All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed the course. Back in July when I first purchased my Nikon D90, I got it home and thought what on earth have I done. What does this do and what does that do. I've got quite a few tips from the D90 manual which I purchased at the same time as the camera. But, I've not learnt as much from the book as I have done on the course as it is more hands on.
I think that my favourite part of the course would have to be the light writing exercise, even more so after I purchased a torch that produced different colours.
I normally use a 18-105mm lens for my images. I also own a 55-200mm lens but for some reason, I normally find that I get better images from the 1st lens. Probably something that I'm going to have to figure out over the coming weeks. At Christmas, I was lucky enough to receive a Tamron 90 mm Macro lens and I love it. Not only have I found it to be brilliant at taking close-up images of flowers and insects etc, it's also good for taking portrait shots too.
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Final Images
After choosing my 6 thematic images, I have now chosen my 6 final images. All have been taken with my Nikon D90, Tamron 90mm Macro lens, a tripod, a full battery and sufficient space on a memory card.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 1
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/100 Sec
Image 2
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/20 Sec
Image 3
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/500 Sec
Image 4
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/5 Sec
Image 5
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/100 Sec
Image 6
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/100 Sec
Health & Safety
The fact that I have chosen to do close-up flowers as my theme, you wouldn't think that there would be any health & safety issues to consider. Being a freelance florist, I know some of the dangers to consider with handling flowers. One of the main things to consider is that flowers look harmless-most of them are, a few are poisonous, a small handful are deadly. Pollen can be fatal to animals. So, care needs to be taken to clear the area well after photographing flowers, and hands need to be washed.
If using a dark room for processing images, care must be taken when handling chemicals.
If using a dark room for processing images, care must be taken when handling chemicals.
Assignment 108 - Digital image manipulation
Flowers
For this assignment, I have stuck to my chosen flower theme. This way, I find that everything ties in quite nicely. I have also used a few other images of photographs that I have previously taken to use as by main background image.
I used a Nikon D90, a full battery and sufficient memory card room.
I have to manipulate 4 images and display them with the unmodified images.
Software used for all images:- Photoshop Elements 9.
Bath
For this assignment, I have stuck to my chosen flower theme. This way, I find that everything ties in quite nicely. I have also used a few other images of photographs that I have previously taken to use as by main background image.
I used a Nikon D90, a full battery and sufficient memory card room.
I have to manipulate 4 images and display them with the unmodified images.
Software used for all images:- Photoshop Elements 9.
Bath
Taken with Nikon 18-105mm Lens
F5.6, ISO 2000, Exposure 1/30 Sec
Taken with Tamron 90mm Macro Lens & Tripod
F5.6, ISO 200, Exposure 1/3 Sec
Taken with Tamron 90mm Macro Lens & Tripod
F5.6, ISO 200, Exposure 1/20
Finished Image
For the flowers in the bath image I started with the bath image as my background. I clicked Enhance then Lightening-Lighten Shadows and set that at 46%. I also set the Brightness to 32 and the Contrast to 44.
For the flowers, I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool and cut around the flowers to be used. I then clicked on Enhance, Adjust Lighting, Lighten Shadows 34%. The flower was then dragged onto the main picture. I then clicked on Image, then Resize, then Scale to shrink it down. It was then placed in the required place and then further flowers were shrunk in the same way.
I quite like the image but upon seeing the images printed out, I could've lightened the small flowers a little more maybe. Marie told me to lighten the bath a little, which I did, and I like the result.
Sea
Taken with Nikon 18-105mm Lens
F5.6, ISO200, Exposure 1/125 Sec
Taken With Tamron 90mm Macro Lens
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/15 Sec
Taken with Tamron 90mm Macro Lens
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/2 Sec
Finished Image
For this image, I used the back ground from the sea at West Runton, near Cromer. I changed the settings a little to, Enhance, Brightness 20 and Lighten Shadows 25%. I used the Magnetic Lasso Tool to go around the images of the flowers and then they were dragged onto the image and then shrunk down, as previously explained. With the pink flower, I changed the Brightness to 27 and the white flowers were changed to Brightness 14. The 2 flowers at the end of the pier had their colour removed.
I really like this image as I love photographs of the sea, especially when it starts to get rough. I also like the way how the pink flower fits onto the pole with the seagull on top.
Tree
Taken With Nikon 18-105 mm Lens
F13, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 Sec
Taken with Tamron 90 mm Macro Lens
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/13 Sec
Finished Image
For this image I used a dead tree which I photographed one Winters' morning before Christmas in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire as my background. I didn't alter anything about it as the sun was shining and I thought that the brightness and colours didn't need tweaking. I went around my flower image with the Magnetic Lasso Tool and then altered the Brightness to 53 and the Contrast to 23. The flower was then dragged onto the tree trunk and the size was altered as explained previously.
I really liked the look of the tree when I first took the picture on that frosty morning in December. Marie gave me the idea of adding large flowers into landscape images and I really like the result.
Metal Book
Taken with Nikon 18-105 mm Lens
F4.5, ISO 500, Exposure 1/15 Sec
Taken with Tamron 90 mm Macro Lens
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/30
Finished Image
For this image I used the metal book as my background. I cropped the flower image to cut off any background detail that I didn't want showing. I dragged in the metal book image, and then I dragged the flower image in too. I then clicked on Layer Mask. I clicked Eraser and took the Opacity down to 8% for the flowers and 100% to knock out any background around the book. I then clicked Enhance, Adjust Lighting, Shadow/Highlights, Lighten Shadows and set it at 25%.
I struggled like mad with this one, as I've only just brought the copy of Photoshop Elements 9 and seeing as it doesn't come with many instructions, it was like the blind leading the blind. I found that youtube was a very useful tool for getting me through this layering image. I was so pleased once I had finished it. On the whole, I liked the image produced, I also like how the flowers were faded, still leaving the image and the water marks.
