Glyphs of Time :: a blog by jarvis grant

December 20, 2011

Eddie Tapp: Image Rescue Webinar

This webinar is part of x-rite’s educational series of color management webinars. I found that this webinar was extremely informative, and clear approach to understanding how to correct image color problems. This video by Eddie Tapp is about one hour long, but moves quickly. Definitely worth a bookmark.

Webinar: Image Rescue for Problem Files with Eddie Tapp! from X-Rite Photo on Vimeo.

 
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The Adobe InDesign Online Cheat Sheet

Filed under: Digital Tech,Education,How-To — Tags: , , — Jarvo @ 12:46 pm

I have found that sometimes the best and fastest way to get to info that I need is to post it on my own blog! Here’s a great resource I found on Terry White’s blog. The Adobe InDesign Cheat Sheets.

Complete List of InDesign Shortcuts

Courtesy of Business Stationery

 
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November 26, 2011

Guest Blogger – Terry deBardelaben: Zhang Chun Hong at National Portrait Gallery

Zhang Hong at the NPG in DC

Zhan Chun Hong at the National Portrait Gallery, ©Terry deBardelaben

I was struck by Zhang Chun Hongs’ presence and what appeared, at the time to be, a woman in “command of her gallery”.  Tall, statuesque, stately, demure, and stunning. Words that I would use to describe Zhang Chun Hong. I happened upon Zhang Chun when she was being physically prepped- surrounded by technicians, for her 2:00PM presentation at the National Portrait Gallery’s Portraiture Now: Asian  American Portraits of Encounter exhibit.

After briefly speaking with the artist before strolling with her to her space I found Jhang to be friendly and very engaging.  She broke the ice by approaching us – Jarvis Grant and I.  At the beginning of her talk she began telling a very classical story of migration and change.  Information about how the artist gave birth to her renown symbolic portraits …streaming charcoal drawings mounted on white scrolls, which give her work a commanding and stately traditional presentation.

Zhang Chun Hong, Artist with Terry deBardelaben at the National Portrait Gallery

Zhang Chun Hong and Terry deBardelaben at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. ©Jarvis Grant

Zhang Chun Hong’s work, on the surface, appeared ultra feminine.  After all, hair— every girl’s nightmare, desire, obsession and preoccupation WAS the focal point.  Yet, while I gazed at the striking portraits…I began to think about the bombarding questions provoked by the –black streaming, long flowing meticulously presented hair. But also, I wondered about the artists’ hair-… (Zhang stands approximately six feet tall with hair reaching down to her thighs). The obvious questions pertaining to…hair maintenance, hair care, length of time it takes to grow hair that long, the process associated with washing  and drying extra long hair, etc. etc. And Oh, had she ever considered cutting her hair, do her sisters, mother and aunts have long hair?   I wondered why in some cultures hair is
“ associated with life force, sexual energy, growth, and beauty”.  Why people question the beauty of women with bald or shaven heads?   I found myself wondering whether or not Zhang Chun or Hong Zhang as she is known in the US was attempting to make some sort of feminist statement that went beyond the politics of hair.  Perhaps her motivation was more about the dominance of the physicality of hairs’ impact on culture, gender and tradition.  So-oo, when Hong Zhang began speaking, I hung on to her every utterance.

Her autobiographical work, visually communicated her story was yet conveyed in an extremely intimate setting conducive to the confines of the gallery space.  The portraits, wood flooring and small gathering lent itself well to creating an environ that complimented the artists words and story telling allure.  Hong Zhang was humorous- recanting funny vignettes about the impact of language and culture on her life.  She has a very interesting personal history about her artist DNA.  She and her twin were both painters, winners of art competitions and to some measure are predisposed to being artist since both parents are art professors.  Before she arrived in Atlanta from Beijing in 1996 with her twin sister, she attended boarding school. They ate their meals together and spent a considerable amount of time together. She is left-handed and her sister right.  Other boarders were always fascinated by how much they seemed like one person when they sat eating side by side – one using the left hand and the other the right.  It tied in perfectly with her triptych of herself, her twin and the older sister.  Mind you these sculpture like portraits exaggerate the length and flow of the dark illumination of the hair, which at times makes one feel as though they are in the presence of statues.  Statues with their backs turned only allowing the viewer to engage the posterior view of the hair –with the slightest suggestion of a head.  However the unmistakable visual dominance of the composition is the hair…each strand articulated with precise clean lines.

Hong spoke of her East/West triptych having both a Renaissance and Chinese presentation.  In traditional Chinese paintings Jhang said that his advisors always flank the emperor.  In Jhang Chuns’ triptych –her older sister has the center portrait, and like a traditional Chinese painting which depicts the military advisor to the emperors’ left she symbolically presented her hair twisted toward the because she often took on the role as the fighter-protecting and coming to the aid of her twin.

