Blurriness: The Good Kind

For close to a year now, I have maintained a Flickr photostream as a place to store and receive feedback on my photos.  Recently, I was puzzled when someone commented on one of my photos (seen below) and said, "Nice bokeh" or something to that effect.

 At first I thought it was a typo, but then I Googled the word and found this definition on Wikipedia:

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." Differences in lens aberrations and aperture shape cause some lens designs to blur the image in a way that is pleasing to the eye, while others produce blurring that is unpleasant or distracting—"good" and "bad" bokeh, respectively.

In other words, bokeh is (usually) when the object in the foreground is in focus and the background has a blurry, undefined quality.  However, this can be reversed or the entire photograph can be in bokeh.  If you want a more detailed explanation, here is the link to the Wikipedia article (complete with good photo examples): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokeh

I'm glad I now have a word for that particular photography technique because it is one I use quite frequently.  I can't say I've mastered bokeh in wider shots, but it's fairly easy to do when using the macro setting on your camera (a.k.a-"the flower button"--I'll cover this topic in another post).  My camera (and probably most others) will create the background blurriness when you focus while using macro photography.  In my opinion, it makes closeup shots considerably more interesting and artistic.  A shot that is completely clear is nice, but I think the blurriness in the background makes the subject really pop and gives the rest of the photo a softer quality.  Here are some examples of macro photography with and without bokeh.  For the sake of originality, all of these photos are mine and aren't ripped off of Google Images or Wikipedia.  As always, you can click on the photo to see it larger.

Here's a crystal clear shot.  It's cool, but everything is almost TOO clear.

Here's an example where the object you would expect to be in focus (the dog) is the blurry part of the photo.

Finally, there are a couple types of bokeh going on here.  The balls of light in the window reflection is a pretty typical example of what people would associate with bokeh, and of course some of the farther way Christmas lights are also blurred, though not quite as much.

So, to wrap everything up, I just wanted share with you a technique I learned fairly recently (and one I continue to work on).  I think this "good blur" can add a lot of pop to a photo and give it a more professional feel.  I invite you to mess around with camera settings (particularly the macro setting) and try to reproduce this effect yourself.  I promise you'll be pleased with the results once you've figured it out.


Random Side Note:  If you ever want to leave a comment, feel free to do so.  I have it set up so that visitors can post comments without having to sign up for a Blogger account.  I'd love to have feedback as long as it isn't profanity-laced or ridiculously offensive.

Saying Goodbye to a Furry Friend

I know this is meant to be a photography blog rather than a personal blog, but I think I can relate this post back to photography in some way.  Today, my parents had to make the hard decision to put down our (almost) nine-year-old yellow lab.  She wasn't sick, but she was a huge dog and had struggled with bad hips her entire life.  Her ability to walk deteriorated a lot over the past year, and despite our efforts to make her better with steroids and other medications, she just couldn't do it anymore.  Though difficult, I think the decision to put her to sleep was the correct one.


From the day we brought Meadow home back in 2002, she was the most laid back, slow, gentle dog ever.  She had her wilder puppy years, but for the most part she was the calmest dog you can imagine.  She was also one of the most photogenic dogs ever.  Perhaps because of her demeanor, it was usually very easy to get a picture of her.  Here is a photo collage of Meadow over the years (photos taken by various family members):

It will be a strange feeling the next time I go home, knowing that there will be only one dog to greet me instead of two.   I was eleven when we brought her home, and she was always a common fixture in my life.  She was always happy to see you (especially if you had food in your hand), and in some of the crappiest times in my personal life I would sit with her on the porch or in the garage.  You're not supposed to pick favorites when it comes to your children or your pets, but I have to say Meadow was my favorite.  I had a special bond with her that I just don't have (yet) with our golden retriever Prairie.  Needless to say, her absence is tough pill for my family to swallow.


So, Meadow, you may be lost, but you are not forgotten.  Thank you for all the memories.  I'll never forget how you howled along with the tornado siren at 1:00 p.m. every 1st and 15th of the month, your triangle ears, your lion pounce, or the time you stole an entire sandwich right out of Dad's hand.   Anyway, I hope you're having an awesome time in Doggie Heaven, where you can walk and run without pain and eat as much as you want.  I will miss and remember you forever.


Meadow 
A.K.A.-Meddler, Medzo, Fatty, Polar Lion, Etc.
May 1, 2002 - February 22, 2011

Photo Maintenance

I want to go back to talking about photo editing for a moment.  Specifically, I want to go over simple, "maintenance" editing.  In other words, the bare minimum amount of editing that you can do to improve the appearance of your photos.  This goal with this kind of editing is to keep the photo looking natural (like it wasn't edited) by messing around with simpler effects like contrast, brightness, sharpness, shadows, saturation, etc.  The easiest way to do this is "Auto-Fix", which is an option on Photoshop, iPhoto, Picnik, and most other editing programs.

