To all ye who want to paint with light ...

I should have started this blog many moons ago as I started experiencing the joys of rediscovering the art of photography. But as the saying goes - it's better late, than never!
So, here I am, in the hopes of recording what I learn as I progress from ignorance to enlightenment; about what my eyes can see that my camera can capture; and, what my mind imagines and my camera paints with its capabilities.

Please feel free to add any comments and share your wisdom (tips or tricks) that you have picked up along the way.

And do check out my How-To and Birding pages as well.


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Day 20 - A small PSE8 accomplishment

I'm finally starting to wrap my head around Photoshop Elements 8!  Yay!  I was feeling really lazy this morning and needed to get my kitchen and dining room cleaned up after last evening's party.  Instead, I got chatting with an old and dear friend who gave me all kinds of ideas about photography - the most important message being that I should start signing all my photographs.  I have to admit, I had been thinking on those lines for a while myself, but I was too apprehensive of giving it another shot after the last failed attempt.  But I heeded the advice and decided to try doing it again - and bam!  There it was - one minor conquest!

So, now my photos (not that they are all pieces of profound art) will be signed. ;-)  I also learned to apply some minor edits to the photos while still in PSE8.  I hope to cover that realm slowly but surely.

I didn't have too much energy for photos, but I had to do something.  I had bought this pack of drinking straws on Friday, and while waiting for the bus (which I spoke about 2 posts ago), I suddenly saw the pattern through the straws.  It looked like a kaleidoscope and I instantly knew what I wanted to do with it.  But since it would require the use of a tripod, and I don't have mine with me right now, I thought I'd be a little less ambitious and try something really plain.  And it turned out plain alright.

I cleared up a bit of space on my glass-topped table, and tried to get the reflections of the packet of straws.  However, there were too many distractions and shadows and I was dealing with really low light conditions since it was grey and snowy outside my window and I only used natural light for this series.

Here are the four best ones (out of about ten):


Regular shot, with my 18-55 mm kit lens


This was shot using the C-PL which cut out the reflections you can see in the shot above.


This had the polarizing effect turned off on the filter.  I wanted to test how the reflection of the pack of straws would look with or without the C-PL.  Turns out there was a fair amount of glare and other distractions in the reflecting image.  You can also see the glare from the background. 



This had the C-PL turned on - less reflections.  The glare in the background is much lesser on this one because the C-PL always brings down the exposure a couple of stops, eliminating the glare.

I am now pretty much sold on the polarizer being a really neat tool to have indoors as well, when shooting reflecting objects. 

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