I hope to start creating some blog posts for Photoshop tips and a semi-regular basis starting with this sunflower image shot on the North side of the Highland campus. I’ll go through the steps from conception to saving the final image.

Let’s start with the exposure for this image, though. These are the technical steps to get this kind of star burst sun flare:
1. I chose early afternoon and I chose today because we had a brilliant blue sky with puffy clouds.
2. I always shoot in Manual mode so I can control all the settings on my Canon 5D AND I shoot in RAW so I can make multiple adjustments in Lightroom and Photoshop.
3. First I set my aperture. To get a star burst that’s really defined, it’s best to shoot at f22.
4. Next I set my shutter speed. I do whatever it takes to get that f22 aperture and that may mean a slower shutter speed and a higher ISO.
5. Strong back-lighting produces a challenge to expose the subject properly. Be prepared to edit, use a reflector or even a flash (preferably off-camera).
6. Choose the right angle. Since the sun was quite high in the sky I had to lay down on the warm pavement to get the sun included in my frame with my widest angle lens, the Canon 24-70L. Waiting until later in the day would make the angle easier and give the image a much warmer hue.
7. Look for star bursts shining through trees or peeking out behind the corner of a building. Squinting your eyes tight is a great simulation for a narrow aperture on your camera.
8. Shooting into the sun can be harmful and painful for your eyes. I try to compose my shot without the sun actually shining directly into the lens and then close my eyes when I actually press the shutter button the rest of the way and move my camera into position.
9. It will be impossible to review your shot in this bright environment. When in Review Mode, I press the Info button to see where the image is over-exposed apparent by the flashing areas on the screen. Make adjustments if required.
9. Use your lens hood. You will still be able to get this type of Star Burst Sun Flare with your lens hood on.
10. Memorable photography is all about capturing light in different ways to create a three-dimensional photo that is creative and fresh.

Next, I import all my photos into Lightroom and make the first adjustments there. For this image I used the Highlight Recovery slider and usually make white balance adjustments, too. That was all there was to do in Lightroom so I opened it in CS5 next. I created the first Levels adjustment layer to add more contrast to the sky and clouds, erasing back in the sunflower area. Then, I created another Levels adjustment layer to work on lightening the sunflower a bit, erasing back in the sky to maintain the brilliant blue.

I had a couple of spots that were evidently on my sensor so these were cloned out next. In CS5, the clone tool takes advantage of the new Content-Aware technology and if you go slow enough you will see great results.

As you can see in the Before Image, I had a little bit of lamp post on the top right of the image that I thought detracted from the balance. I like the three-points that take your eyes from the sun to the three light posts in the bottom left and then back to the sunflowers. The lamp post at the top right of the image detracts from that and lessens the impact of the sun and sunflower focal points.

The next step was to run one of my favorite Pioneer Woman actions from her first set (these are generously given away by Ree Drummond). The Pioneer Woman’s blog was the very first blog I became addicted to – ah, so many have since followed in her footsteps. However, hers is the most complete and funny blog you will come across and I highly recommend it.

Next I sharpened the image with the High Pass filter. These are the steps I used:
1. Duplicate the flattened layer.
2. Choose Filter…Other…High Pass
3. I usually choose a Radius of 10.0 and click OK
4. Change the Layer Blend Mode to Overlay
5. Adjust the Opacity as desired – usually to about 20%

My last step before I add a logo is to run Jodi’s High Definition Sharpening. Jodi runs MCP Actions and is another blog you should subscribe to if you want alot more PS tutorials. This action resizes to 900 pixels wide (perfect for this blog) and then does another sharpening step. Sometimes I decrease the opacity of this layer, too.

I’m sure this sounds like alot of steps to you but because they are mostly done with Photoshop actions it happens sort of magically right before your eyes! For this image I also used an action to round the corners of the images, added a texure layer and then filled a new background layer with black and added a white, beveled keyline stroke around each of the image layers.

Last, flattened everything and added my new logo designed by Danielle Zuberbuhler, a very creative and talented young graphic designer from my church. Voila!

At the end of last month, I was scheduled to do the kind of assignment I love! Antonia needed someone to photograph her family before they moved to the Netherlands for three years and to remember the beauty of her husband’s parents’ gardens. Their home was scheduled to be on the Gardens United 2010 Garden Walk in mid-July and all of their children and grandchildren would be there at one time. Their yard had something special and unique in every corner and even in a Secret Garden.

