Artist or Photographer?

 I was thinking, obviously too much, about how we see or label ourselves and how this might influence our choices or approaches to subjects, compositions, etc. Am I a photographer, artist or just some crazy guy behind the camera. The last probably being more to the truth.

One thing I know I'm not is a 'commercial' or 'professional' photographer. Even these labels have many interpretations. By these terms I mean a person who can consistently deliver quality materiel under stressful and changing environments. Its not too hard to achieve success under great conditions. The good photographers deliver no matter what happens, every time  and I know I would run into trouble pretty quickly.

For me photography is first and foremost about pure enjoyment. Like exploring with a microscope or telescope but with less magnification. Being able to capture a fleeting moment in time which was 3D and render into 2D flat image.  By use of selective focus, DOF, time and digital enhancements I can try to reveal a unique charm, even though they are not always pleasant, or character to that moment in space. I am creating an interpretation of a real event, like  portrait painting of a person.

I therefore tend to think of myself as an artist who uses the camera-tool, as opposed to the brush-tool, to create images maybe even art work. I tend to shun the label photographer because for many people this has certain connotations, like above, which could lead to think that I have more abilities than I really have. Like delivering a wedding shoot or family portrait.

I tend to photograph subjects I like and the way I want, but then again I'm not making a living from that approach. But there are people who do enjoy my art work.

I'm in the process of printing 3 images in sets of 5 for future prints. I will test a bunch of fine-art or rag papers to see which one works best. Since these images are shown here, in this blog, are somewhat the same it will make it easier to fine-tune the ink adjustments for them all.






Note to Regular Readers:

As I mentioned in the previous article, this summer has provided me with a great opportunity with time to explore and to just look and think and to not spend so much time at the computer. Unfortunately this has also led to a dearth of articles recently and I want to thank all for still dropping by to check up.

In my articles I many times discuss how to stimulate and increase your creativity and now I find myself  with some self-doubt about where I am going with my photographic art. But this is common for most of us from time to time, but I still don't like it.

I have been thinking that I need to change my approach to selecting scenes and subjects. Up until now, I have been photographing any image when it made a good composition but when I look over my portfolio, I now realize that there is not much tying the images together. Maybe the odd few but most are stand-alone photographs and most are not focused on people. If there are some they are more ancillary to the image.

I therefore need to find some new and story-telling types of images where they could form a theme base portfolio.

I will keep you informed about my progress to stimulate myself with some new ideas.





Photo Tip

If it's bright sunny day and scene to be photographed is sunlit then automatically shift to bracketing.
Even with today's modern cameras and post editing tools the dynamic range captured has never been greater but I have on times been lazy and only realized later the information was either missing in the highlights or too dark to really bring out the tones.

Learn how to change to this mode in a few seconds. Once it becomes instinct in programming your DSLR you will turn it on when needed. If you have to think about how then it just doesn't happen.

Niels Henriksen

Obsession, Madness or Just Good Photography

The other day, while sitting on the back patio enjoying the late warmth in November, I saw this singular leaf sitting on the patio stones. You might rightly think, “well this is fall, what do you expect?” but there was something different.

It could be that the leaf was all alone but what really caught my eye was these huge rain drops sitting on top and from the angle I was looking, each drop radiated brilliant crystalline light.

The sky was lightly overcast and the droplets where reflecting the bright white sky in my direction. As I moved around the leaf the droplets would change from a silvery white to magnifying (like a lens) the patterns and textures contained under the droplet.

I wonder if I could make something wonderful with my camera and ran inside to get the camera. There have been times when I have waited too long to go back to photograph an item, only to find that the conditions have changed and it was, now, no longer possible.

There was nothing really unique about the leaf or the stone background in itself, to make an interesting composition. I decided maybe with some close-up shots I might be able, with unique perspective, to capture an interesting composition.

With that view in mind I grabbed my tripod and 90mm Tamaron Macro lens.

With the aid of a cushion, I explored every inch of that leaf and probably did it several times over. It was until I was finally finished that I realized that I had taken 313 images.

This is where the title links in. Was this an obsession or just good work on my part?

As yet, I don’t know. To be fair to myself, I was shooting macro mode and therefore focused incrementally over all parts of the leaf, in case I wanted to combine them into one clear image with greater DOF.

