2012 A Year in Review

For me 2012 was the best year I have had in a very long time. Although the year was full of ups and downs, the downs were not as low as they have been in the past and the ups were way higher. 2012 was a year where I learned to use rudder and sail to steer my course rather than just being blown around by the wind. Of course I mean that as a metaphor because I don't know how to sail. It's good to set goals for a year and then break those goals down into the months, weeks and days. I started by setting a 5 year goal and then worked out what I needed to do to get there. I firstly needed to find ways to cut my monthly expenses and I achieved that by trading in my truck for an economy car. This reduced my monthly car payments by $200 and also reduced my fuel expense by $80 per month. An added bonus of reducing my auto insurance of $30 per month was unexpected but greatly appreciated. So now I have reduced my monthly expenses by $310/month and I have a nice new car as well. I also decided to cut back on my cable bill by removing channels I don't need. Mind you I don't have time for TV anymore. It's amazing how much stress relief comes with freeing up all that extra cash. 

In Feb of 2012 I took the plunge deeper into photography by purchasing my first DSLR. Oh how I love photography. For years I felt something was missing in my life and I tried filling that hole with so many things but nothing worked. Nothing, until photography entered my world. I have an untold amount of gratitude to my wonderful friend +Karl Stevens  for recognizing my ability and doing what he could to nurture it. I have taken some photos in 2012 that I am very proud of. Proud mainly because this is my first real year as an amateur photographer and I am confident my work will get better still. I look at photography as an art form and create artistic photos. Using this method has opened my eyes to a new approach on life. Anyone can take a photo but to take a great photo requires planning and work. Same as life. Anyone can live a life but to have a great life it requires planning and work. The more you put into it the more you will get out of it. With photography, as in life, you can never stop learning. If you do, if you think you know it all, you will stop moving forward and eventually get left behind.

Veritas Vos Liberabit

 

 

 

  

  This photo was taken in March of 2012 and in my mind still rates as one of the best I have taken to date. It was a very cold night at -30C. Steam was rising from the river which made it very difficult to see. I had a rickety cheap tripod at this time and was fumbling on a steep river bank to set up my camera. I got lucky as much of the mist cleared and the bridge became visible. My viewfinder was fogged up from my breath so I took the shot mainly on what I thought I saw.

Amber Astotin

  
  As the year progressed I began experimenting with using photoshop. I had made many attempts and combining a photo with a texture layer but I had been very dissatisfied with the results. It wasn't till August when I managed to get a result that I was very happy with. I took a photo at Elk Island Park with +Karl Stevens of Lake Astotin at night. In the photo there was the glow of our home city in the distance. In processing the photo I added a texture layer of a marble floor tile that I had converted to black and white. The final result gave the photo the look of a forest fire in the distance. The night had dark clear skies and as a result the stars were visible over the glow of the distant city. 

 In 2012 +Karl Stevens and I also started a Google+ page dedicated to photographers living in and around the Edmonton area. We founded +Edmonton Photographers and began meeting a group of wonderful people. To this date we have held 6 photowalks and have met some very talented amateur  photographers and a few professionals. On one of those photowalks I managed to capture a set of photos that I stitched together to make a panorama. I then blended in a texture layer of fire. Creating an image that is one of my personal favorites. 

Painted With Fire

 The photowalks have given me to opportunity to make some new friends. +Sharon Morsink, +Justin Wondga, and +Stephen Paskaluk to name a few. In meeting these new friends I have had a chance to experiment with equipment that I don't own. Most significantly +Stephen Paskaluk let me borrow his speed light which gave me the opportunity to experiment with photographing smoke. In the span of a few nights I filled my memory card over 4 times. With so much experimenting I was able to develop a good process for photographing smoke and wrote up a tutorial about it. Tutorial

