You may have noticed that I like to work (play) with a lot of  different techniques in my photography; both in the capture and post-processing. However there are times when keeping everything simple just seems best. This is one of the reasons I like a lot of William Neill’s images. The blog image is one example of my keeping it simple. I have also included it in Black and White.

One of the keys to “simple” is simply great light. Another is just simple composition – think simple graphics.

So if you are like me, and like to push the limits, step back now and then and keep it is simple.

Photographers often shoot alone and I know we may often prefer it that way, but next time you go out consider bringing another photographer along with you. You not only keep each other company, you get so see how someone else sees the same subject in a different way. I think this is one of the appeals of a photography workshop or a photography club, but you don’t have to wait for a workshop or a club outing, just give someone a call, email  or twitter before you head out. I think you will be glad you did.

Blog images: Here are a couple images I took on an evening drive out to the coast with a couple friends. The lead blog image is a 15sec exposure taken using a vari-ND to soften the water. The second image is an HDR image taken near dusk. The third image used the vari-ND again with a bit of Nik Soft fog added to create yet more mystery and depth. The final image was created using the “Holga” preset in Nik Soft SilverEfx Pro with some minor adjustments

Do you find it hard to resist shooting a subject even when all the conditions are "wrong"? Bright sun, wind, wrong lens, wrong camera, etc. I do. While this can force you to be creative in your handling of the subject and sometimes that works. Most of the time it may just be best  to come back and shoot later when conditions are more favorable. Now I know this may create some arguments, but the reality is we only have so much time and isn’t it better to invest your time when the odds of getting strong images are most favorable. I am not talking about being a fair weather photographer – I personally would view inclement conditions as generally favorable. But there are times like Sunday when the sun was just plain harsh, I accidently forgot one of my camera’s with my mid-range zoon, my wide angle was in the shop and the wind was blowing. Not exactly prime conditions to shoot images of lavender with a macro or long lens. Did I try to shoot? Yes. Should have I, I don’t think it was a good use of my time. I did do some multi-exposures, swipes and long exposures (multiple seconds with my Vari-ND), but nothing really came out strong because the light was just inappropriate for the subject. Was it a good exercise? Maybe. What are you thoughts on this? Are you driven to shoot when you know it probably won’t be worthwhile?

Blog image: I did try to shoot some classic lavender images with my long lens. A cloud did pass over now and then so I waited for one, upped the ISO and waited for lulls in the wind. The image was still very flat and unsaturated (RAW image on left). In post processing I adjusted the white balance, added saturation, contrast and then applied the Orton filter effect which is good on low contrast images.

You may have noticed a lot images using texture overlays as of late. You take two images overlay them and blended them together – a nicely textured rock overlaid and with a flower for example. But if you go back to the writings of Freeman Patterson, he discovered that you could create textured images using multiple exposures where you mix  images of different subjects along the way. This is probably best explained through an example – like the opening blog image.

Two types of flowers have been combined via multiple exposures to create the blog image. A total of seven exposures went into this image. As in the past, this has all been done in camera (a Nikon feature, but you can recreate this using layers in Photoshop).

First a background pattern or texture if you will was laid down by taking the first five exposures of the Blue Star Thistle shown on the left. The five images combine  into a background image that  looks something like the next image. Note that you can create texture images like this and use it to blend with other  images you may already have.

Second,  two additional exposures were take of the Helen’s flower shown here. Note that you may need to up the EV +1 for these last two exposures to bring them out a bit more.

Hints:

1. Choose the colors of your material carefully so they work together. Here we have a classic blue/orange combination. 
2. For the background (thistle in this case), try to create a nice even texture by thinking ahead about the framing of the multi-exposures.
3. Post process for contrast, saturation, etc as desired. I did little to not adjustments on the blog image.

Have fun!

Two blogs ago I talked about the need now and then to stop and clean up your image library or archive. Here are some additional suggestions on deciding which images to keep or reject:

1. Exposure – is it so off you can’t hope to get a good print. Blown out highlights, blacked out shadows (not recoverable), etc.
2. Sharpness  – this covers out of focus images or images with camera or subject motion. Inspect the image at 100 percent. Is it sharp where it needs to be? If not toss it.
3. Composition – is the subject clearly defined? Are there distractions that can’t be readily cloned out?
4. Light – is the light dull or inappropriate for the image?
5. Impact – does the images say more than “I was there”. Is it creative?
6. Comparison – do you have better shots of the subject? Does this add a new perspective? A better one?

Here are some other questions I ask myself.

1. Would I ever print this?
2. Would I show this to another photographer I respect?
3. Does this image make me look like a better photographer?