I wanted to create the effect of a snowstorm in a globe that contrasted against the delicate and muted tones of the rest of the leaf.

I did 3 different scans with the camera over the leaf and few others for artistic effect.

The one good part is that while the shooting was going on I was completely lost in my world, exploring different angles and lights and that alone was fun.

Now, what to do with all the images. I have learned not to be too obsessed with previously taken images. One day I may find a good reason to dust them off. I just need that brilliant idea to mirror with the right images.

I enjoyed playing around with changing the colours of the drops.

For this set, I decided to select a few and see what I could do with them as I am not sure that they will all stand on their own without some retouching. There are interesting patterns and textures and in some parts, subtle colour transitions.

This is part of what makes photography interesting for me.

Niels Henriksen



Related Articles

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Masking a Yellow & Blue Flower

Where I live, a deep cold sets in every now and then (Ottawa the coldest capitol in the world). The one good point about –33 degrees is that it doesn’t matter whether it’s in C or F. It’s the same and it’s very cold.

This week I thought I would take a review of some of my sunnier and warmer images and I had one subject in mind. While on route through the hard drive folders, I came across an image that for some surprising reason has always peaked my interest but as yet never experienced any playful adjustments. What better is there to do on such a cold day.


Part of the interest with this image was that I thought I could create more colour contrast between the yellower parts of the flowers and the yellow-green and darker lower parts of the flowers. Another appeal was from my previous article Winter Fog – Great Photography Weather , which looked at creating masks. Sometimes it’s just fun to play.

I thought with just the right mask I could add more blue and cooler tones to the under world and with the very yellow flower heads I could make them warmer (orange) and increase the contrast of the softer petals.


For the blue changes I duplicated the layer and used LAB mode to adjust both the blue and green channels and then converted back to RGB mode.

Initially I tired using the same techniques as last time but as you can see from the original camera image below there is really only varying tones of lime colors and the copy/paste and fade to screen or multiply didn’t give me the right separation for a mask.


Another Method to find a Mask

It hadn’t occurred to me before and maybe some of you are already using this method, but in camera RAW with the temp adjustment and the curves and B&W adjustment I should be able to create a good mask. A Photoshop layer can also be created with the adjustment layers but I find the color temp along with the 2 extra colours available in the RAW adjustments that this is better than a Hue/Sat and a B&W layer.


It was easy to create 4 similar but slightly different masks, as I wasn’t sure which would work best for the changes I was going to make.


Top Left
Standard B&W RAW setting
I just set the HSL / Grayscale tab to ‘convert to grayscale’ and a slight yellow increase and then imported the image through ‘the ‘Place’ function in Adobe Bridge.

Top Right
Hue and Sat B&W
I increased the yellow and orange and decreased the green and blue channels.

above image is 1200x800

Bottom Left
In this version I maxed out the orange and red and left the yellow at 70%, the rest remained the same. This mask was for parts that were more pure yellow less green or cool tones.

Bottom Right
H&S Curves B&W
In this version I used the Curves Tab in RAW for radical adjustments to create more of a true mask. The other settings being set as before.

The 2 bottom masks seemed useful and with a slight bit of cleaning up these would work as masks.

The blue leaves and the darker greens were created in LAB on one layer and masked in. On other layers, curves and hues with mask were used to increase warm colours and contrast of these parts.




I often use the ‘Difference’ mode on some layers as image file is being created. You never know what strange beauties will emerge. The blue flower version was created by using several layers and the mask above played with blend mode. I then used a hue-sat adjustment layer on the left image to change the hue of the blue flowers to red flowers.

You may wonder why and sometimes I do also, but I do find a certain charm in their abstractness developed from a photo image.


Niels Henriksen

Kreativ Blogger Award

The other day I received the Kreativ Blogger award. While not the same as a Nobel prize, it is non the less very rewarding to be recognized by another blogger for the effort in sharing and fostering community involvement to one’s craft.

Anita Jesse on her blog Through my Lens made the announcement that 5 bloggers and myself deserve this internet blog award.

I am very honoured to have received it.

