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Posts Tagged ‘smooth’

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects

19 Jun

You might have seen photos in nature magazines or websites with silky-smooth water effects cascading over rocks, branches, and trees. Have you also wondered how in the world the photographer was able to capture such beautiful images?

For years I thought these types of images were the purview of professional photographers armed with an arsenal of digital tricks and camera tweaks that I would never be able to learn. But in reality, it’s quite simple to make images like these.

You don’t need any computational wizardry or mystical skills, and once you pick up a few basics you can start creating beautiful smooth-water photographs in no time at all.

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects - waterfall over a brook

Limiting the Light

To start with, the goal here is somewhat counterintuitive compared to a lot of other types of photography. Instead of letting in as much light as possible, the goal with smooth-water pictures is to let in the smallest amount of light in order to allow your shutter to remain open as long as it can. This requires a couple of settings on your camera as well as, in most cases, a very inexpensive piece of gear.

When you take a picture at a high shutter speed of 1/125th or 1/500th of a second it’s fast enough to freeze motion and allow you to get a blur-free picture of your subject. This is usually a good thing except when cascading water is involved, as freezing the motion is the opposite of what you are trying to do. Limiting the light allows the water to create motion trails and also adds an entirely different tone to the image, often one of peace and tranquility.

The following two images illustrate what I mean. This first one was taken at 1/60th of a second.

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects - moving water, partially frozen

1/60th of a second. Some motion trails are present but the image doesn’t feel calm, and also lacks a focal point.

The next one was taken with a much slower shutter speed and feels like an entirely different picture.

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects - slower shutter speed and blurred water

What you need to do

In order to cut down on the incoming light and also make sure you are getting the best images you will need to do the following:

  • Shoot in Manual Mode so you can force your camera to do what you want, not what it thinks you want. Using Auto or semi-auto modes (P, Av, Tv, A, or S) will usually not work for these types of shots.
  • Shoot in RAW so you can tweak your image afterward. It’s difficult to get smooth-water photos just right straight out of the camera and it’s nice to be able to tweak things to your liking.
  • Use a small aperture. Not necessarily the smallest aperture your lens allows, because this can sometimes cause image quality to deteriorate due to light diffraction, but a value of around f/11 or f/16 should be fine.
  • Use the lowest native ISO value for your camera. This will let you use slower shutter speeds while also giving you the cleanest, sharpest image possible.
  • Use the slowest shutter speed possible without overexposing the image too much. If you’re using RAW you can probably overexpose by one stop and recover things in post-production. But much more than that and you’re going to blow out all your highlights.
  • Put your camera on a tripod to minimize any shake or wobble from your hands. My favorite is the Joby Gorillapod since it lets me position my camera using just about any available surface, and allows me to get nice and close to the water as well.

Neutral Density Filters

Even with all this, it’s difficult to get a slow enough shutter speed to really create some good smoothing effects, and the solution is to use a Neutral Density filter. This is an inexpensive attachment that screws on to the front of your lens and cuts down the incoming light.

I like to think of it as putting sunglasses on your camera. This is the secret to getting the type of silky smooth water effects you have always admired but never knew how to create on your own.

shot of a fountain - How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects

Here, a long exposure of 1-second not only smoothed the water in the fountain but evened out the surface of the pond as well.

There are many different kinds of ND filters that block varying levels of light, but my recommendation for smooth-water images is one that blocks 3 or 6 stops of light. Others are available but they block so much light that it’s difficult to get your exposure settings right.

You can find ND filters at any camera retailer but the key is to get one that fits your lens. Look on your lens cap to find the thread size. It will usually be the Greek letter phi followed by a number, such as 53mm or 58mm.

ND filters often come in packs of two or three. While these cheaper ones aren’t going to produce the absolutely highest-quality results they are a fantastic and inexpensive way to get started.

Getting the Shot

I enjoy creating silky smooth water images on cloudy days since it means even more light is blocked – almost like nature’s own ND filter. Morning and evening are good times to shoot as well. But any time of day will work as long as you can get slow shutter speeds using a small aperture, low ISO, and an ND filter.

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects - yellow leaf in flowing water

2 seconds. The long exposure time really helped create a sense of motion in the background while the leaf in the foreground serves as a focal point for the viewer.

Use Live View

I like to use Live View when preparing my shot since I can adjust the exposure parameters and see the image lighten or darken in real-time. But if you are using an optical viewfinder just pay attention to your light meter and you should be fine.

When your camera is ready and you have your shot composed, use your camera’s self-timer so you don’t add any shakiness to the image with your fingers when you press the shutter.

This method can also be used for adding a layer of gloss to moving waters, which is a fun way to add a bit of a creative element to pictures taken at the beach. The difference is that instead of trying to get pictures that show the motion of water, you are trying to make the water as smooth as possible.

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects - lake shot

At 1/90th of a second, the water is full of ripples and small waves.

