Posting Interactive 360 Panorama Images

How to create and post a 360 interactive panorama

Creation of the interactive image involves two steps; creation of the "stitched" panorama image, and creation of an interactive 360 degree image file. In the first step "stitching" software is used that combines the multiple images used to create the 360 degree panorama image into a single panorama image. Often this single image is used on its own to show a wide and narrow view of the subject. In the second step "virtual or interactive" panorama software is used to create the interactive 360 degree image out of the panorama image.

The interactive 360 panorama is an executable file that must be hosted on a website. The URL, or "link" to that file can be shared and / or embedded into another webpage. Common interactive file types are Applie Quick Time, Adobe Flash and open HTML. I used Adobe Flash and Apple Quicktime in this example; iFrame also works well.

Here are the steps:

1) Take the panorama images. This is a subject all in itself, but in a nutshell a camera mounted on a tripod is rotated 360 degrees, and multiple overlapping images are taken to cover the entire 360 degrees.

2) Use stitching software to combine the individual images into a single panorama image. I used AutopanoPro by Kolor for this. The single panorama images is saved as a jpg, tiff or png file and this single file can be enhanced in Photoshop as would any other image.

3) Use 360 panorama software to create the interactive 360 panorama file. I used Pano2VR by Garden Gnome, and use the options to output as an Adobe Flash file and a Apple Qucktime file. This software has many options change look and feel of interaction

4) Upload the flash and quictime files to a hosting website. I uploaded this images to a free Google page included with a Google account. After uploading the files reside on the website, and each has its own unique web address or URL. This link is used to share the image. The URL can be emailed or embedded to a blog post or webpage.

5) To embed the link to a blog or website, the following HTML code is used. This is web page programming and is not difficult once you have a little experience. Lots of free help on-line, and many companies will charge you a fee to do this for you.

This is an example of embedding a Adobe Flash File:

<embed src="http://sites.google.com/site/YOURFLASHFILE.SWF" width="540" height="140" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed>

This is an example of embedding an Apple QuickTime file:

<embed src="YOURQUICKTIMEMOVIE.MOV" width=240 height = 196 autoplay=true controller =true loop=false pluginspage=http://www.apple.com/quicktime/">

6) Publish blog or website; below is the interactive 360 degree panorama:

This is the Adobe Flash File; hover cursor over image to watch the image slowly scroll across the screen. Click and drag on the image to move the image, or, use the controls to interact with the panorama.

This is a simpler Quicktime Version; a bit cleaner but same interaction.

This is a static image that can be posted on your website; click the image to see the interactive panorama

Venus Transit June 5, 2012

Venus Transit June 5, 2012

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An avid amateur astronomer since childhood, I was looking forward to the Venus Transit of June 5, 2012.  Having spent quite a bit of time in astrophotography, so am a bit comfortable attaching cameras to telescopes.

I attached a Nikon D5100 to an Orion 80mm f7.5 telescope; the scope was on a manual alt-azm mount, and a piece of solar film was attached to the end of the scope which blocked 99.9% of the suns light.

The camera is attached to the telescope without a lens attached to the camera or an eyepiece in the telescope; the lens of the telescope is the lens for the camera.   The camera is on full manual, and focus was achieved by using the live view on the camera (one great feature of the D5100 is the screen articulates.)    I shot using a cable release and 3-4 shot bursts using continuous shooting mode.  The cool thing about shooting with a DLSR that take HD movies, is that you can switch back and forth between taking movies and shooting stills; here is a short movie captured of the transit:

The big dot is Venus and the little dots are sunspots; at 3:10pm PDT Venus was just at the edge of the Sun; by 4:10pm the sun had moved well into the suns disk.  Interesting stat; it would take 4 earths to fit across one of those sunspots!

Hope you had a chance to see this event; if not your out of luck as the next event is over 100 years away!

The setup:

This post for information purpose only and not for use as instruction for sun viewing.

NEVER look at the sun with unprotected eyes, or through a telescope or binoculars!

