Here is the subject of tonights discussion:

I thought this was a wonderful photo.  Had some nice sized droplets, green and black colors which I love and some interesting texture.   I especially love how the droplet on the left hand side magnifies the texture of the grass blade.  What is the point of all this?  This photo I submitted to Pentax Photo Gallery and it was declined.  For those who don’t know, Pentax Photo Gallery (often referred to as PPG) is a Pentax user gallery displaying the best that Pentax products create.  Pentax moderates the site and must authorize anyone who wants to setup an account.  Users submit photos and other users vote on them.  I’ve submitted probably 15 images and had two accepted, still waiting on one.  I think this beats the two I have accepted personally but i’ll let you judge.

It begs the question; why do I take pictures?  I used to think critique and acceptance meant something for me but when you allow the way you do something artistically to be changed by the demands of a viewer base it kind of gets ruined  eg. family guy after the cancellation and resurrection.  I’m getting to the point where I don’t give a shit if i’m doing something according to a school of thought I take pictures for me and if I like them thats all that is important.  I love sharing, don’t get me wrong but at the end of the day I care more about if I like my photos than if others do and isn’t that really the point?

For those who wonder why I care to write something so few people will actually read I feel I should come clean. No, its not for attention; I just feel the need to write. I used to be a good writer. I could command emotion with words and structure. Well blended sentence structure would flow naturally and I could use both structure tone to get my point across. Over the past six years i’ve gone through studying two sciences finally ending in Geography. I am not asked to write often and when I am excellence is not demanded. So why do I write? I feel like I need to. I used to have an inner monologue that would guide my wit, prepare me for sticky situations and allow me to come across as cool and composed. Somewhere along the line I killed the little voice inside me and let me tell you, going it alone sucks. I like to write and my content is really aimed at myself. I want to remember what I like at a given stage in my life. We are too often robbed of what our true experience is and blinded by memory. I don’t like lying and I don’t like being lied to so I guess I want to detail myself as best as possible for when I get older. I also have a daughter and maybe if something happens to me, she’ll want to know why she yells “HEY!” when she’s upset or has an uncontrollable desire to either yell or laugh and nothing in between.

What brings me here tonight? Mozart and knee pain. My knees have felt “funny” since I was 11 or 12 years old. I went to an orthopedist and he examined them and said “you have torn cartilage and need to strengthen the surrounding muscles.” I’m now 24, have random instances of knee pain and I recently found out the range of motion is nowhere near where it should be. Additionally they buckle at times and I lose my balance as a result. I’m now 24 and my legs were strong enough to squat 315lbs at one point and they still hurt, rattle and pop. Why is this important? I was a goalie and I think a pretty damn good one. Pretty hard to be a goalie when your knees don’t let you get into basic positions.

Mozart? I like dark music or really just music that seems real. So much music is manufactured to evoke a feeling but I prefer music that is a response to a feeling. I’ve always liked less talented artists who express themselves over well crafted songsmiths who can make you feel how they want you to feel. Is mozart less than talented? Absolutely not but the feel of his Requiem got me to thinking. People have struggled since the dawn of time. Nothing I feel is unique. Somewhere 500 years ago somebody felt like they had more to offer than they have and it let them get down. People have wanted to listen to the same music I want to listen to right now. People have been torn up inside about how they should feel about their life and look for answers. Finally, people have known what its like to have no outlet, nobody to really confide in. My life is not bleak at all but it was one of those moments where my heartbeat was in sync with someone 100 years ago, 500 years ago somewhere back when.

This is in photoshop 7 but the process will work the same for any layer based editing program, maybe I’ll switch to my linux desktop and see if I can do it in gimp later?  I’ll also write the step and then maybe a “pro tip“.

A quick anecdote…”Pro Tip” is not meant to imply I’m a professional and I know what I’m doing better than anyone else.  It all came from a night smoking a cigar with a good friend.  He was getting ready to light up, was holding a match in his mouth and a cigar in his had and began to strike the cigar on the match box.  He looked over at me and said “Pro tip…strike the match not the cigar”.

Enough foreplay.

Step 1:  Open an image to edit

Pro Tip: if you cannot do this please consult the “PC professor” from that late night TV infomercial.  Click on images in this walk through for larger, clearer versions!

