Are You A Winner?

Well, you are, if your name is either of the two that were randomly selected by our list generator!

The winner of our Scrapbook Adhesives prize pack is:

List Randomizer

There were 23 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
2. April Childs, AB
3. Lise Malette, ON
4. Jennifer Lundsten, SK
5. Lise Malette, ON
6. Diana Hetherington, NB
7. Sarah Fitzpatrick, ON
8. Lise Malette, ON
9. Jill Sparks, ON
10. Lise Malette, ON
11. Jill Sparks, ON
12. Lynette Parent, AB
13. Agatha Wiebe, ON
14. Lise Malette, ON
15. Lise Malette, ON
16. Lise Malette, ON
17. Lise Malette, ON
18. Nathalie Cormier, QC
19. Lise Malette, ON
20. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
21. Valery Klassen, AB
22. Agatha Wiebe, ON
23. Lise Malette, ON

Timestamp: 2011-03-03 05:03:56 UTC

and the lucky winner of the Magenta prize pack is:

List Randomizer

There were 23 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. April Childs, AB
2. Jill Sparks, ON
3. Lise Malette, ON
4. Lise Malette, ON
5. Lise Malette, ON
6. Lise Malette, ON
7. Sarah Fitzpatrick, ON
8. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
9. Jennifer Lundsten, SK
10. Diana Hetherington, NB
11. Nathalie Cormier, QC
12. Lise Malette, ON
13. Agatha Wiebe, ON
14. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
15. Lise Malette, ON
16. Lise Malette, ON
17. Lise Malette, ON
18. Lise Malette, ON
19. Lise Malette, ON
20. Agatha Wiebe, ON
21. Jill Sparks, ON
22. Lynette Parent, AB
23. Valery Klassen, AB

Timestamp: 2011-03-03 05:10:23 UTC

Congratulations to our winners – your prizes will be mailed out shortly to the addresses listed on your submission forms.

Thanks again to all who played along – check back on or around March 8th for another tutorial and photo assignment!

Cheers,

Jan/Feb submissions!

So sorry for the lack of posts this month, everyone!  As you may know, if you follow my blog, I have had some serious dental issues over the last few weeks.  I have had three rounds of antibiotics and they really knackered me!  I’m happy to say that I’m finishing up Round 3 of antibiotics and I *think* we finally have this thing licked!  (Touch wood!)

I have many submissions to share, and I certainly enjoyed receiving them, even if I couldn’t drag myself out of bed to post them.  We had 23 submission for January and February!  And we’re going to pick TWO lucky winners once I’ve posted them so check back Friday to congratulate our winner… Who knows?  It may be YOU!

Speaking of winners, I also have the prizes to share with you!!  All photo submissions will be eligible for both prizes, regardless of the photo subject, but I will pick a winner for both January and February.

January’s prize is this yummy pack of adhesive goodness from :

January Prize Pack by Scrapbook Adhesives

And our February winner will receive this prize pack from Magenta Stamps:

February Prize Pack by Magenta

Now onto our submissions!

April Childs, of AB:

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 125

Nathalie Cormier, of QC:

Taken with Canon EOS XSi at f/5, 1/60 sec., ISO 1600

Agatha Wiebe, of ON:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/10, 1/320 sec., ISO 200

Lynette Parent, of AB:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XT at f/5, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Diana Hetherington, of NB:

Taken with Canon Rebel XSi at f/4, 1/64 sec., ISO 400

Sarah Fitzpatrick, of ON:

Taken with Canon PowerShot SD1300 at f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 80

Valery Klassen, of AB:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i at f/10, 1/320 sec., ISO 100

Jennifer Lundsten, of SK:

Taken with Pentax K-R at f/16, 1/640 sec., ISO 3200

Lise Malette, of ON:

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/14, 1/86 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/14, 1/82 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/3.5, 1/340 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/3.5, 1/113 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/5.1, 1/207 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/11, 1/577 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/5.3, 1/440 sec., ISO 88

Jill Sparks, of ON:

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/6.3, 1/160 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Nikon D60 at f/5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

More from Lise Malette, of ON:

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/3.5, 1/340 sec., ISO 64

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XTi at f/4, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Taken with Nikon Coolpix S630 at f/5.1, 1/440 sec., ISO 158

Lee-Anne Thorton, of AB:

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/5.6, 1/15 sec., ISO 500

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/7.1, 1/8 sec., ISO 400

Thank you to everyone for their interpretations of this month’s photo assignment!!  And thanks for being patient with me…

I will announce the winners on Friday!

Cheers,

February Tutorial – Leading Lines

As I said earlier, we will be running the January and February photo assignments concurrently. On Thursday, I talked about Symmetry and Patterns in composition. Today, you’re going to learn about using lines effectively in your images’ compositions.

