A BEAUTIFUL MORNING....

This time I ventured to Toowoon Bay to shoot around a T-shape sandbar. I was excited to see a heavily cloud populated sky and even more excited to see a slight gap between the horizon and the bottom of the clouds. I know that this sky would pop! But a nice sky is only part of the image, I had to find some nice foreground to go with it. There were a lot of rocks behind me which were a definite candidate, but I decided upon something simpler. I loved the wash lines in the sand and the waves beginning to break.
It all came together as the sun popped it's nose above the horizon and added another element - a reflection.
 I had to keep an eye on the incoming swells, which could have soaked me!
A good place to experiment with some more.

Josh :)

Morning Wash, Toowoon Bay NSW © Josh Pitt

AFTER THE WET...

Recently, the Central Coast has experienced some very heavy rain. And with a couple of my days off coming up, I was hoping it would clear so I could go and do some shooting. Well the good news was it wasn't raining on my days off and the even better news was their was still some nice cloud around.
I wanted to expand my portfolio, by shooting more Central Coast beaches. Shelly Beach was a place that I had been to a while ago, but didn't get much out of it.
Upon arriving there I took a walk along the beach and watched the surf to see what it was doing, becasue I had noticed lots of sand had collapsed on the shore due to the dangerous surf and after observing it for a bit, I noticed that there were some big rocks poking through as the waters receeded. Because the surf was so irradic, I couldn't get close enough to the rocks to be happy with the result, so I would wait until the water start receeding back out to sea and I would run in, jam my tripod in the sand and shoot. It created a nice sense of movement in the foreground and around the rock, where the water was meeting resistance with the incoming waters coming in.
I must confess - I left with wet socks on this trip. Because whilst I was watch the water directly in front of me, I wasn't watch the incoming from the right of frame.
Regardless, I was super stoked with the result achieved.

Enjoy!
Josh :)

Emergence, Shelly Beach NSW © Josh Pitt

THE BEST IMAGES POSSIBLE...

...This is what we all strive for and I want to give you a helping hand to achieve this.
One of the other photo editing software I use is OnOne Software.
In particular the one below. Printing your image correctly is one of the most important parts of photography, without this ability you will never be able to achieve the ultimate wow's of the professional industry. And if your happy to print your images to just to show your family and friends? Good for you! If I was you, I wouldn't worry about the product mentioned below. But definitely worth a read if you wish to take your photography to the next level.   

Perfect Resize 7 (formally known as Genuine Fractuls) - 
This is what is known as a "photoshop plug-in". Plug-ins are thrid party applications that can be used inside Photoshop. This one in particular, has the ability to upsize your images up to 800% their native size and keep the clarity regardless (to an extent) of the megapixel size of you camera (see the graph below). It also allows you to upscale to 400dpi print resolution. This is helpfully when getting professional print labs to print your work. They would normally produce it in 200dpi, unless advised to produce to 400dpi. Don't worry they can upscale it for you, if you don't mind paying a little bit extra. Cheeky aren't they! Not really, it's a manual larbour thing. If they had to resize every single file that came through they would hardly get any work done.
Hang on a sec Josh! Can't Photoshop upscale to 400dpi too? You betcha! But does it do the same job? Photoshop has been the world leader in retouching for years. But many would consider it not perfect in all disciplines. There are some of these large stand alone companies that inject a lot of money into the development of specific products to work inside of photoshop. Typically they focus on these particular  disciplines because photoshop may be weaker and they see it as an opportunity to capitalise on this segment of editing.
Below are some image examples of the difference between Photoshop's Bicubic Smoother (best for enlargement) image resize and OnOne Software Perfect Resize 7.

                             

Hyponotised yet??
Below is a table that will give you an idea how big your image could go with Perfect Resize 7. There is an interactive version on their website that you can play around with by clicking here and looking in "what's new in Perfect resize 7". But as an example I have done a 12 megapixel camera at 300dpi. As we can see, what would ordinarily have been only able to produce a 14" x 10" enlargement can now produce a 115" x 75" enlargement. Pretty cool! Firstly, I'm not sure how many people could hang a 115" x 75" image in their house nicely, but you get the picture (excuse the pun).

 

As per usually these days all the software companies have free trials of their products so there is nowhere to hide, when making claims, and On One Software is no different. You can try Perfect Resize 7 or any other of their products, (for that matter) FREE for 30 days with no restrictions. To with the trial they also they have some big savings to be had at the moment. Just click on the graphic below to see what on sale. I know it says "Summer Savings" all the southern hemispherian (is that a word) people - On One is based out of UK and US.
I'm not sure how long this sale is on for? One would imagine all of summer? Anyway you can get it for $99.95 at the moment (RRP $159.95). While you are there you may see more value in getting the full suite of On One Software tools, known as Perfect Photo Suite 5.5, for $299.95 instead of RRP $499.95. But before you buy it, check out the free training videos which will show you all the features for each.

i hope this helps you get on the way to producing some really cool stuff! If you have any questions let me know.
Happy shooting.
Josh :)

PHOTOSHOP LEARNING

Hey peeps,

I found this video by a a guy called Terry White who is a photoshop genius. It shows you some very cool features in the newest version of Photoshop - CS5. For those who don't currently own photoshop it might spur you on to try it for yourself (remember it's FREE for 30 days) and for everyone who currently own photoshop it might show you some new things you haven't used yet.

