The f8 Group: Photo Techniques and Workshops

Bali Book and Videos

2012-01-23T21:46:00.001+11:00

CCE had an eight-day Photo Tour to Bali in October 2012. As expected it was great fun because those that signed up for the tour not only shared a common interest in photography, but they were also game to try almost everything that we threw at them, including weird food, odd locations, a relentless itinerary, and a lot of tough photographic challenges.

Thanks to one of the tour members (thanks again Bev!), I spent some time thinking about the Apple iPad. She used it every day; in the hotel, on the bus - it just seemed a really neat, easy way to play with digital pictures while travelling away from home. So much so I borrowed one from Apple on my return and discovered an amazing world of very cool apps designed to create fabulous-looking, creative imagery. And what's more, it is easy - that's the iPad advantage - because it has to be virtually menu-free, operation is simple yet the results are impressive. Including a paint app called Auto Paint. This produces results that are far better than anything you can easily do using Photoshop Elements. Even more interesting is its parent application - Dynamic Auto Painter (DAP) which, at $100 for the 64-bit version, offers a heap more options and paint styles. Hence the inspiration for the book you see here.

Bali:Island of the Gods by Photo Art by Robin Nichols | Make Your Own Book

Infra-red Stop Motion Fun

2012-01-06T21:45:00.001+11:00

Like others I hold on to my old, 'replaced' DSLRs simply through a sense of attachment. Unfortunately if you don't sell gear as soon as it is replaced, it becomes redundant, its second-hand value drops off the map. However, one cool way to revitalise your old camera, point-and-shoot or DSLR, is to have it converted to record infra-red images.

Infra-red photography was popular with landscape photographers back in the 80s when IR film, and processing, was readily available. The IR effect is to render all living plant material in incredible white tones, to make blue skies almost black, and to add a surreal, ethereal feel to any scene. To achieve this on film we had to use a near-black red filter over the lens, make the necessary exposure adjustment, re-focus the lens and then pay for specialist IR processing and printing to get the true glowing white effect. Because it was a bit of a pain only dedicated photographers pursued the process.

Unprocessed infra-red file

Processed black-and-white file

Using a digital camera to shoot IR is far easier:

- No external filtration needed
- Fast exposures
- Instant results

- The same amount of post-processing that you'd add to a non-IR shot
- Spectacular results

There are several specialist companies that provide a conversion service (I had mine done in the US by www.lifepixel.com). The conversion entails the removal of the camera's existing protective filter (over the camera sensor). This is replaced with a specialist IR filter. These are available in different strengths, depending on your personal picture making requirements (see breakout box). All IR filters will produce radical visual results. The main difference between the 'depths' of each filter effect is most appreciated at the post-processing edit stage. Some of the deeper IR filters produce better tonal separation between blue and green tones which in turn make selecting skies, for example, faster. This in turn enables a photographer to produce a more dramatic visual effect. Again, sites such as www.lifepixel.com have tremendous comparison examples for each IR filter available.

Creating IR Stop Motion Video

Another fun and creative use for the infra-red images is to create stop motion IR stills. I suppose this is like a poor man's video in that you shoot individual video frames and then assemble the collective images into a video presentation using video editing software. Sometimes the visual effects created are stunning from something that's relatively simple to create.

IR Stop Motion: Tools needed

IR converted camera + suitably calibrated lens

Tripod

Remote shutter release cable (optional)

Photoshop or Photoshop Elements

Video editing application (Adobe Premiere Pro or Premiere Elements)

Step 01: Find a good location for your scene. Pick a subject that has both moving and static components in it to best profile the stop motion effect.

Step 02: Use a tripod. As you'll be shooting several hundred frames it's vital not to have any camera/tripod movement.

Step 03: Set the camera to shoot low resolution files. A standard 720p video frame is only be around 2Mb - there's no point in shooting 18Mp frames as this slows the camera and fills the card prematurely. JPEG is best.

Step 04: Set the focus to one specific point in the scene. You CAN change focus manually during a shootinge but care must be taken not to shift the tripod.

Step 05: Set the metering to Manual, make a test shot to get an accurate exposure before starting a sequence. Exposure consistency is important. The faster you shoot (i.e. the more frames) the smoother the stop motion effect.

Step 06: Attach the shutter release cable and start shooting. I usually try to shoot one fps, or faster, but this depends on the subject and the light. If the resolution is too high, or the drive too fast, change the settings. Having a 'fast' card (i.e. a SanDisk Ultra IV) helps, as does shooting in a low resolution mode.

Step 07: Download the entire sequence. If you have shot several sequences it's good policy to separate each into folders. Next step is to crop each frame to fit the format being produced. If you don't the resulting video might come out with black lines top and bottom or left and right of the frame. Which doesn't look so good. This is normally the HD format (i.e. 16:9 ratio). If you have Photoshop it's easy enough to write an Action to crop and save each image. Processing several hundred frames takes little time. If you don't use PS then you might have to crop each image manually (tedious) or just forget it and go with the format that fits the camera frame proportions (i.e. 4:3).

Step 08: Once the cropping is finished, import into your video software. I prefer to use Adobe Premiere Pro. When importing stills it automatically stretches one image over 25 frames. So one second of video. This is too slow. In the program preferences you can easily reset this so that a still image takes only two frames, thus giving you effectively 12fps. This produces acceptable stop motion.

Step 09: To make editing multiple sequences easier Premiere Pro also enables users to select all the frames in one sequence and Nest them - effectively grouping them as if the sequence was one file. This makes it easier to shift an entire sequence (which might consist of several hundred frames) on the Timeline.

Step 10: To finish, Nest or Group the entire production than add any post-production tone enhancements to the sequence you think necessary. I like adding a Tilt/Shift effect that moves the focus plane to create a miniature 'look' to the production.

Render the entire production and export to your favourite format. Typically this might be 1080p or 720p. Have fun!
TIP: Shoot a blank frame at the end of each sequence to make it easier to identify start and stop points once on the hard drive.

Making a 'Jigsaw' Panorama

2011-12-15T19:18:00.000+11:00

One of the most useful tools in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements is a feature called Photomerge. As the name suggests, this has been designed for stitching panorama sections together. And it’s done this job well ever since it was first introduced in PSE (then it was upscaled to appear in Photoshop CS). In its original version, the finished Photomerge panoramas were unpredictable and required a lot of fine-tuning to get them perfectly lined up and tone matched.

This is the massive caldera of Mt Batur in Bali by Wendy Travers. Many people will be familiar with this (although rarely do you get such a clear view as this!) but few can claim to have captured the entirety of the scene. Wendy shot 30+ images on a point and shoot camera then stitched the lot together using PSE's Photomerge Panorama utility. The resulting file not only encompasses most of this massive scene (including the window ledge at extreme right), it also produces a very large file!

Once the jigsaw has finished stitching, check the layer masks (the black-and-white thumbnails to the right-hand side of the layer thumbnails) to see if there are any redundant layers (ones with no apparent content). Delete them to free up computer resources.

However, ever since the release of PSE 6.0 and a revamped version of Photomerge, it's almost easy to create eye-popping panoramas using this clever piece of computer code. So much so that the same code has been adapted in Photoshop Elements to work with face montaging (called Photomerge Faces), people montaging (called Photomerge People) and there's even a Photomerge 'scene cleaner'. This montages people, and things, OUT of a scene. To make the latter work you have to remember to shoot multiple images of the same subject preferably shot using a tripod, ensuring that the moving parts in the image, usually the people, are recorded in different parts of each section. The software then replaces the ‘busy’ parts of the frame (i.e. those sections that have people moving through them) with ‘less busy’ parts of the frame (i.e. those same sections that have no people moving through them).

One of the refreshing features of a jigsaw panorama is that they move away from the rectilinear format of most photos. The edges can be unpredictable and therefore introduce a sense of chance into the image making process. Mt Batur view jigsaw panorama by Carolyn Pettigrew.

When it comes to shooting a panorama most photographers only record a few frames before stopping the shooting process. This produces quite acceptable panoramic results. But, it’s possible to shoot multiple frames, with different focal lengths, and even at radically different angles to each other and still produce a completely stitcheable result. To a certain extent this technique relies on your computer being able to handle the massive number of calculations this entails but, if you set your camera to medium or low resolution before you start, you'll find that you can shoot up to, and including, 50 frames which are then flawlessly stitched together using Photomerge Panorama.

Hindu ceremony, Tirta Gangga, Bali by Robin Nichols

I call this process a jigsaw panorama. To me it has several advantages over the standard rectilinear frame. Every straight panorama is rectilinear. That's the nature of photography. Everything comes in a rectangular frame. However, if you shoot multiple frames of a set scene, at slightly different angles, randomly if you prefer, the stitched image that’s subsequently produced will have irregular edges. In fact it might even have large parts missing. It just depends on how careful you are when shooting each section.

Aside from a delightful randomness in the resulting shape, you'll soon find that by stitching multiple frames together (and I mean more than six) results in a truly massive picture file. The largest jigsaw panorama I have ever created came to more than 1.5 GB, although I had one student who, memorably, produced a massive 4Gb panorama! He claimed that it took his computer more than three hours to complete.

If you don't want to spend all day waiting for the computer to complete the operation I suggest you lower the resolution, either before you shoot the picture sections, or after using Photoshop Element's batch conversion utility (called Process Multiple Files). Reduce your images to 50 or 70% and then import them back into Photomerge.

Jigsaw Shooting Tips:

Remember to overlap the frames by at least 20%
Do not overlap the frames to much because this just makes the computer have to work harder
Set the lens to manual focus (so the camera does not accidentally re-focus on a near object)
Set the metering to Manual (so the exposures are all the same)
Reduce the file size by 50% to make the processing easier and faster - you will still end up with a large file.

Here was my attempt at the Mt Batur scene - I managed to cover a wider area but missed several sections in the lower slopes of the caldera! This needs another 10 or 15 sections along the base to make up the lost details!

This illustration demonstrates how the frames above overlap, or didn't in this example. I'll just have to go back and reshoot...

Painted Ladies in Ubud

2011-11-30T10:25:00.013+11:00

Here are five shots I took of women queueing up to go into the market shrine in central Ubud, Bali. To coin a cliche, the scene looked like a painting. So, to emphasise that concept I thought I'd try adding a paint effect to the images to see if that enhanced the image. It did but it needed a little extra tweaking as well. I used a program called Auto Paint on an iPad (thanks for getting me started on that Bev!). Unfortunately this app offers no user input other than for you to choose the style (Cezanne, Benson, Van Gogh or Aquarell) and apply a rough protect mask to areas that you don't want to totally obliterate. The mask sorta works, but not very well so I took the resulting (tiny) output file and stretched it back over the original image (thank goodness for interpolation). Because the Auto Paint version is very textured the resampling does not look nearly as rough as it would if I'd chosen to use a regular picture.
Finishing the effect off required some fiddling using the Eraser Brush to cut through the paint layer (on top) to reveal the photo details beneath. A final contrast tweak was then applied to get the 'paper' tones looking good. When I have the time I shall print these onto some textured watercolour paper I have for my inkjet printer.

This is a short video on how it works on the iPad, then I demonstrate how to fix it up better using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Beware: Security at Brisbane Airport

2011-11-18T21:10:00.000+11:00

Don't know if it's just me but every time I fly through Brisvegas airport I run into some sort of trouble. On this particular visit, on the return leg from a trip to Denpasar, I was passing through the security screening and got bailed up for having a 'prohibited object' in my hand carry baggage: a 5mm allen key.

