2019 P52 - 3nd Qtr - Sandy(Skitterbug)

[skitterbug]

Hi Manfred - Yep, I already know that the pole doesn't work. My main point in posting this one was to prove that bullfrogs actually do catch birds.

[skitterbug]

Week 38, I like the exposure, perhaps it would've been worth it to spook the frog after you got this capture then perhaps you could've gotten a series out of the experience.

Hi John - your thought process is good but in this case, the bullfrog would have swallowed that bird by the time I was out the door trying to spook him! I think in the matter of two minutes, the bird was GONE! <chuckle> Agree about the exposure, and I was pleased that I was able to accomplish that much in the very limited time that I had! Thanks for commenting!

[billtils]

Hi Manfred - Yep, I already know that the pole doesn't work. My main point in posting this one was to prove that bullfrogs actually do catch birds.

Sandy

I disagree with Manfred on this - your photo is all about the story it tells and you have made this quite clear. Sure it would have been "better" as an image without the bird feeder pole but given the choices of capturing something interesting, warts and all, or spending time repositioning yourself and perhaps scaring the frog, you did the right thing. A nice but not great picture of a frog without the bird - no thanks.

[Cantab]

Sandy, congratulations on being able to grab the momentary opportunity! Now I know that bull frogs (not just domestic cats) can catch birds underneath a bird feeder.

[skitterbug]

Sandy

I disagree with Manfred on this - your photo is all about the story it tells and you have made this quite clear. Sure it would have been "better" as an image without the bird feeder pole but given the choices of capturing something interesting, warts and all, or spending time repositioning yourself and perhaps scaring the frog, you did the right thing. A nice but not great picture of a frog without the bird - no thanks.

Hi Bill - I suppose thinking that CiC is educational about photography may be the key. Unfortunately, there are so many posts that stray from that line that I didn't feel that my post about showing that a frog actually catches a bird would be inappropriate. For me, this adventure had a few "teaching moments" to it. For one, have the camera ready the evening before, for the most common type of photos that I like to take - in case the opportunity does happen early in the morning. That means having the lens, battery and camera card installed!

I couldn't edit the post out of the picture since there is no way to replicate the frog's mouth, etc. It would have been an excellent image if the post wasn't in the way. But still, I kept it for demonstration purposes. I'm glad you enjoyed it. If there is ever a "next time", hopefully the bullfrog puts himself in a perfect spot! LOL

Thanks for commenting!

[skitterbug]

Sandy, congratulations on being able to grab the momentary opportunity! Now I know that bull frogs (not just domestic cats) can catch birds underneath a bird feeder.

Hi Bruce - I still did not get to see the actually catch but hubby did! It is amazing that a bullfrog can actually accomplish it. I know what I have read about it but having it happen - WOW! Thanks for commenting! I appreciate it!

[lovelife65]

I appreciate Bill's point. In fact, I think too many get lost in the technical side of things, they loose sight of the artistic side of it. I get that you want both, that a poorly executed photo that may be interesting doesn't have the same impact... yet most technically perfect photos without a story or anything interesting or unique are .. well, in my very limited experience opinion, incredibly boring. This is just MY opinion, not meant to insult or start anything. . ;-)

[skitterbug]

I appreciate Bill's point. In fact, I think too many get lost in the technical side of things, they loose sight of the artistic side of it. I get that you want both, that a poorly executed photo that may be interesting doesn't have the same impact... yet most technically perfect photos without a story or anything interesting or unique are .. well, in my very limited experience opinion, incredibly boring. This is just MY opinion, not meant to insult or start anything. . ;-)

Thank you for taking time to express your thought about this. I appreciate your comments.

[skitterbug]

This past week was spent in trying to get this image from last year printed and framed. I haven't used the Canon Pixma Pro 100 much yet so that part was fun.

I found that I had difficulty setting the picture's parameters correctly while using Lightroom or Affinity Photo. How does one set up a print for an 8 x 10 and have it come out as just that! I did finally succeed (using LR) but it ought to be easier. I would also have liked the results to be a bit sharper than the results I ended up with. It was fine and the person that I printed it for was tickled to get it but in my estimation, it could have been better. I reckon it all boils down to trial and error for me.

I added a little certificate giving the image's name, capture date, time, location and camera equipment used. And noted that I had copyrights for the image. I tucked this under the back cover of the frame. Is this an acceptable way of verifying the image? No, I didn't charge anything. It was a gift. Just curious about others' experience.

