Anyway, I realize July is quickly coming to an end, so it was about time I posted some photos from June. But you still have a few more days to take some beautiful bokeh photos! Here’s the photos from June, where the theme was urban:

By Hynek S. - Beautiful bright sky!

By jinspain2002 - It's hard to get much more urban than this. I love all the yellow cabs lined up, and the person crossing the street.

By Atlantis_breeze - fantastic urban artwork

By evelynspikes - wow, that's a lot of windows!

By Christopher.F Photography - I was actually really hoping someone would post some light trails in June, and this is a fantastic example. (btw, Christopher posted some more fantastic photos of Chicago this month, so if you like that city as much as I do, you might want to check out his other photos)

By tpavankumar - Love the curved brick street, and the one car amidst all the bikes.

By Noctem Wolf - Oh, man. What great colors and detail!

By thedigitaliris - Love how this photo is both colorful and gritty.

By infion - I love the lighting in here.

By jan.etc - great skyline!

By caitra_ - great composition and I love the simple, bright colors.

By laura oliver1 - I'm such a sucker for rusty old things. And the splash of green behind this is just perfect.

By mtbcat - I think the flares from the light really add to this urban scene.

By Rick Zawodny - this is one of those photos that I really, really like... but can't put my finger on why exactly...

By shirley319 - Love the shallow depth of field on this.

By .:SindyHand:. - just beautiful. Urban, Disney-style :)

By Jon Game - just breathtaking!

By jennifercwlee - Great colors!

By kkaldrich - I've been through this tunnel so many times! I love everything reflecting off the 'ceiling'

Related posts:

1. The Best of Monthly Theme: Color May’s theme over in the iffles.com Monthly Theme Group on...
2. The Best of Monthly Theme: People You guys – I was able to recover all my...
3. The best of Monthly Theme: Textures January’s theme for the iffles.com Monthly Themes group on flickr...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Project Fail.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about failure. Perhaps it’s because I’ve failed in pretty much all of my photography projects I was going to accomplish this year.

The weird thing, though, is that I’ve been thinking about it not because I’m mad at myself for failure, but actually because I’m not. Sure, I’m a little bummed, but why not so upset? In 2008 I did a year of daily self-portraits. In 2009, I did a photowalk a week. During both of those years I was extremely motivated to finish those projects and if I had missed a single day or a single week, goodness, I’d be so upset! (I did actually miss a day in the SP project. I actually cried. And I know others who have said the same thing, so at least I’m not alone!)

So, why I am a bit calmer about it this year? I think these are the three reasons:

Photography isn’t about Projects

I was already a member of flickr when I first “became a photographer” (I define that time period as when it first became a passion for me), as I was already using it as a place to store photos (mostly of my cats because, yes, I’m one of those people). When I suddenly found this passion, I turned to flickr for inspiration and I realized that most of the people that inspired me were doing some sort of project. Most of them were in the middle of a 365 Self Portrait project. And so, it’s not hard to see why I quickly associated passionate photography with such projects.

It’s really only this year that I realized that whenever I told someone I was into photography, none of them asked “oh, what project are you working on?” It was always one of three questions: “What kind of camera do you have?”, “What type of photos do you take?”, or “Where can I see your work?”. Now, granted, I don’t think just having a camera makes you a photographer, and while I question whether you can call yourself a photographer if you’re not sharing your work with anyone, even that one is debatable. But you can’t really get around the fact that people want to know what your passion is – what you like taking photos of, not what projects you’ve accomplished. In fact, when I tell people about my past projects, I mostly get a “ok. Well, that’s kind of crazy.” look from them!

Photography is about passion. And if you’re passionate about doing a project – like I was in the past – then GREAT! But I’m just not feeling it this year.

Asparagus Risotto. f/4.0; 1/60 sec; 60mm; ISO 800

There’s More to Life than Photography

Who knew, right? During 2008 and 2009, I defined myself (outside of work, at least) almost exclusively as A Hobbyist Photographer. That was who I was. That was what I did. And I don’t regret that. But this year I’ve realized there’s really more to me. I like to play geeky board games with my friends. I like pick up my CSA share and then plan and cook entire meals around them. I like to read books on my Nook. Heck, I even like to watch TV.

Maybe none of that is directly helping my photography (though the cooking has given me plenty of new meals to photograph), but being a bit more well-rounded has not only helped me deal with not accomplishing my photography goals, but I think it’s also indirectly making me a better photographer because I’m finding motivation in other things.