Corporate Headshots

 

The Setup; classic blue back drop
Rear: 8' x 8' calumet portable backdrop
Left: 42" white shoot through umbrella, SB900  shooting Manual
Left: camera on heavy tripod
Right:  42" Photoflex Multi-Disk and holder (silver/black/gold/gold-silver

White Balance, Light Meter
Sekonic L358 light meter and Grey Card

Classic Blue Backdrop
One shoe flash through white umbrella
Black negative fill disk to right

Black and white conversion
Color portait with blue backdrop converted
in Photoshop / Nik Silver efex pro

High Key Portrait
2 flashes reflected off umbrellas at white backdrop
2 flashes reflected off white umbrellas as key and fill

I shoot quite a few of these head shots for business folks.  These are used for business cards, media advertising, business publications and as avatars on social networks.  Two primary styles are shown; classic colored background and classic high key.  I use a Calumet portable backdrop which allows a much smaller foot print and only one light stand in a highly portable easy to setup package.  Once the setup is ready to go, through-put is fairly fast.  I allow 4 to 6 shots per hour but often move along much faster.  

The setup for the classic color background is usually shoe flash shot through an umbrella left, with a reflective 42" disk on the right.  The blue backdrop portrait above has a black negative fill disk to provide about 2 stops of difference between the light on the key (left) versus fill (right.)  I had to use a black disk and the wall to the right was reflecting too much light.   The key light is 30-45 degrees left ("Rembrandt") and 24" inches away to create a very soft key light.  I shoot manual to avoid shot to shot differences that TTL and other auto program modes create; this is caused by differences in skin tone and clothes.  Not a big deal if your shooting one image, but the difference is very noticeable to a client when reviewing a screen full of thumbnails.  

The high key portrait requires two flashes blowing out a white backdrop, one key and one fill.  I set the flashes to over expose the backdrop according to the highlight and histogram on the backdrop.  If I change any camera setting I recheck the white backdrop flashes to avoid a blue or grey cast in the backdrop that I will have to deal with in post.  Key and flash are flashes reflected off umbrellas 45 deg left and right usually same distance and setting.  

In both setups sometimes I use a hair or background fill flash; sometimes this is a single flash shot through a 1/4" grid, or a flash reflected off a gold / silver reflective disk.  

Flashes are hot shoe Nikon SB900s or LP160; flash power is set using a Sekonik L358 light meter; so very simple once you get the hang of it. I trigger the flashes using Pocket Wizard Plus II's; I trigger one light with the pocket wizard and the rest are set to fire using the optical sync ~ the other flashes fire when the first flash fires.  I want to shoot at 1/200sec and f5.6 most of the time, and the light meter tells me how much flash power to use.  A few test shots and your ready to go without much guess work.  Almost all lights are of in the room especially if they are florescent, but at 1/200sec they don't contribute much to the image.    

I shoot a D300 or D700 at around 100mm focal length.  The D300 crop sensor with at 70mm (using a Nikor 35-70 f2.8 lens) is a great combination that has become one of my favorite setups. I shoot a grey card once all is setup as my reference, and shoot it again if I change any camera or flash settings.  I shoot mostly TIFF, sometimes RAW if I am having a challenge with a huge mix of color and bright lights are on and I can't turn them off. 

This kind of portrait work is very enjoyable if you like meeting new people and chatting which I do.  The work can be very efficient if you are careful with your setup; many shots are just about ready to go out of camera.  A touch of color (or black and white,) crop and your ready to go.  

I have worked in many different types of businesses and this often leads to other work.  Recently a head shot job turned into a referral to shoot lifestyle portraits for a media campaign for a hospital cancer treatment center.  Fun stuff.  

Storm light

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DSC_0015 rwy 24 apch hollister storm web, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

Balancing dark clouds with sunlight.  In this view the black clouds had just enough detail to be interesting, but dark enough that even the slightest underexposure and the image would loose all detail in the clouds.  The challenge was to expose the clouds so they look dark but have some detail, and at the same time not to over expose the sunlit portion of the image.

I did not to use a split grad filter or HDR as I very much wanted to keep the dark versus light contrast.  This is only possible if the difference between light and dark is not too great (usually 6 stops or so for our digital sensors.)  I was shooting late evening so was in luck that the sunlight was soft.  Remember good photography is 9 parts preparation and 1 part luck (or is it 9 parts luck?)

Here is the drill;

If you are not comfortable shooting in full manual keep your camera in one of the program modes (landscape is a good choice here) take a few frames and bracket the exposure.  To do this use the exposure control on your camera (it is the +/- button) and take a few photos bumping the exposure between the - and + side of the scale in your viewfinder.  Take a series of image and one of them will most likely have the balance you are looking for.  NOTE; the exposure control is the most important custom setting you'll use, and is the FIRST control you should read up on and practice!

