Christmas 2011 Wish List

I have been getting a lot of questions from people as to what to get me and/or Dave for Christmas. So like last year, I decided the best thing to do is to make a wish list.

Dave’s Wish List:
The Book of Cain
Diablo Archive
Archer TV series (Season 1, 2 and/or 3)
Bob’s Burgers TV Series
Movies: Bon Cop bad Cop, Hanna
Sin War Trilogy eBooks (Google eBooks; #1, #2, #3)
Gift Cards: Google eBooks, EB Games, Future Shop, Amazon, etc.

Steph’s Wish List:
Once again, I have broken it down into Camera and non-Camera related items.

Camera Wish List:
4’ wide white paper background;
8’ wide white, black or grey paper backgrounds
~4’x6’ piece of high quality black velour fabric
Bowen's softboxes
Radio trigger system (compatible with Bowen's 400 lights & Nikon D3s camera)
Bowen's battery pack
AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II Lens
AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 G ED Lens
AF-S VR Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED Lens
AF Fisheye-Nikkor 16mm f/2.8D Lens
Photo paper (Epson Premium Photo Paper [4+ stars], 8 1/2"x11")
Computer ink (for the Epson Artisan 800 all-in-one printer - code 98)
small white/gold reflector (maximum 10" or so but folds smaller - example).
Photo Books (Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: The Ultimate Workshop, HDR Photography Photo Workshop, Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers; A Professional image editor’s guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC, Photo Recipes Live: Behind the Scenes: Your Guide to Today’s Most Popular Lighting Techniques)
Variable Neutral Density Filter, 77mm
Lens Cap Strap Holder, 77mm
Handy-Dandy Camera Strap

Everything Else Wishlist:
gift cards (Ricki's, Henry's, thecamerastore.com, Amazon, Lululemon, Photojojo)
picture frames (8x10 or larger, compilation frames);
Movies (Gnomeo and Juliet, Winnie-the-Pooh Movie, The Little Mermaid, Life After People, Sandra Bullock/Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts/Drew Barrymore movies)
TV Series (Being Erica, Powerpuff Girls, Beverly Hills 90210, Charmed)
National Geographic Magazine Slipcases for Years 2008 onwards
Nikon Lens Mug
Time Lapse Camera
OPI Nail Polish (you can find a list of colours I already have here. There aren’t many specific colours I want, but I would like the Natural Nail Strengthener, Any colour of Shatter, A bright orange colour, pastel pink, traditional bright red, pastel green, a plain white, a light grey colour, a taupe like colour, a true black colour, anything from the Femme de Cirque Line)
OPI nail polish case like the one below:

For any of the books, movies or TV series listed in my list above, you can find them in my Amazon Wish List.

My list seems (and is) much longer than Dave’s but once you widdle out the thing that people are not going to buy me (like the very expensive camera lenses and lighting equipment), it isn’t that big.

How-To Tuesday: Colour Calibration

This month’s How-To Tuesday is on Calibrating your computer monitor. First things first, if you are running on a newer Mac System, you won’t need this as it more or less does it itself.
I am going to show you two ways that I am able to colour calibrate my monitor, however, both methods requiring either specific software or hardware.
The first way is through Adobe Photoshop. If you have Photoshop CS3 or older then there will be a program called Adobe Gamma that does a subjective colour calibration for you. Adobe Gamma is a little hidden in CS3 so here is a YouTube video that really nicely shows you how to find and use the program:

Using Adobe Gamma in CS3

The other way I calibrate my monitor is through a piece of hardware called Spyder3Pro. Essentially you place this device on your monitor and run the program. It senses the lighting in the room and by displaying certain colours on your monitor can set a calibration to get the truest colours possible. It is made by Datacolor and is a little on the expensive side, mind you it is still cheaper than Photoshop.
You may be asking yourself, why does colour calibration even matter? Well, if you are into photo editing or photo manipulation, then you will want to ensure that the colours you are seeing on your monitor will be what others see and more importantly what will come out of the printer once you want a hardcopy – colour calibration can do this for you. I have found that my calibrating my monitor, I have to do a lot less work when I want to print.