I expressed my surprise, then incredulity, that such a small, innocuous, and very blunt instrument could cause such a fuss. Security were being overly officious. "It's a tool, and no tools are allowed thru security. It's in the regulations...". Those are the regulations that no traveller is privy to. Anyway, I'm amazed that my large and pointy front door key passed through the check. Isn't a regular key also a tool? And the three very pointy, sharp pens. These are, arguably tools too. Not to mention the spikes on the bottom of the tripod I was hand carrying. Even though I protested, I had to go back through the scanners to buy a padded bag and stamps and post the darn thing before I was finally allowed into departure to catch the flight home.

A selection of the other 'offensive' objects carried in my bag that were deemed not to be illegal. The logic defies common sense.

I was also hand-carrying a large Velbon carbon fibre tripod that has extendable steel spiked feet. Feet that could do considerable damage to someone or something if you had a mind to...

Ironically I also had a very sharp jeweller's screwdriver in my pack which the security staff also pulled out but, while I was arguing about the Allen key, I simply I took it back from the officer's hand and put it back into my pack.
Some security. I recently had to post a camera to the US for conversion to infra-red. I was asked if there was a battery in the parcel when it was presented at the post office. Apparently you can't post batteries. Batteries are 'dangerous' goods. The flash capacitor, the component that stores current prior to your firing the flash can store a current up to 200 volts that can be boosted to 4000 volts once the flash is triggered. That's not dangerous? But you can take batteries on a plane if they are in your hand baggage.
Or can you?
A student recently told me that the authorities in Dubai airport tried to confiscate the AA lithium batteries he had in his carry-on baggage. He argued the case and they finally backed off but still, it's a worrying trend. I had no idea that lithium batteries were so dangerous!

Some Balinese People Shots

2011-11-11T21:27:00.000+11:00

Robin entertaining the local kids in Trunyan, in Batur crater, central Bali

Cool portrait of a local man by Tina Brauer

Great service from our trusty Balinese guide, Kadek

Great shot of this little girl carrying here incense sticks on here head, Besakih temple, Agung, Bali by Tina Brauer

Remains of someone's relative sitting in a heap of loose change in the graveyard at Trunyan, Mt Batur. Pic by Dianne Clements.

Beautiful portrait of a local Balinese woman, pic by Steve Mullarkey

Locals at Tirta Empul temple, Central Bali by Steve Mullarkey

Ikat weaver, Tengenan village by Ann Keniry

Young worshipper, Tirta Empul, pic by Carolyn Pettigrew

Family on a motorbike by Wendy Travers

Worshippers at Tirta Empul, pic by Wendy Travers

"Here I go again" Fire dancer at Batu Bulan, pic by Geoff Driscoll

Bali Photo Tour: The Dancers

2011-11-08T11:59:00.000+11:00

Our last slide night/critique evening happened on Monday afternoon, as everyone waited for their departing planes. The images submitted were simply amazing. Professional, and completely Bali-centric, with great colour, contrast and terrific timing, especially with shots of fast-paced dancers. Everyone learned how to master their on-camera flash or speedlights to get some great results in what amounted to very tricky lighting conditions. Because there are so many great shots, I thought it best to subdivide these into categories. Here are some of the best dancer shots.

Balinese dancer at a Batu Bulan Barong dance session.
Pic by Mike Clements.

The monkey, friend of the Barong tiger creature, shot in the pouring rain at Batu Bulan, pic by Robin Nichols

Fire dance at Batu Bulan, Bali by Tina Brauer

Mythical Garuda character featuring in the Barong dance, pic by Tina Brauer

Monkey man dancing in the flames, pic by Kerrie Dixon

Balinese Barong dancer, pic by Kerrie Dixon

Beautiful Legong dancer, pic by Geoff Driscoll

Fire dancer in an explosion of sparks and smoke, Batu Bulan, pic by Geoff Driscoll

Intense pain or concentration? Fire dancer at Batu Bulan, Bali by Mike Clements

Exquisite Legong dancer in the rain, Batu Bulan, Bali by Mike Clements

Utter concentration shown by one of the performers in the Kecak dance, pic by Steve Mullarkey

Hanoman the monkey God in the kecak dance, Ulu Watu. Pic by Carolyn Pettigrew

Superb colours in the final stages of the fire dance, Batu Bulan. Pic by Anne Keniry

'Psyching up' for the fire dance, pic by Anne Keniry

Ancient Culture to Grubby Isolation

2011-10-29T21:07:00.000+11:00

Immaculately kept stone age street of Tenganan

Yesterday we had a very pleasant couple of hours in the traditional village of Tenganan over in the Eastern part of the island. The govornment has cleaned the village up to the extent that the locals are not allowed to spread their shops around the main street. Businesses are limited to inside family houses so the main street, that runs for a kilometre up the hillside, looks to all extent original. Running down the centre are various wooden meeting halls and storage sheds. All raised off the ground, looking like they are constructed using rain forest timbers. It's a magical place. Clean, atmospheric and very photogenic (apart from the odd bright red or yellow (dyed) cockerels that wander around the yards.

Keyside at Trunyan in Batur volcano. Note the distinct smell of pig poo?

Today was a little different. We travelled up the main volcano to Kintamani, then dropped over the lip of the massive Batur caldera, into the crater itself to catch a ferry boat across the massive lake that occupies about one third of the caldera floor to the Bali Aga village of Trunyan.

Trunyon, 20 mins boat ride across the lake, like Tenganan, is also a Bali Aga settlement, an original village that, until about five years ago, was cut off from the world. Now a road meanders down the steep volcano side into the village. It was too steep for our bus (thank goodness) so we took the more pleasurable boat option. However, the resemblance to Tenganan stops at the front gate. Our guide described Trunyan as being 'primitive'. I think what he meant, in so many words, was that it was a very poor community. And that meant it was messy, smelly and perhaps not that interesting.
The people, although friendly enough, looked as though they had very little pride in the cleanliness of their village. Very different to Tenganan. And in fact different to the rest of the island, where people seem top be constantly cleaning up, sweeping dirt and burning rubbish. Trunyan desperately needs a "Clean up Trunyon" day.

The real reason for going there was also to visit the cemetery, another ten minutes away in a boat. Deceased bodies are left in the open, covered in palm fronds till their flesh decays and drops away. The skulls and various bones are then removed and placed on display in the graveyard for a few months. Then people seem to lose interest. The place itself was littered with bits of rubbish and human bones. Quite creepy.

But interesting for a few HDR shots...

More great images from Bali

2011-10-29T10:16:00.000+11:00

Tourists posing at Git Git waterfall, Northern Bali by Geoff Driscoll - an awesome slow shutter, telephoto shot...

Too hot to walk? Wendy and Bev heading off to Besakih on the back of a local's motobike

Geoff Driscoll burning rubber in the car park...

On a hideously hot day, our CCE group sings the praises of a family that makes/scrapes a living from salt manufacture, Candidasa, Eastern Bali

Testing the veracity of a Canon sensor. Our knowledgeable tour guide, Kadek, admiring a fighting cockerel in Tenganan. And Yes, that is the correct colour. Amazing what you can do with a small bottle of food dye!

Bali Photo Trip

2011-10-27T09:20:00.000+11:00

Not quite half way through the CCE trip to Bali and yet our participants are producing some really amazing work. We had two separate sessions with dance models and saw some particularly good results from our drive over the island from Lovina, in the North, to Ubud via the rice terraces around Pupuan.

Gusman the Balinese dancer by Tina Brauer

Gusman the Balinese dancer by Geoff Driscoll

HDR picture by Kerrie Dixon

Pic by Steve Mullarkey

Pic by Ann Keniry

Pic by Carolyn Pettigrew

Pic by Wendy Travers

GitGit waterfall by Dianne Clements

GitGit waterfall by Mike Clements

Rice Terrace Resurrection

2011-10-25T10:08:00.000+11:00

As a sunset event, our Tegallallang rice terrace evening visit was a distinct flop. The light was dead and the clouds somewhat indifferent. What to do? I usually go for the HDR option when all else technical fails to prodiuce an exciting visual result. At least this gives you the best chance of extracting tones and detail from a scene that might otherwise have remained invisible. So I shot three frames of everything and thought I'd post some examples of what Photomatix Pro, the HDR software, can do. I was slightly less depressed once I saw with the HDR software produced - although it was still far from an 'arresting' image. Part of the problem in this shot is that the foreground 'interest', the frangapani tree, was merging into the background. I had focussed on the tree so the slightly softer background helped keep it from disappearing entirely. Nevertheless it needed separating more! I used Photoshop's Dodge brush, set to Midtones, to run repeatedly up and down the leaves and stems in the tree. This worked like a charm. I then repeated it using the Highlight setting, being careful not to blow out the lighter tones. Now I was getting somewhere. It took an hour to get the finished image you see at the bottom of this post. But I'm still not convinced that it's going on my wall.
But at least it's an improvement on the flat, uninteresting original...

Balinese Dancers

2011-10-24T09:40:00.000+11:00

Like the Japanese, the Balinese absolutely live their culture from day to day. The resort that we are staying at is also part of the Arma museum complex and, as such, offers a broad range of cultural activities. These include painting, batik and learning to play the gamelan, an amazingly-noisy sort of heavy-duty xylophone. These instruments, when assembled into an orchestra that includes 15 of these gamelan instruments, produces the haunting music that you can hear played in almost every small village and hamlet across the country. What's interesting is that, even though last night we attended a Legong dance specifically held for tourists, this is still very much a part of the Balinese culture and as such is taught to kids at a very early age

Yesterday we hired two of these dancers to use as models for a portrait workshop. Here are some examples. Our first image critique session will include two of the best 'dancer' portraits from each student. We have organised another model workshop so I'll post the results on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

Postcard from Bali

2011-10-22T13:19:00.000+11:00

Here are some very simple shots taken on my first day in Bali. I arrived a day earlier than the rest of the CCE Study Tour students so that I could spend some time reconnecting with the way things work in his near neighbor of ours.

The heat, humidity and tropical lushness I remember. The traffic I don't. The driver that picked me up at the airport told me that Bali had 1 million motorcycles. It didn't take me long to realize that this was no exaggeration, the island really seems to have 1 million motorcycles. The main road in Ubud is one continuous stream of vehicles. I guess this is the price the Balinese have to pay for being a popular tourist destination.

What seems to have changed the most, aside from vehicular congestion in villages too small to merit such snarl ups, is the staggering variety of cross cultural cuisines and activities now available to all-comers. Last time I was on the island there was one cool new café in Ubud that catered for alternative Western food styles. These included vegetarian meals that were far superior to the 'banana pancake' menus so prevalent in many other Asian destinations. You can now buy Mexican tacos, Turkish kebabs, Italian pizzas, Texan ribs, Indian curries and New World vegetarian foods in any number of cafés that litter the somewhat cluttered padi fields surrounding Ubud. And if it's not vegetarian, it must be herbal. The amount of natural remedy shops, herbal beauty products and spa-based activities is quite staggering. We must be an ailing civilization to require repair on such a scale. The Balinese have certainly focused on the requirements of a burgeoning Western market. Nevertheless, even though development seems to have smothered this island to an alarming depth, once you find your little piece of backyard solitude (which always seems to come with a view of a padi field somewhere) you can still imagine yourself experiencing a time that's quite different to the reality of the present day.

