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Photography

Day 167/365: The Great Flower Hunt is On!

May 21, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Fuscia in a Hanging Basket
Fuchsia in a Hanging Basket

I’m going to indulge myself with flowers, flowers and more flowers. It was an experimental day with my Marine son’s Canon Rebel EOS. I wanted to see if his camera took better pictures than what I currently have done with my Fujica S1500 and old Olympus E10. So, I’m asking for your help. What do you think in comparison to my other flower photographs?

Columbines, the Colorado State Flower
Columbines, the Colorado State Flower
Blue Irises
Blue Irises
White Flower
White Flower (anyone know the name?)
Flowering Shrub
Flowering Shrub (don't know the name)

I’m beginning to think that it’s not the equipment, but the photographer. You can have an outstanding very expensive camera, but if you don’t know how to use it then your photographs are going to be subpar.

The thing I do like about my Fujica S1500 is when I adjust the exposure on the aperture priority setting the image in the view finder changes to reflect the exposure setting. In both the Olympus and Canon the view doesn’t change and I’m left “guessing” at the exposure (-1 or +1 ). Often get back to my computer and find a whole batch under or over exposed.  If I’m in a hurry, like the zoo trip coming up, I lose a lot of images. Sure I can check it on the camera playback, but if it’s a sunny day it’s still hard to judge.

Guess it’s experience, time, and taking lots and lots of pictures. But, then that’s one of my goals of this 365 project.

Photography Notes: None of these images were SOOC (straight out of camera) all had some cropping, adjustment layers,  exposure correction, contrast bumping, and in a few cases a burned edge. But I didn’t spend too much time on them, maybe 30 seconds.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, flowers, Olympus, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, project365, Spring

Day 163/365: Crabapple Tree in Bloom

May 17, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

More flowering trees, this time I know it’s a crabapple tree, unlike last time,  as I saw last years lingering crab apples. Still experimenting with an old Olympus E-10 I bought off eBay several years ago as I like the clarity it gives, only wish it gave more than four megapixel images. Maybe I’ll get lucky on Craigslist and find a great deal on a high end camera.

CrabApple Tree
Day 163: Crab Apple Tree (Olympus camera SOOC)

This photo above was straight out of camera on my old Olympus digital camera. The lens quality is really sharp, better than my Canon Rebel, but it’s only a 4.6 megapixel so I have to be happy with small images. Here at the lab we can print some nice 16×20’s but I can’t crop anything out, this size shrinks too low to make a sharp print.

Photoshop CS5 Filter/Render/Lighting Effects/Crossing Down/Spotlight

But I’m learning it’s not just the equipment that makes a photographer, it’s skill. I have now gotten better at aperture, shutter speed and exposure on my manual settings, some day when my camera hobby starts to pay for itself I’ll get a better camera.

Thanks to suggestions from my friends at Chick A Day Blog and Anglin Photography  I’ve experimented with this photo a little. Some like more contrast, others like a softer look, or maybe a more artistic flair. This photograph lends itself to all of them. Never think that you can’t learn from others. Straight out of camera images can be really really good, but they can be made “GREAT” by a little tweaking of Photoshop Magic.

Sepia Flowers
Photoshop CS5/Filter Sepia/ Select Color Layer
Cooling Photoshop Filter on Flowering Tree
Photoshop CS5/Cooling Filter & Pink Selection layer for Flowers on Top

I love my blogging friends, I learn so much from them, amazing photographs and Photoshop artists.

Photography Notes: After playing around in the Photoshop CS5 my son gave me when he came home from leave I like the post production images better than the straight out of camera.

More Information on Crabapple Trees

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, blogs, crabapple tree, flowers, Olympus, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, project365, Spring

Day 157/365: Senior Pictures On A Budget

May 11, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Senior Pictures
Senior Pictures

High School senior pictures can one of the biggest expenses of your son or daughters senior year.  Some parents pay thousands of dollars to professional photographers for pictures that are often dated and forgotten about just a few years later. If you’re on a budget is it really worth breaking the bank? They seem so important at the time. But, with the help of Hamilton Color Labs and my friend Beth at Vivid Image Photography I created a huge senior portraits package for less than $125.

