Photography

Midland Portal Concepts

Posted by Eden

Following are final concepts for the Midland Harbour laundry room murals. A tugboat portal window is used to frame other images onto a muted background scene around Georgian Bay.

Based on the call with the Town of Midland, there are two specific murals of these examples that I am recommending. One shows Midland Harbour and Town images, primarily during Tug Fest. The other is a soft sunset background with scenery and four seasons’ glimpses of the area. (Note that the one winter scene of Mountainview Ski Centre is taken from https://www.edcns.ca/resources/images/#winter stock images per request of Town). Any of these images can be moved or resized or replaced if there is a preferred image to use. I’ve included some other possible images as well towards the end of this blog.

On the below gallery of sample murals, you can see notes overlaid when you move your cursor overtop or scan to the next one using the arrows on the side.

These are the two recommended murals with backgrounds for the Harbour Laundry Room. Note that this is not to scale as I was unable to get into the laundry room to measure exact wall sizes on my recent excursion.

Here are some additional images that could be used within the murals. Note any thumbnail image can be clicked on to look at it in closer detail.

Photo “Scavenger Hunt”

Posted by Eden

The purpose of this challenge is to have some fun while we start to put more thought into the images we capture and attempt to apply different techniques or compositions to what you would usually do. I would suggest you take multiple images for each challenge, then pick your best couple (delete the rest), clean the finalists up with some basic editing and then pick your best one for sharing.

The plan is to gather together to discuss this before starting to review some basic techniques and ideas.

Scavenger Hunt (work in progress):

  1. Take a portrait of someone special, person or pet
  2. Abstract Art (think about lines, textures, colours)
  3. Landscape (remember rule of thirds and trying to get everything in focus)
  4. Something in motion
  5. Symmetry, maybe with a reflection or shadow
  6. A soft, calming image (think about greens, blues)
  7. A dramatic image
  8. Something with a shallow depth of field (like a flower) – subject should be sharply in focus, background blurred
  9. Architecture
  10. Take a picture of a common subject from a completely different angle

Tips for Challenge Items

Following are some tips for some of the scavenger hunt items.

  1. Portrait Photography:
  • Make sure the eyes are in focus for close-ups or headshots
  • Candids are fun, showing people involved in activity or discussions and not necessarily looking into the camera or posing
  • Consider composition guidelines and use cropping to adjust later if needed
  • Editing to soften face or remove blemishes is important for close-ups (note: portrait mode will often do some of this for you)
  • Use indirect light, not direct sunlight on their faces especially for older subjects
  • Shoot at subject’s eye level
  • Shallow depth of field (sharp focus on subject, blurred background)
  • Consider the background or location, how should this factor into your shot?

2. Abstract Image

  • Consider a view of an object or scene around you taken in way that the end result may have interesting lines, colours or textures that does not immediately tell us what the actual object was

3. Landscape

  • Typically we are shooting an outdoor scene with a foreground, mid ground, background, all in focus
  • Important elements are composition, light, sharpness of all elements, although as with everything you can break all the rules if you have a creative concept

4. Motion ideas

  • Fast shutter sports action
  • slow shutter waterfalls or moving vehicles (requires a tripod)
  • slow shutter star trails (requires a tripod and shutter open for many minutes)
  • night shots with light trails (tripod typically)
  • Panning shots
  • timelapse sequences (technically this would be multiple images stitched together but smartphones can do this for you now)

Photography for Creative Club

Posted by Eden

Everyone is a photographer in today’s world. We all have more extensive tools to capture images with us at all times, than ever before. (Just like access to word processing, email, and social media spawned more ‘writers’ than ever before, so too has the smartphone).

But, of course, with this ability in everyone’s hands, we are also bombarded with a wide range of imagery on social media – not all of it beautiful. However, any amateur photographer can capture a fantastic image with the right conditions and a smartphone but consistent results require some skills and understanding of what makes an image special.

What is “photography”? The word derives from Greek, meaning ‘drawing with light’. (photo=light; graph=to draw). Photography can produce works of art even though, to some, it may seem like you are just recording what is right in front of you, using technology.

Topics to discuss:
What makes an amazing photograph???

  • WOW Factor!?
  • Light (painting with light, using light in different ways)
    • discuss aperture, shutter speed, and ISO
    • high and low key images
    • Exposure settings (consider the moon and the snow)
    • high dynamic range
  • Composition – if you are an artist in other mediums, or an appreciator of art, you will likely already have a good grasp of this topic and will be familiar with concepts like the Rule of Thirds
  • Landscapes: Think about foreground, midground, background, typically avoid the horizon in the middle of the shot..
  • Portraits
  • Colour, clarity, tone
  • Patterns, texture, details
  • Depth of field
  • Subject Matter, focal point
  • Tripod for low light and slow shutter shots
  • Perspectives, angles and viewpoints

Chatter, distractions

  1. how many pixels do you have? (and does it matter)
  2. debate about post-processing (is it cheating?), quick and easy editing tips to improve your initial capture

Survey

I sent a survey to the creative club to gauge people’s skill level and interest and got 14 responses. Only a few have camera kits and most just want to use their smartphones with all iPhones, with one Android phone. (If you haven’t filled it in but would still like to, here is the link to the survey)

Subjects of interest based on the survey:

iPhone Tips

iPhone Photography School

iPhone Photography Tips (CNN)

Apple iPhone Camera Tips