Flatbed Scanner Tips

Before tweaks.

After tweaks.

It's scanning time! Now that Photoshop CS 5 is here and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is too, I've pulled out my positives and negatives and started scanning. It's become an obsession. I have seen some of my images in 10 years. Pictures from Cambodia, Vietnam, and, yes, those signs.

I've been doing this for two weeks now and have a pile of flatbed scanner tips. Before I start, I must warn you that I wanted to outsource my scanning to a place that has a drum scanner, so I could get the best possible scans. When I found out a scan is $30 a pop, I said out loud, "Forget that!"

Here are the scanning tips for negatives:

1. Study the negative or positive under light to determine its value as a large image, and be picky.
2. Look at your image while you use the tweaks on the scanner; attempt to keep as much detail as possible when using them.
3. Keep negative on side that hits the glass so that it is flat as possible on it.
I have an Epson 4490 that is several years old. It's one of the best for a moderately priced flatbed scanner.
4. Scan at high resolution; I scan at about 6x9 inches at 600 dpi resolution.
5. Review your image after the scan; if there is unsalvageable clipping or blur, dump it.

The best part is when you put the image into ACR to tweak. You have options that weren't available a few years ago. Play with them. If your background is dull and unappealing, trade if for another. (That's why I keep a stock of cloud images) and you can go from what you see in the first image to what you see in the second image.

American Girl

How's this for following the Rule of Thirds, not to mention color used to present a compelling story.

Obviously the bag is too big for the girl, which is what makes this photo amusing.

Another factor to consider is that the child has plenty of room in front of her--two-thirds of the frame--which leaves her room for walking.

If she were two-thirds into the frame, it would be awkward. Much better walking into the frame than walking out of it (that is if nothing is chasing you).

So where was this shot--at the Grove, an upscale LA shopping center. It's a must-go because it's right next door to the Farmer's Market, which is my favorite place in LA--it's a griddy old-world food fest with diners and international dishes that leave you salivating when you look at them and stuffed after you've eaten them. Don't miss these two places if your visiting the city.

Adams

The master of landscape photography, Ansel Adams, was a realist who photographed with small apertures using a medium format camera so he could get sharpness throughout the frame. 

Adams knew that the results that came from his camera were going to be different from what he shot on film and what he got on paper, so he accounted for it while shooting with the zone system. 

He made his photographs appear HDR-like by using a zone system, whereby he’d assign image parts to different zones for printing (see above). He previsualized the landscape, relating it to the tones that would come up in prints. He’d get detail by using dodging and burning, much like we do when we use those Photoshop options today. Adams’s zone system has been likened to a 1940s chemical Photoshop.

Fading

Henry Peach Robinson, like the painters of the Renaissance, photographed not only to re-create a scene, but to make viewers respond to the situations he presented. 

Robinson was much like other photographers of the day who valued pictorialism, or making a photograph that looks like a painting. This involved a technique that is much like using layers in Photoshop. 

The downside to Robinson’s creativity is that he used so many hazardous chemicals that he succumbed to their effect and wasn’t able to work with them after he was 34.

A few years after Le Gray used two negatives to make one photograph, Robinson used several. In the photograph “Fading Away,” shown above, Robinson used several cut glass negatives, each taken at a different exposure, as is apparent when you look at the clouds out the window. 

The clouds contain much detail because Robinson divided up the photograph, using several negatives, each exposed differently to get details in both the shadowed and lit areas. Just so you know, the photograph was staged.

The Castro

What would be "The Castro" without the Castro Theater?

I was talking to a friend last night, saying he'd never been inside. I was very surprised because he had traveled the world, including multiple visits to San Francisco.

The Wurlitzer Organ is the star of the show. Before a movie begins it is played harmoniously (albeit it if it were human, it would be a burly baritone opera singer) with zeal while the audience rocks back and fourth as if they were taken back to 1920 in a time machine.

A visit to the Castro is a must. The neighborhood is also known for its diversity--mostly an ethnic mix of gay and straight people with wide open minds.

So, hop in the F street car from downtown (it's another trip down the early 20th century memory lane) and get off at the last stop. You'll be right there.

Pick up a copy of 50 Greatest Photo Opportunities in SF and find out the skinny of SF's greatest landmarks.

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Feathering

My favorite option in Photoshop is feathering. It's kind of tricky to use. In order for it to work you have to choose a selection tool such as the Lasso tool in the Tools palette.

You'd think that you could go ahead and make your selection and then put in the feathering value in the input box located in the row of options at the top of the Photoshop window. But it won't work that way.

What you have to do is input a feathering value (3-5 px is good) and then click and drag to make your selection.

What the feathering option does is make the edges of something you have cut out smoother. This is a really nice effect, especially if you going to choose a plain background.

