Photographics: Applied Color

For our second assignment in our class LaNoue had us do applied color. Applied color or hand coloring is where you take a black & white print and color over it with colored pencils, water colors, oils or pastels. In theory, this assignment can be really fun because it brings you back to the days of childhood and coloring books. However, it’s way harder than it looks, at least that is what we found. We chose to color our prints with water color pencils. We used fiber based prints that we had created in our previous zone systems class and for a few hours we hunched over our prints and colored away.   

The thing with water color pencils is that they produce more saturated colors than pastels. Having this in mind I put very light layers of color on my prints, however when I finally applied the water to the color via Q-tip I was surprised to see my color all but disappear. I added another layer of color and instead of wiping the Q-tip across I gently blotted it to get the effect I was looking for. My first print of Red Rock Canyon was pretty easy however, my second print turned out to be more frustrating. My second print of North Lake had a lot sky in the photo which I tried to color blue but I could never get it to blend properly which is why it looks uneven. I still like the pink and yellow flowers in the foreground which I think made the print effective. 

Red Rock Canyon by Jamie

North Lake by Jamie

Bryan also had a hard time with his print of the bush. It took him a long time to color because he chose to fill in every single leaf. He also put the color down darker with the pencil and then only slightly blended it with the water which made the leaves really pop out of the print. He then decided to color in the sky by using a technique that LaNoue suggested which was to wet the photo paper first and then add in the color. This made the blues in the sky very saturated, almost like an ocean. He worked into the night to correct for the over saturation. Still after seeing the finished product I think his print is an excellent example of applied color.

Desert by Bryan

Picture of the Week 3-25-2009

This week’s picture is something I took today while driving around Irvine. I parked my car on a side street and walked over to South Lake. This shot was one of the first things I saw when I walked up to the lake. I really like how the trees frame the bridge and Mt. Baldy in the background. I also love this lake, I wish I could be one of the lucky residents who gets to reside around it. It’s a beautiful community and makes for great pictures.

Photo Info: Shot with our 5D Mark II, ISO 160, F8 at 1/640 of a second.

Irvine Regional Park

This past Saturday we decided to go out and enjoy the cooler weather at Irvine Regional Park. Bryan’s mom and siblings came down from their place up in the mountains to join us for a picnic. Irvine Regional is a very large park with lots of stuff to do. There are many trails for hiking, mountain biking or horseback riding and there is also a lake where you can rent paddle boats. The park also has a nature center, a train and even a small zoo. After we ate our lunch near the lake we all went to the zoo. As I said before, the zoo is very small but it’s animals include a couple bears, coyotes and even mountain lions. We also saw an owl that was blind in one eye, it was kind of creepy looking but still very cute. After the zoo we headed over to the entrance of the park to ride the train. Luckily they allowed dogs on the train so Bryan’s mom’s dog Mimi got to ride with us. The train goes around a very small area of the park but it is a lot of fun. After our train ride Bryan’s little sister went on a pony ride, that’s right they have pony rides too, and she had a blast. After that we called it a day and headed home but we all had a great time at the park.  

Photographics: Toning

For our first assignment in our Photographics class we were required to do toning. There are many different kinds of toning and and many different ways to do toning. Our professor Michael Lanoue showed us how to do sepia toning, split toning and selenium toning both in the darkroom and in Photoshop. 

Digital sepia toning by Jamie

Digital sepia toning by Jamie

Split toning and selective toning is where you have two different tones in the photograph such as black & white and sepia. The way you selective tone in the darkroom is very interesting. You first take a black & white photograph and paint over the areas that you don’t want to be toned with a removable liquid mask solution. Then you follow the same steps as in sepia toning; soak in water, bleach, wash, sepia tone, wash, fix and wash again. You then remove the liquid mask solution you painted over the photograph and you see that it prevented those areas from toning. So you have a black & white and sepia toned image. To get the same effect in Photoshop you would simply mask the areas you wanted to tone. Bryan chose to do split and selective toning with some digital images in GIMP. Even though the first image appears to be in color, the sky is actually black & white and the mountain is sepia. He did this by creating a layer mask.

Digital selective toning by Bryan

Digital split toning by Bryan

Bryan and I chose not to do this assignment in the darkroom because of time constraints. In order for the prints to be more archival you must use fiber-based photo paper which has a longer wash time. Even though our prints didn’t have the same chocolaty brown tint of the darkroom prints we did manage to get a nice brown hue to them which I believe made them look even better.

Picture of the Week 3-19-2009

I’ve been feeling a bit uninspired this week so I haven’t photographed anything new. I decided to go back into our photo archives to get this week’s picture. The picture below is of the Thunder Boat races in 2006. The Thunder Boat races take place every year around September at Mission Bay in San Diego. We haven’t been to the races since this picture was taken but they are usually very entertaining so we hope to go back again to take even more awesome photos.

Photo Info: Taken with a Canon Rebel XT with a 70-200mm lens. Focal length 200mm, ISO 100, F8 at 1/640 of a second.

World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions!

Yesterday we got the privilege to go see the The World Famous Lipizzaner Stallions in Ontario. I have been a fan of the Lipizzaners for a long time but had never seen them perform in real life. Lipizzaners have a very rich history which includes almost being wiped out during bombing raids in World War II. For more on the history of the Lipizzanners check out this page. These horses are highly trained in dressage and also more difficult dressage moves called “airs above the ground” which the Lipizzan breed is famous for. During the show we got to see these stallions do many different dressage styles including performing solo and as groups of three, four and even eight in a synchronized ballet. The most exciting part of the show was when the stallions performed their “airs”. Each stallion was only trained in one or two “airs” which the announcer explained came very naturally to these horses who were only trained to perfect their natural talents. The “airs” that we saw included the levade, courbette, capriole, and the mezair. They also brought out a Andalusian stallion and did a dressage performance set to Spanish music to pay homage to the heritage of the Lipizzaner. One of the many interesting facts that we learned at the show was that while many of the stallions were bred in Austria a few were rescued from a Lipizzan farm in America. We loved seeing these horses in action and you could tell that these stallions loved to show off.

