10 Great Photography Projects - Create Photos that Nobody likes

Create these photographs on purpose, not by accident. There is a standard easy route and it is enjoyable to create good expectable photos that everyone admires. But do they really speak to what drives you as an artist? Find a subject, theme, or whatever and develop images that speak to you and that others just don’t understand. When this happens, you are creating your own art and this art is not always to be consumed by the masses.

Difficulty: harder than you think. There is this voice, or is it many, that seem to constantly guide to the safe and predictable routes.  Find the rebel voice and create your art. This means breaking the rules about composition. If you want subject small and in the center because it speaks about the isolation then this is what works for you.

The image below, while it does have shape and it may make you wonder about form, is all about the texture of the veins on the dead leaf.

Wings

Some banana leaves had dried on my indoor tree. The leaf had great texture but with the house background, didn’t work well.

This is a close up of leaf against interior wall before conversion to B&W above. The little bit of colour on wall is from a rainbow prism in window.

These new types of photos are meant for you and you alone. Freeing you from any sense of confinement or limit imposed by those wonderful masses.

At this stage you are no longer bound by standard convention of what is acceptable but by what drives your passion and creativity. You will be surprised that after a period of time, a theme or good collection of photos will emerge that you could probably hang in a gallery.

Rust on Water Wheel

I once asked a local junkyard owner (purveyor of historical charm) if I could photograph objects around the yard.   So much metal, rust, wooden objects and basically odd parts that it was like a candy store for kids.

To make this effort into a project, produce 10 final photos that you enjoy for whatever reason or desire.  The objects you are photographing could, because of the texture, patterns, lines and shapes, have hidden meanings and as a set it might unveil something. Take the image below as an example, which is some grate work in that refurbishing yard.

Grate Covers

There is a reaction I get from the pattern of lines and elongated holes. The split between the top 2 grates and the different texture of each create disharmony.

Round rings in rocks

The ring patterns formed in the Ottawa River, which were originally stone pillars, eroded down over the eons.

One of the challenge sessions at my camera club was to produce 10 photos on the word ‘Dark”.  The photo below was from one of the set and showed the handle on my old but still working barbecue. It doesn’t have to be pretty to fit a theme.

Black Barbecue

How about looking at a scenery from a different perspective.

The photo below is looking up at one beam of a steel covered train bridge.

Bridge with Many Angles

Some images, as with the blue coloured tubing and ceiling, if shown to your friends, they may politely say interesting or neat, but I am sure they just don’t comprehend why I might find this an interesting photograph.

Blue Industrial Ceiling

Even landscapes, done at what may seem resembling bad lighting, can have their own compelling moods.

Many Colours on Fall Pond

Niels Henriksen

Photographer Showcase

Darrell Larose

A Good friend and long time member (webmaster) of the Camera Club of Ottawa has now finally transitioned to the photo blogging sphere.  He does great portraiture photography and his latest articles demonstrate his talent.

The eyes have it

Human Form (note: nude content)

10 Great Photography Projects - Get Your Rhythm Going

This project is about establishing a repeatable pattern in your photographic pursuit.

It can be from choice of lens, timing, theme, or any combination of other things. It’s really about setting numbers to your photograph work or approach.

Difficulty: Easy to Hard it all depends on how demanding you set your repeat factor and how obsessive you are about quality of every finished image.

The key to making this project easier is to recognize that for every large undertaking of work, not every part of the process is 100% perfect. That is why photographers take many photographs for the few that make the cut list.

A Year On This Spot

At first though you might think this would be very hard, just to photograph a spot. The key here is that you determine what ‘this spot’ means, It literally could be a tiny spot or a room or a backyard or a 1,000 ft radius somewhere.

Bumble Bee on flower

A Photo A Day

There are many photographers who have tried this and some still continue on.

This is one project I haven’t done, as I’m just not that disciplined. I tend to get sidetracked too easily. I imagine that it would first and foremost ensure that you are always carrying a camera and that just has to be a good thing. The other is that I think it would help you be freer and thereby find more enjoyment in just taking photos without any self-imposed stress. You see an object, you might have a thought and click, you have photographed it.

