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Guardian At The Gate . by wingsdomain.com

July 29th, 2011

.....A lone black raven suddenly appeared, whisked right through my shadows and landed on the open gate before me. So this would be the Guardian at The Gate I told myself. And a revelation dawned on me at that forbidden moment. A revelation that I had feared since the days when I was a child growing up in a God fearing town which I had long abandoned for the spoils of life. A revelation so strong it numbed my senses and destroyed all that remained strong inside of me. I realized at that very moment, at that very unforgettable moment which seemed like an eternity as the memories of my entire existence was relived in that single moment, I realized this could be Heaven. Or, this could be Hell! -W

"Guardian At The Gate"

( http://wing-tong.artistwebsites.com/featured/guardian-at-the-gate-wingsdomain-art-and-photography.html )



© All Contents Copyright

Wingsdomain.com is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing unique and diversely creative Art and Photography through fine prints to collectors from all around the world since the early eighties. Subjects include animals, birds, landscapes, floral, architecture, automobiles, airplanes, and much more.

To see more of Wingsdomain Art and Photography, pick on one of the links below:


http://www.wingsdomain.com
http://www.zazzle.com/wingsdomain*/
http://wing-tong.artistwebsites.com

Chinese Pavilion Under The Golden Moonlight . By Wingsdomain.com

July 27th, 2011

I still remember those warm spring nights when the innocense of our love met in that Chinese Pavilion under the Golden Moonlight. She was the daughter of a peasant and I was a young warrior with blood on my hands and a hundred thousand men on my shoulders. I promised to conquer the evil world and to return and take her in marriage and away from her life of toil and sufferance. And she promised to wait with her undying love in that Chinese Pavilion under the Golden Moonlight for my victorious return. And so she waited with innocent laughters and giggles that echoed through the countryside, reciting poems she'd learned in school in joyous anticipation for my return. It has been said that she waited 1000 years with her devoted love in that Chinese Pavilion under the Golden Moonlight, as I laid bloodied and defeated on the battlefields that became my grave. -W


© All Contents Copyright

Wingsdomain.com is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing unique and diversely creative Art and Photography through fine prints to collectors from all around the world since the early eighties. Subjects include animals, birds, landscapes, floral, architecture, automobiles, airplanes, and much more.

To see more of Wingsdomain Art and Photography, pick on one of the links below:


http://www.wingsdomain.com
http://www.zazzle.com/wingsdomain*/
http://wing-tong.artistwebsites.com

Wingsblog Returns to FAA

July 27th, 2011

Well after having moved my blog to wordpress (http://wingsdomain.wordpress.com) which is working great, I have decided to also blog here on FAA again (as well as on wordpress). So Wingsblog returns to FAA!

Regards -W

Wingsdomain.com Double Thanks Art And Photo Collector From San Leandro CA Who Purchased Two Separate Pelican In Flight Fine Art Gliclee Prints

July 27th, 2011

Wingsdomain.com Double Thanks Art And Photo Collector From San Leandro CA Who Purchased Two Separate Pelican In Flight Fine Art Gliclee Prints

A BIG DOUBLE-THANK YOU to the art and photography collector from San Leandro, CA who purchased Two Separate Pelican In Flight Fine Art Gliclee Print from Wingsdomain Art and Photography.

"I am eternally grateful and humbled and I thank you for contributing to my obssession - art and photography."

-W






© All Contents Copyright

Wingsdomain.com is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing unique and diversely creative Art and Photography through fine prints to collectors from all around the world since the early eighties. Subjects include animals, birds, landscapes, floral, architecture, automobiles, airplanes, and much more. Select images from Wingsdomain.com are available for licensing, please Inquire Here.

To see more of Wingsdomain Art and Photography, pick on one of the links below:

http://www.wingsdomain.com
http://www.zazzle.com/wingsdomain*
http://wing-tong.artistwebsites.com


Reminder . Wingsdomain BLOGS Have Moved To WordPress

March 2nd, 2011

Reminder . Wingsdomain BLOGS Have Moved To WordPress

Some of you have been emailing me regarding the status of my Blogs on Fineartamerica since it hasn't been updated for awhile. Please be reminded that Wingsdomain BLOGS have moved to Wordpress at http://wingsdomain.wordpress.com since around end of year 2010. There's been a number of new posts there so go check it out.

