Assignment 5 – Personal Project

This project explores some of the standing stones and crosses of the North Yorkshire Moors. Lots of the crosses are worn and some are reduced to stumps. Because of the number of images required for this project, I’ll concentrate on those which are more impressive, whether for their situation or character. I may continue with this project at a later date, in which case these images could be an introduction to the greater plan.
The plan:
I plan to visit as many sites as I can, depending on the weather conditions, to show the more accessible standing stones and crosses in a creative way. It may be necessary to forgo some of the more remote sites if weather doesn’t permit, as walking on the moors with limited survival equipment would not be reasonable in adverse conditions. I want to show them in their splendour and awe inspiring surroundings. I consider myself very fortunate to live in this area and it’s one I’d like to share using my images.
I’ll limit my equipment to one camera (Nikon D300s), one tripod (Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 with 324RC2 head) and two lenses (Nikkor 18-200 mm VR and Sigma 10-20 mm). Travelling light is advisable in the terrain I’ll be crossing. The rest of my bag will be taken up with spare battery, lens cloths, water, maps and a cape. Hiking / navigation equipment and clothing are a foregone conclusion. I’ll have a set course for each trip, which my wife will be aware of. There’ll also be an ETA for arriving home which I’ll update her with as the trip progresses. I’ll only change the route if I can contact her by mobile phone, just in case I need rescuing.
The sites I visit will, as far as possible, be within relatively easy striking distance of each other, so I can possibly visit two or three in a day. It will be necessary to concentrate on a single site on some days, as hiking time to some sites could be up to 3 hours each way.
I’ll use 5 frame, one stop bracketing for all images, to enable later editing and / or HDR production, leaving selection until I return home – As I’ll be on my own in remote locations, I don’t want to spend any unnecessary time in the field and having a range of 2 stops each way for each image should provide a satisfactory range to work on.
The type of image I produce will vary with each set of photographs – some may suit monochrome, some duo-tone, some HDR etc. – it’ll depend on the circumstances for each shoot.
The collection of images for this project could take weeks, especially at this time of year. The first images were taken on 29^th February and it’s still ongoing in May.
The images:
Many of the images were taken into the light to produce high contrast scenes.
Starting with some of the standing stones – these vary in ancient use, from boundary markers to road markers, to religious groups and superstitious markers.

The first image shows part of a line of boundary stones.

This line of stones is followed by part of the old Lyke Wake walk. This image was enhanced by converting to B&W and altering the red and blue channels, to show more detail and increase the effect of the haze, then placing the monochrome image above the original in ‘soft light’ blending mode.

The second image shows another boundary (or possibly road marker) stone overlooking Farndale

I used Photomatix Pro 4.0.2 HDR software to enhance this image.

Staying with boundary stones; the next images is of the Turnhill stone which also stands on the same Feversham / Danby boundary. It is also located on the old Lyke Wake walk.

I converted to B&W and using the blue channel to bring out the background detail from the haze – and using ‘soft light’ blending mode over the original image to bring back the colour.

Also on the route of the Lyke Wake walk we see the Simon Howe stones:

These stones are thought to have a religious / superstitious meaning. They lead to a stone circle in which the relatively modern cairn has been built. My main problem with this was access across wet ground in fairly windy conditions (hence the moving heather).
I converted to B&W and used luminosity mode over original. Duplicated B@W layer and used Soft light mode at reduced opacity.

Also with a religious / superstitious connotation we see the High Bridestones on Sleights moor.

The stones were captured on a late evening – the sky was added for effect, using the selection method.

On Wheeldale moor, marker stones follow the route of the old Roman Road.

This was a straightforward HDR conversion with increased saturation.

At the roadside between Castleton and Hutton Le Hole stands the ‘Young’ Ralph’s Cross.

This image had a lot of lens flare, which I removed using the spot healing tool and cloning.

200 m across the moor we find ‘Old’ Ralph’s cross:

Another HDR image to capture the sky and retain detail in the cross shadows. Again I used the spot healing and cloning tools to remove lens flare.

Above Rosedale is the tallest cross in the National Park – Ana Cross:

I used split tone mode in Topaz Adjust 5 plug in to separate the cross from its background, then blended it with the original to bring back some of its colour.

Mauley Cross stands in the trees of Cropton Forest:

Topaz Labs BW Effects were used here – Opalescent – Tea Green fall off then blended over the original.

2 miles walk from the Hole of Horcum is Malo cross:

This used the same treatment as for Mauley cross. The climb up that hill was no joke!

