Today for Freelance Friday, I thought I would throw this your way. It is a movie that was created and edited on the new Apple iPhone 4G. It is a really cool little move. The creators also show you behind the scenes and how it was made.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. It’s Independence Day weekend for everyone in the United States. This means Fireworks and Bbq’s. If you plan on going out on Sunday night and taking pictures on of fireworks. I put together a post that will help you with your task, you can find it here “Photographing Firework Displays”. Be safe and sane around those fireworks.

“Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film – UPDATE: Behind the scenes footage included from Michael Koerbel on Vimeo.

With the Fourth of July just a few days away, a lot of photographers will be out with camera in hand to capture a fireworks show. I love firework displays. I love the loud concussions, the bright explosions and the smell of sulfur in the air.

1. Preparation

In preparation of the firework show, scout your location. Get a good location picked out. I like to get to the location early and find a place that is slightly elevated i.e. a small hill or the top of a slope. I pick the places out for a couple reasons. One, it helps to keep people from walking in front of my camera and lens while shooting. Two, if helps to get above some of the distractions that can take away from the photograph i.e. trees, people, cars.

Make sure all you camera gear is in good working condition before you leave. Check that lenses are clean, camera is clean and working well. Make sure all batteries are charged and ready to go. Double check that you have everything, because once you get to you location and it gets dark you won’t have time to check your gear and make sure everything is working properly.

2. Tripod

Tripods are key to a great fireworks photography. It will be dark and a long exposure is required to capture a great firework burst. Tripods help keep the camera steady during the longer shutter duration.

I usually use a low ISO. I shoot usually at ISO 200 or ISO 400. This helps keep the noise or grain low on a long exposure. Doing this will allow me to keep the shutter open for a little longer to capture more firework bursts in one frame. I also us a technique I call shading. I will explain shading at the end of this post, as it is a little more advanced.

Some photographers will use a higher ISO. This allows them to take more images with a faster shutter speed. Once again you introduce a little more noise doing this, but on the newer cameras, their chips are more advanced and do produce as much noise or grain at the higher ISO’s. So a good sturdy tripod is a must.

3. Remote Shutter Release

I use a corded shutter release while shooting firework displays. It keeps my hands away from the camera so I don’t bump it while taking a picture. I can also step back away from the camera and enjoy the show at the same time. If you don’t have a remote shutter release I recommended getting one. You will thank me later. However, if you don’t have a remoter shutter release you can always use the self timer option on you camera.

The self-timer function allows you to depress the shutter and move your hand away before the camera takes the image. This is important, because any movement that you hand make while depressing the shutter will subside before the camera takes the image. It is a little tricky to get the timing right using the self-timer, because most self-timers have a ten second delay. Be patient and listen for the pop of the mortar rounds firing in the canister. When you hear the mortar rounds that means the firework has been launched and in just a few seconds you will see the display in the sky.

4. Aperture

Shooting fireworks is like shooting the moon or a bright light. Some photographers will us a wide open aperture like f2.8. I tend to shoot with an aperture between f8.0, f11 or f16. It allow for a greater DOF (Depth of Field) and long exposure time.

5. Shutter Speed

Probably more important to get right than aperture is shutter speed. Fireworks move and as a result the best photographs of them capture this movement meaning you need a nice long exposure. The technique that I developed when I first photographed fireworks was to shoot in ‘bulb’ mode. This is a mode that allows you to keep the shutter open for as long as you hold down the shutter (preferably using a remote shutter release of some type). Using this technique you hit the shutter as the firework is about to explode and hold it down until it’s finished exploding (generally a few seconds).

Sometime I press the shutter release as soon as I hear the the mortar round fire so I can capture the trail as the firework is propelled into the sky. This gives a nice streaming effect.

6. Good Composition

Most photographers don’t think about composition when they are shooting firework displays for the first time. I know I didn’t, all I wanted was a decent firework image. That’s OK if you don’t think about framing your shot or composition. This is where scouting you location comes in handy. Some more experienced fireworks photographers will add elements into their images. Sometime they will ad the crowed that has gathered the watch. Another option is to shoot a wide landscape from a distance that may included the fireworks being launched from a bridge. A good example would be the fireworks displays that are launched from the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

I took the above image in San Clemente, CA during their Fourth of July celebration. The other displays were from Dana Point Harbor and Laguna Beach, Ca. In the image above I used composition to capture all the firework displays at one time. Fortunately, all Fourth of July firework displays start about the same time. I knew this in advanced, that little bit on knowledge helped create my shot. I knew they would be going on at the same time so I setup my shot with a wide-angle lens so I could capture them all.

