We have a winner!

Thanks for the awesome submissions we’ve received for our October photo assignment on Perspective.  Here’s a peek at those eligible for the Upsy Daisy Designs prize pack:

Many thanks to all who shared their photos!

Using www.random.org, we have a winner:

List Randomizer

There were 15 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Nathalie Cormier, QC
2. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
3. Lee-Anne Thorton, AB
4. Stephanie, Schan, ON
5. April Childs, AB
6. Lisanne Côté, QC
7. Lisanne Côté, QC
8. Nathalie Cormier, QC
9. Melanie Godecki, ON
10. Karly Potts, AB
11. Lisanne Côté, QC
12. Lorraine Melin, AB
13. Kim Gowdy, AB
14. Bethany Hoskin, AB
15. April Childs, AB

Timestamp: 2010-11-04 21:26:32 UTC

Congratulations, Nathalie! Your prize pack will be sent out shortly to the address on your submission form!

Stay tuned for our November tutorial and photo assignment to be posted soon!
Cheers,

Final October submissions!

My apologies to the next three readers who sent me their photos before the deadline - I didn’t get a chance to post them with the crazy-ness of Hallowe-en, but of course, they were received in time and are still eligible for our October photo assignment.

Did everyone enjoy their Halloween?  Our kids had a great time, dressing up – and more precisely, getting candy!    Looks like my hubby read the October tutorial on perspective – here’s one of his photos that he took of my son in his Hallowe’en costume (you can see his entire costume on my blog here):

Now if I could only get him to stop using the flash!

Speaking of Hallowe’en, April Childs, of AB, sent me this photo of her son, in his Hallowe’en costume, taken at eye level:

Taken with Nikon D70 at f/5, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

Look at that dimple!

Here’s another that April sent in, taken from just below eye level:

Taken with Nikon D80 at f/5.6, 1/30 sec., ISO 220

Thanks for your submissions, April!

Lee-Anne Thorton, of AB, sent me these two photos for the October photo assignment:

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/5.0, 1/30 sec., ISO 100

Beautiful flowers, Lee-Anne!  Were they for a special occasion?

Taken with Canon EOS 30D at f/5.6, 1/10 sec., ISO 250

 Oh!! These look delicious!!  Do you think they would ship well to Ontario…?   Thanks for sharing, Lee-Anne!

And last, but certainly not least, our final submission for October comes from Karly Potts, of AB:

Taken with Samsung PL80 at f/3.4, 1/98 sec., ISO 80

Brrr… Snow?  In October??  Maybe I won’t complain about our southern Ontario humidity so much anymore…!  Thanks for sharing, Karly!

And thanks to everyone who played along this month!  I will be posting a winner tomorrow morning so please check back then -  and watch for our November tutorial and photo assignment to be posted on or around November 7th!

Cheers!

More October submissions

I have a few more submissions to share with you today!

Melanie Godecki, of ON, shared this lovely photo of her friends, Frank & Katie:

Taken with Canon 5D at f/4, 1/125 sec., ISO 200

Love the angle – thanks for sharing!

Nathalie Cormier, of QC, sent in a couple of submissions – one from above…

Taken with Canon EOS XSi at f/5.6, 1/80 sec., ISO 200

And one from eye level:

Taken with Canon EOS XSi at f/5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 800

Thanks for sharing these lovely fall photos, Nathalie!

Our last submission today comes from Bethany Hoskins, of AB.  Bethany writes, “The only way to get the dog to look right at me while I have the camera is to have her beloved ball, so I decided to keep it in the shot and use it also as a depth of field exercise as well as perspective.”

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i at f/4.5, 1/500, ISO 100

Fantastic – love it, Bethany!

Remember that the deadline for our October photo assignment is November 1st so be sure to send me your photos!

