Inquisitive sheep on Dartmoor

Another, maybe the last, from my recent shoot on Dartmoor.

Got any hay?

Inquisitive Sheep on Dartmoor

I first noticed these sheep as I was walking around looking for potential shots and at various points of view for those shots. You can see how I got on in my last few posts. As an aside, this is a good hint for photographers looking to up their game a little—your feet can improve composition dramatically. Don't just stop, take a photo and move on. Instead, walk around a bit and see how the various compositional elements interact in the scene and then choose the one that works best for you.

Anyway, each time I walked past the fence, the sheep were a bit closer. Eventually they were close enough for me to pay attention to them and, as I did, talking to them all the while in a low encouraging voice, I got great eye contact and this lovely little interaction. A genuine look of curiosity from the front sheep, while the back one, though a little unsure, was still interested enough in what was happening to throw this backward glance.

(An observation from looking at the back sheep... when all you have are cloven hooves, you learn to put up with stuff that otherwise might drive you mad!)

Anyway, I hope you like it and got something of the interaction with the sheep; and hopefully, for a moment you might even have been transported there.

comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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I fought Google Gadgets and won!

[UPDATE: 22 Nov. This brief tutorial is now out of date. Please see the new, full-blown tutorial at its new location.]
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[UPDATE:] There was a flaw: clicked links opened the product page in the gadget window. Now fixed to open in a new window / tab. 
New filename is v1_1 (full name: http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/100521288542998786592/zazzle-by-highton-ridley-v1_1.xml)
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It's been a long eleven hours! ([update: now 25!!]

Google gadget for Zazzle

I couldn't find a way of displaying search results from my Zazzle store in a small panel, suitable for my blog.

So I wrote my own - which other zazzle storekeepers can use too.

The key things it does are:

• Searches your store for the tags you decide
• displays the products, matching the search
• Make sure you use your associate id in the config (see below) so you get the credit for referrals 
  
• clicking the picture takes you to that item in your store

See it  in action at the top of my right hand panel (I can't get it to work in posts).

The really great thing is that you can have lots of them, each for a different search. Wouldn't it be great if you could put all your fun products on a page you've got which is to do with humour?

Simple, use the gadget with a search for all your products that are tagged with "fun". Do the same for your page about your favourite band. The list goes on...

So exactly how do you do this? Well, read on...

Blogger Blog

To get it onto your Blogger blog, from dashboard, choose "layout" and "add a gadget". In the window that pops up to let you choose your gadget, choose "add your own" and give it the following url

http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/100521288542998786592/zazzle-by-highton-ridley-v1_1.xml

You then get a chance to configure it. The settings you'll want are

• Title: Whatever you want.
  
• Height: 220 (or, I guess, a multiple of 220 [Update: two require 434]
• Show Dates: (go on, you can guess this time!)
• Number of entries: 99
• Zazzle rss feed. This deserves a few words. Look at mine

• http://www.zazzle.com/HightonRidley/rss?qs=fun&at=238582202591969585
• "fun" is the search query - all your tags are searched. If you want the tag "fine art", use fine+art
• the number at the end is your associate id. Get it from your store.
  Then you'll get the credit from any referrals
  
• Note: When you change the Zazzle rss feed (including the query string etc), the preview won't show the changes. You'll only see them once you've completed adding the gadget (grrr!)
  

• Box colour: Each product returned is surrounded by an outline. Set the colour here.
  

Ordinary webpage

(or an FTP blogger blog)

Here's the code I use: Copy and replace the relevant bits and put on your page or in your blogger (classic) template sidebar:

<div style="width: 200px;">
<script src="http://www.gmodules.com/ig/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/100521288542998786592/zazzle-by-highton-ridley-v1_1.xml&amp;up_show_date=1&amp;up_num_entries=99&amp;up_MyZazzleFeed=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zazzle.com%2FHightonRidley%2Frss%3Fqs%3Dfine%2Bart%26at%3D238582202591969585&amp;up_ItemBoxColour=96%2C96%2C96&amp;synd=open&amp;w=200&amp;h=220&amp;title=My+Zazzle&amp;border=%23ffffff%7C3px%2C1px+solid+%23999999&amp;output=js"></script></div>

The relevant bits are:

• HightonRidley: change to your own store name
• qs%3Dfine%2Bart: change to qs%3Dyour_search_query%26
  (this does a search for fine+art, note that %2B is used in place of the "+" symbol)
  
• 238582202591969585 change to your_associate_id
• &amp;title=My+Zazzle change to the title you want.
  Note the + is used in place of a space here
• ItemBoxColour=96%2C96%2C96 change to ItemBoxColour=red_value%2Cgreen_value%2Cblue_value

Whew! Well, that's it. If you have any questions, I'll try and answer them but remember that I'm not techy. I know just enough to be dangerous! hehe!

