Paul's 52 Week Project

[Paul Heester]

After Peters demonstration last week of the CCC Forums I thought I would make a first post.

Firstly, I applaud David and Mike's 365 projects and indeed anyone else who can sustain that level of enthusiasm/determination for a whole year. I have decided to go for a more modest "52 Week Project" essentially a photo a week. I would have preferred to start on 1st Jan but that didnt happen. Therefore Im starting on the 1st Feb...today!

As you can see this post doesnt have a photo but I will definitely post in the next week and each week after that. Im interested to experiment over the next year, getting inspiration from the internet, magazines plus different events and trips away. Last year photography took a back seat for a few reasons but this year there is no excuse!

Paul.

[davidc]

Woohoo, well done on starting and good luck!
My photo group at work do something similar and this week's theme is "Green", last week's being "Sharp"... in case that kickstarts any inspiration at all!

[Paul Heester]

Woohoo, well done on starting and good luck!
My photo group at work do something similar and this week's theme is "Green", last week's being "Sharp"... in case that kickstarts any inspiration at all!

Thanks for those ideas David, I will add them to a list Ive been compiling for when inspiration runs low. Ive also got this book to dip into - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Digita ... 98&sr=8-12 which I can bring to a meeting if you want further ideas.

[davidc]

Looks interesting - the droplet photography on the cover is something I was thinking about trying this weekend or next too
I've been having problems getting to the club in time lately, compounded by needing a 365 shot as well, but hoping to get back along soon.

[Mike Farley]

Good to have you on board, Paul. It does not matter whether you are putting up a picture every day or just one a week, the important thing is getting out there regularly with your camera. One of the things which I have found is that having to look for shots has provided me with photos which I would never have got otherwise. Chances are that you will end up shooting most days in order to get the best selection of images for the weekly post or experimenting with new techniques that will yield a shot later on in the year. I am looking forward to seeing the results of your project.

The mention of your book reminded me that that I have this one by Lee Frost.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Composition-Hin ... 450&sr=8-1

The one review on the Amazon UK website is spot on about the book being a bit weak, but there are a number of techniques listed which could form the inspiration to take a particular type of shot. If anyone is interested, I'll bring it along to the club. I wouldn't mind looking at your book to see what it contains.

[Paul Heester]

Well here is the first image of my project. We caught some mackerel on a fishing trip in Lyme Regis last year and this fella has been in the freezer ever since. So froze him and then pored some hot water over him to give a nice sheen. Natural window light and a reflector used. Not happy with the blown out area in top left but had to rush before I head off to work.


Week 01 by pheester, on Flickr

[davidc]

Nice, has an almost metallic feel to it, particularly the ridge along it's back.

Do fishes have backs?

Wondering how this would look in macro now, maybe I'll borrow that idea for a day's shot

[Mike Farley]

Paul

That's what I call a real DIY project, photographing a fish which you caught yourself! Well done on your first submission.

Regarding the blown highlights, there are a number of ways with dealing with these. If you shoot in Raw, Adobe Camera Raw as implemented in Lightroom, Photoshop and Elements can do a very good job of retrieving lost detail. Provided all three channels have not been overexposed, it can use what remains to recreate the lost information. The latest version of ACR is capable of achieving very good results.

It is also possible to do a quick fix using the output option in Levels. This is not normally used in photography, but tweaking it down from 255 to 253 or 252 will ensure that there are no areas in the image which are completely white, even if it cannot recover detail.

Photoshop also has functions such as cloning, healing and content aware fill which can help in recreating parts of the image lost to over exposure, as well as replacing other unwanted elements.

[Paul Heester]

Heres the 2nd weeks and I thought I would go for a self portrait. Not too confident with the speedlite as I knew everything had to be in manual mode. I triggered it at arms length at 1/32 power and found 8 seconds exposure was enough to flash it 3 times. Gave it a slightly blue tint after conversion to B&W. I plan on being more creative later in the year with other self portraits where Im not just sitting in front of the lens.


Week 02 by pheester, on Flickr

[davidc]

Nice idea/execution and even only on my phone it still looks really crisp, good stuff.