Black and White or Color?

Black and White or Color is a questions that photographers have to ask themselves about their photos. When film was used it was a no brainer you had to use what was in your camera, so the decision was made earlier when you loaded film in your camera. With digital you can make a choice in post processing. Many photographer shoot in color and convert to black and white with the computer though the digital cameras can shoot black and white. I am one who tends to convert to black and white with the computer because that way I can make the decision based off what I think looks best for the photo. Most of the photographs I take do not make great black and white photographs but there are some that the color was a so so photo but the black and white was far superior.

Why would one choose black and white? There are many reasons. One reason is that black and white enhance elements of the photograph that color does not. Another reason that the photographer may be trying to create a mood. Still another is trying to give the feeling of a by gone era. Still some photographers just love to work with black and white. There is right or wrong reason for deciding to work with black and white instead of color it is up to the choice of the photographer.

The photographs I am going to share are actually the same photograph only one is the black and white version and the other is color. I think that the black and white version is the better version of the two. I took this photo of the spider web along Boyson Trail early one foggy morning last week using my 100mm Macro lens. The settings for the camera were iso 100, f/11, 1/12sec. Yes, I have actually been carrying my tripod a mile down the trail so I could use it. This thing that caught my eye about this spider web was the shape, size and symmetry and then there was the lovely dew all over the web and near by branches.

Here is the color version of the spider web. It is a nice photograph but it I felt that the green was taking attention from the wonderful dew covered spider web and the drops on the branches.

Here is the black and white version. This one I feel is much better because the spider web is the center of the attention with the plants taking more of a back seat to the spider web.

There is nothing wrong with the color but in this case I feel that the black and white version is the better version because you see the spider web first and the black and white emphasize the lines of the web that are coated with the dew. While you do see the web in the color version I don't feel that the lines of the dew covered web are as strong while the plants are trying to capture your attention.

As to how I converted the photo from color to black and white I used Adobe Elements and clicked on the convert to black and white and then played with the different black and white settings until I was happy with it. I did do some editing to the contrast and brightness in both the color and black and white versions. I know that you can do this in Adobe Lightroom, I have done black and white conversions in Lightroom, and in Photoshop and probably in all photo editing software. I choose to use Elements because I am used to using it.

If you get a chance take time and have fun playing with black and white versions of some of your photos.

Robotics: taking sports pictures in low light

This past weekend was the kickoff for the FTC, FIRST Tech Challenge, 2012-2013 season. I was one of the photographers for FTC Iowa at the event.

This is a great program because it gets kids interested in Engineering, Computers, Math, Designing and Sciences through hands on experience. At the beginning of the season the game is revealed and the kids have to design and build a robot so they can compete against other teams at competitions. The FIRST organization has programs from elementary with Jr. Lego League through High School Robotics. It is also a great way for adults get to involved by helping with a team. You do not have to be an engineer or scientist only be willing to work with the kids. I am also photographer with our local high school teams. To learn more about FIRST you go to their website: FIRST Robotics. For the Iowa FTC you can go to: FTC Iowa. For more about my local high school teams: Linn Mar Robotics. Infomerical over now back to photography.

As a photographer of sports events you often have bad lighting and there is nothing you can do to improve it. If you are inside you usually have to adjust your white balance because of the color of the lights. The lighting may not be one type of lighting but several with areas that may be almost too bright. I have also often found that you often can not use flash or any other added lighting and if they do allow flash you are too far away for it to do any good. So the only thing you can do is to have a lens that can do well in low light and set your camera with a high iso and fast shutter. Even then you might still have problems with pictures being underexposed and lots of noise.

The photos I am going to share are three from this past Saturday. I really likes these because they show the kids intensity and expressions shortly after finding out what this season's game was, "Ring It Up". The kids in the photos are from my high school local teams.

The first photo is of three members of the team looking at the rings that are the playing piece of the game. The challenge of this photo was that the light in the room was very low and there was a light shining off a balcony that caused a bit of lens flare. The photo is a little noisy but still acceptable. I was using my Canon EF-S18-135mm lens. My settings for this photo were: iso 3200, f/3.5, 1/32sec. I wish that I could have used a lower iso, but this was the only way to get the photos.

The second photo is of the young man in the red shirt. He was at a different area of the field looking the rings and the holder there. I love the expression on his face. The photo is a little noisy and my camera almost wasn't fast enough to capture the shot before he moved. I do not ask the kids to be pose for me I work around them getting the shots as they are doing their thing. A challenge on this photo was not just the low lighting in the room but there was a bit of filtered light coming through the glass doors but the lighting that was filtering was not natural light but light from another room that had something else going on. The settings for this photo were: iso3200, f/3.5, 1/32sec.