FIRE! f/4.0; 1/250 sec; 105mm; ISO 800

I’m Shooting What I Want

I really like taking photos of fire. I don’t think they’re amazing pictures. I don’t think it’s something anyone else couldn’t do with their point & shoot or iPhone. I just like it. During the warmer months, John and I spent a lot of nights sitting out our deck with a fire in the fire pit and/or a fire in our old, rusty charcoal grill. And every time I have to grab my camera and take some shots.

This isn’t some sort of goal of mine, and it doesn’t fit into any predefined project. I just have fun doing it and looking at the results. I’ve also been taking photos of the progress of the veggies in my garden. I’m not sure if this is something anyone other than me cares about looking at, but I like it. it makes me happy not only to see something I planted turn into something I eat, but I like making it look good in photos.

There were a few times last year that I really had to force myself to go on one of those photowalks, and I was only doing it because I didn’t want to fail. I’m still pretty proud that I accomplished my goal, but I also question why I went out and did things that I didn’t even want to do? I’m sure it’s no surprise, either, that on most of the “I don’t feel like doing this” walks, I didn’t get many good pictures. If I’m not feeling it, I’m not getting good photos.

Conclusion

I think my overall point of this entry is that what we individually define as failure isn’t necessarily actually failure. Yes, it’s true, there’s no real way for me to accomplish the goals I set forth at the beginning of the year. But that doesn’t mean I’m a failure. It just means that my goals have changed.

I mentioned at the start of this entry that I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this so-called concept of failure, so expect this entry to be the first a series.

Related posts:

1. Why I Think it’s OK to “Cheat” on Photography Projects (sometimes)… You guys are all aware that I’m attempting three photography-related...
2. My 2010 Photography Projects I’ve decided on three major photography projects for 2010. I...
3. What I’ve Been Reading (and a winner!) First of all, the winner of the pro flickr account...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This photo does NOT follow the Rule of Thirds. And ya know what? I like it.

First off, I wanted to apologize in the lack of posts around here lately, but hopefully things should be back up to normal now. Including a post in a day or two with my favorite photos from June in the iffles.com Monthly Themes group on flickr. June’s theme was Urban. July’s theme is bokeh, and I really look forward to seeing what you all submit! Also, at the beginning of the year, I asked people in the flickr group to vote on what the theme for August would be, and reflections was the clear winner, so keep it in mind for next month!

The real point of this post, though, is something that’s been weighing on my mind lately as I read posts on photography forums where people are putting down either their own photos or critiquing someone else’s and mentioning them not following a certain composition rule. It has bothered me because, to me, a photograph is more about beauty and a feeling you get from looking at it than it is about lines and positioning.

I’ve talked in the past about some composition rules (here and here, for instance). The classic composition rule I hear about the most is the Rule of Thirds – which basically states that you should put something of interest in your photos at the one of the intersections of a horizontal or vertical thirds line in your photo (the first “here” link above describes it in more detail). Often this means putting your horizon line on one of the horizontal lines. But sometimes I think it’s really important to forget about the rules.

Why You Should Forget The Rules

My biggest reason I think you should break the rules is because photography is an art! I try to keep the rules in mind when I’m taking photos, I’m not denying that, but sometimes I get so annoyed when I see people taking these rules so seriously that taking a photo seems more like a chore – a checklist of To Dos, if you will – than something creative.

It is my opinion that the rules are a great guideline, or a great starting point when you’re looking at something you want to photograph and you’re not sure how. But if you’re just going to concentrate on rules, where is the fun? Where is the art? Where is the creativity?

When and How You should Break the Rules

I feel like I shouldn’t even write this part of the post. Aren’t I tell you rules about how to break the rules? That just seems wrong.

But I’m writing it anyway. Here are the times that I especially think it’s important to break the rules.

• When you have a lot of time available to shoot the same thing. Play it safe and take some photos follow the rules, and then give yourself a chance to play around and do whatever you want. You may very well find out you like the ones where you followed the rules anyway, but you’ll never figure out what works and what doesn’t if you don’t play around.
• When you’re taking a photo in some type of tough and/or unpredictable situation. For instance, if you’re at a fast-paced sporting event or taking photos of a moving object like an animal or child. Sometimes it’s better just to get a photo that’s in focus and sharp than it is to spend so much time trying to line things up right that you don’t get any photo at all.
• When you’re trying some new technique. First time panning? Or light painting? I find when I’m trying to learn something new, it goes much better if I throw all the other rules out the window so I can just concentrate on that technique.
• When you just feel like doing something different. Everyone else has taken a photo of the sun setting over a body of water with the horizon on thirds line. Yes, it’s beautiful, but why not play around and turn your camera at an angle? Or purposely go out of focus create an all-bokeh sunset. Just be creative!

