Shooting for the Stars

An hour before sunset

August is a great month for photographing stars and other celestial objects, especially here in Oregon.

This post is an introduction to photographing the stars and celestial events.

Equipment List:

• Camera
• Tripod
• Wide angle lens (less than 30mm)
• Remote shutter release
• Flash light 

The first thing you need to do is find a location away from the lights of the cities. Even a small town, 350 people or less, can generate enough light pollution to wash away any chance of seeing and capturing decent star fields.

Ideally, your location will be hundreds of miles from the nearest town, but unless you live in the middle of the Mojave Desert, say Death Valley, this isn't likely. So find a location that is as remote as possible, ocean beaches away from large populations area  good choice.

The Beauty of Death

The next thing you need to do is to arrive early, a least an hour before sunset.

This is a great opportunity to capture some golden hour images of interesting subjects. But more importantly this allows you investigate the area during daylight hours to find your location to shoot from.

Look for spots that don't have too many objects in the field of view. Ponds, fields, distant hills, farm equipment and trees in the distance are great subjects to add to the impact of and give scale to vast expanse of the sky.

Don't expect much star action to show up until an hour after sunset. Two hours is better. Bring a book to read. Photograph other things. Find something to do to blow the two hours you will wait.

277 seconds, ISO 100 - Not Long Enough

The secret to photographing the stars is to take a minimalist approach. Place the horizon as low as possible in the frame, but keep the horizon in the frame to anchor the image. The stars by themselves are pretty boring, little white dots on a black or blackish screen can be as boring as connect-the-dots and no pencil.

Much like the Ying-Yang, one can appreciate the light only because of the dark. One can appreciate the beauty only because of the ugly. The horizon as an anchor allows to appreciate the infinite expanse of the universe by grounding it to the finite world we live on. As a point of note; too much horizon, having the horizon too close to the center of the frame narrows the view of the sky, eliminating the impact.

33 seconds at ISO 3200 - Exposing the Sky

When exposing the sky, there are two different methods I use; High ISO/Fast Shutter and Low ISO/Slow Shutter. In either case I use a remote shutter release.

My typical camera settings are as follows:

• Camera Mode: Manual
• Shutter: Bulb Mode
• Aperture f/3.5 or lower if possible
• ISO: Depends

If I am trying to capture the star field, or even the Milky Way, it is  important to have the shutter be fast. By fast I mean at about 20 seconds. Anything longer than 20 seconds will lead to blurring of the stars. Remember, the world keeps turning so the stars position in the sky are always shifting as you will see in the images below. The image to the right was shot at 33 seconds. The image above-left was 277 seconds.

To capture all of the stars possible in twenty seconds means having to jack my ISO up high. For this type of shot, above-right, I typically use ISO 3200. You can see the number of stars captured is greatly improved over the image shot at 277 seconds using ISO 100.

18 Minutes at ISO 100.

1127 seconds sounds like a long time. It is a very long time when you are waiting for a photograph to be taken. 18 minutes can last an eternity. Einstein was right; time is relative.

Because the ISO was set so low, only the brightest of stars make an appearance in the star trails. Look again at the image exposed for 33 seconds, above, at ISO 3200. Look at the shear number of stars. The image to the left is the exact same scene, but because the ISO is only 100 the number of stars present are limited to only the brightest.

I could shoot a long exposure at ISO 320, but the light at the horizon, city lights from a small town 30 miles away, would have exposed the entire scene white. That is the issue with light pollution. The more remote you can get, the more you can play with higher ISO scenes.

http://www.astro-observer.com/dark/lpmapusa.html This is a link to a map of light pollution is the United States. Unless you can get to one of the black areas on the map, you will have to deal with light pollution.

30 Minutes at ISO 100

The longer you expose the more chance you have of capturing other objects in the sky, such as airplanes and occasionally even a satellite, if it is bright enough.

In the case of the image on the right, the stars are uniformly making the same pattern in the sky. There is one particularly bright anomaly. Welcome to the Perseid Meteor Showers.

Capturing events like the Perseid Meteor Shower is one part being prepared and one part being lucky.

If a meteor is flashing in front of camera during exposure, you are lucky. If it is bright enough to to be captured you are lucky, unless your ISO is higher than 100.

Be patient. Experiment. Have fun.

I would like to thank my friend Janeen for hosting this interstellar kegger. She was a wonderful host to our ragtag band of photographers.