I'm behind as usual so I'll get back to it probably next week.

[Shadowman]

I rarely use LR's print module unless I'm doing a pano or creating a PDF to be sent out for printing. If you can get your hands on a copy of Scott Kelby's Lightroom # book for digital photographers he'll walk you easily through the steps. Kelby covers it in about 15 pages, so just about every print scenario you could think of he covers.

Quick answer, start on the left side (Page Setup) and choose your paper size, select a Lightroom (8" x 10") template in the Template Browser, choose a Layout (single Image/Contact Sheet) on the right side panel, you can modify your margins as well. You can make other modifications or send to the printer. You can also probably find a video of the same instructions on YouTube.

[skitterbug]

Hi John - Thank you for replying! I'll check for the book and try your suggestion too. Since you don't use LR for prints, may I ask what application you do use?

[Shadowman]

Hi John - Thank you for replying! I'll check for the book and try your suggestion too. Since you don't use LR for prints, may I ask what application you do use?

Hi Sandy,

As I have an Epson printer I typically use their program Print Layout, it supposedly only works with recent model Epson printers, otherwise I'll use the Photoshop Elements print dialog, you could also use the Photoshop standard dialog in LR (Ctrl P) which should take you through your particular OS/printer manufacturer application. I find going through the OS/printer manuf. is a much slower process however it is more geared towards your particular printer settings. For me, Print Layout is setup like a preset where you can tailor the process for particular paper dimension or thickness/tone.

[Manfred M]

Sandy - printing is a much more complex issue than displaying a scene on a computer screen, so the process is also more complex. As an example, the computer will not know how large the print you want is with respect to the paper size (size of borders), the size of the paper, the type of paper, etc. This means you have to tell the computer all this information before you can make a successful print.

Just to complicate things even more, the printer manufacturers create different models that have different levels of functionality, so the printer drivers, even when the printer is produced by the same manufacturer, can be quite different in what information is required.

I don't print with Lightroom or Affinity Print and like John, I use an Epson printer, so I hesitate giving specific advice. What I can try to explain is why printing is more complex and a typical workflow that will help you understand the steps required to make a good print. Lightroom, by the way, has a simpler approach than either Affinity or Photoshop but in doing so, it gives the end user less control.

First of all, when it comes to prints, the aspect ratio of our camera's sensor does not generally match the standard paper sizes we print on and those generally do not match the matte / frame sizes we put our finished prints in.

With our computer screen, the fines resolvable unit is a pixel made up of three distinct colours; red, green and blue. Our printers are far more complex this way and the finest level of resolution is referred to as a "dot". The number of colours that make up a "dot", varies on the specific printer model. We have low end printers where a dot is comprised of a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. High end printers have a wider palette and a single dot can be made up of a couple of shades of magenta, a couple of shades of cyan, yellow, a couple of shades of gray as well as two different blacks (only one is used at a time and these are dependent on the surface finish of the paper). Just to complicate things, really high end printers can introduce green ink, orange ink, etc. as well, so the number of colours making up a dot gets complicated.

The standard measurement of computer screen resolution is pixels per inch (ppi) and for a printer, resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi). A typical computer screen with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 has a resolution of 96 ppi. Higher end screens (2.5k, 4k, etc. will have larger ppi values). Photo printers come in two native resolutions; 300 dpi for Canon and HP and 360 dpi for Epson.

Now that I have dumped all that information on you, this is where I can start explaining the work flow required to create a properly sized print for output. The most important thing is to set the aspect ratio that you want for your final output. If you want an 8" x 10" final print, then you need to crop the image you are editing to this final size. The complication that arises here is that even though we have a picture frame with matte that takes an 8 x 10 piece of paper, the hole in the matte (unless you are going edge to edge or are using a floating frame design that has no matte) you have to resize the image so that all of the material you want shows through the matte. For that paper size, I usually allow a minimum of 1/4" for mounting to the matte board and another 1/4" to show around the edge of the print, which means I have to resize the printed area of the image to be 7" x 9".

The next step is resampling to printer native resolution. Here I will leave the aspect ratio as it is, but change the resolution to the printer dpi. As you are working on a computer screen, the setting will say ppi, but don't worry, it is correct to assume that a ppi = dpi at this stage. With your Canon printer resample to 300 ppi. The image is now ready to be printed and the output will be sized to the dimensions you are looking for.

[skitterbug]

Hi John and Manfred - Have you ever worked on a reply and then accidentally deleted it before saving or posting it??? Frustration! So I begin again. I really appreciate the information shared. John - your info about Epson and its print app started me in the direction that Canon surely has a better app than "My Image Garden" for prints. It is decent for general quick prints but it isn't quite what I thought it ought to be. So after plenty of searching, I finally found an app that works as a plug in for Adobe Photoshop, Elements, Lightroom and Digital Photo Professional. So I can happily do my post processing in any app of my choice and then save it and print it from within either Elements or Digital Photo Professional (the two apps I do have that the plug in works with). And now with Manfred's valuable information about sizing, etc. I can actually set up my print the way I want and be fairly confident that it will print accordingly. I am certain I'll have to practice a bit but now at least I have a better starting place.

Another thing this also does is allow me to print on various types of paper. Early on I tried to print on a more porous paper and ended up with a sodden mess. This app has many types of paper offered and I bet I can load profiles of more if I take time to study how to do it.

Thank you both! I really appreciate the help!
Here's the main page of this app and you can see that it is pretty thorough in what it offers to do.

[Cantab]

Hi John and Manfred - Have you ever worked on a reply and then accidentally deleted it before saving or posting it??? Frustration! So I begin again. I really appreciate the information shared.

Hi Sandy, I'm not Manfred or John but I'll answer your question anyway: Yes, I've had more than one reply accidentally disappear before I'm able to post it (especially when using my iPad).

My solution when doing a longer than usual reply is to type it in Word or some other word processor, edit it and then copy and paste it into the Reply box here on CiC.

[Manfred M]

Another thing this also does is allow me to print on various types of paper. Early on I tried to print on a more porous paper and ended up with a sodden mess. This app has many types of paper offered and I bet I can load profiles of more if I take time to study how to do it.

I have lost a post on occasion, but not in quite a while.

With respect to paper; that is what the print profiles are all about; the printer manufacturer, through the printer drivers, applies the right amount of ink for the specific paper surface. Third party paper suppliers will tell you which paper setting to use. When I print on Canson Baryta Photographique, I use the Canson profile and let my editing software manage the colours. In the printer settings, Canson tells me to use Epson Ultra Premium Luster paper settings when setting up the printer.

[skitterbug]

Hi Sandy, I'm not Manfred or John but I'll answer your question anyway: Yes, I've had more than one reply accidentally disappear before I'm able to post it (especially when using my iPad).

My solution when doing a longer than usual reply is to type it in Word or some other word processor, edit it and then copy and paste it into the Reply box here on CiC.

Hi Bruce - Thank you for an excellent idea! I am surprised the world did not hear my vocal groan when I messed up! <chuckle>

[skitterbug]

I have lost a post on occasion, but not in quite a while.

With respect to paper; that is what the print profiles are all about; the printer manufacturer, through the printer drivers, applies the right amount of ink for the specific paper surface. Third party paper suppliers will tell you which paper setting to use. When I print on Canson Baryta Photographique, I use the Canson profile and let my editing software manage the colours. In the printer settings, Canson tells me to use Epson Ultra Premium Luster paper settings when setting up the printer.

Hi Manfred - I am much happier with the choices and selections I can now make! I am looking forward to selecting an image that I think is a good candidate for print and using your info to get the job done! And I need to do more of it. Hubby had some company today and I noticed him pointing out some of our images that I had printed in the past so that means I really do need to try printing some of his favorites. Should be fun!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Smiles ~ Sandy
Canon Equipment: 7D Mark II, EF 100mm 1:2.8L IS USM, EFS 24mm, EF 100-400mm 4.5/5.6L IS II USM, Extender EF 1.4xIII, EFS 17-85mm and Tokina SD 11-16 f/2.8 DX
1st Qtr P52 2019 - 2nd Qtr P52 2019 - Comments are always appreciated!

[Manfred M]

Hi Manfred - I am much happier with the choices and selections I can now make! I am looking forward to selecting an image that I think is a good candidate for print and using your info to get the job done! And I need to do more of it. Hubby had some company today and I noticed him pointing out some of our images that I had printed in the past so that means I really do need to try printing some of his favorites. Should be fun!

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

Affinity Photo and Lightroom have those choices too. Once one figures out where they are, the process becomes a lot easier and there really is no need for the plug-in.

[Shadowman]

Sandy,

I'm glad you found an app that provides you with the resources you were seeking. Regarding lost posts, it used to happen quite frequently, especially if I was crafting a long response. I learned to either copy partially typed text or type the response in Word and then copy into the forum.