Stewart Baird Photography

Classic Car Sparkle

SiteOwner — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:43:20 +0000

Topaz Labs have released another great little plug-in – Star Effects. They seem to like to build plug-ins that are focussed on a particular area (detail, black and white, lens effects etc). The good news with this approach is that the price-point is much lower than with more integrated plug-ins, like Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4. I find that some of these more “creative” type plug-ins, that the key is use them in a subtle kind of way, blending-in as required. Topaz Star Effects is a great example of this, as you can create some pretty strange images if you’re not too careful.

On this photo here I just wanted to bring-out a little more sparkle on the chrome. So, I duplicated a layer in Photoshop and opened it up in Star Effects. I used the Starry Night 1 preset and the adjusted the size of the star too suit. (If you don’t get any stars then there is a threshold slider that sets when the effects kicks-in).

The really neat part of this is you can brush-out the sparkles you don’t want. Topaz Star Effects works on any light areas in the image (I mean on the right-hand of the histogram); you don’t just paint stars anywhere. In my image it found some bright areas in trees and sky. Having a sparkle or “star” in those areas would have looked pretty strange to say the least. In the easiest way to spot this on-wanted sparkles is to select “stars only” in the Star Settings adjustment panel, then press “Remove” and paint over the areas you don’t want. Once the layer looks nice and “sparkly” I save it back to Photoshop and blend-in (if required). In this car photo I also applied a little extra detail contrast using Lucis Art. You do same kind of thing using Topaz Adjust/Detail or within Photoshop itself.

You might only use this plug-in a few times a month but its certainly worth it for that one shot! I used it to create some nice sparkle on a birthday cake the other day. (By the way I do have a filter for my lens that creates sparkle but I left it at home this time).Download the trial and give it a go.

These tools helped me work the magic:

Drown the Gown

SiteOwner — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:11:45 +0000

Have you heard of the “trash the dress” concept or in this case “drown the gown”? Basically, it is taking photographs (usually of a bride) as she wades into the water, dives into the surf of any other manner of water-based “damage”.What I like about the style of it is the sense of drama you can get; joy, desperation, freedom… It as if the person is to caught-up in the moment they lose touch with reality. I realize it could have negative conations; “I don’t care anymore” but I see it as mostly positive.

I suppose because I’m a bit romantic or dramatic. Maybe I’m just a little crazy (in a good kind of way).In this photo I asked my model to just play with the water and try and portray a sense of sadness, lost in thought; you get the idea. She has had some drama training so I think that helps with this kind of thing.The light was really good, close to sunset but the sun was filtered through the clouds with a resulting silver look to everything.

I captured this is 3 exposure RAW but then in the end only worked on one. Not much to do actually, a little touch of Lucis Art and then some contrast/sharpness. The image looks almost monochrome but I didn’t actually change the colours; it was just the result of the light I had and the vivid red of the dress.By the way, this dress was already damaged before we took the images!I’m going to try this again soon, next maybe as black and white.

These tools helped me work the magic:

Adobe Photoshop CS5
Canon 7D
Lucis Art ED
Nik Color Efex Pro 4
Canon EF 24-105mm f4

OnOne Software PhotoSuite 6 – On Sale

SiteOwner — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:02:59 +0000

I use OnOne Software tools because they make it really easy to quickly produce exciting effects.

One of my favorite tools in the suite is FocalPoint 2 which allows to you recreate blur in a way that accurately reflects real lenses. You can select the mode of lens you want, for example the Canon 50mm 1.2 lens and then mask/paint in. In fact I bought FocalPoint 2 for the same price as this whole suite is on special for!

You can always try the “light” versions of some of the products to get a feel for whether or not you want to purchase.

The sale only runs to 15 February 2012. Click on the banner below to discover more.

Here is a photo I processed through PefectEffects and then used FocalPoint 2 for blur and vignette:

Capturing Insect Macros

SiteOwner — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 09:22:26 +0000

This little bee was quietly feasting on the nectar; nice and peaceful at the end of the day.

I used my 100mm f2.8 macro on this one. You can take these photos hand-held but really the tripod does help. It allows you more creativity in terms of ISO and Aperture. My tripod has the ability to work “upside down” that is the central part can flip over and this means you can get the camera very low. If you get a tripod make sure you can get it to work down very low. Its not a thing you often think about until you want a macro!

I do like to take photos of bees but they can be difficult to catch during the day. Once it cools down they get nice and sleepy; a great time to take a macro. Another trick that can work (depending on your bug catching skills) is to put the insect into the freezer for a few seconds. Just long enough to cool them down.
Take a few shots at different apertures if you can as well. Here I went from f2.8 up to f11 and then reviewed in Lightroom.