Kayak on Ottawa Canal

That's me, about 10 years ago kayaking on the Ottawa Canal. It was a beautiful day and I truly couldn’t be in the office.

The only thing close I have is the images I produce for this blog.

Digital Photography School has this article on tips on how to succeed with a photo a day for a year.

Photojojo has How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way

One of my blogging friends, Andreas Manessinger , if I remember correctly, has been doing a photo-a-day for almost 3 years now.

Share your links if this is what you are doing.

50 by 50 by 50 OR you pick the numbers

50 Days – 50 Photos at 50mm

Ooops, more than 50 I think.

Or pick any set of numbers that you think will work to give you a bit of a challenge.

A to Z or Numbers

For each letter and/or number select a theme or a subject that uses the letter to start words. These nouns, adjectives or verbs can be interpreted from the object itself, emotions, patterns, negative space, etc. If time permits, get numerous versions.

Might even be a good theme for a book (hint).

Every year, the Camera Club of Ottawa has a scavenger hunt photo gathering that is tremendous fun.

Normally, it is around the Alphabet and the organizer picks a work such as; Abstract, Bicycle…. Fast…Zebra lines, and we are given 2-3 hours to complete the list of 26 items.

Not every person gets completes the set and then during one of our member nights we show how people interpret the words. That in itself is a learning opportunity.

So either give yourself a short time (several hours) and see what happens over a longer period and make each high quality photograph. Why not both?

Have a friend make the list to really extend the challenge.

 Fast

Zebra Stripes

Here’s a list I did once for my photo club. I wanted the photographer to work their imagination, at least for most of the words.

Abstract, Between, Chrome, Different, Empty, Fountain, Gate, Holdup, Iron Work, Jumble, Keyhole, Lantern, Musical, New, Overhang, Pastel, Quality, Rust, Smooth, Three, Up, Variegated, Wet, X marks the Spot, Yellow and Zebra Stripes

100 Random people

This is a prefect project for any of those who have difficulty photographing people whether portraits or street people. After 100 people are photographed, there should be no qualms about shooting people.

Man on Bench

Orange and more orange

You may have noticed that I am not really a people photographer. I recognize that this is a shortcoming as when needed I don’t have all the skills to ensure success every time. That is why this summer I will be photographing people mostly around Ottawa.

Niels Henriksen

10 Great Photography Projects - Digital Play

Difficulty: Medium to Hard. It does require software to manipulate the digital photo files and then some skill with using these programs. Not all software can perform all the changes you want to make and it may require several programs.

Projects are normally synonymous with work but if done correctly, can and should be play.  In this article I will list creative ideas that you can use to structure a learning opportunity and at the same time make it playful.

Playing around is not normally a project so to make it one, take one or several of the suggestions and to try it on 5 to 10 images or try many images and try for 5 you like the final result.

When you play around long enough some better images will develop.  As a project try and get 5 or whatever number you want for each category or theme you want to play with.

The benefits:

The benefits for playing around with digital files will be to learn to see how colour and light re-act. Most of the adjustments being made will affect image contrast, colour hue and saturation and by observing how image focal points or interest as relationship to viewer changes as the image tones change.

This should lead to think more about compositions, light quality, its direction before a shoot and then how better to process and image to achieve the desired effect.

This is a lot easier than adjusting the real environment in front of you.

Hue & Sat Adjustments

In the above image the colours of the plant leaves (Yellow and Greens) were adjusted in ACR by using the Hue/Sat/Lum sliders before loading into Photoshop.

The below image was the final version I selected.

When doing selective color adjustments, I use this adjustment method the most as it has the expanded set of colours and by loading it as an object I can always go back and fine-tune any adjustment later on.

This range can also be created in the standard adjustment provided you could fine-tune each colour range to a tighter set.  See article

How to adjust any Colour of the Rainbow.

In this image of the house in the fields of Norway I was examining different solutions for making an 11”x14” printed image.  Again this was achieved by adjustment in ACR and then also using some versions with different blending modes.