Spirit Wheel

 With so many images of smoke on my computer hard drive it didn't take me long to start experimenting with them. I discovered an interesting technique and began experimenting with it. The results were rather interesting and upon sharing the resulting image on social media sites I began getting questions as to how I was able to do that. Again I took the time to make up another tutorial. Tutorial







 2012 had definitely been a good year for me. Photography has taught me so much and it's not all about taking pictures. If you would like to make changes in your life to makes things better then here is my advice to you. Treat your life like a business manager would treat a business. Start off your year with a long term goal. Usually 5 years. Then break that goal down into significant achievements that you need to accomplish for each of the years. This basically takes your big goal and breaks it down into steps that you need to take to get there. Establish time lines and a budget. After each year it is important to do a review of that year. As I am doing now. By putting that into a document you can visually see the steps your are taking to achieve your goal. After your yearly recap you then need to sit down and establish your goals for the next year. If the previous year did not go as you planned you may have to make adjustments in the upcoming year. If you are finding that you are having difficulty meeting the financial requirements for your goals you need to do what any good business manager would do. Cut back on the non-essentials. This means taking control of your spending. What it comes down to is asking yourself this question all the time, "Is buying this going to help me achieve my goals?"  When you can do that and make the hard choices you will take control of your life and your future. 

Success = work 
Failure = lazy 

 I have lived most of my life being lazy and have finally learned what I need to do to succeed.  I haven't succeeded yet. I still have 4 years left on my plan but I know I am on the right path. I hope that by sharing this I can help you find your right path. 

Best of luck to everyone in 2013. Happy New Year!
 

Buffalo Trail - A HDR tutorial

Buffalo Trail

Lake Tawayik

In this post I am going to share my process for making the above image (Click on any image on this page to enlarge it).

In order to do that I first need to set the scene. The day was fairly overcast but there were many breaks in the clouds. There were spots of blue sky and there were spots of storm clouds. I really good mix in the sky. I was at work and when I looked outside I kept saying to myself that I hope this sky will hold till sunset. I find that sunsets have more impact when the clouds are scattered and broken up. The sun was supposed to set at 9:45 so I planned to be at the site for 8:30. I wanted to be at Elk Island Park over one hour early because I wasn't familiar with the area so I needed to have time to find a good spot. After parking the truck at 8:30 it took about 30 minutes to walk to the south east side of the lake. This gave me about 45 minutes to pick a good spot. This became rather difficult. Much of the brush was high. Too high even for my tripod. Getting close to the water was not possible. I wasn't able to walk into the marsh without having hip waders which I don't own. I managed to find a ridge that got me high enough to get the lake in with the sunset in the background (Lake Tawayik). After the sun went down I started walking back towards the truck. The walk consisted of walking on a trail in the marsh that was made by buffalo. Walking on that trail I noticed the sky change to a strong pink hue. I decided to find a spot to set up the tripod and take some more shots. Again I had to find a spot that was a bit higher up because there was tall grass along the trail. So now I will start getting into the details for shooting and processing Buffalo Trail.

DEW5571

The sky was still pretty amazing so I wanted to get as much sky in the shot as I could. I also wanted some foreground element and the nice reflections in the lake. DEW5571 shows you how I framed the shot. I am shooting with a Nikon d300 and a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 prime lens. My tripod is an Induro Adventure AKB2. I did not use any filters for this shot. I always shoot in raw. The camera settings are as follows:

Aperture Priority
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/8
Exposure compensation: -0.7
Bracketing: 9 @ 1/3

With the Nikon my metering is set to matrix metering and my point of focus is the red square in DEW5571. I chose this point of focus for a few reasons. Firstly, it was far enough away that everything would be in focus at f/8. Secondly it is basically the midtone as far as the lighting in the scene. I then press my menu button on my Nikon. Select Interval Timer Shooting. Select Now. Put in a second value. I have been using 15 sec. Then 001 x 9 = 0009. Select On. Then press OK. This will fire off the 9 shots for the bracketing. Keep in mind this is only for certain models of Nikon's and does not apply to all. Some models are only capable of 3 image bracketing. Check your camera manual. Not all cameras have the interval timer built in either and these two options are the big reasons I chose the camera I did.

