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John Andre Aasen is photographer of the month for September

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

I have been recently been viewing some stunning images on the website of John Andre Aasen. There are many fabulous images on there, it is well worth a visit.

by John Andre Aasen

Previous Photographers of the Month

Using Smart Collections to improve your Lightroom Workflow

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

Sometimes life involves some waiting around. You find yourself waiting for news from hospitals and other such places, not really able to concentrate on anything important yet trying to find something to do to pass the time.

Fairly recently I found myself in such a situation and looking for something to do to pass the time. Flicking around Lightroom I came across the smart Collection called "Without Keywords". I thought that most of my image collection was keyworded, boy was I wrong. There were 15,000 pictures in that collection!

If you ever need something mind numming and repetitive to do, I can recommend keywording 15,000 pictures.

So how had this happened? I have quite a thought out and orderly workflow, but I must be missing stuff.
Though a lot of the problem stuff was from an older time before I got more disciplined.

It seems that I need a way to check that I am sticking to my processes and the "without Keywords" smar collection got me thinking. Why not define my entire archive process a series of smart collections.

So, how do I create a smart collection that lets me know if I have forgotten to put a location against any of my photos. Well I have my location keywords in a big hierarchical structure based in a root keyword of "Places":

So if I create a smart collection like this:

Any pictures that appear in it have not had a place added on the keywords.

I have created a series of smart collections that allow me to see easily how far I am through my archival process:

Some of the smart collections are simply place holders to remind me to do stuff:

How to Use a 10 stop ND filter

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

One of the most common questions you get as a landscape photographer is "What filters do you use?", second only to the "did you do a lot of Photoshopping on this picture?".

Well normally I only use ND graduated filters to hold back the brightness of the sky. Without them you either get white sky or black land under the more extreme lighting conditions of sunset & sunrise (alternativly you can use HDR).

Lately I have been messing around with a 10 stop B&W filter. The main reason for using it is to get a much longer exposure, which can lead to movement in the sky or to smooth out waves in water. In addition any people (or in this case ducks) that are moving disappear out of the photo. Here is an example of the effect, taken on the banks of Derwent Water:

Kettlewell

181 Seconds at f/22 Using a 10stop ND filter.

The 10 stop filter is a very dark piece of glass - like shooting through a welding mask. So it requires a slightly different technique.

First I set up the camera on a sturdy tripod. I set the camera to in manual mode and took a straight shot at f/22.
A look at the histogram confirmed a 0.3nd grad would be needed to calm down the sky and consequently lighten the land.
Another shot confirmed that the 0.3 filter was correct.
Next I switched the lens to manual focusing as auto focusing through the 10 stopper dosn't always work and our test shots have confirmed the focus & composition are what we want so we don't want them to change.
Screw the 10 stop ND back on and then the 0.3ND.
Using the ND Calc iphone app allows me to easily calculate how much the exposure is lengthened by adding the 10 stopper.
I Switch to bulb mode and then use the timer built into ND calc to time the exposure.
Then just open the shutter till the timer goes off and try not to get bitten by too many mossies.

Just so you can appreciate the effect of the filter. Here is the test shot:

1/6Sec @ f/22

You can achieve similar effects without the filter. But to do that you need quite low light, this was taken 45 mins before sunrise and it was so dark that to the naked eye you could hardly see the pier:

Southwold Blues

15 Seconds @ f/5

Kris Dutson is photographer of the month for August

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 08:05:00 +0000 GMT

Dorset based Landscape photography Kris Dutson has many beautiful and award winning photographyHis website is worth a visit.

Pulpit Fire
by Kris Dutson

Previous Photographers of the Month

How to create exhibition Labels

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

Quit a few people have asked how I create the labels I use for my exhibitions. I thought I would share the technique I use here.

I first create the labels, using a customised version of my Lemon Limited Edition Management system.
Any additional documents, like the exhibition cover story and details of how to purchase the shots are created in Word.
I print very light grey dashed cutting lines round each label to make the process easier.
I print all the items on to premium glossy paper to give them a professional finish, don't print right to the edge as you need to allow a bit for trimming off.
Once the prints have dried, it's time to wander outside and coat the back of each with spray mount.
Then stick each print down to a sheet of foamboard.
Leave to dry.
Now use a ruler and stanley knife(with a fresh blade) and cut each of the labels to size, following the guidelines printed on each label. Having a proper cutting mat underneath allows you to cut cleanly all the way through without wrecking your table, and more importantly, blunting your knife.
After a short while you should have a nice stack of lovely labels!

"Beauty of Britain" - Exhibition opens at Rayleigh Mill

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:59:00 +0000 GMT

Beauty of Britain - an exhibition of my landscape photography from around the country opens today at The Mill Rayleigh. It runs till August 13th, so you have plenty of time to pop in and look at the pics.

Lost in the Mist

(Now Appearing at Rayleigh Mill)

Peter Kemp is photographer of the month for July

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

I've recently been enjoying the creative and inspirational photography of Peter Kemp. His website is well worth a visit.

de Roos
by Peter Kemp

Previous Photographers of the Month

John Parminter is photographer of the month for June

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

I've just been spending a happy half hour or so preparing for my next trip to the lake district by enjoying the photography of John Parminter. His website viewlakeland.com is well worth a visit.

