The Digital Photography Weblog

Flickr Banner Creator

Andrew Barrow — 2006-07-25T12:10:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Flickr, Websites

A little tool for all you flickr lovers a Profile Widget banner generator. Throw in which ever photos you wish to display - such as most recent, most interesting, random recent, and random interesting, select if you want a photo count included and bobs your badger as we say around here. The banner will automatically update itself every hour.

It shows a selection of ten of your photos and some statistics about your Flickr usage. And that's about it to produce a rather nice looking banner that comes in one size - 500 x 100. What I couldn't get it to do though was display a banner without the stats. Code is provided to place the banner on your website. [The image above is just a jpeg and doesn't use the generated code.]

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Photographing pets

Jay Savage — 2006-06-29T19:50:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Websites

This came into my inbox today, and I couldn't believe we hadn't posted it. In fact, I initially brushed it off because I was certain we had. But we haven't, so thanks to T for reminding me! If you haven't seen it yet--it's been up for a while--Darren Rowse's Digital Photography School has a great article on shooting, er, photographing, pets. One of the things I really like about Darren is that he breaks it down into ten simple rules of thumb. The most important ones in my opinion are "catch them unawares," "get in close," and "start with your pet's personality." Great pet portraits start with those things. Figure out how to build a composistion out of them, and you'll be on your way.

One other important thing to think about is lighting. Darren recommends against flash except for dark-furred critters because animals get such ghastly red- (or green-, or yellow-) eye. I'd like to modify that to this: try not to use direct flash as your primary light source. Getting your animal to arrange itself in natural light the way you want may be a futile effort. Be prepared to bounce or fill to get the light you want where you want it.

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Shooting the July sky

Jay Savage — 2006-06-28T21:42:00+00:00

Filed under: How-to's, Tips and Tricks

With the 4th of July (and Bastille Day, and a whole host of other regional excuses to set off large explosions in the Midsummer sky) in the offing, John Watson has a short tutorial on shooting fireworks. there are thousands of tutorials on this subject out there, but he boils it down to the essentials: use a reasonably slow ISO setting (100-200); don't forget the tripod; exposure = length of trail; aperture = brightness of trail.

Working out the timing so that the starburst is centered wherever you've aimed the tripod is left as an exercise for the reader.

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Things not to do on a helicopter ride

Andrew Barrow — 2006-06-07T15:34:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Inspiration

The last few days I have been in Italy - touring vineyards north of Venice, tasting fresh and creamy Prosecco, eating a selection of deliciously good food and being enraptured by the stunning countryside. The highlight of the trip was a helicopter ride over the vineyards put on by one of the top producers of the Prosecco region Bisol.

Plenty of exclusive photographic opportunities you would have thought; and you wouldn't be wrong. Here are a few tips though. Firstly make sure you have a spare Compact Flash card so half way through the flight you don't run out of space. Secondly check the white balance is set for the conditions and don't assume the setting you have is overridden by the auto settings of the camera. Helicopters are noisy beasts and you have to have headphones clasped around your noggin to hear directions and commentary. This means of course that you can't hear the click of the camera or the whirl of the auto focus.

You are excited of course and clicking away like some possessed mad man (well I might never have another go at this so make the most of it!) and forget all these simple and obvious tips.. and end up deleting half the shots you took as they are blurred or suffer from burn out. Half the pictures you managed to take before the 'card full' message flashes on the screen....

Luckily many I did take turned out fine.

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DPW 6 - latest quick links

Andrew Barrow — 2006-05-30T15:14:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Inspiration, Quick Links, Websites, Events

Engadget reviews the 7.2 megapixel Sony DSV-T30 [link]
Download Squad looks at AllYouCanUpload a new image hosting site from CNet [link]
The staff photographer for the Baltimore Sun runs a lighting blog. Strobist has some interesting tips. [website]
Food blogger DessertFirst relates her experiences at a professional food photo shoot workshop [website]
A new image format is to be part of Windows Vista - Windows Media Photo. It is expected to offer better quality at half the size when compared to the JPEG format. It may also be released as an add-on for Windows XP. [details]
Improve your workflow and increase your creativity by attending the Phase One RoadShow seminar. See how Capture One software creates outstanding Photoshop-ready files. June 14, 2006 Park Royal Studios, London NW10 7AE [website]

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Strobist "'Starving Student' Off-Camera Light Kit"

Jay Savage — 2006-05-19T15:46:00+00:00

Filed under: Equipment, Gadgets, Tips and Tricks

David of Strobist has put together what he's calling the SSO-CLK, a collection of must-haves that you can cobble together to get started with off-camera lighting for about $150. Some of the equipment, like a folding light stand, will require some capital outlay if you don't have it already. Other items, though, are true DIY, like the homemade cereal box snoot.

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Garbage In; Garbage Out

Andrew Barrow — 2006-05-09T15:51:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Inspiration, Websites

It doesn't matter how hard you try playing around with photoshop - if you do not start with a decent image to start with you will never end up with a decent image. This is the crux of a post by Aaron Hockly on this DogCaught blog.

