Stuff to have on Flickr

Multifaceted Personality
Video of Daily Photos
Final Urban Wildlife Photo
Trichromy
Panoramas
Little Planets
HDR image

Extra Credit!!!

Videos from Daily Photos

Murilo

Kelsi

Kayla

Casey

Crystal

Kim

Abhishek

Drew

Eric

Dee

Hayley

Tony

Emily

Mike

Nature Center Show details - updated April 25

I tweaked the write up a tiny bit more. I sent along Kim's image for use on the Nature Center's website and wherever else.

Someone needs to create a Facebook Even page right away and invite everyone....

Nature in the Urban Scene

In this exhibit, photography students from the University of Toledo explore the ways in which urbanites experience nature. From feeding the squirrels, to exotic pets, circus acts, and animal rehabilitation -  our love for nature takes many forms and not all of them are to nature's benefit.  This work explores nature's presence in our man-made environment in an effort to better understand the sometimes strained relationship between city dwellers and nature.

Artists:

Casey Becker, Kim Reuther, Eric Broz, Kayla Dopfer, Hayley Geyer, Andrew Grady, Crystal Hand, Abhisheck Mutha, Mike Nelson, Emily Pawlicki, Kelsi Roth, Murilo Teldeschi, Tony Wilcox, Caitlyn Witt, Dee Brown, Emily Pohlman

Curator:

Seder Burns

Artist reception: Saturday May 4th 12- 5

Work will hang in a gallery with carpeted walls. 36 linear exhibit feet comprising 4 walls of 7, 12, 9 and 8 feet with a 9 ft. ceiling.  We frequently double stack exhibit prints.

Work needs to be turned in Wednesday 1st during final exam session.

 :    all day combo reception for grand re-opening of the building and the exhibit. There will be light refreshments.

You should have 100 daily photos as of Thursday, April 18th

The total number of days between Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 and Thursday, April 18th, 2013 was 100 days. Thus, in a perfect world you would have 100 daily photos.

I know that a number of you went away for Spring Break. If you were photographing something that was Toledo location specific, then I will give you a grace of 7 days. If you fit this criteria, then you should have 93 photos.

Your daily photos should all be on Flickr. I asked you to post them to Flickr every week or two. By Thursday, they should all be on Flickr. If they are not, this will negatively impact your project grade.

If you haven't kept up on this assignment, please do not try to pull a fast one and shoot 100 images on a single day and tell me that one was taken each day. It won't work. I can read the data from the files. That would constitute academic dishonesty and I would be required to report it to the university.

I look forward to seeing the resulting videos from your photos!

Extra Credit Oppurtunities - Assemble all your daily photos into a grid

A few students have requested extra credit opportunities. I am offering three such projects for extra credit.

1. Assemble all your daily photos into a single grid with perfect spacing by setting up a grid. This will require you to do some math to determine the size of the individual image and the final grid image. It wouldn't be adequate to just use the 'pixel shim' method for this. The instructions for this are below.

2. Alternatively or additionally, you could create an additional Multifaceted Personality assemblage. It must be comprised of at least 30 individual images. It must show multiple aspects of that person's personality. It must be of someone other than the person who you photographed for the required 3x3
and 5x5 grid images.

3. Alternatively or additionally, you could create a PhotoSynth of Artomatic 419! Here you can read up and watch videos on how to make one. Note: You have to upload the files using a Windows machine running PhotoSynth. I could install it on a computer in the lab that I installed Windows 7 on using Apple Bootcamp.


 

How to assemble all your daily photos into a grid with perfect spacing

Now, you are going to take your individual images and combine them into a single image consisting of a grid of portraits. You are going to create the completed grid with adequate resolution and quality to make a print of no less than 16" in the shortest dimension @ 300ppi. Since 16 x 300 pixels = 4800 pixels wide, this would be appropriate resolution for your width.

Before you begin, be sure to have your images fully edited. I suggest you edit them all at once using Adobe Camera Raw. Browse to them all using Bridge. Control click (right click) and select open in Adobe Camera Raw. Edit them all. Save them all into a new folder.

Then open PS. Go to File > Scripts > Image Processor. Re-size all you images to an appropriate size. Be sure save them into a new folder (though I believe by default it will save them into a folder named JPEG assuming you are saving them as JPEGs). In class, I decided I wanted them all to be 2" wide, so each image was 600 pixels wide (300ppi x 2"). I decided to use 1/4" borders between everything. So, each border is 75 pixels.

