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The lizard filters the best of photography for you! Follow it on #photolizard or with rss

Monday, January 31, 2011

Somewheeeeeeere over the rainbow

Today is a special day, and I want to share happy things! You can listen to the Judy Garland version while browsing this blog, but not the dead hawaiian guy's version please...

~ Stormy Sunset Moon-bow ~ <i><b>~ Above the storm,  the moon rises guiding the day into a new night. ~</b>  Happy Thursday all flickr friends and hope your day is going well.  The corporate phone line has been ringing and it
~ Stormy Sunset Moon-bow ~ by ©viamoi


Flying Rainbow hello there everyone i chased this lil butterfly for like .. an hour to take this picture i hope it worth it :)     <b>The work contained in my gallery is copyrighted ©2006-2008 Ahmed AlDhaheri. All rights reserved. My work may not be reproduced, copied, edited, published, transmitted or uploaded in any way without my written permission. My work does not belong to the public domain.</b>
Flying Rainbow by ©Ahmed S AlDhaheri


Mount Fuji @ Sunset Taken in Yamanaka Lake, one of Fuji
Mount Fuji @ Sunset by ©See Tatt Yeo


Circumhorizontal Arc <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumhorizontal_arc">Circumhorizontal arc</a>.
Circumhorizontal Arc by ©Jeff Kubina


Iridescent Clouds 〜彩雲〜 Iridescent clouds appeared in the sky on this day of 2005. 2005年の今日、上空に現われた色の濃い珍しい彩雲現象です。
Iridescent Clouds 〜彩雲〜 by ©Pixie Led


Rainbow 20080521_1608-b <a href="http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=2513396862">View On Black</a> <b>Provinciehuis Zuid-Holland, den Haag (Holland)</b> Een waterval uit een wand. Dus eigenlijk meer een Watermuur. Dit kunstwerk is sinds vandaag -21 mei 2008- weer in werking gesteld na een aantal jaren erg stil te zijn geweest. Het is een feest voor het oog van de camera. Vooral bij zonlicht, dan vormen de kleine druppeltjes regenbogen in de bijbehorende kleuren. Gaat dat zien.
Rainbow by ©pieter musterd


Arco Iris Volviendo de Córdoba tuvimos la suerte  de contemplar este impresionante fenómeno meteorólogico. La intensidad en la parte izquierda era tan fuerte que, como se aprecia en la foto superior, parecía comerse literalmente las casas...
Arco Iris by ©Miguel Angel


Some Rainbow Over the Where
Some Rainbow Over the Where by ©Jean Wang


Rainbow drops I have wanted to try this out for a long time and recently this picture <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/jo92/2983483441/">here</a> inspired me to try.
Rainbow drops by ©Laura O'Halloran


LightPaint Rainbows
LightPaint Rainbows by ©THOR


Wave An exhibit at the Science Museum in London, comprising of materials stacked together and cut into a wavy pattern.  Featured here: <a href="http://www.mada.org.il/kids/questions-materials" rel="nofollow">www.mada.org.il/kids/questions-materials</a>
Wave by ©Saxon


Rainbow It was golden hour on Saturday, so I had my camera stuff out. I asked my 8 year old son to come up with something to shoot. He concocted this arrangement--crayons in the colors of the rainbow laid on top of aluminum foil to create interesting highlights/reflections. He then got out my gold reflector and shined it down from above to create a &quot;double sun&quot; effect.  I thought this was an outstanding compositional idea.   Details: handheld, late afternoon, diffused light from window plus reflector from above, straight out of the camera--no post-processing.
Rainbow by ©John Morgan


Jupiter
Jupiter by ©Jake Kitchener


Portrait of a Rainbow Finch @ 85mm <i>Gouldian Finch</i>  The Gouldian Finch, Erythrura gouldiae (or Chloebia gouldiae), also known as the Lady Gouldian Finch, Gould
Portrait of a Rainbow Finch @ 85mm by ©Raymond Larose




Miami - sunrise Canon 40D + Canon 17-40mm f/4L
Miami - sunrise by ©MARCOS VASCONCELOS


Rainbow Have a happy weekend!!周末愉快.............
Rainbow by ©Johnny OuYang


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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Miniature like photography

When it comes to pictures, everything is possible, either at capture time or at postprocessing time.
There is an effect that consists in making a regular-size scene look like a miniature scale scene. Most of the time it is referred to as tilt-shift photography, but actually tilt shift is not limited to miniature-like photography. You can get this effect either with a lens that tilts (change the angle between lens and camera) and shifts (change the position of the lens without changing the angle), or with a postprocessing operation (after the photo was taken). It's really fun!