Enjoy!
Josh

THE BATTLE OF BATEAU BAY...

The Battle, Bateau Bay NSW © Josh Pitt

My first shoot out at Bateau Bay NSW. I discovered this interesting counteracting section of water which had me mesmorised by its directionality. I shood there for quite a while trying to figure out how to shoot it best. Once I got home I ended up choosing one of my first captures. I think it was because I liked the longer exposure (compared to my other shoots) - 3.2sec.

The scene almosts resembles that of a battle scene in Lord of the Rings, with both sides rushing towards each other and occasionly the team running left to right would take the spoils when reinforcements would arrive from the surging ocean behind.

A LITTLE GEM AT PEARL...

First Light, Pearl Beach NSW © Josh Pitt

My first shoot at Pearl Beach was a an exciting experience. I was like a kid in a candy store when I got there, once it got lighter. I say that because I arrived quite early in the pitch black and ventured out onto the beach to set off to shoot the ocean bath I had heard about (luckily I had my trusty torch). There were so many subjects to shoot I didn't know where to start, there were - green rocks, red rocks, water rushing in, water rushing over and off the pool, a beautiful warm sandy beach. Plus the headland blocked the sun for a a good while after it had risen, allowing me to keep shooting for longer than normal, but also diffusing the light nicely enabling a nice even exposure.
I love the cute little row of houses in the distance catching the morning's rays (I say cute however some of the them are massive homes).
There were also some homes with big windows behind me which actually reflected the sunlight and lit up my scene nicely.
Definitely worth another visit.

Josh :)

EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT EXPOSURES...

Shallows, MacMasters Beach NSW © Josh Pitt

It has been a while between shoots at Macs. I knew exactly what I wanted to shoot on this occasion - the ocean bath at the southern end of the beach. It always remains calm and you can get some really nice reflections. On this shoot I noticed the lines in the sand under the water and wanted to be able to show the in my final shot. I was able to create a very interesting image with the sand lines because as the water got deeper and closer to the horizon the reflection gets more intense and the lines disappear.
Sometimes when you are out shooting, you might struggle to accurately portray the scene you see. At times like this you need to take a deep breathe and experiment with different exposures until you can see your plan coming good. Don't be afraid to shoot multiple exposures to compensate for different areas of the image and then post-processing those aspects together.

Josh :)

THIRD TIME LUCKY....

Silhouettes at Koolewong NSW © Josh Pitt

 Although this one is shot at a location close to my home, it's a place that I don't often shoot at. Maybe its because on the two occasions I went there for the sunrise it was really overcast and bleak and I didn't come away with a shot I liked. Third time lucky they say. This time around, there were hardly any clouds in the sky and this allowed me to get the beautiful warm feeling. The conditions were extremely calm which let me shoot with a 1/2 sec shutter speed and not have too much movement in the boats. It's a very simple capture, but I think that's what I like about it. I hope you do too.

MUST HAVE SOFTWARE + PLUS SPECIALS...

Hi all,
One of the most important things about photography is having a great editing software and as far as I am concerned, the only way to go is choosing one from the Adobe stable of world class image editing programs. I have been using Adobe's software for a few years now and frankly - I don't know what I'd do without it. (Sort of sounds like I'm sponsored by Adobe doesn't it haha - I WISH!) But in all honesty, if you are serious about photography, I would thoroughly recommend these guys.
I know that photography editing suites can be a little daunting at first, I was once there myself. But after some practise they are a must have piece of any serious photographer's kit. Plus there is a wealth of information out there on this software and I will be producing some more FREE photoshop tutorial to help you all out. You can visit www.joshpitt.com to see some of my work or past posts of this blog for a look at some tutorials I've done previously (currently only 2 tuts).

By the way - you can download and try any of Photoshops programs for free for 30 days. This gives you a great idea of which one will suit your level of photography, by allowing you to freely play around with the software as you would be able to, if you purchased it. I currently use Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended (to be exact!), but Adobe Elements 9 will suit beginner photographers looking for an affordable software to edit your photos. It comes with many of the same tools that CS5 does, with exception of some the more advanced editing tools a professional would expect. There are three versions of photoshop at present - "Elements 9", "Lightroom 3" and "CS5". The vary in price and functionality. Like I said try it for 30 days and after the 30 days you can purchase that version or leave it - no harm done.

Try Photoshop for 30 days for FREE 


If you are a student or teacher, you can get up to 80% off the Photoshop software. This is great news if you are at school, TAFE, university or other accredited education outlet. Allowing you to save AU$897 on Photoshop CS5, taking it down to $183 inc GST when you choose to download purchase it. Pretty cool huh. But like I said it's only for "students or teachers" - you are required to provide proof of your student or teacher student in order to able to register the product and essentially use it.

Don't worry if your not eligible for an educational discount, Adobe has other specials for everyone else.

Current special offers on Adobe products include up to 80% off for students or teachers - Australian site

Current special offers on Adobe products include up to 80% off for students or teachers - North American site




Hope this helps.
Josh :)

PHOTOSHOP CS5 - EDITING WITH BLENDING MODES

Hi all,
Just spent a little while putting together another photoshop tutorial. This one highlights how quick, easy and effective blending layers are to use. If you have any questions please let me know.
Take a look at the before and after below -

Click here to see the tutorial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1Svh2gzJIg 

or watch below

Enjoy.
Josh :)