Online Student of Photography

Ethics in Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:23:00 +0000

In this assignment for PH134 Digital Image Illustration, we had to create a fraudulent image from four layers. I decided to make it look like Melody was one of a set of identical quadruplets having story time.

PH135 Photographic Design Journal Entry Week One

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Mon, 10 May 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Here is what I posted for the week one journal entry in PH135 Photographic Design.

I think that this class is just what I need right now. I need to be able to come up with creative ideas quickly and easily; to convey my ideas through my photos whether it be directly or indirectly through symbolism; and to view photographic problems like I do my programming problems, thoroughly and analytically, so that they can competently be solved. I am confident that my composition skills will improve in the process.

I am a little concerned about having this class in conjunction with ART1030 Survey of Modern and Contemporary Art. At this point, both classes seem like they will take an enormous amount of time to complete the weekly assignments. Only time will tell if it will truly be an issue.

I have never been able limit myself to the number of shots required for an assignment. I always intend to stick to the number of exposures needed. I am not snap happy like I was when I first received my camera. I pick and choose my shots, grabbing extras if the lighting is tricky, but I get caught up in the moment. Some of my best shots happen when I quit trying to do the assignment and just shoot.

Looking back on this week's shoot, I probably should have considered all of the elements of design. Line; shape and form; balance; proportion and size; as well as rhythm, repetition and pattern all seem to come naturally to me now but texture and color are two areas that I often neglect.

The only unexpected event was finding two condom wrappers and one condom just off the nature trail in the park I chose to visit. I could have just kept on walking but the scene triggered something in my brain. The phrase "man's encroachment on nature" came to mind and I was taking shots before I even knew it. Then I remembered this area a few hundred meters off the trail with a fenced in area overgrown with trees, bushes and other plant life. I made sure to stop there on my way out of the park and snapped a few different compositions that suggest "nature's encroachment on man". When I got home, I created a diptych of the two best images.

More Images From PH124 (#3)

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sun, 09 May 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Continuing the series...

Tuna Salad

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:46:00 +0000

I found the works of Kazimir Malevich to be a refreshing change from the politically entrenched works of the Dada and Surrealism movements. Therefore I chose to pattern my work off of some of his paintings. This digital painting is an exploration of the mimetic process in which I sought to unravel the threads of visual discourse by creating a conversation between color and shape. Further, it is an investigation of the feelings produced by the act of mark-making which delves into the connectedness of the real and the abstract. There exists a strange force that attempts to put forms into place -- reproducing the memes of past artistic eras. Surely you have felt it too but chaos permeates everything that the mind creates. In the synaptic realm, objects d'art are pure reproductions of the imaginations of the mind -- a mind that frees the chaos as an organism expels its own waste. In the physical realm, art objects are a pale representation of the vivid imagination.

Large detailed photos, small PDF

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 08 May 2010 06:31:00 +0000

Your instructor wants you to create a PDF of your contact sheets. She has provided detailed steps on how to set up the Print Module in Lightroom to get the images in a grid. She has also provided instructions on how to get those contact sheets into Adobe Acrobat Pro. When you are all done, your PDF file size is in the tens to hundreds of megabytes (or worse) and takes a long time to upload and/or download from the college web site. What she has not provided are the instructions on getting the highest image quality without a large file size!

What do you do?
A) Panic!
B) Call student support.
C) Upload it anyway.
D) Tweak a few settings and end up with a nice small PDF but highly detailed images.

When faced with this problem, I chose 'D'. I will show you how I do it but feel free to change anything to your own personal preferences once you know the secrets.

So you either have your images selected or in a collection and you are in the Print Module. You have already configured out you want the images to look in the exported JPEGs and have actually selected Print To: JPEG File. Set File Resolution to 240 ppi, Print Sharpening to Standard, JPEG Quality to 100. Click Print to File and follow the rest of the instructions provided (including creating and saving your PDF).

Now you will want to click on Document > Reduce File Size...

