I cheated to get this sunrise shot

Pretty much everyone loves sunrises and sunsets. The colours and the mood created are amazing. Here is one I took today.

Thirty seconds after this was taken, at least four shutter bugs appeared and filled in the foreground - lucky for me I was done.

Other than noticing that the shutter bugs perched themselves alongside the safety rail, some with tripods, some not, I didn't pay much attention to what they were doing. But I do  know that I cheated to get this image, Here's how:

1. 20 mins before this time, the colours looked promising, so I was looking around for a spot to put my camera to frame the scene I was hoping to get. Trying different things, not liking most of my choices, then finally I  honed in on what was working and ended up under a large tree and used the branches and safety rail to frame the skyline.
2.  I used a tripod and a remote shutter release.
3. I bracketed my shots so I have room to move creatively, ie if I wanted a silhouette shot or something else.
4. The interplay between the colours and the city skyline are the main characters here, but I like creating a supporting cast. In this case the branches balanced the space and the gorgeous colours in the sky were being bounced off the hand rails.

You can't always (consciously) "see" what you have shot. There is a lot to notice in this shot, eg the tops of the skyscrapers and the arms of the two illuminated cranes created nice converging diagonals.

Next time you're up early for sunrise, don't forget to cheat! :-)

have fun! ☺

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Birthday, Baptism or Bar Mitzvah?

So you have a family gathering coming up, may be a birthday party, baptism or bar mitzvah and you are the person responsible for taking that important shot. Here is a check list to go through (well) before the day.


1. Google images, yes look at what other people have done and check out what you like.
Take note of :

• How are the people positioned? If you linked the heads together, are the heads making a triangular shape, or some other shape? 
• Is the background sharp or did they use a small F-stop to keep the people in focus but blur the back ground? 
• Where is the sun? If out doors, is the sun to the side creating shadows or behind the photographer so the people are in full sun? 
• If in doors, who is sitting and who is standing? What general shape is the group creating? Is there symmetry in the shot? Is the shot candid or corporate looking with formal poses? 

2. Take out your camera, flick to the Aperture Priority and play with the depth of field by using the f-stop. You want to learn how to have the foreground in focus but the background blurred and then have everything in focus. The former needs a small f-stop like f4, the later needs a large f-stop like f11 or f16.

3. Practise how to focus on a spot. If your camera has an auto focus, can you alter the focus point? This will help when taking a portrait style shot because you need to make sure the eyes are laser sharp!

4. On the day: play it safe and set the ISO to 400 and decide (based on whether you want the background blurred or not) on either the Aperture Priority or Time Priority. An ISO of 400 will keep the shutter speed fairly quick (helping to keep the image still) just in case you are shooting in the day and then indoors in the evening.

5. As you change from day time outside to evening inside, don't forget to change your white balance from "sunny" or "cloudy" to "incandescent" or "fluorescent". These light conditions give off different colours and you don't want your favorite aunt with a redish or greenish complexion.

6. Be creative, if you don't like the result you don't need to show anyone! Have the camera at different angles and heights. When taking a group shot with ladies sitting and gents standing, get the camera at the ladies eye level rather than standing and pointing the camera down. The difference in perspective is significant.

7. If you use post editing, make sure you have captured enough information by pushing the histogram right without blowing out the whites. This will help keep the shadows noise free when lowering the exposure afterwards and then you can do some artistic work on your favorite images.  



One final point, don't forget to shoot the venue before the day (and before guests arrive) if it is  special to the day.

Here is a shot I took recently of a restaurant that is used for wedding receptions in my part of the world. Shooting in low light doesn't mean it is impossible, just trickier.

have fun! ☺

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I love taking Black and White Images

I do like taking black and white images.



Here is one I took recently.

The tonal variations of black and white creates an instant mood.

May be it is time for you to play with black and white images again. Here are a few tips to look out for when deciding if an image would look good in black and white.

1. Good tonal range between the important features in a scene.
2. Good tonal range within a key element or the object of the photo.
3. Good saturation of colours before you use Photoshop or some other digital lab to turn your shot into black and white.


have fun! ☺

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What is your reason for taking photos?

I was in my local store a couple of months ago queuing up at the check out. The couple behind me had a new born baby, as in 1 week old. People were  around them showing interest in the new baby giving best wishes for the future and so on. Before leaving the store I pulled the dad a side and explained to him one of the best decisions of my life. I explained to him that I have been taking my daughters photo since she was born and every year on or very close to her birthday I take another image. This has been going on since she was "zero". I explained further that what makes it so special is that she has always been photographed in the same blue dress her mum owns. So we have a sequence of images that show her growing into this dress - crawling, cruising, playing an instrument, lots of developmental stages, and in the last year or so it has occurred to me that I am now taking images her children (in many years time) will enjoy seeing.

