Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

The Big Photography Thread


Recommended Posts

I just happened to see this blog about adding text to pictures in LR, in case this is accurate and helps:

 

http://www.eatthelove.com/2013/11/add-text-to-pictures/

 

Don't know about layers.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 2.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I just happened to see this blog about adding text to pictures in LR, in case this is accurate and helps:

 

http://www.eatthelove.com/2013/11/add-text-to-pictures/

 

Don't know about layers.

Many thanks Ken! I have been adding watermarks but didn't know most of the stuff in this tutorial. It has opened quite a few doors for me ..... :)

"Turn your fingers into a dust rag and keep them keys clean!" ;) Bluzeyone
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I sometimes will blend layers in Photoshop using Layers and Layer Masks. So, for instance, I might take three photos with different exposures, and then blend them together. This is basically an HDR photo using the same technique that has been done for over 150 years in photography, so it's nothing new. We see a considerably higher dynamic range than a camera can from a single exposure, so this can actually make things look more like how we perceive things.

 

So, for instance, if I might expose one for the foreground, such as rocks and the ocean during sunset. And I may expose another for the sky during the sunset, obviously keeping the camera in one place. Then I blend the sky and the foreground together using Layers. That's only two, but maybe I take another one for any number of reasons, exposing for that. Same deal.

 

So that's largely what I use Photoshop for using layers in terms of dealing with high dynamic range.

 

I also obviously use it for "stacking" when creating star trails from multiple exposures instead of making star trails from a single exposure (which of course I do as well).

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watch some of your great pictures on here and I would just draw your attention to a freebie lookalike Lightroom called Lightzone. I'm not a great fan of Lightroom myself, so haven't spent too long checking out Lightzone, but just thought one or two of you might be interested. You have to register (free) to download it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. I haven't used LR extensively, just briefly as a trial, so I don't know so much about it. LightZone is supposedly pretty good. Some people really like Affinity Photo Software (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/), which I think is only made for Mac (LightZone is open source, I believe).

 

An alternative to to Photoshop is GIMP. Whether it's because I am used to Photoshop or what, I don't know, but when I tried to use GIMP, I couldn't stand the internal logic and workflow. Since I used it, however, I am told that if you wish, you can change it to have a more Photoshop workflow.

 

Now I say this and...well, I freely admit that Photoshop is not intuitive. It's just that I know how to use it. But some things on GIMP, such as how one types text on the image, are confounding to me. I want to type text directly on the image, and not in a box that then transfers it to the image.

 

Maybe GIMP has changed now since that was many years ago, but I couldn't make that work for me without me wanting to smash the computer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For many years I've used Photo Impact, from its original Ulead version through to the X3 when it was taken over by Corel and subsequently dropped in favour of Paint Shop Pro. Switching from X3 to PhotoShop 6 I find is a strain. The thing that attracted me to Photo Impact in the first place was the excellent user interface. As you mentioned adding text to pictures, something I do very frequently, I find that X3 is a dream compared with Photoshop. Bold, italics, underline, fonts, font colour & text angle are all on the task bar - I seem to have to dig for it on Photoshop or have I still got some setting up to do?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Photoshop shows all those text things on mine: bold, italics, underline, fonts, font color. I am not sure about text angle, but that's easy enough to turn around regardless.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ken, that's a beautiful shot.

 

I've been reading a lot about nighttime photography lately and am wondering how you lit this shot. It looks look like a longish (< 30 sec based on no star trails) exposure shot with moonlight casting the shadow to the right of the Joshua tree. Also looks like you light-painted the tree and small chaparral to the left to bring it out. The rocks on the right appear to have been lit differently than the left formation, but the difference may be due to the differences in their texture/angle. Or maybe a little post-processing to bring them out.

 

Is this right?

Casio PX-5S, Korg Kronos 61, Omnisphere 2, Ableton Live, LaunchKey 25, 2M cables
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ken, that's a beautiful shot.

