Another fun shot from the studio.  We created the photo of the girl on the tight rope against a plain background.  The background was then removed in Photoshop and replaced with a sky image of a clearing storm.  Taken with the Nikon D4 and 24-70mm lens.

We did this fun shot by darkening the studio and using one soft flash from the front and a time exposure to record the girl's drawing of the heart with a flashlight covered with a red gel.  The photo was taken with the Nikon D4 and the 24-70mm zoom at f/11.  The shutter was set to "bulb" and kept open for the time it took to draw the heart.

Bought this cactus plant for the apartment over the Memorial Day weekend.

Yesterday I visited Morgan Cottage where my friend, Neale, has assembled a collection of flowers that would make even Monet jealous.  Here are a some examples.

An assemblage of a number of the images to illustrate the variety.  All photos were taken with the Fuji X-Pro1 with the 60mm Fuji macro lens.

Give your photos an Instagram effect in Photoshop

This is a very simple Photoshop technique for transforming your images into an old fashioned faded print look.

To see a fuller explanation of this technique visit my learning site at DSLR Learn.

This is the original photo cropped into a square.  The square format looks best with this technique.

Add a layer with one light color on top of the image and change the layer mode to multiply. Pastel shades work best. This gives the image a color cast and reduces the contrast.  Next add a levels layer to the original image layer and change the color.  Change the RGB layer to the right to brighten the photo.  Then select the red, green, and blue layers in succession and alter each of them by moving their sliders left or right to suit the look you want.  A soft vignette was added using the gradient tool to make two separate layers, one vertical and the other horizontal.  Both were layers were changed to multiply mode and merged together.  Finally, the opacity was reduced to around 60%.

This is the original photo of the image below.

Here I changed the color a bit more dramatically in a different direction than in the first sample to show a bit more of the range of this technique.  As a final adjustment, I added a curves layer to each of the photos and adjust the contrast.

I found this great lineup of old box cameras at a flea market.  Photo was taken with the Fuji X-Pro1 and 35mm lens, with toning and antiquing added later in Photoshop.

Something to do with all that junk mail coming in -- take a stock shot, of course.

Two variations on a conceptual theme just waiting for a designer to add the copy.

This view of the East River of New York City shows the Manhattan Bridge in the foreground and Brooklyn Bridge behind with lower Manhattan on the right.  It is comprised of two shots that were assembled later into a panorama.  Taken with the Nikon D800 and 24-120mm zoom lens.

My final night in London.

Trafalgar Square at dusk taken with the Nikon D800 and 24mm focal length using a 5 second exposure to blur the lights of passing traffic.

Day and Night

 When shooting travel subjects I often try to cover them several ways, making sure I have a straight shot, then moving on to a night shot, and later trying to capture something a bit more out of the ordinary.  Here are a couple of versions of the Tower of London.

This straight view was taken with a very wide angle lens that allowed for rectilinear correction later in Photoshop.

This dusk view was taken from across the Thames with a telephoto lens.  I shot this both vertical and horizontal, as well as obtaining some closer versions.  Here the top was purposely left large to invite type use by the designer.

Sunset is very late this time of year so I would stop off for a pub dinner before heading out to photograph.  One of my favorite places was The Feathers where they serve a traditional sausage and mash made of Glouchester Old Spot.

A night shot of the Tower of London with its colorful lights taken with the Nikon D800 and 24-70mm lens.

The color of the lights are constantly changing in a rotating pattern.  Someone must have decided that this would be attractive to the tourists.  I found it quite garishly over done, particularly when the  upper lights start blinking on and off.  The least they could have done was added one rotation of traditional lighting for those of use with more conservative tastes.

Homage to the Bauhaus

It was overcast and drizzling in London today -- surprise, surprise -- so I took some time off to vist an exhibit on the Bauhaus at the Barbican Art Gallery.  It inspired me to take this graphic photo using bold, primary colors while I was on my way back to my hotel.

Because of the rain I knew there would be little opportunity for photography so I left the D800 kit in the hotel and opted for the Fuji X-Pro1 instead.  At least it would fit in my pocket.  I often keep the Fuji set to a high (usually 3200) Auto ISO so I can be prepared to react quickly in a unexpected situation.  This was taken using the 18mm lens at an ISO of 2000 as a train was pulling into the station.

These photos were taken just before sunset from the inner circle of Stonehenge.

Stonehenge is all about the relationship to the sun so I took many photographs illustrating this concept.

This photo and those below were taken with the new Sigma 12-24mm lens.  I like using an extreme wide angle to create relationships between foreground detail and a background scene.

Today I visited the ancestral home of Henry Fox Talbot, the British inventor of the positive-negative process of photography in 1839.  He called his process the calotype.  I will have more to say about the history of Talbot and his process at a later date on my new "About Photography" blog.

Lacock Abbey was the ancestral home of Henry Fox Talbot.  His earliest photography was largely taken on its premises.

On the left is a print of made from the oldest photographic negative in existance.  It was taken by Talbot from inside Lacock Abbey.  Next to it is a  photograph I took today showing the same window from the outside.

A portrait of Henry Fox Talbot taken in 1864.

It was definitely an exciting experience to be on the site of the birthplace of modern photography.  As I walked around the premises photographing with the latest in digital photography, the Nikon D800, I wondered what Fox Talbot would think of how far his invention has come.

Arrived in London today, where I will be attending the CEPIC convention later this week.  CEPIC is the largest gathering of stock photo agencies from all over the world.  I came a few days early to photograph London.

Here are several variations I did of Big Ben.  All were taken with the Nikon D800, which will be my main camera while here.  I did bring along the Fuji X-Pro1 to run some tests on it, and I brought along the Leica M9 because...well...I always bring along a Leica.

The clouds today were dramatic so I kept combining them into graphic designs around everything I photographed.

This extreme wide angle view was taken with the Sigma 12-24mm zoom set to 21mm.  I bought this lens recently because of its 12mm focal length, which is the widest rectilinear lens available for a full-frame Nikon.

A polarizing filter helped to saturate the colors here.  The telephone booth had glares on it from direct sunlight that the filter eliminated.

The streaks are made by opening the camera shutter for a long time while traffic goes by.  Here the shutter speed was 3 seconds.  This is actually a composite of three images.  I recorded some variations in the traffic streaks and superimposed them over each other to fill in where I wanted to add some color.

We had one model in the studio for an all day session where we reeled her through a number of stock situations including this workout session.  I wanted the images to have a dark, gritty look so I held back light from the shadows by positioning a large studio flat that darkened the foreground scene while allowing enough light to creep around it to brighten the highlight areas.

Both images were taken with the Nikon D4 and 70-200mm zoom used at full telephoto range and wide open aperture to create a very shallow depth of field that kept the background soft.

I went back to photograph the 15 stars and stripes flag that is flying over Castle Cllinton in lower Manhattan.  I wanted to do some closer abstract photos of it against a pure blue sky.   This is the flag that was the inspiration for the "Star Spangled Banner" written during the War of 1812.

These images were taken from directly underneath the flag using a Nikon D800 and 24-120mm zoom lens.

Another concept shot using a water drop.  This image is a combination of the two shown below.  By centering the drop and allowing plenty of space above the bucket, the photo makes it easy for a designer to place copy on top and complete the composition.

This image and the horizontal version below are my favorite photos from the drop shooting.