Finger Lakes Photography Guild Year in Review, 2020

2020

Year in Review 1

The Contact Sheet Year in Review 2020

Finger Lakes Photography Guild www.fingerlakesphotographyguild.org Member of the Photographic Society of America OFFICERS Joann Long, President. JKLong@rochester.rr.com Jim Hooper, Vice President . Hooperphotographic@yahoo.com Joy Underhill, Secretary. JoyHill@rochester.rr.com Robin Voorhees, Treasurer. robinvoorhees@yahoo.com EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Charles Cappellino Barbara Drake Lee Drake Karl Dueland Jim Hooper Joann Long Joy Underhill CHAIRS Melody Burri, Publicity Chair Don Delong, NFRCC Representative Karl Dueland, Exhibit Chair Jim Hooper, Education Chair, Newsletter Editor Stephen Kalbach, PSA Representative Michael Linse, Challenge Co-Chair Nik Nagane, Outings Chair Robert Snyder, Challenge Co-Chair Marcia Mundrick, Social Chair Liz Voorhees, Membership Chair FACEBOOK Public Page: Finger Lakes Photography Guild Member Page: FLPGMembers MISSION The Finger Lakes Photography Guild is a collaboration of photographers who are striving to advance their use of digital imagery as a form of fine art. Members pursue photographic excellence, in a collegial environment, through the use of ongoing training, peer reviews, and shared experiences.

PHOTO CREDITS Front cover, Mike Nyerges, Charlie Cappellino, Lee Drake, Diane Dersch, Regina Muscarella, Steve Burnett, Joann Long, Mike Linse, Barb Drake This page, Keith Kappel

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From the Editor’s Desk...

What. A. Year!

Each December I always look back at my own photographic adventures, and it’s always a nice bit of reminiscing. I do the same when it comes to the Guild, and specifically the Contact Sheets. I find myself looking back through the issues, each acting as a bit of a time capsule. The April issue, in particular, being the first issue release after the start of the quarantine, it was kind of eerie to look back.

In my very first year (maybe second) of making a Contact Sheet, I compiled all of the stories I’d shared, and made a Holiday issue. In the years since, the Contact Sheet has grown soooo sooo much. I thought it would be interesting to compile all of the amazing stories that have appeared in the Contact Sheets throughout 2020, and share one consolidated record of the year’s events for the Guild.

It’s rather inspiring to see all of these stories pulled together into one issue, and as usual, I hope you’ll pour a cup of coffee and enjoy looking back on the year in review.

CONTENTS departments Pro Series 186 Photoshop 187 Photoshop Summary 188 Subjective Landscape Philosophy 6 Photographer or GWC 11 Photography Encyclopedia 12 Our Images, Our Legacy 16 What Does it Mean to be a

PSA Member?

17 Tis the Season for Giving Back 22 Developing Your

Monochrome Vision 28 What’s In It For Me? 30 Armchair Tourist 33 Quarantine Musings 36 Signs Of Our Times 40 The Hammer (continued, next page)

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Philosophy Some deep thoughts shared by our members thoughout the year.

Shooting Techniques Tips for getting the most out of your ideas and equipment, when you’re behind the lens.

Gear Reviews and feedback on your favorite photographic gear, from Cameras to Printers, and lots in between.

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Year in Review Photography Techniques 44 Flat Lay Photography 48 Night Sky Photography I 53 Night Sky Photography II 60 Light Painting & Triptychs 63 Rapid Fire Photoshoots 65 Making Sense of Histograms 68 Shooting with Models Processing 74 Experimenting to Achieve What You

Want in a Photograph 75 Digital Matting 78 Great Photoshop Brush Off Part I 82 Great Photoshop Brush Off Part II 86 Creating Orbs in Photoshop or PS Elements 88 PS Quick Tips: Rotating Your Image 89 Quick Tips: Lightroom Gallery,

Product Images with a Studio

Sweep, Step Up Your Filter Game Gear 92 Gear Review:

Peak Designs Capture Clip 94 Nikon Shooters:

Is Your Future Mirrorless?

97 Gear Review: Nikon Z6 101 Print Explorations 104 Gear Review:

Canon ImagePROGRAPH

Pro-1000 Printer 107 Quick Tip: Disappearing People 108 Your Best Friend for Fall

Photography, The Circular Polarizer 111 Quick Tip: Minimum Shutter Speed 112 Nikon Shooters: Are you a Nikonian

114 DIY Filter Pouch 116 DIY Custom Paracord Wrist Strap Travel 120 My Favorite Destination:

Genesee Country Village & Museum 126 Kiss Me, Im Irish Image Sharing 140 Behind the Image: Skyline Reflection 142 Photographic Portfolios 145 Exhibit at 1570 Gallery at

Valley Manor 146 Member Portfolio: David Soderlund

The Mill at Lonaconing 154 Go Big or Go Home, Creating and

Hanging Large Foam Mounted Prints What’s In The Bag 159 What’s in the Bag- Paul Yarnall 162 What’s in the Bag- Marcia Mundrick 164 What’s in the Bag- Jim Hooper Member Spotlights 166 Bob Sundell 168 Regina Muscarella 172 Paul English 175 Liz Voorhees 178 Robert Snyder 181 Mike Nyerges 189 Resources and Member Pages

Photo by Joy Underhill 4

Philosophy 5

Photographer?

By Jim Hooper 6

or

GWC? The oldest surviving photograph formed in a camera was created by NiĂŠpce in 1826 or 1827. It was made on a polished sheet of pewter and the light-sensitive substance was a thin coating of bitumen, a naturally occurring petroleum tar, which was dissolved in lavender oil, applied to the surface of the pewter and allowed to dry before use.

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“After a very long exposure in the camera (traditionally said to be eight hours, but now believed to be several days), the bitumen was sufficiently hardened in proportion to its exposure to light that the unhardened part could be removed with a solvent, leaving a positive image with the light areas represented by hardened bitumen and the dark areas by bare pewter. To see the image plainly, the plate had to be lit and viewed in such a way that the bare metal appeared dark and the bitumen relatively light” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ photography).

Several days. The first image captured by a camera is believed to have taken DAYS to record! Since that first day, it is estimated that some 3.5 trillion photos have been recorded.

One source from 2012 claimed that over 10% of all the photographs ever created have been made within the last 12 months, and I have to believe that number is even higher now.

To put things into perspective, there are more photos made in 90 seconds across the world now than there were in the entire 19th century.

During the ProSeries workshop, I had an interesting discussion with Doug Hansgate about how it is both easier and harder than ever to be a “photographer” in today’s world. Photography is more accessible than ever, with 81% of American adults carrying a smartphone (and another 13% carrying mobile devices that may or may not have a camera on board) according to Pew Research in 2018. Clearly there are far more Guys/Gals With Cameras (GWCs) now than there were in 1826, so what does it take to wear the “photographer” name tag now? Are you a photographer, or are you a GWC? Photographers at the turn of the 19th century were first and foremost chemists, mixing delicate balances of noxious chemicals, coating glass plates with vapors of mercury or sodium iodide to coat glass plates (among other materials).

These delicate plates needed to be prepared moments before exposure, and often deteriorated quickly. Landscape photographers were forced to carry entire mobile labs on rickety carts pulled by horse or oxen. Portrait photographers typically clamped their subjects with intricate braces for minutes, if not hours at a time. People operated cameras for over one hundred years without even the luxury of a light meter (the Weston 617 was introduced in 1932)! Prior to that, exposures were based on trial and error and previous experience.

In these early days of photography, there weren’t many people that bore the title of “photographer”. It was hard work, required a lot of money and scientific expertise, and the process was slow and unwieldy, leaving many people to dismiss the products that came out of them.

In order to put the technology into the hands of the masses and begin to make photography more accessible, Eastman Kodak introduced the Brownie cameras in 1900, taking advantage of acetate film strips that could be prepared in advance and stored in small containers before being loaded 8

A photographer and his camera, circa 1865. into the camera. Kodak offered the Brownie at a reasonable price point, and included free developing with the purchase of film. Suddenly, photographers were freed from the need to be chemists and inventors. This was a pivotal step in the photographic industry.

With the introduction of the Brownie camera, many more people began carrying cameras, and perhaps this might be the first generation of GWCs. That said, being a photographer will wasn’t for everyone. The equipment was more accessible, but it wasn’t always of the best quality. Lenses weren’t technically sharp, determining exposures was still very much a guessing game, it would take weeks to get your images returned to you, and it was still fairly expensive to get prints made. Yes, more people could take pictures, but already there was a divide between “photographers” and GWCs. People who demanded the highest quality insisted on having total control of the entire process, and therefore developed and printed their own film. Some people were probably still preparing their own film chemistry as well.

In the 1950’s, single-lens-reflex cameras were beginning to emerge with eye-level pentaprisms allowing the photographer to hold the camera at eye level and still see through the actual lens. Earlier twin-lens reflex cameras provided waist-level viewfinders that looked through a second lens, approximating the field of view of the image-taking lens. The eye-level viewfinder, along with the ability to attach different lenses to the camera, gave photographers greater flexibility with regard to the types of images they wanted to take, and the ease with which they could make them. The first such SLR with an eyelevel pentaprism was the Rectaflex, and it was produced from 1949-1958. Nikon and Canon both emerged in 1959 with the Nikon F and the Canonflex SLR respectively. The Nikon F was considered the first “system cameras” with interchangeable focus screens, interchangeable prisms, depth of field previews,

compete with traditional film. Yet, as computer geeks and photographers began to develop in synchronicity, the DSLR prices began to fall, resolution climbed, photo editing software became more robust and readily available, and printing options became more abundant. Despite the purists swearing that “real” photographers would never go digital, the transition from analog to digital SLR cameras was functionally complete in about ten years.

Concurrently, two other computer-based revolutions would change the face of photography forever. The introduction, development and proliferation of the cell phone meant that all of the technology that was going into DSLR cameras was also being miniaturized and put into the pockets of millions of Americans. Additionally, social media began to flourish and expand the reach of all people, including photographers.

A modern mirrorless camera. mirror lockup ability, a quick-attach lens mount, and a single stroke film advance lever and many other upgrades. For these reasons, the Nikon F was the first SLR system that was adopted and used seriously by the general population of professional photographers, especially by those photographers covering the Vietnam War, and the various launches of the space capsules in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs, both in the 1960s. In this era of rapidly growing technology, photographers didn’t need to worry about mixing up their own chemistry or carrying dark rooms around with them. They had commercially available equipment and the best photographers were able to see these new technologies as tools, and use them creatively to push the envelope.

The last half of the 20th century brought continued refinement of the SLR technology, as well as development of various film technologies including the proliferation of color films. Kodachrome film first introduced in 1935, but color film didn’t become mainstream until the early 1960’s. Color films, however, were notoriously more demanding in their processing, requiring more exact control of the temperatures of the chemicals, the times in each stage of developing, and more finicky in the actual printing processes. Most photographers shooting color films elected to send their film out to commercial labs for processing and printing, while their black and white counterparts frequently chose to develop the films themselves for continued control and faster turnaround times.

At the dawn of the 21st century, however, photography took another dramatic turn in technology, as the digital SLR quickly rose to the forefront. The earliest DSLRs were low resolution, ridiculously expensive, and the resulting digital images weren’t well supported with software or output options.

It seemed at first as though this technology was doomed for failure, and early adopters were met with the scoffs of other photographers who felt that digital images would never

Myspace was introduced in 2003, Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, and Snapchat in 2011. Suddenly, nearly every American had a camera in their pocket, and most of them were sharing their images with vast social networks in the blink of an eye. Facebook, the longest surviving significant social network, claims 2.5 billion monthly active users posting 300 million photos each day, in December 2019. The latest statistics show that Instagram has over 1 billion users active every month, over half of which are active at least daily. The platform also posts over 100 million new photos every single day. Snapchat, a relative newcomer to the field, is popular among the high school and college students. Snapchat boasts 218 million active users posting 3 billion snaps (photos and videos), every single day.

Within the span of seven years (from the introduction of Myspace to the introduction of Snapchat), quite literally almost every single American not only had a camera in their pocket, but was taking pictures and sharing them to a worldwide audience. Technically speaking, 79% of Americans had at least one social media account as of August 2019. When you consider that most children aren’t permitted to have an account until they reach a certain age, and the fact that many seniors aren’t using social media, it is safe to say that the percentage is much higher if you look at the 18-65 age range.

Now, a person who makes photographs is a photographer, right? Well, technically, yes. Of course. But clearly, being a photographer means something very different now than it did in 1826 when Niepce created his first image from the window at Le Gras in Eastern France. Niepce was an inventor, not an artist. He later teamed up with artist Louis Deguerre who began to look at photography as an art form.

Todays photographers needn’t be inventors. The tools have been invented, and while there is certainly plenty of research and development that goes into these machines, the fact is, the image makers no longer need to be mixing chemicals or grinding glass, or building wooden camera boxes. So, clearly, being a photographer now, is much easier than our forefathers had it, right?

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Well, yes and no. Because while it is easier to simply take a photo (quite literally monkeys can do it!), the reality is that there are very different skillsets needed now, in order to truly stand out as a photographer.

The “competition” is stacked against you, as some 314M Americans (96%) carry a cell phone.

Fortunately for you, I don’t think most people would consider your 14 year old smartphone carrying granddaughter to be a photographer, but the reality is, she’s taking more photographs before school than you probably did in your first year of owning a camera. So what separates the wheat from the chaff ? What makes one person a photographer, and another person just a Guy/Gal With a Camera?

Truth be told, cameras are just as much “computer” as they are “artistic brush” in this current day. And while the photographers of 1900 may have been half photographer and half inventor, photographers of 2020 are half photographer and half computer nerd. Commercially successful photographers are only beginning the process when they capture an image. The rest of the journey typically takes place back in the office when they sit behind a computer (or pass off the files to an assistant) and begin to process the images.

For most, Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop and/or Photoshop Elements are the very bare minimum starting points for processing. The list quickly grows when you think about the multitude of plug-ins currently available, whether it be NIK or Topaz or On1, or Anarchy, or Ink, or RH Hover Color Picker, Portrait Pro, or Tony Kuyper Actions, Noisewear, Fluid Mask or... you get the point, the list is long, and seems to be growing every day. Not to mention, there are other stand alone editing programs like Corel, that have some limited popularity. Throw in smartphone editing apps like Photoshop Express, Lightroom Mobile, Snapseed, Luminar, ACDSee, VSCO, Prisma Photo Editor, Foodie, Visage, etc, and it’s easy to become overwhelmed with so many options. I don’t know many successful photographers who use just one, but at the same time, there has to be a limit. No one I know claims to regularly use more than four or five different programs fluently.

The key now, is that truly successful photographers can’t and don’t stop once the image is created in the camera. We have virtually unlimited tools readily available to us. We now have the opportunity for true creative freedom. Now, perhaps more than ever, it is essential for a photographer to have a creative vision at the outset that extends beyond what is visually 10

present in reality. No longer will a photographer stand out from the crowd simply by taking a photo and instantly posting it online for the world to see, because literally everyone and their uncle can do that. What can you do to create something more than everyone else? It takes dedication, practice, and wait for it... patience (see what I did there?)! In the instant gratification society, with millions of youtube videos on how to be a better photographer, many people are buying their first “real” (aka DSLR) camera and then soliciting advice on Facebook about coming up with a business name! I’ve even seen some people inquiring about business issues before they’ve even bought a camera! Persistence and practice has always been a basic tenet of any art form, but for some reason, many newer photographers seem to think that they will be world class photographers after watching a few videos and creating an Instagram Business account.

The truth is, many of the same principles still apply to good photography today that did in 1900. Creativity, basic composition, color theory, strong technical skills, attention to details, as well as a strong work ethic, are still absolutely critical to the successful photographer. Doing all of these things well requires a significant investment of your time. It still requires you to stay current with the latest trends and technologies in your field. It still takes financial investment in good quality equipment (even if you aren’t having to build it yourself anymore). You see, carrying a camera and taking pictures makes you a GWC, but being a photographer implies a long-term dedication to continued improvement of your art. Long hours of studying, practicing with your camera, and editing your images after a shoot. Being a photographer means that you are consistently evaluating your processes and looking for new ways to innovate and improve. Being a photographer means taking the tools that you have available to you and using them to express yourself in a meaningful way.

So, what are you? A GWC or a Photographer?

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The Photography Encyclopedia McDarrah and McDarrah 1999

f/64 Group An informal association of California photographers who promoted precisionalism through the use of the large-format view camera, printed by contact, using the smallest camera aperture, which is f/64. Among the members were Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Willard Van Dyke, and Consuelo Kanaga. They were a loosely allied group from 1930 until 1935 and have had a profound impact on photographic aesthetics to this day. Exhibiting as a group only twice, they generated a lively controversy with west coast pictorialists, who favored soft-focus, manipulated prints.

Lumière, Auguste (1862-1954) Lumière, Louis (1864-1948) French inventors The Lumière brothers are credited with the invention of the first motion picture camera and projector, which they patented as the cinematographe in 1895. The collaborated on the first movie ever shown to the public; it was a short feature called La Sortie des Usines Lumière (Exit from the Lumière Factories) and depicted employees leaving the Lumières’ photographic-plate factory. Their movies used 35mm perforated, celluloid film, which is still employed in modern-day film making.

The factory had been founded in Lyon by their father, Antoine, a painter and early photographer himself, in 1882.

The brothers both attended Martiniere industrial school in Lyon and worked together in their fathers laboratory. The factory was a great success and branched out to manufacture paper products. In 1904 Auguste and Louis invented autochrome, the first widely used color photographic process, which remained popular until the 1930’s. Autochromes were employed by some of the Pictorialists, as well as by photographers of the Photo-Secessionist movement, including Alfred Stieglitz.

Prolific scientists, the Lumière brothers introduced other notable photographic inventions, including a 360-degree film projector that produced panoramas and a stereoscopic system for projecting motion pictures.

Twin Lens Reflex Camera: A camera that uses two lenses of the same focal length- one to focus with and the other to expose the film. The top lens is used to focus the camera using a reflex mirror and ground glass viewing area. The lower lens contains the shutter and aperture control to expose the film. Twin lens cameras use medium format film and make 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch negatives, such as a Rollieflex.

Zeiss, Carl (1816-1888) German lens manufacturer Over 100 years after his death, the best camera lenses still have Carl Zeiss’s name on them.

After a traditional middle class education- some study, an apprenticeship and travel- Zeiss established a workshop in Jena in 1846. Along with his partners Esst Abbe and Ottle Schott, he revolutionized lens design and manufacture. First, they devised the creation of Jena glass, the finest opticalquality glass. The Zeiss company became world famous for its binoculars, microscopes, telescopes and camera lenses. Paul Rudolph, Zeiss’ chief designer, was instrumental in the firm’s production of the first anastigmat and the still popular tessar lens, both introduced shortly after Carl Zeiss’s death.

After Zeiss’s death his son Roderich took over the firm; the company remains in business today. After World War II a separate Carl Zeiss Works was established in West Germany while the East Germans rebuilt the plant at Jena. Since 1989, both plants have been part of the same company in unified Germany.

 The Rollieflex is an example of a Twin Lens Reflex camera, and comes from a diverse line of high-end cameras originally made by the German company Franke & Heidecke, and later Rollei-Werk. (Photo from WikiWand.)

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OUR IMAGES,

OUR LEGACY

BY MELODY BURRI

1940

That perfect shot.

Oh, the time we’ve poured into planning, trekking, stalking, calculating, positioning and finally focusing in order to capture it. And often it’s in a remote location, in extreme cold or heat, at inconvenient hours of the day or night.

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That’s followed by the endless hours of editing, tweaking, education and skill development to coax it into perfection.

And let’s not forget the small fortune we’ve poured into procuring the toys and tools that fill our multiple camera bags to help make that perfect shot even possible.

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So we’ve captured the images — lots of them, if we’re lucky. And they’re gorgeous.

Now what?

How can we move them beyond our computer monitor and out into the world? How might they help enrich the lives of our friends and families and those in our community?

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And how can we ensure our photographs — the product of our time, passion, creativity and cash — will outlive us and become a legacy for future generations?

My grandfather was a career engineer at Kodak who helped develop its technology. He left behind thousands of color slides of his large family and from his world travels. But a half century later, his images are nowhere to be found. They slipped through the hands of second, third and fourth generation descendants who were busy doing other things.

There isn’t much I wouldn’t give to recover those visual assets and his stockpile of Kodak one-of-a-kind gear. It’s put me on a mission to make sure my passion

This closeup tells the story of my dad’s character: strong, steady, no-nonsense. Family members will immediately remember these hands scoring music, drumming into the night, labeling anything that didn’t move and doing crossword puzzles. for image making doesn’t evaporate into thin air when I’m no longer able to share my work.

CAPTURE THE HERE AND NOW Here’s my strategy (and bucket list, as it turns out).

Chase that one memorable photograph. Treat each day like it’s your last and make images that encompass your overall personality, your outlook, your ethos. Few of us will capture the “one shot” that will make us famous, but we can create photos that will speak for us long after we make an exit.

Inspire others. Teach photography to a friend or family member, be a mentor/coach one-on-one. Offer instruction at a local school, at a church or through a scouting program or 4-H club. Start a blog, share on social media. Be open-handed with your tips, techniques, insights, contacts and experiences. Our legacy doesn’t live on through our images alone. It lives in the passion we ignite in others.

Document history. Photographers can be such effective historians. Why not photograph your own home, your kids, friends, family, neighborhood, community or group?

Paint a wordless picture of where you live, what it means to grow up in your world, this moment in time. Self-publish a book using Blurb.com, Shutterfly, Snapfish or any one of a number of reasonably priced online sources. Submit a small collection to the local paper, host a blog and link to social media, create a gallery for your website, historical society, library or social media.

Capture personalities. I dream of compiling a “Faces and Places” book of Canandaigua’s best loved people at work and play, quietly doing what they do best. It will be a who’s who of colorful and beloved characters on the front line and behind the scenes, in their natural surroundings. I hope the self-published volume will embody the essence of this area’s greatest living assets.

Capture relationships. A few years ago I forced myself, camera in hand, into my mom and dad’s daily activities over the course of a month. They didn’t love being photographed and couldn’t figure out why I was so insistent, but I tried to ease their minds as we went along. The next Christmas I presented them with a self-published book of their life and love in images. It brought so many smiles and tears and secret looks, and later became especially precious when my dad died suddenly of acute myeloid leukemia. They’re by no means the best images I’ve ever captured, but they are the most important, to date.

Remember, when you’re documenting the life of a loved one, images should be natural and captured in their own environment. Embody their essence, their personality through facial expressions, interactions, tighter shots of their hands, profiles that show body language and attitude, details of their surroundings, sacred objects and daily rituals. Shoot some “big picture” images of their surroundings to act as backdrops or scene-setters. Tell their story without words.

Curate treasured collections. Mom’s mountain of colorful quilts, Dad’s menagerie of exotic percussion instruments, my sister’s stunning handmade stained glass, miniature tea sets, Nantucket baskets, colorful sneakers, guitars, surfboards, cooking gadgets — whatever you and your loved ones cherish and collect deserves to be artfully photographed for today and tomorrow.

And what a wonderful gift to give to future generations: a self-published volume featuring images of “what we made and loved.” If you think of those objects as an expression of life and passion, it’s easy to capture them as a portrait of their creator, either in a still life, mass assemblage, or pop art piece.

Dad’s Sticks. These made the music ever ywh

ere, all the time.

This way of creating a legacy calls out to become a self-published photo book or printed and framed as wall art. Long after the actual collections have been broken up to give away or be sold, a printed record will tell the collector’s love story.

An online repository might also be a great option for your family. Members can contribute, download or even digitally “thumb through” virtual photo albums of vacations, daily life, major life events, heritage photos or anything that defines your tribe. Sure, you could depend on social media for that, but a private, interactive gallery for your family with multiple contributors could be so much more fun! Be sure to communicate when and how the repository will remain accessible as technology advances.

A word of caution: If you don’t establish an online repository, at least designate a family historian to be in charge of your family’s heritage photos, and let your family know who that person is. People need to know who has the digital and printed photos and where they’re being stored. And if you are using a library system or a shared site, you also need to make sure someone is maintaining that system. The family historian or the person responsible for the estate needs to keep things current, and be aware if a site has become obsolete.

Framed prints, wall calendars, mugs, etc. deserve a mention, as well. These are essential at our house, as we LOVE seeing the faces of our grandchildren every day on the wall calendar hanging in the kitchen. It’s a snapshot of this moment in time and a fresh reminder of how blessed we are. I didn’t create the calendar, but I’d be lost if my daughter didn’t gift us every year with one.

Share your travels through travelogue presentations at libraries and senior centers. Show off your best images of parts unknown and the world travels with you while you relieve your adventures.

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On social media: Create slideshows and publish them on YouTube. Post photo collections or collages on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Create Shared Albums in iCloud, or share your photos via Dropbox or Google Photos.

ORGANIZE YOUR ASSETS Gather your photos into one location.

This will help you “assess the mess,” organize and eliminate duplicates. That means uploading from each device you’ve used to take a photo. iCloud (if you use it) will sync across all your devices. Gather print photos, as much as you’re able, into one location, too.

Breathe. It’s going to feel overwhelming.

But you can bring order one small step at a time.

Allen Johnson has been placing markers and flags on veterans’ graves in Victor for years. A few years ago he flew to Washington DC with Honor Flight and inspired me to take that same flight with my dad, the fall before he died.

Check for duplicates using PhotoSweeper for Mac or Awesome Duplicate Finder for PC or Lightroom.

You could also view your files manually. Obviously, check digitals before spending time scanning prints — you may already have an image in both formats.

Purge. Choose your best photos and get rid of your worst. Grit your teeth and delete anything that’s technically off, then take another pass and choose the very best of each specific subject or event. Delete what’s left.

Organize. Some prefer to sort by year and date, but I prefer creating categories like people, places, wildlife, landscapes/

nature, events, night/astro, travel, holidays, portraits, ICM, drone, clients, etc. Subfiles have event/location/subject names and the year, like Christmas 2020, and all the images inside have been renamed to Christmas 2020_1.jpg, etc.

Multiple print photo boxes work for organizing prints by event or category. And what a great job to tackle with a few family members!

Back up. If catastrophe strikes your laptop, device or prints, you’ll be prepared. Scan prints (or have it done), keep original prints for back up. And backup digital images twice on a second 1 TB or greater external hard drive AND the cloud.

Create multiple backups, including making digital copies of analog photos and printed copies of digital photos, storing images in the cloud and one complete set of your image archive on a hard drive. Use the three-copy rule: you should have three digital copies of your photos, at least one at an off-site location. Systems that make at least one automatic backup without a manual prompt from you are Apple Photos, Google Photos and Backblaze.

Also share important digital and printed images with family now. If your copy is destroyed, someone else can help you recover it.

Sound like overkill? It does until you lose an irreplaceable original.

They were so unhappy to have their picture taken, but relaxed when we started joking around. It speaks of their love.

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Maintain the sort/purge/organize ritual every time you upload images to your computer. Schedule a time each

month to continue curating the best of the best.

Keep up with technology changes. Digital file formats change, so keep file formats current so they can be read by current equipment and software. Home movies and tapes should be converted to digital files.

PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE This is where it all starts to get real.

Where and what next? Write down where all physical photos, videos and memorabilia can be found. Also write down instructions for what you would like your family to do with all of these physical and digital memories after you are gone.

Online inventory. Make a list of all the online places where you’ve stored photos, videos and personal blogs. Record all the online user names/passwords of sites where you keep photos and videos, including social media. Keep this list updated in a password-protected spreadsheet, put handwritten copies in your safety deposit box.

Assign a digital executor, someone to execute your final wishes with your photographs. Do you want them scanned and distributed? Do you want your online accounts to be disabled or deleted? Facebook now allows you to name that person in advance and give them administrative privileges.

Your digital executor also needs to know the access code to unlock your digital devices (phone, tablet, computer) which will hold your most recent photos.

Keep all of this information in a safe location such as a locked file cabinet or safe (if written), in a password-protected file on your computer or a hard-copy held by your lawyer or trusted family friend.

Now’s the time to unleash your passion and creativity to enrich the lives around you today and tomorrow.

Now’s the time to make sure your images have a voice for generations to come.

Sources: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/what-legacy-do-youwant-to-leave-as-a-photographer/ https://www.picturethisorganized.com/photo-legacy/ https://www.picturethisorganized.com/photo-legacy/ https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/keys-leaving-visuallegacy-future-generations/ https://digital-photography-school.com/documentaryphotography-six-tips-for-creating-a-legacy/ https://goodlifephotosolutions.com/what-happens-to-photoswhen-you-die/

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What Does it Mean to be a PSA Member?

Tom Kredo

]I’ve been a member of PSA for a few years now, and I’m finding new things every year to be happy about my purchase.

Club Membership Club membership is very basic and only gives us access to the club competitions. We are participating in the Projected Image Division (PID), and the Projected Image Division Creative for the 2019-20 season. There are three rounds of competition, Nov 15, Feb 15, and April 15. For each round, eight images from eight different photographers are used. Awards will be given to the top clubs at the end of the competition, as well as individual awards to the top scoring images. Competitions are judged by members of PSA camera clubs. We also compete in the club newsletter competition which we did very well.

Congrats to Jim Hooper!

Individual Membership For $45 a year I receive the following benefits without any extra charge: • Online Courses • Exclusive Webinars on Photographic Education • Image Evaluation Services • Mentoring • Study Groups • PSA Journal • Create a Member Gallery • Earn ROPA Distinctions, Star Ratings, PSA Honors I have basically used all of these services, except for the online courses. Let’s do a deep dive into these services.

Online Courses Working with accomplished instructors you could take a course in Creating Competitive Images, Portraits, and Still Life Photography for example. Many of these classes last over six months.

Webinars So far in 2020, there have been 16 webinars for PSA members that last about 90 minutes. All of the courses are recorded and available on the PSA website for viewing at a later time. I have been to about seven of these and found them to be excellent.

Some of my favorite ones have been with Lisa Cuchara who is an excellent photographer and instructor. Lisa’s subjects have been Creating Sweeping Panoramas, Wabi Sabi, and Urban Exploration. The webinars are moderated and you are fee to ask questions at the end of the webinar.

Image Evaluation Services I have sent in at least 100 images for critical feedback by PSA accredited photographers. There are separate categories for different types of photography. The basic process is to enter three images on the website, pick a category, and wait for a few days to receive your feedback in an email. Evaluators provide an email commentary regarding what was good and what could 16

be improved. Topics covered include: exposure, depth of field, lighting, interest, composition, ways to increase impact, ideas for different techniques, how to better communicate a photographic message, and presentation. The evaluators are assuming that you want to enter these into international competition, so they will provide feedback if they think the image would be accepted into these competitions.

Mentoring I have not used this service. Basically there are PSA members that volunteer to work with you on their expertise. You contact the expert in the area you are interested in, and they email you and you both agree to start a correspondence. Some of the mentors are experts in HDR, Portrait, Underwater, Websites, and Wildlife Photography.

Study Groups I have participated in three study groups: Macro, Black and White and Nature. There are about 8 group members at any given time. There is a moderator that is in charge of the group.

You upload one or two images each month, and everyone in the group gives you written feedback and sometimes a 1-10 rating (depending on the group). This is all on the website and everyone in the group can see your evaluations. It is not anonymous if that is a concern for you.

PSA Journal You have the option to pay a bit more for the PSA journal to be mailed to you in a hard copy. I find many of the articles to be interesting and worthwhile. I like the hard copy just because.

Member Gallery You can upload your images and have them shown on the PSA website.

ROPA, Star and PSA Honors There is a whole international industry dedicated to looking at your images and providing a score for a fee. Literally hundreds of PSA accredited contests are available each year. The goal is to get as many of your images Accepted into the show which is about the top 35% of all images in the show. Once you have 18 images accepted, you can apply for a one-star rating, and then keep progressing to have letters after your name like FPSA, MPSA. Typical charges are about $45 for maybe 10 images per show. Some people have thousands of acceptances which can get very pricey.

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Tis the season for

Giving Back

Fig. 1: Female Veterans Photoshoot for Compeer

By Joy Underhill 17

As much as I like to muck around in my digital archive to see what new things I can try with my photos, sometimes I just get the itch to take new shots. Fortunately, my volunteer work with Lifespan gave me the opportunity to shoot and write, both things I enjoy.