 

I've been reading a lot about nighttime photography lately and am wondering how you lit this shot. It looks look like a longish (< 30 sec based on no star trails) exposure shot with moonlight casting the shadow to the right of the Joshua tree. Also looks like you light-painted the tree and small chaparral to the left to bring it out. The rocks on the right appear to have been lit differently than the left formation, but the difference may be due to the differences in their texture/angle. Or maybe a little post-processing to bring them out.

 

Is this right?

 

Thanks! Which blogs, books, articles, whatever have you been reading lately, out of curiosity?

 

It is exactly 30 seconds, and yes, I did that so the stars would appear as pinpoints. I light painted the Joshua Tree and the small chaparral to the left to bring it out. I did not light paint anything else. Although I don't know this for a fact, I'm guessing that the rocks to the right are brighter simply due to their angle to the angle to the moon, as I don't think it was close enough to the Joshua Tree to have much "spill" from my light painting.

 

So I think all your educated guesses were spot on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for confirming that. Think my reading is beginning to pay off.

 

I first read about a month ago Tony Northrup's "How to Create Stunning Digital Photography" which has a night photography chapter. As for blogs, I started with yours, of course. :wave: Another blog that helped me learn about astrophotography and Milky Way photography is Lonely Speck. Great tutorials.

 

Watched an 80 minute video on YouTube last night of a class that Tim Cooper gave on

. It seemed to have a lot of very practical advice.

 

Got an email last week about a sale on the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 for Nikon for what I thought was a great price and I couldn't resist it. Now that I've got the gear, I'm ready to spend time around Mt. Cuyumacha just east of San Diego. Just learned last night that we're nearing the end of the Milky Way season here. Guess I can hone my skills until next year.

Casio PX-5S, Korg Kronos 61, Omnisphere 2, Ableton Live, LaunchKey 25, 2M cables
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are a lot of full moons coming up, and that's when a lot of these photos I'm posting are taken. So you can have plenty of fun until "Milky Way Season" is upon us again. :D

 

Lonely Speck is a good site for that.

 

For light painting, Tim Cooper's video seems good (I've still never made it through the whole video). Anything with Lance Keimig or Troy Paiva is good or the late, great Steve Harper is quality stuff.

 

You could also go to Borrego Springs for light painting and Milky Way shots if you want. Here are some examples:

 

http://www.elevenshadows.com/travels/anza-borregodesertstatepark-nightskyphotos-march2014/images/startrails-horses-27min-30sf28iso400-960px.jpg

 

 

9277kenlee_2015-12-28_0139_28mintotal-2minf63iso200-4000k_40mm_borregosprings-rattledragon_star_trails-1000px.jpg

 

8379kenlee-2015-09-05-midnight_borregosprings-20sf28iso4000-4000k-dragonhead-milkyway-1000px.jpg

 

7888kenlee_borregosprings14-elephantstartrailseast-25halfmin-30sf28iso800-d7000-starstax_1000px.jpg

 

1437-20sf4iso1000-2014-06-17-1256am_kenlee_borregosprings-atomicbreath-960px.jpg

 

3079kenlee_borregosprings-2014-07-07-234am-20sf28iso4000-3450k-silhouettebattlingdinosaursmilkyway-blendedwith3078-380sf56iso800-960px.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4140kenlee_2016-07-17_0040_joshuatree_mojave-desert_night-photo-brokenstatuesandlongbujildinginblue-198sf8iso200-1000px.jpg

 

He Is Beside Himself (4140)

 

A mysterious abandoned movie lot at night, Mojave Desert. Everything here was very consistently Roman or Greek looking, and the old set location was littered with columns, some standing, some fallen, as well as busts, statues, reliefs, and stands as well as plaster molds. I illuminated the columns while the camera shutter was open with a hand-held Protomachines LED2 flashlight. Thank you to David Dasinger for taking me here. Nikon D610/14-24mm f/2.8. 198s exposure f/8 ISO 200.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spent a few days this past week in the Branson, Missouri, area with friends. Aside from the shows and tourist traps, there are some interesting things to see. Here are a couple of images from the Edwards Mill at the College of the Ozarks:

 

30114090061_c251a06c47_c.jpg

Warp and woof by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr

 

30084409242_5b568859a2_c.jpg

Checkers by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr

www.wjwcreative.com

www.linkedin.com/in/wjwilcox

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beautiful pictures, guys!