If you use the gadget, drop off a link to your page / blog in the comments, I'd love to see how you use it :)
comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Photography composition tips

As promised a while ago, here are some rules on composition you need to know about. As usual, half the skill comes in knowing when to apply them and when to turn a blind eye.

The rule of thirds

..is a useful one. It says that you divide the image into a grid, jut like the one below. Then, when you're composing your shot, you place significant items along / up any of those lines. Horizons are easy, place on the lower line for an airy feel, on the upper line for a more closed-in feel.

Put your main subject somewhere where two lines cross and you'll boost its power, its dominance in the shot. Have a look at the following images.

In Firefox (others?), you can drag the grid and slide it on top of the images here (let go and it'll pop back). Look at what it tells you about where I've placed the various elements in these compositions. You'll notice things don't have to be exact—near the lines / crossing-points works too, I think you'll agree.

Lead-in lines

As it says on the tin... lines that lead the eye in and guide the viewer to your main subject. It can be a hit-you-in-the-face, straight shooting line like here (and in the piccies above) or it can be a meandering line that takes you to various points in the image, before continuing to the next.

Foreground interest

If you have a shot that takes in a lot of distance that also includes the foreground, then you need something to initially grab the viewer's interest and bring them into the rest of the shot. And that's what foreground interest is. Without that bundle of paper, or the post on the beach, those shots would lose a lot of power.

Distractions

Well, I haven't got any examples from my work for this heading! I'm always very careful with distractions (a bit of a pedant actually!). So what do I mean? Well there's a couple of things that fit here. (I'm assuming here you're past the point of shooting people with telegraph poles sticking out their heads!)

First Contrasting areas near the edge of the frame. For example, if you have mainly dark borders with a light blob next to the image edge, then the viewer's eyes will be pulled right to that blob and then likely right out the picture. Even if they're looking in the body of the image, as soon as their eyes get anywhere near that blob, bang, they'll be drawn right to it. Or maybe it's a tree branch sticking its nose in, or some other distraction intruding into the frame.

Second For example, one or two birds that are just dots in the sky (or maybe there's one or to spots of chewing gum on the pavement in a street scene). If the sky is uniform and those dots contrast against it, again the viewer's eyes will notice. But once their attention is drawn, there's nothing but dirty smudges to see. Sorry, they've got to go. A stray crisp bag, one corner poking into the scene from under a bush?—get rid of it.

Simplicity

If there's no good reason to include something in your shot, don't! Of course, when you're shooting from the hip because there's lots going on, well, the finer points go right out the window then anyway.

For other situations, those where you have more time and control, simplify, simplify and simplify again. Ok, again these are extreme examples, but they serve to illustrate.

Another example, say you're taking a macro (close-up) shot of some mushrooms under a tree. Remove any stray twigs, leaves or other detritus—it's mushrooms you're photographing after all!

Height

Don't always shoot standing up. Varying the height from which you shoot can have a huge impact on the final shot. Shooting kids / pets? Get down to their eye level, get below it if you can. Shoot a worm's eye view of a scene, getting as close to the ground as you can. Jump up on a wall to introduce foreshortening or just to get interesting lines.

In a nutshell

Place important elements along those powerful thirds' lines / intersections. Consider how to bring the viewer's eye into the picture, look for what can serve as lead in lines and / or foreground interest. Have a quick glance around for distractions and watch out for areas of high contrast along the frame edges.

Next steps

Use and abuse these rules the next time you get the chance. Try to get a feel for which compositional approach suits each scene you take a fancy to. Walk a few steps in each direction from the first viewpoint you naturally gravitate towards. See how any possible lead-in lines change their relationship with the scene as you move. Crouch down, step up high, look for foreground interest.

...and let me know how you get on, post a link in the comments. I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on.


comments / critique / feedback always welcome :)

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Using your blog as an online shop

Hand-holding a blog virgin

Regular readers will know I've been spending a good chunk of time recently helping a just-computer-literate friend with his blog.