-W

Photographing Birds In Flight . BIF

February 18th, 2011

Photographing Birds In Flight . BIF

Originally Posted Aug.15,2009

"Seeing a bird of prey soaring freely in the open sky, swooping down to snatch its prey is a sight of beauty and elegance and I feel privileged everytime to have witnessed it. Capturing this moment in time and being able to share it with viewers is truly a pleasure."



By Wing Tong
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Seeing a bird of prey soaring freely in the open sky, swooping down to snatch its prey is a sight of beauty and elegance and I feel privileged everytime to have witnessed it. Capturing this moment in time and being able to share it with viewers is truly a pleasure.

A number of viewers have asked about how the Birds In Flight (BIF) photography was done and though there are many experts in the field out there with varying techniques, here is my personal experience. If nothing else, three basic things, good equipment, alot of practice, and a bit of luck. Sounds simple and it is once you get the hang of it. This Blog will be broken down into a number of topics including "Equipment", "Camera Settings", "Technique", "Post Processing", and anything else I can think of as I write so come back often.

1. EQUIPMENT

For equipment, I shoot with a Canon 40D which is a 1.6x crop camera. The 1.6x crop is helpful in giving you a photographic result of longer reach relative to any given lens you are using. Note the longer reach result is somewhat technically debatable but for the sake of this writing, let's just agree this is what we get out of the 1.6x crop cameras. I've had the 40D for a little over a year now and since then, there's been the higher resolution model of the 50D and as of this writing, many photographers are awaiting the 60D model (update 2009-0901, Canon just announced today the availability of the Canon 7D which some speculate is the replacement for the 60D with a different nomenclature, or it may be a completely new species!). As important as camera bodies are, this kinda tells you how disposable they are as well. You can also use Canon's Rebel line of cameras which is also a 1.6x crop camera but without some of the niceties of the xxD models. A number of wildlife shooters will use the 1D series which comes in a 1.3x crop factor but has a much better everything especially in the Auto-Focus category. There's also the 1Ds series which is a full-frame (1.0x) camera along with the 5D, also a full-frame, that sits somewhere between the xxD models and the1D/1Ds models. Of course there are other capable brand names out there like Nikon but I don't own any of those so we won't get into that. That's about as much as I want to say about camera bodies.

A good lens is about as good an investment as you will ever have in photography. In BIF and wildlife photography in general, the longer the better, well most of the time (we will touch upon this "most of the time" statement various times later in this writing). Canon offers a solid line of long lenses to choose from and a solid pricing scheme to match! Minimum requirement of a 300mm f/4L IS will run you about $1,250, and the 800mm f/5.6L has a pricetag of $12,500. Then there is the exotic 1200mm f/5.6 which is NOT very realistic for BIF, weighing just over 36 pounds and costing a whopping $120,000! And that's a used price! This one would fall in that category of "(the longer the better) most of the time" statement I made earlier. ...but I digress. OK, so some of you will chime in and say I can shoot BIF with my Canon 70-200L or 70-300IS and so forth. Very true but believe you me, you will enjoy shooting BIF much more with a longer more capable lens. So what lens do I shoot with? The 400mm f/5.6L. A lens used by many BIF shooters which has many advantages and some disadvantages. But why not the 500mm f/4L or the 600mm f/4L or the 800mm f/5.6L? Well, for one thing, I don't have that kind of cash to spare. :-)

The 400mm f/5.6L runs about $1,300 but as with most good lenses, you can save 10-20% by buying used. Most of Canon's long lenses are labeled "L" not for long but to designate their professional grade lenses and is distinquishable by the red ring around the end of the lens (as of this writing, I think the 400mm f/4 DO IS is the only long lens that doesn't carry the "L" moniker). These lenses tend to be relatively indestructable (knock on wood, as soon as I say this, my lens will surely fall apart!) so buying used is not a bad idea as long as you find a reputable dealer. KEH.com tends to be pretty good. The advantages of the 400mm f/5.6L are many. It's relatively inexpensive, it's relatively light weight at 2.8 pounds, it's relatively compact at 10.1" length and 3.5" diameter, it gives you 400mm of native reach, and it has a built-in lens hood. The downside is, well, it's "only" 400mm reach, the aperture opens up only to f/5.6, and it has no Image Stabilizer (IS). My personal experience with this lens is that it makes for a very good walkaround wildlife/BIF lens because of its lightweightedness and for BIF, the IS has little effect (I know, this is also a subject of discussion but we won't discuss it here :-) ). For most BIF photography, I am shooting in good outdoor light so f/5.6 does not come into play that often. Only when the bird flies into a darken area is when the lens/camera pushes the limits of required shutter speeds. But then again, today's cameras offer very good high ISO performance and I find myself shooting at ISO800 very often without worry. I sometimes even push ISO1600 but at that high ISO, I tend to do a bit more post processing. A tripod is a good idea especially for those even longer and heavier lenses but I haven't needed to use one yet since a tripod or even a monopod will restrict your movements to a certain degree and when I shoot BIF, I tend to be everywhere.

