iffles.com

January’s theme for the iffles.com Monthly Themes group on flickr was Textures and there were TONS of great submissions. I spent this past weekend looking through them all and wanted to take some time to share my favorites. This was SO HARD for me to do. I had to narrow down the list twice because I had way too many the first time. There were some amazing photos in the group – if yours didn’t make the list this time, keep posting – February’s theme is Shapes!

by Eva und Michael. What bright colors!

by team.breeze. Oooh, that red!

by ShellyS. I don't know what this is, but I really want to wrap myself up in it!

by evelynspikes. So many textures in one photo - the peeling paint, the bricks, the stones... yum!

by coraline97. If this is not the definition of texture, I don't know what is. I'd love to see an experiment using this as a texture on a photo

by Jon Game. The detail, the shallow DOF, and the amazing colors. Just fantastic.

by laura oliver1. Not only do I love the texture and DOF, it was really nice to see some green in with all the other winter photos :)

by jinspain2002. Ouch! :)

by Eva und Michael. I love that it's black and white and I love the grain in it

by hanamik. The texture on the ground is a great contrast to the cute shoes!

by mtbcat. I especially like how the lock itself looks brand new against the old, textured chain.

by mtbcat. The pop of yellow against that texture? Perfection.

by summer_daze. This texture is formed by sap leaking from the leg of their coffee table. How freakin' cool is that?

by Sarire. Not only do I love the texture, but look at the pops of blue and green there on the right! Nifty!

by Stephanie.Grace. This is one of my favorite colors at the moment, so I had to choose it!

by jafael. I love how the entire frame is filled with ouchies!

by thedigitaliris. Love the texture of the wood and screws and paint

by .:SindyHand:. I love everything about this photo - the composition, the DOF, the warm tones... and of course the texture!

by laura oliver1. This one took my breath away.

by dpksh. The peeling trees are just fantastic - especially against the pure white snow behind them.

by Tokyo Rhino. Do you know what that is in the foreground? It's the snout of a mom of that baby rhino. Awesome.

by Inspirophoto. Love the colors.

by BirdingRVer. Another texture that makes me say Ouch!

by GenBug. I'm a sucker for raindrops, and these are shaped so perfectly.

by bouncyczech. I love that this is something so recognizable, but not how we usually look at it.

by Rick Zawodny. So much texture!

by laura oliver1. Such great timing with the raindrops and the ripples make a great texture.

by jinspain2002. I have to admit, this photo didn't scream texture to me, but it was so incredibly beautiful I had to include it anyway.

by Grumpy Cake King. Not quite sure what it is, but I definitely love it.

by kkaldrich. This one actually made me chuckle when I first saw it :)

by shirley319. Beautiful.

by shannon.waller. It's like a tiny little dish of texture!

by melissac79. A beautiful (and cold!) texture.

Don’t forget – February’s theme is Shapes! So keep posting to the group!

This is about it as far as family portraits go in our house. He looks thrilled to be with me, doesn't he?

I’ve gone through the iffles.com monthly themes group on flickr and have picked out my favorites from January (which was hard – there were so many good ones!), and those should be posted tomorrow. February’s theme is shapes, interpret that however you like and submit them to the pool!

• Brian Cooney recently got a chance to photograph his first basketball game – his little brother’s. He was nice enough to write about his lessons learned.
• Have you ever wondered how three bananas can help improve your wildlife photography skills? Well. Wonder no more.
• I love bold colors, but they’re sometimes hard to capture in photography. Here are some tips to help you do just that.
• Tara Whitney is doing her own persnal project this year – trying to capture at least one family portrait each month, for one year.
• I’m sure you’ve heard how every time you open and resave a jpg file, you lose a bit of quality. To see that in action, check these out.
• Take a look at Epic Edit’s Introduction to Curves.

And now for more of YOUR links. I’m always willing to look at your photography-related blog – all you have to do is tell me in comment that you want me to, and I’ll link to it in the next Weekend Links entry!

• Josiah is also sharing his 365 photos on his blog (appropriately called A Photo a Day). My favorite of his recent photos is this one of a snowy tree-lined road. I like that he also talks about how he edited the photo.
• bumblebeezack recently started a photoblog with some great photos on it. My favorite appears to be of the underside of some bridges – impressive!
• Noreen has a photoblog, too! She’s going to try to complete all the DPS assignments this year, so be sure to follow her blog to see her submissions. In the mean time, check out 3 different angles of a famous Seattle landmark
• Ashlie is posting a photo a day (not necessarily one she took herself, but just anything that inspires her) and writing 1000 words to go along with it, which I think is a really cool idea. Check out the first post.

I make a lot of duplicate layers in Gimp. I’ve mentioned before that I like to do this because of always being able to get back to my original pretty easily, but I also do it because messing around with just one or two things on that duplicate layer can have some pretty dramatic effects on your photos.

Like what, you ask? Let me show you!