I hope that inspires you – and perhaps even takes some pressure off you – for the next time you’re out shooting!

Related posts:

1. Photography 101 – Composition II This entry isn’t so much about composition “rules” like the...
2. Gimp: Some quick tips The Gimp is a very powerful piece of software and...
3. Why I Think it’s OK to “Cheat” on Photography Projects (sometimes)… You guys are all aware that I’m attempting three photography-related...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This really has nothing to do with any of the links, just a photo I've taken recently that I like!

First of all, the winner of the pro flickr account celebrating the one year anniversary of iffles.com was Bouncyczech! You should be receiving an email with your flickr pro account code. Either enjoy it yourself, or pass it one – whatever floats your boat!

And now for some links that you might find interesting!

• I love black and white photos, but even I make some of these mistakes with your black and white photos.
• You all know how much I love flickr, right? Well, read someone else’s perspective on why flickr is a great tool for nature photographers
• Just a few days before iffles.com celebrated a one-year anniversary, another favorite photography site of mine celebrated its one-year. So hop on over to the discerning photographer for a list of top ten posts you may have missed over there!
• Have a prime lens you love as much as I love my 50mm? Check out these 7 tips for shooting with normal primes
• I’ve mentioned before that I don’t have much of a desire to become a professional photographer. But I know that’s the ultimate goal for many of you. So, are you good enough to go pro?
• A lot of these things didn’t apply to me since I shoot more landscapes than people, but it was still an interesting list of items to bring on a photo shoot
• Ronan Palliser gives two tips for shooting in bright sunlight – improvise with fill light or find some shade

Related posts:

1. What I’ve Been Reading You may have noticed I’ve decided to change the name...
2. Weekend Links The above photo was a pretty popular one of mine...
3. What I’ve Been Reading Above is one of my photos from a wedding John...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Don’t forget to submit your photos for June – the theme is urban!

By Jon Game - A perfect example of green!

By kalina813 - such bright colors!

By Atlantis_breeze - oh my!

By brad_mc - I love the colors in a sunset.

By .:SindyHand:. - colorful AND yummy!

By bumblebeezack - I love that you called this photo Tennis.

By Karamello - so very yellow, so very pretty.

By thedigitaliris - a perfect pink.

By Noctem Wolf - I don't know what this is, but it's definitely colorful.

By jan.etc - Have I mentioned how much I like to the colors of sunset? And to see it in bokeh? Yum.

By mtbcat - love the repeating pattern in the colors.

By team.breeze - What a beautiful shade of red.

By Governmentality - mmmm, colorful chard.

By miamiredbird - oh my, what a colorful bird, and great action shot, too.

By infion - love the green against the blue sky.

By kkaldrich - now those are colors I'd really like to sink my teeth into!

By rachel_pics - what pretty greens.

By neeta dewan - so bright and green! Love the composition, too.

Related posts:

1. The Best of Monthly Theme: Urban As I was gathering these photos of my personal favorites...
2. The best of Monthly Theme: Textures January’s theme for the iffles.com Monthly Themes group on flickr...
3. The best of Monthly Theme: Shapes Well, its about that time that I show you my...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

One Year Celebration!

Today, June 18, 2010 marks the one year anniversary of iffles.com!

It’s been quite a year of ups and downs – articles that came out just how I wanted them to, and articles that really flopped. Days I was proud of all that I’ve accomplished, and days I struggled with what I would write next. I launched when I had the website “good enough for launching” but still had a To Do list with bunches of items on it left to clean things up. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s still bunches of items on that list.

I’ve learned so much about photography from running this site, forcing myself to learn new and different things so that I have something to write about, which was something I was hoping would happen… and it did!

I was also, however, incredibly shocked with how much time running this site has taken up, which is why I can’t write all that often, which means I’ll never be one of the Big Dogs when it comes to photography sites. And you know what? I’m totally ok with that. One of the main reasons I decided I never wanted to try to make money off of photography was because I didn’t want it to turn into a job, an obligation and/or a stress in my life. So if I get a couple of comments on a blog that posts once a week or so, I’m ok with that.

Speaking of comments – I want to thank all of you that have stuck around, offering encouragement and advice. I feel like I’ve gotten to know a number of you through your comments (and your blogs and flickr streams!).

