Expositor is a Handy slide-Rule Based Exposure Calculator

Expositor is a handy slide-rule based exposure calculator for photography. Pick the scene you're shooting, then slide the roller until your camera's ISO is lined up beside it, and every combination of F-Stop and shutter speed on the right will get you close to a perfect exposure.

For a more creative example, let's calculate shooting sports on an overcast day with a shallow depth of field (F4) to isolate the subject, and a fast shutter speed (1/500s) to stop motion. Match the F-stop and speed, then check the ISO value next to 'Heavy overcast day' to see how sensitive your camera needs to be. In this case, it's ISO 200!

Use Expositor in the field if you don't have a light meter handy, or use it to train your brain to be its own exposure calculator. Expositor is here to help you shoot great pictures!

More instructions and detailed usage examples can be found at http://expositor.wunderkemmer.com/Instructions.html.

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me

Creative Leaders

John Maeda, President of the Rhode Island School of Design, delivers a funny and charming talk that spans a lifetime of work in art, design and technology, concluding with a picture of creative leadership in the future. Watch for demos of Maeda’s earliest work -- and even a computer made of people.

John Maeda is the president of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he is dedicated to linking design and technology. Through the software tools, web pages and books he creates, he spreads his philosophy of elegant simplicity.

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me

Overcast Front Light

Of all the different lighting conditions that I can use, overcast front lighting is the one that I consider being the safest. This is because overcast front light illuminates most everything evenly. Overcasting front light is good for white balancing since overall illumination is balanced. The softness of this light results in more natural-looking renderings and it also eliminates the contrast problems that a sunny day creates. 

Some of my clients have a preconceived notion of how a color should look. Holding the color swatch up to the print will usually not produce the expected result; "the colors don't match!", is a typical response I get. I can go into color theory, monitor calibration, gamma, but it's typically received with the deer in the headlight gaze. Instead of pulling out the before and after images as to proof, I am usually spot-on, I chose to go with a nice, and very safe, overcast lighting setup.

As for me, I prefer the high contrast, and more dramatic scenes. I understand basic color theory and how light and color react to each other. The work that I am most proud of, and has been recognized by my peers, has not been by playing it safe.  I can guarantee  that the color swatch will change colors with every light source you view it under. That color, on that color swatch, will not look that way on your building.

So, if you want to play it safe, I can recommend Peter Guthrie's 0902 Overcast HDRI.

Overcast HDRI by Peter Guthrie

Overcast HDRI by Peter Guthrie

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me

The Human Shape

The human shape is perhaps the most unmistakable shape in all the world. As a result, when you include its shape in any rendering, an obvious sense of scope and scale result. This happens regardless of whether that rendering is a nature scene, or something urban or industrial.

One of my favorite resources for people cutouts is, by far, VizPeople. I have many of their libraries and they have created a great video on how to composite people in your rendering.

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me

Sandy Hook Elementary School Poem

Sandy Hook Elementary School Poem

“Twas’ 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38

when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven’s gate.
their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.
they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.
they were filled with such joy, they didn’t know what to say.

they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.
”where are we?” asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.
”this is heaven.” declared a small boy. “we’re spending Christmas at
God’s house.”
when what to their wondering eyes did appear,
but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.
He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.
then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring
those children all flew into the arms of their King
and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,
one small girl turned and looked at Jesus’ face.
and as if He could read all the questions she had
He gently whispered to her, “I’ll take care of mom and dad.”

then He looked down on earth, the world far below
He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe
then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,
”Let My power and presence re-enter this land!”

”may this country be delivered from the hands of fools”
”I’m taking back my nation. I’m taking back my schools!”
then He and the children stood up without a sound.
”come now my children, let me show you around.”

excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.
all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.
and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,
”in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT.””
— Written by Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolf, PA

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me

Correcting Keystoning

Keystoning is the term used to describe the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" effect of converging lines in  architectural renderings. it's a very common result when rendering with a wide-angle lens. Photoshop can oftentimes straighten those buildings for you, correcting this perspective problem in a matter of seconds

Open your rendering in Photoshop, select the Crop tool from the toolbox, and drag the cursor from the top left corner to the bottom right corner and release. You will see the "marching ants" around your entire rendering. Go to the lower menu bar at the top of the screen and check the small box next to Perspective. Now, using the cursor, drag the top left corner of the marching ant border into the rendering so that the border is parallel to the tilting structure in the rendering. Do the same thing on the right side of the rendering. Then, double click in the rendering just to the right or left of the small center circle that appears on the rendering. Photoshop adjusts the image so that any tilting lines appear truly vertical, as they do when the human eye views the actual scene.

Leaning_tower_of_pisa_2.jpg

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me

Filters in Photoshop CS

Photoshop has made it easy to get those warm colors I love. Adobe added a whole set of adjustments that resemble the filters you'd use on your lenses. And, the best part is that they are available as adjustment layers, so you can apply them to your image and then mask out areas you don't want to be effected by the filter.

So, want to add warmth to an image you rendered? On your Photoshop menu bar, click image, then adjustment, and then Photo Filters. You'll get a choice of eighteen filters to use on your image, including several that warm things up. You can vary the intensity of these filters; and if you use Adjustment Layers to add the filter effect, you can apply those filter effects to selected parts of your image by using layer masks. To do this, select any of a number of tools from the toolbox, and using the mouse, select an area where you would like to apply filter effects. The area will be indicated by a dotted line. Then choose Layer on the pull down menu bar, then New Adjustment Layer, and then Photo Filter. Once the filter list comes up, you can choose your filter for that selected area.

lens-filter.jpg

Did you enjoy this blog post? If so, then why not:

Leave Comment | Subscribe To This Blog | Email Me