Well it was great to meet up with every one on Saturday , nice to be able to put some names to faces now . Pitty about the weather and light mabye next time we orginise a get together the weather will be better.

Still going through some old shots from the weekend at Christian Fletchers http://christianfletcher.wordpress.com Course . Still got so many more to go through . This one was another shot of Sugar Loaf Rock (aka Boys Rock) :) Was an 9 image stitch .

Larger version: here

This shot is made up of 7 RAW shots from my Canon EOS 400D (aka Rebel XTi) w/ EF-S 17-85mm IS USM lens, here was the process I followed:

The shoot:

1. Mounted the camera on a tripod in portrait orientation, doing this has two benefits... firstly puts the barrel distortion introduced by your lens on the top and bottom making the shots easier to blend and stitch, also it'll give your pano more height. The down side of course is that you'll need to take more shots than you would with landscape to get the same field of view.

2. Put the camera in Manual mode to ensure that the exposure is locked. If you use any of the Auto/Semi-auto modes... your camera will re-meter for exposure for each shot - causing the brightness of each shot to differ.

3. Then I selected a specific white balance, in this case 'daylight' - but the important thing is not to have it on Auto White Balance, otherwise each shot is likely to be a different temperature.

4. Next I dialed in the aperture to a tiny (F/22), this is to ensure that I get the deepest Depth of Field (DoF) as possible so the foreground and background are sharp and in focus.

5. Then I used the auto focus to do the focus work for me, then once focus was achieved I switched to Manual Focus to ensure that each shot is taken with the same focus.

6. Finally, using my Canon IR remote I shot off the first shot then carefully panned by tripod head until there was approximately 20% overlap from the previous shot then shot off again... then continued until I had the complete field of view I was after.

The post processing:

I did the post processing on my Linux (Ubuntu) box, as a minimum you'll need the following:

• ImageMagick - http://www.imagemagick.org/www/mogrify.html
• Hugin, Enblend, libpano13, Hugin, Autopano-sift-C - compilation instructions for Ubuntu (and other distros) are available here  - http://wiki.panotools.org/Hugin_Compiling_ubuntu

Here is the process I followed:

1. Converted my RAW images to JPEG using dcraw. I used a custom version of the script available here: http://jcornuz.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/here-is-a-little-something-for-your-blog/

2. Renamed the .JPEG output to .JPG, because Autopano-sift-C fails with .JPEG extensions.

3. Batch rotated JPEGs using mogrify from ImageMagick (mogrify -rotate "-90" *.JPG)

4. Opened images in Hugin, and got it to use Autopano-sift-C to automatically find the control points between the set of images.

5. Hugin then uses 'nano' to modify the geometry of the images, then 'enblend' to stitch them all together.

FYI - I did run into an issue with the latest CVS version of Enblend (v3.2), and had to downgrade to a previous version to make it work.

I have a lot of work to sink my teeth into fortunately. Have transferred all RAW files from Lightroom 2.1 on my laptop to my main workstation and have developed exactly 1 RAW file! A sentimental can-stare-at-this-forever-brings-back-memories Hawk Dreaming at dusk silhouette shot:

Hawk Dreaming Sand Palms at Dusk
© Flemming Bo Jensen Photography

Normal service will be resumed shortly on this blog when I find my lost marbles!

 So finally on one of my last days there this year I decided to photograph it and try to capture part of what it is that I find alluring about the place. The vibrancy of the colours around mid morning or afternoon on a clear day, no one else about,the hills,the rainforest.  Once again I found myself taking a landscape photo outside twilight hours - what the hell is going on ! ?

Coral bay - Fuji G617, Velvia 50.

Exhibition: Luz da Luz, curated by Anna Barros.

My new computer is up and running, what a difference a 64 bit operating system and lots of ram makes.

It sucks when you look at a camera like t A900 and you see comments about it's catering to the "consumer" market.  It would seem the "professional photographer er reviewer" is always comparing whatever camera they get to some nonexistent "Perfect Camera".