Abstracting the world one frame at a time

The World Out Of Focus

I am a man of various artistic styles. Much like my music, I like various styles of art. My music playlist can go from Metallica to Sia to Johnny Cash to Dr. Dre to The Sex Pistols to The Doors to Bobby McFarin to Marilyn Manson to Eminem to Etta James. I just don't like modern country. My taste in art is just as varied, and oddly enough, I just don't like most modern art.

Light Blooms

One of my favorite forms of art to create with my camera is abstract by finding the patterns with movement and de-focusing.

It isn't an accident when I make this form of art. It is done through intentional motion and focus shifting.

This doesn't work with just any subject or lighting conditions.

It also doesn't work with just any motion of the camera.

This is a skill I have spent years developing through experimentation.

I know that a lot of people joke about a blurry image is simply fine art. But this is not what my pieces are about.

In this post I am going to share some secrets about what my subjects consist of and how I go about shooting them.

Earth and Fire

When looking for a subject it is important to look for a couple of traits; colors that contrast and compliment.

Yellows on darker green, red or blue work well while yellow on orange would simply not provide enough contrast between the colors. The colors should contrast enough that there is definitive clarity between the two colors.

Because yellow and orange are close in color values, the same side of the color wheel, they don't work. Instead, red and yellow or blue and yellow combinations are great examples because they are on opposite or near opposite sides of the wheel. Red and blue could work, but both tend to be darker tones so the contrast might be nullified if you are aren't careful. Flowers and multicolored lights, like Christmas are some of the easiest to work with.

Fanning the Flames

The next thing to look for is light contrast.

Bright sunlight can work well but only if the subject, the primary color, is lit by sunlight and the background is in shadow.

Flat light, like an overcast day, does not work. When abstracting, a flat light source equals a flat image with no contrast.

The image on the left is a shot of some bright yellow flowers in the sun while the background is in shadow and obviously a mix of more yellow flowers and green.

Motion

Next is motion.

Depending on the lens you are using, movement ranges may vary, but the movements themselves will remain similar.

Horizontal movements can create a panning effect, while vertical movements can create a sense of rising or falling.

Circular movements create different effects than linear line movements. Experiments with movement will expose more about what works and what doesn't work for a given scene.

A longer shutter speed can capture a more movement, but also captures more light increasing the risk of over exposure. This risk can be compensated with a smaller aperture or lower ISO.

Movements are impacted by focal length as well. A longer focal length, like 200mm, exaggerates movement more than 50mm naturally. Therefore a 200mm lens requires less movement to obtain the the same effect than a 50mm lens. In the same way, but backwards, a 10mm lens would require more movement to obtain the same effect than a 50mm would. Generally big movements create sweeping patterns while small movements create tight patterns.

This should give you the basic tools you need to start abstracting with purpose. As you practice, by using these tools you will learn more about what works and what doesn't. So get out there and start abstracting the world around you.

Lightroom Tutorials - Importing Images and Watermarking

A member of my photography club emailed me a couple of questions about Lightroom and rather than answer via an email response I thought that I would address these questions via a blog post. The first question was in regards to image/catalog management specific to importing images and the second question was about how to create a watermark for your images.

Let's address the first question first. Can we set it up somewhere in LR that the 'already' imported images will be automatically 'unchecked' when we are ready to import new files?

Lightroom 3.6 Import Interface

The easy answer is yes are a couple of ways to not have images in your catalog automatically unchecked or ignored altogether.

Select New Photos option

The first possible method is used the file options, All Photos is selected by default. Change this to New Photos and this should show only new photos, or photos that do not exist in your catalog already.

This may have odd effects, such as if you store all your photos in one location and just import them into your catalog. If you are doing this, when you remove an image from your catalog, without deleting it from the disk, the image will reappear in your import dialog each and every time you do a new import. This is because the image doesn't exist in your catalog but still exists in the folder. 

Don't Import Suspected Duplicates

The second option, which will have similar results as the above but remains checked for each import until you uncheck it. Under the file handling on the top-left panel of the import dialog, you can click the Don't Import Suspected Duplicates checkbox. Again, this only works if the image exists in the catalog already, but could prove problematic.

Image management can be tricky, but successful image management starts with how we import our images. As a part of my workflow I always move the images to a new destination from a separate Import folder on my desktop. This ensures that the only images shown in my import dialog are the new images from my shoot. This is one of the fundamental workflow things that I teach in my Lightroom Workshops.

