Learning to snap

Before and After

nzsnapper — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:09:10 +0000

As part of my 365 project I have ended up taking quite a lot of images of flowers. This is because they are easy to get hold of, they don’t run away and it doesn’t matter what the weather is! In continuing my project into a second year I found myself back taking images of a flower, in this case a lilly.

I took a number of images and thought that it would be interesting to show some of the different looks you can get, there are so many ways to take the any subject and give it a very different feel. For this example I am using a single flower where it should be easy to show some examples. I often end up taking my 365 images late in the day and use flash to provide lighting but that still leaves a very large range of possible looks. The few variations that follow are just the tip of the iceberg.

The images here aren’t necessarily the best images of a lilly, or even my best images, they are intended to illustrate some possible options for how you can photograph a flower and how you can change the look and feel using the aperture, view point and post processing.

White Background

For white backgrounds two flashes were used, one to light the background and the other to light the flower. You can play with the power, the distance form the subject and background to vary the effect.

1) Soft, shallow depth of field (at least reasonably shallow in this case). The after image was processed with Nik Color Efex Pro 4 to soften it further and give it a little glow. A wider aperture could have been used or by moving in closer an even narrower depth of field could have been achieved. You definitely want to be using a tripod here!

Before

After

2) Detailed, larger depth of field using a smaller aperture, again this was processed with Nik Color Efex Pro 4

Before

After

3) Monochrome, sometimes monochrome can simplify an image in this case just to lines and shapes, this was done using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Before

After

4) Shadow, I noticed the shadow of the lilly while I was setting up, that can make an interesting image too. The after image was processed in Aperture to enhance the contrast, desaturate it and add a vignette.

Before

After

Black Background

In this case high speed sync was used with a single flash along with a small aperture to give a dark background. The images was post processed, but only slightly, with Nik Color Efex Pro to enhance the detail, soften and add a little glow.

Before

After

I love my Nik Software plugins, if you haven’t tried them yet go and grab a free trial! They provide so many starting points for different looks and can help bring out creative ideas.

There are infinite variations in lighting and post processing over and above the few shown here and most can be applied to any subject, not just flowers. Try things and play, once you start trying things it gets easier to come up with new ideas, sometimes you get lucky and if you don’t you never need to show anyone.

365 Complete

nzsnapper — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:04:13 +0000

A little late again with this post but I finally have my computer up and running again and can post more easily.

Over the last year I have been doing a 365 project and on the 31st December I completed it, quite pleased that I managed to do it and actually took each image on the correct day. Not all the images are particularly good or inspiring but some I have been quite pleased with. The whole experience was very useful, making me get out with my camera and I’m pretty sure my photography has benefited.

I was looking forward to having a break from taking a picture every day but since I appear to be in the habit for the moment I am continuing and a 366 project looks to be under way. Whether I will finish it remains to be seen! In the meantime here are my first and last images from last years 365 project.

Christchurch CBD

nzsnapper — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 08:16:34 +0000

This is a little late as my main computer is currently out of action and in need of a new motherboards apparently, also the subject of this post was intended to be hope for the future, with Christchurch starting to get back to business following this year of earthquakes. That hope was slightly spoilt when we had a series of aftershocks on the 23rd of December including a 5.8 and a 6.0 resulting in people the eastern suburbs once again having to clear their homes and streets of liquefaction and another landmark building in Kaiapoi now scheduled for demolition. For the moment however here goes, and hopefully even with the setback on the 23rd we are still looking forward to a much better year in 2012.

Botanical Gardens

The weekend before Christmas I took a trip into the centre of Christchurch to have a look around and do a little Christmas shopping. It was only the second time I have been in to the city since the February earthquake and the first time to the newly reopened ‘Re:Start’ city mall.

I parked at Hagley Park which is still a beautiful space right in the middle of town and wandered through the Botanical Gardens. Little has really changed in the park now, ponds are filled, a few trees removed and the hot house is not yet open but it looks and feels as always, a lovely large green space in the middle of town.

I walked through, or at least around the town, to the City Mall that reopened at the end of October and named Re:Start.

I saw a lot of changes on the walk, with many vacant spaces where there used to be buildings and the Art Centre is badly damaged, although someone has decided to tie a bow on it.

Re:Start

The Re:Start mall is built from shipping containers and actually looks very smart, a lot of effort has been made and it was very busy which was great to see. It was definitely a hopeful sign, seeing life coming back into the centre of Christchurch in what was Cashel Mall.

Cathedral Square Walkway

Although I did not know it at the time I was in town on the last day that the Cathedral Square walkway was going to be open and since it started right at the mall I decided to take a walk around. I wonder if I would have had I known we were still getting large aftershocks.

The walkway was busy, full of locals and tourists and it felt very strange looking over the fencing at the empty streets, with weeds and rubble everywhere. A little surreal and quite sad. So much is gone and so much still has be be torn down.

I actually have a lot more images still to process but that will have to wait until my computer is functional again. This last image summed up my feelings as I walked around, the damage and emptiness of the CBD.

I wonder what I might be writing in a year;s time? I hope something much more upbeat and a lot less shaky!