 

I have Paint Shop Pro X-5. It does a great job with text choices. I can fudge the lack of angling for text by using the warp tool to pull things up or down wherever I want in the text.

 

I know it is now an out-dated version, but it does what I need it to do and when it no longer does, I will buy the next one.

 

:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For those with interests in astrophotography and unlimited gear budgets ( :wave: Ken), here is one cool camera.

 

They've taken a stock Nikon D5500 and added a Peltier cooler to the CCD sensor in order to reduce thermal noise during long exposures. I would have thought they would have used a full-frame sensor camera rather than a DX camera.

 

If you need to ask how much it costs, you probably can't afford it ...

Casio PX-5S, Korg Kronos 61, Omnisphere 2, Ableton Live, LaunchKey 25, 2M cables
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4207kenlee_2016-07-18_0107_joshuatree_jumborocks-facelookingup_30sf8iso1600-1000px.jpg

 

I Slept Like A Rock (4207)

I thought this rock looked a bit like a baby who was sleeping under the stars and turned to stone. Or if you look the other way, it looks like a head with a face looking up. Or....who knows? The desert has many mysteries. What do you see? 2016-07-18 30s f/8 ISO 1600 with a Nikon D610/14-24mm f/2.8 lens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eat Eat Eat (4752)

Abandoned building with chicken and face graffiti, Halloran Springs, CA. lluminated by a ProtoMachines LED2 flashlight and a full moon. This is not a post-processing creation. No pixels were harmed during the creation of this photo. :D

 

4752_kenlee_2016-10-14_0034_barstow-168sf8iso200-halloransprings-eatbuilding-corner-1000px.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Abandoned California.

 

4899_kenlee_2016-10-15_2204_saltonsea-30sf8iso1000-100-50mintotal-arch-abandonedspa_abandonedspa_archedbuilding_startrails_30sf8iso1000-100-50mintotal-1000px.jpg

An abandoned spa under the stars moving in the heavens in this 50 minute long exposure photo.

 

 

4735_kenlee_2016-10-13_2106_barstow-127sf8iso200-graffiti-technicolor-gas-station-1000px.jpg

An abandoned gas station, Mojave Desert.

 

 

 

4773_kenlee_2016-10-14_2056_pearsonville-231sf8iso200_backview-redlights-whitecar-1000px.jpg

An auto salvage yard in the Mojave Desert.

 

These are all real photos taken at night. Everything was illuminated by a big bright moon, an almost full moon, almost bright enough to read a book. And setting my tripod-mounted camera to a long exposure made the camera much more sensitive to light than our eyes on this already bright evening. This is why these images seem brighter than what we might see at night. It is not due to post-processing. The moon, which reflects light from the sun, also makes the sky bluer, and when a photo is a long exposure photo, the sky will appear brighter, making the blue more apparent. The subjects in the photographs were also illuminated by a handheld LED flashlight while the camera shutter was open. These are not post-processing creations. No pixels were harmed during the creation of these photos. :D

 

I am fascinated with how a single long exposure photo can show movements and the cumulative effects of light in a single image.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am fascinated with how a single long exposure photo can show movements and the cumulative effects of light in a single image.

Me too. I've been reading a lot lately about sensor technology in order to understand the limits of ISO settings. Why can't we just keep doubling ISO to get stronger pixels? Or, why can't we keep doubling the exposure time? What are the sources of noise?

 

It boggles my mind to find that current sensors saturate around 150K photons per pixel. For a 14-bit sensor, that's around 10 photons per bit of resolution. Amazing.

 

I've been taking nighttime photos for the past few weeks. Learning to use my camera controls in the dark. Getting the focus right. Learning the limits of ISO and exposure for my gear. Ken clearly knows how to get low noise images from his gear without a lot of light. I like some of the results I'm getting, but I have to say that nighttime photography at the level that Ken is showing us isn't easy.

