This week, Kevin Ames walked us through how he decorates his walls, while Joy Celine Asto profiled photographer Dan Lior, featuring his photographs of the Achuar tribe.
Ken Lee told us how to stack images to capture the ultimate Milky Way photo. Then, we previewed the upcoming guided workflow in LuminarAI. Finally, Jemma Pollari presented a seven-day challenge to help boost your creativity.
Decorating empty walls, the easy way - Walking through a room in my home, I noticed a corner that was too plain and was begging for some kind of art. Like you, I love taking pictures but don’t put a lot of them on the wall. I discovered a really simple and easy way to get them out of my computer and onto my wall while bypassing the frame shop. For the purposes of this article, Xpozer provided me with the two prints and frames. Frames are expensive I have a few photographs by photographers whose work I admire that I have had framed with museum glass to save them from ultraviolet light. UV causes prints to fade. The downside to all of this are numerous: Frames are expensive Museum glass is, too Framing takes time Framed photos are heavy Frames require proper hangers Prints with frames included I happily filled my walls with prints of my photos that come with hidden frames included. The photos don’t need to be mounted like the ones sent to a frame shop. There are a pair of secrets to these prints. First, the paper is specially designed to lie flat and cut glare and has built-in UV protection like museum glass. Second, each print comes with mounts pre-attached to their corners. The included invisible frame makes hanging them easy. Prepping the photos I had just done a shoot with my god-nieces. The younger sister is very expressive and animated. Sometimes she is very serious. I had chosen pictures that showed both of these sides. I narrowed the fun ones down to my favorite four, and put them in a grid that would fit the 24-inch by 36-inch print size I wanted for the wall. The other one was sized to fit the same size. I wanted one print of the serious niece looking at the grid of fun versions. All of the images came from a 20-megapixel Canon 1DX Mark III. While a lot of resolution is nice, it’s not necessary for big prints. Xpozer makes bare walls fill with art I ordered a pair of prints for my bare corner. I’d wanted to hang something there for a long time, but held off because of all of the steps involved in framing them. Not to mention the cost. I have my own 44″ Canon printer so printing is a breeze. It’s the mounting, framing and hanging that are the problems. I went to xpozer.com to order my prints. They came a few days later and I put them on the wall in minutes. This experience was so easy and it’s cost-effective, too. I was curious how long it would take to frame and hang one of the Xpozer prints so I put my iPad on a light stand to make this video. Get a great deal on Xpozer prints Xpozer prints are used by photographers worldwide. You can read about them and get tips on photography in the series Amazing Photography right here on Photofocus.
Living the dream: Scenes from the daily life of the Achuar tribe - The Amazon forest is home to several Indigenous communities, but many of them continue to shy away from the rest of the world. So, when Brooklyn-based cinematographer and adventure photographer Dan Lior had the chance to stay with one of the tribes, it proved to be an eye-opening experience. His time with the Achuar tribe of Ecuador, who he described as the “dream people of the Amazon,” was immortalized in the beautiful documentary series he shot for the Tribal Quest project by family history platform MyHeritage. “The Achuar community I stayed with was only 1 out of 6,000 communities thriving beneath the trees that act as the lungs of our planet. Their entire existence relies on the Amazon Rain Forest,” Dan shared in his project statement. “It is their apothecary, their source of nourishment, a spiritual guide, and most importantly, the place they call home.” Following the dream At first glance, Dan’s photos show us that the Achuar people have already integrated some modern influences in their way of life. It shows in how they dress, in some of the tools they use and perhaps even in the fact that they seemed comfortable having Dan around to take their photos. However, Dan also tells us something unique and fascinating about the tribe: Dreams are a fundamental part of their world view. Each morning, a few hours before sunrise, they hold the Wayusa, a ceremony where they share and analyze their dreams to find out what they should do for the day. “In the ceremony, each family gathers in their households to drink large quantities of herbal infused tea called Wayús which also acts as a stimulant. They will then clean their digestive system by regurgitating the liquid. Following that, both the men and women will share their dreams which will help determine their waking activities throughout the day.