August 2018 – Contribution to my 10,000 Hours Photography
This page records the actual 10,000 hours deliberate practice art photography I carried out in August 2018.
(Hours 1,024 to 1,154)
31 August 2018
Hours 1,149 to 1,154
Half an hour on a second attempt at shooting the lizard eating the locus.
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Half an hour practicing using the combination of my big new Godox outdoor flash, shot tethered, the Pluto trigger (see my kit). Issue is a 3-4 second delay between pressing the button on the iPhone and the camera firing. Looking at the setting I found that I had Pluto trigger’s “Pre Focus Time” set to 5 seconds changing this to “0 Seconds Manual Focus” means it fires instantly.
Four hours working on plan for the WG Carter corporate shoot. This included learning how to use Photoshop shapes.
Half an hour measuring the impact of the Godox flash outside at various distances. The following were shot at using my Zeiss 135 mm prime lens, ISO 100, 1/60 sec, f/9.0
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Conclusion, quite noticeable fill-in capabilities at 20m, not so much at 40.
Half an hour shooting clouds and writing up this journal.
30 August 2018
Hours 1,147 to 1,148
An hour watching YouTubes on Opponent Colour Theory which explains:
- How we actually perceive colours. The RGB cones in the iris transmit signals to Ganglain Cells which translate the signal into blue-yellow, green-red and luminescence. Further processing in the cortext maps this signal onto the colour spectrum we think we see.
- How “After Images” work – look at a single image for a long time and the brain gets bored, replace with a blank white image and you see the negative.
- The colour temperature and tint sliders in Capture One Pro and Lightroom, make more sense. Blue-Yellow “Temp” is an adjustment across the frequency range and Green-Red “Tint” is the more nuanced balance at the higher frequencies.
My first client, WG Carter, has paid me for my work shooting the two houses on the 9th of this month, and signed off on both the corporate shoot and the time lapse project by making initial payments.
Lots of time spent working on getting the time lapse hardware to work, little success to date, and this doesn’t count as qualifying dedicated practice toward my 10,000 hour goal in any case.
Half an hour planning the corporate shoot. Half an hour updating this journal.
29 August 2018
Hours 1,145 to 1,146
Half an hour processing rather nasty grainy images from yesterday’s practice insect shoot of locust and lizard.
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Half an hour updating this journal. An hour refining some of the images from the Beaconsfield County Fayre and updating social media sites.
28 August 2018
Hours 1,137 to 1,144
Two hours finishing the first cull of images from yesterday’s country fayre: 625 to 141 (target about 100). Some editing in Capture One Pro.
Further two hours finessing images in Capture One Pro (individually applying a curves setting, and refining the crop for impact) and exporting to Lightroom Classic CC.
An hour on each of the following:
- creating a cover slide and uploading to Flickr
- updating the “Architectural Photography” post
- Photoshop correcting some mistakes in the Country Fayre images, and resubmitting to Flickr.
Some beautiful images of the dogs belonging to the vet who was judging yesterday’s dog show.
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Half an hour updating this journal. Half an hour playing with my new Godox AD600BM outdoor flash which arrived today. Purchased for the group photo for the building company. See Update to My Kit.
27 August 2018
Hours 1,128 to 1,136
Half an hour updating this journal.
Half an hour reading/ watching “Tips for Long Term Time Lapse Projects”
Six hours shooting the Beaconsfield Country Fayre – 625 images. Key learning points through the day:
- Use of a flash make the subject stand out from the background – note the press photographer present did not use a flash
- Six hours of shooting gets through two Sony batteries and two sets of flash batteries
Two hours processing images from the Fayre.
26 August 2018
Hours 1,124 to 1,127
Two hours YouTubes:
- BBC: “Picasso’s Last Stand” documentary of the last decade of his life.
- FStoppers: “Critique the Community: Architectural Photography” with my current hero, Mike Kelley, critiquing architecture images submitted my subscribers to the channel.
Half an hour reviewing the user manual of the CCTV equipment which arrived today, and ordering a micro SD card.
An hour preparing for tomorrow’s shoot at the Beaconsfield Country Fayre.
Half an hour updating this journal.
Possibly original thought: “subjectivity in the evaluation of a piece of art is merely a lack of confidence on the part of the evaluator.”
25 August 2018
Hours 1,120 to 1,123
Working on the “Architectural Photography” post.
Ordered the CCTV equipment and mobile SIM for the time Lapse project,
Two hours watching YouTubes:
- Slanted Lens: “How to Shoot Group or Team Photos” – persuaded me that I need to buy a high powered strobe for my shot of the building company.
