Dancing paint

I have been looking at photos with dancing paint for years and years and years. Bought the speakers and paint last year. Had to shoot a photo to demonstrate 'sound' and decided it is time.

Brilliant photos and tips here.

My, totally unsuccessful, attempts here:

Will I do it again? Never ever :(
Looking at it again I can see that I focused on the drops on the other side instead of the moving paint. When you look at successful dancing paint photos you don't have an idea how small it actually is - it is only when you do it that you realise you have to go in sooooo close and wipe paint off the lens every now and then. And I didn't use a tripod as I had the whole setup on the floor, should have put the camera on a book or something, instead of holding it.

Light painting

Been wanting to give this a try for a long time. It happened to be a challenge this week for a group I belong to on Flickr (never submitted to this group before, although I have been a member for quite a while). I have kept a coke bottle with the name of my youngest son on it with the idea to use it for light painting.

You need:

• a very dark room
• flash light/ light stick
• tripod
• I recommend a black backdrop
• ISO 200 works fine
• long shutter speed - I used 30 seconds
• aperture f/8
• an assistent - I didn't have one :)

Found some good tips here!

Orbs

Haven't entered anything here for a long time, but discovered how to create orbs today! (thanks to Crow on Flickr)

Whatever program you're using, start with a square-cropped image. Some will work nicely, others may not work as well. Under Effects, select "Distortion," and then select "Polar Coordinates."

1) Convert Polar to Rectangle.
2) Flip the image
3) Convert Rectangle to Polar.

Pencils

I wanted to do this ages ago, but didn't have colouring pencils, then didn't have tape, then didn't have lemonade. Today I gathered everything I need, out into the sun on the deck and took the photos. I am very happy with the result.

Basically used: lemonade, colouring pencils taped together, a dish on top of the pencils to keep it down, clear dish, white background, natural light and lemonade

Bubbles

I don't care what tutorials say about how easy it is to take these photos, how much fun it is............it is hard and I didn't have much fun at all. Will I try it again? Yes, but only because I have to get it right, not because I enjoy the process :(

Twirl........in Photoshop

Everyone is doing the twirl-thing in Photoshop. Thought I'll give it a try to :)

Started with this:

And changed it to:

And this is how to make a twirl: (Posted By: Ben Jamir)

Step 1: 

In Photoshop (I’m using PS CS3 but any version will do) open a new document 800px by 800 px resolution at 72. You can choose your own size. Make sure that the color pallet is atPhotoshop default that is foreground color Black and background to white.

Step 2:

Now go to filter- Render – clouds. So you get something like this.(shown below)

Step 3:

Now again go to Filter – pixelate – mezzotint and select “short strokes” from the drop down menu, and you will get something like this.

Render cloud effect

Pixelate – mezzotint effect

Step 4: 

Now go to filter Blur – Radial blur and apply Amount to 100, Blur method to “zoom”and quality to “Best” than click Ok. Apply this effect Twice , so that you get something like this.

Radial Blur

Radial blur effect (twice)

Step 5:

Next go to Filter – Distort – Twirl – set angle to 120. and click OK So you get something like this.

Twirl settings

Twirl effect applied

Step 6:   

It looks very boring at this stage. Duplicate this layer by going to the layer pallet right click and “Duplicate Layer”. Now select the top layer that is your duplicated layer and set the Blending option to “Lighten”

Step 7:

With you duplicate layer still selected go to filter – distort- Twirl – and this time set the angle to –180 and click OK. So you get something like this.

Step 8:

Now it looks good. Now to apply some color to these two layers to make it colorful Twirl. To do that, first make sure that the duplicated layer is selected than go to Image – adjustment –Hue/saturation. Make sure to check the “Colorize” option and play with the Hue and saturation slider to get the desired color, do the same with the other layer also, make some contrasting color to make it more colorful or you can follow my settings as shown below.

Settings for top layer

Settings for bottom layer.

Step 9:  

This is what I ended up with. May look strange but definitely beautiful. This can be used as a Icon, Logo, or for a web page Banner or anything you like.It can be of any size with hundreds of different color combinations, just play around with the hue/saturation slider.