As Hong stood in front of each portrait she transformed the space with warmth and insight about her life.  The behind the scene story of her journey to this country and her constant reference to her work gave those in attendance a brief look at the artist as conveyed through her own lenses.

Terry deBardelaben,
Artist, Educator and Researcher

Jarvis Grant photographing Zhang Hong at the National Portarit Gallery, ©

Jarvis Grant photographing Zhang Hong at the National Portrait Gallery, ©Terry deBardelaben

Zhang Chun Hong, Artist

Zhang Chun Hong, Artist, ©Jarvis Grant

 
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October 4, 2011

Photoshop’s Content Aware Fill: The Agony & the Ecstasy

When Adobe’s Photoshop CS5 was introduced, its biggest marketing ploy…uh I mean creative feature was Content Aware Fill. This feature allows you make a selection around some visual annoyance and like magic Photoshop will fill the selection with whatever is around or near the object in question. So if someone should walk in front of you while taking a photo, you can eliminate them using Content Aware Fill. Now in the old days of film, you would simple wait for a clear shot, but that’s so old skool!

So why Agony & Ecstasy? Some of you may remember that 1965 big budget film The Agony & the Ecstasy with Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison: Pope Julius II. In a nutshell, The Pope wants sculptor Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, while Michelangelo wanted to sculpt the Pope’s tomb. So because the Pope had the power, he made a sculptor paint! And on his back 50 feet above the floor! It’s the same old story, corporate demands against designer vision, the marketing department’s messages against the design department’s voice. What’s all this got to do the Content Aware Fill? Adobe’s marketing department pushes feature sets to the weakest or newest users of their flagship product, Photoshop. Pushing fetures that “fix” apposed to features that “create”. This content aware feature is powerful when used as a creative tool. Here’s one way.

In this example, I’ll use Fig.1. Normally, we would use the, Content Aware Fill (CAF), to get rid of some out of place element, like the building to the right. Here I’ll use the couple walking on the sidewalk. First, I’ll use the Quick Selection Tool to select the couple. Just a Note: CAF does not “create” content, it replicates content found near the selection. I choose the walking couple because they were on the grassy plane. I didn’t choose the person in front of the bus top because Photoshop would not be able to Create the missing segments of the bus shop. For best results, after the selection is made go to Select/Modify/Expand and choose about 4-16 pixels. When this is done Photoshop will compare those pixels inside of the selections border with those near the outside of its selection border. It will take that information and guess at what should be on the inside. Once we have the selection hold Shift/F5 to bring up the CAF dialog box (Fig.3), and click OK, and like magic, the couple is gone. Now, there’s always a little Stamp (Clone) Tool cleanup, but 90% of the work is done (Fig.4).

Slideshow:
Fullscreen:
Okay, now when I took this photo, the subject was the sky and those beautiful lush clouds. I wanted the clouds that were near the horizon and didn’t want to lose them by tilting the camera higher. I then suddenly thought of CAF! Get rid of everything except the clouds. This should work great on an organic fractal pattern element like clouds. When I got back to the studio, I tried it and it worked like a charm Fig. #5 – #10. I simply selected the bottom of the image with the Lasso Tool and hit Shift/F5. I thought I was done because I just want some cloud pictures as elements with other photos., so I tried it again. This time I hit Ctrl +J (Cmd+J for Mac) and created a duplicate layer of the original shot. On Layer 1 I did that CAF magic. Now for fun, I made a layer mask (FIG.6) and brought back the person walking on the sidewalk along with their shadow. This looked natural because all the lighting was the same!

This was looking pretty good, but something was missing. The story was almost there, this person walking in the clouds needed a destination or something, so I added a Moon. This planet was made in Photoshop using Flaming Pear’s LunaCell plug-in filter. LunaCell creates instant planets. Fractal, reality-based, or start from scratch to make strange new worlds. I got a couple of atmospheric moon already and just added one using the Blend Mode of Screen.

Slideshow:
Fullscreen:

By thinking of creating an image not fixing a photo, I was able to turn a gorgeous day in Washington, DC, from urban landscape into a Dreamscape. In part with the help and power of Content Aware Fill and a little personal vision.

The Dream Catcher

The final image with all of its new elements in place, ©Jarvis Grant

All images & rights. ©Jarvis Grant

 
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September 21, 2011

Nikon 1 System: Has Nikon finally got small right?

