SoFoBoMo 2010 Finished

Last week I managed to finish the SoFoBoMo 2010 Photo book project. This is the 3rd year I have completed the joint photography projects with many photographers from around the world.

While it is still a fair bit of work to complete this from start to finish within the 31 days, it is getting easier. The easier part is now not being stressing out over the various steps that are needed to finish the book as I better understand the effort and various steps.

The hard part is still deciding what to include in the book theme as, if you are like me, you might tend to grab too much at one time and then worrying if your photos are good enough.

The image link below allows you to download the 2.7 MB pdf file.

I had planned another elaborate theme but events this year once again caused me to change course. Its a good thing I learned early on to always have a plan 'B' and even plan 'C' in place for when events change not as planned.

One photography genre I haven't spent a lot of time with is studio settings with controlled lighting, diffusers and other light modifiers. I do a lot of cooking and one of my thoughts is to one day create a food blog where I write recipes and use my photography to highlight components of the prepared food.

With that in mind I decided to setup a table-top home studio lightning setup and to photograph food that I regularly eat. As a sub set I also decided to limit the food to those with a hard edge, which would exclude foods that are mainly leafy. Those will be left for another day or is it salad.

In the next article I will show the studio setup and light modifiers I used.

Having already finished 2 books The pressure was off this year. I was doing photography I liked and if I didn't finish in time I would be disappointed but not devastated. The journey and learning were more important than actually completing the book within the set time frame.

This year I was just as excited with producing the book as I was the first year but my grandiose dreams of where it may go in the future are toned down with some reality from the other 2 books. But I do have some ideas for some future books that will be produced in hard cover and that I hope to sell a few copies of and one of those is to work more with food.

The great benefit of working with edible food well.., is that its edible. You get to eat it after you are finished. Not a bad way to work.

For those of you who have not as yet undertaken the SoFoBoMo project I can't overstate the learning opportunities both in photography, telling a story, and then producing a real book even its an ebook, its still real. Also for many photographers the taking of pictures is normally a reaction to a scene/event unfolding and therefore a somewhat unplanned happening even if is one that you made a decision to visit. Producing the photo book is about planning ahead of time for a story in pictures and then finding the images that convey that story. A different way of thinking for me.

Do visit the SoFoBoMo 2010 site and browse the many goods books being produced. I am certain that seeing some of these books will give new ideas about where to take your photography.

Niels Henriksen

Volunteering Your Photographic Services

Occasionally I am asked to volunteer my services to charitable or nearly charitable organizations. My decision to participate is made on a case by case basis and several factors come into play in  the decision-making process. In the article, I will identify the key questions and thought processes that I go through every time a request is made.

Interspersed will be the photographs I worked on for the Mill displays and some photographs I took at the 200 year celebration of the Delta Stone Mill. I was asked to edit 12 old scanned photographs for display that was going into 2 window frames that would each hold 6 of the 5”x7” photographs. I was invited to the ceremony on  5 June and took a few photographs for my own pleasure.  I may donate some of these to the Mill later if they wish to use them.

 Set 1 of old photos

Note: As a photo restorer, it is always better if I can scan the old photographs with my equipment. There are 2 reasons for this. My equipment can produce better quality and has more technical features to retrieve all the details and tones in photograph. My experience assures that I will be able to retrieve that maximum amount of information from photograph or negative in such a manner that it will permit me to produce a better product. It will also save me time with the photo-editing and restoring parts later on in the process.

Set 2 of old photos

First and foremost, do I have the skills and equipment to produce excellent images for this work?
I know some might say “well they are asking for this for free so what can they expect?”  Most people do want excellent results but even when 'for free' the work reflects my abilities and my quality standards. There is just no way that I would ever produce a photograph or work-of-art that didn't reflect the best in me. No one is going to remember or even know when viewing the final product that you did this for free.  Even if they did, they will think that this is the best he can do, not knowing its not your preferred venue and apply that judgement to other venues that you do charge for.

My quality standards are a major part of my brand and that represents me and how I want to be remembered.

Members of the Fort Henry Guard – Firing the old muskets

How will my services and products be used and what copyrights will I be assigning to organization?
Does the organization reflect my values in life? As a business for hire you do not, in some countries, have the right to refuse work but when free, that changes things.  When I donate funds to charities I give to the  organizations that I like. These same with my services. 

If producing photographs or works of art, how will my products be used and what copyrights am I assigning to the organization?
Do they want all rights in perpetuity? There is nothing wrong with giving away everything as long as you are aware of this ahead of time. I always ensure that I have a  licencing agreement that specifies exactly the rights for their use by the organization.

