The Object

Ever have one of those pieces that you put in a drawer for a couple of years, pulling it out periodically only to shove it back in because your head wasn’t in the right space yet to deal with it? That’s the underlying story behind this piece, The Object. In this case, it wasn’t just the image I was having trouble with - it was also the text I decided to attach to the image to give it a story. But sometimes, you just have to challenge yourself.

In this article, I want to share both the technical details of how this piece came together, as well as my internal conversation over the nature of abstract art and how it relates to photography.

Seeking to Understand

It’s been awhile since I walked through the creation of one of art pieces that started life as a photograph, so I thought I’d pick one of my favorites: Seeking to Understand. Although it was created a couple of years ago just after I moved to New Mexcio, the process is similar to that of many of my current works.

Review: Ilford Galerie Smooth Gloss and Pearl Papers

Although most of my print work is of the mixed-media variety plus the occasional giclée on fine art (and other more unusual) papers, sometimes I am called upon to print good ol’ photographs. Therefore, I have a stock of photo papers as well, and care intensely about printing accuracy.

Against that backdrop, respected photo and inkjet printer paper manufacturer Ilford recently sent me boxes of their Galerie Smooth Gloss and Pearl inkjet photo papers to test (as well as their more specialized Galerie Gold Fibre Silk, which will be the subject of a later review). After spending some time profiling them, staring at gamut graphs, and making a set of test prints, here are my results. Along the way, we’ll discuss a few other papers, as well as issues related to a proper color-managed printing workflow.

Quick Review: Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 Carbon Fiber Q90 4-Section Tripod

As I mentioned several months ago, I’ve been a quest to find a lighter-weight but still high-quality monopod/tripod and head combination to help offset my penchant for bringing along ever-heavier lenses while hiking. One obvious line of enquiry would be a carbon-fiber monopod or tripod.

Well, it so happens Manfrotto generously loaned me one of their 055CXPRO4 carbon fiber 4-section tripods to go along with the 327RC2 handle-grip ball head I reviewed earlier. I knew it would be lighter; what I didn’t know is if it would be a stable as my normal aluminum sticks for studio work or heavier camera/lens combinations in the field. Assuming at least some of you might have the same questions in your mind as me, I wanted to share my results.

Review: Manfrotto 327RC2 Handle-Grip Ball Head with Quick Release

Although I do shoot some studio set-ups, the majority of my photography is a spontaneous reaction to the scenery around me, often while hiking. Therefore, when I’m using a tripod or monopod, I value a head that is both light and that can be adjusted quickly. By the same token, I’d like it to also be rock-solid for when I am taking longer exposure or extreme zoom shots.

We’ve long owned a Manfrotto 3221WN tripod with 490RC4 ball head, which are great for studio set-ups, but too cumbersome for more spontaneous shooting outside the studio. Therefore, I’ve been on the lookout for a mobile alternative. To that end, Manfrotto kindly sent me some gear on extended loan to try out, including one of their light duty handle-grip ball heads. After living with this head for several months now, I wanted to share my impressions.

Approaches to Light Painting

In simple terms, “light painting” involves taking long-exposure photos in nominally dark environments, where you artfully set up or move a light source to either reveal an otherwise-hidden object, or draw in space using pure photons. Assuming you yourself are either generating or reflecting relatively little light, and/or are moving during the exposure, you become invisible to the film or camera’s sensor, leaving just the light behind.

I recently went on a light painting shoot along with other members of the New Mexico Outdoor Photography Meetup group, dragging along a Canon 5D mkII, a Pixel RW-221 wireless remote control (so I could trigger the camera from larger distances, and without line-of-sight), and a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 carbon fiber tripod (the lighter weight was appreciated while bumbling around in pitch dark in a open space full of prickly pear cactus). Although I started out with the requisite flashlight and blink toys as light sources, I quickly went off-script and started using an iPad as a light source, plus spent a bit of time in Photoshop and Camera Raw afterward. Here’s what I tried, and what I learned.

Chromatic Aberration

Chromatic Aberration is the culprit behind colored fringing - often cyan or red, and vertical in direction - appearing on high-contrast edges. Technically, it results from the failure of a lens to converge all colors from the same source at the same destination point. It is most likely to occur with lower-quality lenses and shorter focal lengths.

As I tend to use higher quality lenses and longer focal lengths, I bravely assumed I could pretty much ignore it. Until it slapped me in the face. Here’s how to identify it, and correct it in Adobe Photoshop.

Light Painting WiFi

Some friends recently shared with me on Facebook a novel application of light painting: Creating a four meter tall bar that displays an 80 point bar graph of WiFi signal strength, and then walking through various urban settings to visualize the “strata” of communication signals.

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