Now back at home I copy my images from my memory card onto my computer hard drive. Some people like to use import software but I guess I am old fashioned and I just copy and paste them into a folder of that days date. Once all the images are on my hard drive I then use the import function in Lightroom. I then select the images I want to use and export them using export options that convert the raw files to tiff with no compression. Once exported the tiff files are automatically opened in Photoshop. This is a setting I have turned on in the export options of Lightroom. I then use Noise Ninja to denoise each of the 9 images. I save each of the files as tiff with no compression. I like to denoise early in the process because when using HDR software noise can be amplified by the software.

fig1.0

I then open up Photomatix. Select Load Bracketed Photos. When the dialog opens select the tiff files. After selecting the images you will then get this dialog box (fig 1.0).

fig 2.0

I don't use any of the reduce ghosting or noise here because I take my photos on a tripod. If you use handheld bracketing you may want to select the reduce ghosting. I pretty much leave these settings the same all the time and they are set as you see them in fig 1.0. Once you click OK the software will begin to process the images you have selected. This can take some time depending on your computer and the size of the images. Once it completes you will see an image on the screen that to me typically just doesn't look right.

fig 3.0

 Well that is because you are not done. At this point you need to select Tone Mapping. Once you do you will be faced with many more options. I will be honest when I first started messing with this software I was rather confused by all the sliders and pull down menus. After a ton of messing around much of it started to make sense and it became easier to process my HDR's. You will see your image on the main screen. You will have your settings adjustments on the left (fig 2.0) and you will see a histogram floating about somewhere (fig 3.0). The histogram can be moved around. I put mine in the lower left so it sits right under fig 2.0. I used to just close it because I didn't know what it was for. Believe me when I say it is actually really important. When the luminance tab is selected on the histogram it basically gives you a report of the exposure levels. If too much black graph is on the left side of the histogram your resulting image will be too dark or have too much black. If there is too much on the right side then your image will be over exposed or have too much white. So when you adjust your settings in fig 2.0 you need to pay attention to how making changes there changes your histogram. The settings in fig 2.0 can get pretty complex but I have my preferred settings that I like to use. I almost always use the tone mapping process. Method is usually set to details enhancer. I typically have my strength set to 80. I used to use 100 but have since brought it down. This is a preference as is with all settings. Play with it to find what you like and establish your own style. Color saturation will vary from image to image. My typical range is from 60-80. It really depends how much color I want in the resulting image. You can also do black and white HDR by setting this to 0. Luminosity is almost always set to 0 and microcontrast to 8. Farther down you will notice gamma and it is usually at 1.10.  I skipped over some of the settings that are showing in fig 2.0 because they are more complicated and I will explain them in more detail. In the tone settings tab if you click it you will find settings for white point and black point as well as gamma. I use white point and black point to adjust my histogram. If you decrease these settings you will see on your histogram that the amount of white or black will change. In the above example you will see that fig 3.0 has very little white which is represented in the graph by the right side. Before adjusting the white point to 2.0 there was even less. Adjusting the white point up will amplify areas that are more exposed. What I mean is that of the 9 images that I put in at the beginning certain images are more exposed. By adjusting the white point you make your resulting image have more or less of those images that are more exposed. Inversely by adjusting the black point you are bringing more of the under exposed images into your resulting image. Your best bet is to have very little white and very little black. Adjust your sliders to make this happen and keep and eye on the histogram. Also as you make adjustments you will see changes in the resulting image. For Buffalo Trail the settings you see in fig 2.0 were used. One thing to note is that the preview image that you see isn't exactly what your resulting image will be. If you mouse over the preview image you will notice your mouse pointer will generate a box around it. If you then click on the preview image you will get a loupe window that pops up and that is a more accurate view of what your final result will be. Once satisfied with your settings click on process in the lower left corner. It will take a bit to process your image. Once it is complete click on file and select save as. I save my image as a jpg at this point.

