Through the Viewfinder (TTV)

I discovered a photography technique that piqued my curiosity on PhotoJoJo some time ago.   Their posting described how some photographers have been shooting a photo of their subject through the viewfinder of an old TTL camera for an interesting effect.  Here is the original posting:  Photojojo

I decided to give it a try and so I found an old vintage Voigtlander Brilliant on eBay for the right price.  I didn’t want to spend a ton of money at first – at least until I saw some results.  The Brilliant is a pseudo twin lens reflex camera (TLR) that was manufactured in Austria in the 1930’s.  You can read more details about this camera (and many others) here: Camerapedia. 

My first chance to really try was last week while I was doing a photo shoot with Taylor Kearns, Miss ND USA 2010.  We had found a wall that had a great shade of red on it.  The setting sun was shining on the wall with a relatively intense light.  I figured that would be a perfect time to try.  Taylor and the wall would be well lit and I could block the sun on the viewfinder of the Brilliant with my body.  I’m sure holding the vintage camera at waist level with my left hand and trying to focus and compose a shot with my pro DSLR had to look ridiculous, but I was excited about the results.  In this first photo, I’ve cropped a bit, but still included my hand and the camera in the shot.   Did a little work in Photoshop to remove the color in all except what is in the viewfinder.  I also added a border from onOne’s PhotoFrame tool.

 

I went on to finish the “real” shoot with Taylor – you can see some of that series on my Facebook page here: Taylor.   As we were packing up, I happened to notice a bicycle leaning up against a fire escape on the next building.  Now THAT was exactly the sort of subject I had been looking for.  I grabbed the Brilliant and fired off another shot.  In this one, I cropped the photo down to just what was seen in the viewfinder.  

I can see this is going to take a bit of practice and maybe some trial and error.  Even still, I think this is going to be a creative way to produce some interesting photographs!   Hopefully, there will be more to share in the future.

PJ

Spring!

 

Apparently, Emily Dickinson called Crocuses “Spring’s first conviction.”

I sure can't top that! So, I'll stop writing now and show you a photo.

Spring… finally.

ISO 250,  f/5.6, 1/250 second, 55mm – Nikon D300

www.pjandersonphotography.com

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HDR Style Photo in Lightroom

I came across this tutorial on the Digital Photography School website from a link on Facebook posted by the Adobe Lightroom team.  I guess that’s just an example of how posting something on a blog or on Facebook or LiveSpaces can really get a message out.  Even though I get emails directly from DPS and look at that site from time to time, I somehow missed this tutorial .

If you’ve read my LiveSpaces blog in the past, you know that High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is a technique that I am fond of.  Not only for the effects, but knowing that my eye sees a much broader range of light than my camera can (at least today) and a single photograph doesn’t really capture that range.

Over the last few years, I’ve been completely sold on shooting RAW images in my camera.  Knowing that it is giving me the most information about my photograph.  Much more than a jpeg that is processed inside my camera.  This tutorial really shows how to take advantage of all that information.

I won’t type out all the instructions, but rather send you to the source here.  I will, however, give you the “before” and “after” of one image that I worked on.  The author does recommend starting with a photo that is a bit underexposed so that we don’t lose the information in the shadows and that is why I picked the following image.

I used a similar photo to this one on an earlier post.  This was shot one evening on my drive on US Highway 212 on my way home from Minneapolis.  The sun was setting and really lighting up a bank of storm clouds with wonderful shades of red.

ISO 200, f/16, 0.6 sec, 28mm  - Nikon D300

You can begin to get a sense of the dramatic sky here, but no where near the impact I had while seeing it with my own eyes.  I shot this and several other frames at different exposures (on a tripod) with the intent of combining three photos for an HDR photo in Photoshop.  You’ll have to jump back here in the blog to last June 1st to see how that turned out.

One thing I liked about THIS technique, is I’d be using one RAW file and working exclusively in Lightroom.

In the final image, I am able to pull back the blown highlights in the sky and also see the subtle shadows in the grass and in the tree line.  Definitely going to be a technique I’ll play with more!