Then the Lyke Wake walk is again taken to reach Lilla Cross:

Access to this cross was again my main problem, skirting the MOD property (The monolith of RAF Fylingdales can be seen on the skyline) over very wet ground. I changed the sky in this image using a layer mask (softened over the horizon) and used Adjust 5 split tone for this image. Lens flare was cleared using spot healing.
 

Standing Stones and Crosses of the North Yorkshire Moors

The project explored some of the standing stones and crosses of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park. The plan for capturing the images went fairly well as planned. There were some delays due to weather and some of the sites became out of the question due to days of heavy rain which made the crossing of peat bogs impossible. Maybe I’ll be able to add to the images in the summer. On occasion I made better time and took in an extra site, so that was a deviation from the plan, but the contingency of contacting my wife regarding any alterations worked well – and I didn’t need rescuing.
I think the way I’ve presented the stones and crosses has met the creative criteria I set out to use and the scenery of parts of the moors has been shown as I intended, so I’m happy with that.
I miscalculated the difficult terrain somewhat, so the earlier walks I undertook lasted well over my estimates. I travelled the Lyke Wake Walk almost 50 years ago and knew that parts of it were difficult, but I hadn’t considered that it was now almost impassable in places and had been closed due to moorland erosion. So maybe another time I should research this part before setting off. The mobile phone was an essential for this type of project.
Using automatic bracketing was a good move, as the time spent taking the images was less and getting the best exposure was a lot easier – although there were several hundred images to work through when I got home. I like the benefits of HDR. For the majority of captures I used aperture priority and matrix metering, which seemed to give good results – I used ISO 200 throughout and always used the tripod.
At each site I moved around the objects, to get a variety of views and angles, using the available light as much as I could, being aware of the different levels of contrast and composition that could be attained this way. In some cases the terrain made it inadvisable to move 360 Deg around the site (there are streams, ponds, bogs and cliffs to consider) and I was on my own throughout the project, so any risks had to be carefully weighed up. Another point for future expeditions would be to take somebody with me.
The main problem I had, technically, was the lens flare – in some cases I was able to shield the lens with a map, but in many cases I didn’t realise until I viewed the images at home. In this case I used spot healing and cloning. I didn’t have any problems regarding manipulation of images, as I’d decided from word go that it was to be a creative project.
I’m generally pleased with the images I captured during this project and the way the selected images have turned out. My only regret is the lack of narrative to go along with the images. Having researched the objects there is a fascinating history to be shared. This may be something to look at if I take this project further. I really enjoyed the project, particularly getting out in the remote areas and enjoying the freedom and sometimes desolation of the moors. It’s been a good topic to choose and one I intend to follow up in more detail.

References and Evaluation

Websites referenced during this section:

http://photo.net/learn/digital-photography-workflow/advanced-photoshop-tutorials/sharpening/

Books referenced during this section:

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book – Martin Evening

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-68070-9

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers – Martin Evening, Jeff Schewe

ISBN 978-0-240-81483-4

The Complete Guide to Digital Photography – Michael Freeman

ISBN-13 978-0-500-54325-2

How to Design and Build the Coolest Website in Cyberspace – Nick Nettleton

ISBN 1-904705-06-5

Web Design: Start Here – Nick Nettleton

ISBN 1-904705-03-0

Web Photoshop: Start Here – Peter Cope

Evaluation:

I don’t feel as though I’ve gained much from this part of the course. I was already conversant and practicing the requirements for backup. Similarly I was up to speed with printers and printing. I have gained a little more knowledge about sharpening, but mainly on the ‘capture’ sharpening, rather than the ‘output’ sharpening which has been looked at here. Still. At least it’s been good to know that I was doing it right. I’ll look further into capture sharpening.

Looking at the course as a whole, it’s been mainly going over things that I already knew. I’ve learned about linear capture and camera dynamic range (and so learned more about my equipment). I’ve learned to use the histogram and highlight clipping displays on the camera and controlling the exposure for optimum dynamic range and clipping. In Photoshop I’ve seen some quick fixes for white balance correction and looked further into the advantages of Black and White conversion. With regard to ethics, I don’t feel as though I’ve had my stance altered in any way – what I’ve seen just bears up what I already thought.

But still – I have enjoyed the course. It’s good to practice with equipment and it’s good to be involved with the process. AS I’ve said, I’ve learned some new things and that’s what it’s all about! With the personal project it’s been good to get out and enjoy the moors and what it has to offer. I’m pleased to have done it.