- Sean Tucker: “Mastering Contrast in your Images (Photoshop Tutorial)” – 5 step programme
- Sharpening:
- Duplicate layer
- Apply High Pass filter, lowish radius 2-3ish
- Change blend mode to : Overlay
- Mask so that sharpening only applied to areas that need it, e.g., eyes
- Reduce opacity to <100%
- Fine Contrast:
- Stamp Visible (>Shft><Ctrl><Alt>E)
- Image – Adjustments – Convert to B&W
- Reds – left
- Yellows – right
- Opacity 20-35%
- Colour Contrast (Colour Toning):
- Add a “Color Balance” adjustment layer:
- Shadows:
- Cyan: -5
- Magenta: 0
- Blue: 5
- Midtones:
- Cyan: 5
- Magenta: 0
- Blue: -5
- Hightlights: Perhaps the same as midtones – sometimes nothing.
- Shadows:
- Add a “Color Balance” adjustment layer:
- Curves Contrast:
- Add a “Curves” adjustment layer
- Add points on the curve at each of the 3 intersections with the grid. The height of these points (from left to right) will affect shadows, midtones and highlights
- Adjust first the shadows by gently lowering the first point on the curve – this all about feel and creating the mood you want
- Adjust the highlights (third point added), increase to emphasise as required – again gently
- Move the middle point as required to achieve a smooth transition
- Levels Check:
- Add a “Levels” adjustment layer
- Ensure that the image covers the entire total range
- Holding the <Alt> key whilst moving the sliders, will show areas which are out of range, i.e., blown to either black or white.
- Sharpening:
- BBC: “The Banker’s Gide to Art“
24 August 2018
Hours 1,118 to 1,119
An hour meeting with a client to discuss photo requirements:
- Big group company shot, from a specially built platform of over 30 company vehicles and 60 staff
- 18 (now 21) month time lapse for a building project.
Now time to write some invoices, which doesn’t count as qualifying deliberate practice towards my 10,000 hours, but first invoice is quite a milestone nonetheless.
Half an hour planning the big staff shoot for the company met this morning, and half an hour updating this journal.
23 August 2018
Hours 1,113 to 1,117
Two hours making final adjustments (more sky changes) and preparing prints of the properties shot a fortnight ago in preparation for tomorrow’s client meeting.
An hour at the Amersham Photographic Society‘s Annual Exhibition. Discovered the London Salon
An hour updating this journal and social media sites.
Half an hour shooting the next in the series “View from the Third Post” in the Big Field Stoke Poges. Then another half hour processing, and uploading to social media and the shot to the right.
22 August 2018
Hours 1,110 to 1,112
An hour updating this journal; including a very small change to the twilight image taken on the 19th below to mute the red in the back bedroom by changing the hue on the red channel to be more yellow and masking to the required area only.
An hour working on the images from the Blavatnik Building of the Tate Modern in London, right and below. I like the image right because of the couple (including the person in red) at the bottom of the 2/5ths in frame from the right.
The images below are from the spiral staircase and the balcony, which both afford great viewpoints onto the world.
Often criticised as “having been done before” or “done to death”, I think the Tate is a great venue for learning street photography.
An hour updating social media sites – mainly tags and links back to this journal.
21 August 2018
Hours 1,107 to 1,109
An hour working on the “Architectural Photography” post.
Two hours refining images from the property shoot that I carried out commercially.
20 August 2018
Hours 1,102 to 1,106
Two hours revisiting the architectural photographs taken last week including adding a false sky using channel selections in Photoshop. Then experimenting, without much success, using the Select and Mask function in Photoshop.
An hour creating an entry for next season’s “Made in Wood” competition using images shot at the Tate Modern last week.
Half an hour updating social media channels with Street Photograpy images, including the Southwark Street Triptych below; then another half updating this journal.
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| Southwark Street – Triptych |
19 August 2018
Hours 1,097 to 1,101
Two hours processing the Street Photography images from Friday.
Half an hour updating this journal.
An hour and a half working on the first draft of an “Architectural Photography” post.
An hour processing my twilight house photographs from yesterday.
18 August 2018
Hours 1,093 to 1,096
An hour’s worth of deliberate practice discussing photography with members of the Stoke Poges Photographic Club during 3 hours of manning the stand at the Slough Horticultural Show.
An hour processing images from yesterday’s Street Photography at the Tate Modern and elsewhere.
An hour shooting my house at twilight.
17 August 2018
Hours 1,090 to 1,092
Half an hour at each of the following exhibitions
- Lee Bul – Haywards Gallery Southbank Centre
- Picasso 1932 – Tate Modern
- The Shape of Light – Tate Modern
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| Reflections on Lee Bul |
An hour and a half street photography.
16 August 2018
Hours 1,084 to 1,089
Half an hour updating this journal. Half an hour processing group family portrait.
Two hours learning and practicing the Photoshop Pen too including:
- PiXimperfect YouTube
- Bezier Game.
An hour revisiting the images from the party on Friday evening.
Hour’s YouTube:
- Ted Forbes “Photography: Truth or Beauty” ethical debate about the use of post processing in photojournalism.
- Ted Forbes: “Composition: Line“
- “Make great selections with Channels in PhotoShop“
Excellent BBC documentary on “Francis Bacon: A Brush with Violence” which has moved Bacon firmly into my Top 10 artists.