The Wedding Video

2011-10-19T21:26:00.001+11:00

Here are a few clips I put together while shooting a wedding in Japan. Most of the images were shot as stills but I managed to grab a few motion clips when no one was looking. No tripod, no stabiliser and no slider.

Note that because these are clip grabs, the speech might appear clipped. I make no excuses for this as I just wanted to catch a bit of the vision from the day. The chap singing at the end of the video is performing verses from a Noh play. It's quite a haunting sound, even for those that have no experience of the Noh theatre.

The Shrine Video

2011-10-19T21:20:00.001+11:00

This was shot on day two of our recent Japan trip - before we left the Kansai region for the Tokyo wedding (see seperate posting). Day was fine, hot and contrasty - but the shrine was an amazing burst of colour. It was first time I've had to test my new 20-inch Glidetrack slider...

The Wedding

2011-10-09T23:13:00.000+11:00

Though I spent nearly eight years shooting weddings I have never had the experience of shooting a Japanese wedding - at least not a real one that was held in Japan! Our friend Hiromi, who came to live with us more than ten years ago as an English language student, finally got married. To a Swiss banker (well, why not?).

They got married in Zurich back in August and decided to do the traditional thing in Tokyo with her family. I was dying to go and offered to shoot the family shots. As it happened I was allowed into places no one else could see. Japanese would normally be allowed - the changing rooms for example. The wedding was small, only 30 or so in the family group, including eight Westerners, friends of the bride and groom from Australia. The service in the Shinto shrine lasted for about 30 mins. The priests were very efficient and incredibly tolerant of me with all my camera gear. I think one priest was put in charge of me (probably the junior novice) and indicated every time it was OK for me to shoot and when not to snap away. Hiromi's father, Tom was also issuing instructions (in a stage whisper) so I didn't miss shooting the important bits.

The really fun part was when all the guests were ushered into the formal shine photo studio - the photographer's job there is to record the entire group, in the studio using film. Good job, I tried to persuade him that digital was the way to go but he just laughed. He had a twin 6x9 camera set up on a massive rolling studio tripod. Quite a cool setup. It costs around $2000 for the family shots. That's quite a lot for about five pictures!

The wedding kimono was hired for the event. That costs $750, but curiously there's an additional $750 charge to wear it(?). I'm not sure if something got lost in translation but the total was $1,500 for about three hours' use. It weighed about 20kg and was attached so tightly that Hiromi had to walk as if she was carrying two sacks of flour around her shoulders. Which effectively was what she was doing.

Unfortunately we were not allowed into the formal Japanese garden part of the shrine to take pictures as the insurance on the kimono rental alone would have skyrocketed, even if Hiromi could have walked that far. So most of the photography had to be done indoors, in a very dark shrine, or just ten metres outside in the pathway into the complex. Everything was more or less shot at f2.8 using a Canon EOS 5D MkII and a 24-70mm lens. I hope to have a very short video from the day up soon. Watch this space!

The Shrine

2011-10-08T00:11:00.001+11:00

Sumiyoshitaisha

Day one in Osaka. To find interesting places to photograph I usually scour all the literature you can pick up in hotels, or tourist offices. One Osaka map I grabbed had a photo of an interesting crimson half-moon bridge in a park so we headed off to find it. It turned out to be easy to find: five stops on the local train line towards Kansai airport on the Nankai line and we were there: walk out of the station and turn right to go into the shrine. In fact the station is in the middle of a large park so it almost felt like being in the countryside. Quite a surprise so close to the centre of Japan's second largest city.

HDR image, Canon EOS 60D

The following shots were all taken by Saima Morel (aka The Image Doctor from Australian Photography magazine) using the new Panasonic Lumix GF3 - she had never used this camera before. The results were pretty good. Images were post-processed in Photoshop with minimal tonal changes.

The exposure on a bright sunny day was hard to get right as the contrast level was beyond the reach of the camera sensor. The only alternatives were to shoot triple exposures and put them together using HDR software like Photomatix Pro or, as with the majority of the mages seen here, simply to underexpose dramatically to retain highlight details - at the expense of the deep shadows. At any rate this really did not matter because doing this produced a good impression of what it was really like on the day.

How to Shoot HDR

Any scene has a certain dynamic range - the number of tones between black and white. Cameras can record only a limited dynamic range, usually seven to nine f-stops of exposure. A typical sunny day has a wider dynamic range than a sensor so a DSLR fails to record highlight and/or shadow details. But, if you record several different exposures of the same scene (on a tripod) you can cover all of the extended scene dynamic range. The trick then is to 'squeeze' them into the more limited gamut, or range, provided by our viewing and printing devices (i.e. the monitor and desktop or commercial print press). HDR software helps us do this by literally discarding the under and over-exposed parts of the bracketed images to leave a range of tones that no DSLR can capture in one shot alone.
Interestingly many HDR shots do look a little odd. This is because we know that we often can't see all the tones at once as the human eye only focuses on one point in the scene at a time. So when all the tones are presented in a two -dimensional print as a 'fait accompli', it looks slightly surreal. HDR software can be used to make this effect more realistic or, in some cases, to exaggerate the surreal nature of the visuals to produce an image that's more illustration than photograph.

The technique is to shoot in the camera's AEB (auto exposure bracketing) mode to get three or more different exposures that cover the dynamic range of the scene. Typically one to two f-stops apart from each other (i.e. '+ two', 'normal' and '- two'). High-end Nikons can capture three, five, seven and in some models, nine images in one long bracket. The closer each bracketed frame is in terms of exposure, the more accurate the result and the better its quality. Canon cameras only create three frame brackets. If you want best quality (by 'best' I mean less noise) then it's better to make the exposure adjustments one f-stop apart in manual metering mode.
Note that RAW files produce better, 'cleaner' results than JPEGs, although I always shoot both at the same time. The humble JPEG is much faster to process, especially on a laptop. If I get a good result from the JPEG version, then I repeat the process on the RAW files.

GoPro Fun

2011-09-29T21:04:00.002+10:00

Here are a few simple clips strung together shot using the GoPro Naked - this is essentially a 5Mp video camera about the size of a matchbox. GoPros are designed by extreme sports people for extreme sportspeople - I am not one of thse but I can still use this 1080p HD camera for a number of interesting projects. Because of its tiny size the GoPro is amazingly handy for shooting in small spaces or for attaching, as the original intnetion, onto a bike helmet, skis, surfboard or tow bar of a 4WD.

The Naked models comes with a minimum of attachments - you can buy extra attachment brackets or stickers for a few bucks online. I bought the tripod adaptor so it now fixes nicely onto the end of a Velbon monopod. Which enables me to shoot some high angle images simply and relatively effortlessly. The $320 Naked shoots 1080p at 30fps and 720p at 60fps. The quality is good if you shoot in good light. Any shade or low light and you'll get a lot of noise. I find the colour flat and lacklustre but most of this can be fixed in post. The 127 degree angle of view produces extreme optical distortion - which adds to the wackiness of the video. The shots in car on this video were done simple by sticking the camera's foot onto the car's dash with blutac. It has no LCD (buy it as an extra) and no real controls - everything is a flashback to the 70s, being operated via two press button combinations. But you can shoot single frames and time lapse with the GoPro as well as 960p and self timed images. Its waterproof casing is watertight to 50m - and if it gets damaged, you can get a replacement for $49. Bargain.
http://www.launchhelmetcams.com.au/

Tasmania Photo Tour 2012

2011-09-27T13:14:00.006+10:00

My latest photo tour has just been announced - Tasmania for eight days, early next year (March 16 -23, 2012). Here's a bit about it copied off the organiser's website, (www.academytravel.com.au):

"The concept behind this photo tour is to provide our clients with the best of both worlds: a memorable travel experience in Tasmania plus great memories in the shape of fabulous pictures once the tour is completed.

Your tour leader, Robin Nichols, has more than 30 years experience behind a camera, and more than ten years experience teaching students from all levels and walks of life, so you can be sure that you'll come away with a broader understanding of the photographic processes. The locations we visit present a unique set of photographic challenges so there are plenty of opportunities to pick up new shooting skills. Many of the evenings are spent discussing the results of the day's shooting as well as how to best post-process the images so you'll never be short of ideas, or inspiration.

As the tour progresses Robin will monitor your photographic results carefully, while providing specific tuition on subjects such as shooting macro, working with long exposures, using special effect filters, tripods, shooting video, night photography, and much more.

Two evenings have been set aside specifically for group photo critiques. These are both great fun while providing an ideal opportunity to swap ideas and techniques with your fellow travellers. All in all a photo tour is one of the most effective and enjoyable ways to learn, and master, the craft of picture making.

Some highlights

Seven days of expert photography tuition with Robin Nichols including one-on-one tutorials
A visit to the unique MONA art gallery including wine tasting
Full day Bruny Island wildlife adventure cruise
Photographing around the Port Arthur historic site
Cruising Macquarie Harbour and Gordon River in the shadow of the mighty Huon Pine
Photographing the pristine environment of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake"

Academy Travel specialises in small group travel to a number of different and incredibly diverse locations. Call the company now for more information on this, or upcoming tours: 02 9235 0023 or 1800 639 699 (outside Sydney).

Morocco and Oman Video

2011-09-21T21:52:00.002+10:00

After hours of sweating over the edit process, my full length Landscapes of North Africa video is now ready to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public.
You can see the shorter, CCE promo version here. This is good for checkin gout some of the awesome images my students made during and after the trip.
Mine is more about the pure video and the places we visited - I think it gives a reasonable impression of what travelling through Morocco and Oman is really like. Personally I love both countries and would revisit either at any time.

The video lasts for around 15 mins so relax, grab a drink and crank the volume as high as it will go...

Rozelle Shipyards Redux

2011-09-13T11:30:00.000+10:00

This is what we produced for our first ever CCE DSLR Video class...
I've visited the Heritage Shipyards in Rozelle Bay a number of times now - couple of weeks ago was another great fun day with a group of students from CCE (Sydney Uni).This time the students were taking part in my new Sydney Uni CCE DSLR Video class.

The shipyards are great for both video and stills photography. We had a good day, and an even more industrious day one week later trying to put the clips that we had shot into some sense of order using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Here are the really quite amazing results from the students. Cast in no particular order of appearance. Bear in mind that for many this was the first time any of them had even used the software...

First video seen here was shot and produced by Kate Buchanan

Take a journey to the Sydney Heritage shipyard and gain insight from the volunteers who restore these pieces of history. By Leah.

Short movie by Robyn Larbalestier

A longer session featuring the work of Patrick McSwiney

Video created by Robin Nichols

This was not my fist trip to the shipyards so I have combined some stills from a previous visit with the moving pictures.

Editing in Premiere Pro.

Colour effects were done using Magic Bullet Looks (a must-have Premiere Pro Plug-in). The special effects stuff (i.e. the added spots and scratches) were applied using Magic Bullet Misfire.

Postcard from Singapore

2011-08-31T21:12:00.000+10:00

A small selection of some of the great food we had while scouting for photographic locations in Singapore. Watch this space for more on the photo tour planned for the end of next year

Greetings from Singapore! I'm here for a few days to scout locations for a new CCE Photo Tour planned for late 2012. Although still at the planning stage, this is likely to include stopovers in Singapore, plus Malacca and Penang in Malaysia.

