Make Your Christmas Lights Bigger

I was playing around with a candle and Christmas lights today and came up with a series of photos that demonstrate how different aperture settings change how lights in the background appear.  

Here's a little refresher on aperture.   The aperture is the opening in the lens that lets light pass into the camera.   The bigger the aperture, the more light gets to the camera sensor.   The aperture also changes the depth of field or how much of the photo is in focus from near to far.   A larger aperture (smaller f-stop number) creates a small depth of field, making things in the background out of focus.

Here is a series of photos where I changed the aperture when making the same shot.

f/2.4

f/3.2

f/4.5

f/5.6

As you can see I started with a pretty wide aperture (lower f-stop number is a wider aperture or opening in the lens).   A wider aperture makes things in the background more out of focus.  In this case, it makes the Christmas tree lights in the background appear to be larger.  As I increased the f-stop, making the aperture smaller, the lights became more in focus, appearing smaller relative to the candle in the foreground.

The photo below was taken at f/14.

f/14

Notice the lights no longer appear round but look like octagons.  This is because, at smaller apertures, they begin to take on the shape of the aperture opening, such as the medium aperture in the diagram above.  The quality of the out of focus lights is dependent on the number of blades in the aperture.

I thought this was pretty cool and I wanted to share with others.   Now, go give it a try.

I just bought a piece of photography equipment I have said is unnecessary

Like all hobbies, there is an abundance of gadgets, gizmos, do-dads, and other accessories that are available to photographers.   Over the years, I have succumbed to the Photographers GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome.  I have two cameras, 9 lenses, multiple filters, two tripods, and several different camera bags to lug all that gear around.   I have a closet at home dedicated to my camera gear.

There is one item I have maintained is unnecessary and up to this week, I didn't own one.   A UV

UV Filter

 filter is basically a piece of clear glass that goes on the end of a lens.  As its name implies, it blocks UV rays from entering the lens.  In the old days when photographers used film that was sensitive to UV rays, the UV filter could keep photos from having a nasty blue tint.   Today's digital cameras are not impacted by UV rays.   Having a UV filter to block UV rays is a waste of time and money.

Any time you add more glass to a lens you risk degrading the quality of your images.   Like a chain with a weak link, a lens is only as good as its worst piece of glass.  Put a cheap UV filter on an expensive lens and you may get poor quality images, especially when shooting into the sun or other bright light sources.

The one reason I hear most often for using a UV filter is to protect the front element (glass) on the lens.   If the UV filter gets scratched you can replace it.  If the front element of a lens is scratched you are looking at an expensive repair.

This brings me to why I bought a UV filter.   I'm going to be shooting in deserts in Nevada and California in a few weeks.   There is a possibility of blowing sand, which can ruin glass on a lens.   I will bring the UV filter with me and if the conditions are such that I need that additional protection, I'll use it.  

One piece of equipment I tend to use almost all the time is a lens hood.  While it may not protect

Lens Hood

from flying sand, it can protect the front of the lens from other objects, such as tree branches, rock outcroppings, and other dangerous objects found along hiking trails.   The hood is primarily designed to block light from hitting the front element of the lens, which can cause flares in an image.   It is also useful as a shield in the woods where June and I spend a lot of time.

As I said earlier, I have a lot of other gear.   I'll review some of that in future posts.

Watch for desert photos in a few weeks.

Two New Photography Classes Scheduled

I will be teaching two classes this winter.

Moving from Beginner to an Accomplished Photographer

Adobe Lightroom for Photographers

Iceland Photo Adventure - I can highly recommend this trip.

This past March, June and I spent a little over a week in Iceland with a group of photographer friends.  The trip was put together by John "Snake" Barrett.   John and Jim Begley are putting this trip on again as an official workshop.   If you ever thought about going on an Iceland photography adventure, this is a trip I can highly recommend.

John is a great organizer and will make sure your trip is as fantastic as possible.   We stayed in some fun eclectic places, including a dairy farm, an old school, and a hotel at the base of a volcano.   We hit the spots at the best times and John was always looking for quick adjustments to improve our chances of making some great photos.   Here's his website http://www.johnbarrettphotography.com/

Jim is one of the best photographers and teachers I know.   Check out his website http://www.wowphotoshdr.com/

Don't just take my word for it.  You can see the results of my trip in my Iceland Gallery.
http://www.thesiggins.com/My-Gallery/Travel-1/Iceland-

If you're interested, contact John and Jim at Info@JBPhotoTours.com.

Product Review - Sleeklens Presets and Brushes for Lightroom

I was recently given an opportunity to review a set of develop presets and adjustment brushes designed for use in Adobe Lightroom.   The folks at sleeklens package their presets and brushes into what they call workflows.  The workflow I reviewed was "Through The Woods".