If you are comfortable shooting in full manual try this.  Fill the frame with the clouds (you can zoom in or just re-frame) and expose for neutral exposure; check the image to see if you have a the detail and exposure in the clouds you are looking for.  I like dark clouds to stay dark with just a bit of detail as in the image above.  Then re-frame the image and take your shot. If the sunlit area is well exposed your golden!

The first challenge on storm photography is safety.  Many photographers have been struck by lighting, fallen into swollen ditches and creeks that were dry just a few minutes before, and struck by cars who's drivers don't have good sense to slow down or stop in heavy rain or hail.  Its easy to loose yourself in the viewfinder - but remember mother nature will spank you, severely for being careless.

The second challenge is that  the light changes by the second.  This is not a place to learn new features of your camera!  Keep it simple, try only what you know and you'll grab a few good shots!

Rainy Day HDR

Rainy day HDR

Once I a while I play with HDR, but not often.  All images are art, and a such they each have their own beauty, but I don’t connect with heavily processed HDR images.  This was a day where clouds would be a challenge; the clouds were low and flat and very bright, and it would be hard to retain much detail in the mountains while keeping the cloud exposure within reason.  I did not have any split grads (oops) and so shot some bracketed images and called it “in the can!” (sorry, have watched too many Peter Lik shows lately!)

This is one of my favorite drives here in San Benito County.  Browns Valley is a historical cattle ranch deep in the rural area of the mountains.  Browns Valley Road winds through the valley before climbing a steep ridge and dropping down into the Panoche Valley.  Along this ridge Bald and Golden Eagles, as well as Peregrine Falcon are a common site.  At just over 3,000 feet above sea level you can find snow in these hills. 

Time lapse made easy!

Time Lapse Photography

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Many new cameras have the ability to shoot time lapse.  Time lapse is simply a series of still images put into a movie; a movie is nothing more than a series of still images. Take a series of 500 still JPG images, load them into a movie maker software, and hit "make my movie" its that simple!  This post is a short overview to the time lapse photography; tons of free information can be found on-line, or just send me an email!  

How to setup camera?

Tripod:  the camera must be on a sturdy tripod, and can not be moved or bumped during the photography

Focus: put the camera in manual focus; this way the focus will not be int erupted by someone very close to the camera as in the painters above.  Take a test shot to check focus before shooting

Auto program without flash:  let your camera do the work; aperture or shutter priority can be better choices at times but when your starting out auto is fine; I shot this movie in auto.

Image Format:  shoot basic JPG files in normal mode.  These movies are viewed on small screens so using a large photo file size is not necessary and just slows things down.  

Battery and Memory Card:  fresh battery of course, and format your memory card prior to taking photos.  Its much easier to pull large amounts of photos off when there are no other photos.  

My Setup:

Nikon D5100 + Nikon 17-70 f3.5 mid zoom at 17mm, manual focus

Auto program mode, Nikon D-lighting set to high, Nikon picture control set to vivid

Manual focus (checked in live view)

Interval shooting every 15 seconds, I let the camera run 3 hours while the work was done.

Movie clip in windows movie maker (no music I know, will add some later.)

What interval between frames?

This depends on what you are filming.  The deck work above could have been shot every 30 seconds for a jerky movie (lots of movement between frames,) or every 1 second for a smooth movie (less movement between frames); I shot at 15 second intervals.   If you are shooting for a very long time (say 8 hours) the interval between frame becomes more important; if your are not careful you will end up with way to many images.  Here are two examples:

* 1 frame per second is 60 frames per minute.  60 frames per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 8 hours = 28,800 images!

* 15 frames per second is 4 frames per minute: 4 frames per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 8 hours = 1,920 images ~ much better!

How long will the movie be?

Most movies play back at 24 frames per second. (some at 30fps)  You can slow this down to make your movie longer, but it will be more jerky.  

Divide the number of frames by the playback frame rate per second:

* 900 frames divided by 30 frames per second = 30 second movie

* 900 frames divided by 10 frames per second = 90 second movie

How to make the movie?

I used windows movie maker;  simple and free software included with windows since XP.  I also use Apple Quick Time Pro ($40 ~ and more options,) and Picassa a free Google product.  

Each program has its own procedure, but in a nutshell you go the folder with all your images and drag those images into the movie program.  You can add a song from you hard disk if you like - there is an "add music button" in each program.  The click auto "make my movie" button (slightly different name in each software, you get the picture, er ~ uh, movie!)  