You should see a Reduce File Size window open. Select Acrobat 7.0 and later (this is a fairly safe setting but you can chose a later version if you know your instructor has it). Click the OK button.

The final step is to save the modified file under a new name.

Now compare your file sizes.

I started with a 2.09 MB JPEG and a 2.19 MB JPEG file. The resulting PDF was 4.16 MB. After reducing the file size, it is 353 KB. That's a savings of 3.82 MB! Just imagine the difference it will make when you have more than two contact sheets.

More Images From PH124 (#2)

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 08 May 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Continuing from the last post.

More Images From PH124

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Fri, 07 May 2010 01:00:00 +0000

More images from PH124 Digital Image Management.

PH124 Digital Image Management

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Thu, 06 May 2010 02:55:00 +0000

I really enjoyed PH124 Digital Image Management. The class left me with a more thorough workflow. I now use a layered or pyramid approach to rating, tagging and editing of images. This means that I apply a few tags and make initial rating changes. Then I incrementally adjust my filters to look at better quality images. I then go back and apply more tags and re-rate the images. Only to re-adjust the filters, etc, etc until I have the best images in front of me.

Here are some images that I submitted for critique during this class.

I will be posting more images from this class soon. I promise this time!

The Ethics of Digital Photography

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:58:00 +0000

This is my last post from last session's ENG1010 Composition and Language class. If you see any mistakes, be sure to point them out to me so that I can learn and correct them for future readers.

Ever since the advent of digital photography, people have been claiming that digital photographers should be bound by a tighter set of ethics than traditional film photographers. The reasoning behind the call for stricter guidelines is based simply on the media. The perception is that digital media allows for a wider variety of manipulations in much less time than film in the darkroom hence it should be controlled. Do the unique qualities of digital photography warrant a change in the rules? Should digital photographers be held to a more stringent set of ethics?

So what exactly are 'ethics'? Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines ethics as "the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation" ("ethic"). The ethics of photography are situational. The ethics are weighed against the context of the situation. Photojournalists should be held to the highest standards while artists should have little to no restrictions. Every other type of photographer falls somewhere in between.

The media are as different as their editing environments but the same ethical questions arise in both film and digital photography. Should photographs that are destined to be used for journalism, documentaries, or contests be modified? What types of changes should or should not be made? How much post-processing is too much? While it is often easier and less time consuming to edit digital images than it is to make film manipulations in the darkroom, the same
types of manipulations can be made to both media and therefore, the ethics of digital photography should be the same as those for film photography.

The ethics of digital photography begins at the camera. "The fundamental fact that we usually forget is that when we take a picture we do not make a perfectly object recording of reality. What we make is an interpretation of reality" (Lodriguss). Cameras capture a different version of reality than we see with the naked eye. Lenses introduce alterations: the perspective is shifted, objects can appear closer together or further apart, and other distortions can appear. Apertures introduce changes in focus: small apertures give larger areas of focus while larger apertures result in smaller depth of field. Shutter speed can freeze time or exaggerate how long an event lasted (Henshall). Film introduces grain and digital sensors introduce noise both of which limit the detail that can be made out in the final picture. All photographs are altered versions of reality as soon as they are taken, no matter how careful the photographer has been in capturing the image. The ethics of using a camera for its intended purpose, to capture a moment in time, has not being called into question so why should digital photography have this stigma about it?

A posed photograph is an altered version of reality before the shutter is ever activated. Does that mean that photographers, who position the subjects of their photos, are unethical? Perhaps or perhaps not, the ethics of staged photos depends entirely on the context in which they were taken. A staged photograph that is purportedly of a newsworthy event destined for the newspaper is unethical while one for a family portrait is not. The authenticity and ethics of Robert Capa's "Falling Soldier" (above) from 1936 is still being debated because it is unclear whether or not it was staged (Marsh).