I really enjoy visiting Anita blog for the peace of mind, if this makes any sense. Her photos have a quality that for me, has a feeling of taking me home. These are images of her surrounding that convey a gentle place. A place to be able to sit and ponder. As an added benefit there is her writing style, as she openly discusses this place and lately the transition to her new location, which brings that comfort as we may also be wondering about our lives.

Do visit the site and spend some time there.


This being a photography blog I felt I had to add at least add one pretty photo.

Taken with a cannon A30 - 2mp P&S camera


I am not sure where this blogger recognition event started, but I think it is a great thing as we should all on a continuous basis take the time to thank all the bloggers, whether in our particular niche or in other areas for the effort and more importantly the way bloggers bring people together who have a particular passion.

The Kreativ award is a bit like a chain letter where bloggers who receive this award take the time to send the same award to 6 bloggers who deserve the recognition. The hard part is only limiting it to six.

The great thing I find about blogging, while for some it is business driven; they all bring a personal face and their passions to what they love.

As a side note when receiving this ward the recipient should also list 6 thinks they like.

There are several other fine Bloggers that are already in my side list of favourite bloggers who have also received this ward and therefore I thought I would try and highlight great bloggers who were not already recipients.

Brain Auer at Epic Edits is one of those people who not only takes great photos but has dedicated himself to helping out many other aspiring photographers. He has built a great community of users because of his passion for photography and drive to help others learn.


While I am not a professional photographer and I am not sure that I could really handle all the stress, John Harrington at Photo Business News and Forum sure understands the business of Professional Photography.
He has written books on the subject and in his blog articles shares willing how to really be a professional and this means correct business sense, not just a wiz kid with a camera. Even if you don’t plan to be a professional his sound wisdom will help you in other parts of your life be successful in dealing with people.


As a blogger it is good to understand general best practices about blogging and for some like me to understand the code behind blogging platforms. Blogging Tips is a site that covers both these issues very well.

Chris Brogan is a blogger that focuses on the organizational and business aspects of using social networks to collaborate, share knowledge and built relationships in this ever changing work-life thing. Even if you are just blogging for yourself is good to understand how we are interacting within our societies.


As photographers, and I think that is why you are mainly here, it is good to examine other art mediums. This will help you see or want to explore new artistic avenues. I therefore read several painting blogs just for the visual pleasure and the occasional new idea.

One site I enjoy is Different Stokes form Different Folks by Karin Jurick.
He takes a photograph and then does is own painting and then requests others to submit their interpretations of the subject. It is great to see so many different views.

I also enjoy the Daily Paintings by Justin Clayton and these should give good ideas for your own photographic subject.



The Six things I like. It could as easily be six dozen or 6 hundred. There are so many simple things to like in life.

I like the mornings when the sun rises and brings life and light onto the world.

I like moving water, whether an ocean, river or falling rain.

I like how new camera technology has helped me focus more on my subjects and less on getting the camera settings right. (but sometimes I still screw up)

I like the song ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ sung by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

I like riding a bicycle

I like storms, especially when I am safe.


Thanks for reading and do take the time to thanks the bloggers who you read for the effort and passion.

Niels Henriksen

Getting Ready – My Vacation Camera Selection

Please note that there may not be any new posts until 7 September.


This weekend is the practice weekend. By practice I mean fine-tuning the selection of items I plan to bring on my month long stay in Denmark with a short excursion to Norway and Sweden.

In this article, as I don’t see much value with showing my equipment, I will include a few images from a shoot at Vincent Massey Park.

Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro mode, f3.5, iso 200 1/8000sec

This is another image of a flower I showed in the article Spring Time Tune-up I decided to make this Black and White version to better focus on the softness of the petals, almost like dancing flames in a fire. I reduced the contrast to try a keep soft and ethereal.



My normal planning mode is to bring everything possible that I might use and then hire an ocean liner just to bring along. Luckily, my many years of weeklong sea-kayaking has forced me to par down the kit, back to bare essentials and then dump half of that.

This vacation is mainly a family vacation visiting my newfound brothers and sisters and then just sitting on the porch or beach side and talking about lost times.

But, and a Big But I will have my camera permanently glued to my hand. I just don’t know any better. There will be moments where in the interest of everyone’s sanity that I will need to venture off, explore and photograph, just on my own.

Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro mode, f16, iso 200 1/600sec

This is the same flower as above but here I increased the DOF to include all petals and then increased both the colour saturation and the contrast to add more punch and vibrancy to the flower. It is amazing that with simple camera techniques and very minor editing you can create 2 very different images of the same subject.


There is one special day being set aside when my brother Jorgen, who is also an avid photographer, and I will photograph the unique qualities of Copenhagen. Starting in the early morning, we will be traveling by bus around town, getting off where we want, explore, photograph, eat, then moving on and doing it again at least the eating part. This should last well into the late evening and hopefully collect a great collection of images.

If this were a photography vacation I would bring more equipment, but with the mixture of family and photography I have pared my list to the following.


Main Items
Nikon D300 – with 2 battery packs and charger
If this were a photography excursion I would bring my Nikon D70 as a backup

Nikon 18-200mm f3.5 vr lens
This is a great vestal lens. While I love the Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 vr, the weight is a bit of a problem when traveling light.

Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens
With the great high iso noise of the D300 and the fast glass of the 50mm, who needs flash or even any kind of light.

Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 lens
I just love the perspective this lens gives to cityscapes.

SB800 flash
A great powerful flash but the best part is the wireless capability with TTL.

Tripod - Gorilla Pod (largest)
I would love to bring a full size tripod but the only one I have is the steel Manfrotto, which is heavy when, added with a good ball head. The cost of those carbon fibers is still a bit much, but one day I will save up enough.

Backpack –Lowenpro
This pack has padded shoulder straps and a hip belt, which are a must if you plan to walk around a fair bit.

Tamron 90mm f2.8 macro mode, f13, iso 400, 1/50sec

Simple weeds when in bloom can provide inspiring flower images.

Miscellaneous items
Polarizer filter for 18-200mm lens
Battery charger and many batteries
Lens cleaning brush
16GB, 8GB cards
Flashtrax 40GB auto card reader and storage.
Nikon SC-28 Flash cable
D300 manual – because I am still learning about it.
Cannon A40 2mp P&S camera
Energy bars and medical kit
Just in case I am so engrossed that either I walk off a cliff while looking through the viewfinder or get lost in the woods.


I would like to post a few articles and that is why I am bringing the old digital camera, as it will at least be in jpeg mode. The Nikon will set RAW and I am not sure if I will have access to a RAW converter.

Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 vr, at 70mm,f7.1, iso 200, 1/80

One of the many paths in Vincent Masseey Park that runs along the Rideau River.


At first I was a little worried about not posting for several weeks, but then after giving it some though I realized it is really a non-issue. I don’t use this blog as a business or make money from it. It is in some ways like a gallery where I hang my images and through my words you may come to understand the artist a bit more. Like any gallery I do enjoy the visitors that drop in and I hope you will all return when I post again.

The first article will most likely be how well the selection of camera equipment worked on my vacation. What I used most, least and what I wish I had brought.

Thanks for your visit and see you in September.

Niels Henriksen


My Own Words

For photographers real beauty is when the ordinary, the every day, and sometimes the horror of life, is seen through the passion of our artistic work with the aid of a little box.

A Photographer’s Mistake(s)

I try so hard ensure sure that I have everything set up correctly with the camera that taking a photo should be easy, almost a photo-walk in the park.

I could blame my problem on the new camera and in fact I am, but in reality this is not the root dilemma. The new Nikon D300 camera I just acquired has almost the same controls and settings as the D200. What could be easier?

I am very fortunate that during my drive into work, that first I am the passenger and secondly I travel east along the very picturesque Ottawa River Western Parkway. As with most parkways, these are scenic routes with grand vistas that have very few if any streets or other side parking areas along its journey. Just pure unspoiled greenery.

I am normally on the road by 6:30 in the morning and with sunrise occurring about 5:15am the sun by this time is just over the treetops lining the outer edges or the grassy open areas that comprise most of the pathway.

While traveling east one sunny morning with no clouds in the sky, I saw these 2 short trees that had at one time been radically trimmed and now with new growth radiating outward, was near the roadway. They were backlit by the sun and had as its backdrop the outer forest that was in the shadow of the sun. Perfect contrast and a photographers’ dream and I knew I just had to have this image.

Tamaron 90mm f2.8 Di 1/8000s f3.7 iso 200

The specific problem is that there is nowhere to park nearby and to find a side street and trek over to capture image and back meant I would be late for work if I did this during the week.