The thing about this island state is that it has a lot more to offer the photographer than simply Orchard Road shopping, a few swanky hotels, and the best airport in the region. A lot more.
Personally I find this place incredibly colourful - and this is one of the driving reasons to stop here for a few days on a photo tour. Singapore is an incredible melting pot of cultures from India, China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, among others. The result is a conglomerate of great colours, amazing music, unusual natural artifacts, a real mix of clothing styles, religions and most important, fabulous food.

I spent most of the time with ex CCE -students Myriam and Davy Young who came with our CCE trip to East Africa back in 2010. Ostensibly I met up with them to 'check' on the progress of their Blurb book from the trip. "It's still in the planning stage..." I was told. Hmm.... In fact, they had some great animal shots but a busy life, in Singapore and overseas, had slowed the bookmaking project almost to a halt. So we just ate a lot of fantastic food to fill in the time while we discussed the book...

As you can see from these snaps, there's plenty of great colour to be shot in Singapore, as well as some carefully preserved history, a mass of temples, shrines and mosques to visit, great shopping, classy fashion and food, food, food. My favourite places? Little India. Along Serangoon Road. It's a mass of colour, raucous Hindi music, the musty smells of grinding spices, coffee roasting in the coffee shops, and an eclectic mix of great food. Plus Chinatown! I have been to Singapore many, many times but never really got past the tatty tourist shops in Temple and Smith Streets. Thanks to our hosts, the Youngs, we got to experience some of the best food and markets in the area, just around the back of Sago Street.
As with many other hawker centres, here you can wander among 100+ stalls and choose a breakfast or lunch style from Bali, Hainan, Peking, Teow Cheow, Malaysia, Penang, Sumatera, Taiwan or India. Or a combination of several in one sitting! All within 50 metres of each other. Nothing costs more than a few dollars and the quality is excellent.

Laser show above the new Singapore casino and Marina Bay Sands hotel complex

Morocco and Oman with CCE

2011-08-18T21:03:00.038+10:00

Here's a link to a video I have only just finished about travelling with a group of photographers through Morocco and Oman earlier this year. It's often hard work, great fun, frustrating, but ultimately very rewarding - the images created by the 'students' were all eclectic, fabulous, professional and often very impressive. Enjoy the ride and don't forget to crank up the volume...

If you'd like more information on upcoming CCE photo Tours organised through Sydney University, call Lissa Sharp on +61 2 9036 4766.

Here's a 250-page book featuring the work of the students that came along for the trip to North Africa - some stunning images! The book is made using Blurb Booksmart.

North African Landscapes by Robin Nichols, Glyn Patrick, Lucie Loane, Ian Caldwell, Sue Caldwell, Janice Gursanscky, Carolyn Grattan, Fraser Burdon, Fay Burdon | Make Your Own Book

Note: the FULL 15-minute video can be seen below.

Let's go to CUBA!

2011-08-01T16:53:00.000+10:00

Here's some information concerning my latest photo tour organised through the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) at Sydney University. If you need more information, precise departure/return dates, cost and the full itinerary, call Lissa Sharp on 02 09036 4766 or visit the website: https://www.cce.usyd.edu.au/

Resampling to Make Pictures Bigger

2011-06-29T18:43:00.000+10:00

Resampling or, Interpolation, as it's also called is a process where the software analyses the image content and then adds, or subtracts pixels, depending whether you are resampling up, or down.
The mathematical algorythm that kind of works all this out is called Bicubic Resampling. Elements and Photoshop have three options: plain old Bicubic which is what we all used to have before Adobe released two more specific types of adding/subtracting pixel algorythms called Bicubic Smoother (for making it go BIGGER and Bicubic Sharper, for when you need to make the image smaller (i.e. for emailing).

Both work amazingly well considering BUT, a word of warning. If you start with a very small file, you should only enlarge the image a bit (maybe 5- 10%. Yes, sorry, it's not totally magic! However, if you start with a 6Mp original, you could double its size quite easily and get a great result. Here's a video describing how to do this using Photoshop Elements...

White Bay Weekend

2011-05-29T20:36:00.014+10:00

Amazing to see so many people out at the White Bay Power Station in Rozelle last weekend - and so many of those toting tripods! It was almost a fight to get into a clear spot without including a set of black tripod legs somewhere in the frame. Hopefully the people that opened the site to the public this weekend will do it again at another time.
The queue to get into the main hall was 50-80 people long most of the time so most of us never even got that far! Next time. Thanks to everyone for sending in their shots this week.

Nuts. Or is it bolts from Fraser Burdon - a really strong black-and-white image - reminiscent prehaps of those 'industrial' images so popular in the 30s and 40s when 'big industry' was still the new frontier, rather then just another polluter.

Premiere Pro Split Screen Effect from Robin Nichols on Vimeo.

Pic by Matthew Baker

Black-and-white close-up from Alan Stern.
Nice depth in the black tones here.

Another great black-and-white image from Matt Baker. The better of the two in my opinion.
Framing does nice justice to the scale of the place.

By Lucie Loane (aka 'Typhoid Mary').
Good in colour, could also be strong in black-and-white like Fraser's nuts shot.

Nice strong (HDR) colour from Ian Caldwell

Pic by Fraser Burdon

Pic by Ian Caldwell

'Yes, it's a Ladder', pic from Lucie Loane.
Probably needs a better angled light? Not sure how you'd do this other than firing a remote speedlight at an acute angle?

'Rusty crusty', from Lucie Loane.
I really like this composition - strong and very 'textural' - could also look hot in BW

View through a grille by Lucie Loane

Pic by Fraser Burdon.
Could be improved some by a great depth of field effect (with that 1.4 lens!)

'Reflection' or 'View thru'? Nice composition by Sue Caldwell

Great close-up detail and strong colour!
One of the best on the day I reckon - unusual angle and view of White Bay power station
Pic by Sue Caldwell

Homage to Ralph: Colourful HDR shot from Alan Stern.
Just a BIT over the top colour-wise but, as with many of Ralph's images too, I rather like the style.,
Would work well if printed on a BIG canvas...

Another really nice and quite unusual close-up study by Anne B

Great soft, moody detail submitted by Ann (Baker!?)

Old Window - Photo by Graham Robinson

Rust detail- Photo by Graham Robinson

Industrial Symmetry - Photo by Graham Robinson

Strong black-and-white shot of the power station by Glyn Patrick

Wheels of steam - pic by Glyn Patrick

For me the best of the three - soft, muted light and great colour. By Glyn Patrick.

(BTW: If I have missed you out, or got the picture credits wrong, email me!)

Postcard from Damascus

2011-04-27T21:38:00.000+10:00

Contemplation, Umayaad Mosque, Damascus.

Well, despite all the hysteria in the West about the 'forces of evil' in the Arab world, civil war in Libya, unrest in Syria, a dictatorial regime and riots and shootings in the southern part of the country, we still got on a plane and headed to Damascus. A lot of our friends expressed concern that we were even considering this trip, let alone going there...

On the day we left Sydney there were three reported home invasions in the west, and the police reported that human remains had been found scattered along the F3 freeway. On the day we returned to Sydney two men were shot in a supposed drug deal gone bad, in our suburb. Funny, while we were travelling we never got any emails saying it was too dangerous to come back to Oz.

Umayaad Mosque, Damascus

The point I'm making is that things are usually never as bad as they are imagined overseas. Because these troubles are 'overseas', and more importantly, overseas in a third world country, they are perceived as being worse than troubles in a first world country. After the tour finished in Dubai, one of the group headed for the UK where, the news reported, 250,000 protesters were rampaging through the streets of London smashing up the city centre!

So, we got picked up (by prior arrangement) at the airport and were whisked into the Old City, a place that's been continuously inhabited for more than 2000 years. We had to be met by the hotel porter because it's impossible to drive into the tiny streets of the medina. He grabs the bags and heads off into the maze of alleys and the mass of pilgrims making their way to the Iranian shrine close to the hotel. It's mayhem, it's as if you've been tipped into a Cecil B. De Mille movie set. The porter turns off the broader lane way down a side alley and knocked at an innocuous-looking door. It opened onto a gorgeous Syrian courtyard with a fountain trickling in the centre and porters scurrying about with our gear. It's a perfect little oasis in a noisy, bustling and atmospheric part of the city. That's what the rest of the Old City is like: busy, colourful, energetic and friendly. Very friendly.

You sort of expect the hotel staff to be friendly because its business, but in Syria people approached us all the time, ask where you are from and then say "Welcome, you are very welcome in Syria...".
This was the fourth time my wife and I have visited Syria and every time we have been impressed at the politeness of the Syrians. And so gracious. In comparison they make Astralians appear a touch clumsy and inconsiderate.

We hired a vehicle and, after being assured by the hotel staff it was 'safe', drove south to Bosra in De'raa province, where the recent 'troubles' began. True, there have been shootings there, and a lot of unrest, usually after Friday prayers. And true, it seems to be the fault of some particularly nasty secret police that caught and tortured some (incredibly dumb) kids who were defacing or grafitting images of the President (a really stupid thing to do in Syria). When the parents discovered what these ratbags had done, they went ape, and then the riots kicked off. But we trusted the advice we got and they were quite right. We then headed to Iz'raa to see an amazing Orthodox church that had been in existence for around 1500 years. To get into the church the driver had to stop outside the gatekeeper's house, knock on his door and get him to open up! We had to pass through a good few road blocks in De'raa province, kids in uniform mostly, carrying AK47s with bayonets fitted, and then we drove the 150kms back to Damascus.

On another trip, this time on a Friday, we were coming back from a visit to Krak de Chevaliers, a massive Crusader castle 3.5 hours drive north of Damascus, when the hotel rang the driver to check we were OK. Someone there had heard on the radio there were demonstrations in the northern parts of Damascus and were concerned that we were safe. As it happened we saw nothing. The demonstrations (usually called 'riots' in the West) were well and truly over.
We actually got more information about the troubles in Syria from the Syrian news service, and the locals we spoke to, than anything heard or read in the West. Seems that anything reported about this region in the Australian press is cursory in the first instance and negative in the second.

In some Syrian restaurants the end of the meal is signified by the arrival pf a plate of Arabic sweets like this. At the Narenje restaurant in Old Damascus this was free, you could eat all you could pack in. Oh Boy!

I can't talk about Syria without mentioning the food. It's absolutely fabulous. Sure, you can always find the usual Arabic fare of yogurt, humous, tabouleh, baba ganoush and fatoush but it's so much more than that. Actually, though we ate in posh restaurants in Damascus, we never got past the mezze stage. This is a series of small dishes designed mostly as appetizers. They are varied and absolutely delicious. We ate everything! Beetroot dip, smoked capsicum, walnut and pomegranite puree, Lebanese sausage in tomato sauce, kebbe done four different ways, meatballs in tomato and yogurt sauce. I could go on. I reckon the food was better than anything we'd had in Morocco and in Oman. In fact, I'd go back to Syria just for the food....

We have been back in Australia for 10 days and it seems the situation is now a lot worse than when we were there. I hope the Syrians get their shit sorted out before too many people get hurt!

Final Photo Assessment from our North African Landscapes Tour

2011-04-21T10:32:00.000+10:00

Here's a sample from our final slideshow - the brief was simple: your three best shots from the trip. At least I think it was three. Several members from the tour submitted more than that, which was fine. Here are my thoughts...

Ian Caldwell.

