in PS and pile them on top of each other with the blend mode set to lighten. Viola - a noiseless startrail (noise being the greatest hurdle to overcome with digital long exposures). Eventually I'll get round to writing a tutorial I suppose.

For anyone who is interested there are two decent articles on composition in this months NPN (http://www.naturephotographers.net) which are worth reading.

Cheers
E

Thieving Monkey

Took this pic at thorny bush game reserve last week. Do you guys think it is too indistinct? Showed it to someone in my office who thought it was a picture of a leaf!

Is this too much?

I shot these at the beginning fo the month during one of my St Lucia workshops. There is very little if any PP that here. They are pretty much out of camera.

to balance the extremely bright sunrise against the darker foreground I used a 3 stop Cokin Soft graduated ND filter. A polariser and 2 stop ND filter slowed the exposure down to 1/3rd of a sec at f22.

So my questions is this: Is this too much (I mean the pictures themselves)? Is there too much colour difference? The Cokin filters have a colour cast of their own which has been introduced into the scene (very obviously). Some of the guests at St Lucia were impressed, but I'm not sure I should be. There's something too twee about it. Please let me know what you think and pass on any suggestions as to improvements.

cheers
E

A note on my Self Portrait entry

Found it! As I mentioned in my self portrait theme I shot something of a tribute to Andy Warhol (generally agreed founder of the Pop Art movement). I was wrong about it being a self portrait though. The image is actually by Duane Michals (1973), an influential American photographer who created 'conceptual' images. My bad, bust a reasonable interpretation I think.

E

p.s. The image is taken from 'A New History of Photography', edited by Michael Frizot and can be found on page 677 (the academic in me insists on at least a passing attempt at referencing)

My Self-portrait entry

Late as usual I'm afraid, but here nonetheless, my image for the 'self-portrait' theme. This is a sort of tribute to Warhol, copying a self portrait of his that I saw in an 'Icon's' book years back. for the life of me I can't find the image on the net, so will have to trawl through libraries (if I have the time) to find it again.

E

Just pretend...

Just pretend that I owned a camera with over 10 meagre(!) pixels, and just pretend that I had model releases in the bag for all the people... I am curiose to get your opinions as to the market potential, if there is any, for images of this nature. Bit tricky I'll admit and not really my style (style?..... hmmmm, we will have to let that one go by!)
Interested to get your thoughts.

Paul.

To introduce myself

Hi all,

To start, let me introduce myself: My name is Nick and I have been invited by Emil. 

I am an amateur photographer with a keen interest in wildlife photography. I shoot with a dslr since August 2008. I picked up some parts here and there from Emil's courses he gives for African Impact, and I have learned loads from him. With photoshop I am a complete rookie, but hope to learn more about that in the next couple of months. 

I have included some photos for you as an introduction and to comment on.  I took them in February this year in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park, and one from some Crocodile hatchlings at the St. Lucia Crocodile centre. I am keen to learn from you professionals, so don't hold back and tell me honestly what you think and where/how I should improve. I have seen many great shots at this blog from all of you, but am a bit reluctant to comment, given my amateur status and that I have not much experience with anything else than wildlife photography. So please forgive me for being somewhat silent, while still hoping that you will comment on my shots. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

Hoping to learn a lot from you guys, 

Nick van de Wiel

Keys Part 2

As Emil noted, these shots are aimed at Trevillion, Monsoon and Arcangel. I think Emil's third shot of the lone key is very much in the mood for these three libraries. I only shot one of these images with the Lensbaby - no guesses which one!

Key Stock

With only a slight change of topic, what do you think of these images for stock? I know Neil has a lensbaby shot of a bunch of keys which I hope he'll share with us as a comparison. My shot images were aimed at Gallo, and/or alamy usage. I think Neil's shot, with the lensbaby is aimed at something like Trevillion or ArcAngel (very different stylistic content to Gallo).

On a different note, I was reading a web posting the other day of a south African photographer who had set up an expensive shoot (the resultant images were good) specifically to send the images to shutterstock. I wanted to scream and throttle the man! Why would any sane individual go to that expense and time to post their images to a site where they will receive a fraction of the income that they would have from a library like Gallo, Alamy, or any other small library. the photographer in question is a professional and the calibre of the images was well above what is required for most libraries. Go figure. Out of interest, if you want to supply images to some libraries, Photographers direct is the key library in this case, they actually refuse to accept submissions if you supply micro's like shutterstock with imagery. Food for thought?

E

Blurred Images

Noting Emil's reference to Alain Briot's 'blurred work' I thought I would post this image for comment. Vertical camera movement during a longish exposure - a very simple technique.

Neil.