Some clouds over Astir Beach in Vouliagmeni and great light create ideal photo conditions for the iPhone 4.

Astir Beach iPhone 4 Photos is a post from: iPhone 4 Photos All content Copyright © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis. All rights reserved. Contact mail: iPhone (at) yorgo.net

Calibrate and recover a Maximum of Data

The purpose of this exercise is not to reach a final result but to prepare the image for editing and post-editing. When calibrating, we try to correct systematic shortcomings of our camera. When we edit, we try to drive a maximum of data out of our image, namely because the camera delivers jpeg files which compress away quite some data of which some can be recovered.

Once we have the best possible set of data, we can apply filters and presets with a foreseeable result.

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler

The Original

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler original

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler original

Edited Version

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited

BW Version

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited bw

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler edited bw

Post-edited Version

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler post-edited

Photo © 2010 Ute Schaedler post-edited

Enjoy!

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke

A somewhat more difficult sample in the sense that this image is not ideal for calibrating because of the color range and because it’s zoomed (114 mm in 35 mm equivalent). The image is therefore not at maximum sharpness or detail.

However, it’s a nice bird, worthwhile to spend some time on :-).

The Original

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke as shot

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke as shot

Edited Version

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited

Edited Version 2

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 2

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 2

Edited Version 3

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 3

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke edited 3

Post-edited Version

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke post-edited

Photo © 2010 Bianca Gubalke post-edited

No comment, let the yellow bird tweet!

More later.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Image Editing made Transparent

Tomorrow, our call we will focused on Image Editing. For this exercise we need one photograph in original format as shot.

Preparation for the call

I order to be able to advise call participants individually, I would like to ask you to select your image (can be most anything, landscape, monument, animal, flower, portrait) from your collection and attach it to an email and send it to my email at yorgo(at)yorgo.net. Please make sure you send a photo as shot without any editing, cropping or clipping or filtering. Don’t even add Lightroom camera calibration filters.

Please send a shot which has been taken without zooming. In the worst case just set your cam on automatic and take a shot out of your next window without zooming and send that one.

The earlier you send your picture, the bigger the chance that we will have time to edit it and to help you with presets or filters which may serve your camera calibration and ’standard filtering’ for quickly develop and edit your pictures.

Sample:

Recco Italy Image

Recco Italy Photo

Recco Italy Photo © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Recco Italy Image

Recco Italy Photo © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Recco Italy Image Black and White

Recco Italy Image Black and White © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Recco Italy Image Post-edited

Recco Italy Image © 2010 Yorgo Nestoridis

Image 1: as shot and delivered by the camera.

Image 2: basic editing – rotate the picture as the horizon was not horizontal and the verticals bend to the left side; a global vitamin pack gets the pic up to speed. As this is a heavily zoomed image, the sharpness and details cannot be recovered as should. That’s why we would like to get a image without zoom.

Image 3: Black and white version of version 2.

Image 4: Some post-editing to remove crane and construction works. This post editing job can be done much better: in this case I just blew in 3 strokes with the content aware healing brush from Photoshop CS5 – this takes exactly 3 seconds!

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Registration for Ycademy Seminar Participants

Today as planned we will start populating the Photo Media stock platform. The pre-launch is reserved for Ycademy August Seminar Participants. Those concerned will receive a personal invitation by mail from Bianca later today.

Vouliagmeni from the Marina

Vouliagmeni from the Marina

Beta Tests

During the next few days we will beta test the site extensively with the help of all venture partners. Today we focus on the sign-up procedure as well as on the identity verification. Also we will test upload capability as well as the resizing engine.

During the testing, the site will not yet be officially accessible from the home page link; please use the link contained in your invitation email.

Today’s task: Register with the site from the “Become a Seller” link on top right of the site and submit 10 Pictures for evaluation.

Administration

Bianca Gubalke and Zo Nicholas are the site admins whereas Bianca is focused on the Commercial end while Zo looks after Technical issues and Maintenance.

Tonight’s Call

Join tonight’s Ycademy call where we will analyze the site’s behavior and give support where needed. Also we will set up your Venture Partner’s accounts based on your registration.

I am looking forward to a great venture!

