MCT Images

Getting into Macro photography

Posted by Martin:

I've been on vacation the last couple of days, we went down to Nags Head for a few days.  But before that I bought my first macro-lens.  The EF 50 mm f/2.5 compact-macro from Canon.

Although this was the first time I have ever tried a macro lens, macro photography was a little harder than I thought.  A lot of the pics I took were slightly out of focus.  I read that macro photography does best on a tripod.  I can see why that might be.  But still I got some interesting and cool shots out of it already.

Photograph sale to support The Nature Conservancy and Habitat for Humanity

Posted by Martin:

I currently have two auctions running on eBay that I wanted to highlight.

The first is the Governor's Mansion from Colonial Williamsburg.  This sale will go to support Habitat for Humanity.

The second auction includes two photographs.  The first is called " Flying Rays", a shot of cow nosed stingrays at the Georgia Aquarium, and the second is of a sea dragon, also from The Georgia Aqaurium.  These photographs are being auctioned off together.  This auction will support The Nature Conservancy.

Please check them out.

If you are a seller on eBay, I would recommend checking out MissionFish, which is eBay's charity support site.  When you list an auction you not only get it listed on eBay, you also get it listed on MissionFish.  And studies have shown that items sold to support a charity get higher ending prices on average.

Please check out my eBay store, Tiller Photography and Gallery.

Discussion and comparisons on stock photography

Posted by Martin:

Can you guess which of these photographs is from istockphoto one of the bigger upstarts to the microstock business, and which one is from Corbis a full blown stock photography business that is about 17 years old?  Answer at the bottom.

Chris Garrett over at DSLRBlog is recording his attempts at microstock.  He is finding that it isn't as easy as it has been made out to be.

Wired is where this comparison image came from.  They are comparing istockphoto and Corbis.  It is a great exercise to really compare the two.  Go check it out it is a great article.

By the way the top photo is from istockphoto and the bottom is from Corbis.

Walter Stosch and Elliot Yamin event

Posted by Martin:

Two Saturdays ago I had the pleasure of working with Walter Stosch, the State Senator for the Richmond area.  He invited local celeb and former American Idol  contestant Elliot Yaminto Richmond to celebrate a passage or decree, I'm not sure what they call it, but Senator Stosch was stating how proud Virginia was for Elliot's success.

But the coolest part of the day was following Elliot to a local hospital where he visited with an ill patient who couldn't be at the autograph signing later in the day.  Elliot spent a lot of time with the patient and it really brightened their day, and the families.  He was very cool and easy to talk to the whole time.  Good for him.

Here are a couple of shots from the day.

James River Shots

Posted by Martin:

Digital Photography Schools new assignment is water shots.  Here are some shots I got last summer on the James River.  Hope you enjoy!

 

Abobe CS3 announcement on March 27

Posted by Martin:

OF course Photoshop CS3 is coming.  There will now be two versions regular and "extended" with the extended version being for video professionals, as it adds 3D work, and the ability to paint onto several frames at once apparently.

Photoshop Extended apparently was not a part of the beta release.

I would still like to have Lightroom included in CS3, but I guess I'll still have to buy separately...

Here is the link to the webcast announcement for March 27.

So are you excited?  How do you feel about the two different versions of Photoshop?

Cropping a pic to get the right image

Posted by Martin:

Sometimes when looking for an image we need to look into cropping a shot we already have.  This color shot on the left is the shot I started with.  In my mind I was looking for a dynamic image of this cross, consequently I closed down the f-stops to get the background to blur.  I got that, but I want a little more pop to the image.

I've been into making black and white images recently so I decided to try my hand with this one.

Mixing channels in monochrome, and then working in curves to get more detail in the shadows and more clipping in the bright areas.  After fiddling and trial and error I get an image I am pleased with, which got me to this:

I find this image to have more dynamic and moody look that I was originally looking for.  But this is a full frame 3:2 raw image, and I sell 8x10 prints.  I have sold straight 11.5x7.5 prints.  It's an odd size, but allow me to sell a complete frame.

But I thought I should see what I can get by cropping to 8x10, from there I get to this:

This image is a crop of the middle part of the above image, and yet it is similar, I think it gives a different feel, because the cross doesn't seem as skinny as the above images show.

I end up liking this image probably even more because it gives a less even feel to the arms of the of the cross, the outside parts seem bigger than the top and bottom sections.

Share what you think in the comment section.

Click on the image for a link to my eBay store.

My cats in the window

Posted by Martin:

Blatant fatherly 'pride' (oh the humor)....

My cats in the window.
I'm using this is as my lines entry in the Digital Photography School assignment for the week.  The diagonal lines of the bottom frame of the window, plus the blinds.  With added furriness!

I'm also offering this in my eBay store as well.  Check it out!

Smiling Beluga Whale: How I got the images

Posted by Martin:

This is an 8x10 print I just put up for sale in my eBay store.  I went to the Georgia Aquarium last March and I am still working through the photographs I took there.

I was pleased that I could get a shot of the whale almost smiling at the crowd.

But the original raw shot looked like this:
With a nice big head in the way.

Using the clone tool with a fairly large pixel setting, but with soft edges I was able to paint out the head and replace with blue water.  Sometimes using the clone tool, I find that you need to use very little pixels, as in 5-8, but because I was trying to replicate water I was able to use a bigger brush of about 15 pixels.

Although you really can't tell it in these thumbs nails, the original was fairly noisy due to the 800 ISO I was using to get the image.  Using Noise Ninja to reduce the noise, which was really distracting in the face of the whale and with a lot of noise in the water, I used settings as little as 1 in the luma strength of the filter.  When I first worked on this shot, I did too much noise reduction and it blurred the eyes of the whale, making it look more like a painting.

I'm pleased over all with how the pic came out.  The tank is huge and the whale was several feet above me, but I like how it shows the whales happiness.  This whale was taken from a Mexico park that couldn't take care of it, but it thrived for a while at the Georgia Aquarium, and I think this pic shows the animal's happiness at the time.  Unfortunately, it was already very sick and I read it had recently been euthanasied because of all it's previous ills.  I was very sad to read that.

MCT Images is located in Virginia, so I want to see great photography from Virginia

Posted by Martin:

Because MCT Images is located in Virginia I wanted to highlight some of Virginia's sites and beauty.  I have opened a blog carnival for people to send links to their best photographs from Virginia and about Virginia.

Black and White, or Color, digital or film, we accept all here.  Plus I would like to meet and hear from other photographers here in the state.

You don't have to live here to participate, just as long as the photograph was taken here in Virginia.

Click on the links provided below to submit to this blog.

Deadline is Friday March 9, 2007.