In the above examples the changes were on a global scale without the use of masks.

Selective Color Adjustment

There are photos where there are central subjects but because of lighting or background colours the image doesn’t quite stand out. 

Changing the colour and tone of backgrounds can make for interesting combinations of effects.

The flowers are the original colour and the colour of just the background weed was changed. All the remaining greens were de-saturated as the original brighter now colour clashed with the orange leaves.

Changed the red of the hibiscus to blue, this contrast made the yellow seem brighter. All the reaming background was toned to a dark B&W.

This was a happy accident when I used a different blend mode. This looks really wonderful printed large on mat paper. The fine colours and shapes in the violet mass become more visible.

Grunge Overlay

The practice I enjoy the most is changing one of the layers blending mode and watching what happens. I tend to select the first mode and then with the down arrow just step through all the blending modes. Most results are too radical and more like pop art but there are parts that with opacity adjustments can produce interesting focal points for an image. Sometimes I use the layers property adjustments to reduce the tonal range for applied effect.

In the B&W and conversion I wanted the purple flower to be almost pure white and the tip of the spikes as dark as possible to emphasize their spikes. The thistle was placed against a grey background. I used several background layers set to darken mode to create a pattern which complimented the roundness of objects and the spike pattern with tiny whiter points.

Composite

With editing programs that allow you to add layers, overlapping 2 images or more and then combining them into a new scene can take you to a place that you have never been before.

This image was a combination of a large rock wall at the edge of a driveway and an image of a large pond on another part of the property.  The background image was chosen so that elements such as the rocks, cloud and sky shapes and tree branch clumps all re-enforce the shape of main boulder or rock face.

The sky was a perfect blue but that didn’t add to the more gothic mood of the clock tower and gargoyles. By replacing the clear sky with clouds, the mood of the whole image is tied together. I lightened a line from the top right towards the clock face to add visual movement. This was also complemented by slightly darkening the other 3 corners.

Negative images

There are certain images, mostly B&W that when the image is inverted it now forms a new unique image. 

These are only some suggestions as there are many other ideas to play with such day-to-night images etc.

The most important part is to play with the editing parts. See what develops and learn which images work best with desired effect.

I would love to hear your ideas and even see some of your images. Please post suggestions or link to any images you have made.

Niels Henriksen


Next Project: Get Your Rhythm Going

My Camera World wins Golden Retrevo Award

I want to give a big thank you to all the My Camera World blog readers who were kind enough to vote for this blog and therefore help it win a Golden Retrevo Award in the Photo and Video category

You can view the other great winners and categories of these awards at

Golden Retrevo Awards site

It is a humbling feeling to know that many of you enjoy the photos and articles and importantly, take the time to support this effort.

Niels Henriksen

10 Great Photography Projects - Copy-Cat

Difficulty: hard to get every element the same.

This work involves copying and learning from another artist’s works. Not to claim it as your own but to learn, to really learn how the image was created. If possible find a photographer that inspires you and select a collection of images (5-10) that have a style, a theme or any focal interest that truly inspires you.

Copy them. Try and copy them perfectly if you can, so you almost can’t tell the difference.

The key here is to take notes, have a journal, to record the shoot and events around it.
Include some of the photos in your notes and mark these up with differences or parts that work and record why.  Normally it’s the lighting that causes the biggest discrepancies especially in the mid-tones and shadows. Sometimes it’s the camera and lens combination that make it hard to duplicate.

It may look easy to duplicate an image but it is a lot harder to get it right in all aspects.

If the photographer is still living, contact him or her to let them know of your desire to learn that style of photography. Don’t forget to inform them that no image will be displayed publicly or made available for distribution in any form.

Always respect copyright and when publishing your own photos do give recognition to where the ideas came from.

If you are photographing out doors, landscapes, then it can never be the same and sometimes if you love the Rockies and live in the Australian Outback well, good luck.

This year I will try and copy the style of one genre of photos by Michael J. Carl.
The images I came across are in the Silver Shotx  Folio 2009 magazine (page 17).