 Nikon1 Series

The Nikon1 Series Family of Products

Nikon has introduced the Nikon 1  camera system. Not to be out done by Olympus, Panasonic, and Ricoh, Nikon has produced a small sensor, mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera system. These cameras are targeting photography enthusiast who want to actually learn photography and step-up from their point & shoot camera. The system is also trying to woo pro photographers who want a serious camera with interchangeable lens that don’t  weigh a ton and are small & agile.

First there’s the Nikon J1. This 10 megapixel camera is design with the photo enthusiast in mind.  It’s got a bunch of pro features, yet its interface is closer to the familiar point & shoot model this photographer may be used to. It also has a couple of “dangerous” features! I consider a feature dangerous when the camera ports to be smarter than the human being using it. One such feature is , Smart Photo Selector. If you’re too dumb to choose which shot is best, the camera will make the selection for you! The subject’s head is down or turned from the lens? Hmmm…that must be a mistake! Let’s (the camera) delete it. Nikon marketing experts say, “With a single touch using Smart Photo Selector there are no more imperfect photos.” Yeah, right. Well, if you want it comes in different colors, like pink, with lenses to match!

Nikon 1 J1

Nikon 1 J1 in Red

Ok, next is the big brother , the Nikon 1 V1. Again this is a 10 megapixel camera with a few extra “pro” features. It has an electronic viewfinder, a hot shoe, Nikon i-TTL flash metering utilizing the Nikon Creative Lighting System, with both an electronic & mechanical shutter with speeds as low as 30 seconds, and the option of adding an external mic when shooting HD video. It looks to be quite interesting. At least on paper. Only comes in black, thank God!

Both cameras have the new Nikon CX sensor. This sensor is smaller that the Nikon DX sensor and the four-thirds senor. Yet, it’s bigger than the normal point & shoot camera sensors. This should up the ante on image quality without packing in a bunch of false megapixel numbers. At least for the time being. Both cameras also shoot HD 1920 X 1080/60i video with a HDMI output, but no HDMI cable in the box. They also come with Nikon’s low end viewer software which can “edit” stills and video. Hey Nikon you could have done a little better here. Like offer Adobe Photoshop/Premier Elements. Or offer a stand alone computer capture module. Oh well!

Nikon V1

Nikon 1 V1 in Basic Black

Still there’s one feature these cameras have that I think is really cool, The Motion Snapshot. With the Motion Snapshot, when you take a picture it captures a tiny video. It reminds of Star Trek Voyager, where they had digital picture frames that had just a little bit of motion to them. Pretty slick!

Nikon CX  Sensor

The orange rectangle is the Nikon CX Sensor

Now, I’m a Nikon shooter. I first real camera was a 1965 Nikon F. I’ve always bought Nikon, until my first point & shoot Nikon. It was a piece of junk. Than I bought a second one a bit higher on the food chain, it was a piece of crap too. Both cameras just simply fell apart From that I said “Never again!”.  My final point & shoot 35mm camera was a Leica Mini-Lux Zoom. Now that was (and still is) a camera! Then I experimented. I bought some Nikon CoolPix for my school (Ellington School of the Arts in DC). Was not impressed. So now, I’m looking for an interchangeable small digital camera and this Nikon1  V1 could be it. But if Nikon has come up with this, Canon can not be far behind. Both Nikon and Canon, who are the traditional Camera Giants, are still playing technology catch-up with, the new kids on the block, Olympus (who’s not that new!), Panasonic, Sony and Ricoh. Hey, things are starting to get interesting!

 
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September 14, 2011

Amtrak Northeast Regional: Part 1

Amtrak Northeast Regional Map

My route from Washington, DC Union Station to New Rochelle, NY.

I’ve been traveling on Amtrak since I was in college in the early 1970s. During those days the train only stopped at New York Penn Station. Now Amtrak’s Northeast Regional,  stops a little closer to my hometown of Mt. Vernon, NY at New Rochelle, NY. So, for the past three years I’ve been going up to New York on a more regular bases, about 5 times a year. Checking in on my Mom and my daughter, Maya. Now, Maya grew up in DC, but has recently moved up to New York to live her dream of being an artist and helping her Grandma. She’s really making a go of it and is doing better at it then in DC. I find that interesting because DC is a smaller creative market than New York, and a bit easier to break into. But New York is more progressive and a real art town.

Okay, now during all those years of riding the train, I would a photograph here and there, no big deal. Spent most of the ride sleeping. During the past three years I got a really nice point & shoot digital camera, the Panasonic Lumix LX3.  The camera is small, fast and pocketable with a wide angle f/2.0 Leica zoom lens. This camera allows me to shoot more pictures, about the equivalent of 7 rolls of film, on a two gigabyte memory card. I love it. Very surprised with the images I’ve been producing with during my mini train journeys.  I also carry an extra memory card and battery. That’s almost a brick of film, for those who remember film bricks!