If you have an assortment of horizontal and vertical images, you have to make a few decisions. One option is to crop them all to the same orientation. If you only have a few, then I suggest you go that route. If it is roughly a 50/50 mix, then I suggest you re-size all your images so that the longest dimension is 600px.  Then, layout your grid as though there are 600x600 pixels squares for each image. Then just center your image within that area of the square. That will results in borders that are not uniform in width, but all the images will be equidistant from each other based on their centers (which is to say, it will still look good).

Using Bridge, browse to the folder containing the newly re-sized images. Select them all, then from the main menu go to Tools > Photoshop > Open as Layer Stack. This will open them all up as individual layers in a single image.

Save that image. You can use this as the basis of your animated video (extra credit, plus it is cool).

Re-size your canvas. For this one I set the width to 4800 pixels wide as discussed above. The dimension that you pick for the height isn't that important now as you can add or crop off canvas from the bottom as needed. I suggest you just go with 4800 pixels high to get started. Keep the stacked layers in the top left when you do the re-sizing.

Then go to Image > Canvas Size and set the width to 16".

Turn on the grid. Make sure snap is on. By default, it is marked every 1/4 inch. If that doesn't work for you, then you will have to go into Preferences and change the grid preferences.

Select one of the layers. Move the layers into place and let them snap to the grid. Not the that your layers are stacked. Are they in the right chronological order? I suggest that you order them chronologically. If they were all taken with the same camera, then they should be automatically stacked in the right order. If you use multiple cameras, you will have to sort the layers out before placing each image within the grid.

Keep doing this until you run out of space. Add canvas to the bottom as needed. When you are done, be sure to save a version with layers intact as well as a version with the layers flattened.

To add a background color, just make a new layer at the very bottom of the layer stack and fill it with any color that you want.

I encourage you to keep up on this project. You can always add more canvas to the bottom of your image to add the additional images whenever you have the time.

NOTE: I want you to have space between all your images.  

How to assemble your daily photos into a video

Here is a very nice write up on how to create a video like this using Photoshop. 

Begin with a folder of all your images at the same exact size.

If you prefer or have cause to, you can import all your images into a layer stack and then make a video from that.

You need to host it on YouTube or Vimeo to get credit for it. Personally, I prefer Vimeo. YouTube may be faster as you probably already have a Google account of some kind and can use that to log into YouTube.

***You can make a higher resolution video if you want. It turns out 640x480 is NOT the standard resolution of older style TVs.

The standard resolution of older style TVs is 768x576. I suggest you make your video 1920x1080 which is referred to as Full HD.

DVD resolution: 720x576 pixels
HD resolution: 1280x720 or 1920x1080 pixels. The HD definition corresponds to the 16:9 format, as per modern TVs (Plasma/LCD).

Multi Faceted Personality student examples - *from a different class

 

Susan Mitchell's short video clip of your booth at Artomatic 419

Thanks Susan!!

Final Exam Session

2:45-4:45
Wednesday, May1st

Video series on how to assemble your Multi Faceted Portrait

Video Part I

Video Part II

Video Part III

Video Part IV

Nice assortment of 'vintage look' actions

Blue Vintage filter that I used in the video. NOTE: It downloads as a .rar file and you have to have a program that can uncompress that. 7Zip is a free utility that opens and writes a number of compressed file formats included .rar. It is Windows only. Try RARExpander for Macs. Or just pick a different action that isn't saved as a .rar file!!

3x5 assemblage from Video with action applied

3x5 assemblage from Video without action applied

completed 5x11

complete 5x11 assemblage with selected action applied

 

Multi-faceted personality

A nice series of work by an Italian photographer Maurizio Galimberti. He used Polaroids for these, of course you don't have to use Polaroid film.

For this assignment, you will shoot it digitally and composite the images using an image editing program.

How to shoot such an image:

Decide on the structure of the resulting grid. Suggestions:
7x5
5x7
7x10

Images must have a great deal of overlap.


You will have to be very close to your subject. You must be able to focus closely. Don't get so close that your camera can't focus.

Your depth of field become more shallow the closer you are to your subject. Thus, you should stop down as much as possible  (use the smallest aperture that you can get away with) to maximize your depth of field.

Perspective must change a lot between each shot.

Consider if you want your subject to remain in a static pose or not. 

Image shot under diffuse lighting if possible (avoid strong shadows on part of the face). 

Start with a 3x3 to get a feel for the results. Assemble it.

From there, get increasingly complex.

If even one image is blurry, throw it out and make a new one. 

How to assemble the images:

Edit all the photos in Camera Raw. Synchronize them so that all the edits are the same.

Save a downsampled copy of all the files as TIFFs into a single folder.

From within PS, import the images into Photoshop as a Layer Stack. 

