Depth of Field Calculator for Your iPhone

Using depth of field as a creative tool in photography can make the diffenrece between a snap-shot and a photograph. Unfortuantely, the depth of field infromation that was once engraved on lens barrels has pretty much gone the way of the dinos in modern lenses. Instead the information is usually provided in tabular form with the instructions that are packed with the lens. You know, the piece of paper that often gets tossed out or lost.

There are several on-line depth of field calculators available but unless you are lugging your laptop with you along with your tripod and other gear, they really don’t help very much.  Enter the applications for the iPhone. An iTunes search will turn up several applications costing between $.99 and $3.99.

I really like the design of the f/8 DOF Calculator. It allows you to build a “camera” bag with the specific camera bodies and lenses that are part of your actual equipment. The camera body is simply selected from a drop down list. My Canon 1D MarkIII and D30 bodies were included. The lenses in your camera bag are created by specifying their maximum and minimum focal lengths, maximum aperture and closest focusing distance.

Main Display Page

Once entered, you simply select the body and lens combination you are using and use sliders to enter the data necessary to compute the depth of field. Buttons at the bottom of the main page let you select f/stop increments, distance units and scale. Everything you need to take advantage of depth  of field is calculated by this handy application.

Since I always have my iPhone with me things could not be more convenient.

Training Flights

Most wildlife photographers are not fortunate enough to earn their living by pursuing their passion, but that doesn’t mean they are not just as serious about making the most of an opportunity when it arises. The quandary we face is how to maintain the intimate familiarity with our camera equipment that wildlife photography demands when we can’t devote full time to the pursuit.

In my opinion there is little photography more demanding of equipment and the photographer’s familiarity with it than bird photography, particularly birds in flight. Like many endeavors, practice is key. Here in Southeastern Connecticut we are fortunate to have an abundance of osprey. These beautiful birds provide me with my training flights.

I currently shoot with a Canon 1D MarkIII coupled through a 1.4X multiplier to a 600mm f/4.0 lens. All this mounted on a Wimberly head. See my earlier post on the advantages of the Wimberly. Not only have I become familiar with my equipment while practicing on the ospreys, I have also learned, from hours of observation, how to improve my chances of  capturing images .

Large birds like the osprey behave much like aircraft when taking off and landing.

Osprey Landing Into the Wind With Dinner

 If the prevailing wind is in your face, you will have many opportunities for images like the one below. While great practice with your equipment, it hardly makes a satisfying image.

Besides observing the wind direction paying close attention to the the birds behavior can also bring dividends. While watching nesting pairs of osprey I have learned to pay careful attention to the bird in the nest.

Arriving With Dinner

Long before I am aware of the approaching mate, the behavior of  the bird signals its pending arrival. The added warning  gives me the just the time I need to prepare for the incoming landing. I take advantage of the pre-set focus capability of my 600mm lens to quickly prepare the camera for the birds arrival.

Cancun Think Tank

Cancun here I come!

An explanation is required. I work part time for Pro Digital Gear (www.prodigitalgera.com) a sponsor of  Pro4Um (www.pro4um.com). They have organized a get-together in Cancun from June 22nd to June 29th called the “Think Tank”. I will be there to represent Pro Digital Gear.

This will be my first trip to this part of Mexico and I would appreciate input from all on photographic opportunities that I should not miss. Please feel free to post or to contact me by email at info@johnfastphotography.com. Combined with my travel to Arizona for the Digital Imaging Conference in April and my teaching schedule for this month and next it will be easy for me to stay out of trouble.

Digital Imaging Association Conference

The Digital Imaging Association www.digitalassociation.org is holding their annual conference at a resort in Page, Arizona from April 25th to April 29th. I presented a program on soft proofing at their conference held in Paradise, PA last year and had a blast photographing in Amish country. 

Amish Couple- Paradise, PA

 DIA conferences are half day sessions that allow plenty of time for photography in the morning and early evening.

Sunrise in Amish Country- Paradise, PA

I am really looking forward to this year’s conference at which I will  be presenting again. I have spent time in the southwest several years ago and can’t wait to visit some of my favorite national parks again like Bryce, Canyon de Chelly and Arches. Does anyone have suggestions for places I should not miss?

The DIA has arranged for a very special visit to Monumnet Valley including access to areas that are not open to the general public. This should be a great conference! Anyone interested can check out the details on their web site.

End Color Woes in Your Digital Image Work

Contrast Masking in Photoshop

In days long gone (at least they seem so),  creating cibachrome prints from chromes often required the use of a contrast mask to reduce the over-all contrast of the image.

Original Image as captured on chrome film.

Occasionally a digital image can benefit from applying a contrast mask. On a trip to Mexico several years ago I captured this image of Mexican children at a festival. It was high noon under a blazing sun and no fill flash. The resulting chrome was very contrasty.

Mimicking the contrast masking procedure used when making prints from cibachromes I first create a duplicate of the image in Photoshop (Image->Duplicate) and arrange a tiled view of the original and duplicate image. The duplicate image is then converted to a grayscale.  (Image->Mode->Grayscale). The resulted is shown in Step 1.

STEP 1 The image has been duplicated and the duplicate converted to a grayscale.

 
Step 2 inverts the grayscale to comlpete the creation of the contrast mask as seen below. (Image->Adjsutments->Invert)

Step 2 The duplicate image has been inveretd to complete the contraast mask.

Pin registration of the mask and the original is accomplished by selecting the inverted grayscale image and while holding down the shift key, dragging it onto the original. The result is shown in Step 3 below.

Step 3 The Inveretd grayscale image has been positoned as a layer over the original

Step 4 changes the blending mode of the contrast mask from normal to overlay resulting in the effect of applying the contrast mask as shown below.

Step 4 The contrast mask has been applied to the contrasty image

The last step is to adjsut the opacity of the contarst mask layer to create a pleasing result. My final choice for this image was 86%. Below are the before and after images.

Original Image as captured on chrome film.

Final after applying the contrast mask and adjsuting the opacity of the contrats mask layer