He wanted to test the waters out at selling his stuff on line. As we were pretty much starting with a clean sheet, we've been able to bend the blog to make it serve as the online shop (using paypal as the payment processor), as well as being a normal blog.

(Once he makes a few more ordinary postings - i.e. ones not selling a pot - we'll use the label "journal" on them to separate them out. Oh, and provide a link for that label in the navigation area at the top.)

As well as helping him with the blog, I've done all his product shots for it. You can see all those uploaded so far over on Mans' blog under the for sale label.

Advantages of a blog as an online shop

The main advantages of having your blog as your online shop are

• No listing / placement fees!
• You don't have to worry about being lost amongst the listings from your competitors
  
• You only pay (in this case Paypal's) transaction fees
• You have full control over
• any ads placed (and of course you get the revenue from them, too!)
  
• all links where you're making your pitch (and you can make sure external links open in a new tab so folks don't leave your site completely)
  
• Easier to establish your brand
  
• A much more personal interaction with buyers
• Not at the mercy of changing shop rules like you get with ebay and others
• Black-hat competitors can't ruin your seller-rating - again like can happen at most dedicated shopping sites
• If you want to socialise your site even more, you can (Friend Connect / JS-Kit and others)
  

Disadvantages

The main disadvantages of using your blog as an online shop are few but still need to be considered

• It's not completely automatic; if someone buys a pot, Mans has to update the labels against the posting for that item, to show it is now sold. He can also change the text and the button to allow someone to place a special order for one similar to the one shown.
  
• People go to dedicated shopping sites in a buying frame of mind, but not really with a blog
• You have to have a way of taking on-line payments, dedicated online shops will do that for you
• No dedicated rating system of you as a seller or others as buyers - being a blog, people can leave comments, so it's the second one that might be of more concern
• A much more personal interaction with buyers

Did I miss anything major out do you think? Let me know in the comments if I did, or if you want to add anything else...

Requirements-driven shop design

So how did we set about it? Well, my trade is helping people focus on what they need before worrying about how to achieve it. Also, KISS—keep it simple, stupid!

So we sat down and brainstormed for a while, teasing out stuff to come up with a list of main requirements. Examples: be able to take online payment, be able to see only products for sale, only those sold, same for all the major categories. Another: Easy to maintain and add new items for sale & be able to withdraw items from sale.

..and so on.

Designing a solution to the requirements

We acknowledged that various dedicated online shops could be used but their disadvantages were too great for what Mans wanted. Then we considered how / if Blogger could be used, noting any requirements that couldn't be met and hoping we wouldn't bump into any show-stoppers—we didn't :)

The key to being able to list items in different ways is to use labels carefully and in a sort of structured way. We spent ages deciding how to categorise and name each major type of ceramic / glaze / treatment, and being totally consistent in our approach. We finally settled on a scheme that worked and this also gave us a way of naming each pot and giving it a stock code.

And having a name for each, naturally gave us the title for each post (i.e. each new item for sale). Also, because we've been as descriptive as possible in our choice of titles / names / categories / labels, the blog will score highly with the search engines for those keywords (a good SEO tip).

Another tip here; before we uploaded each product shot, we named the jpg file using the same naming convention as above, reinforcing the tastiness to the search engine spiders. As an aside, note that the first time you publish a particular post, the post page will use a filename consisting of a good part of the post heading you used. So, for SEO purposes, make sure your title is both meaningful and helpful to your readers AND keyword-rich for the spiders, before you first post it.

Anyway, on with the solution design...

For simplicity, we decided to put a unique number on the end of each item, so no matter what type of ceramic was being posted as a new item for sale, the last number used would have one added to it and that would be the new number. Nice and simple :) And you can't forget, if you do, you just need to look at the blog!

One requirement that couldn't be met by Blogger (at least not with my skills!) was that Mans wanted visitors to be able to put together a wish list—like on Amazon and others. He told me that this wasn't a show stopper—-anyway, there might be a solution out there (but where do we look?). It would also have been nice to be able to automatically change the label on an item from "for sale" to "sold" when a transaction completes but Mans is ok about doing that by hand.

Everything else he needed his shop to do has now been set up on his blog. If you want proof, go browse for something you like and buy it! Maybe a Copper Matt Raku thrown pot—my personal favourites, although the Lustre Raku stretch pots are fabulous too!

Putting it into practice

To make it easy to add new items for sale, we cobbled together the first posting for an item for sale, including the code for the paypal button, with me doing any tricky html stuff (tricky for me, anyway!). Once we'd got that right, we copied the html and pasted it into his blog settings - the place where you can put a mini template / boiler-plate text to be used on subsequent posts.

The only thing Mans now needs to get his hands dirty with is changing the part of the button html code where it needs a unique item code, a price and a description. I sat with him the first few times he did this to make sure he knew what to do—and more importantly what not to do—and even more importantly, how to back out any changes if he did!!



Well, that's about it, it wasn't supposed to turn into such a long and detailed posting, but you know how it goes when the ideas just flow!

So I gotta ask, are you thinking now about using your blog as an online shop?

comments / feedback always welcome :)

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Use your feet to find the shots

Sticking in the vein of abstract architecture and how there's more than one shot in a scene...

It's just a concrete hotel

I was staying in a hotel by Heathrow Airport when I was working up that way. In the day in, day out trudge of it all, my antennae must have been out and twitching because after a few weeks I felt the urge to wander around the uninspiring grounds with my camera.

My first point of call was up-close and personal with the architecture. Soaring architecture often has a profound effect on me and, when you're close, the steep perspective exaggerates it.

So here's the up-close shot of the end of the building.

Holiday Inn, M4/J4

...and then I looked at my feet (actually a few steps away against another wall)



Then, walking amongst the trees that separate the hotel from the motorway junction, I saw I could frame yet another aspect of the building. Actually, the tree branches were swaying gently in the soft breeze, so I framed and then waited until they blew into just the right position for making the shot.

If you follow that middle panel of the end wall down to ground level, it was just to the side of this, looking up, that I made the first shot.

comments / critique / feedback - all appreciated :)

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Altered viewpoint, different image

In my last post I talked about having to hunt around to find a viewpoint that worked. So in this post I thought I'd show how much the viewpoint can change the final image.

Rectilinear Mosaics

This photo from my monochrome gallery goes to show that there's often more than one shot to be had from the same scene, emphasising how important viewpoint can be.

Have a look at the following shot:

Rectilinear Mosaics, Arundel Street, London, 2007

and compare it to the one a couple of postings ago

On this one, I was right by the wall at the side of the building, whereas the earlier one was taken from across and down the street.

I think you'll agree that they are radically different, and both 'work' even though it's basically the same scene. This in turn demonstrates that their are lots of different shots avaiable, so searching and finding the right one is an essential part of getting across your artistic intent.

So don't just turn up, whip out your camera and click away, put your feet to good use and get the viewpooint that conveys the sense of what you're feeling about the subject.

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Clarity given by MET for UK journalists (blogger, that's you!)

The MET have re-issued their guidance about interfering with "journalists" and their cameras.

Hope for all UK bloggers

Many have cried "that's ok for journalists but what about the rest of us?"

I believe that this is great news for many more than National Union of Journalists (NUJ) journalists.

I blog therefore I am (a journalist)

Because of this blog I class myself as a journalist. The guidance given by the MET doesn't include a definition of what a journalist is, and I see no reason why the widely accepted notion that many bloggers are journalists should not apply.

To make it clear, I intend to design, print and laminate a journalists badge to wear when the occasion demands. For me, that is any time when I'm out and about with my camera. I am, after all, a photojournalist by the mere fact of being a blogger who posts photos.

My purpose may be to record places or sights for historic record purposes, architectural interest or as a photo essay with an art bent. These and many other purposes are, to me, journalistic endeavours, making me or any exponent, a journalist.

Do you see any flaw in that?

comment / discussion welcome

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Useful photo resources

As promised a couple of postings ago, here are some sites / resources that I've found useful in my photographic learning journey.

I'll not flood you with links, rather I'll dish them out a few at a time over coming posts.

Here's the first few.

Converting to Black and White — The Basics

This one comes from the famous Cambridge In Colour website. Read the tutorial.

TLR Sharpening

This is a free Photoshop add-on from the Light Is Right Studio, one I pretty much always use — especially the capture sharpening mode.

It also has a mode for creative sharpening and one for output sharpening (where you set the sharpening specifically for the size you are printing at and the output device to be used).

Here's the download page.

There are some great quick tips at The Light Is Right Studio, in the form of short tutorials. Check them out here.