There are various types of lines that can be used when composing photographs to create visual impact. They can add depth, draw the viewer’s eye to a focal point or area of interest, and they can often elicit moods in photographs by giving the illusion of motion.

Various types of lines used include vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved and converging lines.

Vertical:

These type of lines are easy to find in our photos: buildings, trees and standing subjects are all indicative of a vertical line.  Note how in the following photo, the sailboat masts draw your eye up into the white space, or sky, in this case:

Taken with Nikon D300S and 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens at f/8, 1/400 sec., ISO 200

Horizontal:

This type of line naturally occur in images and usually elicit feelings of tranquility or stability.  Horizons, sunsets, shorelines, even your subject laying in the grass are all examples of horizontal lines.  These horizontal lines, often set in the lower or upper half of the photo (as per my September tutorial on the Rule of Thirds), act to anchor the rest of the image.

Taken with Nikon D70 and 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 lens at f/3.5, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

Sometimes, an image of a horizon can seem boring when it is not broken up by other objects.  Not in the case of the photo above, where the landscaping on the left and the boats dotting the horizon, break up the scene and keep it from remaining static.

Diagonal:

Diagonal lines in an image give a sense of motion or energy to a photo.  They can also point your reader to your subject of interest, such as the rays of sunlight lead your eye directly to the ship, in this beautiful photo by Ken Schulze.

Taken with Nikon D300

Curved:

Curved lines denote beauty and gracefulness in an image, especially when it is leading to a focal point, as the rock breakfront in this image draws you to the lighthouse in this image:

Taken with Nikon D80 and 18-135mm VR lens at f/13, 1/640 sec., ISO 400

Another curved line is the “S” curve.  According to William Hogart, in his book, The Analysis of Beauty, the “S” curve is referred to as the Line of Beauty.  You can see it over and over again in paintings and drawings – and photography is no exception.  Look at the beautiful lines of the instrument in this image by Kent Landerholm – not only is the ”S” curve represented by the shape of the instrument, but also in the F-hole :

Taken with Nikon D80

Converging:

Converging lines convey depth and distance.  The human eye is naturally drawn to converging lines, so including them in your photo increase its’ impact and interest.  You can use railway tracks, fence lines, , roads, pathways, stairs or any other set of parallel lines, such as this boardwalk at my local marina:

Taken with Nikon D80 and 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens at f/11, 1/500 sec., ISO 400

As you may have noticed from the above examples, lines occur naturally in  our environments – it’s up to us to train our eyes to look for them when composing our photos.   So grab your camera and look around and try to become aware of naturally occuring lines.

February 2011 photography assignment:

Using the February tutorial as a guide, capture lines in your images to enhance composition.  Explore your surroundings and look for various types of lines.  As always, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment on this post, or email me at sue {AT} canadianscrapbooker {DOT} ca.

Deadline:  11:59 pm EST, February 28th, 2011

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING: 

1) Because the whole purpose of the tutorial is to get you to experiment with your camera, submitted photos must have been taken between January 7th and February 28th, 2010, inclusive.  Photos that do not meet this criteria may be shared on the blog but will not be eligible for our contest. 

2) Please send original-sized photos – I will size them for our blog. 

3) And PLEASE don’t forget to  include your camera settings, including camera used, f/stop, aperture and ISO settings for your image in the Comments section of the submisson form!  Submissions that do not include this info may not be posted on the blog  or included in the prize drawing.

Please submit your photo, using only our submission form (no emails, please!), for a chance to be entered into our draw to win an awesome prize.   A randomly chosen entry will be drawn after the deadline.  Please note – submissions that are not relative to the tutorial and/or do not abide by these rules will not be posted on the blog, or entered into the draw.  Please click HERE to review the rules regarding this draw BEFORE submitting.

Our prizes for both the January and February photo assignment contests will be revealed shortly!

Happy Clicking!

Technical Difficulties

Sorry for the delay in posting January’s tutorial and photo assignment but I’m having some trouble getting photos to upload – and it’s hard to post a tutorial without photos!

Because we’re knee-deep in magazine progress (and we know you don’t want us to delay that!), I’ve decided to combine January with February’s tutorial, which will be posted on or around Feb. 1st.

If you want to get a headstart, read my article in your Winter 2010/11 issue and start snapping! January’s topic will be Symmetry and Patterns, and February’s topic will be Leading Lines. Only photos taken between January 7th and February 28th, 2011 will be accepted and posted for this assignment.

Cheers,

February Winner!

Thanks to all of our participants who submitted photos this month:

1.   Lee-Anne Thorton
2.   Bethany Hoskins - photo 1
3.   Bethany Hoskins – photo 2
4.   Bethany Hoskins – photo 3
5.   Bethany Hoskins – photo 4
6.   Melanie Smith
7.   Maxine Lozinski
8.   Mindy Smith-Bernard
9.   Juanita Stauffer – photo 1
10. Juanita Stauffer – photo 2
11. Michelle Kuijer – photo 1
12. Michelle Kuijer – photo 2
13. Carla Ganske – photo 1
14. Carla Ganske – photo 2

And using www.randomizer.org, a winner was randomly drawn:

Congratulations to Carla Ganske!  We will ship your Fancy Pants prize pack out to you shortly!

Stay tuned for the March tutorial and prize reveal tomorrow!

Cheers!

We’re back!!

Sorry about the delay in posting the last of the February submissions, and subsequent drawing of a winner – I’m happy to say that we survived our technical changes relatively unscathed and I’m back!! 

A bit of housekeeping – In the course of the technical changes, there may have been some dropped emails so if you emailed me and have not yet heard back from me, please re-send me your email!

And now to share the final submissions from our lovely readers!

Juanita Stauffer send me these two photos, using the Sunny f/16 rule:

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/16, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

Taken with Nikon D40 at f/16, 1/250 sec., ISO 200

Even though they are lovely, it’s hard to look at that snow when we’re so close to spring, isn’t it!?  Thanks for submitting, Juanita!

Michelle Kuijer, of ON, sent me two photos, showing her bracketed shots:

Taken with Canon Rebel XS at f/16, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

At these settings, the photo is underexposed due to the overcast weather.  Michelle opened up her aperture two more stops to f/8 for the next photo, for a better exposure:

Taken with Canon Rebel XS at f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

Lastly, Carla Ganske, of AB, snuck in these two great photos of her kids:

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSi at f/16, 1/30 sec., ISO 100

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel XSi at f/16, 1/40 sec., ISO 100

 Thanks for your submissions, Carla!

As you can see from all of our submissions, the Sunny f/16 rule is only used as a guideline – more of a starting point for proper exposure of your image.  Using your bracketing will help you achieve your proper exposure, and as with all photography techniques, the more you practice, the easier and more automatic these settings will be!

I will post a winner for the February challenge tomorrow – and stay tuned for the March tutorial to be posted on Thursday!

Cheers!

February submissions

I’m a few days behind in posting submissions, because I’m obsessed with the Olympics this year!  At this time, the Canadian Men’s ice hockey team has just beaten Slovakia and will play USA for the gold medal on Sunday afternoon – will you be watching? 

Lee-Anne Thorton, of AB, sent me this lovely shot of “The Big Rock”, which is just west of Okotoks:

Taken with Canon EOS 30 D at f/16, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Lee-Anne used a 10-22mm lens and set her camera on the aperture priority setting with a polarizing filter and WB sunny.  Thanks for sharing, Lee-Anne!

Next, I received a few photos from Bethany Hoskins, of AB.  She first tried out the Sunny f/16 rule with a child’s toy on a bench:

Taken using Canon Rebel EOX T1i at f/16, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

She then moved the truck to a snowy background and took a few shots – first at f/22:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS T1i at f/22, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Even though the guidelines suggest using f/22 in snow conditions, you can see that the above photo is underexposed.  This could be because although she’s photographing her subject in snow, the surrounding trees provide enough shade to reduce the glare.  Bethany photographed the truck again – this time at f/16:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS T1i at f/16, 1/100 sec., ISO 100

Bethany writes, “I struggled with this one - finding the correct exposure, even with these guidelines, seemed difficult.  I often find it difficult to find the right exposure to get good photos against the white snow.  It allowed me to practice the bracketing settings on my camera which is actually a really useful feature.  So thanks!” 

Bethany submitted one more, taken at the Dinosaurs Alive exhibit at the Calgary Zoo.   Because she was in the shade, she opened up her aperture two f/stops to achieve this exposure:

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS T1i at f/8, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Thanks for your submissions, Bethany!

Melanie Smith, of NL, sent me this photo, complaining that the weather there is “for the birds”!  It’s not much better here, either, Melanie, if that makes you feel better!  

Taken with Canon Rebel EOS XT at f/7.1, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

Because of the overcast weather, Melanie opened up her aperture to f/7.1 to achieve this exposure – Perfect!  Thanks, Melanie!

Another submission came from Maxine Lozinski, of AB – a photo of her pup, Maggie:

Taken with Canon Rebel SXi at f/11, 1/250, ISO 100

Notice how Maxine increased her aperture one stop to f/11, and in doing so, she increased her shutter speed a corresponding amount from 1/125 to 1/250 to compensate.  This is a perfect example of how the relationship of aperture and shutter speed works.  Thanks for sharing, Maxine!