Many photographers will now provide the original images on a disc and you can order prints at a variety of professional labs. That’s what Beth does. She started out taking portraits of her own boys and has expanded her hobby of photography to taking senior pictures for friends and family. For a small sitting fee she lets the senior pick the location and then provides them the original unedited images to do with what they wish.

Original SOOC

This bridge photograph was originally uninspiring, but I loved my son’s Marine shirt, so I cropped it down to the photo at the top of this post. I loved the tight crop, but since the cropping was drastic the resolution decreased. This I compensated for by creating a sepia effect, creating a blurred background layer, and printing it on a metallic paper at Hamilton Color Labs.

The result was stunning. The Marine wallet became his classmates favorite. My favorite senior portrait was the traditional shot sitting by the hay bale, until I saw the printed Marine wallet. Now the Marine print sits in the front of my wallet.

Top printed on metallic paper, bottom SOOC

Another favorite wallet amongst Davids classmates was the creek image, again printed on metallic paper.  The glaring sun in the original bottom photograph made it difficult to bring out his face and seemed to overwhelm the photograph. By changing the color tone and bringing up the blues in a separate layer this changed the focal point and the metallic paper gave the image a surreal effect which was perfect.

Senior Pictures

By far David’s favorite senior picture was hanging upside down in the barn. As a wallet it didn’t have the same impact, but made a great enlargement. There are those that like the “studio experience”, especially girls, the process mimics a model shoot. Many people don’t have the ability, or time, to edit or create post production effects, but I enjoyed this aspect.

With so many favorite photographs, it was hard to choose, but I didn’t have skimp. Since since I was ordering through Hamilton Color Labs in Omaha Nebraska I could have them all. A sheet of 8 wallets costs less than $3.00, and an 8 x 10 on professional Lustre paper was less than $5.00. Amazing! Check out their prices yourself. This photography lab is the same place professional photographers use, but hobbyist are welcome at this professional processing lab.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t use a professional photographer. There are benefits in their years of experience and camera investment. If I was add up all the post production hours experimenting and put a time value on the process it would be several hundred dollars. But it’s something I enjoy and the end result yielded compliments all the way around. It’s a personal senior gift from me and my best friend to my son.

Hamilton Color Labs

The people at Hamilton Lab are fantastic. My first experience was with Shelli when I brought in my digital files on a USB drive. Not only was she extremely helpful, but we had a lot in common and I felt I had made a new friend. In fact, we are now Facebook friends and she reads this blog. “Hi Shelli!” She has her own blog and loves trying new recipes, check out her cinnamon roll recipe, it’s to die for.

Shelli helped my upload my files onto the lobby computer, noted my sized wallets were smaller than the standard size and pointed me to their website where I could upload them from home. In less than a week the package of senior pictures was finished and I picked them up. Three 8 x 10’s, six 5 x 7’s and over one hundred professional rounded die-cut wallets for less than $40.00, can’t beat the price.

David Hamilton is the owner of Hamilton Color Labs and I met him just last week when I picked up some additional wallet reprints. My son had run out of the “Marine” and “Creek” senior wallets and needed more. We started talking cameras and he was very gracious and informative. The Hamilton Color Lab website offers soft proofing plug-ins for Photoshop on all their papers, and it does make a difference. The colors on your computer screen do not normally reflect how the photo will look on a metallic or Lustre paper unless you change the proof set-up. They explain soft proofing much better though.

I’m going to definitely use them again and look into their gallery options, mounting, framing, lamination services, and other photography services. They do provide nationwide service  so if you don’t live in Nebraska you can use their upload function and have it shipped.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365, Small Town Living Tagged With: 365project, Bargain, Elmwood-Murdock, memories, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, Product Review

Day 156/365: Canvas On Demand Creates a Work of Art for Your Senior

May 10, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Canvas on Demand

I love creating special personalized gifts that people remember and through Groupon, (did I tell you I love Groupons) I found Canvas on Demand. Canvas on Demand turns normal photographs into three dimensional works of art on stretched canvas prints.  Now, I LOVE Canvas on Demand and love their customer service. Let me explain.

