I am a very big fan of http://designm.ag and today Steven Snell did not disappoint!
He pulled together a list of 60 photoshop actions for photo touch-ups. Everything from Cross processing to color and skin corrections.
Even if your totally new to photoshop this is a very good place to start.
Hey there guys,
I know I am a little late but Happy New Year!
I wanted to go over a few things about the blog. We moved from blogger to wordpress and also changed the URL a little bit. I basically joined Hatphoto with Nomagicpill so that I can keep it on my own server and URL we there are no additional costs and also without having to suffer the crap with free services not being as flexible as I like it to be.
So http://hatphoto.nomagicpill.org is the new URL
Also Victor from the flickr forums will be joining the writing team. He has happily offered help out with his vast knowledge of photography. From Rob and The Lassie and myself we welcome you to the blog!
We also have finally set up a flickr group http://www.flickr.com/groups/hatphoto/ so please sign up and enter your photos in the pool. Soon we will be setting up competitions every month.
After that its going to be business as usual.
Enjoy!
Today on the BBC.co.uk I saw an ad that said “your pictures, your world. Send us your photos”
It caught my interest as I always look over the “your images” section in each region of the UK because it can give me some insperation.
The basic idea is that you just send in your pictures, you can match the monthly themes or just take pictures of current events.
No competition so you win nothing. But you can get bragging rights!
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7746570.stm
So now to the terms and conditions ON THAT PAGE!
Terms and conditions
If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC’s
Terms and Conditions.
In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide. This may include the transmission of the material by our overseas partners; these are all reputable foreign news broadcasters who are prohibited from altering the material in any way or making it available to other UK broadcasters or to the print media. (See the Terms and Conditions for the full terms of our rights.)
It’s important to note, however, that you still own the copyright to everything you contribute to BBC News and that if your image and/or video is accepted, we will endeavour to publish your name alongside it on the BBC News website. Please note that due to operational reasons this accreditation will probably not be possible with video. The BBC cannot guarantee that all pictures and/or video will be used and we reserve the right to edit your comments.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
You can choose any subject to photograph, but don’t forget to ask permission from parents or guardians if the subject is under 16.
These rules are governed by the laws of England and Wales.
Now although I hate the “In contributing to BBC News you agree to grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to publish and otherwise use the material in any way that we want, and in any media worldwide.” part, it still means you hold some rights to the image. Later they explain you still hold copywrite.
So we move on to the next part. “This may include the transmission of the material by our overseas partners; these are all reputable foreign news broadcasters who are prohibited from altering the material in any way or making it available to other UK broadcasters or to the print media. (See the Terms and Conditions for the full terms of our rights.)” Meaning that they wont change what you submit in any way and they wont give or sell to any other media group or publication but see T&C for full terms……………
Notice my long pause…. I read the FULL T&C link they provided!
Contributions to the BBC
6. By sharing any contribution (including any text, photographs, graphics, video or audio) with the BBC you agree to grant to the BBC, free of charge, permission to use the material in any way it wants (including modifying and adapting it for operational and editorial reasons) for BBC services in any media worldwide (including on the BBC’s site accessed by international users). In certain circumstance the BBC may also share your contribution with trusted third parties*.
That means they do in fact get to change your material… I mean cropping I get if the image does not fit but what is “editorial reasons”? Reading on again, “in certain circumstance the BBC may also share your contribution with trusted third parties” They just told us before that they wont share with third parties? But in the full terms they say with can if they want too…
I clicked the link to submit a photo and looked for the T&C agreement details… “By sending your content, you agree to our
Terms and Conditions” the link goes to www.bbc.co.uk/terms/ meaning they can do what they want except sell the images.
Your not agreeing to the bull in the first page but rather the more open terms I have an issue with…
BAD BBC! BAD!
Hey there, it’s been a while since I last posted so I am sorry for the delay.
In the effort to learn how to control light I thought I would start with the easiest: constant light source.
An example would lamps, torches and hell you could even use your monitor (but the monitor thing is another post).
I took a little trip to Ikea and bought the following items for my shoot:
I then put them together into the following setup
Using the table I attached the lamps and blanket to it to make a miniature studio. I then used a Canon 450D I had on loan from a friend to make some pretty cool product shots of the cameras I own.
After just before I packed up, it dawned on me that I could try something else. I turned the lamps so they pointed upward and then put a figurine in the middle… This created an excluding effect where only the figurine where in view and the background was not in view. Remember I did this in a dark room in the first place.
As you can see the effect is remarkable. Even the white table with the glare from the table looks like fog.
Cons
Pros
In conclusion I found this system very effective in lighting product and macro shots. But I still think that flash should be used for portrait photos using the correct setup.
I want to share a few tips for you to use when your out for a shoot.
Now if your going to your local store for a bag of crisps and you happen to have your camera with you then don’t worry about these tips. This is for only when you are going out for a photo walk or an actual shoot somewhere.
Then I hope that with these tips you don’t cut the head off a swan like I did.
Happy shooting 
In an effort to understand flash photography more I wanted to return to the basics with lighting and how it works in different situations.
So today I went out for my lunch brake and took some shots focusing on side light.
I set the camera to ISO 100 Shutter to about 120 and my Aperture to 3.5.
It was very badly overcast and getting solid contrasting shots of light and dark was going to be tricky.
What happens when it is overcast is the clouds diffuse the light and send it all over the place almost deleting the shadows of everything. Try it go out side in a overcast day and you will see that you have almost no shadow (or non at all). When there are little or no clouds the sun is like a spot light focusing light into one point or rather direction.
Then I came across a door at the Dom. It is 2 to 3 meters high and has made of some sort of metal. It is sculpted into several images of birds and angels. In the center there are 2 men facing each other and there expressions really speak for them selfs.
If I where to recreate this with flash it would be known as a side light. This is where the flash would be placed to one side of the subject and thus creating a stark contrast of light and dark.
I have only really seen this used in Portrait photos but I think that if it works for other things then go ahead and try it.
I wanted to try something new one night with the S5700 and use the inbuilt flash to take a interesting picture I had found.
My walk home from the train station takes me past a supermarket that was built there not too long ago. They kept a wall from the old building in order to protect the local residents from the cars and the people making noises with their karts. Well they left the doorway in the wall and it was just ripe for the picking.
I have a major issue with controlling light for pictures… Its one thing to accept what you are given in terms of daylight but a whole new ball game to control your own light using flash.
As I hunt for a solution I will share with you my findings and what I have learned.
Coming soon to Berlin is the festival of lights. Starting on the 14th of October and finishing on the 26th.
The Idea is that they use lights to color in the different landmarks and buildings. Also they use lights for more arty things like the picture with this post.
I just happen to work where they press center is for the FOL and they used overhead projectors to project moving lights onto these glass tiles. I’ll be honest it so impressively simple.
Anyways check out at http://www.festival-of-lights.de/
Hey there I am the Laddie all the way in Berlin. Just like Rob I too have a Fuji s5700 but recently I had a opportunity to use a Canon 450D with a Sigma 50mm 1.4 lens.
I wanted to make a little comparison between the cameras more to show my wife that I must have the canon but also to see for myself how well the Canon does.
S5700 -
Canon 450D -
S5700 -
Canon 450D -
S5700 -
Canon 450D -
Of course its not a fair test as the Canon pictures where taken at a better looking day and also I had the sigma lens… I could not possibly hope to get the same results with the S5700.
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