Cheers,

October tutorial: Perspective

In the english language, the word perspective has many connotations.  According to www.dictionary.com,

perspective  (pəˈspɛktɪv)
— n

1.  a way of regarding situations, facts, etc, and judging their relative importance.
2.  the proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see it; objectivity: try to get some perspective on your troubles.
3. the theory or art of suggesting three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, in order to recreate the appearance and spatial relationships that objects or a scene in recession present to the eye.
4. the appearance of objects, buildings, etc, relative to each other, as determined by their distance from the viewer, or the effects of this distance on their appearance.
5. a picture showing perspective.

Similarly, the word can be used in different ways in photography.  From a technical point of view, it refers to the way all subjects in a photograph relate to one another, as described in the third definition above.  That is to say, it can put objects into perspective in relation to other objects within the photo.  In this context, using perspective in the composition of your photograph can change the perception of space and distance for the viewer.  Note how my daughter’s small size emphasizes the tree’s large size by putting it into perspective:

Photo by Gary Sykes. Taken with Nikon Coolpix S560 at f/3.5, 1/750 sec., ISO 64

(For the record, this mama almost had a heart attack when her hubby came home from a trip to the park with these photos and she saw her baby high in a tree by herself… he assured me that my son was nearby, just out of frame, just in case! )

There are several types of perspective of this meaning:  linear, vanishing point, etc.  However,  for this tutorial, I’d like to discuss perspective in a different manner, similar to the first definition - from the photographer’s shooting point of view.

Changing your perspective, when composing your photographs can dramatically change the “feel” of your images.  To change your perspective , you need to move your feet!  Instead of composing every photo while standing in front of your subject, change your viewpoint!  You can:

Lay on the ground and bring yourself to your subject’s eye level when photographing.

Photo by Sue Sykes. Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/60 sec., ISO 400

Stand on a chair and photograph from directly above.

Photo by Sue Sykes. Taken with Nikon D70 at f/4.5, 1/320 sec., ISO 400

Lay on the ground and point your camera upward.

Photo by Sue Sykes. Taken with Nikon D70 at f/2.8, 1/8000 sec., ISO 1600

Place your subject above you (in a tree, on a table, on a staircase…) and point your camera up.

Photo by Gary Sykes. Taken with Nikon Coolpix S560 at f/3.5, 1/350 sec., ISO 64

When photographing tall structures or impressive architecture, you can create an impression by standing close to the structure and point your camera upward.

Photo by Sue Sykes. Taken with Nikon D300s at f/3.5, 1/ 200 sec., ISO 200

By changing your viewpoint when photographing, you can instantly change the look of your photos and create some incredible results.  So are you ready to try??

October 2010 photography assignment:

Using the October tutorial as a guide, photograph a subject or object using a unique point of view.  Experiment with all different viewpoints and subjects to see how changing your perspective can change the look of your image.  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, November 1st, 2010

PLEASE NOTE:  Because the whole purpose of the tutorial is to get you to experiment with your camera, submitted photos must have been taken between October 7th and November 1st, 2010.  Please send original-sized photos – I will size them for our blog.  And PLEASE don’t forget to  include your camera settings, including camera used, f/stop, aperture and ISO 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.

This month’s sponsor is Upsy Daisy Designs!  Check out this great prize pack from their Man About Town lines!

October 2010 Prize Sponsor: Upsy Daisy Designs

And don’t forget – our deadline for submitting your layouts for our 1st Blog-iversary contest has been extended to October 11th, 2010!  More details here…

Cheers,

Final October tutorial submissions

Sorry for the delay in posting these final submissions!  Postponing the assignment deadline proved to be a great idea - I have some great Hallowe’en pictures to share!

Gail Bidgood of Goulds, NF sent me this great photo of her daughter, dressed up as the great Capt. Jack Sparrow.  She used a flashlight as her light source, and shone it up to light her daughter’s sweet face:

I also received this great jack-o-lantern shot from Jacquelin Green of Victoria, BC - how cute is that polka-dotted one?!? 

Jacquelin wrote, “I tried a whole lot of settings to finally get a shot I was happy with – Thank you for encouraging me to experiment – I am not a great photographer, but I am learning a lot about my camera!”  I’m glad to hear that, because this is the reason we are offering these tutorials!