Paul Burwell points out that, "Photo manipulation has been happening since the medium was invented in the 1800's. One of the most famous images of US President Lincoln is actually a composite of Lincoln's head pasted onto John Calhoun's body". Was this an ethical edit? That all depends on what purpose the photograph was intended to serve. Photographers who get images of someone as they are killed or right before have to be at the right place at the right (wrong) time or collaborate with the person or people responsible for the death. Eddie Adams took such a photo during

the Vietnam war when a Vietcong suspect was executed by a South Vietnamese police officer (above). The Vietcong suspect would not have been executed had Adams and the other journalists not been there. Farah Abdi Warsameh, an AP photographer, captured another similar situation in Somalia when a man who had committed adultery was stoned by a group of Islamist insurgents. Had Warsameh not been the adulterer would still have been stoned but he had to have collaborated with the insurgents. Were these photographs ethical? Yes and no. They both captured the reality of the moment while still being staged (O'Hagan).

It is generally accepted that basic changes for exposure and white balance can be made. Where does the line get drawn though? At what point is it enough? For photojournalists, forensic photographers, documentary photographers and anyone else required to express the truth, the editorial content must be preserved in order for it to be considered "fair and accurate reporting" (NPPA). This means that photos intended for these uses cannot be altered in a way that changes what is being represented. Nothing should be added or taken away from the photo. Cropping should be used sparingly, if at all, as it can alter the content.

Portrait photographers typically limit the scope of their edits. For the most part, people want to be portrayed truthfully. They do not mind having temporary blemishes removed; however, people want to keep their scars, birth marks, moles and yes, even wrinkles because they are a part of their persona. Would it be ethically wrong to remove those features? No, it is not a question of ethics but one of business, knowing what your clients will find acceptable. Now digitally compositing photographs to put people into compromising positions is another story altogether. That is bad business as well as bad ethics.

As Sandra Gavard points out, regardless of the media in which they are represented (magazines, TV, internet, etc), models are manipulated after a photo shoot, "picture editors and art directors casually manipulate skin tone, eradicate wrinkles and blemishes, change eye color, scrape off excesses fat, and erase even basically human characteristics such as pores or bags under the eyes. Today, after a photo shoot, fashion photographers often retire to their computers and rearrange their pictures. Faces can become wrinkle free, hair more lustrous, irises more brilliant, eye whites whiter. Eyes may move, ears may shrink, mouths may widen, and necks and legs may lengthen. Models might find that they have miraculously lost weight in various places... and gained it in others. Electronic surgery is far cheaper, quicker, and less painful than the real thing." These editors and directors see their work as art but the problem is that the public generally see it as reality. "Although the editors claim that there is a clear difference between a photograph and a photo-illustration, it is apparently still doubtful that the difference is that obvious for the lay public" (Gavard).

Photographers working in most of the other specialties usually have no qualms about altering the reality in their photographs. Their work is considered art and can safely exist outside of reality and ethics. Each photographer has their own set of rules that they follow. Scott Kelby, Photoshop guru and president of NAPP, will remove elements of a photo, duplicate elements of a photo but will not add anything to it. He has no qualms about changing the colors of elements in a photo to make it look better. He will take multiple photos of a scene exposing for foreground in one and sky in another so that they can be combined. He wants to make people "look as good in print ... as they do when I met them in person" even if that means using "each and every Photoshop retouching trick" (Kelby). Ansel Adams, a photographer renowned for his black and white landscape photography, was not opposed to removing things from his photos such as the clouds in Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941 or even the big white "LP" from Winter Sunrise, The Sierra Nevada From Lone Pine, California. Brower recalls the event, "I remember the print of Lone Pine on Adams's table. I have a vague recollection that the photographer was less than proud of having excised the "LP." My father recalls otherwise -- that Adams simply thought the town's initials messed up his picture and he wanted them out of there."