Step 2: Unlock the background

Pro Tip: This is the part where you double click on the only extant layer.

Step 3: Duplicate the layer.

Right click on your only layer and select

“duplicate layer”

Pro Tip: I find it helps me keep track if I’m trying multiply layers to label it.  It won’t make sense now but we’ll title this duplicate layer “green”.

Step 4:  Select only the green channel and copy it.

Quickest way to do this is make sure you’ve selected the layer we just created and titled “green”.   Switch to the “channels tab” and click on “green”.  This should make your image greyscale now.  Now use the “select all” command [cntl+a] and then copy [cntl+c].

Pro Tip: Using key based commands instead of menus helps save time and keep things moving.

Step 5:  Create a new image and paste copied channel into it.

What we need to do here is after selecting and copying the green channel, go to “File, New” and it should automatically fill in what you need.  Check to make sure that its a transparent greyscale image of the same dimensions your original is.

Once you click ok, paste [cntl+v] your selection into the new image.  You should now have two identical images.

Pro Tip: When photoshop has something in selection or on the “clipboard”, it will automatically input those dimensions and characteristics into the menu.

Step 6: Apply the copied image to the original.

This is where it gets slightly complicated.  I got stuck here a little while but keep checking to make sure your screen looks like what you see in these pictures.

Go back to the original image and click on the layer labeled “green”  Remember we’re looking for the layer, not the channel.

Once you’ve selected the layer we named “green”, switch to the channels tab and click on RGB, this should return color to your image.

Now go to the “image” menu at the top and select “apply image”.

You should make sure source is selected as “untitled-1” (or whatever you named the image you pasted the green channel into), layer is selected as “merged”, blending mode is normal, opacity 100%, none of the other boxes except preview checked .  If you have the box for “preview” clicked it should show your original image in greyscale again.

Pro Tip:  If you’re  a regular at a restaurant, try tipping more generously.  I think you’ll find you get better service.  Plus, it doesn’t hurt to pay it forward.

Step 7: Bring back the color.

Ok so a greyscale image isn’t what you were gunning for when you started this tutorial.  No problem, we created a copy of the original so that we could maintain color information.  Just make sure your edited layer is above the original and change the blending mode to “luminosity”.

Amazing, the color is back and the skin looks at least marginally better.  Its not dramatic but most things in photography are not, especially when you’re as poor as me!  Nevertheless, we can still improve this photo.  You’ve probably noticed the lips and hair don’t look quite right.  Lets go to step 9 and fix that.

Pro Tip: To see what you’ve done, toggle the visibility of your edited layer back and forth so you can see the before and after of your work.

Step 9: Create a layer mask.

Layer masks are the most helpful elements of photoshop.  Because of layer masks we don’t have to live with the trade off between skin tone and other details.  All we need to do is…

click on create a layer mask, link the mask to the layer if it isn’t already.

Paint over anything that isn’t skin tone.

Flatten image, save for web and show your friends how you brought the sexy back.

Pro Tip: The layer mask shows a cool outline of the face!  Also don’t forget the lips and eyes, they often look better masked.

Here is a final comparison of our original and edited version.

Its not making a marginal photograph a masterpiece but photography is about taking pictures not using photoshop.  This just helps us do things the camera can’t accurately do and give justice to our model.

Special credit goes to the incomperable Lukas Weisel for letting me use this image as a walkthrough.

This is a goose, we’ll call him “Gossy”.  He was quite the ham.

He seemed very interested in the camera though its more likely he was interested in me because humans feed these guys way too much

While I’m on the subject, I’ve always felt its important to address wildlife photography etiquette.  None of my pictures, from these few to all in the future,  involve baiting or feeding animals at all.  Some of the smaller animals I will manipulate like a salamander or a snake as long as it doesn’t endanger the livelyhood of the animal itself (i’ll worry about my own livelyhood).  Its a dangerous game to feed animals, many of the problems human/animal interactions face stem from humans becomming a source of food for wild animals.  From bears to geese many tragic situations could have been avoided with both food security and withholding feeding.  I don’t mean to sound preachy but please do not feed wild animals.

I’ve got a few different techniques I plan on trying this summer, including sitting in a blind and calling animals in.   That should prove exciting especially if I find a way to attain a high quality telephoto zoom.