And just like that you made a movie!

a quiet place

a quiet place, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

I shoot high end DLSR’s for my professional photography work, and while those cameras and lenses are absolutely incredible pieces of equipment, they do not “make” better photographs.

I enjoy shooting old manual film cameras for landscape, but on this hot afternoon I had only my smart phone, a 2 year old Driod X. This is a beautiful hike up a 1,500ft peak, and offers sweeping views of San Diego Bay at the top. This particular trail wanders through thick brush and small creeks before sending you up (straight bloody up) the side of the mountain. On the way down, in the soft light of late afternoon, I took a rest at this beautiful little stream. The scene was beautiful, and I framed and snapped this shot using my phone. The light was soft and even and the camera did a great job of capturing the soft details in the shades.

I am a great fan of following the work of photographers from around the world on websites such as Flickr and Aminus3. The fantastic, creative, beautiful images posted by photographers from around the world have nothing to do with equipment and everything to do with vision and art. I am as happy with this little image snapped with a cell phone as I am with any taken with my expensive cameras.

I converted the color digital image to black and white in a two step process; first I loaded the image to Photoshop and opened in Nik Software Color Efex 4, and use a “Glamour Glow” Filter to saturate and contrast the image in kind of a dream like way. I learned this technique on Moose Petersons website www.moosepeterson.com, but take it one step further. Once I have saturated the image, I open in Nik Software Silver Efex 2 and convert to black and white, and use the controls to amplify blacks, sharpen and add contrast and border. I then save as a Photoshop file, flatten and save as high quality JPG.

60230028; pentax K1000, film

60230028; pentax K1000, film, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

We live and work in a fast paced world of digital photography. Shooting film cameras allows us to slow down and see the image before we press the shutter, instead of checking the LCD. Manual film cameras take this one step further, putting us back in touch with the light in the frame, instead of letting the camera make most of the decisions.

My favorite film is black and white, low ISO (ASA for us old Kodak folks) film. Kodak Tmax 100 and Ilford 50 print films are two of my favorites as they provide a very fine grain and large yet subtle range between the very bright and dark areas of the image.

The number of labs that process black and white film is shrinking. I send my film to a lab in Southern California. They develop the film then scan the images to high resolution .JPG or TIFF files. I can have a CD mailed to me, or download images from an FTP site.

NCPS
North Coast Photo, Imaging and Frame, Carlsbad California
760-931-9840 http://www.northcoastphoto.com/

(thanks to Ken Rockwell www.kenrockwell.com for the suggestion of NCPS)

Working in a world of fast paced digital photography, shooting these old cameras and film ground me to where I began in photography, and provide a great amount of joy in the process!

60230005

60230005, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

I love film. I love old manual cameras.

Technical reasons; film has a much deeper range of dynamic light response than our small digital cameras. Forget the exact tech specs; this black and white image has much more detail in the very light and very dark areas than it would if I took this withy my full or crop frame digital sensors.

Non-Technical reasons; I love shooting black and white, and shooting film absolutely forces me to slow down and think about each shot. I try and see most shots before I take them, but with a digital camere I shoot then chimp (bend over like a monkey and stare at my screen.) With film I stare at the scene, then through the viewfinder. I work hard on manual focus, then move the camera about watching the analog light meter move up and down, gauging the exposure. Exposing for the light areas, I let the shadows fall where they may.

I shoot an old 1970's vintage Pentax K1000 first made in 1976. I have two lense; both Asahi, 50mm f1.4 and 28mm f2.8.

EXIF (ha!) Pentax K1000, Asahi 50mm f1.4, TMAX 100 print film shot at f2.8 and a fast 1/500 shutter to meter for sky +1 stop over mid grey. Sun is camera right.

ps; this is a photo of my father, taken in April 2012. 82 years old and still buiding homes for Habitat for Humanity. You go Dad!

Experience Counts

Experience Counts, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

In the harsh light of mid afernoon, I try and put the sun behind and off to one side of the face I am trying to photograph. I center or spot meter on the face, and let the background go over or underexposed, and pay attention to highights near the face.

This cowboy was watching the action at our local rodeo, and I photographed him using a Nikon D300 and Nikon 70-200 f2.8 at 200mm with VR set to active. Fortnately the backgroud was rather dark which allowed for a pleasant soft background with interesting detail. Post in CS5 and Nik Silver EFex and Color Efex plugins.

Indoor Gymnastics Photography

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This post was written in 2011 on an old blog platform; I have repeated it here so it can live on  , , 


These photos are taken at the USA Sports Winter Spectacular. Flash photography is not allowed as this distracts and endangers the athletes. Flash is a no-no in these competitions as it will distract the athletes and can  cause serious injury.  