It does not matter if the pictures were captured on film, CompactFlash (CF), Secure Digital (SD) card or other digital capture device. It does not matter that it is quicker or easier to edit photographs digitally. What does matter is that each situation is bound by the intent and usage of the photograph being taken. An image for use in a newspaper story should convey the truth of the scene. A portrait destined for use in a biography should express how the subject looked when seen in person. A photograph of an animal in the wild that will appear in a nature documentary should show the reality of the situation being captured. Artists will be artists; they will do whatever it takes to show their own version of reality.

None of the situations change based on how the images are captured nor do they change based on whether the photographs are developed in a darkroom or on a computer. The unique qualities of digital photography do not warrant a change in the rules. Digital photographers should not be bound to a more restrictive set of ethics. The ethics and ethical situations are exactly the same for digital and film photography.

Works Cited

Brower, Kenneth. "Photography in the Age of Falsification." The Atlantic Online. The Atlantic Monthly Group, May 1998. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. <http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/98may/photo.htm>.

Burwell, Paul. "The Ethics of Digital Photo Manipulation." WildShots. WildShots, 12 Aug. 2009. Web. 20 Mar. 2010. <http://www.paulburwell.com/blog/2009/08/the-ethics-of-digital-photo-manipulation/>.

"ethics." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Online, 2010. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethics>.

Gavard, Sandra. "Maybe She's Born With It... Maybe It's Photoshop: Image Manipulation and the Simulation of Women." 100dr4. Sandra Gavard, 1997. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. <http://sandra.oundjian.com/content/levin.htm>.

Henshall, John. "Beware False Reality." Electronic Photo-Imaging at the EPIcenter. EPIcentre, 1998. Web. 22 Mar. 2010. <http://www.epi-centre.com/reports/9802bcs.html>.

Kelby, Scott. "My Photo Editing "Code of Ethics"." Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider. Kelby Media Group, 29 Oct 2007. Web. 21 Mar 2010. <http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2007/archives/693>.

Lodriguss, Jerry. "The Ethics of Digital Manipulation." Catching the Light. Jerry Lodriguss, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM>.

Marsh, Bill. "Faked Photographs: Look, and Then Look Again." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 30 Aug. 2009. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/weekinreview/23marsh.html?_r=1>.

NPPA Board of Directors. "Digital Manipulation Code of Ethics." National Press Photographers Association. NPPA, 1991. Web. 27 Mar. 2010. <http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/digitalethics.html>.

O'Hagan, Sean. "Viewer or Voyeur? The Morality of Reportage Photography." guardian.co.uk. Guardian News and Media Limited, 8 Mar. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2010. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/mar/08/world-press-photo-sean-ohagan>.

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Exposure

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:23:00 +0000

I'm still playing catch up. Here is another essay that I wrote for ENG1010 Composition and Language this last session. If you see any mistakes, be sure to point them out to me so that I can learn and correct them for future readers.

Knowing how to balance the three elements of exposure is one of the challenges that a new photographer has to overcome. The ISO number is a guide for how sensitive film or digital sensors is to light. The aperture is simply a means of controlling the amount of light coming in through the lens. The shutter speed is the length of time that the shutter is held open. By varying the ISO number, aperture and shutter speed, photographers can dial in the perfect exposure but each control has side effects to be aware of and use creatively. "The term "stop" in photography refers to a change in illumination, whether the shutter speed or the aperture is changed to achieve it" (London et al. 18).

ISO can vary from as low as 50 to well into the tens of thousands with today's high-end digital SLRs. "The higher the ISO number, the less light is required to produce an image" (London et al. 82). What London, Stone and Upton neglected to point out is that each increase in ISO is one stop faster; e.g. ISO 100 is one stop faster than ISO 200. Rowse says that "ISO 100 is generally accepted as 'normal'" but many digital cameras start out at ISO 200 ("ISO Settings in Digital Photography" 2).