I have had to elaborate on how I have achieved these results as I wasn't able to do any screen grab. So I'm hoping that I've given sufficient step by step instructions.
Assignment 107 - Introduction to presenting photo images
I have chosen to present my images in a scrapbook style album as opposed to a disc or a memory stick. I feel that by doing this, at least at the end of the course, I will have produced something to hold and view instead of a disc or memory stick which could easily be lost or mislaid. Also, I find that hopefully, this will be more pleasing on the eye. So, as I write this, I am waiting for my photographs to arrive through the post from Photobox.
There are other ways in which I could have presented my images, two of which I have already spoken about (disc or memory stick). They could be viewed on a slideshow format. I could have presented them in wallets, similar to how wedding photographs are displayed. Another method would have been to place them at random onto a page to create a type of collage and then print them off as a poster. Canvas could also be used, especially if the images are of exceptional high quality, and cost is not an issue.
Other ways in which professional photographers/artists present their work includes exhibitions and galleries where they will present their images, usually framed or on canvas, as large single pictures or smaller if they consist of groups. Also, people have websites and they will present them on there, either just for viewing or ordering. Wedding photographers will present their images as proofs to begin with. These may be in a book (small) that you can flip through and order them from that or, if it was anything like our wedding photographer, he scattered every one of our photographs onto a large table, and there we sat one night wading through them deciding which ones to keep and which ones to ditch. The ditched ones were sold off to family members that wanted them cheaply. The ones that we kept were collated into a proof album. At the end of it all, we were presented with our wedding album with protection paper over every image. A wealth of enlargements are available for your wedding images also.
Lots of photographers now present their work on laptops or ipads as this is so much easier for them to display their portfolio. Everything is accessible and they can sell themselves to you at a click of a button.
There are other ways in which I could have presented my images, two of which I have already spoken about (disc or memory stick). They could be viewed on a slideshow format. I could have presented them in wallets, similar to how wedding photographs are displayed. Another method would have been to place them at random onto a page to create a type of collage and then print them off as a poster. Canvas could also be used, especially if the images are of exceptional high quality, and cost is not an issue.
Other ways in which professional photographers/artists present their work includes exhibitions and galleries where they will present their images, usually framed or on canvas, as large single pictures or smaller if they consist of groups. Also, people have websites and they will present them on there, either just for viewing or ordering. Wedding photographers will present their images as proofs to begin with. These may be in a book (small) that you can flip through and order them from that or, if it was anything like our wedding photographer, he scattered every one of our photographs onto a large table, and there we sat one night wading through them deciding which ones to keep and which ones to ditch. The ditched ones were sold off to family members that wanted them cheaply. The ones that we kept were collated into a proof album. At the end of it all, we were presented with our wedding album with protection paper over every image. A wealth of enlargements are available for your wedding images also.
Lots of photographers now present their work on laptops or ipads as this is so much easier for them to display their portfolio. Everything is accessible and they can sell themselves to you at a click of a button.
Assignment 104 - Introduction to close-up image capture
Flowers
For this assignment, I used my Nikon D90 camera, a Tamron 90mm Macro lens, a tripod, a fully charged battery and a memory card with ample space. With my subject being flowers, I needed the image to look as exact to the flower as possible, so I didn't use the flash, as I found that it was giving inferior colours to the flower in which I was photographing. Instead, I used natural daylight and I photographed them on my large window cill.
For the tulips, I had fun with sunlight. I had my camera set to a multitude of settings before I achieved the desired effect.
I was required to produce a folio of 6 thematic images.
For this assignment, I used my Nikon D90 camera, a Tamron 90mm Macro lens, a tripod, a fully charged battery and a memory card with ample space. With my subject being flowers, I needed the image to look as exact to the flower as possible, so I didn't use the flash, as I found that it was giving inferior colours to the flower in which I was photographing. Instead, I used natural daylight and I photographed them on my large window cill.
For the tulips, I had fun with sunlight. I had my camera set to a multitude of settings before I achieved the desired effect.
I was required to produce a folio of 6 thematic images.
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/5 Sec
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/100 Sec
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/60 Sec
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/1600 Sec
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/100 Sec
F5, ISO 200, Exposure 1/20 Sec
I have taken hundreds of images of different flowers trying to get the balance correct, each time adjusting the exposure until I was happy with the result. I used Photobox to develop the images but upon looking at them while I was mounting them, I thought they looked a little on the dark side and I was going to write about the fact that I could've overcome this by using a different exposure. On looking back to these that I have uploaded, they don't look dark. So, now I'm a little confused. Maybe next time, I could try and lighten them to compensate. I have not altered any of the settings, they are completely as I have taken them as I feel to lighten them in a programme would mean that I would be entering the manipulation bracket.
Wednesday, 19 January 2011
Initial ideas for unit 108
Digital Image Manipulation
My first initial idea for this task was going to be water. Then I moved onto flowers and water and I was having some issues getting the flowers and water together. After much consideration, I thought it would be best if I just stuck to the flowers. This will tie in well with my other tasks.
Another reason for me doing just flowers is that I can then use the water with them if I wish. I have also taken some good landscape photographs at a local beauty spot which I can also use. I have recently purchased a copy of Photoshop Elements, so now it's time to play!
My first initial idea for this task was going to be water. Then I moved onto flowers and water and I was having some issues getting the flowers and water together. After much consideration, I thought it would be best if I just stuck to the flowers. This will tie in well with my other tasks.
Another reason for me doing just flowers is that I can then use the water with them if I wish. I have also taken some good landscape photographs at a local beauty spot which I can also use. I have recently purchased a copy of Photoshop Elements, so now it's time to play!
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