fig 4.0

fig 5.0

I then open up Photoshop. I select File - Open As Smart Object. Then select the jpg I saved from Photomatix. Once it opens I select Layer - Duplicate Layer. I then change the layer mode to multiply (fig 4.0). After doing so I then select Image - Adjustments - Shadows/Highlights and make the adjustments shown in fig 5.0. After clicking OK you will notice your image gets much darker. This is ok because we brighten it up in the next step using an adjustment layer. This is basically the point where creativity really takes over and you have to know what you are hoping to accomplish. Much of which I have shared to this point I have learned from others that have shared their secrets. Trey Ratcliff and Genia Larionova have shared much and if you are on Google+ I highly recommend following them.

fig 6.0

So now we brighten up our image that we just darkened. I know that doesn't seem to make sense but hopefully I can explain why. Click on Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Curves. When you do a new box will open up. It will look something like fig 6.0. The box will have a faint histogram in the background and a line running across it. You can click on the line and while holding down the mouse button you will actually create a curve. While doing this you will notice that your image will get lighter or darker. If you pull the line up and to the left it will get brighter. In fig 6.0 you can see the original straight line and the curve that I created. You can also see a dot on the curve and that is where I clicked on it with the mouse pointer. You can click on multiple areas on the line and adjust in various directions. This is totally preference and is most likely going to be different depending on the image. When adjusting the curve you may notice that there are certain areas of your image that benefit from brightening and some that don't. What you can do is adjust the curve to brighten the areas to a level that you want. Then you mask out the stuff that you don't want lightened using a layer mask. This was a bit confusing to me at first but after watching a few videos on Youtube it became rather easy. You can also create multiple curve layers each with different adjustments and layer mask them accordingly.

fig 7.0

The next step basically puts in some contrast. It is also a layer that usually requires a layer mask. Especially if there are a large amount of clouds in your image. I find that too much contrast in clouds makes them look fake or just not good at all. Select Layers - New Adjustment Layer - Levels and you will get a new adjustment box open up. Again you will see a graph. Under the graph there are 3 pointers. You can slide those pointers and in doing so you will change the contrast of your image. Fig 7.0 shows the adjustments I made for Buffalo Trail and if you look under the levels adjustment you will see the layers on the image. You can see on the levels 1 layer that there is a layer mask the is almost all black except for a small amount of white at the bottom. What this mask is doing is making it so that the bottom of the image has the contrast adjustments and the top doesn't.

From this point I will typically either add other layers or flatten the image.  Sometimes I add a layer to adjust Hue/Saturation or Exposure. I will most often add filters from Topaz Adjust. These are all preferences and I may at some point create a tutorial for those additional steps.

fig 8.0

fig 9.0

After all the layer work in Photoshop I will then save the image again and bring it back into Lightroom. At this point I will do my cropping. For this particular shot I had to straighten the horizon and I did a custom crop by changing the aspect to 2.39 to 1.  By clicking on the square in fig 8.0 you open the crop adjustments. Use Angle to straighten the horizon. To change the aspect to 2.39 to 1 you click on the down arrow beside Original. Then select Enter Custom and type the numbers in. The aspect is like a fake panorama and I learned about this from Scott Kelby by watching his show The Grid so I decided to try it out on this shot. Next to the crop tool is the spot removal tool. I used this quite a bit in this shot. I removed many birds, weeds, and various other things that I felt took away from the image. Try to get rid of stuff that takes your eyes away from the main focus of the image. There are other settings you can adjust in Lightroom and for most images I do. However, with this shot the majority of the work was done in Photoshop. I added some Clarity for this shot. It wasn't much. Mostly because I wanted the shot to be smooth and soft. Other work that I have done I have pushed the Clarity up much higher. Typically I will add contrast in the area of +25. I will usually add Blacks to +5. Again this is all preference and is going to vary depending on the photo you are processing.