My relationship with Lifespan started when I was asked to participate in a U of R study to assess the effects of volunteerism in improving the mental health of seniors. I hate putting myself in that category, but I did welcome the chance to give back. I have done four projects this year, mostly to recognize the efforts of other volunteers.

With any project, good communication is paramount. As tedious as it is to nail down the specifics, it was the only way to pull off these photo shoots. For the most part, we scheduled specific times for each person at a central location.

One of the most challenging – and fun – aspects of each project was determining exactly what it would be. I worked with people at Lifespan and its partner, Compeer, to help determine what I would be delivering: a book, a calendar, event photos, or a tribute print.

Tribute to Female Veterans One of the big challenges this year was working around the restrictions of COVID. The Tribute to Female Veterans event took place at the end of February, so it was mask-free. I proposed that we shoot each veteran’s hands holding something important to them.

For the shoot, we chose an office at Compeer’s headquarters, where I could take advantage of a large, bright window. 36 veterans were scheduled at 15-minute intervals, which made for one full day of shooting. I asked each person to fill out a brief questionnaire while they waited, including their name, title, and a few questions about their service.

I took a shot of the questionnaire before shooting each person so I could keep things straight. This proved invaluable in sorting out images later, since my mind was mush by the end of the day.

The folks at Compeer also provided props for those who didn’t bring anything. A table was set up with small flags, medals, insignias, bumper stickers, etc., so that everyone would have something to hold in their hands.

I was amazed at what people brought with them and

Fig. 2: Framed black and white prints were featured one each table at the Compeer reception, with support from Lifespan for printing and framing.

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enjoyed hearing stories about why they chose certain items. One woman brought her 70’s-era combat boots (fig. 1); another brought a scale model of the helicopter she flew in. One veteran brought a largecaliber bullet inscribed with the name of a friend who was lost in service. Another woman walked in with her service dog, decked out in Army puppywear.

The tribute event took place at the Rochester Museum & Science Center. Long tables were set up with space for each veteran to display items from their service. The vets were recognized at a public reception where people could mingle, enjoy snacks, and listen to a few speeches.

The framed black-and-white photos were front-andcenter at each table (fig. 2). Lifespan partnered with Compeer to provide printing and framing.

Volunteer Calendar To honor volunteers who stepped up during COVID, Compeer asked me to create a calendar, to be delivered as a holiday gift. This was a relatively easy project since it involved just 12 people.

Fig. 3: Cooking with Sarge, featuring Mark Mitchell, for the Compeer Calendar project.

I chose to do the shoot in Highland Park near Lamberton Conservatory, which has good parking and easy access to varied background settings such as benches, trees, and steps. Using a consistent setting and time of day made all the difference in creating a cohesive set of shots.

We all wore masks, but I kept my distance with a 24-105 zoom so they could remove their masks when I was far enough away. It was up to me to pose people and choose locations – not my strong points – but I got better as we went along. I also asked them to bring something that represented how they had helped as a volunteer. Sarge, who taught Zoom cooking lessons, showed up with a large carving knife (fig. 3). We raised some eyebrows as people passed by!

I also conducted phone interviews and collected information via questionnaires. Each photo was accompanied by a brief write-up about their volunteer service.

The hardest part of this project was creating the

Fig. 4: Kathy Quinones, American Sign Language Interpreter, featured in the Compeer Calendar project.

calendar in Shutterfly. Even with lots of templates, it was challenging to work with the limitations of the program, but it was much better than designing each page myself.

Personal Tributes I love to listen to the stories people tell and find the thread that binds them. This is a writing skill, not 19

I created a book to recognize volunteers who had reached out during the pandemic by calling seniors who could not leave their homes (fig. 6). Most of these people were completely isolated and lonely, and a weekly phone call was often the only contact they had with the outside world.

This was the most ambitious of the projects since it included writeups and most of the photos were shot on-site at people’s homes. Masks in place, we met for a photo shoot outside, where I asked them to pose both with and without a mask. The difference in images is startling. Smiles say so much about a person.

Mary (fig. 7) lives off Joseph Avenue, which gave me pause. But when I arrived, she had set up a table on her stoop, complete with tablecloth, chilled water in a bucket of ice, and snacks. We talked about all the people she supported through her phone calls, and I felt humbled to meet a woman with such a generous spirit.

Fig. 5: Personal tribute for Tina, who received this as part of the award for Female Veteran of the Year.

a photographic one, but I marry it with images to create memorable personal tributes.

Again through Compeer, I have created special tributes for the Female Veteran of the Year, two years running now. These are typically poems that capture the uniqueness of each person’s life story, paired with a portrait shot, and packaged in a collage.

I feel privileged that people open up to me to share their important life stories. This year, the veteran had experienced unimaginable personal tragedy, which I wanted to capture without explicitly stating what had happened. When she also told me about playing as a child in the lower falls of Taughannock Park, I knew I had to include a shot of that as well (which I had in my archive) (fig. 5).

Lifespan provided the printing and framing, and I heard that there were tears in many eyes when she received the award. That means more to me than anything else.

Behind the Mask Lifespan kept me busy this year! At their request, 20

The book was assembled in Shutterfly, again using a template. Lifespan supplied various logos to give the pages a uniform look, and I paired the volunteers with those they called. In some cases, I was able to take a shot of those called or use a photo they supplied. Since Lifespan volunteers never meet with those they call, this was the first time people on either side of the phone line got to see what one another looked like and to learn what they valued about their exchanges.

Takeaways There are many ways to be recognized for your work. It’s always a thrill to be paid, win professional recognition, hear kudos from peers you admire, and see your images in publications.

Through these volunteer efforts, I learned the deep satisfaction that comes with a grateful smile, especially from underserved and “invisible” groups of people. I also got to call the shots for how these projects would be presented. Having a body of work with a consistent theme was its own reward and helped me discover what I could do better next time.

Give volunteering a try. There are plenty of organizations that could use your talents!

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Fig. 6: Cover of Joy’s latest book project, “Behind the Mask: Stories of Service” which was created for Lifespan.

Figs. 7 and 8: Samples of the volunteer tributes from the book.

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Developing Your

Monochrome Vision Black and white is abstract; color is not.

Looking at a black and white photograph, you are already looking at a strange world...

-Joel Sternfeld

Text and Photos

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by David Soderlund

Why Black and White?

Today’s world of photography is awash in color -- “ultimate” sunsets and sunrises at iconic and not-so-iconic locations, autumn foliage, brightlycolored birds, and brilliant flowers.

Our visual system is tuned to the colorful world around us, and the color information in photographs helps us decode what we see and map the image onto our experience. Because our camera sensors are tuned to the same color spectrum as our eyes, they yield images that we recognize as being faithful to the world we see.

But what happens when color is absent?

A 2013 study of the neurobiology of color perception used brain scans to assess how experimental subjects responded to monochrome images of familiar colored objects. In a surprising result, brain regions that activate in response to viewing a specific color (e.g., yellow) also activated when viewing a monochrome image of a familiar object of the same color (e.g., a banana).

Removing color from an image is therefore a powerful tool to engage the viewer, who must employ his or her internal color sense to decode the image and fill in the missing color information.

Black and white photography also opens up avenues for creative expression that are not available with color images. Color photography, especially nature and landscape photography, is constrained by our innate sense of what the world actually looks like. When our photographic interpretations stray too far from this understanding they are judged harshly, often characterized as “cartoonish,” “over-saturated,” or the dreaded “over-cooked.” By contrast, black and white images are free from the constraints of “what the world looks like” and therefore are open to manipulations that would be unacceptably garish in the same color image. These manipulations, however, are the basis for creating black and white photographs with great visual impact.

Fig. 1: (Un)Red Rose 23 23

Where Black and White Works Any color digital image can be converted to black and white with a single mouse click.

However, there are a number of circumstances in which black and white conversions are particularly effective and can be preferable to working in color. Here are some examples from my experience.

Too much color. Sometimes, color can get in the way. (Un)Red Rose (Fig. 1, previous page) is a perfect example of this. This rose was exuberantly red, to the point that all I could see in the original image was a blast of color. Of course, the subtle tonal shadings and textures of the petals were present, but they were subservient to the color. The monochrome version takes the tonal shadings and textures and makes them the subject of the image. For me, the monochrome image invites exploration at a completely different level than the original color version, and it has much greater visual impact.

Too little color. Sometimes conditions in the field conspire against the making of beautiful color images. Sea Smoke (Fig. 2) was taken at Bonny Dune Beach on the northern California coast on a chilly, overcast morning. I was hoping that the sun would break through and light up the cliffs but it never did, so all of the color images that I made were dull and not very interesting. By converting to black and white, I was able to manipulate contrast and tonality to create a dramatic look that was not attainable in the original color version.

Harsh light and high contrast. If we want to make great color photographs, we are told that we should seek the warm, soft, low angle light of the “golden hours.” However, black and white photography loves contrast, which opens up photographic opportunities at times of day when color photographers are putting their cameras away. I photographed Vestrahorn (Fig. 3) in Iceland in mid-afternoon under harsh side light. This was a very average color photograph, but conversion to black and white allowed me to accentuate the dramatic light and bring out the texture of the mountain face to create an image with visual impact.

Architectural subjects. I like to use black and white processing for photographs of architectural subjects. Monochrome emphasizes the strong lines and forms of buildings and lends itself to high contrast treatments that would seem unrealistic in color. Come Back Next Year (Fig. 4), a row of shuttered vacation cottages on Cape Cod, illustrates this approach. By darkening the sky, I was able to highlight the repeated pattern of the bright white buildings and create a sense of drama for the image.

Street photography. I don’t do very much street photography. However, on a visit to Boston I encountered a little boy who was fascinated by a street drummer. As the drummer moved to give the boy a fist bump, I was able to grab my camera and squeeze off just one shot. I processed the resulting image, Fist Bump (Fig. 5), in black and white to minimize the distractions of the subjects’ bright-colored clothing and focus attention on the drummer’s face.

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Fig. 2: Sea Smoke

Fig. 3: Vestrahorn

Fig. 4: Come Back Next Year

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Shooting for Black and White One of the challenges in developing your monochrome vision is learning how to photograph intentionally for black and white conversion. Here are some things to try: Shoot in “bad” light. Harsh, contrasty mid-day light is notoriously poor for color photography, but it can yield dramatic high-contrast black and white images (e.g., Vesterhorn, Fig. 3). Many of Ansel Adams’ iconic black and white landscape photographs were made under such conditions. Similarly, flat light can yield low contrast images that are open to artistic manipulation during black and white processing and can yield dramatic results (e.g., Sea Smoke, Fig. 2).

Look for lines, patterns, and repetition. Removing color emphasizes these graphic elements of images. This is particularly true with architectural subjects (e.g., Come Back Next Year, Fig. 4).

Look for texture and details.

Black and white images allow the manipulation of tonal contrast to emphasize surface textures and details (e.g., (Un)Red Rose, Fig. 1).

Use “black and white digital film” to visualize monochrome images in the field. One way to learn how the world of color translates to black and white is to set your camera’s JPEG development program to monochrome. When you do this you will see your image in monochrome in Live View mode on the rear LCD and during image review. If you have a mirrorless camera, you will also see the monochrome image in the electronic viewfinder. If you do this, I recommend that you still shoot in RAW format so that you will have the full information of the color image available for developing the black and white image.

Processing Black and White Images Preparing color images for conversion to black and white.

For a long time I was content to use my final version of a color image as starting point for black and white conversion.

However, I learned that you can improve black and white processing and avoid artifacts by preparing a flat, low contrast, unsharpened color image for monochrome conversion. In Lightroom, this involves using a “flat” or “neutral” camera calibration profile and reducing contrast to flatten the 26

Fig. 5: Fist Bump histogram further and ensure that there is no clipping in the shadow and highlight regions. To give the black and white conversion algorithms plenty of color data to work with, increase both saturation and vibrance to a point where they look somewhat overdone for a color image. Finally, disable input sharpening. This is particularly important when using a plug-in for black and white conversion, because sharpening applied to the RAW file can result in halos and other sharpening artifacts during the development of the black and white image.

Options for black and white conversion and processing. There are now a variety of options for converting RAW files to black and white and creating a final black and white image. In the Adobe universe, Lightroom and Camera Raw share a common tool for black and white conversion, which is found in the Basic panel of Lightroom’s Develop module or in Camera Raw. Alternatively, the Black and White Adjustment Layer in Photoshop offers very similar tool. Silver Efex Pro 2, part of the DxO NIK Collection, is a dedicated application for converting and processing black and white images, either as a stand-alone application or as a plug-in for Lightroom and Photoshop.

Other integrated RAW development and processing application packages (e.g., ON1 PhotoRAW, Skylum Luminar, Topaz

Fig. 6: Out to Pasture Studio) offer tools for black and white conversion and processing as well.

Silver Efex Pro 2, introduced almost a decade ago, is a powerful and flexible tool for processing black and white images, and it rapidly became the preferred tool for many photographers. Even with the development of competing software products it remains an essential part of the digital black and white photography toolbox. For those interested in taking full advantage of Silver Efex Pro 2, Jason Odell (www. luminescentphoto.com) has excellent tutorials (both e-book and video); I recommend them highly.

Silver Efex Pro 2 was my go-to application for black and white processing for several years, but recently I have been using the black and white conversion tools in Lightroom for most of my monochrome images. The capabilities of the image editing tools in Lightroom have advanced to the point that I do most of my color image development there, and extending that approach to black and white images simplifies and streamlines my processing workflow while producing results that satisfy me.

Figure 6 (Out to Pasture) exemplifies my Lightroom approach to developing black and white images. The original color image

(top) was attractive to me in terms of composition, but it was very flat and the car was not wellseparated from either the surrounding grasses or the background. My goal for in converting this to a black and white image was to “pop’” the car away from the rest of the frame and to minimize edge distractions. I settled on a high key approach that gave the final black and white image (bottom). Some of the adjustments I used to achieve this effect are shown in the Develop panel for the final image (right). First, I increased luminance for yellow and green in the Black and White Mix to bleach tones from the grasses and the background foliage. I then applied an S-shaped tone curve to increase overall contrast.

I used a radial filter (not shown in Fig. 6) on the car with a luminance range mask (to exclude bright elements) to increase Clarity, Dehaze and Sharpening and to pull down the Highlights. I then used two additional radial filters (also not shown in Fig. 6) to reduce exposure, clarity, and contrast in darker areas of the background. Finally, I applied a white vignette to extend the bleaching effect to the image borders. This image illustrates the power of black and white conversion and development in Lightroom. In particular, it shows the creative possibilities afforded by selectively modifying the luminance of different hues in the Black and White Mix panel and the utility of radial filters, coupled with luminance range masks, to target adjustments to specific areas of the image.

Final Thoughts My personal photographic journey has taken me more and more into black and white imaging. I hope that some of the things I have learned along the way, summarized in this article, will stimulate your monochrome vision and encourage you to expand your tool set for making expressive, high-impact black and white photographs.

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What’s In It For Me? Jim Hooper

I’ve long been an advocate for camera clubs. It began back around 2000, when I joined the Western Reserve Photographic Society in Northeastern Ohio. I quickly found myself really connecting with the overall vibe of the club, and before long I was appointed as the First Vice President, overseeing the education programs and writing articles for the newsletter... sound familiar? Anyway, once I connected with the members of the club, I got really addicted to the club atmosphere, I looked forward to meetings, I wanted to go out and shoot as much as I could, so I could share images, and yes, participate in competitions. I went on outings with club folks, and I found the club meetings to be a real inspiration to go out and get better every month.

When my wife and I left Ohio in 2005, I started looking for a camera club to connect with in New York, and for years, I wasn’t having any luck. In those years, I began to feel my passion, excitement, and energy for photography drifting away.

I began to wonder if photography was going to end up being just another hobby that lost it’s shine after a few years (let’s talk about my mountain biking, bird watching, and geocaching...)

But eventually, after seven (or eight?) years, the stars aligned, and I was invited to join the Finger Lakes Photography Guild.

I began to feel like I’d finally found my new home, my new second family. The passion came back almost instantaneously.

I was getting excited to go out shooting again, a feeling that had been gone for nearly a decade.

So just what is it about the “camera club” world that some people find so valuable? And why do some people love their clubs, while others can be amazing photographers and yet never feel the urge to join a camera club? I’ve been curious about this issue for some time now, and I’ve even written articles for WRPS about this topic, but that was over 15 years ago, and I figured it was worthwhile to dig back into the topic.

In the sales and marketing world, you’ll often hear about the “elevator speech”. Maybe you’ve heard of it. The simple scenario is this: imagine yourself on an elevator with someone you don’t know. You’ve got their undivided attention until the next time the elevator stops, and you want to tell them about your amazing product/service/etc. What are you going to tell them in the next 7 seconds that will convince them that they NEED your product/service? The exercise is intended to help you streamline your sales pitch to hit on the key points quickly.

Each time I think about my elevator speech for camera clubs, I keep coming back to the same core tenets. Essentially, a camera club is a place where people who love to talk all things photography can come together with like minded people who share that passion. From there, the energy seems to build momentum and the benefits begin to emerge organically.

When I ask people what benefit they see in being involved in a camera club, it always starts with people. Good people who share a common interest. Let’s face it, photographers are 28

no different from other hobbyists, in that we can get pretty excited about the minute details that leave non-photographers scratching their heads. Like seriously? You’ve all talked to your partner about dropping a chunk of money on a new lens because, well, it’s an f2.8, and my old one is only an f4.

Or woken up at some obscene hour of the morning, to go stand on a frozen lake at 5am, because there just might be an incredible sunrise at 6. Your partner may not understand your “idiosyncrasies”, but your Guild family does. When you just need someone to talk to about your obsession, or ask a question about chromatic aberrations (don’t we all want to know more about CA??), your Guild family is here for you.

Melody Burri said it best when she wrote that “The smile that comes over me when I realize that, OMG, all these people are as nuts as I am about photography and gear and technique and creativity and fun. And they’re willing to get up at the crack of dawn and travel the globe for the love of the chase and the joy of the capture. And they love technology, too. THESE are my people!!!” I have always felt that one of the things this Guild does exceptionally well is creating a warm, welcoming environment for new folks to connect to when they come to check us out.

While camaraderie and the opportunity to connect with like-minded souls is certainly the biggest reason people join the Guild, the educational aspect of the Guild is also widely recognized as a primary benefit of membership in the Guild.

Several members, when surveyed, specifically mentioned educational programs, as well as the informal opportunities to learn from others, simply through informal conversations with others. Mike Nyerges told me that “I learn a lot by listening to other photographers and seeing their work. Even when members informally talk about their work — especially when they talk about their work — I pick up all sorts of random but useful tips and insights, from setting up shots to camera settings to post-production techniques.” Mike is not alone.

100% of the members who responded to my questions via email or Facebook all commented on the educational value of the Guild being important to them. In fact, the emphasis on education above competition was one of the core tenets of the Guild when it first began so many years ago. Lee Drake, one of the founding members of the Guild, commented that the group was formed to support togetherness, without the stress of competition, so that members could learn together, openly willing to share skills and techniques. This is an aspect of the Guild that still holds strong today. This lack of peer-to-peer competition within the club is unique to the Guild, and is one of the factors that sets us apart from most of the other camera clubs throughout the country. Past President David Soderlund also remarked that the sharing and receiving of feedback in a collegial and non-competitive environment was one of the biggest benefits of membership. Another Past President, Diane Dersch said “There is no competitiveness but lots of encouragement which makes it a joy to be part of this group.”

With such an emphasis on the non-competitive, collegial, supportive atmosphere, the stage is set for wonderful educational opportunities, with content being freely shared by members for one another, as well as outside guest speakers coming in to share their knowledge. This is an area that I take great pride in. Knowing that the majority of the members value educational opportunities, we have devoted a great deal of time and resources to bring in those opportunities. By alternating business meetings with education meetings, we ensure that there is a heavy focus on education, rather than trying to squeeze a few minutes of educational content into each meeting. The arrangement has allowed us to attract guest speakers interested in longer blocks of time. This idea has expanded, too, morphing into the ProSeries Workshops where we have top level professional photographers presenting full-day or 2-day workshops. These workshops, open to the general public, have served dual purpose for the Guild by raising our public profile and helping to recruit new members. Our ProSeries has brought us speakers including Tony Sweet, Mark Bowie, Doug Hansgate, and Dan Hughes.

doors for those members who are interested in competition, without threatening the collegial supportive atmosphere within the club. These larger competitions allow our Guild to compete collectively against other clubs. Additionally, individual members have been recognized on the international level through PSA activities.

With everything going on within the Guild, the collective talent of our membership has grown so much over the years!

Members have always enjoyed exhibiting images when and where possible. From our annual shows at Wood Library, to new and emerging shows like Cobblestone Arts Center, area libraries and Valley Manor in Rochester, the quality of the shows is incredible, and is a true testament to the skills and talents of our members.

Outside of our direct shows, we’ve also seen many of our members recognized at Image City Photographic Gallery, as well as Life in the Finger Lakes, the Canandaigua National Bank Calendar, and other area venues. These exhibits can be a real value for members who enjoy the satisfaction that comes from exhibiting their work.

David Soderlund commented “I exhibited my first print in a Guild show, and the encouragement of Guild members led me to continue to print and exhibit my work not only in Guild exhibits but also in juried shows and even in a one-person exhibit at Billsboro Winery.”

The Guild’s membership in the Niagara Frontier Regional Camera Club (NFRCC), as well as the more recent membership with the Photographic Society of America (PSA) has also brought additional benefits for members. Through the I’m sure that every member NFRCC connection, our could give me a list of reasons members get discounted why they joined the Guild, rates on the popular Canthe last benefit that I wanted Am Photo Expo, one of to mention specifically is the “Puppet Master” took Bronze in the PSA compeition in June 2020. the largest international opportunity to go in the field photographic conferences to photograph with peers. for amateurs and professionals alike. Every year, the Guild This experience can be so rewarding in terms of both learning is well represented by a fleet of our members making the from, and social connection with peers. Whether it’s learning drive to Buffalo or Ontario, Canada. NFRCC has also been the technical skills of photographing a specific subject matter, both a source for guest speakers, and an opportunity for us to open discussions about how to process those images, or simply market our ProSeries workshops to the larger photographic dipping your toes into a new genre of photography you’ve community. Further, our involvement with NFRCC has helped never tried, attending a Guild outing can be hugely beneficial us to develop a relationship with Hunt’s Photo. Hunt’s Photo for our members. has built their business model on catering to the camera club people across the country, and are eager to provide educational I’d love to hear YOUR reasons for joining the Guild. If I’ve speakers (ie, Mike Moats) as well as discounts on gear for club missed something critical why you’ve stuck around this long, members. message me and let me know! And hey, thanks for being a part of us!

The NFRCC and PSA memberships have also opened the

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The Armchair Tourist Giving back with things you probably have around the house Text and Photos by Joy Underhill

If you’re like me, you may have found yourself wondering if there was some way to make lemonade from the lemon called COVID-19. Here I was, sitting on a mountain of photos from trips I had taken. My usual outlet – doing travelogues at local libraries – was no longer an option. But was there another way to share...?

That’s when I hit upon the idea of the Armchair Tourist. The term originated from that classic children’s book, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins,” where the protagonist sits in his chair reading about penguins in “National Geographic” and ends up hosting a bevy of them in his living room.

Rather than creating a video of my traditional PowerPoint slides, I decided to develop photo collages, each of which captured one aspect of the trip. For instance, in the Australia series, I covered Sydney and Melbourne for a day or two, then focused on interesting animals and plant life, hikes, and the Great Barrier Reef. Likewise, when the Armchair Tourist visited Cape Cod, I created separate collages for birds, black-and-white images, and beach time.

This was the hardest part of doing the collages: deciding on the theme of the day. I typically planned these out well in advance, using the top 100 shots from any major trip.

Longer trips (two or more weeks) earned 10 collages; shorter ones, just five.

Figure 1. Join Joy as she travels the world, sharing images from her adventures!

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Figure 2. Joy uses the last day to share some of her favorite images that may not have fit into any of the earlier themed days.

Creating the Collages I’m not particularly skilled at using Photoshop, so this was my chance to learn. As with anything, repetition made it oh-somuch-easier the next time around.

later created a dedicated Facebook page just for the Armchair Tourist series. That way, people wouldn’t have to search through my other Facebook posts to find the collage of the day.

First, I created a template containing the name of the series, a subtitle of the topic, my copyright notation, and the date. From there, it was a matter of plugging in the right photos…easier said than done!

I contacted the Victor Farmington Library as well, and they began posting them on their Facebook page. Over time, the librarian asked if I would do virtual slideshows via GoToMeeting. Again, since I already had my travelogue slideshows created in PowerPoint, it was a matter of showing up and running through my presentation. We recorded all sessions for later viewing. My latest virtual travelogue to Scotland is scheduled for October 8, with registration coordinated through the Victor Farmington library website.

I crop based on the characteristics of the photo, not print or presentation size. That preference made for challenging layouts, but I eventually found a way to make things fit. My goal was to have the viewer’s eye travel easily from one image to another, but not in any particular pattern.

I chose a color theme to distinguish one day from the next and to coordinate with the predominant colors in the collage.

Lastly, I added captions for each photo and flattened the image before creating a JPG. Share, Share, and Share Again I initially offered nursing homes and senior centers a weekday email containing the collage of the day with a short writeup. I asked friends and family for contacts and reached out directly.

I ended up sending emails to about eight locations, one as far away as Connecticut, which they would post on TVs in gathering rooms at their facilities.

I also posted the collages to my personal Facebook page, and

Lessons Learned As with many things sent electronically, I got great feedback from some places and none at all from others. The nursing homes responded sparingly, but then, they were dealing with a pandemic! I did develop a nice following on Facebook, which only encouraged me to create and share more.

The virtual tours were sparsely attended, but I think some of that was due to Zoom overload. We did have good postpresentation discussions, where people were able to share their own travel experiences.

I very much enjoyed the process of selecting the images and making pleasing arrangements of them. The revisiting of treasured trips in a time when no one could travel was 31

very satisfying, and seeing the collages as a collection gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I’m considering putting them together in a photo book as a memento of this strange time.

If you’re considering doing something like this, I would advise: •

•

•

•

•

•

Select and group your top x photos. Depending on how many collages you want to create, choose more than enough for the series. I used between four and seven images per collage, so having a “top 100” to draw upon eased the selection process when I needed to make things fit.

Create a template up front and use it religiously. It makes the collage effort much easier and gives your images a cohesive and predictable brand.

Build more than one collage at a time. I found that I could easily create a week’s worth of collages in short order once I was on a roll. On busier days, all I had to do was write up an intro and click Send or Post.

Share collages at a predictable time of day. This makes it easy for recipients and viewers to expect and anticipate your images.

Include photo captions.

Otherwise, no one has a context for what they are seeing. Captions let you inject a little personality and fun too.

Save your favorite images for your last collage. I often found that my best images lacked a theme, so I saved them for a final “parting shots” collage.

Figure 3. Capturing the true taste of Maine on Day 1.

Figure 4. The theme of Waterfalls is evident in this daily excursion in New Zealand.

To see more of Joy’s Armchair Tourist collages, check out https://www.facebook. com/Armchair-Tourist-111910270557396.

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Figure 5. Day 2 in Sedona, AZ features the famous red rock formations.

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Quarantine Musings

By Barb Drake

When Jim called for photo contributions for the Contact Sheet, my first thought was to go through my travels and pick a nice photo from each major location. As I started doing that, I realized that there was one place that kept coming back.

Because it’s so unique, it seemed to deserve its own story.

Burnt Cape Ecological Preserve is located at the northern tip of Newfoundland, surrounded on three sides by the frigid North Atlantic and the Straits of Belle Isle. At first look, it appears to be a desolate, windswept, wasteland but, like so many things in life, it is not at all what it first appears to be.

The ancient willows and birches, many more than 300 years old, cling to these little habitats, never growing more than a few inches high, but producing full sized flowers and seeds. One would think that they must be unique species but when the seeds are planted in more hospitable environments, they simply grow into ordinary trees. Seems there’s a life lesson there – in harsh times, even ordinary life can adapt and survive.

Burnt Cape is, in reality, an old growth forest, famous worldwide for its rare & unique arctic plants and native orchids.

It is, also, a story of survival in a harsh and unforgiving environment. A change in perspective is required, however, to see its complexity and beauty.

The fossil-laden limestone bedrock fractures and flips in the severe winter cold, forming unique, shallow, geometric frost polygons, providing a minimal shelter on the windward side.

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In these small shelters, many miniature orchids and rare arctic and alpine plants also find a home, blooming in the brief summer and then disappearing back underground.

While visitors are warned about polar bears hitchhiking to the area on icebergs from Labrador, the smaller denizens, birds and insects, abound in the brief summer bloom.

So, in the wasteland of Covid, I think I’ll take a lesson from the trees; be thankful for the shelter behind my back, look for the good stuff that hides under the radar, and try to keep blooming, even in old age.

Keep safe, everyone.

ď‚ľ

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Signs

of our Times Text and images by Joann K. Long

Covod-19. Who would have thought our world would turn upside down in such a few short weeks? Some people are overworked, while many others, like me, have lots of time on our hands. So many are experiencing extreme hardship financially, socially, physically, and mentally from this pandemic. My heart goes out to all those affected!

My intent in writing this article is to share my feelings and activities for what I’m finding helpful for me. I know I am blessed to be one of the lucky ones whose life has been least affected. I do not want to minimize what people are going through in any way. I feel so very fortunate to be home and my family safe. I try to stay positive and look for the opportunities. We all want to be with our friends, it is in our nature, but I have embraced alternative means and tried to stay optimistic. I am selective on my news intake and focused on three main areas in my life - my family, friends, and learning opportunities!

Family dynamics continue to change. I am the main caretaker for my soon to be 99 year old Mom (birthday in mid-May!) and although my role has drastically changed with more to manage since all her help has been furloughed, I still enjoy the extra special time spent with her! She recently was given an iPad and she embraced technology for the first time!

What memories I’ll have of teaching her to Skype, get email, navigate texting, and having her smile to see her first online church service! I’m also taking pleasure in spending more diverse family time. My husband and I are having longer unhurried dinner conversations. I’m enjoying leisurely daily dog walks in Boughton park (I made a triptych thanks to a tutorial from Adorama https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=B-qX9fEvjJY), and having chatty phone calls with my son.

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And of course, beyond using the spare time for cleaning out the junk in the closet type activities and binge movie watching on Netflix opportunities, I have my photography which gives me such pleasure! I was grateful for April’s FLPG Zoom meeting that went really well with great participation! I’ve also been learning many new things from all the free online tutorials. Tutorial, tutorials, tutorials! Here’s my list that I will continue to check out: Phlearn, Nikon online, Backcountry Gallery with Steve Perry, Matt Kloskowski, Creative Live, Digital Photography School, Adorama, Joseph Rossbach, and of course I hope to go back into our own warehouse of Contact Sheets for an abundance of information!

With all those tutorials I’ve garnered real useful tools and ideas. I even created a LightRoom Gallery, thanks to a MattK tutorial, to share pictures of my Mom that I had on my computer reflecting her 98 years of lifelong experiences, including some images I restored! https://adobe.ly/2KcBDgd My family was delighted and expressed their gratitude for the memories it evoked.

I did go out with camera in hand a few times. Actual photography shooting has included capturing my pets’ portraits for practice (making another triptych), as well as a few shooting trips outside my home. I went out once staying inside my car to document the Signs of our Times and made an 8.5 x11 LightRoom collage. It is a stark reflection of how things look with all the closures.

I also went to Webster Park to take a walk on Easter after visiting my Mom. The pictures at the park revealed the social distancing in our restrictive world that currently exists, yet the strength of people to thrive with the joy of being outside walking, fishing, or just being together in family groups on a warm sunny day.

I especially enjoyed seeing the rock monument that was left at the scene to offer a sign of strength and resilience.

The most recent shooting trip included a picture at Wegmans with a full isle of toilet paper. May that be indicative that the end of this pandemic will be soon! Who would have thought we’d be so happy to see toilet paper?

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This truly is an unparalleled time. For those of our group with small businesses, may our economy get well again soon! My gratitude to those who have family members on the front lines. I hope everyone is staying protected and making the best of their time during these hard-hitting conditions.

I just read a sad story in the newspaper regarding a personal account of someone’s Dad dying alone in the hospital with Coronavirus. With tears in my eyes, I wish you all a way to stay positive, healthy, and safe.