Casio PX-5S, Korg Kronos 61, Omnisphere 2, Ableton Live, LaunchKey 25, 2M cables
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I've been taking nighttime photos for the past few weeks. Learning to use my camera controls in the dark. Getting the focus right. Learning the limits of ISO and exposure for my gear. Ken clearly knows how to get low noise images from his gear without a lot of light. I like some of the results I'm getting, but I have to say that nighttime photography at the level that Ken is showing us isn't easy.

 

Thanks. It's not super easy, certainly not as easy as aiming an iPhone and taking a photo.

 

But it's not really that daunting either.

 

If you have a modest camera that has manual controls and a tripod and a decent flashlight, you have everything it takes to create a photo like this.

 

While I am admittedly using pretty good equipment here, it's not necessary. It's more the gravy on top. You could do this with a modest DSLR. You don't need a fast lens. The reason is because I am shooting this during or near a full moon, and there is a lot of light, so I am using an aperture of f/8, which pretty much any lens can do. I use this because it has a wide depth of field meaning that a fair amount of stuff is in focus around the area that I am focusing on, which is obviously the car. AND you don't need to use a camera that excels in low light situations even though this is a low light situation. Why? I am using ISO 200 here. Yeah. A very low ISO, which means low noise.

 

You do, however, need a stable tripod, as you are doing this in the dark, and you WANT a stable tripod.

 

The two most challenging aspects for a photo like this are these:

1.) focusing and framing in the dark. This actually isn't that difficult, as it is rather bright out, unlike shooting Milky Way shots, where it is very dark and you are focusing on the Milky way. No, often, you can use auto-focus on your camera to focus on scenes like this because the moon is bright. And if you can't, you simply shine a flashlight on the object and let AF do its thing.

 

2.) Light painting, or illuminating the object. This is so much fun, but it is rather challenging as well.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A colorful date morning with my girl at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, 28 October 2016:

 

30509766602_2b600cb594_c.jpg

Waterfall by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr

 

30590599876_67220ce1a9_c.jpg

Still colorful by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr

 

30538451991_90ac10fd31_c.jpg

Still colorful by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr

 

30590576006_0589ed840b_c.jpg

Wood duck by Bill Wilcox, on Flickr

 

www.wjwcreative.com

www.linkedin.com/in/wjwilcox

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lo Gas Eat (4759)

Signs at an abandoned highway stop, Halloran Springs, CA, backlit by a bright moon. Illuminated by a handheld ProtoMachines LED2 flashlight and a full moon.

 

This is a real photo taken at night. This evening, everything was illuminated by a big bright moon, an almost full moon, almost bright enough to read a book. And setting the camera to a long exposure made the camera much more sensitive to light than our eyes on this already bright evening. This is why this photo seems brighter than what we might see at night. It is not due to post-processing. The moon, which reflects light from the sun, also makes the sky bluer, and when the photo is a long exposure photo, the sky will appear brighter, making the blue more apparent. I also illuminated the sign with a handheld LED flashlight while the camera shutter was open. In a rare move, I did remove a distracting telephone pole that just licked into the lower part of the photo, but otherwise, did not alter this photo.

 

I am fascinated with how a single long exposure photo can show movements and the cumulative effects of light in a single image. Thank you for reading this and looking at the image. -Ken

 

Nikon D610/14-24mm f/2.8, 94s @ f/8 ISO 200 Oct 2016.

 

4759_kenlee_2016-10-14_0103_barstow-94sf8iso200-halloransprings-lo-gas-eat-backlit-1000px.jpg

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5078_kenlee_2016-10-29_1644_diadelosmuertos-woman-with-odd-eyes-800pxtall.png

 

5075_kenlee_2016-10-29_1617_diadelosmuertos-couple-in-front-of-crypt_800px.png

 

Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead 2016.

 

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is about gathering families and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls and the favorite foods, beverages, and affects of the departed. This is one of my favorite holidays. I find it touching, sweet, beautiful, creepy, funny, and more, depending on the presentation and aesthetic and sense of humor the people have. The antique approach of the photos bring sense of timelessness, and often enhance the macabre quality of people in the portraits.

 

Historians trace the origins to indigenous observances 2500-3000 years ago ago as well as to an Aztec festival dedicated to a goddess called Mictecacihuatl.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...