Tag: canon powershot s90

Categories
Golden Gate Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 San Francisco/California Textures

The Golden Gate – in Texture

Golden Gate

Here’s another of my experiments in adding textures to an image. This image is a texturized version of this original shot below taken on January 1, 2010 at Baker Beach in San Francisco using my tiny Canon PowerShot S90.

Golden Gate

I also tweaked the image a bit to make the bridge towers more vertical – and then applied the Purple Prose texture from French Kiss Textures. This particular texture has script elements on the left side of the image – and I thought those elements worked well into the sky and mountain area on the left side of the bridge itself.

I love how the texture adds dimension to the image – making it much more interesting to my eye as I want to explore it for longer than just the original image. For me, that’s the power of adding textures – making the image much more interesting and something you want to spend time exploring – similar to how a great painting captures your eye and mind.

For more examples of my texture experiments, see this image of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, this image of the FV Point Reyes aground at Inverness, and these early experiments in blue and gold texturized images of San Francisco taken from Fort Point.

Palace of Fine Arts - San Francisco   FV Point Reyes aground at Inverness   San Francisco - Jan 1, 2010   San Francisco - Jan 1, 2010

If you’re interested in textures, here are some resources I’ve found very helpful:

Are there others? Yourself? Tell me about them in the comments below!

Categories
HDR Photography Lightroom Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 Photomatix Pro

HOW TO: Setting up the Canon PowerShot S90 to Shoot HDR

Golden Gate Bridge - 2010

Order a Limited Edition print of this photo

[Update: These same techniques apply to the Canon PowerShot S100 and, I believe, to the Canon PowerShot S110 as well as the Canon PowerShot S95.]

A friend has asked how I’ve been setting up my Canon PowerShot S90 to take the HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos I’ve been sharing.

Here’s what I’ve been doing:

  1. Put the S90 into Aperture Priority mode by setting the mode dial to Av. By shooting in Av, you ensure that the camera isn’t adjusting the aperture (which could cause focus issues) but, rather, only shutter speed. 
  2. Select a fixed (not Auto) ISO (see p. 76 in the S90 manual). In daylight, choose 80 or 100. You want a fixed ISO so that the camera isn’t trying to adjust ISO between shots.
  3. Select Large format JPEG or RAW (see p. 72 in the S90 manual). (I find the Large JPEGs are the easiest to post-process while purists say to shoot in RAW. The S90 does a superb job of processing in-camera, so just choose Large JPEG when you’re getting started.)
  4. Turn on Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB mode – see p. 93 in the S90 manual). Chose the middle option – “Takes 3 different shots at different exposures”. While still in that setting, press the DISP button and turn the dial to select +/- 2 stops. This ensures that the camera takes 3 shots: one properly exposed, one underexposed by 2 stops, and one overexposed by 2 stops. These three photos are what Photomatix Pro then uses to create the HDR image.

Now, the S90 is ready to go.

For best results, mount the S90 on a tripod to prevent any movement as the three shots are being taken. If you don’t have a tripod, you can try handheld HDR – just try to brace your arm against a support to minimize any camera movement. When you hit the shutter button, the camera will take the 3 shots – about a shot per second. After 3 seconds or so, it’s done.

I post-process in Lightroom – using it to import the photos from the S90. I then use Photomatix Pro and just point it to the 3 shots in the file folder to begin generating the HDR image. Once the image has been generated and tone mapped, I save it back into the same folder and then import that image also into Lightroom – telling Lightroom to just add it to the catalog but not to copy it as the image is already in the folder.

For the best overall tutorial on HDR processing, be sure the see Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs HDR tutorial.

Categories
Lightroom Living Photography

Recovering from Stupidity

So, yesterday we went off to our family’s Thanksgiving celebration. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday – it’s just about getting together, sharing, and enjoying our company. No obligations, no gifts, just us.

Anyway, with my right (camera!) arm still in a sling, I headed off without my trusty Canon 5D Mark II and glass. No way was I ever going to be able to shoot any pictures of Thanksgiving with the big DSLR!

Anticipating this, last week I picked up a new Canon PowerShot S90 – and headed off to Thanksgiving dinner with this delightful new (think left hand!) point and shoot camera! We had a wonderful dinner with family – and I took lots of shots along the way.

Some 150 shots later, I came home and began uploading the photos from the S90 to Lightroom. Somewhere along the way I decided the upload had completed (it hadn’t) and I pulled out the USB cable to the camera and – then – proceeded to format the SD card in the S90. Oh my goodness – why did I do that? Beats me – but I did.

Continue reading “Recovering from Stupidity”