ď‚ľ

Quick Tip! If you are photographing glass and other shiny surfaces, and want to kick up the shine, spray a bit of Rain-X on the surface and wipe it to a full shine! Be sure to wash any tableware before you next eat from them though!

Submitted by Evie DuBois

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The Hammer

By Mike Nyerges

What has become clear to me in these times of confinement, sheltering at home and unable to come and go without feeling somewhat anxious, was how strongly influenced I am by my feelings when working with my photos, in post-production. If there’s a single action or technique that has become clear to me in this time of pandemic, it’s that I sometimes use my photos as a hammer to express something visible to me and not immediately visible in the photographs.

“When one gave up seeing the beauty” combines two deliberately blurred photos: an intentionally overexposed photo of the woods near FLCC and a recent photo of my wife in our family room. The title is from Virginia Woolf ’s first novel, The Voyage Out, which I’m reading. The full quote: “When one gave up seeing the beauty that clothed things, this was the skeleton beneath.”

“A light passing over the surface and vanishing” is an intentionally blurred photo of a young lady viewing a large chromatic painting at The Broad in L.A. The window is from a red shed near the entrance to the Ontario Pathways in Flint. (The shed also provides the red of her skirt.) The title is also from The Voyage Out: “And life, what was that? It was only a light passing over the surface and vanishing, as in time she would vanish...”

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“What we let go of was never ours” is a photo montage of three photos from Sydney: a rusted metal plate from a highway underpass in The Rocks, graffiti from Newtown, and an intentionally blurred photo of my son in a doorway in his Erskineville flat.

“An evening walk in the wilderness” combines two overexposed and intentionally blurred photos: one from the woods near FLCC and the other of a mother and two children at The Broad in L.A. 41

Shooting Techniques

Photo by Angela Browne 42

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FLAT LAY

PHOTOGRAPHY

by Jim Hooper fig. 1: Vintage photography flat lay

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W

ith our recent quarantine limiting my portrait opportunities, as well as my adventures away from home, I have been browsing the photo newsletters of various other clubs around the country, and stumbled upon a short article from a club in Olympia Washington, about flay lay photography.

We’ve all seen it, and never realized there was a special name for it. Flat lay photography is a popular style where objects are arranged, almost as if a still life, and then photographed from directly overhead. It has been popularized by social media “influencers” and is very trendy in marketing and branding for commercial businesses. A really good flat lay, like a good still life, relies on simplifying the overall scene, including just enough to tell the story, without giving the viewer too much to look at. It seems simple enough, and that’s for good reason.

The photographers who specialize in this style are exceptional at making everything LOOK simple, even they spend hours setting up a shot (and re-setting, and then setting it all up all over again). I’ve been playing around with some flat-lay, and while I am certainly no expert in this genre, I wanted to share some insights, and encourage you to try your hand at it at home! Here are 10 tips for tackling the flat lay!

GET INSPIRED Thinking about giving it a go? I’ve gotten addicted to scouring Pinterest, Instagram, and Google Image Search, my eyes all aglow at the amazing variety of flat lay photography that saturates our lives without us even noticing! When searching, pay attention to the incredible diversity of images! Some are super super simple with just two or three items on a clean white backdrop, while others carefully arrange hundreds of tiny objects. Some are brightly lit, clean and crisp, while others take on a dark and moody sort of feel. Some use perfectly clean, textureless background, while others arrange objects on old and worn cutting boards, cracked concrete floors, grass, and any number of other surfaces. And you know what? All of them can WORK! It can be both liberating and even a little overwhelming to see so many different styles that all work out really great.

PICK A THEME I have found that a good flat lay relies on having a really solid story or message that you are trying to make. On top of that, it’s really helpful to have a lot of props available to help tell that story, even if you aren’t going to use them all. While some images can really sing with just 3-5 items, it’s helpful to have a good selection of items to pick from when laying out your image. For example, when I did my camping image, I started with my entire, fully packed backpack. I then had to cull down and made decisions about including the boots, but leaving out the backpack itself, include a lantern, but leave out the sleeping bag. I probably shot 100 images where I swapped out this item for that, or moved one item an inch this way or that. You could prepare your set with 49 different doo-dads, and ultimately use 3 of them for the best shot.

USE A BASIC BACKGROUND By definition, the background is flat, so it seems like choosing a background to build from would be easy. It could be as simple as using a white sheet of posterboard on your kitchen table, but also give some thought to the scrapbooking backgrounds or patterned posterboard in the local craft stores. Or dig out a well-used cookie tray or cutting board for food shots. You can even use a cozy bedspread and a bed sheet. The key is to use a backdrop/floordrop that fits the overall feel of the shoot. If your trying to showcase the gritty toughness of a military grade cell phone case, then maybe you don’t want to be shooting it on a background of your grandmother’s lace tablecloth. If you’re shooting a sexy little scene of romance novels, a steaming hot cup of coffee, and a silk negligee, then that messy bedsheet might be a better choice than the cracked concrete of your driveway.

SIMPLIFY YOUR COLOR PALETTE Most, not all, flat lay tends to employ a very simplified color palette. Look at the theme of the image, then look at the props you have available, and see if you can identify one color that seems to just “work” for the setup. Maybe it’s two or three colors, but they are all related. Or complimentary.

Maybe its themed towards warm hues of yellow, orange, and red.

SHOOT IN NATURAL OR CONTINUOUS LIGHT Most of the behind-the-scenes images I have seen of people creating flat lays show the entire setup being assembled beside a big window, maybe with some sheer white curtains. Then, opposite the window, a big white sheet of foamcore bounces light back into the scene to create relatively even, shadowless light. I have all of my equipment set up in my studio, which intentionally has no windows (so I can control the light as much as possible), so I ended up using the largest softboxes I had and using my modeling lamps rather than the actual strobe lamps. I used one large light on either side of the setup.

USE A TRIPOD AND SHOOT FROM DIRECTLY OVERHEAD Ok, this is almost too obvious, as the very definition of flat lay photography is to be shot from directly overhead. Using a tripod that allows you to shoot directly down is essential.

Some have a boom arm. Some have a ball head that will allow it. Some have a reversible center column so you can mount the camera under the head. Like a typical still life, framing and composition is critical, and shooting on a tripod will allow you to take a shot, look at it, and then move elements of the image easily while keeping the same framing.

You’ll want to get fairly high above your set. This is why I tend to shoot my flay lays on the floor, but if you want to set up on a counter top or something elevated, you may need to shoot from a ladder (which makes a tripod all but impossible).

Shooting with a zoom lens is helpful too, so you can really fine tune the exact crop without having to move the entire camera on the tripod.

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fig. 2: Behind the Scenes of flat lay photography shown in fig 3.

COMPOSE FOR BALANCE AND LAYERS If we think of the individual elements of the image as having a visual weight, it’s important to pay attention to the balance of the image. While there are no hard and fast rules here, if you have one very large object on the upper right corner of your image, you may want to consider having another significant element in the lower left corner. For example, if you are shooting a wide coffee cup full of hot joe in the upper corner, it may work better to use a small burlap sack of beans on the opposite corner than using a single silver spoon down there. If you only have one larger object, maybe consider centering it in the frame, and using smaller items spread evenly around it.

While it may sound antithetical to think of a flat lay as having depth, layering elements one on top of another can convey a sense of depth to your image. It doesn’t have to be a huge difference in elevation; simply placing a small scrap of fabric or a sheet of paper underneath another item can make a huge difference.

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT LAYOUTS: GRID VS. LIFESTYLE This one may reflect more on the photographer’s personality than anything, but there are two schools of thought when laying out a flay lay. For those who prefer precision and order, 46

the grid layout is an approach where you neatly arrange all your props in clean lines, one beside another, almost in a matrix.

In this approach, you will often have many identical or very similar items, perhaps with one or two dissimilar objects, where the emphasis will be on those dissimilar object. They will stand out, based on contrast. In a grid layout, it is very clear and obvious that the photographer carefully placed each item exactly so.

In the lifestyled layout, you will carefully select each of the elements, the background, the lighting, etc., but them you place each item in such a way as to make it look as though life was in process, and the photographer just happened to stumble upon this amazingly beautiful scene. It’s carefully designed to look careless, comfortable, relaxing. If you know anything about my style (or just look at my own examples here!) you’ll know which style I tend to identify with!

CONSIDER YOUR FINAL CROPPING FORMAT It can be really helpful to have an idea of what you want the finished image to look like, and where you will want to use it. Instagram is the original home of the flat lay style, and in Instagram, the square format is king. The square format is also really great for simplified images, as they tend to lend themselves to a harmonious, symmetrical feel. For

cleaning up dust and dirt and sand and other “junk” to give myself a relatively clean image. I’d have saved a lot of time if I’d simply done a better job of cleaning the floor before I started arranging my items.

The editing phase is also where you will want to try to even out some of the lighting, if you have dark shadows, etc. I have sometimes taken my “cleaned up” images, and run them through one of the On1 Effects presets to give it a unified treatment that can sometimes smooth over any blemishes I missed. And then finally, if you have any text or logos, you’ll want to add those to the image here in the final editing stage.

fig 3.: A camping themed flat lay photo. this reason, many flat lay’s are designed with a square crop in mind. Traditional vertical or horizontal format can still be used to great effect though. Many businesses are using flat lay photographs for marketing products in printed magazines, and in these situations, using a vertical format will allow your flat lay to be used as a full page ads. Of course, shooting in a landscape format will allow your images to be used in a two-page spread. While you’re at it (bonus tip here!), if you’re shooting specifically for advertising images, you’ll want to consider where your text and/or your logo will appear in the final product, and be sure to leave space in your layout for it.

WORK SOME EDITING MAGIC Clean, clear images are key for flay lay photos, and you’ll want to take great care to clean up any and all potential distractions.

If you’re shooting with a smooth, textureless backdrop (a sheet of white foam core, or perhaps a color-striped posterboard, or even your kitchen counter), any sense of texture will stand out. In figure 1, I didn’t discover until I was editing, that the floor of my studio was absolutely filthy! I spent a lot of time

BONUS TIP: COLLECT B-ROLL If you shoot a lot of flay lay, you’ll generally find that you have your main items that tell the story, but you will also tend to use a lot of visual B-roll, so to speak. These are the items that no one is specifically looking at, but they help to convey a feel or a mood or an ambiance to the image that makes it more complete.

For example, in the camping image, the key items were things like the boots, the lantern, the map and compass, etc., but then I used some pine branches from a fake pine tree, to help set the outdoorsy feel. Over time, you will find that it is helpful to have a collection of these B-roll items that you can add into your flat lay images to fill them out a bit. Things like ribbons, buttons, stones, decorative books, coffee cups, trays or dishes, silk flowers, and the like, can be used over and over again in many different images. And because they aren’t the primary focus, no one will look at your image and say “oh my goodness, they used that same silk flower in the shot they posted two weeks ago!”

IN CLOSING Truthfully, I haven’t been shooting tons and tons of flay lay, and I am by no means an expert, but the tips that I’ve read through online tutorials have been really helpful for me, getting started in the genre. It doesn’t take a lot of technical expertise, but it really is a great test for your artistic/creative side. You may be able to set up a quick flat lay on a windowsill in 5 minutes or you might spend hours and hours trying to perfect it. And you know what? No one will know the difference when they look at your images! So give it a whirl! Try it out for yourself! If you do, I’d love to see you post some examples on the Guild Facebook pages!

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Night Sky Photography A Series of Articles for the Beginner:

Part One - What is Night Sky Photography?

Fig. 1: Night sky over Sagamore Lake in the Adirondacks.

Canon 6DM2, Rokinon 14mm prime lens, 25 seconds, ISO 3200 and f/2.8. Processed in Lightroom.

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This is the beginning of a series of articles on night sky photography which will include the equipment required, basic settings, composition and processing images. My night photography adventure started with a Canon T4i with a kit lens in the summer of 2017. At this point, I had limited knowledge of digital photography and had never processed photos using Lightroom or Photoshop. On the other hand, I did have a fascination and some knowledge of the stars and astronomy. As a child, I had spent an entire year getting up at 6:00am to deliver morning newspapers to earn money to buy my first telescope. Some of those mornings were bitterly cold in the snow belt of western New York. I still have my 3 inch reflector telescope purchased for $109 from Edmund Scientific in 1972. Although it has spent years seeing very little light in a closet, it kept my interest and wonder of the night sky alive.

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Fig. 2: The Milky Way Over Kodachrome State Park. Canon T4i using 18 to 55mm kit lens at 18mm, 15 seconds, ISO 6400 and f/3.5. Very limited processing in Lightroom.

Both my wife and I had recently retired in the summer of 2017 and we spent five weeks on a grand trip across the country while camping at many wonderful national and state parks. One of our stops was to visit Bryce Canyon National Park in spectacular Utah. To our disappointment, the campground in Bryce was closed for construction that season. But we found a nearby campground in the aptly named Kodachrome State Park. I knew very little about night photography at the time and could not resist the glorious Milky Way in the near perfect dark skies of Kodachrome State Park.

Figure 2 is one of my very first night sky images from that campground. This proves you can take some good images even without high end equipment and special processing. This particular RAW image is quite noisy as I boosted the ISO to 6400 with an 18mm lens opening at f3.5 and 15 seconds of exposure. At the time, I did not even know about noise reduction software techniques. I was thrilled just to capture this image and start my exploration of the night skies. I was inadvertently introduced to light painting by the headlights of a car that drove 50

into the campground and lit up the face of the cliff during my exposure. How lucky was that?

For me, the outdoor experience is a large part of the enjoyment of photography and that includes night photography. Spending time on a warm summer night or a cold crisp night pondering the universe and listening to the night sounds is part of the reward. I was in a very dark field this past summer and heard noises nearby and with the light of a very bright flashlight I found a deer grazing only 20 feet away. The deer did not seem to mind the bright light and apparently did not recognize my human figure behind the glare of the light. Owls, crickets, and other sounds add to the symphony of the night.

Night sky photography is a type of long exposure photography and can be divided into two main areas. The first is Landscape Night Photography which usually involves an interesting foreground and the night sky as a dramatic background. The Milky Way is a favorite background but other parts of the sky such as the recognizable big dipper or

just a beautiful starry evening sky can be a great background. Here are examples of the each with a little more experience and better camera gear. Figure 3 was taken around 1:30am along the shoreline of Limekiln Lake in the Adirondacks. It was my first experience with light painting using a flashlight reflected off my hand to faintly light the kayaks in the foreground. Wonderfully dark skies, some clouds on the horizon and the glow of the lights of Inlet, New York added to the scene. It was a wonderful night experience.

Figure 1 (opening spread) was taken one fall evening a bit after sunset while teaching a friend the basics of night photography. I was explaining focus techniques, high ISO, long exposure while casually finding this scene. I took a few shots after he was finished and it has turned out to be one of my favorite night sky photographs. Again, serendipity played a role with the porch light of a nearby building providing the lighting of the birch trees and the Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster showing up in the right portion of the sky.

The second type of night sky photography is astrophotography, when the main subject is the moon, a planet, a comet or a deep space object such as a galaxy or nebula. Here are a couple of examples of astrophotography. Figure 4 (next page) is an image of the comet Neowise taken from Lake Durant in the Adirondacks. This image benefits from the very dark skies of the area showing both the main comet tail and a second but fainter blue ionized tail. This image required the use of a sky tracker that is aligned to the North Star and slowly rotates the camera to enable longer exposures with a telephoto lens. This is a more advanced topic but readily accomplished and will be described later in the series.

Figure 5 (next page) is the most advanced type of night sky photography and is an image of the Andromeda Galaxy which is visible to the naked eye as a small fuzzy spot with dark sky conditions. The Andromeda Galaxy is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and is a great object to start with astrophotography. This image was also taken from Lake Durant in the Adirondacks on the same night as the Neowise comet. No telescope was used for this image, simply my Canon

Fig. 3: Milky Way over Limekiln Lake in the Adirondacks. Canon 6DM2, Rokinon 14mm prime lens, 30 seconds, ISO 6400 and f/2.8.

Processed in Lightroom.

6DM2 and a standard Sigma telephoto lens. It did require the Sky Tracker and Sequator stacking software. This is my first attempt and the core of the galaxy is a bit over exposed. A subsequent attempt will use a lower ISO and longer exposure time to get more detail near the core and the spiral arms.

Can you create images like this?

Of course you can! All of the night landscape images in this article were taken with a good quality DSLR camera, a reasonably fast wide angle (f/2.8 to f/4) and a solid travel tripod. If you are interested in basic astrophotography, you can use a telephoto lens that you may already have and invest in a $200 to $300 sky tracker to take some amazing photographs of distant galaxies and nebulae.

What’s next?

I hope that I have piqued your interest in night sky photography and convinced you to give it a try. The next articles in this series will describe how to take a landscape night sky image. I will cover the basics of being outside at night, equipment needed, camera settings, composition, focusing, image capture and 51

basic processing. In future articles, I hope to cover some advanced topics such as light painting, capturing meteors, the northern lights and finally the basics of astrophotography including comets, galaxies and nebula. I am still learning so come along with me on my journey and if you have some experience to share, please reach out to me and we can collaborate on sharing our knowledge with others. Until next time and may you have some clear nights and dark skies.

ď‚ľ Fig. 4: Comet Neowise: Canon 6DM2 using Canon 24 to 105mm lens at 105mm and an iOptron Sky Tracker. A single image of 30 seconds with ISO 3200 and f/4.0. Processed in Lightroom.

Fig. 5: Andromeda Galaxy: Canon 6DM2 using Sigma 150 to 500mm lens at 500mm and an iOptron Sky Tracker. A series of 39 images each 25 seconds long stacked using Sequator software, with ISO 4000 and f/6.3. Processed in Lightroom.

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Night Sky Photography

A Series of Articles for the Beginner, Part Two

Text and photos by Charlie Cappellino Fig. 1: Limekiln Lake, Canon 6DM2, Rokinon 14mm prime lens 30 seconds, ISO 5000 and f/2.8. Processed in Lightroom.

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Fig 2: Orion Nebula: Canon 6DM2 using Sigma 150 to 500mm lens at 400mm and an iOptron Sky Tracker. A single image 60 seconds long with ISO 800 and f/6.3. Processed in Lightroom.

This is the second of a series of articles on night sky photography which will cover being outside at night, equipment needed, composition and your first night sky photograph. A third article will explore the basics of astrophotography, image stacking and other advanced topics.

Location, Location, Location The sky is not the limit when it comes to night sky photography. You can find interesting places to shoot ranging from as close as your backyard, a local scene or a dramatic national park location.

As examples, Figure 2 is the Orion Nebula and was taken from my backyard. Figure 3 is the Milky Way over the Old Seneca Knitting Mill(now the National Women’s Hall of Fame) in my hometown of Seneca Falls, New York. Figure 4 is in Yosemite National Park with the lights of night climbers scaling the majestic El Capitan rock face and along with an unexpected meteor. The night sky is everywhere!

Websites such as lightpollutionmap.info provide a map that shows dark sky locations and introduces 54

you to the Bortle scale which rates the level of light pollution in a location.

Being Outside at Night Being outside at night can be a wonderful experience with the soft cool breeze of a summer night to a crisp cold winter night. Sometimes a night shoot can be as simple as your backyard, a city street or a very remote location. Your personal safety is always a priority. Having a partner along is a great idea in case of a serious health event, an injury due to a fall or other unforeseen problem.

Most locations will have cell phone service but there may be occasions the search for dark skies will take you to a remote location such as the Adirondack Mountains or a remote stretch of beach. If you are in familiar location with help nearby, a good headlamp and proper warm clothing are enough for a safe night. If you are in a remote location you should add water, some food snacks, extra clothing including a warm hat, an extra flashlight and even a map and compass if you are out on a hiking trail.

Being out at night is a wonderful experience but being prepared and keeping safe is an important ingredient.

telephoto lens can produce some good images and a heavier tripod is better suited for the weight of a long telephoto lens.

What equipment do you need?

Since all night photography is based on long exposures, a tripod is a necessity. For wide field images such as the Milky Way dramatically hanging over a scene, a mid-weight travel tripod will be sufficient for a camera with a wide angle lens.

For deep sky images such as the Orion Nebula, a

Will your camera work for night sky photography?

Any DSLR or mirrorless camera that has a manual mode will work fine as the light metering system will not be effective at night. Thus, manually selecting the ISO, aperture and exposure time is a necessity. Also, saving files in RAW format will enable superior processing including exposure,

Fig. 3: Milky Way in Downtown Seneca Falls, New York. Canon 6DM2, Rokinon 14mm prime lens at f/2.8. Two images blended in Photoshop Elements and then processed in Lightroom.

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Fig. 4: Night Climbers on El Capitan in Yosemite with lucky meteor capture. Canon 6DM2, Rokinon 14mm prime lens 25 seconds, ISO 5000, and f/2.8. Processed in Lightroom.

contrast, noise reduction, etc.

Speaking of lenses, which lens should you use? If you are just dipping your toes into the world of the night sky, the best lens to use is the widest lens that you have opened to the largest aperture. In other words, use what you have. You can take some great shots of the Milky Way even with a simple kit lens to get started. If you have a collection of lenses, plan to borrow or purchase a lens, a lens between 10mm and 24mm will enable longer exposure times 56

and a dramatic view of the sky. I purchased the Rokinon 14mm prime, f/2.8 manual focus lens which sells for about $300. All the other major camera and lens manufacturers have fast wide angle lens that range in cost from $400 to $1500 with many excellent lenses around $800.

A headlamp is a necessity for safety in getting to and from your location. One with a red light option is a good idea to preserve your night vision and to prevent bothering others during a group shoot.

Another useful accessory is an intervalometer which enables a series of images to be taken. Some cameras have this feature built in, if not one can be purchased and plugged into the remote connection of the camera.

Composition makes the difference As in most photography genres, composition is an essential ingredient for an interesting and pleasing photograph. An interesting foreground with the Milky Way rising over the top is a classic night sky image. The foreground can be a water feature, a field of flowers, bales of hay, an interesting building, a bridge, etc. Framing, Rule of Thirds and deciding what is the subject all still apply for a good night sky photograph. Sometimes the foreground will actually be darker than the sky which creates a special opportunity. The solution may be light painting the foreground, taking a foreground image near dusk with just enough light or two different long exposure times. Advanced methods involve taking the foreground image and blending it with the night sky image for the proper exposure. This is beyond this introductory article but with the help

of the reference books listed below and online training many will be able to accomplish this.

The website https://stellarium-web.org/ is amazing and is like having your own personal planetarium which shows the night sky on any date, at any time and in any direction. You can zoom in to see incredible detail of the Milky Way and other interesting objects in the night sky. Give it a try!

The image below (fig. 5) was taken at the Great camp Sagamore lodge one fall evening.

Unknowingly, I had captured the Aurora Borealis and a meteor in this long exposure.

Your first night sky photograph Setting up your tripod in the dark is more challenging than you might think. Use your headlamp red light to make sure your camera is properly secured, your tripod legs are locked in place, the ground around you is free of trip hazards, holes, etc. In the dark, be very careful to avoid tripping and knocking over your very expensive camera and lens. Know by feel, which knob is

Fig 5: Great Camp Sagamore. Canon 6DM2, Rokinon 14mm prime lens 30 seconds, ISO400 and f/2.8. Processed in Lightroom.

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which on your tripod. It is all too common to loosen the knob that holds your camera in place while thinking you were loosening the ball head.

The same can be said for your camera, as you will be working in the dark for most of the evening.

Know where the important dials and buttons are on your camera by touch. Of course you can always turn on your head lamp or another light but knowing your equipment by feel will speed up your night sky photography. Another step in preparation is to lower the brightness of your LCD screen to the lowest level allowed, this will give you a better sense of the image during reviews.

Camera Settings Since you will be working from a tripod, turn off image stabilization as it is not necessary and can drain your battery or in some cases cause problems with your images. When first starting, I recommend using a wide angle lens opened to its largest aperture. After you get some experience, you may decide to stop down one stop for sharper pin point stars.

I always shoot the images in RAW format to provide the maximum amount of information and most flexibility in processing. White balance can be Daylight or set a Kelvin setting of around 3400K. When shooting in RAW, you can always adjust the color balance during processing.

Since the light of the night sky is very low, an ISO level of 5000 is a good starting point. Use the Rule of 400 to set the exposure time. Calculate an exposure time equal to approximately 400 divided by the focal length of the lens. For example, using a 14mm lens would be 400 / 14 which equals about 30 seconds for a full frame camera. For a crop sensor camera, you will need to divide the exposure time by the crop sensor factor. Therefore, in this case 30 seconds / 1.6 crop factor would be an exposure time of about 20 seconds for a 1.6 crop factor. Some people use the Rule of 500 but I prefer the shorter exposure times with less star trailing with the Rule of 400.

Focus is done manually since most auto focus systems will not work at night. To get started, set the focus at infinity to get close to focus and point 58

the camera at a bright star in the sky. Turn on the camera live view function and look for a bright star on your LCD. Use the zoom feature of your LCD screen to enlarge a bright star on the LCD screen to the maximum capability of the camera. Most cameras are able to zoom in to at least 5 times and generally 10 times. Manually focus until the star is the smallest point of light possible. Fainter stars will appear when the lens is in focus and can help you decide the best focus position of the lens. I tape the focus ring in place with blue painters tape to make sure the focus remains sharp when handling the camera during the night.

Most cameras have noise reduction settings. Turn High ISO Noise Reduction ON as this will provide a better view using the LCD screen and Turn Long Exposure Noise Reduction OFF as you will be able to eliminate any hot pixels in post processing while avoiding the extra in cameral processing time required for this setting.

Taking the Image At this point, there is some trial and error involved.

I normally leave the camera in live view mode and begin taking shots. You can also use mirror lockup mode to prevent camera shake in place of live view mode. I will typically start with the settings noted above with a 14mm lens (30 seconds, ISO 5000 and f/2.8) and take a shot using a remote shutter release or simply the delay timer. Use the LCD screen to examine the first image for composition, sharpness by zooming in and exposure by reviewing the histogram. The histogram will be mostly on the left of the scale and a good exposure will generally fill at least the first and some of the second column of the histogram.

I will generally try a shorter exposure time to reduce star trails. I will also try a higher and lower ISO and evaluate image brightness and noise. The final image selection will be done after downloading to a computer and some basic processing.

Basic Processing I use Lightroom to process all my night sky images, of course other software options are available.

Here are the basic steps that I use:

1. Turn on Remove Chromatic Aberrations and Enable Lens Correction. This eliminates some basic lens optic defects.

2. I normally adjust the color temperature to bring a slight blue to the sky but the color can depend on the foreground and the time of night. Some images may look better with a warmer color especially just after sunset for example.

3. Noise reduction is a particularly important step due to the high ISO levels used. I generally start by increasing the Noise Reduction Luminance slider to around 70 to clear out the majority of the noise. I will then adjust up or down depending on the image. I also raise the Noise Reduction Color slider to around 40 and then adjust from there. Zoom into a dark area to strike the right balance between noise elimination and keeping detail.

4. I will increase Contrast a bit globally and then use the Adjustment brush to add contrast to some objects such as the Milky Way. 5. I will add some Clarity globally or with the adjustment brush again depending on the image.

6. Finally, just like any other image, you may choose to highlight specific parts of the scene, heal defects, use gradient filters to accentuate different parts of the image.

Inevitably, you will capture an airplane, a satellite or a meteor in one of your night sky images. An airplane can be identified by zooming in to find a series of dots which are the flashing lights of the airplane. Satellites will show up in multiple shots as they traverse the entire sky and generally are as bright at the beginning of the streak as they are at the end of the steak. Meteors will only appear in one image and many times one end of the streak will be fainter as disappears in the sky. Meteors can also be very faint and will only show up when processing and boosting exposure. It can be fun to see how many meteors you will find in an image, you may be surprised. I have counted as many as six in one image without seeing them during in the sky. It is amazing how sensitive our camera sensors are today and they continue to improve!

Night sky photography is easier than most people realize. With a good camera, a wide angle lens and some basic photography knowledge, you can create some wonderful images that will amaze you and your friends. Get creative with lighting and find some really dark skies. The cover spread photo (fig. 1) was enhanced with a small flashlight inside a beach tent that just happened to be left on the beach and we added a person for some perspective and interest. This image was taken around 1:30am and we were wide awake with excitement!

Up next will be a short article on astrophotography including star trackers and photo stacking. Until next time, have fun, be safe and a wish for clear night skies to all!

References - Landscape Night Sky Photography Photography: Night Sky: A Field Guide for Shooting after Dark by Jennifer Wu and James Martin Dusk to Dawn: A Guide to Landscape Photography at Night by Glenn Randall Web and App References • Stellarium • Sky View • Photopills • lightpollutionmap.info

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Get out and try it!

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Light Painting and Triptychs

By Diane Dersch

The first two images are my trying out light painting. I set up a tent box on a table and turned off the lights. Then I used a longer exposure and light painted with a flashlight. It took a few tries but I finally got some that were what I imagined.

The next set of images are triptychs. I always wanted to make them and just learned this technique through a facebook group that I belong to. I also worked on changing the image by going black and white and changing the coloring of the flower.

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Image by Diane Dersch

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All images by Diane Dersch 62

Rapid-Fire Photo Shoots

How to create good work in tiny amounts of time

By Joy Underhill I’ve always thought that a nightmare shoot was one with school kids: back-to-back children against the same backdrop, trying to evoke smiles for hours on end. Yuck.

That is, until I was asked to volunteer my services taking shots of local female veterans.

Then I had to figure out how to make the most of quick encounters and develop a body of work I was proud of.

Compeer and Lifespan recently hosted Sisters in Service at the Rochester Museum & Science Center. Here’s a short media clip of the event: https://www.whec.com/rochesternew-york-news/sisters-in-service-honored-atrmsc/5668468/ So how to get a few good shots when you have only five or ten minutes with each subject? I learned how as fast as my shutter clicked.

At the Shoot First, get your lighting right. I was delighted to have a wall of windows and a black backdrop that was well ironed. I selected my go-to 24105mm lens and set up a place where people could sit, which allowed me a lower shutter speed. I was able to use the natural light - a good thing, since I don’t have an off-camera flash, and a bad thing as the sun began to shift nasty shadows onto the backdrop.

Next, determine the focus of your shots. I chose to feature hands holding significant mementos. Compeer had an entire table of items for veterans to choose from in case they didn’t bring anything from home. I was intrigued by what people brought in, from handwritten letters to old photos to model helicopters and trains (Who knew there was such a thing as “Army Train?”).

Remember to shoot names! Each veteran was asked to complete a brief questionnaire ahead of time, so I snapped a shot to keep all those faces (and hands) straight.

Finally, listen to a story before you shoot. I engaged with each person for a few moments before I began. Not only did it develop a brief bond, but I understood why each person had selected what they did, an important element for getting a meaningful shot.

I also looked at their hands, since it was part of my focus. I was able to capture elaborate manicures, jewelry, and tattoos, which added variety to the collection. I asked people to remove jackets, utilitarian watches, or bracelets if I thought they would be distracting.

A mother and daughter shot, which was featured on the event poster.

I ended up shooting 35 women over two days.

Post-Processing I quickly decided that black and white was the way to go. With so many colors in cuffs and mementos, it would be impossible to create a uniform set of shots otherwise.

After some experimentation, I brought each image into Color Efex Pro via Lightroom to apply a light sepia filter, which softened the images. Then I did typical editing: removing dust and distracting lines, blurring backgrounds if needed, sharpening, cropping, and resizing, eventually exporting 8x10” JPGs. I delivered these to DropBox The Event The most gratifying part of this project was attending the Sisters in Service event on March 9th. The photos were set up on tables with items the women brought from their time in service. The B&Ws worked beautifully with the black tablecloths and flagthemed flower vases.

We listened to various speakers, mingled to view one another’s photos, and talk about items of significance.

I wish I had had time to hear more stories, but the focus was on the photos themselves. Next time, perhaps!

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This page: Combat boots from the Vietnam war.

Inset: A veteran with her service dog.

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Making Sense of

Histograms

By Jim Hooper

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W

hile many (most?) advanced photographers are likely already familiar with the histogram feature on their cameras, it’s a really great feature that probably isn’t used as often as it should be. I wanted to take just a moment to discuss the humble histo, and maybe encourage you to use it a little more.

