Fatdragon100

Editing Levels in Photoshop

2012-03-02T10:37:00.001-08:00

I have just put on a quick video on how to use the Levels tool in Photoshop.

Levelling is great for editing things like colour, shadow and highlights and it is done very quickly. Sometimes when I am editing I feel like I have overdone it when I compare it to the original, but then I sit back and think about how it would look if I hadn't seen the original and I always feel happy with the result.

If you have access to Photoshop, it's a great tool to use and experiment with as each picture is fun to edit and the boost colours etc :)

Here's some before and after shots:

HDR Photography

2012-02-26T17:07:00.002-08:00

I am just exporting a tutorial for HDR Photography.

If you are interested in doing this with the SX40, you will need to have the CHDK installed on your memory card in order to use RAW files. You can see how to do this Here, remember that this method requires a memory card that is 4GB or less in size.

Here is today's example of the HDR image I made for the tutorial:

AEB (Auto Exposure Bracketing)

2012-02-26T06:30:00.001-08:00

I know I mentioned this yesterday but I just want to run through Auto Exposure Bracketing pre-HDR (High Dynamic Range Photography).

When we move onto HDR things get quite complicated with the SX40 so I want to just run through the reasons for exposure bracketing first.

The idea of exposure bracketing is that you can guarantee that you get the right exposure for your image, especially if you don't have the time to keep reviewing back through your photos.

Exposure is essentially how bright your images are coming out. Over exposed images are often too bright and too much light is affecting the image. Vice Versa, under exposed images are too dark and not enough detail can be seen.

Imagine you are at an event, you have your images set up perfectly so you start snapping away. However, as the light changes and as you move indoors and outdoors, that lighting is going to change, and if you don't keep an eye on your settings, some of your pictures are going to come out too dark or too light because you haven't been paying attention to the light changing around you.

However at events, we don't have time to sit there reviewing every picture we take. The same with taking pictures of family gatherings or pets or when we are going around on a tour of a building, there's not always time to check our pictures came out OK. With bracketing, we can tell the camera to automatically take three pictures every time we take a shot. This means that, if our original settings come out badly, we have one picture that is brighter and one picture that is darker, and if we did have a moment where our original settings weren't right, likeliness is that one of the other pictures came out OK instead.

Obviously, you will need to take into consideration that you will now have 3x the amount of pictures to look through and also 3x less space on our memory card so really this isn't ideal to use every day, all the time. But it certainly helps when we are photographing something important.

So just to show you, these three pictures were taken with bracketing this morning...

Original:

Under Exposed:

Over Exposed:

So you can imagine, had the sun gone in, and I was still using these settings, the over exposed image would have come out bright enough and the original may have been a little bit too dark. The under exposed would have been way too dark but at least by have bracketing switched on, the over exposed image would have redeemed the bad settings on the original.

Frensham Ponds and Time Lapse!

2012-02-25T15:14:00.001-08:00

Hi All,

I took a trip to a place called Frensham Ponds which is in Farnham in Surrey. It's a really nice place to go and take photos as they have sail boats and little beaches and a few little walking paths to stroll along. So originally I was going to take some photos with bracketing as this is my next YouTube tutorial. However, as I sat there in the sun which haven't seen in a long while (not properly anyway), I decided to leave the camera running on a video with my 16GB card and did a time lapse by speeding up the footage in Window Movie Maker.

The results can be seen here:

Vid1

And here:

Vid2

I hope to do another one of these at a sunset if I can. The great thing is that you can just leave it running, no other efforts needed :) I had to cut the first video together as the vid cut out at around 17 mins. The video as a whole is around 35 mins long, compressed into about 34 seconds. It's cool to watch the clouds moving I think :)

So of course I also went to take some photos and got some pretty funky results! I accidentally stumbled across a couple more Bokeh rules/ideas for those who are interested:

1 - If you take something with Macro focus this often gives you a Bokeh effect so you don't always have to be far back if you are right up against your subject.

2 - Think about some kind of foreground Bokeh instead. You still need a big gap between you and your subject, but this time make sure there is something a lot closer to you than your subject. This will majorly blur in the foreground as the camera can't focus on it because it will be too close and it will look like a foreground Bokeh.

As an example, here are some foreground Bokeh style pics I took today:

And here's the Macro focus version of Bokeh:

So off of the subject of Bokeh before I bore everyone, here's some other pics I took on my jolly old walk through Frensham :)

Understanding Shutter Speed...

