Photo editing ideas

Since reading Alain Briots 'Just Say Yes' essay on his standard reply to "Is this image manipulated?", I've been wondering about doing GIMPing (aka photoshopping) myself. Having met one of the forerunners in image composition, Scott Mutter, I'm not adverse to some fiddling, and like the possibilities it presents. One avenune that just popped up when looking at Jerry Uelsmann's front page is to make photos that show what I would like to see. A house with roots is plausible, I would love to live in one, but I don't think one exists. Why not use photography to explore the realms of the possible - things that ought to be, but would require more work in the real world that I can put into them.

New photos on walls

I changed out the photos on the walls at home, to some from the new batch (finally from the new camera). The black mattes are definitely better, though it's possible that a colored one would work better in some cases. White mattes are uninteresting, partly for the whiteness, partly because it hides the thin white edge around the picture itself. The extra edge on the prints helped with the smaller mattes, but the narrow edge is probably a few millimeters more narrow than needed, while the long edge is still too long. Of course 18.5x26.5 isn't exactly 2:3.

Specific notes:

0137-8108-waterfallrocks: Should have taken it a bit to the left, so the rocks were fully bordered by the water and the the waterfall itself could have been more towards the left corner. It is possible that the rock behind to the right should be made to have contrast in between the front and waterfall rocks, to give an even better feel of the depth.

0043-9109-hazy-landscape: Kinda dark for having a black matte. Possibly the front parts should be lighter, they are rather overpowered by the sunny top. Already starting to buckle despite being upstairs all the time. The foam core backing is definitely needed, and probably should go on together with the matter.

0166-9711-stretchedsand: This one just works.

0032-4738-leaves: I could possibly cut a bit of the top, bottom and left side, but otherwise it works.

0102-9044-tool: Very tempted to move the tool a bit in Gimp, but otherwise it's nice.

Need to sign them.

Fixing a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens

For future reference (once I have another lens so that I can afford to risk losing the cheapo one):

The parts list for assorted Canon products is available at http://www.f20c.com/stuff/canon/partslist/ (for now -- probably should download them while they are there).

NFD phototrip

Went with NaturFotografer i Danmark to Uldum Kær, a wetland area near Horsens, this morning. Got up at three, was there just after four, when the sky was still reddening. Unfortunately, cloud cover was almost total, and we got no direct sunlight. There were many little lakes with iris, waterlilies, swans etc. While the landscape parts were limited due to lack of light (or fog), there was very little wind and macro was possible. Stayed there for 5 hours. Starting to think of a series about the dandelion.

More postcards, and reuploads

Put out 12 more postcards in Vesterport 3 (the place with Cryos).

Uploaded the right-size images to the webpage, so none should now look too small.

Made two presets on Lightroom export, and noticed a "minimize metadata" button that's probably a good idea for the JPEGs.

Further pics to update on website

Got almost all the 600-pixel images uploaded instead of 800-pixel versions that then get downscaled.  Missing the following, they should either be removed from the series or uploaded in correct size:

0040-9078-gable.jpg
0042-9107-landscape.jpg
0045-9115-landscape.jpg
0049-9272-windmill.jpg
0051-9466-thatched.jpg
0034-4739-leaves.jpg
0037-4808-windows.jpg (edit-2!)
0059-5540-sunset.jpg
0062-7328-ducks.jpg

Also need 600-pixel versions of the old photos.

Some photo trips

Went on a few trips since last post:

Samsø: Forgot my SD-CF card! Bummer, dude! And my backup was the other SD.

Ry: Missed a great picture of a heron at the mill by stopping too fast. Many photos were out-of-focus, even though they were taken with tripod, must take multiples and pick the best. Forests are actually tricky, can't see the forest for the trees. Have better control of aperture and ISO.

Moesgård: Got out too late (an hour before sundown), missed a lot of the good sun - it disappears fast in the forest.