February Photo Contest – Final Week!
That’s right! We’re already into the final week of February 2010, which means the February Photo Contest is closing fast!
From the Archives
To close out the week, I thought I would take a look back at some posts from the past and see what I’ve done, and where I’ve gone since the early days of this blog.
The Results Are In! January 2010 Photo Contest
Welcome back to another edition of our Monthly Photo Contest!
What a tremendous selection of photos for last month’s contest! I couldn’t believe how many excellent shots I had to choose from. You guys are making me really work for it! Thank you!
I have selected a winner, but I don’t think I’ve ever had so many honorable mentions (11) in one month. There are just so many terrific shots, you are all great!
Also, remember to scroll down to the bottom of the post to find out more about the next contest!
And now, without further ado, the winner of the January Photo Contest and a copy of Scott Kelby and Terry White’s The iPhone Book is…
Playing Around with Topaz Adjust
I was working on a logo design for a former co-worker of mine last night when I got the urge to just play. I’ve only been feeling creative sporadically lately so I thought I would take advantage of this moment of inspiration and indulge it a bit.
The Ethics of Digital Photography: Part 2
The next question that came up when it comes to ethics in photography has to do with the other end of the spectrum. First we talked about what to do before you take the shot. Now that you have the shot, what are the limits for what you do in post?
Guest Post: One Lens – By Jessica Sweeney
He knows what you have in your camera bag!
I love my photography gear as much as anyone. And I have a good reason to do so, because if I didn’t have any gear I wouldn’t be able to take any photographs. Ever. Even for sketching you need paper and a pencil, or the wall of a cave and some sort of pigment, if we want to go back even further. And talent. Which is why sketching has never really worked out for me.
So, gear is necessary. However, at the same time, choice creates confusion. It slows us down. Should I take my point and shoot with me? Or should I take my DSLR? Or do I want to bring my film SLR with me? And what lenses? Extra batteries? Lens hoods? What camera bag should I put them in? Do I need a tripod? A monopod? And once I’ve made these choices, packed my bag and gone out into the world to shoot, I’m still not done.
If you’re like me you can’t bear to leave lenses at home. Tripods, yes. Ugly, heavy things only slow me down! Extra batteries I’ve been known to forget. Lens hoods have been lost in the wilderness and I didn’t even mourn. (True story.) But my lenses are my pride and joy. I cherish them. I don’t go anywhere without at least two. Because what if I need that wide angle shot? What if I see some rare beast 500 yards away and I couldn’t get a shot without my longest telephoto? What if I need the delicious blurring ability of my Lensbaby? It would be a tragedy to miss the shot.
Or would it?
Photo Reviews
Today I have 3 shots shared by a budding young photographer, Tori, who is all of 14 years old, almost 15. She came to me a few weeks ago wondering if I would give her some tips about what worked and what didn’t with her shots so far.
The three shots I selected from her gallery are, in my opinion, her best. They each stood out for me because they not only had artistic merit to them, they conveyed a message, a story, or an emotion, which is a long-sought-after goal of any artist, regardless of experience.
Following my comments below, I’d like to invite you to share some of your thoughts and ideas so we might help encourage a young person who is pursuing a growing passion.
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A Look Through the Archives
I was looking back through my NAPP Portfolio and thought I would pull this shot out of the archives to share it once again. I remember the time I spent creating the masks to get the effect and how good it felt to get a result that was pretty much exactly what I had envisioned. It doesn’t always happen, but it sure is nice when it does!
“A Capitol Idea” via Gordon McGregor
I almost wasn’t going to share this one until I tried it for myself, but it’s just an interesting concept that I had to. This comes from Gordon McGregor of the blog Photo Expressions, a source I will often go to for inspiration and projet ideas.
Gordon shares with us how he was on a recent photowalk around Austin, TX that headed straight for the capitol building (above) – a location he’s shot countless times. In an effort to capture a familiar subject in a new way, Gordon shot about 200 frames at differing EV values – with the same white balance – and used some fairly “non-standard settings, to make it work badly” using Photoshop’s photomerge.
The result is this visually stimulating photo that keeps you in the image longer than if it were just another pano of an old building. Well done, Gordon! I’ll have to try that one sometime!
Milo at 8 Weeks
You know, it’s tough to get a decent action shot of an 8-week-old miniature dachshund puppy. But I think this one turned out ok. It’s not going to win any prizes but it shows our little guy in his usual state – when he’s not sleeping or getting carried away while terrorizing one of his toys.
An Unusual Street Address
I was looking through my shots from the Worldwide Photowalk in Cazenovia and came across this shot of a doorway on Albany St. that really caught my eye.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an actual address like this and thought it was interesting enough to snap a few. I know it’s not much but I thought the simplicity of it makes it work as a black and white. I also think that it captures a little bit of what I appreciate most from taking the time to intentionally be out there shooting and that is the small, and often unnoticed details of the world around us.
So next time you’re out shooting, or even just trying to make it through the day, take a moment and try to look at something you’ve never really paid much attention to before. You never know what you might find!
“Ask Jason” Reminders and a New Regular Column
First off, I’d like to remind you that I am still accepting your submissions for photo reviews wherein you send me one of your photos (800px on the longest side) and I will look at it and write up my thoughts here on the blog. Just if you’ve read any of my other photo reviews you will know that I try to bring out all of the positive aspects of your shot while also pointing out what I would do differently or what you might consider doing for future images.
I have found that it can be a great learning experience and a chance to get your images out in front of a new audience as well. However, if you are nervous about using your name, just ask and I’ll make sure it is listed as anonymous. So send in your photos today!