fig 10.0

The last thing that I added was a vignette. This is a slight darkening of the outside edges and corners. I will add this to certain images in an effort to keep the viewers eyes towards the middle of the photo. I do this using the Effects section and you can see the settings I use in fig 10.0

That basically wraps it up for the process that I use. I did leave out some steps regarding Topaz Adjust and I left that out because it's pretty complicated to explain. If you have and use Topaz, I will usually add a color blast layer but I will reduce it's opacity to about 55%. I usually will add a mild details layer as well. The opacity of that layer will depend on the shot and for a shot like Buffalo Trail I will mask out the layer in spots were I want things to be smoother like the water.

If you are interested in a print of Buffalo Trail or just want to see some of my other work feel free to visit my website:  http://waddingtonphotography.smugmug.com/

Software Used:

Adobe Lightroom 3.0 - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html
Adobe Photoshop CS5 - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
Photomatix Pro 4.0.2 - http://www.hdrsoft.com/
Noise Ninja 2.3.6 - http://www.picturecode.com/
Topaz Adjust 5.0 - http://www.topazlabs.com/adjust/

If you have any questions regarding this process feel free to leave comments here or you can find me on Google+ as +David Waddington .

The Island

The Island

This was taken at Elk Island National Park in Alberta Canada shortly after sunset. This is Astotin Lake and the islands name is High Island. I had hoped to get here before the sun went down but the road was blocked for a considerable amount of time with large herds of buffalo. I took many photos of the buffalo as I drove by but sadly none of the photos turned out any good. I guess I need practice taking pictures and driving at the same time. It was really interesting seeing that many buffalo so close and I intend to go back really soon to photograph the buffalo again.

I find the island interesting because it almost looks like the bones of a fish. Elk Island National Park is a very interesting place and if you are ever in the area take the time to check it out. You can camp, picnic or even go canoeing on the many lakes in the area. The buffalo are protected so there is also many of them to see.

Chaos Surrounds You

Chaos Surrounds You

I am sure many of you have heard the saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Well the same principle can apply when you are surrounded by chaos. When everything around you seems to be going at a frantic pace, take a moment, take a deep breath, gather your thoughts and make something out of that chaos. Chaos is an opportunity for you to show yourself and/or others what you are made of. Some people need more order in life than others and that in it's own is a measure of who you are. Some people can see chaos and just let it be and others can't. Neither way is right or wrong. Others can see chaos and turn it into something beautiful. Just like there are artists, lawyers, doctors, teachers and all the other professions it is the same with chaos. People should learn to appreciate how others deal with it just as they appreciate others for what type of work they do.

This image is of stormclouds surrounding the moon. Due to the settings which I took the photos at the moon actually looks like the sun. I had to bring up the exposure in order to capture the amazing color that is in the sky surrounding the moon. This was processed with the intent of being artistic. It was an awesome site and the storm that followed was very intense. I am going to be investing in gear that will permit me to shoot in storms and other bad weather because it creates great opportunity to make some cool photos.

Don't know what chaos is? Check this out. Warning explicit lyrics.

Korn - Chaos Lives In Everything Featuring Skrillex 

 

Midas Touch

Midas Touch


This type of photo is quickly becoming my favorite to do. I love the color that the golden hour creates and I like it even more in the morning. It is going to be a difficult transition for me because I am not what you would call a morning person. My original intent was to photograph the sunrise on the other side of the lake. When I was driving on that side there was an amazing morning mist covering the lake. It looked awesome. However I could not find a spot to photograph it from as everything was private property. It got rather frustrating so I went back to the spot I was at last night were I took From the Reeds. By this time the sun had already come up and most of the mist on the lake was gone. If you look closely you can still see some.