Photoshop and 'actions'

I have read about actions and have seen lots of photos which had actions applied to them, but never really understood and never tried to find out more about actions on Photoshop - decided it was in the too hard basket and left it there. Until I couldn't sleep last night and saw this 'action' which transformed a photo into a 'sticker'. I clicked on download........then got very frustrated because I couldn't open it or find it on my computer. Opened Photoshop and went through the menu, looking for actions. Found it under Windows on the menu. Clicked and the window opened, and there was the one I downloaded. Clicked on it........nothing :( Opened a photo, clicked on it again......nothing...........luckily I saw the little typical 'play' icon, clicked on it and saw the photo changing!!!!!!! So easy, so simple to use. I want more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Original photo, before applying an action

Edited photo, after applying a 'sticker' action

Ferry mini planet

Thought I'll give this a try again with a photo of the ferry

Nearly worked except for the beach in the centre! I do like the colours

From photo to drawing

Lemon, lime and lemonade

Been wanting to play with lemon, limes and lemonade for a while now!

Setup:

• softbox 
• blue background 
• lights from left and right and top, through the softbox 
• macro lens 
• tripod 
• peg to hold the fruit 
• glass with lemonade and lemon and lime slices

Panography

When I saw the first panography I wanted to try it out. It was sunny today and I decided to take photos of the Beehive to use for my first panography. Took about a hundred photos, and before getting into my car, checked the photos........oh no, all the photos had a blue colour. Changed the WB settings and started clicking again!

At home I downloaded the photos and changed the size of all to 800 pixels max. Then opened them all in Photoshop, created a new and large RGB canvas to work on and copied 10 photos at a time to the canvas.

Settings for the canvas: Called it Panography, custom size, 80 cm x 50 cm, 300 pixels/inch resolution. RGB colour, 8 bit and the background white

Then changed the opacity of each photo to 50%, rotated those to be rotated (edit, transform, rotate) and moved them into position, like a huge puzzle!!!

Will definitely do this again, love the effect!!

Photojojo tutorial.

Paint blobs

Saw some lovely 'wave' photos with paint blobs and decided to give it a try. Bought some acrylic paint, took the soft-box and lights out, even the tripod for a change. Found out it is actually very hard to create a wave-effect with paint! Ended up mixing it together a bit on glass and took some macro shots.

One looked like faces in the paint and I quite liked it

Animation

Just created a .gif from a series of photos - so easy, I cannot believe it! Will have to work on the time settings, make it a bit slower, but this is a good start 

Used this wonderful tutorial:

http://www.ashleysisk.com/2012/03/tutorial-tuesday-creating-gif.html

 

Hippie milk

Saw this effect in a Flickr project and just had to try it! Milk, food colouring and drops of dish washing liquid.

Light Paintng

I want to do this soooooo much - I look at all the wonderful orbs others are creating and I am green with jealousy. One day I am going to do it. In the meantime I might start with this simple light painting, it seems simple enough to do: (this was posted by AccidntlTourist on flickr)

Light Painting



- pre-focused; manual
- set exposure for 30 seconds (f3.5)
- wide angle - 14mm
- laid camera on floor, lens facing up
- suspended a flashlight on a string above the camera and swung it in a circle while slowly pulling it up

1) - I turned out the lights.

2) - I stood on a chair above my camera and, as I recall (its been ten months), I began a wide circling with the suspended flashlight - pulling it upward as the circles, centrifically, became smaller and smaller. I think the flashlight moved slower as I raised it - so you see the beam brighter, yet narrower in width.

3) - Sorry, I don't remember - I think I pre-focused (manually) on something at a distance of about four feet.

Light painting is a lot of fun, I only dabbled in it for a short while (couple weeks).

Playing with light painting
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uBhxec2sM0&NR=1
is only a "hop, skip and jump" away form learning a lot about light in regards to photography and some serious creativity (not like mine) - layering lighting treatments - painting (in another sense) with light:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8xgM3m44AU&context=C3269393A...

Triptych

Went to Makara Farm to try out the wide-angle lens and decided a triptych has to be created - saw this on a photography friend's Facebook the other day and quite liked the idea.

 

There is a tutorial available but you basically use layers in Photoshop to create a triptych. To summarise:
PHOTOSHOP users:
Same principles as above, except you will be doing the strokes as layer styles.
Double click on the thumbnail photo in a layer to bring up the layer style box:

Make sure that "stroke" is both checked and selected (i.e. highlighted). You can then set the width, position, and color of your stroke. Just so you can see the results better, I chose 25 pixels, center, and red.

Click OK, and then either repeat the process, or copy and paste the layer style by right-clicking in the layer.

When finished, you will merge the three layers and repeat the stroke—but on the inside—for an evenly framed triptych.


