Background to the rescue?

Have you ever tried to figure out what great photos have in common?
Sorry, but I don’t have a representative collection to share here and let you decide. So you will have to put up with my ideas, at least until there is sufficient feedback to this post to set me straight.
In looking through several albums of photos that are considered good either by their creators or others, it was easy for me to see that great photos are strongly oriented on their subject, have no extraneous details, that there is a strong visual design, snappy, often exaggerated, colors, and a simple but supportive background. The background sets off but supports the subject.
I came across a rather “blah” photo when looking through my most recent “catch” and I said to myself, this might work on a different background.
No sooner said than done.
And here, dear reader, is where you come in. Alongside is the photo on different solid backgrounds. The original is included, it should not take you but a few seconds to identify it.
Which, in your opinion, works best?
Why do you think so?
Would you hang any of these on a wall in your room?
Do any of the solid backgrounds improve the photo?
Can you think of some other background that would work better?
And lastly, but maybe most importantly, can a different background really make a difference?
Please let me know your thoughts, either with a comment on this post or any other means of communicating. I would love to hear from you.

.:.

© 2011 Ludwig Keck

Technorati Tags: photography,digital photography,backgrounds,great photos

Slideshows and the new SkyDrive

For the most part we take pictures to preserve memories, and we enjoy reliving these moments by sharing the photos. In the early days of photography the rare and precious images were presented as prints, often elaborately framed. As the cost came down and cameras became accessible to everyday users, albums became a means of sharing. Then the thirty-five millimeter camera and Kodachrome ushered in the era of the slide show.
Albums are still very much with us, but the computer, the Internet and digital photography have given “slideshow” a totally new meaning. Online photo sharing sites are  ubiquitous. One of the pleasant features everywhere is the self-running slideshow. So when Microsoft recently polished up their SkyDrive service and omitted the automated presentation feature, I and a whole lot of others cried foul (see my post: The new SkyDrive – Bouquets and Brickbats. The picture of the yellow flower here links to a small album so you can see the new look – Maybe the complaint has been corrected by the time you get to this album).
Here is a tongue-in-cheek look (just 50 seconds) at the new SkyDrive with its miniature slideshows in the album view and a light-hearted stab pointing out an unfortunate little bug:

A witty peek at the new SkyDrive

Things are never as dark as they seem, and the self-paced slideshow of SkyDrive albums is by no means gone for now. If you have Windows Live Messenger you can still get gorgeous, full-screen, self-running slideshows of your friends albums. To illustrate this other way to an automatic slideshow, view the movie clip below (this one is just over 2 minutes in length). This clip shows the desktop of my virtual friend “Student M”. He launches Live Messenger and sees some images. Moving the pointer to these starts a tiny slide show. Clicking on one opens a viewer with all of the expected slideshow features – even allowing full screen view.
This little movie is presented in HD for better enjoyment. You can double-click on the image to go to YouTube directly where you can see it in full-screen “high definition”  (alas, high speed access to the Internet is required for best viewing).

Getting to a slideshow by way of Messenger

How do you share your albums? Are slideshows important to you? I would really like to see your comments.

.:.

© 2011 Ludwig Keck

Technorati Tags: photography,digital photography,slide show,SkyDrive in HTLM5,SkyDrive,Messenger,Live Messenger

“Arborists at Work” – telling a picture story

We had some tree work done and I decided to do “the story”. A picture story, like any other, should have an introduction, the main part and an ending. With photos there are some additional considerations. First: Take lots of pictures. With a large number of images the “just right” ones are much easier to pick.

The “title” photo

Picking the right image to illustrate the story needs care. It is not only the first picture the reader sees, unless it is captivating, it might be the only one. This picture should tell a good part, if not all of the story. It also will be introducing the story in places like Facebook. So it needs to work even when reduced to a 50 by 50 pixel square icon.

The introduction

Consider the layout and presentation. In a blog like this one, there is limited horizontal space. Although vertically the story can go on a long way, when first visited the reader sees just the top part. In a newspaper the lead stories vie for space “above the fold”. Browsers too, have a “fold”, the part that shows without need of scrolling. The trick is, of course, to captivate the reader and have a picture that will be just partially shown – but interesting enough for the reader to want to scroll down to see it all.

Now the reader is into the story.

The story

This particular story lends itself to being told in sequential order.

Some of the images follow in rapid order and can be shown as an array. Some need no explanations, while some are more meaningful with explanatory text.

Selection of the photos can be agonizing, that is especially true when you have several hundred to select from as I did. Then the images need to be carefully edited to show only what is truly part of the story. Anything not relating to it should be ruthlessly cropped away.

The wrap-up or ending

Even picture stories need and end. For this story two images work for me: The departure of the work crew and the stump – the only remaining evidence of the work.