...next up, CAMERA SETTINGS

40D_005488-8x10

2009-0829

2. CAMERA SETTINGS

All dSLR's today will have 3 light metering mode (shutterspeed/aperture combinations) similar to Canon's Av, Tv, and Manual modes. Av allows the photographer to control the aperture opening and having the shutter speed automatically set by the camera based on the available light meter reading by the camera. On the other hand, Tv allows you to set the shutter speed and allow the camera to set the aperture. Then there is the Full Manual mode which allows you the photographer to control and set both the Aperture and Shutter speed. Toss in an ISO setting which controls the sensitivity of the camera's sensors to light and you have a well refined tool to capture and expose a balanced amount of light onto your final photo. Sounds simple enough and it really is but the amount of light in any given BIF situation can change dramatically unlike studio photography where most light is artificial and well controlled by the photographer.

So what camera settings are optimal for BIF photography? There are as many schools of thoughts on this matter as there are metering modes on the camera to set, and many will use a combination for varying situations. For me, I started using Av and then gradually moved onto Tv. Some would argue this to be a step backward, but my argument is that by using Tv mode, I control the shutter speed to match the required shutter speed of BIF. If there isn't enough light, the worst that can happen is my photos are underexposed and to a certain degree, this can be corrected in Post Processing. Whereas if I was to use Av mode which allows me to control depth of field among other things, the worst that can happen is the shutter speeds get too low and I get a blurred photo. Well, I can't readily correct a blurred photo in post processing as I can with an underexposed photo. But even with underexposed photos, I am talking only about up to 1 stop of light, thereafter, even the best post processing techniques would have a difficult chance of saving the photo. For ISO, I am very confident in using up to ISO800, anything higher and I would hesitate but if you must get the shot and you don't have enough light, then by all means, use as much ISO as you need. The downside of high ISO settings is of course with the sensor's higher sensitivity to light comes a higher sensitivity to anomalies that show up in the photo as noise or grains of odd colors. To some degree, this noise can be corrected in post processing but at the same time, noise correction results in some level of image detail degradation (I know there's also been arguments here but that's for another blog :-) ). For BIF photography, using my 40D+400mm combo, I need a minimum of 1/1,250th of a second shutter speed. I oftentimes try to get as high as 1/1,600th of a second. Those with ice in their veins can get away with down to 1/800th of a second but I bleed red blood so I know my limitations. So to sum up so far, I use Tv mode, confidently use up to ISO800, and set my shutter speed anywhere from 1/1,250th to 1/1,600th of a second.

There are three other very important settings on the camera for BIF photography, namely the Focusing modes, the shutter burst modes, and the selection of AF points. For BIF photography, set your focusing mode to AI Servo. That'll allow the camera to continuously and automatically update the focus as you move your camera tracking the moving bird (assuming you have the moving bird locked on target). So a camera with a good AI Servo engine and reliable Auto Focus along with a fast focusing lens is essential for BIF photography. The 40D's AI Servo capabilities are sufficient but Canon's 1D series shine in this category as it does in most other categories. I also set my shutter to Multiple high speed shots. Multiple shots allow you to shoot an action sequence but it also allows you to shoot a series of photos of the same situation so that you have the option to choose the shot you like best later. Some have suggested that multiple shutter bursts also limits the effects of camera shakes, this may be true, at the very least, it gives you more chances of getting that perfect shot. The 40D again does decent with up to 6.5 fps and a buffer of up to 17 RAW files. Typically, I shoot about 2-3 bursts at a time unless I want to shoot an action sequence, then I shoot as many as the buffer will hold. Note the reason I shoot 2-3 bursts for non-action sequences is to conserve the camera's buffer. I tend to shoot those 2-3 bursts and then find I need to shoot 2-3 more bursts a couple seconds later and then again and again - you get the picture. You never want to use up your camera's buffer unnecessarily because as soon as you do, Murphy's Law requires that the perfect photo opportunity will appear and there is no worst feeling for a photographer to be waiting for your buffer to clear in this situation! Finally, for AF points, I select the center point only as this is normally the strongest AF point and the center makes finding your target in the viewfinder much easier.

