Cain Journal Entries

3 creative works found

• Tutorial: Photographing the Milky Way with a standard DSLR camera
  by Cain Doherty

  I have an improved and better formatted version of this tutorial in my wordpress blog....

  I have an improved and better formatted version of this tutorial in my wordpress blog. This tutorial will cover the development of my image Milky Way from Apollo Bay using a Canon 350D, a wide angle lens, Adobe Photoshop and an image alignment program called hugin. For this to be repeatable you must be shooting with clear dark skies, free from light pollution. I used settings of Tv: 20 sec, Av: f/4, focal length: 17mm and ISO speed: 1600. A shutter release cable is also a great tool and can keep your camera clicking as it sits on the tripod. The more images taken, the better for the final result, because this will improve the signal to noise ratio that plagues digital sensors during long exposures. A tracking mount is not necessary with a 20 second shutter speed because the rotation of the night sky is undetectable at such a wide angle. Please read the following steps for more information. All images are hyperlinked to larger sizes. 1) Download this zipped folder containing four of my unaligned shots of the Milky Way. 2) Load them into hugin_0.7_beta_4. 3) Manually align images with control points – don’t automatically align. I aligned three images to a common one. Enlarge the screenshot for details. 4) Click Edit – fine tune all points. 5) Click View – preview window. 6) Click Center and Fit buttons to achieve this view. 7) Click Edit – Optimise. 8) Click Stitcher – image format – multiple tiff . Final screen before clicking Stitch Now . 9) If you don’t want to worry about learning how to align the images with hugin, then you can download this zipped folder containing the four prealigned images of the Milky Way. 10) Load each image onto a new layer in photoshop adjusting the blend mode to screen which is good at lightening images without lightening the darkest areas. 11) Add a medium contrast curves layer. 12) Add colour balance layer: shadows (-90,-25,-10), midtones (-15,-5,-20), highlights (0,-5,30). 13) The final result For comparison’s sake, shown below is a typical accompanying jpeg to a raw file I began with for one of the individual images. I used Adobe Camera Raw to extract the jpegs provided in step 1 for processing. In closing, I’d like to point out this is not the only way an image like this can be captured; there is myriads of possibilities. I have developed this simple and inexpensive method by just experimenting with the tools at my disposal. Comments are welcomed. If you haven’t done so already, please check out another tutorial I have written: Layer Masks and Transparency Gradients for The Heart.

• Tutorial: Layer Masks and Transparency Gradients for "The Heart"
  by Cain Doherty

  I have an improved and better formatted version of this tutorial in my wordpress blog....

  I have an improved and better formatted version of this tutorial in my wordpress blog. This tutorial will cover digital blending in Photoshop CS3 using layer masks and transparency gradients. It is aimed at those who are interested in seeking alternatives to HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing. I would consider the usage of these techniques as digital graduated neutral density filters and although it can take some time to implement, I find the benefits to be: Preservation of intended colour and tone Complete control over contrast gradients Elimination of halo effects Elimination of fringing I will use one of my photographs, The Heart, to illustrate the method. 1. Download this zipped folder containing the two images to be used for blending and open IMG_1166 in Photoshop. 2. Press Ctrl+Shift+N and click OK to add a new layer. To place IMG_1164 on this layer go to File > Place and find where you saved it. Click the tick to commit the transform. 3. To create a mask, click the New Layer Mask (grey square with white circle inside) button in the Layers palette. To create a transparency gradient on this mask, first hit G to bring up the gradient toolbar and select a linear gradient. Then click and drag as shown in the following picture. 4. The next layer will be a photo filter so click Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter and hit OK. Push the density slider to 100% and select a custom colour with properties as shown in the following picture. 5. Now apply another layer mask and gradient, as done previously, to restrict the photo filter to the sky. Change the blend mode to Linear Burn and opacity to 70% for the following picture. The Linear Burn blend mode is similar to Color Burn, but instead of increasing contrast, it decreases brightness to darken the base color and reflect the blend color. Now add curves layers to the foreground and then the sky. 6. Click Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves and hit OK. Then modify each of the RGB channels to reflect something like the following picture. 7. Change the blend mode to soft light and add a layer mask and gradient (this time in reverse) to restrict the curves layer to the foreground. This will produce the following result. The curves layer that targets the sky looks like this. 8. Change the blend mode again to soft light, opacity to 75% and create a layer mask and gradient to achieve the following result. 9. The final step involves adding a levels layer and changing its blend mode to ‘screen’ to boost the lighter areas. An opacity of 90% will achieve the picture shown below. 10. Straightening the horizon and correcting the barrel distortion yields The Heart. If you’ve found this useful please let me know. Feedback and discussion is welcome. If you haven’t done so already, please check out one of my other tutorials Photographing the Milky Way with a standard DSLR camera Cain Doherty