There are some really interesting photos in that edition. Get a copy and take a look.

I need summer time to get some images of Hostas as I can’t seem to find them under the snow right now.

The above images are not intentionally related but an attempt to show how one image of the Japanese gates could be related to the red poles of the Ottawa transit station if trying to achieve a red receding vertical pattern.








Niels Henriksen

Next Project - Digital Play

10 Great Photography Projects - SoFoBoMo 2010

Difficulty Level: Hard, not technically but in all the things that need to be done in a short period of time

SoFoBoMo 2010

This year SoFoBoMo it is set to start any time during the month of June and then to be completed within 31 days. The eBook (PDF) must include a minimum of 35 of your images that are only taken during this time period. Text is optional but for me this really anchors the story and theme all together into one unit.

SoFoBoMo Official site is:  http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/l Web site http://www.sofobomo.org/2009/
 

The picture included here are from my 2 SoFoBoMo Books

The Solo Ph(F)oto Book Month (SoFoBoMo) is, in my opinion, one of the best projects that a photographer can undertake and with the full knowledge that it will lead to stellar learning  opportunity and enrichment in having the finished book. It will make you think differently about photographs both individually and as a collection.

I have participated in this project for the first 2 years and will again for the 3rd year. The idea behind this was started by Paul Butzi ( (Musings on Photography ) but its success has been because the many photographers over the years who have not only finished their book but more importantly blogged about the their experience. What a great way to learn from so many talented photographers.

Do take the time to review Paul B articles under SoFoBoMo.

There was even a discussion group created by Hugh Allison
You can find it at http://www.flickr.com/groups/sofobomo/

A Photo Tells a Story

If a photo is worth a thousand words, then a collection of ten (10) images is a short story and 35 images must be a full novel.

That’s why this project is hard. It’s like creating a full novel and then there are only 31 days to complete it in.

The first year, which was also the launch of SoFoBoMo, was hard for me mainly as I didn’t really know what I was doing and there wasn’t a lot of experience in the online world to seek help from.

But once through a round of producing an eBook, it now became easier. Even during my second book I had to change themes part way through and I still managed to produce a reasonable photo book.

For a project to be successful, having the work planned out in advance helps you understand the full end-to-end effort and gives you that comfort-level of being able to adapt should that inevitable constant ‘Change’ show up.

Remember that any planning work and getting equipment and tools together is not part of the 31-day window. Take your time to get it all right now, as this will help you out later on.

I find it’s best to have a back-up theme, while probably not as good as your first choice, it will allow you to complete the book should something unforeseen happen with the first idea.  Completing the book is more important than how super your images are.

Once you have your theme and locations selected I find there is 4 distinct phases that breakdown nicely to 1 week each in duration during the go-live event.

Acquire images – Week 1

If a lot of planning has gone into this section it goes from being the toughest section, to if lucky, one of pure enjoyment.

Take a lot more photos than you plan or even think you will need. It just pays to have extra. Before you are finished from a specific shoot, turn-around and look for more. Unless you are good at photo books, ‘More’ is the name of the game.

Processing – Week 2

There are a lot of images to go through and this week is for cataloging and rating each image on its own quality.  Look over the better images several times but don’t try and layout the book just yet. Just focus on images that you like.

This part doesn’t actually take a week but with good planning and knowing the first section is critical we now have a few days to re-photograph some scenes because either we didn’t get them right or we want some other sets.

Selecting and arranging Week 3

The really hard part is over and we can enjoy the process of selecting the Best set of images to layout in a photo book. The original theme may change at this point, most likely not a whole lot anyway. The theme was a guidance tool to narrow down the field of images to photographs. It’s a discovery process and you are never quite sure where they lead. Therefore, staying flexible on ideas makes it easier and more enjoyable.

Tip:

If you have access to programs that can create slide show programs then create a new set every time you are thinking about the order and pairing of photos that create the storyline.  When you start out thinking about time-lining the photos start with small sets that capture the basic essence of the book, a bit like chapter headings

Too many at once can make it seem more like work. I like to start small and then add adjectives (photos) around the theme.  Make what you are doing play, not work, and be willing to accept whatever unfolds.