Now a few things have been happening. The first is that I’ve been becoming more familiar with the scenic’s of the trip. Though I’ve become familiar with the views, I’m not familiar  enough to setup and be ready to take a shot. A lot is still hit and miss. A little more miss than hit it turns out! Still I’m learning how to get better shots. After all, I can’t ask the conductor to stop the train or slow it down. So I’ve worked out a methodology for shooting. It goes something like this. I tend to anticipate a photo. As we approach the scene, I’ll ten decide to push the shutter or not. If not and I feel I should have, that composition I missed will go into my mental archive of possibilities. As this archive grows, the potential of making a good shot increases. So I’ll miss “that” shot, but the possibility of something similar appearing again down the track or during another trip increases.

Conductor on the Amtrak Northeast Regional

Conductor on the Amtrak Northeast Regional, leaving New Rochelle, NY on to Boston. ©Jarvis Grant

The next thing that happens when photographing out the window is camera handling. When a stretch of scenery seems promising I turn the camera on so it will be ready to go. Hey the camera is fast, but it’s still a point & shoot. When I firat point the camera out the window, it takes the sensor/light meter about three seconds to adjust to the change of light and become operable, and another 2-3 seconds to focus (if I’m lucky). A lot can pass by in 6 seconds as the train speeds on. I also set the camera to “Burst Mode” so it can keep taking pictures and give be more options of a scene. The downside of Burst Mode, is the camera takes time to process those photos. During that processing time the camera can’t take any new images. Finally, if it’s bright, I put the camera on “Program” so I don’t have to think about exposure and other camera stuff. As it gets darker, I go to Manual Mode or Shutter Priority. More techno thinking and a little less esthetic thinking. Still, it’s all good fun, which is the bottom line along with having new photos.

Within this body of work there are a few thematic series. Below are a few sample images. I’m still working all these images out, sifting and sorting them out. So, in future post, I’ll share what I’ve been doing with these photos as I continue to ride the rails on the Northeast Regional.

Crossing the Bay between Philly and Wilmington

Crossing the Bay between Philly and Wilmington. ©Jarvis Grant

 

Traveler checking the time board at Newark, NJ Penn Station. ©Jarvis Grant

Traveler checking the time board at Newark, NJ Penn Station. ©Jarvis Grant

 

New Rochelle Station at Twilight. ©Jarvis Grant

New Rochelle Station at Twilight. ©Jarvis Grant

 
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August 24, 2011

The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff

John Coltrane by Francis Wolff

John Coltrane by Francis Wolff during the recording of "Blue Train", ©Mosaic Images

During the 1950’s and 60’s Francis Wolff was the “official” photographer of Blue Note Records.  He was at every recording session making photographs. So as it turns out Wolff became the visual archivist of Blue Note Records. These sessions took place in the living room studio of Rudy Van Gelder. A fact that I find absolutely incredible! In a shot of Miles Davis between takes you can see some of the living room furniture and television. Amazing! You can check out the book, Blue Note Jazz Photography by Francis Wolff. This link is to the soft cover edition on Amazon.

To find out more, but not all, check out this video over at Mosaic Records were Michael Cuscuna speaks to the and about the Jazz Photographs of Francis Wolff.

 
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August 22, 2011

Red River Paper Pro: Jarvis Grant

This past week I officially became a Red River Paper Pro. I have been using Red River Paper for about 10 years. It’s a great inkjet paper that comes in many varieties of surfaces, and sizes. I first started using the Premium 37lb Matte in 17×22 sheets and 17 in rolls for projects at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington DC. As a member of the Museum Studies department faculty, I choose this paper as an alliterative to Epson’s Enhanced Matte paper. First, because it was a lot cheaper than the epson stuff, and then I started to notice that the Red River paper didn’t turn yellow at the same rate that the Epson paper did. Then as papers were getting harder to obtain at local photography dealers, I decided to switch totally to Red River products.

OK back to me! When I saw that Red River had this pro section, I sent them an email to see how to be a member of the club. Drew Hendrix responded and gave me the details of the procedure. I sent the info and samples, and it was a go. I was then put in touch with  the editor, Arthur  Bleich. He made the final selection on the image to be used. He choose the image from the intro of the the Botanical Gallery of my web site. I offered another option, Three Black-eye Susans, but he wanted the image, Blowin’ Flower, because of its “elaborate” lighting and “action”. He was surprised that the dandelion picture wasn’t as elaborate a setup as he thought. I used a scanner to take this action shot!

