My First Photo Book

I've just finished creating a photobook comprising a selection of pictures from across the three main strands of photography which I am focussing on:

- Animal portraits
- Natural landscapes
- Mystical images

It took longer to choose my photos and design the book than I had anticipated it would - a lesson which I will learn from next time I do something similar. 

I always worry about the layout and presentation so I asked someone to proof read the book before I submitted it for publishing. Seeking help from others is something that I am notoriously reluctant to do. However, with experience I have come to value constructive comments about my work (it doesn't matter whether comments are good or bad, being constructive is the main thing I ask for). I find that comments about a piece of work often lead to other trains of thought as well and set me off on new ideas for future projects which can be very helpful.

I'm dedicating this book to my wonderful husband for his continued support, belief and encouragement. You can see the book here.

A Creative Technique in Photoshop

In my previous post on Photoshop, I talked through the step by step development process for a sample image.

In this post, I will go through a step by step tutorial to teach you to isolate some of the colour within an image, while leaving the rest of the image in black and white.

I took the photograph I'll be working with in the Lake District and as usual, I had my trusty prop, Bob the skull, with me. Here is the original picture, Bob lying in a bath of water which I found while exploring. I'd like to create a black and white image which leaves only the skull in colour as contrast to the rest of the picture. 

So, the first step is to open your photograph in Photoshop.

With the image open, you need to create a copy of the image, known as a duplicate layer. Highlight the background image line (highlighted in the screen shot above) and right click to get the drop down menu shown in the screen shot below. Select duplicate layer.

An options box should pop up on screen and simply select OK to this. 

You now have a duplicate image. Keep the duplicate image selected and go to the top menu then select layer, new adjustment layer, and black & white. These selections are highlighted in the screen shot below.

You should now have another selection box on screen (as shown below) and as before, click OK. 

You will now have a black and white version of your original image. Make sure this is the image you have selected to work on (ie. it is highlighted in the layers box as shown below), and we can set about reintroducing the areas of colour which are going to be put back into the picture.

Firstly, select the eraser tool from the vertical left hand menu.

Then from the top menu, select the size of eraser you would like to use. To begin with I tend to use a large size (sometimes up to 120) and I reduce this when I move onto the finer tuning of the picture.

Now use the eraser to paint over the area of the picture to which you would like to add colour. You can see in the screen shot below that the original colour of the skull is returning.

When it's time to fine tune the picture, zoom in a bit to make sure you don't go over the edges. The zoom tool is towards the bottom of the left diagonal menu bar. (Tip - use your left mouse button to zoom in, use alt and your left mouse button to zoom out).

Zooming in is useful for colouring the edges of the skull. You can see from the screen shot below that I need to use the eraser again to fine tune around the top of the skull in particular.

When you have finished colouring, you might consider using the adjustments tool (lower left box in the shot below) to enhance the brightness and contrast of the picture. This can help make the image much more noticeably black and white with a bit of colour.

And my final image looks like this:

Although this technique has been used for a number of years, I feel it can be very effective. It is probably a case of less being more, just a small patch of colour is more eye catching than having a number of colours added back into a black and white image. I considered colouring the reflection of the skull when I was working but opted to stick with just colouring the skull as I felt this had greater visual impact.

I tried the technique with a misty morning scene as well. In this case I added the colour of the daffodils back into the image. The final photograph is below and I was really pleased with this one as the yellow is a good contrast against the dark gate and grey stone wall. I will definitely be experimenting more with this technique.

The Solar Eclipse

I was fortunate to find a good spot from which to view the solar eclipse on 20 March 2015.

Solar eclipses occur during a New Moon when the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun. I won't go too deeply into the science but because of the geometry of the line up of Earth, Moon and Sun, and the relative sizes of the Moon and the Sun, the Moon appears from Earth to be the same size as the Sun. 

At the time of an eclipse (which doesn't happen every New Moon because of the Moon's orbital path), as the Moon orbits the Earth, it passes the face of the Sun and blocks the light for a few minutes. The entire event lasts around an hour, and at the time of maximum coverage, the light of day may dim a little, the temperature may drop, and birds may begin to go through their roosting patterns.

In spite of the fact that the Sun's light is being blocked during this time, looking directly at an eclipse can still cause irreparable damage to your eyes so please make sure that you have appropriate safety glasses if you are attempting to watch the eclipse.

In order to photograph the eclipse, I needed a solar filter for my camera. Rather than buying a custom made filter, I bought a sheet of black polymer which was big enough to attach to the end of my largest lens. Black polymer is a tough material which filters out the brightest of light to leave the Sun looking a natural orange colour. I attached the square sheet to my lens with some tape, which meant I could remove it easily and use it again.

Safety note if you buy your own solar filter sheet, make sure that it is attached securely to your lens so that it will not drop off while you are viewing the Sun. The image on the left below shows the lens with the filter resting next to it. The image on the right shows the lens with the filter attached to provide an easy, inexpensive, and effective method of photographing the Sun.

