Wacky Requests

Did you see last week’s photos of the election returns? If you're not a political junkie, maybe you clicked on the new pictures of Britney Spears instead. Or how about the latest Hubble Telescope photos? These are just a few of the thousands of images that appeared on AOL this week. But before these pictures were live for the world to see, each started as a request from a programmer to one of our photo editors. Great care and attention goes into choosing the best photo to illustrate whatever we're writing about - from the war in Iraq, to music reviews, to fun activities to do when you're visiting Millsboro, Delaware.

 

Sometimes, however, the subject at hand doesn't easily lend itself to visual representation. How does one go about building a photo gallery of creatures that don't exist? It's a challenge. And sometimes the articles themselves are offbeat or creative to say the least, making us rack our brains and stretch our imaginations. So here, for your enjoyment, are some of the wackier photo requests that have come across our desks recently:

 

* A sexy squirrel

* A photo of Lindsay Lohan looking constipated

* A color vintage photo of an African American couple in bed and getting ready to make 

  love from anytime in the 1800's. 

* A Gallery of mythological characters that never existed

* A gallery of detached retinas

* A sexy woman eating a turkey leg

* A flatulent cow

 

 

Now let us know what you think. Have you ever seen a photo on the service that made you scratch your head or just laugh out loud? Chances are that one of us was laughing along with you.

 

- Jenna

Pictures of the Week: Nov. 4-10

This week's photograph of two Palestinians running to avoid being shot after hurling stones at Israeli soldiers caught my eye because it's not a typical image that I see from the Middle East. Oh, sure it's yet another image of violence from an area that seems to produce an endless stream of such images, but something about this image is different.

 

 

Its freshness, its point of view, made me pause and take a long look at the moment that the photographer captured.

 

We are all too familiar with the barrage of photos depicting violence from this area of the world, which in some ways has made us grow immune to what we see. Many of these images truly are dramatic. But the seemingly endless years of daily violence has made many of these images blur together, or worse, become cliches.

 

Not only does the image make me stop and look at the event, but it amazes me that the photographer was able to compose the image in such a way that the Palestinians appear to be framed by both their surroundings and the Israeli soldiers. It's this ingredient that makes this image stand out.

 

Check out all of this week's pictures, and cast your vote for the best photo: Pictures of the Week: Nov. 4-10.

 

Let us know what you think about the week's selection.

 

-Lee

 

 

 

Photo Tips

We are starting a regular feature, Photo Tips, where you'll get to see some neat tricks and ideas that we hope will help you transform your images. Over the weeks (and months and years, we hope) we'll offer simple tutorials like the one below as well as advanced tutorials like the one we will be posting next week on color correction. So stay tuned!

 

The primary software program we use is Adobe's Photoshop, so most of the tips we'll offer will reference that software.

 

Photoshop Pet Sketch Tip:

 

Don't throw away those out of focus, badly exposed pet pictures! Here are a few Photoshop tips to turn them into snazzy sketches of your pet.

 

Let's start with something you may have experienced: a dark, fuzzy photo of your pet, for example, like the picture of this cat:

 

 

Step One: Create a duplicate layer.

 

In Photoshop, it's often best to work in layers as it keeps your original image intact.

 

To do this, go to "layers" in the top menu or the layers tab in the pop-up and choose "duplicate layer." Or use a short cut: On a PC, use "Ctrl J" or on a Mac, "Apple J"

 

Name the new layer, e.g. cat2.  

 

 

 

Step 2: Adjust Levels

 

Make sure you work on the duplicate layer.

 

Go to the "Image" tab on the top and choose "Adjustments" in the drop down menu.  Then select "Levels."  A shortcut: on a PC use "Ctrl L" or on a Mac, use "Apple L"

 

Play with the controls until it looks the way you want it to. The more the contrast, the better will be the results. Here are the levels we used for our tones:

 

 

and the image now looks like this:

 

 

Step 3: Sharpening

 

Now add some sharpening. 