He writes "In the computer field, there's a term called GIGO, meaning "Garbage in, garbage out". Applying this to photography, the meaning is that if one starts with a poor photo, digital processing won't be able to turn it into a great shot. It is far better to begin with a properly exposed and technically correct photo than it is to start out needing to "fix" things just to make the photo usable."

After reading the rest of his thoughts have a look at his photo gallery. Who could fail to be inspired living where he does? Coupled with the stunning scenery there is also a little railway...

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Camera mod for the kids

Jay Savage — 2006-05-01T21:56:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks

I'm not quite sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, it's a neat update to the old wave around a rubber ducky and make weird--and hopefully not scary--noises technique for photographing children. On the other hand...I'm not sure this is quite what the manufacturer speced your hotshoe for. Photocritic has a link up to one guy's trick for keeping children interested in his camera: slide a PEZ dispenser into the hotshoe. This has a few advantages over the duck. First, there's almost endless variety; if you keep a selection of dispensers, you can find one the subject responds to. Second, it's affixed to the camera. That means that the child will be looking at the camera, not wherever you're waving your hand. It also means that you can keep both hands on the camera when not using a tripod. That's a big plus. The downside of course is that the child is always looking at the camera. no 3/4 profile here. At least not until the bundle of joy gets bored. Finally, of course, there's the bribe. You can dispense candy as a reward, candy that comes from the camera. I certainly would have been a lot more interested in looking at the camera as a kid if I'd though it dispensed candy.

Have pity on the general populace if you use this trick, though, and explain to the kids that you have a "magic" camera. your local camera store won't be amused when the neighborhood kids start showing up in search of treats.

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A different kind of food photography

Jay Savage — 2006-04-28T11:47:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Inspiration

We've talked a lot about food photography here, or at least Andrew has. Normally the idea of "foodporn" is to make the image look as appetizing, and food-like, as possible. Photographer and illustrator Larry Knox, though, decided to play with his food in a different way. When commissioned to produce a low-budget cover for a War of the Worlds reprint, He headed down to Philadelphia's Chinatown for inspiration, and came back with squid. It actually turned out better than expected. A squid, a marble, a burner cover, and some hose, a couple of paint cans and some candles actually make a pretty convincing, not to mention terrifying, alien destroyer. I can't wait to see the finished illustration.

My only question is: Larry, are you gonna eat that?

[via BoingBoing]

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Food Photography Blogs

Andrew Barrow — 2006-04-25T10:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Inspiration

Slashfood has just detailed the Michael Ray Foodblog. It is not really a blog - no comments/feedback, chronological organisation etc etc. But what the Michael Ray Foodblog offers though is a collection of interesting articles covering the capture of food photographs.

There is a set of images covering the set-up for a food shoot - more tree/less tree, pot plant/no pot plant. Each image has comments on the photographers thought process with each prop tweak or lighting change. The basics are covered well including lighting setups to reveal texture and the related subject of sheen and reflections.

On the same theme, Still Life With, (and this is a proper blog) offers plenty of tips on food photography tips. Recent posts cover selecting a tripod, HDR photography and Composition. I actually prefer this blog to the Michael Ray one.

[Photo Andrew Barrow]

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Privacy, security, and your images on the internet

Jay Savage — 2006-04-19T14:51:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks, Flickr

It seems that in addition to boring all of you on a (more-or-less) regular basis, I've taken on a second--or I suppose fourth--job: playing bogeyman to paranoid Flickrites. This isn't my first try at scaring the unaware, but I thought I was headed for retirement. It seems, though, that someone has found one of my old Flickr hacks and posted it to the Flickr help forums. Aside from bringing to our attention some formatting artifacts introduced by the server change in December, the post points up one eternal truth: most users of any technology don't understand it. But then I don't understand most Flicker users, so I guess it all evens out. Why would you use a photo sharing site if you don't want to, well, share your photos? One of life's great mysteries, right up there with the sound of one hand clapping.

All joking aside, if you really care whether other people can access your images, here are some useful rules of thumb:

* There's a difference between security and privacy. People seeing your images isn't a security issue, it's a privacy issue. If people can maliciously enter into parts of your system they shouldn't be in and possibly corrupt your data, that's a security issue. Flickr, therefore, does not have a security problem. To the best of my knowledge, they've never been hacked. Your images stored on Flickr are as safe as anywhere on the internet.

* There is no such thing as an image a user can't download. The fundamental assumption of HTML and it's brethren is that the server gives information to users to use in a way that makes sense for them. You can wrap things in javascript to disable right clicking. You can even wrap things in Flash streams so they don't look like images. A clever user with a sufficiently criminal mind will take about 30 seconds to dismantle your handiwork. A less-than-clever one may need an hour and a google search. The fundamental truth, though, is this: once information travels over the wire to a user's computer, they can do pretty much anything they want with it.

* Unless the url says it's secure, it isn't. If you're paranoid, you should really assume that anything you access through a url that doesn't start with https:// is being widely distributed behind your back. This goes double for unencrypted email.

