NYCC: Lesson 2

Embrace RAW.

I've shot RAW since day 2 of my photographic journey. Originally this was done solely on the reading of a website that claimed "you should only shoot in RAW". At the time, I had no idea why. I was too bogged down with learning the camera inside and out to bother with post-processing.

Less than a year after I was fully engrossed with tweaking my pictures to ensure they look and feel as I had originally seen them or intended them to feel.

But at certain times I'm reminded of exactly why RAW rules.

While I was rushing to a press event, I happened across this little R2 unit. He was buzzing and whirring in circles briefly while I pushed through to the front of the crowd and in an instant, he was off!

Camera always in hand, I was able to make a few photos before he completely disappeared. however, upon checking the photos on the LCD, I was dismayed at my inability to set the exposure quickly enough. I had dialed-down the flash prior to making this photo, for something else, and had not powered it back up before this picture.

Luckily, shooting in RAW I was able to make a few key modifications. First, I changed the white balance. Although the strobe did indeed fire, and the white balance was set to flash - I was rather unhappy with the apparent amount of ambient tungsten light that made its way into this image. Even at 1/100th, the yellow hue from the lights was blasting the dome of this astromech unit.

Once I cooled the photo down a bit, I was then concerned with the exposure. I used both the overall exposure setting, as well as fill light slider in Lightroom to get the initial exposure where I wanted it. After that, I modified the dark, light, highlight and shadow curves to get it just right. Finally, I popped the blue tones a bit more to bring out the detailed color of the droid.

In hindsight, I really should have avoided the direction flash, as the front panel of the droid is over-exposed. Additionally, I should have held the camera up a bit more and shot downward to avoid the distracting feet in the background. Otherwise, I was ecstatic with the ability to turn this dull shot into something tolerable to look at.

NYCC: Lesson 1

Group Shots Require Finesse.

After the Good Vibes panel (a new show coming on after Beavis & Butt Head), the cast & creators got together on stage for the many, many photographers. As I was in the second row, isle - I was able to get right up front for this one.

Putting the camera up to my eye I made a few photos. I checked after the first one to ensure proper exposure. As I was surrounded by photographers pushing and shoving for a better spot, I had to be quick.

1/100th @ f/4.0

It wasn't until I returned home for my post-processing work that I realized:

When a group is being photographed by an even larger collection of photographers... noone will be looking the same direction.

While there were press hours shortly after this panel (which I missed due to a memory card malfunction), I was led to understand that not everyone from this group attended.

Perhaps some sort of attention-getting-gimmick for the next panel-shot I take. This way each person's eyes will be looking at my camera instead of all over the place!

My One And Only...

... "published" photograph.

Last year I was contacted by a company that wanted to use one of my photographs on their website. It's a travel guide, of sorts - dedicated to following the "buzz" around certain areas.

I was reminded of this a few moments ago when a follow-up email was sent to me from the company, indicating that they had recently revamped their website, and wanted to know if I had any feedback for them.

It was nice to see a little something I've done used online. Hardly a good photograph, and certainly not of any interest other than a visual representation of the location. But enjoyable for me, nonetheless.

Schmap Website - Photo By Jason Newman

Comic Con Meltdown!

Well, almost.

Sorry to say that I only have 3 memory cards. a 16GB, an 8GB and a 2GB. Needless to say, I only ever really use the 16GB.

I brought all 3 just in case I needed some more room. And at one point, the conversation came up to use my camera to record some video for my cousin's show Video Masters TV. I decided I could easily use the 2GB to do this for him, as the quality on my camera would certainly be better than that of his older 720p video cameras.

I swapped the 16 and the 2 for a few seconds, before the case of a new MTV show was ready for a group photo. I decided to swap back into my 16gig'er.

And when I went to focus/shoot - I got an error indicating the card was "not formatted".

There was panic. Having just made about 100 photos at a panel. And the day had *just started*.

Knowing I could recover the files, so long as I didn't do anything else with the card for the rest of the day - thoughts swarmed through my head about what to do.

But, in the end - all I could do was shoot with the 8 and the 2 gig cards. I had to sit on the 16 or risk loosing everything.

Sure enough as soon as I got home, I loaded up some data recovery software and was able to merely copy the files off the fallen memory card onto my desktop and all was well. Performed a follow-up bad sector check and full format on the 16 card to ensure this doesn't happen again.

Pics soon!