Go to the Filter tab at the top.

Select "Unsharp Mask" (This also helps with the contrast.)

Here are the settings I used:

 

 

Step 4: Artistic Filter

 

Experiment with the Artistic Filter: You can create any number of creative effects -- below are details of the effects I created. 

 

Make sure you are still in the the duplicate layer.

Go to the "Filter" tab on top. 

Select " Artisitc"

Then from the drop down menu select " Colored Pencil" - it opens up the window below.  You can see the settings we chose for the colored pencil effect:  3, 15, 38.

 

 

Play with the pencil width, stroke pressure and paper brightness until you achieve the effect desired.

 

And TA DA! 

 

 

Note: When you have in the "Artistic Filter" dialog box , play with different filter and see the effects.  In the image below we used the "plastic wrap" effect instead of the "colored pencil."

 

 

Step 5: Save the image

 

Save the new image by selecting: File > Save As -- and then rename the file.

 

 

Enjoy and as always, have some FotoFun.

 

And don't forget to send us your creations...submit links in the comments section below.

 

- Kathy

 

Some other fun Pet Photo sites for you to check out:

 

http://www.photojojo.com/content/websites/pet-photography/

http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/how-to-photograph-pets/

http://www.nyip.com/tips/topic_pets1199.html

http://www.cuteoverload.com/

 

Pictures of the Week: Oct. 28 - Nov. 3

This week's most amazing image is of us. Earth, I mean. Captured seemingly by accident by the Cassini spacecraft while photographing Saturn's rings. It's visible as that faint pinprick of light to the upper left of Saturn's rings. 

Even more amazing is the fact that this is only the second time that the Earth has been photographed from deep space. It's astonishing that our planet is even visible from such a great distance. For more details and the story behind this image, visit the NASA site. To see more stunning images from space, take a look at our Hubble gallery.

Check out all of this week's pictures, and cast your vote for the best photo: Pictures of the Week: Oct. 28 - Nov. 3. Let us know what you think about the week's selection.

- Lee

Tags: Pictures of the Week, Saturn, Iran, rocket, protest, Latin Grammys

PhotoPlus Expo: Photography and Design Conference, NYC

If you happen to be in the New York City this weekend, I recommend checking out PhotoPlus Expo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.  The annual all-things-photo conference running November 2 - 4 features 278 vendors from design / photography products to imaging services and everything in between in addition to three days of seminars by industry leaders. 

 

Larger vendors such as Adobe, Apple, Canon and Nikon are pulling out all the stops with hourly demonstrations by top industry professionals.  Yesterday I stopped at the Adobe booth to watch Seth Resnick demonstrate his digital asset management and workflow with Adobe Photoshop tools including Lightroom beta.  I also got to play with the new toys being introduced by all the top camera brands and watch billboard size prints being printed on the spot. 

 

On Thursday, I attended the keynote address with Tom Wujec who talked about what, he believes, the photography studio of 2020 will look like.  His presentation featured several technologies that got a lot of audience reaction including 10-gigapixel cameras that produce 100-gigabyte images, 3D lenses that allow the photographer to specify the focus point after shooting and organically grown lenses.  Wujec announced of Project 2020, a partnership with PDN to turn his vision into reality.  Look for more information on the project and how to get engaged by offering feedback on PDNOnline.com

 

Other seminars focus on lighting, niche photography, digital workflow, marketing and business practices for photographers. 

 

Other PhotoPlus Expo Blogs:

NYC PhotoShop Blog

http://pdnedu.blogs.com/

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/06/07/archive1.html

http://www.flickr.com/groups/newyorkers/discuss/72157594165853562/

 

Drop us a note if you make it to PhotoPlus and tell us what impressed you the most.

 

- Lauren

Weekend Assignment: Nature

Our weekend assignment is to go out and shoot nature.  You can shoot details, wide shots - anything that catches your eye. It can be in a park, during a hike, in your backyard.