Top Ten Posts

Ok, enough mushy stuff. Let’s do the typical “one year anniversary of a blog” thing and show you the top ten posts of the past year (for the record, I did this by pageviews. It’s debatable what the best method for this type of thing is, but, well, that’s the one I chose):

1. Gimp Script Showcase: National Geographic
2. What I Learned from the Death of my Computer
3. Why I Think You Should Go On the Third Annual Worldwide Photo Walk
4. Some New Features in UFRaw
5. Making Eyes Pop Using Gimp
6. Introduction to Using UFRaw to Edit RAW Files
7. Faking HDR in Gimp (I cringe putting this one on the list. This is my least favorite post I’ve written for various reasons)
8. Gimp Script Showcase: Warming and Cooling Filter
9. Adding a Vignette (or Blurry Dark Edges) to a Photo in Gimp
10. Gimp Script Showcase: Vintage Photos

What You’ve Missed

A few of my favorite posts didn’t make the Top Ten, and I figure it’s probably because some of you weren’t reading a year ago. I wanted to point out some of my favorite posts that you might have missed:

• Gimp 101: Levels. I think this is such a basic starting point for photo editing.
• Gimp 101: Curves – part one and two. Ok, so I needed two parts because I didn’t do a good enough job explaining the first time, so maybe I shouldn’t include these as a favorite, but I still think it’s good information that can dramatically impact a photo. (btw, there’s a part three to this series still brewing)
• 5 Things to do When You’re in a Photo Rut. Hey, we’ve all been there.
• Layer Blending Modes in Gimp. Ok, so, my hover-over-the-image thing takes way too long to load. And I apologize for that. But if you have a bit of patience, I think you’ll find this entry pretty helpful if you use Gimp.
• How I Did It: The Boots Photo. One of my favorite self portraits I’ve ever taken, explained step-by-step from set-up to final product.

A Final Thank You

I know I mentioned it above, but I do really appreciate the comments I get (even the negative ones – because those are the ones I learn from!), and so I’d like thank you by giving you one more chance to leave a comment. I’ll pick one comment at random from this post to get one year of Flickr Pro. I’m sure you all realize by now that I have one of these things, and while the unlimited uploads and storage, as well as the ability to archive high-resolution photos is nice, I have to admit my favorite perk of a pro account are the stats! Anyway, this is a gift from me to a random noter and is not sponsered by flickr in any way, I just happen to like the site a lot. All you have to do to enter is leave a note before midnight on Tuesday night (I’m in the Eastern time zone, but to be honest, I’m pretty flexible on this timing, but that’s the earliest I’ll choose a winner). One comment per person, please!

I’ll announce the winner on the blog and use the email address from your comment to email the pro code to the winner – flickr upgrade codes are not associated with the email account at all, so you can use any (working) email address in your comment and you’ll be able to use the code even if that’s not the same email address associated with my flickr account. This also means you can pass it on to a friend or family member that you think will really appreciate it.

Related posts:

1. Show me what you got! First things first – a few people sounded interested in...
2. What I’ve Been Reading (and a winner!) First of all, the winner of the pro flickr account...
3. Weekend Links I’m hoping this becomes a weekly thing for me, posting...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

By the way, in case you ever wondered, this are just posted in the order they are in the group pool.

By Christopher F. Photography - I saw this one shortly after it was submitted to the pool and knew right away it would make this month's list. What a love-full, beautiful photo.

By bouncyczech - I always love the lighting caused by blinds, but I also like how the shadow was captured in this photo, too.

By rhmom42 - Love the eyelashes and freckles, but also how soft this is and the perfectly black background

By Bron..T.. (aka summerdaze) - I LOVE all the water in this photo, especially on the left hand side where you can see it splashing off to the side. And the colors - just beautiful!

By thedigitaliris - Ok, not only is this a beautiful photo with great focus, but the editing is just perfect, in my opinion. And it was done in Gimp - click through to see the details!

By Frozen in Time Photographers - love the angle, and how this looks like she didn't even know the camera was there and she was just lost in her daydreams.

By Atlantis_breeze - what a great background with a cute kiddo in front of it :)

By NinaCarmes - oh my goodness. What fantastic eyes. So powerful.

By Alicia Furness - another powerful photo, with an almost haunting expression, which is nice coupled with the soft lighting.

By cooperspectivephoto - I love the softness of the fountain, the burst of the streetlamp, and the romance behind a 15 second kiss on a 5 year anniversary :)

By jan.etc - This is the type of street photography I love - nothing too cluttered or crowded, great architecture, and a person where you wonder what their story is (I'm dying to know what's in those cases - is that just luggage?? Equipment for something??)

By WxMom - I just had to post this because it made me laugh out loud!

By shirley319 - ok, I almost died a little when I first saw this photo. Do I even have to describe why I like it so much? The light, the field of glowing dandelions (I'm assuming that's what they are?) and the perfectly timed catpure of the person walking off the bridge - gah!