NYCC

Heading into the New York Comic Con tomorrow. Thanks to my awesome cousin, and creator of Video Masters TV, we have press passes! I'm rather excited about that, as I've never had a press pass to.... anywhere. As there will be lots of cosplayers & celebrities that will be there, I'm hoping to make a few good photos.

This will be a step forward into documentary/photojournalism, I feel. My goal here is to really capture the "essence" of the convention - and not just take a few snapshots. It's good to plan things out, but making it happen is something totally different.

I've got both of my camera batteries charged up, and both sets of AA rechargeables charged up as well, for my strobe. I'm bringing the actual chargers for everything, just in case. Finally, I'm also going to be packing an external hard drive w/ cable & my CF card reader - just in case I max out the 16GB & 8GB CF cards. I hope to not, but just in case.

I should have some pics up Sunday, if I'm able to get some editing done the night before!

Tell Me A Funny Joke

“A group of artists are invited for dinner by a famous chef.
In greeting the photographer, the chef comments:
I love your photos, they’re wonderful, you must have a very expensive camera. 
The photographer doesn’t reply and walks into the dining room.


After dinner the photographer approaches the chef and says:
Dinner was sensational, very exquisite flavors, a true work of art,
you must have a very sophisticated stove.”

#PHONAR

A few months back I added my name to a list of attendees to an online, open photography course being offered. The class, from Coverntry University in the UK, is being taught by Jonathon Worth, and also published online throughout the semester.

This sounded like a great opportunity for me to really get involved with something that has deadlines, and due-dates for submissions. While they aren't able to give each submission feedback, or grades/credit - per se, the takeaway here is that I'm able to follow the course curriculum and interact with other students through the forum.

The first assignment was to pick 8 - 10 of your favorite photographs that inspire you. Keeping them to a theme, and laying them out as you would in a presentation, or magazine layout. I found the idea very interesting - keeping a "flow" to the images, and relating them to each other.

I chose images of abandoned and decrepit items, left as garbage. These are images I've seen previously and have enjoyed looking at. I made a best effort to locate the original sources & artists, as most of these images I found while surfing the web.


http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4764009918_9149e828f9_o.jpg
http://www.lucisfoto.com/lucisfoto/blog/Entradas/2011/5/17_1x.com_BIS.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bolandrotor/5657236729/in/pool-333349@N20/
http://500px.com/photo/200557
http://photographers.livejournal.com/15444898.html
http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_defiance/2955181855/
http://www.myconfinedspace.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/aged-keys.jpg
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/caribbean-photos/#/caribbean-gallant-lady_2899_600x450.jpg

I didn't feel comfortable taking artwork from other people and using them in my own "layout", as if I was building a spread in a magazine. So instead, I just provided the forum with links for everyone to see the artwork that inspired me from a particular topic.

Family Portraits

With the possibility of an upcoming photo shoot with some family friends, I have been taking some notes from previous impromptu sessions I've had with other children. I would love for this shoot to be everything they want, and am willing to dedicate my time to learning the right way to do things.

I'm rather interested in making nice photographs for myself, as well. I've not had too much exposure to entertaining children while attempting to get them to sit still, and perhaps even smile! But I do love a challenge.

Sometimes, I find that just spending a day with them can often provide numerous opportunities for capturing their best expressions. I really love when children aren't "acting their age", and make adult-type faces, or motions.

1/125th @ f/5.0

Daddy was putting Isabella's hair up, and she "struck a pose" for me. It was so cute, and I was glad I had my camera in hand. Bouncing the flash off a white ceiling actually provides decent lighting, without many harsh shadows.

I do still want to move my flash off-camera, however while a $15.00 wire allows me to do this, I'm limited to 3 feet of movement. I know me. The flash and the light stand will certainly fall down.

Holidays & Parades

I really need to take a more proactive approach to planning photographic endeavors. For example. Tomorrow is Columbus Day.

I hear tell, that in NYC every year - there is a Columbus Day parade. Shocking.

Had I had the foresight to plan a photographic outing, I might have been able to put in a day off request from work to make a trek into the city and try to make a few photos.

During the #occupywallst shoot, I learned quite a bit and was interested in a follow-up visit to the "movement". Unfortunately with the group growing so large from the small gathering it was when I was there (on day 5 of the occupation) I haven't made the effort. Especially without press credentials.

I'll have to make a concerted effort, perhaps even a monthly task, to pay attention to the calendar and swap days off at work so that I can attend more city events!

Quick Stabilization

One of my stabilization tricks when I forget my remote shutter release is to set Mirror Lockup to "on", and the timer delay to "2 Seconds". This way I have 2 seconds after depressing the shutter & after the mirror locks in place for the tripod to stop shaking.