Lightroom Watermarking

The second question that was asked is; How do I add watermark / copyright on the images?

The easiest way to add a copyright to an image is to put a copyright notice in the metadata. Then when exporting or printing select the Simple Copyright Watermark which used the copyright metadata entry for the source of the text for the watermark.

There is a lot to understanding watermarking. Watermarking is a very powerful way to brand your images. In addition to Metadata, watermarking gives a visual clue to who made the image. But offers little as a deterrent to theft. 

If you are watermarking your images to prevent image theft you might as well be using a Chihuahua for an attack dog; just not that effective. Watermarks can be cropped or cloned out of image easily. They have little impact as measure of theft prevention.

Lightroom allows you to add two types of watermarks; text and an image. The text watermark allows you to put any text you want to. An image watermark allows you use whatever you want as a watermark. The image above uses an image so I can brand my photos with not only my domain name, but also my logo. The image also gives me access to thousands of fonts rather than the select few Adobe allows Lightroom to have access to.

The first step is to create a new watermark in Lightroom is to click on the Edit menu and select Edit Watermarks... menu item.

This will open the Watermarks dialog box, below.

To create a text watermark, select Text as the Watermark Style: option.

Enter the text you want to have as your watermark. This may simply be your name, or ©, year and your name, for example; © 2012 Jane Doe Photography or simply your business name. 

As a bonus for this article, to type the copyright symbol, simply press and hold the Alt key while you type 0169 on the 10 key keypad then release the Alt key. This trick doesn't work without a 10 key keypad, so if you are using a laptop without a 10 key keypad, simply copy and paste the © from this or any other website.

Now under the Text Options in the dialog box you can change the font, style alignment and color of the text. You can also add a shadow to the text and adjust the shadow's opacity, offset, radius and angle. 

Scrolling down through the watermark options you can also change the Watermark Effects. This allows you to change the opacity of the watermark. Making a watermark a little transparent helps it to not over power the image. 

You can change the Size of the watermark, to fit the image, make it proportional or fill the image. I typically use Fit in this option because regardless of the size or orientation (landscape/portrait) of my export, it fits in the area I set it up to do. The other size options have strange results from time to time. 

The Inset adjustments allow you slightly shift the watermark left, right, up and down to get it aligned the way you want. The inset adjustments are in relation to where the watermark is anchored, described below.

The Anchor tools allow you anchor the watermark to a specific area of the image; top left, top center, top right,  middle left, middle center, middle right,  bottom left, bottom center, bottom right.

Watermarking using an image works just the same as a text watermark, except you are using an image. Under the Image Options you will click on the Choose... button.

This will open a dialog box where you can select images you have already made for use as a watermark. 

The adjustment sliders all work the same for the image watermark as they do for the text.

Once you have your watermark made, click the Save button. Give the watermark preset a name and click the Create button.

Now comes the time to use the watermark.

If you are printing from Lightroom, there is an option to include the watermark in the printout. This is a great option for printing client proofs. In the Print module, simply check the Watermarking option and select the watermark you wish to use.

For exporting your image for use on the web, you scroll through the export options and near the bottom check the Watermark checkbox and select the watermark you want to use. 

As you can see you can have many watermarks. This can be beneficial if you are doing work under multiple businesses as well as having top and bottom, as well as left and right aligned watermarks, as well as dark, light and even numerous color versions so you can theme the watermarks to match your images.

That's it for now. I hope this answers some of your questions about file management and watermarking. Feel free to email if you have any specific questions about Lightroom.

 

My Lightroom Series - Introduction



Lightroom Photo Management Software



A photo management tool is a photographer’s third best friend, right after light and a camera; in that order. Lightroom fills the photo management role and a little bit more. Now I am not here to discuss if Lightroom is better than Aperture, Capture NX, ACDC or any of the numerous other tools out there. I am here to discuss how Lightroom can be used to its fullest potential for the average amateur and professional photographer. Lightroom is available for Windows and Mac.

The latest version of Lightroom (version 3.2 as of this writing) brings to a photographer a plethora of tools for cataloging, editing and sharing photos. While it may not have all of the same tools as its competitors or in some cases has some tools that its competitors do not have, it is still a great tool none-the-less. For the features it may lack, the features it does have are deeply refined, smooth and expectedly fantastic for a product from Adobe. Yes Lightroom is developed by the same company that develops Photoshop. Also a purchased copy of Lightroom provides you the install bits for both the 32bit and the 64bit versions which will add some more flexibility to what OS you choose to run.

