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We got two more! Welcome to Robin and her photoblog rcknrobin fotography and Jonathan and his photoblog lightXposed.
Have you been by the blogrolls lately? The lists have grown substantially longer than they were a year ago. Stop by, visit some new photoblogs, leave some comments and make some new connections. Or you can always check out our del.icio.us page for member highlights.
Boat House by CPL
Help us select photos for the spotlight! Tag your favorite Houston/Texas Photobloggers shots with houstonphotobloggers-spotlight at del.icio.us. Read more about it here.
I spent most of the weekend at the Grand Prix of Houston. It was definitely a learning experience from a photography standpoint. The first thing I learned was: next time, somehow, get press credentials! It would've been much easier to capture good images without the fence in the way (my 70-200 fits nicely through the large fence holes of the main track fence, but a second chain-link fence separates the average attendee from the main fence).
I had two goals in shooting the race... the first was to show the cars at speed, and the second was to try and capture interesting moments aside from the cars. I didn't do nearly as much of the latter as I would have liked because I spent most of the time with my son. So next year, I will plan to spend Friday by myself and make that a photo day. Friday is all practice and qualifying, there are far fewer spectators, and much better access to the pits and goings-on.
As for showing the cars at speed, that meant the cars had to be in focus, but also clearly going very fast, which meant the background had to be out of focus and blurred by the motion. This is where all those DSLR bells and whistles become really useful. I set the drive mode to continuous and the AF mode to "AI Servo" (Canon's name for continuous AF). Then I would focus on a car as soon as it was in view and follow it, holding the shutter halfway down, until it was near the background I wanted, then I held the shutter down until the car passed (still following the car, of course). This resulted in 3-6 shots per car.
Looking at the images, I figured out pretty quickly that I needed to drop the shutter speed way down (it was bright and so the camera was metering 1/2000th or faster at f/4) in order to get the background blur, but not so far that it became impossible to capture the cars in relative focus. Shutter priority mode would've made the most sense, at 1/200th or so, but I also wanted to be able to shoot something other than cars at a moment's notice, so I kept it in aperture priority and just cranked up the aperture (f/11-f/14 mostly). The extra depth of field was meaningless because of the speed, though a good polarizer or ND filter would've been nice to cut down on the light coming in.
Once I got the technique down, I was only shooting 1-2 frames per car, which was good because I was rapidly running out of space on my CF cards. The weekend was great fun, I definitely recommend it as a photography exercise, plus there's nothing like being 10 feet from something going by at 180mph.
Speaking of CS3... since it was released just last Monday, and as I'm a Photoshop addict, I thought I'd highlight a couple things that are new that I use alot (I'd been using the beta).
The first is the black and white adjustment layer. I love black and white, especially when converting from color, because I have so much control over tone. CS3's B&W adjustment layer takes that to another level, with separate sliders for reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, and magentas. Instead of a direct control over channels like we had in the channel mixer, you now have much more useful tonal control with more granularity. You can also apply a tint in the same dialog, which I'm using to apply sepia toning or even just a slight warm cast. If you've been using Lightroom, the B&W adjustment will look very familiar.
The second feature is non-destructive filters (aka smart filters). Normally a filter (such as a blur or unsharp mask) would alter your actual pixels, but you can now apply it as a smart filter instead, and it becomes similar to a layer or layer style, which you can turn on and off, re-order, etc. Your original pixels are untouched.
Following on the Photoshop theme from Jeremey;
For those of you thinking about buying the new version of Photoshop you might be interested to know that you can get a 15% discount if you use the promotion code: AIGA07, when buying from the online store.
The Suspension Bridge After Dark
I love to visit Waco. It has unlimited photo ops and is delightful country. The home of Baylor College, Cameron Park, the Cameron Park Zoo, the Babe Zaharias Museum, the Texas Ranger Museum, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame and so much more. The Suspension Bridge is one of the main tourist attractions and I have captured some great shots both during the day and after dark. There is also Cameron Park that has much to offer. I love driving to the top looking down at the Brazos River where I have also captured some great shots, especially in the early morning.
Looking Down On The Brazos River
You also have some awesome photo ops at the foot of Cameron Park, the Brazos River and the seven bridges along the river that allow Waco residents and tourists to move around. Let's not forget the Cameron Park Zoo, another awesome place for some wonderful shots of many exotic animals. Plan to spend some time there and of course bring the kids, they will enjoy it.