Great shot of clay pots hanging 'somewhere' in Oman. Good, solid, black-and-white with a nice contrast and depth to it - a lot of greyscale images can come out flat and lacklustre. This isn't.

Ian Caldwell

Hungry Bunny, Nizwa. A weird Omani fast food restaurant given the over-the-top, painterly treatment in HDR software. I'd fix the perspective using the Transform commands, other than that this is a really strong image. It's strong, weird and surreal and a totally suitable treatment for the subject matter.

Ian Caldwell

I rather like this one too - literally oozing with atmosphere and texture...

Ian Caldwell

Cool panorama from Sur in Oman.
Good stitch, needs tilting to the left a bit and also the contrast might need a boost - it's that evening light that often reproduces as flat and boring - you see the same thing in JG's Muttrah harbour fort shot - both need the contrast ramping up to add impact...

Ian Caldwell

Colour version of the monochrome below - I far prefer the BW version. Just a personal thing. Both, I think could have their contrast increased a bit - to lift the highlights. The colour version in particular looks a bit 'muddy'.

Ian Caldwell.

Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Muscat - impressive looking mosque and quite the best photographic 'treatment' of it - black-and-white HDR. Needs straightening a bit and maybe some perspective correction? Otherwise nice job!

Glyn Patrick

Muscat fish markets - great place for shooting and a great 'detail' shot. Actually it looks more like a hand-coloured black-and-white image which I rather like.

Glyn Patrick

A tongue in cheek shot of the fish markets, no idea how Glyn got this shot but it works - it has a distinctly surreal aspect.

Glyn Patrick

Not so sure about this one - I think this is government housing under construction?
In the middle of the mountains? Anyway it does not say anything about the region or the country - so needs a caption.

Glyn Patrick

Excellent 'still life' of a typical Omani water pot.
Beautiful black-and-white is near-perfect. I suspect Nik Silver EFEX. Nice app and great black-and-white result.

Glyn Patrick

Great picture Glyn, very direct and almost spooky-clear eye contact, so important in many portraits, great contextual background too. I also like the use of a vignette.

Fay Burdon

Gotta give Fay credit for this one - I saw what happened to her shoes as she slowly sank into the mire while trying to line this one up!

Fay Burdon

Fabulous seascape of Khasab in Oman. Perfect headlands receding into the mist. Nice job Fay - I'd possibly crop a tiny bit off of the bottom of the frame!

Fay Burdon

Really interesting to see this one - compared to the 2 from Ian. This is straighter and more architecturally-accurate - which I think works nicely.

Fay Burdon

Not a bad result considering the amount of haze on the day - good job on processing this one to bring out the detail in the various ridges off into the distance.

Fraser Burdon

The tones and lighting regime almost make it look like an early Dutch Master (that's a painting!)

Fraser Burdon

Hey Fraser this works really well - like the shot above, the tones and lighting make this look more like a painting than a digital image..

Fraser Burdon

I personally don;t like this one - I know you spent some time chasing the concept of the silhouette - and this example works well - as a silhouette - and maybe as a symbol of the Middle East, North Africa or whatever but I don't feel it's quite enough, if you get my drift...

Fraser Burdon

This, on the other hand, DOES work - it's a cute ramshackle doorway, nicely composed and shot - I'm not 100% sure if the tones in the sunlight have held in this version - it looks OK so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
I'd be tempted to tint this slightly, with red or yellow, or both. But that's a very personal thing...

Lucie Loane

Another cute, very ramshackle doorway shot. I am not a big fan of total black-and-white selections in a colour shot mostly because they can seem quite extreme, tonally, and therefore a bit 'fake'. OK this also looks fake but there's the allegory of 'a door to another world' here that does work quite nicely. If I had shot this picture, I'd probably have desaturated the front part 30% or so, rather than 100%, just to make it a touch more believable?

Lucie Loane

The village of Bilad Seit. Nice landscape shot - very hard to show in one shot its amazing position in reference to the mountains we drove over to get there!

Lucie Loane
Hi Lucie, I think there's a bit too much foreground interest in this one! And it would be nice to see the dome of the mosque here - but I guess that means you have to stand on the ramparts!

Lucie Loane

Looks like a still from a film set.
I would try to lighten the woman's face a bit - use a mask in Photoshop to do this

Lucie Loane

Like Ian's version, this is a weird place. I think Ian's HDR treatment was better (sorry!)
Because the wacky colour fitted the equally wacky restaurant nicely.

Janice Gursanscky
A nice dark portrait. Looks a bit like an Omani Russell Crowe.

Janice Gursanscky
Classical Arabic architecture, very symbolic of the region. Excellent to see this in strong black-and-white

Janice Gursanscky
Not so sure about this one J. I took a shot very like this a couple of years ago and never really liked it - I realised it was because the light was wrong . Like this one, it's too flat - maybe try to boost it in Photoshop?

Janice Gursanscky
Not a bad study of Muttrah Harbour - the guy in right has his face in shadow - this makes his head look like a dark blob, maybe this could be lightened a bit?

Janice Gursanscky
Not so sure about this one either - if you have never been to the region you'd not know what this is, or why you took a snap of it.

Sue Caldwell
Nice and colourful study - boats and history. BIG forground interest works well I think.

Sue Caldwell

Simple and effective Sue.
It's a very 'Arabic' symbol and will work well in your upcoming book!

Sue Caldwell
We talked about this at the time - I don't like the white edge effect - but that's just my opinion. To me it looks like an old photo from the London Illustrated News. I can't get past the historical context this effect creates. If that's what you wanted to create, fine.

Sue Caldwell
A nice study of street life in an Arabic country. Men out having a natter in the square.
Works for me.

Sue Caldwell

Photo group in action on the road to Bilad Seit

Oh Lordy Lord! What have we here?
This is what happens when you drink too much Lebanese beer!

Postcard from Oman

2011-04-16T20:58:00.000+10:00

Another assignment for the group was to design a 'Postcard from...'.
Under heavy time constraints, but absolutely no creative restraints, here are their Postcards from Oman. (I'd like to add that these in no way reflect our impressions of Oman or the Omani people who we found to be charming at all times).

By Ian Caldwell (with an old Arabic saying)

Sue Caldwell's postcard from our cruise through the Khorrs (fijords) off the coast at Kasab

'Colourful Oman' from Lucie Loane - Oman seems to be a very tidy country - but most of the scrawny trees we saw seemed to have an obligatory plastic bag dangling from one of the branches!

Postcard from Fraser Burdon. The text telss the story..

By Fay Burdon producing the most 'sensible' postcard of the lot!

...

Oman postcard by Janice G

Glyn Patrick (must have been the big lunch)

Oman Photo Tour Workshops by Robin Nichols

Best Blue from Chefchaouen

2011-04-04T21:53:00.000+10:00

Here are the best 'blue' shots from our two days in Chefchaouen, in the Rif mountains of Morocco.

Ian Caldwell

Sue Caldwell

Lucie Loane

Fraser Burdon

Fay Burdon

By Janice G

By Carolyn Grattan

By Glyn Patrick

On the Road Abstracts

2011-04-04T21:49:00.000+10:00

Another challenge for our last picture critique night was to submit two abstract images gleaned from our travels. Here's the best of the best.

Zoomed flowers by Ian Caldwell

Abstract souk collage from Sue Caldwell

Khasab cruise buoy close-up by Lucie Loane

Abstract colours. Image collage comprised of paint tints by Lucie Loane

Amazing kalaidoscope image by Carolyn Grattan. Meknes Royal Stables, Morocco

Zigzag Marakesh window colours from Fraser Burdon

Kalaidoscope view of paint tints by Fay Burdon

Tiled floor dervish effect by Janice G.

Chefchaouen night lights by Glyn Patrick

Blue for You: Chefchaouen

2011-04-01T17:49:00.000+11:00

Blue for you is a good way to describe the mountain town of Chefchaouen in Morocco's Rif mountains. An awesome place for photographers as the old medina not only clings to the side of a mountain in a very picturesque manner, but also the locals have painted the entire town blue.

In fact, a sort of powder blue mixed with white paint that varies deliciously in tone and tint around the narrow streets. Here are a few snaps that have been roughly edited FYI. White Balance is a nightmare!

White Balance??

Paint pigmentson sale in Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen at night (HDR)

Before and After Exercise

2011-03-28T08:35:00.001+11:00

Another project from our travels is for students to take an image that they really like and give it to another to improve in post-production where possible. No restriction was placed on how this could be achieved, nor on the software used - although most used Photoshop Elements, Photoshop and NIK Silver EFEX to get what was required.
Overall the results were really good, considering that the editing was done mostly in the bus as we travelled from Fes to Chefchouen. Here are some of the best examples. Bear in mind also that because of the time restrictions most have not been fully finished. But you'll get the idea...

Olive shop, shot in the Fes souk. Background is too dark and the wrong colour. Pic by Glyn Patrick.

Edited by Alan Stern. Much improved version with a lighter foreground and cropped exterior. In my opinion this can be further improved. A little bit lighter perhaps but then a more balanced colour in the upper portion of the frame - you might do this using a mask to limit the spread of the tone change, either in Camera RAW or Photoshop

Coke display in the breakfast bar at our Marakesh Riad. Pic by Robin N.

Edited by Sue Caldwell, she cropped the edges slightly, ramped up the contrast and added a High Pass sharpen filter effect to add a bit more impact. My opinion is that this has done the job nicely.

This is a real doozy from Fraser Burdon for Glyn to edit. We were on the point of rekjecting this entirly when it was suggested to try to convert it to black-and-white.

Under the watchful eye of yours truly, Glyn converted the image to monochrome in Lightroom then added a whizz-bang color effect using Nik Silver EFEX - to great effect I think. We liked the halo effect round the 'burning bush'. And might have removed the light patch in the upper roof section - if there was the time. An impressive rescue job. Fraser was suitably impressed (at least for a Deity).

Image supplied by Ian Caldwell for fixing by Lucie Loane...

So, Lucie did a great job of fixing this in quite a subtle way. A tiny edge crop, black-and-white conversion adn a few bits removed. Simple but effective...

Fraser took this shot of Lucie's and heavily darkened the upper section - just to emphasise the gull sitting on the boat. We all thought this was not quite enough - it needs that line of lighter tone running up to the bird's eye removed/Cloned out.

Not to be outdone, Fraser then added a shot of an owl he had seen in the day.
As I have said on other trips, some things should just be left alone!

Carolyn G's shot taken among the ruins at Volublis. Underexposed and very dark.

Here's the improved version: slightly lighter with an extended sky up top and a seriously blurred foreground. Excellent diagnostics - needs a little more time to get the feathering better and the blurring more under control - but the concept is fine.

Shot of Volublis by Fay Burdon. Not bad but it needs rotating to get it level.
It needs to be lighter and there's precious little foreground interest.

Here is my improved version.I cloned out some of the mess along the bottom right-hand side. I also copied the right-hand column and pasted it back into the image, far left, behind the 'sacrificial altar'. To boost the foreground interest I then added a bit of rock from a picture I made in Baalbeck (Lebanon) a year ago, desaturated and toned it to fit the host image.
Not the best job I have ever done but certainly a bit more interesting than the original.

North African Landscapes

2011-03-27T19:42:00.000+11:00

The following pictures are landscapes gleaned from our second travelling slideshow session. This time I placed a bit more of an emphasis on the landscape side of things. Sensible, considering we had spent the afternoon flogging through the wide open wastes of the Sahara. Actually it was only 2 or three hours on a camel, but most of us ended up being very sore in the inner thigh region!

