Photos, Photo Tips, Digital Imaging Techniques and Comments

262 Chesterfield Road - Bogart, GA 30622

Today is my birthday. Yes, I am old as dirt to many of you, but I am still kickin’ and kickin’ hard.  I am not at home but in transition living in extended quarters about 150 miles from home. I’ll be training on a software system that I will eventually be modifying and adding to into the future. I also have a cold today too. I realize how it pulls you down and yet, allows you to see things a little differently. I suppose it is the minor suffering that goes with it all that makes this variant view possible. I always thought that the reason that very creative people were so creative was based on their suffering. I am never creative at all when all is well. You may be different.

I have been highly distracted lately as I have taken on a new position in another geographic location. I have taken a few photos, but have not taken the time to really concentrate on it.  One thing that I have realized is the fact that I have neglected photo-journaling my family life. Yes, I have take some photos; however, I have realized that I need to actively take note with my camera. I suppose all too often we can be distracted and then fall prey to habit. I have been concentrating on the “art” of taking and making digital images and neglecting the all too important personal aspect of memories. All of this came to my attention when I purchase an electronic photo frame that allows you to put digital images on a memory card and slip it into the slot on the frame. As I began gathering personal photos, I realized how few there were relative to the landscapes, close-up, stills and other images. So it goes…

My New Year’s resolution is to take more self and family journaling photos which after time, are so very priceless.

As an aside, I want to comment on the wireless usb connected modem that I have been using over the past several weeks. Although the connection speed up/down is not extremely speedy, it works great for email, ftp, and blogging. I have used it to stream video and there are buffering spots; however, it is a very viable solution when there are few to no other alternatives. Also, the fact that it is wireless allows you to use it in any area that has cellular phone coverage. These days, that is the vast majority of geographic areas. I am using Verizon as my carrier.

Technorati Tags: photos, personal, life, family, improvement, self, others, people, life, motivation

This is not the VR model and does not have AF-S. The new models are around $750-$800. I purchased mine in January 2006 for a little over $400 including shipping. I saw several of these on eBay recently selling for about the same price 2 years later, so they do keep their value. Although I have not taken it into the field much, it is super for tabletop work. I have sold a lot of micro-stock images using this lens.

I also purchased the Nikon 60mm AF micro and I have rarely used it. The 60mm lens costs nearly as much as the 105mm and I see little advantage of owning one other than that of limited space, but that seems highly unlikely. So, the main advantage of the 105mm is that you can distance yourself from the subject.  On the other hand, the working distance is down to 6″ at 1:1. This is a great lens for skittish insects that require a certain amount of distance before they are disturbed.  I am sure that the AF-S motor helps with faster focusing and the VR helps considerably because a micro/macro lens has such a narrow depth of field in close work; however, I always use a tripod when working in the close-up situations. This particular lens is very cost effective over the VR/AF-S model considering it is near half the cost of the new improved model. In addition, auto-focus is rarely used in close-up work as it is somewhat unreliable in the micro/macro arena.

This is a prime lens (not zoom - fized length), so it is tack sharp when focused correctly. It can serve as a portrait lens; on the other hand, it shows each and every pore of a person’s face and that may be undesirable for some that don’t do any post-processing in a photo editor. All in all, you can’t go wrong with this lens. It is definitely one of Nikon’s best. The filter size is 62mm and the lens weighs in at 17.9oz (about 1 3/4 lbs.). I highly recommend this lens as one that you need in your arsenal of glass.

Technorati Tags: nikon, lens, micro, macro, closeup, prime, 2.8, AF, 105mm, review

Sometimes, putting things into a different perspective gives us a chance to see things more objectively. The Discovery Channel’s “Fearless Planet” does just that. The series of hour long episodes portray the various stages of geological and biological deveopment over billions of years and is very enlightening.

