4 Real or fake Log practice

For this assignment .
My aim is to produce a book/magazine cover that will tell the story of the content.
Using my skills to manipulate the image to make it stand out.
Title. My tilted heading : Wild life of Borneo close up.  
Subject. Wild life
Theme. focus and close ups.
Ordinance. Nature lovers and wild life photographers.

Planning;

This was at first , new territory, proving some difficulty in selecting the right metrical. Although I has something in mind. The fast amount of images to put the picture together, gave some what more of a challenge then i wished for.

Fist I chose the Horn Bill. Took away it back ground, The confused trees.

Giving some thought over a few days , Going through many more photographs . Then , Simplicity came to mind. So I worked on this. 

Using eraser and the clone tool. 

My next step ; Look for other animals in photos to ad, that compliment without looking unnatural.
At this point , no suitable  subjects that matched lighting. So I took away the blue background and layered the Hornbill into this photo:

By reducing the Horn Bill and cutting the branches. This pleasing compliment and right scale in size came together. adding text in 4 layers.

by adding each layer, I took this what would have been my final. Re sized to 600 x 900  ( 8.5 x 11 )  Magazine average size , Producing a new canvas . Adding some texture and colour. making it the back ground. reducing the main image , then using the clone . Puling the image off . Over the background.  Allowing a margin at the base for extra text.

After all this work. My tutor did not find this impacting enough. Its not what was expected. looking at other work , I wonder where my photography is going. So Now to start over again. And Make another image look Fake .

Exercise 23 : Alteration.

For this Exercise . i have to take any image, Like a person in a garden. And take the person out and move them.  I can go to any length to do alterations. 

So I chose this photograph of A villager elder from Kotakinabalu mountain. 

As i wanted to capture the lady hard at work, with out distracting. Or imposing. 

I took the picture passing by in the car. In doing so. Not able to set the composition and move to avoid distracting object.  I can therefore now change the picture using photoshop. 

The Original. 

With time, masking the image, switching, Then using tools like clone , eraser, patch tool and history brush. Saving as i made adjustments.
The final result is:

The hardest parts was re crating the valley. Not to clone , as in mimic pats, So not make one part look twined with another. then to balance colour.

Exercise 22 Addition.

In this exercise. I was required to take a land scape on  try pod. To use 2/3 of sky.

Expose one for the land , and expose the other for the sky .
later the lighter one over the darker. using tools to bring back the sky to have an even exposure over the entire image.

These are the two exposures. dark and then two stops lighter.
Tools photoshop Cs3

Tools to work with . Lasso and magic eraser.

For the second part of this exercise. I am to take clouds from another photo. I have chosen the above. as I had nothing els that matched. Take a landscape or find a picture that the clouds are not so evident. Impose the two. To make a dramatic land scape. Showing that the lighting falls close to what light and shadow is in the land scape.

Cotswolds. UK  

some masking and adjustment in exposure and brightness , contrast had to be done . This cloud and adjustment give the over all image , much more depth. 

Exercise 21 Enhancement

This time I have to Enhance a parsons face that has been taken in the shade facing the camera.

Fist this  was to adjust the High clipping. this made the face more darker and challenging. I brightened the exposure to bring detail back. this left a soft tone.

Enhanced the face. from lasso. Carful adjustment to not make the hair contrast against its self. 

And then the eyes. 

For some reason , As Cs3 will not open my raw files , I have to go to CS3 ver Aperture 3. Why I will never know. I could not save the file in j peg. however , i managed this by save as through web send. As when saves as Tiff, this would not export to aperture , to convert back to J peg.

Enhancements: Photographic portraiture, may give the subject a more flattering feel of them selves, So to does the viewer feel more embraced , when the eyes peer out from a magazine. Capturing the on looker to read more. 
Over Enhancement may throw the picture to appear synthetic , if over done. Some people like to see them selves as they are. As one portrait,. I had taken years ago. A Lady was most up set, as I took her blemishes out. She stated it was not her. yet here in Asia, its the trend to look perfect. 

Exercise 20 Improvement :

The aim of this exercise is to take a portrait , To make improvements to make the image stand out. face Enhancement

Before adjustments :

After ; I has used the lasso tool to mask the face , lightened slightly and used healing brush for the cheek.

When doing this, i noted that to much, Evidence of a line in stepping of tone or brightness would show. it pays to follow a slight shaded area on the face hair line. Or a graduated mark will appear. 