By .:SindyHand:. - this photo just screams 'love'. Well, actually, I guess it more whispers it because it's so soft and pretty. While I love the light and the expresions on their faces, I think my favorite part is his hand on her hip. It's small gestures - like that - that really say
'I love you'

By bumblebeezack - just a great portrait of a beautiful woman, and I love the colors in the background.

By PhotoMaria83 - oh my, what a fantastic expression.

By team.breeze - I can remember doing this so much as a kid. I love the puffy air-filled cheeks and the blissful expression.

By melissac79 - great representation of 'temptation', indeed.

By kkaldrich - I love the city background... it makes me think this woman could tell a lot of stories about that city.

By a girl named kevyn - so many beautiful colors.

By rachel_pics - what great expressions!

Note: There is one photo that originally made the list that isn’t on flickr anymore, so I just wanted to mention to Priya Pickett – I loved your photo that, if I recall correctly, was of two small children sitting on a bench on a dock or pier of some sort? I think it was black and white, too. I know that might not be descriptive enough for you to remember what photo it was, but I’m not sure I’m remembering it correctly, either! Anyway, I just wanted to mention I liked your photo!

Related posts:

1. The best of Monthly Theme: Shapes Well, its about that time that I show you my...
2. The Best of Monthly Theme: Urban As I was gathering these photos of my personal favorites...
3. The Best of Monthly Theme: Color May’s theme over in the iffles.com Monthly Theme Group on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A photo from when I went on last year's Worldwide Photo Walk

You may have already heard of Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk, but if not, let me give you a really quick recap. For the third year in a row, photographers from all over the world are going to meet up in groups of no more than 50, to walk around various cities and take photos, all on the same day. Most walks include an optional post-walk get-together at a bar, restaurant or coffee shop where you can talk about the day and show off the photos you took.

I went on the second annual walk last near, and now I’m going to devote a whole entry to convincing you to go to the third annual walk.

Learn from Others

No matter how much you know about photography, and no matter how many photowalks you’ve been on, there’s still something that you’re probably going to learn from other people on the walk. Even if you have all the technical stuff about taking photos down (which, I applaud you if you do, there are still things I struggle with), you’ll see the shots that are other people are lining up, and start seeing things from a different perspective. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut of the type of photos that you typically take, and know look good, that it’s nice to see things that other people are doing, get inspired, and try something different.

Last year, our leader (every walk has a leader) had a Canon (a nicer one than mine – which isn’t saying much – but I can’t remember which one it was), with a pretty L-series lens on it, so I was able to talk to a real person about lenses, and which one I should get next as a good walk-around lens. I’d done a lot of research online, but there’s something to be said to talking face-to-face with someone about these things.

Teach Others

Unless you just pick up your very first camera the day of the photo walk, there’s going to be something you already know about photography. In fact, I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this website, you not only already have a camera, but are interested enough in photography to be reading about it on the internet. I was surprised that the other people in my group (granted, I was walking with a very small group) didn’t seem to pay as much attention to the internet world of photography that I did. I have to admit, I was really nervous last year, so I didn’t talk much about anything directly related to taking photos, but I was able to share some of my favorite sites, and I’d like to think that someone went home and started looking those up online, and learned just one piece of information from those sites. If so, then I indirectly contributed to someone learning something about photography, and that makes me happy.

This year, I’m a bit more confident about the photowalk in general, and my photography experience, so I’m ready and willing to start answering questions and helping other walkers. And, from what a lot of you have said in comments, I’m confident that each of you have something to contribute as well.

Heck, if nothing else, you can tell people “I read this great photography website called iffles.com!” Hee!

Learn about your City

Whenever I go to shoot downtown Akron, I always seem to go to all of my favorite spots. Whenever I go up to Cleveland, I always feel like I don’t know where to shoot, so in both cities, I’ve felt I haven’t had a chance to explore all there is to offer photography-wise. A photowalk in either of these cities would provide new opportunities for me.

Last year, I actually went on the walk in Medina, Ohio – a small town outside of Akron that has a beautiful Town Square. I made this decision because I didn’t like the location of the Akron photowalk and wasn’t willing to drive up to Cleveland. I had been to Medina once or twice, but never with a camera, so it was a completely new experience, and that was exciting. It’s probably a city I never would have thought to go photograph otherwise.

(On a side note, I haven’t signed up for a walk for this year yet, because I was waiting to see what all will be offered nearby – if you’re in the Cleveland/Akron area, and sign up for a walk and would like me to be on the same walk, let me know. I’m willing to drive farther this year, especially if it means I get a chance to meet up with one of you)

See Parts of your City you Might Not See Otherwise

A photo from when I went on the Worldwide Photo Walk last year

A lot of the leaders of the walk arrange for you to get access to places that might not usually be open to the public and/or allow cameras. For instance, the Akron photowalk is going to a cemetery that, according to the walk page is “rarely open to the public”. If there is more than one walk in your area, you might want to keep an eye out for any that will give you this kind of access.