If you are from Houston, plan to stay overnight so you can explore all that is there to see. Don't forget to drop by the Dr. Pepper Museum, another must see. If you decide to go there, stop by the Chamber of Commerce and pick up some free maps to help facilitate your visit. Last but not least, there are some beautiful lakes and golf courses. Bring lots of film, batteries, and whatever else you think you may need and enjoy your vist.
Until next time ....Have fun, God Bless and Shoot Texas with me !
I'm certainly not above borrowing good ideas and I'm always looking for ways to knit our community together. And in steps del.icio.us.
Starting today photos for the weekly spotlight will be chosen not just from the Flickr group pool, but also from photos tagged at del.icio.us. Tag any photo that you love from the sites on our blogrolls with the tag houstonphotobloggers-spotlight and it will be considered for the spotlight. (Please don't tag your own!)
This leads to the second great feature of this system. Don't have time to visit all the photoblogs on the roll? Hit up the select shots on our del.icio.us page. It even has RSS so you can be notified when it is updated. Or see what other members have tagged by searching del.icio.us for the houstonphotobloggers-spotlight tag.
Del.icio.us is really easy to use. After you register for an account, drag the bookmarklets to your menu bar. Every time you see a shot you like click on your bookmarklet and you will be taken to a del.icio.us page where you can title your bookmark, add notes and add tags. You can add as many tags as you like to any link. And remember you can create your own tags, so you can use del.icio.us to save links for yourself in many different categories. Once you are done, click save and you are taken right back to the page you were on. Easy!
So visit each other's photoblogs and tag each other's work (please use this tag only for sites on our roll). Bookmark the Houston Photobloggers page or add it to your feed to be kept up to date on the latest additions. There is some amazing work being produced out there by our members and I hope you have a chance to look through the links and discover some new gems.
Japanese Festival by Uebelhart.net
Help us select photos for the spotlight! Tag your favorite Houston/Texas Photobloggers shots with houstonphotobloggers-spotlight at del.icio.us.
This is my first post, so hi everyone. I'll be posting from time to time on general photography, lighting, or Photoshop topics, most likely. These days I do mostly studio work (in my home), most of which is some kind of personal project. I've definitely developed a love for lighting in general and studio lighting in particular (if you have an interesting in lighting, definitely pay a visit to Strobist).
So I wanted to share a Photoshop technique I use for dodging and burning. Often I'm unhappy with the results from the dodge and burn tools, they tend to muddy things up or add grayish casts. Also, I'm usually wanting to add subtle contrast to make the image pop, so my goal is to dodge highlights and burn shadows in key places in the image. I'm assuming some level of Photoshop familiarity... if you have questions about how to do any of these specific steps, please ask.
I start by creating two new layers above the image. Fill the top layer with white, and change its name to Burn. Fill the second layer with black and name it Dodge. Set the blend mode of the top (Burn) layer to Color Burn, and the blend mode of the second (Dodge) layer to Color Dodge. Because the Burn layer is white, it has no effect. You'll lightly paint in black on the layer in areas you want to burn in. Similarly, the Dodge layer is black and thus has no effect. Lightly painting in white will dodge those areas painted over.
That's the basic setup... grab the brush tool, set the opacity to 5-10%, and the color to black. Select the Burn layer, then find shadows (or darker midtones) in your image that you want to enhance, and paint over them, a little at a time. Then switch your foreground color to white and repeat a similar process for the Dodge layer, painting over mid-to-highlight areas you want to brighten up.
A shortcut for getting your foreground and background colors set to black and white, respectively, is just to hit the D key. That resets the swatches. The X key is also really handy, it swaps the foreground and background colors.
Questions/comments/feedback definitely encouraged. Do others out there have Photoshop tips to share?
Two things to keep on your radar if you like going out to shoot in the city.
1.) 2007 Grand Prix of Houston - Event Schedule
2.) The Houston International Festival:
The festival runs over two weekends April 21-22 & April 28-29
3.) San Jacinto Monument - Reenactment of the Battle of San Jacinto
Know of other cool things happening in town this weekend? Leave a comment.