Now that one project is over it’s time for another one to begin! Starting today, use the “Contact” button up at the top to send me Photoshop-related questions that you would like to know more about and each week I will answer them here on the blog. Whether it’s a question about technique, composition, shortcuts, or whatever! So start sending me your questions and see them answered right here in the coming days!
Post #1,000 & The Winners of the BIG Photo Contest!
First of all, I want to thank everyone who entered the contest to help celebrate my 1,000th blog post. Without the support and encouragement from you, my readers, and especially those of you who take a more active role in my contests, projects and ongoing conversations I wouldn’t have been able to make it this far. You make it all worth it! Thank You!
Secondly, I’d like to thank all of my sponsors who have donated prizes for all of our winners! I appreciate your tremendous generosity and willingness to support my little corner of the photoblogosphere. Thank You!
It was a very difficult process judging the contest because of the large number of great shots submitted. There are some amazing photographers out there and I wish I could award more prizes!
I based my selections on the collection of images by each photographer as a group and hpw each individual shot represented its category. I don’t want you to think that if you didn’t win any of the prizes that it is any judgement about your photography. I saw great work from each and every entrant and admire the quality and vision shared by you all.
And now without further ado, the winners of the BIG Photo Contest are:
| Grand Prize Winner: Samantha D. (pinky09) | ||||
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| Aged, Worn or Old | Part of a Whole | Best or Favorite Shot | Travel or a Journey | Geometric |
| Second Prize Winner: JGo9 | ||||
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| Aged, Worn or Old | Part of a Whole | Best or Favorite Shot | Travel or a Journey | Geometric |
| Runner Up: £$þ | ||||
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| Aged, Worn or Old | Part of a Whole | Best or Favorite Shot | Travel or a Journey | Geometric |
| Runner Up: quotidian photography | ||||
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| Aged, Worn or Old | Part of a Whole | Best or Favorite Shot | Travel or a Journey | Geometric |
Congratulations to you all! I will be contacting each of you soon with information about your prizes.
Versailles Planet
I was searching for some photographic inspiration because I’ve been feeling a little designer’s block or photographer’s block, or whatever you call it. Then I remembered a post I wrote awhile back about creating photographic planets based on a panoramic shot I made in Rochester, NY in November 2007. So, I thought I’d give it another go.
Full instructions can be found in the panoramic planets post but I basically found a landscape shot from Kim’s and my trip to Versailles last year and followed the steps outlined there. I had to do some cloning to take care of the seam and, after masking out the sky I added an inner shadow to the planet to give it some more dimensionality – and to clean up some of the fringe left over when masking the sky.
In the end, I think it turned out pretty cool. I want to try it a few more times with buildings and things sticking out into the sky – I have an Eiffel Tower shot I think would work well – for some added interest.
Give it a try and, if you come up with something good, leave a link in the comments or email it to me at reviews@jasondmoore.com and I’ll post a collection of them here.
Workflow Friday
For this edition of my Photoshop Workflow series, I thought I would walk you through the steps to add a nice shadow/reflection to a product shot. It’s something that I’ve done a number of times at work for both our website graphics and marketing email campaigns. Because of time, I’ll only have the final image but hopefully the description will sufice.
- Isolate your product from its background and place it in a new document. If you’ve placed it in the new document it should be a Smart Object already, if you just dragged it over, convert it to a smart object for the added flexibility and preservation of the image. In this instance, we’re looking at a new Nfinity Volleyball Shoe that we’re selling so I had both the standard shot as well as the shot of the outsole to work with, which will make the reflection more believeable later on.
- If you are going to use the same image of the product as the reflection, duplicate the layer using Cmd/Ctrl+J. Select the version that is lower in the layer stack and go to Free Transform (Cmd/Ctr+T) and flip it vertically and align shift it down so that it lines up below the primary “right-side-up” version of the image.
- Lower the opacity of the upside-down image to around 40%. Add a layer mask to this same layer and with your linear gradient set to “Black to White” grag from the bottom edge of the product to where it meets the right-side-up version. If you like, you can also add a slight Gaussian Blur to it as well.
- To see the effect, using the Rectangle Tool, create a black box below both layers so that the top edge of the box falls part of the way up the original version of the product – be sure to make it far enough up so it looks like the object is sitting on a surface but not too high that the edge is not above the object.
- At this stage we’re going to add a little more flair to it to really make it stand out. On a new layer above the reflection and below the object, use the Eliptical Marquee Tool – or the Elipse Tool – to create an oval around the base of the product and fill it with white. Convert it to a Smart Object and blur it quite a bit to make it look like a spotlight is shining on the product. And reduce the opacity of this layer to about 80% or so – to your taste.
- Duplicate the layer you just created and reduce the size a little, while holding down Option/Alt+Shift to create a hot spot in the middle of the spotlight.
- Duplicate the product shot one more time and select the copy that is directly above the spotlight layers. Add a black Color Overlay Layer Effect to this layer.
- Go into Free Transform and grab the middle handle on the top of the product shot and drag down so it shows up beneath the object – you may need to do some warping/skewing/etc. to get it to fall properly and look right.
- Add about a 4px Gaussian Blur to the shadow layer.
- Add a Layer Mask to the shadow layer and using the edge of a fairly large, soft-edged brush paint with black a couple of times along the edges of the shadow so it will appear that the shadow falls off a little, in a more realistic way.
And the finall shot will look something like this (with a few added touches):
Give it a try and if you come up with anything cool, send it along and I’ll post it here on the blog!