Depending on the length of textual information in your book, start taking notes on ideas for captions and other descriptions of sets of photos.

Publishing the Book Week 4 and Finally Done

There is a lot of Publishing Software available free or use your word-processing software.

If it doesn’t export as a PDF file, I use PrimoPDF  (free) to create PDF files.

Two Free versions of publishing software I have tried:

Open Office, which I’ve used for both books and is my preferred software as it allow 0” margins for when you wish a different coloured background and it also exports in PDF.

Tip: when inserting images anchor the image to page to keep in same location. If anchored to paragraph I found these image will move around when I make changes to the text.


Scribus, which is more professional, but I found I had to have the image sized exactly for each change, as image wasn’t adjustable. Maybe I was doing something wrong.

Then upload and take a look at all the other eBooks.

Planning tips:
Get weather forecasts for the upcoming week. Depending on whether you need sun or clouds or both, plan each day based on the anticipated weather. While we all like to complain about the weather, forecasters never get it right. It does help to understand that if you look, and with the changes over the week this remains mostly accurate. Then only slight delays or early arrival for each change in weather.

I Have read most of the entries form last year.

I hope to see some of your eBooks this year.

Niels Henriksen

The Series 10 Great Photography Projects

I personally think photography projects, especially if they are challenging, are great tools to help with your photography growth as an artist or along professional lines.

Projects by their vary nature are time-limited events that have a definite start and end point and by their very nature, attempt to achieve some measure of quality or success, and this last point is key to me.

Being careful and flexible about what you define as your success or quality markers helps to make projects a lot easier.

Don’t pick a hard project or aim too high, and be willing to change your approach as you come to understand more about what is involved throughout its course.

One of the overriding caveats is that undertaking any of these photography projects is that it will take an investment of your time. When all the great photographers say, “always take photographs”  they mean always take photographs. Constant exploring does lead to discoveries and it’s these discoveries like stepping-stones that propel you further along your chosen path and even in new directions.

Over the next few weeks I will list 10 photography projects that could help with your approach as to how you think, react and interact with the photographic backdrop of what you see.

In the spirit of starting the series on projects, I am listing a mini photographic project of my own here.

If you ever wonder about the value of your photography just remember that at some point in the future, someone might be very thankful that your shot was taken, like I am with this group shot below.

I now have a few more precious scanned photos, which date back to the late 1800’s (my biological grandfather was born 1856) given to me by new brothers in Denmark (4 sisters also).

I am hoping that eventually my relatives or their friends from my adoptive parents side will fill in the missing information about this large group shot.

This is an image of my grandparent’s silver wedding anniversary  (65yrs) in 1954 when the whole family got together for a full day of celebrating their very long union. Two (2) years later my parents moved from Denmark to Canada and with time and distance those connections are almost lost now.

So far these are the people I know:

• 4   My sister – Susanne Nielsen
• 5   My Dad – Hans-Erik Henriksen
• 28  Myself – Niels-Peter Henriksen
• 29  My Mother - Vera Henriksen (Holler)
• 44  My Grandfather  - (Petersen)
• 46 My Grand Mother - (Petersen)
• 50 Uncle - Ole Mersdaek
• 54  Cousin - Carsten
• 55  Aunt  – Tove Hansen (Holler) ( twin of my mother)

To all family members and friends if you know the names of anyone here, please add their name and photo reference number to the comments sections.

Thank you very much

Niels Henriksen



Next article in 10 Great Photography Projects is SoFoBoMo 2010

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Light and Colour on Canvas Blog - Now Live

This is just a quick note to let my readers know that my new Light and Colour on Canvas Blog is operational and just published its first article.

The name and the site was originally a static website, built using Microsoft Front page, where I could display my photos and articles.

As you can imagine hand coding page layout, inserting images etc, can be a bit labor intensive using those tools and therefore it’s obvious why they call them static pages. Too hard to constantly update.

With the advent of good blogging platforms such as this site it became a lot easier to focus on content and worry less about the code thing.