Guest Post XVII

The final guest post is up today. Not a very long post – in fact it is really just an altered photo to interpret Chris’ trip to Iceland. Check it out.

Finally a Header

The Great Abyss finally has a header! This also means that there is no longer an “Under Construction” sign above my posts.
The header was made by me with the use of Photoshop Art History brush. It is a little tricky to use sometimes, but I think this came out pretty good considering this is really only my second time using the technique.

How to Tuesday: Open JPEG as Raw in Photoshop CS3

Since I started taking RAW files with my camera I have learned just how powerful the Photoshop RAW dialog box is. It is a wonderful tool for getting your photos to look really great – and to fix up any little mistakes you might have made while taking the photo originally.
My point and shoot camera that goes pretty much everywhere with me,  however, only takes JPEGs and I am therefore not able to make the changes I feel are necessary. The changes are even more necessary considering the almost complete lack of control I have on most of the settings.
Recently I discovered a way to open JPEGs in Photoshop’s RAW box and feel I should share that here with you.
First things first, open Photoshop. Then once that is done, go to File and then Open As. 

Then select Camera Raw in the drop down box labelled Open As.Now hit Open and you are ready to edit it as you would a regular RAW image.

Reformatting

Dave reformatted my laptop about a week ago and I am still dealing with the complications. Don't get me wrong, the reformat was exactly what this thing needed and I am very appreciative for the time and effort he put towards fixing my poor little laptop, but boy is it ever annoying to have to start from scratch on a machine I had set up just how I liked it. Reinstalling programs and downloading patches for games and software is very time consuming when I am already low on time. But, the reformat enabled me to get Photoshop CS3 reinstalled on my laptop and even got rid of all the viruses that were plaguing this thing. My laptop no longer asks me an invisible question every time I turn it on, and it of course turns on so much faster than it used to. I am thinking a regular reformat isn't necessarily a bad idea, once you get used to having to set it all back up that is - perhaps doing it in a less busy time of the year would be a better idea next time.

Working without a Header

So as you can tell, the only blog of the three that I run to have a header is my Photography one. As I lost Photoshop a little while ago, I have been unable to create (or finish creating) the headers for this blog and my weight loss blog. I had a grand idea for the weight loss blog and was just about to start it when I lost Photoshop. I had been working on a header for this blog, and had some prototypes, but nothing I really loved. So, unfortunately these blogs will be running without a header for a little while yet as Dave and I try to trick my computer into letting me install Photoshop again. Not having access to it is really hindering my creative process; however, I have reinstalled Lightroom 3 (the Beta version is available for free from Adobe) and am able to complete basic alterations and edits to my photos.

How-To Tuesday: Make a Basic Collage in Photoshop

Chris asks me How to Make a Collage in Photoshop on a semi-regular basis, and though she wrote it down last time I told her, which was a while ago now, I figured I would post it here for anyone else who might be interested.
Step 1. Decide if you want a basic coloured background (1a) or a picture as your background (1b).
1a. Coloured Background
If you want a coloured background you can do one two things (i and ii):
i. After opening Photoshop, create a new image. Input the dimensions you want the final collage to be (the size of one of your photos might be a good place to start) and select the background colour desired, see below. Hit OK. You now have a blank canvas to start with. Proceed to Step 2.

ii. Another way to do this is to open any image in Photoshop. Then hit CTRL and the A key to select everything in the image. With the selection tool active (this may be the rectangular, elliptical, single row or single column marquee tool), right click the image and select Layer Via Cut, see below. You now have Layer 1 as the original photo and the background layer as a blank colour, see below (whatever your background colour was at the time). Proceed to Step 2.1b. If you would rather have an image as your background, open the image in Photoshop and then proceed to Step 2.

If you decided to use Either Step 1.a.ii or Steb 1.b then save your collage file with a new filename now as to not alter the original file used. You will likely have to save it as a Photoshop file (see end of post for description and helpful images).