Meet Other Photographers

I have a ton of internet connections with photographers (some that are mutual, some that are more “oh hai, I drool over your photo awesomeness. kthnxbye), but I really don’t know anyone else that lives near me that is quite as passionate about photography that I am. I am starting to meet a few more people, but I tend to meet people that are around my age, and most people in their thirties are planning or already have kids, which really eats into their photography time (not that I blame them!), so spending time out shooting together is pretty limited. I go on almost all of my photowalks alone, and sometimes it’s really nice to just enjoy being around someone else that you can “talk shop” with.

Win Prizes!

It’s a really tough competition, so I’m not saying you definitely will win a prize, but goodness, the prizes are nice (I wouldn’t mind $1000 to spend at Adorama!). Last year, the prize list was much larger (though I don’t believe there was one giant sponsor like Adorama), and kept growing as the date got closer, so I can’t say one way or the other if anything will be added to this year’s list – but, once again, can you really complain about Adorama gift cards?

Tips for Picking Your Walk

I’ve already mentioned to look for walks near you that might provide you access to a place you might not normally be able to get to, but another thing to look at is time. I’m hemming and hawing about going to the Akron walk because it starts at 1:45PM. I would much prefer one that started later so we could take advantage of the evening light that’s much more diffuse than the harsh light of early afternoon.

Of course, if you live in/nearby a smaller city, you might only have one option, in which case, I suggest you select that one!

If there are no walks near you, it’s possible that you might be able to start your own walk, but you might want to check out the list of responsibilities and qualifications before you sign up to be a leader.

Unrelated news about iffles.com

The prognosis is looking good for recovering the data from the old laptop, I’ve just run into a little bit of an issue that I’m hoping we’ll be able to resolve (which I’ll mention down below for any Computer Geeks that want to chime in). I was hoping to have that fixed before going through all the May photos from the flickr group (since, as you may recall, I already picked out all the April photos and they’re sitting on that harddrive), but since it looks like that’s not going to happen, I plan on going through all the May photos tomorrow. So, if you have any lingering Color photos captured in May, but sure to upload them soon! And don’t forget that we’re well into June – Urban!

So, the computer problem that I feel I might as well mention here because I’ve been too preoccupied to google it, and I know I have a handful of Computer Geeks reading that might be able to offer some advice, is as follows (wow, that was quite a sentence. I’m sore I could have worded that better). I have the laptop drive in a new case and can connect it to the new laptop, and I can get to all the data except that which is in my User folder – which of course is where most of my data is. When I try opening said folder on my new (Windows 7) laptop it says I don’t have permission to view said folder (which was created in Vista), but it pops up the “do you want to continue anyway?” box, and I say yes, but then it hangs. Because I can get to all the other data, I’m assuming the hard drive is at least mostly fine, and it seems too much of a coincidence to have just MY data fail, so I’m guessing there’s something funky going on with the permissions set in Vista and trying to access it in Windows 7. Any ideas?

Related posts:

1. 5 Things To Do When You’re in a Photo Rut I’ve recently gone through a bit of a rut when...
2. Why I Think it’s OK to “Cheat” on Photography Projects (sometimes)… You guys are all aware that I’m attempting three photography-related...
3. What I Learned Doing 52 Photowalks in One Year Today I went on my last photowalk of 2009....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A photo edited with the filter discussed below. f/4.0; 1/320sec; 105mm; ISO 200

I’ve talked about using solid color layers to warm or cool your photos, but there’s also a Gimp script out there if you’re not interested in going the Do-It-Yourself route. Plus it offers a few more options than just simple solid-color layers do. You can find the script here. Once again, if you need to know how to install Gimp Scripts, go on back to this entry.

Once you install this warming and cooling filter, you’ll find it under Colors –> Warming or Cooling Filter.

Let’s take a look at the options for this Script:

The Tone drop-down has 7 options:

• Cooling – Wratten 80
• Cooling – Wratten 82
• Warming – Wratten 81
• Warming – Wratten 85
• Roy’s Warm
• Brauer’s Warm
• Pasty Cadaveric Look

The Overlay Fill Method only applies to the Wratten Filters, so I’ll talk about it when I go over those. The Opacity slider, I’m sure you’re all aware of what I’ll say about that one: there’s no need to mess with it because it’s easily changed after-the-fact.