Project – A web gallery

Project – A web gallery
Looking at other photographers’ websites, there are some that stand out as being excellent – www.michaelfreemanphoto.com is one easy to navigate, using either a slideshow where the images are smaller, or individually selected where the images are larger. Returning to the main menus is straightforward.
Others are not so good – www.paolowoods.net has some excellent galleries, with reasonably sized images – sometimes with too much text and navigating back from individual images to the main menu is hopeless. www.chriskillip.com doesn’t show his images well – just a slideshow of his latest exhibition, over which there is no control – so if you want to look at his work one needs to search elsewhere.
There are many ups and downs on the various websites I've looked at, but the key seems to be to keep it simple, with large images and easy navigation. One thing that isn't mentioned in the text is- keeping the site up to date. There are several that haven't been updated for years, so credibility is lost as soon as the viewer visits the site.
Our own website is one I was given as a birthday present several years ago. While this is not required in this part of the course, I’ve spent a little time looking at our website layout (which is just a fun thing) and rearranged the image galleries, in line with what’s been suggested in the course material. Have a look at www.estills.net at ‘Steve’s Galleries’ to see what I’ve done.
This site is managed by ‘Mr Site’ which has its own specific, fairly limited image gallery options. There’s either a slideshow with small images, or as I’ve done mine, with a stepping mode through the images. At least the navigation is OK. I like the Flash galleries available in Lightroom 4, which I may use if I create my own site.
Maybe I’ll look at another site if I decide to become more of a professional in the future, but in the meantime I’ve rearranged things slightly, with different categories which I may add to and populate with more images.

Exercise 5.01 – Sharpening for print

Revisiting the portraits taken for Part 1, I used an image that had not been used in the exercise.

The original image is shown without any sharpening:

With the image zoomed in to 100%, I used the ‘unsharp mask’ to vary the amount of sharpening as follows:

First copy settings:

Amount 42%

Radius 4.0 pixels – OK because of the high image resolution.

Threshold 2 levels – applied to minimize sharpening in smooth areas.

At these settings there was little difference to be seen on the screen.

Second copy settings: Amount 100%

Radius 4.0 pixels

Threshold 2 levels

The highlights in her face are now becoming too light for me and her hair isn’t as soft as I’d like to see it.

Third copy settings: Amount 200%

Radius 4.0 pixels

Threshold 2 levels

Even with this media and size, artefacts are clearly visible. The smoothness of her skin has disappeared and her eyes / eyelids have become rougher.

The tif images for printing were saved at 300 dpi at full size. With the images at 100% they were cropped to allow printing at A4 – using Fotospeed EG Platinum Matt paper on the Epson printer. I chose this paper because of its smooth, flat finish – no texture to influence the look of the print.

The images were then viewed on the screen at 100% zoom to compare the prints at the same size. A daylight lamp was used, to view both the screen and the prints. A magnifying glass was used to examine the prints more closely.

On the first image the print and viewed image were both clear, with the smooth skin areas looking just that. The print showed no sign of additional artefacts.

On the second image (42% sharpened) the print and screen images were still clear – both have slightly more clarity in the eyes. On close examination the print is showing a slight breakdown in the shadow areas (skin around the eyebrows and in the shadows by her hair) but they still look quite acceptable to me.

At 100% sharpened the highlights in eye pupils are much more pronounced, making them appear brighter and sharper, but the artefacts are increased, again in the shadow areas. The edge sharpness is more pronounced – more on the print than on screen, so her chin line now looks more angular. The sharpening has had a detrimental effect on the hair, making the individual strands more visible, which makes it look harsher than the first image. So on balance I’d say this level of sharpening is too much for this image.

At 200% the artefacts are more visible on both print and screen images, across the lighter areas. It now looks as though her eye makeup has been plastered on, whereas in the first image it’s hardly visible. Every slight blemish and follicle now stands out, making the originally soft features look hard. Her chin has now acquired a lighter outline, making it even more exaggerated than the previous image. The edge sharpness is now unacceptably high and her clean hair now looks lank. The print looks slightly better than the screen image, but not much.

I think the prints may be generally more forgiving than the screen when it comes to artefacts (to a degree) – the action of the bubble jet heads may tend to merge some of the pixels, so artefacts will not be so pronounced – this is more prevalent with matt papers increasing with textured ones. It seems that sharpening between 42% and 100% would be acceptable to me, for this image and at this radius and with this printer / paper. The larger sharpening radius also helps to reduce the effect of artefacts, but the original size of the image needs to be taken into consideration. Obviously more experimentation with trial and error would be required.

Taking the images further we can maintain the smooth skin while sharpening the eyes (just pupils) and lips, by placing the sharpened image over the original and using a layer mask to show only the required parts of the sharpened layer – this way we get the best of both:

Project – Finishing

Backups

I always copy images directly to a 1TB external hard drive into a ‘download’ folder with subfolders by date captured.