We have included an entry from our Photo Editor, Jim, for your inspiration.  Jim, when not at AOL, spends time shooting nature and maintaining his Hiking Journal, which grew into a successful small business, Blue Bison Studio.  So his blog entry should also give you some ideas about how you can make money from your lovely images. 

Jim's blog:

About 4 1/2 years ago my wife, Karen, and I started walking every morning before work to get more exercise into our daily lives. Soon after that, we also began to take short hikes on the weekends in the many parks in our area. Since we both enjoy photography and nature, we began taking photos during our hikes and started an online journal at www.bluebisonstudio.com/hiking to document and share our hiking experiences with our friends. Here are a few samples:

So far we have more than 280 hikes documented.

 

At the end of the first year, we used images from our hikes in a desk calendar to use as Christmas gifts for friends and family. We were encouraged to produce the calendar for sale. 

 

The following year, we registered the name Blue Bison Studio, LLC (www.bluebisonstudio.com) and produced our first calendar for sale. A year later we also started selling greeting cards made from our photographs and a small business was born.

 

The hiking is fun, it gets us outside and we enjoy our time together.  Also, the creative part of producing the journal, calendar and cards is very satisfying.

 

We have had two photo shows at the Historic GreatFalls Tavern in the C&O Canal National Historical Park in Potomac, Md. The proceeds from the sale of the photographs were donated to The Friends of the Great Falls Tavern's C&O Canal Boat Fund.

 

 

 

We also are scheduled to do another show as part of the City of Gaithersburg's Art in Public Places project in 2007.

 

We would love to see some of your nature photos - share links in the comments section below.   

 

- Jim

National Press Photographers Association - Flying Short Course

I caught up with the 2007 National Press Photographers Association’s (NPPA) Flying Short Course in Philadelphia -- the first stop of a three-city, three-day cross country professional photo seminar. Some incredible work was showcased by seasoned photojournalists as well as younger professionals.

 

Josh Meltzer, a Roanoke Times photographer and 2006 Photojournalist of the Year, presented his multimedia work, highlighting the power of audio in web based journalism.  His coverage of Somali immigrants settling in Roanoke can be viewed at: The Roanoke Times Photos and Multimedia. Or you can link to it directly here: Somali Bantu refugees.  

 

Pulitzer Prize winner, April Saul’s images spanning 20 years revealed her profound involvement with her subjects. She presented an essay on an immigrant Cambodian woman living in Pennsylvania with a foster family, a group-home where a woman took in disabled children and tended to them as her own. Saul is currently working on a project documenting the mourning process of families and communities who have experienced the shooting death of a child under the age of 17.  Take a look at an amazing set of pictures at philly.com's "Chronicling the Tragedy."

Associated Press photojournalist David Guttenfelder, winner of the 2006 NPPA Best Of Photojournalism for larger markets, showed his portfolio of foreign disasters and war. His understated elegy dismissing “normal life,” underscored the toll covering hard news can take on a journalist.

    

A man in Delhi, India celebrates Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. The festival, originally held to celebrate the fertility of the land, is also associated with the immortal love of Hindu God Krishna and Radha. 

 

John Morris, 89, often cited as the world's most influential photo editor whose career stops included LIFE magazine, The New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, The Washington Post and as the first Executive Director of Magnum Photos, spoke about how photojournalism was more than just a job – it’s a life style, a commitment. Check out his book on the subject: Get the Picture.

 

Yet,despite the diversity in presentation and generation, the common thread through the presentations was that regardless of technology and gear, salaries and location, the skill and commitment required for storytelling remains unchanged.

 

More than anything, the weekend encouraged me and the troop of students and unemployed photographers in attendance, to simply go out and do — a concept often forgotten by young shooters who are searching for the get-famous-quick trapdoor.

 

To read a story about the seminars, go to: 2006 NPPA Flying Short Course. 

 

- Rachel

      

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