We started at 8:30 am to take advantage of the lower, directional light and to avoid the hottest time of the day. There was a misty fog dripping onto the plants and made this Lady’s Mantle look like crystals of sugar outlined the leaves.

It was a delight to observe the candid interactions between grandparents and grandchildren and between cousins.

The past week was everything an idyllic summer week should be. The first weekend was spent at Apple Canyon Lake with the whole family. We went out in shifts since there are too many of us to fit in our red boat. The lake gets pretty rough when there is so much boat traffic out there, but the big boys especially love being bounced around on the tube. Most of the time I was back on dry land relaxing with the rest of the group. We enjoyed brats cooked by the Scales Mound fire department and then stayed for the fireworks. It was a perfect day. We laughed so much and the five grand kids caught lightning bugs, played games, fished and just hung out together. It’s my favorite time of the whole year.

Before the rest of the family arrived, we enjoyed some 1:1 time with Kelby who was surprised with a go-cart from his Uncle Andy. Hopefully, he will be safe, but he does remind us of Andy at that age who started with a wooden go-cart that coasted down our street in Decorah and progressed to a motorized go-cart that he ran up and down the alley in Manchester. Next, came a moped that he hoped he would drive after we moved to Illinois but due to a later license age he sold it and bought a dirt bike which was perfect for our then-empty subdivision. Erin was swapped for Kelby on Thursday when Dawn and I met at this restaurant in Port Byron that’s right on the river. Usually, we meet in Cordova so the kids can play at the park there. It’s cool and shady and a welcome respite between turning around for the drive back to Freeport.

We usually find a movie that we are all dying to see but this time we had to create a movie matrix. Between the 13 of us we were interested in at least three different movies so we created a signup sheet to keep track of where everybody was going and what time they were going there. My group went to Karate Kid and we were enthralled. It’s a huge improvement over the old movie.

Molly’s family came back the next weekend to get in some extra lake time and we were so thrilled to see Jason get up on skis the very time he tried and to see Molly ski, as well. Considering what Molly has been through the last few years with her surgeries this is especially remarkable and wonderful for her Mom and Dad to see. The girls were scheduled to go to the Eclipse movie this time. The guys weren’t very pleased with it – in fact, Jason pronounced it the worse movie ever. Popular games for the week were: Mexican Train dominoes, Euchre, Monopoly Deal and Uno.

The weeks were super busy and now I’m returning to my outstanding photo orders. But I just loved going to Krape Park with the kids to run a remote control boat, watching them grow from year-to-year gauged by their size on the carousel, running round around on Kid’s Kastle and playing putt-putt golf. Oh, and their visit wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Union Dairy – lovely memories from the summer of 2010.

NIC TOOK THIS PHOTO

WHAT A POSE

MUST-HAVE Swords after THE KARATE KID MOVIE

PAIGE’s “Little Sally Walker” song

JASON and NIC – “Tube Me Gramps”

NmB Photography has a new senior rep for Freeport High School. Meet Taylor Taylor told me she has two loves: singing and the color purple. I think she already has a perfect stage name … Taylor Bloom. It’s such a pretty name. We had the opportunity to try different things and her mom and sister were great to have along on our little road trip through the park and around the country and city. Taylor will have referral cards soon to benefit FHS seniors. If you are looking for a photographer that works with you to create a session a little different, a little unique – just ask Taylor!

A nostalgic meander through northeast Iowa is my idea of a great road trip. The countryside is so lush, hilly and peaceful it almost feels like I’m in Ireland, the Smokey Mountains or northern Wisconsin. The farmland is not planted from road-to-road like it seems to be in Illinois but instead has graceful stands of timber and contour crop plantings.

When we drove down the very first gravel road that we lived on right out of college, we were kind of stunned at how really rural it is. Jim’s first job right after graduation from UNI in Cedar Falls was at the small school district of Elkader, IA, with the fifth grade located all by itself in a teeny, tiny town called Littleport that has since been taken away in a Turkey River flood. I didn’t see a single new house along the road that is 14 miles outside of Elkader, the county seat of Clayton County.

We had two little girls and only one car so most days the three of us were at home finding ways to amuse ourselves. The home was part of a group of three and also part of a large dairy operation. After applying fresh paint in fruity colors to every single room, we were just thrilled to have much more room than we had in married student housing in college. Jim and I did this work on the first warm, summer evenings with our lights beckoning the gnats to fly in and get stuck in our fresh paint. He came home from his summer job surveying new roads for the county, ate supper and then helped me paint.

