Monthly 2014 ETC - longimanus

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Lee
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So I thought long and hard about one of the TP challenges last year and didnt give it a go, so this year I had to give it a chance. I decided on the etc challenge as I thought it may best suit me due to the amount of time I have to concentrate on it (2 young children!)

So fingers crossed I get to the end!

Themes copied here for my info

January's themes are:

*Multiplicity
*Duo Tones
*The Harris Shutter effect
*The Joiner effect
*High Speed
*Zoom Burst

February's themes are:

*Star Trails
*Bubbles
*Water drops/water splash
*Motion Blur
*Use an ordinary object to create the unexpected
*Do you remember Dear Photograph? Create one of these

March's themes are:

*Black & White
*Creative still life
*Leading Lines
*Levitating Effect
*Selective Colouring
*Timelapse

April's themes are:
*Contre Jour
*Create a cinemagraph - moving gif
*Long exposure - daylight
*Perspective deception
*Planet Panorama (miniature Planet)
*Tilt Shift

May's themes are:
*Black Card (http://gizmodo.com/5789423/shooting-challenge-black-card-photography)
*Digitally merge images to play with scale
*From the hip or boot - so without looking through the viewfinder and shooting from the hip or low angle, from your boot
*Mobile phone photography
*Natural Light
*Shallow Depth of Field

June's themes are:
*360 Panorama
*Creative self-portrait - something different
*Panoramic Landscape/Urban/Architecture
*Reflection/Mirror
*Triptych
*Write on things and then photograph them

August's themes are:
*CD Cover (again, made up band and song or recreation)
*Create a jigsaw puzzle - http://www.ephotozine.com/article/create-a-jigsaw-photo-using-photoshop-elements-4833
*Digitally overlay textures onto photos - http://www.photoshopstar.com/effects/adding-texture-to-the-skin/
*Fisheye effect done with photoshop not with a lens
*Multiple exposure landscape - http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2013/08/01/9-creative-photo-ideas-to-try-in-august-2013/10/
*Sequence photograph - a photo showing several sequential movements in one photograph
 
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Here is my first attempt at a joiner, taken of a wooden statue down my local park. This was more to experiment with the process to be honest. I imported all the photos into PSE11 and let it do its magic itself by using the photomerge function, I added a border to each photo so that it shows each individually

Let me know what you think


Joiner Wooden Sheep.jpg
by Shark Seeker, on Flickr

I have another more complex one to try from the park and an idea for my next outing, lets just hope the weather holds up!!!!
 
Decent first attempt. IMO, they do work better when they alignment is slightly off.

I'll pop in now and again to comment (y)

Cheers.
 
Cheers Andy, I know what you mean about it working better if alignment is slightly off, gonna try some more at the weekend if I get the time and the weather is nice

Cheers for popping in
 
So I haven't been able to get out and do what I wanted for joiner that I had in mind, so I turned my thoughts to something I could do at home, High Speed, specifically water drops!

I started out with a bag which I hung up and pierced and a washing up bowl, I wasn't getting much success so after a bit of thinking and research I setup something in my garage, a white background so that I could bounce my flash off, a medium sized pyrex glass bowl and a drip system I remembered from my marine fish tank days which gave me more control over the drips. I then played around with my flash in manual mode to get the desired effect that I thought was ok, I then played with the images in LR, this is what I think are my favourite:




DSC_6034.jpg
by Shark Seeker, on Flickr


DSC_6279.jpg by Shark Seeker, on Flickr
 
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I must say it is very addictive and I have the following to try going forward:

Line the bowl with something, so that you can't see the word Pyrex in the photos
Try different backgrounds, not just white paper
Try milk

Any further ideas much appreciated
 
Hi Lee. I like your joiner shot, but agree with Andy that it needs some misalignment, and also if possible slight exposure/WB variations.

Your high speed shots are great. Of the two I prefer the first one because I love the context it has; the second one is spot on technically, but a bit generic IMHO.

Looking forward to seeing more :)
 
Thanks Mark, appreciate you popping in and giving some feedback.

If I get the chance I'm gonna try and do some more drop photography this weekend, I don't think I will be able to get out with the camera really
 
So I think this will be the last of my updates this month, hopefully I will get more time to tackle the subjects next month, its been really interesting researching different subjects and to be honest I got a bit addictive to water drop photos ;-)

So here is a go at duotone, Im not really sure what it supposed to do, but I messed around with a B&W conversion in the split tone menu in lightroom, hope you like


DSC_6373.jpg
by Shark Seeker, on Flickr

And here is another water drop, this time with a split background. I did start to struggle with one flashgun as I was getting a lot of shadows, I also tried it with milk but it didn't come out very good. What I did find out was that mirror lock up helped to get the timing more controlled, I had loads more keepers this time!


