iPhone 4 Camera

It's on like Donkey Kong now.  iPhone 4 camera experimentation.  

iPhone 4

iPhone 4

iPhone 4

6:45AM?!?!

Yes this crazy photographer started her newborn session at 6:45am today...just before working a 12 hour shift at the emergency clinic. But this little one just turned 8days so she was getting towards the age limits of being poseable.


Like all the other babies I have ever shot she was wide awake compared to normal. WTH? I seriously must secrete caffeine out of my pores or something...She finally slept pretty deep for about 40 minutes of it.


Here are a few shots...look at that HAIR!!


Biggest thing I realized since it was dark out when I was shooting her...I need to learn lighting! I need to buy lighting! Good thing a groupon the other day was $30 photography classes and I signed up for the flash and lighting course ;)

Site Unseen?

As promised, here's where I've spent a good chunk of my life thinking, damn, I wish I was that good. So until I am, I'll just pretend. With a good camera. While juggling. With flaming fire-sticks.

1. Scott Kelby. I visit this site daily. It's updated every day with tips and tricks, product information and guest photographers. Very good resource. I have 3 of Scott's books actually.

2. Ami Vitale. Great photographer. Masterful with light.

3. Photoshop Disasters. Because sometimes, it's just funny.

4. Planet Photoshop. Corey Barker does most of the tutorials on the site. Learned a lot of snifty tricks on this site over the years.

5. Layers Magazine. Tutorials for everything Adobe. Scott Kelby is actually the Editor in Chief of this magazine.

Dude, where's my...monopod?

Funny how all the Bears fans are quiet now.  Last week, everybody was like, the monsters of the midway are gonna eat the Packers for breakfast.  Yeah, uh-huh.  How'd that taste Chicago?  (A lot of my family is from Green Bay, so naturally, I'm a fan.)  I'm still in denial about my Colts being out of the runnings altogether.  But they deserved to be out of it anyway.  One of my favorite photographers (Scott Kelby) was actually shooting the game in Chicago on Sunday when he was plowed down by Aaron Rodgers (GB's quarterback) on the sidelines.  Scott wasn't hurt, but the same couldn't be said about his monopod, which was broke in half.  Rodgers gave him money for it after the game, which I thought was pretty cool of him.  Article here.  


I'm planning a Jonathon's favorite photography links post at some point this week.  I'm all out of sorts because my house is currently being painted and everything is in complete disarray.  I forgot how much work it was to actually NOT get paint on the things you don't want painted.  He could've painted Austin though.  I would've been okay with that.  Reminds me of that part in Enemy of the State where they break into Will's house and spray-paint his dog green.  'Dudes painted the dog man!'  Hahaha.

Nikon D500;  A Mode;  f/22;  Shutter 2 sec;  ISO 1250;  No flash;  200mm zoom;  Tripod

Blogger Illiterate

Does illiterate even have two "l"s? Anyways I usually think of something to write but then it takes me soooo long to figure out how to get to the home page to be able to post I forget what I wanted to write...

Anyways that means you guys just get some more baby pictures. I am especially excited about the tea cup one. I found this tea cup "planter" for $15 at Gordmans (love that store) and my mom said she thought it was too small for a baby. I bought it and took it to Blake's photoshoot with the intention of trying it out and if it was too small then I would return it. However, when I got to her house I set it down a little too hard on the tile floor and broke half of the saucer off! Sooo much for that return idea ;( Blake was too big to fit in it....


Buuut Blake was 11 days old, so yesterday when I had the opportunity to photograph little Sevayah who was only 5 days old I hoped prayed, crossed all fingers and toes, and finally it worked!!

Sorry for the hot pink mixed with the brown/blue/green of the cup but that hot pink is actually a HAT (yes I really did wear it in high school) man did I have some stupid outfits in high school...sorry for the tangent there. But the hat was the only thing that fit in the cup (perfectly might I ad) and padded the sides so she didn't wake up.

