Strong Grip

Canon Digital Rebel
EF 35mm 2.0 Lens

It is a bit of challenge to hold a baby's hand and tried to take a picture too! This is what comes out.

Shot RAW processed via Canon DPP
Storyboard assembled in Adobe Photoshop
Coloring with Nik EFEX Filters

Comments and Critiques appreciated

Bundle of Joy #2

Tristan Christopher Cox
Look out world here I come!
Dublin, California

Canon Digital Rebel
EF 35mm 2.0 Lens

Shot RAW processed via Canon DPP
Storyboard assembled in Adobe Photoshop
Coloring with Nik EFEX Filters

Comments and Critiques appreciated

April 2007

San Francisco
California

Just having some fun with Photoshop with this one. I was trying for a comic book sort of feel. I rather like it myself...

Super Takumar 50mm f/1.4

My all time favorite 50mm lens

I recently got some free Nik Effects color filters. Here I am playing around with the pop-art filter.

You can download some for free here: http://www.niksoftware.com/welcome/americanphoto/usa/entry.php?utm_campaign=americanphoto&utm_source=Ma r_06&utm_medium=redire
or:
http://www.niksoftware.com/welcome/r.../usa/entry.php

Jet Plane
Houston, Texas

Some more fun with Photoshop.

February 23 2007

Although I am not getting to a shot a week right now, I am getting some great shots that I will share as I get them processed.

Taipei, Taiwan
Formosa, Republic of China

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm
f-8 / 1/3 sec. / 200 ISO


Shot RAW and processed via DPP.

My skill as a landscape photographer and Post Processor are rather poor. Portraits seem to be my strong area. This shot is an exception to my otherwise weak landscapes, maybe I am getting better, maybe I am getting lucky!

Finally got a clear evening on my last nite in Taipei. 30 or so other photographers and I all happily snapped away from this great vantage point above the city. The building in the middle is called the Taipei 101. Currently it is the worlds tallest building, it was completed just a couple of years ago. The Taipei 101 tower is lit up special for valentines day, which had occurred a few days before I shot the photo.

Last year they had fireworks shooting out of the building for new years eve!

No filter was used. There was a streetlight nearby that was throwing reflections into the filter, even with the lens hood on! so I took the filter off.

One pretty serious well equipped gentleman taking shots next to me was using a large 6x8 sheet of graduated glass (clear gradually becoming dark) that he held in front of the lens. He was setup long before the street light came on.

I made 5 exposures on a tripod and blended them to get the same thing a graduated ND filter would give me.

There were quite a few photographers that day, it was day 6 of a national 7 day Holiday, for Chinese new year, and the weather was bad until just this day. So everyone hopeing to shoot this week must have come up to the little hilltop. To get to this vantage point requires a 300m near vertical climb up a nice granite staircase. 20-30 min for me, so give yourself some time. And bring a tripod! If anyone is interested I can provide directions to the park with the scenic overlook where this was taken.

Missing photos on blogger...

It seems most of my recent photo posts have had the photos made invisible by blogger. Apparently uploading new ones does not help either. I hope this is only temporary.

Equipment Leasing for Photographers

One reason the 2007, weekly photo has not occurred yet this year is a project I have been working on this year with my wife Annie.
Annie set up her own company Chang Team to serve the commercial real estate, equipment leasing, and factoring financing clients. Since she has access to nearly unlimited sources of capitol and lenders, and was already offering business equipment leasing, I helped set up a program designed especially for helping photographers, studios, and labs.
I set-up a website and am now working on a marketing strategy that reflects Annie's Chang Team principals: high quality customer service, attention to detail, and a friendly environment.

For now this project has taken some of my time away from photography but not completely. I am still learning in leaps and bounds in the ability to post process my images. I think I will make 2007 a year to blog about these new skills I am acquiring. My latest photoshop efforts have been to build a banner advert for the Chang Team Photographic Equipment Leasing project.


If you are interested to see the site just click the banner. I learned a bit about selection tools and using text in photoshop with this project and would probably do it a bit different if I was to do it again.