At its core the histogram is simply a bar chart. Not so intimidating, really. But we photographers like to use big words to make ourselves feel smart, so we’ll call it a histogram and leave newbies scratching their heads when we talk about these tools. The most common histogram is technically titled a luminosity histogram (the other histogram we need to talk about is the color histogram, which is the same but different).

In the luminosity histogram (figure 1), the bottom axis indicates the varying tones from pure black on the left edge to pure white on the right edge. The vertical axis is the number of pixels in the image that exhibit that tone. For example, if you are photographing a very dark subject, your histogram would show a peak on the left side of the graph. If you were to photograph a gray card (by definition, middle gray), you would see a sharp peak at the very middle of the graph. And finally, if you were to photograph a very high key image, your histogram would peak on the right side of the graph.

One of the more difficult things for newer photographers to wrap their heads around is that all colors have shades to them.

I’ve talked to people about histograms, and because the left edge is pure black and the right edge is pure white, it causes some to question how the histogram will process colors (as opposed to grayscale). Think about it this way; we know that

Figure 2, above, and 2a, below

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Figure 1 there is a difference between maroon and pink. Maroon would be classified as a dark red, while pink would be a light red. A maroon car would register with a peak on the left side of the histo, while a pink elephant would peak on the right side, even though they are neither black, white, nor gray.

Let’s take a look at some different examples. First, a very “average” scene. In figure 2, I was photographing in the new addition at the Corning Museum of Glass when I saw this really interested abstraction in the ceiling, showcasing an interesting array of lights and darks. When we look at this image, there are no pure whites, no pure blacks, and overall it’s an average tonality. When we look at the histogram, you will see the peak around the center. It’s not all 18% gray here, so there are some lighter and some darker, but on average, they hover around the midpoint.

Contrast that with the Puppet Master (figure 3 and 3a) and the

Figure 3, above, and 3a, below

Figure 4, above, and 4a, below

newborn image (figure 4 and 4a), and see how the tones shift to the left and right, respectively? On the Puppet Master, the majority of the scene is near black, with just a few lighter areas (skin tones on the model, primarily). On the newborn, notice that the white fur in the background skews the histogram to the right.

margin, indicating that you have areas of pure black in your image. You’ll want to increase exposure enough to clear the left margin. If the overall image looks a little lighter than you’d like, that’s ok. You can improve the tones in post processing, but only if you have image data in the pixels (which you won’t if they are pure black).

Finally, if we look at the histogram in figure 5a, we would expect the image to be very high contrast, because we see tall bars on the left and right edges, with short bars in the middle.

When we look at the portrait of Robin DeWind (figure 5), we see a white background and black clothing, which is, in fact, a high contrast image. But, you knew that already.

If you have to make a decision about shooting a little underexposed or a little overexposed, it’s generally advisable to underexpose than to overexpose. Once information is overexposed, details are lost and you get a bright spot in your image which gets very distracting. Shadows are not so problematic because they are not as distracting and people expect not to be able to see in the deepest shadows.

What does all this mean for photographers? Well, we know that our sensors are good, but not perfect. They cannot record details in pure blacks nor in pure whites, so clearly, it is usually in our best interest to avoid having any data at all in the far left or far right of the histogram. If we are photographing in very high contrast scenes, we may have to make a decision of which tones are most important to the image, and expose for those tones, and accept that the opposite end of the spectrum may be lost. The camera simply can’t record super bright and super dark colors in the same image. If you look at your image and see that there are a lot of pixels crunched right up against the right (highlights) side of the histo, you will likely want to decrease your exposure (increase shutter speed, close down the aperture, or lower the iso). Lower the exposure until you don’t see any pixels pressed up against the right margin, even if the overall image looks a little too dark. That way, you’ll have usable data in the highlights, and you can recover some of those details in the highlights when you post-process the image.

The same is true if you see pixels squeezed in against the left

The color histograms are similar to luminosity histograms, except that you will see three different graphs for Red, Green and Blue. The same theory holds true, that if you are looking at the red histogram, you will see images with no red shades represented by taller bars on the left side of the image, and images with lots of red tones represented by tall bars on the left side. If you were to photograph a red paint sample (figure 6), the red histo (figure 6a) would be pressed against the right side of the screen, and the green and blue histograms (figures 6b and 6c) would be pressed against the left margin because the image has no pixels that contain any blue or green.

Photographing a purple paint chip (figure 7 should indicate no green, and some red and some blue since purple is a blend of red and blue light (figures 7a,b, and c).

I hope this helps to demystify the histogram. It can really be a great tool if you know how to get the most out of it!

Figure 6, above, and 6a,b,c below

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Figure 7, above, and 7a,b,c below

Figure 5, above, and 5a, below

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Models!

Shooting with

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A Primer in Art and Glamour Portraiture Jim Hooper.

Model Casey DuPont. Rochester, NY. Image for submission to Nephilim Magazine, March 2018.

Behind the scenes image captured by Joann Long.

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P

erhaps you’ve never given much thought to photographing beautiful models in lavish wardrobes lounging in gorgeous scenes, but many of us have probably had the experience of being approached by a friend or a family member “since you have a really nice camera” and asked to do senior photos, or family pictures, or something of the sort. Or maybe you’re genuinely curious about exploring a whole new genre of photography. I started off shooting wildlife and landscape images over 20 years ago, but I have shifted to shooting primarily glamour and fine art portraiture over the past four to five years. Over that time, I have learned a great deal, and I will be sharing a lot of those lessons when we meet in October. In preparing for this workshop, I wanted to share some thoughts here in the Contact Sheet.

There are many reasons why people start shooting portraits.

For me, my first portrait shoot was a senior portrait for a co-worker’s daughter, many many years ago. It was a unique challenge, and having never photographed people (aside from events, which is still very different), I spent a lot of time trying to learn poses and lighting for people pictures. Luckily, that first shoot turned out some good images, and I didn’t run away crying! That shoot led to more opportunities for senior portraits, and in my current job working at 4-H Camp, I have a steady stream of 17 year old camp staff looking for senior pictures. Each of these sessions gives me a chance to learn, hone and improve my skills. Once I moved back to New York in 2005, I connected with a local area model, and we did a few shoots, which really got my interest going. I set up an online portfolio with the images I’d shot with the model,

Model Nici Johnson, Batavia, NY. For portfolio. July 2020 70

and began actively looking for more opportunities to shoot with new models.

In the years since, I have had the opportunity to do close to a hundred different photoshoots with people, including many model shoots. The Rochester area has a number of very active Facebook groups devoted to local photographers and models, and I’ve networked with a good number of folks on some really great collaborative efforts. This article will share my top ten tips about shooting with models, so maybe you will have a chance to test the waters yourself!

We will cover these, and more, when we do our October Education Night, when I have model Nicole Johnson in studio with me. We will have a discussion with Q&A, a quick shoot, and a little bit of an editing demonstration as well! Hope you can make it!

Tip 1: Finding a Model to Work With In the world of the internet, it’s becoming easier than ever to find models willing to work with you. While there are certainly modeling agencies out there, they don’t want to work with hobbyist photographers, so I don’t recommend seeking an agency. Rather, networking websites like Model Mayhem or One Model Place are an option for hobbyist photographers to network with non-agency models. To be honest with you, I’ve had a portfolio on Model Mayhem for over 15 years, and I’ve never actually booked a shoot directly because of it. That said, I have connected with local models on Facebook and then later found that they also had a portfolio on ModelMayhem.com where I could read their bio, stats, look at their images, etc.

Facebook and Instagram have been far more productive for me in identifying models to work with. As I mentioned before, the Rochester modeling community has several Facebook groups where you can get a feel for who’s who. There are frequently both models and photographers posting opportunities there. Even new photographers can post, letting models know they are interested in doing a photoshoot and often an available model will respond. Once you’ve made a connection, you can check out their images, and have a bit of a dialog, which leads directly into Tip #2...

Tip 2: Open, Honest Communication Great! You’ve made a connection with someone who is interested in possibly modeling for you. It is absolutely critical that you begin an honest dialog with them. Just like photographers, there are different types of models out there, and you don’t necessarily want to shoot with the first model that replies to you. You will want to get a sense of their goals and aspirations, the different types of looks they are comfortable with, and a general sense of their professionalism. Likewise, they will be trying to size you up as well. I always prefer to err on the side of talking too much, rather than too little. If I am getting the sense that the model is kind of flakey, or not taking things very seriously, I may opt to move on and look for another model.

Tip 3: Game Plan.

There are a couple of different schools of thought on this one, but at the end of the day,you’re going to want to have a solid game plan well before you meet up to shoot. If you are reaching out to connect with a model, they may be expecting you to have a theme or a style already in mind. Other models may have their own ideas and be willing to steer the ship, so to speak.

Often times, however, you will find that neither party has a specific plan when they first connect, but rather, will prefer to discuss some options, and work together to determine a theme.

For me, personally, I am in love with Pinterest, and I always have several

different pinboards with different ideas. Sometimes I see an idea and I might think to myself “Nicole would be PERFECT for this look!” and I will message her. Other times I will see something and think “I’d love to do that, if I ever found the perfect model for it”, and then when I am making arrangements with a model I may go back to my boards and see if the model would be interested in shooting something from my wish list.

Tip 4: Have a Contract I know, I know... You probably aren’t looking to get paid from your first model shoot, but having a contract in place is really important, even if there is no money exchanging hands. Even when you are good friends with the model (or the co-worker’s daughter you’re photographing, etc), it’s always a good idea to have something that spells out some of the details like costs (if any), how many finished images the model can expect, how long they can expect to wait to get those images, image resolution, copyright, usage rights, and more. I’ve heard models tell me that they shot with a photographer 6 months ago, and they haven’t gotten a single image from the shoot yet. For me, my contract says I will deliver a gallery of proof images within one week of the shoot, and I will deliver a minimum of ten fully editing images within one week of the models selection. Every photographer is different. I always allow the model to select their favorite images, but many photographers simply select their own favorites, and the model simply gets a low resolution copy of the photographer’s favorites. Bear in mind that if there is no money being exchanged, then the final edited images ARE the compensation for both parties, so to me, it makes sense to be as generous as possible, especially when you are just starting out.

Tip 5: Location, Location, Location This is an old real estate term, but the same can be said for photography.

Where you do your shoots is tied to the style and the theme for your shoot. Will you be shooting outdoors at a local park with natural light and

Model Janae Genna, Rochester NY. Image for portfolio. December 2019. wooded backgrounds? Is your theme better suited to a fancy, elegant indoor location? Is it more boudoir themed, where shooting at a hotel, or the model’s home may be appropriate?

Does it require full studio lighting and gear? Sometimes the location can be dependent on the theme, other times the theme may be dependent on the location. For example, shooting in a park will yield a very different feel than

Model Msytic Fourness, Ashville NC. For portfolio. March 2019 71

shooting in front of a sweeping spiral staircase in a luxury hotel lobby, which is going to be very different than shooting in the crumbling concrete ruins of an abandoned warehouse.

Tip 6: Lighting, Lighting, Lighting We know that photography is quite literally painting with light, so any time you are using a camera, you’re going to need to understand lighting. Are you a natural light photographer? Are you using speedlights? Are you using studio strobes? If you’re shooting in natural light, do you know how to use reflectors and diffusers and natural obstructions to move, shift, and shape the light as you need, to make flattering images? If you are using speedlights or strobes, do you know how to balance artificial light with natural light? Are you familiar with lighting patterns and lighting ratios? In glamour photography, there is no right choice, but as a photographer, you need to be skilled in selecting the right setup for your particular shoot.

Tip 7: Giving Feedback When you’re photographing a model, remember that even though you can see the images on the back of your camera, the model doesn’t until you show them. Remember all of the work you put in to having a plan and communicating with the model in tips two and three? You’re still going to want to be talking with your model during the shoot. Give them positive feedback as much as possible. If you are shooting away, and giving no feedback, they don’t know if they are giving you the look you want or not. And never ever ever look at the back of your camera and make negative comments or expressions!

Your models will pick up on that every single time! Now, it’s fair that sometimes you won’t love every single image you see on the back of the camera, but keep talking positively.

If something isn’t quite right, give the model feedback but frame it positively. Tell them what you need to change, but be respectful. “That’s great! Let’s get another shot where we move your hand to your hip... I want to give a little separation between your arm and your side.” or “YES! Now turn your chin toward the light... YES! That’s awesome!” will yield way better results than “move your elbow away from your gut, you look really heavy with your arm tucked in like that” or “You need to look toward the light because we are seeing your double chin when you look away”. Ack! Don’t do it!

Tip 8: Never Touch Your Model This one really explains itself, but you should never just go up to your model and move their hair around or put their hand on their hip, etc. I think this one is especially true for male photographers working with female models. There are situations, however, where I may ask a model for permission to move their hair out of their eyes because having the model move it themselves may interrupt a particular pose. I always invite a model to bring a friend or a parent with them to the shoot, especially if I’ve not worked with them before, and this can be a good way to give the friend something to do, while also alleviating the need for me to touch the model. I will just ask the model if it’s OK for their friend to adjust the hair.

Typically the friend can see what I am looking at, and can make the adjustment just as easily as I could.

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Model Tina Johnson, Phoenix AZ. Image created for submission to Myssfit Magazine, June 2019.

Tip 9: Be Prompt with Follow Up After the shoot is over, I download all of my images into Lightroom, and then cull out the duplicates, the blurry images, the awkward expressions, the shots where my lights didn’t fire, etc., and then export a watermarked set of proofs within 24 hours. Again, there is no right or wrong answer here, but I like to turn things around as quickly as possible. I then use Pixieset to upload a password protect gallery of proofs. I can send a link for the gallery to model, and invite them to “Like” their favorite images. My contract specifies ten images so once the model “likes” their favorite ten, I will get an email that tells me a new favorites list has been created. From there, I simply pull up the list, and earmark those images as “2-star” images in Lightroom. Once I’ve edited them, I will mark them as “3-star” images. Then I simply export the collection using the specifications outlined in my contract. In my case, that means I export to 2000 pixels on the long side, at 300dpi, with a watermark applied. Most models are only using these in online portfolios or social media, so they have no use for the full res photos. If they are planning on printing, they can just let me know and I will gladly send them the full res. Again, every photographer will approach this differently, this is just the system that works for me.

Tip 10: Be a Good Human Ok, perhaps this isn’t unique to art and glamour portraits, but I do think there is an element of special note here when it comes to working with models. In the glamour photography genre, our aim is to make the client as beautiful, sexy, and glamorous as possible. To make this possible, it is absolutely critical that you build a level of trust between model and photographer.

That trust is based on all of the interactions you have with the model from the very first moment you contact them. Every interaction with your model is a chance to demonstrate your professionalism, and you should treat it as such. If your model has any reason to believe that you are being dishonest or just plain creepy, the images will show that tension. Additionally, they are likely to share their negative experiences with the modeling community, and you will find it all but impossible to arrange a shoot with another model. So, just be nice. Be a good human, follow through on your commitments, deliver on your promises, make good images, and enjoy the experience!

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Image Processing

Photo by Mike Nyerges 73

Experiment to Achieving What You Want From a Photograph

By Lee Drake

Have you ever had an image that did not live up to what you visualized it to be? The other day we were on a photo trip looking for mid-day black and white images. There was a pasture with large Oak trees. My mind saw the wonderful tree and branches silhouetted against the sky. Here is the process that I used to get to my vision (fig. 1).

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

When I worked the image using camera Raw and Nik Color Efex Pro 4, the image did not meet my expectation. It really needs to be a black and white image.

Figure 2 shows the results for NIK Silver Efex Pro 2. Not there yet. My Goal was to really show off the wonderful branch formations.

This image is ok but still not right. Then I tried using Tony Kuyper Luminosity Mask approach still not look I wanted but closer.

Barbara Drake found that if you take a Black and White image and inverse the image it was the look I wanted.

The process is: With your best Black and White image in Photoshop, use Image>Adjustment>Invert (control/command + i) Then use Image Adjustment>Color Balance>Channels, and/or Black and White adjustments to fine tune the image. This result met my goals for the image (fig. 3).

Fig. 3

Now the image shows off the wonderful lines of the tree and branches.

Figures 4 and 5 (next page) are made using the same process.

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Fig. 4

Digital Matting

By Jim Hooper

Sometimes we capture a series of images that need to work together to tell a story. It’s common with photojournalism, but there are plenty of other genres that would lend themselves to displaying a collection of images, rather than a single image.

If you’re going to frame them and display them in your home, it might make sense to frame each image with a consistent frame, consistent sizing, consistent matting, to give them a unified look, and then you would hang them in some sort of arrangement on the wall that supported the story you were trying to tell.

In the digital and online display world, you might take a similar approach, except that you don’t really have any way to control the arrangement of the collection on someone else’s screen.

Or do you? Here is one strategy that would allow you to show a collection with a sense of unity, but it follows many of the same steps as a printed display would. My process uses Photoshop, but there are likely other alternatives as well.

InDesign could do this very nicely as well.

Start by envisioning a layout that would support the orientations of the images you wanted to display. For example, do the images need to be in a particular order? How many are horizontal and how many are vertically oriented? Are you better off to have them all the same size? Or are you better to have them all the same height? Or the same width? If you are thinking of mounting them in a linear fashion, left to right, it might make sense to have all of the images the same height, and let the width measurement fall wherever it may. For example, if I was planning to display them in a short, wide frame, I might plan for the images to be 8 inches tall. The vertical images might be 6” wide by 8” tall, while the horizontals might be 10” wide by 8” tall. At this point, you have full freedom to arrange your images how you wish. Think about how much space you want between images. Do you want all of the images lined up perfectly, or do you want them each to be offset a bit? For me, I like to actually sketch out the layout on a scrap of paper. Use a pencil, so that you can change it up as you see fit. My first layout is almost never my final layout.

Fig. 5

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Once you have a feel for it, consider the final output shape and size. Does your layout look like more like a 10 x 60? Or more like 40x30? At this point, it’s not necessary to be super precise, but you do want a starting point. Now open up Photoshop and make a new document that is roughly the size you envision for the full layout. Be aware of the resolution here as well.

If you are submitting this externally, be sure you know the requirements of the gallery or competition where you will be sharing it. If you are doing it for social media, check the height and width restrictions of your chosen media. No sense in making a file that is 60”x100” at 300 dpi, just to post on Facebook.

Once you have a new document sized approximately where you think it will be, I like to make a new document that is the same ratio as what you envision the images to be. Think of this as a cookie cutter type of thing. So if you are going with a 10”x60” virtual collection, maybe you want a 1” border on top and bottom, so make your cookie cutter 8”x10”. If you have images in each orientation, you’ll want to make separate documents in each shape. You could do this by eye later on, but if you want an exact size, it’s best to do it at this stage.

Fill each of the “cookie” documents with a different color than the original “matte” document. Then drag each of the cookies onto the matte (fig. 1). Arrange them to match your original layout sketch. If you have multiple horizontals or multiple verticals, you can simply duplicate the cookies once they are on the matte document. Ctrl-J is one way to duplicate. Another is simply to hold the Alt/Option key while dragging the layer, and you will get a copy of the cookie. If you want all of the cookies to align, you can simply select each of the cookies while holding the shift key to select them all, and then click on the Align Vertical Centers icon in the tool bar. I often make additional cookies to indicate margins, so if I wanted a one inch margin on top and bottom, I would make another cookie that is 1”x4”, and I will fill that cookie with a different color (fig. 2). In my example, I used red for my margins.

If, once you finish your layout, you discover that your matte document is not quite the right size (hey, it happens to the best of us), this is a good time to crop the matte document.

At this stage, you can tweak your layout any way you like!

Play, experiment, see what layout looks best! Once you’ve got it “finalized”, I recommend saving the file as a .psd with layers preserved. We’re going to merge some layers and hide

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3 76

others, so it’s good to have a document with all of the layers preserved, before we start merging things.

Once it’s saved, now go through and hide all of the margin blocks. Then flatten the remaining document into one layer.

The entire document will be one layer now, and if you look in the layer pallet, the layer will be titled as Background, which will also show a padlock icon. You’ll need to unlock the layer, which you can do simply by clicking on the padlock. The layer will now be labeled as Layer 0. From here, use the Magic Wand selection tool, be sure to uncheck the “contiguous” option, and click in one of the cookies. With all of the cookies selected, press the delete key to cut out the cookies (fig. 3).

You’re almost done! Now you’ll want to go to File>Place Embedded and add each of the actual images from the collection, into the matte file (fig. 4).

Each image will come in as its own layer. Once all of the images are added to the matte, use the layer pallet and drag the Layer 0 to the top of the stack (fig. 5).

Now, move the individual images into the correct windows,

and use the handles to drag the corners to the proper size.

Hold the Shift key while you drag the corners to resize them proportionally. You may find that some of the images are larger than the matte window, and may become visible in an adjacent window. If that’s the case, you can simply use the rectangle selection tool to select the extra bit of image, and then delete it. Once the images are arranged, you can also change the color of the matte, if you like (fig. 6).

As a final, finishing touch, select the Layer0 and click the fx button on the bottom of the layer pallet. Add a small white stroke to this layer, to emulate a white core to the matte board.

You can also, if you choose, add a very small bevel and emboss on the Layer0. I set mine to “inner bevel” and “chisel hard”, and set it to 31%, size of 5 px, and soften by 2px but those settings will vary depending on the size of your document.

Finally, save the entire document. I like to save mine both as a psd, and as a .jpg just for safe keeping, but that’s totally up to you. Now, you can send the .jpg to the gallery/competition/ friend/family for a beautiful keepsake collection! Enjoy!

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Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6 77

The Great Photoshop Brush-off, Part 1 Those Top Bar, Simple, Brush, Basics Barbara Drake

What is a brush, anyhow?

A brush is something you paint with, right? Well, that’s right, but a Photoshop brush is so much more. Think of it as a multitool that’s used to make many kinds of changes and adjustments to a part of an image. For this discussion, We’ll assume that you are NOT working with a Wacom tablet – that introduces many more variations and is confusing for those who do not use one (and, I’ll admit, sometimes for those that do). Demos here are done with a mouse.

What are basic brush controls?

In this discussion we’ll cover the basics of creating, managing and using a simple, round, brush since this is the tool that you will probably use most often.

For these lessons, choose the plain brush icon from the left hand toolbar in Photoshop.

That should bring up a top bar that looks something like this: (minus the numbers)

1. Use the dialog under the number one pull down to select a brush – for this exercise, I chose “soft round”. Use the slider to adjust the size of the brush. Brushes can also be sized “on the fly” at any time by using the bracket keys to ] increase size, or [ decrease the size as you work.

This dialog also controls the “softness” or “hardness” of the stroke. Hard edged strokes are useful for targeting adjustments in, yep, hard edged areas. Soft brushes are used when you want the edges of the adjustment to be gradual.

When you adjust softness or hardness, the overall size of the brush does not change. What changes is the size of the opaque middle section and the amount/width of the feathered area surrounding it.

2. This icon shows any presets that have been recorded for brush tools. Since this is a beginning lesson, there will be no presets and we can ignore this icon.

3. This is a useful setting for Photoshop’s infamous blend modes, allowing them to be used in specific areas of an image.

This is covered as a separate topic below 4. Opacity is just what the name implies – a setting to control how transparent the brush stroke is. Opacity controls the opaqueness of the paint (the transparency). Are you painting with a heavy, opaque enamel (high setting) or a light, see through, varnish (low setting)?

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5. The flow setting controls the speed at which paint is laid down (much like painting with a spray paint can). Flow at a low setting allows you to gradually build up to a desired darkness of effect with multiple strokes.

Here are some examples of how hardness/softness, opacity and flow affect the appearance of a standard round brush, and, how flow affects a spatter brush, allowing paint to be built up incrementally.

What are some common uses of brushes?

In addition to the obvious paintbrush tool referenced above, brushes are an integral part of a number of other tools including the clone stamp, the eraser tool, the blur tool and many others. The basic adjustments for the brush tool can be applied to these tools as well.

It is probably not overly common for photographers to apply “paint� in the sense of colors to an image. Most often, brushes are used to make small adjustments to a portion of an image.

Depending on the use, brushes can be utilized on pixel containing layers and on the masks of any layer including adjustment layers. When used to apply an adjustment to a part of a layer the usual workflow is to first apply the adjustment, without targeting a specific area. On the mask for the adjustment layer, click the brush icon, choose an appropriate size brush.

If the adjustment will only apply to a small area of the image, right click on the mask. Under mask options, choose mask display options and change the color to black and the opacity to 100%. (this will completely mask the adjustment.) Set the brush color to white and brush in areas to be adjusted. Make a mistake? Switch the brush color back to black and paint it out or go to the history panel and back up a couple of steps.

If most of the image will receive the adjustment, leave the mask white as in the example below, set the brush color to black, and paint out any areas not targeted.

For the image below, I started with a simple cactus center and made adjustments with brushes to turn it into a rather playful abstract image. This is the original image.

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In the example left, a hue saturation layer changed the hue of the cactus to blue. By using a soft round brush to paint on the mask, the adjustment layer was concealed in the middle.

In this example, a blank layer was added, and several passes were made with a spatter brush to build a funky border. Note that the intensity of the border varies according to the number of passes.

This image shows that by pressing the \ key, I can see the painted mask area on the image. A second click on the mask key removes the overlay. It’s an easy way to keep track of the areas and intensity of painting.

We’re back to number 3 on the bar in the first graphic – blend modes. A brush can be set to a blend mode and that mode brushed onto areas of the photo. Photoshop’s confusing blend modes can be brushed in by a variety of methods.

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In this example, a copy of the original image was added to the layer stack. The blend mode was set to luminosity, and the brush used in black on a white mask to delete the luminosity of the original in specific areas of the altered image. Note that the spines that had been blurred by the spatter brush in the previous example are now sharp again because they are defined by their luminosity.

In this final example, the brush was used in screen blend mode directly on the image, not on a mask, to lighten the center slightly.

Note that this “pushes pixels� and is a permanent change to the image, whereas painting on the mask is easily undone by deleting the mask.

Once you start experimenting, you will discover unlimited uses for these basic brushes, from accenting edges with the multiply blend mode, to adding shadows with the darken blend mode, to lighting lighthouses with screen blend mode or special brushes.

Have fun with these basics of Photoshop brushes. Experiment, as I did, on a non-important image that has some detail. So you can see results easily.

Next time: Fun and games with brush dynamics and creative brushes

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The Great Photoshop Brush-off, Part 2

By Barbara Drake

Why bother learning about brushes and brush settings?

Brushes are the basic tools for photo editing in Photoshop.

Understanding the types of brushes and their use is akin to a carpenter knowing that not all hammers are the same and having the expertise to choose the best tool for the job at hand. Will you use all these settings and techniques every day? – Probably not, but having basic brush knowledge at your disposal will speed everyday editing tasks and provide a backlog of creative possibilities for those extra flourishes that set our work apart from the ordinary.

laying down a series of controlled “blobs,” is understood, managing and creating brushes becomes an exercise in “blob management”.

After choosing a brush tip (here you’ve chosen the shape of your “blob”) and basic hardness and softness settings in the Brushes window, (see last month’s set up brushes by going to the Window pulldown in the top bar and selecting “brush settings”. This setting panel will appear:

Last time we covered the basics of brush creation and use – choosing brush tips, size, softness and hardness with basic information on Opacity and Flow settings. This time I’d like to offer an update to last month’s information, work on the principles of setting brush dynamics, and touch on creative brushes and brush creation.

First, as an update and clarification of last month’s material, it is helpful to understand how PS paints with brushes.

Photoshop (PS to avoid endless repetition) is a pixel-based program. This means that the functions (with the exception of text and the pen and path functions) work in or on, groups of pixels. By default, the brushes in PS paint by stamping successive groups of pixels along a user defined path. PS creates the illusion of a line by repeatedly stamping the pattern of pixels assigned to a brush tip along the path of a stroke.

Once this principle, of painting with brushes as 82

Fig. 1

Fig. 2 I selected a simple, round, brush with 100% hardness for the first example. Note that the spacing is checked and is set to the minimum, creating what appears to be a solid line. With spacing increased to 55%, the “blobiness” of the line becomes

Fig. 3, above evident:

Also in this top panel (with brush tip shape selected in the brush settings panel) is a setting for Mode. This includes settings for some of the familiar blend modes, plus some others including “clear” which acts as an eraser, lightening or erasing painted on adjustments or areas depending on the opacity and flow settings. I find the multiply and screen modes particularly useful at low settings for subtly emphasizing edges and single items in a photo.

To access more advanced brush functions, go to Window/ Brush settings in the top panel to open the brush settings dialog, shown in the leftmost example below. Clicking on “Brush Tip Shape” allows another brush tip to be chosen but, more importantly, allows basic adjustments to the size, angle, shape hardness and spacing of the individual blobs that comprise the brush.

Fig. 4, below

Understanding “blobs” makes understanding the basic brush attributes of Opacity and Flow, covered partially in the previous article, much easier.

Opacity affects all the blobs in the stroke, creating a uniform opacity from the beginning to end of the stroke. In the following example, notice how there is no overlap darkening even where the blobs overlap and the stroke bends back on itself. (Opacity here reduced to 20% Flow at 100%)

Fig. 5

Fig. 7, above

Fig. 8, below

Flow, on the other hand, affects each blob individually. Where there is overlap, the effect builds as in the following example where Opacity is at 40% but Flow has been reduced to 30%.

Fig. 6 You can see here that each blob acts independently, adding its darkening effect to the whole. Setting a low flow permits adjustments and changes to be built up slowly, while repeated strokes are necessary to build darker adjustments with opacity.

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Fig. 9 In the above example, a silly dandelion brush, the top row shows the original brush and the effect of changing the angle of the brush with the arrow on the angle circle, while the bottom line illustrates the results of flip x and flip y respectively. This brush did not permit roundness controls, but the two dots on the circle can be used to “squish” the shape as in the example below, based on a round, hard, brush.

Fig. 10 above

Fig. 12, right, Fig 13, below

Fig. 11 below

We can now explore some further brush settings. Be aware that as individual brush shapes are loaded, they may, by default, have some of these controls turned on to achieve the desired effect. Most built-in brushes will not have, or support, all of the settings. Some may be grayed out or unavailable for that particular brush tip.

Activating the controls for a setting is a two step process. First, check the box in front of the setting (see red arrow) and then click on the setting name to bring up the control panel for that setting.

Beginning at the top of the list, first check box in front of “Shape Dynamics” and then click on the word “Shape Dynamics” to open the control box. Most aspects of these controls will be similar. Fade acts similarly for all the settings.

It permits the effect to last for a specified portion of the stroke and then gradually fade back to the original setting.

Jitter permits randomizing some aspect of the setting and, again, functions in much the same way across all settings. The remainder of the controls are primarily for tablet users.

The following example illustrates the effect of size jitter (top line/ yellow arrow)) and angle jitter (bottom line/blue arrow – angle jitter amount not shown) in Shape Dynamics.

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Fig. 14, right, Fig 15, below

Here, the scatter setting is activated. Scatter randomizes the arrangement of blobs. The top slider (yellow arrow) controls the width of the scatter line. In the example above the top line scatter width is 5% and the bottom is 314%. Turning the Both

Axes control on allows scatter to occur on both the horizontal and vertical axes. The count slider determines how many extra blobs to add.

Fig. 16, right, Fig 17, below The remaining settings, Transfer, Brush Pose, Noise, Wet edges, and Build up are principally for tablet users and those who dabble in graphic arts and have limited use in general photographic work.

The fade control determines how far in the stroke the desired effect lasts. In this example, the scattering fades back to a solid line after some repetitions (the other controls for this brush are for tablet/pen users).

The Texture control allows painting with a selected pattern or texture.

Dual brush is a complex setting that allows combining two brushes. Before checking the dual brush setting, select the primary brush. Check the dual brush setting and click on the setting title. Select the second brush from the suite of brushes in the panel. The mode setting determines how the two brushes will interact. The second brush will always be constrained by the first. This is one to experiment with on a rainy day but some interesting effects are possible.

Limiting parameters for color change. In the example below, the foreground and background colors were selected as shown. If you want the effect to be a “flow” effect with each successive painted blob reflecting the jitter setting, be sure to check the tiny box at the top of the panel that says “Apply per tip” (orange arrow).

Creating brushes in Photoshop There are three main ways to make a brush in Photoshop.

