Happy New Year of the Horse

Today is first day of the Chinese New Year, Year of the Horse.
The Horse is a free spirit, born to race and travel. Today, we bring you an photo of horses rushing towards you to bring you health, wealth and joy throughout the year.

Happy New Year!
Gong Xi Fa Tsai!
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10 Tips to Take Winter Travel Photos

Did you know that the coldest time of the year is from mid January to mid February? While some choose to stay at home and edit photos, winter provides plenty creative photo opportunities, from snow covered-landscapes, arctic wildlife to winter sports, they are all favored among photographers. The only drawback is getting out of your warm and cozy home or car. So, here are some tips we have collected to help you brave the cold and get the most of your winter travel photos.

1. Avoid Moisture Condensation on Your Camera

Keeping your camera cold avoids fogging the lenses and viewfinder because moisture does not condense on your camera when you move from warm cozy rooms or cars to cold outdoor air. The problem is when you go back indoors. So, once your camera is in open air, you don’t have to keep it in your jacket.

When you head back indoors, put your camera in a plastic bag or cover it with a towel. Moisture condensation will settle on the outside of the bag or towel instead of on the camera. Place your camera in a cool location away from the heater for a couple of hours until it rises up to room temperature. This way you can protect the electronic parts of your camera.
 
2. Keep the Batteries Warm

Cold weather drains battery power. Make sure you carry extra batteries in your pocket and keep them close to your body. A good practice is to swap batteries. If you notice the battery in your camera is waning out, replace it with the warm battery in your pocket. The power will return when you warm the cold battery in your pocket.

3. Get the Right Exposure

Taking photos of snow can be tricky. Some cameras can not capture the white correctly. If you find snow look grayish in your photos, increase the exposure compensation by +0.3 to +0.7, you will be able to capture the pure whiteness of snow. There are times I like to keep a bluish cold look for the snow, against a warm colors of the trees, houses or even a person.

4. Winter Minimalist Photographs

Winter is the best time of the year for outdoor minimalist photography. The landscape is covered with snow and the sky is a solid grey, any subject you photograph will stand out. It’s amazing how the art of less can create powerful images.

5. Create high-key photographs

A foggy, miserable winter day can give you the best opportunity to create up-lifting high-key images. Snow-covered lands are nature’s backdrop for high-key portrait, wild-life or landscape photography.

6. Capture Winter Activities

In the winter time, light intensity is limited. In order to freeze action with winter sports, you'll need to dial up your ISO (depending on the weather or light condition) or use lenses with a large aperture at least 2.8 or wider.

7. Shoot at dawn or dusk

The golden hours are the best time for winter landscape photography. The warm light of the skies combined with the cold blue tones of snow create magical visuals.

8. Embrace Abstracts

Look for shapes, shadows, patterns, colors and contrasts. They make interesting abstracts or subjects to tell a winter tale.

9. Keep Yourself Warm

Be prepared to face the wind and cold. Dress in layers, invest in good hats, boots and gloves, especially if you are venturing out in the wild. Speaking of gloves, I always carry at least 2 pairs, a thin one for dexterity and the thick pair for insulation when it gets really cold.

10. Edit Your Photos

Never delete your photos on site. It’s hard to tell from the tiny preview panel on the camera. Instead bring a lot of memory cards and after you get home preview your photos using the workflow software, PhotoDirector. Its organizing features let you pick and categorize photos in a very efficient manner.

You can also use PhotoDirector to fix white balance, improve overcast skies, remove blue hues, bring out colors, reduce noise, and most common problems in winter photography.

New to PhotoDirector? Click here to learn more.

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That Tree - an iPhone photo journal

Photographer Mark Hirsch started a year-long project documenting an ancient Bur Oak tree near his home in Platteville, Wisconsin by using his new iPhone. Pursuing this project for Mark was a real challenge, for he had lived a fast-pace life of a photo journalist and being used to professional gears. But Mark committed himself to take on this cool project and posted the images on Facebook every day with new angles and fresh perspectives of That Tree.

The story behind Mark's motives to carry on this project is touching. What Mark has learned is also a good lesson for us. Some time, we have to slow down, be more patience, dedicated and appreciate the world around us. No wonder, at its core a simple project can be appreciated by so many followers.

Now, that the year has past, Mark has developed his project into a beautiful book - That Tree.
Check our Mark's website of That Tree

Turn Color Landscape Images into Infrared Photography

Traditional black & white infrared photography uses films that are sensitive to wavelengths between 700 to 900 nm range. Because the range is invisible to human eyes, it creates a fascinating eerie beauty of infrared photography.