On the trip into the desert we made the mistake of heading directly to the appointed sunset viewpoint. As it happened there wasn't a sunset as the sun sank behind a bank of cloud. Next time I'd get off the camel at the half-way point and shoot the desert from there. Interestingly, this is Morocco's only section of sandy desert - most of the desert in the southern Atlas region is stony, and not very picturesque. Aside from these desert scenes, you'll find a number of great panoramas from the drive over the High Atlas and a vertical panorama taken in the Dades Gorge. This really looked just like a lot of the scenery seen in central Australia (apart from the dozens of blanket salesmen lining the roadside).The vertical panorama in this example was a great way of capturing an otherwise very hard-to-get scene.

Sahara by RN

Overnight camp by RN

Camel trekking silhouette by Ian Caldwell

Before the ride by Sue Caldwell

Big sand dunes by Robin Nichols

Desert Kasbah. Sue Caldwell

Todra Gorge switchback by Sue Caldwell

Heading back to camp by Robin Nichols

Desert encampment by Carolyn Grattan

Dades Gorge, vertical panorama by Fay Burdon

Mountain pass by Fraser Burdon

Desert rockscape by Janice G

Desert closeup, by Janice G

A Postcard From...

2011-03-27T19:24:00.000+11:00

The brief was to try to create a postcard that was better than the dozens of cards seen for sale around Morocco - before long we were creating illustrations that were tackier than anything we had seen before. Here are some of the results...

By Alan Stern

By Lucie Loane

Left field from Fraser Burdon

PC from Fay Burdon

By Janice G

By Carolyn Grattan

Ian Caldwell

Robin Nichols

By Sue Caldwell

Moon Shot

2011-03-22T19:41:00.000+11:00

There we were, standing in the desert ready to get the new moon shot of the day. Only problem was too much cloud cover so we reverted to a group shot using a long, four second exposure and the illumination from everyone's speedlight.

Outside Boumaine Dades, Morocco...

Landscapes of North Africa: Session ONE

2011-03-22T10:10:00.000+11:00

Tischka Pass, HDR by Alan Stern

Here we are in North Africa shooting everything, but especially landscapes, on our CCE trip for Sydeny Uni. The landscape around Casablanca stretching thru to Marrakesh is nothing special - it's essentially the breadbasket for the rest of the country - in March it's very lush and green. You have to pinch yourself to be reminded that this is North Africa, not provincal France. Over the Atlas things are totally different. Massive valleys, deep, deep gorges and ochre-coloured earth stretching south into the sub sahara.

African musician, Marakesh, pic by Fay Burdon

Detail, water seller, by Ian Caldwell

Harbour gulls, Essouaria, by Sue Caldwell

Portrait, Marrakesh, by Fraser Burdon

Marrakesh dawn, Koutoubia and satellite dishes, Lucie Loane

Kebab seller, Jemaa el Fnaa square, by Janice G.

In the Marrakesh souks, pic by Carolyn G.

Door detail, King's palace, Casablanca. Glyn Patrick.

Jigsaw Panorama Technique

2011-03-21T05:19:00.000+11:00

I call it the JIGSAW panorama technique - it's not strictly a jigsaw but the net result can be quite impressive. This is the kasbah at Ait Ben Haddu in-sub saharan Morrocco. It's an impressive place and has been used in several blockbuster films, like Jewel on the Nile and Gladiator, among others.
Problem is it's very BIG. Answer, set the camera to shoot in medium or low resolution (that's not a typo) then zoom in. Probably to 50mm, or more.

Then, once zoomed in, shoot sections of the main subject as you would a regular panorama - but double, or triple deck the panorama sections so you get two, three, or more 'layers' composed of 5 or more individual sections each. Reason for shooting low resolution is so the computer can handle the stitching process. This example is made from 21 sections. Shooting at 18Mp creates a file that's 1.5Gb+ - it took more than 20 mins to finish on my laptop. Choose a lower resolution and you still end up with a big 200Mb final file.

- Use Photomerge in Photoshop Elements 8/9 or CS 4/5 to stitch the segments
- Shoot from left to right, or vice versa. Photomerge will identify what fits with what.
- Flatten and then crop if needed.
- If there are edges/areas missing you can choose to clone the bits back in or leave them to give a 'missing piece' effect...

Sheik Zayeed Mosque in Abu Dhabi

2011-03-21T04:56:00.000+11:00

If you are ever lost for something to do in the Middle East (in itself, nearly impossible!), this is one unmissable location. The Sheik Zayeed Grand Mosque is certainly very accessible and incredibly impressive. Good news is, like many of the more important mosques in the Middle East, this is fully accesible to Westerners. Women do have to be covered (a jelabi can be borrowed for the visit) but otherwise it is OK to photograph in all the mosque areas, inside and out. And you can use a tripod. Same for the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca, and the Umayaad Mosque in Damascus. Try doing that in Sydney Cathedral and see how long it takes to get thrown out.
Here are a few HDR shots from our first visit to the mosque.

Dubai Fountain

2011-03-09T05:07:00.000+11:00

Dubai Mall Light Show. Cut and flipped for symmetrical effect.

Dubai Mall is one of the UAE's most prestigious locations both for tourists and shoppers alike. Of course it is dominated by the massive, 828m Burj Khalifa, towering above the shopping center and hotels. Last year when I visited construction was still underway on the tablet itself plus old buildings encircling the fake lagoon. Despite this thousands of tourists were turning up to view the massive fountain and light show. Although I spent some time shooting around the Burj Khalifa area, it wasn't until this year but I don't see the light show. It's quite spectacular - even if fountains and son et lumiere are not your cup of tea...

Burj Khalifa. 828m. HDR.

Dubai Mall Architecture. HDR.

Model Shoot at Middle Head

2011-03-08T06:25:00.002+11:00

Here are some stills, and a video, from a recent model shoot over at MiddleHead Fort in Sydney National Park. Stills are shot by Mike Clements and Ian Caldwell, while I shot the video footage and edited it with Adobe Premiere Pro.

Cool close-up of model Zoe by Mike Clements. Mike spent some time searching for good positions inside the old forts specifically for backgrounds. This is then a good example how an interesting background can lend great strength to a composition. It does NOT have to be deliberately blurred to still be visually effective.

So I really liked this shot by Mike too because: the exposure is spot on, the skin tones are really close to perfect and the pose is also pleasing to the eye. Getting a good 'body shape' is essential in shots like this, as is careful positioning of the arms and hands. Professional models spend a lot of time learning how to place themselves, and their limbs, in good positions. While Zoe does this well it's still critical to keep an eye on stray elbows, awkward angles, unflattering shadows that could otherwise ruin a decent shot.

After some discussion Mike went for a dark, 'Goth' type 'look' and so chose to post-process this to black-and-white. Good choice, but personally I was surprised to see this image as the result - to my mind it needs to be condsiderably darker in print - which should then lend credence to the 'dark' theme. So, this image turned out to be in complete contrast to what I thought I'd be seeing from Mike. The white borders make it look like a grandparents' photo album shot (this is the period when a white vignette was popular) and I don't think it works because I think a white vignette is more intrusive and certainly does not go so well with the hands holding the cross theme...

Here's another image that blends perfectly with the background textures. Though it's nowhere near the dark, Goth look that we started out with, it's quite well balanced - it could do with a tiny bit more height abive the head but it makes perfect use of the daylight streaming in through the doorway off to the right.

Very similar to the shot above but again beautifully done with excellent skin tones and lighting. Compositionally the off-centre framing works well - it could be even more off-centre to emphasise the dynamic structure of the frame - but not so much as to crop into the hair. The fill flash coming in from the right hand side works well to lift the hair detail without being intrusive.

This shot by Ian looks to be almost a carbon copy of Mike's portrait (above). But with a slightly different pose. Everything - positioning in the frame, lighting and eye contact works well here but I can't help thinking 'why is she wrapped up like that?' OK, OK I know why, but most viewers might think it looks a tad strange?

Hard black-and-white. Now this is more like it - bang on the Goth theme - mood and ambience is great. Depth of black-and-white works well - I think it could go even darker. But this is exactly as I imagined the darker images might turn out like. I also think Ian could darken this more, removing almost all the detail in the background perhaps, making it almost subliminal in content.

Lovely shot but with the same reaction that I had with Mikes's posted shot. She looks as if she's been caught changing. (i.e. what happened to her wardrobe)

For me this is one of the best from the shoot - because model Zoe looks relaxed, the positioning is just right, exposure dead-on, skin tones shine and most importantly, Ian has captured her without an awkward-looking pose. Hands and arms are notoriously hard to arrange without them appearing heavy, big, out of place or clumsy. Everything 'gels' in this study.

The comarison between these two treatments is educational: two totally different results. On the day were going for the darker 'Goth' look (hence the Ethiopean cross) so, clearly, the black-and-white version is a hit with me - and its strong, graphic, look totally overrides the warm 'nice' feel the colour shot gives off. Amazing how you can dictate emotions simply by converting to black-and-white..

Black-and-white version from Ian Caldwell.

<p>&amp;lt;/i'frame&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt; &amp;lt;br /&amp;gt; </p>

A bit of fun: My 'Incident at Middle Head' Video...

Fabulous Location Shoot for Dubai DSLR Video Class

2011-03-02T11:15:00.000+11:00

Organisers of the 2011 Gulf Photo Plus event held annually in Dubai have been negotiating with the Jumeirah hotel group to hold my DSLR Video location shoot in the prestigious Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Resort on The Palm, just offshore from GPP's home base in Knowledge Village. As you can see from these images, this will be an amazing opportunity to experience one of the Gulf's most eloquent resorts, with a camera!
The management is hoping to use the footage we create in their upcoming promotions. This is a unique opportunity for all photographers!

If you want to enrol in this two-day class follow this link.
Here's a link to some of my recent videos shot on a beach in Sydney.
Here's another I shot (mostly) out of a taxi window in Dubai last year.

If you want to see more of this amazing location, click here.

Beach Shoot

2011-02-21T20:25:00.001+11:00

Last week three of us headed up to Mona Vale pool to shoot a model on the beach as the tide came in. A risky business, as it turned out because the quicker we worked, the faster the water rushed inshore. Gear used was mostly the Canon 5D MkII, 70-200mm lens, 24-70mm, 85mm f1.8, 580EXII Speedlights, tripods and wireless triggers.

'Angel' by Ian Caldwell

Here are a few clips I shot and edited in Premiere Pro. Still images with kelines: Ian Caldwell, without keylines, Mike Clements.
Music: Robert Plant of course. "Big Log".

Zoe by Mike Clements

Upcoming HD DSLR Video Classes

2011-02-15T14:53:00.002+11:00

DSLR Video
Learn how to shoot quality footage and edit like a pro
I've created a new DSLR course through Sydney University (CCE) entitled DSLR Video to run August 20/27 and Sept 03, 2011. Check out http://cce.usyd.edu.au/course/dvid for precise details.

This is essentially a beginners class for all those lucky people with digital cameras that have high definition (HD) video features. Almost everyone is aware of HD Video, but few actually use it for anything other than snapping the odd clip when nothing else seems to fit the situation. To compound the problem, video editing has always been a complex process because you're not dealing simply with a 'moment in time', you are dealing with seconds, minutes and even hours! Plus, of course, you get camera stability problems, sound issues, and then there's the complexity of editing the stuff into a watchable format.