My last photo is of one of the members measuring the plywood base that is in the center of the field. This area was better lit but as you can see from the shadows it was not centered on the field instead it was off to one side. The team was measuring all the different parts of the field so they when they build their own practice field they will know exactly how the official one was built. I love how intense the young man was he was oblivious to what was around him. My settings for this photo were iso 3200, f/4.0, 1/100sec

The biggest challenge was the lighting and not able to use a flash. I could have used a flash at a small part of this event but unfortunately my flash decided that this was the day to die. Even if I had been able to use a flash I still would have not have been able to at most of the event because of situation. The photos at the field would still had to be without a flash because of the situation. During the competitions I am not able to use a flash at all because it is distracting for the kids and officials during the matches.

Out early one morning

This past week it has been much nicer so I have been out more to taking photographs. I have been heading to near by park first thing in the morning sometimes before coffee. Usually this time of year the parks flower beds are over flowing with flowers but this year they are not doing as well because of the very hot and dry weather we have been having.

Here are some that I took Friday morning at Noelridge park using my Macro lens using natural light. The reason I chose these to share is that they are bright and cheerful to me.

Here is a Sunflower. I like the way the leaves are pointing both right and left and that there are still a few dew drop still on it. My settings for this photo were: iso 200, f/11, 1/80sec

Here is a bee on a Sunflower. My setting for this photo were: iso 400, f/11, 1/125sec

Here is a close up of the same bee. My setting for this photo were: iso 400, f/11, 1/64sec

Here is the center of a lily with an ant on the petal near the center. I just love the color of this photo. My settings for this photo were: iso 400, f/11, 1/50sec

Creating an HDR

I have in a previous post talked a bit about HDR photography, High Dynamic Range photography.  In this post I wanted to show the steps used to create the final photo.

These photos were taken recent at Nordic Fest in Decorah, IA.

HDR photos are composite photos. They are created from several photos that are the same except for the f stop. Ideally you try to have nothing change except for the aperture of the lens but if you are outside there might be small movement and the software can help merge things so you do not see "ghosts" created by this movement. There are times however you might want these "ghosts" for artistic reasons.

To compile the photos takes special software. The one I use is photomatrix and I have been happy with it. There are other programs and they are also very good.

I use 3 bracketed shots for my HDRs because this is what my camera has in its software for bracketing photos. There is software available that can do up to 10 bracketed photos and you can also do it manually as well.

The first photo taken for the HDR, this is according to the software in my camera is the one at the correct aperture.

The second photo is underexposed. I set my camera for 2 stops under the first shot.

The third shot is overexposed by 2 stops from the first shot.

After I have taken the photos I download them to my computer and then import them into photomatrix. I do not edit these at all before importing them. I wait until after I have created the composite photo. Once I import them into the program I then choose a style that I want to continue editing the image with. I have found that I tend to use the painterly setting the most and then adjust the image further as needed moving the adjustment slides till I like what I see. After I am done with the merging of the images I may then do further editing in photoshop elements if I feel the image needs cropping or any other edits.

Here is the HDR I created from the 3 photos above.

As you can clearly see the HDR has all the details from the 3 images creating an image that the camera is not able to take with one image and in this case there is more drama in the final photo because of having the full range of highlights and shadows and all the details that were captured in each image that others bracketed shots were not able to capture.

One photo different edits

This week has been busy and hot so I have been out to take photos mainly in the morning, before I have even had coffee. I decided look at what different forms of editing can do for a photo.

I took this wildflower this week at Lowe Park here in Marion. It is a pink cone flower that is fairly common. The setting for this photo was iso200, f/5.6, 1/100sec

This was the basic image.

I wasn't happy with this photo because the background had too many highlights.

I decided to try Gray scaling the background.

I still wasn't happy with this the background was still too distracting because of the highlights.

I had suggested to me try darkening the background.

This was better but I felt there was too much background so I cropped the photo.

This version of the flower I think is the best I can get this image. I also upped the color saturation a little bit as well. In this version the flower attracts your attention while the background is not totally nothing it does not distract.

How can I improve this photo. There is not much I can do to make this a really good photo but I did learn several things. I will make sure I have a cup of coffee before I head out so I will be a bit more awake.  I definitely will pay more attention to what the leaves in the background are doing in the light. I will set me camera to slightly underexpose the flower so I can do more in editing the photo. I probably would choose I more perfect flower.