Members of the Fort Henry Guard – Fife and Drum group

What liabilities, if any, am I undertaking?
For many, this will not be easy to answer because this is where experience comes into play as to what  can go wrong.  If photographing people or expensive objects, who is responsible if someone gets hurt or an object gets broken or if a person trips or I bump someone and damage gets done because of my activities. What if one of my lamps overheat and a fire starts, who pays for repairs? What if someone expected privacy at the event (didn't know someone was going to photograph them) and they take exception to the images posted publicly and used commercially and they decide to sue you. There are so many what ifs that only experience can tell which ones may apply in this situation.

The dignitaries lined up for their speeches at presentation ceremonies

The people in the photo, from left to right, are:

 

Steve Clark, MPP Leeds-Grenville; Bob Lavoie, Ontario Trillium Foundation; Dr. Larry Ostola, Director of National Historic Sites; Elizabeth Robinson (original trustee DMS); Gord Brown, MP Leeds-Grenville; Ron Holman, Mayor Rideau Lakes Township; David Boyd, Rideau Lakes Town Crier

Paul George, Director/curator, Old Stone Mill N.H.S.

Check the insurance coverage of the organization and find out if it covers you for certain activities. Does the ticket to event grant use of their image at event. Always have your own liability insurance coverage. I cannot stress how important this is, as one day something will go wrong. There is a  difference if you are a business providing a free service as opposed to a volunteer donating your time. But negligence is negligence and the rules are different for almost every state and country. Seek legal advice, as it will be money well spent.  Just like paying for a course at college.

Who pays when a patron breaks one of my pieces of equipment?
Does their insurance cover your cost or will they reimburse you to repair or replace items. This is one area you definitely need to ask about as this happens more often than you think. Large events are crowded and if drinking is involved, it becomes too easy for someone to stumble around and knock over and break one of your photographic items.

A Mill worker photographing the ceremonies outside

Are others volunteering and What are they paying for other services?
Am I the only one providing a free service or are others also participating for free. I am not a big fan when I am the only person donating a free service and everyone else is getting paid well. But again it really depends on the event.
Are they paying top dollar for other services or are they getting a discount for some? If everyone else is getting the going rate, why am I at least not being compensated a little? Is it because they expect to get it free from me?

One of the booth vendors wearing historic garb

What is their funding envelope?
This is somewhat tied to the question above but if it appears that the organization has sufficient funds, but they have a policy of always trying to get work for free first then that may not sit well with me.

Don't be Afraid to Ask for some funds.
If you need an assistant or to rent some piece of equipment. If you are a business earning revenue then you could ask for a tax receipt if they are a charitable organization.

Even when free there are opportunities
There may be opportunities at the event to display your promotional materiel. Don't be afraid to setup a display area if you have the materiel.  This could range from sample images, brochures and business cards.  I don't recommend that you aggressively promote yourself to everyone you meet as I believe this is just in bad taste. But if someone asks, then sell your services.

This is  IR image created in Photoshop from colour photo

Always dress appropriately. If its a wedding then and suit tie might be in order and the same for a fundraiser. If its sporting event  then a vest or nice T-shirts with your  logo or websites or services printed on  is OK.

Donate your services wisely and eventually good karma will come which will lead to new work.


Niels Henriksen

Tutorial - Extracting Image with Blurred Edges and Replacing Background

This article describes how to extract objects that have some movement on the edges and then replace background and not have the image appear as a cutout and placed on a new background.

The main feature is selecting the outline of the ducks with magic wand and then applying a white colour stroke to create a 10 pixel outline. This will be used later to re-introduce some blur around the duck wings to make this more realistic and not quite the cut-out effect.

The black winter pool cover was still on in the backyard pool and with some recent rain, two Mallard ducks thought this was an interesting place to visit and feed on some of the algae growing in the warm stagnant water.

There is a cedar hedge all around the yard so with this privacy, they have landed many times over the years. This always gives me a great opportunity to step out and photograph at close range.  They are not too afraid and normally I can get to within 15 feet of them. The problem is actually getting them to fly away for those interesting winged shots without scarring them so much that they won't come back.

I noticed that the male duck would bob its head up and down as I would approach.  I mimicked this bobbing motion and within a few moments this caused them to fly away.

A soft sky background would make the Mallards stand out nicely. Just having installed Photoshop CS5, I thought this would be a good opportunity to try the new refined edge when creating masks.
I will explain my approach by using the layers' palette, as the discussion's focal point, going from the bottom to top.

In the panel below (number 1-6 going left-right and top – bottom ) the image top right (#1) is the original capture as they flew away from the pool. The ducks are reasonably crisp but there is way too much clutter around and the female duck is almost hidden in the tree branches.

