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dandavenport on Saturday, May 29th, 2010 |
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Have your heard about Green Screen Photography? It’s an exciting new – but really old – process of photographing subjects against green (or sometimes blue) photo backdrops, and then using photo manipulation software (PhotoShop and the like) to replace the background with another picture … it easily takes your subjects where they can’t go and it works for both live and still subjects. They’ve been doing this in the movies for years. It’s really the only way we have to create the outstanding images of The Millennium Falcon racing among the stars (traveling mattes). And, of course, they do it in television where they call it Chroma-Key. Now it’s expanding into home photography.
Doing chroma key background replacement in regular photo manipulation software can be a very tricky process. However, my partner, Ken Colby of Green Screen Wizard – who has quite a background in software development – has created Green Screen Wizard, a green screen program that makes it easy for anyone to use green screen technology to create fantastic green screen photos quickly and easily. They have not only the full package that includes a pop-up chroma key green screen background, but he has also created a PhotoShop plug-in so you can not only easily replace the chroma key green background, but you can also add other Photoshop layer effects to create visually stunning images.
With the advent of high-quality digital cameras and green screen photo backgrounds, it’s easy for anyone to create really great green screen photos!
Even Professional photographers today need to offer something more. Green Screen Wizard provides a way to stand out from the rest of the pack. Use Green Screen Technology to create exciting Headshots, Model Portfolios, Bridal Portraits, Family Portraits, and even Pet Portraits … all enhanced with green screen photography.
You’ll really want to proudly create big prints of these green screen photos to hang in your home or office. What’s great is that Ken even has demo evaluation versions of his green screen program that you can download to try out … but I’m sure you’ll want this exciting tool available every day. By all means, give it a try.
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dandavenport on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 |
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Amazing!
This article on using a Table Top Tripod as a “Chestpod” to get sharper photos continues to be one of my most popular.
This was a trick I worked out a LOT of years ago, and have used it to good advantage many times.
So thanks to all the folks who have dropped by to read it and take lots of great photos and make sure you proudly display them around your home.
You really can use your home as a “Photo Album” — just hang lots of pics. Here’s another article giving you some tips.
Keep taking pics!
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dandavenport on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 |
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Leader of the Pack Lobby Display
Quickly assembled photo of the lobby display for Leader of the pack – fun project, but my last one as daughter graduates this year. This is made from three photos placed together as the actual display is 25′ long by about 4′ high. A Widelux would have been a great camera to take this shot. Earlier post has a bit more detail about this project. Light area at the right side is from the front door of the school, and I don’t know how to use layered bracketed exposures to correct for that.
Using your photo editing software, it is possible to create wide panorama photos like this and then have them custom framed to create special pictures for your home. You can take a photo with a wide angle lens and then crop it, or if you are more skilled, you can “assemble” the photos to create these wide panorama pics. The important thing is to do it. The more photos you decorate your home with… well it’s just good.
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dandavenport on Friday, March 20th, 2009 |
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I just finished my annual project for my daughter’s high school – photographing the kids who are in the annual musical production, this year, Leader of the Pack (this is my sixth one, and my last since my daughter graduates this year, and our older daughter will graduate from college this year – that’s why there have been more than 4). Posted the display yesterday before opening night last night. The kids did a spectacular job – contratulations to them. I took a photo of the display, but I have to stitch it together since the display is 25′ long, and I had to take three pics to get it all in. What was also amazing is that, for the head shots, I was using a very old Speedotron 300ws Brown Line strobe kit that I have had for around 35 years. It still works – wow! 55 pics (cast, pit, and crew), shot, PhotoShopped, printed, and hung. The parents love them and I have lots of fun.
If you have read any of my articles, you know how much I believe in showing off your photography by decorating your home with many prints – some of them large size. We have been doing this for years, and visitors always know who our family and friends are, and what we like to see in photos – we have LOTS of pictures hanging around. One of the things we do for some of our special photos is to make large canvas prints. We do both photos of people and photos of things - places we’ve been or close ups of flowers… or anything that will brighten up the room and show our friends how good pictures can really make a room look great. Give it a try!