Blogger and Wordpress.com are both good but there are limitations to presentation layers. That is why after experimenting with Wordpress themes and configurations, I have finally settled on the version you see.

The Atahualpa theme has variable width, rotating headers images, auto-adjust image for smaller windows and plug-in ready.

I wanted a left and right column blog as I believe there is a need to separate content but I found that most sites with 2 columns on one side were a bit cluttered looking.

The big benefit with Light and Colour is that I will be able to provide links to eBooks, pdf articles as well as display the fine art photographs and paintings that are for sale.

It’s not all completely filled in but at some point it’s good enough and you need to let it go.

“Letting It Go!”  I love the expression on my wife’s face. This was shot from the other recumbent bicycle while still holding a handle bar and the other trying to guess on the right framing with the other hand and not run off the pathway.


Differences between the 2 sites.

Light and Colour on Canvas provides a forum where I can discuss all my art forms and not just photography.  I have, on My Camera World, occasionally presented some of my other artworks when I thought it would help explore creative ideas with photography.

Since photography is still a major creative driver, both sites will focus on photography and the articles will be different from each other.  There is some old and good content on this site, which will be refreshed and posted on Light and Colour from time to time.

I do use 3rd party sites like Imagekind for the sale of some images, but any fine art photo, which are signed, are only available directly from me. I need to hand inspect every part to make sure it meets my high quality standards.

Like any artistic journey I suspect these sites will develop their own personalities as I learn how to express myself artistically.

“The Journey”  My friend Neil, and others, out on  kayaking excursion to LacVert (green lake). Every now and then we would mash-up for some drinks, snacks and good stories as we venture through the connecting lakes.


Feedback is always appreciated because if you want to grow in your craft “seek criticism not praise as praise only makes you do the same thing over”



Niels Henriksen

What is Creativity?

Tough question, almost as hard as asking “What is the meaning of life?”

There is a general consensus of some parts and with my own experiences I will try and give my insights.

For the most part I think every human has innate creativity built within his or her collective genes. It is part of what truly makes us human and able to enjoy the richness and splendor of everyday life.

I also think that there is a formula that helps us unleash, expand and bring to life our creative thoughts.

Creative expressions = Desire + opportunity + technical skills

I am not really sure whether it is Plus, Boolean or other funny mathematical operators but the order does show relative importance, as I understand it.

The images I am displaying here are from an evening where I walked about looking for things that interested me.  Wasn’t sure what would develop but that was the fun part and it lead to one image I really liked and seemed to work that I wrote about in this article.

What I Saw, My Camera Captured and What My Mind Thought it Saw .

There was something that attracted me with the light at the door and walls peering through the trees.  Not every image can be a best seller and some are just for me to enjoy.

Desire

This is the key element and without this the other 2 don’t mean much.
It’s often called by other names such as passion, inspiration or even the muses.
It doesn’t have to be big or grand, just a willingness or urge to take something that stirs the mind and unfolds it for you or others in a form where they can see the same vision.

Since you are reading this article and probably other blogs, then the desire is already strong now.

 The lights provided an interesting lead into the bistro and the end of the alley. I just wish that there had been a couple sitting to really ad that strong interest.

Opportunity

For me this is the key element. Opportunity can be pure happenstance where by luck you have a camera with you and then the right scene at the right time presents itself.
This is great when it happens but what is the success rate with this mode?

Success can be increased. It is a lot like fitness training whereby the more you train the more you can do, both in the gym and in your everyday life.

Why not apply fitness-training techniques to your photographic and artistic growth. This part is not learning technical skills with the camera or understanding compositions, it is a lot like endurance training. IF you run a full marathon, as opposed to a half, you get to see more along the route.

That’s why I wrote this article, as a lead-in to the series of “10 photographic projects” that I firmly believe will help. I was going to write my standard one page article listing 10 projects that will help you improve your abilities to create.

I was concerned that to give it proper scope it would be too long and not enough of you would read all of it. Many blog readers tend to skim after a few paragraphs.