“ If the ceremony doesn’t lead them to an interpretation, they will spend the day actively seeking to understand the meaning of their dreams. Like dream detectives, they ask around the community, seek guidance from the shaman and take note of anything unusual that happens throughout the day. The Achuar learn how to decipher their dreams from a young age, following the examples of their elders and practicing the craft with their family members. The Achuar way of life The Wayusa ceremony wasn’t the only noteworthy part of the Achuar culture that Dan was able to capture. He was also asked to join an early morning fishing expedition. Before they set out, everyone painted their faces red with the Achiote fruit to ward off the evil spirits of the woods. The fishing method itself involved using the sap from a bunch of roots, which turned out to be a muscle relaxant that stopped the fishes’ gills from working. “We reached a river when the dense forest opened up, a boy and his father arrived with baskets on their backs. They flipped the baskets and long, skinny roots came falling down to the ground. They then placed the roots against a big tree stump and started pounding them with heavy sticks. The roots bled white fluid, and were then placed back in the basket. The father then took the basket and made his way into the river. As he submerged the basket, the same white fluid rose up and washed down with the stream. I learned the liquid was a muscle relaxer which stops the fishes’ gills from working, leading them to drown and float up where they will be collected down the river by the second group who built a dam to collect the fish.” He was also able to document other snippets of the Achuar way of life. These include preparations for the Ayahuasca, a ceremony that lets them enter a state of heightened self-awareness so they can communicate with entities which they believe to posses the human soul. He was also able to show interactions between family members, how the welcome beverage called chica is made and how the women maintain the gardens for community resources and as sanctuaries where they can express their emotions in private. Threats to the tribe Dan’s work isn’t a mere introduction to the Achuar as one of the many tribes that call the Amazon home. It also brings perspective to the many challenges that continue to threaten these people today and cause their population to dwindle. “Tribes aren’t only facing extinction from outside forces, but also from within as the new generations are leaving their communities in search of a more modern lifestyle. Some of them, will not return to their place of birth ever. And one day, all that history, all those stories, and all that ancient knowledge might be gone.” He also notes that the portion of the Amazon forest which covers 40% of Ecuador is only 2% of the total forest area. However, it’s home to 14 distinct Indigenous communities. Therefore, whenever the Amazon itself is endangered, tribes like the Achuar are also significantly impacted. This documentary photography project serves as an important reminder of how much of humanity remains deeply linked to nature: Our culture, way of life, duties and of course, our dreams. Don’t forget to visit Dan Lior’s website and Behance page to see more of this project and the rest of his work. All photos by Dan Lior. Used with permission.
Skylum previews new guided workflow in LuminarAI - This morning, Skylum gave a more in-depth preview of the new workflow in LuminarAI, set to be released later this year. Counteracting the limitations of presets and other artificial intelligence tools, LuminarAI puts its emphasis on making effective decisions regarding edits to your photographs. The AI has been trained from input from artists, photographers, colorists and scientists. “With LuminarAI, we wanted to ensure that AI not only was easy to use, but that it also provided creatives a way to express themselves. Through our unique 3D depth mapping and segmentation technologies, we’re able to recognize the contents of a photo, recommend edits and then allow creatives to refine every aspect of that recommendation,” said Alex Tsepko, CEO of Skylum. “Doing this lets creatives retain their unique style in their edits without tedious, manual work. Professional results, but in a fraction of the time.” Recognizing your photos The minute you open a photograph in LuminarAI, it goes to work. The contents of the photo are identified, problems are analyzed and the depth of the photo is calculated. After this analysis, LuminarAI makes editing suggestions, through an approach called Templates. With Templates, beginning editors can get inspired through recommendations on how to edit their photographs. At the same time, experienced editors can choose to have more control, selectively applying and modifying AI tools as they edit their images. They can then create their own Templates, saving up to 90% of their time spent editing. As you continue to edit images in LuminarAI, it learns from you. Meaning, it learns how you modify things like lighting, composition, detail and color. You can also take advantage of Local Adjustments, letting you make targeted edits to specific areas of your image. Once your first image is edited, you can then sync your adjustments across a series of images. LuminarAI recognizes the intent of the edit and conforms the other selected images to match the goal. The AI tools adapt on an image-by-image basis, handling variations in lighting and subjects. These edits can also be saved as a custom Template for future use. Inspiration to get moving If you’re feeling uninspired, LuminarAI can help, too. When your images are analyzed, you can try out different Templates before applying them — just by hovering over each one. LuminarAI has built-in Template Collections that are catered to the subject of the image, with things like wildlife, macro, astrophotography, underwater and more. This also helps creatives learn how to further manually control the AI tools in LuminarAI, as exploring a Template reveals which technologies were used. Ready to reserve your copy of LuminarAI and get exclusive access to the LuminarAI Insiders community? Click here and save $10 off the retail price!