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Coooliris photo wall

I don't know if you've tried CoolIris as a way of displaying a wall of your images yet. I use it quite often when I want to review all my photos quite quickly, maybe to select one for posting on a particular subject.

The reason this came to mind to post about was that I bumped into the BBC's Viewfinder blog, and the Your Pictures On A Theme page.

Anyway, on to Cooliris (used to be called PicLens).

Cooliris Browser add-on

If you don't have it, you can download it for Windows and Firefox here. Go here for other browsers

The add-on allows you to click an icon that appears on images on any site supporting it (like flickr or google's image search). You then get a wall showing all the images (the wall just goes on and on, as long as there are more images to fill it).

You can also embed the wall when you have a supported feed type for it, like mine below. This is from (and all of) my mono gallery:

Feed source / location

If you're interested the feed for the wall above is at http://www.highton-ridley.co.uk/monochrome/photos.rss

As with all free tools like this, you have to put up with adverts and various attempts to persuasively hijack you to other places. But other than that, enjoy!

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Some photo basics

I'm sure this doesn't apply to you! But on lots of blogs I follow I see photos that could be so much better if they followed the simplest of rules when shooting them.

Squint uprights and horizons

Make sure horizons are straight -- this is really, really important with shots over water. If you forget this, you end up with what I like to call "downhill water". It doesn't occur in nature, which is what makes it jump out at you. (It's a shame 'cuz water skiing would be so much easier on downhill water!)

The same sort of thing applies to uprights. If they're not -- and they should be, then it just jumps out at you as wrong.

So remember, when you're taking a shot, just before you press the button, check the horizon and uprights. It only takes a second and your shots will start to look better right away. So you will remember, won't you! NB That's me planting an instruction in your subconscious to help you along :)

Telegraph pole hats

By this I mean anything which intrudes onto or across your subject. Sure, we've all seen shots where a pole seems to be growing out of someone's head but there's also the ones where a stray branch or boat aerial sticks up, sort of cutting the shot in two.

Easy enough to sort out with a step or two this way or that.

Shoot from eye-level

Theirs, not yours!

I mentioned this in a recent posting and it fits in nicely here, too. Whenever we're connecting with someone we don't feel natural about it unless we're at their eye-level.

Think about it... If you see someone stopping for more than lust a quick hello when they spot a friend at a table, what's the chances they'll hunker down as they speak? If someone's talking baby-talk (to a baby!), they'll get down to their eye level.

And so photos should be taken from the eye level of your subject. Kiddies playing on the floor, get down on one knee, babies crawling? Then get down on your tummy. You get the added bonus that, as you come into their field of view, they start connecting with you and you'll find your photos will take on that added atmosphere.

The same of course goes for pets, too, whether action or portrait.

Subject in the centre

Just don't! Unless it's a group photo, you know, friends, wedding....

Your subject is always doing something, within their immediate surrounds, even if it's only daydreaming and looking off into the middle distance. To convey that feeling place your subject off to one side (away from where they're looking, if that applies) or up, or down but not centre, please!

Imagine a game of oxo, or maybe a dolls house with 9 equal-sized rooms. Wherever the lines are, wherever the interior walls are, place your subject, the horizon, that nice tree, their eyes, whatever.

For even more impact in your shot place it on one of the points where two lines (walls) cross. PS This is known as the "rule of thirds".

Finally, short and sweet...

Rules are there to be broken. The only reason for having them is so that you think about it before you break them. Get used to them and then happy breaking!

As always, comments, additions, thoughts, denials -- all welcome :)

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Useful tip for remembering photo facts

If you're on holiday, touring or just out and about taking shots of interesting places or objects, make it easy on yourself later.

Snap the information board

If there is an information board, or even just date markings, take a quick snap of it (and check the image on your camera to make sure you can read the text). That way, it'll be there to hand in the same place on your pc as your treasured photos when you need it for your blog, flickr, deviantart or your own photo portfolio.

Go on, you know it makes sense :)

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Shooting pets without a studio setup

On second thoughts, I'm not so sure that's a good post title - still I'm a photographer so peeps should know that I don't imply I'm killing them!

Anyway, this is aimed at folks who don't have a studio or expensive studio lighting or, if you're like me and you're an opportunist photographer, you don't go everywhere armed with tripod, reflectors or any form of lighting other than a flash gun.