Some Statistics for 2006

Portraits - 26
Sabrina - 14
Family - 10

Landscape - 13
Airplane - 16
Camera - 4
Boat - 1

Lenses:
Canon 17-40mm 4.0 - 23
Canon 70-200 4.0 - 15
Canon 35mm 2.0 - 6
Canon 50mm 1.4 - 5
Leica 50mm 2.0 - 3
Canon 18-55 - 1
Canon 100-300 - 1
Canon 100-300L - 1
Russian 50mm 1.4 - 1
Nikon 50mm 1.4 - 1
Takumar 50mm 1.4 - 1

December 31, 2006

Sabrina at Christmas
Dublin, California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 29mm
f-4 / 1/30 sec. / 200 ISO

Shot RAW and processed via DPP. Additional processing done via PhotoShop CS2. Red Paw's free filters and the Shadow Highlight tool were used primairly.


This is the final entry for 2006! Yeay!!! I have done rather well for my first year. I plann to take a little break and begin again in spring 2007

See you then...

December 24, 2006

Wesley Hsu
Legoland
Carlsbad, California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 70-200mm @ 131mm
f-4 / 1/160 sec. / 100 ISO

Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Additional work done in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

December 21, 2006

Eva Air 747
Los Angles, California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 70-200mm @ 200mm
f-7 / 1/640 sec. / 100 ISO

Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Additional work done in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

December 13, 2006

Above Dallas
Dallas, Texas

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 17mm
f-4.5 / 1/50 sec. / 100 ISO

Shot RAW and processed via DPP. Additiinal processing done via PhotoShop CS2.

November 29, 2006

Jelly Bean
JellyBelly Factory
Fairfield, California

EOS Digital Rebel / EF 35mm 2.0
f-2.0 / 1/400 sec. / 400 ISO

Shot as Large Jpeg and processed via PhotoShop CS2.

December 3-9, 2006

No photos taken this week. Here are a couple of older ones I have been working on.

Ah-Ma & Ah-Gong
Gold Mountain, Taiwan

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 40mm
f-4 / 1/25 sec. / 400 ISO

Shot RAW and processed via DPP. Run through Portrait Professional then touched up and adjusted in PS-CS2, including the free Red-Paw Media filters. This software and it was prety fun and easy. A free demo is available on there website.

NYC from EWR
Newark Liberty Airport, New Jersy

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / Canon EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 300mm
f-18 / 1/200 sec. / 200 ISO

Shot as Large Jpeg and processed via PhotoShop Elements 2.0. Additional processing via PhotoShop CS2.

November 23, 2006

Tahoe
South Lake Tahoe, California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 17mm
f-7 / 1/100 sec. / 100 ISO

Shot raw and processed via Canon's DPP. I am getting better with this program and can now competently use all the sliders in the raw adjustment panel in harmony. The new DPP tutorials at photoworkshop.com helped as well as a year of practice. I am still weak on the RGB adjustment panel and need more experience with curves to really use this feature well.

Adjusted in PhotoShop CS2. This particular shot really benefited from the shadows/highlights tool to bring the people out of the shadows. I learned a lot from schmoelzel's tutorial on the POTN forum. You can find it here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=95468

November 12-18

Matterhorn
Switzerland

Leica M6 TTL / Leitz 50mm Summicron / Mason Telephoto Filter
f-4 / 1/160sec. / 50 ISO
Fujii Velvia

Film scan via Fujii scanner. Processed in photoshop CS2.

Luzern
Switzerland

Leica M6 TTL / Leitz 50mm Summicron
f-4 / 1/60sec. / 50 ISO
Fujii Velvia

Film scan via Fujii scanner. Processed in photoshop CS2.


No potos were taken this week, so I worked on a couple older photos.

November 11, 2006

Sunny
Las Vegas, Nevada

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 40mm
f-4 / 1/40 sec. / 400 ISO

Shot RAW and processed via DPP. Run through Portrait Professional then touched up and adjusted in PS-CS2. This was my first try with this software and it was prety fun and easy. A free demo is available on there website.

