Monday, March 30, 2009
The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles
The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has a new venue for photography with the opening show including photographs by Douglas Kirkland, Greg Gorman, Carolyn Cole of the Los Angeles Times, and more.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
In Point Lobos, Where Edward Weston Saw the World Anew
In Point Lobos, Where Edward Weston Saw the World Anew. LANDSCAPE photographers are remembered for the places they took pictures of and almost never for the places they lived.
Zeiss Introduces a 18mm for Canon
From The Online Photographer
http://www.zeiss.com/photo
Technical data:
Focal length: 18 mm
Aperture range: f/3.5-f/22 (half increments)
Focusing range: 0.3 m-infinity
Number of elements/groups: 13/11
Angular field, diag./horiz./vert.: 99/90/67°
Object field at smallest near setting: 44x29 cm
Image ratio (close range): 1:12
Filter thread: M 82x0.75
Dimensions (with caps): 87 mm diameter, length 84 mm
Weight: 470 g
Camera adapter: F-bayonet (ZF)
Friday, March 27, 2009
The New York Times One in 8 Million
The New York Times One in 8 Million http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html
Death Valley Workshop Photos
Death Valley Workshops Photos by Keith Skelton
We had a great group of people and a great workshop in Death Valley the weekend of March 21. The wind prevented us from getting great Sand Dune photos but we had plenty of other opportunities including The Race Track, Ubehebe Crater, Ryolite NV, Dante's View, and more.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
VIEWBOOK Online Portfolio Presentation
.jpg)
This is a easy and inexpensive way to present on line photo portfolios. Here is an example of a site I set up using a 30 day free trial.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
The Other Cambodia
I think I'd like to photograph Cambodia. Here are two travel stories:
From The Wall Street Journal
From The New York Times
From The Wall Street Journal
From The New York Times
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
IMAGO - European Federation of Cinematographers
Link This is believed to be the greatest number of cameras test shooting the same shot simultaneously on different cameras ever recorded.
Monday, March 9, 2009
CAMERATRUCK
The world's largest traveling camera! This is not what you might think. But it is a very cool idea!
Need a Creative Boost? Find the Blue Room.
February 6, 2009
Need a Creative Boost? Find the Blue Room.
By PAM BELLUCK
Trying to improve your performance at work or write that novel? Maybe it’s time to consider the color of your walls or your computer screen.
If a new study is any guide, the color red can make people’s work more accurate, and blue can make people more creative.
In the study, published Thursday on the Web site of the journal Science, researchers at the University of British Columbia conducted tests with 600 people to determine whether cognitive performance varied when people saw red or blue. Participants performed tasks with words or images displayed against red, blue or neutral backgrounds on computer screens.
Red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes.
“If you’re talking about wanting enhanced memory for something like proofreading skills, then a red color should be used,” said Juliet Zhu, an assistant professor of marketing at the business school at the University of British Columbia, who conducted the study with Ravi Mehta, a doctoral student.
But for “a brainstorming session for a new product or coming up with a new solution to fight child obesity or teenage smoking,” Dr. Zhu said, “then you should get people into a blue room.”
The question of whether color can color performance or emotions has fascinated scientists, not to mention advertisers, sports teams and restaurateurs.
In a study on Olympic uniforms, anthropologists at Durham University in England found that evenly matched athletes in the 2004 Games who wore red in boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling defeated those wearing blue 60 percent of the time. The researchers suggested that red, for athletes as for animals, subconsciously symbolizes dominance.
Effects that were perhaps similarly primal were revealed in a 2008 study led by Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester. Men considered women shown in photographs with red backgrounds or wearing red shirts more attractive than women with other colors, although not necessarily more likeable or intelligent.
Then there was the cocktail party study, in which a group of interior designers, architects and corporate color scientists built model rooms decorated as bars in red, blue or yellow. They found that more people chose the yellow and red rooms, but that partygoers in the blue room stayed longer. Red and yellow guests were more social and active. And while red guests reported feeling hungrier and thirstier than others, yellow guests ate twice as much.