Lightroom is for all intents and purposes a tool for managing photos. While it has some fantastic photo editing tools built into it I want to make it cleat that Adobe’s Lightroom is not Adobe’s Photoshop. You cannot work with layers directly in Lightroom. While it may have some slide show tools built into it, it is not a presentation tool. While it may have some web page design tools built into it, it is not Adobe’s Dreamweaver. Instead, Lightroom is a practical tool that serves these purposes and a whole lot more.

Lightroom allows the photographer to load, catalog, edit, print and share photos and it does these very things very well. In addition to doing all of this, Lightroom does this in a completely non-destructive fashion. What I mean by non-destructive is that Lightroom makes no changes to the original image.

Instead Lightroom stores the changed values in a database (catalog) and shows the photographer a representation of the change in Lightroom. It isn’t until the user chooses to export the photograph that the changes are actually applied. But even then, the changes are applied to a new copy of the image; this like doing a save as in any other editor. What this means is that at any time the photographer may click the reset button and start working from the original photo from scratch, much like working with a negative. While it is not impossible, a normal user would have a hard time modifying the original image while working in Lightroom.

The latest version of Lightroom also allows for tethered shooting. Tethered shooting is the ability to plug a supported camera into a computer or laptop and shoot images directly into Lightroom. This was previously accomplished by using the auto import feature of Lightroom, which was clumsy and cumbersome as it required a separate piece of software, usually from the camera manufacturer, to tether to the camera then Lightroom would pick the photos up from a predetermined folder and import them. The new tethering feature bypasses the need for other software and there is no need for an auto import to be turned on. Only works with limited cameras from Canon and Nikon as of this writing, but more will be added with future patches.



Lightroom Keyword Tools

 Lightroom is broke into five modules for the user to work in. Each module servers a specific purpose in the work flow. The first module is the Library Module which is where the photographer can load, catalog and organize and search through a collection of photos. It is also here that the photographer can rate, compare, classify and sort photos as well as add and modify the metadata associated with a photo. The Library Module is a great tool because of its simplicity and flexibility. It allows the user to organize their photos in any way they see fit; by date, by subject matter, by phase of the moon, or by all three or none of the methods if the photographer feels like it.



Lightroom Develop Tools

 The second module is the development module. This is where the photographer makes simple adjustments like exposure, crop, saturation and redeye. The photographer can also make more advanced adjustments like graduated filters, spot removal, adding natural film grain or even localized adjustments to the photo. Lightroom's blur effect can even produce a tilt-shift like effect when combined with two or more of the graduated filters. Even black and white conversions as well as split toning effects like sepia can be accomplished in Lightroom.

Lightroom's Slideshow Tools

The third module is the Slide Show Module. This module is a presentation tool which allows the photographer to display selected photos as a slide show and even put the slide show to a sound track. The slide show can be shown full screen on a computer or it can exported as a PDF and even a movie. It is simple by design but effective none-the-less. The slideshow tool is customizable as well with plenty of options to meet just about any need.

Lightroom's Printing Tools

The fourth module is the Print Module. This module allows the photographer to print to any connected printer. It allows for custom contact and proof sheets to show to a client before final printing as well as the development of custom sheet layouts and the use of presets.

The last module, but not the least of the five, is the web module. This allows to the photographer to build customizable web pages for publishing images and galleries to an online website. While this tool in and of itself is a powerful tool, the real power comes from being to purchase plug-ins that allow for more customization and creativity in the presentation process. This module even includes flash-based web pages and galleries.

Lightroom Web Module

Over the course of the next several months I will be posting new content about each of the modules, covering each module in depth as well as additional features and how to use them. In many cases each module may take five more articles to properly cover all of the rich features of Lightroom. Each article will provide in depth details about each tool in the modules as well as provide screenshots of not only the tool, but the before and after affects of the tool on a real photo. At the conclusion of each module segment, I will post an article about my workflow in that module. While my workflow might not be the perfect workflow for you, it will give you a strong starting point for developing your own Lightroom workflow versus starting from scratch.

So stay tuned, because I am about to teach you everything you ever needed to know about Adobe’s Lightroom and how it can stream line your photographic workflow. It is going to be fun.

To make it easy for you to follow along, follow me on Twitter, @monkeypaw2u, as I will be posting on twitter when new articles are available.