I have often wondered why and how places that I have visited, such as the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York and Dale Hollow Lake in north Tennessee contatined fossils of sea creatures. These areas are far inland. In addition, I have often wondered why the dinosaurs became exstinct and other mammals survived and continued evolving. The “Fearless Planet” explains it in detail. It is a wonderfully executed series of episodes by the Discover Channel.

Technorati Tags: planet, earth, blue, geology, geological, universe, astronomy, evolution, biological, human, time

3380 Ashley River Road   Charleston, SC

Drayton Hall, in the Carolina “Low Country” near Charleston, South Carolina, is one of the most handsome examples of Palladian architecture in North America. The house was built for John Drayton, begun in 1738 and completed in 1742, using both free and slave labor. The seven-bay double pile plantation house stands in a 630-acre site that is part of the plantation based on indigo and rice. Drayton Hall is the only plantation house on the Ashley River to survive the American Revolution and Civil War intact. Seven generations of Drayton heirs preserved the house in all but original condition, though the flanking outbuildings have not survived: an earthquake destroyed the laundry house in 1886 and a hurricane destroyed the kitchen in 1893.

Nikon D80 - 105mm f/2.8
1/30 sec - f/25.0 using Alien Bees 400ws Strobe w/Softbox

Nikon D80 - 105mm f/2.8
1/30 sec - f/25.0 using Alien Bees 400ws Strobe w/Softbox

Nikon/Nikkor 105mm f/2.8mm Macro Lens Review by Ken Rockwell

Technorati Tags: blueberries photo image digital closeup macro micro

Using the following steps you can make a photo image look older:

1. Open your image in Photoshop

2. Desaturate the image: Image -> Adustments -> Desaturate

3. Make the image a duotone: Image -> Adjustments -> Variations (select the tone you like)

4. Create a new layer.

5. Select a foreground color from a mid-tone color your now variated image and make the background color white

6. Select Filter -> Render -> Clouds

7. Select Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur  (Make the angle 90 degrees and the distance Max to the right)

8. Now set that layer to hard light

9. At this point you may optionally make this layer more transparent

10. Flatten the image

11. Create a new layer

12. Set your foreground color to white

13. Select a Paper Damage Brush (you can download if you don’t have them ready to load)

14. Stamp the image with the brush. If the image is larger than the brush, use the Move, hold down the shift key and resize the it so that it covers the entire image.

15. Make the layer as opaque as is effective

16. Flatten the image

One thing that you can optionally do is use the eraser on the paper damage brush impression layer to take away any “damage” that may hinder the details on your image. 

Here is the original image that I used:

Technorati Tags: photoshop technique tips tutorial old age aging image photo portrait digital editing alteration

We humans really can’t multitask. We actually only work on one thing at a time. As a seasoned professional computer programmer, I knew that. It has always been that way. I only wished that I could multitask.

When it comes to work, I always referred to what is misconceived as multitasking as “switching gears”. After I began to think about the real mechanism of what is thought of as human “multitasking”, I began to mentally verbalize the concept as “Sequential Time/Task Segmenting with Prioritization” and here is why:

1. Since we can only work on one thing at a time, obviously, the work is executed sequentially. For instance, we cannot hold a phone conversation, take photographs, work in Photoshop, and write computer code all at the same time (at least I can’t). Unfortunately, we as individuals, cannot do “background processing” like a computer can, at least not in the real sense. (Our cerebral synapses may be doing things that we don’t consciously know about - that is another subject).
2. These things are done in time segments of our own choosing (although the “choosing” may be based on customer or supervisor demands). These segments vary in length, but they hardly ever overlap and when they do, each of the overlapping tasks usually suffer. Obviously, it is best to focus on one thing to do it effectively and efficiently.
3. Under normal circumstances, we do what needs to be done first and that usually involves something mission critical. Sometimes, we prioritize based on how quickly we can get a task done. For instance, there may be an important, invoivled task that needs to be tackled; however, we decide that another problem can be corrected in a very short period of time. We may decide to quickly take care of the small problem before we tackle the big one which will take more time. We prioritize based on what will get the best results from limited time and capabilities that we have.