Files > Scripts > Load Into Layer Stack.

Increase your canvas size. Final image should be at least 5000x5000 pixels.

Move your images into place.

Use a grid or 'pixel shim' to place your images correctly.

Save the multi layered image as a TIFF.

For class, take a 3x3 and quickly assemble it. If that looks like it will be good, then just leave it as it is for completion next class. If it came out poorly, then shoot another 3x3 and try to loosely assemble it just to assess your shooting. Only then move onto the more complex 5x5 (or more) images.

By next class, shoot images for an assemblage of at least 5x5 images. No need to edit them or attempt to assemble them yet. Please spend some time looking at the portraits on the website to which I linked above. I think the 5x7 images look particularly good, but you can go nuts and shoot a 10x10 if you desire.

Next class we will go over how to fully assemble them and spend more time discussing resolution.

I would like you to try to show multiple facets of one's personality in this collaged piece. Consider half of it shot with one hair style, facial expression, clothes, makeup, whatever, and the other half of the images shot with a change of one of more of those elements. You may want to shoot 5x5 of both 'dress ups' and then choose which ones to combine later.

Convert Equirectangular panorama to Stereographic projected panorama (Little Planet) using Hugin

Finally, after much frustration and bad information, I found a nice and accurate account of how to convert an existing equirectangular panorama to at stereographic Little Planet projection. Plus, it's very easy!!

Shutter Experiments tutorial

You can use this for any existing equirectangular panorama. This is really handy if you prefer to assemble your equirectangular panoramas using Microsoft's ICE or Photoshop.

HDR - an introduction and how-to

All cameras are limited in their ability to capture detail across a wide range of brightness values. The range of brightness values that a camera captures detail in is its dynamic range. In general, most digital cameras have about an 8 stop dynamic range. This is debatable though as it is really governed by how much noise you are willing to put up with. The darkest tones in a digital image are always the noisiest. So, your measure of dynamic range depends on whether or not you want to include the noisiest values recorded. Any case, there are innumerable situations in which the camera is not able to capture detail across the entire range of tones that we would like it to.
A classic example would be trying to take a photo of your living room in which you retain full detail in the scene through the windows and inside the room. Unless you are shooting on a very overcast day and your house is extremely well lit, the contrast of the scene is simply too great for the camera to capture detail throughout. This leads to compromises. You could expose for the windows and lose detail in the room, expose for the room and lose detail in the windows, or split the difference and lose some detail in both. None will result in the image that you really want.
In the past, I would suggest that you take two photos; one exposed for the windows and one exposed for room. You could then mask the two together. Depending on the image, this could take a great deal of time. However, you can get really great results doing this. Another problem with this technique is light spill. I you have some light source creating a gradient of light across the floor or wall, it is very hard to mask that in such a way that it will look natural.
Enter HDR. HDR is an acronym for High Dynamic Range. An HDR file is made by combining the detail from multiple exposures into one 32bit image containing far more information than a single shot could. Basically, you take the same photo multiple times while varying the exposure between each shot. This insures that you have data over a larger range than you could capture with a single shot.
This expanded range of tones contained in an HDR file is then mapped down to a range that you can work with in your image editor. I would suggest you tone map it down to a 16 bit per channel image.

How to shoot a scene to be combined into an HDR image
Let me begin by saying that this technique is only applicable to a scene of high contrast such as your living room during the day. Other examples would be a scene with containing deep shadows and open sunlight. HDR imaging also lends itself to the night photography very well as it allows you to retain detail in those areas that are not directly lit.
How do you know if the scene is high enough in contrast to warrant HDR techniques? If you have significant data climbing the left side of the histogram when you properly place your highlights as far to the right wall as possible without touching, then you should consider HDR techniques.
I you should begin by determining your initial exposure for the highlights that you wish to maintain detail in. Then change your shutter speed to allow in one stop more light. Repeat this until you are certain that you have captured all the detail in the shadows that you wish to maintain. Basically, the last histogram should show a ton of data climbing the right wall and nothing should be on the left wall. In fact, you should have a sizeable gap between the left wall and where the data begins. This will insure that the darkest areas of the image are recorded with ample light and will have little or no noise in the resulting combined image. I would suggest at least 5 shots. I think I have done up to 10. It can't hurt you to take too many. You can always clip some unwanted data when you tone map the HDR image down.


Here is a really great video on exposing for HDR by the makers of HDR Expose.