1. Select a portion of an image using any of the selection tools. The maximum size is 2500x2500 pixels. Go to edit/ define brush preset. Give your preset and name and assign it to a brush group. Done 2. Bring up a pre-existing brush at a size with a workable blob. Edit it to suit, either by saving different Brush settings and/or altering the physical layout of the “blob” Go to edit/define brush preset. Give your preset and name and assign it to a brush group 3. Create a document with a transparent background.

Design your own brush (this is a good place for a personal copyright/watermark brush) Select it – save as above.

Bring it up as a brush, alter the brush settings to suit and resave.

That’s all for this month – have fun experimenting with creativity – something to do in quarantine.

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It appears from my examples that the jitter never goes to 100% for either of the two colors.

With differing colors, the predominant colors are “in between” (Second example) 85

! s b r O

Making

In Photoshop or PS Elements

This is a fun application to do images, especially flower ones. Other images can work as well but they all need to be a square sized image.

Below are the steps you need to take to get an orb of your image.

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1. Take your original image and make it a square image (figure 1) 2. Open it in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop 3. In the drop down file for filters choose Distort 4. Under Distort choose Polar coordinators – choose Polar To Rectangle- the second option (figure 2) 5. In the drop down file for Images choose Rotate 6. Under Rotate – choose Flip Vertical (figure 3) 7. Go back to the drop down file for Filters and choose Distort again 8. Under Distort, choose Polar Coordinates – choose Rectangle to Polar- the first option (figure 4) 9. Voila – you have your orb.

You can play around with other things under filter tab as well.

I have found that sometimes after making the orb I go in and choose Distort> Spherize to make it rounder (article cover image).

Fig. 1: Original image

Fig. 2: Filter> Distort> Polar Coordinates. Polar to Rectangle

Fig. 3: Image> Image Rotation> Flip Image Vertical

Fig. 4: Filter> Distort> Polar Coordinates. Rectangle to Polar

I have also played around with the Swirl filter (figures 5 and 6, next page) and just done that without making an orb. There are so many things to try but be forewarned, making orbs can be addictive!

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Fig. 5: Red Daisy Original image

Fig. 6: Red Daisy Swirl

Photoshop Quick Tip Rotating Your Images

Have you ever found yourself working on an image and found that you wish you could just rotate the image temporarily, to make it easier to do the brush strokes you need to? Photoshop has a “Rotate View” tool that can be really helpful in these times!

The Rotate View tool is different than rotating the actual image, because Rotate View is nondestructive, so you can spin it around as much as you like, without worrying about degrading image quality.

On the menu bar, you’ll find this icon buried under the Hand tool. Right click on the icon to see the other tools within the button, and you’ll find the Rotate View tool (or Press the R key). Once the

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Rotate View is active, you will se a compass face on it, with a red arrow pointing up. At this point, you can click and drag your mouse to freely rotate the image to any angle you like. If you press the shift key while you drag, you will rotate in 15 degree steps.

For more specific rotations, you have the option to type in a Rotation Angle. Go to the Options Bar, and you will see the window to type in your preferred angle. You also have the option to click on the word Rotation Angle, and slide the cursor back and forth to rotate the angle.

You can always reset the image to its proper orientation simply by clicking the Reset View button in the Options Bar.

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Members’ Quick Tips Lightroom Gallery Quick Tip! Joann Long

“Step Up” Your Filter Game Jim Hooper

I always wanted to make an online gallery of my work for a certain group of people but didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a domain and making a website. Imagine my surprise to learn that I can make an online gallery through Lightroom! I didn’t know it was possible until I listened to Matt K’s online tutorial. The benefits of the LR Gallery include prohibiting right click saving so people can’t take/download your photos, you can make a gallery for each group of people you want to share with, the layout is customizable, and it’s easy!

Back in the day, photographers tended to carry a full array of different filters including UV/Haze, CPL, Warming, Cooling, FLW (Fluorescent) filters. Today, that arsenal has largely been replaced with post processing, but I am still a big advocate of UV filters, and of course Circular Polarizers can’t be replicated in post. If you’re like me, you carry a bunch of lenses with you in your bag. Even if you’re only carrying two lenses, there’s a good chance that each of those lenses has a different filter thread, meaning you can’t use the same filters on each of those lenses. Buying an entire set of quality filters for every single lens can be quite expensive.

I have numerous pictures of my 99-year-old Mom that I wanted to share with my family. So, this process to create an online gallery was perfect to share all the photos I had and doesn’t have to be static. I can add more photos easily as time goes on.

Rather than reinvent the wheel to describe how it’s done; Matt K’s video thoroughly describes how to create your own galleries. https://mattk.com/how-to-get-the-most-adobe-episode-1/ I highly recommend you check out this little-known function! Feel free to check out a couple of galleries that I put together. My mom’s gallery is here: https://adobe.ly/2KcBDgd, and I also made one for the East Bloomfield Firehouse Training, here: https:// adobe.ly/30H142q .

Create Stunning Product Images with Studio-like Sweeps Jim Hooper If you want to try your hand at product photography, get yourself a sheet of poster board, some tape and something you can use as a backstop.

This is where “Step Up rings” come into play! A SUR is simply a metal ring that is threaded on each end, and has a different diameter on each end. When you buy a SUR, will see that it is marked with the two different filter thread sizes, on the ring. For example, you might see it marked as a 58-62mm or a 52-77mm ring.

Rather than buying a whole collection of filters for each lens, look at the filter size of your largest diameter lens. Let’s say you carry lenses with filter sizes of 52mm, 58mm, 62mm and 77mm. Simply purchase filters at the largest (77mm) and then buy a 52-77mm SUR, a 58-77mm SUR, and a 62-77mm SUR. Personally, I like to use a UV filter on all of my lenses at all times, so I would likely still purchase four UV Filters, but just one Circular Polarizer, one 2x ND, and one 4x ND filter.

One final note, if you do go this route, remember that your original lens caps will no longer fit. My suggestion is to purchase three new 77mm lens caps (if you carry the lenses in the scenario above, the 77mm lens would already have a cap, so you wouldn’t need a new one).

Lay the poster board on the table near the window, let one side stay flat to the table, and the other end should be raised in a gentle arc, and then affixed to the backdrop. Get out your camera and macro lens and start to play around!

Left: The “Behind the Scenes” setup showing the simple posterboard being used as a studio sweep for photographing the figurine.

Right: The resultant image of the figurine.

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Photo by Jim Hooper 90

Gear 91

Equipment Corner:

Peak Designs Capture Clip Jim Hooper

I recently picked up a Capture Clip, made by Peak Designs, as a new toy to add to my collection of camera bags and carry options. I’ve seen similar devices used by professionals that I respect and admire, so I decided to give it a shot. The Capture Clip is a belt mounting system with an ArcaSwiss quick release (QR) plate that mounts to the camera, and a swiveling holster that mounts on a belt or strap. I purchased mine specifically for my backpacking adventures where I carry just one body and one lens, and I need a way to quickly access it, without taking off my loaded backpack.

I purchased my Capture Clip through Hunt’s Photo, and it shipped quickly. I think I had it in hand in three or four days time from the date of order. The first thing I noticed was that it was lightweight, but still felt solid. The locking mechanism seems easy and secure, and the release pin can be rotated 90 degrees to ensure the camera doesn’t get released

accidentally. Overall, the materials and design seem to be of high quality. I was impressed right from the start, and was eager to try it out. Here are the basic stats on the device: • Aluminum construction (lightweight and won’t rust) • Rubberized backplate prevents scuffing • Comes with knurled thumbscrews for more temporary mounting, AND with hex screws for more permanent mounting options • Quick Release button with security locking pin • Strength to hold up to 200 pounds is more than enough for any camera you could possibly carry • Accommodates straps up to 2.5” wide • Price of $69.95 (though Hunt’s hooked me up for $59.46)

The first time I tried to use it, I mounted the Clip to my regular leather belt that I wear every day.

The Clip can be mounted horizontally or vertically, meaning I can attach it to a horizontal belt, or on a vertical strap (ie my backpack strap).

Once the Clip is in place, the camera plate that comes with the kit can be slotted into the clip in any of the four directions, meaning that regardless of whether you mount the clip vertically or horizontally, you can orient your camera vertically, so the lens hangs down. With the camera mounted, it’s easy to put your fingers on the camera Fig. 1: The Capture Clip by Peak Designs comes with the belt clip (bottom right), arca-swiss compatible baseplate grip, and use your (toop right), two thumbscrews, two hex screws, and a hex key, packed with a simple carry bag.

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thumb to release the pin, allowing you access to your gear. If you use the rotating lock (which I do), I still find it’s easiest to use two hands to release the clasp; one hand on the camera to pull it away slightly, and one hand to turn the locking pin.

When I go backpacking, I use the Capture Clip on my left shoulder strap, and this is where I ran into my first challenge with the Clip. The thumbscrews that come with the set when you buy it, are not nearly long enough to attach the clip to a heavily padded strap. They are designed for a typical belt, so the screws are fairly short.

The designers do add in another set of screws that are in fact longer, but require the use of an hex wrench (included).

The instructions talk about using the replacement screws if you were going to be mounting the Clip more permanently (perhaps on your camera bag strap), but made no mention of the fact that the hex screws were actually longer. I ended up buying two new, longer, screws at the hardware store, which remedied my Fig. 2: The Capture Clip worn on my everyday belt, shown here with a Nikon D800 problem perfectly, for a whopping $1.49. and 85mm f1.8 lens. This is a substantial camera, and the fit feels secure, yet I can get Once I read that the hex screws were the camera on and off the clip with one hand. longer, I did try those as well, but alas, even easily transfer the plate between the adapter and the longer hex screws weren’t long enough, the camera body itself, without carrying a separate so the hardware store screws were necessary. wrench. This challenge is really frustrating, and may When I am backpacking, I am generally carrying my well prevent me from using the Capture Clip unless Nikon Z6 with the 24-70 f4 S lens, which is native to I am backpacking and only using the native S lenses the camera, and does not require any adapter. When which don’t require the adapter. The purchase of I am home, however, and shooting portraits, I often a second plate ($19.95) would allow me to put one plate on the body and one on the adapter, which alternate between a variety of lenses and most of should solve the problem. If you aren’t using a lens those lenses require the use of the FTZ Adapter. adapter, this issue likely won’t matter to you though.

This presented another challenge for the Capture Clip, because the FTZ adapter has an awkward I am disappointed that the FTZ adapter for the bump-out on the bottom of the adapter. While the QR plate can mount to the body without a problem, Nikon mirrorless cameras is largely incompatible, but again, if you aren’t using the FTZ, I think you the FTZ Adapter’s odd shape gets in the way of will really enjoy the Capture Clip by Peak Designs. sliding the camera onto the Capture Clip. If I am The build quality is very good, the connection is using the adapter, I need to mount the QR plate rugged, dependable, and easy to release. The security to the tripod socket on the adapter itself, which is of the twist-lock release pin is great. Overall, I fine, except that if I want to use the native S lenses (which don’t use the adapter), I lose the quick release would say the Capture Clip is a great device for general use with most cameras. plate. Unfortunately, the QR plate is attached with a hex screw as well, meaning that you can’t

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Nikon Shooters: Is Your Future Mirrorless?

By Dave Soderlund

MIRRORLESS!! This has been the buzzword in the world of interchangeable-lens digital cameras over the past several years.

Mirrorless designs have promised both a reduction in size and weight compared to DSLRs and access to novel image capture features and technologies. Sony (crop and full frame sensors) and Fuji (crop and medium format sensors) were among early players in the mirrorless game, and they have developed mature systems with multiple camera bodies and lenses in each of the formats they support. Canon and Nikon moved more slowly into the mirrorless field, but in the past year or so both have announced new cameras that signal their commitment to mirrorless designs.

Nikon entered the full-frame mirrorless market in the fall of 2018 with the introduction of the Z6 and Z7 cameras and new Z-mount lenses. The Z6 and Z7 are identical except for the sensor: the Z6 has a 24.5 megapixel sensor (a “mirrorless D750”), whereas the Z7 has a 45.7 megapixel sensor (a “mirrorless D850”).

Compared to contemporary Nikon DSLRs the Z6 and Z7 are surprisingly compact, as illustrated by the Z7/D850 comparison in Fig. 1. Some of the novel and attractive features of the Z6 and Z7 include: • • • • • •

Familar Nikon ergonomics and menus Accurate phase detection autofocus at the sensor level Excellent, informative electronic viewfinder High frame rates for continuous shooting Silent shooting with electronic shutter and no mirror In-body image stabilization (IBIS) stabilizes non-VR lenses, is compatible with in-lens VR

The experience of Z6 and Z7 users over the past year has also identified a few areas where the features and performance of the Z cameras fall short of contemporary Nikon DSLRs: • • •

With the Z6 and Z7 Nikon introduced a completely new interchangeable lens mount -- the Z mount. Today there are nine Z-mount lenses available for the Z6 and Z7. Nikon has also released a Z lens roadmap, which identifies 11 additional Z-mount lenses for the Z6 and Z7 that are under development and planned for release through 2021. The new Z lenses are one of the most exciting aspects of Nikon’s new mirrorless camera line. All of the lenses released so far, even the 2470mm f/4 “kit” lens, are optically excellent. Where direct comparisons are possible, the Z lenses are optically superior to their older DSLR counterparts. Unfortunately, there are very few third-party Z-mount lenses available currently.

In introducing a completely new body-lens interface, Nikon was faced with the need to migrate current Nikon DSLR users, who own thousands of F-mount lenses manufactured over the past 6 decades, to the new system. Nikon addressed this problem by creating the FTZ (“F-to-Z”) lens adapter, which allows the use with full functionality of the majority of legacy Nikon F-mount lenses. The principal gap in compatibility is the lack of autofocus function for Nikon AF-D lenses, which require an autofocus motor in the camera body that is absent in Z cameras. The FTZ adapter also allows Z shooters to use many third-party F-mount lenses.

Figure 1: Nikon Z7 Mirrorless (left) and Nikon D850 DSLR (right).

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Inferior autofocus system for action/moving subjects Only one memory card slot No provision for accessory vertical grip

This is just a brief summary of the features Nikon Z6 and Z7. For in-depth, hands-on reviews of the Z6, Z7 and Z-mount lenses that are factual, critical, and free of fanboy hype, I encourage you to check you the following two websites: Thom Hogan (www.bythom. com) and Photography Life (www. photographylife.com).

Upgrade Options and Strategies for Nikon DSLR Users Nikon clearly wants to lure lots of current Nikon DSLR owners to the mirrorless camp, but is mirrorless right for you? Here are my thoughts about upgrading (or not) for current owners of Nikon DSLRs. I have excluded from this discussion the Nikon D4/D5 cameras, which are specialized sports/ action cameras, and the entry-level Nikon D3xxx/D5xxx DSLRs, whose owners are not likely to be candidates for upgrading to a full-frame system.

Full Frame (FX) Cameras: D850 owners: The D850, introduced two years ago, is still widely regarded as the best all-around DSLR available. Its 45.7 megapixel sensor makes it (together with the Z7) the highest resolution Nikon camera. It shares Nikon’s stateof-the-art autofocus system with the Nikon D5, which is superior to the phase detection autofocus system of the Z7 for tracking moving objects. In Live View mode it has most of the features found on the Z7. In my view, there is little motivation other than weight reduction for a D850 owner to move to a Z7, the closest equivalent Z camera.

D800/D810 owners: The D800 and D810 were predecessors to the D850.

Their 36-megapixel sensors now fall short of the high resolution of the D850 and Z7, and they are also old enough to lack many of the advanced user interface features of the newer cameras. Nevertheless, they remain excellent cameras. D800/810 owners who have a large and diverse collection of F-mount lenses may not see a switch to the Z mirrorless system desirable. An alternative upgrade path for D800/810 owners seeking a newer, higherresolution camera would be a D850.

D750 owners: Five years after its introduction, the 24.5-megapixel D750 has proven itself as a workhorse camera for wedding and event shooters as well as for serious enthusiast photographers.

Nikon recently complicated upgrade decisions for D750 owners with their January 2020 introduction of the D780.

The successor to the D750, the D780 incorporates features from both the D850 and the Z6. One commentator called it a “Z6 with an optical viewfinder.” D750 owners now have four options for upgrading their cameras. (1) Do nothing! (The D750 remains a great camera.) (2) Upgrade to a D780. This is the logical pathway for those who have a large collection of F-mount lenses or for other reasons prefer the DSLR form factor to mirrorless. (3) Upgrade to a Z6. To take full advantage of the benefits of the Z system, these users will probably want to buy not only a Z6 body but also one or two Z-mount lenses. (4) Upgrade to a used or refurbished D850.

For some D750 owners, the increased resolution and advanced features of the D850 might make more sense than the benefits of the Z6.

D600/610 owners: The 24-megapixel D600, introduced in 2012, was Nikon’s first “prosumer” full frame DSLR. The D610, virtually identical in features, was introduced shortly thereafter to fix a shutter problem encountered with many early D600s. These cameras are now showing their age; they have weak autofocus performance and lack advanced features when compared to more modern Nikon DSLRs. I suspect that many serious enthusiast photographers who owned D600/610s have alread upgraded, either to the D750 or the D8xx series. Those who have not are prime candidates for either the new D780 or the Z6. A bargain upgrade alternative would be a new or refurbished D750. The choice among these three options may depend on a user’s available resources, the extent of their F-mount lens inventory, and their degree of interest in making the big jump to the mirrorless future.

Crop Sensor (DX) Cameras: D500 owners: The D500 is Nikon’s flagship DX camera, with a

20.9-megapixel sensor and a professional build similar to that of the D850.

The D500’s ruggedness, D5-derived autofocus system, and high frame rate for continuous shooting make it an excellent camera for sports/action/ wildlife photography when paired with telephoto lenses. For these users, the Z6 and Z7 cameras offer no advantages over the D500.

D7000/7100/7200/7500 owners: The D7xxx cameras have been the heart of Nikon’s DX system for enthusiast photographers for a decade. The D7500, the most recent version, shares the 20.9-megapixel sensor of the D500 and has many of the advanced shooting features of the D500, D750, D780, and D850. However, D7xxx owners (as well as D500 owners who are generalist photographers) face an uncertain future because Nikon has not demonstrated a real commitment to the DX format for anything more than entry-level cameras. For example, in the past 17 years Nikon has introduced only two DX lenses aimed at serious enthusiast photographers (35mm f/1.8 prime, 1680mm f/2.8-4 zoom) but in the same period has introduced more than two dozen iterations of various inexpensive, slow 18-xx mm zooms that were paired with the D3xxx/D5xxx entry-level DSLRs. In light of this, I think Nikon DX shooters who are serious enthusiast photographers are strong candidates to move up to the FX format with the Z6 and a couple of excellent Z-mount lenses.

What About the Z50?

In the fall of 2019 Nikon expanded the Z camera lineup with the introduction of the Z50, the first DX-format camera in the series. At the same time, Nikon introduced two Z-mount zoom lenses for DX. The Z50 shares the 20.9-megapixel sensor of the D7500 and D500 and has many, but not all, of the features found in the Z6 and Z7. For example, the Z50 lacks In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS) and instead depends on VR in the two Z-mount DX lenses for stabilization. This means that it is impossible to achieve image stabilization for Z-mount FX lenses on the Z50 body.

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The Z50 is clearly not the mirrorless successor to the D7500 and D500. Its feature set and companion lenses instead signal that this is an entry level camera, in effect a mirrorless replacement for the D3xxx and D5xxx DSLRs. Whether Nikon intends to introduce a more fullfeatured Z-mount DX camera and more desirable lenses is, at this point, anyone’s guess.

Final Thoughts Nikon, like other camera companies, has bet that the future is mirrorless. The Z6 and Z7 cameras and the Z-mount lenses that accompany them are extremely impressive and relatively free of the problems that often plague the first iterations of new technologies. I expect that most of Nikon’s development efforts going forward will focus on this system, expanding the options for mirrorless bodies and lenses. By contrast, Nikon’s commitment to the mirrorless DX format seems to be focused at the entry level rather than at serious enthusiast photographers.

Border Patrol Diane Dersch Adding a border in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop 1. First you will need to open a photo in Photoshop Elements or Photoshop (fig. 1).

2. Next you will need to make a background copy.

3. Then go to the select tab and choose all.

4. Next you need to go over to the edit tab and select stroke (outline) selection.

5. You can choose the color and how wide you’d like your stroke.

I have found that if you’ve cropped your photo the stroke will have to be a smaller size.

You will need to play around with the size to see what you prefer (fig. 2).

6. After choosing the size of the stroke you will need to go back to select and choose deselect.

7. If you want to add another wider border you can go to image, choose resize and then canvas.

8. You will need to change it to inches. I usually add .3 and choose a color to make it a nice border around the simple line one (fig. 3).

Previously I had always been doing canvas and enlarging the image. I found that using the stroke selection is much easier to do.

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At the same time, Nikon has not completely abandoned its DSLR business and user base. This is evident in the recent releases of the D780 and a new high-performing F-mount lens (120300mm f/2.8) as well as the anticipated release of the D6 in advance of the 2020 Olympics. However, I expect that in the future the lineup of DSLR bodies will be thinned down to just a few (D780, D850, and D6 for FX; D500 and perhaps a D7500 successor for DX), and the development of F mount lenses will slow as resources are directed toward the new Z mount system.

The good news in all of this for owners of contemporary FX-format Nikon is that these cameras are not suddenly obsolete! The newest ones remain comparable in many ways to the Z6 and Z7 and should continue to serve us well for several years. However, serious photographers who own older FX cameras and all DX cameras will need to evaluate whether it makes more sense to stay within the F-mount DSLR system or to move into “Z world.”

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Figure1 (top). Original image.

Figure 2 (center). A thin black stroke applied to the image.

Figure 3 (bottom). Heavier color border, matching a tone from the image.

Gear Review

NikonZ6

By Jim Hooper 97

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I

’ve been a Nikon shooter for over 20 years, since 1998 when my mother in law gifted me a Nikon F, the original flagship Nikon body. Sure, it was built in 1972, and was already a classic when I received it, but it got me started, and really kickstarted my passion for photography. Over the years, I have bought quite a few replacements/ upgrades to that camera (the N80, D70, D80, D90, D7200), but it all began with that Nikon F that was handed to me so many years ago. I wouldn’t really consider myself to be a gear hound, and the vast majority of my equipment has been purchased used because I hate paying full price for anything! But I do try to pay attention to emerging technologies regarding photography, so I’ve been anxious to see what Nikon was eventually going to bring to the table after Sony demonstrated the viability of mirrorless cameras and opened the door to the future. In November, I decided to make the leap, and I bought the Nikon Z6.

I was recently talking with another very well established Nikon shooter, and he asked me why I switched. There were plenty of reasons, including the desire to upgrade to a full frame body, but ultimately, the number one reason that I switched was because it has become increasingly clear over the past year or so, that Nikon is phasing out of the DSLR market, and investing nearly all of its resources into the mirrorless systems.

To date, Nikon has discontinued the D3x00, D5x00, D500, D610 and D810 lines (though they are still producing D7x00, D850, among others). I figure, if Nikon isn’t going to be creating new DSLR’s then they probably won’t be spending a lot of energy on research and development, or servicing them either.

Their message is clear; mirrorless is the next wave in photographic evolution. I just felt that if I was going to upgrade to Full Frame, my options were realistically the D750 DSLR or the Z6 mirrorless and I, for one, didn’t want to invest in technology that was on a dead end road for development.

The mirrorless Nikon Z6 and Z7 were introduced in November and September of 2018, respectively, and

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the crop sensor Z50 appeared in the market just a couple of months ago in November 2019. From a technical spec perspective, the Z6 is a 24.5 MP full frame camera (the Z7 is 46MP) with 273 phase detect autofocus points. It can shoot as fast as 12 fps in RAW+jpg mode, capturing on an XQD memory card for very fast write speeds up to 400MPS (more on the XQD Card later). The buffer on the Z6 will allow you to record 41 Fine quality jpgs and 32 lossless compressed RAW files at its fastest burst rate. For video shooters, it can capture in Ultra High Definition, up to 30p with a 10-bit 4:2:2 N-log output over HDMI. It offers both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing you to link to your smart device as a remote release, or to download directly from camera to phone. In many ways, the Z6 is identical to the D750, aside from the mirrorless vs DSLR technology. The Eye AF allowed the camera to automatically track list price on the Z6 is $1999 and the the eyes of the model and maintain focus even while she FTZ adapter is another $249. When moved within the frame.

I bought mine (and I think the offer is still good), Nikon was running a outside and flipped so that it could be promotion for the Z6 at $1699 and seen from in front of the camera. For throwing in the FTZ adapter for free on some video shooters, that might be a Z6 and Z7 bodies (not included in the disappointment, but I don’t shoot video Z50). at all, so it didn’t concern me. The touchscreen has been better than I’d In the hand, the Z6 feels very much like expected and I do find myself zooming the Nikon’s I’ve used over the years. It’s in on the playback screen with swipe and got a deep finger grip which helps it pinch gestures that have become second to feel secure in my hand. The EVF is nature after using cell phone cameras. bright and sharp with 3.69 million dots The menus can also be navigated with of display, though it seems to me to the touchscreens, and I suspect that will be just a bit on the cool side, looking a become more popular as I get used to bit blue in the viewfinder. The LCD it. For now, I still use the rocker pad display is also quite clear with 2.1 for most of my navigation. I wasn’t million dots, but I choose not to use convinced I was going to be all-in on the the LCD much in order to preserve the touchscreen, but it’s really been pretty battery life. There is a sensor above easy to use. the EVF that senses when the camera is being held up to your eye so that One of the biggest changes that came the camera can turn off the LCD and along with the mirrorless systems is a use only the EVF. The sensor can be new lens mount. One of the biggest configured to show only the EVF, only selling points of Nikon over the years, the LCD, both but prioritize the EVF, has been the compatibility to use any or fully automatic. I use the “Prioritize Nikon lens made since 1959. Granted, EVF” most of the time. This still allows older lenses may have some limited me to review images in the LCD, and/or functionality, but the 1972 Nikon lens I share the preview with my client during received from my mother in law, would a shoot. The LCD is touchscreen, and still fit the D7200 I bought two years semi articulated. It can be slanted up ago. It wouldn’t autofocus, or meter, or down, but can’t be rotated to the but it could fit on the mount, and could

still be used. The mirrorless bodies, however, have a new and larger mount, which Nikon claims will allow them to make lenses with wider apertures, and allow them to incorporate image stabilization into the cameras rather than just in the lenses, among other reasons.

The new Z mount is 55mm, compared to the 44mm F-mount. Fortunately, Nikon is producing an F to Z adapter (appropriately named the FTZ adapter) allowing Nikon shooters to migrate their F-mount lenses to the new format. In my somewhat limited experience, the FTZ Adapter has been quite good, and feels reasonable in the hand. It does extend the body size somewhat, and offsets the minimal weight savings of a mirrorless camera, but it seems as though it maintains the full functionality of the F lenses. That said, I do think I will be looking to buy some new Z mount lenses. The Z lenses are lighter, and by all accounts I’ve read, they are far sharper than even the F-mount lenses that Nikon has always been known for. The pro-grade Z mount lenses are simply referred to as S lenses, as in the Nikon Z 24-70 f4 S. These pro-grade lenses are considerably more expensive than the F-mount versions. A Nikon

50mm S lens, for example, is $496, compared to the Nikon 50mm f1.8 G lens at $180.

When I opted to go full frame, I knew that some of my tried and true DX (crop sensor) lenses would be of limited value, since they would cause the camera to shoot in crop mode, and waste that glorious full frame sensor. For that reason, I ended up giving up my 35mm f1.8, my 12-24 wide-angle zoom and my 17-55 f2.8 workhorse. What I didn’t realize was that the Z6 doesn’t have a focus motor in the body, meaning that in order to autofocus, your lens needs to have the motor in it. I should have done my research better on that front, and it’s very frustrating that after all the research I did, I never noticed the focus motor issue. Nikon stopped including focus motors in the body when they started producing the D3000 and D5000 lines, but the D7000 line still had a focus motor. I mistakenly assumed that it was the consumer grade bodies that were losing it, and enthusiast/prograde bodies would still incorporate the motor in the body. That fact caused me to also offer up my 50mm f1.8. So in all, my transition cost me to sell off four of my

lenses. Ouch. I’m hoping that I will get enough cash from the sales of these lenses to buy the new 24-70 f4 (giving up the f2.8 hurts, but the f2.8 version is just about $2000). I still have my 85 f1.8, my 105 f2.8 macro and my 70-200 f4, so not all is lost. I just picked up a used 24-85 f3.5-4.5 full frame Nikon lens pretty cheap to at least temporarily replace my walk-around lens.

The Z6 has excellent low light, high ISO performance and with native Z glass, a 5-axis in-body image stabilization (IBIS).

If you are using an adapted F lens, the IBIS is limited to 3 axes. The large, bright, EVF is easy to use, and shows the image in the viewfinder exactly as it will record on the sensor. The autofocus system includes the new Eye AF, which allows you to select the eye of a subject and track it through the frame. If I were shooting more action, maybe I’d be more inclined to use the Eye AF feature.

Others who have used the Eye AF say that it’s pretty good.

Unlike the Sony cameras, the Nikon Z bodies retain the top-panel OLED display, so you can quickly reference your basic settings like shutter speed

At up to 12 frames per second, I was able to capture several frame of this feline cuteness. The tilting screen helped too, so I didn’t have to lay completely on the floor to capture this eye level view of Mr. Milo on the floor.

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and aperture, remaining exposures, ISO, shutter release modes, and battery life.

There are fewer buttons on the back of the Z compared to the D7200 that I was used to, with more of the functions being assigned within the touch screen menus. One of the really great features of the Z bodies is the nearly infinite customizability of the buttons. Most (all?) buttons can be assigned to any one of countless functions, depending on how you use your camera. An i-button on the back quickly brings up 10 functions, and each of the options can be customized to meet your needs. So if you like to change Focus modes or focus points or metering patterns frequently, you can do so very easily with the custom buttons or i-button assignments.

One of the big concerns for a lot of Nikon shooters has been the fact that Nikon only included one card slot on the current Z lineup. While that may be a deal breaker for some people (ie. wedding photographers who typically assign the second card slot to be an automatic backup), to me it wasn’t really a huge deal. One of my bigger surprises, however, was the price difference between an XQD and the SD cards I’ve used previously. The XQD cards are much more expensive. My 64GB XQD cost me $140, compared to a 64GB SD from SanDisk for $12 on Amazon. The production of XQD cards has been nearly completely dominated by Sony, though Delkin has been producing some, and Nikon itself announced in August of 2018 that they would be producing them. Unfortunately, Nikon’s own XQD Cards are just now going into manufacture, and most people in the US won’t be able to get their hands on them until early 2020. Meanwhile, FStoppers announced that Sony has discontinued the development of cameras using the new format, and are seriously scaling back on the production of the cards.

Needless to say, supply of cards in the new format has been very limited.

Ironically, Nikon, who will be selling their own XQD cards very soon, also just released this week (December 16, 2019) a firmware update that will allow the mirrorless cameras to accept the successor of the XQD, the CF Express cards. The CFE Cards may not be much 100

cheaper yet, and from what I understand they aren’t even available in the US yet, but in time I do believe that the CF Express cards will be produced by multiple manufacturers and as such, will come down significantly in price. To date, 14 manufacturers Not exactly a work of art, but the low-light capabilities allowed me to are said to be in get clean images at iso 6400, and the in-body image stabilization gave me production of the the ability to handhold this 85mm lens at 1/40second, and still get sharp CF Express cards, images. so hopefully $140 for 64 GB will of us who shoot the majority of our soon become a thing of the past. images in the vertical format. I was once Battery life on the mirrorless cameras has always been a concern, simply because the viewfinder now needs electricity to function. I have found that the battery life in the Z6 is certainly short of what I was getting in the D7200. That said, I used to shoot for weeks and weeks on the D7200 without charging. With the Z6, I find that I swap batteries about every 2-3 shoots, so I might get a couple of weeks on a single battery. In a stroke of brilliance, the Z6 happens to use the same battery as the D7200, so I already had 3 spare batteries that would work, plus the one that came with the camera, so in my workflow, I just keep one on the charger at all times, and I’ve not had any issues with it. I do wish that someone would develop a vertical grip that would accommodate two batteries because I think that would alleviate the fears of many nature photographers who may be shooting for extended times away from charging options. Recently Nikon released a battery grip which does allow two batteries, but for some inexplicable reason, they chose to handcuff the grip by not including a secondary shutter release or rocker pad, and they didn’t mold it to be a “grip”, just a battery storage. So, yes, it can hold two batteries, but for the extra $3 it would have cost to make it far more utilitarian, I think Nikon was foolish not to satisfy those

confident that a third party manufacturer would be quick to meet the need that Nikon didn’t see as a need. However, I have discovered that such a grip will be impossible on the Z6 because there is no electrical interface on the bottom of the body, only the battery terminal inside the battery compartment. There is no way to get communication signals between a grip and the body. If you couldn’t tell, this has been my number one biggest complaint about this camera. I’ve used vertical grips on nearly all of my Nikon cameras over the years.