Now, I suppose there are exceptions to any rule. I think that a person who can spin multiple plates on sticks above their head could be called a multitasker. The same goes for a juggler. However, upon careful inspection, one realizes that the plate spinner gets each plate spinning one at a time and then focuses on holding the sticks steady. The plates are actually spinning on their own. A juggler is working with one ball at a time and the ball handling is done so rapidly that it looks like multi-tasking but in reality it is not. The juggler works with only one ball at a time.

There are various ways to touch up skin in Photoshop. Some seem more adept at specific areas of the face than others. I have tried various filters to show these various effects. I found that some of the filters do a much better job than others. Younger skin is much easier to touch up than skin that has weathered the years. The subject in my example image is a middle-aged female. Most ladies at this age want to have their skin look like it is 20 years old. That is a big order, but getting close to it is the challenge that may be met using a combination of the following filters with layers and the eraser tool.

Original image of portion of the face unretouched

The original image shows signs of natural aging. The pores are very visible. There are wrinkles around the mouth and below the eyes. In a senior person, wrinkles can be dimished, but should not be completely taken away. Should the wrinkles be completely taken away, the image does not look realistic at all. So, smoothing the areas where pores show can be done. The wrinkles can be diminished but not taken away entirely.

Skin Surface Blur Filter Applied
with a Radius of 36 pixels
and a Threshold of 32 Levels

The Skin Surface Blur Filter seems to smooth out skin pores very well; however, the shadows areas around the nose begin to pixelate and look unrealistic. When using the Surface Blur Filter, it is important to note that the radius controls the blur intensity while the threshold controls the sharpness. This filter can be appled and used with the following steps:

1. Duplicate the background layer

2. Make the duplicate layer invisible

3. Select the background layer

4. Filter -> BLur -> Surface Blur (change the Radius and Levels to suit your image skin requirements)

5. Make the duplicate layer visible

6. Select the duplicate layer

7. Set the eraser tool to about 30-35%

8. Begin erasing the porous areas of the skin until the desired smoothing is achieved

9. Merge the layers

Reduce Noise Filter Applied to Original Image 3 Times

The Reduce Noise Filter seems to work very well at preserving facial details. In this image example, the area around the nose has been nicely smoothed while the detail has not be overly diminished. Here are the steps that achieved this result when applied to the original image:

1. Create a duplicate layer from the background

2. Make the layer invisible

3. Select the background layer

4. Filter -> Noise -> Reduce Noise

5. Settings for this example: Strength=10, Preserve Details 0%, Reduce Color Noise 0%, Sharpen Details 0% 

6. Run the filter 3 times total for the effect

Noise Median Filter with a Radius of 8 pixels

The Median Noise Filter also works well for retouching the skin. If the eraser tool has the opacity set very low, this filter can work very well on all areas of the skin. However, this filter has to be used carefully as the final image may look too much like a cartoon with many important details getting lost in the smoothing.

My first attempt at re-touching skin in portraits was using the gaussian blur filter. I found that using the Gaussian blur filter works but it loses a lot of detail much too quickly. In addition, if the radius is set low enough to preserve important details, the skin does not get smoothed enough for the results that I am attempting to get. Here is the original image with the Gaussian Blur applied with a radius of 7:

Gaussian Blur Filter Applied to Original Image
with a Radius of 7

The great strength of Photoshop is using layers. Time is always of the essence, so choosing the most time/cost effective way to touch-up photos is key. Use the comparisons above to make your own decision on which filter works best for you. Using several of these filters with layers, erasing the “rough spots” will help make a very nice image. Since no single filter seems to do it all, using several of the filters on duplicate layers of the background/original layer may make a big difference in how you post process your portraits. Here is the “final mix” image:

The “final mix” image is a a combination of
the Median Noise Filter and the Surface Blur Filter

Technorati Tags: portrait photoshop filters touchup touch-up touch up skin tutorial tips techniques photo editing post processing