Mezair

Left: Capriole Right: Mezair on horseback

Andalusian Stallion

Picture of the Week 3-11-2009

Ever since the Triangle Complex Fire ravaged parts of Orange County last Fall I have been trying to make time to photograph it’s aftermath. This past weekend I did just that. I took a drive down to the Santa Ana River Trail which parallels La Palma Street in the Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills area. Bryan and I have ridden our bikes on this trail many times and I frequently drive by it on my way home from the chiropractor so I have seen the devastation before. The burn areas, which extended into Featherly Regional Park, seem to be recovering quite nicely. I’m actually glad I waited this long to photograph the burn areas as spring is just around the corner which has brought new growth. I love this week’s photo because of the stark contrast between the badly burned trees and the beautiful wildflowers that surround them. I took many photos this day so not only am I posting a photo here I’ve also posted all the photos I took in the gallery. This trail by the way, is amazing; great for cycling, running or even leisurely walks. It has an abundance of colorful wild dandelions growing along the path which you can also see in the photo gallery. 

Photo Info: Shot with our 5D Mark II, ISO 200, F11 at 1/250 of a second.

Our New Camera: The 5D Mark II

Jamie and I recently purchased the Canon 5D Mark II with the kit 24-105mm F/4 L IS USM lens. Canon recently released this camera and there is a significant backlog of orders for it at this time so we had to wait for a while to purchase it. The lens by itself has been out since 2005 but you get it at a discount when you purchase it with the kit. We also purchased a 16 Gig UDMA Compact Flash card and plan on purchasing an extra battery as soon as one is in stock and selling for the MSRP instead of 50% above the MSRP. 

Trust me when I say that a lot of thought went into the purchase of the camera. I had recently become frustrated at the high ISO performance of the XTi. Although this doesn’t affect shooting outdoors very often; it does affect shooting indoors without a flash. In addition while the XTi has excellent resolution I always knew in the back of my mind that it was not up to par with the real professional cameras on the market. The 5D Mark II is very much a professional camera. The main things which set it apart are a 21 mega-pixel full-frame sensor and excellent high ISO performance with little to no noticeable noise up to 800 ISO and workable images up to 6400 ISO. The reason I say images are workable at 6400 is that they do have noise but noise reduction will get rid of it. Noise reduction (in camera or in post-processing) does reduce resolution however if you start with a tack sharp 21 mega-pixel image you will not notice the loss of resolution unless you zoom into the image at 100% and really look for it.

Overall I’ve been extremely happy with the camera so far. It is heavier but it feels good in my hand. The battery life is exceptional and will last through a couple of half day shoots without any problem. The kit lens is a real performer as well. Zoom is fast and the Image Stabilization works well. It does have some distortion at 24mm however that is to be expected and it can be corrected in post production. Shooting wide open yields perfectly out of focus backgrounds with nice bokeh. 

Finally this camera adds HD video capabilities to Canon’s Digital SLR lineup. The videos are great once you get the hang of shooting via the LCD screen. The only thing I don’t like is how it saves movies in MOV format. Other then that I really like having the option to shoot video.

Below are some examples of shots from the 5D Mark II:

Shot with 24-105mm F4L IS USM kit lens. Shot at 24mm focal length, ISO 100, F13 and a shutter speed of 1/250 of a second. This shot has not been edited.

Shot with 24-105mm F4L IS USM kit lens. Shot at 24mm focal length, ISO 100, F8 and a shutter speed of 1/320 of a second. This shot has not been edited.

Shot with 24-105mm F4L IS USM kit lens. Shot at 105mm focal length, ISO 160, F10 with a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second. This shot has not been edited.

Shot with 24-105mm F4L IS USM kit lens. Shot at 105mm focal length, ISO 200, F6.3 and a shutter speed of 1/1000 of a second. This shot has not been edited.

Shot with 24-105mm F4L IS USM kit lens. Shot at 47mm focal length, ISO 5000, F4 and a shutter speed of 1/60 of a second. This shot has not been edited.

Shot with 24-105mm F4L IS USM kit lens. Shot at 105mm focal length, ISO 25,600, F4 and a shutter speed of 1/160 of a second. This shot has not been edited.

Picture of the Week 3-4-2009

This week’s photo is a shot I took at Hart Ranch this past weekend. I was testing out the features on the new camera and I thought this was the perfect place for that. I walked around the ranch in the middle of the afternoon and got to take many random horse photos. One horse in particular was outside of it’s pen and roaming freely around the facility. I decided to stalk the scraggly bay gelding while he grazed in a field of wild flowers. This particular shot was my attempt at being artistic, also I was experimenting with the depth of field. I love the color of the flowers in this photo. I also really like the horse being out of focus in the background and his tail flipping while I took the shot. I only added a little saturation to make the flowers pop out more.

Photo Info: Taken with my 5D Mark II at F11 and 1/250 of a second; ISO 100.

A Snow Day at the Races

Photo by Jamie

Photo by Bryan

Photo by Sal Gonzalez

Photo by Bryan

Photo by Bryan

Photo by Jamie