My journey in photography started as a preparation for the day my daughter entered this world - what was your reason to start? Does it still fuel your passion for images? Is taking special images now a vital part of your family tradition?


May be it is time to dust off the camera and feel that passion again.

Here are some suggestions to get you started...

1. Shoot for the waste basket.
Have fun and get acquainted again with some of the controls. Put the camera on Aperture Priority mode and play around with small F-stops and large F-stops and see the difference. Then set the camera to Time Priority mode and play some more.

2. Have a project.
If you start with a project that does not have the sun in the frame, it will be easier to control the exposure.

3. Keep it simple.
Go and have fun without any huge expectations of what comes out. Just note what works and keep going.



On my desk I have, like most parents, special images we get to see every day. One of the images I have is a shot of my daughter walking for the very first time where she is walking from grandma's arms to mum's arms. The image technically isn't the best: I didn't use a flash and from memory I needed to use a 1/2 sec exposure on about f4 but it is one of the most special images I have.

I was ready and my camera was very close by. May be it is time to get out your camera and have fun again.


have fun! ☺

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A CF Card Dies!

I recently came back home from a full day taking some shots of the Avon Region. I put the CF card into the card reader ready to upload and enjoy the viewing, but my Mac told me it couldn't read it. After reattempting a few times, I didn't waist any time in plugging my camera directly into the Mac to read the images. Once I was happy that my images were safely on my HD I tried to reformat and/or repair this low budget CF card. Ive reformatted this card about eight times but it didn't make the journey to the ninth. Time for a new CF card.

At this time of year everyone is sharing time with family and friends, and taking photos at family gatherings. So some take home lessons for me:

1. Memory cards die as do hard drives.... I keep multiple copies of all of my important images.
2. Don't keep all of your work on a 16Gb card - it's not a long term storage device. Use a number of smaller cards just in case one dies and transfer them after each photo trip or project.
3. Learn how to read images directly from your camera - just in case you need to.
4. Family gatherings are important times of the year, don't keep important images stored on your memory card - copy them to a safer place. 

Here are the images I could have lost. 

have fun! ☺

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Improving Your Images Step 7: Sharpenning the Image

We are finally here. After adjusting the WB, tweaking the colour space, removing noise and dead pixels, and adding pop and a vignette, we are ready to sharpen the image.

Sharpening is always needed because an image is a digital composition and so lines will rarely be sharp.

There are 1001 ways to sharpen an image. I will show you one that is quick and painless.

step 1: double click on the zoom button to increase zoom to 100%
step 2: with the background layer selected, go to "filters", select the "sharpen" option then locate the "unsharp mask" option.
Step 3: a dialogue box opens, set the amount to around 200, the radius to around 1.5 (but adjust to suit your needs) and the threshold to around 20% (the higher the value the softer the image). Experiment with these setting to see what works for your image.


that is it, we are done. All that is left now is to save the image as a TIFF.


We started with this image:

and finished up with this image:

What  do you think of the result? Id love to hear your thoughts.

have fun! ☺

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Improving Your Images Step 6: Adding a subtle vignette

Ok, if you have been following me so far well done - we are almost there.
I am now going to show you how to add a professional looking vignette to the image. The rationale behind using a vignette in some scenes is that the human eye is naturally drawn to light colours, so by adding a vignette we will subconsciously draw the viewer's eyes inward - clever hey!?

Here are the steps:
1. Use the oval button to create an oval around the image.
2. Locate the "select" option from the menu bar and scroll down to "transform selection". We use this to center and adjust the shape of the mask. Once happy press enter.
3. Now to select the space between the oval and the border of the image, go back to "select", then scroll down to find "inverse".
4. Now on the right hand panel, click the histogram adjustment layer and slide the black point on the histogram to the right. Immediately you will see the space between the oval and the border darken.
5. Once you are happy with the darkness of the vignette, we need to make it look seamless. We do this by selecting the mask icon inside the histogram adjustment layer we have added. Then locate the slider called "feather" and slide it to the right. The higher the resolution of the image, the more to the right we slide it. Stop when you are happy with the result.


that is it... pretty cool hey!  

Now the last step is to sharpen the image. Sharpening is always done last since it destroys pixels to do achieve sharpness. This will be covered in the next blog.


have fun! ☺

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