There is always the weekend and I was willing to forgo the lovely feeling of being able to sleep in and get up at my leisure.

I woke up early but both days were too overcast to provide the striking burst of light I needed on the leaves.

So I figured that I would just take a chance and use my own car, have the camera and tripod all ready. I would stop along the road, put the emergency flasher on and rush out to capture a few images.

It took over a week before the morning sky was right, as even the next weekend was not right. That’s 4 precious weekend mornings lost with an early rise and no adventure to chase.

But one morning it was right and off I went with my new camera that I had not even tried once. What would be the problem? Just like the D200 and I knew how to use that camera.

Nikon 70-300mm f2.9 vr @f2.8 1/5000s 130mm iso 200

Off I drove and hopped out of the car with the camera and tripod and my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and setup ready to take an image. For some reason the camera did not seem to focus correctly. Checked that camera is not on manual focus, this was ok. It did move focus as I changed focal points, but still not a clear image.

The 2 trees where close to each other and I assumed that if I set aperture to f9 that they would be both in focus and the background would be soft enough.

I could not figure out what the problem was. Tried to manual focus and took a few images. I noticed that a little closer to the trees that there were some shadows on the grass and I thought I should go there and try a few as I might experience some flare due to close angle to sun. I then run up and rushed off a few more shots. By this time maybe 5 minutes had gone by and only one bus had honked its horn because of my parking on the road. Ran back and drove away with the assurance that I must have gotten one good shot and no traffic fine.

Later that evening when reviewing the images it just wasn’t the case. The first set of images where properly exposed but had some bleaching due to light entering the lens. The second set while standing in the shadows was under exposed by 2 stops and many images just didn’t have the crisp focus I liked.

In examining the metadata I had inadvertently set it to manual exposure.

It was then I realized that there wasn’t a problem with the lens but that I had forgotten to set up the dioptre for my so out-of-focus eyes. (big stupid grin)

The camera did have Live View with zoom but I had not bothered at that time to learn how to use it.

There was also the problem that the image framing was not great and the sunlit grass seemed too bright. Could I be a worse photographer?


I can hear all of you laughing now.

Lessons Learned Time

The first lesson is that for me rushing, if I am unprepared, just doesn’t work.

I didn’t really give myself enough time to understand the shoot, calculate proper aperture setting

Do check in the eyepiece for the camera settings before you shoot. It provides all the information you need to understand if it will work for the subject (Priority Mode, shutter speed, f-stop, exposure value and metering mode).

One problem I have also noticed is that with the D200 I used to reduce the exposure when there was a high dynamic range and some specular highlights and I didn’t want these blown out. It appears that the D300 better captures these with normal settings and I don’t need to reduce exposure as much. That is why the shadow shots were so under exposed.

There is also the problem, which I described, in a previous article ‘What My Mind Saw, What My Camera Saw’ is that especially when travelling quickly by a subject your mind captures what you want to see not what is actually there.

Great pictures can happen in a fleeting moment and be gone but most great images come from carefully studying the scene and then determining the correct light and how to frame the photo with just the right elements in their proper place within the story.

To use any fine instrument as an extension of your hand only comes with much practicing with all the features so that there is no thinking about how to hold. Just your artistic vision is needed.

I do hope to go out again and try once more and to be there at least a ½ hour before sunrise so I can carefully plan the shot. I may not be able to get it the way my mind sees it but it should at least be better.






Niels Henriksen


Photographer’s Showcase


In today’s reading list we have 2 unique B&W photography blogs. Each with a new perspective.

Xavier Rey Photoblog has a very captivating almost edgy B&W style. He only publishes about once a week but I do like his varied subject matter from boxers to tranquil seascapes.




The second is A Photo A Day Keeps The... whatever - you know the rest Which was active until 11 May and has an eclectic collection of older photographs from various people. Even it ti dosen’t start up again it is worth a glance over to the stie.

SoFoBoMo – Book Finished

I have finally finished the SoFoBoMo Book project, at least in PDF form. The composite image below shows what a published book might look like if I ever get around to publishing this photography book.


The creation of a photography book was quite enjoyable project to undertake, even though it did take up a fair bit of time to complete.