Step 2. Start placing your collage images.
Open the image you want to place into your collage, make sure to keep your collage file open. Either hit CTRL and the A key to select the entire image, or using the selection tool, select only the part of the image you want in your collage. Hit CTRL and the C key to copy the selection then go back the collage file and hit CTRL and the V key to paste the image into the file. It will come in as a new layer, see below. You can move each layer around by selecting it (the currently selected layer is highlighted blue - layer 1 is selected above) and using the Move Tool, see below. You can resize the image by transforming hit, hitting CTRL and the T key will allow you to do this. Once you have resized it how you would like it, press Enter to accept the transformation. Proceed to Step 3.

Step 3. Adding the remaining images.
Repeat Step 2 with each image you want to use in your collage. Make sure to exit each photo after you are done copying them into your collage to keep your computer running efficiently. Also, remember not to save any changes made to the photos that might have been made in the process. Proceed to Step 4.

Step 4. Saving the collage.
When you save the image you get the option of what file you would like to save it as. If you intend on continuing work on the collage, you should save it first as a Photoshop file, see below. This will save all the layers and any other techniques you have used so that you can alter them later on.Once you want the image to be used in other programs, save it as a JPEG image, see below.

General Notes
Save your collage file on a regular basis to ensure you don't lose it at any time during the process.

Techno-Drama

About two weeks ago I downloaded Lightroom 3 Beta from the Adobe website. Normally this wouldn't cause people any problems whatsoever, but considering that I had not so legal software on my computer, it caused havoc to my system when I decided to uninstall the program a few days ago. When I attempted to complete my assignment on Friday, I learned that I no longer had any access to Photoshop or any other Adobe program. Not a problem, that is why I have a backup computer right - WRONG!
Upon turning on the backup computer, it froze and Dave had to restart it. It now just beeps when you attempt to turn it on. No screen to inform us of an error - just the tower itself beeping away - like it is mocking me. So no backup computer. We tried to install the software again and again (differently each time of course) and failed every time. Eventually we decided Dave's crappy computer was going to have to take the hit and get over 7GB worth of software installed on it so I could finish my assignment on time.
A few hours later, the assignment was completed (after realizing that Dave's monitor is not colour corrected and having to do it twice as the first round was so weak I couldn't bare to submit it). I submitted the not so great assignment with no signatures on it as my brush files are all on this computer - and quite possibly deleted.
The stress levels of the day resulted in me working out a lot with the Wii Fit Plus to counteract the copious amounts of chocolate covered almonds I ate.

Flickr

I created a Flickr account the other day and have since started uploading some of my images to it. I think this will be the best way for me to share larger numbers of photos at one time (eg. Holiday photos of family and friends). I will let you know when I post a large group of photos there both here and on my photography blog, for those of you who only visit one but might still be interested. They are of course, edited to some degree as well as signed and resized. If you are ever interested in any of my photos, just let me know and I will gladly discuss whatever it is you want to discuss.

Fall Foliage

As Dave and I are driving around the neighbourhood I keep thinking how pretty the trees are and how I wish I could remember to bring my camera along with me when we are going to our normal, everyday places. Now I might just try putting the summer photos I have taken into Photoshop, masking the leaves and changing the saturation levels. Thanks XKCD.

Comic from XKCD.

Art Institute of Chicago

The Art Institute of Chicago is absolutely enormous and has some stunning works of art. Some of its more notable pieces include Van Gogh's Self Portrait, Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day and Grant Wood's American Gothic. I did my best to see as many of the notable pieces during the 3 hours of free admission on Thursday evenings, but the place is huge and it seems impossible to get everything in on even a month worth of free nights than on the one that I had to spend there.The exterior of the building is just as breathtaking though. I passed by it several times as I walked around Michigan Avenue and each time I had to stop to take it in.
The Grand Staircase was the first place that I got lost. I guess I misunderstood the layout of the building and I ended up walking around them at least twice before I realized where I was and where the areas I wanted to visit were. I wish I could have spent more time there and been able to take things in better.
Those of you who know me, know how much I love Impressionist art - Monet in particular, so that of course was the first place I tried to get to. I walked slowly through the Renoir room, the Van Gogh room and the various artist room (including Edgar Degas) and then got to a room that made me want to cry - The Monet room. Not only did this collection have the Water Lilies, but it had not one, not two but six haystack paintings. These paintings were created by Monet in the Autumn and Spring of 1890. There are 25 of these paintings and this is the largest number of them I have ever seen at once. As simple as these paintings are, they are my favourite impressionist paintings. One on its own is good but multiple paintings arranged together is so beyond words beautiful.