Sleeklens provides a series of video tutorials on how to use the Through The Woods workflow.  You can view those here - https://sleeklens.com/product/landscape-lightroom-presets/

What makes these different from the million and one other presets available?  The biggest difference is these are designed to be used in a workflow.  Presets are applied from global to more targeted changes.  Then the brushes are used for changes to specific areas of an image.   These all work together in a consistent fashion.

They are also stackable - each preset only changes specific settings for the named effect without changing other develop settings.   This allows you to apply multiple presets to a photo.

To evaluate the presets and brushes I picked a few images from a recent trip and edited them.  Here are the results.

If you click an image you will be able to view it larger and use the arrow keys to walk through each step.

Step 1 - Unedited RAW image from a Canon 5D Mark II, 24-105mm @105mm, f/14, 0.5 second, ISO 100.

Unedited Raw Image

Step 2 - All In One - Shine Into the Sunset preset applied.

Shine Into the Sunset Preset

In one click this preset changed contrast, highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, clarity, vibrance, overall saturation, orange saturation, shadows toning, sharpening, and noise reduction.  This is definitely a nice improvement applied in just one click.

This brings up one issue I have with presets in general.  This preset made these detail changes

That's more sharpening than I typically use.  I applied the preset to multiple photos from different cameras at high and low ISO settings. In each case, the sharpening and noise reduction were the same, which may not be appropriate for all photos. When I applied the preset to an image taken on a Fuji XT-1 at ISO 1000 the level of noise introduced was not acceptable for me.   I would have to reduce the sharpening and increase the noise reduction on that image. You have to be careful with any presets to make sure they aren't making changes you don't want.

Step 3 - Base - Autumn Colors.  This preset made changes to the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance sliders to emphasize the warm colors.  It also changed the Split Toning, overwriting those changes that were done in step 2.

Base - Color - Autumn Colors Preset

I really didn't care for the color in this step.  I hit control-z to undo that preset.

Step 4 - Because the All In One and Base presets were changing too many things at once, I stepped into the Exposure presets.  Applying the Exposure - Less Highlights changed the Tone Curve to reduce the Highlights and Lights. I like what this did for the brighter areas at the top of the image.

Exposure - Less Highlights

Step 5 - Making it Pop!   I wanted to bring out the autumn colors and make them really pop. Clicking the Warm It Up preset didn't do what I expected.  Instead, it changed the Split Toning and made the image less warm. I backed this change out.

I then tried Polish - Punch It Up, which bumped up the Vibrance and Saturation.  It also reduced the Clarity, which I didn't expect.  I did like the effect and decided to keep it.

Step 6 - Vignette.  I almost always apply a gentle dark vignette to my photos.  I tried the Vignette - Medium Black and Vignette - Subtle Black presets and decided on something in between.   I manually adjusted the Amount on the Post-Crop Vignetting to split the difference.

Punch It Up and Dark Vignette Applied

At this point, I decided the image looked pretty good and was where I wanted the image as far as presets.   Time to try out the adjustment brushes.

Step 7 - Adjustment Brushes.  Adjustment Brushes are one of the most powerful tools in Lightroom and one I use often.  Lightroom comes with a handful.  Sleeklens adds several more.  I applied the following brushes:

• Reduce Highlights to the upper center where the forest was still a little bright.  This didn't go far enough so I dropped the exposure setting on the brush a little.
• Intense Sunlight to some of the trees where the leaves had started turning golden.   This brush warmed the color (temp), brightened the highlights, bumped the saturation and applied an orange color.  This was a bit too intense for me so I reduced the saturation of the orange color.
• Subtle Sunset Haze - I applied this to some of the trees to reduce the contrast, bump up the highlights, shadows, clarity, and saturation, and apply a light orange color.  This is a more appropriate brush for this image.

There are many other brushes that I tried, but these three were all that I felt I needed on this image.   Here's the final result.

Final

That's just one example.  Here are some before/after images

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

OK, if you have read this far you are looking for the bottom line.   Everything that I did with the sleeklens presets and brushes could have been done manually.   As a long time Lightroom user I can zip through post processing pretty fast and typically don't use presets.   I do use brushes and having the sleeklens brushes will improve my productivity and creativity.

If I was new to Lightroom and didn't know how to manipulate all the myriad of adjustments to get a particular desired effect then the presets would be useful.  They are short-cuts.  Short-cuts will get you to somewhere faster, but may not get you what you want in the end.  Even beginners should not rely on presets entirely.

All the sleeklens workflows, including Through The Woods, sell for $39 each.  They also offer money saving bundles.   Is it worth it?   That's a tough call for me. An experienced Lightroom user may not find the workflows save them much time.  Casual and beginner Lightroom users will probably find the workflows to be a great boost to their productivity and creativity.