DSC_6553.jpg
by Shark Seeker, on Flickr
 
Hi Lee. Your duotone works well for me; I think you've chosen the perfect tone to complement your chilly scene!!!

That last water drop is great too; pin sharp :)
 
Thanks David, I don't even notice the badge, hopefully get some time to try some more over the weekend
 
Cheers David, I think I can improve them still and I will give it a try in the near future, I suppose these could also come under the heading *Use an ordinary object to create the unexpected ???
 
Joiners, don't talk to me about joiners...

Your water splashes are great, nicely different IYSWIM - Like Mark, I also prefer the first, for the same reason too!

Duo tones are a tough one, I think it is one of those styles where you have to do loads to get a feel for them, that said yours looks very "ghost story" (hope thats what you were going for!)

Now, let me say I am Lovin' those first pair of bubbles pics... Very impressive, I'm not looking to find faults but if I was I'd be stumped! - I like how you have achieved 2 very different looks. Excellent.

I've never seen "planets" before, so I will come back to these at a later date when I'm more genned up.

Sorry it took so long to come round to your thread Lee. I've had a poor start to the year, hopefully I'm going to be back on track now, mainly thanks to the end of '52 2013 meet where I met and got to shoot with some very nice and very creative people...
 
Brian, many thanks for the comments, really appreciated!!!

I have a few more bubble planets to put up, as I did a take 2 and tried to improve on them, I still really struggled with lighting though so I will go back and try again soon!

Good to have you back Brian
 
I must say the new themes have already got me thinking!!

A bit reluctant to use my dslr for a time-lapse due to the number of shots it could take, I happened to do one with my go pro of my son eating breakfast the other morning but the ISO and shutter speed automatically change which is a pig!

What ideas have others got?
 
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That would be a good idea for a time lapse. I'm thinking either some rolling clouds or maybe a traffic junction...

What do you mean hoe many shots it could take?

As for the others, they're really good, going to enjoy this month and I'm hoping to do all 6!
 
David, you need 25 shots for 1 second of video for your timelapse, 10 seconds would be 250 shots, you could quite easily rack up a few thousand shots on your shutter count on one single timelapse.

I've already got a clouds one that I did from my garden, I will try and dig it out
 
I suppose so, I just don't want to go timelapse crazy with it though as I have an underwater housing specifically for it!

Speaking of which, I've just booked a underwater photo holiday for May, those themes may all be water related:)
 
Whats really interesting about this is the colours changing in front of you, you can take a photo and then 5 seconds later the colours are completely different!
 
Hey, have you seen this?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickr/12992633754/in/set-72157639868074114

Anyway, your abstract tree trunk...

This looks a little soft to me on here, it's much better at full res on flickr, I don't know why that is. Personally speaking I would have liked to have seen the whites a bit whiter IYSWIM. The burned edges really suit the subject in my opinion. Maybe a tighter crop would have left us guessing a bit longer, I don't know if that would increase its appeal or not!

Do you mind if I ask what software you used to convert this?
 
Brian, thanks for the comments

No I have not seen that, but I will be looking at it when I get home from work, looks interesting and with bubbles capturing my imagination lately I am looking forward to it!

I used lightroom to convert and then load to Flickr, why do you ask?

I may have a little play with the image later and see what I can do
 
Hey, have you seen this?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flickr/12992633754/in/set-72157639868074114

Anyway, your abstract tree trunk...

This looks a little soft to me on here, it's much better at full res on flickr, I don't know why that is. Personally speaking I would have liked to have seen the whites a bit whiter IYSWIM. The burned edges really suit the subject in my opinion. Maybe a tighter crop would have left us guessing a bit longer, I don't know if that would increase its appeal or not!

Do you mind if I ask what software you used to convert this?

Brian, thanks for this link, just watched it and am amazed, I can see how people get hooked!!!!
 
Ive been a bit slack putting a few images up, so here are a couple more.

The 1st is another black and white of Worthing pier on Saturday morning, sunrise wasn't as good as I wanted so just took some of the pier


DSC_7037.jpg
by Shark Seeker, on Flickr

The second is of some pencils, I tried to do some selective colouring but a number of different shades of blue came out, here it is anyhow


DSC_6969.jpg
by Shark Seeker, on Flickr

Camera is in having a sensor clean at the moment so hopefully I am gonna have a go at another selective colour at the weekend and a still life.
 
Hey, I like the pencil shot. Its ace. As for the pier, well done. Excellent shot. Like the crop and it has a very nice LEADING LINE too.

As for the signature, it's in the edit user settings panel somewhere.
 
Thanks for the comments David, Leading line is done as well then :)

I will look into the signature thing, just unsure how to add the hyperlink thing?
 
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