Original Duck Image – the original image captured by camera is in panel #1

Sky background – suitable sky selected from files panel #4. It was flipped horizontally so that the diagonal of cloud sky edge matched the linear motion of ducks going from bottom right to top left.

DSC6177 Smart RAW copy for color extraction – Copy of RAW file inserted as a smart layer. This version allowed me to darken the sky (more blue – panel #2) to help with refine edge to better detect change between white feathers and sky. Once mask refined, it was saved as a channel for each of the ducks

Mask for larger Duck -  The channel mask for large duck loaded and applied to copy of original duck image.

Mask for small Duck – The channel mask for small duck loaded and applied to copy of original duck image.

Mid Grey – A mid tone grey fill layer created to assist with viewing and refining edges against background. Some of the bird edges are white and with an almost white sky it is harder to detect edge.
Whenever using automated tools, I find it's always better to assist with the task by either changing contrast or colours to make the extract easier. Here I used colour changes in RAW files. Sometimes I may even go to over-saturation when dealing with earth tones.

Merge Ducks Master  -  both masked images for ducks loaded as a new layer. See panel #3 but with no grey background.

Stroke Mask for edge of Ducks -  The Merge Ducks Master Copy and Mid grey selected and magic wand used on grey background. This gives me a marching ants selection around ducks. This section was then stroked (Edit-Stroke with a 10 pixel, white, center) setting creating panel #5.

B&W Luminosity – a Copy of Merge Ducks Master copied and set to luminosity mode.
B&W Adjustment color effect - A  B&W adjustment layer was applied to this B&W Luminosity layer and adjusted for desired colour effects. The Blue, cyan and yellow  increased to lighten colour. See panel #8.

High Pass - Copy of Merge Ducks Master and a high pass filter applied and layer set to overlay mode. See panel #7.

Blurred Winged Edges – Original layer copied and Gaussian blur applied (3.5px). The Stroke Mask for edge of Ducks was applied as a mask and the main body duck edges were painted black with 50% opacity to reduce blur effect on these parts but have the most blur on the moving wings. Panel /6 is mask.

This stroke mask could also be used to reduce colour fringing around the edges by applying a Hue/Sat adjustment layer and reducing saturation of problem colour. The mask keeps the effect to just the edges and a smaller stroke pixel setting can be used to limit the width of colour changes.  Normally for photographers, the desired change is to replace skies. With desaturation, the greying will match tones of non blue skies. If blue sky is desired then use the Hue/Sat layer but instead shift the hue of the problem fringe colour.

This is a closeup of the male Mallard duck sitting in the swimming pool with some water on the black winter pool cover.

Niels Henriksen

Black and White Iris – A Comparison Between Silver Efex Pro and Photoshop B&W Adjustment

This is a review of only 2 approaches to achieve a desired effect with a purple Iris flower. I had placed purple iris flowers in a vase, which I set in front of a white mat board. I wanted to do a study of this flower because of the great purple tones, the strong complimentary yellow colour and great curves and folds. The purple in these flowers are normally so saturated that I needed a very soft light (cloudy day, large window and not in direct light) to not overly darken the shadow areas.

It wasn't until some time later while reviewing the images again that I thought about trying to produce a B&W version.

I didn't want a high contrast image but wanted to focus on the great tones and textures as the form was already established by the image taken.

My approach is to open in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and then to tweak the hue saturation and luminescence for what I think will convert well with a photoshop B&W adjustment layer. I know I can do this directly with the setting in ACR but I find that I have more flexibly creating masks with colour and using ACR to separate colours further apart before bringing into photoshop.

In the image below, you can see by using the blue and magenta sliders I made the bluer tones bluer and the darker purple more magenta. This would give more control over the tones when using the blue and purple slider with the B&W adjustment layer.

I have just finally installed Photoshop on my new computer as the CS3 (windows XP) version was not migratable to the new windows 7 (64-bit) machine. With 7 processors, 12 GB of RAM and 1.8GB Nividia video card, it sure does fly. I did get the upgrade Veveza II and I thought I would play around with Silver Efex Pro that many photographers seem to enjoy.

I enjoy the B&W adjustment layer version better, mainly because I could bring out more tones, less muddy in the darker portions and I could also turn the yellow stamens white. There was considerable time spent achieving this effect whereas with Silver Efex Pro it was just a click of the button after I selected the processing type and film section.

I do like the Silver Pro version because while still soft, the contrast in texture of the vein like patterns is better. I suspect that if I were to make a final print I would combine the best parts of each through masking and blending modes.

I did add a blue/purple duo-tone and in this case more of a tint to further soften the final image.

