Bring on the bubbly!

The other day over on G+ I was bitching and moaning about not shooting anything remotely interesting... and in true G+ fashion, it was mere moments before I had friends encouraging me to try something new. Thanks to them, I broke through the block and made some really interesting images, starting with this one.

Several people asked me how I did it, and so I thought I'd extend the blah busting experience by redoing the shoot and creating a blog post about it.

I love clean crisp images like this, and I always thought it required all kinds of fancy gear to create. It really doesn't. You can see by my setup below, that the requirements are pretty simple.

A flat faced glass container. This is critical to avoid really irritating glare and reflections on the glass.

White foam core. You need two sheets, one for the base and one for the background. You could use anything white, I use foam core because it's cheap, and I already have it in the house.

Club soda.

Fruit, or vegetables or anything else that comes to mind.

Tripod is nice, but not necessary.

Lights. Really critical. You can get completely fancy with speed lights, or you can go with continuous studio lights like I have, or you can use desk lamps or clamp lamps.. whatever you have is fine. The brighter the better, as the more light you have will allow you to get faster shutter speeds at lower ISO levels. You need one for each side of the glass container.

Ok, so once you're all set up with lights and a container, have your objects ready to go, then you can go ahead and pour your club soda. Make sure you leave room for displacement or you'll be mopping up a mess.

Try and keep your f-stop as small as you can and still get a reasonably fast shutter speed. You want to have deep enough focus to keep all of the bubbles in focus. However, bubbles move, and unless you're using speed lights, you'll need to keep your shutter speed in mind or you'll end up with blurred bubbles. My lights were good and bright, so I was able to have a nice low ISO of 200. f/7/1 at 1/250 sec kept everything nice and crisp. Note that my white balance is set to Auto. If you shoot in jpeg then you need to adjust your white balance now. That setting will of course depend on your light source.

Keep in mind what you want to have in your shot and either float your fruit so that the bubbles will be where you want them, or hold it in place. Use your hands or a clamp, or you could get creative and use a fork or skewer, keeping them in your shot for added pizzazz. Now start shooting... as the object moves the bubbles will release and rise, and more will reattach themselves as you shoot. Check to make sure your focus is looking good, and play around with object in different positions.

Post Processing

I use Photoshop, but I image you can get similar results in whatever editing program you use.

My RAW image, straight out of the camera.

After editing, which includes white balance adjustment, white and black point adjustments, and sharpening in a RAW Camera Filter Layer, and an additional levels layer to brighten the background.

This is pretty nice, but I like the close up look, so I cropped to achieve the look I wanted.

The final image... crisp and fresh!

Once you get started, it's fun to see what you can do... don't be afraid to flip things around in your editing, either.


Baby Bok Choy

Orange Bell Pepper

Plastic Waste Basket Liner (really!)

The most important thing to remember is to have fun! If your settings aren't working, change them, and try again... play with the angle of your lights, try different objects. See what you can come up with!

I'd love to know if you found any of this useful, so leave a comment! I can't wait to hear how your ideas turned out, or if you have any questions. :)

Deep breath. Enjoy the ride.

Some words of wisdom I was given yesterday are resonating with me today.....

Deep breath. Enjoy the ride.

I know its about the process, not the destination. I'm trying not to rush to the ending, even when restlessness gets the better of me. I think I do a (mostly) good job at that, but the reminder was well timed.

You reap what you sow.

That's a tougher one, but I'm working on it. Isn't it strange that our failures are what stick with us, when it should be our successes that rise to the top? Maybe its because they're humbling. I try not to dwell on the failures. Instead I use them as reminders of what the goal is. And I hope that the failures are not irreversible.


None of this has anything to do with this image. Except that I really wanted to shoot something today. That restlessness. But I had these images I made the other night. I was so displeased with them that I pushed the whole shoot out of my mind. Lightroom didn't care, they were still there when I found them today. Deep breath. It's the process that's important. What can I learn from a night of unimpressive shots? Well the first thing is to walk away, but make sure to come back. Revisiting old images, after a breather and some space, is a good idea.

In the end, I'm pleased enough with this to post it. And for those interested, I even wrote down the workflow. I'm open to CC on this, so please, if you have suggestions let me know.



The was shot in front of a translucent piece of no slip shelf liner with a piece of white foam core behind it. I placed a 500 watt continuous light and diffuser on the left side.. My hope was to play with the striped texture of the plastic. I didn't like the result, but thought I would play with the images anyway.

This is a stacked composite made up of 5 images. After stacking and blending, I corrected white balance and made other basic corrections using Camera Raw Filter.

High Pass Filter at 2.6 pixels, then a levels adjustment layer mask painted on to bring out the details in the shadows.

Black and white layer started with a green filter, the made adjustments to the red and yellow channels.

Two brightness layers added, one applied to only the background to brighten it, and one applied to the leaf to increase contrast and brighten slightly.