Sonia Rodriguez, of Sainte-Catherine, QC, sent me this photo of her display of  jack-o-lanterns:

Taken with Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi at f/4.5, 0.3 sec., ISO800)

Stay tuned for the winner’s announcement tomorrow evening, and the November tutorial to be posted by the end of this week!

A big thank you to everyone who submitted their photos for this assignment.  Please remember – for future assignments, follow the assignment instructions and include your photography settings in the comments field of your submission in order to be eligible for our random drawing.

Happy Clicking!

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Reminder…

Don’t forget – we’ve extended the deadline for your October tutorial submissions to 11:59pm, November 2nd so get your Hallowe’en photos organized and send me your best shots!

I’ll be posting the November tutorial & assignment after the deadline, mid-week so stay tuned to learn more about light writing, or “light grafitti”!!

Happy Clicking!

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Night Fog

Jennifer Steinhauer sent me this incredible photo, taken during a foggy night:

(Taken with a Nikon D40, f/20 , 30 sec., ISO 400)

Great effect, Jennifer!

Just a reminder that our October assignment deadline has been extended to Nov 2nd – still time to submit your photos!

Happy Clicking!

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Extended deadline!

Since Hallowe’en is all about darkness and spooky, I’m extending the deadline for the October tutorial to 11:59pm, Monday, November 2nd! This will give everyone a chance to take some photos of their little spooks or freaky decorations on the hallowed night!

Keep sending your submissions in for a chance to win this month’s prize from Pink Paislee!

Happy Clicking!

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Candlelight submission

Thanks to Michelle Bjarnason who submitted the following two photos for our October assignment (see here and here for Parts I and II!).

{photos removed at photographer’s request}

Note the big difference that using a slower shutter speed can have!  By using a fastershutter speed in the second image, Michelle was able to darken the background and areas surrounding the candle, using the candle only to illuminate her daughter’s face. Thanks for sharing, Michelle!

Happy Clicking!

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Get snapping…

and this gorgeous prize package from Pink Paislee may be yours!!

**October '09 prize pack by Pink Paislee**

Oh, baby… come to Mama!

So, did you take a nap this afternoon so you could stay up late and get some night-time shots?  I want to share a series of photos that I snapped of the full moon last week – it was around 8:30pm but already the sky was so dark…

Not that you can tell from these photos!  All were shot with my tripod and a wide-open aperture of f/1.8:

**Settings: f/1.8, 6.0 sec., ISO 400**

After photographing this, I realized that my exposure, at 6 seconds, was too long, overexposing the photo and showing considerable amounts of blur from the trees swaying in the breeze.  So I halved my time to 3.0 seconds and snapped this one:

**Settings: f/1.8, 3.0 sec., ISO 400**

It was still way too overexposed for my purpose!  So I dialed it right down again to 1.3 seconds:

**Settings: f/1.8, 1.3 sec., ISO 400**

Since it’s hard for me to judge exposure on my LCD screen, I always take several shots, bracketing my photos.  I find that it increases the chance of me getting the shot I want, so I photographed it at 1.6 seconds and 1.0 seconds:

**[Settings: f/1.8, 1.6 sec., ISO 400**

**Settings: f/1.8, 1.0 sec., ISO 400**

Ah! Now we’re getting somewhere!

These images are all SOOC (straight out of the camera) so I enhanced the colours slightly, using the Pioneer Woman‘s Photoshop Actions (go and get your own right HERE – they are awesome!)

First, I ran her Boost action (one of my favourites) to enhance the colour:

**Enhanced using the PS Boost action by Ree Drummond**

Then I ran the Lovely and Ethereal action (another favourite) – perfect for those photos where you want a dreamy and well, ethereal look!

**Enhanced using the PS Lovely and Ethereal action by Ree Drummond**

Ah… Photoshop is a beautiful thing!

So get out there and start snapping – not only will you learn a bit more about your camera, but you may end up with a fabby photo to scrapbook, not to mention a wicked prize!

Happy Clicking!

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