There photos are taken without flash, using a very fast 85mm or 50mm f1.4 lense at 1600 to 3200 ISO at 1/500sec to 1/1000sec on a Nikon D700.  Speed in the lens is very important.  ("speed" is the ability of a lens to open to a very wide aperture.)  Even the fast and expensive f2.8 telephoto zoom lenses will struggle to perform well in this lighting; remember f1.4 is 2 stops, or double-double the amount of light as f2.8..  Slower f3.5 lens will have a difficult time working in this dim lighting.  


Full frame DLSR with lower (10mb to 16mb) resolution tend to handle higher ISO with less noise than crop frame or mega-pixel monster bodies with 24+ mp.  Simple reason is pixel size on the sensor; the smaller pixels found on higher resolution sensor have more trouble getting rid of heat, and heat equals noise.  Technology is changing all the time, and new (and expensive) bodies are being produced that have both very high pixel count resolution.  


Spot or center focus tends to work best or you might find your camera focusing and metering on the back wall or crowd while following these fast routines. I shoot in bursts as fast as the camera will allow.  Color balance and exposure is always an issue with Gym lighting.  Shooting in raw, presetting color balance and pre-shooting grey cards helps.


The good news is that new, less expensive "consumer" mid-mp cameras in the 16mb range are being produced that handle high ISO very well and take fantastic images.  "Consumer" means less expensive (typically under $1,000,) not cheap!  Professional bodies (typically $3,000 and up) are made tougher and heavier, and are geared towards full time photographers who want full control over the camera with minimal "auto" settings.  Don't lug one of these rocks around unless you need this type of manual control, the current "consumer" cameras are fantastic! 


All the tech stuff is great, but it helps to know the gymnast routines and get to the best spot possible to shoot.  As the “official” photographer at his particular event I was able to move about the periphery of the floor to take photos.  I never place myself where I block the parents view; these shows are for family to see these gymnasts. I do mange to bang my head on equipment as I move quickly around the gym, , , ,


Please visit my web page at Steve Loos Photography
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Blue Light Photography

Vets Hall, Hollister California

This image was taken for the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce for use in web and print media. I had seen many beautiful examples of "blue light" photography and conceptualized this image while looking at those beautiful evening light photographs.

Of course the weather decided not to cooperate, and with a deadline looming I was watching the sky every evening for several weeks. Finally one evening the sky to a deep crystal blue color with a few wispy white clouds. At the time I was sitting on my back deck and well into a bottle of red wine and a fine cigar when I looked up and saw these conditions forming. I apologized to my friends, grabbed a camera and tripod and off I went.

The challenge of photographing buildings is that in photographs they look like, well, buildings. There are many types of architectural photographs that catch my eye; close up detail shots, perspective shots taken from far away with a long lens, close up shots taken with a fancy tilt/shift lens. I learned of these “blue light” shots several years ago when I was taking a lot of real estate photos. The trick is to catch the light at some balancing point between the light on your subject and the light in the sky. For several minutes the light coming off your building subject will balance with the soft light of evening. And, if the sky is cloud free with no haze you will see this soft blue light just before dark.

Its best to frame your shot early, just as evening begins and then take a few shots every 3 to 5 minutes and to check the lighting.  The sky will move from being over exposed to balancing with the landscape. I set exposure by watching the histogram and the highlights for “blinkies.” 

I shot several images on the D700, 17-35mm f2.8, ISO400 at f8 and 17mm, trying ¼ to 2 second exposures.  The 1 second exposure came out the best and was used for single image processing.  I also shot several 1 stop bracket series adjusting exposure only.  I plugged these into Photomatrix Pro and used exposure fusion.  I ended up enjoying the single exposure best (I usually do over HDR) but both single and blended images were acceptable.  Post processing was performed in Photoshop CS6 and Nik Viveza for color, contract and selective exposure, then Nik Define for noise and Nik Sharpen.  A 1:2 crop was applied to the final image. 

Lazy Hazy Dazy

(click to view)

Lazy Hazy Dazy, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

View east looking into Panoche Valley from a ridge in the Diablo Range off of Panoche Road; the historic New Idria Mine and Clear Creek are located in the distant hills.  This was a very windy and hazy afternoon and I was not in this area looking for a landscape image.   I was working my way up a ridge looking for birds, but the wind had most birds tucked well into trees. 