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Spider

The last day in August turns out to be a glorious summers day which is a rare occurence this summer here in Essex where I live. If you saw my earlier posts about the local  Airshow you will notice that the weather nearly let us down. However, today was wonderful with long spells of warm sunshine so much needed after so many dreary days. The garden was the best place to be today. What caught my eye glistening in the sunshine was a big spiders web just by the door. Down came the spider from his hiding hole to catch an unwary little fly.  Having watched this for a short while  I decided it was an opportunity not to be missed and got the camera out. What was really intriguing was that I was watching the spider from underneath, and not looking down on his back.

Garden Spider 

Well I think its a garden spider, if anyone would like to correct me on this one please do. By the time the camera was in place this little spider had consumed his prey and looked like it was wrapping it up and then sort of pushed it out in a little ball. I am no nature freak but this episode was absolutely fascinating. Here is the photo I shot of this spider with my Nikon Coolpix. With the sun shining directly on the web the little ball here looks like a blue gemstone.

Author: Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing. Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader or Subscribe by Email.

Read more..

• First Day at the Airshow
• Full Moon over Frinton
• Shooting at Rainbows in Essex
• Shooting at Rainbows in Essex
• Gunfleet Sands Development
• Digital Photography Practice
• Digital Photography Workshop exercise
• Digital Photography – Preparing Photos
• Digital Photography
• My Essex

Contents

[ hide ]

1. 1 Monkey Valley Resort in September
2. 1.1 Monkey Valley Resort in September
3. 1.2 Camtasia Studio Pro

Monkey Valley Resort in September

Cape Town, South Africa, is getting ready for spring… and naturally we asked Dumi Sakuinje what’s planned at Monkey Valley Resort for the new season, starting 1 September 2010?

Check out the brief projection below, recorded on a sunny but pretty windy afternoon – with nothing but the last few feet left on a NIKON Coolpix P90 digital camera – high up at Monkey Valley Resort’s gem, the “Crowned Eagle”, on what’s to be expected in terms of September Entertainment at the beautiful beach resort.

This little movie was edited in Camtasia Studio Pro with no really efficient tool to eliminate the background noise the amazingly sensitive microphone of the digital camera had captured. It is only 1 minute 35 seconds long and was produced in High Definition for YouTube. . . where it’s currently loading. It will take a couple of hours with our slow Internet connections… but here come some interesting details for those interested in movie productions for online presentations and YouTube.

Monkey Valley Resort in September

As we are still testing the best conversion and production formats, my experience with “Monkey Valley Resort in September” was the following:

My NIKON Coolpix P90 is normally set to produce digital photos in 3000 x 4000 size. I did not change these settings to 16:9 for instance. I kept all 3×4.

Camtasia Studio Pro

When starting a new project in Camtasia Studio Pro we are asked to select our format preferences.

As I plan to load the movie in HD to YouTube, I selected 1280 x 720 – which immediately reduced the original images on my Camtasia editing screen, leaving me with a large black frame around the picture.

Once the clip was edited, I published it with my personal settings – which again are YouTube/HD, meaning 1280 x 720.

The result was the display you see in the top picture here. Length: 1:35 min, 30frames per second, 214 MB.

Hmmm… I found this pretty heavy for a tiny clip like this… but I remembered that in a previous discussion it was mentioned that the whole black frame counts in terms of ‘weight’ – at least, that’s what I had understood.

Accordingly, I decided to experiment and try another version:

I did not touch the edited movie, but changed the initial settings in Camtasia to the original size I filmed it, 640 x 360 (4×3). . . but then chose the same format for YouTube/HD, meaning 1280 x 720. Being aware that I changed the 4×3 to a 16:9 … I just wanted to see the result. One never knows unless one tries… and this is not the end of the story yet :)

However, now I got double the weight: 452 MB, same time 1:35 min and 30 frames per second.

What I like here is that the picture will be seen at maximal height as demonstrated on the second screenshot above, the way Camtasia plays the movie straight after publishing.

Of course, I’d prefer to have it lighter … without losing any quality. Maybe I will get there in the next shot. . .

27% loaded… 242 minutes remaining on YouTube – duhh… what would I do with 10 minutes???

Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Monkey Valley Resort in September is a post from: Destinations Expo

Red Arrows at Clacton Air Show

The flying program at the Clacton Airshow 2010 included the famous RAF aerobatic team, the Red Arrows. There is nothing quite so breathtaking as watching this display team whiz through the skies and perform their aerobatics. 

