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

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!

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!

Dreamy photo via Lightroom 2.1

I took this image in Columbus, OH. It is a different view of my previous post of the Santa Maria replica. It was late at night and I wanted to create a very dreamy effect. I put my flash on the ground out of the scene to the right. The flash was set to full power and zoomed to aprox 100mm. Camera settings [f/2.8 1/40 sec. ISO 500].

I converted the image to B&W utilizing the same method as the previous post with one exception. The clarity was set to -50 rather than +100. When the clarity is adjusted to a negative number it brings in a very soft dreamy effect. Try it!

The second image was modified using the same techniques. IMHO, it creates a very dreamy effect. :-)



Get out there and capture the beauty of life!

Lightroom Black and white conversion

The first image is an image I shot last month when shooting the team photos for the Silver Ring Thing tour team. The day was beautiful with very nice clouds and good light. However, this image was shot in the late afternoon which rarely provides the dramatic light needed for an interesting photo.

However with all the different lines and shades, it looked like a great photo to convert to black and white. The second image is a quick conversion using the grayscale button in Lightroom [LR].


The second image is your basic grayscale image. It has no 'pop' or wow factor to it and is basically a very 'flat' image.

The third image is a Black and White conversion utilizing the many powerful tools in LR 2.1. A few of the tips I will outline are not available in LR 1.4 [clarity tool].

[All the instructions are based on the assumption of shooting in RAW.]

1. Click on the develop module
2. Click on Grayscale in the HSL/Color/Grayscale section below the basic section in the develop module.
   
3. Under the 'basic' set of tools adjust the black slider to the right until you darken the image to a manner that is pleasing to you. [Do not worry if it is too dark, we will address it later.]
4. In this photo I adjusted the black to +18.
5. If the black causes parts of your image to be too dark, adjust your exposure to bring out the images that are too dark. In this example I adjusted the exposure to +.95.
6. I adjusted the recovery slider to +18 to bring out the impact of the clouds. [Play with the recovery slider to enhance the appearance of your sky.]
7. My next task was to bring out the midtones and the tool I used was the clarity tool. [It is not available in LR 1.4]. I adjusted it to +100. [Play with this tool and see the impact to using a negative clarity value.] It creates a dreamy effect around -50 to -100. Go ahead and play, you can always move it back to the original position.
8. Move down to the tone curve section and adjust your point curve to strong contrast. Notice the change in the image.
9. In this image I 'cropped' the image slightly to eliminate the vignetting in the upper corners from shooting very wide. [Hit the R key and it will take you to the crop mode, then adjust accordingly.]
10. Adjust the sharpening slightly
11. Export to PS to add the border and text

If you do not have lightroom, go to adobe's site and download a free trial version. Remember, if you are a student, check out the many sites that offer LR and many other great software tools for a great discount.

I hope this tutorial helps! Go out and capture the beauty of life!

Columbus, Ohio - Playing in Lightroom

I took this image a few weeks ago while walking in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It was later in the evening and I had some time to enjoy the city. [I was in Columbus on a business trip.] The lines and shapes of the building caught my attention. However, regardless of how I took the picture, I could not capture it in the manner I saw it in my mind.

However, after some 'playing' in Lightroom 2.1 I was able to create the second image that matched the drama I saw in my mind. I envisioned a building from the turn of the century with late night meetings and discussions concerning the future of the area.

The first image is directly out of the camera and the second image is after some 'artistic' liberality was used. :-)

Silver Ring Thing - Myth buster tour and 20 something event

The Silver Ring Thing returned to Victory Family Church in Cranberry Twp., PA, Friday night 9.19.08.  This was the first presentation of the 20 something event and as always, an excellent event.  [Yes, I cried many times during the testimonials and laughed at the videos.]  The SRT team did an amazing job presenting the facts about sex outside the marriage covenant and the value of waiting until marriage before having sex.  However, they also emphasized it is not too late to 'start over'.  Today is the day to draw the line in the sand and declare before God and man to stay pure until marriage.  If you never attended a Silver Ring Thing event, it is well worth the time invested.  Click here for more information and to find an event in your area.    