You can overdo feathering if you set it to a high value (such as 10 px). In that case, you'll get edges that are super soft--not at all attractive.

A Surprised James Franco

If you want some good shots of celebrities, go to film festival movies where they show up to promote their film and career.

James Franco attended the screening of Sal, a movie about one of the stars, Sal Mineo, of 1955's "Rebel without a Cause."

Franco directed the movie about the last day of Mineo's life when he was shot indiscriminately in front his apartment building.

Mineo had taken a fall downward, from a millionaire to a guy living in a one-bedroom apartment with nothing to show for his monied past.
At the screening, I had my Canon 5D with a Speedlight 430 EX II external flash unit.

I sat in a middle seat in the front row with the screen towering above me. Right before Franco appeared a mob of photographers joined me in the front row. They shot quickly with some incredible equipment then left.

After the movie, Franco reappeared (along with the photographers), talking about the film with its star Val Louren and mingling with the crowd while they shot photos of him posing with anyone who wished to take a picture with him.

Discover Dubai

Chugging along on a camel ride, defying gravity at a water park and, most importantly snapping away at architecture that rules the skyline, Holidays in Dubai teaches you that this world-class destination is worth a visit.

Weekly camel races aren't a desert mirage. They're real and take place most Fridays. Hit the  Bastakiya Quarter where classic Middle East architecture is waiting to be caught on your digital camera's sensor.

Guests at hotels are often mistaken for royalty among opulent facilities that offer comfort options, second to none. Some have Arabian themes featuring bustling bazaars, giant sand dunes and towering date palms.

You'd think there would be a dearth of water in Dubai, but that's not so. The beaches are beautiful and picturesque--sailboats glistening on tranquil oceans, and, better yet, soaring programmatic (look like real-world objects) buildings sitting on the sand, surrounded by unspoiled beaches on which you can jog or walk for miles, photographing on the way.

Finally, you've probably heard about the malls--some of the grandest in the world, places where you can eat, stroll and window shop, gathering up unique gifts to pass out when you go home. In January there's a shopping festival, offering products for sale at deep discounts, not to mention raffles, performances and entertainment for kids (and the child within you).

Note that you can bargain your way to good buys here with friendly store clerks. Just know that when you reach a final price, you should pay it and not go back down again (a word of advice). Carpets are especially good buy and you can roll them up to bring home. Also, look for stores to be open late--most til 10 p.m.

So, get around the city, get to know it and take lots of photos to bring home to share with all.

Best Microstock Photographer

Some of the most well-known names in microstock photography are Danish photographer Yuri Arcurs and American photographer Sean Locke, who were at the top of the earnings list on the microstock photo websites,  iStockcharts and Dreamstime. 

Others on the list come from all over the world, with relatively few photographers from the United States. Arcurs is considered to be the top microstock photographer in the world. His work is for sale at most of the major microstock photography sites. His website is both popular and informative, filled with ideas about how to succeed in selling microstock photography online.

Arcurs was making $25,000 per month selling microstock photography. In January of 2008, he made $64,000. It sounds like a decent living, but most microstock photographers make a fraction of that, not even earning $100 in a year.

Thinking about Graphic Design

If you're thinking of changing careers or starting a new one  especially lucrative right now is graphic design.  Designers at work can choose from a multitude of jobs and tasks from print design to designing multimedia. Design know-how opens up many doors because it's a skill that is essential for anyone interested in working in an Internet or publishing business. 

One of the best graphic design schools in Miami offers a variety of majors, many which tech-savvy people would have a keen interest in. A career as a graphic designer is one field that requires you to be creative and self-motivated. It's very tech-oriented and filled with creative opportunities that can lead to high-paying jobs or to a career running a business at home.

Many students expect that going to college will find them gainful employment. They can help, but it's really up to the student to work with what he learned to create a successful career for himself. Case and point: I majored in Creative Arts education and had no idea with what I was going to do with that degree. I took what I learned and turn it into a very creative career doing a variety of things.

A lot of people bemoan private colleges. Their faculty are first-rate, most of the possessing advanced degrees and working knowledge of the subject they teach.  With the opportunities and support these schools offer, you can start a new career or jump-start an existing one, leading to a career you can be excited about.

Must See: Museum of Jurassic Technology

The Museum of Jurrasic Technology, tucked into a Culver City block that you could easily miss, is a place of small things that once were and real life illusions through prisms, microscopes and glass. Visitors exit after a couple of hours inside with furrows in their brows and creases between their eyes left by a puzzling array of oddities.

The word Jurassic is usually associated with dinosaurs, but not in this museum. The literature describes that it is a "specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities."

