Photo Walks Today

Space Needle Photograph by James Chen

• Use a tripod – this is a must!
• Set your camera to manual and adjust it to bulb (the shutter stays open as long as you hold down the release).
• Use a shutter release cable (or IR shutter release) to prevent camera shake as you press and hold the shutter open
• Set your ISO speed to 100 or 200
• Use F/Stop F/11 or F/16
• Prefocus using the manual focus – auto-focus won’t work
• Experiment – take some with several bursts and some with just one
• For multi bursts cover the lens with something black between explosions to prevent over-exposure – try not to touch your camera to prevent shake
• Try for an upwind position (if the smoke surrounds you, your photos will turn out hazy).
• Use a UV filter, but remove the polarizing filter for this type of work
• Have an extra battery charged up and ready – long exposures with the shutter held open – runs down batteries quickly

If you take some photos that you’d like to share, be sure to join the Space Needle Flickr group

Photo above by James Chen. To see more great photos from James Chen visit his flickr page

If you took lots of photographs this holiday you may want to sign up to Get 50 Free Digital Camera Prints at Snapfish by HP! - plus between now and the end of December they’re offering 20 percent off their normal photo processing, including photo books. (use the code BESTSELLERS2008 when you checkout).

OK, enough advertising – come back later for my report on the New Years Party happening at the Space Needle.

Here in the Puget Sound we’ve been snowed in for weeks! All that wonderful white stuff is a refreshing break from out normal gray skies and it’s natural to want to capture your yard, loved ones, pets and Christmas lights.

The problem is, your camera’s job is to make everything a ‘netural gray’ color. This setting works perfect for most everything you take pictures of, except… snow.

Here’s a couple tips to help you turn those dark muddy photos into bright white snow pictures.

First – don’t trust your camera’s automatic settings.

palm trees in the snow

snow photos with and without flash

Add your favorite holiday photos from the Puget Sound Snow - join the fun and maybe win a free gift card.

The camera exposure meter suggested F/4.5 at 20 Seconds. To properly expose this I used F/5.6 at 8 Seconds

The holiday lights are out – and if you live in the Puget Sound area, we are having an early snow. It looks like we might even have a White Christmas… something that happens once in a blue moon. But we’ll talk about photographing moons some other time.

The subject of this blog post is to help you photograph those wonderful holiday lights, from you own house, to Candy Cane Lane, to the Point Defiance Zoo Lights. With the snow on the ground – next years holiday card may be just a shot away.

What To Watch Out For

There are a few things to be aware of when taking photos are night.

The first, is noise. The long exposures are sure to bring out the small grain like artifacts in the dark areas. There are two main culprits that cause noise; high ISO speeds and sensors that over heat with long exposures. You can reduce the noise by turning on your cameras ‘noise reduction’ for long exposures setting.

You can also prevent noise by choosing to use a lower ISO. The photos taken here were done using ISO speed of 100.

Of course, the best solution is to buy the best camera available, generally the more expensive, newer DSLR cameras have almost no noise problem at longer shutter speeds.

For the rest of us, expect a little noise is part of the charm of nights shots.

This was f/4.5 at 1/30 of a second

Snow gives it that holiday feeling

    We’ve had so much interest in a Photo Editing Class that Dany Byrne and I will be teaching an online series on PhotoShop Elements.

  This online class covers the basics of PhotoShop Elements. We’ll help you get the most out of your camera and produce award winning pictures that you’ll be proud to share!

  This course will meet three times – January 10, 17 and 24th from 2:00 -3:30 pm Pacific Time. 

  We’ll take you through, step-by-step the basic tools provided in PhotoShop Elements. The modules are designed to show you how to use the tools, allow you a week to get familiar with them, and then we’ll move on to the next level.

 For more information or to register – click the button below

Here’s a short video that shows how to make a greeting card using PhotoShop Elements. It’s quick and easy and will be ready to email to all you friends in minutes.

PS: If you’d like to use iStock service, contact me and I’ll send you an email link for 3 FREE credits to use towards your first purchase.

Saturday December 13th in North Everett the Annual Christmas boat parade.

Starts at 5:00pm

Route starts at 10th Street Boat Launch and heads south towards the Everett Naval Station. Then, the boats will turn north for their return voyage.

Viewing is avialable along the route – come early, find a place to park and set up a tripod.

After the parade you’ll be able to photograph the boats from 7:00 to 8:30pm at Anthony’s Homeport visitors dock at:

1726 W. Marine View Drive

There’s a run through for the vessels tonight at 6:30 if you want to stake out your spot or take a few practice shots.

Hi All,

I going to create a tutorial on preparing A Photo Book On Photoshop Elements 6

But, before I go about creating the perfect “how to” on creating a Photo Book using Elements, I would love your feedback.

So, please use the comments below to tell me any or all of the following. The more information I have from you the better I can answer your questions about using Elements to create your next work of art.

1. Would you prefer a written tutorial or a video?
2. What is your goal for the photo book? Is it to sell or share or is it a gift to family and friends
3. Do you want to print the book out on your own printer or are you going to use an online service?
4. How many photos do you think you’ll include in the book?
5. Anything specific you’d like to learn about creating the photo book?

Thanks! I look forward to helping you with your photobook project.

Pop Photo Magazine would like to know

Summary: Photos that have made a difference

Category: General

Name: Lori Fredrickson

Email: lfredrickson@hfmus.com

Title: Editor

Deadline: 5:00 PM EASTERN – December 11

Query:

“I am in search of photographers or photographs that have created a
positive change. This could be on a social level: if for example a
photographer’s work on an issue (environmental, social) affected a
change in town or city legislature. This could also be on an
individual level: if someone’s photojournalism touched a reader and
prompted him/her to get involved in a charitable project or donate
to an NGO. These can be famous photographs or they can be photos
from a small local newspaper.

Any info at all is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!”