Limiting the amount of incoming light by using the techniques above (small aperture, low ISO, and ND filters) I was able to virtually eliminate the appearance of imperfections on the surface of the water.

How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects - long exposure on a lake

6 seconds. In addition to the surface being smooth, a host of large and small rocks are now visible which creates an additional almost otherworldly feeling.

Conclusion

Creating these types of images can be addicting! Once you get the hang of it, you may want to spend all day seeing what you can create with your camera. It doesn’t take much, but it opens up a whole new photography frontier that can be extraordinarily enjoyable and highly rewarding.

The post How to Create Silky Smooth Water Effects appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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Hitch Hiker balanced-motion tripod head boasts smooth, uniform rotations

15 Dec

A new Kickstarter project is seeking funding for Hitch Hiker, a tripod head said to offer smooth and precise uniform rotations thanks to its ‘balanced-motion’ design. Unlike conventional tripod heads, Hitch Hiker is said to be capable of simultaneous vertical and horizontal motions without the need for clamping or locking to hold a specific position.

Hitch Hiker is made from CNC-machined aircraft-grade metal with an anodized finish and preloaded roller bearings. Levers are used to ‘fine-tune’ the way movements on each axis feel, while motion is accomplished via a knurled-grip guide handle. The tripod head has an overall weight of 2.5lbs / 1.1kg and can handle cameras or other items (including a smartphone or GPS unit) weighing up to 7lbs / 3.2kg. The model attaches to a tripod via a 3/8-16 screw.

The team behind the Hitch Hiker is seeking funding for production on Kickstarter, where a single unit in a clear/black finish is promised in exchange for a $ 499 or greater pledge, and a model in all-black finish for pledges of $ 529 or more.

Via: Kickstarter

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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My Favorite Lens of All, the Sharp, Smooth, Feel of the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM

26 Oct

One Last Hand

For those of you who know me or follow my work, you probably already know about my love affair with the Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM telephoto lens. Simply put, this is my favorite lens I have ever used in my life. It’s also the lens I use for probably 70% of the photographs which I produce. This is a workhorse lens and I believe it is the sharpest lens that Canon makes. If I could only own a single Canon prime lens, this would be it.

Bet Red

Professional grade Canon L series lenses are not cheap. Canon’s L series represent their top of the line optics. They are what almost all Canon professional photographers shoot with. That said, I think the EF 135mm f/2L USM is one of the best values as far as Canon L series lenses go. The lens costs a little over $ 1,000 and is amongst the most economical L series lenses you can buy.

I probably shoot this lens at f/2 the majority of the time. This gives you a super clean point of focus, with the beautiful out of focus bokeh away from your primary point of interest. For those low light shallow depth of field photos, it does not get better than this lens in my opinion. The portraits you can make with this lens are beautiful — sharp as tack but with the subtle bokeh around the edges that a lens like this can produce.

Two Hearts Can't Be Wrong

The autofocus on this lens is the most responsive of any lens I’ve ever used. It autofocuses so lightning fast and allows you to quickly lock in on the action that you want to see. It’s a very quiet and very smooth feel when you hit your focal point perfectly on the mark.

The photos in this blog post were all taken on my recent trip to Vegas with this lens. I cannot recommend this lens strongly enough. An example of why I like this lens so much can be seen in the first photo in this post. Forget about it as it appears in this post, click here to see it in full high res glory. Look at how sharp the details are on that photo. Notice the individual neon tubes as visible in the Harrahs and Flamingo signs. I took this photo from the balcony of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, a great distance away. The 135mm EF f/2L USM gave me the distance I needed to shoot down with such clarity on the neon signs in the photo.

The photo of the roulette wheel and the mannequin in the post show how great the bokeh and depth of field is around an isolated focus point. This is another of my favorite characteristics of this lens. Shooting portraits at f/2 on this lens feels just perfect to me.

In addition to portraits, this lens is great for street photography, sports, concerts, abstracts, and so many other types of photography.

As a reminder, my analysis of my Canon gear is being done in partnership with Canon and I am receiving compensation for this work with them. More on Canon telephoto lenses here.

Teardrop

I'll Take Two

Seeing Red


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Riding the waves to smooth water images

15 Sep

Photos that feature milky-smooth flowing water seem to have a Marmite effect on people: they’re either loved or hated. I’m often rather ambivalent towards them, but it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a useful technique to have up your sleeve if you’re faced with a weir or waterfall and you want to capture an image with smooth-looking water that has a sense of flow to it.

Image thanks to Tom at Triggertrap

Image thanks to Tom at Triggertrap

There’s no great secret to shooting a photo that has water flowing through it that looks smooth: it’s done using a long exposure. The slow shutter speed captures the the water as it moves, making it blurred. The blur, in this instance, gives the water a smooth appearance.

Shooting long exposures in daylight hours comes with an inherent problem, however. Over-exposure. Our cameras’ sensors are capable of detecting far more light than we think they are, and even using the lowest possible ISO and smallest available aperture, a long exposure can result in an over-exposed photo when taking during the day. To get around this irritation, you might want to try a neutral density (ND) filter over your lens.