Here's an example of the sort of instant video you can make using a free video editing app and music downloaded (legally!) off the Internet...

In this class we begin by showing you a number of useful shooting techniques for capturing great video, the best in-camera video settings required, how to handle the footage once it's downloaded to the computer and of course, how to put everything into place to make that all-important video epic.

The idea behind this class is to allow students to create their own movie without a huge amount of prior knowledge; of photography or shooting of video. We also show you how to download and edit video quickly and efficiently so that, within the space of a few hours, you can create an eye-catching short movie that can then be burned onto a DVD or uploaded to the Internet.

Other topics covered include choosing the right input/output resolution, file formats and the correct codecs to make it all play well. We also look at the best editing software available, adding special effects, titles and captions, how to animate them, colour grade the footage and more...

Who's eligible?

Actually anyone with a camera that can shoot 1080p, 1080i, 720p or 720i HD Video. It doesn't matter if this is a DSLR camera or an HD-capable compact.

The best lenses to use for shooting video would be your standard 18-55mm standard zoom lens and any lens that has a fast (wide) aperture setting, typically f2.8 or f1.4. It's fairly inexpensive to buy a fixed focal length lens like a 50mm lens, that has a fast aperture (i.e. f1.4 for Canon costs about $400). the reason for choosing a lens with a fast aperture is that you can shoot video footage with extremely shallow depth of field effects, something that's hard to achieve using a standard handycam. Here's a great example of how depth of field can really work creatively for the DSLR video maker:

Another piece of equipment that you will find extremely useful is an accessory optical viewfinder - like the Zacuto Pro Finder 3 - this allows you compose and frame video while using the LCD screen (about $400 from BH Photo and Video in NYC. Note, you can get cheaper models). Most DSLRs do not display video through the eyepiece.

Don't forget stability. Vital to good video - a tripod makes a massive difference to the clarity of the end product. A regular 'stills' tripod is fine but, if you can get your hands on a video tripod, one that has a specifically dampened action for smoother panning and tilting, this would be a huge bonus. These start at about $210 (Benro).

For the video editing component, expect to use software such as Windows Live Movie Maker (free! and available for Windows Vista and Windows 7) as well as Adobe's Photoshop Premiere Elements (about $120). Download this program for a month's free trial from http://www.adobe.com/.

Here's one of my first attempts at creating a longer video movie using footage shot during a 2010 CCE trip to Africa.

Heritage Fleet Shipyard Revisited

2011-02-12T22:16:00.002+11:00

On Feb 5th, the F8 Group went to the Sydney Heritage Shipyard for a shooting exercise - good choice of day - it turned out to the the hottest February day on record (42C). Our planned three to four-hour shooting session was curtailed by the heat. Spare a thought for the volunteers that work in the yard...

Study in texture. 'A wee bit 'o rust' by Glyn Patrick

Great DOF. Coal and Steamer, pic by Glyn Patrick

Cotton mooring ropes, pic by Glyn Patrick

The Lady Hopetoun, pic by Glyn Patrick

'Fire buckets', an eye-catching composition from Lucie Loane

Restoring a bit of history, pic by Lucie Loane

Detail. Old and new plates, John Oxley restoration, pic by Glyn Patrick

Lifeboat on the John Oxley by Fay Burdon

Excellent HDR of the John Oxley galley, by Fay Burdon

HDR machinery in shipyard by Fay Burdon

HDR by Fraser Burdon

Pic by Fraser Burdon

HDR pic by Fraser Burdon

So we managed to photograph our way through most of the exhibits. Well, they are not really 'exhibits' as most are still in the process of being renovated and/or restored to their former glories. The John Oxley is the mainstay as this towers over the rest of the dock but there are a couple of ferries, as well as a tug and numerous other small vessels under renovation. It's an amazingly interesting day out, especially for those into photography. Although there's no entrance fee, a donation to the heritage trust is appreciated simply because there's very little official funding to keep this piece of history alive.

By Mike Clements

Here's a short video I made from clips and stills shot at the shipyard and pieced together against a great piece of music from Robert Wyatt, a legendary muso from a band called Soft Machine. Enjoy...

Model Shoot in Old Factory

2011-02-08T17:03:00.000+11:00

Here are a bunch of great images shot by Mike Clements and Ian Caldwell in an old Sydney factory, Jan 23, 2011. Cameras used EOS 5D MkII, Canon speedlights + ring flash. I shot the clips and put the video together.

Picture by Mike Clements

Pic by Mike Clements

Mike Clements

Pic by Mike Clements

Pic by Ian Caldwell

Heritage Fleet Shipyard

2011-01-26T11:59:00.000+11:00

Hey everyone, the guys at the Sydney Heritage Fleet's dockyard were kind enough to show me round yesterday - so I could get an idea of what to expect, photographically, when we visit Feb 5th (selected invites only I am afraid...). The yard is there to refurbish, rebuild, restore a number of marine vessels to a pristine state. Many of you might have seen the tug Waratah chugging up and down the harbour from time to time - this is where she's berthed, alongside the John Oxley, the ferry Kanagra, the schooner Boomerang, the launch Protex and the steam launch Hopetoun, among several others.

Most of this activity is invisible from the City West Link and Victoria road going into the city so it was an amazing discovery. Most of the vessels are in a dilapidated state but are being pored over by anything up to 30 volunteers, welding, hammering, riveting and repairing the various vessels. It's great to see such projects being undertaken where there's little or no financial backing.

Travelling with Digital Cameras

2011-01-22T20:57:00.000+11:00

Travelling overseas can be a hassle with multiple cameras, batteries and other electrical gear. You'd be amazed at just how much junk we pack in order to leave home. Here are my thoughts on what's best to take, with options depending on whether you are a big shooter, or not. Adapt or modify this list according to your weight and baggage requirements. Also note, I'm not a qualified electrician so at any mention of soldering or altering store bought products do so at your own risk.

Power leads. Why take three or four when three spliced into power cable will do? Take three power cords and cut the ends off at 6, 8 and 10 inches. What I did then was strip the outer protective plastic off the two inner wires on each cord, then spliced all three cords, making sure that the live cable (brown) for each was longer than the neutral blue wire. Doing it this way means that even if someone stamps on the cables wearing hobnail boots and bares one, or both wires there's NO chance of an electrical short, as neither are opposite each other. Each is first carefully soldered together (don't burn the protective plastic covering) then covered again using electrician's shrink wrap (Note that as this is a tube, it has to be slotted over your cables BEFORE you start soldering). Heat it with a hairdryer and it reduces significantly in size to give a snug, insulated finish. I also bound electrical tape round the junction for more protection. This cuts weight, bulk and tangles significantly.

Camera charging. If you are a big shooter (i.e. 6-10Gb image files/day) you'll need to charge multiple batteries at one time. Two ways to do this. I use two different DSLRs + a compact camera (more problems) so pack three Canon chargers. These are actually compact and lightweight. You could tape them together to save them getting lost in your case or deal with each separately (below).

If you have two of the same cameras, the Hahnel Powerstation Twin V Pro is one good option - charge two at the same time using only one power cable.

Hahnel also make a Universal Charger - you swivel the screws at the end of the unit to match the position of the battery terminals - making it capable of charging/fitting any DSLR battery.

I've seen people travelling with 6 socket power boards! This is massive overkill. Rarely do you need more then two sockets at one time! I found this neat little travel power board in Officeworks ($18). The cable is just the right length for most hotels and, when not in use, wraps around the socket. There's a flexible tie for holding it in neatly. If more sockets are needed, take a dual Aussie adaptor - cheap and light.

Very compact dual travel socket

Take a laptop not a netbook! Easy for me to spend other people's money, but from experience, a netbook is certainly not powerful enough to do anything other than email, WORD, surf the 'net. A notebook or laptop on the other hand can be light, very powerful and great for editing on the road. If you are shooting a lot while traveling, having a few hours each day to check the work and edit on the road makes it so much easier when you get back

Take a laptop! It's so much better to get ahead with a bit of sorting, editing and processing before you get home - that way, if you plan on a digital picture book, you arrive home with a big chunk of the process already completed. This is the new Apple AIR - very small, incredibly thin, weighs 1.1kg, battery lasts 5 hours, fast processor and enables you to watch DVDs and movies while on the road. Awesome machine for $1200.

Sony and others have equivalent type machines designed for performance and light weight - particularly the Z series of Vaio laptops. Faster, more storage, more features than the AIR but also more expensive. Also get yourself a good neoprene type bag for the laptop. As a suggestion, load the software that you plan to use but bring copies of the CDs with you in case there's a disk error while on the road.

If laptops are not your thing, consider getting a portable storage device. This could be a model like the Canon M80 - an 80Gb hard drive with a 3-inch screen - plug the CF card into the device and it copies everything (also takes SD cards). Images and movies can be loaded onto its hard drive and then viewed on the screen, or on a TV screen using the supplied cable. Has a headphone jack for listening to movies and sound files. You can also do this using an Apple iPod (only with some of the larger models). Holds about 20,000 images.

Memory cards are all basically the same other than the fact that they read/write at different speeds - this is only really relevant if you shoot HD video or shoot high resolution images in fast drive mode. I'd probably recommend the middle speed - currently at 60Mb/s. Expect to pay about $99, $150 and $280 respectively.

BookMaking class for 23rd Feb, 2011

2011-01-19T13:42:00.000+11:00

Today (Jan 19) CCE just announced the release of a new Photo BookMaking class Wednesday Feb 23rd at CCE's HQ in Newtown. Class provides students with a sound start in the art of making books, while providing those with some experience with techniques to transform their books into something out of the ordinary. A great value day...

Developing a New Point of View

2011-01-18T16:55:00.002+11:00

One of the things nearly all of us do, as photographers, is to shoot from the same point of view. We tend to do this all the time. I'm as guilty of this as everyone else is but, from time to time, I try to break out of the predictable, and try something different. I have been shooting a fair bit of video recently and decided I wanted to make a short movie in the park where I walk most mornings. My dogs are the models of course (responding well to food and other bribery - and no fees to pay...) so I decided to shoot from their point of view (i.e. from a height of three inches).

Here's the resulting movie...

Bark in the Park from Robin Nichols on Vimeo.

I attached two tripod heads together and attached the double rig to a Velbon monopod (the handle). Because there are 2 heads, you can angle the heads so that the second head is in the normal vertical position and attach the HD Video DSLR as normal. This worked well for both my EOS 5D MkII and a Canon Powershot SX30IS - the latter had the distinct advantage of having a flip-out LCD screen to act as a framing aid as I was running along - but more importantly, its image stabiliser really made the results look considerably more stable. Just as well because the resulting footage was jerky. The film was edited in Adobe Premiere Elements 9.0.

Creating a different point of view from Robin Nichols on Vimeo.

The Benefits of Online Shopping

2011-01-18T14:47:00.000+11:00

In recent media beat-ups some of the financial losses that Australian retailers are apparently suffering was blamed on Internet shoppers. Even Gerry Harvey was trotted out in front of the cameras to spout outrage at the loss of revenue to overseas retailers. "We must TAX them" came one idiotic suggestion, and in typical hysteria-laden headline-grabbing fashion, others joined the fray. Without thinking it through, or doing any research.