There have been literally books written about the Nikon mirrorless cameras, and I had no intent of re-writing all of them in this review. I do, however, think the camera is a solid piece of kit, touted by far more experienced photographers than myself, as quite possible the best camera that Nikon has ever produced. I am anxious to get out and shoot some more with the camera, and possibly publish an update to this review in the future. In the meantime, if you have specific questions about the camera, feel free to reach out and ask!

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Print Explorations Dave Soderlund

One of my photographic goals during this time of social distancing and sequestration is to learn more about printing on different types of paper. When I bought my Canon ImagePROGRAF Pro-1000 printer about a year and a half ago I received, as part of the deal from the vendor, boxes of 17”x22” sheets of four different Canon papers: two semi-gloss papers (Pro Luster and Plus SemiGloss) and two matte papers (Premium Matte and Fine Art Smooth). On my old Epson printer I mostly used Epson’s Premium Luster paper, and on my new printer I have continued that pattern, printing almost exclusively on Pro Luster. Having the other papers available only in large sheets was a deterrent to experimenting with them.

Recently, I finally figured out that each 17”x22” sheet could be cut into four 8.5”x11” sheets, which are perfect for making test prints. Armed with 8.5”x11” sheets of these four Canon

Canon ImagePROGRAF Pro-1000 Printer papers, I set out to discover how they behaved for color and black and white prints. Here’s what I did and what I learned.

Color Prints: For my test image I used “Afterglow” from White Pocket. I

Fig. 1. Top: Pro Luster (L), Plus Semi-Gloss (R). Bottom: Premium Matte (L), Fine Art Smooth (R).

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Fig. 2. Top: Pro Luster (L), Plus Semi-Gloss (R). Bottom: Premium Matte (L), Fine Art Smooth (R). chose this image because it has a wide color gamut (blues and magentas in the sky, reds and yellows in the rocks) and a wide dynamic range, from deep shadows to bright highlights. I printed from Lightroom using Canon’s ICC profiles for each paper and the Pro-1000 printer.

I was amazed by the color consistency for this print across all four paper types (Fig. 1). Each print was consistent in overall color, brightness, and detail when compared with the image on my monitor. Based on my reading I expected prints on matte paper to be more dull and have reduced contrast compared to prints on semi-gloss paper, but I found the differences among papers to be very small. The prints on Pro Luster and Plus Semi-Gloss were indistinguishable. The prints on Premium Matte and Fine Art Smooth were a bit more muted given, not unexpected given flat nature of the print surface; nevertheless contrast, overall brightness, and detail were preserved.

Comparing the two matte papers, I found that I preferred Fine Art Smooth over Premium Matte because the highlights on Fine Art Smooth were a little brighter. The main difference among all four papers was surface reflectivity: the two semigloss papers gave strong surface reflections when viewed at an angle in bright indirect light, whereas the two matte papers 102

looked great even when viewed from a sharp side angle under these conditions.

Black and White Prints: I took the same approach to compare the behavior of all four papers for black and white prints. For my test image I used “Vesterhorn” from our last trip to Iceland. I chose this image because it has a wide dynamic range, from almost pure black to almost pure white, and also has areas of midtone gray gradations and lots of fine detail.

Once again, I was impressed by the reproducibility of the image across the four papers (Fig. 2). However, with the black and white prints I saw two paper-dependent effects that were not apparent with the color prints.

The first effect was due to the different “color temperatures” of the four papers. Photo papers can range from bright white to a soft cream color depending on how they are made and coated. Among the four papers, Premium Matte had the warmest white tone, and as a result the highlights and bright areas of the print were more muted, reflecting the underlying tone of the paper. By contrast, Pro Luster and Plus Semi-

Gloss had brighter white surfaces, and this gave the brightest areas of the print more “pop.” Fine Art Smooth was intermediate in its brightness and also in the impact of paper tone on the highlight areas.

The second effect was unique to Premium Matte. With this paper, I found enhanced subtle gradations in the intermediate gray tones, most evident in the highlights and shadows on the black sand dunes. By contrast the other three papers exhibited a sharper drop-off from medium grays to deep shadow. This effect was subtle but real, and for this reason alone I prefer Premium Matte to the other three papers for black and white images.

What I Learned: This was a valuable exercise that taught me several things: •

•

•

•

•

For these tests it’s really important to print the same image on multiple paper types. Subtle differences between papers are only evident when you can compare the same image on different media.

In the Canon print ecosystem (Canon ICC profiles, Canon paper, Canon printer) the reproducibility of prints across paper type was excellent. Moreover, the brightness of the prints corresponded well with the brightness of the image on my monitor without having to increase image brightness for printing.

This was not always true in my previous experience with the Epson print ecosystem even though I have always calibrated the luminance of my monitor at about 100 lumens, an optimal brightness for processing images to print.

Luster paper remains a good all-around choice for both color and black and white printing, but I’ve definitely been missing something by not exploring other paper types.

The richness, color reproducibility, and detail of color prints on matte papers was unexpected and impressive. I will definitely be exploring matte fine art papers for future color prints!

The black and white print on Premium Matte paper was superior to the other three papers in the preservation of tonal gradations in midtone values. However, I’d prefer a brighter white paper than Premium Matte, so I will be searching for an alternative among fine art papers from suppliers such as Moab and Red River. In the future, I will likely move most of my black and white printing to matte papers.

I’m looking forward to extending this study to papers from Moab and Red River. Going forward, I’d like to identify 2-3 “go-to” papers each for color and black and white printing and understand how they behave for different types of images.

“The free flow of impressions and ideas that comes through a camera can teach you about the world and yourself. Photography can help you bypass your usual conceptual filters and engage what is known as the right brain, the source of intuition, imagination and creativity. Zen knows this open, receptive frame of mind as no-mind.”

Dave Ulrich, Zen Camera: Creative Awakening With a Daily Practice in Photography

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Review: Canon imagePROGRAPH Pro-1000 Printer David Soderlund

When I began my journey in digital photography 10 years ago I didn't think much about printing digital images; instead, my complete focus was on learning to capture them with my camera and process them on the computer. Later, when I wanted to print images I sent them to a printing service but I found the experience disappointing. I was frustrated by the slow turnaround time, limited paper choices, and a lack of correlation between the image displayed on my computer screen and the printed image that arrived in the mail.

A few years later I decided to figure out how to make my own prints that would meet my standards for quality. I purchased an Epson R3000 dedicated photo printer, and using it I achieved a degree of satisfaction with my prints that had eluded me when using a print-to-order service. Even so, I became frustrated with some limitations that I encountered with the R3000: it only printed on media up to 13" wide; it required a wasteful ink change process to switch between Photo Black ink (for luster, semi-gloss and gloss media) and Matte Black ink (for matte media such as most fine art papers); and, it had a propensity to clog when left idle for a few weeks between print jobs.

In 2017 I attended a Fine Art Printing workshop presented

by Les Picker, where I learned about and used the imagePROGRAPH Pro-1000 printer in his studio. The capabilities of this printer addressed my main frustrations with my Epson R3000. When we moved from New York to Nevada in 2018 I decided to sell the R3000 before moving, and I bought the imagePROGRAPH Pro-1000 (which I will refer to here as the Pro-1000 for the sake of simplicity) later that year.

Figure 1. Pro-1000 dimensions (closed).

Hunt's gave me approximately $700 of free large format Canon photo paper plus free shipping to Reno and no sales tax.

Canon also offers two "professional" photo printers that appear to be targeted more toward the amateur enthusiast photographer: the Pixma Pro-10 ($699) and Pixma Pro-100 ($499). These are 13" printers that use less elaborate ink sets (pigment-based inks in the Pro-10, dye-based inks in the Pro100) and a different print head design. These are also often discounted with Canon rebates and vendor bundles.

To confuse things further, Canon recently announced a new 13" printer, the imagePROGRAPH Pro-300 ($899). Despite its name it shares only some of the features of the larger imagePROGRAPH models and employs a different pigment ink set.

In this review, based on almost two years of experience in printing with the Pro-1000, I provide my hands-on impressions of this printer. I will also share what I consider to be the main differences between the Pro-1000 and the most directly comparable Epson printer.

Canon and Epson appear to have taken different approaches to the table-top photo printer market. Epson has traditionally offered 13" and 17" printers that otherwise employ the same inks and print technology. The current versions, introduced earlier this year, are the SureColor P700 (13"; $799) and P900 (17"; $1,195). By contrast Canon's 13" and 17" printers are not part of the same printer series.

Canon's Professional Photo Printer Line-up

Pro-1000: Specifications and Features

Canon makes several photo printers that it calls "professional."

The imagePROGRAPH printers are the top of the line, designed for professional photographers and for use in printing/graphics studios. The Pro-1000 is the smallest (prints on media up to 17") and least expensive ($1,299, list price at B&H) of this series, which also includes the Pro-2100 (24"; $2,695), Pro-4100 (44"; $3,995), and Pro-6100 (60"; $10,195).

All of these printers share the same pigment-based inks and print technology (more about those features below).

The Pro-1000 is often discounted below its list price by rebate offers from Canon, and vendors also often include additional free or deeply discounted items (such as photo paper) that further reduce the effective cost of the printer. For example, I received a $300 rebate on my Pro-1000 from Canon, and 104

Size, connectivity, and controls: The Pro-1000 is really a table-top, rather than desktop, printer.

With paper and output trays closed the printer footprint is 28.5" wide and 17" deep (Fig. 1). However fully extending the (top) multi-sheet feed tray increases the minimum working depth to 27.5 inches (Fig. 2, top). The Pro-1000 weighs 72 pounds, so it requires a sturdy table. The Pro-1000 can be connected directly to a computer by USB; it can also be networked via either Ethernet or WiFi. The printer controls are very simple: a few buttons and a 3" color LCD screen (Fig. 3). Printer set-up and maintenance functions are addressed via menus and a directional controller that is reminiscent of the controls on a TV remote.

Inks and printing technology: The Pro-1000, like its larger siblings, uses Canon's 12-ink LUCIA PRO pigment-based ink set, which includes 11 pigmented inks (Matte Black, Photo Black, Gray, Photo Gray, Cyan, Photo Cyan, Magenta, Photo Magenta, Yellow, Red, and Blue) and a non-pigmented Chroma Optimizer. The inks designated "photo" are lighter in tone and provide greater tonal control and separation in both color and monochrome prints. The Chroma Optimizer (used only with papers that take Photo Black ink) provides a clear coat that enhances blacks, reduced "bronzing" (color casts evident when luster, semi-gloss and gloss prints are viewed at an angle), and eliminates the gloss differential in these papers between areas of a print with ink coverage and without ink (i.e., pure white).

The inks for the Pro-1000 come in 80-ml cartridges that are installed behind a panel in front of the printer (Fig. 4) and are delivered to the print head via capillary tubing, with one delivery channel for each of the 12 inks. New printers come with a set of full-size (not "starter") ink cartridges, but the process of filling and charging the ink delivery system consumes some of the first set of inks.

The consumed ink is not used or wasted -- it just fills the ink delivery pathway to the print head. A full set of 12 replacement ink cartridges costs $699; fortunately the inks are stable and last for a long time. (I have owned my printer for 22 months and I only recently began replacing empty ink cartridges.)

Figure 2. Top: side view with multi-sheet feed tray open. Bottom: side view with single sheet feed tray open.

The print head is a user-replaceable part that receives and distributes inks using arrays of 1,536 nozzles for each of the 12 inks; if a nozzle should clog, the printer automatically uses a new nozzle on the next pass of the print head. The minimum ink droplet size is a microscopic 4 picoliters, which makes for highly detailed prints.

To me, the difference in the design of the ink delivery and printing system between the Pro-1000 and comparable Epson printers is one of the major benefits of the Pro-1000 for two reasons. First, because the Pro-1000 has separate ink channels and heads for Photo Black and Matte Black ink there is no need to switch inks in a common black channel as with Epson printers. This makes switching between papers that take Photo Black and Matte Black ink seamless, with no ink waste. In practice, I never explored matte fine art paper options with my Epson R3000 because I was leery of the whole ink switching process. Second, the redundancy of the Pro-1000's print head nozzles for each ink channel eliminates clogging problems. Epson inkjet printers have a reputation for clogging, and head cleaning protocols consume ink. Further, a clogged Epson print head that cannot be cleaned must be replaced, an operation that involves an expensive part and a trip to an Epson service center. The cost of this repair is often high enough that it renders the printer not worth repairing. By contrast,

Figure 3. Control panel.

Figure 4. Location of ink cartridges.

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should the print head on the Pro1000 need replacing it is a relatively inexpensive part that can be installed by the user.

Paper handling: The Pro-1000 has two paper feed pathways: a top multi-sheet feeder (Fig. 2, top), and a rear feeder for single sheets (Fig. 2, bottom). The top feeder can accommodate multiple sheets of papers up to ~12 mil (0.3 mm) thick (e.g., most luster, semi-gloss and gloss papers) whereas the single sheet feeder can accommodate papers up to ~28 mil (0.7 mm) thick (e.g., thicker fine art matte papers). Printed images from either input path appear on the front output tray. Unlike comparable Epson printers the Pro-1000 has no flat-feed capability (and therefore cannot print on inflexible media such as CDs and printable poster board) and no provision for using rolled paper.

Paper feeding on the Pro-1000 takes advantage of Canon's Air Feed System, which uses a vacuum pulled through small holes in the print platen to hold the paper flat while passing beneath the print head. This prevents paper skewing and misalignment and helps avoid headstrikes when using paper sheets that are not completely flat.

The maximum allowable paper size for the Pro-1000 at the time of its release was 17"x22", a size that is widely available from different paper suppliers.

Subsequent firmware updates have increased the maximum allowable paper size to 17"x47.5". This increase permits the use of 17"x25" sheet paper (available for some Moab papers and nearly all Red River papers), special panorama papers (such as Red River 13"x38" panorama papers) or custom lengths of 17" paper cut from rolls. The ability to use these longer paper sheets for panoramic prints compensates, to some degree, for the Pro-1000's inability to use rolled paper.

Pro-1000: Performance Correspondence between displayed and printed images: A printed image (viewed in reflected light) will never look exactly like the same image on a computer monitor 106

(viewed in transmitted light). Despite this limitation, we strive to achieve printed results that preserve, as much as possible, the image we have created on the computer. Matching the displayed and printed versions of the same image requires calibration of monitor brightness. I set my Apple 27" display to a brightness of 90-100 lumens, a value that falls within the recommended range using the ColorMunki Display monitor calibration tool.

With my monitor calibrated properly, I have found that images printed on the Pro-1000 -- whether color and monochrome, on matte or glossy papers -- correspond well in terms of overall brightness with the image displayed on the monitor. In my experience, this was not always the case with my Epson R3000; I often had to brighten images (usually with a Levels adjustment layer in Photoshop) so that the brightness of the print was an acceptable match to the image displayed on my calibrated monitor.

Quality of printed images: Color images produced by the Pro1000 across a wide variety of paper types from matte to metallic are uniformly outstanding in terms of color reproduction and fidelity. I print from Lightroom using the paper manufacturer's ICC profiles, without soft proofing, and in all of the cases I have examined the first print on any paper type was excellent and required no further adjustment of the print file.

Similarly, the Pro-1000 produces black and white images on a variety of papers that are uniformly excellent. The Canon printer driver offers a "Black and White Photo Print" option that overrides color management and uses only the black and gray inks to generate a monochrome print. I find that this option is not necessary; color-managed monochrome prints are excellent and do not display any of the green or magenta color casts that can appear in black and white prints from color printers. Moreover, color management is necessary when printing toned monochrome prints.

Paper Selection:

Despite the overall reproducibility of color and monochrome prints on various media, subtle differences exist between paper types that may influence each user's choice of papers. In a previous Contact Sheet article (June 2020, page 15) I described my exploration of the four Canon papers I received free with my printer and identified my favorites for color and black and white prints.

I have now expanded this exploration to include six Moab papers (three matte, one baryta, and two metallic) and four Red River papers (all matte). I learned that I really prefer matte fine art papers to baryta, luster, or glossy papers, and I also learned that I prefer bright white papers (with optical brightening agents) to natural papers that have an off-white tone. My favorite paper for both color and black and white prints was Moab Entrada Rag Bright, but Red River 60 lb.

Premium Matte PLUS ran a very close second.

I have boxes of perfectly useful 17"x22" Canon papers, so one consideration for me in choosing any new paper is its availability in 17"x25" sheets to allow printing 16"x24" images with borders.

Moab Entrada Rag Bright, my favorite paper, comes in two weights, 190 gsm (grams per square centimeter) and 300 gsm, but only the heavier weight is available in 17"x25" sheets. However, Red River Premium Matte PLUS, which is intermediate in weight between the two version of the Moab paper (230 gsm), not only is available in 17"x25" sheets but also is 40% of the cost of the Moab paper on a per-sheet basis. I'll be buying the Red River paper when I want sheets larger than 17"x22".

If you are interested in exploring different papers, I encourage you to follow a testing procedure like the one I outlined in my previous Contact Sheet article. To identify differences between papers and find papers that suit your photography best, it is essential to print the same image(s) on each paper type.

Conclusions

For most amateur enthusiast photographers, decisions about dedicated photo printers involve choices

among 13" or 17" printers. There are a number of options for 13" printers that differ in their ink types, other features, and price points. However, for 17" printers, there are really only two options: Canon's imagePROGRAPH Pro-1000 (reviewed here) and Epson's SureColor P900. Both printers produce excellent prints, so choosing between them is likely to involve criteria other than print quality alone.

In this review I have noted what I believe to be the two main advantages of the Pro-1000 over the Epson P900: ease of switching between media that use Photo Black and Matte Black ink, and an ink delivery/print head design that eliminates head clogging, even when the printer sits idle. The principal shortcoming of the Pro-1000 is its inability to use rolls of photo paper.

There is not a significant cost difference between these two printers. Based on list price, the Canon costs approximately

$100 more than the Epson. However, manufacturer's rebates and vendor bundles can either negate or amplify this price difference depending where and when one shops.

Replacement inks for both printers are not cheap: a set of 12 Canon ink cartridges (80 ml each) costs $699, and a set of 10 Epson cartridges (50 ml each) costs $420. If you adjust ink costs for the difference in the volume of Canon and Epson cartridges, the cost of replacing an equivalent volume of a set of inks is similar.

If you are considering a 17" photo printer, I encourage you to give close consideration to the Canon imagePROGRAPH Pro-1000. I've been using mine for almost two years. I have no complaints, and I love the prints it produces.

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Quick Tip: Disappearing People!

Jim Hooper Have you ever set up your tripod for an amazing photo of a beautiful place, only to realize that everyone else had the same idea, so you spend hours waiting for everyone to get out of your shot? We’ve all been there.

Don’t fret! There’s a simple solution, as long as you have a tripod and just a little patience, and Photoshop on your side.

Get yourself in position, set up your tripod and mount the camera. Get all your setting just right. Then just take pictures every 10-20 seconds or so, until you have each part of the image recorded without obstruction.

You may need several different images so that you can have at least one photo of each area of the image that doesn’t have anyone in it.

When you get back to you computer, and download your images, open up Photoshop. Go to File>Scripts>Statistics and set it to Median. Then open up each of the images in the series, and hit OK. Photoshop will create a new image with each of the frames as a layer, and automatically mask out the area of the image that is different than the others. As a result, if 10 frames have no person in it, and the 11th has a person, Photoshop will mask out the person, allowing the background to show through. Presto! Scenic vista, no people, and your friends will think you are a magician!

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Your Best Friend for Fall Photography - A Circular Polarizer Nikhil Nagane

I am writing this article on the first day of Autumn season, which starts my favorite season to photograph in the Adirondack mountains. Vivid array of colors on trees and the ground below, a nip in the air and most importantly the end of bug season. What is not to like?

leaves is polarized in nature. Most of this polarized light can be filtered out using a circular polarizer.

When it comes to photographing the colors of autumn, one of the challenges I face is being able to capture the vividness of the fall foliage without the distracting glare. Leaves have a shiny surface which leads to them reflecting the sky just like a water surface or a metallic surface do.

In figure 1, notice the bright areas on the tree in the middle .

The reflected light prevents the underlying foliage to be seen through, leading to duller colors. In contrast, in figure 2, you do not see the sky reflecting in the foliage. This was achieved by using a circular polarizer. Result is an image with greater intensity of colors, lack of distracting glare which is more desirable to me.

To help you counter this challenge, a simple solution is using a circular polarizer. The reflected light from the surface of

Let us look at an example observing the effect of a polarizer on fall foliage.

Figure 1. Highlights in the foliage of the middle tree reflected from the sky.

Figure 2. Use of a Circular Polarizer has reduced the glare of the sky, resulting in richer, more saturated colors.

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Figure 3. Reflections of the sky are evident without the use of a polarizer.

Figure 4. Use of a Circular Polarizer has eliminated the reflection. As a photographer, you will need to decide whether you like the reflections or not.

A circular polarizer is also useful to cut through the haze or fog around the foliage, which again results in acquisition of more vivid fall foliage.

However, one needs to be careful with the use of a polarizer.

The orientation of the filter will depend on the direction of the subject, and the orientation of the camera itself. For example, if you change the orientation of your camera from landscape to portrait, you will have to turn the polarizer 90 degrees as well.

A circular polarizer will act similar to a neutral density filter, adding a couple of stops of light to your frame. This will mean you will have to adjust your exposure to counter the lower amount of light reaching the camera sensor. Circular polarizers are also more useful when the sun is up in the sky or in overcast conditions. A polarizer will not work well during early morning or late afternoon due to the low angle of sun.

Also, a polarizer does not work very well with ultra-wide lenses.

On an ultra-wide lens, a polarizer may create dark areas within the frame.

Sometimes, reflections on a surface may be more desirable and using a polarizer may eliminate them. Following example shows the difference a circular polarizer makes. Figure 3 is taken without a polarizer and figure 4 is taken with a polarizer.

Without the polarizer, the camera captured some reflections on the leaf, which lead to less vivid colors. However the wet rock in the background was able to reflect the surroundings in it. These reflections are taken away in the second image, by the use of a circular polarizer.

While it may be subjective, the image captured without using the circular polarizer is more desirable to me. The wet rock, reflecting the fall foliage and sky adds a lot to the image. Many times, I will find a midpoint somewhere between full effect and zero effect of the polarizer to fine tune the reflections depending on the scene.

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If circular polarizers are so great, why limit its use to your main camera? You can buy small polarizers made specifically for your cell phone too. I use a jury-rigged version of such a filter, which was made using an old phone case, an old circular polarizer and a lot of instant glue (figure 5). It works really well with the rotating filter and results are fantastic!

Figure 5. A Circular Polarizer has been affixed to a phone case, allowing the use of a Circular Polarizer with a cell phone.

Figure 6. Shot with Auto White Balance, the camera has chosen to filter out some of the magenta tones.

Figure 7. Using a custom white balance gives a more accurate rendering of the fall colors in this scene.

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Bonus tip for fall photography - Don’t depend on Auto-White Balance The computer inside our cameras determines the right white balance for an image by analyzing the pixels in the frame. It will try to remove any magenta or green cast from the image.

Fall foliage scenes can be full of vivid colors such as magenta, purple, red etc, which will often confuse the camera. This may result in an “auto-white balance” set such as to negate the magenta cast in your images leading to duller fall foliage.

I always try to tinker with the white balance during postproduction by adjusting the color temperature and tint. Give it a try sometime.

Following is an example, where the first image is “auto-white balance” which was set by the camera (figure 6), followed by the image with my “custom white balance” (figure 7). It is a subtle yet effective difference. Result is a more accurate and more desirable color palette.

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Minimum Shutter Speed?

by Jim Hooper

We all know that it’s best to shoot everything using a tripod for rock solid, tack sharp images. Many of us spend big dollars to buy the very best tripods available, and some will even go to the length of hanging a heavy camera bag from the center column to get the absolute sharpest shots we can.

But what if that just isn’t possible? Or practical?

Tripods are banned from many public places of high foot traffic (ie. zoos, gardens, museums, etc). I shoot a lot of portraits, where the models may be moving and I need to be light and agile to frame my shots. For these situations, it’s often necessary to shoot freehand, but there is a basic rule of thumb about shutter speeds necessary to get consistently sharp images.

The Reciprocal Rule can be your guide in these situations. Simply stated, the Reciprocal Rule says that you should invert the focal length of the lens you are using, to determine the slowest shutter speed you should be using.

For example, if you are shooting a 300mm lens, invert 300 and you get 1/300. If you must handhold your lens, you should aim to shoot at a shutter speed of 1/300s or faster. Seems simple enough, right? Well, there are a few factors that can influence this simple rule.

First, the Rule assumes that you are using a full frame 35mm sensor. If you’re shooting a full frame DSLR, mirrorless or film camera, you’re in

good shape. But if you are using a crop sensored camera, you need to know your crop factor and apply that multiplier to the focal length. Going back to that 300mm lens example, if you’re shooting that on a crop sensor Canon, the multiplier is 1.6, so the 300mm lens is effectively a 480mm lens. Invert that, and you need to be shooting at a shutter speed of 1/480s or faster, so look to be at least 1/500.

Additionally, the following issues may require even faster shutter speeds.

• Poor handholding technique: Be sure you are using both hands and bracing against your body as best you can.

• Your own body mechanics. If you’ve had a few cups of coffee, you might need to plan a faster minimum shutter speed.

• High resolution cameras: We all love to shoot super high megapixel resolutions and sharp glass. Just be aware that high resolution cameras are less forgiving of camera shake, so you may want to shoot even faster shutter speeds.

• Image stabilisation: If your camera and/or lens provide image stabilisation, you need to account for that in your calculations as well.

If your 300mm VR lens provides two stops of stabilisation, you may be able to shoot two stops slower, or 1/75sec. Round up and shoot at 1/80s or faster.

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Nikon Shooters: Are You a Nikonian? If Not, Why Not? Dave Soderlund

Nikonians is an independent (not affiliated with Nikon Corporation) worldwide online community of photographers who use Nikon equipment. It was founded in 2000, back in the days of film SLRs, by Bo Stahlbrandt of Sweden and J. Ramon Palacios of Mexico and is celebrating its 20th anniversary in May 2020. At the end of 2019, nearly 600,000 persons worldwide were registered members of Nikonians, making it the largest online community of Nikon photographers. Approximately a third of those are considered to be active members by the criteria employed by the Nikonians leadership team. Who are these Nikonians?

They range from newbies trying to figure out their first Nikon camera to experienced amateurs and professional photographers.

Basic membership in Nikonians is free but requires online registration. The basic membership provides the ability to read, post, and comment on posts on most of the forums at the Nikonians website. Silver membership ($25/year) allows access to the buy/sell forums, image sharing, and access to online photo contests. Gold membership ($75/year) is necessary to participate in workshops and photo tours and provides a few other benefits beyond Silver membership.

Platinum membership ($200/year) is basically the same as Gold membership but accommodates those who wish to provide increased financial support. All categories of membership offer gallery space on the Nikonians website for images, with the storage capacity increasing according to membership level. Gold and Platinum memberships also offer the ability create online member portfolios that can be shared outside of Nikonians.

I joined Nikonians in 2010 when I bought my first DSLR (a Nikon D90) and I have been a member ever since. I upgraded to the Silver membership to gain the increased access it affords, and later I upgraded to the Gold membership to be able to participate in workshops and tours. Here are some of the reasons why Nikonians membership is so valuable to me.

Forums: Online forums are the heart of the Nikonians experience.

The civility of the Nikonians forums is part of their uniqueness. Each forum is closely moderated, and the “bad online behavior” that tarnishes so much of the internet is not tolerated. As a result forum conversations are friendly, thoughtful and full of useful information.

There are more than 80 English language forums as well as a separate forums section with more that 50 German language forums. Forum categories include camera models, Nikon and third-party lenses, and various types of equipment and accessories. Other forums focus on areas of shared photographic interest (e.g., wildlife, landscape, sports) and approaches (black and white, IR, panoramas). These forums are places for members to share and comment on images.

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The three most active of these forums are, not surprisingly, Wildlife, Landscape and Macro.

I regularly read and contribute to several equipment and technique forums: those for the different Nikon cameras I own, Nikon and non-Nikon lenses, printers, and other accessories. I have found these forums to be full of valuable information. The more experienced photographers who populate these forums are also very conscientious about answering even the simplest questions from new members, taking seriously the view that “there is no such thing as a dumb question.” I also regularly participate and share images in the Landscape, Travel, IR, and Black and White forums.

Finally, there are the Buy and Sell forums. Buying and selling used equipment on Nikonians is much more enjoyable -- and safer -- than on internet auction or local trading sites. I have bought and sold cameras, lenses and various accessories on Nikonians and the experience has always been very positive.

One benefit of buying on Nikonians is that most members are “gearheads” who take excellent care of their camera equipment, so used equipment offered for sale is usually in top condition.

Contests: Nikonians runs monthly themed photo contests in the following areas: Wildlife, Landscape, Macro and Close-Up, Travel, and Digital Artistry (composites and other digitally altered images). There are also quarterly themed Special Edition contests and photo challenges as well as occasional special contests, such as the currently active “Lockdown 2020 Photo Challenge” for images taken in and around the house during social distancing. Winners from these contests become eligible for selection by the editorial staff as one the “Ten Best of Nikonians” for the year. Recently Nikonians has also introduced the daily Editor’s Choice: an image selected each day by the editorial staff from those uploaded to forums or members’ galleries. The quality of many of the photographs submitted to these contests is truly inspirational.

Workshops and Tours: Although Nikonians is primarily an online organization, it also sponsors workshops and photo tours through the Nikonians Academy. When I first joined there was an active program of photo workshops. In 2011 Carol and I took a “Mastering the Nikon D90” workshop in New York City taught by noted street photographer Steve Simon, and the following year we enjoyed a Nikonians workshop in Acadia National Park led by Les Picker. In subsequent years the workshop program has languished, perhaps due to the lack of strong leadership or to increased competition from private workshop providers.

The Nikonians Academy remains active, however, in sponsoring the Annual Nikonians Photo Adventure Tours (ANPATs). Originally held each fall and more recently twice a

figure 1: Nikonians website, featuring David Soderlund’s “Skogafoss Glow”, May 15, 2020. year in spring and fall, ANPATs are week-long intensive photo tours at iconic locations across the United States. The tours are currently led by Eric Bowles, an Atlanta-based photographer and Director of the Nikonians Academy, who scouts the locations intensively and creates detailed itineraries for each day in the field. These are tours rather than workshops -- there is no formal instruction other than casual sharing of information in the field among participants. However, with everyone shooting Nikon equipment there is plenty of opportunity to see and try new gear and learn new things.

We have taken advantage of ANPATs only recently -- the Spring 2017 event in southern Utah (Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Bears Ears National Monument) and the Fall

2019 event in northern Arizona (north and south rims of the Grand Canyon, White Pocket at the Paria Wilderness). Both of these events were outstanding, providing photographic opportunities over 6 days that would take individuals 2-3 weeks to scout, organize and complete alone.

As you can see, I am a Nikonians enthusiast. For me the benefits are well worth the cost of membership. If you shoot Nikon equipment and haven’t explored Nikonians I encourage you to try it out; registration for Basic membership is free. You’ll probably see me there -- my user name is DaveSoderlund.

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DIY Corner Jim Hooper

Sure, you can spend a few bucks and buy the latest little gizmos and gadgets, but to be honest, it’s way more rewarding when you can make your own at home, and it’s doubly rewarding when you can do it with materials you already have laying around the house. Many of our members have gotten pretty creative with crafting, building, or making their own

photography gear. This month, I will be sharing a recent DIY project of my own. I made a carry pouch for my filters and step-up rings. While you can purchase these from your favorite retailer for under $20, I made mine this weekend, out of scraps I had laying around from previous sewing projects.