Blog image: A container of geraniums shot using 3 exposure HDR. Processed with Photomatix and Nik Soft Color Efx Pro plugins.

As I mentioned on Facebook a while back I had my old D70 converted to InfraRed (700nm filter). This filter lets me work with color IR images as well as traditional B&W. I am just now getting around to shooting a little with the modified camera and learning how to best post process the images to my taste. Down the road I will likely discuss my post processing approach. In the meantime I am sure I will be tweaking it for a while. Shown here is one image processed for color and then B&W. What do you think? Do you like one treatment better than the other?

After you have been shooting a while you end up with a lot of images. This is especially true in the digital age. When I say a lot, I mean tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands. It happens relatively quickly (especially if you shoot HDR). Organizing managing this morass of images can be a real challenge and a time consumer.

I am in the midst of a big cleanup and edit down effort. Sometimes you just have to stop your other work and dig in. Even if you do basic tagging and editing down as your download your images, after a while you need to go back over the images. Especially after they are a year or more old. You are able to look at the images with new eyes, some will look better (fun discoveries) and some will just not cut it anymore (delete bin fodder). Knowing how aggressive to be in doing this is a real challenge. It is easy to think you will be able to salvage some image down the road (and sometimes it is worth it). But most of the time you have to ask yourself if you really want to spend that much time on that image. Maybe there are better ones to work on – we only have so much time.

Thoughts on cleaning up you image database:

1. Editing down in passes – don’t try to stop along the way and salvage images (starting editing the image). You will never make it through. Do one pass of eliminating technically flawed images, another of adding tags, etc. if you see something you like mark it and move on (use star, color, etc).
2. If you are just starting. Be disciplined: edit down and tag your images as you load them unto the computer. Take full advantage of your photo organizer – whatever it is. Don’t get paralyzed thinking you might decide to do it differently down the road. If you don’t do anything along the way you are in bigger trouble than not editing/tagging “the best way”.
3. You may want tags to include things like the place (Oregon, Portland, zoo, etc.),what (grass, tree, etc.),colors,technique (pan, HDR, multi-exposure), style (B&W, impressionism, etc.), etc. It is up to you. You will likely come up with new tags as you start to use your image library and can’t find a specific image!
4. Using stacking or sets in your library helps eliminate clutter. You can stack very similar images, HDR sets, depth of field sets, etc.

This whole editing down process can be tedious and long. Reward yourself somehow along the way. May it is stopping after a couple hours to work on that great new image you found or may be you should go out and get reacquainted with your family 😉

Blog Image: One nice find as I reviewed images from Jan 2009.

I have been refocused as of late on sales and marketing. Or put another way, getting my photographs (and name) out there for others to see and purchase.I have established a “web presence”  (this blog, website, facebook and flickr) but that is not enough and  even on the internet my visibility has been limited. Marketing/selling my work has not really been my strength so far (my wife is much better at it). I enjoy creating the images too much and need to discipline myself to work at the marketing part.  Not that I haven’t had plenty of ideas, but I need to pick specific ones and go after them. Ideas have ranged from magazine articles to photo competitions to door to door selling at businesses to art fairs to galleries, etc.

While refocusing on marketing ideas I have slowed down the amount of shooting I do. In addition, I haven’t been posting as many blog entries as you might have noticed. There is only so much time outside of my day job;-)

Not sure this blog entry is of much general interest, but just thought I would share where I was at now days. If you have marketing ideas that really worked for you that you would like to share (or maybe not) feel free to post them as a comment.

Blog image: A circular swipe of a cluster of beautiful flowers in the front yard of a home in Port Townsend WA where my wife and I just celebrated our 31st anniversary.

I have always meant to work a bit on lupine shots when it was in season. This year I did get a chance to “work” the lupine a bit.  Some shots are in the field and some are in the studio.  Click on the blog image (or on gallery) to see a gallery of images.

As you will see I used many techniques when working the lupine: wide angle, telephoto, macro, overlays, pans, multi-exposure, glass panning, etc. Enjoy.

I haven’t had much time to write lately, but here is a overlay shot of Azalea blooms. It was taken in my yard of a bush that bloomed better this year then ever before.  I wanted to capture it in a way that conveyed the profusion of blooms. This overlay consists of two shots. The first, a 9 multiple exposure moving the camera around to fill all the frame. The second shot is a straight shot filled with blooms. I then blended the two to taste in camera using Nikon’s “Overlay”.

Update: I decided it might be useful if I added the two source images that were blended. One reason to blend these two images is to fill the black holes you get with rhodies and azaleas.

The single shot image:

The 9 exposure: