by successfulbob | inspiration, Lumix G7, Lumix Lounge, photography creativity, photography gear, time lapse, video
Stop Motion Video – Aloy Anderson
Through the Internet, I have met an avid advanced amateur photographer/videographer named Aloy Anderson. Aloy is always pushing to learn new and creative ways to use his cameras. I have never attempted stop-motion video myself even though it is a capability built into the Lumix Cameras. When Aloy shared his project with me, I asked if he’d mind sharing some of his thinking and his process with me. And now with you.
I invite you to check out his stop-motion video called Jungle Movie “Be Brave” and turn the rest of the post over to Aloy. Enjoy!
Jungle Movie “Be Brave” from Ray Anderson on Vimeo.
“My name is Aloy; I’m a photographer and Youtube content creator from Miami. From an early age watching Sesame Street, I’ve always been curious about how to make stop-motion animation films. In those days it took a 35mm camera with “miles” of film to develop which was out of my reach. When I realized my new Lumix G7 had the feature built in I was pleasantly shocked. I had to give it a try. My video “Jungle Movie” my first attempt at a storyline video.
When you enter the stop motion menu on the Lumix camera choose whether you will snap each shot independently with the shutter button or the camera can be set to shoot at your preset interval. I do a little of both to give me time to reposition the set pieces and camera placement. For simplicity, I chose 5 seconds between each shot to give me time to move the characters quickly and get out the way.
Stop-motion can be very tedious and time-consuming, and it’s tempting to take the easy way out by leaving the camera on a tripod in one spot. That would be a mistake akin to watching a whole movie from one angle. I suggest different scenes and locations for variety, using a wider lens to show establishing shots and standard lenses for shallow depth of field moments. Before you begin, have a definite storyboard in mind. I like to use manual focus and exposure for each shot.
Here are some tips.
1) Don’t to move each piece too far between each shot as I did in some of my Jungle Movie. The resulting video will have choppy movement. A few centimeters is a good start.
2) Keep the camera on a tripod or table-top to maintain a solidly grounded scene.
3) Every few shots check to make sure your exposure or focus point hasn’t changed.
4) As you improve, you will know what not to do next time and come up with more complex ways to tell your story.
5) Imperative before you begin, set your camera’s aspect ratio to 16:9 which will allow it to play back full widescreen rather than a smaller 4:3 photo size.
6) Finally, have fun!
I guarantee your first 10-second video attempt may look like a five-year-old did it but you will have a good laugh watching it play back with all its faults.
The good thing about the Lumix is when you’re finished making captures the camera will ask you how to customize your video rendering such as how many frames per second it will be and at what resolution. It will then stitch all those photos together into an MP4 file. The only downside is it will be a “silent” movie. In my case, I imported the MP4 into my video editor and added music and text titles to polish it off. It is crucial to add some form of audio to keep your video engaging. This information is not an exhaustive tutorial by any means, but the fun is learning as you go.
I invite you to visit my Youtube product review channel and my Flickr Photography album. Most importantly I would like to thank Bob Coates for inviting me to write this piece. Hopefully, you will have a good time learning this type of creative way to use your camera.”
Aloy Anderson.
Thanks to Aloy for sharing his first foray into stop-motion.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Most Lumix cameras have the stop-motion and time-lapse features built into the camera. If you have any questions about which camera might be best for your needs let me know.
Save
Save
by successfulbob | inspiration, photography - art quote, photography creativity
Sunday Photo/Art Quote – Minor White
Minor White was a black and white photographer who was at the forefront of pushing boundaries of what photography was all about. Abstract images of landscapes which had a tendency to disorient a viewer were among his gifts to the photographic world. In addition to being a ground-breaking photographer, he was an educator and editor of Aperture Magazine.
As they might say on CBS Sunday Morning, ‘Here now is today’s quote.’
