Archive for 'photography'
HOWTO: Making an amazing Canvas print with reads
Posted on September 20, 2008, under general, photography.
I recently moved into my own apartment in Dublin, and after a lot of painting and hard work, it needed decorating. If you like taking photos, it’s a great opportunity to put in the extra effort and take some shots that are worthy of enlargement and putting up on a wall. Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten 6 prints done up on canvas, and am getting a feel for what makes amazing prints and what doesn’t.
Reads on Nassau Street in Dublin have a great canvas printing service. but there are some caveats to doing it right and avoiding some extra charges.
Step 1: Take a great photo
Photos with lots of colour and brightness seem to work best, avoid too much detail, landscapes and large-aperture portraits work great. For my largest print, I went out on a mission, and took this photo in the Phoenix park;
Remember if you want to wrap the photo around the canvas you need to make sure that there’s nothing important in the 4.5 cm around the edges.
Step 2: process the photo for canvas
Printing on canvas takes thick ink, to get something amazing looking the photo needs to be bright, and vibrant. I use Lightroom, so I increased the vibrance by about 25% and upped the exposure and brightness by around 15% – it will look a bit glarey on a monitor, but it will come out right on canvas. The same can be done in the gimp, iPhoto, or photoshop.
Lightroom also has an option to “sharpen for matte” when exporting, so I chose that, and exported at 100% quality.
Step 3: burn the files to disc
Reads have a “disc handling” fee of 5 or 10 euro, which essentially covers their costs of getting the files off of the disc and doing things with them. Most customers need to have their files cropped, rotated, sorted and that kind of thing. However if you put a little effort in, you can avoid the charge entirely. First, make sure that your images are exactly the right dimensions for the size you want (keep the resolution as high as possible, but match the aspect ratio of your target size). Next, name the images in an obvious way – if you want a 30×40 canvas print, with the image wrapped around the edges, name the file “40×30-canvas-colour-wrapped-something.jpg” – this means it takes about 5 seconds to give them the files (on a USB fob will do btw) and they won’t waste any time doing anything.
The prints are ready within 24 hours, well all of mine were.
Admire the result!
FlickrTouchr.py – keep your flickr album and favourites on an iPod Touch or iPhone
Posted on January 21, 2008, under general, photography.
One of the great things I really like about the iPod touch is that it makes an excellent portable viewer for photos. In return for sacrificing 1GB of potential music storage, I get about 2,000 browseable, zoomable photos onto something that’s always in my pocket. Cool!
 |
 |
To make the process easier, here’s a python script to synchronise the photos on an ipod from a flickr account. It’s at http://www.stdlib.net/~colmmacc/flickrtouchr.py.txt. It should run on any *nix platform (personally I’m running it on a Mac) and there’s some kind of a chance it might even work on Windows (but who knows).
The whole thing is a single python file, as implementing the flickr API calls myself rather than use any of various python flickr libraries (as they each seem poorly maintained) seemed easier. One of the reasons I’m even putting it online is that beyond anything else, it may be useful as an example of a truly minimal python implementation with the flickr API.
You run the script like so;
flickrtouchr directory-name
and after it asks you to authenticate against your flickr account, it will progress through syncing your entire flickr account into a directory hierarchy. It keeps a small cache of authentication data in the directory too. It will be organised like;
directory-name/set-name/[photos]
directory-name/other-set-name/[photos]
directory-name/No Set/[photos]
directory-name/Favourites/[photos]
If you have the same photo in multiple sets it will use hard-links to preserve local disk-space. It also only downloads the most optimal version of the photograph available for the iPod touch/iPhone screen. Everytime you run it, it downloads the missing photos and new sets. Once you configure iTunes to synchronise photos from a folder, rather than iPhoto, it works great.
Of course it will work with any other device or software that takes photo from a hierarchy of folders. Happy flickring.
HOWTO: Adding a signature/watermark overlay to Photographs using Open-Source software
Posted on January 20, 2008, under meta, photography.