The higher the ISO number, the grainier the images will appear when using film. ISO 800 film is the highest that does not suffer from unreasonable amounts of grain. When using digital, a higher ISO results in more noise in the digital image. As digital camera sensors improve, the maximum ISO number continues to increase. The latest offering from Nikon, the D3S, has a normal ISO range of 200 to 12800 but through digital processing, the ISO range can be extended by one stop at the low end to 100 and three stops at the high end to 102400 (Nikon Corp.).

Aperture, or f-stop, is a rating for the amount of light that the lens will allow in when the shutter is opened. Aperture is not a fixed size, it varies from lens to lens based on the focal length. Regardless of the focal length, the same f-stop will allow in an equal measure of light. "Stopping down" refers to decreasing the size of the aperture. Each stop down in size (up in number) lets in half as much light as the one before it so an f/8 allows twice as much light as an f/5.6 but half as much light as an f/11 (London et al. 24-25).

The aperture, at any given focal length, determines the size of the depth of field or the range where objects in the frame are in focus. Larger apertures result in shallower depths of field whereas smaller apertures result in deeper depths of field; e.g. a 50mm focal length lens at f/1.8 would have rather shallow depth of field while at f/22, the depth of field would extend to infinity.

"Adjusting the length of time the shutter remains open controls the amount of light that reaches the light-sensitive material, " according to London, Stone and Upton (18). Shutter speed is measured in seconds or fractions of a second. According to Rowse, each setting approximately doubles the shutter speed ("Introduction to Shutter Speed in Digital Photography" 1). Each decrease in shutter speed results in twice as much light hitting the film or sensor or one stop so decreasing from 1/15th to 1/30th gives an extra stop of light.

Shutter speed can be used both to show and freeze motion. Slow shutter speeds will show or even exaggerate movement. Fast shutter speeds will stop time for all eternity (or at least the lifecycle of the image). At a speed of 1/30th of a second, an image of a car driving down the road would be a streak with wheels. At 1/500th or faster an Indy car in motion will look like it is standing still.

The intended effect (grain/noise, motion, depth of field) steers the initial decision but adjustments in one value require an equal adjustments in the other two values. This knowledge is the key to the perfect exposure. Exposure is the result of ISO, aperture and shutter speed working together to control the amount of light that hits a piece of film or a digital sensor when a photograph is taken.

Works Cited

London, Barbara, Jim Stone and John Upton. Photography. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2008. Print.

Nikon Corporation. D3S | D3X - Exceptional Image Quality. Nikon Corp., n.d. Web. 17 Mar 2010. <http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/microsite/d3s_d3x/en/image_quality/>.

Rowse, Darren. "Introduction to Shutter Speed in Digital Photography." Digital Photography
School. Digital Photography School, n.d. Web. 15 Mar 2010. <http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed>.

---. "ISO Settings in Digital Photography." Digital Photography School. Digital Photography School, n.d. Web. 15 Mar 2010. <http://digital-photography-school.com/iso-settings>.

JPEG Versus Raw

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:24:00 +0000

I'm trying to play catch up. Here is something that I wrote for ENG1010 Composition and Language this last session. If you see any mistakes, be sure to point them out to me so that I can learn and correct them for future readers. By the way, I gave up on trying to get the MLA format citations to render properly in the browser.

All photographers will eventually reach the point where they ask whether to shoot in JPEG or Raw format. There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Every photographer will need to weigh the pros and cons for both file formats before coming to their own conclusion. The JPEG versus Raw debate is one that has been around for as long as digital SLRs and will probably continue for many years to come.

The JPEG file format was designed with image distribution in mind and it follows a well defined standard. The generated files store 24 bits per pixel. That translates into a capacity for storing 16 million (2^24 or 16,777,216) colors. The files store 8 bits per color channel and this equates to only 256 (2^8) brightness levels. To put it into photography terms, every bit of information in the image gives an extra stop of dynamic range. The maximum dynamic range could of JPEGs can be described as 8 stops.