There are many free presets that can be downloaded and installed at no cost.  Just google "free lightroom presets" or "free lightroom brushes" and you will be presented with more options than you know what to do with.  Why would you pay $39 for a set when you can find others for free?  By purchasing the sleeklens presets you get a set of tools that work together well.  The free stuff, maybe not so much.

Finally, I want to say that sleeklens provided a free copy of the Through The Woods workflow in return for an honest review.  I have not been influenced by sleeklens and have given my honest opinion here.

I welcome questions.  Just drop me a note on the Contact Me page on my main gallery - http://www.thesiggins.com/

The People Have Spoken! Finalists For My 2017 Calendar

The results are in.   I can now tell you which 14 photos made the cut and will be on the 2017 calendar.

First Place - Northern Lights

The Winners - Top 14

Place	Title	Votes
1	Northern Lights	34
2	Milky Way	32
3	Sunset and Layers	30
4	America!	27
5	Beam Me Up	26
6	Crabtree Falls	25
6	Red	25
6	Snow Covered Reflections	25
6	Sunset on Fort Patrick Henry Lake	25
10	View from Roan Mountain	24
11	Fall In The Smokies	23
12	Little Church in The Cove	22
12	Rolling Fall Color	22
14	Appalachian Trail	21

The Others

Place	Title	Votes
15	Angry Seas	19
16	Bleeding Hearts	18
16	Tree Ornaments	18
18	Mountain Bluff Reflections	17
19	Standing Firm	16
19	String of Pearls	16
21	Cool Mountain Stream	15
21	Fall Sunset	15
21	Waves of Grass	15
24	Foggy Morning	13
24	Tennessee Barn	13
26	Fall Kayak Trip	12
26	Rhododendrons	12
26	Tulips	12
29	Bloom From The Backside	10
29	High Surf in Iceland	10
29	Ice Lagoon	10
32	Linville River, NC	9
32	Pink Dogwood Blooms	9
34	Clematis in Bloom	8
34	Wild Columbine	8
36	Fall Reflections	7
37	Focus	6

You can view the photos in order by going to http://www.thesiggins.com/SpecialProjects/2017-Calendar-Candidates/ 

Every year I am surprised by which photos you like and the ones that fall to the bottom list.   I really shouldn't be all that surprised because I learn the same things each year.

• This is the first year I have included night sky photos and they were very popular, placing first and second.
• Landscapes are the most popular.
• People don't want to see a flower photo on their calendar for an entire month.  They really don't want to see a big bee on a flower.
• Photos that were taken in this region tend to do better than those taken elsewhere.

What surprises did you see in the results?  

I've started the process of laying out the calendar.   I'm going to change up the style just a little bit this year.  I think you'll like the results.   

I'll be ordering the calendars from the printer in a couple weeks. My goal is to run out just before Christmas and that has worked out every year so far.  It helps if I have a good idea of how many will be needed.  

If you would like to order one or more calendars:

1. Send me an email letting me know how many you want.
2. I'll send you an email with info on how to pay for them.  They are $15 each, plus $3 shipping if I mail them to you.  Free personal delivery if you live in the Kingsport area. 
3. I'll be delivering the calendars during November and December.

Calendars make great Christmas gifts for the people on your list who have everything.   They can be great gifts for your business clients as well.  Buy from me, support a great ministry and avoid the crowds at the big box stores.

Thanks to the 47 people who voted this year.  You really make my job easier and the calendar better.   If I had picked you might have seen photos from the bottom of the list on the 2017 calendar.

No Debate About It - Only three more days to vote!

Time is running out on voting for the favorite photos on my 2017 calendar.  The deadline is midnight, Friday, September 30.

So far 39 people have voted.  Here are some hints on how things are coming out.

Will this photo make the cut?

• The first and second place photos have been within one vote of each other for a while.  
• There are several ties, which means your vote really counts!
• Three in fourth place
• Three in seventh
• Two in eleventh
• Two in fourteenth
• plus several others
• I was hoping that America! ( Navy Seal Parachutist) would be in the top 14 so I can use it for July.   No problem there as that one is currently in fourth place.
• There are no flowers in the top 14.  The closest is in 22nd place.  If you want to see flowers on the 2017 calendar, better get your votes in.

In case you missed it, here's how to vote - http://thesiggins.blogspot.com/2016/09/its-time-for-you-to-vote.html

I will be starting the process of putting the calendar together this weekend.  Once that starts, it will be too late to vote, but not too late to order.  Remember, ordering is easy -- just send me an email at rcsiggins@gmail.com and let me know how many you want.