I decide to use “OpenOffice.org” as my publishing tool as I found MSword not able to completely remove the margins. Learning a new tool while undertaking a project does have its pitfalls, but luckily after a few hours I was able to get the hang of it. I did find that since the file was 170MB it did become a bit slow while doing editorial changes and a few times I found the image moved around.

A large PDF version of the book found can be accessed by this link (33BM with 75% jpeg compression) as the book was designed to 11.5x8.5 inches. This choice was not based and design criteria, but I selected one of the photography books I had that I though would be a good size and used these dimensions.

A smaller version with more compression can be accessed here . (15MB with 25% jpeg compression). Either way these are large files.


The B&W continuous pano images of the Quebec shoreline, which are along the later pages in the book, are 70,000x500 pxs. This started to become am editing problem in Photoshop and I had to eventually break it into 2 files

Image from book – Muted Ferns

The journey to produce the book took on 2 round trips of 300 kms to visit very good friends at their remote property that cover the rugged area north of Gananoque, Ontario which has lakes and beaver ponds on the land.

I also took 2 photo excursions along the shoreline of the Ottawa River on both the Ontario and Quebec side within the city limits of Ottawa. We are very fortunate that the city planners have made the river access public and have left some places as wilderness areas.

I took a week off work, as holidays, to work on the files and edit the book. I am not sure that I would have gotten it all completed otherwise.

Image from book - Flooded trees along shoreline of the Ottawa River

I would undertake another such project but if you are using nature as the backdrop then the month and season is critical to the theme and availability of images. Maybe next a food project where I can shoot indoors.

As the other bookmakers have stated it is an all consuming project and now that it is over I do feel a bit tied. I wish I had another week to really work on the book design elements, but there is a deadline that I need to meet.

Also there is standing about 10 deep, the outside and other chores that I have neglected as I pursed this passion blindly and they now want their place in the sun.

If its not too big to download, please let me know what you think. As a first book there is always room, maybe too much, for improvement.


Niels Henriksen

Lily and the Dancing Stamens

With the snow season finally settling in, it becomes harder to capture interesting shots every week. It is more physically demanding and you start to see a repetition in snow themes. Therefore this week I thought I would focus on a singular image and describe the photo-editing approach I took to enhance it to match the vision I had.

When it comes to your personal photography I find that there are no right or wrong approaches. There is your vision and what excites you. Now if you are a commercial photographer or if you want to make a living selling your images, that’s different. It’s the client that decides what works, unless of course you are such recognized brand that your work establishes the standard.

While I use Photoshop for my photo editing, I will try and keep the processes generic so that the same techniques can be used with any photo editing software.

The title for the image is the Lily and the dancing Stamens and as you can probably guess, the main focus will be the stamens with a secondary focus being the petals of the lily.









Whenever I work on an image that I will take to the print stage, I always like to mark-up the photo with the editing that I plan to undertake. I will at times use layers to keep notes as I am working through the image, which becomes a good reference tool later when re-visiting an image and figuring out why you took that approach.

The image below shows the planned changes on the original RAW version from the camera. The thinner lines are used to show less effect needed.






The anther parts (wow! some biology too) of the stamens are normally very monochromatic and uniform in tone and I needed to enhance these to make them jump out more from the very vibrant colours in the background. Pollen by nature is very soft, unless you are looking through an electron microscope. I applied a little sharpening to bring out some detail in the anthers but no other parts, as I wanted the soft focus of the background to remain.

Using a mask to just apply changes to the anthers I also increased contrast by using an ‘S’ curve. Then, on a new layer, copied only the anthers, converted it to B&W and inverted to create a negative and set the layer to colour dodge. This will make any subtle yellow tones on the sun-lit side of anthers a very strong yellow. The opacity was reduced until it appeared that the left edge was receiving a low horizon sun effect. A very steep ‘S’ curve adjustment layer to fine tune effect was added.


This image shows part of the colour dodge Layer from the B&W inverted anthers.












The second part of the stamen, the long green filament, needed to also stand out more. By using a colour saturation layer and only targeting the yellow channel I was able to make these filaments glow a bit.

This zoomed image shows in better detail the changes performed.






