Category Archives: Photography

O’Reilly Network: Top Ten Digital Photography Tips – can’t remember linking to this but I’ve used some of the tips here. The trick with the sunglasses didn’t work too well, but then I didn’t understand that the sun had to be behind me! *doh*

Blackrock Morning

It was cold, ice formed on all the windscreens overnight yet I cycled up the hill to capture the morning sky a few days ago.
I was trying to capture the wonderful sunset I had spotted moments earlier as the sun crept over the distant hills but by the time I reached my spot the sun was well up over the horizon.
Instead I was treated to an absolutely blue and beautiful sky with a hint of the rising sun!
This image is the result of minor manipulation in the GIMP, I adjusted colour levels, brought the blue of the sky out a bit using 2 levels and the contrast tool, merging them in the middle. I hope you like my efforts!

Cataloguing Work Flow – one way to store your images.
I store the images off my digital camera as follows:

1. in $HOME/Docs/pics/ there’s a directory called camera.
2. When I have photos to store I create a directory there with the current date, ie “2003-01-22”.
3. Once I’ve copied the files over and browsed through them with gthumb I rename the parent directory and add a description at the end. ie “2003-01-22 – John’s Garden”

All horribly complicated I’m sure you’ll agree, not! So far there’s around 3800 files in the camera dir, amounting to 1.8GB of space used! Occasionally I’ll backup my photos onto CD, and I think I should do that again this weekend as there’s another CD worth of pictures now. I will go to the bother of backing *everything* up again, instead of an incremental backup, it’s only a CD or two after all.

Flash photography, first simple steps beyond in-camera flash – another great article from photoSig!

Couple of good articles from photoSig:

• Digital gradual filter and toning – the example given is a bit extreme but it’s a good article on the theory.
• SURREALISTIC TONING – great effect, and good example too!
• US Airport Security Procedures — Your Films and Your Rights – Well worth reading if you’re travelling any time soon.

Atlantis to Orbit – Impressive time lapse photo of the Shuttle Atlantis taking off into orbit.

From Photosig:

How do photos get a high rating

Do you critique back?

“smart” sharpening software – great tips here. Applies to the GIMP as well as Photoshop.

City Sunrise
Taken this morning in Cork City. It's now overcast outside but this morning there was a beautiful sky.
What About Me?
3 pigeons sitting on a wall. One of them was left on it's own and was trying to pal up to the other two.

On another note, the sales started yesterday and I had a look around this morning. One digital camera shop I went into had a sale, and they were preparing the price tags so I spoke to an assistant. All they were offering off a EUR700 camera was EUR40! Woo! I'm buying! Not..

photoSig: What do you think of these comments on photos? Yeah, very useful.