And finally, the Flatten Image checkbox will – surprisingly enough – flatten your image after running the script. Flattening an image means that it will basically remove all the layers you were working with and instead give you one layer of what was visible. So any new layers created while running this script and any layers you already had in your image will no longer be there for you to play with. I never check this box on any script I run, because as soon as you do that, the only way you can manipulate or undo any part of the filter is to do an Edit –> Undo and remove the entire filter itself.

The Wratten Filters

The basics of these filters really build off of what my previous entry was talking about – using solid colored layers to warm or cool your photos. If we don’t mess with the Overly Fill Method dropdown and just run each of the four Wratten filters, you’ll get four different solid color layers, set to Overlay and set at 25% Opacity:

Nothing special is happening, nothing changed to my Background layer, running the filter just gives you a solid color layer set to overlay. Obviously this is something that’s done easy enough without using a script, but sometimes it’s just nice to click a button and have it do it for you instead of creating your layer and picking your fill color and setting the blend mode (what? I’m lazy sometimes. I’ll admit it.). At 25% opacity, the change was pretty subtle, so to make sure you could really see the difference in the photos, I bumped it up to 50%. Here’s what those lovely colored layers do to an image of a flower (top half is the original photo, bottom half is with the Wratten Filter):

Cooling - Wratten 80

Cooling - Wratten 82

Warming - Wratten 81

Warming - Wratten 85

Now that we know what all the colors are and how much they warm or cool a photo, let’s look at the next drop down for the Fill Method. If you go back to the page in the Gimp plugin registry, you’ll see that it explains that selecting the Fill Red Channel, it will select only the red channel of your image and apply the color to that – suggesting that this is good for warming or cooling skin tone without effecting the entire image.

So, let’s start with this (unedited) photo of my niece:

Unedited

If I run Warming – Wratten 81 with the Fill Red Channel option selected, I get a new layer created that looks like this (note, the script doesn’t actually look like this when it runs, because this layer is set to Overlay and 25% opacity. But I switched it to normal and 100% opacity in order to show you what the layer itself looked like):

100% Opacity, Normal blend mode

Notice that her purple shirt and the dark parts of the green grass are almost all black, so they’re not going to get as warmed up as they would if I was running the script with Fill Entire Layer selected. I ran the script twice – once with Fill Red Channel and once with Fill Entire Layer (and kept them both at overlay – I think I might have bumped the opacity up to 50%, too, but I didn’t seem to write that down. Oops.). Here they are, side-by-side for a comparison:

Fill Entire on the left and Fill Red on the right

You can really tell the difference by looking at the trees in the background that are getting quite yellow-y in the Fill Entire Layer version of the image. It’s a very helpful tool. The only thing I don’t really like is that, because the non-colored part of the Fill Red Channel layer is so dark, and the layer is set to overlay, it makes parts of the photo – like the shadows, her hair, and her shirt – quite dark.

Roy’s Warm

If you go back to the registry page for the filter, you’ll see that it says the Roy’s Warm option uses teh color balance to adjust the magenta and yellow hues in order to warm up the image. From my limited experience, I can tell you a few things about this option:

• You don’t have to bother with the Fill Mode dropdown (since that only applies for the Wratten options anyway)
• The Opacity slider makes no difference even if you wanted to use it, because it doesn’t create a second layer…
• …which is why I suggest creating a duplicate layer before using this option, if only to make it easier to compare before and after by just making the second layer visible and invisible
• It made such a little difference on some of my photos that it wasn’t even noticable. For instance, on the flower photo I was using in the Wratten examples, you could barely tell anything changed, even when switching the visibility on the layer

It did, however, make a slight difference on this photo of a dandelion next to a river. Original, unedited photo is on the left, Roy’s Warm is on the right:

Roy's Warm

Brauer’s Warm

Once again, we can look at what it says on the registry page to know that a duplicate layer is already going to be created for us, and the hue of this layer is going to be adjusted.

The opacity slider does make a difference on this one (though I still say no reason to bother messing with it until after you run the script so you can adjust it while actually looking at the photo). What you’re going to get is a rather sepia-looking version of your photo with the blend mode set to Normal. For instance, if you run it on the original flower photo and set the opacity to 100%, this is what you get:

100% Opacity

If you drop the opacity down to the default of 25%, you get this (unedited on top, Brauer on the bottom):

Brauer's Warm

I had a lot of fun playing with this one, too, and really liked switching the blend mode to Overlay and bumping the opacity back up to 100% (once again, unedited on top):

Blend mode set to overlay at 100%

It’s not quite as much of a “warming” effect, per se, but it does look kinda cool, in my opinion.