Beauty

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye." - Miss Piggy.

Beauty is an odd thing when you think about it. Many years ago women of larger size would have been a man's number one choice when it came to marriage. They were beautiful. Then came the corset, which in my opinion, was one of the first main contributors to today's body image problems. I am sure everyone who knows me knows how much I detest the way women are portrayed in the media today - what with all the retouching and editing, it is simply disgusting. It is hard enough trying to live up to the standards of beautiful women strolling the streets, but to now have to live up to completely edited and retouched ones on the magazine covers makes things so much worse. Even the stars portrayed on the covers can't do it.

Kelly Clarkson appears on the September cover of Self Magazine a significantly slimmer version of herself, see image on left. She has fought with her weight in the past and even within the pages of this magazine, she declares that she has come to terms with her weight and likes her curvy-self, see image on right. This photo had created an uproar and was even on Canada AM this morning. Lucy Danziger editor-in-chief for the Magazine said “Kelly Clarkson displays self-confidence, and she is a role model for today’s women, regardless of their sizes and ethnicity. Kelly Clarkson is a strong and healthy woman and is working out regularly, and all our magazine did is to display that confidence, self esteem and beauty. We love this cover and we love Kelly Clarkson.”. Now, even the critics are saying that magazines such as this one aren't really photo-journalism but really just images used to sell their magazines and therefore lean more towards creative art, I still don't think there should be a highly edited photo on the magazine cover when inside that same person is quoted saying things like "When people talk about [it], I’m like, ‘You seem to have a problem’ — I don’t, I’m fine!’ ” the pop star says of her larger size. “I’ve never felt uncomfortable on a red carpet or anything.”. If this is the article you wish to write and have in your magazine, then the images shown about it, should portray the same message.

Those who know me, know I have a weight problem. I will be the first to admit that I am overweight and need to do something about it. But unlike others, I am trying to do something about it and I believe I am going about it in a healthy and mature way. There are no diet pills involved and no unrealistic goals to achieve. I am not saying I am perfect in my weight loss, trust me I am far from it, but I am doing the best I can while still enjoying myself along the way. But to be honest, images of 'perfect' women do not help me. I get frustrated and angry that I cannot look like them and I am a 25-year old woman who knows a great deal about Photoshop. Think about those 13-year old girls who might actually think that these women look like this, or at least close to it. The expert on Canada AM this morning said that eating disorders are the third most prevalent disease in teenage girls, which worries me greatly. I personally have never had an eating disorder (I love eating food too much to be anorexic and hate throwing up so much that being bulimic never really crossed my mind), but have known girls who fought these issues and the hardships they went through to overcome them.

I realize that my blog and those of other angered people out there aren't going to stop the extensive editing done today. And in all reality, it may never end. Technology is so great, and you can make the people look so wonderful, why would it stop? Companies can make so much money selling magazines with stellar people on the covers and then have weight loss ads within, why would these money hungry people want to discontinue their outlandish incomes? But I can do something about it in my own photography. Since I started I have never edited someone to be a smaller size than they were and I like to think I will never be swayed to do it. In classes we have learned how to decrease one's age or figure and I have learned that these are things I do not want to do. I believe there are better ways to capture and portray a persons'best-self. At most change lighting or angles, at least then you are still capturing that person as they are and not how you or someone else wants them to be. Go ahead and get rid of that pimple, it is not a permanent feature of anyone, but leave most everything else.

Leftovers de Montreal

This is just a couple additional Montreal items that aren't really enough for individual posts.