These tools helped me work the magic:

Black and White Long Exposure

SiteOwner — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:16:00 +0000

For this long exposure shot I used the rocks in the sea as a counterpoint. For the lens I used the 24-105mm at the long end. Again the key is to focus on manual before attaching the ND filter. If you don’t have a camera release cable then set it for a 2 second delay; this helps to reduce any camera shake. For post-processing I used Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro 2. You can use this plugin either directly from Lightroom/Apple Aperture or Photoshop. Topaz Lab’s have a great BW effect plugin too and its worth checking-out too. The ability to select film types with Silver Efex Pro 2 enables you to very quickly produce natural black and white results.

These tools helped me work the magic:

Long Exposure Fun

SiteOwner — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:11:52 +0000

I’ve been having some fun with long exposures using an ND8 filter. The trick is to take a photo which has movement but also some static, solid objects (like rocks). It pretty much goes without saying that you need a tripod for making these photographs! With the camera set on the tripod I focussed manually (making sure the IS was turned-off). I’ve got a Canon 7D so its handy to use the Live View (LCD) on the back of the body. Zooming in with the Live View is only zooming in the image on screen, not the actual lens. This way you can get a very precise focus on your subject.I’m using the camera’s manual setting at this point but you could use Aperture Priority just as well. To calculate the exposure with the ND filter attached I’m using a free iPhone application called “Long Time”. You can use this to dial in the shutter time you have set without the ND filter on and then down the bottom you can see how long you’ll need to dial in.

Here’s one I took last night of a stormy beach scene at sunset.

These tools helped me work the magic:

Here is the screen shot from LongTime:

A little drama

SiteOwner — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:00:55 +0000

A bit of drama! This photo was taken using natural light, there was just enough to light the face. This is another great example of the Canon 7D’s low-light capabilities, any noise cleaned-up with Noiseware. I really hope that the makers of Noiseware bring-out a 64-bit version of this super plug-in soon. It’s my favourite noise reduction tool but it requires me to run Photoshop CS5 in 32-bit mode. My other main noise reduction tools are Topaz DeNoise and Nik Software Dfine. To be honest I wouldn’t have bought Dfine by itself; it just doesn’t add-up (cost versus features).Once the noise was dealt with I used a bit Nik Software Color Efex 4 (Dark Contrasts). Finally I sharpened with a high-pass filter. The acting… well that was for free!

These tools helped me work the magic:

Long Exposure Drama

SiteOwner — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:03:13 +0000

Usually I like realistic looking images but this time I thought I’d get a bit more “creative”. I understand if this processed look isn’t your cup of tea but… I like it!

This is a longer exposure shot using the 9-stop filter, the single RAW was then processed in Photoshop. To take the shot I metered first with the filter off, focussed manually and the calculated what the new exposure time should be. I found a free, helpful application to do this for the iPhone – LongTime. Of course you need a tripod for all of this! I use a camera release to ensure no accidental shakes.

These tools helped me work the magic:

Fire In The Sky Over Mana Island

SiteOwner — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:48:40 +0000

I broke my tripod last week and this is limiting the number of HDRs I’m taking. Have you tried using a monopod for this? Slightly better than useless… Thankfully, there was a trash can nearby that was in just about the right location – it proved a pretty stable surface! I’m glad that I still took this (hand-held by the way) series of shots – better than nothing I reckon
The wonderful 10-22mm EFS lens from Canon works like a charm when there are a few clouds in the sky. The clouds seem to tower over you as you take the shot. I processed it through Photomatix Pro 4 (most of the time I’m using HDR Efex Pro instead); to my mind it gives the “cleanest” look which is what I wanted here. Then I cropped-out some of the foreground and sharpened slightly to finish. The result is very simple and hopefully, realistic looking.In hindsight I should have bracketed a bit wider but really couldn’t manage it hand-held (shutter speed too slow).Now to hunt for a new tripod…

These tools helped me work the magic:

Beach Boy

SiteOwner — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:22:24 +0000

Now to try and remember what I did on this one… I think the composition and expression was pretty good but it did look a little flat. The option to go black and white was there but that lovely gold tone was too good to lose! So, I took it into Nik Color Efex Pro 4 – extract details filter and then tweaked the levels slightly in Photoshop.

I do like to use the Art History brush to create the “painting look” but it takes ages! So, I took it into Alien Skin Software’s Snap Art 3 (watercolour filter), adjusted the canvas and reduced the brush size. The result was nice enough but I lost a little too much detail for my liking. Next I duplicated the layer and applied a High Pass filter to the image, finally using a mask; I painted only those bits of sharpening in that I wanted. By the way blending mode was to “darken” not my usual “High Light” mode.Now to get this one printed….

Contact me through my blog if you’re interested in high-resolution versions of any of my photos.

These tools helped me work the magic: