Check it out:

1) The new schedule of classes is up! As usual, there's a lag to update the "Fall 2007" image. But the content is so fresh and so clean :)

2) Seniors portrait sign-ups have hit 200! Please invite friends to the facebook event. And help flyer/chalk after spring break (dates TBA)!

3) We submitted the '08 cover (and endsheets)! An updated version shall be posted in the office. (And final proofs should arrive in the next couple weeks.)

<3

Button Coloring in Photoshop

If you ever feel like sketching, coloring and creating your own button all on your own, here's how!

In Photoshop, import your sketches by scanning at 300 dpi (or higher if you're sketches are a bit smaller than usual). Once your scan pops up, you'll notice that they will be a bit on the gray side because of sketching and the template print out. So the next step will be to up the contrast such that your outlines/drawings show up more prominently. Go to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. Increase the contrast into the +20 to +40 range. The preview should be on so you can see how much your image changes.

Now make a copy of the Background layer and create a new layer that you will use to color on. Change the layer ordering such that your Background copy appears at the top of the list and the new layer appears right below it. Change the Background layer's Blending option to Multiply so that you would be able to see your coloring through the layer.

Select the new layer, choose a brush and color. I would suggest using a "fuzzy" round brush so you can get a "concentrated spray paint" coloring.

Once you're done coloring, flatten the layers. You can crop out each individual button. The crop tool should be set at 1.6608" to get the exact button size. Save it!

Now open InDesign, create a new document and place your button in it. To put in the usual "B&G Yearbook '08" tag, use the Ellipse tool and drag a circle over the inner circle of the button. Adjust and line up the circle exactly. Choose the Type on a Path tool (hold the mouse click over T or hit Shift+T) and click over the Top Middle anchor point on the circle you just drew. The type cursor should be flashing at this moment. Type the text, change the size to 6pt and align center. The text should be upside down at this moment. Go to the menu bar, select Type > Type on a Path > Options and choose Flip. And that should be it!

A much more detailed tutorial/set of instructions will be available in the bin next to the door with all the other design handouts. =) Blank button templates will also be available in the office.

A Plethora of Photo Pedantry People

http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/

Here are a ton of quick photo tutorials and reviews of tools for making your photos look delicious.
Be careful these aren't really aimed at explaining all the details, and you may just have to jump
in to figure out what they are doing.

Tutorials to check out:
#16: Smart Cropping, not just for farmers anymore
#98: Your friend the Histogram
#102: Scripting in Photoshop

"Studying" in the Pub Center...

It started off innocent enough... why not take the cart for a ride?!?














Then Aryn arrived, and we decided to go for another spin...













...in the parking garage! wheeeeeeeee. I kept mistakenly spinning Justin in abrupt circles, haha. And Aryn documented Justin's amazingness with "Biggie."













good times, good times! just another night in the PC :D

Filters and Some Photoshop Action

Polarizing Filters
They help you make the sky darker. It's awesome for landscape and architecture photos (not people). It makes the sky relatively darker with respect to the ground/buildings. Here are two examples. I have a 77mm thread polarizing filter that you can borrow. (It works well on very sunny days, it doesn't do much if it's overcast).

No Filter

With Polarizing Filter rotated to maximally darken the sky

Infrared Filter
Infrared filters screw on the front of the lens and block most visible light. They allow deep red and infrared light to go through. Cheaper cameras like Rebels and D40s are actually better for infrared (compared to Canon 40D or Nikon D200/D300). Anyways, you need a tripod because the exposures are long (several seconds). Set you ISO around 400 to make it quicker.

This is what your infrared photo looks straight out the camera

Press Ctrl+1 to see the red channel; Ctrl+2 for green channel; Ctrl+3 for blue channel. You will see that most information is in the red channel. However, the other two channels hold the details (Green and Blue are much sharper than the Red one). Play around a bit with channel views. Press Ctrl+` to return to full color mode (RGB).
Now look at your histogram (go to Window>Histogram, select "All Channels View"). For this infrared photo, the histogram is shown below.

Histogram for the original infrared photo.

Note that the flat part of the histogram does not contain any useful information. We need to throw out that part. Use "Curves" to do that. Press Ctrl+M to bring up the Curves menu. You can see the RGB, Red, Green, Blue adjustment curves. In order to throw out that useless part of the histogram, you could apply the curves below.

After applying the curves, the histogram changes a bit. See the new histogram below. This expanded the useful part of the histogram and made the image stand out more.
This is how the photo looks after curve adjustment. The colors are off, but it doesn't matter since the final goal is a Black and White image anyways.

Now it's time to take this tea-color looking image and make it BW. Use Channel Mixer for this (Image>Adjustment>Channel Mixer). This specifies what proportions to use in the BW image. We'll use more red and less green and blue. Below are the settings that I used and the image that resulted from that.

Channel Mixer settings

Photo after Channel Mixer

If you are not satisfied with the contrast, you can apply a so-called "S-Curve". Bring up the curves (Ctrl+M) and make the highlights brighter and the shadows darker (see how the curve looks below). Make the "S-Curve" steeper for more contrast, but don't overkill. My curve is very gentle. See the resulting image below.