...perhaps one more setting to identify. I shoot in RAW format. This allows me to fine-tune the photo in Post Processing using the originally captured data from the camera. If I was to shoot in JPG format, the camera would have already processed the photo, the original data would have been compromised, and my post processing workflow would not have a reliable starting point from the JPG file. So shoot RAW!

With the discussion on shutter bursts, I guess I've gotten ahead of myself and gotten a little into the next topic which is "Technique", next up "TECHNIQUE".....

40D_004005-8x10

2009-0902

3. TECHNIQUE

The most fundamental basis of technique for any given subject is to practice practice practice! Ask questions, then practice practice practice again! …and again! With this in mind, there are many varying techniques for BIF photography and I too am constantly learning, practicing, and asking questions. So far, my accumulated techniques are pretty simple and adhere to what I have found that works for me so this is by no means a means to an end but a starting point.

Start by making sure your camera is properly set up. Since I don’t use a tripod on my relatively light Canon 40D+400mm f/5.6 equipment, I hand-hold the camera which offers me the freedom to hike around and react quickly to a bird that may come out of the corner of my eye – and I am always looking for wildlife every which way including behind me (by turning around of course, I don’t have eyes behind my back…as of this writing! :-) ). I am right-handed so I hold the camera with my right hand pretty much in a normal fashion, and with my left hand I hold and support the long lens. When I see a bird coming into view, I quickly raise the camera+lens and start searching for the bird in the viewfinder. Since I keep the tripod collar on the lens, it offers me a nice flat surface to rest the lens onto my left hand palm, keeping my fingers extended and supporting the far end of the lens. Basically try to get a comfortable and balanced position. Finding the bird in your viewfinder is actually more difficult than it sounds especially if the bird is really close which is usually where you want the bird to be, but for beginners, maybe practice finding more distant birds as the view through your viewfinder will cover much more ground which makes it easier to find the bird. Once you’ve located the bird in your viewfinder, press the shutter button halfway and the camera’s Autofocus (AF) will try to lock onto an AF point where you are aiming the camera. But since you, your camera, and the bird are all moving at the same time, the AF might lock onto something else especially if you have a busy background. If this happens, quickly release the shutter button, find the bird again, and try pressing the shutter button halfway again to lock onto your target. If you are successful, there are two basic ways to continue the AF tracking. The obvious way is to keep the shutter button suppressed halfway and continue following and keeping your focus point on the bird and then pressing the shutter button all the way to take the picture when you find the composition appropriate. The other way, and this is my preferred method, is to release the shutter button but continue following the bird in the view finder with the focus point on the bird. Press the shutter button halfway a few times as you follow/track the bird to keep the bird in focus. When the bird gets close enough to the composition you are looking for, press the shutter button halfway again to lock focus but this time keep it suppressed halfway as long as you need, then continue to press the shutter button all the way to take the picture. This pressing and releasing of the shutter button as you track the bird in flight helps in reducing the chances of losing the AF lock to something in the background. Now since your camera is set to shoot multiple bursts, keeping the shutter button all the way down while continuing to track the bird will result in multiple shots until either you release the shutter button or your camera’s buffer fills up. As I eluded to earlier, I tend to shoot in bursts of 2-3 then releasing the shutter button back to its halfway point, continue tracking the bird, and when another nice composition appears, I again shoot another 2-3 bursts. Repeat until the bird is out of range. Oh, by the way, all this happens in about a few seconds window. :-)

A few perhaps debatable tips…

- Before a bird even comes into sight, prime your AF to a point close to where your birds will be coming from by pointing at something in that area and pressing the shutter button halfway then releasing it. This will allow you to have a pretty close focal area when the birds do arrive instead of a big blur!

- When I track a bird in my viewfinder, the prescribed focal point on the bird is the eye but since the eye is such a small target, I don’t worry too much about focusing exactly on the eye. Instead, since the eye is in a fairly close focal plane as the face and body while the bird crosses perpendicularly to my sight of view, I’m ok with focusing on the head/body at this angle. When the bird is coming towards my perpendicular view, the body is a bit askew but the head still offers a pretty close focal plane to the eye of the bird. As the bird flies away from my perpendicular view and if I wanted that angle for my shot (which I seldom do since it is not a very pleasing angle), I try to again focus on the head.