To create these images, you can add filters over digital cameras to block infrared wavelengths or alter your existing camera. Both ways will cost extra investment. A third alternative, is to use software to simulate infrared effects using PhotoDirector. While there are many styles of infrared photography, this tutorial will guide you through a classic one:

• Turn the green foliage to snowy white with a ghostly glow
• The blue skies and water range from dark grey to black.

 To start with, this is the original photo of linden trees.

 

 

 

In PhotoDirector, convert the image to black and white.

 

 

Adjust the color channels by increasing yellow and green and decreasing blue, violet and red.

 

Shift the color temperature to blue to increase darkness in the sky.

 

Adjust tones to bring out the glow of the foliage.

 

 

The final image:

 

 

If you like this type of infrared photography, the preset can be downloaded from Directorzone here.

 

 

New to PhotoDirector? Try it free for 30 days here.

 

 

 

 

 



CyberLink releases PhotoDirector 5 Deluxe

 

 

CyberLink announces a new version in the award-winning PhotoDirector family -- PhotoDirector 5 Deluxe, available at $59.99.

 

PhotoDirector 5 Deluxe is packed with various easy-to-use photo editing features from PhotoDirector family at once, including content-aware removal, people beautifier tools, HDR effect and tons of photo presets. PhotoDirector 5 Deluxe integrates photo management, adjustment, editing and sharing into one intuitive workflow.

Read the complete news release here.
Learn more about PhotoDirector 5 Deluxe
 

FRIDAY FUN - Time Travel with Photos

Simply loved this genius photo project idea from Chino Utsuka, a photographer who discovered the art of time travel. She simply inserted herself in old photographs from her childhood, as if she is meeting with the child she once was.

    "If, again, I have a chance to meet, there is so much to ask and so much I want to tell."

Check out more of her time travel photos on Chino Utsuka's website

Blend a knight in your travel photo

Often times we come across pictures of teddy bears, figurines or Blythe dolls on the beach, in the forest or anywhere except at home. It is a fun activity to do but you will need to bring the figurine with you. What if you have a large collection that it is impossible take them all with you everywhere you go. Well, here is a tutorial how you can create a photo composition to blend a figurine in your photo using PhotoDirector.

First choose the background photo that you want the figurine to be in. In this tutorial, I have chosen a landscape photo that was taken in a travel to Iceland.

Next, take a picture of the knight in against a clean background. Having a clean background will help you extract the figurine easily using PhotoDirector. When taking the picture, make sure the light is in the same direction as in the landscape photo.

Now import the pictures to the library. Make necessary tonal adjustments to the photos if needed. Next step is to extract the knight from the background.

Select “Edit” and from the Tools on the left side select “Remove Background”

Now there are two ways to trace the contour of the figurine, either by the brush tool or markee. Both tools give you a quick way to make selections as they automatically detect the borders. You can do a quick brush over or selection at first, however, it is recommended that you enlarge the image (at least 300%) to refine the borders.

Use the [+] brush to add pixels and [-] brush to remove pixels. If it is too bothersome to change brushes, press on the [Alt] key to change brushes.

This tool allows you to either remove the foreground or background. In this tutorial, we will select “Remove Background”. Imagine you have cut out the figurine from a piece of paper, and now you can stick it to any background.

Save the image to a picture folder, you will notice that the image will be saved in a png file. Then, exit the “Remove Background” interface.

Now select the landscape photo and click on “Photo Composer” in the “Edit” tab.

Click on “Add image” button to select the figurine. It will appear as a tiny image, but you can enlarge it. Make sure the opacity is set to 100%.

The knight is enlarged such that the helmet is against the sky to give it better contrast and attention. As a rule of thumb, when taking a portrait it’s good practice to avoid a horizontal line in the background behind the neck.

As a final touch, use the brush tool to burn the ground to create a shadow of the knight and his horse.

And the final image:

Now, go through your photos and find one that you can blend a figurine, or even yourself in the photo.

New to PhotoDirector? Try it free for 30 days here.

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Harry Potter's Snowy Owls

A few days ago, news being spread that Snowy owls have been spotted far south of their usual range in the boreal forest this winter. The birds have been heading south in large numbers. These rare birds had been spotted as far south as Texas, Florida and California, surprising and delighting bird watchers and photographers.

Let it snow

For those living in the northern hemisphere, don't let the weather keep you from outdoor photo shoots, the landscape is beautiful covered in snow.