There is no single Raw file format but each of the file formats was designed for image capture. Every camera vendor has their own proprietary file format for each camera that they make and each file format has a specific bit depth. The generated files store 36, 42, or 48 bits per pixel which means that they are capable of storing 68 billion (2^36 or 68,719,476,736), 4.3 trillion (2^42 or 4,398,046,511,104) or 281 trillion (2^48 or 281,474,976,710,656) colors. The files store 12, 14 or 16 bits per color channel which provides for 4,096 (2^12), 16,384 (2^14) or 65,536 (2^16) brightness levels. The maximum dynamic range of Raw files can be described as 12, 14 or 16 stops, as much as twice the dynamic range available in JPEG files!

When a camera produces a JPEG file, it does so from the raw sensor data but only after it has performed some post-processing on the image. Typically the camera will apply the selected white balance, adjust the contrast and color saturation, apply an unsharpen mask and the selected color space (typically sRGB or Adobe 1998). The final step prior to saving it on disk is to compress the image. JPEG compression is not lossless, data will be lost. Cameras usually store a small amount of metadata in the JPEG files such as the date and time the photo was taken but not what camera settings were used. The file size of JPEGs is much smaller than the Raw file of the same image from the same camera which also means that JPEG files do not take as long to save to disk.

When a camera produces a Raw file, it does no post-processing; it simply dumps the unmodified sensor data. The camera settings, such as aperture, exposure time, and focal length, along with a JPEG version of the image will be stored with the rest of the metadata in the final Raw file. The image files may or may not be compressed. All of the compressed Raw file formats use a lossless compression scheme so no data will be lost during the compression phase. Raw files are larger than JPEGs so they take longer to write to disk.

JPEG files are usable in virtually every image viewer and image manipulation software available. They can be used straight out of camera (sometimes abbreviated as OOC or SOOC), if desired, because the camera has already performed the post-processing. JPEGs can be further post-processed; however, there are limitations. The image is a subset of its original form so color space changes may not be as accurate as they are with Raw files. Over- and under-exposed images can only be repaired to a small degree. Also, any time that a JPEG is saved with compression, it will further degrade.

Raw files are only recognized by a small subset of the available image manipulation and viewing software so the files require conversion before they can be used. It is quite common for them to require changes to white balance, exposure, brightness and contrast. Color space changes are often able to be made flawlessly due to the sheer number of available colors in the images. Severely over- or under-exposed images can be restored with great success. The only limitations in the post-processing exist in the software used for the post-processing and the imagination of the person performing the edits.

Ultimately, the decision of which file format is best will depend upon the needs and wants of the individual photographer, but the decision must be based on many factors such as how the image will be distributed, what level of post-processing will be done and the final purpose of the image. Again, there is no right or wrong answer to this question and the decision will need to be made for every photo shoot.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Jim. "RAW vs JPEG: Is Shooting RAW Format for Me?." JMG Galleries. JMG Galleries, Web. 7 Mar 2010. <http://www.jmg-galleries.com/articles/raw_vs_jpeg_is_shooting_raw_right_for_me.html>.

Reichmann, Michael. "Understanding Raw Files." Luminous Landscape. Web. 7 Mar 2010. <http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/u-raw-files.shtml>.

Wordless Wednesday #9: Peaceful

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:04:00 +0000

OT - Irony

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:41:00 +0000

Geeks Are Sexy posted a page with an embedded YouTube video about Facebook Abuse.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that they have a Share on Facebook icon on the same page?

Organization on Disk and in Lightroom

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:13:00 +0000

I have been using Adobe Lightroom for a while now and really like it. When I import photos, I sort them on disk under My Pictures in a subdirectory named for the year and a subdirectory named for the date. In Lightroom they are sorted by year and date. So a photograph taken on November 13, 2009 would end up in My Pictures/2009/2009-11-13. That same photo in Lightroom can be found under Photos > 2009 > 2009-11-13. As time permits, I add keywords but I am really bad about not tagging them.