Also on this ‘Photographs’ drive I have an ‘in progress’ folder, which is where I have all the images I’m working on – also with subfolders – e.g. OCA. All ongoing work done in Photoshop, Lightroom, On-one etc is saved there, rather than on the main PC.

The ‘Print’ folder on the external drive contains all the finished, flattened images again in subfolders – e.g. OCA > DPP > Part 3.

Doing it this way, I always have my images separate from the main computer hard drives.

I also have another 1 TB external hard drive – Photographs Backup – Every fortnight I format this drive and copy the whole of the contents of the ‘Photographs’ drive. So this gives me a complete backup of all my images should the ‘photographs’ drive fail – at worst I’ll have only lost images from the previous fortnight.

My third external hard drive – 2 TB ‘Backup’ – is used to back up my main computer once a week, so saving everything I have worked on, including Lightroom catalogue and any images located for easy access in learning logs / blogs etc.

So I think I’ve got the backup system pretty well boxed off – I had to use it last month, as my PC hard drive broke down. I was so pleased that it was in place – transferring it to a new machine saved me days of hardship. I’m not too concerned about saving documents remotely – if the house were to burn down, I’d have more pressing things to worry about and I can always take more images.

Prints:

I have a 24 in Dell monitor which I calibrate at least every 4 weeks, using a Gretag Macbeth eye-one display 2 calibrator. This is set up for a 4 weeks reminder, but if there is a significant change in lighting conditions I recalibrate it anyway.

I have two A3+ printers – Canon i9950 and Epson Stylus Photo R2880 – using a variety of papers – Olmec, Fotospeed, Hahnemϋhle, Ilford Galerie, Harman. I create ICC profiles for the individual papers for each printer using a datacolour Spyder 3 print calibrator.

I feel that my prints generally have a good resemblance to what I see on the screen.

Part 5–The final image

Assignment 4 – Real or fake

I decided to make an illustration for Stephen Laws’ ‘Ghost Train’. I envisaged a flying train in a very dark sky.

For this I took two images – the first being a steaming train on the moors railway (f/7.1 at 1/400 sec – shutter priority mode for a relatively fast shutter speed)

and the second being a turbulent cloudy sky (underexposed 2 stops at f/25. 1/1600 sec).

On the sky image I adjusted the Raw image, increasing the exposure by 0.55, decreasing the white balance temperature to 4300 ^oK, increasing the blacks (22%), highlight recovery (30%) and contrast (69%). The layer was duplicated and treated with Topaz Adjust 5 in ‘solarized dreams 2’ mode. This was placed in ‘lighten’ mode. I then stamped up the layers.

I selected the train from its background, using Topaz Remask3 and then detailed erasure using small brushes on the layer mask. Some cloning was necessary to remove foliage from the tracks and rear carriages. The selection was then dragged onto the sky layer.

I duplicated the train layer and used Edit > transform > warp to make the train sweep down from a height. I then duplicated this layer and treated the new layer with Eye Candy 6 – gradient glow, with an orange colour and used ‘Color’ blending mode. The two ‘curved’ train layers were then stamped up after hiding the sky layer. The sky was then made visible again.

The stamped up layer was duplicated and the top layer treated with Redfield fractalius in 50% glow mode. This layer was placed in ‘saturation’ blending mode – I used a layer mask to bring back the detail of the front of the engine.

I wanted to have a portrait orientation for the book cover, so I increased the canvas size by 50%, leaving the train pegged to the centre. This allowed the image to be cropped to the required format. I filled the blank parts of the canvas with sky, using the clone tool on a duplicated layer of the sky. I was aware that this additional area could be used for text.

I then created two blank layers to paint in smoke / steam, using white for the steam on one layer and grey for smoke on the other. I used a large soft brush on both layers and erased the parts not required using a very large soft eraser.

For the author’s name I the horizontal text tool, with ‘Bright red bevel’ style and treated it with Eye Candy 6 ‘Drip’ filter. For the Title text I used the same style with Eye Candy 6 ‘glass’ filter.

The layers were then flattened and saved as tif, Hi res jpeg and lower res jpeg.

The creation of this image went as I expected. I usually experiment with the blending modes as I work through this type of image, so this was always part of the plan. The parts that were added to the original plan were the use of the Eye Candy and Redfield Fractalius plug-ins, as I thought they would enhance the image as it progressed – I’d planned to use Eye Candy for the text. I didn’t think about the orientation of the image until later in the proceedings so the changing of canvas size and cloning of the sky weren’t planned.

Regarding the ethics of this image, I don’t have any problems – it’s a fiction book with a fictional cover – all I’ve done is manipulate and combine images to provide a cover which may stand out in the bookstands.