Gear Does(n't) Matter

This is something that everyone in the photography world hears constantly. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. To me it seems more like an inhibitor than a helpful phrase. Obviously you need to understand the basics before you can consistently create compelling images, and that is more than likely why people started saying it, but I think that most people don't really think about it before they say it.

The situation that brings me to this topic is photographing softball. I've photographed several games, but my photos are consistently below my own standards. Upon analyzing this situation, there is one thing that stands out that really does matter. Gear.

A couple of posts back I talked about my situation with photographing softball. The games usually take place late in the evening or at night when the lighting is less than ideal. This is where the gear comes into play. To faithfully shoot these types of situations with low light, fast moving subjects, and a decent distance between you and the subject you need equipment with high ISO handling, a long focal length, and fast aperture.

It's during these types of situations when hearing "gear doesn't matter" is discouraging. It makes a person think that the reason they can't get a good photo at an event is because they are bad photographers, which is certainly not (always) the case.

Now I should state that I'm not trying to give excuses for buying the "best" simply because you want it. I'm just saying that there are certain situations where gear does matter to an extent. I also feel that beginners should not simply buy more and more gear thinking it will make them better. Learn the basics. Learn what you like. Then buy gear that suits what you need it for.

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

For those of you who don't know, I am a bit of a beer freak. I love trying new beers, especially unique and unusual recipes. Last week I ordered a bottle of Rogue Ale's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. Rogue and Voodoo Doughnut, a Portland based doughnut bakery, teamed up to make a beer that is supposed to taste just like the doughnut it is named after. The beer arrived today, but I'm saving it for the weekend. It should be interesting to say the least.

Where does photography come into this? Well, I decided to try my hand at product photography with this unique bottle. I wanted the background to be completely black so I set up a backdrop of black felt. I placed the bottle on black glass to keep the black theme but also to show a reflection. I used a two point lighting set up. This was my first time trying anything like this so it took me several shots to get the lighting decent. A diagram of the final set up can be seen here. It's not exact, but you can get the general idea.

Here is the final result:

Moon 2 and an Update

A few days ago there was a full moon and clear skies. I decided to take another moon shot with my new Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM. Shot at 400mm with an aperture of f/11. Here it is:

I adjusted the contrast and used a high pass filter with a hard light blending mode to bring out the details.

My last full moon shoot can be seen here.

On another note, it's been a while since I last posted (over three months, where'd the time go?) During that time I acquired the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM mentioned above and have primarily been shooting softball with it. I'm still building up my chops when it comes to shooting sports, so I haven't gotten many good photos (decent even), but so goes the learning process. The hardest part about shooting softball is that the games usually take place late in the evening or at night which, even with the stadium lights, gives me less than ideal light to work with. Also, the Rebel T3 that I use does not handle higher ISOs very well so most of my pictures turn out fairly grainy on top of being blurry.

Anyway, here are some other photos that I have taken since my last update:














The rest of my photography can be seen on my Flickr. Feel free to comment and critique.

Tokina AT-X M35 Pro DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro

For this past holidaymas I obtained a Tokina AT-X M35 Pro DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro lens. I had a long post written out about it, but I guess I wasn't supposed to post it because I lost the whole thing when I went to save it. So rather than re-type it I'll give you the condensed version. And yes, I know it was stupid not to save incrementally :).

Since I have limited experience with lenses I'm going to share what I have observed from using this lens this past week compared the kit lenses I have been using.

So the quick and dirty. The lens is very sharp compared to the kit lenses. It can focus extremely close, so much so that you have to be careful of lens shadow when shooting at or close to 1:1. It's not good for bugs or anything else that is skittish, since they tend to not let you get that close to them, but great for everything else. The autofocus can be excruciatingly slow once you get close to the range of macro.

Now on to the photos. I took all of these photos this past week using the  Tokina AT-X M35 Pro DX 35mm f/2.8 Macro.










These are just a few, there are more on my Flickr. Please feel free to comment, question, and critique, I always look forward to hearing others' opinions on my work.

Photoshop Black and White Adjustment Layers

There are many ways to make a black and white image in Photoshop. You can convert to image to grayscale, add a gradient map, set the saturation to -100, or add a black and white adjustment. The black and white adjustment is my favorite way of making an image black and white. I feel that it gives the most creative control of the image.

You can use the black and white adjustment directly on the image layer by going to Image > Adjustments > Black & White (or alt + shift + ctrl + B) or you can make an adjustment layer by going to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Black & White. Both will allow you to change how black or white each primary color (reds, yellows, greens, cyans, blues, magentas) appears in the image and add a tint to make the image duotone. If you use the black and white adjustment directly on the image layer that's all you get. Once you hit "OK" you have to undo it and reapply the adjustment. By using an adjustment layer you can alleviate this issue.

When you create a black and white adjustment layer it will add a new layer with a layer mask on it. Having this extra layer opens up several opportunities that you can't get by using a direct image adjustment. You can now come back to the layer and adjust the color sliders and tint as often as you want. You can also create a clipping mask, use blend modes, or create a gradient on the layer.

Here are a few images that I have created using black and white adjustment layers:


For this image I used the blending mode Darker Color. When using this blend mode, adjusting the color sliders determines what colors come through and what colors are grayscale, as well as how dark the grayscale versions of those colors are.


This one was created by using a radial gradient that becomes transparent in the center on the black and white adjustment layer. You can make this by using the Gradient Tool (or hitting G) and selecting Radial Gradient. Note that the gradient needs to be black to white for this to work. The black areas will be the transparent portion of the gradient and the white will look normal.


This one was created by using a clipping mask and the Darker Color blending mode. I cut the car out of the image, used it as a clipping mask, and set a black and white adjustment to Darker Color on it so that only the car would have any color. The background just has a simple black and white adjustment layer.


On this image I also used the Darker Color blending mode. I set it so that only magenta and reds would show.


For this one I set the blending mode to Linear Light and set all colors except Reds to -200 on the black and white adjustment layer.

As you can see there are many creative uses of the black and white adjustment layer. If you have any questions or suggestions about anything in this post, or in general, feel free to ask. Also feel free to post any images you've created in the comments. I'd love to see what other people are doing with adjustment layers.