“One should not only photograph things for what they are, but for what else they are.” – Minor White
We should spend time reviewing those photographers who came before us for education and inspiration. As in the fashion industry, we might mine the past for ideas, not to copy, but to build upon in taking our photographic work to new levels.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | inspiration, photography, photography software
MacPhun Software – Luminar & Aurora
What are we going to do when our software updates stop allowing us to use Google’s NIK Software? Right now it’s free for download if you want to use it! I highly recommend if you haven’t already taken advantage of this deal get to it. It’s good stuff! I even paid for it originally and was happy to do so.
But it won’t be around forever.
It may be Adobe or it may be our computer operating systems that will make the software no longer usable. For Apple computer users one answer lies with MacPhun Software. Some of the folks who were at NIK Software before Google bought them out have been working on some solutions at MacPhun.
At first, they came out with some stand-alone solutions for handling noise and adding creativity. They bundled them into a nice package called Creative Kit which had six different software solutions usable as plug-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom. Next came Aurora HDR software.
Here are a few images I dressed up using the software and since it’s a holiday promotion here you go.
Next came Aurora HDR software followed by Aurora 2017* (see the deal below!). I like Aurora 2017 because it allows me to get the HDR process to increase the density range of an image but without the images screaming ‘HDRRRR!!!.’ And I still have the creative possibilities available. It is also a stand alone program. I have been fortunate to be able to work with MacPhun’s new software as it becomes available and I’m having a great time playing with the possibilities. I think you’ll like it too.
There’s a new stand-alone product that has just hit the market combining the software that is called Luminar**. Learn more about it below with a special deal until the New Year.
* Check out the Aurora 2017 Deal DetailsAurora HDR 2017 + Bonuses for only $89. Total value $175. Savings of 49%Give your holiday photos a truly unique look this year with Aurora HDR 2017 and our new Winter Preset Pack. Plus, improve your photography with training from Nature Photography Guides and Trey Ratcliff!
You get:
Aurora HDR 2017, the world’s #1 HDR software for Mac photographers
2 eBooks by Nature Photography Guides: “Forever Light: the Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Iceland” & “Iceland: Black & White Photography Portfolio by Sarah Marino” will inspire your photography to new heights.
Creative HDR Presets Pack: Use these exciting new presets to stylize and experiment with your photos.
20-minute Deep Dive video from Trey Ratcliff: Learn from the most influential HDR shooter of our generation, and co-developer of Aurora HDR 2017!
** Check out the Luminar Deal DetailsLuminar + Bonuses for only $59. Total value $319 Savings of 80%Celebrate the holidays with an incredible deal on our most popular photo editor to date and a host of bonuses sure to put a smile on your face!
You get:
Luminar, super-charged photo software for any Mac photographer
3 eBooks from Andrew S. Gibson: Mastering Photography, Mastering Composition & Mastering Lenses. The “Mastering” series is designed to help improve the creative aspects of your photography. They are aimed at intelligent and creative photographers who understand that light and composition are just as important as knowing which buttons to press on the camera.
Over 300 high resolution sky overlays: Use Luminar and this set of warm, blue or dramatic skies to enhance any image. Perfect for any photographer who has photos with dull or lifeless skies – bring them to life with this exciting collection!
Creative Portraits Preset Pack for Luminar: Make even more amazing photos with this speciality pack of presets ideal for improving any portrait.
How to Shoot Sandscapes by Baber Afzal: In this video, you’ll learn pro techniques for capturing the best sandscape photos possible.
Lots of good things for you. Happy Holidays!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Save
Save
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote
Sunday Photo/Art Quote – Wynn Bullock
His work can be seen in over 90 museums around the world and I’ll bet you don’t know the name, Wynn Bullock. (check out some of Wynn’s work) I came across his name while keeping my eye out for quotes from photographers and artists for this blog. This was the quote I choose for this morning.
“When I photograph, what I’m really doing is seeking answers to things.” Wynn Bullock
I am always checking into what photographers are thinking about on the ‘why’ they create images. What got you started? What drives you to continue?