As I was shooting I noticed the light and shadows painting interesting patterns on the hills, and the sunlight was mixing with the haze and forming interesting layers of the ridge lines that ran to the horizon.  The hazy scene was very relaxing and pleasant to view, and I was wondering if I could capture an image that allowed the viewer to enjoy this relaxing, hazy, sunlit view. 

I framed up this image using a 70-200 f2.8 VR at around 135mm and liked the frame.  This is a very “front to back” image, in that the ridge lines that run into the distance provide an important depth to the image.  I shot this with a wide angle lens and the look was dramatic but the wide shot highlighted the valley and not the light and shadows in the distance. 

In post process I moved this image into black and white using Nik Silver Efex and added a bit of sharpness as well as enhancing the blue tones a bit; the black and white process removed a color cast caused by the haze, but the color version was pleasant also.

I learned a few lessons here.  My first assumption when viewing this hazy scene is that a landscape image would not be very appealing.  Only after sitting and enjoying the view did I realize the interplay between the haze, light and shadows was creating a really cool affect on the hills in the distance.  Also the urge to grab a wide angle lens on this vista was strong, but the wide shot distracted the eye from the really nice parts of this view, namely the light and shadows in the distance.  So, don’t be afraid to try a shot on a hazy daytime scene, and be creative with the lens in your bag.  Don’t limit yourself to the wide angle lens when viewing wide angle vistas; sometimes beauty is in the small details even when viewing huge expansive views.  

Also I was shooting in full manual mode and made sure the highlights in the clouds were not over exposed.  I did not use a split grad filter as the shadows in the hills contain enough detail to be interesting, and I prefer the dramatic difference between the bright cloud and dark shadow.  Graduated filters and HDR processing are great tools for handing huge differences between light and shadow in the frame, but consider leaving most of the shadow in place if it is part of the view.  Sometimes letting the shadows fall to a black silhouette can be a dramatic affect.

Storm over Gablians

Storm over Gablians, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

This photo was taken last week during one of our many storms.  I walked up the hill behind my home and shot this image looking east towards a spectacular thunderstorm.  The shafts of rain and sun under the cloud were mesmerizing, and I’d hoped the photo did the view honor.

I did not use a grad filter and often do not on these storms as I like the dark, ominous feeling under the clouds.  If I can capture event a little detail beneath the cloud without over exposing the cloud tops I usually don’t use a grad filter.  In this image the sun was off my right shoulder and much of the rain beneath the cloud was in sunlight ~ a lucky combination that allowed the camera to capture detail in shadows and rain beneath the cloud without over exposing the white tops of the storm.

This image was shot in raw and use Adobe Camera Raw to post process for color and contrast; no HDR or double process was used.  Mid-tone contrast was enhanced by balancing fill, blacks, brightness and exposure in ACR; a combination of levels and curves can achieve similar results in JPG process in Photoshop (most process software can adjust levels and curves, or look for shadow/midtone/highlight adjustments.)  Try adjusting mid tones before working on shadows and highlights and pay attention to clipping (blowing out highlights and driving shadows to pure black.) 

Then the photo was loaded into Nik Software Silver Efex; a great program for converting photos to black and white.  I played with various settings, and ended up enhancing contrast and adding the “selenia” overlay which gave the image the blue / metallic feel. 

take off; white tail kite

take off, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

Another shot of my family of White Tail Kites living in my backyard in Hollister California (see previous post for another shot.) These birds setup their nets way at the top of an old pine in my backyard, and the nest is invisible from the ground. I can tell when Mom is in the nest as I hear her screeching and chirping at any bird that gets to close! This is a shot of the Male; he seems to be a happy fellow and loves to harass he crows that also hang out in the in the pines.

Michael Garvin made a great comment on the previous photo, that the tree branches in the frame give the photo depth of field. This is a great point. My favorite flying bird images have a tree or soft background somewhere in the frame. This gives the image some depth and scale; my eye gets lost looking at an image of a bird flying against a featureless sky.  Also the best time for me to photograph birds is at first light in the morning or at sunset; this puts the suns angle very low so the undersides of the wing and body have beautiful soft light.

How did I take this photo?

A few folks asked about the equipment and settings I use to take bird photos.  I started out to write a short simple answer.  Instead I wrote a long answer with simple advice; I hope it is useful.