Therefore, I will provide more detail for each of these photo projects so that I can better articulate the benefits and joys and sometimes frustrations with each project. Some will only contain one project, others may include 2. These will also be of a greater frequency (2-3 days apart) than I normally produce to ensure that interest remains strong.

I came across a group taking night photography lessons. The tripod just seemed to compliment the legs of the giant spider.  With the slow shutter, you will see some people who are clear as they stood still and others blurry who were moving. I couldn’t find an image that was really strong, as I would have had to move the tripods of the other photographers and since it was a walk about, I didn’t feel like asking each one of them. Maybe next time.

Technical skills

I find this part has 2 components:

Skill with camera: being able to capture the image as desired by using exposure, DOF, focal length, shutter speed. There are many blogs that will help you here, such as

Digital Photography School
Epic Edits
Your Photo Tips

Compositional skills: Understanding how lines, shapes, colours, contrast, soft and hard edges, subject position all help the viewer to move the eye around the image and thereby creating a stronger story or emotion from your image.

George Barrr has written several books on creativity  and provides this advice on  Behind The Lens

These are focus of most of my articles.

I can’t say that I have all the right answers or even understand it completely. Not sure anyone does, but it has been my passion all my life and along that journey I learned some things that I enjoy sharing with you.  Even to this date I still learn from you and others, which is the great part about the blogging community.




Niels Henriksen

HDR Photo with the iPhone

The new 3G iPhone is one good camera to have integrated with your cell phone.  The main feature for HDR is the ability to select different areas of the scene and at the same time bracket your exposure. Then with Photoshop or other similar photo-editing apps, combine these multiple exposures into an HDR photo.

Its often been said by many photographers that the best camera is the one you have with you and for many of us this means a simple built in camera with our cell phone. Only simple if compared to many full-featured cameras today but if you just look back some 20 to 30 years, these camera phones are just amazing.

3 exposures used for combined image

The iPhone automatically adjusts its exposure setting for the area selected within the focus box. By tapping different parts of the image, it changes its focus and it also adjusts the exposure compensation for selected area. Select a dark area to lighten and a bright area to darken. Try and select uniform tonal areas and watch how image adjusts.

The 4 different exposures taken for the pond image above. In the end I only used 3 of them.

Without a tripod or other solid support getting multiple exposures of your image with the iPhone, that overlap perfectly, is not an easy task.  There are some tips that can help you achieve better results:

Try to lean yourself or arm against a solid stationary object. If not possible, lean or squat so your elbow can rest on your leg or another part of your body.

Once you have your scene selected examine the 4 corners carefully as these memories will be the markers for ensuring that the next image is reasonably aligned. With practice you can get quite close. One problem if they are too far off is the final image area decreases to only the overlapping parts.

For complex scenes like the frozen pond above, take many images by selecting different areas of the image for focus. This will ensure wider coverage and sometimes all you need is a small area to add in and alignment is easier for smaller parts.
 

Just at sunrise with moon near treetops

In Photoshop, I use the difference setting in layers mode to align the images. Once I get the area of the image I will be using reasonably aligned I use either the Transform or Warp functions to fine-tune specific problem areas.
 

Don’t spend too long on aligning the 4 corners, as it’s easier to just copy layer and align the new area that you wish to use. Normally the change in angle distortion between images is only notable over the entire image. Small sections work fine.

I find that with the iPhone’s wide angle, that any small movement creates bigger distortions at the edges of the image.

It’s not a prefect tool but when the camera phone becomes the best camera you have then with multiple exposures you can get good photos in high contrast settings.

First Snow Fall of the Season
The other day we just received our first snowfall and nice 2” or 5 cm of the fluffy stuff.

As I was heading out for my morning walk, the sun now stays at a low angle a lot longer and the fresh tracks in the snow were being side-lit on the inside edges which gave them a luminous glow.

It’s interesting to watch the tracks that we leave.  Each track, whether they’re from boots or bikes, are different. 

 


Strange how great it seemed that day because 2 days later we had 10” or 25cm of snow. A lot harder for a walk-about.

Niels Henriksen