Since launching the new photoblog over at all costs I’ve gotten a few questions about how to overlay a signature, and how I’m doing it.
I’m a command line type of person so much of the processing software for my photos is python scripts I’ve hacked together, but in this case it’s just some simple ImageMagick which you can do almost anywhere. ImageMagick is much better than using Python’s own Image Library (PIL) because it actually maintains the embedded colourspaces (PIL just strips them).
Step 1: Create the image
The first step is to actually write out the signature, and to take a photograph of it or scan it. I recommend writing it out as big as you can, with a thick marker, on white paper. If you’re taking a photo of it, try to light the paper evenly and take the photograph from directly atop the paper. Once you’ve got an image to start with, load it into the Gimp.
Step 2: Crop the image
Select what you want with rectangle select tool, and crop, using image -> crop to selection.
Step 3: Convert to 1-bit
We don’t want to worry about all of the various shades that are in the image, so we convert to a 1-bit image. Use Image -> Mode -> Indexed to convert.
Step 4: Convert to grayscale
Now that we’ve cheated and used 1-bit mode to quickly go black-and-white, we need to go back to greyscale mode so that we can use transparency and play with the brightness a little. it’s at Image -> Mode -> Greyscale.
Step 5: Invert the colours
Use Colors -> Invert to transform the image into white on black, which is much better for overlaying onto photographs generally.
Step 6: Add an alpha channel
Since we need the final result to contain transparency, we need to add an alpha channel. It’s at Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel.
Step 7: Remove the background
Use the colour-select tool at Select -> by Color to highlight all of the black background, and then cut it out using ctrl-x (or edit -> cut).
Step 8: Tweak the signature image
Personally I found that using a pure white signature was too strong and distracting, so I lowered the brightness by about 30%.
Once you’re happy with the image, you need to have it as a PNG file, so that we keep the transparency information.
Step 9: Applying the signature to photos
ImageMagick makes this fairly easy, all that I use is:
convert -composite -gravity southeast original.jpg signature.png output.jpg
Where photo.jpg is the original jpg of the photograph, and output.jpg is where you want the result.
Step 10: Enjoy the results
New Photoblog
Posted on January 13, 2008, under photography.
Although I’ve been updating this blog less frequently than I used to, I have been taking a lot of photographs over the last few months. Gradually I’m getting slightly more and more confident in the results, and I have enough of a buffer of publishable photographs that I’m finally ready to start blogging some properly.
So, to that end, I’ve kicked off a Photoblog over at all costs, and you can subscribe to the feed too.
The blog itself is a mix of a custom theme and plugin I’ve hacked away on, for WordPress, and some styling from the Juicy theme too. There’s also some python hackery behind the scenes to fetch the photos from flickr, tinker with the colour-spaces, overlay the signature and then output two named renderings.
The photos will continue to go up to flickr, and each entry includes a link to the flickr page, along with tags explaining what equipment was used to take the picture. Hopefully I’ll be blogging photos at the rate of about 3 a week, and getting better as I go!
Mini-review: Sigma 10-20mm f/4 DC
Posted on January 3, 2008, under general, photography.
So, now that I’m back writing these things, there are two reviews to be done, and where better to start than with the Sigma 10-20mm f/4 DC I got way back in August.
The 10-20mm is an ultra-wide-angle for small-frame Digital cameras, giving about the same field of view as a 16-32mm would conventionally. Typical uses of this range are for architectural and landscape photography along with gritty street photography and photojournalism. Over at InPhotos this lens seems to be Donncha’s favourite, and there’s a ton of examples you can oogle at.
My experience with the 10-20 has been more of a mixed bag. I’m glad I bought the lens, and it lived in my camera bag until I upgraded to a larger format camera, but I didn’t use it as frequently as I had hoped (mainly due to travel).
|
 |
 |
|
First off, the lens does an excellent job of architectural photography. If you need to take a picture of a tall or wide building, and there’s not much going on, it can do a great job. If you take the time to learn how to get a decent exposure, it can do an amazing job of capturing rich tones and textures. I was pleasantly surprised by just how much detail came out in the photo of Hoogslandse church above, including details inside the building.