Pasty Cadaveric Look

As the name suggests, this is supposed to “cool” the skin tones and give a person a pasty cadaver-like look. I ran this on the photo of my niece, and it definitely did what it said it would do, but I can’t say I actually like it (sorry, I didn’t split this one into unedited and edited, I apologize):

Pasty

But, then I tried it on the flower picture, just to see how it looked on a non-person, and ooooh, I liked it! (As usual, unedited on top):

Pasty flower

Conclusion

I’m really loving this script – which in a way seems surprising because it’s all things that are relatively easy to do without a script, but it’s just kinda nice to have a script do it all for you, and have a bunch of warming and cooling options all tucked away in one place, so if you KNOW you want to warm up your photo, you can just try them all and see what looks best in a matter of a few minutes. Which reminds me of something else I really liked about this script – it ran really fast. I realize that’s directly related to the fact that it’s doing relatively simple things. But still, it’s definitely nice.

As a final thought, I did want to mention that, if you’re shooting in RAW, you also have the option of changing the white balance of your photo in order to warm or cool the image. I talk about using the Temperature slider – among other things – in UFRaw in this post.

Related posts:

1. Gimp Script Showcase: National Geographic I’ve been really excited to show you guys this script...
2. Gimp Script Showcase: 300 Movie First off, I just wanted to mention that my Weekend...
3. Gimp Script Showcase: Photochrom I used to review Gimp scripts on this site, and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

A photo edited with the newer version of UFRaw. f/4.0; 1/800 sec; 67mm; ISO 200

I mentioned previously that when I got my new laptop set up, I downloaded the newest versions of UFRaw and Gimp and was happy to find some additional features in them and promised to come back and write about them in more detail.

I’m going to start with UFRaw today. If you need a refresher, I originally wrote about UFRaw here – and everything I wrote about there still exists today, there’s just some additions.

My favorite addition – and, in fact, the only one I’ve used so far – is the Lens Correction tab, which looks like this:

As you can see, it already knows that I shoot with a Canon Rebel XTi. If I click the two little gears next all the way to the right of the Lens box, it will fill in what kind of lens I used, as well as adjust some parameters in the section below:

So, the section below that gets shown by default is the Lens distortion tab (it’s the one selected above that looks like a blue square with arrows pointing in). It automatically switches the dropdown to the PanoTools lens model – I’m assuming it does that because it’s the only model that it can adjust automatically for you. There are other models available, but it would require manual adjusting of values, and since I’m not quite sure what all of them do, I’ve been sticking with the PanoTools one. You might have figured out that the goal here is to get a photo that you could use in a panorama. Have you ever noticed that when you take a couple photos in a row to stitch them together, that they often don’t look quite “right”? It often looks a bit wavy – kinda like it’s going in and out. This is because your lens distorts the image some on the side, and this tool here is trying to correct that. Which I find to be nice even when I’m not doing a panorama.

For instance, check this example out. The image you see below is the image Straight Out of Camera (SOOC), and if you hover over it, it will switch to the automatic lens distortion correction from UFRaw (the last time I did hover-overs a couple people complained, so if you’d rather open the images yourself and compare, you can: SOOC, Corrected).

I think you can really notice on the sides of the room – it doesn’t look like it’s bulging out quite as much. This is the type of thing that I might not have noticed as I was glancing at the photo, but as soon as I see it fixed, I can definitely seen an improvement.

One thing I really like that UFRaw does, is that it sites where the formula it’s using come froms, as you can see at the bottom of the tab:

That link goes to here, in case you wanted to check it out.

So. The other tab that I’ve played around with in the Lens Correction section is the Optical Vignetting tab, which is one over the left (a red, green and blue rectangle):

Once again, the goal here was to correct things that would really show up when doing a panorama. If you switch the Model dropdown to 6th order polynomial, you’ll see some sliders and – once again – a url at the bottom that explains where the formula is coming from:

The reference this time is for this site, where you will see the type of thing it is trying to correct. What I like to use this tab for is to add some subtle vignetting to my photos. Remember I talked about a couple ways to do this in gimp a while ago, but this is really a lot easier if you’re going for the subtle approach. Just start moving the sliders to see what they do. For example, I started with this photo:

SOOC

… and then I moved all three sliders to the right in order to get this:

With Vignette

And there you have it – my favorite new features of UFRaw!

Related posts:

1. Introduction to using UFRaw to edit Raw files I love Gimp – I think you might have all...
2. How I Did It: The Hand Photo I got a message on flickr recently about how I...
3. How I use Picasa I know I owe you guys another gimp editing tutorial...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.