All you'll need -- a camera, a flash gun and an off-camera flash cable ( because you won't be wanting the flash mounted on the camera). And if your camera supports it, shoot in RAW mode for maximum exposure flexibility.

So how do you make the shot when the situation arises? Well here's one I made, following all the suggestions below.

Finished shot

This is how the shot of Bonnie, a Pomeranian, turned out. I'm pleased with the composition, the lighting, the texture of her fur and the sharp focus on her eyes. I did get a little softness, caused by movement blur, but it's at an acceptable level to my eye.

Tips to make the shot

Spend time getting to know and befriending the subject

They must be relaxed with both you and your camera (and the fill-in flash if you need to use it).

When they're relaxed with you, their inner character comes through and it's a a look that the owner will identify with.

So have the camera round your neck and stroke and talk to the pet. It's rather easy with our four-legged friends but needs a different approach with pet birds.

I'm not focusing on birds in this post, but I will say this about gaining a bird's confidence and befriending it. With birds, instead of stroking, you can offer food, talking to the bird gently and quietly the whole time. When the bird comes to take the food, blow very gently at the top of the neck and behind where you'd imagine the ear to be. Do this against the lie of the feathers, so your warm breath gently penetrates to the skin. They'll be a little unsure at first but will get to like it real quick.

Natural Lighting

Go for low ambient lighting, ideally on a bright day with light coming through a window and falling obliquely on the subject, but leaving the rest of the room quite dark. This will give shape and form to the animal's head and body and nice areas of highlight and shadow. It will also provide good texture in the animals coat.

I'll talk about fill-in flash below.

Background

Make sure the background is uncluttered. If they have a favourite dark blanket, then pose them on that. If not, use one you've taken with you (very unlikely in my case!) or get one from the owner. Obviously if it's the pet's favourite, it'll feel much more at ease on that, familiar smells etc.

Composition

Well, with no tripod you'll be hand-holding the camera. Unless you're an absolute whiz with a tripod, this gives you a lot more flexibility -- you'll be able to focus your energies on composition rather than have to keep moving a tripod around.

Think about whether you want just a head shot or whether and how much of the body to include. Make sure the animal isn't looking directly at the camera but off into the middle distance -- and make sure there's enough 'space' for it to look into.

Get down to their eye level. In our day-to-day lives, those who we're 'connecting' with are at our eye-level -- we're not looking down at them and we're not looking up to them. So to get this same connection in your photos, you have to be at their eye-level.

Drawing the viewer's attention where you want it to be. You can do this in many different ways. Positioning that point on one of the rule-of-thirds intersections is one. Another is by choosing a low depth of field -- or how much of the shot is in focus -- and then focusing your camera on the point where you want their attention. With a small aperture number, anywhere further away or closer than that point will then be blurry.

And where should that point of focus be? The eyes of course, as they're the doorway to the soul and will be where most of the character of the pet comes through. And it's ok if the nose isn't sharply in focus as that brings attention back to the eyes.

Fill-in Flash

With all this low light I'm recommending, you're going to be hard pushed to achieve a fast enough shutter speed to prevent blurring a) because the camera is hand-held and b) because the pet naturally moves, even if it's just a slight turn of the head.

Fill-in flash to the rescue - but never when mounted on your camera.

You're really using the flash for two purposes, one to freeze any movement (of the pet or your hand-held camera) and the other, to provide a light source that sculpts the features of the pet, head and body. This is why the flash mustn't be camera-mounted -- because sculpting light has to fall obliquely across the subject.

Don't be afraid to take plenty of shots, trying bounced light shots, if circumstances allow, or just by holding the flash at different angles and distances from the subject. The low ambient light will prevent harsh shadows, even if you point the flash fairly directly at the subject and from quite close.

And all this can be a tall order, holding a heavy-ish camera in one hand and a flash in the other, while still holding the camera steady enough that you don't get motion blur. Still, no one promised easy :)

Once in the Digital Darkroom

Just a quick covering of this area as I've covered this to enough depth in the postings about Hamish and Willow, Bonnie's pups.

What you're trying to do in the digi darkroom is to enhance the lighting, texture and composition.