HDR photography is an advanced technique and accordingly requires good technique.
Things to keep in mind when shooting your images:

●You need to use a tripod. I have taken images without a tripod and then tried to combine them into a HDR image using multiple different programs with no success.
●You should set your white balance manually so that it doesn’t change between shots. I suggest you use the daylight setting when shooting at night. This insures that the funky colors of lights are recording as funky colors.
●Focus once and then don’t refocus. If you don’t have the best vision, you can always allow auto focus to determine the focus for the first image and then turn if off. If you are using a compact digital camera that doesn’t allow you to manual focus, then just be sure that it achieves focus at the same distance each time.
●Capture RAW files if your camera supports them. If not, capture using the highest quality JPEG option.
●Use a remote release or self timer to trigger your camera. If you shake your camera when pressing the shutter release button, then you risk blurry images and images that don’t register correctly.
●Use a lenshood to reduce the chance of lens flare
●Turn on your camera long exposure noise reduction feature. You are likely going to end up with some longer exposure times. This feature helps keep your images as noise free as possible
●Use manual exposure mode. You will need to change your shutter speed rather than your aperture for each shot. Manual mode will allow you to do this. If you want to try this with a compact camera that lacks manual exposure capability, then you have to use exposure compensation to vary your exposures. This should still work fine even if it changes the aperture as compact cameras always have great depth of field due to their small sensor and optical system.
●Use your lowest ISO. Since this technique requires that you take multiple exposures, it really lends itself to non-moving subject. Thus, the long shutter speeds necessitated by using a low ISO isn’t an issue. This will keep noise levels down even further.

Creating an HDR image and tone mapping

There are a number of programs available to create an HDR image from your multiple exposures. I suggest you start with Photoshop CS2 or CS3 if you already have it. If you don’t, try one (or all) of the free programs. They do a great job without all the bells and whistles that you may not need or want initially (or ever for that matter). Each program uses its own algorithms for tone mapping. It has been my experience that some types of images work better with some than others. I have categorized them by cost:

Free programs:

●Picturenaut
Freeware. This a full featured HDR generator with tone mapping capabilities. Most featured of the free programs.
Here is little write up on the application which includes a video tutorial.
Here is a comparison between Picturenaut and Photoshop.

●FDR Tools Basic. Freeware. This a free version of the extremely full featured FDR Tools Advanced. As such, it is very basic. Just enough to let you see the possibilities. No options to speak of in terms of tone mapping. Very easy to use though.

●EasyHDR Basic. This a free version of the extremely full featured EasyHDR Pro. Offers some tone mapping controls. Only supports JPEGs.

For a fee programs:
●Adobe Photoshop CS2-CS5. I begin with Photoshop as many of you already have it. Navigate to File > Automate > Merge to HDR. Once you generate the HDR image, four different methods of tone mapping become available when you opt to go down to 16 bit or 8 bits per channel. The Local Adaptation options offers the most control. Don’t be put off by the initially terrible preview. Enable the advanced options and you are presented with a curve. Begin by setting your black and white point. It will already look much better. Generally, your image will benefit from bringing down the three quarter tones. Then edit the rest of the curve as desired. There are numerous more options for tone mapping in CS5 than in previous versions.

Here is a nice little write-up on what all the new sliders in CS5 mean and do.

Here is a summary of the new sliders in CS5.


Video on how to use the Merge to HDR Pro feature in Photoshop CS5. Her shooting advice is not so good though; she encourage you to shoot in 2 stop increments and suggests it is okay to hand hold the camera. Don't do either.

●EasyHDR Pro. 25 English Pounds. (around $40 dollars). Full featured program with a nice user interface. Trial version is available.

●FDR Tools Advanced. USD 57.69 Full featured program. It is supposed to support masking which would allow it to be used with scenes with moving subjects. Haven’t had a need for that yet, so I don’t know how well it works.

●PHotomatix. USD $99. Well established and full featured application. Good website. Some good resources. Feature rich. Also features the ability to tone map just two images together. This is the most popular third party HDR application. They offer 75% for students and educators.

●HDR Expose. USD $149. They offer an academic discount, but I don't know what it is. It claims to be designed for realistic looking HDR images. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I am going to as I am so impressed by their video tutorials. You can check them out here.

●HDR Efex Pro. Nik Software the maker of many fine plugins such as Nik Sharpener, just released this program. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

Software summary:
While I have used Photomantix for HDR, I generally use Photoshop CS4 and CS5 as it is the program that my students are most likely to have or have access to. PS is really quite capable of stunning results. It gets a bad rap for its HDR capabilities, but I think that is because you have to be able to edit the tones using a Curve and many people can't pull it off. Photomantix is simpler to use. If you don't have PS or just want to try a free program, I would go with Picturenaut.

Luminous Landscape published an interesting article about the aesthetics and application of HDR.

Artomatic info