And yes. I actually do know how to sew!

Fig. 1: Concept. B&H Photo sells these types of carry pouches for about $15. I wanted to make my own.

I’ve carried my 77mm Neutral Density filters and Circular polarizers in their original hard cases for years, and while the original hard cases do provide a level of protection, I’ve always found the hard cases difficult to jam into the pockets of my camera bag. And inevitably the one I want is the last one I can find wedged into the pocket. I’ve looked at buying something like this online, but I always come back to “I know it’s only $15, but I know for a fact I can make my own with stuff in the fabric drawer!”

So, I’ve never bought one, and until this weekend, I hadn’t made one either. But that changed, and I want to show you how I made mine.

Fig. 2: Measure and cut four squares of 9”x9”.

Materials: • 1 piece of exterior grade fabric (I used cotton duck cloth), 10”x22” • 1 piece of softer fabric, 9”x36” • Sewing machine and thread • Scissors, ruler, pins, marker

Once the four divided pockets have been sewn, hem the bottom edge of the exterior fabric. Again, I used about a 1/4” hem. Once the bottom edge is hemmed, lay the pockets in position along the exterior fabric. I laid it out such that the bottom edge of the bottom pocket was aligned to the bottom hem of the exterior fabric. I also adjusted

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I started off by measuring four squares of the softer fabric that measured 9”x9” each (fig 2). These make up the internal pockets that the filters will slide into.

From here, fold the opposites sides in, about 1/4”, and sew a hem (fig. 3). I has not terribly precise, but if you are a perfectionist, I am sure you could actually get out a ruler and measure this. I simply eyeballed things. Once the two opposing sides are hemmed, fold the pocket in half, matching the hem lines up. Sew a short line of stitching, dividing the pocket in half (fig. 4). Repeat this process on all 4 of the pockets.

Fig. 3: Hem the outside edges of the internal fabric.

Fig. 4: Fold in half, hem to hem, and stitch a dividing line in the center.

Fig. 5: Lay out the pockets, and pin the side hems.

Fig. 6: Once the sides are hemmed, hem the top edge.

the spacing between pockets such that there was a growing gap between each layer, to accommodate the rolling of the pouch (fig. 5).

The final step was to hem the edges of the exterior fabric, overlapping the pockets, effectively finishing the edge and securing the pockets into position (fig. 6). And lastly, I hemmed the top edge of the exterior fabric to give a finished look. The pouch is done! You could add a velcro closure to the top but I decided against it.

Load your filters and rings, and you’re all done!

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DIY Corner Jim Hooper

Weave a Custom Wrist Strap In 30 Minutes or Less (and under $10)!

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Sure, every camera you buy comes with its own neck strap, typically emblazoned with the manufacturers name and/or logo, and I guess that would work just fine. But if you’re like me, that neck strap never got out of the box, much less out of the little plastic baggie that it came in. For me, seeing a camera with the original neck strap is a sure sign that someone just bought a new camera, and wants everyone in the world to know they are Team Nikon, Team Canon, or Team Sony. For me, it doesn’t work, and I’ve never used the original strap.

Now, I’ve tried a variety of straps in the 20+ years that I’ve been shooting. Some were ok, some weren’t great, but I am always on the lookout for something better. Early on, I tried the neoprene straps, which were better than most because they really did cushion the impact of a big heavy camera around my neck. But after a while, I discovered the shoulder sling style straps, most commonly exemplified by the Black Rapid straps.

To be honest, these are really nice straps, in my opinion, but rather pricey. At one point, I decided to see if I could make my own version, which I did, and it worked quite well. But the hardware that I used was big and bulky, and the strap tended to curl and twist, and over time, the hardware I used ended up wearing on the finish of the camera body. When I spotted a Black Rapid strap for sale on Facebook Marketplace, I decided to give it a go. The fit and function was great... for the most part. But the Black Rapid straps use a connection point that screws into the tripod socket on the bottom of the camera.

That’s fine if you never use a tripod, but I occasionally do (and many of you probably use them a lot more than I!). Tying up the tripod socket was a pretty big inconvenience for me. I ended up sending the Black Rapid to the Consignment shop, and went back to my own custom built strap (which I still love).

When I bought my newest camera, I wasn’t certain that I

wanted to continue using the shoulder sling I’d built, because the connection clip really was wearing on the finish beside the strap-mounting lugs. So for almost a year now, I have been using my camera with no strap whatsoever, and you know what? For the most part, it’s been fine. But there are some times when I need to do something else that requires the use of both hands, and I end up having to put the camera on the ground for just a moment. It’s ok, and so far, I’ve had no problems, but its got me thinking recently about the possibility of a simple wrist strap. I’ve seen a lot of youtubers and pro photographers using them, so I started shopping around.

These simple little wrist straps range greatly in price, but it’s easy to spend $30-$50 to get one that you’d like to try. So, once again, I went back to my trusty paracord skills, and decided to try an make my own wrist strap. It was pretty easy, didn’t take long, and I had all the materials I needed, already in the house.

I’ve decided to share my process with you, in case anyone else might be interested in trying it out!

Materials • 11’ 550 paracord, color of your choice • 1 split ring (key ring style) • Scissors or a sharp knife • Candle and lighter Step 1: To get started, measure out 11’ of the paracord.

When cutting paracord, the rope will quickly fray and unravel if left untreated, so you’re best to cut with a sharp pair of scissors and then carefully melt the ends with a candle. When the rope melts at the end, I typically wait a few seconds for the molten plastic to cool down just a bit, and then press the end against my scissors or knife to blunt the tip before it hardens.

Step 2: Find the midpoint of the rope, and tie a simple overhand knot about 4-5 inches from the middle.

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Step 3: Slide the two tails through the keyring, and place the ring about 10-11 inches from the knot. The distance from the knot to the ring should be a little longer than the circumference of your wrist.

Step 4: Bend the tails and split them to either side of the stem.

See the photo for what this knot will need to look like, but you’re going to pass one of the single ropes under the stems, then over the other single rope. Then take the second single rope and pass it over the stems, and down through the hole created by the fist single rope and the stem. See figure 4. Pull this knot tight.

Step 5: Be attentive to the Kitty in your house that will undoubtedly be playing with the tail ends of the ropes by this point.

Step 6-8: Repeat the same knot as you tied around the ring. Note: As you look at the knot, you will see one single strand coming “upwards” and one going “downwards”. It is important to start with the strand that is coming “up” and tuck that one behind the stems, and over the other single rope.

Always, always, always, start with the strand that is coming upwards. That will switch from the left to the right side and back again, with each stitch. Continue tying these knots around the stems until you reach the knot that you tied in step 2.

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Step 9: Once you reach the original knot, tie an overhand knot in each of the strands, as close to the strap as you can tie it.

Tighten as much as possible.

Step 10: Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut the excess rope, about 1/8 inch from the knot. Repeat on both sides.

Step 11: Light the candle, and carefully melt the tips of each of the ropes to prevent fraying. While the tip is still molten, blunt the tip by pressing it against the side of your scissors to shape it.

Step 12: Pass the remaining loop of rope through the keyring.

Step 13: Pass the tip of that loop through the strap-mounting lug on the right side of the camera (as seen from behind).

Step 14: Pass the full strap through the small loop on the left side of the lug, making a Lark’s Head knot.

That’s it! You’re finished! Slide your hand through the strap, and get out shooting! I hope you’ve enjoyed this little tutorial.

If you do try this out, and run into any problems, let me know!

I’d be glad to help! And also, shoot some photos of your new strap, and post them to the Guild facebook page! I’d love to see what you come up with!

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Photo by Regina Muscarella

Travel

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My Favorite Destination:

Genesee Country Village & Museum

By Melody Burri

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Herbs and spices line the counter at the Altay Store.

My daydreams these days revolve around a fully converted, off-grid-capable campervan, an assortment of photography/computer/wifi gear, a thermos of fresh coffee, a full tank of gas and miles of open road.

Sadly, I have neither the budget nor expertise to convert a van, much less launch out on a fall foliage tour of the Adirondacks, America’s breathtaking national parks or wherever that open road might take me.

Instead, I watch Facebook and Instagram and travel vicariously through the images of friends and mentors.

Which is why my bi-weekly day-trips to the hamlet of Mumford have been a godsend over the last two years.

Without spending more than a few dollars for gas and traveling less than an hour west on Routes 5&20, I can be transported — for the better part of a day — to another world.

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Genesee Country Village and Museum, the third largest living museum in the United States, is a 600-acre complex boasting 68 historical buildings and an army of costumed interpreters who love local history, visitors and the museum. They keep the hearth fires burning, the heirloom gardens flourishing and the livestock tended. They demonstrate their skills and artistry at the pottery barn, cooper shop, tinsmith’s shop and blacksmith’s barn. They bake the breads and pies, weave the linens, spin and dye the wool, make the shoes, dry the herbs and brew the beer.

And upon each return trip, they also welcome me home with a familiar smile and a new story.

But for me, the experience is about so much more than photography. I’m there for the sensory feast — the sights, sounds, aromas, textures and tastes that explode at every turn. While I’m on campus, I’m constantly pondering and strategizing, discovering and smiling. And as I drive east toward home, the scent of open hearth lingers and helps me relive the day’s adventure.

At the Museum’s annual Civil War Reenactment, I savor the dusky scent of encampment fires; the haunting cadence of parade drums; the rough, scratchy wool blankets and uniforms; the snorting horses and clinking bayonets; the boom of heavy artillery, belch of gunpowder smoke and the bugle call announcing retreat.

The U.S. Citizenship Ceremony on the Fourth of July brings tears, hugs and joy as multinational immigrants become U.S. citizens.

Spectacular live music from fiddles, banjos, accordions, pipe organ and organ grinders blend with classic literature reenactments and storytelling at the Fiddlers’ Fair, Making Music weekend, A Novel Weekend, Spirits of the Past Theatrical Tours and Sunset Concerts on the Great Meadow.

And where else could you play croquet with the Queen of Hearts and have tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter? Annual events (in non-COVID-19 years) include the Maple Sugar Festival, Hops Festival, Agricultural Fair, baseball games, Trickor-Treating, Antique Show and Chocolate Fest, to name a few.

Experienced hands weave hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn into textiles.

This spinning wheel is poised to create fibers that will be dipped and dyed every color of the rainbow.

This year, I actually used each visit to learn more about my gear and hone my technique. I carried only one lens each time and pushed it to its limit, exploring what it could do well and what it struggled with. I also aimed to shoot a specific genre, like close-ups, colors, characters, bite shots, wide angle landscapes or architecture. On the next visit, I focused on a different lens and style.

General admission tickets were $10 to $13 for seniors and adults this past summer. But as a volunteer photographer through the Montanus Photography Classroom group on Facebook, I was able to visit and bring a guest for free by signing up in advance. It was the perfect opportunity to spend one-on-one time with my sister and her starter camera kit, and with a handful of other friends who tagged along for the ride.

GCV&C’s volunteer coordinators work through Montanus Photography Classroom to schedule one or two photogs per event, who then make images and memories to their hearts’ content. Images are

At George Eastman’s childhood home, this humble bedside table provides the perfect still life.

Jars of harvested rose petals, herbs and vinegars stand ready for hearthside cooking.

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provided by volunteer photographers to GCV&C via WeTransfer for use on social media and in print promotion.

It’s a winning destination and opportunity for those who are on a budget and who love history and colorful environments and people.

Even if you visit once and pay admission, it’s well worth the investment and that money goes to a worthy cause.

Historic interpreters remove corn from cobs using old school technology.

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Sadly, GCV&M is now closed for the season, so I’ll have to wait until next year.

But I guess that gives me plenty of time to comb Facebook and Craig’s List for that used campervan in perfect condition that’s being sold for next to nothing.

Should be a breeze.

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Above: Clockwise, a clarinet player, farmer, accordion player and shoemaker entertain and converse with visitors.

Left: Weary civil war reenactors return from batte (top) while others head for the safety of home (below).

If You Go WHAT: Genesee Country Village & Museum WHERE: 1410 Flint Hill Road, Mumford, NY 14511 CONTACT: 585-538-6822 or info@gcv.org ONLINE https://www.gcv.org/ SOCIAL https://www.facebook.com/GCVMuseum https://twitter.com/gcvmuseum https://www.youtube.com/user/GCVMuseum https://www.instagram.com/gcvmuseum/ 125

Kiss Me, I'm Irish!

Kinda Sorta!

While our members may or may not be Irish, several of us have been to Ireland (and some have been multiple times!). Over the following pages, we hope that you will enjoy a virtual trip to Ireland. Images submitted by members as credited.

In this image by Regina Muscarella, John, 94, holds court at Nagles in Kilfenora. For sure there is ceol, agus, craic.

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Photo Trivia: Irish Edition John Joly was born in 1857 at Hollywood House, near Bracknagh, King’s County (now County Offaly), the son of a Church of Ireland rector with Belgium and Italian ancestors.

When John was not yet four months old, his father died and the family moved to Dublin. He entered Trinity College Dublin in 1876, graduated in engineering in 1882 and became assistant to the professor of civil engineering; he had also access to the physics laboratory.

In 1894, Joly invented one of the first methods of color photography. The Joly color process used a glass photographic plate with fine vertical red, green and blue lines less than 0.1 mm wide printed on them. The plate acted as a series of very fine filters, in a similar way to the later Paget process.

To take a photograph, the filter screen was placed in the camera in front of an orthochromatic photographic plate, so that the light passed through the filter before striking the emulsion.

After exposure, the plate was processed and contact-printed on another plate to make a positive black-and-white transparency.

This was then placed in register with a viewing screen of the same type as used for exposure, to produce a limited-colour transparency that could be viewed by transmitted light.

The Joly process was introduced commercially in 1895 and remained on the market for a few years. However, it was expensive and the commercially available emulsions of the time were not sensitive to the full range of the spectrum, so the final colour image could not achieve the look of “natural colour”.

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The Bunratty pump house still provides water for some of the cottages in the village. The water is crystal clear and oh so cold. By Regina Muscarella.

The Poulnabrone is one of the most impressive sites in the Burren. This portal tomb dates back to 4200 BC - 2900 BC. The site has been excavated, unearthing remains of adults and children from the Bronze Age. Each time I see its immense capstone, I marvel at the engineering, ingenuity and strength it took to build this tomb. By Regina Muscarella.

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Joann Long procured a glorious two-hour private horseback ride through Wicklow. This horse, patiently awaiting his rider, was one of the beautiful stable animals for this high class run stable. By Joann K. Long.

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The Burren, the land my family ruled in the 13th century. Oliver Cromwell famously described the Burren as: ‘Not enough wood to hang a man, not enough water to drown a man, and not enough soil to bury a man.’ The Burren covers 135 square miles on the west coast of Ireland, and at first glance is nothing but limestone.

Don’t be fooled; this is a geological wonder! Peaking out of every crack and crevice are more than 600 species of flowers and plants and bloom year round. This is my son, surveying his land.

By Regina Muscarella.

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TRIP ITINERARY

If you’re looking to pack your bags and head out to the Irish Countryside, you might be interested in checking out this itinerary from Bob Sundell and Jan Esse’s trip a few years ago: DAY 1 USA-Dublin Board your overnight flight to Dublin.

DAY 2: Arrive Dublin Welcome to the Emerald Isle. On arrival to Dublin Airport transfers will operate at 8.30am, 11am and 1pm. Guests arriving later should make their own way to the hotel. This afternoon drive south to Powerscourt Gardens. These spectacular gardens first began to take shape in the 1740s.

The superb blend of sweeping terraces, fine statuary and ornamental lakes together with secret hollows, rambling walks, walled gardens and over 200 variations of trees and shrubs are a delight to behold. Together they form one of the most beautiful gardens in Ireland. Returning to Dublin, raise a glass over a light meal at a Welcome Reception. HOTEL: CLAYTON HOTEL BALLSBRIDGE DAY 3: Dublin Sightseeing & Free Time This morning, a local specialist takes you on a city tour. You’ll visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Jonathan Swift was once Dean. Then on to admire the colorful doorways in stately Georgian Squares and stroll along the cobbled courtyard of Trinity College to see the ornate Book of Kells. The balance of the day is at leisure to explore this welcoming city at your own pace. HOTEL: CLAYTON HOTEL BALLSBRIDGE DAY 4: Dublin – Co. Kilkenny – Kinsale Leave the city life behind as you travel to County Kilkenny.

Visit Newtown Jerpoint, one of Ireland’s best surviving examples of a deserted, 12th century medieval town and reputedly the final resting place of St. Nicholas. Then relish a Be My Guest lunch with Joe and Maeve O’Connell at their home, Belmore House. Enjoy the peace and tranquility of this rural setting and be ready for a few surprises. Continue south to picturesque Kinsale, hailed as the “Gourmet Capital of Ireland”. Your evening is free and there’s no shortage of cafés, pubs, and restaurants to explore. HOTEL: TRIDENT HOTEL DAY 5: Kinsale – Blarney – Killarney Meet a local specialist this morning for a walking tour of the historic town of Kinsale. On to Blarney Castle to kiss the fabled Stone that bestows the “gift of the gab”. Then head west to Killarney, the gateway to magnificent Killarney National Park and the Ring of Kerry. HOTEL: KILLARNEY TOWERS HOTEL DAY 6: Ring of Kerry Excursion Take in views of the famous “forty shades of green” as you travel around the Ring of Kerry. This unspoiled area has 132

inspired artists and poets for centuries. At Torc Waterfall you can join a local specialist for a leisurely guided walk. If this countryside amble doesn’t interest you, the motorcoach will return you to Killarney, where the rest of the day is free.

HOTEL: KILLARNEY TOWERS HOTEL DAY 7: Killarney – Cliffs of Moher – Galway – Connemara Traveling north, stop for a walk along the Cliffs of Moher.

These iconic cliffs rise some 700 feet above the pounding Atlantic. The views of endless ocean are awe-inspiring.

Continue on your drive, calling in for afternoon tea and freshly baked scones at a traditional farmhouse. Here, you’ll get a cultural insight into farm life in rural Ireland.

Next up is Galway, for an orientation including impressive Galway Cathedral. End the day in Connemara. HOTEL: CONNEMARA COAST HOTEL DAY 8: Connemara Excursion Discover why some consider this rugged realm of mountains, lakes, rivers and little towns to be the real emerald of Ireland.

Stop for a visit to Kylemore Abbey with its beautiful lakeside setting, then gain a cultural insight at the Connemara Marble Factory, crafters of Connemara marble for generations.

HOTEL: CONNEMARA COAST HOTEL DAY 9: Connemara – Ashford Castle (Cong) Board ‘The Isle of Innisfree’ for an exclusive cruise on shimmering Lough Corrib. Captain Patrick, Ashford Castle’s local specialist, will share his local knowledge as you glide through the peaceful waters. Disembarking, a lone piper will escort you over the drawbridge to Ashford Castle. Tonight gather in the castle’s sumptuous restaurant for an elegantly royal dining experience. Note: Gentlemen are requested to wear a jacket. HOTEL: ASHFORD CASTLE DAY 10: Cong – Dublin Enjoy a leisurely breakfast and perhaps a stroll on the estate before returning to Dublin. The afternoon is free for lastminute shopping or sightseeing on your own. This evening celebrate a memorable trip as you relish a Farewell Dinner at a local restaurant. HOTEL: BALLSBRIDGE HOTEL DAY 11 Dublin - USA You will be transferred to Dublin Airport where your vacation must come to an end. Transfers arrive at Dublin Airport at 7.30am, 9.30am and 11.30am. Slán go fóill – goodbye until we meet again! This vacation is operated by: Brendan Vacations & Trafalgar

Above: Quiet Man Cottage, Jan Esse. Below: Jerpoint Park, Jan Esse.

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On a ride through Wicklow, Joann Long saw green rolling hills and of course, sheep along the trail. When they arrived at this lane way, the guide pointed out the caretaker’s cottage from log ago, which still remains. By Joann K. Long.

Cead Mile Failte! Welcome to Ireland, a country rich in culture and history, with wonderful food, invigorating music and the friendliest people you’ll ever meet. There is plenty to do and see, no matter where you travel. The main intersection in Ballyvaughan has a few suggestions. By Regina Muscarella.

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A bit of whimsy. By Joann K. Long.

Corcomroe Abbey, Mainistir Chorca Mrua, is a 13th century monastery where my ancestors are buried. O’Loughlin tombstones dot the interior of the ruin, with one in the sanctuary engraved O’Loughlin - King of the Burren.” Yes, I am royalty, at least I was, back in the 1200s. By Regina O’Laughlin Muscarella.

After a long ride on horseback, Joann Long and her Guide ended up in the city, and stopped into a coffee house where these biscuits complimented a hot cup of coffee for a delicious snack. By Joann K. Long.

Dunguaire Castle in Kinvarna hosts medieval dinners and tours. It has been featured in Disney movies. Do you recognize it? By Regina Muscarella.

This is a major highway in County Clare, identified by the center line. But don’t be fooled! Sharing this road is a tight squeeze. By Regina Muscarella.

A typical cottage window in Kilfenora. So warm and inviting. By Regina Muscarella.

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Giant’s Causeway. By Paul Yarnall 137

Exhibiting

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Photo by Paul English 139

Behind the Image: Skyline Reflection Dave Soderlund

Subject Inspiration: I was in Boston in the summer of 2015 for an American Chemical Society meeting. Carol found that there was a huge outdoor fiber art installation at the Boston Greenway -- a large web of colored ropes, suspended from buildings and floating over the open park. While she was viewing and trying to photograph the art installation, my eye was caught by the distorted reflection of the Boston skyline in the glass facade of the Intercontinental Hotel. I decided to take an iPhone shot just for fun (Fig. 1). The iPhone image showed me the potential to create an architectural abstract if I could figure out a good composition and deal with perspective distortion.

Shooting: I was traveling light that day, with just my D750 and 24-120 f/4 lens in a small shoulder bag. A wide shot at 27mm was, like the iPhone shot, greatly distorted and included a lot of material I didn’t want in my envisioned image. I also tried to isolate individual reflections at focal lengths of 60-120mm, but I was not pleased with what I saw on the back of the camera. Finally, I took four overlapping vertical images for use in assembling a panorama.

Processing: As I viewed and processed this series in Lightroom, I realized that the wide angle image (Fig. 2) had the greatest potential to produce what I envisioned. However, to get what I wanted I needed to first address the perspective distortion and then crop the image to a desired composition. I used the transform tool to establish true horizontal and vertical lines. I then cropped the image to focus on the three bright areas and eliminate both the area of sky above the building and the street-level clutter at the bottom. These adjustments are shown in a Lightroom screenshot (Fig. 3).

The development of the final image (Fig. 4) in Lightroom was pretty conventional. I adjusted Exposure, Black and White points, and Highlights and Shadows. I increased Vibrance and Saturation, and added a touch of Clarity.

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Fig. 1. iPhone sketch image.

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Fig. 4.

Skyline Reflection.

Fig. 2. Original D750 image.

Fig. 3. Vertical transformation and cropping in Lightroom 141

Photographic Portfolios David Soderlund

“A portfolio is a concise collection of your imagery created to show people your best work.”

-Les Picker We tend to approach photography one image at a time. We rate, process, share, and print individual images, focusing our attention on the importance and impact of each one in isolation. Here, I want to challenge you to think beyond the single image and consider the creation of photographic portfolios as a different way to present the results of your photography and magnify the impact of your work.

a means of expressing the photographer’s artistic vision. These portfolios consist of images that work together to explore a single theme or tell a story. The remainder of this article addresses the development of fine art portfolios, but the general process and many of the considerations are relevant to representative portfolios as well.

What is a portfolio?

Identify a theme: A successful portfolio depends on the cumulative impact of multiple images to express a theme or tell a story. A collection of unrelated photographs, such as “My All-Time Top 20 Images,” can have great value to the photographer but probably will not create an overall narrative that is evident to another viewer.

As the quote from photographer Les Picker suggests, creating a portfolio involves an intentional process of selecting individual photos to create a collection that is both limited in size and excellent in quality. There are two broad types of photographic portfolios. Representative portfolios literally represent the photographer’s work to the public. These portfolios are important tools for commercial photographers who wish to attract new clients by demonstrating what they photograph (e.g., senior portraits) and the quality of their product. By contrast, fine art portfolios are

Fig 1: A portfolio as wall art.

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Steps in portfolio development

What makes an effective theme or story?

Consider the content of your photo catalog and the places and things you like to shoot as starting points. If you’ve been photographing for a while, you probably have several extensive collections of related photos, any of which could be the basis for

a portfolio. For example, if you shoot frequently at Letchworth State Park you might be able to identify many images taken at different times of year and under different weather conditions as the basis for a “Many Moods of Letchworth” portfolio. The opportunities are as diverse as your photographic interests.

Identify and assemble candidate images: With a theme chosen, the next step is to identify a set of candidate images. Before you can create a concise portfolio of a limited number of images, you will need a larger collection of candidates, perhaps 40 or 50, to choose from. The main criteria for including an image in the set of candidates are (1) its potential relevance to the theme, and (2) the technical and artistic quality of the photograph itself. You will want all of the photographs in the final portfolio to reflect your best work, so it is important at this stage to include only high quality images and exclude those with missed focus, poor exposure or problematic composition. You can use the Collections feature of Lightroom Classic (or similar features in other image cataloging software) to pull these images from your master catalog and group them together in one place for the next step.

What if you have a great idea for a theme, only to discover that you have just a handful of high quality images related to that theme? Rather than forcing the issue by including “filler” images of lesser quality, consider this to be a potential photography project instead. You can then photograph intentionally over time to build a body of high quality photographs large enough to form the basis for a future portfolio.

Create the portfolio: The requirement for conciseness is an important and creative constraint on the development of a portfolio. Too many images can dilute the impact of each image.

Effective portfolios contain a limited number of images -- typically no more than 25, preferably fewer. In some cases, there are externally-imposed limits on image number. For example, the Portfolio Showcase competition sponsored by Rochester’s Image City Photography Gallery specifies that submitted portfolios must comprise exactly eight images. Even if there is no external constraint on portfolio size, I encourage you to establish a

fixed number of images (10-12 is a reasonable number) for your portfolio. This forces the difficult decisions to include or exclude images that will ultimately yield a high-quality, high-impact portfolio.

With all of your candidate photographs collected in one place, you can begin the winnowing process. It is likely that the photographs chosen for the initial candidate set will help you clarify and refine your theme, allowing you distinguish between images that clearly fit the theme and those that are less relevant and can be rejected. At this point the goal is to identify a secondary candidate set of strong themerelated images without trying to hit your target number of photos for the final portfolio.

The next step -- by far the most challenging -- is to select the images that make up the strongest final portfolio. Often, a small number of images in the secondary candidate set will be obvious selections for the final portfolio, but the choices among the remainder are likely to be difficult and will result in different expressions of the theme. One way to address this dilemma is to make several alternative portfolios, each containing the target number of images, as Collections in Lightroom. When I made my portfolio “The Mill at Lonaconing” (shown elsewhere in this issue) for the Portfolio Showcase competition, I started with 32 images in my secondary candidate set and needed to identify a final portfolio of eight photographs. To do this, I made four different eight-image portfolios in Lightroom; each contained three invariant selections plus five other images, some of which were repeated between portfolios. Being able to assess the interplay between photos in each portfolio on a single screen allowed me to identify the one that worked the best.

Figuring out which photographs belong in the final portfolio involves factors other than the subject and quality of each image. Engaging portfolios often vary the scale of the images, interspersing close-up or detail views with wider compositions. A portfolio of nothing but details can be effective if that approach is inherent in the theme, but a portfolio with nothing but wide angle views may lack impact. Portfolios with impact are also coherent in terms of processing approach. Portfolios containing individual images 143

processed in different ways (color, black and white, texture overlays, etc.) can suffer when the different processing styles undermine the unity of the subject material. By contrast, portfolios of images processed in a single style (e.g., all black and white images, or all color images that share a common color palette and “feel”) are strengthened by their visual coherence. In the end, thematic or storytelling impact is most important criterion and may outweigh an arbitrary choice of a single processing style.

Finally, when you choose the images to include in the final portfolio I encourage you to seek input from other people. A portfolio is by definition an intentional act of communication between the photographer and the viewer. However, we can become so immersed in our own vision for a portfolio that we are unable to recognize how it is perceived by others. By articulating our theme and asking for feedback on how different alternative portfolios communicate that theme we can calibrate our internal vision against the responses of others.

I am fortunate to be married to an artist, and her critical evaluation of the impact of my four alternative “Lonaconing” portfolios was crucial in helping me identify the one with the greatest visual coherence and story-telling impact.

OK, I made a portfolio. Now what?

The discipline involved in creating a portfolio can be its own reward, but there are also a variety of ways to use a portfolio. Here are some ideas.

Submit to the Portfolio Showcase competition: Each year Image City Photography Gallery sponsors a juried portfolio competition, the Portfolio Showcase, which results in the selection of eight portfolios to be exhibited in their gallery and published in the exhibit catalog. The submission deadline is typically in early June, so you have plenty of time to develop an entry for the 2021 competition.

Publish in the Contact Sheet: My “Lonaconing” portfolio (page 10) is intended to introduce and exemplify the new Member Portfolios feature in the Contact Sheet. We welcome the submission of more portfolios, either previously-created or new.

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Print and exhibit: Having a portfolio may open up opportunities for public exhibits that are not available for sets of unrelated images. Here, the representative and fine art portfolio categories overlap: you can use your portfolio to represent your fine art photographs to galleries or other venues to gain exhibit opportunities.

Hang on your wall: Consider using your portfolio as part of your home decor. A portfolio of images displayed together on a wall (fig. 1) has a visual impact that exceeds that of an individual print (unless the print is huge). Whether you intend exhibit in public or in your home, be sure to mat and frame your photographs in a consistent style so that they look like they are all part of a single entity.

Use as a website gallery: A portfolio is a readymade website gallery. In fact, a collection of portfolios as galleries is an excellent way to display your best work online.

Expand to a photo book: If you have difficulty narrowing down your set of secondary candidate images to a concise portfolio, you are well on your way to making a photo book! A book allows you to work with a larger number of final images and to expand the way in which your photographs embody your theme or tell your story. A book also allows you to provide an accompanying text as background and context for the photographs.

Another portfolio resource Les Picker, a former National Geographic photographer who specializes in landscape and wildlife photography, teaches intensive portfolio development and production workshops out of his studio in Maryland. Earlier this year, Les presented a webinar for Moab Paper titled “Secrets to a Successful Portfolio.” The recording of the webinar is available on Moab’s YouTube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xh_72l34jcY&feature=youtu.be

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Exhibit at the 1570 Gallery at Valley Manor Karl Dueland

We just completed a unique exhibit for FLPG. In the midst of a pandemic where travel, public events, and even modest sized gatherings are restricted or discouraged we decided to bring some smiles to a group of seniors at Valley Manor independent living. Approximately 140 people are at the facility and touring their art gallery within the building is a welcome break.

With 38 pictures displayed in addition to a showcase with image based notecards the diversity of photographic talent filled the room. All fifteen photographers certainly impressed and brought smiles to the resident visitors.

While a specific number of total visitors is not available, the anecdotal feedback was good. As Diane Cotton, 1570 Gallery Director noted, “The feedback I have gotten is very positive – the residents are enjoying the photographs for sure….”. Even though no pictures were sold during the nearly 6 week exhibit, I think our objectives were met,

sharing the joy we each get from photography. Next year we will have an exhibit at their ‘sister’ facility, My Sister’s Gallery from June 28th – August 8th. Hopefully by then, anyone and everyone will be allowed into the facility to enjoy our creations.

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Member Portfolio: David Soderlund

The Mill at Lonaconing

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Fig. 1: Spindles 147

Fig. 2: Spindle Details

The Klotz Silk Throwing Mill in Lonaconing, MD was built in 1905 to spin and dye silk thread, taking advantage of a local source of cheap labor – the wives and children of coal miners in the nearby mines in western Maryland. In 1957 the Klotz company abruptly closed the mill doors for good in a labor dispute and the building stood silent for more than six decades, abandoned to the elements. The mill’s private ownership and remote location ensured that the machinery and the personal effects left behind by workers remained largely intact. Until recently the owner permitted groups of photographers to visit the building, allowing them to step into a time capsule from an earlier age of industrial America.

