Photo

This post showcases photographs (rather than tools and equipment)

What is that beautiful tree?

Kevin
Do you know the type of tree?
Do you know the type of tree?

May is the month for flowering trees!   You’ve probably seen a few lately.   Some of my friends don’t seem interested in specifically what type of tree they are looking at … but I certainly am interested.

How about the photo here at the top – do you know this one?  Magenta flowers with green leaves.  Flowering crabapple.

How about the next one?  Pink & magenta flowers, clustered close along the branches, and the leaves aren’t particularly showing yet.  Eastern Redbud.

Pink / magenta flowers, closely following the branches.
Pink / magenta flowers, closely following the branches.

(Click on either image for a larger view.)

As for trees with magenta flowers, there are only two others that are common.  Magnolia flowers can range from mostly magenta, with a bit of white, to mostly white with a bit of magenta.  (The latter is more common.)  Uniquely, magnolia flowers are larger than any of our other common flowering trees.

The last one is tricky.  The flower buds, before blooming, can be magenta color.  The flowers in bloom look like bright pink carnations.  That’s a Kwanzan Cherry; there is nothing else like it.

Oil Painting Effect on a Photograph

Oil Painting Effect on a Photograph

Kevin

Toying around with some software filters, I arrived at a painterly effect that I really love … in just 5 minutes.  I’m not trying to put painters out of business – just having fun.

I started with an image from Lexington Massachusetts this past Patriots Day weekend.  My first experiment did not yield a compelling result.  Tried a second image, applied different filters, and shown here are all the phases of transformation.

Unmodified image
Unmodified image

The first filter is Bokeh 2 by Alien Skin.  (This is demonstrated in my previous post: Softening a Photo with Bokeh 2)

Processed with Bokeh 2, by Alien Skin
Processed with Bokeh 2, by Alien Skin

The second step is done with Topaz Adjust. Adjust is one of my favorite tricks for adding a bit of “pop” to an image that seems a bit dull, however, here I used a preset called “Low key”, which I have never found any use for until today.

Processed with Bokeh, then Topaz Adjust, preset = Low Key
Processed with Bokeh, then Topaz Adjust, preset = Low Key

The last step is an painterly effect using Snap Art by Alien Skin.

Click on the image to see the larger view!

Processed with Bokeh and Adjust, then Snap Art
Processed with Bokeh and Adjust, then Snap Art

That was rather easy. Honestly, such experimental transformations are usually more difficult and end up with a result I don’t love … so, delete. I really like this one.

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Softening a Photo with Bokeh 2 (by AlienSkin)

Softening a Photo with Bokeh 2 (by AlienSkin)

Kevin

Last winter, I did a bit of backyard bird photography. Attached here is one of those images, where the bird looks quite good, but the background is distracting. As this was shot from my kitchen window, there was nothing I could do about the background (except maybe hang an artificial backdrop in the background trees

original image - shot with a MFT 45-200 zoom at f/8
original image – shot with a MFT 45-200 zoom at f/8

Perhaps the background would be less distracting if the depth of focus was more shallow.  A wider aperture might do the trick. This image was shot at f/8.  The widest aperture on the lens is f/5.6.

Enter … a software filter called Bokeh2, by Alien Skin.  The term ‘bokeh’ refers to the characteristics of an out-of-focus lens.  Some lenses have a more visually appealing bokeh than others.  The Bokeh 2 software simulates the bokeh effect and includes several presets that emulate specific lenses.  So here is an edited version of the image, using Bokeh 2 to simulate an aperature of f/2.8 to soften the background and make it a bit less distracting.

Background softened using Bokeh 2
Background softened using Bokeh 2

Although this does not entirely remedy the distracting background, it does reduce the distraction by softening it.  You might achieve a similar effect with a basic Gaussian Blur filter, but Bokeh 2 aims to simulate characteristics of real lenses.  This would be very significant if the background here had specular highlights, as real optical bokeh has a different effect than simple blur.

New Domain Name For Your Website

Kevin

Maybe you wanted a web domain name <YourName>.com, but it was taken by someone else. This conflict is being blown apart, beginning in 2014 and onward. There are more than 1600 applications to create new top level domain names.