Niels Henriksen

Form and Texture – Clouds and Tree Tops

Before Spring starts its mad dash to populate the earth with bright green foliage, the landscape can seem quite desolate.  As a photographer looking for interesting subjects, It may at times appear bleak and uninteresting. Some of us may just decide to wait it out until the glorious colours start to appear again. 

If you have time to observe, and this means more than the cursory glance, objects and subjects may appear if you can wait it out, but you need to see slightly differently.

These photos are all in Black and White because its about texture and shape, and colour would only confuse these elements.

Initially the sky was clear blue, bereft of good detail, at least with a photographer's eye.

Clouds  started to roll in from the north and I wondered if I might be able to match the cloud forms to the top of the bare trees that surrounded the fields around me.

This was not just a random thought occurrence, well it might have been, but there was some history to these thoughts.

For a long while, I had been looking at all the bare tree tops and liked their forms and texture. I just wasn't sure I could capture them in such a way as to make them interesting.

By cascading them against the cloud forms now I could add more interest and complexity to the photograph.

While the tree tops and cloud shapes have similar forms (complementary to each other) the texture is completely opposite. The clouds are very soft and almost non-existent in texture. The tree top branches are hard.

The list below highlight these differences

Clouds              Trees

Soft                    Hard

Fat                     Thin

Low Contrast     High Contrast

Flowing              Rigid

Thin                    Dense

Smooth              Jagged

In the above image I was going to crop the portion (in camera) to where the split in the branches mirrored the split in the clouds, but I found that this longer form worked better. There is more balance between mass of clouds and mass of trees. It takes softer parts to balance smaller denser part.

Down along the pathway there were these giant oak trees, like sentinels guarding the landscape.

The small solitary figure adds more interest to the image and creates a strong focal point.

The tall trees may initially capture your vision but soon the man appears and grabs your focus. Only then when the eye starts to go back up do the diagonals created by the tree branches start to guide the vision.

Sometimes it's important not to think about the actual objects that make up the landscape but to see the spaces and patterns formed and linking individual pieces together.

Niels Henriksen

Book Review - Learning to See Creatively

I was quite fortunate that just as I was starting the 10 part series on Great Photography Projects, Amphoto Books contacted me through Random House and asked if I would be willing to review one of their books. (see disclaimer at bottom)

Since I am a big fan of books, especially picture books, this was a no brainier.  I selected the book, ‘Learning to see Creatively’ which I thought would tie nicely in after the last series of those project articles.

Book title:  Learning to See Creatively – revised edition

Design, Color &; Composition in Photography

Author: Bryan Petterson

160 pages – soft cover

ISBN 0-8174-4181-6

The first task with any Photo book, especially one that discusses design and composition, is to determine if it has a good repertoire of excellent images. That is what I thought when I made my first scan through the pages. The images made me want to stop and check out the pages. This is what a good photo book should do.

My wife had the same feelings when she leafed through and commented how great the photos were.

I will briefly describe the focus of each chapter and what I think is the level of skill needed for the reader. At the end I will give a summary and my rating.

As the book’s author states “This is not a book about metering for the right exposure or setting the right f-stop and shutter speeds…. This is a book about ideas” but he does provide the lens and camera settings for each image taken.

Expanding Your Vision

This chapter examines how various lens categories such as; normal 50mm, wide-angle, full-frame fisheye, street zooms, telephoto and macro each affect how the subject and backgrounds interact at the various focal lengths.

There is no design formulae on when to use a lens, not sure there really is one, but the author does discuss when and where to use these variety of lens and provides examples why he selected a lens for his images.

Elements of Design

As the title indicates, this chapter deals with the compositional elements such as lines, shape, form, texture, pattern and colour to assist the photographer in creating striking images. While this is basic material, the author provides good images to help convey a compositional element.  Also as a benefit in this chapter and all the others the author uses several framing versions of the same subject to demonstrate how a design element in one of the variants of the subject makes image compositionally stronger.

Composition

This chapter discusses techniques, such as ensuring the Subject Fills the Frame, Rule of Thirds, Odd Number and Preference for 3, Horizon, The Right Third, Diagonals, Frame Within a Frame, Horizontal Format vs. Vertical.

It also examines that there may a better picture within a picture, working your subject and as always breaking the rules.

The Magic of Light

In some ways it is true that light is magic and the author shows us how the same scenes can go from ordinary to stunning by just waiting for the right light, not time of day, but the way the subject, foreground and background are lit.

Digital Photography

This is the only section that I had some difficulty with. First, as with most things electronic, certain information becomes very dated very quickly. I believe keeping the technical specs and comparisons to the weekly or monthly media format because in a book, in just a few years some of the comments may almost seem ludicrous. He also focuses on 4 very rudimentary digital editing but not in the traditional darkroom styles (dodging, burning, contrast).