My best advice

Know your equipment!  Spend time reading the user manual and visiting blogs that discuss your camera.  DPreview.com and kenrockwell.com are two popular sites.  I have missed out on great shots because I forgot how to quickly setup or change a setting on my camera. 

Go to bird and wildlife photographers websites and blogs.  Pay attention to the camera settings and time of day, and read about how they took the image; this is far more important that the equipment!  Quit a fiew "consumer level DSLR cameras" (i.e. cameras that cost less than your first car) are capable of great wildlife photos.   If you read enough you will see that many great images are taken with non-professional equipment by photographers who have mastered the equipment they use. 

Many photographers spend thousands of dollars on the newest and greatest gear, or the "professional" grade equipment and still get poor results.  Do not use dollars to chase image quality!  

When shooting birds or other wildlife do not rely on any auto setting in your camera.  Do not use the "P" program mode, or any of the presets including "wildlife" or "pets." These settings can be great in many situations, but when shooting wildlife the chances at a good image come and go so quickly you don't want to leave that chance up to the camera.  The auto settings are asking the camera to make all the decisions about lighting, exposure, focus, shutter speed, aperture and ISO.  When the "auto" photos are not coming out as expected it is often difficult to decide what settings to change as you don't always know what the camera is doing! 

Go outside and practice on leafs, pine cones, chimneys, fence posts, squirrels, bugs, kids (go shoot kids at a soccer game ~ you will learn a lot of good stuff!)   Practice on all the common birds and wildlife in your yard,  even your dog and cat; I have captured some great bird images while practicing. 

I can't stress this enough.  Most chances to capture good wildlife images come in 15 second blocks of time out of hours of waiting.  You will ruin your enjoyment if you miss these shots due to not knowing your equipment and techniques.  Being able to adjust your camera quickly to match a certain situation is a must have skill! 

Equipment

I prefer small sensor cameras as these provide higher effective focal length while maintaining resolution; this was taken with a D300 which has a 1.5x crop sensor that makes a 300mm lens will be similar to a 450mm lens on a full frame camera.  This helps a lot on bird images but you still have to be close; I was less than 150’ from the bird at most times and still had to crop 25% to 50%.  

I used a 300mm f2.8 lens. This lens is “fast” in that it lets in a lot of light allowing for faster shutter speeds; fast shutter speeds are a must with birds and sports.  An f2.8 lens is twice as "fast" as a f4 lens in that the f2.8 lens can let in twice as much light as an f4 lens.  Does this matter if both lens are shot at f5.6?  Maybe; many lenses have a sweet spot one or two f stops higher than the widest aperture; the f2.8 may be a lot sharper at f5.6 than the f4.   Also I can keep shooting in low morning and evening light, my favorite times to shoot wildlife.  Another popular lens is the 400mm f4; slower so must be used in good light for fast shutter speeds but I have seen many beautiful wildlife and landscape images taken with this lens.  

The 300 f2.8 is a "prime" lens as a opposed to a "zoom" lens.  A 70-200mm f2.8 is a "zoom" lens as opposed to a "prime" lens.  I find the images that come from prime lens sharper with better detail and color; this is due to lens design.  A zoom lens has more moving parts and more glass in order to make the lens zoom and this can compromise image quality.  There are some great zoom lens in the market and these can be a better value for many people as they are far more versatile than prime lens; if you have a 300mm lens on your camera and you want to shoot a wide landscape, you'll need another lense.   

Keep in mind the longer the lens (a 400mm lens is "longer" than a 200mm lens and has more magnification) the higher the shutter speed required for a sharp image, especially handheld.  Also, the new vibration reduction ("VR") lenses will not help shooting fast moving objects.  The VR is useful for low light hand held photography of slow moving or stationary objects.  When chasing fast moving objects sometimes the VR must be turned off; "VR" is not a useful feature for sports or bird photography. 

 

dinner; white tailed kite

dinner, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

I live in San Benito County on California’s central coast. Located along the Pacific Flyway reaching from Alaska to South America our area sees an incredible array of bird life each season. This fellow however is a year round native; a male White-Tailed Kite. These falcon-like birds were nearly extinct in California due to egg hunting, but are now well established in some areas.

These birds are common residents along grassy hillsides, and are easy to spot as they often “kite” or flutter their large white wings in a hovering motion, waiting to pounce on prey. I had not seen too many near my home, but this year this pair has setup housekeeping at the very top of a an old pine in my backyard. In addition to the regular crows, mockingbirds, doves, red tail hawks, finch, hummingbirds (little green guys - don't know the name,) and western woodpecker, these trees are home to migrating ring neck pigeons and now a pair of kites.