 

These are my thoughts on photo essays. You can see my picture story over in Gallery Ludwig – it has its own page “Arborists at work”.

 

Technorati Tags: Photography,digital pictures,digital images,photo story,photo essay,arborist

© 2011 Ludwig Keck

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Gallery Pages

Just a reminder to my readers that the gallery page has been modified and a new page added. The “Gallery – Visiting Artists” may seem a familiar “static” page, but the links lead to very dynamic galleries. These are frequently updated and well worth repeat visits.

The page “Ludwig’s Galleries” is just getting underway with more additions to come.

Also extensively reworked and expanded is Gallery Ludwig – my showplace of images – little chatter, lots of pictures.

Enjoy the images!

“Green” - a photo theme

Over in the Photo-Focus group the theme for May 2011 is simply “green”. Each month the group sets a theme on which members can contribute two photos on the group’s photo sharing site.

Setting a theme, whether by a group, or just on a personal basis, has the effect of stimulating thinking and seeing. Sometimes we grow stale in our hobby of photography. Having a little challenge helps us to strive and to work a bit harder.

On a morning walk through our favorite local park, I tried to see “green”. Not at all hard, now that spring is about to turn into summer here in the South. In fact, there was very little that was not green. The challenge was to see things that would be enjoyable, even meaningful, to another viewer.

So did I limit myself to green subjects? Of course not. One should never pass up a pleasant view in a quest for something specific. There were plenty of pretty flowers, a butterfly on a thistle, a passing hawk, my favorite rock in good light. In all, I came how with 55 exposures, not a bad haul for a short stroll. That should yield a handful that I can share.

My routine for importing to the computer is to first use Windows Live Photo Gallery for the transfer process. This allows assigning tags to groups of photos. Next I add some additional meta data, rename all the photos and then move the folders to my “photo store” drive. Only then do I open Photo Gallery and have a look. Some quick post-processing to bring out the best, then resizing before uploading to my photo sharing sites.

You can see some of my photos here. Click the images for a larger view.

 

Enjoy!

© 2011 Ludwig Keck

.:.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Photo Gallery,Photo Gallery,photography,digital pictures,digital images

Shared blogging with Live Writer

It all started as a long awaited get-together in Savannah, Georgia, Tom and I have been friends since our college days but don’t get to visit very often, as we live on opposite ends of the country. We had a great time seeing and photographing the sights. When we compared some of our pictures, our different ways of seeing and capturing the world became strikingly apparent. We decided on a joint blog to share some of our photos side-by-side so others could enjoy the diverse approaches possible in photography.

With three time zones and over 2500 miles between us, working on a joint post is a challenge. Windows Live Writer to the rescue!

We use WordPress, but it works just the same with Blogger or other blogging services. One of us starts a post in Live Writer, then uploads it as a draft.

The draft can be easily accessed by the other partner. The process is just a few clicks: Click the “blue tab”, as the pointer is moved down to “Open recent post” the list of published posts is displayed. But instead of clicking on a post, clicking on Open recent posts brings up a new dialog.

The “Open” dialog shows the folders of drafts and recent posts. It also lists the blog accounts that are installed.

Clicking on the blog name causes Live Writer to connect to the blog site and to download the titles of the posts – or the pages if you are using WordPress.

Clicking on the post title selects it and then OK starts Live Writer to download the post. This way you always have the most current material. A really nice Live Writer feature.

Now I can see exactly what my partner has proposed in text, pictures, and layout. I can just add my additions, or change what is already there. I can upload it again as a draft. Once we are agreed on the post it is just a matter of publishing in the normal way by clicking Publish.

“Shared blogging” using Live Writer in a slightly unusual way is easy, quick, and fun to do.

Click on the image above to see the blog “Two Cameras – Two Views”.

 

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, story, how-to, Windows Live Writer, Live Writer, blogging, shared blogging

 

Technorati Tags: Windows Live Writer,blogging,shared blogging

 

The gateway to my blogs and galleries is Café Ludwig

.:.

© 2011 Ludwig Keck

My Photo Gallery blogs - a progress report

My enthusiasm about using a blog to build a photo gallery continues. The ease of putting a page together with links to enhance the viewers experience and arranging the layout in a pleasing way is just immensely satisfying and enjoyable.

My galleries are still very much under construction. There are some misplaced images – not everything works on the sites exactly as it looked in Windows Live Writer. There are also differences in the way browsers present the sites.

Still, perfection is a but a journey, so here some previews:

Click the images here to go to the sites.

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome.

The gateway to my blogs and galleries is Café Ludwig

Technorati Tags: Photography,digital pictures,blogging,Windows Live Writer,photo gallries,slide shows,photo albums

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