I was, however, encouraged by the responses, especially the explanations. It was evident that a lot of DSLR owners would keep their current lens, especially those with the Nikon 18-200mm VR. And while a zoom seemed like the obvious choice for all around use, nearly one third of those responding chose a fixed focal length lens (and half of those were a 50mm of one type or another). After scouring through the results I especially appreciated Chris’ answer, “My contact lenses; without them I can’t see anything…”

Here now are the numbers from a purely human count of the responses. If someone picked two lenses, I threw out the answer. If the answer was unclear, I threw it out. All in all there were 334 tallies for 82 different lenses. This is not a scientific poll, if that wasn’t stated clearly before.

The other 57 lenses with two or less votes are not shown here. All in all they garnered less than 22% of the total mentions and they covered most of the 35m DLSR lenses available. If you care to peruse the rest of the mentions, the original post is here. And before someone calls me on it, I grouped the Leica 50mm Noctiluxes for easy of posting. That’s one hefty price for a nice lens!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

The Lenses We Would Have If We Could Have No Other Lenses [POLL RESULTS]

In this article I’ll concentrate on just the what/how/where of keeping your camera shooting while in populated cities and towns.  I will write later about the unique aspect of filling your power needs while in more remote locations.

For those traveling to and through ‘modern civilization’, charging of batteries has various needs; camera, flash, portable storage drive, laptop to name a few.  Concentrating on mainly camera and flash batteries (typically AA) let’s take a look at some of the basics needed to keep the juice flowing.

Universal chargers

The first thing to check before packing is your charger.  Speaking specifically of camera battery chargers, these days most are universal, meaning they can take a wide variety of inputs and make it work.  The world over, there are a lot of different ways electricity gets delivered into homes and hotels.  For instance, in the USA power is delivered to standard wall outlets at 120 Volts (V) and 60 Hertz (Hz).  V and Hz are the two variables you will notice while traveling internationally that mean the most (besides adapters, covered next).  In the UK, power is delivered at 230V and 50Hz.

A universal charger will be able to handle a wide range of inputs.  For instance, the charger here on my desk for a Canon battery has an AC input range of 100-240V and 50/60Hz.  So it will work in both the USA and UK.  And for practically any other standard outlet in cities around the world for that matter.  Take a look at your charger; is it universal?  If you bought it in the last four years, chances are the answer is yes.  If it’s not, you’ll need to purchase a converter, which will convert the current from what’s coming out of the wall to the specific V and Hz your charger needs.  A convert, covered in a minute, is not to be confused with an adapter. 

If you’re looking for a good chart of different power outputs and wall plug configurations, take a look at ElectricalOutlet.org.

Adapters

Adapters are what make the physical plug ends of your charger work with the different holes in the wall.  And that’s all they do.  But it’s important because different countries have different configurations as you can see from the link above from ElectricalOutlet.org.  There are two basic types of adapters: 1) All in One and 2) Individual configurations.

All in One adapters tend to be bulkier than single adapters but they take the guess work out of what to pack if you’re heading to more than one country.  The Kensington model pictured right is a good example.  One end has a bunch of holes in it to accept the standard plug from your battery charger.  It doesn’t matter which country you come from, these adapters have the right set of holes.  On the other end is some form of plugs.  In this case, different plugs slide out depending on which country you are visiting.  Each slider is clearly labeled for the group of countries you’re visiting.  Pretty easy.  The down side tends to be the bulk of the unit.  I’ve found when using such an adapter that not all wall outlets are brand new (an understatement) and a loose outlet means this heavier adapter tends to fall out.

Individual configurations are lighter and simpler but have a number of parts.   Take a look at the picture (to the right) of the Sima SIP-3 Ultimate International Travel Adapter Plug Set.  Whew, the name obviously isn’t simpler. 

I own and have traveled with this adapter and it works well for me.  It comes in three parts and they all nest together.  The nice aspect of this type of set is I can take just one of the three if I’m only visiting ‘like plugged’ countries.  I like to pack light so for me this is a bonus. 

Converters

Converters will actually convert the power from a foreign outlet to the power you need.  For instance, you are traveling from the USA to Europe on vacation and your battery charger is not universal.  On the back it clearly states, “Input – 120V 60Hz”.  You need a converter that will take the 240V and 50Hz from standard European outlets and ’stop it down’ to 120V and 60Hz.  If you attempt to plug your charger into a standard European outlet using just an adapter and not the converter in this instance, bad things will happen.  Overheating batteries, fire, explosions and possibly the end of civilization.  So please make sure to use a convert if your battery charger doesn’t indicate it’s universal.