The author has taken many great images almost exclusively with film and I believe this chapter would be better if he focused on the differences and similarities between the mediums, ie: Positive film behaves more like a digital camera, the merits of medium and large format cameras, HDR to exceed the dynamic range of even B&W film, sticking to increase actual file size. 

Career Considerations

This section is very limited in content.  Very basic and mainly limited to ensuring you can adapt to change and having a fresh portfolio to address trends.

Introduction and Index are also included.

Summary

The Digital and Career sections fall really short even for the most basic of needs.

Otherwise the book is very well written and have a good use of images to demonstrates key points.

The author does suggest 4 specific exercises to help you see differently with your camera and lens and for novices these would be good opportunities to explore.

Taking more photos is really the only method to get better.

Overall I enjoyed the book. The fact that the author uses 2 or more compositions of the same locations really helps to demonstrate the key element being discussed.

The photos are great and I would think that readers at any level would find some images that inspire you to try new approaches or subjects. 

Best Audience – novice, maybe progressing to DSLR type camera (as better control of shutter speed and aperture is needed to achieve the author’s results, who wants to improve the success rate with WOW images or is thinking about entering photography competitions and who has not already taken any photography design courses before.

Recommended

My Rating   3.75 out of 5

While 2 chapters are weak, they are not really needed to cover the theme of book.

I enjoyed reading the book.

The list price is $25.95US and $32.0 CDN.  This book can be purchased new for under $18US on web sites and this is the price I use to factor the rating.

The rating is established for the targeted audience and is not meant for the more experienced photographers.

Learning to See Creatively at Amazon

Disclaimer:

I have not received any monies or other favours, other than receiving this book, as a result of this review for either of the 2 companies or their affiliates.

The book is being donated to the Camera Club of Ottawa, of which I am a member.

Niels Henriksen

10 Great Photography Projects – The Assortment or Grab Bag List

This is the last article in the series of 10 great photography projects. This final article is not so much a project but a list of challenges that can be project-like if approached with the intent of learning about photography, skills and the art of seeing.

Photography should be a life long passion of constant learning and exploration. If you are continually doing the same types if photo styles such just walking around and capturing interesting images then your learning opportunities quickly diminish.

With the previous articles I hope that you may have found a challenge or interest that you might choose in the hopes of pursuing something new. If not I hope this list may find more interest with you.

The key to growth is just to keep doing what you are doing and at the same time to always have opportunity (challenges) for growth.

I have several photography projects underway this year, first and foremost is SoFoMoBo that kicks off in June. Challenging but definitely rewarding.

Next, and this project derives itself from sitting too long in a spot (backyard patio) and getting strange ideas, is about the scenery around you. Just over the hedge are 4 birch trees that always seem to get my attention. I have decided to do a year long study of those 4 birch trees in all light, seasonal weather and other climatic changes. All the same in framing but each at a different time. Then select 12, not necessarily monthly, photos to convey a time story of these trees.

Taken with the setting sun hitting the left face only

This image, viewed on the computer, may not seem more than a bunch of fine squiggly lines. The final image (12,000x9,000 pixels) is a composite of many more detailed images such as the photo below shows. The section is from the birch tree just right of centre and going up the left wavy branch to where the branches start. When printed full size, if I ever decide to make this set, they would be approx 4 ft by 3 ft'. This is a very good size to observe all the fine details.

I will also be looking into a collaborative photo book production, not with photos but the written word. This one may slip into next year.

A List of Ideas

Tell a Story in 10 or 'X' number of photos

If its true that a photo is worth a 1,000 words then 10 photos should make a story, at the very least a short story.

With only 10 or any number photos, but ideally the number should be decided before you start, develop a story that viewers can take away by just observing the set of images. No titles or any descriptions to give the thread away. Ask viewers to describe, in a sentence or two, their thoughts or feelings they have about the set of photos.

Web – Blog Project Contests

The web is full of many interesting nooks and crannies and in some of these corners there are great opportunities to challenge yourself and even measure your skills against others. They are not prefect but each site seems to have its own preferred tastes.

DPChallenge has about a dozen challenges a month. Some are free and some are closed to paying members.

Fred Miranda runs both weekly and monthly challenges.

Digital Photography School (DPS) while not only being a great provider of photography related information also runs numerous challenges and weekend projects.

Epic Edits by Brian Auer is another wonderful resource blog has run challenges.

Life and Learning through the Lens by Darwin Wiggett has run several photo contests and takes the time to display daily on blog the entries with a photographer's description.

PhotographyBB runs monthly assignments as well as providing and in-depth monthly e-magazine.

PhotoChallenge.org has 4-week themes and monthly challenges.