Experts say colors may affect cognitive performance because of the moods they engender.
“When you feel that the situation you are in is problematic,” said Norbert Schwarz, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, “you are more likely to pay attention to detail, which helps you with processing tasks but interferes with creative types of things.”
By contrast, Dr. Schwarz said, “people in a happy mood are more creative and less analytic.”
Many people link red to problematic things, like emergencies or X’s on failing tests, experts say. Such “associations to red — stop, fire, alarm, warning — can be activated without a person’s awareness, and then influence what they are thinking about or doing,” said John A. Bargh, a psychology professor at Yale University. “Blue seems a weaker effect than red, but blue skies, blue water are calm and positive, and so that effect makes sense too.”
Still, Dr. Schwarz cautioned, color effects may be unreliable or inconsequential. “In some contexts red is a dangerous thing, and in some contexts red is a nice thing,” he said. “If you’re walking across a frozen river, blue is a dangerous thing.”
Indeed, Dr. Elliot of the University of Rochester said blue’s positive emotional associations were considered less consistent than red’s negative ones.
It might also matter whether the color dominates someone’s view, as on a computer screen, or is only part of what is seen. Dr. Elliot said that in the Science study, brightness or intensity of color — not just the color itself — might have had an effect.
Some previous cognitive studies found no effect from color, although some used mostly pastels or less distinctive tasks. One found that students taking tests did better on blue paper than on red, but Dr. Schwarz said the study used depressing blue and upbeat red.
The Science study’s conclusion that red makes people more cautious and detail-oriented coincides with Dr. Elliot’s finding that people shown red test covers before I.Q. tests did worse than those shown green or neutral colors. And on a different test, people with red covers also chose easier questions. I.Q. tests require more problem-solving than Dr. Zhu’s memory and proofreading questions.
When Dr. Zhu’s subjects were asked what red or blue made them think of, most said that red represented caution, danger or mistakes, and that blue symbolized peace and openness. Subjects were quicker to unscramble anagrams of “avoidance related” words like “danger” when the anagrams were on red backgrounds, and quicker with anagrams of positive, “approach related” words like “adventure” when they were on blue backgrounds.
The study also tested responses to advertising, finding that advertisements listing product details or emphasizing “avoidance” actions like cavity prevention held greater appeal on red backgrounds, while ones using creative designs or emphasizing positive actions like “tooth whitening” held more appeal on blue.
When the participants were asked if they believed red or blue would improve performance, most said blue for both detail-oriented and creative tasks. Maybe, Dr. Zhu said, that is because more people prefer blue.
The study did not involve different cultures, like China, where red symbolizes prosperity and luck. And it said nothing about mixing red and blue to make purple.
For what it’s worth, many newsroom walls at The New York Times are bright tomato-soup red. The newspaper’s facilities department says there are no blue rooms in the place.
The New York Times Company
NIKON NEF files do not contain true raw data. by Christian Buil
I was researching star photography and discovered that apparently Nikon cameras — specifically the D3 and the D300 DO NOT produce a true RAW file. As a lifetime Nikon user this is disturbing to say the least.
Christian Buil offers fasinating information about Astronomy, star photography, and CCDs.
"In the astrophotography world most photographers recognize this fact and mainly use Canon. For regular day photographer this isn't much of an issue. Nikon produces wonderful images. But a close study of the night images shows that Nikon's "RAW" is being processed by the camera software."
This is very technical stuff but very interesting.
-Keith Skelton
PHOTO AT LEFT- A CR2 file from a Canon 40D (30 sec. exposure). Some hot pixels are visible. They are left intact by the firmware. The noise structure has approximately a gaussian shape. The RAW file is the direct representation of the sensor output signal. Accurate measurements and processing are possible.