The reason I want to discuss "maintenance" editing is because small changes can make a big difference.  You may think a photo is great, but when you start tweaking the contrast or colors, you discover that you can make it even better.  Here are a couple examples of the difference some slight editing can make.  The first picture is the unedited version of a photo I took out of my summer dorm room window.  It's a cool photo, but I was forced to take it through the window, which blurred it slightly.  Also, some of the colors are a bit dull.

The picture isn't bad, but it could be better. Now, here is the edited version.  There was no Picnik editing involved with this one.  I just used the basic editing settings on iPhoto.

As you can see, there isn't a huge difference, but the picture is clearer and the colors have a little more pop.  I think it went from an interesting photo to something that stands out a little more now that the sky, rain, and clouds have more color.

Here is one more example.  This was another photo taken through a window.  It was an amazing sunset after a thunderstorm, and I had to capture it.  However, because I was forced to take it through a window pane and because I was using my older camera, the colors didn't translate as well as they could have.

A couple minutes and some editing later, I think the finished product has a lot more impact than the original.

So, as you can see, a little editing can go a long way.  I recommend taking some time to play with the basic editing tools on Picnik or whatever photo editing program you have on your computer.  I promise it will come in handy in the future.

Click, Click, Click Away

Have you ever snapped a photo that you thought was brilliant only to be disappointed upon uploading it to your computer?  Camera LCD screens can be deceiving.  A photo that looks perfect on the camera screen will not necessarily look the same on a larger computer screen, leaving you furious that your brilliant shot went to waste.  I think the best way to combat problems like this is to take multiple shots of the same scene/subject.  If a shot that is particularly exciting to you, try it multiple times.  This way you have backup shots to choose from in the event that the first photo is blurry, too bright, too dark, off-center, etc.  If there is a particular photo you really want to work, I would recommend taking five to ten duplicates of the shot (making small adjustments to each shot).  I think this maximizes your chances of finding at least one photo that works for you.  Don't put all your eggs in one basket!  It could be disastrous.

One issue with this technique, however, is that it takes up more space on your memory card.  A way to counter the problem of memory storage, I would suggest either:

a) Get a bigger memory card. If you have a large memory card, you will obviously have more room for photos.  You can buy cards that hold hundreds, if not thousands of photos.  The larger memory cards can get a bit pricey, though.

b) Get a decent sized memory card (mine is a 2 GB memory card), and turn down the quality level on your camera.  I, personally, don't think it's necessary to take pictures on the highest quality.  It just eats up memory, and I see virtually no difference between medium quality photos and higher quality photos taken with my camera.  I generally use either the second or third highest quality level, which greatly increases the number of pictures I can take without compromising photo quality too much.

Cameras Don't Take Pictures, People Do

If there is one thing you will not see much of on this blog, it’s detailed information about cameras and camera accessories.  Why?  Because I know (and care) very little about equipment.   I’ve always been of the belief that it’s more about who is taking the photograph than what they’re using to take it.  You can hand a three-year-old a $1,000 camera with a fancy lens or $20 disposable camera and either way you’ll just get 50 pictures of the ceiling.  The nice camera might yield some of the clearest ceiling pictures you’ve ever seen, but the photo content will still suck.

Also, I know that the vast majority of people out there have relatively inexpensive digital cameras.  Just because you don’t have "top of the line" equipment, it doesn’t mean you can’t take good photographs.  In my opinion, it’s more about technique than anything else.  Will an expensive camera take better pictures in the hands of an experienced photographer?  Yes.  I think a good camera can definitely take a photographer to the next level, but not everyone can afford that luxury.   That’s why I’ll probably spend more time talking about photo content than the camera itself (though I will touch upon camera settings that I feel are important).

In this post, I do want to tell you what kind of equipment I am using, so anyone who is curious will know what kind of camera I work with.  My old standby and the first digital camera I ever owned was a Fujifilm Finepix A340.  I used it from the time I received it for Christmas near the beginning of high school until this past Christmas when my parents bought me an upgrade.  I may have moved on to a different camera, but I won’t diss my Finepix.  It was my learner camera and I got some great pictures out of it.

My current camera is a Canon PowerShot A3000 IS. I’ve experimented with it quite a bit since I received it a couple months ago, and I like the look of the photos it produces.  Just the fact that it’s newer means that it takes clearer pictures and requires less editing on my part.  I’m still getting used to all the different buttons and settings, but so far I’m impressed.

UPDATE:  My current camera is no longer a Canon.  The shutter button mysteriously jammed one day, so I had to get a different one.  I was afraid to get the same camera over again, so I went back to my roots and got a Fujifilm FinePix JV100 and it has been working out really well for me.  It's a small camera, but I'm cool with that for now. 

My final thoughts: 

1) Though I don’t like to emphasize the importance of equipment much, I still think it’s important to get a feel for your camera.  Use it a lot and play with settings as much as possible.  I’ve found that that’s a good way to discover which settings work the best in a given situation.

2) There is one pretty cool camera accessory that I might be interested in purchasing.  It's called the "Gorillapod," and it's a little tripod you can attach to your camera and wrap around posts, fences, trees, etc.  It's not very expensive and it looks like it would be very handy.  Plus, it just looks awesome.