ISO200
f2.8
1/50sec
50mm

Over a year ago, just as I was facing a sort of personal creative crisis, I had the extreme good fortune to take part in a Mentorship program on Google Plus, run by the wonderfully talented Ron Clifford. I was "only" in the auditing program, basically following along the lessons with the Core group. I say "only" because the level of involvement we had from Ron was amazing, and we all learned an incredible amount about photography, and about ourselves.

When Ron posted that he was going to be offering a short, intense Layers, Masks and Modes mentorship, I leapt at the chance. I was just starting to work with textures and layers and I knew that this was exactly what I needed, at precisely the right time. Good fortune smiling on me twice, as it were. This gave me the boost I needed to gain some confidence in my editing ability.

When Ron asked me if I would be willing to write some thoughts about my experiences in his programs, I was a bit hesitant (I'm not a writer, after all) but I also knew that I had gained so much that I had to share it. And really, that's what this post is about. When something is so amazing, and has such fantastic benefits, you want to shout it from the rooftops. Like Ron says, this is such an incredible time in history. Our ability to communicate with one another, learn from one another and share our experiences is unprecedented. Google Plus provides this incredible platform, where shared learning across all boundaries is possible to everyone.

What follows is my excerpt from Ron's blog post "Success in Photography Mentorship"


“A little more than a year ago, I came across a unique program, the “G+ Mentorship Program for Photographers”. I was new to Google Plus, and really had no idea of the incredible power and diversity of this space. I had no idea what this program was going to do for me, but I knew I needed a creative “kick in the pants”. I signed up and was invited to take part in the Auditing group. Your open and friendly approach and constant encouragement to push through creative blocks was refreshing. Over 8 weeks, as we covered topics ranging from compositional rules, the ins and outs of composing with colour, using perspective, negative space, evoking emotion and reaction (all potentially daunting subjects) a transformation started to happen. Learning and practicing, constantly thinking and internalizing information, helped me to reach past the plateau that I was on.
As I completed the program, I made some other realizations that are as important, if not more important, than the photographic skills I developed. Connecting, sharing, and reaching out to others are absolutely essential to skill development (and personal development…it all goes hand in hand – living your art!) Photography has always been a largely private and solitary activity for me. Sharing and connecting, opening up, have been my biggest personal challenges. Getting feedback and critique, and being encouraged in the mentorship program helped me be more open in the wider G+ arena, and elsewhere. My goal for the year was to bring my photography to a new level. Without a doubt the Mentorship Program planted the seed that allowed the growth I’ve had over the past year. My drive to know and understand more is stronger than ever. I’m tackling subjects on art theory I never would have imagined (Gestalt theory, anyone?)
I still struggle, (thank goodness!) but now I have more confidence than before to keep working, because I know the breakthrough will happen. I still struggle with opening up, and I am (slowly) gaining confidence there too. It is hard for me to share what is often a very emotional process. Struggle is good. Difficult is good. Because nothing worth doing is ever easy”.

looking back, moving forward

"Mehr licht!"  

That was my blog post title on January 1st. Always more light. Always more enlightenment. There were goals I had in mind for 2013. For the first time in my life, I accomplished what I set out to do.

I wanted to bring my photos to a new level, and I think I've achieved that. I shoot with intent. I have the end in mind. I don't always arrive at that end, but I have it in mind. I have learned a lot about editing, and I think I create images now, as opposed to taking snapshots. This is of course an ongoing and ever evolving thing, but I've made that move, to creating images. Check that off the list.

I wanted a web presence. More than my photo blog. More than facebook. So here is my site, you're here, so it exits. Check that off the list too.


(Maybe this resolution thing isn't so bad. Just don't take away my food, my wine or any other vices I may or may not adopt.)

Old year. New Year. Things past can't be changed. Learn. Move on. Spend some energy on what I will make happen next.

Starting to learn, properly, about black and white is long overdue. I joined the B&W Project on Google Plus. I'm committed to completing this project.

I've have tools I don't use. Things that are uncomfortable. Awkward. Using them and getting good results doesn't come easily. I'm going to make them useful. Natural. I'm going to learn to use the things I have at hand. More gear isn't the answer. Learning to confidently use what gear I've got is. 

This year what I want is confidence. I'm starting out with very little. Less than I expected I would have at this point, in fact. So that's the goal for the year. I'm building on success. We'll see how it goes. 

focus stacking versus deeper focus shooting

(Not the most interesting title for a blog post, I'll admit. )

Most of the work I've posted lately has involved focus stacked shots, using a very shallow depth of field to achieve sharp focus in the subject while maintaining a soft bokeh in the background. I was asked recently if the same results could be achieved by shooting with a deeper focus, applying a blur layer and painting in the areas I wanted in focus. On the surface, it seems like it would be achievable. Outside of aligning and merging the original photos, the rest of the process is very similar.

While out on my daily walk, I found a candidate in this leaf, all alone on a stem and nicely curled, showing both it's front and back texture.  I shot this at ISO1600 f8.0 1/60sec. (It was late afternoon and a cloudy day, hence the high ISO.)