Now this certainly can become annoying when you are shooting movement of any kind. I use it primarily for landscapes and photographing the moon.

I'm sure others use this trick, I'm certainly not claiming to have created this. I just haven't read any articles promoting this technique!

Freelance "Audition"

It's been a very busy week for photography. A webinar to a seminar, A meetup and then a possible freelance job "trial". A few weeks ago I was contacted through my Flickr account by a new startup company about a possible freelance photography opportunity. The email briefly indicated that they were looking for photographers to go into NYC and shoot store windows, and close-ups of mannequins.

After a short back and forth I was able to confirm this is something I might be interested in participating in. The shoot was asked to be done at sunset to "avoid reflections". Perhaps they've never been to a big city, but reflections are ever-present in the big city. With all the lights, cars and other city-living distractions it's almost impossible to remove all reflections from the original TTL shot.

They recommended a CPL/Polarizer as well. Now, while on a recent cross-country trip I did learn that a circular polarizer will help reduce reflection present in windows. However, this was car glass that I was less than a foot away from. I had never tried using one a distance away from the glass. And even at a wide 24mm, it was rather troublesome to try to get rid of all reflections.

Additionally, the Tiffen CPL filter I use must take at least 1 to 1.5 stops off my shots. I was continually raising the ISO level the darker it got out, with hopes of just removing the noise in Lighroom during post.

The photographs I made didn't come out nearly as nice as I would have liked. The lighting in most of the shop windows was a mixture of tungsten and florescent, so of course I couldn't adjust the white balance right in camera. Additionally, I learned that I need to take more time to frame each individual shot, as I was cropping quite a bit to get things tighter in post.

Should the trial go well, and they ask me to join the "team", I would certainly considering an early morning shoot instead of a sunset shoot. I honestly hated having to wait for all the 5th avenue tourists to pass by before making my shot!

Meetup!

I recently joined a NYC photo "meetup". A large group of people that routinely participate in photo walks and other photographic opportunities. I was very excited to attend my first gathering. Originally some 130 people had stated they would be joining this particular event. Upon speaking with some of the fellow attendees, it turns out usually about half the people ever show up.

While I did only converse with two other people there, we had an excellent time. Even exchanged some info with one another. I was quite surprised to find out I wasn't the only tech there, either! Both of these gentleman are currently employed in IT as well.

                                      1/15 @ f/3.50                                      1/25 @ f/8.0

                                     5 seconds @ f/10                               5 seconds @ f/18

The event was held on a pier in Long Island City - and our subject was the always beautiful NYC skyline, just at sunset. The magic hour, as it's called. Lots of tripods, long exposures and remotes. It was quite excellent to see all manner of camera. From cellphones, P&S's as well as an array of DSLR's. I think I even caught glimpse of a Leica!

I had an excellent time, and strongly urge all of those in any community to search online for group outings and organized photo walks. I felt very safe in such a large group, and with many people sporting more expensive equipment than mine, much more secure! Plus, the added advantage of being able to talk with fellow photographers was a pure pleasure.

B&H Seminar

While on the Worldwide Photo Walk this past Sunday, the leader of our group mentioned that B&H has an "Event Space" where they host numerous free seminars. This was quite a shock to me as I frequent their website and store rather often, and have never heard of this.

Sure enough, after a single Google search, I found their site:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/EventSpace.jsp

This is quite extraordinary, as the classes offered are rather diverse and well rounded. Topics vary in range from composition, portrait photography, equipment usage, software and more!

I was very grateful to have learned about this offering, and immediately signed up for a lecture, of sorts, on composition. The event was led by photographer David Brommer. And interestingly enough, I had read a chapter in a book by him not more than a month ago on the same topic!

The course followed the book chapter rather closely and talked of studium and punctum. This is described by Brommer as most every photo that is "ok" - classified as studium. Opposite of that is punctum. When you make an image works - that you look at and know you've got something special on your hands. He does quite a better job of detailing each, in the book. I highly recommend reading it, as the book is excellent start to finish.

Needless to say I will be signing up for many more of these event space seminars. I enjoy learning more and especially enjoy meeting other photographers. This is a unique chance to do both!

Tuesday Madness!

Yesterday & today have been great. We were up at the family's house introducing the new dog to everyone. I was able to make a few photos of everyone first meeting Hiro, and their initial interactions with him.