Print available here:  http://smu.gs/Nfe569

 Dawn Breaks

This was taken a bit later. This is facing north as the sun was rising in the east.  The area where I was standing was very spongy. I wanted to try get closer to the lake but I was afraid I would lose a shoe. There was already someones thong and running shoe sucked into the spongy grass so I didn't feel like adding to the collection.

From the Reeds

It was looking to be a pretty dull sunset tonight. I decided to head out anyway and scout out a lake that was close to town and try find a good spot for the sunrise for Saturday morning. When I got out to the lake the sky was full of color as the sun had already gone down. I braved walking into the marsh to set up the tripod. I had to be quick because I was getting swarmed with mosquitoes. Those little suckers were starving. I was fresh meat and they hadn't eaten in days. I got the camera set up. Fired off 9 shots as I swatted mosquitoes off of me. Grabbed the camera and got out of there.

Canada Day Fireworks 2012

#1 Click Picture to see full screen

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Canda Day 2012 in Edmonton, AB. Here are several shots that I took of the fireworks that were shot off downtown by the high level bridge. I sat on a hill in Victoria Park with my friend Karl, his wife and daughter. There was a very large crowd this year and I don't think they were disappointed this time around. It was a pretty decent display with a wide array of colors and firework types. There was fuzzy streamers and winding snakes. Flashy sparklers and big poppers. We saw speeders and slow winders. Twisties and swirlies. 

There was white ones, blue ones and green. Bright red, yellow and varying ones in between. 


It was a good show and this was my first time photographing fireworks. It was really fun and I can't wait for my next chance to try. 


I made up those firework types just in case you were wondering. Dr. Suess seemed to possess my mind for a moment there. 




I hope you enjoy the photos and if you don't mind I would like some feedback on which one or ones you like the most. They are all numbered so if you state in the comments which photos you prefer it would be greatly appreciated.

Twin Forks

I was walking home on my way from photographing fireworks for the Canada Day celebration. All of a sudden the western sky was lit up so bright. A huge thunder storm was taking place. I set up the camera and tripod and decided to try and capture some lightning. It wasn't going so well. After all this was the first time I even attempted this. A man walked by and offered some advice. He asked if I managed to capture any yet and I said yes just a little one. He then said "You have to be fast". I chuckled in my head. I am not lightning fast. Anyways there was many a flash of lightning and each time I was too slow. It was getting a bit frustrating. Then all of a sudden the upper sky lit up. I pressed and held my remote release and then these two huge bolts forked out of the clouds. It was pretty awesome to see and even more awesome to see that I had captured it with my camera. Fireworks and lightning in the same day is pretty special. Then again it was a special day. Happy Birthday Canada. 

Fireworks pictures to follow.

Green Giant

I called up my friend +Karl Stevens to see if he wanted to go out and take some photos tonight. I mentioned to him that I wanted to try taking pictures indoors. He suggested we try out the pedways downtown. So we headed downtown and as it turns out I only ended up taking one shot indoors. I thought I was bored with taking shots that I had to take extra time processing the sky. Well, I was wrong. One can always choose to take the extra creative path and take it to an extra level. In this shot the sky is over processed. The skyscraper and other buildings were left out of that. One thing I noticed about taking photos of tall buildings is that it is extremely difficult to get the lines running straight. The left line of the small building on the right is perfectly vertical but as you can see the rest of the lines are not. I am sure this is a matter of positioning with the camera and I plan on exploring this aspect further. 


I hope you like it. Any and all comments are appreciated.

Goodbye Stormy

 

I managed to get this shot of some storm clouds rolling out as the sun was going down.  The clouds were moving east as the sun set in the west so they got to feel the warmth of the sun on their backside.

I've been doing some experimenting with clouds.  When I do my post processing I am trying to create depth in the clouds so you can get an idea of what is close and what is farther away.  I think I am getting better at it.