Exercise 19 correction

To correct dust and flair imperfections in digital photographs:

The software I like to use for this is in aperture. If allot of work is required . Then I use photoshop.  Small spots can be repaired by using the repair or spot brush. however , where the mark or unwanted distraction is largely apparent. Then clone tool and repair may be used.

There was a program long a go I loved for restoring old photos . Photo suit that you could lasso parts of and image . change the size reverse, and spin and place anywhere. And it would blend in. I have not seen anything like it to date.

So extreme cases. canon do a program I have yet to master that called a dust delete program. I will look into this more later. However. If dust is constantly on the screen. this can cause allot of work, From what i have read about the dust delete program. How it is done, i feel its not the solution. Batch processing, what ever. All means allot of work. the best bet is to avoid these problems.

Keep your camera and lenses clean. cheeper zooms act like a bellows in use, So if you camera uses video, Dust can be blown onto the sensor.

An air can can be used to clean the sensor. a good cleaning kit for the lenses. I get a free cleaning service here from canon being a member of CPS.

If I am on Location. A method to chick . Is to photograph the blue sky or an even bright back drop. Zoom in and scan the image . Be it on the camera screen and computer. If you see an imperfection. Then this will be in the opposite point on the sensor.  After using the blower. With a Hoya lens cloth. Rapped round a cotton bud. Lightly go over the screen using the manual clean mode. Up, down, left to right, As some times the dust may stick. Flair can be avoided by using a HD HQ filter on the mens.

Re test by the same method as above.

As seen here , you hardly see any fault . 

just above the sun this mark could be seen. 

This was corrected using the clone too. and dressed with the spot brush.
I have been to the Resources of this subject , on the OCA. but confusing to flare. and spots.
Sots or marks i understand. Flare in the picture that is on file. I am confused.
Where is the flare?

the photos ned a before and after.

Here is a photo that has marks and flare .

With a little patients , and zooming in. some carful cloning . i managed to take most of the flare away. need a bit more practice. 

Adjust the light and contrast on a person in a picture:

using clone and lasso tools in photoshop, i managed to play with the tools to bring brightness to the subject. With more time . managed to change the back drop, evidently taking out the pole and the image of the mans legs. 

Origional 

loosed the dancer , then using brightness and contrast .

Using various tools and clone tool.  

Assignment 3 Monochrome

An Encounter With Nature. 

The Aim of this assignment , is to produce 10 monochrome photographs. Converted from colour. manipulate tone and contrast. Use high and low key. 

For this theme . Amongst all the other possibilities that I could have photographed. From Street, people, Architecture, and land scape. These were just a few that came to mind. I decided on wild life. Nature so much more diverse in subject. I had asked my tutor if I could use my previous work . As I have so mush wild life photography taken in the rain forrest that I love. I could have just used the theme, "Bird life" from my window. But thats for something special I have in mind for the future.  So I agreed , As the latter , like street, and so forth, has all been done before, and so many do so. Wild life is my Theme. 

Some of these shots have been taken in the wild and others in a park. They have been taken within the last two weeks. I would have liked to have used others. However, I will put a link at the base to another gallery of my previous work. And also, a link to the  original colour pictures. 

High ISO had been used, to combat some of the low light under the canopy. 

Low key and shape :

The Horn Bill.

The horn bill:

The Hornbill is a funny bird, its beak so large. Its character can be quite curious.

As I settled for the 2 hours in sweltering humid heat. This bird took interest to what I was up to. As laid on my back photographing some other wild life.  The Horn bill came right up to me , looking in my bag. This enabled me to get in amazingly close, to capture and compose this picture. 

f 2.8 1/1000 sec ISO 800  145 mm

Texture : 

The peacock: 

As close encounters go. This was a lucky day. Making my exit, this peacock blocked my way. Pointing my standard zoom to the fill the frame . The bird kept walking closer. So close,  walking round me, summing me up. Again I changed to the 60 mm macro and shot this picture.  Head shot, side lit from the sun, filtering through the canopy. 

f 2.8 1/80 sec ISO  320 60mm macro 

Texture, shape and contrast :

Two Pigmy Elephants:
 Cooling off.