There will definitely be plenty more pictures of this little one because she was a pretty darn good sleeper so check back to my facebook site.
Nature's Wonder Photography

Unsharp Mask Tutorial

It gives you a good feeling when you shoot a photograph and the colors come out exactly the way you wanted them to, without post-editing.  Getting your camera to 'see' the light as you see it, isn't always easy.  I got lucky in my experimentation with this photo.  Shooting with a tripod was a 'must' for this photo because my shutter speed was so slow.  (4) seconds.    

Nikon D5000;  f/22;  A-Mode;  Shutter 4 sec;  ISO 1250;  200mm  zoom;  Tripod;  No flash;  Un-edited

I was really happy with the way this photo turned out.  The only thing I decided to do was sharpen the photo just slightly.  This is how I do it with most photos:

Open your image in PS.  (This is virtually the same across the last several CS versions.)  Go to, Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.  A pop-up window displays.  The settings I chose for this particular photo are in the screenshot.  These may change depending on the photo.  Feel free adjust accordingly.  Zoom in on the photo so you get a clear idea of what the changes you made look like.  (I often check and un-check the preview box to see the difference in the actual photo.)  

Click 'ok'.  And this is what I ended up with:

It's not a HUGE difference.  But noticeable particularly around the highlights of the monkey and leaves.

I've experimented a lot with Photoshop's sharpen filters.  And this one seems to yield the best results.  I don't have an action set for this and I prefer it that way because these settings change frequently depending on the subject matter of your photo.    

Blur

More often than not my camera is pointed at my 5 year old daughter, so usually I want my camera to stop all action and truly freeze the moment. However, on occasion I like to take pictures of aircraft with propellers and the last thing I want my camera to do is stop the props. But that's exactly what it's going to do, as if they were never moving at all, unless I tell it not to. A shutter speed of 1/100th of a second gives me the results I prefer for slow moving subjects. Slower than that and the props start turning into discs, which I don't normally prefer either.

A fast moving subject is another story all together. It's not so easy shooting a P-51 rocketing past at 250mph. Tracking that is hard! I had to bump it up here to 1/400 and hold my breath to get that shot. Almost missed it too. The prop isn't blurred to taste, but for this amateur it was either that or a blurry airplane.

PT photography

So this year my business is picking up A TON! I have been looking into all the details of tracking it as a business etc and what I need to do for taxes and all those joyous things...in searching the internet and forums etc I stumbled upon this website that I really like soo I have to share it with all of you ;) yup all 3 of our readers....wait there are 3 posters...does that mean we have no readers? Ah oh well you boys can enjoy this website with me...

I especially like this article...makes it sound like if you do an outdoor shoot you only have to take 10 pictures, so that isn't really the case but I still like this article

http://parttimephoto.com/top-10-money-making-outdoor-photographs-of-people-your-first-customer-series-part-2/

Oh and if you "like" my facebook page, I am giving away a free photo session by random! If you suggest it to friends and they tell me they heard from you then I will add your name in again for EACH referral. search "Nature's Wonder Photography"

Of course I have to leave you with a baby picture

66 years ago in 2010

A few more...

Beneath the Dome

These aren't the droids you're looking for...

I have no idea what my settings were for this shot.  For some reason my camera data is in the same place where the Empire's plans for the Deathstar are hidden.  Vader and his cronies will be along shortly.  

Nice 50!

Nikon D40 - Various edits in Photoshop

Back 40 Pano

Nikon D5000;  A-Mode;  Shutter 1/1000 sec;  f/11;  Edited CS5 w/HDR

iPad Rockage

When the iPad came out last Spring, my first thought was who would buy one of those who already has an iPhone or a laptop? I thought they were too highly priced for the benefit behind them and judged it as a passing phase. Then I got the opportunity to use one over Thanksgiving 2010. It completely changed my opinion about them. I loved its portability, screen resolution, and general ease of use. It's a very couch friendly device. I must have made an apparent impression on my family in my meanderings about it afterwards, because they all pitched in and got me one for Christmas. Now that you know how I ended up with one, I can tell you that I still love it, and have discovered an even greater use for it.


We know as iPhone users how precious hard drive space can be, being that we use it for music, apps, games and movies. In the last year, I've taken nearly 6 gig alone in photographs. And that number grows daily. Being that my iPad only holds 16 gig of data, storing photos on it didn't seem like a logical thing to do. Till now.


In the last few months, Adobe released an app called Photoshop Express for the iPad and iPhone. You may have heard of it. It's a basic editor...nothing too fancy. It's a far cry from having Photoshop CS5, but it works well for those who aren't deep into photo-editing.


Here's what makes it worth it....


Photoshop Express has an online photo gallery that you can upload to, similar to Picasa, Photobucket or Flickr. All you have to do, is go to www.photoshop.com, create an account and start uploading. Now, you can view your photos on your iPhone or iPad without them taking up any hard drive space! And best of all....It's completely free, and so is the app!


Need a portable portfolio that you can show a client?


For those that don't know, you can buy refurbished iPads now, for around $50 less than new, and they still have a good warranty.

Crater-faced

Detail of large moon sculpture in the park off East McFretridge Drive in Chicago.

Are You Pennywise?

"Oh, c'mon Bucko.  Don't you wanna...balloon?" 

Man, if any one of you knew right off the bat where that movie line came from, I'll be thoroughly impressed.  Since the release of that book and film, I've been creeped out by clowns ever since.  I have Stephen King to thank for that.  I'm talking about It.  I read the book back in the day and then saw the movie later.  


"They all float down here, Georgie."  


Loved, and hated Tim Curry ever since.  But every time it's on TV, I still can't help watching.  Sort of like watching someone fall down on ice and saying, Wow, are you okay?  But you're secretly thinking, damn, that was funny...do it again.  You just can't helping watching.    


A few weeks ago, someone asked me to photograph some balloons for him.  As a side business, he entertains as a clown, and makes animals and anything noun-related out of balloons.  Great, I'm thinking.  I get to shoot balloons that a clown made.  It was actually fun and I appreciated the opportunity.  These photos were shot in my homemade lightbox and were the best of the bunch.

  

All photos - Nikon D5000;  A Mode;  f/8;  Shutter 1/100 sec;  ISO 200;  flash

I'm still trying to figure out the best settings to use for shooting in a lightbox.  It's a tricky beast.  

Black and Whites

I want to help others learn how to get better black and whites rather then having a gray black and white photo...


BeforeAfter


It is a pretty easy way to alter black and whites in just a few steps...

Step 1: In photoshop, click on the half black half white circle at the bottom right of the screen then flatten the image

Step 2: Add some curves by clicking CTRL + M adjust the levels to your taste for that particular picture

Step 3: Adjust the levels: Move the slider on the left to add more darkness to your darks, the slider on the right makes things lighter, and the middle changes midtones...

Step 4: Add a little brightness, don't adjust the contrast here, another step will do that later...be careful not to blow out your whites

Step 5: Now add some contrast: Duplicate your layer and change the type of layer to "soft light" Reduce the Opacity to very low if you dont it is a pretty ugly picture ;)

Step 6: Selective Color Layer: go to Image at the top of the screen--->Adjustments---->Selective Color
At the top change it to Blacks then adjust the levels for the blacks usually side it to the right
Then change it to neutrals--again slide the blacks bar to the right
Then change it to whites--this time slide the blacks bar to the left

This could then be further edited to get rid of some of the shadows, noise, etc to make it a little better but anyways tada!


Pretty easy right? I got this information from someone elses blog and thought I would pass it along, I always hated how gray the black and white pictures turn out without doing all these adjustments!

Happy editing!

Pimp'n aint easy?

Hehe here is a picture from last night...not really edited yet because I was photographing this lil one until 9:30pm which means I didn't get home until 10:30 pm buuut I had to throw one online before bed...sooo here it is with all its glory and not much editing...yet

PS what is with babies not sleeping when I am around? Every single newborn I have ever photographed the parents say the baby sleeps ALL day on most days...except the day I get there to take pictures...geesh, thats why I was there until 9:30 because I have some magical awake pheromone that babies are highly susceptible to

Redhead

Country boy can survive...