Stacking images for brilliant Milky Way photos - You might hear the term “stacking” in photography. One can stack for focusing, perspective or star trails. This, however, is stacking for starry night skies, including the Milky Way. The idea here is to take several photos — one right after another — to reduce digital noise that generally occurs when pushing the camera’s sensitivity higher and higher. Then we throw the images into an app such as Starry Landscape Stacker (Mac) or Sequator (PC). The app will perform its mathematics magic to make life easy for you. It will identify the stars on each of your images, align them and then stack them. You may stack them in Photoshop, but these programs simplify the process and are either inexpensive or free. I’ll use Starry Landscape Stacker as an example since I have a Mac. However, the process is about the same for Sequator. Let’s check it out! Out in the field Yes, we will start with what you do with your camera first. After all, it’s photography, isn’t it? You will photograph the Milky Way with your tripod-mounted camera, taking photos one right after the other. Click! Click! Click! Click! I like to take at least 15 photos, usually between 20-25. The more photos you take, the greater the noise reduction. To a point, anyway. 25 is good. Three, not so much. In this example, I did 20. Prepping sky images At home, prep your sky photos. Unfortunately, you sort of need to make them look like rubbish. You may prep them in Lightroom or some other photo editor. Starry Landscape Stacker has an easy-to-follow tutorial, which you should watch before using. The basics are below. Do the following: Use custom white balance to keep the photos consistent Increase brightness Decrease contrast Increase Blacks (look at the left side of the histogram) Remove lens vignetting and chromatic aberration Mild color noise reduction Avoid the following: Auto White Balance for each photo Adding Contrast, Clarity and Dehaze Adding color through Vibrance, Saturation and HSL Brightening through Highlights and Whites Applying lens distortion corrections You can perform all these later. After prepping all identically, export these hideous-looking images as 16-bit TIFF files. They will then be ready for stacking! Stacking sky images In Starry Landscape Stacker, select your ugly-looking TIFF files. An image will appear. The stars will trail and will be covered in red dots. How fun! Fun with red dots Your sky should be covered with red dots, each one allegedly representing a star. You’re going to add more red dots. Add some more quickly around the edges of the sky and along the foreground and anywhere else there are stars. Above, I’ve also added some more in the arch of the rock formation. When you are finished, click Find Sky. Blue sky mask Clicking Find Sky will result in a blue mask in what Starry Landscape Stacker thinks is the night sky. If the mask is wrong, paint in more of the sky or erase it from the foreground. You can zoom in to see the actual pixels and control the size of the brush, similar to other photo editing programs. When satisfied, click Align and Save. You will see the program aligning the images with one particular image, which will show in a small dialogue box at the top of the application. This typically does not take very long. The stacked image After processing, your app will align all the stars and produce an image that should look like your single Milky Way photos, only with a little less noise. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Go ahead and save your final output image as a 16-bit TIFF file. Starry Landscape Stacker will give you several different options depending on which algorithm you prefer. Toggle back and forth between several of the different options to see what is most appealing. Looking for distortion and anomalies I don’t always save the image using the same algorithms. Sometimes, I prefer a different one from what I’ve used before. Look very closely, especially along the horizon line, to see what appeals to you. If the program or your mask creates anomalies or distortions, it will typically be just above the horizon line. If you’re not sure, you can always save several of the choices and closely examine them