Power strip

Adding a power strip simplifies life.  With a power strip you will only need one of the items above instead of one for each gadget you need to charge.  Monster makes a great travel power strip (pictured right) because it is light and folds into itself.  Not only will a power strip let you charge your camera battery, laptop, iPod and cell phone all at the same time with just one outlet, you can earn extra credit in the airport if you’re not the one hogging the last outlet.  And if there are no free outlets available while you wait five ours on your layover, it’s very easy to pull out a power strip and ask if you can share an outlet.  I’ve honestly thought of carry spare power strips and selling them while on the road from all the positive comments I get when sharing space.  And they work even when you don’t know how to say, “Can we share this outlet?” in German.  Just hold up the power strip and point to the outlet with a smile and most sane people are happy to share. 

For travel in the modern world to populated cities and towns, the items above will help keep your batteries topped off and your camera alive.  In a future post I’ll explore some options for those heading out of town and possibly off the grid.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How To Keep Your Batteries Charged While Traveling – City Edition

For this month’s DPS Writer’s Critique, I thought I’d turn things around.  It has been suggested before that there should be the opportunity for blog readers to not only voice their critique of the monthly photos, but that they should also show the rest of us what they were thinking.  And that’s what we’re going to try this month!

With that concept in mind, here is one of my photos I am releasing under a Creative Commons license.  You are free to take it, play with it, adjust it and, generally speaking, improve it.  I’d highly suggest downloading the original CRW (RAW) file here for best results.

Take a stab at editing this photo and post your results in the comments section below.  My ego can take it.  Please also take a moment to explain what you did so others may learn from your critique.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

This Month’s Critique – You Make The Changes

Click on the site name to be taken directly to each RSS/Email feed.  Internet Explorer may not display some feeds well, but copying the link into your favorite feed reader works without a hitch.

WhyGo

WhyGo is a member of the BootsnAll Travel Network and, among other travel related information, dispenses a daily photo from reader submissions.  The submissions are hand picked and loaded monthly, making this a great site to submit to if you are so inclined.  The subject matter spans the globe and is not only a great photo inspiration site, but very addicting for those with wanderlust.

Gadling

Gadling is another excellent travel site dishing up daily stories and photos.  The photo feed is often taken from their Flickr pool where Flickr members are encouraged to submit their favorite travel photos.  The pool is large for Gadling to draw from and all posts include a bit of information about the location or photograph itself.

Steve Gallow – A Year In Photos

Steve’s blog chronicles the same journey most of us have embarked upon; learning more about photography through doing it.  Currently in the middle of a Photo365 Project, he shoots daily and shares a wealthy of information about the photos he posts.  Almost every post contains a “Lessons Learned” section which serves a good reminder of how the basics in photography need to be followed for great results.

Dawnstar Australis

 A mysterious site with a lot of macros and a penchant for zombies (although they don’t figure largely into the feed).  I found this site through a Twitter search for #photo365.  As mentioned in the original post, this is a great way to find others interested in keeping their photography mojo working.  A lot of the photos are macros with a variety of subject matter.

Prague Daily Photo

  If you don’t have the time to travel to the Czech Republic every day, this site is a must for those interested in a black and white approach to documenting a city.  Ranging from a single picture some of the time to multiple shots telling a story in pieces, I really enjoy the subject matter and variety presented daily.

 365 McArth

Vincent runs a well designed site with nothing except his Photo365 project.  His photos tend to be contrasty and vivid with a great use of the subject matter at hand.  This site is also a pleasure to page through for the history of his Project365 journey to date.  While based in Germany, he does travel which adds variety to this project.

Clueless In Boston

Jim has been at the POTD game for while now with archives dating back to 2007.  His site is clean and easy to navigate offering up sites from all around Boston.  He runs a Monochrome Monday feature and has a great eye for composition and subject matter, only using B&W techniques when it adds to the image quality.  I like the mix on his site.

A Photo A Day From Planet Earth

I got in touch with Rich from A Photo a Day From Planet Earth the old fashioned internet way; someone he knows knew someone who sent a link that eventually brought him to my site.  Then he found a link to my Photo Of The Day and sent me an email.  I really do like meeting strangers in cyberspace!  Rich’s site dates back to June of 2007 and contains a wide variety of travel and eclectic photos from all over the world.  You can also submit photos to the Flickr Pool for inclusinon on the site, just like Gadling.