Christmas Carnival

nzsnapper — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:52:44 +0000

Saturday was the Kaiapoi Christmas Carnival, this was the fourth time we have been to the carnival and the sun shone once more. I spent a lot of time at our photographic club stand showing our work and encouraging people to join us next year. I did manage to take quite a few photos, and despite the very harsh light was quite pleased with the results, better than last year at least which I guess means I have learnt something over the last year!

The carnival was well attended and it was great to see the community come together again after a very difficult year with two major and innumerable minor earthquakes. There were lots of stalls from the various local shops, art and craft stalls from out of town, clowns and entertainment for the kids as well.

This year’s parade route was very different from previous years with much of the town along the river damaged or demolished. Santa still managed to find his way around however, a very good day.

Slideshow

Aramoana Field Trip

nzsnapper — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:26:17 +0000

As part of the PSNZ Southern Regional Convention in Dunedin I went on a field trip to Aramoana. With a long breakwater (The Mole) reaching out into the sea the area is home to a variety of birds and wild life including penguins, sea lions and across at Taiaroa Head from The Mole is a nesting place for the Northern Royal Albatross.

I am not really a wildlife photographer, I don’t really have the patience or a long enough lens so I had a good look around and managed to capture a variety of images from nature, landscape, macro and even a few PJ shots. If I wanted to I suspect I have image to use in our photographic club competitions for next year.

Rolling down the hill

Leap

Oyster Catcher

Been Fishing

Beach Flower

Shag

Rock Formations

Dalek Invasion…

nzsnapper — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:04:42 +0000

My Photoshop portfolio is finally complete for my diploma course. Done, sent, complete. I now have a few months off until next semester starts in February. It is good to have a break; more time to take images for myself rather than for course work. Anyway just a short post today, the eight images for my portfolio follow, actually quite fun to do in the end and my kids love them.

Firework Photography Tips

nzsnapper — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:04:05 +0000

Last Saturday was Guy Fawkes night, celebrated in the UK but also in New Zealand. Despite the fact that I should have been doing my diploma work I went out and took some images of the fireworks. I didn’t get very close to the fireworks unfortunately so a 200mm lens had to be used and then a fair bit of cropping. Not ideal but the images came out not too badly.

Some tips for getting firework shots:

Use a tripod, you need longer exposures to capture the fireworks.
Shoot in manual mode.
Prefocus where you expect the fireworks.
Keep your ISO low to capture the best detail and colour.
Try shooting in build mode with a cable release.
Try different lengths of exposure, from a couple of seconds up.
Have fun!

This was a long exposure (about 60s)

Much shorter exposure, about 4s

And 8s for this

One of my favourite shots was taken before the fireworks started, just looking out to sea.

Very simple with the sea smoothed out with a 30s exposure.

Finishing Off

nzsnapper — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:44:11 +0000

The last few weeks have been very busy with school holidays and now trying to finish off my Photoshop portfolio for my diploma course. Slow progress and not as enthusiastic as I should be. It takes a lot of time which I don’t really seem to have just now! Less than 10 days until the deadline so I had better get it finished.

On the positive side I did go to the PSNZ Southern Regional Convention in Dunedin last weekend, which was great fun, interesting and the talks were very inspiring, hopefully I will have time to write a more thorough review of the conference next week. In the meantime suffice to say I took lots of photos most of which I am yet to process, here are a couple to get started though. These were all taken en route to the convention.

Greenery

Old Mill

Whitebaiter

Seascape Abstract

Moeraki Boulders

Peel Forest Timelapse

nzsnapper — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:31:09 +0000

It is currently school holiday time and last weekend I took my kids to Peel Forest, a lovely place with fun tramping, waterfalls and well away from town and a nice warm log fire which was well used. I took the opportunity to try a few different things, using a gelled flash with a landscape image and a time-lapse video. Neither turned out spectacularly well but it was fun to try something different. Fortunately my camera has a built-in interval timer which makes the time-lapse easy.

For a time-lapse it is important to get everything set on manual, focus, shutter speed and aperture to keep everything as constant as possible for each exposure, it is also a good idea to use jpeg rather than RAW (which I forgot!). Using jpeg means you can get more images on your memory card and you can make a longer video. I made the video using iStopMotion.

And this was my attempt at using a gelled flash to change the foreground of a landscape image, just a simple warming gel this time. Lots more things to try another time.

Almost Portraits

nzsnapper — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 09:51:11 +0000

I had great intentions of a long post on lighting for portraits. I was asked to do a talk for my camera club on Monday evening and I went fully prepared – with speed lights, umbrella, soft box and my old PowerBook so that I could shoot tethered; demonstrating the effects of changing lighting. This all went more or less to plan until the end of the evening when my PowerBook would not wake up. I pressed the power button to turn it off and thought no more of it.

On arriving home I wanted to get the images off my PowerBook to prepare for my 365 project and for my long and exciting blog post, unfortunately it appears that my trusty PowerBook has finally expired, like Monty Python’s parrot it is deceased, no more and indeed popped its mortal coil. The fan still works but that is about it, so I have lost almost all my images. I did take a couple at the end of the evening when answering questions but my long and interesting has been replaced by this one instead

This was taken with a large 50″ Westcott Apollo JS Softbox lit with a Nikon SB900 flash.

Now I need to find some more willing models and try again.