by successfulbob | photography software
Been looking to save some time in editing? Here’s a chance to try a software that makes up to twelve adjustments on your images automatically. It’s called Perfectly Clear from Athentech Imaging. Here’s the scoop… It’s a Mother’s day Sale…
You can download Perfectly Clear and try it out right away. It will give you access for 30 days no strings attached. Although here’s a real bonus if you try it out and purchase it during this Mother’s Day sale between this Friday May 9th NOW and Sunday May 11th at midnight you get it for half price! It’s on sale for 50% off. And, there’s still a 30 day money back guarantee.
The link I give you leads to a place to enter Coates for your discount. Go ahead and download the trial.
Here are a few samples… Up to 12 different adjustments to each image with a single click or two.
Portrait setting used in Perfectly Clear
Used the Landscape preset.
The Default setting. Fixed underexposure and highlighted color and contrast.
Default setting adding a vivid adjustment. It opened up the shadows and added some punch quickly.
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
Mirrors are funny critters… They will lie to you as you look at them thinking, “Wow, I look good!” Whoops! wrong blog post. Back to our regularly scheduled conversation…
The focus point in a mirror is on a totally different plane than the frame that contains it. Been caught by the, photographed the bride in the mirror and found either the subject you wanted to have in focus in the glass or the surrounding area surprisingly out of focus?
Here a possible work-around when you would like to have everything in focus but don’t have time to get on a tripod with a really small aperture. And even if you had time to do that you still might not have enough DOF to make it work. This is an extreme example with several focus points in play. The background which has the sign telling us where we are. The side view mirror on the car. The side view mirror. And the convex utility mirror for helping to keep the driver out of accidents. All are important to telling the story I want to share so I made an exposure for each of those individual surfaces then blended them together in Adobe Photoshop. Here’s the result…
The assembled photo with all the pertinent information in focus. Bell Rock Vista in Sedona, Arizona.
Here are the raw captures before assembly.
Photographed with the Lumix GX7 and the 35-100 f2.8 Vario Lens while focusing through the range of the scene.
Now how about that bride shot with mom reflected in the mirror and crying???
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to give me a shout or comment on this post.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote
Unknown and Anonymous are some pretty prolific writers and many times have distilled thoughts down to a very small number of words that have a big impact. Today’s Photo/Art quote comes from Unknown…
“The earth without art is just ‘eh’. Unknown
Plays on words, or portions of words are fun and this one resonates with me. So let’s move this to the photography world where you and I hang out… “Are you taking ‘pitchers’ or are you creating Art?”
I like to think I am creating Art but sometimes (probably too often) I find I am just taking images rather than making or creating them. You ask, “What’s the difference?” It comes down to planning, thought, timing, execution, experience, having the right equipment in the right place at the right time with the right light.
I respectfully ask again, “Are you taking pictures? Or, are you creating ART?”
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, photography, time lapse
Tom Tayback and the Daddy O’s play a monthly show at the Sound bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona. When you see the show it is a seamless presentation of music and stories from the 50’s and 60’s called the Graffiti Gold Show. What you don’t see is the proverbial feet of the duck paddling underwater like crazy to make it work.
That’s why I like time lapse photography.
Here I take an hour and a half and show it to you in about one minute. I used the Lumix GH3. It has a built in intervalometer that allows you to set all your specific times, number of exposures and time between images captured. It even has a readout that tell you how long a time period will be covered with the settings saving some time with the calculator. On my previous camera systems I had to buy accessory equipment in order to accomplish time lapse images.
This is about 1400 images photographed every 3 seconds. The playback is at 30 frames per second…
Getting the Graffiti Gold Show show set up is quite a job…
by successfulbob | photography, photography books, photography education
Even if you are a seasoned photographer, if you are new to the Lumix GX7 & Lumix GM1 you’ll get a lot out of Rob Knight’s book From Snapshots to Great Shots. I picked up some great tips for set-up of these cameras. These are more like computers with all the possibilities available. Being able to find the quickest ways to work the menus make these cameras extremely versatile. Check it out here…
Panasonic Lumix GX7 and GM1From Snapshots to Great Shots book by Lumix Luminary Rob Knight.
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, photography
This is continued coverage from yesterday’s post of a photo shoot for the Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic….
The sense of place is important to show in your marketing materials. The mood and decor are helpful in making people comfortable in coming to your establishment. I can help you tell the story you want to share with your customers… Here’s a sampling of some images from the Center and the Medi-Spa.
Natalie at the front desk working the computer.
Dom at his station in the back office.
Looking over the Jane
Patient care with Vanessa.
