9 hours ago
Angry Robot BooksDay 70 TiltShift version
You know me and that TiltShift thing…
Sitting on a particularly long call today I grabbed yesterday’s mushroom picture and ran it through tiltshiftgen. Came out pretty decent.
Project 365 – Day 64
Not sure what this thing is, but it sure looked cool leaning up against a brick wall. Nice mix of clean metal and rust. Loved the industrial look of the recessed screws too.
Project 365 – Day 40
Once again I return to the iPhone, a parking lot, and TiltShiftGen. Like the light and angle in this one. One of these maybe I’ll get a Lens Baby for the Canon.
Project 365 – Day 34
Timed it just right this morning to catch the train again. Not by design mind you, but offered an opportunity for another shot of it shooting by. Processed with TiltShiftGen on the iPhone.
Project 365 – Day 33
Time to fall back on my good old tiltshift and iPhone. I am a sucker for taking a shot with the iPhone and then manipulating the image with TiltShiftGen, so here is another one.
Project 365 – Day 28
Stopped by a local used book store I like to check out every now and then. I don’t have the time to read nearly as much as I used to, but there is something about dropping in here and seeing what is on the new arrivals shelves I just can’t kick. Unlike most of the used bookstores in town this one Book Legger has pretty much anything, not just an abundance of romance. Don’t get me wrong they have plenty of those available, but they have a quality variety of everything else as well.
Project 365 – Day 26
Not a lot to say about this one. Went to meet a friend for dinner and found most of the parking garage empty (it was still early) at the local people-quarium. Took this shot with the iPhone after the regular perspective shots seemed blah remembered a conversation I had at work with a co-worker about low angle shots. So here we have low angle and tiltshiftgen on the iPhone.
Notes on Photography
I’ve always liked photography. The act of taking a picture and trying to capture something interesting I see. There is magic in that device. To successfully get what you see, what your brain thinks you see into the camera and then back out in some form is a lot harder than pointing and shooting. I am just starting to really learn a few of the basics and I think my images are getting better.
Oddly enough this process started with the iPhone 3G. The 3G has comparably a fairly crappy camera. Fixed focal length, average resolution and no flash. This turns out to be a good thing when you are trying to learn how to take “good pictures”. You are forced to use your feet to frame the shot you want. This flash of understanding is what is leading me to think about getting a straight 50mm lens for my DSLR. Maybe not having a zoom will force me to learn more about aperture and shutter. I know it will continue to move me forward in composition. If it doesn’t then I am not going to improve.
I’ve left this post collecting dust for a while and am just now returning to it after making it a couple of weeks into my attempt at a 365 photo project. So far I have a few good ones and a bunch of mediocre shots. Pretty much what I expected. Honestly I am not sure yet whether I have learned anything, but what it has done is get me taking pictures, sometimes in situations where I would have said “this might make a nice shot” and then never taken the picture to find out. I’ve also set up a little DiY “studio” for some macro shots. My setup is with black foam core board, tracing paper and a card table. This article provides the basic idea, my setup is just a bit larger.
Some other gadgets I picked up were must haves, particularly for those macro photos. Tripod (started with a cheap one), a remote shutter release, and the one I have yet to play with.. an intervalometer. The tripod and remote shutter release are things everyone should have. The most common problem I run into with my photos is shake. Sometimes shutter speed just has to be slowed down to get the right light in the lens, and even if you aren’t a nervous nelly, you are going to shake.
Biggest thing I’ve learned so far is you are not gonna get any better if you don’t practice. Pretty obvious, but gotta figure out how to get yourself following through.
Project 365 – Day 13
I needed to run by my doctor’s office today which is adjacent to the new hospital construction going on in Madison. Thought maybe the construction might present another excuse to use TiltShiftGen on the iPhone. The effect in both these shots was soso but I used the opportunity to then put them together in Diptic. The crane was just standing there idle pointing to the sky, and the lower levels of the building were dark and cold.
365 Project – Day 4
Ok, last tiltshift for a few days. Probably the last iPhone shot for a while too. I wanted to start out with what got me going with photography on a regular basis. More on that in another post later. For now this was an attempt to catch the vertigo these stairs produce when you go down them. The combination of paint and texture with a few treads tossed in that are non-standard and I am amazed no one takes a header going down them.