2012-02-21T15:38:00.000-08:00

So here's the next downloadable help-sheet. I hope it helps and don't be afraid to send your opinions this way whether they be good or bad ;)

There is a link to the file on my Deviant art Here

Advancing Bokeh.

2012-02-18T13:57:00.000-08:00

So I had a better breakthrough with Bokeh. It's still not perfect but is certainly better than I previously had.

Here are some rules to making bokeh:

1 - Use a low Aperture, as low as the camera will let you.

2 - In relation to number one, set your camera to aperture value as that will be the priority for the camera when choosing the other settings.

3 - Make sure the distance between you and your subject is a big one.

4 - Make sure the distance between your subject and the background is also very large.

5 - Make sure your zoom is as far as it can realistically go... the more zoom, the better the background blur.

6 - Make sure your subject is well lit.

7 - Make sure your background is also well lit and try to avoid backgrounds that have too many large objects as the smaller the objects, the easier they blur!

So with this in mind, I took the following pictures. However, I never was one to remember my own advice! The outside shot of the rabbit in night time wasn't well lit but I will show it as a demo anyway. I also managed to take all of my outdoor pics with my ISO on 3200 which was way too high, I just hadn't turned it back down. On top of this, I also forgot to change my White Balance from Tungsten to Daylight so the pictures are quite pale and blue. Apologies for that but hopefully you will get the idea anyway.

Not everyone will love that I call these pics Bokeh because the circular shapes aren't defined enough but this is the best I could get so hopefully it will help a lot of people when setting up a shot anyway!

Bird World

2012-02-11T15:24:00.000-08:00

I went to Bird World in Farnham today to see what pics I could get on the SX40. I quite possibly risked loosing a few toes it was so cold! I actually ended up putting a spare pair of gloves on my feet to try and keep my toes warmer inside my shoes... it didn't work however at least I was able to spend some time taking pictures outside of the house and it was a really nice trip.

I just wanted to post some pictures that I took at Bird World in case anyone would like to see them. I won't put all of them so that people don't have to sit through too much but I'll post the ones I was happiest with. I have posted the pictures to an album on the Facebook page if anyone wants to see them.

It's been a busy week this week and the weekends just go so fast I don't get a chance to see them! I will work on some videos tomorrow however I do have a possible Animation project which will take me away from YouTube until the end of February if it goes forward.

Anyway, here are the pics!

Reptiles in the Underwater World section:

Eagle peering out from one of the big cages:

Parrot Feathers:

Petting Zoo:

HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and Bracketing

2012-02-10T04:05:00.000-08:00

I haven't made a video on this yet but I have recently been perusing the wonderful world of HDR, that is High Dynamic Range photography and bracketing.

In short, HDR images are made up from three or more images taken at different exposures.

Have you ever wanted to take a picture of a perfect scene, but you find your foreground or background just don't come out how they seem to your eye? For example, a sunset where the foreground is perfect but the sky is washed out. Or a field of bright flowers and blue sky, the sky is vibrant but the flowers loose their charm?

The camera can only give you exposure for your image to a certain degree, it cannot give you the perfect exposure for both your foreground and your background. The exposure it uses will affect the whole image, so what suits the exposure for one element of your image may not be the best exposure for another element.

HDR is designed to let you edit all those different exposures together so that you have a final picture that includes all of these appealing aspects that you want to keep.

When you switch on bracketing, the camera gives you a range of different looks that you can play with in post production. It takes 3 or more images (depending on how many you tell it to do) at different exposures. This gives you each element of the image at different exposures. I will use some pictures I took on a Canon 60D this morning as an example.

Always shoot in RAW if you can as RAW allows you to manipulate an image much more without degrading the quality too much. ( I shot with RAW and Large JPEG switched on so that I could upload examples quickly)

So this is the HDR image I created from the bracketed images:

And here is the image with standard exposure:

So as you can see, it's very pale and whilst it looks nice and crisp, it leaves the sky quite washed out and I'm sure you can imagine this wasn't exactly what the eye could see otherwise the world would look pretty pale to us.

So the tree with the snow came out about right, but I had to sacrifice the blue of the sky and the suns highlights on the tree in order to capture the snow covered branches.

So I set the camera to do bracketing and it took one exposure that was too dark (-3) and one exposure that was too bright (+3). By taking these pictures, I am now in control of a range of exposures that will give me access to more colours and shadows as well as more highlights depending on the look I'd like to go for.

Here are the two bracketed images:

Underexposed (-3)

Overexposed (+3)

So whilst, in ordinary situations I wouldn't ever want the picture to be so dark or so light, by underexposing one image, I have obtained the blue of the sky and by overexposing the other, the highlights are much more pronounced (perhaps a little too bright).