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, people photography, photography, photography education
The Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic was a great opportunity to shoot in many different styles of work on one job. The catchphrase of Bob Coates Photography is ‘Making people, places and products look better than good.” Here was the job. Head shots, group shot, action images (for sense of place) and product images.
What a great group of people! I went to get some Physical Therapy from Eric and suggested I might be able to help in dressing up the Sedona Integrative Medical Clinic’s web site and marketing material. First on the docket was to update the Facebook header with a group image of the staff.
Nicole, Dom, Linda, Eric, Tera and Vanessa. Staff of the clinic.
I was looking for a very clean background and went with white to help give a clean medical feel. The font is Trajan Pro from their logo to tie together with previous marketing and is reversed with a drop shadow to keep with the white theme. Images were captured with the Lumix GH3 with a trigger to set off studio lights I brought in for the job. Paul C Buff lights were used one equipped with a shoot-through umbrella. A second light was outfitted with a regular umbrella on the same side as the shoot though for form fill. This gives a nice shape to the faces but doesn’t let the shadow side go too dark.
One suggestion I make for offices with multiple people is to photograph each individual separately and then assemble them into the group photo. This saves trying to rally all the staff for a new photo when there is a change of personnel. When that happens now we only need to photograph the new employee, remove the employee that is leaving and insert the new employee in the image. This saves tons of time and allows the staff photos to be up-to-date with little additional fuss or the cost of redoing the entire photo. Many different styles of background or lighting may be chosen with this approach.
I also set up a quick faux studio to highlight different product lines offered for sale. If this was a shoot for the manufacturer’s advertising there would have been a lot more attention to detail and lighting, but since this is just for web use I think we did OK using the ivy wall as a background and white surface as the base. I had Dom hold a scrim over the product in order to control the overhead lights giving an even illumination with no hot spots. Here are a couple examples…
Using a shallow depth of field allows the product to come forward in the photo.
Light coming form the window behind adds depth and dimension by
also helping to separate the product from the background.
The scrim Dom is holding spreads the light and keeps distracting
highlights from taking your attention away from the product.
I always ask in my business blog posts, “How may I help you tell your business story in a professional way?? Give me a call or drop me an email to have a chat about your wants and needs. No obligation and as always if you aren’t thrilled with the images we’ll work it again or I’ll refund your money.” And give them contact information.
I’ll show you some more images tomorrow that help tell the story of the clinic.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography education, success education
Want to make your business stronger?
Want to help a charity better?
Want to accomplish big things?
Check out The MondayMorningMemo© of Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads® ERBS!
I’m a big fan of Roy H. Williams and have mentioned him and the Monday Morning Memo in posts before… If you haven’t followed my advice to subscribe to the MMM in the past, at the very least, go forth and find out what the heck ERBS are!
Yours in Successful Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education
Today’s Sunday photo/art quote comes from French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic from Poland, Guillaume Apollinaire. He had a much longer string of names and quite a history which you can peek at here. Definitely worth a perusal!
“Color is the fruit of life.” Guillaume Apollinaire
Six words.
So many ideas explode in my brain as I repeat those six words to myself. What jumps into your mind? I think this calls for a photo project exploring color. And fruit. And??? Let’s see what we can come up with. Show me your stuff! Explore color this week.
Yours in Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH3, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education, video
While capturing some images of Esteban for the Sound Bites Grill ‘Wall of Fame’ I set up the Lumix GH3 to capture some video.
TECH STUFF – Panasonic H-HS12035 LUMIX G X VARIO 12–35mm/F2.8 ASPH X Series Lens set to 18mm at f3.5 1/60 sec ISO 3200. We didn’t have the capability to get sound directly from the house sound board. I mounted the shotgun mike on the camera and gave it a shot. In order to minimize wait staff traffic and too many heads in the frame the camera was high on a tripod. Instead of jumping on a chair or small ladder I turned the articulating viewfinder so I could see it from below for framing and focusing.
PROCESS Stuff – No real fancy editing here. I used ScreenFlow from Telestream (Learn more here). It’s actually a pretty versatile piece of software for the MAC OS 10.7 and higher that’s designed for capturing video and audio from your computer. It does allow you to do most video editing like add transitions, split clips, delete video sections, add captions and text and do some minor color correction and sound processing. I added video actions to gently zoom in and out to give the piece a little more professional feel. For under a hundred bucks you can’t beat this software especially if you also want to produce how-to tutorials on your computer.
Esteban with his daughter Teresa Joy on violin and percussionist Emilio Santiago
live at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona produced with ScreenFlow
I am an affiliate of SreenFlow but I think this is a kick-a** product for the money. You can also get a trial version to see how you like it… If you have any questions give me a shout.
Yours in Photography, Bob