Our time in Elkader, while short, seemed to have a big impact on our lives. There I learned to plant a vegetable garden, took a pottery class and became involved with the wonderful group that have kept the historic Opera House alive and beautiful. We learned how dairy farms operate and had four litters of little kitties (in just one year) to give away to Jim’s students.

Our road-trip plans included a stay at the Country Inn and Suites in Prairie du Chien but made a spontaneous switch when we came across the Landing, a newly-remodeled inn right on the Mississippi in historic Guttenberg. There we sat on the patio glider and watched orioles, a bald eagle, a river otter and a plethora of boats and barges coming through lock and dam number 10. It was infinitely more interesting than our first choice.

I added another sixteen miles last night to watch a frequently-changing sky. I knew I needed to be home by the end of the Blackhawks game, though. I’ve had my eye on these old trucks as we fly through Eleroy on hiway 20 and had a vision on how to use them to create an image. Unfortunately, I just don’t have access to any others. I try to take new roads while looking for these shots so I turned right on Salem Rd, north out of Eleroy. This road turns into something that almost parallels highway 20 and I’ve never been down it before. I discovered this beautiful little church with the steeple rising into the western sky and perched on the top is a lighted cross. So pretty! Then, across from the church is a cornfield, of course, but also one of those historic wood buildings with peeling paint that are becoming increasingly difficult to find. The windows aren’t all boarded up (frequently a disappointment with old buildings) and it appears to have the original paned windows AND doors – what a sweet surprise.

What I’ve done so far:
silhouettes
shadows
back-lighting
sunset
sun flare

What I want to do:
reflections
side lighting
metaphors
smiley faces?
I plan to be back out there searching for something new and fresh tonight after a couple nights of rain and mosquito spraying. I read this in a recent issue of Rangefinder magazine and I can affirm the points made:
…dispels the concept of artist-as-casual-wanderer who finds pictures. This is work. There is a structure. And making these pictures, hitting the street-discovering new neighborhoods, or revisiting old ones, is what this kind of fine art project is all about. You want to be an explorer going up river, he says. It’s just about you and this very stringent standard, which is, “You either nail it or you don’t. ” You don’t have much to fall back on except your wits, your cunning, your charm, your experience and the variety of responses you’ve developed over time. And for me, that’s so exciting….Tom Alleman

I took this one a little earlier than sunset so added a couple of texture layers to it. I’m intrigued by this rundown, turquoise house, though. Turquoise is definitely going to be included in my new logo and branding that is currently in the design stage by Danielle Zuberbuhler.

Had a really hard time making myself stay within my one-hour time limit tonight. Golden sun, 72 perfect degrees with both windows rolled down, driving back and forth on Lily Creek Road so I could get the Twins shot. Most of the rest of my 12 miles was spent on Van Brocklyn and Bolton. I think these are my favorites. Sunset tonight was at 8:31.

TWINS

OK – I’m a very bad blogger. I’m a pretty good micro-blogger but these days, I can’t seem to set aside the time for the real blog with the big and beautiful photos and the thoughtful writing. Anyway, here I am. I’ve started a sunset study and plan to carry it through the month of June. I just cannot imagine how these photographers do the 365 projects where they post images every single day for an entire year. I’m just not that disciplined but I can see how this will be a valuable learning experience. Plus, I’ll get out into the country during the most spectacular time of year when the days keep getting longer and the corn grows and it’s warm and just lovely. I’m not venturing any farther than a 10 minute radius from my home in Freeport and I won’t be gone for more that an hour. This is the hard part for me. Once I get going it’s hard for me to stop. This is true in photo sessions, as well. I’ve already discovered roads that I didn’t know existed with places like Pheasants Forever and the RC Modelers field that I had never driven by before.

Today the sunrise was at 5:24 and the sunset was at 8:30. Maybe in September I’ll do a sunrise study when it’s a little later – yeah, right!

Blackhawk War Monument & Cemetery near Kent – great, expansive view here

I’ve Been Waiting for the Perfect Sunset to Photograph these Mailboxes

Oh, how I love to photograph newborns and young babies. Despite the fact that they frequently don’t go how I plan, the images that result make me sigh: the toes and nails that aren’t completely formed, the puckered little mouth, the sleepy yawns (as I wear them out) and the unpredictable poops and pees that come along with trying to photograph a naked infant. Meet Myles, Hannah and Leo – quite new to this big world of ours.

I had to include this one, too, because I just love it so much. Right now Kelby is into Garfield, sharks and almost any other kind of fish. Kelby’s conversations recently centered around Bionicles and Pokeman cards so these topics are much more interesting.