I spent an hour photographing a potted Hydrangea plant with a zoom and a macro lens. In this image, I like the full range of tones from blue through to magenta and how they seem to be gently floating.

Several Images of macro Hydrangea plants were combined into Photoshop and by adjusting the blend mode of layers and sometimes inverting the colours...very unique patterns emerge.

Collage and overlays

If you have the use of digital photo-editing tools with layer capabilities, such as Photoshop or GIMP, then try combining or blending the layers together to create new composite or collages. You can blend texture into areas or even add new sections from other images. It's easy and fun with no preset rules. Just the imagination and time to play.

Slide Show to Music

In some ways, this is similar to the "tell a story in 10 photos" but with this version, the goal is to link a series of images to a musical score or song. There should be some harmony (a pun) between the photos chosen and the music.

Video

Why not try some video compilations. As a photographer we, through many techniques, try to convey a sense of motion, action or drama from a still image. Not always easy.

Find a video recording device, preferably portable and create video sequences. Intersperse stills with video clips.

B&W

If you are primarily a colour photographer, then for a period of time only shoot Black and White images. This is not the same as taking a colour image and converting to B&W but where you choose a scene or subject beforehand because of its B&W characteristics.

B&W, because there is no colour information being presented to the viewer, is even more about the compositional elements such as lines, curves, tones, negative spaces and all those other good design decisions.

Purposely photographing in this manner will help you better focus and compose images with those design decisions in mind. Colours, while wonderful in their own right, can bias your views on what makes a good subject and can cause you to miss those other important elements.

One again I hope that some of you will have found and idea or variation on a theme in this series that you want to pursue. I find that when it comes to learning projects at least artistic ones that there is really no right and wrong with outcomes. It should be more like you have a sandbox (a frame) and a rake (texture) and just playtime. Who cares how it looks.

Niels Henriksen

For about a month I have been without Photoshop program. The older CS3 version was not migrateble to Windows 7 and I didn't want to buy CS4 since CS5 was due to be out in a short while. I was able to confirm that the CS4 64-bit version worked well but the trial period has been over for a while and I just sit and wait patiently. Since all files are in NEF, its a problem to get a converter. I did try Ufraw that is supposed to integrate with GIMP. But had driver problems.

10 Great Photography Projects – Setting Up a Home Studio

Give yourself a perfect project by setting up a ‘Home Studio’.

To many people, this expression probably connotes settings up the traditional studio to photograph people for family portraits. But why not set a studio where you can bring the outdoors inside and then you have the ability to control the weather and lighting.

A studio is really a place where the photographer can control the weather and keep it dry or do the opposite and more importantly, have control of the lighting. Except for serendipitous moments, most great photography is all about lighting. Any subject might perform well if the right lighting is brought to bear.

Difficulty: Easier if you buy and harder if you are more inclined to be a DIY hands-on person but a lot more fun, which that tends to be my approach.

There is no way a big landscape scene is going to work at home unless I build a good diorama and even if I did, it would be through the photographs of the original scene I would be using.

But the smaller items will work fine. These can be flowers both bought and picked fresh, even weeds are wonderful. Everyday objects around the house or found through scavenger hunts at garage sales, flea markets and antique curio stores.

Nikon D300, 18-200mm Nikon VR II, ISO 200, @200mm, 1/500sec, f5.7

Benefits

Light. The intensity, direction, reflections and even absence of, is what helps to make photographs dramatic. The home studio allows you to control all these variables.

It helps you see ‘light’, how it touches and seems to curve around some objects. How it hides and then again resurfaces as reflected light.

You will be amazed that after you study light in a controlled setting like your home studio, venturing outside will enable you to see light as a shaper of objects and not just a time and place that a photograph was taken.

The Basic setup

While I will be discussing the indoor setup there is nothing wrong being outdoors, such as with the 3 photos of birds I show in this article. These were accomplished with aid of a bird feeder, a nice sunny day, a chair just a few feet away and a cup full of patience to wait it out. Next time I am going to use the brighter Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens.

I keep the viewfinder in one eye and the other open to observe the wider field of view. When a bird starts to fly towards the feeder, they are fast, I just press the rapid fire button at 6 fps and hope for the best.

Location:

The first prerequisite to setting up is that of a location. Any location will do, suitable being very subjective and amazing people have done amazing things in small places.

An area of open floor space is ideal, preferably without a rug. If using floor reflectors, then the uneven rug surface makes it harder to place correctly.

The kitchen table is also a perfect starting place with a large surface and being somewhat portable. Easily moved towards a window light.

The size of object(s) and minimum focal length of setup shoot determine best height. I have set up on a table and then realized that to photograph the way I wanted meant I would have to paste myself to the ceiling. Adjust and set up on floor.