later. If it’s an issue with your mask, the program allows you to go back and work on the mask some more, saving what you had previously. Saving the stacked image When satisfied, go ahead and click Align and Composite. This will also save the image with and without a mask. I don’t usually don’t end up using the mask because I create my own masks for blending in low ISO foregrounds. Further post-processing In post-processing, you can bring out quite a bit of the stars through careful use of contrast, color correction, de-hazing, clarity and detail. Remember, the other photo had all this turned down to help Starry Landscape Stacker do its magic. Now it’s time to turn them back up to make the image look better. Don’t overdo it. I also sharpened the image. And I altered the color of the sky from its bland color to more of a blue because it looked more aesthetically pleasing against the rock formation than a warmer night sky for this particular photo. This is admittedly not accurate — the sky was not blue that evening. But for this photo, it felt right. And since I had taken several photos of the arch this evening, it also helped to differentiate it somewhat. I ended up cropping it to a square for personal aesthetics, so this isn’t perhaps the best example since the stars are not quite as sharp as other photos I took during the same evening. But nonetheless, it gives you an idea of what you can do with stacking software. As mentioned above, this is blended with a low ISO foreground. I also light-painted this for additional drama. This is
Do a seven-day photography challenge to boost your creativity - Feel like you’re stuck in a rut with your photography? A quick photography challenge could be just what you need to get those creative juices flowing. Day 1: Photograph wide open Pick your lens with the widest aperture and lock it wide-open! Explore depth of field today. Find frames to shoot through, things to shoot from behind and narrow planes of focus to explore. Day 2: Photograph with slow shutter speed Take your shutter speed up past one second, and explore motion frozen in time. Don’t forget: You’ll need to compensate with ISO and aperture to expose correctly. Try shooting handheld and on a tripod (or a helpful table). Day 3: Photograph in the dark Find a subject in the dark, and shoot with whatever minimal light source you can manage. Think outside the box (or inside the box?) for this one: It doesn’t have to be at night! Day 4: Photograph in direct sun Portrait photographers everywhere try to avoid this where possible, but today, explore those high contrast moments! Resist the urge to find open shade, and get bright and blazing. Day 5: Photograph in monochrome Switch your camera onto monochrome and shoot for light and shadow. Explore texture, contrast, emotion and movement. See how your perspective changes when color is removed from the equation. Day 6: Photograph something different If you usually photograph people, find foliage or flowers. Do you typically shoot at night? Try shooting in the morning. If you’re a wedding photographer, find a newborn baby! The key is to get out and look at something that you wouldn’t normally turn your lens to. Day 7: Photograph where you are Wherever you find yourself today, commit yourself to document it with the care and thoughtfulness that you would for a wedding, a big model shoot or a special family reunion. Going grocery shopping? Photograph it. Taking the kids to the park? Follow them with your lens. Whatever’s in your life today, make that the subject of your intense study. Reflect on your photography challenge and go forth At the end of your week, reflect on what you captured. Did you find a new perspective to explore? A new technique to apply to your regular work? Take what you loved, and learn from what you hated. Loved this seven-day photography challenge? Why not commit to shooting every day for a month, or even better, do a 365 challenge? There’s nothing better than taking on the massive task of shooting every single day to refresh your art.What you missed on Flipboard this week
Each week, we publish a variety of curated storyboards with some of our best content! Here’s what was on the docket for this week. Be sure to follow us!