If the city sites are your particular interest, then take a look at City Daily Photo.  While the site doesn’t have an RSS feed for all the sites it lists, it is a great jumping off point for finding other blogs about particular cities.  The rules are strict to help reduce clutter, requiring blogs to about one city only and and one post a day only. With over  1000 blogs listed and more being added every month, it’s a wonderful place to find your city fix.

NOTE: Some of the blogs listed contain other posts and in those cases I’ve liked to just the photo feed.  Please feel free to poke around as most have other useful content.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

7 More Daily Photo Blogs That Provide Inspiration

I’m good at messing up stuff.  I’ll admit it.  Take for instance the photo above.  It is the final shot I took of many while in the Kazumura Cave on the Big Island of Hawaii.  And it still needs help.  In a recent post here on DPS entitled 14 Tips For Cave Photography, I explained some of the things I learned from a first time attempt at underground photography.  In this post I’d like to humbly share my mistakes while researching the topic in hopes that it’ll speed up your learning process.  My basic idea was to use the flash off camera and fire it multiple times using the pilot button.  In this sense I hoped to gain a more even lighting.  Let’s take a look at some of the shots that lead up to the final shot. (All photos are 30 second exposures)

This is the first attempt.  I tried having my guide, Jeffery, highlight the tube to the right and attempted to light paint while using the flash.  Sometimes I turned around and you can see my light trails.  All in all, chaos.  I realized I needed to be more methodical.  And I needed something in the picture to give it perspective.

I now have Jeffery in the photo but still chaos.  You can see my silhouette created when I fired the flash directly in front of me.  Bad idea.  I should be firing the flash where I’d cause little to no silhouette.  Jeffery is still light painting and it’s not working.  Plus he was moving. You can still see light trails from my headlamp when I turned around too much.  Hmmm…..things have to improve.  I know, I’ll turn off my headlamp (and luckily not fall!)

Ok, things are settling down a bit.  I had Jeffery remain still.  He’s also pointing his flashlight into the right tube so we can see the beam of light.  Cool.  I still see my silhouette.  Bad.  But with my headlamp off there is less color difference.  I also realize I’m missing  some areas of the ceiling with my flash. And there’s a burst on the right caused when I aimed the flash at the camera accidentally.  Don’t point the flash at the camera.

I tried switching angles on this one but it didn’t help.  Jeffery is covering the most interesting feature and you can’t see his light.  And look at all those silhouettes!  Actually, they are kinda cool in a spooky way.  But not desired in this case.  I got a more even coverage with the flash but I left my headlamp on accidentally (the streaks on the upper left and the color cast on the ground).  Alright, let’s move back to the original position.

This one looks like a test.  Can you spot the multiple things wrong?  Yikes!  And Jeffery is being so patient and such a great model.  Let’s try something new.

Thinking about it, I really liked the single light beam from the flashlight.  But I still wanted to see Jeffery.  What about one single flash on him alone?    DOH!  Big mistake.  It left a perfect silhouette of the flash including a trail left by the pilot light.  I should have held it back a little.  While interesting, I still wanted the entire cave lit up.

And now the ‘final’ shot.  It still needs help (like my one, spooky silhouette on the left side there), but the lessons learned from the previous shot were applied:

1. Don’t point the flash directly in front of you causing a silhouette
2. Don’t point the flash at the camera
3. If possible, go without a light source for yourself.  It will cause hot spots or possible color difference like it did for me.
4. Do put a subject in the photo.
5. But don’t let them move. :)
6. Cover the pilot or recycle light on the flash so it doesn’t show as a dot in the photo.
7. Be methodical with light coverage.  I only gave myself 30 seconds, but with more time I could be more complete.
8. Have fun and experiment!!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How I Shot It – Kazumura Cave

Creative Commons Copyright Steven Wong

It’s time to open up your favorite photo gear catalog and pick a page!  My question to you is this: If you could only have one lens for the rest of your days, what would it be and why?

The reason I ask is because the bittersweet decision says a lot about a photographer and their style.  When I’ve asked other photographers it’s helped me to understand more about them and the art of photography.  For instance, those that want a simple 50mm lens tended to be more practical and versatile in their approach.  While others hooked on wildlife photography long for a coveted 600mm unit of the finest quality.  Other’s still insist on a wide angle zoom or telephoto zoom.  I’ve also found that it forced those I asked into truthfully evaluating what was important to them.  What type of photography was paramount in their mind if they were faced with such a choice.

