SmugMug
Home | Login | Help |
|
Style:
&
|View Cart
DailyPhotos > Jeremy  > Photo Diary > My Daily Photo Diary
One photo a day to make the study of subject, composition, and light a part of my daily routine. Along the way, you'll know who I am, what I love, where I am going. Critiques are always welcome. You may contact me at jeremy@winnick.net.
Gallery pages:  <<  <  7  8  9  10  11  12  >  >>
< 82 of 163 >
Jeremy > July 23, 2008; Day 82. More fun with light tonight. My friend Charles gave me this mug when we visited his house in May. He shaped and fired the mug himself. I knew that it would make a fine subject for when I finally learned to photograph glass. Tonight, I started practicing the theory. Glass is all about shape, and shape is on the edges. To make them stand out, they need to be either really dark or really bright. In this shot, my flash is sitting to the left of the mug, at the 10 o’clock position. A gold reflector is at the 2 o’clock position to the right of the mug, oriented to angle the light similarly to that of the flash. The hardest part of this shot was managing the dust. I’ve got a big spec still there that I should take the healing brush to. Just too tired tonight. JPEG from camera; no post processing.
Jeremy > July 22, 2008; Day 81. The new printer arrived this morning and now, 12 hours later, I can assess it: I love it. It’s quieter, smaller, and lighter; it prints straighter lines and richer colors. The trademark “embossed” look of the prints is still there but somehow it’s using less ink. Everything on this machine is improved. My old printer did not have a metal badge like this. I thought I’d do a little light experiment that I learned from Light Science and Magic. Here, I have placed my light source, a 75-watt incandescent bulb, directly into the family of angles that should give me direct reflection. This does a good job showing off the texture of this subject. For comparison, I shot this again with my light in the position I would normally select for texture, at camera right, glancing over the subject. Not as good, I think. I’m enjoying this book. JPEG from camera, no post processing.
Jeremy > July 21, 2008; Day 80. Boys Night Out. Tonight was movie night, but I didn’t get to relax and enjoy it because next Sunday, we are hosting our biggest fundraising event of the year. I enjoy spending time on this because we keep very little of the money for ourselves. Mostly, we donate our proceeds to other non-profits throughout this area. So naturally I ran around tonight tying up the last-minute details making sure that everything goes smoothly. This is my first usage of Photoshop’s Photomerge feature. I continue to be impressed by what PS can do. I thought it would have trouble correcting the ceiling, which slants one way in one image and the other way in the other. Perhaps PS can even remove that ugly blob of green flare, but if so, I don’t know how to invoke it! I like the big color shift in the next room, which is being lit almost entirely by floodlamps. After Photomerge: PS: Exposure: +0.3 PS: Unsharp Mask: 20-30-0
Jeremy > July 20, 2008; Day 79. Today I attended a small car show in Bath, NH. It rained most of the day, so there were only 30 cars, and all the windows were up. Alas, only exterior shots today. However, the low turnout seriously raised my chances of winning raffle prizes, and indeed, I won three: a hat, a cordless screwdriver, and a leather biking vest. A very good day! I had two favorite shots from today. I picked this one because of the background, which seems to work so well with classic cars. That building on the right is America’s oldest general store. Also because my first car was a 1973 AMC Gremlin, which this AMX resembled. My runner-up shot was this nice Plymouth Barracuda Formula S. After the show we went to a friend’s house to have dinner and play with his player piano. While I was pumping out the scroll for the 1812 Overture, a friend grabbed my camera and captured this. Yes, I’m holding onto the piano…this piece requires a lot of air and I was losing my balance! Raw: Exposure: +0.3 Raw: Saturation: +30 PS: Unsharp Mask: 20-30-0
Jeremy > July 19, 2008; Day 78. I attended two parties today, a potluck lunch in Merrimack and a potluck supper and night swim in Pembroke. I baked this pie first thing this morning for the potluck lunch. Soon after it came out of the oven, I saw a “cookie” shadow creeping across the table. That’s when the main light source passes through something that casts shadows on your subject. In this case, the golden sun is filtering through the outdoor foliage. For well-defined plants (like the spikes of an Aloe), it can create nifty effects on food subjects. What I didn’t expect was the effect of the sunlight striking the glass baking pan. The camera is pointed more or less toward the sun, and no flash, reflector, or ambient room lighting is involved. Therefore, that bright spot on the front of the plate can only be sunlight passing around the curve of the plate, colliding, and exiting at this spot. I’m sure there’s a word for this. Refraction maybe? Raw: Recovery: +20 Raw: Fill Light: +20 Raw: Saturation: +20 PS: Crop: ~5% PS: Unsharp Mask: 20-30-0
Jeremy > July 18, 2008. Day 77. This is the Centennial Inn in Concord. I’ve eaten at the restaurant here before but didn’t notice until last week how well lit the building is at night. With storms expected tonight, I set up in the lawn and hoped that the rain would come after dusk. I got my wish and a little bonus: a faint bit of lightning, which added purple to the sky. The only thing that bothers me about this shot is the deep shadow cast by the balcony. If you visit the hotel’s website, you’ll notice that the problem was present for their photographer too, but he or she had the advantage that all the interior lights were on. But hey...I got lightning! I may return here and set up between the turrets...might be something worth capturing there, and the shadow can be mostly pushed out of frame. PS: Unsharp Mask: 20-30-0
Jeremy > July 17, 2008; Day 76. Printerless. Until today, this view of my office had been almost fully obstructed by my Xerox 8200 solid ink printer. Late last month it started to bang, and then it started to jam. (If it were a musical instrument, it would be rocking.) If I had waited another week, it might have taken up smoking. I took it to the very friendly Xerox repair place today. They told me it that it needed a $478 part and 2 hours of labor install it. Alternatively, I could trade it in for the fourth-generation replacement (Xerox 8560). The difference in price was about $150, so it didn’t take me long to decide. The new printer is cheaper than the old printer when it was new, and the ink is cheaper too. The sales guys promised me that it uses less ink too. The new printer may arrive as early as Monday. This won’t be in time to fulfill my monthly commitment to Brian Dustin, who relies on me to print his newsletter. Since his deadline is Monday, I’ll have to either use Peter’s inkjet or run to Kinko’s. There are two light sources here. At camera right and near the ceiling is a shaded lamp with a 75 watt incandescent bulb. Attached to my Gorillapod atop the TV is my SB-600, wearing a warming gel to balance the color. After playing in Photoshop, I liked this desaturated version best. This object in the foreground is the 500-sheet tray, which was not standard for the 8200DP model. Since it still works, I will try to sell it on eBay. Raw: Exposure: +0.7 PS: Crop: ~15% PS: Desaturate PS: Exposure: +0.5 PS: Unsharp Mask: 20-30-0
Jeremy > July 16, 2008; Day 75. Peter came over tonight so I took advantage of him in order to practice the “Independence Day” portion of my Four Holidays project. I had just enough sky and mosquito tolerance to get through 8 sparklers. This image is flawed and will need to be re-shot. My analysis (feel free to add your own!): What I did right: Good sky. I managed to hold relatively still for the 4-second exposure. Good lighting on the face. Good lighting from the first-floor windows. What I need to fix: First, the nitpicks: Replace the GE Reveal bulb upstairs with a standard incandescent (too blue). The greenery is too dark at the left and the porch is too bright—this disrupts the balance I think. A well-placed strobe should throw a nice amount of light across the rhododendrons, and a weaker bulb on the porch might help too if still needed. Overall, the house is a little underexposed and I think turning up the ISO a little will help. Next, the bigger issue…does this look like Independence Day to you? Perhaps in the context of the other holidays it will, but I think a single sparkler doesn’t say much. Definitely there should be an American flag in here somewhere. For fun, I also tried painting with light. I like the resulting design very much but I’m a little dark. Peter also agreed to be photographed. Although he held still better than I did, he's holding the sparkler too far from his face. PS: Rotate 1 degree CCW PS: Crop out the black bars from the rotation
Jeremy > July 15, 2008; Day 74. Attached to the gym where I work out is a landscape and interior design company with an appropriately designed entryway for their business. I liked the textures available in this shot. The sky was cloudless, but that was OK because I didn’t want to use HDR anyway. I could have waited for a deeper blue but I didn’t have my tripod. Shame! To see the zoomed-out entryway, click here. Raw: Fill Light: +10 Raw: Saturation: +40 PS: Equalize PS: Curves PS: Auto contrast
July 23, 2008; Day 82.