- For beginners and for practice, find a nice slow flying plentiful bird species like seagulls which are in vast numbers in my neck of the woods, and try to shoot them as much as you can. When I first started shooting BIF, I shot probably a few hundred seagulls everytime I went out shooting. Shoot anything that moves too! That’s one of the beauties of modern day Dslr’s, you can shoot as many shots as you like and it costs virtually nothing (except for the count against your camera’s shutter life which tends to be anywhere from 50K to 300K depending on your camera).

That’s it for Techniques for now. If I think of anything else, I will update this post. …next up, POST PROCESSING.








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Before and After Photographs Some Recent Photo Artwork by Wing Tong of Wingsdomain

October 30th, 2010

Before and After Photographs Some Recent Photo Artwork by Wing Tong of Wingsdomain


I was recently inspired to produce some night scenes, most with the moon, using some of the 10,000+ photographs I have in perpetual storage. It was probably no coincidence that the inspiration for these night+moon scenes came when Halloween is just around the corner. Most of the techniques I used can be found in one of my prior posts, "Revitalizing Uninspired Photos into Interesting Photography and Artwork". I was a little surprised myself by the results (in a good way). I even made one into a Christmas card which I will use this year. Below are the before and after images, take a look and any and all comment are welcome.

Before



After(s)
Photography Prints


(added a subtle shadow of Santa with his Reindeers pulling him on his sleigh, as the only "Witnesses", the cows, stare in wonderment)
Photography Prints






Before



After
Art Prints






Before



After
Sell Art Online






Before



After
Sell Art Online






Before



After
Sell Art Online






By Wing Tong
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* If you like any of the photos on this blog, pick on them to purchase a Fine Giclee Print from Fineartamerica.







Revitalizing Uninspired Photos Into Interesting Photography and New Artwork

September 30th, 2010

Revitalizing Uninspired Photos Into Interesting Photography and New Artwork

"So what do you do with 20,000 photos? Keep them in storage until future aliens discover and use them to piece together the human civilizations of the past? Perhaps. But perhaps you can make better use of them for some more immediate creative artwork. This blog will introduce some of the artwork I have been able to create, mostly from those remaining 16,000 unused photos that were slated for alien abduction!"




By Wing Tong
© All Contents Copyright
www.wingsdomain.com
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Fine Gliclee Prints from FineArtAmerica.com
Posters and Tshirts from Zazzle.com


* If you like any of the photos on this blog, pick on them to purchase a Fine Giclee Print from Fineartamerica.


Shooting digital sure makes it easy to learn and enjoy the art of photography. You can take as many pictures as you like, experiment with your shots and immediately learn from your experiences every time. You're not limited so much by the cost of disposable materials of the past like film and dark room equipments and chemicals. You're only limited by the lifespan of your camera's sensor which is anywhere from 50,000 to 300,000 actuations depending on your camera model, YMMV. When I got my first digital SLR camera, a Canon Rebel 350XT, I shot over 10,000 pictures the first year alone, most of which were of our newborn baby which was the original motivating factor in getting a dSLR. Since that first Canon Rebel, I've also owned the Canon 40D and now the Canon 7D. All tolled, I'd say I've shot about 20,000 pictures in the last 3-4 years! Of course not all of those are "keepers", in fact, I present only about 400 of those 20,000 pictures. That's about a 2% rate! I'm either just very picky or a bad photographer!? Well, for better or for worst, I've kept all those 20,000+ photos and it's a good thing disk storage is not so expensive these days. So what do you do with 20,000 photos? Keep them in storage until future aliens discover and use them to piece together the human civilizations of the past? Perhaps. But perhaps you can make better use of them for some more immediate creative artwork. This blog will introduce some of the artwork I have been able to create, mostly from those remaining 16,000 unused photos that were slated for alien abduction!

So far, I've used 3 primary means of creating new artwork from my old photos. There are more, but I just haven't been creatively motivated to try them, so please don't use this blog as gospel, it is only where I'm currently at with my photo creations. The first creative use of my old photos is simply and obviously to "Clean and Enhance" the photograph. The second is kind of a continuation of the first, and that is to give the photograph a "Creative Crop". The third is to create a completely new work by "Photo Composites".