Red Arrows at Clacton Airshow on Youtube

Here is a short video on Youtube of the Red Arrows aerobatics display at the 2010 Airshow in Clacton.

Author: Zo Nicholas, Media, Marketing, Publishing. Co-Founder of YORGOO, Ycademy,YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader or Subscribe by Email.

Read more..

• First Day at the Airshow
• Clacton Airshow
• Tropical Wings Zoo Animals
• Tropical Wings Butterfly House
• Tropical Wings
• Clacton Air Show 2010
• Full Moon over Frinton
• Shooting at Rainbows in Essex
• Shooting at Rainbows in Essex
• Gunfleet Sands Development

Ever thought of Destination Arctic Ice?

Visiting the North Pole or the South Pole?

My sister just returned from an extraordinary journey she’s always been dreaming of… a trip into a white world of silence and of serenity…

Destination Arctic Ice – extraordinary Life under the Melting Arctic Ice

Still filled with her stories and waiting for the pictures, I wish to draw your attention to what I call “Destination Arctic Ice” – a world that seems to me is still relatively ‘untouched’, unspoilt, unaffected by human intervention, by human greed and destruction. It’s not far away on the moon or any other distant planet – it’s right here, right under our feet almost… and it’s still unexplored, virgin, complete. In my eyes – sacred.

And it should remain sacred.

Have a look at what no human eye has ever seen before – as I’m being told by photographer Gavin Newman who has built the ‘toys’ that enable him to go further than anyone else ever went underneath the Melting Artic Ice, filming “stunning life”… a habitat noone even expected, a habitat of grandiose beauty…

However, it already shows the scars of human greed by those desastrous trawlers… motivated by the overeating part of the world population. They have to be stopped – NOW!

It’s your and my Awareness that can do so, our determination to protect what we were given to care for – not to own, not to ‘possess’ nor to dominate. ‘Taking care of our house’ is part of our sacred contract with the Divine… whatever way you perceive it.

After all, we are all part of ‘it’… if we destroy what in a world of duality is perceived as ‘outside’ we destroy… ourselves.

Copyright © 2010 Destinations Expo Destination Arctic Ice is a post from: Destinations Expo

Testing HDR Imaging with Lightroom 3

High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDR) is a ” set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods” (Wikipedia).

The below exercise is a simple test, using only two images with different exposures.

Image 1 – Balux Glyfada

Balux Glyfada 1

Balux Glyfada 1

The image has been taken inside a room exposing it to feature the colors of the interior. As you can see, the consequence of properly exposing the interior leads to over exposed areas, namely on the table and then all over the background where we basically see only white.

Image 2

Balux Glyfada 2

Balux Glyfada 2

The interior is underexposed, however the background or the exterior area shows colors and details as the metering is set to render a clear image in the background.

The HDR Image created in Lightroom 3

Glyfada Balux HDR

Glyfada Balux HDR

After the merger we end up with a nice compromise which can be adjusted in post editing. Lightroom did a good job on the background as wel as on the table where we get now some of the blueish shine as a reflection from the external tones.

HDR Image post-edited

Balux Glyfada edited

Balux Glyfada edited

For the purpose of this test I have just darkened the tonal range of the highlights a bit to see a real contrast to the previous image.

Conclusion

HDR imaging has become an easy task with Lightroom 3, even for beginners. The difference between the first and the last photo is simply smashing. The ability to edit HDR in Lightroom with just a few mouse-clicks will help many amateurs to get a more professional look to pictures featuring interiors.

Of course it’s also a great feature for night photography or anywhere where improved dynamic range cannot be reached with just one shot.

This and more we will demonstrate live and exercise with the participants at this week’s Ycademy calls as an add on to the Ycademy Seminar which took place during the past week-end.

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.

Adobe Lightroom 3 Presets

Just 4 samples using some of my Lightroom presets for the purpose of the Ycademy Seminar.

Enjoy.

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Original

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Preset 1

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece -Preset 2

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Preset 3

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece

Ermoupoli Syros, Greece - Preset 4

Author: Yorgo Nestoridis, Media Marketing & Publishing, Founder of YORGOO Publishing, YORGOO Press and Semiomantics. If you enjoyed reading the above, please consider following future tips and strategies by RSS reader, Email delivery, or Kindle subscription.