Photo contests

It is that time of the year. The beginning of Photo Contest season. It seems to me that it starts in summer and goes through the end of the year. Many contests in the same area will stagger them so people can enter several of them using the same photos.

I do like to enter some contests for various reasons but the main ones being is seeing what other photographers are doing, seeing how well I am doing technically to other photographers and getting feedback from others. There is no guarantee to any photography contest because, as with all arts, the judging always is subjective. It can be technically perfect and lose out to one that is not as perfect but it really appeals to the judges. Often times the only feedback you get is looking at the other photographs but by seeing what was judged the best at the show can help you improve your photography or see what trends are popular, one show does not show a trend but several do.

Recently I have entered photographs into two contests, The Iowa State Fair Photography Salon and the Linn County Fair. I will not know if any of my photos were accepted for the State Photography Salon much less placed until late July, there was a limit of 4 photos. I am realistic enough not to expect any of my photos to be accepted into the salon.

The County Fair was this weekend and I did well. All ten of my photos were hung and 3 placed in their categories. I did noticed that in many of the categories that the very colorful, almost over saturated, photos did better that the ones that were less colorful. While one of my Black and Whites did well, for the most part B&Ws did not do well. I also noticed that while the county allowed any size photo up to 11X14 almost everything that placed was 11x14 or matted up to that size. I have noticed that in most contests the larger photos do better and many are now requiring the outer dimensions to be 11X14.

I placed first in Creative Enhanced. The photograph is an HDR of Mission Espada, this is in San Antonio, TX, that was printed on metallic paper. The metallic paper really made the photo pop. This one was the only one of my photos that had judges comments- "Excellent use of HDR, Choice of metallic paper really gives this piece and embossed feeling!"

I placed second in Nature. The photograph is of a Door County, WI Fish Boil. This photo has very little editing. Mainly just a little bit of cropping. This was also printed on metallic paper which made the flames look almost 3D. The reason I choose Nature as the category was that this was it fit best.

I also had another second place photo. This one was in the Still Life. It is a Black and White of Wild Rye. This was taken at Wickiup Hill. I choose this one as a Black and White because I liked how the Black and White brought out the  graceful lines of the plant where as the color was boring.

As you can see these are each a very different style from each other but each of them appealed to the judges in one way of another.

Renting Lenses- a great way to try out lenses

As a relatively new photographer, at least with a digital SLR, I do not have very many lenses for my camera. Choosing that next lenses can be a challenge because there are so many different lenses on the market and because good lenses are expensive you don't want to buy one that you will not use because it does not suit how you shoot.

Sometimes you know from what you like to shoot what lens you want/need. I knew that I needed a Macro lens because I love to shoot flowers and insects up close. I researched which lens would suit my needs and budget. The budget is always a factor because I know very few people who do not have to worry about the expense of lenses. This does not mean that cheaper is better, no often you have to seriously consider which level lens will meet your needs. Sometimes only the top level lenses will meet your needs and sometimes you can go a level below because you do not need everything on the top level lenses.

This was the case with my Macro lens. I knew that I needed a Macro lens because I loved shooting flowers and insects up close and this would take a macro lens. I choose a Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro instead of the L version of this lens. The reason is that while I would love to have image stabilizing on the lens most of my close up work is on a tripod and the non L lens was about half the cost of the L lens and is an excellent lens.

For my next lens I know that I want a telephoto zoom that is longer and sharper than my walk around lens. I have not been sure which lens would fit my needs. In order to make sure that I buy the lens that I will use I decided to rent lenses to try them out.

Another reason to rent lenses is when you need a specialty lens but will not use it enough to justify the cost of the lens. This can be very true with super telephoto lens.

There are several companies that rent lenses. I asked several photographers about renting lens and they said that both lens rentals and borrow lenses are good companies to work with, but that they liked Lens Rentals a little bit better because if you reserve a lens you are guaranteed the lens even if they have to buy one. I have used Lens Rentals and have been very pleased with them.

I was looking at the zoom starting at 70mm and zooming longer.

I was thinking that I might want a zoom that zoomed up to 300mm. I rented several 70-300mm lenses and discovered that I did not care for the lens.

I first rented the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS. I did not like this lens. It felt like it was jerky and the lens rotated to focus which meant that I could not use a circular polarizing filter. I like to use a circular polarizing filter outside especially on sunny days so not being able to use one would not suit me. I will admit that the lens was sharper that my regular and was not too heavy to use but still I could tell that if I bought this lens I would not be happy with it and probably would not use it often.