Dave and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express on Renee-Levesque Blvd. It is right near China town but also right near some sketchy alleyways, which made for an odd dynamic. The Hotel itself was really nice. It was super clean and the people were really nice. Like most Holiday Inns, it had free hot breakfast in the morning which usually consisted of eggs, cinnamon buns, some sort of meat (it changed depending on the day) and then the typical breads, waffles, yogurts and cereals. There was also free coffee, and other hot beverages, available throughout the day. I booked our room not really knowing what I was getting, or what I was doing. I just picked the lowest price for a queen bed. In the end we got a really nice room. It had a little kitchenette in it which was really convenient since I ended up making us a microwave lasagna our first night and we were able to buy some fruit and water and keep it in the fridge. The bed was comfy and the TV had cable which was a nice treat for Dave and I. The view wasn't anything spectacular but it was nice, and the fact that we had an actual full door (though no terrace) was rather nice. All in all, it was a nice hotel and I would go there again. Though the valet parking was a little annoying as once we parked the car it was a little annoying to get it back shortly thereafter, though the attendants didn't make it seem like one.
A big feature of the Montreal skyline (well part of it) is Parc Olympique and the tower therein. You can go up the Tower and see the city from above, which would have been really nice, but when we first got there the sky was not nice and later on we were tired and didn't really want to go up. I think there is also some sort of museum at the base of the tower, but I am not sure as we didn't go in. I was able to take a bunch of photographs of the tower from both near the base and from the Botanical Gardens as well. I enjoyed that part for sure. We did however notice that the tower could do with some repairs. A few of the side panels had fallen off and/or were very damaged. It could also do with a fresh coat of paint, but I guess Montreal Tourism money goes elsewhere.
Montreal was great, and we will definitely be going back again - though we may use the transit to get around next time (at least on weekend nights) as the traffic was crazy!

Haiku #2 - Photoshop

Really great image,
Put in some time and effort,
Made even better.

Epson Artisan 800

Sunday afternoon I set out to get a new scanner - one with the capability of scanning in photographs at different resolutions and sizes than the original image (ie. enlarging the image through the scanner itself rather than through post-processing programs). Originally I was thinking about $100 on a scanner - just a scanner, not a combo printer or anything like that. I had done some research and learned that I was really interested in getting and Epson scanner. They are used by most professional photographers and have the software that would enable me to do what I wanted and so much more. Dave and I ventured out to do some shopping and neither Future Shop (and therefore Best Buy) nor Staples had any Epson scanners. BUT while we were at Staples, we saw the Epson Artisan 800 printer. It is a pretty expensive machine - it is a fax machine, copier, printer, scanner and photo printer. It pretty much does everything. It has 6 ink cartridges (black, yellow, light cyan, cyan, magenta and dark magenta) and two paper trays (this enables you to always have photo paper and regular paper in the machine and therefore you don't have to switch back and forth as much). I was really interested in the machine and went home and did some more research.
I learned through the fabulous Internet about its pros and cons and read a couple reviews from both companies and customers. The cons of the machine mostly had to do with copying and regular printing and it is expensive to use a regular printer and apparently the copying is a little blurry. Neither of these things matter to me as I do not intend on using it for regular printing or copying documents. I was happy with what I read and since I have been wanting a photo printer for a year or so now I figured I might as well got a machine that can act as a scanner and a photo printer since it does both very well.
We went back to Staples and purchased the machine. I then spent the next 2 hours getting it setup. It took so long due to the fact that I wanted to set it up through the wireless network as the primary computer in the house is a laptop which is almost never connected directly to the network via actual cords. It is pretty awesome that I can be on the main floor and yet still able to scan or print documents to the printer up in the office.
Anyway, I have scanned some photographs already (for the photo restoration assignment I have in my Photoshop course) and am very happy with the resulting images. I will have to wait until I have more time on my hands until I can test drive the photo printing abilities but I am excited about it to say the least.

Opinions Needed

I desperately need help selecting a logo/signature combination and would greatly appreciate it if everyone would leave comments as to which one they prefer (please visit this post ). Thank you so much (in advance).

Happy Holidays

Wishing everyone the best this holiday season.

Upgrade II

The laptop is here and I have it running...it just isn't connected to the itnernet at work or the wireless at home. I didn't have much time last night to work on it so it really isn't running any of my necessary software as of yet - but it will. I have Photoshop going on it now and eventually I will have everything I need to be running my super-duper portable, creative unit. I am so excited about the potential...there is just so much.