PHOTO AT RIGHT -A NEF file from a Nikon D3. The image is a 30s exposure in dark at 400ISO with all the identified noise reduction set to OFF. The image shows an obvious artificial structure, which indicates that a digital filtering by the firmware has been applied once the image is taken. Note the considerable texture difference with a short exposure. The purpose of this internal filtering is clearly to smooth the thermal signal (hot pixels) and thermal noise. RAW files from Nikon D3 for long exposures (probably superior to one second) are definitively not a RAW file!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
No more Leica R film cameras
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Nik Software Announces Plug-in Update for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
This software has some great filters I've used in Photoshop. I look forward to the Lightroom version.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Panasonic's LUMIX DMC-ZS3
I never thought that I'd own a camera made by Panasonic. The same folks that make my toaster.
But, I wised up and have been extremely pleased with both the Panasonic LX2 and LX3. The LX3 with a 24mm f2 lens is astounding. These are amazing little beasts. I just wish I could fire off a shot as fast as a Leica M.
The next series of the DMC - ZS3 looks like another winner with expanded video, 25mm lens, 10X Zoom.
If they can come up with a LX4 or 5 with a 24mm f2, 10X zoom, 1280 video, and instant shutter release, I will be the first in line to buy the little guy.
But, I wised up and have been extremely pleased with both the Panasonic LX2 and LX3. The LX3 with a 24mm f2 lens is astounding. These are amazing little beasts. I just wish I could fire off a shot as fast as a Leica M.
The next series of the DMC - ZS3 looks like another winner with expanded video, 25mm lens, 10X Zoom.
If they can come up with a LX4 or 5 with a 24mm f2, 10X zoom, 1280 video, and instant shutter release, I will be the first in line to buy the little guy.
PATTERNS AND TEXTURES
PATTERNS AND TEXTURES -When an object stands alone it can look unexciting. Add two identical objects and you begin to form a visually interesting pattern. The more you add the more complex and exciting the pattern becomes. Patterns and textures can be found all around us. You only have to look at the bee's honeycomb to realize that nature is a key supplier of these stimulating subjects. Look beyond the obvious in a landscape and you'll find patterns bursting out all over the place. The rolling hills, intruding fences and tree lined horizons all mix together to form spectacular patterns. The way the pattern falls determines how the eye scans the picture; vertical lines draw the eye upwards and horizontal across the picture. Use this to your advantage in drawing the eye to the key element of the photograph. Horizontal lines also offer a sense of calmness, while diagonal lines give a dynamic feel of movement. Altering your viewpoint can make a world of difference. Shoot a forest of trees from a hilltop and you'll create a patchwork of green. Move into the heart of the woodland and the trunks will make bold and dominating lines running up through the picture. Go in close and capture the texture of the tree's bark. Shoot upwards and you can concentrate on the texture of leaves. You only have to cut open an orange or a grapefruit to see a colorful display of patterns itching to be photographed. Look at the outside of a pineapple, the skin of a strawberry, the flesh of a kiwi fruit or the scales of a fish, they've all got something to offer. Look for: textures in decaying leaves, flaking paint, blades of grass, wooden fences, stone walls, spiders webs - the list is endless. Go out and about shoot mud cracks, patterns in sand, crazy paving, ripples in water, roof tiles, fields, etc. There are good patterns the seaweed and kelp create in the ocean water.
Useful tips. Look for subjects with lots of repetition, but don't rely on regular shapes or the picture may become boring. Keep the composition simple and exclude anything that may break the pattern. Pick out the most interesting parts of the scene and move in close cropping out distracting backgrounds.Zoom lenses are extremely useful for selective cropping of the image - some have macro or close-up settings and allow you to move in really close for smaller detail. A telephoto lens can be used to tighten perspective but have a tripod handy.Strong sunlight mixed with bright colors makes bold patterns whereas textures appear at there best when the lighting is subtle.To emphasize texture dramatically make sure the light source is coming from one side to cast raking shadows and give a feeling of depth. Shoot while the sun is low, early morning or late afternoon, for the best effects. Look for contrasting colors such as blue and yellow. They can help define patterns and shapes. Keith Skelton Photos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)