A different way of sharpening your images

I sometimes cringe when I see how photos have been sharpened. It is just so easy to overdo a good thing! Most images, no, all images benefit from a little sharpening. Sharpening is the very last thing that is to be done after working on any colour correction or even major manipulation such as cloning. Photoshop has all sorts of ways in which you can sharpen your images but I am going to show you with pictures one of the lesser used methods that actually does an amazing job. Another great thing is that it is so easy to do.
First make a duplicate layer of the picture by holding the Ctrl key down and hitting the letter J.
In the Layers Palette change the blending mode (top left) to Overlay. The results look absolutely horrific, but don't panic yet!From the menu (along the top of the screen) select FILTER scroll down to the bottom of the mail list and hover over OTHER and click on High Pass.In the preview window your image looks rather like embossed pewter. Move the slider around to see what happens. For my image I chose a number a little over 9 pixels. If the Preview radio button has a tick in it you will see the actual results on your mail image.
Click OKIn the layers palette click the eye beside the layer off and on so that you can see the before and after results. When you feel that this is what you really want, flatten the image.
The reason I like this method of sharpening is because you do not get the halo effect that happens with the Smart Sharpen or the other Sharpen methods. Take a look at this detail of the same picture done two ways.The one on the left was done using High Pass and the background is smooth as well as there being no dark halos around the pink petals. In the image on the right you might be able to see the dark line all around the petal and curly stamens - the centre enlargement is from the image on the right. In that you can clearly see the "noisy" background and the dark edge all around the bit of flower. For me that is all I need to see to encourage me to use the High Pass method of sharpening.
AJ

King Parrots make a visit

As I have written in previous posts, I am visited daily by a collection of birds - lorikeets and finches. We have noticed that whenever we (Colin and I) sit down at our outdoor table for coffee or for lunch, the birds take that as a signal to fly in to feed too. Maybe the finches assume that with our presence at the table that no large aggressor will swoop down and disturb them. Perhaps they do because we can observe that they will feed in ones and twos when we are indoors spying on them through the windows but they are in large numbers when we move outside and sit down at the table.

This afternoon we had an unexpected treat.

It was the distinctive whistle that made us look up. Colin started to imitate the call and into a nearby tree flew a male King Parrot. Hoping that we could persuade him to come closer I removed the wire cage over the feed dish - this keeps the larger birds, such as cockatoos, away.

I added a handful of sunflower seeds to the dish and unleashed the camera.

We didn't have to wait long. First the King Parrot landed on a tree right beside the veranda and I took this shot of him.

Showing no fear of us at all he then flew onto the feed dish and really enjoyed himself among the sunflower and small budgie seeds. Wifey flew down to join him and she too tried to eat from the dish but the lorikeets must have realised they were missing out on something and two of them flew down and chased the timid female off the dish. She attempted to return a few times but her courage failed her and she flew over to the creeper covered stump, allowed me to take her picture and then flew away followed soon after by her handsome mate.

We may not see this pair again so I really made the most of this photo opportunity!

AJ

Fireworks in Broadbeach

Last night I went out with the express intention of discovering how effective the Camera preset for Fireworks actually was. So far I have been trying to use manual controls for my shots but this time I decided it was time for play. (I often make this same decision, so I shouldn't even mention it!) While I was eating my evening meal I prepared the camera and just to see what would happen I set the camera on its little tripod - a gorilla pod - and fired off a shot inside the Neicon Plaza of the statue to the Man from Snowy River. Apart from needing a little colour correction the result was not at all bad. Since I had not changed the WB from daylight, it isn't surprising that the picture was very orange before I worked on it.Inspired by the success of the setting I attached the legs of the Gorilla pod around a handrail out in the Mall and took a shot of the coloured lights, not too far away.
Again the results looked acceptable. Yes, the picture is dark but the colours are accurate and the people who were moving around in front of the camera are a blur and add a little foreground interest! Some people were standing quite still for the duration of the shot and they are quite sharp, even though they are silhouettes.
My next attempt with this setting was once I had found a suitable post to attach my gorilla pod to for when the fireworks began. I hoped that I would not end up with a crowd of people standing in front of me - and was lucky. They didn't! So I took a picture of the people who had arrived while the lights were still on and managed to get myself an "establishing shot" for the firework display.Now I felt confident that the camera was steady on the post and all I had to do was press the trigger and aim the camera in the right direction! I set the focus to a light that was some distance from me in approximately the distance I expected the fireworks to be and I was ready.
I took many shots of the fireworks and was quite excited at the results - they are very different to shots I have taken in the past and on another occasion I might try a shutter speed that is not quite as long and see how different they are. More pictures from this night can be seen here
AJ

Street parade in Surfers Paradise

Super GP is a series of car races and track events from October 23 - 26 and the rev heads have spent their days alongside the track watching the cars speed by. In the evenings there are other activities and I went along on the Friday evening to see a carnivale in the style of the brilliant ones held in Rio de Janiero with girls in skimpy costumes and lavish head dresses gyrate as they parade along the streets.

