Sydney from the air

  

Getting the Colours right

A very significant issue, for digital photography, that you will soon discover when you get your first prints and compare them with the same images on your computer. The colours look different, often wildly different! Even on different screen there may be massive differences. There are lots of issues involved, colours are perceived differently when using a project light (eg computer screen & projectors) versus reflective method (printers, photographic paper). Professional photographers still love slides, for colour film work, the projected slide image is far more vibrant and “realistic” than a photo print because it uses additive colour scheme & projected light. Every input and output device has potentially different sensitivity to different wavelengths of light and therefore may capture or display different colour bias. Finally the human eye is more sensitive to colour differences rather than to absolute colours. So it is a subject as well as a complex set of technical issues. There have been a number of applications and utilities (including some that come with corel and adobe photo tool) but they can take a lot of setting up for different devices and “colour gamut” profiles (a set of colours that represent a colour space).

If you have an apple computer you could use the colour sync utility.

If you have a decent graphics card (most recent computers do have) and are running Microsoft’s XP, you might like to try out their color management tool . It is a new power tool and available free to all XP users, but you will have to go through Microsoft’s genuine windows component validation setup. The tool gets added to yoiur control panel and is easy to use, but make sure you read the READ.ME.htm that gets install with this powertool.

Patterns in the Wind

Trying to photograph the interesting patterns of sand blowing in the wind is not really suited to still photography, yet is was quiet amazing.

PS: It is very important that you clean your camera (the whole body) when it is out and exposed to the elements. Sand and salt are particular enemies of the delicate working of most camera

Patterns of Light.

The delicate patterns of light can be amazing, even with simple things like a glass of water in the sun. I move in close abd zoomed out to stretch the shadows diagonally across the frame. Sometimes the composition of the negative areas is as important as your main subject.

Photographing Ibis

I have been trying to capture the flocks of Ibis that fly over my place each night, this time of year. It has not proven easily. Firstly they are not so regular. Second they tend to leave the flying till its almost dark (so I am struggling with exposure times, if you look closely you will be able to see the "heat" noise blockness in the blue sky) and finally they fly fast (I have to pan with them to get any hope of an infocus image) and flap their wings a lot(the panning doesn't help and the wings are almost always blurred).

Time Lapse Surf

Taken just after sunset. The slow shutter speed has flatenned out and merged the waves together. This is also an example of how long exposure and dull conditions often enhance the colours.

Another mosaic/collage, this time created with IMix. I thought the fadeout edges might suit the beach theme.

Accra Market - a busy mosaic

The central Accra Marketplace is one of the busiest places I have seen. Inidividual photos do not really capture the hussle and bustle, but a moasic of photos does start to tell the story. This was made with HP Photoelements Essentials Album tool, which allows you to save album pages as fresh images.

(Yes I do realize it is the same program I said not to bother downloading a few days ago)

This is where chocolate starts it's manufacture

Ghana does produces the highest grades of cocoa, used in various blends in all the very best chocolates. Yet many of Ghana's cocoa farmers are heavily exploited, and struggle to subsist.

Is there a place for ethical chocolate?

Another Reflection on Reflections

Taking photographs through glass, such as through a bus window, can be a problem because of reflected light sources behind you. In the photo on the left it adds to the narrative helping to explain why the kids are waving. They are waving at the photographer in a bus. However the photo on the right is rather spoiled by the faded appearance a similar reflection casts over the top of the tree, which adds nothing to the typically african scene, women carting water from a well, and of course catching up on the gossip. Still I did like the colours and composition so I had a bit of a play with the tapestry texture tool in corel photobook. I like the colours and composition even more.
(Moral: Don't give up, experiment and have fun with your near misses, you might find delightfull images hidding within them)

First Impressions

I have been doing a website course through HP on-line courses, and noticed a course on "Digital imaging from camera to printer with Photosmart Essential", quiet a mouthful, so I enrolled. The first task revolved around downloading the latest version of HP Photosmart Essentials.

I did not get off to a good start.
1) It loaded a link to ebay onto my screen (very cheeky)
2) It started scanning my whole disc for photos and images, Other than stopping this behavior immediately I start the program I can not see have to turn this off.(very annoying and time comsuming)
3) It, unlike its predecessor HP Image Express, which was free, is only a 20 day free trial
4) The backup to CD feature costs extra!

Does it have any redefining features? Yes it is very easy to use (but so was HP Image Express) and is nicely integrated with Snapfish, an on-line photo service. Most of the important fixes and enhancements are there, and all seem to take only one or two clicks. There is a neat printed album feature with a nice range of layouts.Not to forget the claims that it provides better quality printing even on older printers (a claim I have not tested, yet!) Unfortunately the first impressions have stuck. So if you got Photosmart with your camera, use it, If you have the older HP image express stick with that, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

Full metal mosaic

I've noticed that tiled photo mosaics have become popular on flickr. Some of them are great, try looking at the mosaic tag. They are actually easy to prepare because there is good software around to do them. On flickr a lot of these mosaics are made with fd's Flickr Toy Mosaic Maker (fd standing for flagrant disregard). I used the collage tool in picasa for this group.

for photofriday topic :Metal