I rented next the Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6L IS. I didn't care for this lens either. It was smooth in using and I could use the same filters that were on my regular lens, but it was heavy and felt it had to big of a diameter for me to hold comfortably. I also found that if felt awkward on my camera to me. The images I took with this lens were sharper that the non L lens. I could tell that I could see owning at some point in the future a 300mm or longer telephoto lens to use on my tripod for some occasions but I will wait a while before I consider buying it.

I decided not to rent any other 70-300mm telephoto zooms. I could tell that this was a just a bit long for regular use for me. I try another lens of this length by borrowing it from a friend and still did not care for that lens.

I recently rented a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II. I loved this lens. On a recently trip to Wyoming this lens was often on my camera. It fit my hand well and while it was heavy I could still use it all day without a problem. It is a very versatile lens. I wish that I had a circular polarizing filter that fit it but it is a different size that my regular lens. I could easily see using it a lot. The big downside to this lens is the cost. I will also consider the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, the model just before this one, because it is an extremely sharp lens but it a little less expensive.

I am planning on renting wide angle lenses and other telephoto lenses.

I wish that I had a wide angle lenses with me on our trip to Wyoming but I know that this is a lenses that I probably will not ever own because I do not see using it enough to justify the costs.

I also plan to rent more telephoto lens so I can see which length that I feel comfortable working with enough to justify owning. I do want to do more astrophotography so a longer lens will be needed.

I think that renting lenses is a great way to try out lenses to see if the lenses will work with the way you shoot or if it is a lenses that you will not use enough to justify the cost of the lens. The cost to rent lenses has seemed reasonable to me, rental lengths range from a little as 4 days to as long as 90 days. You do have a choice with both of the companies, I have mentioned, of adding insurance or not. I added insurance when I knew that I was flying, even though I was carrying my photography equipment, I still wanted to peace of mind. I did not add the insurance on a road trip because I felt comfortable about keeping the lens safe.

Panoramas

Recently we went to  Western Wyoming for my nephew's graduation. We took this opportunity to also do a bit of sightseeing as well. On the way out we went through the Snowy Mountain area of the Medicine Bow Mountains and on the way home we went through Grand Tetons National Park, Yellowstone National Park and other parks.

The land is just beautiful and vast. It is just too much for a regular photograph, it needs panoramas to do it justice. To try to capture the vast beauty I took a series of photographs that I was able to stitch together with my software to form panoramas. I use several programs depending on what I am doing. I tend to use Adobe Photoshop Elements and the second most is Adobe Lightroom. I have found that these programs while similar do things differently so I use the one that will do what I want the easiest.

The downside to these stitched together panoramas can be very large file size. Sometimes the camera will see colors a bit differently in each image so you sometimes it is very noticeable where the different images were stitched together. This means that you either have to do a lot of work to correct this in the merged image of before you merge.

Here are some of the panorama that I took in Wyoming. All of these were taken with my 18-135mm lens because I have a polarizing filter for it.

This one is was take in the Snowy Mountain area of Medicine Bow it is comprised of 9 images. The settings were 400iso, f/8, 1/800sec

The next one was taken in Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming it is comprised of 5 images. It was hazy that day so the mountains are not sharp and crisp. The settings were 400iso, f/4.5, 1/4000sec

Panorama can be more than grand vistas such as mountains but also things like lakes, ponds even waterfalls. They can be horizontal or vertical. Both of these were taken at Yellowstone. The first one is one of the prismatic hot springs in the park this picture is comprised of 4 images. This is not the Grand Prismatic Spring but a small one that was near by.  The settings were 400iso, f/11, 1/200sec. Yes, the colors were this vibrant.

The next picture is a vertical picture of Kepler Cascade and is comprised of 4 images. The settings were 400iso, f/11, 1/800sec. I did take more photos to try to merge for this waterfall but they didn't line up nicely so I decided not to use them in the panorama.

Merged Panoramas are a lot of fun and a great way to get the pictures that are too large for a single shot with your camera. Sometimes though the camera will see each photo with a slightly different color. I had this happen. I was using a 70-200mm lens that I was renting and did not have a polarizing filter for it, while this can also happen with a polarizing filter. The setting were 400iso, f/11, 1/400sec. This was taken just outside Laramie, WY. It is comprised of 10 images and it needs a lot of work on blending the colors before I would be able to use for anything.

HDR

HDR, High Dynamic Range, is becoming a very popular technic of processing photographs. It is a process of allowing a greater dynamic range from the very light highlights to the very dark shadows. This is usually done by taking several shots at different f stops, this is called bracketing, then stacking them and adjusting the composite image with special software. The image resulting can look more like the eye sees to be something totally abstract or anything in between depending on the images and the photographer.

I have played with this technic a little bit with varying success. I think that my most successful HDR is of the inside of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio. The photograph was taken about 2pm on a very sunny day so the light coming through the stained glass windows washed out most of the colors. I still need to reedit this photo and add the window with all its colors back into it.

It is comprised of 3 sections, right middle and left each with 3 brackets so a total of 9 photos were used. The method I used in processing this photograph was to process each section as an HDR then merge them together. This allowed me to work on keeping the halos down around the windows. I think I did a pretty good job on managing the halos and keeping it natural looking.

When I tried merging the sections together and then merge the brackets together as an HDR I was not happy with the results. It did not look right to me.

That is the nice thing about computers. You can try working with the photos in different ways and if you are not happy you do not have to save it while keeping your original files safe.

Does HDR work for all images. No, it is just another tool in the photographers toolbox to use when needed. I have seen HDR photographs by other photographers and while some have been amazing others have been awful. It really depends on the image and the photographer if this technic adds or subtracts from the photograph.

I hope that by next week I will have edited the photos I took on a recent trip so I can share them.

Orchids

Reccently I went to a local greenhouse during the week and was able to take pictures of some of their flowers. I usually like to be able to move the flowers around a little so I can get the best angle for the picture but this time I was not allowed to touch at all. So I had to try to get a good angle.

This Orchid photo was one of several that I took. I like how one bloom was in focus with the others less so and the background as totally out of focus. It has to me a peaceful garden look. I had a couple of people suggest that I should have tried a vertical photo. Maybe next time.

The settings for this photo was iso 400, f/5.6. 1/400sec

This next photo is of a Dragon Orchid. I am not as happy with this photo because I could not get futher away from it or an angle that I was happy with. This was one if I could have turned the pot a bit I could have moved a bit and gotten a better photo. Sometimes this is how life goes.

The settings for the Dragon Orchid photo was iso 400, f/11. 1/160sec

Trying Fireworks

Recently we went to a Minor League Baseball game, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, and after the game they had fireworks. They have fireworks after games through out the season so I can go back and try fireworks again and again.

I took pictures of the games and fireworks but want to share the firework photographs. I was hand holding the camera for all of these shots. I will talk about how I could improve them after the photos.

Fireworks one. iso 800, f/3.5, 1/20sec

Fireworks two. iso 800, f/3.5 1/20sec

Fireworks three, iso 800, f/3.5, 1/10sec

All of these photos have the same problems.

1- I had my shutter speed too slow. I should have had it at 2-4 sec which means that I would have needed a tripod of someplace to set my camera.
2- too low of f stop. A higher f stop would have helped because I would not over expose the image with a slower shutter speed.
3- lower iso. This would have allowed for longer shutter, lower noise and better quality image.

If I had done these I would have had more colors and longer tails which would be more interesting to look at and come closer to what we see with our eyes.

In images one and two more in the foreground would have helped make a more interesting by giving more dimension to the images, where as image 3 had things in the background that added interest.

I will try again with fireworks and share my results. While I did not photograph the firework well I did learn what I did wrong so I can improve next time.

A Beginning

I am going to try blogging again. This time I am going to write about something I have fun with and want to improve my skill at- Photography.

I am not much or a portait photographer but I do love taking photos of architure, nature and things around me. I am getting more into Macro photography.

Not all my posts will have photos but at least one a week will be a photograph. My assignment for the year is to post a photograph a week. This does not mean that all the photos will be good. It does mean that for one reason or another this is a photograph that I want to share. It maybe that there were mistakes in the photo or I am trying a new technique or it is one I like or it could be that I think it is good.

I will appreciate all comments, others looking and commenting on my work as well as passing on tips and links will help me to improve as a photographer.

As to my camera. I am using a Canon T2i. It fits my hands well and was afforable and has been very dependable. I have had very good luck in the past with Canon cameras. I have an old Canon Powershot that I took on a trip and unfortunately it was dropped on to a tiled concret floor several times and continued to work for a few more years.

My lens are: a EF-S 18-135mm and Canon EF 100mm Macro. I am looking at other lens but right now I have to wait a bit before I can buy another lens. I occassionally rent lens to try out so I can decide which lenses I would like to buy and will post my results and my opinion of the lens.

I think that I have rambled enough. Welcome to this adventure of this dangerous combination: A Mom (me) and a Camera.