One of the skills I think I've gotten good at - snapping the picture at the right moment so that the subject has a pleasant pose. This "skill" is mostly them.

The skill I haven't gotten good at: I tend to think more about the subject(s) than the background, and this often leads to distractions in my photos. For example:

1/125th @ f/7.10

I'm very happy with the subjects in this picture. However, the mostly-in-focus and certainly-angled-lines in the background are quite distracting to my eye. Particularly that colorful hanging cloth on the oven handle. Had I instead moved my own position and allowed the subject to then face me, his back would have been to a darkened room and looked a little better!

In addition to the photographs I made, I also attended an online "webinar" for monitor calibration. The event was run by the manufacturer of the product, and they mainly pitched the features of the high-end model. Every attendee was entered into a contest to win one, but alas I did not. I am certainly interested in getting my monitors calibrated for correct color - however it isn't a rush as I 

a) don't print my own prints

and

b) understand that while the colors may be accurate on my monitor, any photos I post online are certainly viewed by people with uncalibrated monitors!

My foray in the world of photography continues! Sometimes I feel as if I won't be content until I've filled every inch of my brain with knowledge.

WWPW Pictures

Through a mistake in metering the light correctly, I managed a well-exposed bird on a black background. Better than the nasty green water he was really in, actually.

 "Black Swan" 1/250th @ f/22.0

This long walkway over the water had a little person at the other end. I cloned her out. I wish I could do that to more people.

 1/800th @ f/8.0

I like shooting texture. I like shooting garbage. This was the best of both worlds.

1/250th @ f/13.0

Worldwide Photo Walk - Complete!

Spent the day with a local photographer and a not-so-local photographer! The 3 of us were together for about two hours for the 4th annual Worldwide Photo Walk. This was my first photo walk with people I didn't know, and I had a great time!

The group was rather small, but I preferred it this way as it gave me an opportunity to converse with my fellow walkers in depth about the subject we all love so much. Aside from checking out each other's gear and talking about our favorite types of photography, I was able to learn a lot about a subject of interest to me - the press pass. As the leader of our group is a photographer for a local paper, he had some first-hand information, derived from experience, about the job.

Our walk was a little more than a mile, round trip. But with lots of photo ops, we certainly took our time. The leisurely stroll helped me to realize a major problem I have: walking, talking & shooting. I'm rather incapable of paying "detailed" attention to my surroundings while in rapt conversation. I'm still able to be conscious of my surroundings & safety - but looking for the right shot still eludes me. Perhaps this is incentive enough to go on more photo walks, both with & without others!

The HDR Test

High Dynamic Range.

The first HDR shot I saw literally blew me away. I had never seen such an effect before, and I was smitten. Although, over time I did learn to despise them to some degree. So many over-processed images are out there, offending my eyes.

As I spend more and more time making photographs, I am also spending more time post-processing them. And decided recently to re-visit this technique. The though being that with some minor adjustments, and knowing what my eye likes - perhaps I can use the method to my advantage.

First issue - the software. Photomatix on the PC appears to preview via a grainy, unfinished sample of the image. I'm not quite sure why with a high-end  i7, 9GB of low-latency triple-channel RAM & a 10,000 RPM HDD with seek rates as low as 4.2ms - we can't preview a high-quality image of the final product created. This seems backwards, time consuming and a under-productive.

Second issue I've had is that once you "export" the image, that's it. It's done. That sample you edited and tweaked while looking at a low-quality, grainy preview? Gone. Along with all your adjustments. Unless you saved them as a pre-set. Why would you program software that gives you a junk preview of something, and no chance to render, modify, render, further modify.... etc? This is poorly encoded software, and the manufacturer should be ashamed of themselves. Especially since the technique is widely created using their software.

All that aside, the end result can be quite pleasing to look at. Here is a first attempt, using only minor adjustments. For those in the know, this series was created with a single RAW file (against my better judgement), with EV adjustments made in Lightroom 3.5 by creating 4 virtual copies of the original. The exposure slider was set to -2,-1,0,+1,+2 and batch exported into Photomatix.

Untouched Original

HDR Final

Needless to say I'm rather pleased with the end result. My desire to rant & rave about the software is just my personal gripe with the software developer. The second image pops. Moreso than any edit I could have achieved within Lightroom itself. I tried :)

My goal is to utilize this process to create image that you can't tell are HDR. To process them enough to bring out the details, but leave you breathless at the quality of the image. It's not so fine a line between over-processed junk, and art. I'd prefer the latter be my product of choice.