The photographs in this portfolio were taken during two visits, in 2013 and 2016, to the abandoned mill. During the second visit the ongoing deterioration of the building was clearly evident, with water damage making unsafe some areas that were accessible in 2013. The owner who tried to maintain the integrity of the property and provided access for photographers died in 2019, compounding the uncertainty of the building’s fate.

This portfolio of eight images was created for the 2016 Portfolio Showcase competition sponsored by Image City Photography Gallery in Rochester, NY. It was selected by the jurors as one of eight winning portfolios (out of more than 80 entries), exhibited at the gallery, and published in the exhibit catalog.

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Fig. 3: Spools

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Fig. 4: Silenced 150

Fig. 5: Water Fountain 151

Fig. 6: Oil Cans

Fig. 8: Spun Silk

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Fig. 7: Thread Cones

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GO BIG OR GO HOME

Creating and Hanging Large Foam Mounted Prints

Charlie Cappellino

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Big prints have a clear wow factor and are sometimes the best way to convey the emotion of a particular image.

Conventional framing of a large print such as 20x30 inches or larger is difficult due to the weight of the materials and the expense of quality frames. Have you ever wanted to create and hang a very large print but unsure of your options?

Alternatives to conventional framing that have grown in popularity recently include canvas prints stretched over a wooden frame, aluminum prints, acrylic prints and prints mounted on foam. The first three options are available from many local or internet providers but range in price and can be expensive. The third option of foam mounting is one that you can perform yourself and is a low-cost method to display large prints.

It is also a very clean look that accentuates the image on a large wall. It can be used as a temporary display or a permanent hanging. This article will walk you through the materials and steps needed to create large foam mounted prints.

Foam mounting options – There are two different foam board mounting options for the do it yourselfer. Below, I will describe an option which uses 3/16” thick plain foam board and a spray adhesive. The second option is to use foam board with a self-stick backing. The process for self-stick foam board

is similar. Both can be purchased at art stores, office stores, discount retailers and a variety of internet retailers. Higher quality foam boards such as Gator Board are more dent resistant but are more expensive.

Materials Needed • • • •

• • • • • • •

Rubber gloves, respirator mask and safety glasses Flat work surface outdoors or in well ventilated area Plenty of newspaper and drop cloths Foamboard – Black foam board yields a nice finished edge look.

Soft paper weights – plastic or cloth bags of steel shot, beans, etc.

Photo Safe Spray Adhesive Soft roller Very sharp razor knife Steel straight edge / ruler Pine boards Hot glue gun Screw eyes

•

Hanging wire

•

Seven Steps to a Print Ready for Hanging 1. Work Area Preparation – Finding the right work area and surface is an important step. You will need a flat and smooth surface to ensure the print is properly mounted and to prevent warping of the finished foam board. I use a piece of plywood resting on two saw horses covered with newspaper. I prefer to do this work outside on a day with minimal wind. It is possible to do this work in a well ventilated indoor space like a garage or basement but plenty of newspaper or drop cloths cover surfaces within 8 feet of the spray process to avoid over spray adhesive from settling on surfaces.

2. Alignment of Print on Foamboard – Lay a piece of foam board of sufficient size for your print on the newspaper. A piece of foam larger than the print is fine because it can be easily trimmed with a razor knife. With gloved or very clean hands, align the print on the foam. You can usually align at least two sides while the third and fourth size can be trimmed later. Without disturbing the alignment, gently lay two soft paper weights on one end of the print so the print does not 155

Step 2

move relative to the foam board.

3. First Application of Spray Adhesive – Gently roll back the unweighted end of the print to expose the foam board and the back side of the rolled back part of the print. Be careful not to disturb the alignment performed in step 2 above. You can secure the rolled back part of the print with a small third paper weight if needed. Cover any part of the image print surface with newspaper to prevent adhesive overspray from settling on the finished print surface. Now is the time to wear your respirator mask, safety glasses and gloves. According to the directions of the photo safe spray adhesive, spray an even coat on both the foam board and the back of the print. I like to start spraying from the center of the foam board and spray towards the outside to minimize overspray into the fold already covered by newspaper. Ensure all surfaces, particularly the edges have an even coat of adhesive. Carefully, lower the rolled back portion of the print onto the foam to complete the bond. With a clean soft cloth covering your palm, use soft

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Step 3

even pressure, to press the print onto the foam board while not denting the foam board. Do not worry about a little overspray on your print as it can be easily removed later once it dries.

4. Second Application of Spray Adhesive – Repeat the process above for the other half of the print making sure adhesive spray reaches into the small gap near the middle of the rolled back print. Remove all newspaper, do not try to reuse it.

5. Clean, Roll and Trim – Once both sides have been secured with adhesive, wait one minute allowing any overspray to dry and remove any overspray with a clean cloth. With a gentle circular rubbing motion, the small bits of adhesive on the print should roll up and can be brushed away. Next use a wide soft roller securing the adhesive being careful not to dent the foam board by pressing too hard. Using a very sharp razor knife and a steel straight edge to trim any excess foam from the mounted print. Use a new blade to get a good clean cut.

Step 7

Step 4

Step 5

6. Attach wood wall standoffs – Lay a clean towel or another piece of foam down on the flat surface (ex. Plywood) to protect the finished print surface. Use two 3/4” to 1” thick pine boards, each with a length of about 75% of the overall width of the foam mounted print. You can easily find 3/4” finished pine at local lumber stores. To determine the location of the pine boards, subtract the pine board width from the foam board width and divide the result by 2. This will be the distance from the end of the pine board to the edge of the foam board. Mark where each end of the boards will be with a vertical line on the back of the foam board using calculated distance. Place the first board on the back of the foam board about 25% from the top and mark the outline of the board with a pencil. Using a hot glue gun, apply a generous amount of melted adhesive to the pine board and adhere it to the back of the foam board on the pencil outline. Repeat the marking and adhesive process for the bottom board which is placed about 25% from the bottom of the foam board.

7. Hanging wire – Attach a small eye screw into both ends of the top pine board.

Attach the hanging wire to the eye screws and the print is ready for hanging.

Finished! This wall-ready big print makes a great gift! I think she liked it!

References: YouTube: Mounting Prints onto Gatorfoam Board by Robert Rodriguez 157

Photo by Joann Long

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What’s In the

Bag?

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Photographer: Paul Yarnall Primary Style of Photography: Land/Waterscapes & Wildlife The Bag: Mindshift Gear (Think Tank) Backlight 26L

Bodies • Sony A7Riv w L bracket • Sony A9 w L bracket Lenses • Sony 16-35 F2.8 GM • Sony 24-105 F4 GM • Sony 100-400 F4-5.6 G w PGD Big Grip Additional lenses as needed • Sony 55 F1.8 • Sony 200-600 F5.6-6.3 G w PGD Big Grip • Sony 600 F4 GM w PGD Big Grip • Sony 1.4X Teleconverter • Rokinon 12 F2.8 Fisheye (with mnt converter) • Lensbaby Burnside 35 • Canon 11-24 F4 (with mnt converter) • Canon 180 F3.5 Macro (with mnt converter) Accessories • Benro GoPlus Travel (FGP28C) Tripod w RRS BH40 Quick Clamp ball head • FotoPro Artpod (4-7” tripod) • Bosstrap camera sling • PGD Tracker • Lee Filter Bracket system (100mm) w full range of ND & polarizing filters and adapter rings to mate with all lenses as needed • Novoflex multitool • Lens cleaner and micro cloth • Spare batteries for all devices • Sunscreen lotion, electrical tape, zip ties, ear plugs 160

Paul says:

I have lost count of the bags I have used over the years. The Mindshift Backlight 26L is my current, and likely last bag, as it embodies so many great features. It opens from the back which means I can lay it on the ground and not worry about transferring mud or dirt to my shirt or jacket. The back padding, shoulder straps and hip belt share features typical in top of the line back packing gear. The hip belt system not only gets some of the weight off your shoulders, but after you flip your arms out of the shoulder straps you to can spin the pack around to face you to access the inside of the pack without taking the pack off. I have changed many a lens standing in the middle of a stream!

The first three lenses above are always in the bag, though I may remove add

or remove one depending on the contemplated shoot. As shown in the photo the all up weight is 18lbs, 23lbs with the Benro tripod.

There there are pockets on the front for a small laptop, (which I use when traveling but not in the field), a small lunch, gloves, whatever. External side pouches allow a water bottle and the little Artpod.

The hip belt can carry other accessories and once in the field I usually put the Lee Filter bag on the belt for easy access. The Backlight is world class quality and will last a very long time.

For “on station� bird shooting, the bag likely stays in the car and I will set up the 600 (840 w

teleconverter) on a tripod with a gimbal head (Pro Media) with a second body and the 200-600 on a side sling for free hand shooting. Of course, both cameras are equipped with PGD Trackers On a walking shoot I will use just the big 600 on a mobile monopod system I designed that incorporates the Cotton Carrier chest harness. This greatly minimizes the strength needed to hand hold the big lens for long periods of time and still have the ability to easily follow moving subjects.

ď‚ľ

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What’s In the

Bag?

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Photographer: Marcia Mundrick Primary Style of Photography: Wildlife and Landscape The Bag: LowePro RidgeLine Pro BP 300 AW

Bodies • Nikon Z6 • Panasonic Lumix G9 (Micro 4/3. I mainly use when I need a good burst speed for birds. It also has a pre-burst mode to catch the beginning of the movement I probably miss!

Lenses • Nikon 28-200 f4S • Nikon 80-400 (occasionally used for wildlife) • Nikon FTZ adapter • Panasonic 100-400 • Panasonic 12-60 Accessories • 2 charged batteries for each body • Extra cards • Lens cleaning supplies • A shower cap!

• 2 polarizers and a neutral density filter

Marcia says:

When I’m working out of the “mother bag” for the day, I may take out certain equipment and carry them in a daypack.

When flying, I use one of those new “under-the seat” bags with wheels. The inside of an old camera bag can fit inside it so I have dividers. Of course it rarely fits under the seats these days, but I find it will be allowed for most overheads even on the little puddle jumpers out of Rochester when they ask everyone to check their carry-on.

The only item that doesn’t come on the plane with me is the old Nikkor 80-400. It goes in the suitcase with my travel tripod (Peak Designs) and a prayer.

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What’s In the

Bag?

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Photographer: Jim Hooper Primary Style of Photography: Portrait The Bag: Tamrax Expedition 7x

Bodies • Nikon Z6 • Nikon D800 Lenses • Nikon Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S • Nikon 85mm f/1.8G AF-S • Nikon 105mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Macro Lens • AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR • Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8G AF-S DX IF-ED • Tamron SP A011 150-600mm f/5-6.3 Di VC USD • Nikon FTZ Adapter for F-mount lenses to Z- body Flash • Nikon SB800 • Impact remote transmitter and receiver Accessories • Peak Designs Capture Clip Belt clip • 8-pk Rechargeable AA batteries (for flash) • 4-pk Alkaline AAA batteries (for flash remote receiver) • 2-pk 23A Batteries (for flash remote transmitter • Filters • 58mm Circular Polarizer (Zeikos) • 62mm UV (Hoya) • 67mm UV (ProMaster) • 67mm Circular Polarizer (Tiffen) • 77mm UV (Hoya) • 77mm Circular Polarizer (Tiffen) • 77mm 4x Neutral Density Filter (ProMaster) • 77mm 4x Neutral Density Filter (Hoya) • 52mm-67 stepup ring • 58mm-67 stepup ring • OpTech Rain Sleeve • Pair of Jewelers Screwdrivers • Kinetronics SpecGrabber • PhotoCo LensPen Mini Pro • Homemade Paracord Wrist Strap • Mini Flexible tabletop tripod (generic) • Business Cards • Nikon EN-EL15A spare batteries (x2)

Jim says:

The Tamrac Expedition 7x does a good job of carrying what I need in the field. It is large enough to carry most everything, though I do carry the big 150-600 lens separately, and I usually leave it in the car unless I am planning to shoot wildlife that day. I bought the bag used for $70 on Craigslist years ago, and when I bought it, the outside vertical zipper pockets both came with busted zippers, so I don’t use them at all.

The padded straps and the waist belt mean I can carry this bag comfortably for quite some distance if necessary, though I don’t usually need to hike too far. With all the gear shown here, the carry weight is 25 pounds.

In addition to the contents shown here, I also occasionally carry the Slik 700 Pro DX tripod with the Slik PistolGrip head. Unfortunately, the base plate for the Capture Clip that I use to carry the camera on my belt doesn’t remove without a wrench, making it impossible to transition from belt clip to tripod. With my typical work in portraiture, the Capture Clip is usually the favored option.

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Member Spotlight!

Bob Sundell I had a 31 year career with Eastman Kodak which was blessed by world travel and living overseas for many years.

I always had a camera with me and accumulated many photographs. However, I never got interested in editing with all those messy chemicals so what I saw in the viewfinder is what I had. The thought of “changing” the image never entered my mind. After all I was a “mathematician” so what you saw was what you got!!!

I retired at age 56 when Kodak had a really nice early retirement plan and bought a cottage in the Finger Lakes where Jan and I lived for six months every year. The other six months was spent at Jan’s house on the Erie Canal in Fairport. As you can see we had lots of water to put into images.

Jan also took an early retirement and then worked part time in FLCCs Computer Help Desk assisting staff and students with computer related issues. Jeff Adams had started a Photoshop class in which the students were mainly retirees.

Because several were concerned that the world would end if they hit the wrong key on their keyboard he asked Jan to help them not end the world. She also strongly “asked” me to consider joining this happy group which I did.

I had a difficult time dealing with layers in Photoshop so said hallelujah and amen when Lightroom came along. I was even able to ‘change’ things in an image without feeling any guilt. However, I still felt that I had no creative ability.

To rectify this I did my usual and read several books on creativity but none gave me the keys to creativity until I read David duChemin’s book “The Soul of the Camera”. His bottom line is you keep working on an image over and over until finally you see ‘ IT’ ! To me this means creativity comes from perseverance and I’m sticking to it!

We recently lost Keith Hutchings who was an original to FLPG and to those of us who knew him. Generally, we don’t know when our time is up, so at age 85 I walk the woods and trails once or twice a week accumulating more images to play with. Then I’ll have a reason when Jan says “Why do you need another lens?”

Thanks to you all for putting up with me!!

Bob Sundell 166

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Member Spotlight!

Regina Muscarella How long have you been shooting?

I got my first camera, a tan Kodak Brownie Box camera, when I was 6 years old, a kind of consolation prize for the birth of my little sister. I loved it! I spent many hours through my teen years with my dad in his darkroom. He even gave me his prized Nikkormat which I used for many years until the shutter died.

My husband and I made our own darkroom in our kitchen, with tents of blankets to block out the light, while the remnants of Dad’s darkroom filled our countertops. Today, the camera is part of my decor, with a prominent place on my mantle.

As a self-proclaimed geek, I gravitated toward digital photography in the 90s, as it combined my love of photography and my keen interest in computer technology. My first digital camera was an Olympus with a whopping 3 megapixel resolution. I moved up to the giant Sony Mavica, with its floppy disc storage, and then returned to Nikon, working my way through their CoolPix line. I got my first DSLR in 2006 when Nikon introduced the D40. I needed more speed than the Coolpix afforded, and the DSLR seemed the way to go. I am still with Nikon, and currently shoot with my full frame D800 and my D7100 crop. I hope to replace the D7100 with the D500 this year.

Cerda Woman - My husband Lennie and I were in Cerda, Sicily, meeting members of his family for the first time. I shot several pictures of animated family chatter, which attracted the attention of a little lady who peeked out of her kitchen window to see what the commotion was. I love the look in her eyes, as she is enjoying the exchange of broken English, Italian and their obligatory gesticulations.

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What’s your preferred genre of photography?

I enjoy shooting everything. When I am shooting birds, I will say that my favorite genre is nature, but when I am the volunteer photographer at Genesee Country Village, I will tell you that I love to shoot still life, portraits and landscapes. When I mount my camera on the tripod for a night shot, I will say that I love the beauty of the night sky and the challenges of setting up a long exposure shot. And I love shooting performances: theater, music, dance. I love it all and I find something inspiring, exciting and challenging about every aspect of photography.

How did you get where you are now, in terms of your skills?

Chappy Martian Milky Way - I set up my camera and tripod in the early evening, getting I learned many photography basics from my ready for a Milky Way shot over the beach in Chappaquiddick. The bonus was Mars, dad. Formal education came much later when low in the sky and casting its orange glow in the waters by the infamous Dike Bridge of I began with Nikon digital cameras and The Nikon School in New York City. I participated in Teddy Kennedy fame. three weekend workshops with Nikon and then began doing New York Photo Safaris with Zim Pham. As a teacher at Victor Junior High School, I started a digital photography enrichment class, where I began to really hone my Photoshop skills. YouTube became my go-to in my learning-by-doing approach. Before my retirement from Victor, I joined the Montanus Photography Classroom, the Finger Lakes Photography Center, and most recently, The Finger Lakes Photography Guild, taking advantage of the myriad of classes and resources they provide. Best of all, because of these associations, I feast on the smorgasbord of knowledge each member has to offer.

Hobbies outside of photography?

I am a fitness instructor with Charlene Merritt’s Transform program at CrossFit Rochester. I love to hike and so appreciate the serenity of the woods. Having grown up on the coast of Connecticut, I love anything on the water, especially kayaking and paddleboarding. And if I could, I would travel. My bag is always packed, ready for an adventure. At home, I love my rescue pups: Flynn, a” chihuahua - ish,” and Sophie and Stewie, the pugs. 2020 brought me the best new hobby, my granddaughter Emersyn. My life is full.

The photos here represent the serendipitous moments in photography.

Each one was taken when I intended to shoot one thing, and found my favorite shot was one completely unexpected.

 Green Heron - I was on the Auburn Trail, photographing the blue herons that frequent the pond. I was delighted to see a green heron for the very first time, and even more so when he fished for dinner in the reflecting waters.

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Ontario Parkway - In my never-ending quest to photograph the saw whet owl in Owl Woods, I found myself driving down the Ontario State Parkway once again. This time it was early in the morning. I looked out my window and saw this pond with its mirror-like reflections. I pulled over to take this shot. I did get some shots of the owls, but is by far my favorite of the day.

Late Night Cappuccino - I was in Rome at Christmas time, and decided to walk into the ancient city to see the Christmas lights. They were breathtaking, but this shot of two women enjoying each other’s company in a little piazza made me feel the real Italy. I loved the quiet friendship these women displayed on the crisp winter evening.

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Social Distancing - In the early spring days of the pandemic, I ventured to the Mary Frances Bluebird Haven to see if the bluebirds were out and about. I was met by a beautiful bluebird, perched atop a social distancing sign. It was unexpected, but oh so fitting.xt and

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Member Spotlight!

Paul English All images by Paul English

I started photography in 2012 purchasing a Nikon D50 digital camera and took Jeff Adams digital photography course at FLCC. I practiced shooting all types of photography including landscape, portrait, sports, nature. It took 2-3 years to figure out I did not have the time get proficient at every genre of photography. Being an outdoors enthusiast all my life and finally figured out that I was happiest being in nature and to photograph birds and wildlife in particular. I took many workshops and seminars and had great training at FLPG meetings to finally get quality images. I thank the FLPG and others who helped educate me to be a better photographer.

Fast forward to today and I enjoy photographing mostly birds when I have time to go out. I still work running English Manufacturing at home with my wife in Branchport. I have had the privilege of working with Paul Yarnall and together we run Photo Gear Designs and now have a few photography products we design and manufacture. We have the PGD Tracker which is a sight for action and wildlife photography and are coming out shortly with the Big Grip lens foot which I am really excited about. Your can see our products at: https://www.photogeardesigns.com/

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English

Paul

Member Spotlight!

Liz Voorhees I chewed a lot of Bazooka gum to get my first camera. I think I ended up with 2 cameras before the age of 10. My next cameras were all Kodak. I now have a Nikon 7200. My grandfather on my Dad’s side was a Polaroid guy. My grandfather on my Mom’s side was a photographer in WW1, not sure the type of camera he used to take photos in Europe. Taking pictures is part of my family tree. Photoshop, Lightroom, and Nik was not, it’s more fun to go out and explore to find a great image.

I took at class in 2013 at FLCC and found not only how to use the settings on my camera but learned there are so many options in Photoshop to change my image. I’m still in the learning, exploring, and developing stage. Actually I may never leave this stage because I am having just too much fun. Amazing how many strangers are more likely to strike up a conversation when I am holding my camera. Currently the family pets are my models. Hoping to spend more time with camera in hand when I retire.

Text and photos by Liz Voorhees

fig 1: Catching Snow

fig 2: Leaves 175

fig 3: Granddog Gunner fig 4: Letchworth

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fig 4: Swan Reading fig 5: Mr. B.

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Member Spotlight!

Robert Snyder My interest in photography started when I was 12 and my cousin taught me how to develop B&W film and make contact prints.

I was using a Kodak Brownie camera with 127 film. When I graduated from high school in 1964, I got my first 35mm camera, a Miranda DR, with screw-in, preset (manual stop-down) interchangeable lenses. There was no in-camera metering or autofocus. I used a Miranda Cadius II hand-held light meter with a CdS (cadmium sulfide) sensor to determine exposures.

While I was in college I used the Miranda Dr and a Yashica Mat G, twin-lens camera and a Honeywell 65C “potato-masher” flash (KII Guide # 80) to work for the college newspaper, take sports shots and contribute to the college yearbook. This included many hours of developing and printing B&W images in the college darkroom. I later constructed a B&W darkroom in the basement of my home. I also used Unicolor chemicals with Unicolor drums and rollers for developing E-6 color slide films.

I switched to Canon AE-1, AT-1, AE-1 Program and A-1 in the 1970’s and used them for about 30 weddings in the late 80s and 90s.

Although there was now internal metering, there still were no autofocus lenses. Eventually, Tamron and Canon developed external zoom lenses with an auto-focus button. Then along came Canon with their EOS Elan II E, an “eye-controlled” focusing system and lenses.

I moved to digital photography in the mid-1990s with a Kodak Easyshare DX6490 4 MP camera. The camera could capture excellent image, if you had time for it to focus. While taking Jeff Adams digital photography classes, I decided to upgrade to a Canon 20D. After that, I purchased a Canon XTi and a Canon 7D with a Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II. I eventually switched to the Olympus OMD E-M1 mirrorless camera and lenses due to the weight of the Canon system.

I first met Jeff Adams at the Community College of the Finger Lakes (CCFL) in the 1980s when he was presenting a 35mm film camera Community Education course. In the 2000s, Jeff was teaching Basic Digital Photography and Lightroom 2 editing at CCFL. From there, I became one of the first members of what would become the Finger Lakes Photography Guild.

Over the years, I have taught Basic Photography and B&W Darkroom for the Midlakes Schools Community Education program. Later, I was one of the organizers for the Phelps Arts Center. There, I taught several classes in Beginning Digital Photography and Digital Editing using Adobe Lightroom 4 and Pentium computers. Several years ago, I presented a session on digital photography at Turning Stone Resort Casino for the NY Teachers’ Association annual meeting. Later on, I was part of the original “think-tank”, spearheaded by the Clifton Springs Chamber of Commerce, for the Main Street Arts Gallery.

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“Boy Next Door” taken in 1965 with my first 35 mm camera.

I have displayed images at: Phelps Arts Center, Phelps; Main Street Arts Gallery, Clifton Springs; Clifton Springs Hospital; Wood Library, Canandaigua; Barnes and Noble, Pittsford; Canandaigua Medical Group, Canandaigua; Talk of the Town II, Clifton Springs; Body Kneads, Phelps; and, Finger Lakes Medical Associates, Penn Yan. I have been published in the Finger Lakes Magazine, Finger Lakes Times, Canandaigua Daily Messenger and the Watkins Glen Grand Prix magazine.

Currently, I am enjoying capturing images of my grand-children and an occasional family portrait for friends. Short day-trips with long-time friend, Mike Linse are enjoyable and do not contain the stress of “jobs” that have to be perfect and on time.

I am also collecting, scanning and organizing thousands of images of current family and friends. Then, there are those two old family albums where I know so few people and my parents and brother have passed before me. I like to print images “from the archives” to surprise and provide memories for family and friends. I find that editing images with newer software and hardware and printing them brings a lot of personal pleasure, especially “custom” printing for friend Mike Linse, for the Wood Library exhibits.

My avocation also lends assistance to my wife, Margaret. She has created over 20 Shutterfly books using mostly my images. In addition to documenting her miniature hobby, I have miniaturized many images of our family for placement in doll houses that we have constructed and decorated.

Travel photography includes multiple trips to Pine Island, FL and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with our good friends, the Linses. We also enjoyed trips to Tucson, AZ, and Houston, TX with friends and family. We also had two great trips to the Grand Tetons and Yellow Stone National Parks, WY with relatives.

The FLPG has been a great source of inspiration, camaraderie and education. I look forward to attending more of the PRO Series workshops.

Text and photos by Robert Snyder.

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Top: A fall photo taken in the Adirondack Mountains.

Below: “Path to Decision� at The West Wing This image was captured during a private West Wing tour given by a family friend that worked for the Department of State.

On the day of the visit, President Bush was at the China Summer Olympics and Russia had just invaded the Republic of Georgia.

VP Cheney was due to arrive at the Situation Room momentarily so we would have to leave quickly.

This veranda is the only path between the White House and the West Wing.

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Prismatic Geyser Basin Panorama – Yellowstone National Park

The image is a 10 exposure panorama, using Photoshop CC to “stitch” the images together. According to the National Park Service, “Ceramic Basin is open terrain with hundreds of densely packed geothermal features. Bacteria, which live in mud, create different color patterns in and around the Norris Basin.”

Photo of a good friend taken on a Finger Lakes Barn Tour 180

Boat Captain in Maine

Member Spotlight!

Mike Nyerges All images by Mike Nyerges

In 1799, William Blake wrote, “As a man is, so he sees.” I suppose nothing makes that more visible than photography.

But people are shaped by the world they live in, and I frequently think of my grandson at 18 months learning to sit in a child-size chair. At first, he worked in these awkward but remarkably fluid motions, and he gradually became more skillful at “sitting.” But it clearly was the chair that taught him to shape his movements to sit and stand and sit; and it’s fair to say that it’s the world that similarly teaches me what to photograph and how to frame it.

Bare Hill in autumn, with it’s remarkable textures and colors, and the hills and open fields of the Finger Lakes, were my first teachers. So was the art at MOMA, and the Whitney, and the MAG in Rochester, and the photographers and the hash-tagged work that I follow on Instagram, and the photographers profiled in The Eye of Photography and the Lenscratch Daily, and what we share at FLPG. I have many teachers.

Since retiring in 2013 after some 30 years in public service — as a college and school librarian, and a public library and library system administrator — photography has become a means to several ends. This includes giving full reign to a creative bent, which I believe we all possess, and staying active to avoid becoming an annoyance at home.

My experience has been purely digital, and until this past year when I began printing photos, I have only displayed my work digitally, online and at home. Online, I’ve posted to Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram and my website, mikenyerges.com.

At home, I stream photos to a 23-inch Electric Object and a wall-mounted 42-inch Samsung smart-TV. On the Samsung, I initially used LifeShow, a French cloud-based service that ended in 2019. I currently use the Roku app, PhotoView, to stream images from a Google album, which are digitally matted and formatted for the widescreen.

I look to capture interest and beauty wherever I see it, from the sublime to the quirky. And, I’ll use any camera available to me ‘in the moment,’ whether it’s experimenting with the camera on a MacBook Pro, using an iPhone or Pixel, or shooting with my Canon 6D. Susan Sontag quipped in her essay, In Plato’s Cave, “Today everything exists to end in a photograph.” If that’s true, it’s because we strive to share not only ‘what we see,’ but ‘how we see,’ which, in my opinion, is paramount in the art of photography.

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ProSeries Review: Adobe Photoshop with Doug Hansgate Jim Hooper

The most recent installation of the Finger Lakes Photography Guild ProSeries workshops took place March 7-8, 2020.

The workshop focused on the venerable Adobe Photoshop, presented by Doug Hansgate. This is the second ProSeries workshop that Doug has presented for us, and they are always jam packed with extremely helpful tips, techniques and processes that help us to be better photographers. Doug is a master educator, and the driving force behind the Can-Am Photo Expo each year, alternating between Buffalo and the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

This workshop covered a lot of material from setting up your Photoshop workspace, with the pallets you use most, lined up where you want them, and then saved as a custom workspace.

Hansgate covered bit depth and color space settings, as well as the different formats that images can be saved in. We then walked through image and canvas sizing, transparent layers, and creating a logo with a transparent background.

After lunch, we learned how to set up Photoshop Actions.

Hansgate offered a very in depth lesson on the differences between opacity and flow when using various brushes for cloning pieces of an image. Throughout the afternoon, we looked at high pass filters, various blend modes, unsharp masks, layer masks, smart objects, clone tools, selection tools and content aware fills.

On Day 2, we continued our work on selections, creating, adding to and subtracting from, and saving them. We created masks from selections, and then did some photo composites, which included making fine selections of the main subject, exporting the selection onto a new background, and then creating shadows that lent to the credibility of the composite.

We looked at lighting and shading of the various elements, so that it would appear as though the image was captured in a single exposure in camera. We also worked through frequency separation techniques for portrait retouching, as well as using the liquefy tools and the freeze mask tools. Hansgate also demonstrated Particle Shop for creating various effects. We looked at blend modes, and a variety of plugins as well. It was a very busy weekend indeed!

We had 30 people registered for the program and three more on a waiting list. On the first day, we had one person not arrive, and we were able to fill their spot with one from the waiting list. The total revenues for the workshop came to $2780, with total expenses of $2483, for grand total of $297, which will be used to defray costs of the next ProSeries Workshop with Chris Murray in October 2020.

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The Subjective e, Canandaigua NY g e l l o C nity u Landsape es Comm with Chris Murray

October 17 9am-4pm

e g n Fi

ak L r

Create images that go beyond merely outward appearances and reflecting your thoughts and feelings. Chris Murray will draw a distinction between objective and subjective landscapes, discuss the defining qualities of each and how they differ in approach and intent. He will discuss ways to help you access and develop your own personal vision in order to make more subjective personally expressive images.

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FEES: FLPG Full Member: $75 Non-Member: $95 Student Rate: $85 Lunch will be provided.

Student rate valid for students with a current student ID.

To register, visit HooperPhotographic.com/Education

Resources

Find a great website, with lots of great information? Share it with your fellow Guild members, here! This list will continue to grow as more people share their favorite resources.

Reviews www.dpreview.com Processing Tutorials www.laurashoe.com (Lighroom) phlearn.com General Photography Education behindtheshutter.com www.diyphotography.net (DIY stuff) fstoppers.com petapixel.com photographylife.com strobist.blogspot.com (lighting) blog.joemcnally.com backcountrygallery.com Mattk.com CreativeLive.com www.josephrossbach.com Nature Photography Resource www.luminous-landscape.com www.naturescapes.net Magazines Shutter: behindtheshutter.com

Member Pages Several of our members currently showcase galleries of their photography with personal websites. Take some time to check these out! If you have a website of your own that you would like to share, Please contact Jim Hooper for inclusion in future issues!

Melody Burri Web: www.MelodyBurri.Zenfolio.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/melodyburri Don Delong Web: DonDelong.smugmug.com/ Karl Dueland Web: www.duelandphoto.com Jim Hooper Web: www.HooperPhotographic.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/himjooper Facebook: www.facebook.com/HooperPhotographic Stephen Kalbach Web: www.StephenKalbachPhotography.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/ stephen.kalbach.photography Tom Kredo web: www.flickr.com/photos/tomkredo

Manufacturers www.redriverpaper.com NikonUSA.com

Joann Long Web: www.Joann-Long.pixels.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/joannklong Facebook: www.facebook.com/ JoannKLongPhotography/

Retailers adorama.com bhphotovideo.com keh.com (used equipment)

Nik Nagane Web: www.NikNaganePhotography.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/niknagane Facebook: www.facebook.com/niknagane

YouTube Channels Fro Knows Photo: www.youtube.com/user/JaredPolin

Mike Nyerges Web: www.mikenyerges.com Instagram: instagram.com/mike.nyerges

Tony and Chelsea Northrup: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDkJEEIifDzR_2K2p9tnwYQ

David Soderlund Web: www.davidmsoderlund.com

Photo Sharing web.500px.com Photography Schools New York Institute of Photography: nyip.edu Digital Photography School: digital-photography-school.com 189

Photo by Charlie Cappellino 190