Devoke Water Ruins
by John Parminter

Previous Photographers of the Month

New Canvas Print options.

Wed, 26 May 2010 19:33:00 +0000 GMT

I have just updated all the galleries on the site as we now offer the option of Gallery quality canvas wraps. So all pictures on the site are now available as:

18 x 12 inch Limited Edition Mounted print �75
18 x 12 inch Limited Edition Framed & Mounted print �125
16 x 24 inch Limited Edition Canvas wrap �90
24 x 36 inch Limited Edition Canvas �150

Discounts are available for multiple purchases.

Why Two Lightroom Catalogs ?

Wed, 12 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

Following my post on automatically deleting Lightroom backups, I was asked why I have two different Lightroom catalogs. Well the reason for this is that I like to separate my recent images from my archive of images.

My working catalogue contains the images I am currently working on and the archive contains images that are finished. Once a month I move the images from the previous month to the archive.

There are a few reasons for me working in this way. The first is that I find the process of archiving images stops me constantly looking at shots to see if there is any way I can improve them. If I didn't do that I would still be looking at shots I took in may 2006 thinking "I wonder what that looks like in B&W".

The other main reason, is that it is really easy to put off keywording and classifying images, as part of the archival process I like to make sure that they are all classified correctly. My checklist for archiving is:

Delete all the images that don't make the grade
Keyword every image with the location it was taken
Keyword any shots to identify any dogs & people.
Apply Star ratings.
Add Title & Descriptions to the good ones.
ctrl + A and ctrl + s to write the metadata to the files
Export the files to a new library
Import in to the Archive.
Add pictures to the collections for my various websites

Am I unusual in using multiple catalogues or is it a common thing. Why not leave a comment & let me know how you use Lightroom catalogues.

Images of Suffolk

Sun, 09 May 2010 18:53:00 +0000 GMT

After the run away success of our Images Of Essex website, there really was only one way to go.. Suffolk!

Dave Peck and myself have teamed up with the very talented Gary Horner to create a website devoted to Images of Suffolk.

Winter sunrise on Herringfleet Marshes

by Gary Horner

The Site features a collection of galleries organised by season and a map of Suffolk to help you find photographs of your favourite location.

The site was created using foliopic a new service providing websites for photographers and artists. Why not have a look at the site & let me know what you think in the comments section.

Leanne Graham is photographer of the month for May

Sat, 01 May 2010 20:58:00 +0000 GMT

You see I like photography and I like dogs. But which one is better? There's only one way to find out....

Visit ShortDog Photography!!!
I have been enjoying the work of Leanne Graham and her dog photography.

by Leanne Graham

Previous Photographers of the Month

KG Images - new site design

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:05:00 +0000 GMT

My good friend and one third of ImagesOfEssex, Keving Goodchild has just completely overhauled his website.

Thre are lots of lovely new images on there from around the UK and further afield.

Snake and Ladder

(by Kevin Goodchild)

I was involved in the design of the site, so why not take a look and leave a comment below as to what you think about it.

Deleting old Lightroom backups

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

Lightroom is a nicely thought out application and one of it's nice thoughts is that it reminds you to backup your Lightroom database on a regular basis. This is a good thing, you should listen to it's advice and make sure you take those backups regularly.

If you always cancel out of the backup dialogue, or worst still have disabled it ,just delete your Lightroom catalogue now. This will save all the hassle of waiting till something goes wrong with your hardware/software/mind. Always, always make sure you have a backup.

The only problem with the Lightroom backup system is that it can start to fill up your hard disk with lots of old copies of your catalogues. It would be nice if there was away to automatically limit it to only keeping 2 months or so worth of backups. Well after a quick bit of fettling I worked out a way to do this.

The instructions below are for windows PCs, if you've got a Mac there is probably some animated icon of Steve jobs you can click on and all your problems will be solved.

1.First identify what directories you are backing up to. These are usually in a folder called Backups inside the directory where your caltalouge lives In my case they are:
D:\Catalogs\Lightroom\Backups
and
D:\Catalogs\Lightroom\Archive\Backups

2. Open Notepad:

In XP choose Start>Run and type notepad click OK.
in Vista/Windows 7 just type notepad in the search box & click on the notepad icon

3. Paste in the following code:


forfiles /p "D:\Catalogs\Lightroom\Backups" /c "cmd /c rd @file /s /q" /d -60

replace D:\Catalogs\Lightroom\Backups with path to your backups you found in step 1
Repeat for each of the folders you found in step 1.
My final file looks like this:


forfiles /p "D:\Catalogs\Lightroom\Backups" /c "cmd /c rd @file /s /q" /d -60 
forfiles /p "D:\Catalogs\Lightroom\Archive\Backups" /c "cmd /c rd @file /s /q" /d -60

Note: the -60 at the end means "delet backups older than 60 days" you can edit this to any number of days you like.

3. Save the file as DeleteLRBackups.bat (the .bat bit is very important) in a c:\batch folder (if you don't have one create it).

4. Now all you need to do is schedule this as a task to run whenever you like.

Do you Facebook?

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:00:00 +0000 GMT

If you are on Facebook, why not pop by The Images of Essex page, Become a fan and invite all your friends?

If your not on Facebook, do you actually exist ?