I think I like song lyrics for my post titles ;) They all seem to be country related too. Maybe if Ryan reads this blog enough he will let us live in the country...one can dream right?

Not sure how well this picture will post because I am posting from work, which means I stole the picture from my facebook...can't say facebook has high quality uploads. So if it sucks I will repost tonight.
Since I stole them from my facebook I cannot list the shot data, but they were all with my Canon XTI-no flash...edited in photoshop but not even sure what actions I did on them sorry guys :)
This is my favorite, it has a story behind it, however I am not sure Kristen would want me posting the behind the scenes story...actually Kristen probably wouldn't care but her Grandma would...or her grandma's boyfriend? Do you see where this is going?

No? Then I won't ruin your non-perverted minds...

Pet Leaf

Flash-ishness

I can have my cake and eat it too.  My Nikon says so.  Right now, my new favorite mode is 'M.'  As I suspected, I could adjust the shutter-speed and f/stop independently, and all is right in the world.  I knew it was possible, but I couldn't figure out how to make my Nikon actually do it.  So, in other words, it was more my ignorance on camera operations more than anything.  What can I say?  I'm still a padawan photographer.

However, in my treading across owner's manuals, internet articles and books, I discovered a few more things I didn't know.  Shocking, I know.  My days are filled with things I didn't know about.

I've never the liked flash.  It's evil.  As Matt mentioned, it's the photo-destroyer button-light-thing.  But I'm warming up to it.  You know that whole, make peace with your enemies thing? Kind of like that, but not really. We still aren't friends yet.  

Someday I'll be savy enough to need a REAL flash, like Kiely's. Anyway... 

Our DSLRs are equipped with several different kinds of flash modes.  Not to be confused with flash compensation.  You can see them on your LCD screen depending on which mode you're in.  In 'M' mode, I have (3) different ones:

1)  Regular Flash mode - pesky-pop-up-I'm-blowing-up-your-photo mode
2)  Flash with red eye preventive - interesting - but not a compliment
3)  Flash with rear sync - what the hell does that mean?

I looked it up.  As it turns out, rear sync is something you WANT to have turned on.  As it blends the photograph's lighting better under low lighting.  It's a rear light, or background light synchronization method.  So, when you have to use that pesky pop-up flash, destroyer of photos, use it that way.  It might help sometimes.  It may not.  I'm not too sure what I'm saying is even making sense.  Because I still don't understand the science behind it. 

What I also discovered is how shutter speed can affect color quality.  The below photos were taken at exactly the same f/stop and ISO, but using different shutter speeds and flash modes.  These photos have not been edited in Photoshop.  They're right out of my camera. 

Nikon D5000;  f/stop 5.6;  ISO 200;  Shutter 1/50 sec;  Regular flash

Nikon D5000;  f/stop 5.6;  ISO 200;  Shutter .3 sec;  Rear Sync Flash

Interesting?  Right?  It might save you some editing time later for those of us who never let the world see a photo we take without editing it first in Photoshop.  

I'm done being a blog-hog now.  

33" of Snow in 24 Hours

I'm posting from underneath 3 feet of snow.  No really.  My laptop screen is frosting.  I'm not sure which weather-god decided this snow stuff was a good idea, but I'm really not having any fun here.  Well, that's not entirely true.  Let's go outside.  

This is what I woke up to....

I like telling stories with my photos.  Something I stole from the Pioneer Woman.  If you haven't heard of her or her photo blog, hand me the newspaper so I can hit you with it.  I'm not going to bother posting the specs on these given that they're more for story telling anyway.  If you really want them, let me know. 

I snowblew the driveway.  Twice.  My wife's flight was canceled out of Chicago.  She's on the cheesewagon.  I mean, silver cheesewagon.  

Then, I decided my dogs decided to go play in it.  

This is great!  We like the snow.

Well, one of us does.  

I don't know what I'm looking for.  But I'll let you know when I find it.  

This day is so full of awesome.  

Can we go in now?  

Absolutely not.  I hear something.  Be vary, vary quiet.  I'm hunting meeces.

More to come.  Time for steak and potatoes.