October 31, 2006

Sabrina with Candy
EOS Digital Rebel / EF 35mm 2.0
f-2.0 / 1/30 sec. / 800 ISO

Shot RAW and processed via DPP. Touched up and adjusted in PS-CS2

October 28, 2006

Fun at the Farm
Livermore, California

EOS Digital Rebel / Nikkor 50mm 1.4
f-1.4 / 1/800 sec. / 100 ISO

Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Additional work done in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

This is my first outing with the Nikon AIS 50mm 1.4 Nikkor lens. Wide open it has a very pleasing softness which is good for portraits. Bokeh seems a bit distracting, but most all the out of focus areas have been cropped out of this shot.

A major advantage of the EOS camera system is a relativly thin body capable of adapting lenses from other thicker bodied systems. (in the case of the EOS this is most others...) Inexpensive adapters are available to mount these lenses. There is a near complete loss of automation with these lenses but AV & M modes remain available. I have quite a few Nikon - Nikkor lenses and Pentax - Takumar lenses that see regular use on my EOS.

Also worth mentioning again, Canon's DPP has a new and very nice online tutorial. It is long overdue but since it is here now go check it out... http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/dpp2/index.html

October 15-21

Mei Mei
California

Photoshop Pencil Portrait

Original Image
9/17/05

EOS Digital Rebel / Super Takumar 50mm 1.4
f-2.0 / 1/50 sec. / 400 ISO

Playing around with a new hi-key pencil portrait technique.

Thanks to Brian Duckett's tutorial for getting me started....
http://www.duckettphoto.com/lessons/pencil/index.htm

I am happy with the results, but of course will improve with some practice.

October 12, 2006

Seoul, Korea at Dawn
South-Korea

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 40mm
f-4 / 1/15sec. / 200 ISO

3 photos Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. The 3 photos were stitched together with Canon's Photo Stitch software. Adobe Photoshop CS2 was used to sharpen and color correct the image. I used Captain David Raboin's advice on bringing out the best in a cityscape. I will post it below since it is a rather obscure link...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=75951&highlight=Aerial+Photography-+HAZE%21%21

Dave's Advice on Cityscapes:

My trick for cityscapes is to sharpen way way more than I would for a normal pic. Before I do anything to the photo I run it though unsharp mask two to four times. The first time I set the levels to amount 150, radius 1.5, threshold 1.0. Those numbers are huge, but it works. I then sharpen it again at amount 20, radius 50, threshold 0. After that I may sharpen it one more time depending on how the pic looks. It is an art. Experiment. If you screw up just hit the undue button.

After sharpening, I crank up the contrast. I am extreme with the contrast too. I'll set the slider anywhere from +20 to +40. It all depends on the photo. Play with it a bit.

The last step is to play with the colors and levels. Most the pics I take out the window have a strange color cast and the levels are all wrong. I've found that most of my pics need the midtones and shadows darkened and the highlights lightened. This is also an art and totally depends on the photo. One of the strange things I've found is that I have to add a lot of red in either the midtones or shadows. If you can't figure out why your pic doesn't work try adding red. Same goes for reducing green. Sometimes taking out a little green makes a huge difference. As for the highlights, they are different. I find they need blue added to make things look natural. A lot of times the highlights will have a slightly red or green cast that needs to be removed.

If the picture has a lot of trees or water, use the magic wand tool to select the trees or water and then correct those colors seperately. I've found tree need lots of green added. Water is a nightmare. Good luck with that.

After doing all this, I will try auto levels. If you did things right, when you hit the auto levels comand only slight changes will be made. I find the auto levels smooths out the rough edges and makes the pic look more natural. Why not just hit auto levels to start with? Most of my pics from the air are so screwed up that auto levels doesn't have a clue what to do to fix things. Auto levels really doesn't help until you have your photo fixed manually.

Here's a before and after so you can see the massive amount of editting that goes into my cityscapes.

Before: http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/43483440
After: http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/36933356

I forgot the most important part. You have to start with a fixable photo. Make sure the sun is front or side lighting the buildings. Also, haze is the killer. If it's hazy don't even bother getting out your camera. I get my best pics in the morning and evenings shortly after cold frontal passage.