Variations
You can use the same principles for any photo that needs a border and for any kind of collage. Don't feel like you have to make the photos the same size. Experiment with proportion and with horizontal and vertical layout.

Using the scanner to take photos

Something I would love to try - but I don't have access to a scanner any more. Posting this tutorial so that I know where to find it when I have the opportunity to try this. Absolutely love the effect. (Thanks Bruce, for the link!)

Sparklers and champagne

Saw this great tutorial and simply had to try it. Great idea, except that it is very hard to find sparklers in New Zealand this time of the year - luckily my son had some.

Settings: f/22, 2 sec and 38 mm focal length. I followed the tutorial for the setup and positioning of the light and tripod and am quite happy with the results

Xmas tree

At last managed to get to the Telecom Xmas tree for photos!

Merry Christmas!

Lens fungus

Haven't done the Xmas lights shots yet as I had an unplanned trip to Auckland and Taupo. Also attended a 2-day Photoshop workshop, which was excellent and I cannot wait to play with the software. Between all of that I bought an ultra-wide angle lens 2nd hand, and wondered about lens fungus. Was worried that if this lens had any lens fungus, whether it would spread to my other lenses in my camera bag.

The short answer: yes, it is possible!!!!! :(

Found this article about lens-fungus and used the rest of the day to check all my lenses

Xmas lights

This week a group of us are going on a Xmas Light photowalk. Still busy reading up, but found this really good tutorial - good tips in here!!!!

Basically, this is what it says: (copied from the site mentioned above, http://strobist.blogspot.com/ - thank you for the great advice)

How to Do It:

1. Arrive early. The best time to shoot is before it gets totally dark. More specifically, get there before what looks like mix light to your eyes, too. Arriving around sunset will give you time to plan your shot before the good light happens. You may have to ask your subject to turn the lights on early - most people don't flip them on until the good light is already gone.

2. Compose your photo in such a way as to include as much sky as possible in the background. Shooting from a low position can help. Even better: If you have your choice of shooting direction, shoot into the afterglow of the evening sky.

3. Once you get your picture framed, set your camera's white balance for "tungsten," as if you were shooting indoors without flash. All of those little lights are tungsten balanced. As a bonus, the tungsten setting will turn your afterglow sky royal blue once your light balances out. The sky will look great - even if it is a cloudy evening. And your lights will gleam crystal white -- or whatever color they are supposed to be.

4. A light (or reflective) foreground, like snow, or a puddle (or the roof of a car) can give nice foreground interest. See what you can find.

5. Use a tripod or a beanbag to steady your camera. You'll be shooting in the range of a quarter second to a full second at twilight. If shooting with a phone or PDA, use both hands to brace the phone against something solid.

6. Now, wait for the light to happen.

Shoot a test shot every minute or so. At first, you'll be exposing for the sky and the lights will appear unimpressive. Check the back of your camera after each shot to watch the Christmas lights appear to "come up" as the ambient light level goes down. Your eye is constantly adjusting to compensate for the dropping light levels, but the changes will be happening nonetheless. Your camera will record them differently from the way that you eye sees them (you can see a much greater contrast range) so shoot and chimp.

Photoshop Collage

Had to try a collage with PhotoShop after watching a tutorial by a fellow Photography Institute student. Thanks Paul - you are brilliant!!!!!

Horse Photography

Would love to take photos of horses, as I do enjoy taking photos of animals and birds. And an invitation of a horse-mad friend to meet up with her and meet her horse might just be the perfect opportunity!

So Google to the rescue again for some research. As always, the same message from all the equine photographers:

• Stay 15-20 feet away from the horse to prevent distortion. Keep your distance, enlarge the prints later if necessary
• Use a telephoto lens
• Best time - 10am or 2pm, these times will give you the best shadow effect
• Have the camera level or slightly lower than the horse
• Make sure the shadow of the horse is on the far side of the horse, in other words the light behind the photographer
• Front or rear shots should be taken on an angle of 45 degrees
• Position yourself so that all 4 legs are evenly spread as you look at the horse. Legs should appear well-balanced, without a huge space between the front and hind legs
• Can get good photos of just a part of the horse - an eye, the hoof, the rider's hands or helmet
• EARS forward!!!!!
• A good setting: f/8, 1/500, telephoto lens

It won't be the right time of day when I meet up with her, and we might be chatting too much to take photos, but at least I am prepare
____________________________________________________________________________________

Had a lovely time and enjoyed the horses!!!!