I only noticed them the other day, and this evening the setting sun was mixed with clouds and rain, throwing a soft warm light across the sky. Mom was in the nest, and in between harassing the local crows dad was out hunting. I noticed dad on his way back with one leg tucked up under his body and assumed he had a meal; turns out it was a nice fat mouse or gopher; he even had a few blades of grass included.

I used a D300 and 300mm f2.8 lense, bumped the ISO up a bit to keep shutter speeds fast, and set aperture priority at f5~f5.6; this gave me a decent depth of field and 1/1000sec+ shutter speeds. The D300 has a nice feature; center weight focus with object tracking. As long as I put the focus point on the subject before half-depressing the shutter, the camera will track that subject all around the frame and maintain focus. This is a great feature when trying to track birds or airplanes against a featureless sky; if focus is lost the lense will wander well out of focus and recovery to focus takes far too long.

3 against 1

3 against 1, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

Postcards from San Benito County!
Thank you to the staff at the Chamber of Commerce for honoring me with a request to create postcards that highlight the beautiful and unique place that is San Benito County. What a better place to start than a photo of wild broncs and the cowboys at the historic Saddle Horse Show and Rodeo!

 Visit the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce
 650 San Benito Street, 831-637-5315
 www.sanbenitocountychamber.com

10 miles with a flag

10 miles with a flag, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

Runner made 10 miles carrying American Flag. US Marine Corps banner on top says it all. Hoo-Rah!

Honesty in Photography

click to view larger:

his post was originally written in 2011 on an old blog platform.  I have moved it here so it can live on in a new home.

In 2011 there was (maybe still is?) a great discussion in G Dan Mitchell's photography blog;  the topic was "is it real?"  The conversation had been blog-bouncing for over a month and talks about when a photograph is real, or when it has been Photoshop-ed into something that is no longer a photograph. I was curious if it is not a photograph, what else can it be?  Here is the link to Dan's blog topic:  

http://www.gdanmitchell.com/2011/01/13/what-is-real

I was so enthralled with this discussion that I compelled to blow off an entire nights sleep to write a short article on the “art vs. photography” debate (link:
http://steveloosphotography.blogspot.com/p/is-it-life-art-or-photoshop-journey-to.html

Months after these posts, the discussion goes on (and will forever, I hope!)  This is a follow up reply to that discussion.

Thanks for a great topic Dan!

Steve Loos

(my reply)

Honesty in discussing the image is important.  Certainly as you both point out, if you make a composite image then somewhere in the footnotes of that image this should be discussed.  Landscape Pros struggle with this all the time.  Sign posts, power lines, stray people and ugly cows (well maybe not the cows) are doctored out of an image if the landscape photographer can’t first change their perspective.  Should this be discussed in the image?  I don’t know many who believe these items contributed to the image and therefore are not important enough to the image to discuss.  How about those composites, bracketing and HDR?  Should the landscape photographer disclose that this was composite (even if a single image double processed?)  Most folks I follow do indeed believe that important elements of the image were changed, and they do discuss these changes. So here the community seems to have found a somewhat clear boundary.  And, clear boundaries are scarce in discussions of art. 

Humans need boundaries (rules, structure, whatever)! These “art versus photograph” conversations arise then we humans attempt to apply rules to art.  Attend a class on “the rule of thirds” and you will learn a lot of great information on composition.  But, try and apply those rules to the photographs you view, and soon you will be staring in awe at a beautiful DuChemin image with the subject and horizon neatly splitting the image in half, both vertically and horizontally (see http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/2011/01/dont-break-the-rules/, January 2011.)  Read this and you’ll wonder if you wasted time learning rules.   

Rules serve to teach artists the basics ~ and well beyond the basis; they also help photographers struggling to frame an image just as they help a painter fill his canvas.  But these rules work best when they are applied (and broken) looking out through the viewfinder, not while looking back at the final image.  Here is an absolute for you; not every piece of art will satisfy everyone who views it.  And, some of those who do not feel satisfied with a photograph will try and reverse-engineer the “rules” of art to explain why they don’t like the image.   It’s just my opinion, but these rules don’t work that way. 

Great discussion!

Steve Loos

Show Time

show time, originally uploaded by Steve Loos.

A pair of young performers watch and wait during dress rehersal.  Low light theater photography can be challenging, but can produce beautiful images with the natrual theater lighting.