Think about what your new domain name could be.
<YourName>.music, <YourName>.blog,  <YourName>.cool, <YourName>.tech, <YourName>.now

At a glance, here are just some of the proposed new domains
http://www.1and1.com/new-top-level-domains

I can easily imagine there will be millions of dollars spend on securing new domain names.
Just think how many people will want to own HipHop.music or HowTo.book

Epson Printer

Kevin

A year ago, I almost bought an Epson 3880.  Last week, I did buy an Epson printer, but opted for the 3000 instead of the 3880. Here is are a few reasons:

(1) the 3880 will print 17×22 paper, which is one size larger than the 3000
(2) the 3000 will feed both sheet paper and rolls
(3) the 3000 has built-in wi-fi
(4) the 3000 costs $300 less than the 3880 (after mail-in rebate)
(5) both the 3000 and 3880 use medium-size ink cartridges
specifically, 80ml volume  (compared to 59ml for the R2000)

Between the years 2000 – 2010, Epson has been the standard bearer among semi-pro inkjet printers.  Canon has since taken some of that market share from Epson.  The Canon Pixma Pro-10 competes directly with the Epson 3000 and is comparably priced.  The Canon may print a bit faster and includes 50 sheets of paper with the printer (worth $45).

Epson also offers larger printers (for 17″ wide and 24″ wide paper); Canon does not.

The real cost of a printer is not the printer itself, but the cost printing.  The per-sheet cost is primarily a combination of paper and ink.  For more info regarding per-sheet cost:
http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing.html
(The cost of paper can vary widely as there are many choices today for paper.)

UPDATE:
One week after selecting/buying this printer, I stumbled upon this recent review of the R3000:
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-photo-inkjet-printer/

 

Photograph Amusement Park Rides at Night

Kevin

Bright colors.  That’s pretty much what it’s all about when photographing amusement park rides.  Daytime photographs pale in comparison to night photographs of the rides.

Long exposure of midway rides (at Washington County Fair)
Long exposure of midway rides (at Washington County Fair)

This photo here is from the Washington County Fair (Rhode Island).  Although there was a fabulous pink sunset, I did not see it in time, so missed that photo opportunity.  In this photo here, there is just a hint of the pink color in the bottom left background.

The best time is dusk.  Just after the sun sets, there is still some light in the sky, but it’s darker than the lights, resulting in some contrast.

OK, so … it’s dark.  Can your camera make a photograph?  Sure.  But you may need a long exposure, longer than 1/30 second.  This shutter speed for this photo here is 1.3 seconds.

A slow shutter speed implies the camera could move slightly during the exposure and mess up the photo.  So you need to stabilize the camera.  Tripod is the right solution to this problem, but in this example here I had a monopod (just one leg).  With the camera on the monopod, I braced it against something solid.  A telephone pole will do; in my case, it was an above-ground pool, on display near the midway.

The last ingredient in this photo is, of course, the zoom effect.  With the camera set to 2-second delayed shutter.  I pressed the shutter button and poised my hand on the zoom ring of the lens.  When the shutter clicked open, I rotated the zoom ring.

 

Photo from your cell phone can reveal your child’s exact location

Kevin

Recently, a friend shared a NBC news report stating that new technology allows criminals to locate your child from a photo you posted on the internet.  If you took the photo in your home, the exact location is available to everyone.  If you took the photo at your local park, that location is available to anyone.

Please don’t be overly alarmed.  There is nothing New here to be afraid of.

1) All digital cameras attach information to photos, such as camera settings.  The GPS location is very common in “smart phones” but is also included in some consumer cameras (not phones).

2) As noted in the news report, smart phones allow you to either turn off location information entirely (which would undermine some map applications) or simply eliminated it from photos.

3) The report states that this is “new” technology.  But please note two important things.  The NBC news report is from 2010.   Embedding location data has been supported by iPhone since 2008.

4) Probably true for video also.

5) You can always remove data attached to a photo.  One such app for Android devices, called Image Privacy.  For iOS, you might try deGeo or Photo Check.