Another trick is to use your sunvisor to block out glare. On the CRJ our sunvisor is detachable. I take it off the slider and hold it under the camera at the base of the window to shield any out any reflections. Before I figured out this trick I had a bunch of pics with reflections of approach plates or glare from the latches on my flight bag. The sunvisor trick made this Chicago photo possible. http://www.pbase.com/rbndave/image/42048657

Hope that helps.

Take your camera on every trip.

Dave

Come see my gallery at: http://www.pbase.com/skysaddle/profile

October 01, 2006

Hera
California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 50mm
f-2.5 / 1/50sec. / 200 ISO

Took some headshots of our friend Hera.

Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Additional work done in Adobe Photoshop CS2. Again I would like to thank the great techniques given by mizuno (Dan Cripps?) over at POTN forum
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=171753

September 27, 2006

Chicago
Illinois, USA

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 70-200mm @ 70mm
f-13 / 1/640 sec. / 400 ISO

2 photos Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Sticthed together with Canon's Photostitch Additional work done in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

September 17-23, 2006

No photos were taken this week, so I would like to share a collage of older photos. These were taken from 1998-2001 on and around the Beechcraft 1900D Airliner. The shots were taken with a Canon A50 & S100, early model point and shoot digicams.

Beech Days
1998-2001


Click Here

September 16, 2006

Chang Team
California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm @ 40mm
f-4 / 1/15sec. / 100 ISO

Took some headshots of Annie for her Commercial Real Estate website, ChangTeam.com
She also has a couple of articles being published soon in trade magazines and my photo will accompny them.

Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Additional work done in Adobe Photoshop CS2. I applied the great techniques given by mizuno (Dan Cripps?) over at POTN forum
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=171753

September 8, 2006

Nikon F2 SB

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 17-40mm
f-8 / 20 seconds / 100 ISO

This is a collage of 3 different photos. The camera was on a tripod due to the 20 seconds used for exposure and so I could overlay each shot in Photomatrix. I shot in a nearly dark room at night with only a little moonlight. To spot illuminate the Nikon F2SB I used a backlit i-paq PDA. This allowed me to cast light creativly, sort of painting with the soft glow from the PDA.

Shot RAW and converted via Canon DPP. Converted into a single image via Photomatrix. Tone mapped via Photomatrix, additional post processing via Photoshop CS2.

September 6, 2006

Omaha
Omaha, Nebraska

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 50mm
f-1.4 / 1/30sec. / 800 ISO

Shot RAW and converted with Canon DPP, additional post processing, Layers, Cloneing, dodging, burning, via Photoshop CS2.

August 13 - September 3

The camera stayed in the bag for a couple of weeks. I will share some photos that I had taken in the past but I am just getting around to processing...

El Paso, Texas

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF-S 18-55mm @ 55mm
f-9 / 1/160sec. / 100 ISO

Shot RAW and converted from a LDR to HDR via Photomatrix. Tone mapped via Photomatrix, additional post processing, Layer mask, dodging, burning, curves via Photoshop CS2.

St. Moritz
Switzerland

Leica M6 TTL / Leitz 50mm Summicron
f-4 / 1/160sec. / 50 ISO
Fujii Reala

Film scan via Microtek flatbed scanner. Processed in photoshop CS2.

August 09, 2006

A Ship in the Fog
Los Angeles, California

Canon EOS Digital Rebel / EF 70-200mm @ 200mm
f-10 / 1/1000 sec. / 400 ISO

Shot Raw and processed via Canon's DPP. Additional work, Cropping, adjustment layer, done in Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Less errors???

It appears the trouble I was having with the scripts has stopped being a problem with the MS-IE browser. Or at least not appearing nearly as often as it does with firefox. Hopefully this is something Blogger is working on, since I never got a response from them or a solution in the fix it forum.

I appreciate everyone who took time to look into it for me.

If anyone does figure out what is causing it, or better yet has a way for me to fix it, please let me know.