So now that we have these images, we can use software to merge these together and pick out the aspects we like the most.

So lets just quickly look at the bracketed images together.

The other great thing about making HDR images, is that the software does a lot of the work for us. We just sit there while it processes the image.

As I said, I will make a video on how to create HDR images as I am new to this but it seems fairly easy to pick up.

If you want to create HDR images yourself here's some things to think about:

1 - Use a tripod, you will be taking 3 pictures (or more) in a row so you don't want the camera positioning to change.

2 - Pick a location where there's a nice range of colour, brightness and shadow so that you have more to work with.

3 - Have a look at your camera and its bracketing options. You can also do bracketing with focus but I will cover that at another time.

Whilst I advise using a tripod - I actually didn't because I really dislike using tripods just by personal preference. I made sure that I had a fast shutter speed and a low aperture and that I stayed VERY still during the picture taking. I also had it on multi shot so that I didn't have to press the shutter button more than once.

Anyway, here is the HDR image one more time and I will put another one that I did just in practice.

Happy snapping everyone :)

Watermarking

2012-02-06T14:21:00.000-08:00

I have just made a video on watermarking images in Photoshop.

This is my version of watermarking so not everyone will do it the same way. But I like to be able to choose where my watermark goes and how much it shows up in the image so I do my images individually whereas many people do there's in an automated batch.

Watermarking is great for getting your name associated with your images, as well as protecting them for those naughty people who think it's OK to claim them as their own! (Unfortunately it can happen!)

I watermark with an image because I like the look, most people just use text or a stylized text but everyone is different an it all depends on how you want your watermark to look.

The important thing is that your watermark, whilst being present in a way that deters people from using them without permission, your mark should also avoid distracting from the image as a whole because in the end, we share our images for people to appreciate. If your watermark is too heavy, it's like trying to appreciate an image that has been taken with a big smudge on the lens. You can't see it properly and therefore won't bother to look fully so keep your watermark light to avoid ruining your image.

Those are my thoughts on watermarking anyway. I hope it is of help to some people and I apologise if you don't have Photoshop and cannot replicate this technique!

Ciao for now!

Sharing what little Bokeh I did get...

2012-02-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

So with regards to the Bokeh post I made earlier, I thought I may as well share what I managed to do with Bokeh lights, even if I couldn't get the foreground and background working together.

I also had a play in Photoshop using a Bokeh style background with just another pic I took on the SX40... at least I can convince myself that I made Bokeh, even if it's not true haha!

This is the Photoshopped one :)

Bokeh

2012-02-05T11:47:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

I have decided to admit defeat with regards to Bokeh. I find that the Sx40 is too limited in terms of its focus and manual control and therefore I think it's best I move on with other videos for now. I have tried for many hours as well as using CHDK and just can't get enough manual control to force a Bokeh effect.

If anyone else knows how to do it on the Sx40, I'm all ears and if I figure it out/get some advice I will share it as soon as I know :)

Sorry folks.

Customizing your start-up image and video updates

2012-02-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

I'm just uploading a video about putting your own image on the camera start up screen. As I mention in the video, I'm sorry that I haven't made much but in all honesty I have been really busy and when I get home I'm just very very tired!

So I only made a quick video as it was a question asked and was quick to answer so I thought I may as well share the answer with everyone else :)

I am currently working on Bokeh. I do intend to do more videos on CHDK but I am trying to alternate between other videos and CHDK vids as I don't want to completely abandon those who haven't used CHDK or who don't want to use it. I also need more time with it myself otherwise the things I will be saying about CHDK won't be very well practised in practical situations!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new video when it processes. Its a nice personal touch to a camera everyone loves :)

Filter Kit

2012-02-01T04:08:00.001-08:00

So I saw this on Amazon. It seems like a pretty good deal but I haven't tried it so I'm not guaranteeing anything but check it out. Wish I had seen this earlier!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kiwifotos-6-Piece-Lens-Canon-PowerShot/dp/B0051GSTUQ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1328097883&sr=8-4

ISO Printable Help sheet Up...

2012-01-31T15:26:00.001-08:00

Here's the link to the newest Printable document running through ISO. I hope it helps people get their head around the basics of it!

ISO Helpsheet

CHDK

2012-01-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

So I am now uploading the Canon Hack Development Kit video.

It's important to check your camera firmware version before installing the hack as you want to make sure that the hack is the right one for your camera. I mention how to do this in the video.