Their 'normal' event is geared toward the teenage crowd but this event was designed to reach the twenty something crowd.  I talked to a few of the attendees after the event and they all stated it was a tremendous event and they would recommend it to their friends.  [Parents, I recommend this event for you to attend with your son or daughter.] 

If you have a son or daughter in the teen years, I encourage you to visit the SRT site and find an event in your area.  No event in your area!  Fill out the online form or contact their office to schedule an event.

The event is a multimedia event that will get YOUR attention!  If you attend an event and your emotions are not challenged, check your pulse!  Call 911, you might be dead!

Watch my site over the next few days for more pictures of the event!

As always, grab your camera and capture the beauty of life that God gave to each of us!

Stormy skies and God's protection!

 

Sunday night the winds were becoming stronger and stronger until they reached 55+ MPH with gust up to 70+.  This is the sky we saw as the winds grew stronger and stronger.  [The weather channel warned of high winds.  Why do they call them high winds if they are on the ground too?  High winds would be a problem for aircraft?]  The clouds were moving and changing so fast that pictures I took a few minutes later were 'boring' compared to this dramatic image.  [Very little post processing done in Lightroom 2.0.]  The border and text was added in Photoshop.

Although the image contains tremendous color, it does not display the beauty we saw painted in the sky that night.  The second image image is a black and white version of it.  I added some matting in Photoshop to 'enhance' the image.

Although we were without power for the first part of the week, we suffered no damage.  Earlier in the summer, my wife had the trees close to the pool removed and a few tress up the driveway.  No doubt if they were not removed we would have received damage in some manner.  One of the trees removed was near the power line that comes into the house.  {Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.}

There was a tremendous amount of debris in the pool which we cleaned out by hand Tuesday night.  We 'cranked' up the heater and spent the evening cleaning out leaves and acorns.  

We thank God this wind storm did not occur in the winter [when a power outage could have been disastrous without heat] or associated to any 'water'.  No blowing rain, sleet, hail, or snow occurred which reduced the after effects of the wind!

Have fun and enjoy the beauty of life!

Adding color to a black and white image

Both of these images are converted from the same file.  The second image has slightly 'stronger' red tone added to the flowers than the first image. 

To create these images, I started in Lightroom 2.0 and right clicked on the 'full' color version of the RAW file and created a virtual copy.  I converted the virtual copy to a black and white image and adjusted the black and fill light to enhance the image.  In the original file, I boosted the hue and saturation [red] to bring out some of the color in the flowers.  I was cautious not to adjust the color too much to avoid a cartoonish or fake look.  After both images were modified to where I liked them, I right clicked on the image and selected edit in Photoshop [CS2].  This next technique works in any photo editing software that supports layers.  [PS Elements, etc]. 

Photoshop steps:

1. Drag the black and white image to the color image and rename each layer to identify the layer [e.g. the bottom layer = color, the next layer = b&w, etc.
2.  Create a mask on the b&w layer.  Hit the 'B' key [brush] and ensure black is selected in the color pallet. 
3. Adjust the brush size to a comfortable size to 'paint' over the flowers.  The shortcut key for adjusting the brush size is the '[' and ']' keys.
4. Paint over the flowers and the color from the first layer will show through to the second layer.  The trick is not to paint too much to the hands or clothing.  Use the 'z' key to zoom in and out when needed.
5. In this image, I wanted to 'black' out the couple's jeans to add some 'pop' to the flowers.  I created a layer above the black and white layer and painted black over the jeans.  I did not paint the black on the black and white layer because I did not want to alter the 'original' layer.

When either image is printed, a white mat and black frame would accent the flowers and the couple's hands.

Thanks for viewing and remember, get out and capture the beauty of life!