Clean and Enhance


When I first started shooting digital, I couldn't understand the world of post processing and how one can sit through so many images just to process them, which in my case would be 20,000+ in 3-4 years. I shot in the jpg file format the first year but then one day I started playing with the RAW file format just to see what it was all about. It was an immediate epiphany. I know some would argue, if you shot the photo correctly in the field, you wouldn't have to shoot RAW and you wouldn't have to post process it. To that, I say apples to oranges. Look at post processing as the darkroom of the old masters and the RAW files their negatives. Traditionally, photographers shot their photos in the field as perfectly as they can then brought the negatives back to their darkroom and made magic from it! And as much as we think we can shoot perfectly with digital, the fact is, most are nowhere near perfection especially with little or no photography experience. And even the old masters used the darkroom to their advantage as part of their photographic process. But I digress. The point is, post processing or editing a photograph is a vital part of photography just as the darkroom was in the "old" days.

I recently spent some time going through my old photos and found a number of photos that I thought had new found artistic value. This had alot to do with my better understanding of post processing and editing of photos, but it also had as much to do with my ever changing artistic vision. When I first started shooting in digital, aside from shooting my newborn (hmmm, this phrase can be miscontrued! lol), I was infatuated with shooting birds and specifically birds in flight. I shot alot of other subjects as well, but they seldom made it to my "keep" pile. Luckily I kept my "not interested" pile in digital storage which as I see it now, has become my palette! And that is the beauty of this whole process, creating artwork from something that was once thought to have no artistic value!

The Cleaning and Enhancing process involves little more than the knowledge I accumulated as I post processed my photos for the past few years. I shoot with a Canon camera and the camera came with 2 primary software that I use to do my editing, they are Digital Photo Pro (DPP) and Zoombrowser (ZB). I also use Photoshop (PS) to do some things that the Canon software can't do. I use DPP primarily for post processing RAW files so it has little application in the Cleaning and Enhancing of photographs for the sake of this blog. I do however use ZB pretty extensively as it is easy to use and does about 80% of what I need it to do. I first start off lowering the brightness as I've found most of my photos to be too bright and washed out to begin with. Then I add contrast and try to get a good balance between brightness and contrast without completely killing all the midtones. I know there is a scientific way to do all this especially if you use PS, but I tend to rely on my eyes which if nothing else will give a more personal attribute to the process and the final finished artwork. Just by using these two tools, the image starts to pop! If I wanted more drama, I may lower the brightness down a bit more and increase the contrast. This usually has the effect of darkening the background while highlighting the subject in the foreground. For added effect, the saturation tool does wonders but I am always hesitant to use it as my eyes tend to want bright saturated colors but the world and the printed photo seems to be in the opposite! If the photo requires some cloning to get rid of unwanted spots, I would bring it into PS since ZB doesn't have a cloning tool. The final step in my Clean and Enhance process is to add as much sharpness to the photo as the photo will take before digital noise starts to become a problem.

In addition to basic Clean and Enhance techniques, alot of creativity can be realized through PS by using their filters and other third party filters, but we won't get into that here since all we want to do here is Clean and Enhance the photo. Further, truth be told, I seldom use filters. Most of my photo artwork is accomplished by using simple PS editing tools like the aforementioned brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpening tools but using them in an exaggerated manner such as I did in "The Eye of the Tiger" below:



At this point, readers may ask, so why don't you just use PS instead of ZB? Well, as well organized as PS is, it has alot of stuff that I don't need and which ultimately makes PS a little more difficult to use when most of what I need to do can be achieved by ZB alone. Also, PS is a relatively expensive software while ZB is free if you've already bought the Canon camera anyhow. I may not always have PS in the future, but as long as I buy the Canon camera, I will always have ZB.



Creative Crop

Next, we look at Creative Crop which is one of the easiest ways to get more artistic value out of your photographs. I generally perform a creative crop on all my photos in post process these days but there are alot of old photos that I did not bother to crop. And you'd be surprised to see what a simple photo cropping can do. It is as much a personal artistic expression as it is a formulated process. But for me, the formulated process has always given me what the next photographer had to offer so I force myself to try cropping the photo in ways I would otherwise not want to do. It's somewhat hit and miss but as soon as you "hit" it, you know you've created something special. Again I use ZB for this process as it allows me to quickly create a cropping window and move it around the photo and crop it at will. If I find I don't like the crop, I can do it all over again. In other words, I can experiment with the cropping and see it visually without obliterating the original. If I find I need to rotate/straighten the photo, I would use PS since ZB does not offer that tool. Of couse, there is just so much image you can crop before you cannot print it at any reasonable size anymore. So a high resolution camera with a professional grade lens is a must. My three cameras are 8mpix for the 350XT, 10mpix for the 40D, and 18mpix for the 7D. Unfortunately the older photos that I am renewing by Creative Crop are mostly of the 8 and 10 mpix variety so I am somewhat mpix-challenged. Also, it doesn't make sense to crop a photo very much if the original image is not sharp to begin with since cropping will have the effective result of enlarging your photo for the same size print as you would with the original. And enlarging a blurry photo is not pretty...then again, if you think the glass is half full, you may create something interesting from the blurred photo as well - there is no limit to creative photo editing!