Lately, I have been grumbling quietly to myself about the directory structures that I am using. "What if I can't use Lightroom for some reason? How will I find a particular photo?" It is a very good question that has been troubling me because there have been a few times where I could not use Lightroom (all things that I broke).

Why did I use dates? I do not have a perfect memory. How am I supposed to remember that I took this awesome photo of my daughter on September 12, 2009?

Today, I received notification of a new blog post by Aaron over at Single-Serving Photo about Lightroom Organization in which he describes how he imports his photos to disk and Lightroom using categories, sub-categories and then dates.

Categories! Why didn't I think of that?!?? Thank you, Aaron!

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am taking PH124 Digital Image Management this session. Part of the assignments is to add keywords to all of my photos that I import during the class. At the end of the session, that action should be a habit. Thank you, Jaci!

I plan on transitioning all of my photos into directories named for their category. I will also start making use of Lightroom collections so that finding specific images will be that much quicker!

Winter Mid-Session

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:56:00 +0000

So the winter mid-session has begin. I am enrolled in PH124 Digital Image Management and ENG1010 Composition and Language.

In Digital Image Management I will not only be improving my Lightroom skills but also building a stock photo portfolio. It really sounds like it will be a fun class.

As for Composition and Language, what can I say? I know that it will be good for me but does anyone really enjoy taking their medicine?

I really hope that I can resume posting on a regular basis.

Is work getting in the way?

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:16:00 +0000

It is for me...

I have really been struggling with Principles of Digital Photography due to the hectic pace at work the last few weeks. It is not the actual course information that I am having problems with, simply having enough time (and daylight) to do the photography assignments.

I am trying to get my work schedule adjusted so that I have time during the day for photography but it's a little too late in the session. I am also trying to get some night shots (when the assignment allows for it).

How do you deal with issues like this?

Classes Resumed

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Classes resumed this past Monday and I am trying to keep up with work, school and home life. This session I am taking MTH100 Elementary Algebra and PH123 Principles of Digital Photography. I should not have any problems with algebra but the photography class is going to be a big time sink.

Here are some shots from my first photographic assignment: Landscape or Cityscape.

You can view the entire set of photos in the PH123 Principles of Digital Photography set.

Christmas Break

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:53:00 +0000

I should have posted this a few days ago.

The transitional math class that I was taking is over. (Don't ask, it's a long, boring story.) I got a 97.91% (kept making stupid mistakes or I would have done better).

When classes resume on January 11th, I will be taking MTH100 Elementary Algebra and PH123 Principles of Digital Photography in Winter Session I. Yep, you read that right. I will be taking a photography class. Finally.

Until then, remember to keep Christ in Christ-mas and have a Merry Christmas!

CSS 3D Meninas

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:40:00 +0000

Román Cortés has created a pseudo-3D/parallax version of Diego Velázquez' Las Meninas. A co-worker found it and shared the link with me.

CSS 3D Meninas

Google Wave Invites

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:44:00 +0000

If anyone wants one, I have 25 Google Wave invitations to hand out.

Inspired by Jeffrey Friedl

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:20:00 +0000

I have been following Jeffrey Friedl's work for years. I knew him first for his book, "Mastering Regular Expressions". Now I follow his blog to see his photos of Japan and get updates on his Lightroom plug-ins.

As I mentioned in my last post, I went for a walk today and took some photos along the way. I saw some trees and leaves that made me think of Jeffrey's recents posts. They are not as picturesque as Kyoto or Otsu but here they are.

Arigatō!

Inspired by Paul Butzi

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:03:00 +0000

I have been following Paul Butzi's blog, Musings on Photography for a while now. I went for a walk today and took some photos along the way. I saw some leaves that made me think of Paul.

Thank you!

Black Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:55:00 +0000

We went to Kohl's Black Friday sale in search for a new steam cleaner as our old one finally gave out on us. We arrived at 3:48 am. The doors opened at 4. By 4:10 I had found the steam cleaner, hauled it to the front and was waiting in line to check out. Meanwhile Mary had also been looking for it and happened upon this gorgeous black and green dress. She bought it for Melody so of course we had to have her try it on.