  

Next I took 5 shots, in aperture priority mode, at f2.8, with my ISO at 800 this time (the wider aperture allowed a lower ISO) with exposures ranging from 1/100-1/200sec, each time focusing on different parts of the leaf,.

The following is the result of aligning and merging the 5 shots in Photoshop, without any other editing.

I opened the first image in Photoshop and applied a high pass filter at 2.6 pixels, masking the area of the leaf to reduce the already high noise level in the background. I applied a levels layer to increase the contrast and deepen the mid tones. Next I copied the background layer and applying a Gaussian blur at 62.7 pixels to try and replicate the background of the second image. Using the quick select tool on the background, I selected the leaf and applied it in an inverted layer mask to the blur layer. I spent several minutes with a brush tool cleaning up the edges. The following is the result.

I switched over to my second merged image and did basically the same process. I applied a high pass filter at 2.6 pixels and applied it to the leaf to keep the noise to a minimum. I applied a levels layer to add contrast and deepen mid tones. Here is the result:

  

After playing with a few different textures, I decided on one and applied it to both images, switching the blend mode to Soft Light at 100% opacity in both images.

My conclusion? I prefer the focus stacking approach. Once I have the merged layers, I can much more easily apply sharpening to it than I can paint in a blurred layer mask. In this particular image I managed reasonable results, because the leaf was alone, and had clean edges. Even still, I think there is an unappealing artificial look to the image (which was reduced when I applied the texture). My recent shot of burst milkweed pods would have been impossible to do in this way. The variation in focus in the surrounding areas that don't make it in the focus stacking make for a more natural looking image, in my opinion. Lastly, I find that naturally occurring bokeh looks nicer than one I artificially produce in Photoshop. This is just as likely to be my own inexperience in Photoshop as for any other reason. I tried using other blur filters and was not able to replicate what I achieved by shooting with a low aperture.

The beauty of Photoshop is that there are multiple ways to achieve the same or similar results. Each can be used according to the dictates of the image being edited, and the comfort level of the person editing the image. I have developed a work flow that I am comfortable with and get good results with. That doesn't make it the best way, just the best way for me. My work flow is ever evolving, as I learn new things about photography and editing, and adapt them into my creative process.

Artistic Intention.... and on Being Aware

I am blessed with friends who challenge my thinking, and make me strive for better. One of the areas I am always challenged is in giving some voice to what I'm feeling when I do what I do. A lot of the time, I'm "going through the motions" to a certain degree. Photography is part of my existence, and so I live, I breath, I shoot, I go through my day.... Often though I have this thought that I need to do more to express myself. Photos are supposed to tell a story. Art should elicit some emotional response. Am I doing enough to do that?

"don't you let that yearning pass you by" © Marjorie McDonald

When I saw the geese flying overhead, and heard their calls to one another, I felt a longing to go with them. These simple creatures will travel further in their life time than I ever will. James Taylor's lyrics "and don't you let that yearning pass you by" came immediately to mind. The walking man walks.

That's the feeling I put in this piece. The processes and textures I used to give a nostalgic feeling were intentional. I felt the pull those geese felt. The yearning to go...

 

Unedited photo... the beginning of "don't you let that yearning pass you by"

The process is my expression of what I'm feeling. There may or may not intentionally be any artistic rules being used (or broken). I only know that in that moment, what I felt when I heard the call of those geese and took the shot you see above, I felt what you see in my finished piece, even if I didn't visualize it in my mind in that moment.

Should I do more to put this expression into words? Part of me thinks if I have to, then maybe I'm not putting enough in my images. And then there is part of me that senses the value of delving deeper, and struggling to put the emotions into words. That maybe this struggle will make its way into my images as well.

What happens next

I sat at that intersection for a long time (sorry for continuing the crossroads analogy). Now my direction has been chosen, and but for a few details (like actually signing on Smugmug's dotted line) I'm on this new path. And I'm finding that already, without doing anything except choosing the direction, things are already happening.

I'm astounded, frankly. I don't necessarily buy into the new aged mumbo jumbo about positive thoughts leading to positive outcomes... I've had a lifetime of being positive and getting no where. That said, something is happening, and besides my intention shifting, I haven't really done anything concrete to make anything happen.

A long time ago, I made a commitment to myself. I would not say no to a new photographic opportunity. That commitment made me do things that I normally would have said no to. Portraits, for one. I am slowly growing into a love for this. Its still early, and I still get jitters, but every time I do someone's portrait, I learn something new. Photographically, and personally. I can talk to people, when I didn't think I could. I can deal with challenges, and come up with on-the-fly solutions. 

So here's a first. Today someone contact me. Cold. I don't know them, she saw my work for another family, and wants similar photos for her own family. (Can I just say how incredibly amazing that is?) I don't advertise as a portrait or family photographer. I don't advertise, period. Of course, in line with my commitment to myself, and this direction I've chosen, I will do this session and any others that come to me. And here's another first. I'm excited about the prospect. It never occurred to me to second guess it, like I normally do. 

The journey begins... I'm excited in a way I haven't felt before. Let's go!