I had great fun with my camera attempting to get as many shots as I could of the gorgeous girls and the handful of men who were well and truly outnumbered!

There were several themes of costumes and I am showing only two of them.

Two of the males in the parade were dressed up as kangaroos and had springs on their feet to make them bounce along the road, they were hilarious and we all found them to be very entertaining.
I have many more pictures taken on that evening but I shall probably keep them to myself! They are not that brilliant - but fun all the same.

I learned something though and though I would pass it on because it will apply to point and shoot cameras as well as SLRs.

If the camera cannot find something to lock focus on the camera will not fire. With an SLR it is overcome by manually setting the focus.

With a point and shoot camera it is not easy to use manual focus so the solution is to aim the camera at something bright that the camera CAN see and lock the focus, then, while holding down the button turn back to the subject you want to take. With something as fast moving as theses two bouncing kangaroos it is going to be difficult to act fast enough. But that is the reason the camera will not fire in poor light; it cannot focus.

More shots from the Multicultural Day

Since today I have been tied to the computer in an attempt to learn a DVD authoring program called Adobe Encore - and slowly getting there! I have decided to brighten my day by sending three more pictures from the multicultural day. There were so many interesting cultures to learn about that I could have spent a lot of time going back and forth to the various displays because the program kept changing at each.
The first picture is of one of the Korean martial arts. Even small children were dressed up in this same fashion and were fighting with bamboo "swords" - trying to hit the opponent on the head. Many times they actually did hit but the headdress that is worn must cushion the blow. No one seemed to be distressed by the beating!
This pretty little girl is all dressed up in the national costume of her parent's homeland. I never managed to speak to the mother to find out where that was.I returned to the Japanese display after the musicians had gathered up their long harps and found a demonstration of the Geisha tea ceremony. It was all very dance-like, slow and deliberate and artistic too.
I find the customs and dress of people from different nations so fascinating and I really cannot get enough of learning about them.
What is interesting is that one of the groups will be putting on their own cultural day at the Southport Library in November so I will definitely be going along to that. I know absolutely nothing about Saudi Arabia so I will be "all ears" as well as full of questions. I hope that I will be allowed to take photographs because I really would like to do that.

What a difference a couple of days make

A few days ago I posted a picture of the new growth on the cycad plant in my back garden. Today when I went outside I noticed that there was a big difference.
Now we shall have to cut off all the old leaves so that when these new ones open out and drape down around the trunk they will look all fresh and green and not compete with the insect ravaged old leaves for attention.
These Cycads can be found growing wild among the trees of the forests of New South Wales and I have pictures of them among the natural bush of the north Queensland coast too. So they are very wide spread.
AJ

Another lighting effect

Once more I have been playing around in lighting effects, this time with "spotlight". Of course, with any effect it is possible to go "over the top" and get really bizarre effects but I am so conservative that I aim for the natural look!
We had a shower of rain this afternoon and I raced out to get a few shots of rain dampened flowers. A few spots of water on the petals always gives a great look! Rain does it so much better than a mist gun!
Anyway, with one of the shots - a rather gorgeous day lily - I thought I would have a play with the spotlight effect. The settings I used are shown above - I hope they are large enough that you can see the numbers I used? You can easily see how I pulled the ellipse about so that the bright effect was where I wanted it to be. If the ellipse is too narrow or too small the effect is much harsher.
I also clicked into the white colour picker squares and changed the colour to a light yellow to echo the colour of the flower. Stronger colours have a different effect so I recommend that you have a play!
Now take a look at the subtle difference I made to my picture. Maybe you feel it is too subtle? However every picture is created to the likes of the person in control of it - I work on my pictures so that I like them. Its a bonus if YOU like them too!

Another Photoshop effect to try

I thought it was about time I taught myself how to use a new filter in Photoshop. So after working quickly on a couple of pictures (after all this was just an experiment!) I duplicated the image and with the duplicate applied a lighting effect. You can see from the screen grab the settings I picked. The effect was rather good so I have included a couple of before and after shots to show how it looks when used.
To get to the lighting effects go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects and have a play! When the omni lighting effect is used - this is the one I particularly liked - it seems to have the effect of brightening in the area of the circle - which can be resized and moved too - and darkening the surrounds. Well the darkening is created by moving the "ambience" slider. This darkening is loosely like adding a vignette to the image.