The name Jurassic originated from an original exhibit of plant fossils found in Nebraska in the early 1900s. The fossil exhibit is currently at a sister museum in Germany.   

 Strolling through seven darkened galleries and peering into boxes with spotlights draws the curious into a land of the small. One wonders inquisitively what he's looking at, a meditation about life, art and nature from a collection of international researchers in dozens of installations. 

David Wilson, the museum's director has a film background so that the exhibits are skillfully put together.  A man barking inside the head of a furry gray fox is a good example of the use of light, sound and video that visitors experience in this and many other exhibits.

You can experience a model of the story of Noah's ark, horns that grew from people's heads, and the Deprong Mori, the small white bat in South America that penetrated through objects.

Documented in the field notes of scientist Bernard Mastin, the story of this tiny mammal is that six of the beasts flew in formation though a domicile while the occupants were eating a meal.  One penetrated a child 's arm by using ultra-high frequency x-rays echo-location systems, bringing no lesions, but causing numbness for three days. After that, natives reported that the child healed warts, blood blisters and other skin disorders.

In the mid-1800s, Henry Daton used a bore bristle, a small brush-like tool, to arrange his micromossaics. He squashed diatoms (scales from the butterfly's wings) on the surface of a glass microscope slide and arranged them into an illustration. When looking through a microscope, the scenes of animals and flowers blaze with color.

Forget the word remember. Geoffery Sonnabend, a neurophysiologist and memory researcher advised in another experience that changed thinking about human memory. We're better off looking at what and how we forget, or so he describes in the exhibit based on his three volume work, Obliscence: Theories of Forgetting and the Problem of Matter.

Engaging in the drama of " Tell the Bees...Belief, Knowledge and Hypersymbolic Cognition," has one realizing our relationship with the stinging insects is more than just the sting.

The human population, after all, lives in one big bee-like hive, interconnected and working together (well, most of time). "Bees are understood to be quiet and sober beings that disapprove of lying, cheating and menstruous women," the exhibit 's literature states. "They do not thrive in a quarrelsome family, dislike bad language and should never be bought or sold for money."

Find out when and how visiting these insects can offer solace for the grieving and much more life-giving advice by visiting the museum, a must-see stop among the buzzing hive of LA.

Indian Eats: The two-foot-long masala dosa ($2.99), an Indian crepe rolled around potato curry, at India Sweets and Spices (9409 Venice Blvd.) is incredible. You're missing some of the best food and informal outdoor atmosphere around if you miss this place, a half a block from the museum. 

What: Museum of Jurassic Technology

Where: 9341 Venice Boulevard, Culver City, Museum of Jurassic TechnologyHours: Thursday from 2-8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.

Information: (310) 836-6131

Getting There: Take I-10 west toward Los Angeles. Exit and turn left on Robertson Blvd. Turn right onto Venice Blvd.

Kudos for the Focus Lock

The focus lock feature of cameras lets you recompose your shots so that you can follow photography
rules, such as the Rule of Thirds. 

You can recompose a shot if you lock your focus by pressing the shutter release button halfway down. Move your camera
from side to side to find the framing you like and take your picture with the subject/object still in focus.
 
Note that you can only move your camera in a plane even with your subject or object. If you
move forward or backward, or if your subject does, you’ll lose focus. 

In this image of an abandoned house, I set my focus point on the ripped-up cushion of the second chair, and at that point it was in the middle of the viewfinder. Next, I pressed my shutter release button halfway down, moved my camera to the framing you see in the figure (moved the autofocus point to just below the window) so that the chair’s placement followed the Rule of Thirds, and took the picture.

Adobe Photoshop Elements HDR

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 has a Photomerge option that is supposed to create HDR-like photographs.

It works by merging three photos of different exposures. When it's set in Automatic mode it does a good job with photos you have taken with a tripod or with an extremely steady hand.

Big drawbacks of the feature is that there is no tone-mapping--just sliders: Highlights, Shadows and Saturation, all of which don't tweak your photo all that much. Another is that it doesn't get rid of ghosting nor align your photos. If you want to do this you can use the Manual mode.

The Manual Mode that permits you to copy and paste parts of photos on to other photos to combine exposures. This is effective, but it doesn't even approach the drama of an HDR photo.

There is one way you can get a great HDR-like photo by tone-mapping in the main Elements program. It is very effective, much more so than the automatic function.

Be sure and get my new book, Beginning HDR Photography for an easy-to-follow workflow.

If you want to produce an HDR-like photo quickly, don't bother with it and go out and buy Photomatix Pro .

Devil

In the late 13th century, Giotto di Bondone painted what’s referred to as “the devil on the urban landscape,” which is divided into light uniform tones on the buildings and darker ones making up the hectic sky. It too is kind of HDRish.