APL0719-1024x681

Image thanks to Tom at Triggertrap

ND filters are grey filters that cut down the amount of light that enters your lens without affecting the colour of your images. They come in different grades, or densities, blocking out between one stop and 12 stops of light. Screw one over your lens and you’ll give yourself a great deal more flexibility when it comes to shooting daytime long exposures.

Then of course you’ll need a tripod. You might want to capture the motion blur of the water, but you’ll want to avoid camera-shake and the rest of the scene getting the wobbles. Even though you’ll be using a very small aperture with an enormous depth-of-field, still think carefully about your framing of the shot and its point-of-focus. Make sure it’s telling a story.

Image thanks to Tom at Triggertrap

Image thanks to Tom at Triggertrap

Obviously you’ll need to have your camera in manual mode to ensure that you can adjust the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture to get the photo that you want. Almost certainly you will need to use the lowest ISO and smallest aperture avalable. When it comes to shutter speed, you might find that you need to venture into bulb mode to get the shutter speed you need. And we recommend that you use a remote shutter release to prevent jolting your camera on its tripod and shifting its focus, too.

Then it’s a case of hitting the cable release and leaving the camera to do its thing.


All images are courtesy of Triggertrap. You can learn more about using remote releases on the awesome Triggertrap How-to site!

This article was originally posted at Riding the waves to smooth water images , on Photocritic.

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Instagram Hyperlapse app creates smooth time-lapse video

27 Aug

Last week Microsoft announced development of a technology that turns shaky first-person video into smooth, stabilized hyperlapse videos. Now it appears that Instagram has beaten them to market with a similar product. They’ve announced Hyperlapse, an app that converts videos of up to 45 minutes into smooth and stable time-lapses with a speed of up to 12x faster than the original. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photoshop CS4: Create Smooth Bubbles

19 Oct

Like us on facebook! www.facebook.com Learn to create bubbles with Photoshop. I was wondering of a basic tutorial to teach from a “orb” design I was working on and a snow globe I did during the holiday seasons, and decided well since I am in a bubble all the time in Super Mario Bros I decided to create a bubble tutorial using the same techniques I use when creating orbs or snow globes. (Those type of tutorials will need narrator, longer indepth tutorials will be coming soon) I hope you enjoy the tutorial, also don’t forget to try and go farther then what the tutorial shows you, and create something really awesome and post a video response of it.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 
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How to smooth skin in Lightroom | lynda.com tutorial

19 Oct

This Photoshop Lightroom tutorial shows how to use the Adjustment brush to smooth skin. Watch more at www.lynda.com This specific tutorial is just a single movie from chapter nine of the Photoshop Lightroom 3 Advanced Techniques course presented by lynda.com author Chris Orwig. The complete Photoshop Lightroom 3 Advanced Techniques course has a total duration of 6 hours and 45 minutes and shares advanced techniques, including image editing with the Adjustment brush, automating actions, using plug-ins and extensions, exporting to email or an FTP server, and more. Photoshop Lightroom 3 Advanced Techniques table of contents: Introduction 1. Lightroom, Bridge, and Photoshop 2. Speeding Up Your Workflow with Automation 3. Understanding Catalogs 4. Working with Folders and Collections 5. Working with Catalogs 6. Using Catalog Best Practices 7. Managing Digital Assets 8. Using Tethered Capture 9. Advanced Retouching 10. Managed Color Is Better Color 11. Print Perfection 12. Creating Custom Watermarks 13. Printing Photo Books 14. Publishing Features 15. Working with Web Galleries 16. Exporting for Different Places 17. Communicating with Clients 18. Lightroom and Email 19. Extending Lightroom with Creative Plug-Ins 20. Shortcuts and Speed Tips 21. Improving Lightroom Performance Conclusion

 
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Photoshop CS5 tutorial – Smooth skin (Pimp My Face) Feature: Alicia Silverstone (HD)

01 Aug

Photoshop CS5 tutorial explaining how to make a smooth skin Featuring: Alicia Silverstone
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 

Smooth Tone Technique in Photoshop

10 Apr

markgaler.com Learn how to create smoother soft-focus images in Photoshop. Action from markgaler.com
Video Rating: 5 / 5

 
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Smooth Photoshop Makeover 2

16 Oct

Here its another way of photoshop-retouching, working with masks and channels. Its made in 50 minutes, normally i work one day to get a perfect and beautiful look, but here its only a small retouche to show you, how it works. I dont really like the result, dunno why 😉 the great dubstep-sound is taken from the exclusiv broken beats-radio mix by Ruff E Nuff-DeeJay called Mr. Geroyche. The picture is taken from pixelquelle.de, this girl is www.clarissa-schwarz.ch
Video Rating: 3 / 5

The Clone Stamp, Spot Healing Brush, Healing Brush, and Patch Tool. Watch it on TutCast! www.tutcast.com Music: Kevin MacLeod