Gerry Kerr Photography

Local Contrast

Gerry — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 23:43:10 +0000

A technique I often use to enhance local contrast is some relatively unusual unsharp mask. Our normal attempt at contrast is to use the contrast tool, levels or curves. This adjustments kill detail in the shadows and highlights.

This is an image a I took a year ago in Scotland at the entrance to the Isle of Skye ( some people might recognise it as the castle from Highlander!). A pleasent enough image even if it lacks contrast! and … we ignore the gatepost on the left of the image.

This version of the image has had standard contrast added by adding a contrast adjustment layer. While this can improve the overall contrast of the image – its a bit of a blunt instrument and does not really do anything for the hills or the castle. Even in the mid tone areas like the wall, this contrast adjustment does not do anything for the stone details.

The setting can vary a little, but typically the amount is between 20% and 40% withe radius set between 50 and 150 pixels. This will have the effect of making the contrast between shadows and highlights appear broader ( and give your image the appearance of greater dynamic range)

This is the finished image. The effect is relatively subtle but it is a dramatic improvement on the original image. (still does not fix the gatepost though). By the way, this does not preclude your normal sharpening process – whichever one you might use.

Intensifying image contrast & colour

Gerry — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:20:30 +0000

Modern Digital cameras are very prone to delivering very flat, low contrast images, particularly if you shoot RAW (and you really should be shooting raw). There are lots of ways to deal with this from simply boosting contrast, adjusting levels to the deep dark secrets of Curves and curves adjustments. Each of these techniques have their place and there are images with which these techniques work perfectly. My particular preference in portraits is for a more intense look that I could not achieve using any of these techniques and the following is a workflow I have come up with which gives me images I am happy with.

This is an image of an indian man I photographed in New Delhi a couple of years ago. The image appeals to me on a number of levels; the expression on the mans face, the weight of years evident in the lines of his face and the sadness in his eyes. I was not very happy with the intensity of the colours not the contrast in the image.

Step one for me was to duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to soft light. Soft light has a similar effect to overlay mode but just not as strong. Depending on your tastes, you can also change the opacity to reduce the intensity of the effect. In addition, to increase the intensity, just create a third layer with its opacity also set Soft Light.

Finally, I “sharpen” the image using a hi-pass filter. To do this, first add a new copy layer (the keyboard shortcut for this is CTRL+J). Then go to filter |Other| High-Pass. At this point, the image should go uniform grey. Slowly adjust the slider until detail starts to show through. The high pass radius setting you want will depend on the intensity of the sharpening you want to add – don’t be afraid to experiment to play with different looks.

This is the final image! You can click on any of the images to see a larger version of the image and see the effects more clearly.

Fixing flash highlights in portraiture

Gerry — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 22:17:36 +0000

I love taking pictures of people all over the world. I use flash a lot (almost always in fact) in my street photography and I usually end up with burnt out highlights on the subjects face. The image I am going to use as an example is of an old woman from a village in eastern Uganda taken in 2008.

Like a lot of photography in Africa, particularly during the day, the harsh African sun is a challenge and flash certainly helps balance the shadow areas of the image. With the original of this image, the lips were affected more than any other part of the image.

Like most problems with digital images, this is fixable in Photoshop! An the good news is that its relatively quick and easy. All that is needed is a second layer and a basic understanding of layer blending modes.

Blending modes in photoshop simply change the way that stacked layers affect each other and thus the resulting image. In this case we are going to use the darken blend mode. At its simplest, the top layer only affects the botton layer if the top layer is darker than the bottom layer – Perfect for what we are trying to do in fact.

So…

Add a new layer by clicking on the new layer icon or pressing “Shift+CTRL+N”

Change the blend mode for the new layer from normal to “Darken”

Click on the colour picker tool and choose a colour close to the colour you need. This is does not have to be exact, as long as the tone is correct and it is darker than the area you are trying to mask. Next, choose a soft brush and click on the top layer and paint in the blown highlight areas – there is no need to be overly careful. The result (image on right) looks pretty awful at this point but a change to the opacity shout fix this.

Changing the opacity will reduce the obvious touch up and allow the textures of the lips to shine through.

The end result is a pleasing tone matching the underlying colour without any blown highlights.

The trick with this technique is to use a different layer for each affected part of the image. The degree of opacity change needed will change depending on the area being treated and is much easier to control on individual layers.

A Light in the Forest | Conservation Magazine

Gerry — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:28:52 +0000

This is a very interesting article on a company in the US that havs figured out a way to generate electricity directly from trees. The technique takes advantage of an acidity difference between the trees and the soil – the greater the difference the greater the voltage output.

Now, all I need is a way to hook my camera & flash to a tree…..

See the full article here:

A Light in the Forest | Conservation Magazine.