I’m looking forward to the return of spring!  Hope to have more photos to share on a more regular basis.

http://www.pjandersonphotography.com  

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My Office Manager

 

Just for fun.

This is my office manager – Pixie Feather Sue (Pixel) Anderson.

ISO 1000, f/3.2, 1/125 sec, 28mm  - Nikon D300

Pixel joined our family last autumn.  She was a rescued pet (that I sort of fell in love with at first sight) from Dr. Gretchen Gerber’s Country Care Pet Hospital, LLC and Helping PAWS Pet Rescue, Inc. in Washburn, WI.

Dr. Gretchen told us all “no one leaves without a kitten” – she didn’t have to twist my arm too much!  By the way, what a fantastic veterinarian!  She’s been a fantastic help in Pixel’s transition to a family cat.

Anyway, this is one of Pixel’s favorite afternoon tricks.  Wait for me to get off my chair at my desk and then steal my spot.  She doesn’t give up that seat too easily either!

Homage to “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy

It has been a ridiculously long time since I posted!

Thought I’d jump back in with a photo I played with and the steps I took to get there.

This all started when I was looking at Photoshop tutorials available on www.wikihow.com.  I found one that demonstrated how to polarize an image in Photoshop here.  I have to admit, the last couple of years there have been many times I wish I had my circular polarizer in my bag – and yet it was back at the office.  So, I figured I’d give it a go.

After I played with the test image there, I decided to give it a go with one of my own images.  The one I selected isn’t anything to write home about.  However, it was an interesting place – I took a few photos with the intent to go back at another time and do it justice.

ISO 400, f/13, 1/15th second, 50mm – Nikon D300

I won’t repeat all the steps, as you can read about them in the Wikihow article, but here is the same photo after the polarizing tutorial.  I can see where I might use this in some situations.

If you are like me, on occasion you might start messing around with Photoshop, just to see what happens.  In this case, I had an interesting surprise that ties it back to the title of this post and the book called “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy.  (NY Times Review)

A theme from the book that always pops into my head is how the world is pretty much covered in dust and is very dark.

Well, when I changed the last step in the polarizing tutorial (where it says to change the blend mode to  “Overlay”) I decided to go with “Difference”.  With the result, I was transported directly into that bleak world of McCarthy’s – dark, foreboding and covered in dust.  It is kind of a creepy feel.  I’ve got no clue if this is what the author had in mind, but this sure worked for me.

 

I think most of my photos try to show the world and nature in its most beautiful light.  So, this is a bit of a departure for me!  I’m not sure if anyone else would like it, but it was fun for me to do.

Old Boots

 

File this under “They don’t make ‘em like this anymore!”

After I came in from shoveling this morning – I found myself staring at my snow boots.  I’ve had them for most of my life.  Started doing some math in my head… this is about the 29th winter with these boots.  I have had no desire to get new ones.  My parents bought these Sorel’s for me back in high school when we lived in northern Minnesota.  Granted, I don’t use them nearly as much here as I did up on the lake in the middle of the Superior National Forest, but they go on most winter trips with me.

Anyways, I thought they looked cool and I figured I’d play with some photos.  I’m still convinced the day to day, normal, simple things make the best photographs.  Things you generally just walk by on your way to photograph that flower or that sunset or beautiful bird in the feeder.

Here’s a black and white that I liked:

ISO 800, f/5.0, 1/60th sec, 28mm   - Nikon D300

And here are a series of different treatments of the same image.  All have been tweaked in Adobe Lightroom.  I used a number of different pre-sets.  If you want to know more – give a shout.  My personal favorite is probably the third one – but they all have some fun to them!

 

Wishing you the best of the season!  Hope to have more posted before Christmas and New Year, but you know how it goes!

A Winter Curse

 

You’ve heard of the old saying “It always rains after I was my car.”?

Here is the South Dakota winter version.  “The snowplow always comes after I finish shoveling the driveway.”

I figured as long as I’d have to shovel again, I could at least capture a photo of the darn thing.  Here it is – just for fun.

ISO 200, f/14, 1/125 sec, 30mm – Nikon D300

Stay warm!

Patrick