Sure, it’s hypothetical.  But exercises like this, I feel, help stop my quest for the next-best-thing and really simplify.  What is the minimum I need to enjoy photography.  The rules are simple for this mental drill.

1. Price is no object.  The sky’s the limit and this includes telescopes on the top of Mauna Kea. :)  It can also be a lens you already own.
2. Please specify a particular lens.  Yes, I know there will be new lenses in the future, but let’s just deal with what’s available today.
3. Most importantly, let us know why you chose the lens you did.

For me, it’d be a Canon 28-300mm L.  I already own this lens and it has been a super lens to use while traveling.  While I can nit-pick about what needs improving, all in all, it has been a solid performer once I’ve learned its limits.  And I admittedly love zoom lenses when I don’t have space to pack multiple prime lenses.

Your turn!  Use the comments below to let us know which lens you’d pick and why.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

If You Could Only Have One Lens, What Would It Be?

Copyright Hidden Creek Photography

Hawai’i’s Big Island is rife with photography opportunities, including those below the surface.  I recently was a guest on an underground tour of the Kazumura Cave, the world’s longest lava tube with a length over 40 miles.  While I didn’t explore the whole length (only a small fraction) this was my second time in a lava tube and first time with my DSLR.  My guide Jeffery from Kilauea Caverns Of Fire was gracious enough to let me spend some time experimenting with shooting in the cave.  Along with online research, it was tremendous learning experience for me and I’d like to pass on what I’ve learnt.  Let’s start with some basics.

Protect Your Gear

One of the most important aspects of cave photography is rock surrounds you, obviously.  Cameras, I’ve found, don’t like to come in contact with rocks in a harsh way.  It’s important while you’re exploring a cave to keep your camera well covered.  You’ll be in an unfamiliar territory and walking on uneven surfaces, often on all fours depending on the cave system.  A camera pouch or backpack is a good idea to keep your camera safe while exploring.

Also caves tend to be wet with moisture falling from the ceiling.  As well as packing away your camera while moving about, bring a hand towel or cloth to wipe down your camera.  It can also be draped over the camera while shooting to help further protect it.  Often the water dripping from above will be carrying a number of minerals which are best cleaned off sooner than later.

Bring A Tripod

Copyright Hidden Creek Photography

Because I was traveling to this location lightly, I didn’t bring a tripod.  Bad idea.  This made shooting more difficult than with a tripod.  Bring a tripod if you can.  Some caves explored by commercial companies don’t allow use of tripods so check before you go.

Use A Remote Shutter Release Or Self-Timer Function

Camera shake can ruin a picture that takes time to produce.  There are two ways around this: Use a remote shutter release cable or your camera’s self-timer.  If you anticipate wanting to hold the shutter open more than your camera’s slowest speed (often 30 seconds) you’ll need a cable to decrease shake.  Otherwise, using the self-timer function works great.

Use An Off-Camera Flash

If you can procure an off-camera flash, bring it.  Pictures shot with the on-camera flash tend to be flat and two dimensional.  With an off-camera flash you can introduce more shadow, giving depth to images.  More than one flash can be used at a time to light up the cave.

Wear A Headlamp

When caving you’ll always want two light sources with you.  Make your primary light a headlamp.  This will leave your hands free to setup the tripod and frame the shot.  An LED headlamp works best because the light temperature is closest to your flash, but that really doesn’t matter because you’ll….

Set Your White Balance To Flash

Before heading underground set your white balance to the flash setting if this is an option.  As all your shots will be with the flash while in the depths (assuming you’re not in a commercially lit cave), this is one of those life simplifying steps to remove error from creeping in.  In the end it doesn’t matter because you are going to….

Shoot In RAW

Creative Commons Copyright ex_magician

Shooting in RAW really is the way to go underground.  It will give you the most latitude in the digital darkroom later for both exposure and white balance (which you set to flash already, right?).

Lower Your ISO

Even though you’ll be using your flash to light most areas of the scene, you may still have very black patches here and there.  To reduce the chance of noise creeping in, bring down the ISO.  I’d suggest 800 or lower depending on your camera’s capabilities.  I ended shooting at ISO 640 as a compromise but believe I should have gone lower.  I’m happy with the lack of noise but could I have gone lower?  Hmmmm….