So in a nutshell, here's the techniques used; pretty standard workflow for me:

• TLR Capture sharpening
• Copy of background layer for a touch of dodging the highlights and burning the mid-tones -- this to help the light sculpting and texture of the fur
• Convert to mono via the b/w filter and adjust colour sliders to get best conversion
• A v. slight increase in contrast: add a curves layer, unmodified, changed blending mode to overlay and backed off opacity to 9% -- btw, this is a brilliant technique for applying contrast
• Add a levels layer and give it a nudge to ensure I've got tones from deep black to pure white
• Add a subtle vignette to help bring attention to her face: new layer filled with black, change blend mode to soft light, use softest eraser (about 2/3rds size of image) and erase from corners to Bonnie's face, change layer opacity to around 50%
  
• Save, flatten layers, convert to jpeg, add a slight touch of sharpening using the unsharp mask
• Save as new file and upload to here.
  

Your turn

Well, if you find this useful I'd love to see your results. Drop off your links in the comments. If you've got any tips of your own that you want to pass on or to help me improve, please feel free :)

Learning, learning, every day a school day!

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Why is it important for serious photographers to master b/w?

There are certain shots in b/w that really concentrate your mind on the bare essentials. A good example is this great shot from Skyhunter.

I think that to be a great colour photographer (which I'm not - yet), you've got to master b/w first. Without colour to flood your senses, you have to concentrate on what's left - the bare essentials of light and line, texture and tone, pattern and form and, finaly, composition - they way they all interact with each other in the frame.

Look at the photo linked above (opens in a separate tab) - with no colour, what have you got?

Well, to me, there's some uniform texture (not much to concentrate on there, then) the lines of the landscape and they way they flow (lovely interacting / balancing curves); then there's the interesting way the light falls across the scene, giving contour to the land with tonal changes across the full range, from deep black to some highlights of pure white.

Not really a whole lot to concentrate on in making the shot, so with better focus of the mind, how can you not produce well-composed shots with no unintended distractions? It's so in-yer-face with b/w, you quickly learn how to crack the whip and get these elements performing as you want.

I think in mastering b/w, you can then bring all those learnings to colour. A masterful colour shot not only has to have all the colour relationships right but also all those non-colour attributes as well.

I'm in danger of rambling now, but you know what I mean :)

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A brief summary of Dodging and Burning

Here's a reply I gave to someone on Flickr asking what dodging and burning was all about

@ r0ckstarlette D&B is all about "adjusting the tonal interrelationships" in an area by simulating an increase or decrease of exposure, just for that area.

dodging

If a sign in shadow is a little too dark to read, and you want it to be read, dodge just the sign, and you will lighten it in comparison to the areas you didn't dodge.

burning

Has someone's face in a group shot got caught in bright sunlight (but the rest are normally exposed)? Burn the bright face to darken it.

Of course, with tools like Photoshop and others, you get a lot of control in applying those tools. Like being able just to burn the highlights, or just to dodge the shadows.

So in brief, that's it.

Of course, like anything, it can be used very creatively, if you know that using it in specific ways gives specific, predictable results.

making texture tactile

For example, I use it a lot in shots where I'm concentrating on texture as part of the overall feel. Remember, I'm really just simulating what the eye is capable of if it were there (which mine is and was!).

the eyes have it

We don't notice it, but as we look around, our eyes are continually adjusting exposure. Even in bright daylight, if we focus on a small patch of shadow, our irises open up a bit to let in more light - and we see the contrast between light and shade within the shadowy area - look away and the irises close down again in reaction to the brightness they're now looking into.

Still cameras can't do that, so we resort to d&b.

example

Have a look at this shot where I've used creative dodging and burning extensively in the grass - especially in the f/g. I concentrated on dodging just the highlights and when the mid-tones got too close to the highlights, I burned just the mid-tones back down again.

I did all this on a new overlay layer, filled with overlay-neutral grey. I dodged and burned on that layer and then adjusted the opacity to fine tune things. (and deleted the layer and tried again a few times till I was happy - you gotta 'speriment!)

The key to it as mentioned by others, is a small soft brush, a low strength and long sweeping movements. Never burn the highlights, and never dodge the shadows (and remember that the purpose of having rules, in the words of author Terry Pratchett, is so that you think before you break them).

Also, I'm not an expert (learning, learning, every day a schoolday!) but the above summarises what I've learned so far.

Everyone else, please free to correct me or comment. If you're interested in bw, use your flickr id to join my website via google friend connect - www.highton-ridley.co.uk

Hope that helps,
Mark

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