I say 'idiotic' because, in the same news piece, the journalist quoted a consumer buying jeans in the US at less than half the price of the Australian cost. So, even if they were charged 10% sales tax and let's say, another 10% penalty tax for being unAustralian, buying jeans overseas would still be a no-brainer. Hopefully others appreciated the foolishness of the 'let's introduce another tax' suggestion.

I'm sure it's not the salaries paid to retail workers that are driving shoppers overseas, and it certainly ain't the value of the dollar. I think it has more to do with escalating council rates and exorbitant rents, something we never hear about in these instances. For example, most traditional photo retail businesses are located in city centres or big shopping centres - the most expensive place anyone could choose to run a business from. Yet those that move into the cheaper, slightly less salubrious areas can afford to sell photo gear cheaper. This is not rocket science.
While some in the industry feign outrage at this claimed loss of income ask yourself this: why is it cheaper to buy a brand new Pentax K5 from Ryda Car Radio than it is from a specialist camera retailer in the city?
Why does a new MacBook Pro (17-inch screen model) cost $500 less in the US than it does in an Apple store here? As far as I know these are made in Singapore so it can't be the shipping costs, OR the exchange rate.

And why does an inkjet cartridge for my photo printer cost A$28 at Officeworks while in the States the same refill costs US$15, and in Japan it costs A$10. The same refill! No wonder people look overseas when all we get here is an inflated price and more often than not, poor service. I know it's easy for me to sit at my computer and blab on about 'how things are so expensive' but it not just me. Everyone that travels overseas realises just how expensive Australia has become. Clearly there are different taxes and import duties to take into account when comparing the US with Australia. Plus the States has a massive buying power so it can get bigger trade discounts from the same Japanese manufacturers we buy from. Even so...

I talk to locals, visitors from Europe and Japan. Australia is fast getting a rep for being a rip-off nation, and not just for photo-related items. For nearly everything, including food. Most people I deal with in the photography market shop overseas for three very good reasons.
- Firstly you stand to save a packet, even when the tax and shipping is accounted for.
- Secondly, you get access to a range of (photo) gear that far exceeds what can be found in this country and,
- Thirdly, even though you might not get a genuine warranty the turnaround and overall service (including returns, queries and complaints) is for the most part exceptional.

I appreciate that you get good personal service in many of the local photo stores - for years I have supported Paxtons because I've known one of the store managers there for several years and know she always gives fair and unbiased advice. But that said, a big chunk of sales go overseas simply because it's cheaper. Many Australian companies would go broke if it weren't for the fact that they bring in significantly cheaper Chinese products.

Maybe we should stop cheap imports across the board and see where that gets us...

Gettin' Shaped: First Rant of 2011

2011-01-13T14:31:00.000+11:00

I know it's only data. And to many this might sound trivial, but I have recently become aware of just how much downloadable bandwidth I'm losing via programs like Windows, Apple, and, OMG, Adobe. They can gobble up a bandwidth allowance simply by updating your precious software with all their regular Important Updates.
I recently changed my service provider so have a slightly different data allowance. The 'big print' in the contract tells you that you have 'unlimited downloads'. But, of course, the small print stipulates that once you go past a set amount, in my case 10Gb a month, the download speed becomes shaped. Don't you just love that terminology? In plain English it means that means a trip back to the dark ages of the 28.8kbps modem. The "Why bother at all" speed.

To cut a long story short, I got shaped at an inconvenient time (isn't it always inconvenient?) just when I needed to upload some data to a publisher in the UK.
I got onto the bog and bone and persuaded the nice person at the telecom to throw the switch back to normal speed, just this once which saved the day. When I had time to check, I realised that my bandwidth had disappeared partly because of the voracious data download diet of Messrs. Gates and Adobe.

Like most computer users, I have my OS set up to download updates automatically. Never again. This inevitably occurs in the background which also explains why, at certain times, the computer begins to run like a wet blanket.

I suspect most of us are scared into implementing this update regardless in order to stave off any possible hacker intrusion or virus outbreak. Fair point, but if you check your download manager and look at the downloads, a lot of it is media for programs live Windows Live, Powerpoint, Word - clip art and templates. Non-essential stuff most of us never use.

I opened up Windows Update and sure enough there was another 500Mb of 'important updates' queued up. And that was just from Microsoft! And there was another 550Mb of updates waiting from Adobe. I have three computers which means, if I leave it on 'automatic', I'm about 3Gb of bandwidth behind the proverbial 8-ball before I even start Firefox.

I now check Windows Update on a regular basis and read the small print to decipher just how 'vital' or important the updates really are. That way at least I can keep prevent myself from being shaped when least expected.

And while I'm on the subject of improvements, every month I seem to get a download from Adobe for Bridge (among a lot of other stuff). The funny thing is, after months of updating, Bridge still freezes and crashes three or four times a day, regardless. Anybody else experience this, or is it just me?

Video Editing Frustration: NYE Fireworks

2011-01-11T22:30:00.033+11:00

I've been playing about with the HD Video features on the Canon EOS 5D MkII recently to get more experience in shooting and, more importantly, editing the resulting footage. Editing is always the frustrating bit. I love to shoot video, but turning it into 'watchable content', that's the hard bit.Here are a few operating tips that you might find helpful:
1: Decide on the right software first off. By 'right', I mean software that's easy, does a good job, is stable and doesn't cost the earth.
2: Work out if your computer is powerful enough to drive the software correctly or, as I found out, whether it's just going to be a frustrating road of stop/start, stop/start delays/crashes and hangs.
I began using Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 because that's what I had. At first it seemed OK and, as a low cost video editor, it can do good stuff. It also has a bunch of professional features and a very cool Instant Movie feature that allows you to create a movie simply by opening a few clips and letting the software do the rest. Here's an example:

One problem with PRE 7.0 is that, even after repeated 'Saves', once the app is re-opened it loses contact with the media - you get an Offline warning. You don't have to make all the links again (thank God!), simply select everything on the timeline (video, images and sound clips) right-click, then choose the Enable function. Turn it off then turn it on again - this 'refreshes' the code somehow so everything reappears as online - a frustrating waste of time. The Internet is packed with threads from frustrated video editors because of this error. It's less prevalent in PRE 9.0...

3: Interestingly, the footage shot on any DLSR might not be the best format for editing - PRE prefers DV AVI files - the Canon 5DMkII saves Quicktime .MOV files so, unless these are converted somehow, the edit workflow does get slower. The biggest hurdle is in being able to view work in real time. That is, being able to scroll through the frames seamlessly without the vision appearing jerky. Whenever a change is made to a video clip in PRE's timeline, that part of the clip must be rendered for smooth playback. Rendering takes time, especially if there's not enough HDD space, not enough RAM or the CPU is slow. It's a major point of video editing frustration. Anyway, I got over this by instigating as many changes as possible before rendering each sequence - I must have rendered this movie more than 200 times before it was finished.

Then I discovered Windows Live Movie Maker for Windows 7. It has a number of advantages over PRE:
1. It appears to be stable (i.e. never crashes)
2. It's easy to use
3. Has a good range of transitions and effects
4. Has a sensible output window (easy to choose the correct format for finishing the movie file. PRE is a bit unclear and in my opinion provides too many options)
5. The BEST bit is that as it imports files, they get converted to a more efficient low res format that's FAST to work with - you can drag the cursor through the timeline to accelerate, replay, or go slowly, and it never flickers or jams like PRE does.

Disadvantages:

- Editing scope is limited

- You can't over-dub sound or video

- You can't modify sound files
- There are no post-production effects possible on the clips (lightness, colour, contrast) but, as the adverts claim, it's simple and easy. I love it. Here's one I just finished using Movie Maker:

Photomerge Content Aware Fill Brilliant for Panoramas

2011-01-05T21:15:00.001+11:00

Elements 9.0 has a new slant to its Photomerge Panorama feature: Content Aware Fill.

How often do you get ragged edges to your stitched panoramas?
All the time right?
Elements now offers a Clean Edges feature - click 'OK' and wait, in some cases, wait quite a few minutes, and voila! The edges get filled in with the content from the inside of the frame. The result is excellent.
Now I have only tried this on a couple of panoramas so far but both looked almost seamless - it was very hard to pick what was copied and where the join was. Excellent job.
If the panorama ends up with a lot of transparency areas around the edges (the chequerboard pattern) the Content Aware Fill does not work so convincingly. It makes mistakes simply because it has to copy so many pixels from the inside of the frame. Otherwise, this is an impressive advance on the regular stitch-then-crop action from version 8.0.

Tram Sheds Revisited

2011-01-04T20:41:00.001+11:00

Composite of four images: Two trams in the sheds, Uta in the tram cabin, Fabian in the front and Christa sitting on the left-hand side by Mike Clements. Mike processed the main tram shed shot using the freaky detail technique (as described in a previous post). Each of the other three sections were run through the same detail enhancer twice. Viveza was used to highlight the trams and to darken the background details. Dark shady areas were selected and adjusted using Curves to reveal more detail. Each of the two layered people (outside the tram) were duplicated. Each duplicated layer was then adjusted with a Darken Blend Mode; twice, to bring the figure layers in line with the background layer. Each figure was then Dodged and Burned for further group authenticity.

'Uta' by Robin Nichols. Canon EOS 5D MkII, EF24-70mm, 580 EXII speedlight off-camera, with 1/8 inch honeycomb grid (to restrict the spread of light around the model's head). Image was post-processed using Portrait Professional and converted to monochrome in Photoshop.

Uta photographed in the tram sheds by Mike Clements. HDR

Fabian photographed in the tram sheds. BW HDR by Mike Clements.

Fabian and Christa, tram shed HDR by Mike Clements.

Uta in one of the few remaining trams. (Canon EF24-70mm, 1/6s @ f6.3, speedlight with 1/8 inch honeycomb set at 1/4 power upper left hand side of frame). Single shot HDR, post-processed using Photomatix Pro and Silver Efex. Pic by Robin Nichols

Another shot of Uta. (This time I was using the handy EF85mm f1.8 (shot at f2.8) to isolate the subject from the background as much as possible. Natural light with speedlight (fitted with a 1/4 inch honeycomb grid) fired through the window to the model's right. Single shot post-processed using Photoshop and Nik Silver Efex. Pic by Robin Nichols

Another shot of Uta. (Canon EF85mm f1.8) to isolate the subject from the background as much as possible. Natural light with speedlight (fitted with a 1/4 inch honeycomb grid) fired through the window to the model's right. Single shot post-processed using Photoshop. To make the skin tones glow a bit I converted the original colour image into black and white using the Channel Mixer, then added a deeper black and white effect using Nik Silver Efex. Pic by Robin Nichols

Great wall art captured by Dianne Clements

More great wall art by Dianne

Barely graffiti - more like an example of gallery art? Another beautifully finished pic from Dianne Clements

Click on the image. This study of reflections by Janice Gursanscky looks even better BIG!

Classic looking portrait of Uta from Janice - very moody lighting - I liked this set up because it has such a strong 'sixties' feel to it. Good job Janice

Very graphic graffiti from Janice Gursanscky

FIVE more from Graham Robinson using his new Pentax K5. Ooooh!

Christina by Graham - again the K5

Great graffiti by Graham


Uta, shot by Graham with the K5 set to ISO 51,200. No, that's not a typo. Not bad -= the grain in the resulting image is gritty but appears more like regular T-MAX 3200 pushed a couple of stops. There's almost no colour noise in the colour version...

Last one is interesting as this is an in-camera HDR shot, again done with the Pentax K5. More on this cool new feature in later posts...