This camera of course can never be made. It's like the concept of Plato's Forms. Unfortunately that concept led to the whole dualism thing which led to Christianity and to the devaluing of THIS world of base materiality.  Well we all know this eventually led to Descartes's separation of the mind from the body or in other words another  kind of dualism.  Well that's all well and good in theory but then so is capitalism and eugenics.

This separation of a mind or soul from the physical world leads one to overvalue the ideas one has about things at the expense of unmediated experience.  Unmediated experience is exactly what any artist should attempt to immerse themselves in.  If they don't then all there art is going to be derivative.  There is no perfect camera so shut up.

No I'm being kind of ridiculous, see how an Idea can get a hold of one, these reviewers are just extremely careful observers and I love to read about any kind of quality they can discern in a photograph but really it would seem that one day there might be a requirement to get ones eyes certified before having a valid opinion about a camera's performance

I was reading the canon interview in DP review when I came across this exchange between the DPreview interviewer and  the Director and Chief Executive of Image Communication Products Operations, Masaya Maeda.

"Would you ever consider removing the anti alias (low pass) filter - or using a lighter one - on high end, high resolution models such as the EOS 1Ds Mark III, to improve pixel level sharpness, removing any moiré in software (like medium format cameras)?

"We believe the potential for false color moiré effects would be a disadvantage for the customer, so no."

I have no idea what they are talking about but it sure seems ashame that we can't make our 3,000 dollar camera do everything it can because of some filter they put on the sensor. Especailly when the software could take out the problem and you might get more sharpeness. darn it! I guess this is what they are talking about

Optical anti-aliasing filter

In the case of optical image sampling, as by image sensors in digital cameras, the anti-aliasing filter is also known as an optical lowpass filter or blur filter or AA filter. The mathematics of sampling in two spatial dimensions is similar to the mathematics of time-domain sampling, but the filter implementation technologies are different. The typical implementation in digital cameras is two layers of birefringent material such as lithium niobate, which spreads each optical point into a cluster of four points.^[1]

Anti-aliasing Filter from an older Digital Video Camera

The choice of spot separation for such a filter involves a tradeoff among sharpness, aliasing, and fill factor. In a monochrome or three-CCD or Foveon X3 camera, the fill factor alone, if near 100% effective with microlenses, can provide a significant anti-aliasing effect, while in color filter array (CFA, e.g. Bayer filter) cameras, an additional filter is generally needed to reduce aliasing to an acceptable level.^[2]

Now that we cleared that up I still wonder when the moment will come when it is patently obvious that these reviewers have stopped measuring discernable things. You know like audiophiles(uggh!!).

Well I for one think i would be able to tell the difference.  The last big photo I took involved over 96 raw exposures from my olympus 410.  This led to 16 HDR photographs which I then put together into a panorama.  I usually take HDR images because I don't really like the quality of the images that come out of my camera.  So here is it is. It took about 20 minutes to shoot and about 8 hours to prepare.

[caption id="attachment_285" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="Click to get the 5000 pixel wide version of the 19598x3960 pixel original"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_286" align="aligncenter" width="497" caption="Detail of previous picture"][/caption]

Click the image to see it larger

In questo tutorial vi mostrerò come creare un panorama utilizzando Photoshop CS3.

Consigli pratici per lo scatto:

- L'uso di un grandangolare, in quanto permette di includere nel fotogramma molti più elementi rispetto a un tele-obiettivo e riduce gli effetti delle vibrazioni al momento dello scatto (a meno che non si usi un comando a distanza).

- Consiglio di scattare le foto in verticale se si vuole riprendere una scena orizzontale e viceversa, per ottenere proporzioni più simili a quelle delle normali foto (se si scattassero immagini orizzontali per riprendere una scena orizzontale si otterrebbero foto larghissime e "basse")

- Usate un solido cavalletto.

- Fate in modo che ogni fotogramma contenga circa 1/3 di quello precedente, in modo da ottenere risultati più precisi.

