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Summer Projects

Nice weather arrived in the last couple weeks, so working on a computer has become second priority – I missed my last blog deadline. Sorry. It was so worth it though – being outside in the garden has been a gamechanger for my mood and attitude.

Also, our camera club season has concluded, lockdown is still in place and I’m now left wondering what to do with all my “free time”.

There is the aforementioned garden to maintain, a backyard pond to enjoy and summer breezes wafting through the air. True, but night falls eventually.

Early summer is often a time to take stock, to clean out, clean up. In 2014, I started the tradition of preparing a photobook each year of the images of mine that I felt most emotionally connected to through the year. That lasted until 2018. I have a few years to catch up on. What better time than now. So I’ve set that as one of my summer projects, along with producing some larger prints of these very same images.

Many photographers have commented on the value of a tangible book or print. It somehow gives life and depth to the images we capture. And if an image is already compelling in some way, personally or technically, a hard copy seems to double that feeling. Understanding why can be the first step in a wonderful journey of discovery – corny but true.

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Too Noisy? – Adjusting the “Volume”

Learning, Photography, Tools

One of the areas that frustrates me in photography is adjusting a photograph that is “noisy”. Even with dedicated tools, I find it hard to make any meaningful improvement in the quality of the photographs I adjust. My noisy photographs seem destined to be noisy. When I adjust the sliders, the edges I want to be crisp and clear are often muted, while the remainder seems unaffected. Not at all the outcome I want.

shutterstock_105461507 Even more baffling is sharpening. Related to but opposite in intent to managing noise, applying sharpening leaves me even more puzzled, since I often see little to no change in my photograph. And then there’s import sharpening vs. creative sharpening vs. export sharpening. Sharpening for screen vs. sharpening for print.

How to make sense of it all? Continue reading “Too Noisy? – Adjusting the “Volume”” →

To Watermark or Not to Watermark – That is the Question

Organization and Management, Photography, Tools

Many of my peers in hobbyist photography “watermark” their photographs, both on their websites and certainly on any social media or group sharing sites. And yet many of the pro photographers I follow don’t do this, even though they arguably have more of a reason for doing so.

A watermark is an identifier that sits overtop of some portion of the image. It is usually semi-transparent. The identifier could be the photographer’s name, their business name, or a combination of both. A copyright symbol and year might also be included. These labels might be simple white text or more elaborate logos and fonts. They are most often placed in a corner of the image, but sometimes can occupy more central space. Text sizes vary, but most are unobtrusive, aiming not to interfere with proper viewing of the image.

Why do photographers use them? It seems there are two main reasons: to guard against theft and to advertise their work. Let’s examine each of those purposes. Continue reading “To Watermark or Not to Watermark – That is the Question” →

To Print or Not to Print, That is the Question

Artistic Ideas, Nina Kirienko, Photography, Tools

We didn’t learn about printing photographs during my training in digital photography. Some of you might say “What did you expect, it was a DIGITAL photography course?”

Good point. But I always felt there was something missing in my training and I recently attended a two day course on printing photographs. It opened my eyes to the value of a hardcopy print. Here’s why. Continue reading “To Print or Not to Print, That is the Question” →

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