Saturday, October 4, 2008

Photographers rights - orphan works act & more


Even if you are not serious about pursuing photography as a career or for additional income, I suggest you listen to a great podcast [round table] by professional photographers who provide both the pros and cons of the orphan works act.

A second item I suggest you do is print off and read a copy of "The Photographer's Right" available from

Bert P. Krages II, Attorney at Law

The excerpt is from his book "Legal Handbook for Photographers" (Amherst Media, 2006) which could prove to be a valuable resource.


Have fun and enjoy the beauty of life!

Friday, October 3, 2008

I took this picture in November 07, while on a business trip to Florida [Someone had to make the trip to southern Florida in November when it was cold in the north. :-) ]. The settings are 50 mm f/16 1/500 second, ISO 400. This was taken on a Nikon D50. I used a table top tripod I carry with me when I travel. It is small and will fit in most bags. It works well for low beach shots because I can put it into the sand without worrying about ruining a tripod that has expandable legs.


A few folks asked about the framing I use in some of my photos. This one is a frame I automated in Photoshop via an action.

My workflow:
  1. Lightroom [right click on image > edit in Photoshop
  2. Photoshop opens the image as a TIFF file
  3. In the layers pallet, double click on the image and rename it
  4. Create a new layer below your image layer
  5. Edit the Canvas size: Image>canvas size
  6. While in the canvas size dialogue box select ensure relative is selected and modify the canvas size by 10% for both width and height. Below the relative check box their is a small diagram which indicates where your image will remain. For this step ensure the image is in the middle.
  7. Step 6 will increase your canvas size by 10% all around the image.
  8. Fill the layer you made in step 4 with white [or whatever color you like]
  9. Create a second layer below the layer you made in step 4
  10. Edit the canvas size again: Image>canvas size
  11. This step is a little different than step 6. Only modify the height [15%] and ensure you click on the anchor point in the middle of the top row. This step increases the bottom part of the matting around your image but does nothing to the width or the top portion.
  12. Select the image layer and modify the layer style [lower left hand side of the layer pallet is a small f] Click on it and add a drop shadow and a bevel to the image. In this image the bevel was 10 pixels. Play with this until you find a look you like.
  13. Add the text below the image. I use Papyrus font.
  14. Once you get a look you like, create an action. It will cut this step down to seconds.
Get out and enjoy the beauty of life!