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Photoshop helped me not to violate the commonly enforced trademark ruling against commercially publishing a photograph of the Lone Cypress in Carmel California.  

As many of you know, the Lone Cypress in Carmel is trademarked.  The current trademark is held by the Pebble Beach Company and it declares that no commercial use of its image is allowed. By rule you are not allowed to publish photographs, paintings or drawings of the tree without written permission. Permission that they hardly ever grant. That includes the use of it on Facebook, Twitter or Blogs.  Though people take photographs of the sturdy cypress tree braving the elements on the point in the Pacific Ocean, every day by the thousands, few understand the trademark business. I don't agree with being able to trademark something in nature but I will respect it for now with my Photoshop protest image. 

Recently, after I finishing a shoot in Monterey, I made my way over to 17-Mile Drive and took in the sites. Like everyone else, I had a to shoot a shot of the Lone Cypress.

On this shot I used a 9-Stop Neutral Density filter to enable my camera to shoot down to 3 full seconds in broad daylight.  That allowed me to capture the silky water below.  

Of course I had to use a tripod and since the filter is so dark, you can hardly see through it. You also have to make all of your adjustments in advance.  You need to determine your exposer by test shooting or using a calculator like ND Timer for the iPhone.   Put your focus on manual, your camera on manual, then delicately place the filter over the lens.  You only have to thread it on lightly because you don't want to move the camera and thereby changing your composition or focus. Then use a cable release and mirror lock up to fire the shot. 

Shot at an 80th of second at f/16 at a low ISO of below 100 - this is as slow as I could shoot at this time of day. (Image is blacked out so as not to violate trademark ruling.)

While shooting, watch for the rhythm of the waves to capture the most dramatic water splashes.  Since that day was pretty calm, the use of the 9-stop ND filter was quite helpful in making the water look more special than it really was. 

Later in Photoshop, it took about an hour to take out the Lone Cypress.  I like to work in sections that I have selected in order to make the cloning look real.  I used the stamp tool and the healing brush both at different opacities to remove the tree and replace it with the hills in the background.  Another technique I like to use is copying the horizon from one part of the image and pasting in where you need it.  It's a lot easier to work with a mountain top that is real than one that is cloned. 

Lastly I cropped it and saturated some of the teal color in the ocean.  Now I'm going back to the computer to take the Golden Gate Bridge out of few shots.

Cat Pictures

When photographing Tigers in captivity, (I happened to be at the Oakland Zoo),  it's important to know a little about their behaviors in order to capture them the way you had in mind.  Big cat behaviors are easy to learn,  just observe the cat you have sitting on the couch next to you.  Big cats and little cats mostly do the same things.  They look for the warm spot in the sunlight, they stretch, and they yawn among other things.   All of these behaviors can make fantastic photographs, you just have to be patient watch, and look for repeating animal behaviors. 

Like their cousin the house cat, the Tiger will roll around in their enclosure and occasionally they will stop and freeze still for a moment. This is a good time to capture an image, since you know the Tiger will be sharp and in focus, especially nessasary if shot with a slow shutter speed. 

Even at several hundred pounds, the Tiger can sometimes appear kitten like while stretching and rolling around. 

One behavior that the Tiger does, that I have not seen a domestic cat do, is "flehmen".   Upon smelling another Tiger's scent, the big cat wrinkles his nose and hangs out his tongue in a grimace called flehmen.  This move is a way to gather in all of the scent so they can and send it to the roof of their mouth where there is a gland to determine all the chemical information inside the scent.  Scenting and scent marking is a way Tigers communicate thier boundaries, mate readiness and to acertian if a friend or foe is in the area.  Before the tongue comes out, it's a pretty fierce look and makes a fabulous photograph. 

I noticed one female mark an area along a fence.  Shortly after, I saw another female start to walk the perimeter of the enclosure. I knew she'd notice the fresh marking and I thought she might make the "face."  With things like this, you get yourself and camera into position, check and double check your settings and just wait.  

In wildlife photography, the more you know about what animal you are photographing the better your odds are of getting superb photographs.

How to Photograph Wine

Photographing reflective bottles of wine can be difficult when trying to get the glass and the label to look good. One solution is to make two shots and combine them in Photoshop. The highly reflective foil of this label text added to the difficulty of creating a compelling shot.

Set up the scene with props, etc. 

Set up the lighting.

Determine the Depth of Field.

Shoot the bottle.

Set new lighting, shoot the label.

In this first shot, I worked with the bottle and props, and I started tweaking with the depth of field so that the pear in the background would fall softly out of focus but the wine bottle was still sharp.  If you don't have a strobe system that can be dialed down to allow you to change your aperture,  try using a variable neutral density filter to get the aperture you are looking for.  I used a strong side lighting with a strip light here. 

Once that was determined, shot number one was created.  Keeping the camera on a tripod, and locked down, the lighting was changed for the label but the bottle and the camera did not move.

A soft box overhead with lots of white reflective cards would bounce soft light into the gold foil graphics and text of the label. Once everything looked clean,  shot two was created.