About a month ago I decided to use the image of my son hanging from the barn as a graduation gift from Elmwood-Murdock high school. When I entered the photograph into the program the image didn’t have enough border to wrap without cutting off important accent parts of the photograph.

So I decided to create a collage of senior portraits. The design was done on Photoshop CS2 and changed all the images to a  grey blue tone for consistency. My goal was to have it match the theme of the invitations. By the time I finished the design I was pressed for time and had to order it rush delivery. I noticed there was two orders in my shopping cart. How two got there I don’t know, so I deleted one of them.

Big mistake. When my order arrived it wasn’t the collage, but the hanging barn canvas which was created a month earlier.  I then realized my mistake and was really bummed. I already had an enlargement of hanging from the barn and didn’t need another. At that same time another Groupon for Canvas On Demand. I ordered it and called Canvas On Demand to explain my dilemma. It was one week before the party, could I get it in time? Maybe by chance I could get a credit of some kind.

They did better than that. Customer service said they would replace the canvas and all I would have to pay for is the shipping. Awesome! I was also sent a return form to include a 5″x 5″ cut out of the canvas I wanted to return. After showing the barn canvas to my friend Beth she was impressed by it as well and thought I should keep both.  I might just keep it and pay for it with my Groupon as I originally intended.

The second canvas arrived the day before the party and I am thrilled. Hanging on the wall it looks like a a work of art, the frame is very high quality and I plan on getting another canvas when my daughter graduates, possibly one of my oldest Marine son.

Canvas On Demand Detail

Definitely recommend the company, can’t say enough good things about them. Tomorrow I’ll give you my secret to printing senior portraits economically. Hint, it’s about Hamilton Color Labs.

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, Elmwood-Murdock, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, Product Review, project365

Day 148/365: Red Tulips Look Like a Monet Painting

May 2, 2011 by info@3QuartersToday.com

Ok, maybe not the famous Monet red poppies, but it’s what I thought of as I crouched down in a neighbors yard to take these red tulips in a neighbors yard. I learned he planted this tulip bed over forty years ago. Daffodils are the first flowers of spring to bloom in my yard, now it’s time for the tulips to shine.In my small town in rural Nebraska people are used to seeing me crouched on the ground with my camera.

This photograph was taken with my old Olympus E-10 camera. It’s only a 4.4 megapixel, but the sensor is better than my Canon Rebel camera and the quality is so much better. I just have to be happy with smaller images.

Red tulips in the garden
These red tulips remind me of Monets Red Poppies (Olympus E-10)

I do love tulips, they are one of my favorite flowers and they are such a welcome sight in the spring after a long winter. Red tulips should be the tradition on Valentines Day instead of roses. I don’t like red roses, so over done. Do a search at the top of the page for more tulip photography. There will be more to come in all colors from red tulips to pink, yellow and the rare variegated tulip hybrids.

Photography Notes: Again, image was originally overexposed, so I played around a bit with the curves layer, added a threshold layer with a low opacity and fill for some dimension to the petals.

More Fun with Tulips

Express your love with red tulips

Hopefully, you followed this ageless custom and expressed your love by giving flowers. This year, rather than giving Rita a bouquet of red roses as I’ve done in the past, on November 3, 2013, I began Plan A — preparing a gift of red tulips. Perhaps …
5000 tulips main attraction at Mughal Gardens this year

President Pranab Mukherjee will declare open the annual ‘Udyanotsav’ at the world-famous Mughal Gardens of Rashtrapati Bhavan on February 15. The Mughal Gardens will remain open to the public from February 16 to March 16. However, it will be closed …
Tiptoe Through the Tulips in Ottawa

Feedback. <. > Bright red tulips in bloom. (Don MacKinnon/Getty Images). As a token of appreciation for the protection of Queen Juliana and her young family, as well as the liberation of Holland, the Dutch sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada.
 

Filed Under: Photography, Project 365 Tagged With: 365project, flower, flowers, Photography, Photoshop, postaday, project365, red tulips, Spring, tulips

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