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This photo doesn't have much to do with this article, but I edited it while writing, so I thought I'd include it

I know I owe you guys another gimp editing tutorial – and I’m in the middle of working on one that was specifically asked for – but when I was working on it last week, Gimp crashed on me (for only the second time ever), which annoyed me enough to stop working on it that night. And then I got sick over the weekend and didn’t do much of anything.

Since I’m still feeling a bit under the weather, I’m going to write something that’s a bit easier than the Gimp tutorial so I can go back to making sure the sofa stays put.

As you know, I use only free software to edit all my photos, and one step in my workflow is Picasa. I’ve touched on this before – though that was more of a complete start-to-finish of my photo storing and organizing process. Today I’m going to talk specifically about the features I use in Picasa – some of which are new since that article anyway.

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A photo from my 366 project in 2008 - f/5.6; 0.3 sec; 24mm; ISO 400

First of all, as a reminder, today is the last day of January – which means the Textures theme is almost over for the monthly themes group. Because I know not everyone is able to take, edit and post photos all on the same day, I’m giving you a week to get all your texture photos submitted before posting my favorites in an entry here.

Meanwhile – get ready for February’s theme – Shapes! My idea here was to look for geometric shapes – I know that’s a broad topic, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how creative we can all get here.

And now, the stuff I’ve been reading this week:

• I know a lot of you are doing 365 projects this year – here’s 11 tips to keep you going!
• You also might find this list of how to be inspired every day helpful.
• As you’re doing those 365 projects, you might sometimes have to make a difficult decision about what photo will be your photo of the day, here’s a cute way to decide.
• Here’s 27 resources on the internet that you might be interested in as a photographer
• Here’s an interesting way of helping you learn to frame your photos better when composing a shot.
• Looking at lenses or cameras with Image Stabilization? Check out the hows, whys, and what to watch out for.
• Over at Epic Edits, people often ask questions, and here are some answers.
• Rick is going through the Strobist 102 series, and he’s sharing what he learns as he goes. Check out his first entry.
• I’ve read a few articles on how to shoot the moon, but this one is the most simple straight-forward one I’ve read!
• Ronan Palliser recently did a presentation on Photography and the Web, and he was nice enough to include all the links he talked about on his blog

And now some more of YOUR links:

• I don’t know how Grumpy Cake King got that nickname, but it’s got a nice ring to it. Oh, and if you’d like to do some selective color shots in CS4, check out this entry – pretty impressive sample photo, too!
• James just started a photography blog and I’m loving a lot of his shots, but my favorite is one of the sun shining through some tree braches. There’s something about the shapes of bare trees that I just love.
• domesticexecutive just started a Daily Snaps blog and I just love this photo of golden grass and summer skies – can’t wait to see more daily snaps!
• Guess what? Lindley got her photoblog up and running! And all the ice around her made for a great early entry!
• Over at jan.etc, she’s starting a 334 daily photo challenge – she missed January, so she’s just staring February 1 and going for 11 months (maybe if we all leave her encouraging comments she’ll do an extra month and end on January 31, 2011 for a full 365 days!). Before she starts, check out some recent photos she took on the street

f/4.0 (gah! shoulda been at least f/8), 1/160sec, 14mm, ISO 200

I’m about to get a bunch of my photos printed and framed from my 52 Photowalk project last year (including the one you see above), and I thought this would be a good time to discuss why I think this is such an important thing to do.

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f/5.6, 1/15 sec, ISO 800

• I know a lot of you have your own blogs, so these 5 reasons to smile when you get a negative blog comment might be helpful. Ya know, instead of reacting how I am in that photo above. Even if you don’t have your own blog, I think the article applies to comments on your photos, too. (link via @photonaturalist)
• Photodoto recently posted about auto exposure bracketing – including what it is, why you should do it, and how.
• One of the debates that you hear a lot in the photography world (and one I’ve struggled with internally sometimes, too) is whether or not editing a photo is “cheating”. Smash and Peas gives their input (check out the comments for even more insight into the debate)
• Just got a DSLR? Here’s 5 affordable pieces of kit to up your game – I have 3 out of the 5 of these (and a fourth in the mail on the way to me right now) – and don’t know how I’d live without them!
• Back to Smash and Peas, here’s a great refresher course on some rules of composition
• You guys know I shoot in RAW, but sometimes RAW is not enough!

I’m still getting more comments with links to your sites, and loving it, so feel free to let me know what your site is if you haven’t yet. Here’s the latest batch:

• notesonphotography.com is full of helpful articles and tips – like this guide to panning.
• Lindley has not yet started an actual photoblog, but Jackson Family Adventures is still full of great daily-life stories – complete with photos, of course! Be sure to let me know when you get that photoblog up and running, Lindley!
• Daisy’s blog is full of daily photos and photowalks, all of which are great, but my favorite is this cloudy sunrise photowalk – the snow, the clouds, the trees! Just beautiful!
• In another not-exactly-a-photoblog link, we have Anna’s Blondie’s Cakes and Things blog – and the way she described it in her comment made me chuckle: “Right now it’s more of a foodie blog, but now that I’m on a diet (let’s see how long it lasts) it will definitely be more photography slanted since I’m always trying to improve on that.” I must admit, I got a bit hungry scrolling through some of the older entries – with great photos, too!
• Lauren has both a photoblog (with photos like these Christmas photos of her family), and also a personal blog
• I got inspired by day 4 – not only because I like the photo, but because it includes some reflections on the project and why she’s doing it.

