I really need to try harder to manage my depth of field issues.

This is just a little shallow for me. Though I love the effect pushing it through an HDR process has had on it.

Original image was parsed through Dynamic-Photo HDR then had some small curves adjustments and a little sharpening applied to it.

The original image was shot at f/5.6 1/250 at 250mm. The wide aperture at such a zoom has left it a little too shallow. On review, it’s an issue I have with a few birds of prey pictures I took over the weekend.

How do you eat your jelly babies?

Probably nothing too amazing about this picture, though I do like the colours. What’s more important for me is that I asked the person who had the sweet stall if I could take some pictures of their wares.

I’ve read lots of guides about talking to people when shooting in a market or fair and they all say people tend to be very friendly and willing to share or to let you take pictures. I’ve tried it before and it’s something I still find uncomfortable doing.

But if I can get pictures like this as a result I may well try to do it more often.

And, also, jelly babies? I eat them by the handful!

Is anyone interested in a bit of a photo game?

The idea is that each month everyone who wants to play submits a single image based on a theme. Everyone who submits an image is then allowed one vote (you can’t vote for your own image). Image with the most votes wins. You must take the image during the month (we’ll work an honour system).

The only prize is bragging rights and the privilege of choosing the next theme.

The idea is basically what’s happening on www.fujimugs.com but I’m guessing we’ll have a much smaller entry!

Why should you play? Well, it’s a good excuse to get your camera out and shooting to a theme is often good fun.

Oh, and if you win and you’re up for it, I’d love you to write an entry for this blog (or your own) telling me how you took the image and what you did to present it.

I know a few people have already said they’re interested, so we’ll kick it off at the start of June.

My work is taking me to the west of Ireland from time to time. As a result, I’m seeing parts of the country that I’ve never really seen before. All I can say is when it comes to pretty views and interesting old castles/forts/churches they have more than their fair share.

I don’t know why, but these always look better in black and white to me.

Since Canada, I’ve tended to keep my camera close when I’m riving and know I can stop for a few moments here and there. Hence the Tassagh Viaduct shot a few weeks back and now this one. One thing I did at Tassagh and forgot to do here was take a quick shot of a nearby sign to give me an idea where it was.

So, if you want to visit this place, you need to take the road from Galway to Westport/Castlebar and keep an eye out your right window. Sorry I can’t be more specific!

Hope you’re all having a good weekend

If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a little side step in this post and instead of waffling about my camera or my photographs, I’m going to talk about my mobile phone.

Or at least my new camera.

Or phone.

Or, well…

OK. I know camera phones have been around for ages, but I’ve always found them to be blurry awful things with more shutter lag than a thing with a lot of shutter lag. (Frankly when I heard stories of people using them to peep on people getting changed, it always amazed me – any phone I had in the time it took you to peep and take the picture, the person could have been washed, dressed and halfway to the pub.)

But, since it was contract renewal time and I didn’t want an iPhone or Google thing I took a look at the Sony Ericsson C905.

I’m not going to talk about the phone. It takes calls, makes calls and does those text message things. So that’s all good.

But some genius built a Sony Cyber-shot into it. Yup, a genuine Sony Cyber-shot 8 megapixel camera. That’s 8 megapixels, a decent lens, a flash, a video camera and a bundle of love like face detection, macro mode and shiny shiny goodness.

It even takes a nice picture…

If you want technical specs, you can get them here.

If you’re in the market for a phone and a camera, then this seems like the business.

Following on from that game a week or so ago…

 

The 10 minute Chilli

I’m not as happy with this one.

These days, most of the photos I put online or print out have had some form of post processing on them. I’ve nothing against unedited photographs, I just think that there are a few things you can do that make a difference, things that a film photographer would do in a darkroom as a matter of normal practice.

One of the most common adjustments I make to a photograph is the application of curves.

(OK, if you’re an experienced photographer or know all this already, switch off now…)

Curves adjustments allow you to tweak the tonal ranges in an image without changing the overall exposure. At its simplest level, you can brighten shadows (or make them darker) or do the same for the highlights. Getting more advanced, you can adjust individual channels (typically - red, green, blue) in an image to increase the contrast of specific colours. You can even use curves to correct white balance issues.

Curves adjustments are available in Photoshop and Lightroom, but if you don’t have access to these products, try something like GIMP for free desktop processing or flauntr for a free online tool.

Typically, the tonal range of an image is represented in a curves dialog by a straight line running bottom left (dark) to top right (bright). When you adjust the tonal range, you manipulate that line, essentially adding a curve (can you see how they named it?)

Here’s some examples of pictures I’ve taken before and after curves have been applied. (Note, none of the pictures are great, but hopefully they show how curves can help).

In all the following examples, the original image is the part on the left.

Increasing shadows

 

By pulling the lower portion of the line down, dark tones within the image are intensified. The line becomes steeper as the contrast in the picture is increased, but the highlights in this (already blown out) image aren’t increased.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Increasing highlights

 

 

The original image here is a little dark, but simply increasing the exposure would have ruined the look of the dark grey suit. By pulling up the upper portion of the tonal line, the part dealing with the highlights, the shirt gets brighter as well as the face whilst the suit retains most of its original dark formal tones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

S–Curve

 

 

By using both the adjustments mentioned above, it’s possible to take a flat or lifeless photograph and breath a little contrast and life back into it. As the curve here shows, a little is often enough – remember the steeper the line the more contrast the picture will have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Increasing a specific channel

 

 

Using the curves tool, it’s often possible to define a separate curve for each colour channel in the image. In this example, the highlights of the green channel have been stripped back, whilst the reds and blues have been made darker and more intense to differing degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are all pretty simple adjustments. It’s possible to have many points on the line and make lots of different adjustments all the way through the tonal range. But, typically a few minor modifications is all that’s needed.

Hopefully you can see the value of using curves to enhance an image. If your images are flat or dull, it’s easily the quickest way to bring some life into them.