The diagonal petal behind the stamens was not very vibrant, which is fine, as I did not want it to detract from the stamens. The far right petal, I thought, was too light especially since it was near the edge of the image. I needed to increase the colour saturation and at the same time darken the overall colour. I used a black layer set to Overlay, which causes the colours to be very intense. A Hue/Sat layer was added to reduce a bit the strong red intensity.

I found the edge where the 2 petals joined needed to be a little darker on the right petal and I darkened this just a bit.

This is an image of all the adjustment layers. I take the time to record information in layers should I, at later date, decide to fine-tune another way.






















Here are a few more images of the lilies from the days shoot.





















If you have any questions about the processes I described, please feel free to ask me.
I can even send you a scaled down version of the Photoshop ‘.psd’ file so you can better see the effect, if you send me your email address.

Thanks for reading.

Niels Henriksen



A Photographer's Adage


It fascinates me that there is a variety of feeling about what I do. I’m not a premeditative photographer. I see a picture and I make it. If I had a chance, I’d be out shooting all the time. You don’t have to go looking for pictures. The material is generous. You go out and the pictures are staring at you. -Lee Friedlander, "Documentary Photography - LIFE Library of Photography" , page: 178

Reversing a 50mm lens for Macro work

I have a special fondness for the abstract and sometimes subtle tones created by macro photographs. Good macro lens can be expensive and if you have a good quality 50mm lens then by purchasing a reversing ring the lens can be used for macro photography by connecting the lens on backwards.


A reversing ring connects to the front of the lens were the filter normally goes and the other end of the ring has the appropriate adapter connection for the specific camera model.


In the photo below I like how the collection of petals creates an effect of waves crashing on a shore. I reduced the contrast to keep the image soft and flowing.





A reversed 50mm lens provides greater than 1:1 magnification but also requires you to be very close to the subject about ½ an inch. These types of macros are best suited to a studio type setup where you have better control of the environment than in the field.


This is a photo of Queens Anne Lace, a common weed, that I had placed in front of some red flowers to complement the green in the stalks.






It is very difficult because the very narrow DOF to either move the camera on a tripod or the subject for focus and I recommend that a focusing rail be used, which provides a dial to finely tune the focus distance.


These are the flower heads that were used for the background in the Queens Anne Lace image above.













A reversed lens does not provide any coupling information to camera and therefore you must manually adjust the f-stop ring for depth of Field and use the ev scale to adjust for proper exposure. The use of the histogram also helps to fine tune the tonal range.


These are the same flowers as above but are a slight variant and they both produce colourful dense flower head late summer and into fall.













The self-timer is also recommended to reduce any camera shake.


This is a tiny rose bud about an inch high just opening up.



















Niels Henriksen

A Photographer’s Adage

The second, third and fourth time you photograph something will produce more refined composition than the first time. These may or not be better photographs. You will never know, however, unless you make the second, third and fourth photographs. (Lens Work Issue #50 - anonymous)

Blue Hydrangea in Clay Bowl

While visiting friends, particularly those who enjoy plants, it can become an opportunity to capture some different shots of common plants in different settings and occasionally new types you might never have seen before. This is one of the reasons why I always pack my camera and tripod in the car when I head out.

The people I was visiting out in the country always have a great garden with lots of flowers and I was looking forward to some great shots. The lady of the house had picked a blue hydrangea and lay the flowers in a handmade clay bowl and set on the patio table. Since these were in the shade it gave me perfect lighting conditions in the afternoon sun.

I took several shots and while I like the image above I am not sure that it will be the final definitive shot. The final selection and any reworking normally happens months later when I go back and review the set as I may have different approaches to bring out detail elements.

As I turned around I noticed a collection of other plants that provided interesting compositional material. There was a flower with this brilliant orange petal and a black center. The orange colour was almost too bright to look at, as it seemed to glow. With the camera I could not catch the surreal orange vividness. Therefore in this shot I opted to bring out the details a little more. I noticed that when I converted to sRGB from aRGB that some of the orange was lost and I had increase the saturation a little as well as moving the hue a little to the red as the conversion had brought out more yellow.

There was this other interesting purple flower in a pot that with use of a shallow DOF I could bring out the soft patterns in the background.


















When you visit friends especially those who enjoy plants don’t forget to bring your camera and tripod.

Niels Henriksen