I talked a while ago about converting images to black and white in The Gimp, but that was before I had installed the FX Foundry scripts (see instructions here if you don’t have them yet), and since getting the scripts, I have found an even better way to convert my images to black and white using the Lasm’s Channel Extract in FX Foundry.

First, here is my color image of my adorable niece. This isn’t unedited, but I edited it back in October, and that was before I was taking great notes about my editing, so I really couldn’t tell you what I did:

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 400 (no idea why? It seems it could go lower), 50mm

Now, let’s use the Lasm’s Channel Extract to turn this into a beautiful black and white portrait.

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f/10, 1/30 sec, 105mm, ISO200

I’m sorry for the late posting here – this list of links took me longer to get together than I anticipated. I’m including the above photo because one of the links below talks about taking photos in the snow, and another is a photo of a wall, so I figured, hey – a photo of a wall with snow on it would be appropriate, right?

• Sometimes it’s hard to know if you should shoot in manual or one of the auto exposure modes on your camera – here’s a few tips on how to decide.
• Here are 15 quick tips from photography pros
• I know I’ve talked before about how I shoot in RAW, but I still haven’t written about the RAW editor I use. Well, luckily, DPS talked about UFRaw this week, which is exactly what I use!
• I told you I’m reading you guys! And I thought Shotslot wrote a great entry about 12 tips about where to start when you first get a DLSR.
• Wondering how to get a great photo while out on the streets? Check out this Studio in the street article from the Photo Traveler blog
• There’s been a lot of snow around here lately – and I think I’ve posted about tips for shooting in the snow before, but in case I haven’t, or if you need a little refresher, check out Ronan Palliser’s tips

In addition to my regular weekend links, I wanted to send a shout-out to a few blogs that missed last week’s list of YOUR blogs:

• Shelly has a photoblog with this nice red photo on it. Btw, her main blog is here!
• I love the name of David’s blog (I Went Walking)! He recently got a chance to do his first professional photography shoot, of a Bollywood group – I think he got some really good photos!
• Jesse has a photography blog and recently post some really pretty flower photos – I especially like the black and white one.
• Hana recently went a little photowalk. Not only did she get some great photos – but she had darn cute shoes, too!
• Heather is about to start a 52 project – I can’t wait to see the results! Until then, check out this adorable photo!
• John is doing a 52 Photowalks project (yay!), and I love his third photowalk. I wish there was stuff like that around me. Not too many pretty beaches in Ohio…
• BirdingRVers is a travel blog that also has a lot of photos on it. I like posts like this one on North Palm Springs has both a description of where they are, and lots of photos of the area.
• One thing I really love about summerdaze77’s site is the great descriptions not only of what the photo is, but of how it was edited. I’ve really been into photos of walls lately (is that weird?), so I loved this post.
• Katie recently shared some photos from her Momentile account – something I’ve never heard of! Not only did I like the photos, but she also brought up something I debated about when I was doing my 366 Project back in 2008 – do you post a photo that’s your best? Or do you post a photo that represents you day the best?
• SexyNinjaMonkey posts a lot of photos – but not a lot of words, which really makes the photos stand out. Some entries have multiple photos, but some entries, like this one has just one.
• jodeleeuw is doing a 365 project and I love this photo of a robot seeking answers – not only is a cool idea but the lighting is great.
• Apparently I skipped over Katrina in the last entry! I know I went to her blog, so I’m not sure what happened! I probably just got distracted with all there is to offer that I forgot all about picking a favorite to link to. Seriously – not only does Katrina post her daily photos, but she also writes about how to take and edit photos – including her own ebook called Get Me Off Of Auto. My favorite recent post of hers, though, is one about getting a do-over when you missed the perfect opportunity for a photo – she ended up with such a cute photo, didn’t she?
• Brian just started a blog (seriously. 3 posts total!), but he’s off to a great start – check out this post where he talks about how he set everything up in a hotel room in order to get a self portrait with light so great, he didn’t even have to edit the photo!
• I know I said I was going to pick my favorite posts from blogs, but I really like the photos on David’s home page – the gray skies and fall leaves especially

And, in not-exactly-photo-blog news:

• Shauna’s blog isn’t about photography, but instead about being short and fat
• Y.Mel recently got a flickr account

It’s winter around here, which has made me start thumbing through some of my old photos for two reasons: 1) It’s too cold and/or dark to go out shooting on most days and 2) It’s refreshing to see a bit more color in my photos than the stuff I’m getting when I do go outside.

I thought this would be a great opportunity to re-edit an old photo and just share with you the entire process I’m going through. I’ve been really into using scripts lately, and I felt it was time to play around without a script and see where it gets me. Here is my unedited photo – just converted from RAW (note: I always boost saturation just a bit when I convert from RAW):

f/3.5, 1/160sec, 10mm, ISO 200

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