These wonderful creatures indigenous to Borneo, play in the water. Totally submersing them selves. patience  pays off. Waiting for the right moment. Its no good complaining of heat. Sacrifice of comfort, pays off when doing nature photography. As I captured these two cooling off. At the same time showing affection for one another. I was hoping for a heart shape to appear in the trunks. 

F9 1/400 sec ISO 400  200mm

Contrast : 

A fruit Bat:

 Hangs cooling it self through its wings in the hot humid climate. This is a rare sight to see , As two other behind me, fold up as the sleep in the day. Bit like an up side dow flasher.  

F2.8  1/800 sec  ISO 800 200mm 

Tone: 

The stork :

Trying to capture this bird was quite hard. The Auto focus, was going wild , trying to focus between the branches, Even with spot focus, I switched to Manual focus in time to take this shot. 

F5 1/80 sec  ISO320 170mm 

Shape:

 A diving otter 

I love otters. As they are so family oriented. The babies sound like a human baby crying. I had visited this family some time ago. They had just had babies , Now they were in full play teaching the off spring the ways of survival. Although these otters are protected. Not in the wild. As once used to be trained to catch fish for the villagers. They are now hunted for meat and there fur. 

F4.5 1/320 sec ISO 500 95mm 

Low key tone : 

Otters play in the shade:

The family of otters. Again, sitting and waiting for the right moment. 

You can take a dozen of photos , and not capture the right moment. Its like fishing. Its the waiting!

Lighting was the hardest part in most of these pictures . As your often shooting with high lit back drops. And moving subjects. Or under cover of trees. Where its dark. 

F5.6  1/400 sec  ISO 500 stop down 

High key :

 A Praying Mantis:

 10 mm in size: macro!

This was  challenging as being so small. And fast moving. I found this little Mantis on the bush in the back yard. It looks beautiful in colour, as well as black and white. The focus was critical. Holding the camera with a 60mm F16, fixed the focus on M . Moving the camera back and forth to get this shot. Depth of field being so shallow. I try not to use flash. As this gives unrealistic light to what the eye sees. And the depth would have made the back ground more distracting. 

F16 1/60 sec ISO 640 60 mm macro 

High key : 

A Flying lizard :

Hanging from a leaf after landing. 

An encounter, that I think was luck, or angels shone down on me that day. As I stated to walk down the path. This shadow flew by my face.  I looked to the bush that the shadow rested on next to me. And there! This flying lizard hung , trying to right its self after landing. As fast as I could. Changed from my zoom to my 60mm 2.8 macro. As the lizard was not bothered by me. I took advantage , to try different lenses. And angles to get this lovely circular composition. That looked good in black and white. All these pictures were taken with monochrome intent. however . This one is wonderful in colour also. To see the changing colours that this amazing creation of nature displays. As it attempts to blend in with its environment. 

F4.5  1/200sec  ISO 500 60 mm 

Mid tones. BulBuls bird

Taken out side my living room window. Sadly locals love chopping down trees and have no wild life value. This tree had been shopped twice before during my stay here. This time I put a sign on the tree , "protected for wild life photography". So I have managed to collect some beautiful images of the birds that visit this tree. And HD video also for a later project. 

Again . Many hours sitting, waiting for that right moment. And moving very slow. Not to scare the birds. 

F3.5  1/500 sec ISO 100 200mm 

Once I started producing black and white. I discovered that many pictures I have in stock, make more impact. They express them selves more in monochrome, then in colour. Especially if the colour is not dominant. EG . Street photography. 

Statement in brief :

The  theme:

 I chose, Wild Life. As it is different subject most would chose from most other assignments. Giving more of  a challenge. This theme being wildlife. As Wild life is so diverse in size shape and texture. As well as subject. 

Giving much scope for black and white photography. I have seen Wild life in monochrome in National Geographic. Taken in Africa. It stand out so much. 

I feel I have achieved my goal here. Expressing to the viewer, the elements that were available to me at the time.
These photographs gave me great pleasure in showing. As they remind me of the encounter I had, so close to nature that day. They show the wonder of what one can see here in Borneo. Monochrome taking the distraction of colour. Shows this more evidently.

In saying this in my statement. I would like to offer my link, where as this assignment gave me the inspiration to convert some of my previously taken photography. An convert it to monochrome.

www.amphibious-photographer.com
Link for colour versions of this assignment. look for OCA extra :
http://www.diveactive.com/http__www.diveactive.com/OCA_extra.html