So, please stop by the Jarvis Grant Red River Pro page and check it out. Thanks!

Three Black Eyed Susans

The image I waoffered as an option, "Three Black Eyed Susans", ©Jarvis Grant

 

Blowin Flower #4

The images used on my Red River Pro page, Blowin' Flower #4, ©Jarvis Grant

 
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August 16, 2011

Adobe: Contemplating the Muse

Adobe Muse web site homepage

Adobe Muse web site homepage

Adobe has released the beta of their new web design application, Muse. This new Adobe app is yet another in its line of web design sans-code tools. Muse is totted to be a tool to, “Create websites as easily as you create layouts for print. You can design and publish original HTML pages to the latest web standards without writing code”. Similar to Adobe Catalyst for designing interactive Flash design without using ActionScript, and Adobe Edge  for designing content & animation using HTML 5 , Javascript, and CSS.  Muse is definitely worth a look see. In fact the whole Adobe Muse site was created using Muse. One other interesting note is that Muse is built upon Adobe’s AIR platform.

With all of this techno wizardry, there is something different with Adobe Muse brings to the party. This little piece of Adobe real estate, while still in beta, presents on its web site a tab for Pricing. What the tab delivers to you is Adobe’s new software subscription model. Instead of the usual flat rate, it offers you the choice of the “Month to Month Plan” or the “Yearly Plan”.  Now this isn’t new that new. Adobe has been pushing this idea for several months. Actual since the “release” of Creative Suite CS5.5. So, you don’t want to shell out $600 for Photoshop? Okay, you can rent it for $30 a month, which puts you a little over the “upgrade” pricing. This idea is not going away, and for some users it does make since. You’re only using Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat Pro in the Creative Suite? That’s about $30 bucks a month on the Year Plan OR $50 bucks Month to Month. Only need AfterEffects for a few months? That’s about $70 per month.Still if you do the math you’re a little better off buying the box. Still, it is a option, and once more people buy into the idea of software subscription, the prices should drop.

So what Adobe Muse offers to designers is a way to design for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, without mucking around with code. The interesting thing is that tools like this are actually training platforms too. As you begin to troubleshoot problems with your designs (yes believe it or not things can go wrong with software!) you’ll start picking up a little code handling here and there. Not a lot, but enough to understand what happens on the developer side of the equation. Now if there was only a tool for developers so they could understand that design is easy only after a designer creates a design!

 

 
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August 2, 2011

New Cityscapes, 2011

This summer I’ve been going to the Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art, here in Washington, DC.. I’ve been using it as a “getaway” now that Borders Books & Music is no longer around. The thing I really enjoy about the NMAA is that it stays open until 7:00 PM everyday, so most of the tourist have gone by around 5:00. Since I’m usually leaving around what Jay Maisel calls the Golden Hour or Golden Time. This normally means the there’s a golden color cast from the late afternoon sun. I think of it as that time of day when the sun is low in the sky and cast long shadows. At any rate it’s a nice light.

For the last few weeks I’ve been doing some casual shooting in the courtyard and during my walk from the museum to my bus stop. After awhile you start to come up with a series of images. Now I haven’t consciously thought of shooting a series, but since I have a camera with me, I shoot. There’s also some new construction happening on the corner of10th & G Streets NW. This new architecture (new in terms of its presence at the location, not its style) captures my attention in the way the glass walls & corner catch the sky’s light.

I’ve pulled a few of these images and started to play with them.  I’ve also started experimenting with tonal mapping usinf Nik Software, HDR Efex Pro. for my own work, I’m not a big HDR fan. I guess I should really say I’m not a fan of the new classic” HDR look, but in terms of using the technique to dig a little deeper into the highlight and shadow detail of a scene and extending the tonal range, you can get some interesting results. While a can shoot multi exposure bracket with my Panasonic LX3, I can only make three exposures. When I do this I normally make the exposures that cover a range of  2 f/stops. The image from the Kogod Courtyard utilizes this technique. The rest are single exposure that have utilize HDR tone mapping.

So, okay, here are the photos.

 

Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art

Taking a little artistic license with the Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art! ©Jarvis Grant

 

The Coming Storm

A thunderstrom in the distance, from the corner of Conneticut Avenue and L Street NW. ©Jarvis Grant

Shapes, Colors, and Corners

Shapes, colors, and corners on the corner of G and 10th Streets NW. ©Jarvis Grant

 

Shapes, Colors, and Corners #2

Shapes, colors, and corners, a varation on the theme, ©Jarvis Grant

 

Granite, Glass, and Sky

The Martin Luther King library at the corner of 9th and G streets NW. ©Jarvis Grant

 

 
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