Telephoto shot of Reuss River and Chapel Bridge, Lucerne, Switzerland
Amazing bit of detective work next. In 1977, a friend and I travelled around a bit in Europe, and, as you would expect, took a lot of pictures. One of his fascinations is panorama photography, and he took a bunch of pics with his Widelux. So recently, he started scanning the negs and is thinking of making and selling posters of them. Some of them are pretty spectacular. He couldn’t remember where we were when he took one of them so he sent me a copy. By pure coincidence, I had also taken that pic, not with a pano camera, but with a telephoto lens on 35mm Kodachrome, so my shot was right in the middle of his. Digging deeper, we figured out that we were standing atop the Hotel Gutsch when we took the shots. Fun stuff! I’ll let you know when he starts selling prints.
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dandavenport on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 |
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Read a great story in Parade Magazine over the weekend: http://www.parade.com/health/2009/03/solar-cooker-project.html. This is such a great project on so many levels:
- It provides critically needed help in a desparate part of the world.
- It is strikingly simple and inexpensive
- It saves lives, both directly and indirectly
- It is a solution that is very earth friendly.
So by all means, after you have read this great story, go to http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/refugeerelief/solarcookerproject.html, read a bit more and definitely contribute – I have.
It will be interesting to see if this concept is adapted to de-salinization. What a great way to get clean fresh water!
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dandavenport on Thursday, February 26th, 2009 |
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I just found a REALLY GREAT book on monetizing your photography. Its loaded with solid information and hundreds, if not thousands of links to all the places you need to find markets for your photos, both stock and on assignment. Take a look.
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dandavenport on Monday, September 29th, 2008 |
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Just a quick addition to last Friday’s post. There are lots more articles at http://greatphototools.com/Articles.html Take a peek – and let me know what other article topics would interest you.
Dan
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dandavenport on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 |
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Hi all…
A few days ago, one of my Twitter friends asked about Monopods – basically one of the three legs of a tripod with a camera mounting head on top. I’d like to share my reply to all as you may find it helpful.
* * *
I have a monopod that I bought maybe 30 – 40 years ago, and I don’t think I ever used it. It’s really clever as it has a “handle” on it – almost like a cane – to make it easier to carry around. But I really haven’t looked deeply at them since I already have one and almost never use it – which is, of course, not to say you shouldn’t use one. A quick web search turned up this interesting tool: http://www.trek-tech.com/products/trekpods.html. A bit pricey, but a really neat idea. Try a regular Google search on monopods, and you’ll see LOTS of variations, and you may well find one that suits you well.
Also, I have another article: http://greatphototools.com/Table-Top-Tripod-as-Chest-Pod-.html that may interest you – and also give you a less expensive pathway to sharp photos while still maintaining your mobility. I’ve used this method a LOT, and really like it.
And, you mentioned the article that just went live about augmenting your photos on the wall with fine art pictures and graphics (it’s really cool the way EzineArticles.com notifies Twitter automatically as soon as an article goes live). I also did an earlier article about decorating with photos: http://greatphototools.com/5-Simple-Steps-to-Turn-Your-Home-into-a-Beautiful-Photo-Album.html. In this illustrated version, there is a photo of one wall in our living room. You can see how my wife (who manages a Portrait Studio) really takes the idea of hanging lots of photos seriously… and this is just ONE wall. There are more. The photos are not just of us and our kids (kids??? two seniors… one in college and one in high school), there are also friends and family beyond just the immediate. My wife’s parents’ and my parents’ wedding photos, lots of our relatives – etc., etc…… And these all change fairly often.
* * *
If others of you have experiences with monopods, add them here.
Dan
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dandavenport on Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 |
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Welcome to the Great Photo Tools.com blog. I’m Dan Davenport, and I like to help people get things done. My specialties are photography and marketing communications – but I’ll be talking mostly about photography here. I advocate that you create photos. And instead of hiding them in shoeboxes and CDs, have them printed and proudly display those prints around your home. Let folks know who you are and what you and your family are about.
The Great Photo Tools web site has a growing list of articles – some by me, some by others, and I may add an article management tool to the site at a later date.
Enough for now… welcome and please comment. Let me know what interests you.
Dan
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dandavenport on Monday, July 28th, 2008 |
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Here it comes!
The Great Photo Tools web site has been completely redesigned for easier access – and it’s nicer to look at too. Plus more new information in addition to the old friends, and new articles coming all the time.
Upcoming, I’m looking at articles on:
- Holding your camera correctly for sharper photos
- Lens Selection
- Depth of Field
- Shutter Speeds
- Composition
- And more…
Let me know what other topics you would like covered. You can email us at info@greatphototools.com or leave a comment here (click on comments).
Later…
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