And the variety of answers astounds me.
So I’ll ask you. What do you get from photography? Why do you do it? How did you get started?
Share your answers here. The best reply (in my opinion) gets a half hour consulting session with me on the subject of your choosing.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Wynn Bullock photo by Todd Walker – 1967
by successfulbob | black & white, landscape photography, photography, photography gear
Long Exposure Photography
Photographing for extended periods of time can add a whole different dimension to your photography. I consider any exposure over ten seconds to be in the long exposure category. When you have the shutter open for an extended time you begin to record movement which can lead to unique captures of time. Clouds blur through a scene. Light also renders a slightly different dimension on still objects. We all have seen the results of water captured over time.
There are occasions when even with a small aperture and low ISO we can’t get the time we would like to try these creative looks. Enter the neutral density filter. With one or more neutral density filters the creative possibilities are extended. I’m working with Tiffen ND filters (landscape/seascape kit) ** and trying the extremely dark filters. I have a three stop and a ten stop filter. These can be stacked for even more density if necessary.
Here are a couple images made with the ten stop filter in place. It is almost impossible to see through a filter this dark so my process is to pull focus and take note of the exposure reading without the filter attached. Then place the filter on the camera. In this case, the exposure was between two and four minutes. My camera will only go to sixty seconds. It also has a bulb setting but that would mean touching the camera to activate and deactivate the shutter. There’s a better way.
I haven’t achieved the exact look I’d like but I’m looking forward to the experimentation.
Clouds go soft with movement over the time exposure.
If you haven’t heard of the Pluto Trigger *** and its app you are missing out on many possible controls that can be added to your camera. As long as you have a remote port on your camera it can work for you. For this example, there is a conversion table for the extended time needed for long exposure ND photography. The trigger asks what the shutter speed is for an exposure without the ND filter in place. You input the shutter speed and let the app know what ND filter(s) you add and it calculates the proper exposure. Push the button on the app and the camera shutter is opened for the needed duration and then closed. Very cool!
** The Tiffen Long Exposure Kit
Tiffen Pro100 Series Camera Filter Holder
77mm & 82mm Adapting Rings
Tiffen ND 1.2 (4 Stop)
Tiffen IRND 3.0 (10 Stop)
Tiffen’s Pro 100 Series Filter System
The sleek and innovative design of our camera filter holder enables you to use up to two Tiffen Award Winning 4mm thick glass Motion Picture/Television filters at once, giving you the opportunity to create images like never before.
- Extremely durable Aluminum Frame equipped with rubberized grips, allowing for a secure fit for 4X4 and 4X5.650 filters
- Holds up to two, 4mm thick filters
- Fully rotatable adapting ring
- Edge sealed to prevent light leaks*
- Works with adapting rings from 49mm-82mm
* Felt lining included to prevent light leaks (for long exposure photography
*** There are about 24 extra things you can do with your camera when using the
Pluto Trigger including lightning, sound, infrared, water droplet (with optional valve), extended HDR, time-lapse and much more!
I’m looking forward to exploring this long exposure photography more in the future!!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Save
by successfulbob | photography - art quote
Sunday Photo/Art Quote – Bob Krist
Today’s Photo/Art Quote comes with, I’m sure, a bit of tounge planted firmly in cheek. But that’s just my opinion.
Bob Krist is a fabulous travel photographer, author of several books and contributor to National Geographic Traveler and Outdoor Photographer Magazines. Check out some of Bob’s work here.
“Carrying a camera on vacation pretty much means you won’t see anything worth shooting.” Bob Krist
Without the context of the quote I can take this meaning a couple of different ways. I’ll leave it to you to post your own thoughts as to the Bob’s exact meaning.
Youors in creative Photography, Bob
PS – Maybe if Bob sees this he can chime in with a slightly expounded explanation.
PPS – Here is a link to some of Bob’s books.