The hack unlocks many MANY things including an override on shutter speed as well as shooting in RAW and a battery life indicator which is very handy!

There are so many things that I didn't cover the whole menu, I just did a demo on how to install it onto the camera. I will do a more in depth review of the hack kit when I have looked through the menu thoroughly.

Here are a couple of links relating to websites I mention in the video.

CardTricks - http://savedonthe.net/download/78/CardTricks-144-SFX.mht

Firmware Versions - http://mighty-hoernsche.de/

Card Tricks is a program you can download to PC that allows you to change your SD card to support the hack. The second link lets you download the hack once you have found out the firmware version of your camera.

Let me know how you get on with the CHDK. I think I have only just touched the surface of a very VERY deep pool!

Printable Documents

2012-01-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

Would this sort of thing help if I made some of these??

I made a demo printable tutorial but if it's too rambled/too difficult to understand or in general, just not of any interest to anyone, I won't make them.

Let me know thoughts :)

Cropped Version

Full Version

C1 and C2 Functions

2012-01-28T15:53:00.000-08:00

So the newest video is up about using the Custom settings C1 and C2.

This allows you to save certain settings to these options to have quick access to particular image set-up you enjoy using. The example I use is when taking pictures of the moon. You can pick your options such as your ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture, as well as telling the camera the amount of zoom you would like and whether you want to use options such as self timer.

You will see that, when using the camera in other options, if you are using an option like self timer, this will switch off once the camera has been turned off or when you change from one function to another. This will not reset if you save it as part of your custom setting. Perhaps you want to set your camera for light writing, which is often best done with a self timer if you are doing the light writing yourself. It would be handy to be able to just switch on C1 or C2 and have all of your set-up including the self timer there and ready to go.

That is why the Custom functions are so handy. You can tell it what to remember and it will go back to exactly the same settings.

Another example is if you are doing time lapse or stop motion animation. It's best to keep your options the same in case you need to go back to your project at a later date and you want the images to look consistent. By having your settings set to a custom function - your images wont suffer from changes such as differences in zoom because the custom function will take you back to the settings you used previously.

To set the custom functions to the buttons - set up the shot you like and then press the Menu button. In the first tab, choose the very last option which is "Save Settings" and choose whether you want to save it to C1 or C2. Then you can switch to that option and it will remain on those settings until you save over it again.

Good old London!

2012-01-26T15:32:00.000-08:00

Here's some pics I took on last Saturday in London. I did some long exposure shots in the evening on the fountains in Trafalgar Square which came out quite nicely so I was happy with those and just some more to look at :)

Bokeh and Upcoming Videos.

2012-01-25T06:19:00.000-08:00

Hello All!

I have been updating Facebook and completely abandoned my blog so apologies for that. A million portals to communicate through - shan't complain though, it's all good fun!

So... Last night I began work on Bokeh. I have had several people asking about how to do it on the SX40 and in all honesty, I have never done it on an SLR so the concept is completely new to me. Having said that, that may help a little as I can have a fresh perspective on the way to do Bokeh without prior confusion from doing it on an SLR. I dunno, but in the end, I've almost nailed it so hopefully I can get that on a video in the near future.

So here's the lineup for the next few videos:

1 - Av, Tv, C1 and C2 options (that will cover all of the top wheel settings)

2 - Bokeh
3 - CDHK (Give me some time to work on that one - I will prob do it on the weekend)

4 - Watermarking (My version of it anyway)

5 - Portraits (Once I can bribe a model of some sort)

Let me know if you think any of these are pointless or if you have any other suggestions for other videos.

I'll also try and upload some pictures I took in London last Saturday as I had a play with long exposure in Trafalgar Square which was great as they had the fountains lit up which gave it a nice colour.

Keep snapping!

Macro Photography

2012-01-20T17:18:00.000-08:00

Oki so on its slow and steady way comes the next video I made tonight. It covers macro photography which, once you start you wont be able to stop!!

It's great to be able to see the detail of items in your photos... the main challenge is getting close enough without casting a shadow over your items.

So the three main things to think about when using the Powershot SX40 for macro photography:

1 - Keep your lens fully retracted without using any zoom at all. The camera cannot do macro photography if the zoom is in use.

2 - Make sure that you have pressed the left button on the back wheel and selected Macro Focus (the flower icon) to enhance the cameras ability to focus on items close up.

3 - Try and get in a position where you and your camera don't cast a shadow or block the light.

If you can use manual settings, it will help you control your image more successfully if the lighting isn't ideal.