Anyway, more pictures…same goose as before with the beak in focus.

I imagine this is the Eric Estrada of the goose world.

Finally, this is a house finch I found hopping along the rocks.  Looks to be a proud little bird.

This one is the most printable (hint hint)

This is the marriott hotel on the waterfront corrected for barrell distortion via PTlens, great product!

Finally, a very cool reflection in the scary black building in SW

Currently learning some new techniques and trying to move over into linux, we’ll see how that goes!

Please leave comments if you feel so inclined and check back frequently as some non photography posts are in the offing so to speak.

I bought a cokin p series holder from ebay and a neutral density graduated filter from pro photo supply.  I was trying to use the filter today without the holder but that’s a pain in the ass and it really didn’t need it today.

Anyway, to the pictures…I put a lot on flickr and won’t post them all here so go check them out but here are the highlights.

Union Station.

Colors were beautiful with the sun setting and the polarized sky!  I don’t think the lines are quite right but it was a beautiful day for shooting this location.

Train Tracks

One more…

Memorial Coliseum

Also want to direct people to the right side of the page where there is a new link called “photo sales”.  Yes, I’m selling my photos.  I wasn’t kidding about wanting to make this a job!

Started off walking down to the waterfront to see if I could get inspired.  I’ll be honest I haven’t felt good lately and there wasn’t much art coming to my brain.  The sun was shaded so it was a lot of dull, muted light.  Figured I may as well take some bridge pictures.  Here is the first one I did.

I was pleasantly surprised afterwards with the quality and diversity of the colors.  Next up was the Morrison bridge.  I got here at a very favorable time as the sun popped out from behind the clouds and illuminated the bridge.

I was actually surprised I had taken this photo once I got back home I just really found myself captivated by the colors and again the dynamic range.  The polarizer definitely helps clean these images up, but its true value wasn’t seen until later.

Quick anecdote…I was walking up the waterfront and saw this amazing storm cloud headed east…Having been down here before at night, I knew the steel bridge would offer me a cool angle to use this cloud as a backdrop.  I kept walking but the cloud was faster.  It felt like I was chasing a bus I’d never catch.  My favorite character in American TV history is George Costanza from Seinfeld and this was definitely one of those moments.

This is the view across the river from waterfront park.

The true value of the circular polarizer comes out here.   I really enjoyed the color of the sky and the shape of the rain bands pounding the east side.  Clouds are one of the most captivating subjects to me simply because they’re so dynamic and immense.  One minute you’ve got whimsical cirrus clouds and the next an imposing wall of an incoming storm front.  But I digress…  One thing this photo shows me I really need is a Neutral Density Graduated Filter, since skies are often brighter than the foreground.  Had to try to lighten this one up.

Finally on my way back I saw some birds in flight and figured i’d try to catch them in air…I kept shooting as they passed me and wound up with this image by accident.  Something about it I just like.

Please comment if you feel so inclined.

Just goes to show that some really amazing photo oppurtunities come when you least expect them.  I guess the lesson is if I go out, bring the camera!

ps.  After previewing this post I realize something.  If the city was not there, you’d have a picturesque mountain sunset with rowers on a lake.  I think since we know what should be there it detracts a little but.  Just a curious observation!

The long awaited k20d has arrived!  Exceeds my personal expectations.  I don’t know if i’m impressed with this class of camera, since its far and above anything i’ve used before or this camera itself.

Shot a lot of pictures this weekend…few keepers, most of them were at my nephews 1st birthday party so nothing too exciting.

I think a lot of people  talk about the detail and color when they review a camera (which I will not do).  Yeah, this stuff is great but most cameras across a given price range will have similar capabilities.  For me, I love ergonomics, ease of use, and how quickly I can change things.  This camera has got everything I knew I wanted to use (shutter, aperture, sensitivity) on the body.  Whats most impressive is how many new things I found that I had never used before and how quickly I find I could never photograph without them.  Things like an AF button instead of pressing the shutter halfway, Exposure lock, changing formats, changing drive mode, changing metering mode.  The list goes on.  Very pleased with the purchase thus far.

ps.  Thank you for the comments those who chose to comment, I think this was the first time i’ve had someone comment on a photo who I didn’t know personally so its nice to see that someone took the time to look at what i’ve done and comment, regardless of whether they like it or not.