I brought both of these images into Photoshop.  You can drag one image on top of the other with the move tool while holding down the shift key.  This will align the two images perfectly.  Use the pen tool to make a selection of the label - then create a layer mask.  First layer shows the bottle shot, the second layer shows the label. 

Now you are ready to retouch the bottle and the reflections to make a realistic shot. 

If you want to learn more about how to create better images while using Photoshop, check out my hands on classes - taught in my Pleasanton studio.

Don't forget to sign up for the Digital Camera Basics class

Did you or do you know someone who received a DSLR camera for the holidays? Groupon is still offering my class for Digital Camera Basics you can check it out at the link below.  The class will be a hand's on class in my studio in Pleasanton. Learn how to use your menus, how to set up your camera and how to use the auto focus.

Link to Digital Camera Basics Groupon Deal

 Why do Elephants have such a good memory?  The reason is simple, they "need" to have a good memory to for the species to survive.  The female elephant depends each other to raise their young more than any other mammal. The  mother elephant can remember who in the heard is the most dependable, who is most trustful. 

Photographer's Gift Buying Guide

Every year many of us have the challange of finding the pefect gift for the photographer in our lives. As a professional photographer, I run across many products all year long that I think most amateur photographers would love to have wrapped up for them this holiday season.  Here is my short list for 2013 in no particular order.

My Passport

In the days of film, a good gift might have been a five-roll pack of Kodachrome 64, something a photographer would always use.  Now days with digital, hard drive space is what we all covet.

I've been using Western Digital almost exclusively over the years to securely backup and save all my images.  One of the most convenient small hard drives on the market is the My Passport version from Western Digital. These little hard drives connect to the USB port of your computer and work on Mac or PC and don’t need an external power source.   You can get them in a variety of colors including red, blue, black and silver.  Also, you can buy them in many sizes from 500 gigs to 2 Terabytes of storage space. You can never go wrong giving a photographer hard drive space.

Ball Pod

Next up is a gift for the photographer that needs a little support.  By that I mean the Ball Pod. 

Have you ever found yourself trying to set up a self-timer shot by setting your camera on a rock and tucking the strap under the camera to position it in the right direction? This can be a risky proposition.  The Ball Pod is a handy device where you thread you camera into the standard tripod mount and the flexible ball keeps your camera rock steady.

The Ball Pod is about the size of a large orange with a ¼ screw attached to a mounting plate.  On this plate you mount your camera with its threaded tripod hole.  Once snug, your camera can be placed just about anywhere.

The silicone outer shell has hundreds of beads inside that allow you position the ball on rocks, fence rails, fire hydrants, trash cans or just about anywhere.

This is the perfect accessory that just about any photographer or smart phone user will use time and time again.

Its small enough to fit in your jacket pocket and weighs only 11 oz.  The silicone outer shell is kind of tacky and will grip things like the hood of your car or many other slick surfaces.  Now it’s easy to carry a support tool, without having to lug around a huge tripod. 

Grad Filters

People often ask me what is the best filter to get the photographer on their list.  If they already have the basic: Polarizer and Neutral Density then I would steer them toward the Grad Filters.  Lee Filters makes some nice ones and they come in different sizes based on how large the camera lens is.

Grad filters are best used with a filter holder, but they can be hand held in front of the lens in certain circumstances. The idea behind a grad (graduated) filter is that the photographer can move the filter around to cover say just the sky in a landscape shot. With its effects “gradually” falling off.  The sky is an area that is typically over exposed but with a neutral density grad filter only the sky portion can manipulated and be brought down to the exposure of everything else. 

Digital Photography Classes

While I am partial to the Digital Photography Classes and Photoshop Classes that I teach but you may not be near the San Francisco East Bay but you still want to give a great gift. 

Terry VanderHeiden teaching Digital Photography classes in Pleasanton, California. 

Someone close to you may have an interest in attending a hands-on workshop where they can really learn more about their camera or a specific type of photography.  These small class workshops can give a fantastic learning experience to the photographer that is looking to get serious about their photography or to learn how to edit the images properly after they are done with a day’s shooting.

In order to find a class near you, type into Google: photography classes, (city or town) you should get a full range of classes and workshops near you.

Photography Workshops

Workshops can be held at specific locations teaching all about how to photograph in that spot of the world.  Many of them will take you out on location to show you where the best opportunities for photography are and the best time of day to be shooting.  Lots of these workshops will also have review sessions to talk about your images and  show you how to best  process the images digitally.  Some workshops can be destination driven in order to plan a complete vacation around shooting and learning. 

Go Pro Hero3

While this is not technically a still camera nor do they take any great amount of skill to operate but the GoPro video cameras are a blast to play with. Starting at a couple of hundred bucks the diminutive video cameras pack a lot of fun in small package.

Just about any computer savvy, creative type will enjoy putting their imagination to work coming up with new ways and locations to use the GoPro.

GoPro has three models this season.  The top of the line model, Black, has Wi-fi built in and can transmit what you have shot, the view of the camera and other important information back to your smart phone for instant gratification.