Long Shutter Times Are Double Edged Swords

One thing I found easy to do was to leave the shutter open for 30 seconds at a time and then fill the area with light from the flash.  If your camera has hot spots on the CCD that show up with the shutter open this long, you may want to speed things up a bit or handle the spots in post-processing.  I’ll explain my technique in a second post.

Use Manual Focus

This fits in the removing variables category with ISO and RAW.  Get used to using manual focus in a cave.  If there are not a lot of light sources and flashlights/headlamps are moving around while you’re setting up the scene, your camera will try to grab on to anything it can see.  This may not be to your liking after the picture is shot.  If you’re using a wide angle lens and the subjects are distant and focusing is hard, first turn the focus ring all the way to infinity and then back off a little.  After you take one shot, you can review on the LCD and adjust as needed.

Dealing With Commercial Caves

Creative Commons Copyright Kurt Thomas Hunt

Commercial Caves are those setup with lights aplenty.  This can also include many national parks around the world.  These caves can often be a lot of fun as they are already well lit and won’t require supplemental lights.  They may also have areas setup for using a tripod or a guide may be able to help with placement.  If you are on a tour things may move along quickly and there may be crowds to deal with.  Check with the tour operator and see if you can find when the slow part of the day is, or if it’d be ok if you stayed back a little.  The answer may often be, “No” but asking is often opens doors to possibilities you might not have considered, so give the guide a chance to help you out.  If it is a self paced trip, you’re all set!

Bring A Wide Lens

Bring as wide a lens as you can.  Caves come in all shapes and sizes but most scenes are large scale.  I’d suggest starting around 18mm for an APS size sensor or 28mm for full frame.  I ended up using a 16-35mm zoom and I loved having the width.  That being said, there is some close up work that would benefit from a tighter prime or telephoto.  If you have the space, bring both but just remember, caves are filled with moisture, often airborne, so be careful changing lenses and keep it to a minimum if you must.

Put A Person In The Picture

Often the scale of a cave is lost without a reference point.  While close up shots won’t really benefit from adding in a human, the larger scale shots come out better with someone standing there.  You’ll need to pose the person and have them remain still while shooting or they will show up blurred with a longer shutter speed.  Conversely, you can have them move to multiple shots if you want to play around.  Or have them move out of a slightly lit area to create a ghosting effect.  Try different things and see what works for you!

Turn The Frown (Camera) Upside Down

What’s the difference between the two photos below, both taken with the flash attached to the camera?  First, this is a section of cave ceiling very close to the ground to give you the perspective.  Second, all shooting parameters are the same (ISO 640, 1/125 f/2.8).  Now can you tell the difference (beside the focus point being closer in one)?

Answer: The image at right is shot with the camera upside down.  This allowed for better lighting from the flash, less shadow and a different angle.  While I could have picked a better focus point (did I mention it’s really dark in caves?) I hoped to illustrate how taking a different tact can give different results. Experimentation is the name of the game at this point.

As a primer, these are some of the basics to help get you started in photographing caves.  Look for a post in the coming days where I get into the specifics of how I took a couple photos, including showing all the mistakes I made so hopefully you won’t have to!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

14 Tips For Cave Photography

Step One – In The Field

Step one of this process is to take the photos!  You’ll need two individual photos of the same subject.  I’d highly recommend shooting with a tripod to make life easier in the computer later.

Shoot the first image with a small aperture and in focus.  I chose f/36.  Overexpose this image by two stops.  These settings gave me a shutter speed of 5 seconds which introduced some blur into the far tree, which, for me, works in this situation.  ISO 50.

Next, shoot another picture out of focus, aperture wide open (f/4.5 in my case).  Overexpose this image by one stop with a shutter speed of 1/8th of a second.  ISO 50.  As my subject was a few meters away, I chose a focus point further away.  This still left some of the main subject defined.  Picking a point closer in gave a lot more blur.  This is part of the experimentation that is photography.  Try both!

Step Two – In The Digital Darkrom

1. Import both shots into Photoshop
2. With the second image highlighted, click Select -> All , then Edit -> Copy
3. Now, highlight the first image (the in focus shot)
4. Click Edit -> Paste.  This will past the blurry image over the clear one as a new layer, seen here.
5. With Layer 1 selected, click Layer -> Layer Style -> Blending Options.  You should now see a box pop up like the one below.  If at all possible, move this box to the side so as to be able to see the image as adjustments are made.