- Se volette includere nel panorama ampie porzioni di cielo, fate attenzione all'uso del polarizzatore, in quanto alcune porzioni di cielo potrebbero venire polarizzate in modo differente rispetto ad altre.

- Impostare la macchina in manuale, scegliendo diaframmi chiusi (f/8 - f/11) e fare la media dei tempi di scatto necessari tra i vari punti della scena per decidere la velocità dell'otturatore.

- Come ultimo, e ovvio, punto, scattare in formato RAW per avere un miglior controllo in PP dell'immagine.

Post-produzione con Photoshop CS3:

Aprite le foto che formeranno il panorama su Photoshop.
Trascinarle una ad una su un unica immagine (tenendo premuto SHIFT in modo che si posizionino automaticamente al centro), così da avere tutte le fotografie in un unico file su layer diversi, come nell'immagine qui sotto.

Duplicare il background (il layer con il simbolo del lucchetto di fianco, evidenziato in rosso nella fotografia qui sopra) cliccandoci su con il tasto destro e selezionando "Duplicate Layer".Eliminate ora il Background originale.
Evidenziate ora tutti i Layer cliccandoli ad uno ad uno tenendo premuto il tasto CTRL e andate quindi su "Edit>Auto-Align Layers".
Nella finestrella che si aprirà selezionate la voca "Reposition Only" se avete scattato delle fotografie in sequenza in modo preciso, altrimenti evidenziate l'opzione "Auto".
C'è da tener conto che con l'opzione "Auto" Photoshop attuerà anche modifiche alle proporzioni, allungando e restringendo dove necessario, al fine di allineare meglio le immagini.

Il vostro panorama avrà ora un aspetto simile a questo:

Come si può notare, le singole foto non sono ancora perfettamente allineate tra di loro, e sono inoltre presenti le linee "di passaggio" tra un fotogramma e l'altro.
Per ovviare a questo problema, andate su "Edit>Auto-Blend Layers"
A questo punto potreste vedere dei bordi simili a "fratture" bianche: non preoccupatevi, è assolutamente normale.
Cliccate ora su un layer qualunque con il tasto destro del mouse e selezionare "Merge Visible".
A questo punto la fase di allineamento è completata. Se vedete che ci sono delle zone che non sono collegate bene tra di loro o dei difetti nell'allineamento,e avete usato la funzione "Reposition Only" nel passaggio dell' "Auto-Align Layers",provate a usare la funzione "Auto".
Se la vostra immagine non risulterà ancora correttamente allineata, probabilmente non avete scattato delle foto con una successione precisa.
Visto che sono presenti bordi bianchi all'esterno del panorama, usate lo strumento Crop Tool (o schiacciate il tasto "C" della tastiera) e evidenziate la parte del panorama che volete tenere.

Effettuo i soliti ritocchi ai livelli, curve ecc., e l'immagine finale è pronta! (Immagine Finale)

La post-produzione è così conclusa.

Se avete intenzione di inserire l'immagine nel Web, vi consiglio QUESTO tutorial per l'ottimizzazione delle immagini.

Avete trovato utile questo tutorial o avete delle domande? Lasciate un commento!

Hier lohnt sich der Blick auf die Bilder in voller Größe, besonders das mittlere Bild hat seinen Reiz. Hat schon wer das Flugzeug entdeckt?
Mehr Bilder? Wie immer hier bei Flickr

With HeeWon
Digital Print
8x35

Title of this peice is quite important for me. In my way, it was attempt to take audience into my dimention, where they could imagine, capturing this moment of landscape with someone precious. I could have put more pretentious title such as, Couples Walking Toward the Death, or Future, or Birth or blah blah blah whatever other things, but over my years at Emily Carr, I am trying to work with something that's Real to me. If I am shallow, let my works be shallow, for there should be no shame for being shallow. It is not that I'm not concerned with social issues around me or not that I don't think deeply into life, death, realigion, society, avant-guarde and other things that an art student is supposed to think about, and contribute to. In spite of doing so, I also love shallow things in life. I loved the moment because I was with whom I love. I wanted to express it, capture it, share it with other people. Simple. Although quite often I am pressured to show more "depth" through my works, there should be no shame in showing truth that I treasure.