If you want to experiment, you can use photoshop, use an iPhone application like tiltshift generator (there is an application for that) or an online app (I believe camera+ does it too).

Check out these creative commons photos.
Miniature Fair Miniature World in Victoria, BC
Miniature Fair by ©Gillian


Miniature A miniature traffic scene. This is a fake <a href="http://www.cheapshooter.com/2007/08/24/tilt-shift-photography-its-a-small-world-after-all/">tilt-shift photo</a> taken in Gothenburg, Sweden, from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liseberg">Liseberg</a> amusement park tower.
Miniature by ©Gillian


Tilt Shift Construction Shot from the Duke Energy building in Cincinnati, OH. Subject is the parking lot construction site next to the Reds Stadium
Tilt Shift Construction by ©By Scot Campbell [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons


Oregon State University Civil War Football Game Tilt-Shift Miniature Oregon State University Civil War Football Game Tilt-Shift Miniature
Oregon State University Civil War Football Game Tilt-Shift Miniature by ©Gregkeene


Royal wedding in tilt shift guards at slottsbacken in fake tilt shift
Royal wedding in tilt shift by ©I99pema (from photo of Janwikifoto)


Grundsund miniatyr Grundsund in fake Tilt shift
Grundsund miniatyr by ©I99pema


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Saturday, January 29, 2011

A word about white balance

You may have bought yourself the best digital camera in the world, yet if you don't understand white balance, some pictures might result in bluish people, redish colors, in other words "wrong" colors. I am sure you have seen pictures like this.

What happens? Why does your camera renders pictures this way?

Lily-M7292-As-shot-and-manual.jpg Photograph of a lily, both as shot and manually white-balanced
Lily-M7292-As-shot-and-manual.jpg by ©Fg2


White Balance

White Balance is the adjustment that corrects colors seen by the camera so that white (or neutral colors) is actually rendered white. This sounds trivial, why would white appear not white?

Possible causes

I see two answers to that question.
First, the lighting. All lights do not have the same color: we call that the "temperature". For example, an incandescent light bulb usually spreads a warm light. A candle burns with an even warmer light. Although human eyes may still recognize the "true" colors, the lighting changes the way colors are seen, and cameras may not render a scene the way you felt it.

Second source of errors is the influence of surrounding colors. Take a neutral grey pair of jeans. Wear them with a blue shirt, and blue shoes. Ask a friend what color are your pants. Come back a few days later (after you washed it) with the same pair of jeans, but wear red clothes. Ask the same friend what color your pants are. They might be good and recognize the pants, but they might see a different colors of pants!

How to adjust White Balance

Fortunately, nowadays cameras are smart, although they cannot compete with our eyes. By default, cameras are set to auto white balance, which means they handle the white balance by themselves, figuring it out from what they "see". In natural light (sun, moon), most photos should be OK with this setting.

There are other settings. Depending on the scene's light, you can select presets to fit with it. Most common presets inclue Tungstene, Fluorescent, Daylight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade. All these settings represents different situations with different temperature of lighting.
Some cameras allow more accurate settings by letting you choose the temperature directly. I don't want to go to far in the details, I let you visit other articles for precisions (see end of this note) on temperatures. Just know candle light is about 1000K to 2000K and shade can go up to 9000K to 10 000K.



Another interesting option is custom white balance. When present, this setting lets you give a sample of a neutral color, to be used by your camera as a reference. This is the most accurate possibility, if your reference is good.
I don't know how it works on all cameras, but on my Canon 500D, I take a picture, display it on the screen, go in the menu and select custom white balance. As easy as that. The only difficulty is that your reference photo should be taken with same lighting condition as your subject.

Last chance to set a correct white balance is by processing your RAW. Yes, you need to take photos in RAW format (you should always do!). All good software which handle RAW files can change the white balance of the picture. I find it impressive to be able to do that after the photo was taken!

Remaining problem

There is a remaining problem. What happens when you want to take a picture of a scene with different light sources? For instance if you take a scene with a subject on the foreground enlightened with an artificial light, and a background which has a natural light? A problem, that's what! With your camera, it is not possible to correctly render all parts of the photo, you need to choose which part you want to focus on (or if a camera can do both, please let me know!).

More

These articles will tell you more about white balance:

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Friday, January 28, 2011

wrooooom


wrooooom ©Till Krech

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

365: Olivia Bell

When I have to face a challenge, I always feel the first half is the hardest part. I am sure Olivia Bell must feel relieved to get to the second half of her 365 project.