This is where the fun begins as it’s experimentation time!  As a good place to start, move he Opacity Slider to the middle, 50%.  Now change the blending mode to Darken.  This produces an acceptable rendition as seen below (after clicking OK)

Hard Light can also give an interesting effect.

As a baseline, this is a great place to continue fine tuning the image based on colors involved.  What happens if you only select certain color channels?  What about using Multiply?  Be adventurous!  Tweak and try out different settings until things are to your liking.

I’d like to thank Lynne, again, for introducing this simple method to experimenting with photography.  Please feel free to give this method a try and post a link to your results in the comments section below.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How To Create A Dream Effect In Photoshop

North Head Lighthouse, Washington - Copyright Hidden Creek Photography

A while back I posted some tips on Digital Photography School entitled 8 Guidelines To Taking Panoramic Photos With Any Camera, followed by 20 Great Stitched Panorama Examples and lastly Creating Panoramas With hugin Photo Stitcher.  All of these panorama posts generated quite a few comments, including a number of questions on where to get panorama prints made.

Here then is a round up of some of the more popular online photo printers that offer panoramic prints.  I’m only including the height sizes offered as various vendors offer variable widths.  This allows for flexibility when creating panoramas.

On thing I realized when doing this research is that it’s hard to find a good turnkey printer for panoramic prints.  Many other sites offer the ability if you call or send your files in on disc, especially in Europe and Australia.  Compared to two years ago, though, the number of online retail outfits is growing which is an encouraging sign for those of us who like our images large!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Panoramic Printing Options On The Web

While food is her main area of interest, I was struck by the photo above.  It’s a combination of two photographs, a process Jim mentions below as the Orton Effect.  Here is her description of how the shot was created, “The oak lined avenue leading to the tabby ruins of  the home of Noble Jones, a physician who came to settle Georgia along with James Oglethorpe in 1733. The photo is actually two digital photos sandwiched together, one shot at f/22, +2 stops over, the second one is shot at the widest aperture on the lens at +1 stop over and defocused.  Then sandwiched together for the final photo. It takes some practice to get the effect desired.”

Helen Brady

This photo is a spectacular example of a technique that is made so much easier to achieve nowadays with the advent of digital photography and Photoshop. However, as good as our tools are, you still need to be a crack photographer to nail the images to use to create the effect. Lynne has done just that. Her choice of subject for this image is a great one and it really lends itself to an ethereal presentation like this. From the darker skies at the top of the image to the light road surface we’re invited to look into this scene to explore it further.

The image would be more compelling still if captured with a person on the path in front of us. However, that said, it really is a great composition – well done Lynne!

Barrie Smith

Fascinating, painterly. This sort of image blurs the line between oils and digital. Beautiful. No, go back and shoot it again with an 18th century figure strolling through it.

Peter Carey

I’ve already stated in the introduction how I was struck by this photo.  Normally I’m not a fan of much photo manipulation as I like to see the world as it is.  But I really like what Lynne has done to take this scene to enhance it in a manner that has been used in the darkroom before the advent of computers.  The outcome of the process reduces the image into three main colors that I believe does it wonders.

For me the image is a mix between the dark greens and sense of foreboding amongst the trees and the light and hope that comes through in the path.  Good use of the Rule of Thirds keeps me from being distracted while letting the imagery take me on a short journey.

Jim Goldstein

Lynne this is a great example of how the Orton effect can be applied to a scene to create an ethereal atmosphere. This particular scene works very well with this effect. The degree to which this photo is burned to darken highlights disrupts the flow of the image for my eye. While I understand why this was done to create additional contrast and to focus my eye on the path to follow into the scene it doesn’t sit right with me. The path by comparison seems too bright and the areas darkened lose their natural tonal range. Of course these observations are made looking at a larger version of your photo. At a smaller resolution these things are far less noticeable. The degree of color saturation and composition are very appealing. You definitely have a great eye and chose your subject wisely for this effect. A little more experimenting on the post-processing and I think you’ll have a winning image to present for larger presentation.

What do you think of this image?

Let us know what you think about the image above. What do you like about it and how would you improve upon it? Looking forward to some constructive critique!

NOTE: If you are looking for a single image process for creating such an image, Helen has an article on DPS – The Orton Effect: Mimicking darkroom processes in Photoshop.  I will also be publishing an article in the following days for producing this type of image using two photographs as Lynne did here.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Our Writers’ Monthly Critique