This picture is dim. It is dark, constructed mostly with blue and black. It is cold photograph. Hopefully the fact that it is sunrise other than sunset, would add some positive attitude in work, but since not many people are familiar with where the sun goes up and down, I decided not to push it. Instead I decided to use my boyfriend's Korean name, rather than his Enlgish name; Justin. HeeWon sounds like "he won". Simply it sounds positive. Sounds forein, yet positive.

Hope one of the audiences could picture, a girl and a boy along the beach, shievering with cold air of morning, holding together tight for warmth, watching people walk, appreciating company of each other, with little excitment and hope for a good peice of work.  

How do you think of this one?

So without any further to do and not far from my 'doorstep' here's what I came up with and part of the country I am fortunate enough to have beyond my front door.  (And yes I would much prefer it if this was still rainforest like it once was ! ! ! ).

Gippsland green I - Fuji G617, Velvia 50.

Gippsland green II - Fuji G617, Velvia 50.

Just a few magical moments from this trip. My head is threatening to explode with feelings, memories and experiences and most of all thousands of images. It is overwhelming. This photo trip has provided some of the best moments in Australia for me ever and fantastic new friends, business connections and ideas. Also some of the most frustrating moments ever with trucks breaking down, trips getting cancelled, missing the Mitchell Plateau, 3 sleepless days of jetlag driving me crazy, hurting my knee at Emma Gorge. Some incredible ups and downs.

The entire purpose of this trip was photography of course and it is too early for me to say whether it was a success. The Kimberley light is difficult; I will write about this in a future post. I have several thousand raw files to go through and a lot of stitched panoramas. Only when I emerge from the digital darkroom can I judge the results of the trip. But we had extraordinary light some days and I know there is some art in the data I'm bringing back.

I am ending with a shot that probably means little to most people. To me it is home; it is what I'm all about. The remoteness. The sense of space. The heat. The red dirt, blue sky and white gum trees. The desolate plains.
The mysterious and fascinating Australian outback.

A good photo shows that you have connected with your subject; be it landscape, people or animals. I may take it slightly to the extreme bordering on obsession as I have what could be described as an overreaction to the Australian landscape. I hope it shows in my work.

As I leave Australia and my life down under today; I feel very sad in many ways. I shall return to my home the outback as soon as possible.

This project is for my diva class at school.. and it was my second try image...the first one was abit time consumin but im still working on it:)

Hope you like....it has different colors or temperate colors because i like it that way.  just like to call it my picturee :) (not original )

A year ago, Hailey and I drove up Buffalo Pass Road but only got as far as the Dry Lake Campground. We were in her little red Alero, which has roughly 2 inches of clearance, and the road was getting a bit too rocky. It's not a 4x4 road by any means...it was just getting annoying hearing things scrape the bottom of the car.

This go around, our friends were driving, and I was driving them nuts: "oo-oo-oo...stop here..." These are patient people folks. They let me photograph at nearly every bend in the road.

We reached the top of the pass right around 5pm, just as the light was getting super rich. Buffalo Pass sits on the Continental Divide, and right there, straddling the watersheds, is Buffalo Lake (above). There didn't appear to be an outlet on either side, but I have heard of a few lakes in this type of position that supply water to both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. One of those flukes in geography.

[googlemaps http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=Steamboat+Springs,+CO&daddr=Buffalo+Pass,+Colorado&hl=en&geocode=&mra=ls&sll=40.544004,-106.695786&sspn=0.043634,0.084801&ie=UTF8&t=p&ll=40.51245,-106.75846&spn=0.06436,0.14804&output=embed&s=AARTsJqXDfArpTx51zfjfxNddLYxoKu96Q&w=425&h=350]

Here is a topo map of the route from Steamboat Springs to Buffalo Pass. Gotta love The Google. Turns out there is an outlet and it flows to the Gulf of Mexico via the North Platte, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers. Thanks Google. Mine own eyes couldn't have seen that.

