Work Shop Series... Creating Amazing Circles

Here is an interesting and easy technique I learned using Photoshop. I have no idea what practical purpose these have but they are fun to make and have interesting designs and shapes and no two are identical. I suppose one could use these for backgrounds. I use simple exercises like this to sharpen my Photoshop skills and sometimes come up with great ideas for future works. Start your project by opening Photoshop. Any of the newer versions should do. On the tool bar go to file and open your image to the desktop. Any image will do. Experiment with different types of pictures to see how many different types of designs you can achieve. Today I have chosen a flower image with vivid color and texture.

You now need to make a selection that is squared. Choose the crop tool and set your width and height to the same number. Five and five works fine here .

Now select the area you want and crop.

Now apply filter polar coordinates.

Be sure to check the polar to rectangle button.

Now you should have an interesting image, but it is not finished yet.

Now rotate the image 180 degrees and filter polar coordinates again only this time toggle the rectangular to polar button.

Now you have a way cool image.

You can use this image like this or elaborate on this with some of your own Photoshop techniques. You will be amazed at what your imagination can come up with. Here are a few examples of some images I have made.

Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival

To see our gallery of images from the Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival click on this link:
http://www.pbase.com/g_muth/celtic_game_faces

Celtic Festival

We went to the Celtic Festival in Olcott, NY on Saturday. Turned out to be a rainy day. Admission was $15 for 2 people. They did have a very organized program of events for the 2 day festival. We watched the Scottish Highland Games tournaments and didn't understand much but it was exciting. We watched Celtic dancers and listened to Scottish music. We even partook in some Scottish foods. All in all it was a very nice festival. Here are some shots from the day.

Just a few of my images from the zoo. The bottom three are from the new rain forest exhibit. All the images were made with a Nikon D3 and my favorite lens, 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8 Nikkor.

Self portrait? No, but there is some resemblance. My brother took me to the Buffalo Zoo today and we made a lot of great images. The Zoo has a new rain forest exhibit and they have remodeled and cleaned up the rest of it. The place looks great and if you get some free time stop by it's worth the trip. This image is actually a female gorilla. It is amazing to watch these animals. They act so human at times. Shot with Nikon D3, 70-200mm AF-S VR lens.

Lighting Lesson 01

Today is the first installment of my better lighting workshop to help you understand how light effects your pictures. I start with this example above. I took this dark corner to show you that without light you have no image. The first picture was actually totally black, no image. I then turn on the lamp and I get an image but in order to see the photo on the table I have to over expose the lamp light. This is not a pleasing photo. In the middle photo I add a flash to the camera and take another image. I get lucky on the first attempt because I don't get any reflection from the glass in the photo in the picture and it is lit fairly well, but I get very unlucky with harsh nasty shadows from the lamp and picture frame in the background. The photo is not satisfactory. In the last photo I add off camera lighting. One pointed to the ceiling to bring up the ambient light levels in the room without casting harsh shadows.. One with a snoot to highlight the picture frame. And one with a snoot to highlight the lamp. Both lights are to camera right and add just a hint of light to our scene to give our final image depth and dimension and still remain realistic and natural. Depending on your level of photography and how much effort and equipment you have will limit what you can and can not do. I just want you to see how light makes or breaks a good photograph and maybe it will inspire you to go out and apply better lighting techniques to make better images. Click on image above to enlarge. Stay tuned for more workshop tips.

We did some photography at Sal Maglie Stadium last weekend. Niagara Falls High School played the Frontier Falcons. The lighting wasn't good and it started to rain but I did manage a few images of the game. NFHS lost this opening season game to Frontier 28-7.

This image of Nathan was taken yesterday at the same time as the ones below. We see the same ole' baby images and same ole borders on lots on images out there . This is an attempt to leap outside the box ( maybe ). I think possibly this has merit if the hand prints were really Nathan's. Any opinions ?

More of Nathan

Here's Nathan! Little Nathan is now 6 months old and the cutest baby ever. We baby sat for him today and I snapped a couple pictures before he took his nap. I used two speedlights in our living room to light him and give his face some modeling and add depth to the background. Here are a few of my favorites. Click on image to enlarge.

Green heron

I shot this green heron in a creek bed in the southern tier. The high iso performance of my D3 came in handy because the creek was in deep shade and I didn't have a tripod with me. I loved how the colors of the trees reflected in the water. This heron was intensely fishing for minnows but he still kept an eye on me and didn't let me get too close.