But when it comes to street photography, or people, the lens isn’t quite as versatile as I’d hoped. It’s not so much the lense’s fault as a problem with the format in general. The lens is so wide, and the sensor so small that this leads to two problems.
Firstly there is quite noticeable distortion and barrelling. Objects and people can take on a very wooden and 2 dimensional look. Very little of the depth comes across from the stones behind Orla, in the lead photo of this article, for example. And if you look at the plate of crackers on the table at the restaurant it’s positively oval (in reality, it was round, the distortion is particularly harsh at the edges).
Although a wide-angle lens is certainly not a portrait lens, the distortion means that when you want to shoot a subject, they are going to have to be at or near the centre of frame, which is pretty restricting in terms of composition. This is pure physics, and there’s nothing Sigma can do about it, it takes that short a focal length to get a wide viewing area on a small-frame camera. But it’s worth keeping in mind if the main purpose is for indoor use.
The second problem is that because the viewing area is so wide, the camera’s metering system (and you!) has to do a lot of work. There can be huge degrees of variation in the exposure levels across the shot. Notice the over-exposed sky in the lead shot, or Simon’s white shirt in the group shot at the tables. Again, this is physics, there’s nothing Sigma can do about it, but it is worth keeping in mind that learning how to expose properly, having a 9-point (or more) in-camera metering system or getting a hand-held meter will be what makes the real difference with this lens.
Off the cuff and photo-journalistic shots will tend to have some of the scene blown out and overexposed. That’s not always a bad thing, it’s a valid and distinctive look (most of Donncha’s photos are shot like this), but if you prefer a more naturalistic capture it might be worth thinking about it.
Since I upgraded to a full-frame camera, I’ve sold this lens to Colin, who’ll make good use of it, but it definitely made a useful part of my collection while it lasted. It wasn’t anything like the lens I used most frequently, and it wouldn’t be at the top of my shopping list if I was building a new set. As a wide-angle for a digital SLR, it is very good – and presently has no competition, and if you know how to use a metering system it will reward you with excellent photographs.
Ar ais – san Ísiltir
Posted on December 20, 2007, under general, photography.
So, tá sé thart ar dhá mhí ó cuir mé aon rud suas anseo, de bharr cúiseanna éigsiúl. Faoi láthair tá mé san ísiltír arís (bhíos i mo gcónaí anseo do ceithre mí déag) do seachtain, roimhe sin bhí mé i Londain agus roimhe sin Cathair Nua Eabharc. Táim fós ag obair do Joost, ó Baile Fhormaid, agus ag taisteal ar Coláiste na Trionóide san oíche. So, tá mé beagáinín gnóthach, ‘sin mo leiscéal ar aon nós.
Tá go leor a caithfidh mé scríobh faoi, fuair mé camera nua (Canon 5D) agus roinnt gloinne nua (Canon 24-70 f/2.8L, Canon 17-40 f/4L, Canon 50mm f/1.4), agus tá roinnt nuacht eile agam. Só, bí ag tsnú le cúpla airteagal eile, tá beagáinín am agam anseo liom féin chun méar a cur le méarchlár.
(English-speakers: Normal service will be resumed shortly).
66 days …
Posted on July 21, 2007, under general, photography.
I only have 66 days left in the Netherlands, before I head back to Dublin to resume my part-time studies at Trinity. This has the unfortunate side-effect of making me incredibly busy lately, and I haven’t been able to write as much here as I would have liked. So, instead, for the next 2 months as I try and explore and see as much of the Netherlands before I leave, I’m going to take some photos and post them here.
And to start with, here’s my favourites from the last 2 weeks.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Let me know if you like any, I’m still trying to judge what works and what lenses to buy next.
New look, new content
Posted on October 30, 2006, under general, meta, photography.
