The above shot was taken in Caseville, Michigan. It was a bit tricky to get, but when I saw this lamp post, I knew I wanted to shoot through it. Thankfully, there was a dock in the distance I could focus on (colors tweaked in Photoshop).

autofocus fail

An earlier shot in which I didn’t focus correctly. Boring.

I took a bunch of shots with the dock in focus, heck, I even lugged out my tripod and gave that way a go. But, with it being a cheaper tripod, adjusting the shot how I wanted was difficult–and the uneven ground didn’t help at all. But, I soldiered on and finally got a shot I was happy with. I think the final shot at the top was one I just did hand-held for the heck of it.

This one was snapped in downtown Caseville.

I saw this colorful trash can that was open on both sides, and decided I wanted to shoot through it, for a sort of frame in a frame, uh, thing. I’ll admit that I’m not too happy with how this turned out, as there is too much junk (pun not intended) on the top and sides. I could have cropped it different, and I may go back and do that, but I was afraid it would be difficult to see this was a trash can.

I enjoy shooting through objects like the lamp post and the trash can, it can make for interesting images, although images that can be a challenge to get. Regardless of the challenge, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for future shots such as these.

I tried out a photo trick last week in honor of Towel Day.  I made most of my body disappear! Learn how I made this picture happen with a bit of Photoshop magic after the break.

Ok, the trick here is that you need to have your camera on a tripod and consistent lighting.

Step 1: Find a simple background. My boring closet doors did the trick.

Step 2: Figure out your lighting. I just used the available lighting from my nearby floor lamp. Like taking your cousin to the prom, it wasn’t ideal, but hey, it better than nothing.

Step 4 3: Put your camera on a tripod.  Compose your shot. Lock your tripod down. This took some trial and error because I had to use a timer to photo myself. Had I been taking a picture of someone else, this would have been easier.

Step 4: Take a picture of the background.

Ta-da! Here is my lovely, boring background, sans Yours Truly. Again, I used the timer. I wanted to prevent camera shake (which shouldn’t happen on a tripod, but you never know).

Step 5: Everybody Walk the Dinosaur Take a picture of yourself or your subject.

Step 5: Dump both photos into Photoshop and layer them on top of each other. You have to make sure both of the images are lined up how you want them to appear in the final version. Put the ‘background’ image as your bottom layer.

Make your background image the bottom layer.

Step 6: M.A.S.K.! Not to be confused with the cartoon, but yes, you need to use a Mask (not Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) to make this trick work. Apply a vector mask to the image you want to disappear, in my case the top layer with me and the towel. Use the Add Vector Mask button on the bottom of the layer palette.

Use the Add Vector Mask button at the bottom of the layer palette.

Step 7: Start painting! When using a mask, anything you paint black disappears and anything you paint white, comes back.  This is actually better than erasing, because if you mess something up, you can just repaint it back on. You may want to change the Hardness on your paint brush so that the edges are not so rough. Work in small sections at a time. Make sure the Mask portion of the layer is selected in the layer palette (the black and white image). I used my WACOM tablet and it is very handy for this sort of thing.

Paint something black to make it go away, use white to bring it back. Make sure the Mask portion of the layer is selected.

And that’s it! Take the time to make sure your edges are clean, but most importantly, have fun. This is an easy procedure, but it is very versatile (note: this does lead to large file sizes). You can use it for way more than just making your head float.

I was hooked right away.

I loved the capabilities of the site, from tagging to creating notes on the images to even recording the location of where I took it.

About a year or so ago, I kind of fell out of photography a bit, partially due to my out-growing my point-and-shoot. But, this past January I decided to take part in the Year in Pictures challenge on Flickr.

The goal is take a photo every day, so you will have a journal of the past year, and–at least for me–see how your skills have developed.

This project pushed me to invest in a DSLR camera, a Canon Rebel T2i, this past March. A DSLR, with its changeable lenses and manual settings, is a whole other animal.

But I’m learning.

And Flickr is helping.

Because your photos store data, called EXIF, Flickr can show just about every dang statistic about your shots. The type of camera, the focal length, the ISO and more. Just click on the More Properties link of a photo, it is all there (unless the Flickr user has it turned off).

A photo I shot at the San Francisco Zoo in April.

And that shot’s EXIF data, displayed on Flickr. Note: this photo was taken with the Sports auto setting.

This allows me to do a bit of studying. I can search out other T2i users, look at their photos, and see which settings they are using to get that shot.

Yes, part of any photo depends on the lighting and the lens, but at least the stored EXIF data points me in the right direction as far as settings.

I’ve been keeping my camera on the M (Manual) setting for this past week and I’m loving the results so far. I didn’t spend all this money just to use the auto settings. I’ll confess that the Sports, Macro and Landscape settings do come in handy sometimes.

Flickr is not only a fun site, but an invaluable learning tool. It is also great way to connect with other photographers, either hobbyists like myself or professionals.

You can also join groups, and submit your photos to “pools,” so that other users can see and comment on them.  A photo I submitted to the Great Lakes Urban Exchange (GLUE) pool was their Photo of the Week this past week. Check it out.

This photo was taken with my point-and-shoot and tweaked in Photoshop, using a process called redscale.

If you ever wanted to learn about photography, I highly recommend opening up an account on Flickr.  It is  a great place to learn and play.

The brief hiatus during December was nice. It gave me a chance to get a little bit ahead, although not as ahead as I was hoping for–but that’s the holidays for you.  Still, I’m glad I gave myself a bit of a break.  It was nice.

#

I’m still going strong with the Year in Pictures challenge on Flickr. Here is today’s picture, taken at the Fish Ladder in Old Town.

You can see the rest of my Year in Pictures here.   I’m having so much fun doing this project, I’m very happy that I decided to give it a go.  I’m taking photos daily and messing around in Photoshop on a regular basis, which is a great thing.

And I’m experimenting more/taking chances as well when it comes to photos.  Case in point, this picture below, in which I used a “texture” in Photoshop.

Someone had a bunch of free textures on their Flickr page, so I decided to use one.  I like this picture a lot (even if it is a bit creepy), I may get it printed and framed for myself.

The concept is that you take and upload a photo every day, for 365 days.  After the end of the year, you have a nice little collection of your photographic adventures.  Never one to back down from a creative challenge (says the three time finisher of National Novel Writing Month), I jumped at the chance to take part.

First Coffee of 2010, drank from my Attack From Outer Space mug.

I created a set on Flickr to hold all of my own photos, so keep checking that out every day for a new picture.

Will I miss days? Probably. Stuff happens and I’m not going to worry about it if I miss a day or two.  This is for fun and a good excuse to get me out there and take more pictures.  Photography is one of my favorite hobbies and I’m happy for a chance to do it more often.

This project may be the push to get me to finally buy a decent SLR camera.  I’m just using my Sony point-and-shoot for these.  I’ll probably have a few taken by my phone, but I don’t want to do too many of those.

I’m having fun so far–I was up nice and early, taking photos of my old typewriter and messing around with the manual settings on my camera.  I haven’t used the manual settings in a long while.  Then I played around with the picture in Photoshop.

picture of my Underwood typewriter. I do not know its age.

I deleted every color channel except blue in Photoshop and then messed around with the shadows and highlights.  I like the black and white look more, it fits the old time look of the typewriter.

This is exactly why I wanted to do this project: it is making me experiment with photos more.

Happy New Year!