S-Curve Increases the Contrast

Image after applying the S-Curve.

That's all. If you guys are interested in learning more about color and Photoshop, and curves, and all of that, let me know. It will make you a better photographer.

What/How to Shoot at Sports Events

It seems like the yearbook is heavy on sports photos, but good sports photos are hard. It's really easy to get intimidated by people with long lenses and fast cameras. Most of us have Rebel XT(i) or Nikon D40(s) which means that you can only shoot 3 frames per second or less (pretty much useless in most sports). Here are a few things that you can try for sports pictures.

-Anticipate Action
Since we can't shoot 10 frames per second (sometimes even that is not enough), we have to try to nail the picture by anticipating the moment. In tennis, for example, shoot single frames every time they serve, and hopefully you will get a few good shots. Also anticipate framing, you don't know where the athlete will be in a fraction of a second, but you might anticipate that she/he will jump, so you can correct for that. Autofocus is also an issue, if you have a $1000+ camera, autofocus tracking might be pretty good, but in XT(i) and D40(s) you have to rely on single focus points (we can talk about autofocus in the meeting, there are a few things about dedicated "AF buttons").

- Tight Cropping
If you look carefully at sports magazines and whatnot, you will notice that most of them are very tightly cropped. That puts the focus on the athletes, shows their bodies, skills, etc. You can get a tight crop either by cropping the photo that you took, or by framing it tight initially. Try framing it tight as you shoot. You will see a big difference. If you crop your photo too much in Photoshop, you lose resolution and get a pixelated photo with little detail.

- Use Really Wide or Really Long Lenses
Extremes are interesting. You always see those dudes on the sidelines with their 400mm, 600mm lenses shooting college football. So take your longest lens with you to the game (or borrow one). Sometimes wide angles are also lots of fun (provided that you can get close to your subjects). If you can sit on the sidelines at basketball games, you can shoot with your 17mm end of the lens (or even wider if you can).

- Capture Athlete's Faces
They make very funny faces when they hit the ball (or jump). So try to catch their face expression. If you catch a cool soccer moment but the player is facing the other way, the photo is not going to be very special.

- Shoot After the Game is Over
Shoot how athletes interact with each other, how they interact with coaches. Try to catch them if they do goofy things, or cry, or do anything funny. A lot of interesting things happen after the game is over. And for these moments you don't really need 10frames/second or 500mm lens.

- Shoot Very Low or Very High
Usually we shoot things from our eye level (5-6 feet above the ground). You get very different prospectives if you kneel down (or better, lie down) or you climb somewhere high. For soccer/football shoot from grass level, or go up on the tribunes and shoot from there.

- Very Slow or Very Fast Shutter Speed
For most sports you need high shutter speeds to stop the motion (tennis you need about 1/1000sec, same for baseball, about 1/250-1/500 for basketball, waterpolo). If you shoot slower the players and the ball will be blurry. But you can choose to shoot very slow (1/15sec, or 1/20sec, or even slower) and put emphasis on the motion or people or the ball. If possible, you have time and want to experiment, you can combine this with a flash exposure (you get blur, but the flash gives a sharp definition of people).

- Shoot Equipment
You can shoot a pile of sneakers, or a bag full of equipment, or anything that lies on the sidelines and has anything to do with the sport. That can add a nice touch to a page about the sport.

- Shoot into the Sun for Silhouettes
Sun is your enemy usually, but sometimes you can try shooting into the sun, so you get only the silhouette of the athlete. You might need to try several settings for this, perhaps exposure compensation +/-.

I am sure there are lots of other cool things to shoot. Please share your experience, post some pictures. I am going to add some photos on Monday.

We already have...

160 appointments for April senior portraits!

P.S. Cool blogging idea, photo team :)

Taking Looong Sky Exposures

At the photo-meeting today we talked about a bunch of things. One of the things was that we would all post some cool tip about photo-taking. Taking star-trails photos for several minutes is one cool thing to try.

You can set your camera to manual settings [M], set your aperture to f/8 or f/11. Set your ISO to 100. From your camera menus turn on "Long Exposure Noise Reduction" (Canon people, go to Custom Settings and you will find it there, Nikon people, find it buried under picture menu). Put your camera on a tripod and use a remote shutter release to trigger it. You need to set your shutter speed to BULB (will be open for as long as you want). Start with a 15 min exposure. When you get things right, you can move on to longer exposures. It is not practical to take long exposures with a digital camera beyond 30-45 mins. You will probably run out of battery. One more thing, start out with a fully charged battery.

Film cameras are much better for this purpose. First of all, the film doesn't accumulate noise. The film has just grain, and grain is visually pleasing anyways. You might need to jam the shutter button on your camera with some object and tape. Here's a photo I took in my grandma's village this summer (~1hr long exposure, film).

PS: You need to be away from city lights, in the middle of nowhere, or in a forest, to avoid light pollution. It might not work the very first time, so keep trying. Good luck. [Ghe]