After languishing with the same theme for a long long time, I’ve finally updated the look and feel of my blog. It still has a way to go yet, but definitely getting there. I started with the Juicy wordpress theme and have been making some usability and style changes along the way.
I’ve also added a new music section, which I’m going to expand over the coming months (hopefully!), reworked the about section and have also finally started to manage links properly.
The aim is to have a more readable website edition, with a more natural look in a browser. 450 pixel wide panels for blog entries just don’t look right at 1920 x 1440 and the text can get hard to read. Also, most of my entries these days tned to be pretty long, so it helps to have more room to spread out the paragraphs.
I’m still using the excellent Askimet and wp-cache wordpress plugins, but now also using FlickrRss for my Flickr bar at the bottom of the blog, and the Audio player plugin for the music page. It’s still a work in progress, so let me know what you think, but so far I like it better.
Business as usual will commence shortly, thank you for your patience.
New lens; Sigma 30mm f1.4
Posted on August 13, 2006, under general, photography.
Browsing in the biggest Saturn in Munich, I finally found a shop that stocked the Sigma 30mm f1.4. I’ve seen it on-line, but not with any stockists I’d trust, so had held off buying one until I could get one in person.
It’s much larger, and weightier, than I expected; the huge lump of light-collecting glass on the front really makes an impression (especially as it makes the shutter action very visible), but it does its job very, very well. I haven’t played with it much yet, but it’s performing excellently in low-light conditions, which is what I bought it for. I already own a Canon 50mm f1.8, which can take shots like this in candlelight-like conditions, but as Colin observed, the framing is quite tight with 50mm.
The 30mm does an even better job of taking very good shots in very dark places, ideal for parties. Below are some shots from the Hard Rock Cafe in Munich, with a sample of the same exposure using my Canon 18-55mm f4 zoom lens (ISO 1600, 1/50s, full aperture).
 |
 |
 |
 |
The photos from the Sigma are actually a good deal brighter than the room seemed to the eye. Having such a wide aperture means that the lens has an incredibly short depth of field, but it’s got a very nice blur to it, and it’s producing excellently seperated colours for me, without the need for any filters.
It reminds me of the effects produced by film cameras in 1940s. The lens comes with a nice bag and good, big, lens-hood for getting rid of stray light-rays. So far, I’m very happy with it.
apt-get update
Posted on June 4, 2006, under general, photography.
So, I’ve updated a few things. Bowing to Noirin’s superiour knowledge, I’ve finally re-activated my flickr account, which is now here. For a few days now I’ve been meaning to write a script using the flickr API to re-order my photos based on the date taken rather than the sequence they happen to have been uploaded in.
Unfortunately the flickr API authentication layer really sucks for that kind of application, and none of the API implementations in languages I know are quite up to it yet. If anyone has any suggestions of any flickr-integrated apps in which I can more easily edit the photo-uploaded attributes, I’d love to hear about them!
 |
 |
 |
 |
I’ve upgraded my desktop in work to Ubuntu Dapper, and very nice it is too, it took only a few minutes to get my dual-screen setup working again, and no problems so far.
On Friday, I finally finished, for the next few weeks at least, the initial migration of HEAnet servers to our new services PoP. It’s a great feeling at least have that part over with. Hopefully once we get the last few things moved I’ll finally have some time to get back to regular work. I’m really looking forward to at least having some time to code for a change. I’m also looking forward to simple things, like being able to walk to work again and not having to worry about traffic so much.
I haven’t put many of these online just yet, but some photos of some of the facility are in my flickr HEAnet services PoP set. Right now it’s considerably less empty, and less messy too. I’ve also taken some photos of George’s Dock 5, where our offices will be in just a few weeks time, in the heart of the IFSC and the Dublin docklands. A lot of changes are coming!
Thanks to the brilliant weather, I finally got a chance to drive up the mountains and test out by new tripod and camera remote-control which I got from Noirin for my birthday. The sky was clear enough to get some nice shots of Dublin Bay by night, though it might be an idea to go further West along the mountains next time and try and get more of the city in-shot.