• "Harry Brown" Premiere (Michael Caine!)
  by berndt2

  2 Premieres in 2 days in London town. And would you believe it: tomorrow (which at the time of posting = today) there’s a third. It’s for…

  2 Premieres in 2 days in London town. And would you believe it: tomorrow (which at the time of posting = today) there’s a third. It’s for the new Twilight Film ‘New Moon’ and… ummm… I’m sorry. But there are some premieres I just can’t face. So I won’t be going to that. But premieres for movies about old-agers turning to vigilantism?> I’m there. / It’s Harry Brown. (And, possibly, fine Indian food. It’s a combination that’s worth some consideration, surely?) / Spotted in the far distance : Yellow Cap Guy. His story is interesting, and so is that of Nikon D70 Guy, who I stood next to at yesterday’s Call of Duty Premiere . There are some fascinating people who hang out at these premieres. Except me. I’m just standing here, pointing my camera. I can take or leave these things – indeed, I went to Harry Brown but will NOT go to New Moon. Sorry! / Sir Michael Caine alights from his vehicle, looking very Sir/Knight-like. Or… well… very Butler-like, given he’s also Alfred the Butler in Batman. .. And a citizen vigilante in this film. (Approach him at your own risk, really!) / Sir Michael Caine and some cute reporter lady made an on-the-spot pact never to mention that ever again, I’m guessing… / “The capital of Liechtenstein? Ummm…” Cute reporter lady was clearly asking some tricky questions. This would appear to be Ben Drew, who is in the film. / Almost exactly a year ago I failed to get a proper shots of both Quantum of Solace Bond Girls Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko. Incredibly, Gemma Arterton was at this premiere. How did I go? I hear you ask? Well… not all that great. But thanks for asking. / Man’s cruelty to our feathered friends hits yet another landmark. / “Bruce Wayne…. Is Batman??” Cute reporter lady is destroying these people… whoever they are / he is. / Almost exactly a year ago I failed to get a proper shots of both Quantum of Solace Bond Girls Gemma Arterton and Olga Kurylenko. Incredibly, somebody called out to this lady, identifying her as Olga Kurylenko. I’m not convinced…mostly because I don’t really have a decent shot to compare against! / Cute reporter lady lines up another curve-ball. Her intended victim here is an actor by the name of Joseph Gilgun, whose name rings absolutely no bells. Free throw for you, cute reporter lady! / Sir Michael Caine says: “Stay In School, Kids. And don’t do Drugs.” (Or somesuch thing. I was taking photos, not paying attention..) / (Please allow me to reaffirm my commitment to observe, record and not influence the proceedings at a premiere in any way. No Michael Caines were hurt, distracted or interfered with by me in the making of this premiere. ) / The repetitive strain injury toll from yesterday’s Call of Duty 2 premiere and game release may have claimed yet another victim? I honestly have no idea who this is. IMDB is unhelpful, wireimage is unhelpful and getty images seems to have 28 pages of pictures I’m really not game to trawl though. I’m going with ‘the director’! / Well… at least this guy was easy to figure out. He’s newly crowned WBA Heavyweight Champ David ‘The Hayemaker’ Haye. His connection with the film is spurious, but given he’s a heavyweight world champ, I doubt anybody was game to call him on it. / Whoever it was that made David Haye turn around: you caught a world heavyweight champ off-guard. Well done! So… that was another premiere. And no matter how much you beg or plead, the very linear nature of time means I can’t/won’t go to the Twilight “New Moon” premiere on the 11th. I have laundry duties.. and I take those very seriously. Until next time! / Here’s the archive Bernd