Multicultural Day

Hot on the heels of Eurofest came the Multicultural Day, also in Surfers Paradise. Once again the day offered music and food and once again I was there with my camera to capture a few of the things that happened while I was there.I was fascinated with the displays that were put on for our entertainment by the Japanese Society. To begin with I watched the nimble fingers of a group of women as they played some unusual stringed instrument. The frets that hold the strings are relocated for each new piece of music. So that was interesting too. While the kimono clad ladies were playing their "harps" (for want of a name) a gentleman accompanied them on a bamboo flute.
Later I returned to the same stage to watch a traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony. As each of the movements was performed (the bowing, turning of the bowl, etc) a woman on a microphone attempted to explain what was being shown. Unfortunately the sound quality was very bad and that combined with her rather poor command of English pronunciation made understanding her very difficult.
Under another tent - storms had been forcast - the music was being played loud and fast for a very wiggly South American girl. She encouraged quite a few people to join her on her "stage" to learn the steps to a dance. It was amazing just how many did join her - but look at the faces, they are new Australians and haven't learned to be reserved like the rest of us! They had a ball!
So two fabulous fun and food filled days for me this weekend, I wonder how I can fill my time next weekend!
AJ

Eurofest - foods of many nations

Saturday was a hot and sunny day and perfect for driving out to join in with a festival that was being held in Surfers Paradise. The festival was called "Eurofest" and it was a celebration of food and music from Europe.We were greeted, on arrival with the exhilarating music of Spain and I had no trouble at all in getting near to the stage to take my photograph of the performers. They were extremely talented but I would imagine a little disappointed at the small number of people present at the time of their performance.Having arrived in time for lunch - deliberately! we lined up at the Hungarian tent to get ourselves a bowl of Goulash. There is no point in going to an event like this and not trying something a bit different. The meat was tender, the soup spicy and I found Colin to have plenty of room in his bowl for my unwanted chunks of potato! There was plenty of potato in the goulash! Potato, Carrot and meat were the only ingredients other than stock. We enjoyed it and then lined up at the Dutch tent for little pancakes with maple syrup and icing sugar. I cannot spell the name so I wont try to write it!
While we were sipping a coffee (we really did enjoy our lunch!) we had fun watching the German Umpah band (that's not their official name!) as they played the chicken dance and lots of jolly beer-drinking tunes.
I am not sure what it is about Australian audiences but they are very reserved! Only half a dozen children and one mother who remained seated, actually danced the chicken dance - I thought everyone knew it! I think back to the time when my boys were under ten (and not embarrassed by their mother's antics) and how I would join in and encourage them and many other children too, to join in. It was fun! Have people forgotten how to have fun?
AJ

Feed the birds.

Every morning without fail I feed the birds. The first of my feathered friends to arrive are the lorikeets and at this time of the year they are particularly noisy and in large numbers. Not only is is mating time but there are plenty of youngsters who are now out on their own that have learned that human hand-outs are worth screeching for! These lorikeets are supposed to mate for life and yet as I watch them they seem to flirt first with one bird and then, when she rejects him by flying off, they flirt with the next nearest female! After all the twenty years of feeding the birds I still cannot tell the difference between the sexes - its just as well they can get it right!
Once the lorikeets have taken their fill of sweet water and bread - I use raw sugar in water, it is natural and does not attract the bees as honey would. The birds love it - as you can tell! - the finches come in.
I put out budgerigar seed for the finches and manage to attract three different varieties. Red Brow, Double Bar and Chestnut Breasted. The picture I have included is of Chestnut Breasted finches, they usually come in flocks, they seem to be a far more sociable bird than the other two varieties of finch. However all the finches are flighty and take fright very easily. The Chestnut Breasted are by far the most timid and must have vivid imaginations! They scatter the seed everywhere when they panic to leave!
AJ

Spring on the Mountain

Spring is in the air! So many places are inviting garden lovers to visit them with special spring festivals or Open Gardens. Last week it was Toowoomba that was the subject for my camera (video) and this weekend it was a place much closer to home, Mount Tamborine. This time around I used the Nikon D70s and had a great time in the perfect sunlight capturing both wide angle shots of scenes as well as close up shots with wonderful bokeh (wonderful broken shapes in the background caused by the shallow depth of field) such as in my first photograph of cherry blossom.
The first garden I visited was actually the Botanic Gardens and the weekend was a fund-raiser for this new and developing garden. What has been done already is wonderful and it is a pleasure to wander around with a camera.
One part of the garden is devoted to palms and the light and shade created by the palms gives a wonderful atmosphere of being in a jungle. A raised boardwalk keeps the tramp of many feet off the soil so that water courses are not formed when there is a rainfall and also so that the roots of the trees are not damaged. There are companion organisms in the soil around the trees that could be destroyed with the weight of walking feet and raised walkways are very much a feature of some sensitive parts of National Parks too.
Yet another part of the Botanic Garden is devoted to the Japanese style of garden along with raked gravel and arched bridge with red uprights. Comparing this with the Japanese Garden in Toowoomba and the Japanese Garden in Cowra would not be very fair, this one gives the impression of being very new and not really very Japanese. But I would guess that things will change over the years and it will grow to be an impressive area.
More on the other gardens in another posting.
AJ