The Do's and Don'ts of PicMonkey

Update: Before you read further, pretty much every time "Picnik" is used in this blog post, replace it with "PicMonkey".  Picnik is (I believe) either completely gone or only available on Google+ now.  Also, before I receive any more elitist comments, I KNOW Photoshop is the best photo editing software out there.  This post was written with the assumption that most people do not own Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) and are looking for a super simple, online method of photo editing.  It's been a couple years since this post, so I have updated a lot of my equipment and started using Photoshop more, but when I'm short on time, PicMonkey is still where I turn for quick edits and filters.

In the past few years, I would say that my love for photo editing has grown as much as my love for photography itself.  In the early days, I used the default photo editor on my computer to subtly enhance photos, moved on to iPhoto when I got my college laptop, and then made the greatest discovery of all: Picnik.com.  It's a fantastic website with tons of free and fun photo effects, and I'm proud to call myself a Picnik junkie.  However, I think there's a fine line between the USE and ABUSE of Picnik.  Which will be the main topic of my blog post today.

I think wacky photo effects and edits can be extremely fun if used the right way.  I like photos with a natural look, but I don't think there's anything wrong with a little experimentation with color from time to time.  An editing technique that is one of my personal favorites is selective coloring (black and white with certain features kept in color), which can be done relatively easily on Picnik.  The Lomoish, Holgaish, Gritty, Fancy Focus and other effects on Picnik can also make for an interesting photo.

To illustrate an example of tasteful Picniking, I chose this photo of a little girl from Google Images (I would have chosen my own photo, but this one helps make my point better).  I took the original photo into Picnik, made the photo black and white, and used selective coloring to make her blue eyes pop.  The original photographer had obviously done some editing of his own, so no further editing was necessary.  This, to me, is a good example of how Picnik can add even more visual interest to an already intriguing photo.

Now, here is the same photo, edited in a way that makes my skin crawl.  I call this the "Facebook edit" because this is what every teenage girl does to mutilate her profile picture before she posts it.   All I did was apply the Lomo effect (on full blast without any fading) and add a bunch of cutesy text and stickers.  This is the hallmark of the "Facebook effect": oversaturation of color and cheesy text and clipart.  What I did to this photo is actually extremely tame compared to what I've seen others do.  Most of the time, it's a very poorly taken photograph, with lines upon lines of bad poetry or misspelled song lyrics plastered all over it, and a bunch of smiling people saturated to a lovely day-glow orange hue.  Even worse, is when someone stamps dorky poetry all over a beautifully taken sunset photo.  It's an abomination, it really is...  Really, people, I don't need you to tell me that you're "Best friennddzzz <<<<3", I can figure that out by that fact that you're smiling and have your arms around each other in the picture.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that text has no place in photo editing.  I actually think it can be extremely useful if used in the correct situation. My mother is actually thinking about using Picnik to make my brother's graduation reception invitations due to the fact that there are so many fonts and effects available (not to mention the money-saving aspect of the idea).  Text and other wacky edits can make for an awesome photo if used in the right way and used sparingly.  I just wouldn't advise adding words or tie dye colors to every photo you take.  Sometimes natural is the way to go.

Below are some Picnik edits of my own.  Some are more subtle, while others are are little out there.  However, I don't think any of my edits are too over the top and make good examples of some of the entertaining effects available on Picnik and other photo editing programs.

As you can probably tell, this is my blog background.  All I did to this was punch up the color by using the "Ortonish" effect and then used the fade bar to make the effect less intense.

This one is a little crazier.  I used a combination of B&W, selective coloring, and Lomo effects for this.

This one doesn't even look Picniked at all.   It actually has much less of a yellow tone than before because I used the Winterize effect to dull the color slightly.

Here is an example of what I think is a good use of text.  I took the original photo and punched up the color with Lomo and added text to turn it into an interesting desktop background for my laptop.  I still like the original, but I wanted something with a little more pizzazz as my computer background.

 The Bottom Line: Be careful how you Picnik.  Have fun with your photos, but don't saturate them to the point that the colors are blinding or add juvenile text to every photo.  Sometimes a quick slide of the "fade" bar can take a Picnik effect from tacky to terrific by lessening its impact. When in doubt, just do a little maintenance editing (sharpen, contrast, etc.) and leave it alone!

The Photo That Started It All

Hi!  To kick off the first post of my new blog, I decided to take a look back at what I consider the most important photo I've ever taken.  This photo was taken back on New Year's Day in 2007 after a nasty winter storm that covered the entire state in a sheet of ice.  I took the photo with my trusty little Fujifilm FinePix A340 in a field behind our house.  The photo elicited quite a response from the people who saw it, and gave me the positive reenforcement to continue with photography as a hobby.  It was also the first time I had ever thought creatively about photography.  Before this moment, I had never played with angles or tried to think outside the box before snapping a photo.  For all those reasons, I think of this picture as a milestone in my growth as a photographer.

Click the photo to enlarge.