Below are photos that I've performed Creative Crop on.


1. White Flower 2


2. Eyes Through the Canyon of Time


3. Fabio


4. St Patricks Catholic Church SF



Photo Composites

So far we've been making an existing mediocre photo into something photographically more interesting just by cleaning and enhancing and cropping the photo. Now we really get creative and have some fun while we're at it. Photo Composites can create whole new worlds and elusions that will astound your viewers. You are limited only by your imagination and your stockpile of photographs which in my case numbers around 16,000. What once was slated for either alien invasion or the trash can now becomes your palette! I found the below landscape photograph I took a few years back that was somewhat interesting in its own right but always lacked a focal point or enough points of interest to keep my attention, so I basically scrapped it at the time.



As I looked at this photo recently, I found it had some unique features like fog, water, and some interesting pointed rock formations. So I went into Clean and Enhance mode thinking I can get a photo with more pop and interest. I tried a number of different editing combinations on the photo, but they all left something to be desired. It needed something that didn't exist in the photo. The photo itself was misty and somewhat dark which led my eyes to see a moon in the scene. So the process of photo composites began. One of the assets I do possess is a form of photographic memory. I tend to remember everything I see but not so much in remembering names, so if I've met you once before and I run into you in a future date, my acknowledgement to you would usually be "how are you!?" Which really means, I don't remember your name! LOL The point is, I can remember what's on each of those 16,000+ photos I have, the challenge now is to find the image of the moon within that 16,000+ photo palette of mine! Before I added the moon, I also resized the photo vertically without keeping its ratios so that the resultant photo is stretched vertically since the moon needed some space to keep it in the picture. I normally would not recommend stretching a photo as this tends to be a little tricky and can only be done in certain scenes like landscape without creating something that looks obviously wrong. You wouldn't want to stretch a person for example! The pixels in the photo can do weird things too when you stretch a photo. But in the case of my photo, I think it came out ok and it actually added some drama to the rock formation in the background. These are some of the procedures and thought processes I go through on a continual basis, alot of it is trial and error since you are trying to create something that doesn't exist. So it is important to know how to use your editing tools well and mix and match them in order to get the results you want. By the way, I pulled out the big Photoshop gun for this photo editing exercise as Zoombrowser simply does not have these more advanced editing tools. Below is the photo stretched into a portrait orientation with the moon inserted, along with a series of darkening, contrasting, and sharpening. It became an interesting mystical landscape I named "Moon Over Rodeo Beach" as the landscape photo was taken at Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands, California.



So the next day I came back to the edited photo as I oftentimes do to see if I can do more to further enhance it. As a landscape scene, I thought it was fine. But then with its mystical atmosphere, I started seeing animals in it! Yes, a mystical menagerie of sorts. So again, I dug into my 16,000+ photo palette and found a number of animal photos I could use for the scene. The first part of any composite is to carefully select around the subject you want to use and leave the rest of the photo behind. The magic wand tool in PS works well if the background is more or less of a single color like it was with the moon. But with these animals, the background was too busy with random imagery so I used PS's lasso tool to carefully and painstakenly surround the image of each animal which I then copy and paste onto the landscape photo. Once in the landscape photo, the animal images had to be blended into the scene so that it looks natural, as if it always was part of the scene. This blending process involved a series of darkening, contrasting, and desaturating of each animal. Below is the finished artwork I named "The Menagerie".




And just to have some more fun with the artwork I've created, I performed a Creative Crop on it and got the below artwork I call "The Menagerie 2". It gives you a closer look at the animals and without the moon, it becomes a slightly different night light scene.








The fun and imagination doesn't have to stop there, below is another piece of artwork using the same landscape background but with flying pelicans which I named "Three Pelicans".














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