Nikon D300, 18-200mm Nikon VR II, ISO 200, @200mm, 1/1000sec, f5.7

The Light

The next is light. Natural light being good sized and available on several walls is a great start. Direct sunlight is not the best unless you want photos with extreme contrast. Modify the light through a white sheet or any colour over a window and you have a perfect soft box.

Electric lights from tabletop or stand lights ranging from incandescent to halogen for subject highlighting, and in some situations, can become the main lights which are needed for dramatic images. The big problem with house lights is that they come in many types and each has their own colour spectrum.

Try and stick to one type so as not to have different colour casts in image unless that is what was desired. When using florescent try and select a balanced daylight version.

One problem with always-on lighting is that when there are too many, they can get very hot. Having a master power bar near you makes it easy to turn on/off for short periods without having to walk around to each.

The external flash is a very good light as it best matches natural daylight, very portable, and low heat. The disadvantage at first is there is a learning curve to be able to control the light power needs and it is hard to see effect during setup unless you have a modeling button. Once you are comfortable with flash these are excellent sources for very controlled lighting effects. Good links below:

Epic Edits has just created an good article on Best Studio Lighting Tutorials?


The Strobist is a good learning resource for Flash Lightning techniques

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Reflectors

Up to now, if you where lucky there has been no additional costs for the above items. Reflectors can range from being readily available such as mirrors or white panels, or home made from hardware or artist supply items, up to professional photographic reflectors.

The photographing I do is not time sensitive nor profit oriented, therefore making my own is the best answer. I tend to use 4X4 sheets of mat board used for photographs and paintings. Easy to cut, light and only a few dollars each. There is no need to get the archival quality material as cheap is the best. A hot glue gun and a few backing pieces will get them to stand up perfectly at any angle you choose.

Nikon D300, 18-200mm Nikon VR II, ISO 200, @200mm, 1/800sec, f5.7

Backdrops and Materiel

For a lot of studio photography there are only 2 backdrop colors needed, black and white. Maybe a mid-gray and a blue-green colour not found in nature for the background extraction.

For white, almost any material will work as bright white is by nature very reflective and therefore shinier materiel such as thin cotton, polyesters, and canvas work well. Black is different and the best I found is to use a thick felt type materiel which is almost mat in reflectance and there does not tend to show any light spilling onto it.

A couple of spring mounted extension poles that reach the ceiling and now you have an easy method hanging backdrop materiel.

Light Diffusers and Modifiers

These can range from as simple as a white bed sheet for windows to:

Coloured transparent wrapping paper are inexpensive tinting sheets for colourizing light.

Coroplast is wonderful corrugated rectangular plastic tubing made into sheets. If you get the semi-clear sheet these make great diffusers. They can also be cut and shaped and glued into any form. I have also used these outdoors and a diffuser and wind break when photographing flowers and things. Two heavy gauge metal wires are used as stakes, through each end of the tubing row, to hold panel in place.

Mirror-like black plexiglass adds a deep richness when you need to have dark reflections.

Opaque Mylar provides for very soft diffusion and I use sheets of these with a cut-out box made of the coroplast above. This give me a grid structure, which is opaque for a make your own tent.

Cones and Grids can change the light from a wrap-around to more of a spot for highlighting parts.

Remember that if the light is hot then don't use any materiel that will burn or melt or only use for brief durations.

Miscellaneous Resources

There are several excellent web resources for DIY setups and photography how-to, which can be found on the links below.

DIY Photography is a great resouces for those of us who might be handy with tools.


Your Photo Tips has a wide range of topics and ideas.

Better Photo Instructor Insights

Niels Henriksen

Tip Note:

In the above photographs they were captured as fast motion and therefore slightly blurry. I therefore need to enhance the structural elements of the birds such as the feather outlines. This was accomplished using HIRALOAM sharpening method. Hi Radius and Low Amount also referred to as Reverse USM creates broad sharpening bands and not just edge sharpening. I used a sharpen setting of 150 for amount and a radius of 10. I duplicated this sharpened layer and set one layer to lighten mode and the other to darken mode and then masked in the desired parts.

There is no one setting that works for each image but I normally start with an amount set to 250 and radius to 50. I then adjust the radius setting until I see bands (over-sharpened areas) that best match the effect I want and then dial back on the amount. It still looks very overdone but when set to the other blend modes it now has a better result. The adjust opacity to taste.

10 Great Photography Projects - Find Yourself a Mentor or Coach

This topic may seem a little strange for a photography project, but with every project, there is an objective to be completed and it does have a fixed duration.

Note: Free offer listed at end of article.

 Would you take a course form this guy?