One last submission tonight and it comes from Mindy Smith-Bernard, of ON:

Taken using a Canon Rebel XTi at f/16, 1/200 sec., ISO 200

I love the composition of this!  Thanks for your submission, Mindy!

Tomorrow’s the last day for submissions, so if you haven’t already, get outdoors and try our February tutorial – then send me your submission to be entered into a random draw for the February Prize Pack from Fancy Pants!

Cheers – and GO CANADA!!

February tutorial: Sunny 16 Rule

This month’s tutorial is a fairly simple concept to grasp, but its’ application can be difficult to use if you don’t understand the correlation between shutter speed and aperture. I discussed this correlation in the Spring 2008 issue of Canadian Scrapbooker, and again back in October, in Part II of that month’s tutorial.  However, since it’s so important in understanding photography, we will delve into it again a bit later on.

First, however, let’s look at the Sunny f/16 rule.  This guideline in photography was developed as a rule of thumb to achieve correct exposures without a light meter, while outside or in direct sunlight.  It states that “on a sunny day, set aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to the [reciprocal of the] ISO film speed.” (reference:  www.wikipedia.com).  So what does it mean?

Well, if you are shooting at an ISO of 100, the reciprocal of the ISO film speed would be 1/100, or the closest available shutter speed*  of 1/125 (*Note: many digital cameras deal in 1/3 increment values for shutter speed, but for this tutorial, I will deal with whole values only.  Thus 1/125 is the closest available shutter speed when considering this).   Therefore, the Sunny f/16 rule means that you can usually assume, when shooting with a film speed or digital ISO of 100, that an aperture of f/16 and shutter speed of 1/125 will give you the proper exposure on a sunny day.  This is also true for any equivalent setting.  This is where the understanding of the correlation between shutter speed and aperture kicks in!

To review:  Imagine that you have your kitchen faucet’s tap wide open, filling your sink to do a mountain of dishes.  At this speed, let’s say it takes a couple of  minutes to fill your sink with hot, sudsy water.  Now imagine that the tap is barely open, so that water is just trickling out.  It would take much, much longer to fill, right?  Aperture and shutter speed work the same way.  For example, per the Sunny f/16 rule, the following is a proper setting on a sunny day:

ISO 100 > f/16 > 1/125*

Now, as I described in the Spring 2008 issue, the following settings would be equivalent to f/16, 1/125 sec.,  at ISO 100:

f/22 > 1/60
f/11 > 1/250
f/8 > 1/500
f/5.6 > 1/1000
f/4 > 1/2000
f/2.8 > 1/4000

But what if I want to shoot our subject with a very short depth of field, as in our January assignment?  As per the above table, you would set your aperture to f/2 and your shutter speed to 1/4000, which is a very fast shutter speed.  You can also achieve the same exposure by changing your ISO, as we discussed in the October tutorial.  By using a less sensitive ISO speed, you can use a slower shutter speed.  Check your camera’s manual to see your minimum ISO speed.

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/16, 1/400 sec., ISO 400

But what if it’s not sunny?  Well, the following adjustments can be made to your aperture for variable lighting situations:

Sunny > use f/16
Slightly overcast > use f/11
Overcast > use f/8
Heavily Overcast > f/5.6
Dawn/Dusk > f/4

(Because of the reflective nature of sand or snow, you should DECREASE your aperture when following this rule to f/22)

The Sunny F/16 rule, like everything is not fool proof.  You may need to adjust your aperture a half-stop or more, if your subject is backlit.  It is best to use bracketing (see October tutorial: Part I) to ensure that you capture to best exposure.  Consider this example:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/8, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

When applied to this setting, the Sunny f/16 rule dictates that the optimum exposure should be f/16 > 1/125th sec., or the equivalent of f/11 > 1/250th sec.  However, in noticing that my daughter’s hat cast a slight shadow on her face, I decided to open up my aperture one more full stop to f/8.  While there is still a slight shadow, her features are visible and her skin tone is not overexposed.

Alright – are you ready to play along?  The trick will be to find a sunny day in the middle of winter – but you can use the chart of equivalents above for overcast situations!  If you have any question, please leave me a comment on this post or email me! 

Your February assignment:

Using this tutorial as a guide, apply the Sunny f/16 rule to determine the proper exposure for your outdoor photo.  Please remember to include your camera settings to be eligible for the draw!

Deadline: 11:59 pm EST, February 28th, 2010

Please submit your photo(s), using our submission form, for a chance to be entered into our draw. A randomly chosen entry will be drawn after the deadline. Please click HERE to review the rules regarding this draw before submitting. Please note – submissions that are not relative to the tutorial and/or do not abide by these rules will NOT be posted on the blog, or entered into the drawing.

Our February prize pack will be revealed shortly!

Happy Clicking!