Back to school special

Well summer is almost over and school is starting soon. Our September special will be $25 off on any children's portrait session in the month of September. Just mention the blog code: Twenty five dollar special... and your receive $25 off your child's portrait session. This special will also include seniors. All children up to 18 years of age. So don't delay. If you were procrastinating about getting your child's portrait done, now is the time. What are you waiting for? Call 283-0303 today.

Restoration part 2

This photo restoration is a snap shot from the earlier client. I used the same techniques as before but kept a square format cropping and then adjusted the mat sizes to get my 8x10 final image. The mats help me keep the image smaller and retain more resolution.

Instant Portraits

This is my daughter Christina. Today she got a new doo. Looks nice don't you think? I took this portrait of Christina in my livingroom using a portable studio set up. One Nikon speed light in 15x15" soft box as my main light. One Nikon speed light into an 42"umbrella -1 stop from behind the camera as a fill light. And one Nikon speed light with grid -2 stops on the background. Shot with Nikon D3 using 24-70mm lens @ 70mm. Exposure was iso 320, 125th sec @ f-6.3. It took approximately 20 minutes to set up, shoot and and break down this set up.

Restoration Project

Today I am restoring an image for our client of her Father taken in 1957. The original image is 3"x 3" and was a snap shot taken by her aunt. The image shows normal wear marks with some wrinkles and a few spots. It also has adhesive tape marks on the corners. Our client wishes we restore the image and make the final image 8x10 size. In order to do that I had to crop the image to 5:4 format. I don't think the image holds enough resolution to enlarge to 8x10 so I added a nice matted border. This allows me to keep the actual image size about 8x6 and with the mat the final output will be 8x10. The entire process has taken about one hour from start to finish and is shown above. Click on image to enlarge.

Announcement

Congratulations to Mary Helen Nixon & Dan Johnson on their engagement. They plan on a June 2009 wedding. We had a great time at a photo shoot at the falls yesterday. What a wonderful couple. We met them at the base of the bridge that goes to Goat Island and used the upper rapids for a background. We got a ton of pictures here are some of my favorites. I will be looking forward to shooting their wedding.

Lighting basics

Close up shot of this bumble bee created in my garden. The image has impact because of the great directional lighting used to light this scene. One speedlight on camera left as a main light and the sun from behind as a fill light. This combination gives my subject 3 dimension on a 2 dimensional plane. If you want your photographs to pop out with impact you need to use these types of techniques. Learn to use the light to your advantage to make your photographs look their best.

Amazing image quality

The Nikon D3 has a full frame sensor with great cropping ability without losing resolution. Here is an example. The top image is a raw image straight from the camera ( hand held without a tripod ) from the Joan Jett concert. The three bottom images are 100%crops from within the picture. I used a 70-200mm AF-S VR 2.8 lens with VR off . Click on image to enlarge.

A beautiful ceremony.

Congratulations to Lisa & Scott Dingwall. Married today at St. Mark's Lutheran Church on Oliver Street in North Tonawanda, NY. Here are a few of my favorites from the day. Click to enlarge on each image.

Outdoor Concert

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts performing in an outdoor concert at the Seneca Niagara Hotel and Casino on Friday night. It was a hot and steamy evening and the show was rocking.

Macro photography

Great photos are everywhere. You just need to learn to see them and then learn how to render them in photographs. I shot this bumble bee in our garden today. I loved the flowing lines of the cosmos leading right to the bee for a great composition. Close up images of bugs or flowers are always an interesting topic. Click on image to enlarge.

huh... Who knew?

Here is a two headed calf. I found this artifact at the Sanborn Farm Museum. The Farm Museum is on rte 31 in Sanborn, NY and has many artifacts from the farming industry housed in a barn that dates back to 1888. Admission in free but you need an appointment.

Nathan

We stopped by to check on my grandson Nathan and I snapped a few pictures of the happy baby. He is now 5 months old and cute as a button. I am looking forward to get him into the studio again soon.

Just Married

Congratulations to Terrell And Nina Dillard. They were married Saturday, August 9th, 2008 at Bethlehem Revival Temple in Niagara Falls with a reception afterwards at The Crown Plaza Hotel in downtown Niagara Falls.

Niagara's newest attraction

We took a break and went to the newest attraction in Niagara. It's called Niagara's Fury and is located at Table Rock by the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. Admission is $15 and it is really neat inside. You start out with a Disney type animated movie of how Niagara Falls was formed and then your moved into a room with water underneath you and a 360 degree surround screen. Then your introduced to all the elements, thunder, lightning, rain, mist and even snow. While a video of melting glaciers and then flying through the gorge and over Niagara as the floor bumps, sways and shakes gives the feel of actually flying. The picture above is a feeble attempt to show you rain and snow coming down inside the theater. Be prepared to get wet if you go.