Save
by successfulbob | bird photography, landscape photography, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography creativity, wildlife photography
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge Part Five
This post is the final in this series from a very productive shoot at the wildlife refuge in New Mexico. The refuge is a very target rich environment for making bird images. The scenery wasn’t bad either! Let’s talk about creativity just a bit more. I saw a lot of photographers while I was there. And except for gear difference such as long lenses, I believe most photographers there were getting pretty much the same photo.
Why would I say that? Check out the photo below of the scene at almost every location in the refuge. What do you see?
Take a careful look. Every camera is at the photographer’s eye level.
I saw this ALL the time. To obtain a different look to your images, you need to look at things from a different viewpoint. I spent a fair amount of time on my knees, sitting on my butt and getting the camera off of the tripod. Look back through my past posts, and I think you’ll see lots of variety. Bosque Pt 1 Bosque Pt 2Bosque Pt 3 Bosque Pt 4 Changing the height that you shoot from can have a dramatic effect on what is in the background of your subject.
I also heard a lot of motor drives at 8-15 frames per second going off. Motor drives can be helpful when tracking moving subjects or quickly changing background and lighting conditions, but I would see that happening when a photographer was shooting a relatively stable subject in constant light. Save yourself from extra editing time on the computer, Turn off the motor drive when you don’t need it.
Taking a lower angle allowed for the reflection with the grassland environment in the background.
Had to be on my knees to get the composition of the reflection where I wanted it placed.
Generally, a gimbaled tripod head would be needed to capture solid images of birds in flight. With new gear and in-camera stabilization improvements, more creativity is possible. The Sandhill Crane images were captured handheld with the Lumix GX85 and the Lumix 100-400mm lens (200-800 35mm equivalent) lens fully extended.
Excited about possibilities as I push this camera and lens combo even further.
See what you can do to differentiate your images from others at every chance you get.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Save
Save
by successfulbob | bird photography, fine art photography, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, wildlife photography
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge – Part Four
Getting Artsy
When photographing a specific subject or area I always shoot for good solid captures at the beginning. After I know I’ve got some good work ‘in the can’, I see what I can do to push the creative ‘Artsy’ side. Here are some of those images.
Let’s look at some tracking flight images with the shutter speed set to a slow speed in this case most were at 1/250th sec. Images were captured handheld with the Lumix GX85 and the Lumix 100-400mm lens (200-800 35mm equivalent) Most were with the lens fully extended.
Sandhill cranes photographed at takeoff panning with slow shutter speed.
This technique adds lots of movement and an abstract feel to the images.
Further into the art arena using additional post-processing techniques. MacPhun software Focus CK was used to bring more attention to the flight of the cranes.
Cropped SOOC (straight out of camera) 1/40th SEC shutter speed.
Image from above worked with additional post processing.
Canada Geese on a flyby 1/1600th SEC shutter speed.
Experiment. Push. Play. Don’t be afraid to get an imperfect result in camera. Playing can lead to more interesting and personal image creations.
Let me know what you like, or don’t care for, in these images. I have an inquiring mind!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Save
Save
by successfulbob | fine art photography, fine art portrait, photography, photography creativity, photography education, tuesday painterly photo art
Tuesday Painterly Photo Art – Arica Dorff
I met Arika when she was on a road trip creating images for her pet photography business. She was passing through Sedona, and I had the pleasure to make her acquaintance and discovered her pet art painting. I love the expression of her pet portraits and the feel of her art. I think you will too!
Here’s Arika.
“I got into digital pet paintings using Corel Painter after I sold my pet photography studio in Las Vegas, Nevada. I had my studio for nine years and always wanted to offer my clients the option to have their portraits enhanced to a painting, but I never had the time to devote to learning the art. Specializing in painting pets was a natural decision for me since working with domestic animals, and their awesome owners had been my niche for my entire photography and teaching career.