Be sure that you click the images to see them full-sized because it really makes a difference!

"A Scenic World" has no unread items.

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:40:00 +0000

"A Scenic World" has no unread items.

Sub-title: "The Zen of RSS Feeds"

A co-worker's initial thought when seeing this on my monitor was that someone was trying to make a statement. My reply was that it is very zen.

Week 6 Final Project and Artist's Statement

noreply@blogger.com (Mr. Muskrat) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Mom, I hope this blesses and inspires you to continue doing great things.
- Matt

What follows is my artist's statement and the final project.

My mother has been drawing for years. She creates images of people, trees, flowers, birds, etc but also deeply spiritual pieces that really speak to your soul if you are a Christian. A while back I prompted her to expand her horizons; I asked her to move past her monochromatic works done in pencil, charcoal and ink into color. Ever since I completed FND110 Drawing, where I worked entirely with pencil and charcoal, she has been asking me to draw something in color.

For this assignment, I wanted to create a work that would be pleasing to her as well as show some of what I have learned in this class: using variations in hue, saturation and value to imply depth and transparency as appropriate; and choosing a color scheme that results in a pleasant viewing experience through harmony of color while limiting vibration. I chose to work on a religious theme using easily recognizable symbols: a bible, an empty cross and a fiery dove in flight.

During the thumbnail phase, I created for designs that symbolized Christianity: "The Word of God," a bible illuminated from the top-right by divine light; "The Empty Cross," an empty cross, light from above, atop a small hill; "The Inspired Word of God," a bible inside a ray of light coming from a fiery dove at the top-right of the frame; and "The Holy Spirit Descends," a fiery dove flies down inside a shaft of light. This was my first real project using Adobe Photoshop for drawing. A better choice would have been to use Adobe Illustrator but I do know it as well as I do Photoshop and time was running out. I learned how to use the pen tool more effectively along the way. In the end, I surprised myself with what I was able to produce in such a limited amount of time.

While working up the color harmony studies, I started with what I felt was the strongest thumbnail: "The Inspired Work of God." I chose to study monochromatic, complementary, split complementary and analogous harmonies. Monochromatic is probably the hardest harmony to work with for a design such as this one because it just screams out for multiple colors. In the end, I went with a nice orange hue. In the complementary study, I wanted a color duo that would work well for the light as well as the surrounding areas. I decided upon yellow and blue which I think works out well. The split-complementary harmony was a little easier because I already knew that I wanted a nice shade of red for the fiery aura around the dove shape, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. I had already seen how well the blue and yellow combination worked in the complementary study so I went with red, yellow and a different hue of blue. When I got to the analogous harmony, I knew that I wanted to work with warm colors: reds, oranges, and yellows. I put the colors in place and it looked nice. Then I got to looking at it a little more. I felt that I could do better, so I went to work again using the same palette but altered the shades a bit.

For the final project, I decided to ignore the suggestion that the split-complementary harmony would work better and stayed with the warm colors of my second analogous study. The analogous harmony provided more freedom to choose hues that express a spiritual passion that simply was not present in the other color studies. I started with a brand new file that was quite a bit larger. I drew everything over resulting in much smoother rays of light. I added a glow effect to the fiery dove which introduced some new tints. I redesigned the bible as well and shifted the yellow light over top of it resulting in faux gilded edges. There is no noticable vibration but the light appears transparent.

The design is a complete success. The eye is immediately drawn to the dove and then it shoots down the shaft of light to the golden bible. The light and dark areas are balanced and the contrast is gradual. The dove and bible introduce a bit of variety. The composition and layout is extremely pleasing. I feel that I was able to accomplish the stated goals and more; I have attained unity... The viewer is left feeling that this piece is complete.

"The Inspired Word of God"