Irish Horse fairs

Gerry — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:45:51 +0000

I went to a horse fair in the west of ireland yesterday. Set in the middle of nowhere, in west Galway, this is a one day event that as far as I could see was over by 3 pm. Boy, was it like stepping back in time. The fair is literally a cross roads where one of the side roads gets closed for the day.

From what I could see, everything was on sale – horses, ponies, donkeys, small welsh ponies, tiny connemara ponies, dogs, cats, puppies, chickens, pigs, even ducks (I have to admit that the ducks looked like they were swimming wild on a lake till the day before). For a lot of rural, isolated farmers this seems to be their big day out. Hundreds of casual traders had also set up stalls selling everything from horse saddles to pillows and clothes.

Anyway, my main interest was the people and while there were a high number of people who did not want to be photographed, there were enough to make it more than worth the day out. The first images I’ve processed are in the “Faces of Ireland” gallery

For now, one of my favourites is this one:

Site redesign…

Gerry — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:25:27 +0000

I just completed a site re-design over the last few days ( easy really using wordpress templates). There may be one or two small inconsistencies as I tidy up the site, please bear with me as I clean up the lats bits

Gerry

The home project on iPhone

Gerry — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 11:35:53 +0000

For anyone wishing to follow the details of the home project by Yann Arthus Bertrand -there is now a free iPhone app to do just that.

Just search the app store for home project and install.

Enjoy

Gerry

Are we getting it wrong?

Gerry — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:36:20 +0000

Are we getting it wrong? Almost everything I read today focuses on climate change and global warming and our efforts to control our nett carbon output. But…. I think our focus is in the wrong place!

Let me explain.

In 1970, the world population was approx 4 billion, today its roughtly 7 billion. Thats nearly a doubling of the population and I believe that population growth is the real problem we need to focus on, global warming is merely a symptom. I have yet to see a single public figure green or otherwise mention this particular engine of global warming, instead we focus on carbon emissions, replacements for oil and coal – anywhere but at the true source of the problem.

One of the big difficulties is that any real attempt to control the world population will require drastic changes to the way international co-operation works, never mind the problem of getting organisations like the Catholic Church to promote the idea of birth control.

However, the implications of doing nothing are pretty dramatic. Uncontrolled population growth in the natural world usualy results in an abrupt and nasty correction to reset the number back to a sustainable level. We do not have to look at the natural world; The mayan culture of South America existed aroung 2000 bc to 1500 bc. and a number of theories about their dissapearance relates to resource depletion. One theory postulates that extensive forest clearance resulted in an extended drought. The general population took this as a sign that the rulers fell out of favour with the gods and revolted, ending that civilization.

Links and background

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/337/jul24_2/a576

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/4990704/Nobody-listens-to-the-real-climate-change-experts.html

http://www.thebulletin.org/web-edition/roundtables/population-and-climate-change

Uganda – Kamuli and Plan International

Gerry — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:34:07 +0000

After the chimps we undertook the relatively long trek to Kamuli. One of the reasons we travelled to Uganda in the first place was to visit a village in Kamuli. The previous year, Merv, the other mad photographer on the trip had visited Kamuli and seeing the state of the water source for a village had raised (with some help) the money needed to drill a well for the Village. The drilling of the well and the management of the well was organised by Plan International, the childrens charity.

Plan set up a village committee to maintain and protect the well. The well itself is a simple manual pump. The clean water, easily available is in stark contrast to the grey dirty water previously available to the village. The committee was very well organised and everyone had a designated role in the maintenance of the system.

The trip is pretty much right across the country from Kibale to Jinja via Kampala. We stayed overnight in Jinja and met the Plan people the following morning. We travelled to Kamuli and onto to the village. I have to say, this was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. The difference something so basic made to peoples lives makes me realise how lucky we are in the west and how petty some of our complaints are.

As part of the trip, we visited the Plan offices and a number of their school projects. The commitment of the Plan people was very impressive as was their connection and empathy with the people they worked with. This is a charity I will certainly be supporting in the future.

Butende Parish Bore-hole committee

The day was a revelation both in terms of how ordinary people in Uganda live and how Plan makes a difference in their lives. I came away from Kamuli with a new perspective on the world and my own faily petty complaints and a determination to do something here to help.

Watch this space for details on what we plan to do in the Kamuli area

The Home project

Gerry — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:30:10 +0000

On June 5th 2009, a film will be released worldwide. It is being released without copyright, without restrictions of any kind – nobody is making money from this film. It is about our collective home, our planet.

The person behind this film is a french photographer,one of the worlds great wildlife & natural world photographers and one of my photographic heros; Yann Arthus-Bertrand. An introduction to the project and a preview of the film is available in the embedded movie clip below.

As you might expect, the photography in this is stunning and the message a stark one.

The movie (and information about the movie & the project behiond it) will be available to watch on the web from tomorrow at:

http://www.home-2009.com/us/index.html