More fun with light tonight. My friend Charles gave me this mug when we visited his house in May. He shaped and fired the mug himself. I knew that it would make a fine subject for when I finally learned to photograph glass. Tonight, I started practicing the theory. Glass is all about shape, and shape is on the edges. To make them stand out, they need to be either really dark or really bright. In this shot, my flash is sitting to the left of the mug, at the 10 o’clock position. A gold reflector is at the 2 o’clock position to the right of the mug, oriented to angle the light similarly to that of the flash.

The hardest part of this shot was managing the dust. I’ve got a big spec still there that I should take the healing brush to. Just too tired tonight.

JPEG from camera; no post processing.
> July 23, 2008; Day 82. More fun with light tonight. My friend Charles gave me this mug when we visited his house in May. He shaped and fired the mug himself. I knew that it would make a fine subject for when I finally learned to photograph glass. Tonight, I started practicing the theory. Glass is all about shape, and shape is on the edges. To make them stand out, they need to be either really dark or really bright. In this shot, my flash is sitting to the left of the mug, at the 10 o’clock position. A gold reflector is at the 2 o’clock position to the right of the mug, oriented to angle the light similarly to that of the flash. The hardest part of this shot was managing the dust. I’ve got a big spec still there that I should take the healing brush to. Just too tired tonight. JPEG from camera; no post processing.
July 23, 2008; Day 82.

More fun with light tonight. My friend Charles gave me this mug when we visited his house in May. He shaped and fired the mug himself. I knew that it would make a fine subject for when I finally learned to photograph glass. Tonight, I started practicing the theory. Glass is all about shape, and shape is on the edges. To make them stand out, they need to be either really dark or really bright. In this shot, my flash is sitting to the left of the mug, at the 10 o’clock position. A gold reflector is at the 2 o’clock position to the right of the mug, oriented to angle the light similarly to that of the flash.

The hardest part of this shot was managing the dust. I’ve got a big spec still there that I should take the healing brush to. Just too tired tonight.

JPEG from camera; no post processing.
Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D80) |
More details: exif |
Original size: 2592px x 3872px |
Current: 201px x 300px |
Other sizes: Small · M · L · O |
Share photo: links, forums, blogs |
Keywords: mug 90mm commander mode gold reflector charles lafond
Gallery pages:  <<  <  7  8  9  10  11  12  >  >>
< 82 of 163 >

Comments

| hide gallery comments |

New comment:

Comment on: | Rating: stars
Name:
Link:
To foil spammers, enter this code: copy this text in this box: Code unreadable?
News | Browse | Keywords | Communities | Forum | Wiki | ClubSmug | Prints & Gifts | Shopping Cart | Login
Terms | Privacy | About Us | Contact SmugMug | Blogs | API | Affiliates | © 2008 SmugMug, Inc.
Show FeedsAvailable Feeds | What are feeds?
Gallery Photos:
Atom FeedAtom | RSS FeedRSS