So here's a look at the sort of things macro photography can give us.

Lots of pics here :)

Using the Hotshoe

2012-01-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

So the next video on its way covers the process of attaching the camera strap which appears to be something that a lot of people can't get their head around (understandably :) ) and the revealing of the hot-shoe and its attachments.

The hot-shoe is great for attaching extras such as lights and flash guns which can enhance the picture taking/video making process and result. Light is often a problem and its wonderful to have the option of a hot-shoe to attach a little bit of help!

I don't go into too much detail with regards to the functions of the flash gun as it isn't something everyone will own so I don't want to bore those who may not be interested.

Stay tuned to the end of the video as I also cover a quick access to change the built in flash level which is also something others may not use/know about. To access this, press and hold down the flash button on the top left of the camera and flash options will come up on the screen.

Happy snapping all and don't forget to join the Facebook page (fatdragon100) if you fancy chatting with other photography/SX40 fans :D

Ciao for now!

Light Writing/Drawing! :)

2012-01-18T15:15:00.000-08:00

So my next tutorial is on its way and it's all about light writing and light drawing. It's a fun thing to do but I am no pro so here's a look at what I did tonight for the tutorial.

I'm sure that over time this gets easier and you get a better judgement of space and time but for me it's just a bit of fun. I have done this in the past, again just for fun but wanted to share with you how it's done. I hope you enjoy light writing if you haven't tried it before!

The Canon Powershot Sx40 HS only allows a 15sec shutter at the lowest so there is a time restriction. I am considering using the CHDK(Canon Hack Development Kit) in the future but wanted to demo this to those who may not use the software. The software will allow a longer shutter speed I believe.

Happy light writing!

Fat Dragon 100:

Flower:

Just dancing around the living room!:

Umbrella Man (haha!):

Man walking dog (haha!):

I know they're stupid but it's all good fun!

Facebook Page

2012-01-18T01:42:00.000-08:00

If anyone is interested in seeing the images from my videos - or any others, I have started a Facebook page which you can find by searching fatdragon100. It's there for people to chat/share photography and ask questions if you'd like to. Come along!

https://www.facebook.com/FatDragon100

Shortcut Button and Features

2012-01-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

So the newest video that's in the process of uploading is regarding the shortcut button on the Canon Powershot SX40 HS.

The shortcut button is very very handy for getting quick access to functions without having to go through the main menu. The features you can assign to the button are:

1 - I-Contrast - Allows the camera to apply better contrast on images to define shapes and shades.
2 - White Balance - Quick access to change the light colour of your image
3 - Custom White Balance - Allows you to tell the camera what white should look like in the light you are shooting in.
4 - My Colors - Colour effects such as Black and White or Sepia
5 - Drive Mode - Switch between single shot or multi shot
6 - Flash Exposure/Output - Control the strength of your flash
7 - Light Metering - Tell your camera where to take it's source of light from to avoid under/over exposure
8 - Aspect Ratio - Change the size of your images
9 - Servo AF (Auto Focus) - Keep your focus on a moving subject with the shutter half pressed. Good for photographing kids and animals.
10 - Powered IS (Image Stabilisation) - Helps when taking videos at full zoom to keep it stable. Not needed when using a tripod.
11 - AF (Auto Focus) Lock - Tell your camera where you want to focus rather than focusing on the whole image.
12 - AE (Auto Exposure) Lock - Like light metering, control where your camera is taking exposure from and allow the camera to choose the appropriate shooting settings for you.
13 - Digital Tele-Converter - Quick zoom that is more stable than using the digital zoom but not necessarily as effective.
14 - Display Off - Quick Access to turn your display off in case you're not using the camera for a few minutes.

So that's a brief overview of what you can assign to this button. Check out the pictures to see the sort of effects!

Light Metering:

Auto Focus (AF) Lock

Custom White Balance

My Colors

Hampton Court Panorama

2012-01-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

Panorama 2

This is a Panorama I took at Hampton Court Palace. Quickly put your mouse over the centre of the image before the spinning makes you sick!!

You can gradually move the mouse left and right to change the direction of the spin. You can also change the speed of the spin by moving it to the extreme right or left (although this is not a good look!)

I stitched and exported this file from software called ArcSoft Panorama Maker 6 which I used as a free trial. Pictures were taken on the Panorama mode on the Canon Powershot Sx40 HS.

The Powershot saved the pictures with a naming sequence so that the shots were easy to find and place in order.

Give it a go and let me know how that works out for you!