Taking a photo a day is challenging, but then there is processing and uploading, which includes finding a title and writing a description. It is quite a tough project to fit in, no wonder she hesitated to start it.

Half way is a good time to take a quick scan behind and see how it looks. Olivia Bell told me she feels her project has strengthened her photography, made her eyes see more than ever before. You can have a hint on my point of view by checking the numbers on the photos I selected: they are mainly recent pictures.

I wanted to talk about this project because it has something different from the other 365 I wrote about. It is both in the photographs and the processing done: it has a girly touch!

Olivia Bell (facebook | @oliviabell) - 365 project

The Sunshine Field - Day 28/365 Day 28/365  Back to what I call &quot;The Cobweb Field&quot;, it
The Sunshine Field - Day 28/365 by ©Olivia Bell

I
I'm in a fog - Day 123/365 (explore) by ©Olivia Bell

After the Fog... Day 126/365 (explore) Day 126/365  Finally out of this fog - we had some beautiful, bright red and orange sunshine. It was just wonderful to see it after such a long time!    Apparently we
After the Fog... Day 126/365 (explore) by ©Olivia Bell

Hiding under the covers a little longer... Day 145/365 Day 145/365  I love the few quiet days after Christmas. They
Hiding under the covers a little longer... Day 145/365 by ©Olivia Bell

Igniting Hope for 2011 - Day 149/365 (explore) Day 149/365  Not only is January 1st 2011 tomorrow, so is Day 150 - woohoo!  I
Igniting Hope for 2011 - Day 149/365 (explore) by ©Olivia Bell

Holding On Tight - Day 169/365 (explore) Day 169/365  I think it
Holding On Tight - Day 169/365 (explore) by ©Olivia Bell

Distracted - Day 174/365 Day 174/365  Something very interesting going on to the right... I wonder what it was? :D  My lovely little Tigerlily - she
Distracted - Day 174/365 by ©Olivia Bell

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Wednesday, January 26, 2011

24 Gorgeous photos of Golden Gate Bridge

All the photos below have a creative commons license.
Enjoy & share!


The Golden Gate Bridge by ©Camilo Rueda López


Golden Gate Moonrise by ©Anita Ritenour


Golden Gate by ©David Salafia



nebel teilen by ©Rupert Ganzer


Golden Gate Bridge by ©Paul Hart


riveting by ©Paul Hart


Glow in the Dark by ©Mike Behnken


Glow by ©Edwård


Golden Gate Bridge -05 by ©Akaporn Bhothisuwan


Golden Gate Bridge by ©digitonin


passing golden gate by ©Aslak Raanes


San Francisan Rhapsody by ©Brent 2.0


Golden Gate Bridge Tilt Shift by ©Alan Levine


Golden Gate bridge in the fog by ©Chris Willis


A drive under shot of the Golden Gate bridge through the sunroof in the civic by ©Nate Bolt


Golden Gate Sunset by ©Kevin Wong


Golden Gate Bridge Wire Ropes by ©Nick Harris


Golden Gate bridge in the fog by ©Chris Willis


pfeiler im nebel by ©Rupert Ganzer


Northern Pylon, Golden Gate by ©Erik Ogan


golden gate - desktop background wallpaper by ©(matt)


Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco by ©Gleb Tarassenko


Golden Gate Bridge from Lincoln Beach by ©Hollywata

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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

17 Silhouette photos

I can't help thinking about the song Distant skies when hearing the word "Silhouette". Now I will have images on mind as well! ♪Silhouettes, in the sky♫...

Birth
Birth by ©Alonso Diaz



When the sun goes down by ©Jacobo Fraga


Yesterday is gone, Today is now, Tomorrow perhaps never comes ... by ©Rui Almeida


Enjoy The Silence by ©Jueno [ Ricey ]


Candlelight Sunrise by ©Lutz B.


CuiBap - Grow Up. [ Explored Frontpage #18 ] by ©Chisttin Ng


joyously. by ©Kevin van der Leek


Riding the Clouds by ©Todd Klassy



Requiem For Abandoned Souls [01] by ©Chris Dessaigne


Ninja portrait by ©Zach Dischner


Red Deer by ©Ryan Hasselbach



Daniell Playing in Silhouette (UNEDITED) by ©AnNamir


Air Guitar by ©Dylan Kitchener


252.365 - The Dunes by ©Universal Stopping Point

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