15 August 2018
Hours 1,081 to 1,083
[Activity that doesn’t could as qualifying activity: email negotiation of contract to shoot a time lapse for a client; reorganising files on my computer.]
An hour: Practice changing skys.
An hour: YouTubes
Half hour: Pre-reading on Lee Bul in advance of tomorrow’s exhibition.
Half hour: Processing Sky shot.
14 August 2018
Hour 1,080
Half an hour updating this journal.
Half an hour site visit to discuss long term time lapse with client.
13 August 2018
Hours 1,076 to 1,079
Half an hour sending images from last week’s architectural shoot to client and negotiating next steps in the relationship.
An hour researching time lapse photography.
Two hours watching the last section of the tutorial “Art Meets Architectural”
Half an hour shooting skys in the field opposite my house.
12 August 2018
Hours 1,069 to 1,075
An hour updating this journal.
Six hours finishing processing the images from the second house shot on the 9th.
11 August 2018
Hours 1,061 to 1,068
An hour at the Black Park Parkrun helping Charlie Fennell, a new potential photographer and Duke of Edinburgh volunteer. Learning points for me:
- Check that potential photographers have a Flickr account
- Initial brief to use lowest picture quality setting on the camera as these will be more than adequate and any more is just making the post processing task more cumbersome
- The “assistant” (me in this case) was able to perform a useful and rewarding role of geeing-up the runner to achieve a smile for the camera.
An hour shooting the volunteer first responders with the new ambulance that was donated by Mars which has a factory in Slough.
An hour processing Charlie’s images and creating the above composite cover side.
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Four hours processing the above images.
An hours updating this journal and researching the time lapse using CCTV equipment. Key discovery:
- HandyAvi software www.azcendant.com which promises to create timelapse in a very cost effective manner.
10 August 2018
Hours 1,055 to 1,060
Three hours editing images from the first of the two houses shot yesterday.
Two hours YouTubes, tips:
- Capture One: “Save Export Time with Process Recipes”
- Use Tokens to create more flexible recipes
- Serge Ramelli: “All you need is one light – Tutorial”
- Cool tip for replacing a white sky with something more interesting
- Take new sky as a new layer – as a rectangle covering the sky part of the frame only
- Replicate, invert, and stretch the copied sky portion to abut the sky portion and fill the frame
- Merge the above to a single layer and place on top of the image
- Change blend mode to Merge – job done. Worked great on a landscape shot.
- Use flash and modifier (softbox) held close to the model by an assistant. Then delete the assistant by taking another image with the people out of shot. Obviously, camera on a tripod!
- Cool tip for replacing a white sky with something more interesting
- Various – shooting large groups outside.
Half an hour processing images from the second house shot yesterday, and half an hour updating this journal.
09 August 2018
1,051 to 1,054
Half an hour experimenting using exposure bracketing.
Three hours on-site shooting architectural projects for a client – first ever paid work.
Half an hour writing up this journal.
08 August 2018
Hours 1,047 to 1,050
An hour reviewing websites and brochure images provided by client as an example of work done.
Three hours processing images of my house as practice for tomorrow’s assignment.
07 August 2018
Hours 1,042 to 1,046
Three hours practicing shooting the kitchen and dining room of my house.
Two hours researching long term time lapse – have idea of using wireless CCTV cameras are these are ruggedised aginst the elements, and are probably of adequate quality given the other challenges.
06 August 2018
Hours 1,038 to 1,041
Finished processing images from Friday’s party and produced JPegs for distribution.
Two hours watching YouTubes including:
- “How to ask strangers for portraits” – basically just ask them, politely, explain why is asked, and if they say no, ask somebody else
- Capture One Webinar “Four Portrait Edits”
- soften skin by Clarity = -50, Structure = -15
- increase contrast using a Luma curve rather than RBG to avoid a colour shift
- B&W portraits – decrease yellow and red channels
- Use curves to dodge and burn to preserve highlights and shadows. Be careful whitening whites of eyes as this quickly looks fake. use a dramatic curve to lighten/ increase the contrast on the iris.
An hour researching long term Time Lapse.
05 August 2018
Hours 1,036 to 1,037
Shooting bees and flowers in a friend’s garden
Some processing of Friday’s party images
04 August 2018
Hour 1,035
A hour processing the images from yesterday’s party.
03 August 2018
Hours 1,030 to 1,034
Three hours finishing and publishing the “Dorothea Lange and Vanessa Winship” post.
An hour processing images for the house shot yesterday and updating this journal.
An hour shooting the 25th Wedding Anniversary party of a friend.
02 August 2018
Hours 1,027 to 1,029
An hour working on the Lange Winship post
Two hours shooting three further rooms of my house, practicing for next week’s assignment.
01 August 2018
Hours 1,024 to 1,026
Half an hour updating this journal page. Half an hour researching multi-month time lapse photography.
Two hours watching the third in Mike Kelly’s Art meets architecture tutorial series.