Anyhow, there isn't much of a story at Buffalo Lake. We stood on the shore, we saw a duck. Like I said earlier, these friends of mine are patient people, even when you step in the way of their binoculars as they look at duck.

Taking shots like these brings me back to those early years when I was first getting into photography with my Nikon FM. I was 18 years old, ready for college, and I had a whole summer devoted to two things (1) making $8/hour at a day care center Monday through Friday and (2) hikes in the mountains with Matt from Saturday to Sunday. Those were good days, and capturing the story of each hike became an obsession. Nowadays, landscapes are bit harder for me. As beautiful as the scenery is, it's tough to find that unique way of seeing it.

Below is a panorama of four shots I stitched together in Photoshop (click on the image for a larger view). This is looking north toward Wyoming, about 2/3 the way up the pass.

Here are the girls...Lexi, Hailey, Shannon and Jenny. All from different walks of life, all married to dudes from south Denver.

This is the quintessential Colorado sky. It's impossible to be grumpy, consumed, nervous, anxious or irritable under a sky like that.

I think the only spot that tops this for fall color in Colorado — that I've seen firsthand — is Kebler Pass. I have been over Dallas Divide a few times, but never in the fall. Same with Maroon Bells. Perhaps next year we'll go camp near Dallas Divide and Silverjack Reservoir. Autumn is increasingly becoming my favorite time of year in the Rockies. It is just so overwhelming with its beauty, its color and its fleeting nature. It's hard not to be moved by it.

At the end of Buffalo Pass Road, we pulled over and let Tim loose. He was feeling cooped up, so he raced into this field, flushed a flock of blackbirds and then cast muscleman shadows on a hay bale. The next morning, I got an encore of showmanship, but with better results. Perhaps I'll get that post up by this weekend.

I turned the panorama project on its head and instead of taking photographs of actual real life objects/locations, I went into the virtual world that is World of Warcraft and made a panorama of the Dwarf capital city that is Ironforge.

I stumbled today upon a store that advertised 'large blueprint prints'. They were very helpful, prepared my JPEGs for pre-press and made the best use out of paper to ensure I did not pay more than necessary. It took us some 15 minutes to prepare for printing, print and cut the photos.

Ooohh, and they were kind enough to let me email myself the correct profile! They did not try to convince me that their machine was too smart to need profiles...

I printed two photos today, from the Transalpina Set. They were both very large panoramas. One id this shot of Muntinu and the other one is the lake Petrimanu shot below.

I was right: these photos DO look better in print than on the web. You should see them for real - you can distinguish every grass blade, every sand grain, and every skid mark in the sand, with absolutely no artifacts. To get an idea about this, here is a 100% crop from this photo:

It looks like this if you hold the 90cm picture at 10 cm to you eyes, but do you really watch large photos this close?

Here are several reasons why I absolutely need to print photos:

1. My grandmother is old and very ill, I like to show her all the beautiful places where I've been. I cannot show her on the computer because of her poor sight, I need to print BIG.
2. I like to print BIG because I can - I have photos that not only CAN be printed LARGE but also look better printed large.
   Let's take this shot of Lake Petrimanu for example:
   [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Petrimanu Lake - HUGE photo "][/caption]

   It is 90 cm wide at 300dpi. That means that you have a picture almost 1 meter wide that shows NO pixelization at 10 cm from you eyes. You can distinguish the sand, with no artifacts. I could print these at 200dpi and show them from farther, and still get incredibly sharp photos.

3. If you want to show your pictures on a wall (like in a gallery), they need to be big. A3 is the MINIMUM for hanging on a wall.
4. I am sure a lot of you would like to get some of these photos for your office / homes. Would you rather have a 60x90 picture or a 13x18 hanging on your wall?