I am heavily focused on some burnt window frames

In this series, I have tried to provide a list of activities, projects if you will, that might help you move your photographic, interests, skills, desires in a new direction that could open new possibilities to create interesting photographs.

Difficulty: easy if you deal well with people and can take constructive criticism about your work and not personalize the meaning of the comments.

Most of the projects I have discussed deal with self-promotion, self-drive and self-learning. If that self-part is not fully on your side, then as with many projects, they sometimes fail and fizzle out. It’s not that people don’t want to learn new things but sometimes we are stuck at a place mainly because of un-surety. 

This is where a mentor or coach can help you overcome any difficulties with your progression. Part of the problem with self-learning is that we expect too much from ourselves. Somehow we feel smart and engaged and yet some progress seems slow or almost non-existent.  We also tend to doubt our abilities, especially when we are bombarded with the wealth of great photos on the web and therefore may not notice any real progression we are making.

Most feedback is either “great” from friends in their attempt to be supportive but not really helpful. On other parts of the web there are only snippets of almost the same, or comments deal with generalities but not well suited to your photos and what you are trying to achieve.

Compositional rules are great but they are only guidelines and for any subject the artistic needs to understand where and how to apply the rules.

The other part with self-learning is that we also tend to take on too much work and complexity in hurrying to the end goal when many times the goal is only an end point and the journey was the interesting part.

This is where a mentor or coach can help you unravel the learning mess and systematically help you progress one step at a time.

What makes a good Mentor or Coach?

First and foremost, technical skills is not the key ability. It does help to understand the problems you are having here and be able to make corrective suggestions, but there are so many books and web articles available, this can be easily corrected once you understand  where you are not achieving your goals.

We all have a style, genre and areas of expertise. How well does the mentor’s own photography reflect your goals. If you like landscape, then a portrait photographer may not be the best, but if they are truly open it may work because its about the ability to help someone, not to dictate your own style.

A good coach listens first. In fact, needs to listen a lot. It is only by understanding the persons ideas and vision that a coach can help you progress.

The second part to good listening is to ask a lot of questions because you can’t solve what you don’t understand.  The experienced mentor or coach knows how and what questions to ask, and in the right order. Normally, the questions he asks will help the person arrive at their best solution (a lot like a trial lawyer).

A good mentor or coach will advise on the best steps to help the individual progress and the key here is that they will recommend steps that almost always guarantees success.

My own feelings are I would rather have you take 50 small successful steps to get to your goal than you trying 50 times with one big step, because most likely, you will quit before you try 50 times.

A good coach or mentor doesn’t blame you for any slow progress as we all learn at different rates. But at the same time, a coach will also not let you give excuses for not getting there. There are only facts and these are neither right nor wrong but information to help correct the approach.

I would rather have someone tell me that either they were too tired that week, just couldn’t figure out how to get going, wasn’t motivated, than telling me they were too busy to get something done.  Remember, there should be no blame but to understand the problem someone is having. New methods can’t be tried if we don’t know what to correct.

A good mentor or coach is flexible to the changes life throws at us. I am reminded that life is what happens between the plans we make.

My Offer for a free Mentorship Program to Blog Readers

For 2 persons, I will provide a photography mentorship program for about a 6-month period.  During this time I estimate I will be spending approximately 20+ hours of per person. You will most likely be spending a lot  more but I'm I OK with that. You should at least commit to 10hrs a month.

At my standard hourly rate, these types of services would make this about a $500 value.

My experience

For the last few years I have been providing these services to IT employees to help them become more successful with their work activities and career growth (my field of expertise is large-scale IT project management with a heavy focus on finding solutions to problems that develop).

With my local camera club I have provided instructional courses, and assistance with individual members over limited periods.

What I need from you

I need you to tell me about your current aspirations and in what areas you are having difficulty. I would like to see a portfolio of your images, and for at least 5 of them, to describe what you are trying to achieve or what story you want the image to convey.

Where you live (city and country) as this helps understand photo opportunities available.

How will it work?

I will listen to your goals and after a review of photos and questions about your style we will select an approach that will work for you. At least once a month there will be a review as to how the current approach is working and fine-tune as needed. During each month, depending on you schedule and free time, I will suggest photo assignments to examine certain growth areas and you will need to submit about 5 images that you feel are working, for review and which I will critique against the current goal(s).

You are free at any point to ask any questions.

Ideally I would like the ability to be able to talk directly (skype or other free service) to you as email is great for conveying facts but many times it is only by talking and exploring in real time that answers are solved.

Contact me via email, which can be obtained on this blog site. (I try to limit my email address as much as possible in articles to reduce spam).

This offer will remain open until I find 2 suitable candidates.

Niels Henriksen