    

There were lots of people out to witness the eclipse and I took the picture below on my mobile telephone. You can see the silhouettes of other eclipse watchers highlighted against the sky, which has dimmed with the reduction in daylight. 

With the filter attached, I set my main camera up on a tripod with my shutter cable in place to avoid camera shake. Viewing the Sun through eclipse glasses, I lined the lens up to take my images. 

I took a number of photographs of the event and it was hard to pick just a single image for this blog but I settled on this one which reminds me of a big smile across the sky.

Sensible Cropping

When taking a photograph, it isn't always possible to get the entire subject into the frame. This is where what I call sensible cropping comes into play. If you can't get the whole subject into the picture, at least try to get enough into the image so that the viewer can comfortably fill in the missing parts for themselves.

Let's look at some images of red kites as examples.

The first image shows the whole bird; there is nothing here for the viewer to do other than take in the picture. I used a shutter speed of 1/8000 second for this picture in order to freeze the bird in motion.

The next image is much closer and you can see more of the details of the talons and flight feathers. Although the wings are cropped in this frame, it is not difficult as a viewer to picture how the wings might extend to the tips. You don't need to know all the details (for example, that kites' wings have finger-like feathers at the end), but you can surmise that this is a bird in flight and based on the detail in the photo, you can imagine what the full bird would look like. As a viewer, you have one almost complete wing on which to base your assumptions about how the full bird might look.

The next image is cropped much more closely to the body of the bird. Although you can tell this is probably a bird in flight, something about the image jars to look at. Without any extension to the wings, the appearance of the bird is somehow more artificial and less comfortable to view.

The lesson here is that by all means crop your pictures (it's not always possible to get everything into the frame, however hard you try), but make sure that you give the viewer enough information to enable them to complete the picture without any difficulty. A picture that jars the senses is not one which people will tend to linger over in appreciation.

I will end this post with my favourite picture from this particular bird watching and photography session. There is no cropping in sight but I do hope you like the photograph. Thanks for reading!

An Introduction to Infra-Red Photography

Infra-red photography captures infra-red light (which is invisible to the human eye) to create otherworldly images of high contrast, usually in black and white. 

Under normal circumstances, an inbuilt filter will block the infra-red light from reaching the camera's sensors, but with an infra-red filter, the light is able to reach the sensor. Different structures and materials absorb or reflect infra-red light in different ways, giving rise to the potential for some very creative images.

You do not need expensive equipment to take infra-red pictures, just certain optimum conditions and patience as the technique does involve some trial and error.

I use an infra-red filter for my images, which is shown here drying out after I inadvertently submerged it in a river. The infra-red filter is the part at the back with the serrated edges. This slides into the holder which is on top of the pile in the picture, and which in turn screws onto the front of the lens. I generally screw it into a UV filter (in the middle of the wet filter sandwich) for a bit of extra lens protection.

It is best to try infra-red photography when it is sunny as this gives rise to the highest volume of infra-red light for your images. You will notice when looking through the viewfinder that you cannot see anything with the filter in place. To work around this, some people like to line up their shot before attaching the filter. I prefer to attach the filter and line the shot up afterwards but that is a personal preference. Once the camera is in place I find it easiest not to try to attach extra equipment.

As the infra-red filter is so much darker than other filters, the shutter will need to be open for longer. The best way to control the length of time that the shutter is open, set the camera to bulb mode (B) and use a remote shutter release to avoid camera shake.

When I first tried infra-red photography it was a dull overcast day and the conditions really weren't suitable. I left the shutter open for almost 5 minutes but found my results were little different to just having shot in monochrome in the first instance.

The image above is as taken with the filter. I haven't trimmed the edges of the picture so you can see the side of the filter holder creeping into the photo.

The following image is converted to black and white and as you can see, although the picture has a certain spooky feel to it, there's not much in it which could not have been achieved with a simple monochrome image. My mistake here was to try shooting in very overcast conditions, I really did need some sunlight to make the picture work.

Learning from my first attempts, I waited (not altogether patiently) for sunnier weather. I also changed location as I wanted to take advantage of having the shutter open for longer to create some smooth effects with flowing water. I took the following image on a very sunny day and left the shutter open for a minute.

You can see that the longer exposure has led to a very smoothing effect across the water, and the sunlight has created much greater contrast across the landscape. I was very pleased with this image and will definitely be experimenting more with infra-red photography. Watch this blog!

More on Filters

In a previous post I discussed the use of polarising filters. As well as enhancing your images, filters can also be very useful in protecting your lens. I was reminded of this recently when balancing myself and my camera somewhat precariously on a rock in a river to take some infra-red photographs.

  
As you can see, it was a beautiful spot and the temptation to venture into the river was too great to resist. I got the picture I wanted but also slipped and dunked the camera into the river.

Fortunately, the filters provided some protection from the water and the camera was unharmed, while the filters could be dried off easily enough.

My final image looked like this ...

I was pleased with the picture although grateful that it was not at the expense of losing my camera. In my next post, I will discuss infra-red photography in greater depth, including how to use it to create silky smooth water images.