Had to put this photo of Lola right up front! Check out the bling! © Arica Dorff Photography
Lola before. Arica is often working from cell phone images supplied by her clients
Getting started I reached out to two well-known pet painters whose work I admired and I had the opportunity to train with them one-on-one. Their process of turning a photo into a painting is completely opposite of each other, and I quickly realized that, like any other art form, there is no right or wrong way to do things. Working one-on-one with artists you admire, along with online tutorials, is what I recommend to anyone wanting to learn Corel Painter. Painter is much like Photoshop in the sense that they are both incredibly powerful programs but not something the average person could sit down and use with ease without some training and understanding of how the software functions. If you are a Photoshop user, I’m sure you can recall your beginning stages of learning and how you wanted to throw your computer out the window because you couldn’t accomplish what should have been a very simple task. Or maybe you accidentally hit something on your keyboard, and now nothing is working properly. I’ve been there too. So save yourself a headache and invest in training and tutorials when learning Corel Painter and getting started will be fun!
Tasha – Makes you want to say AWWWW. © Arica Dorff Photography
Tasha original capture.
As portrait photographers, we make decisions every day regarding lighting and how we want the light to fall on our subjects. But when I started painting I realized that shadows were something to which I never gave much thought. I would just light my subjects the way I wanted, and the shadows were naturally just wherever they were. Well, when you hand paint a background in like I do for most of my paintings (as opposed to enhancing the current background in the portrait) your full-length subjects would be floating on the background if you didn’t anchor them with a shadow. Such a simple concept, but not something I ever gave much thought to until I had to create my shadows.
Painting also forced me to pay more attention to the direction of where light was coming from, which is useful when creating dimension and depth in your backgrounds. Notice how most of my backgrounds have a lighter area near the animals face, this lighter area always coincides from which the direction the light is coming. The opposite side of the painting is always a darker shade which represents the natural fall off of light.
Emma – Great expression © Arica Dorff Photography
Emma Before.
Pets eyes are my favorite part of every painting (okay wispy stray hairs might be an equal favorite), but the eyes are what makes the paintings come to life. When doing digital paintings, I often use the existing photo and just enhance it with detailed brush strokes. But not with eyes, I always paint in the eyes freehand. Step 1: Paint in the eye color. Step 2: Paint in the black pupil. Step 3: Paint in the white catchlight – make sure it’s on the same side of the eye where the light is coming from! Step 4: Paint in the counter catch light area with lighter highlights to bring the eyes to life.
Since I’ve done some teaching in the pet photography world, I’ve had a lot of people asking me to train them on digital pet paintings. I currently offer one-on-one screen sharing training sessions, and I’m working on putting together a downloadable video tutorial. For the photographers who don’t have the time or desire to learn to paint, I offer a wholesale option where I send them the digital artwork for them to brand and print for their clients (as opposed to my retail customers who I present with canvas gallery wraps).
Cooper – © Arica Dorff Photography
Cooper – Before.
Digital Pet Paintings have been an awesome way for me to stay connected with the pet photography community, pet owners who I love to create cherished art for, and I get to do it all while hanging out with my pup and working from home!”
Check out more of Arica’s work. aricadorff.com
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you are someone who is creating Painterly Art with photography as a base, or know someone who is, and would like to be featured here on Successful-Photographer get in touch.
Save
Save
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, photography creativity
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge – Part Three
The refuge is quite beautiful in and of itself even without the birds. I made sure to capture images of the landscape as a subject all of its own. Here are a few scenes from the area.
Even though there are Cranes in the foreground, this is more about the landscape than the birds. Made with the in-camera panorama feature of the Lumix GX85.
Sunrise just after the Sandhill Cranes made their ascent leaving the pond for the day to forage in the cornfield.
Lots of layers in this landscape.
Reflection in the bend.
Reflections of sunrise among the grasses help tell the story of the environment.
I always try to tell the complete story of an area even if the main reason for the trip, in this case, was for the Sandhill Cranes and other wildlife of the Bosque del Apache.
Follow the previous posts here. Part One.
Find Part Two here.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Save
Save
