First Sunrise – Gisborne NZ

Flying machines of the Himalayas

Ian Spence 

Foto trekka and adventure traveller. I enjoy trekking through wild and remote places. So does my camera.

Have a look at my galleries:

Flying Machines of the Himalayas

First Sunrise – Gisborne NZ

We were extremely lucky with the weather, but we still faced some extreme challenges which appear to have been admirably understood and even overcome – but more practice makes perfect.

I am posting the images in order received, with camera and exposure details where this has been included in the image exif data:

Romayne Scott – Untitled 1

Nikon D3100 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ @ f/9 22mm 5s ISO 100
Lovely colours, the image looks sharply focused.

Romayne Scott – Untitled 2

Nikon D3100 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 @ f/9 33mm 5s ISO 800
You may try to straighten the buildings by correcting perspective in your image editor.

Darius Cheesman – melbourne-by-night

Nice shot Darius, the focus looks sharp.

jim Love 01

jim Love 02

jim Love 03

Nice shots Jim. You may want to correct the perspective in the last one as the buildings lean towards each other quite strongly.

Alex Brown_Yarra River Shoot_7311

Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL 10-24mm f/4-22 @ f/9 27.0 mm 0.5s ISO 100

Alex brown_Yarra River Shoot_7325

Nice shots Alex. The second one is overexposed, which also leads to a lot of flare around the lights.
Canon EOS 400D DIGITAL 10-24mm f/4-22 @ f/9 18 mm 6s ISO 400

victor harcourt IMG_9668 – Version 2

Canon EOS 60D EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS @ f/18 65.0 mm 5s ISO 800

Nice colours Victor, focus is sharp, lovely starbursts. A great idea to zoom in and concentrate on this interesting part of the scene. Be careful of small apertures like f/18 because you start getting diffraction and a softening of the image. Nevertheless, you have pulled it off nicely in this image.

Carl Wilson – CSC_0648

Nice exposure balance Carl.

Carl Wilson – CSC_0652

Carl, this one looks somewhat overexposed. You may of course change the image as you like, but always try to make it believable.

Arlette Bruzzaniti 01

Arlette Bruzzaniti 02

If your subject’s eyes are dull and lifeless, your image will project that too!  Before you take your photograph, check that the model’s eyes have catch lights in them.

How to Make Those Eyes POP in Photoshop CS

Step One: Create duplicate layer, press command (mac)/control(pc) j   

Then rename the layer by double clicking over the text that says background copy. I called my duplicate layer EYES.

Step Two: Zoom in to the eyes so they fill the screen – use the magnifying tool

Step Three: Select the Dodge tool.

If you can’t see it, it may be because the burn tool is visible. Click on the burn tool to select the dodge tool. 

Step Four: We need to be really careful that people can’t tell that we have lightened the eyes.  So select the highlights range (you find this above your image). Then set the exposure to 10%.  This will make sure we are just lightening the highlights gradually.

Step Five: Brush over the whites of the eyes.  BUT be very carefully that they do not look too white! Zoom out to check.  I often dodge the catch light in the eye also if it is very light.
Step Six:  Darken the pupils. Select the burn tool (it will swap over with the dodge tool if you hold down on it.)

Step Seven:  Zoom in to the eye you want to work on. Then gently brush over the pupil.  I sometimes brush really carefully over the eyelashes too, be careful not to over do it.
       

Here is a before (left) and after (right) example.

Darkening the pupils and eyelashes definitely gives the eyes more impact.  I sometimes very slightly darken the nostrils as well, to give the image more depth.

I hope this tutorial has been of help to you,

Happy Editing,

Rebecca.

                                                         BEFORE

                                                      AFTER

When people call me to inquire about Camberwell Camera Club, they have often had experience with a film camera and want to learn more about digital photography.

I am often asked if anyone shoots with film anymore and will it be hard to learn to use a DSLR camera?  The jump can seem steep from film to digital. I guess that’s because people feel like they have to start from scratch.  Members who attend our ‘Beyond the Point and Shoot Digital Photography Course,’ seem to leave with a good grasp on how to use their DSLR camera. We are very fortunate that we have some fabulous volunteers to run this course.

This brings us to the question…
Is film photography dead?
We have two members that I know of who still shoot with slide and some film.  The problem is getting the film processed and printed. It’s extremely expensive now and only a few places still do it.  The other option is to scan your film and work on it using the computer.  But let’s face it, the best thing about digital photography is not relying on chemicals anymore and less print wastage.  This can make us sloppy photographers though. The danger is we rush our photographs (knowing they are free to take) and assume we can ‘fix’ it with Photoshop.  An ordinary shot is still an ordinary shot.  We also fall into the trap of never printing any images.

Award winning images still take time whether you work in a darkroom or a light room (he he).  Award winning images still need many small touches to make them even more outstanding. The techniques we use are just different.

A film photographer became excited on seeing the printed images from the lab. Now the excitement level is instant!  It’s what often spurs me on at a shoot to keep going and trying more new ideas.

Many techniques film photographers used are still important when using a DSLR. The buttons just look different.  A correct ISO, shutter speed and aperture are still very important to creating a great image!

Digital photography has made us take more images. Digital photography has made us worry less about making mistakes. Digital photography has most definitely revolutionalised photography.

I think a better way to describe film photography now is … boutique.

Happy Shooting,
Rebecca

VIRTUAL TOURS: Members can now post VIRTUAL TOURS in their galleries.
Ask Barney for help with this.
See the example Virtual Tour in Barney’s gallery

NEW AND UPDATED GALLERIES:

Read about Deborah in our new MEMBERS EVENTS gallery.
Barney has posted a virtual tour of his EXHIBITION which is now over.

See the newly updated galleries of:

Jan Krestyn

Wolf Marx

Deborah Mullins

See the image galleries of:

Ian Spence

Ruth Goldwasser

Bev Bryceson

Eva Alegre

Duane Harris

Graz Tinney

My first audiovisuals were made after attending APSCON in Mildura in 2006

‘Leonard Cohen’

‘According to Gaudi’

‘A Garden of Colours’ was made from 3 images. It has had more than 12,000 views, although it is not finished yet

‘Kooree Dancers’ was made from photos taken during the APS Convention at Mildura in 2006.

‘Desert Sands’ was also made from photos taken at the 2006 APS Convention in Mildura

‘Swan Lake’ was made from images taken at a CCC outing to the Werribee Wetlands

‘Spinning Around in Black and White’ was made in 2011 for our club’s AV group project – ‘Black and White’

‘Margarita – Spanish Flamenco’ was made in 2011 for the project ‘The Letter M’ for the South Australian AV Group

‘The Panda Story’ was made for our club’s 2011 project ‘Tell a Story’

‘Sounds of Kinglake’ which has not received an acceptance nationally, got second place in Oman, Jordan in 2011 as part of the Palmares International AV Festival judging. The message is, do not despair if you don’t win a prize, there are many people out there who appreciate your work.

‘The Wailing Wall’, which has not been accepted locally, was liked by some judges in a couple of countries during an international judging in 2010.

posted by Barney 24/03/2012