* When it comes to privacy, you don't get something for nothing...or even next to nothing. Privacy and security come at a cost. Normally a pretty high cost. Don't expect them for $0 or even $39 a year. Just don't. sites like Flickr exist as places for people to get together, share, and have fun. Flickr is the Central Park of the photoblogging world, complete with people jumping fences and letting their dogs off the leash. You knew that when you signed up. If your idea of fun looks more like Fort Knox than the Ramble, look elsewhere.

* Corollary: If you're really losing sleep over this and it's professionally important, you should be willing to pony up the cash. There are products out there to help. Seefile makes a very nice webserver/gallery package for professional photographers; so do some other people. You can also roll your own without too much trouble, and your webhost should be able to help you set up some SLL certs to help secure whatever solution you choose. If this is your livelihood we're talking out, the cost is a pittance, and a tax-deductible pittance at that. If it's not your livelihood, what are you losing sleep over?

* Know your threat model. If you're really worried about someone stealing your images, ask yourself a couple of questions: 1) Who is going to steal them? 2) Why will this person steal them? 3) How can they steal them? 4) What material harm will it do me if they do steal them? Lost revenue? How much? 5) How likely is this scenario, really? Once you have those answers, you can formulate a realistic security and privacy plan that will meet your needs. If you can't come up with meaningful answers to all five questions, you're probably losing sleep over nothing.

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Groomzilla strikes back?

Jay Savage — 2006-04-19T13:46:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks

Ok, maybe not. But Brian Marcus has some good advice for would-be wedding photographers: it's not all about the bride. The groom may not usually have much say when it comes to hors d'oeuvre, but he is usually involved in choosing the photographer. Even within the mind-boggling realm of wedding expenses, the photographer is relatively pricey; less than the food, but, by the time all of the prints and albums for the parents are paid for, often more then the dress. More importantly, what they want the record of their wedding to look like--Black and white? Color? Lots of candids? Wedding party in funky poses?--is something that couples tend to have strong feelings about as, well, couples. It's a joint decision.

What does this mean for the photographer? That the groom is, in many cases, key to landing the job. You need to make a good impression on him at the interview. You need to make a good impression on the bride, too, of course, but with most brides I've seen, the interview won't be your chance for a first impression. She will have already seen you website and portfolio, talked to you or your assistant on the phone, etc. Brides are busy people. So are grooms. If they're sitting in your studio, it's probably because the bride already has a favorable impression of you. Now you need to cement that impression, and work on the groom. Make him feel comfortable. Make him feel involved. And make them both sure that you know what you're doing and can deliver what they want.

Of course, the job doesn't end there. Whatever the Wedding magazines say, the wedding day is the groom's day, too, and putting together the perfect album for the couple means showing him off to his best advantage. And that means mastering that key to all special event photography: getting the subject to cooperate and, hopefully, smile in a way that doesn't look like a death mask. Marcus gives seven tips for dealing with the groom on the wedding day;

1. Congratulate him as soon as you see him.
2. Compliment him on his tuxedo and tie.
3. Introduce yourself immediately to all of his groomsmen and key family members.
4. Be pleasant and extend yourself.
5. Guide him through your schedule of events and ideas for the day.
6. Show how excited you are for the opportunity to be his wedding photographer.
7. Be confident and show him that he was right to put his faith in your ability to capture his special day.

Thats certainly not the be all and end all of wedding photography, but it's a really good place to start:

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Straighten Image - A Photoshop Introduction

Andrew Barrow — 2006-03-03T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: How-to's, Tips and Tricks

A quick way to straighten images in photoshop.

Take one wonky image -

Right Click the eye dropper icon and select the measure tool

Draw a line across the image

At the top menu select Image/Rotate Canvas/Arbitrary

The adjustment should automatically pop up

You will probably have to resize the image to remove any revealed white space.

[Photo Andrew Barrow]

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Photo Tips Videos

Andrew Barrow — 2006-03-01T15:18:00+00:00

Filed under: Tips and Tricks

New to photography and looking for some simple no nonsense advice?

http://www.justshowmehowto.com is a new site that offers a range of video-on-demand downloads of photo and camera tips. The team behind the site includes Kevin Gilbert, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and five-time president of the White House News Photographers Association and Alex Stevens , an award-winning TV producer and former Head of Production at Discovery Networks.

is a new site that offers a range of video-on-demand downloads of photo and camera tips. The team behind the site includes Kevin Gilbert, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and five-time president of the White House News Photographers Association and Alex Stevens , an award-winning TV producer and former Head of Production at Discovery Networks.

There are two groups of videos - 'How To' on operating a number of cameras at $3.99 each and 'Take Better Pictures' at $1.99 each.

I have had a preview of several of the videos. Each were three minutes of video offering simple to understand hints and tips on the subject. Opening with some inspiring photos each went through a variety of 'basics' suitable for those with just a rudimentary knowledge of the subject. The landscape video went though tripods, camera settings, thinking about the time of day, perspective and scale and panoramas. The three minutes ended with an overview.

Selecting a Nikon camera at random (they do not at present list my Canon EOS350D) this video lasted just over six minutes hence the slightly higher price. It ran though the various camera functions in an easy to follow manner.

Overall professionally designed and produced videos, suitable for the novice.

UPDATE: I forgot that the EOS goes under a different name in the states - Rebel XT.

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