Here are a few suggestion to help with your composition and framing:

• Watch your Horizons - One thing that you should always consider when lining up fireworks shots is whether your camera is even or straight in it’s framing. This is especially important if you’re going to shooting with a wide focal length and will get other background elements in your shots (ie a cityscape). Keeping horizons straight is something we covered previously on this site and is important in fireworks shots also. As you get your camera on your tripod make sure it’s level right from the time you set up.
• Vertical or Horizontal? – There are two main ways of framing shots in all types of photography, vertically (portrait) or horizontally (landscape). Both can work in fireworks photography but I personally find a vertical perspective is better – particularly as there is a lot of vertical motion in fireworks. Horizontal shots can work if you’re going for more of a landscape shot with a wider focal length of if you’re wanting to capture multiple bursts of fireworks in the one shot – but I don’t tend to go there that often.
• Remember your framing – I find that when I photograph fireworks that I spend less time looking in my viewfinder and more looking at the sky directly. As a result it’s important to remember what framing you have and to watch that segment of the sky. Doing this will also help you to anticipate the right time for a shot as you’ll see the light trails of unexploded rockets shooting into the sky.

7. Lens Choice

I generally use a wide-angle lens. Sometimes I will you a wide-angle zoom. Wide-angle lenes give you a broader view so to catch the entire area of the firework display. It also gives me the option to zoom in to get a tighter shoot if I choose. Using a fast lens is not as important since I will be sopping down to f8, f11 or f16.

8. Advanced Technique

This is where I tell you about the technique I call “Shading”. I use shading to capture more then one or several firework bursts on the same image. During a firework show when you have your shutter set to bulb and open you are allowing a tremendous amount of light to hit your film or digital sensor. In order to capture more then one burst you have to continually leave the shutter open for maybe more then 30 or 40 seconds and sometimes longer, depending on how fast they launch the fireworks. This is where shading come in handy. In order to limit the amount of light that come in through my lens I have a black piece of cardboard or a small black reflector to carefully cover the front of the lens.

In between firework bursts I will place the over the front of the lens to block all the light. When I hear the next set mortars fire I will uncover the lens and the camera can capture the next burst on the same frame. I may do this several times before I close the shutter. This is a great technique to capture many firework bursts on the same image. This technique of “Shading” works better with film cameras, but can be done with DSLR’s as well.

Be aware that the more light that is captured their is a tendency to over expose the image, so some trial and error can be involved the first few time you try this technique. Also, if you have and older DSLR like I do. The longer the shutter is open, the longer it takes for the cameras to process the image. Example, if I take a 2 minute exposure it will take at least 2 minutes for the camera to process the image. Most firework displays only last 15 minutes so a slow processing camera can eat into allot of time. The new DSLR’s process the images faster, so if you have a newer camera it is not as much as a problem.

I hope this helps you in taking great firework photos. Have a great time and enjoy you holiday. Happy Fourth of July everyone. If you are reading this and don’t celebrate the Fourth of July, I hope you can use this technique and another time during whatever celebrations you can enjoy a fireworks display.

The Alameda County Fair has Horse Racing on the oldest one mile horse race track in the United States. I also love to check out the livestock from the 4H clubs throughout the county. The kids in the 4H clean, feed, primp and prepare their charges for auction.

Whether you like the livestock, carnival rides, exhibits, horse racing or the fried fair food whatever the reason go to the County Fair. While you are there, take a few images. If you do take a few pictures upload them to my California’s County Fairs flickr group. It’s free and fun. Here is the link to the the flickr group California County Fairs. The group has a total of 105 members, you could be 106. Hopefully I will see you at the fair, if not there, then hopefully in the flickr group.

2010 Alameda County Fair Calendar

The Lay's® Happiness Exhibit

Yesterday while I was on flickr, I found a flickr add that linked you to the “Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit.” This web site caught my attention, not because it was part of flickr, but, because I love the way this web site looks and works. The front page is laid out so simply, but is has a lot going on. I do find it interesting that they are partnered up with flickr. If you look in the lower right corner you will notice it says “Powered by flickr.”

I have been looking at a lot of web sites lately because I would like to upgrade my personal website and make it more functional or photography. My problem is that I am very technical and have a tendency to make things more complicated then it needs to be. I am trying to teach myself how to keep it simple (stupid). It is not as easy as it sounds for someone that is not artsy, but technical. So I keep looking and making notes and adding them to my list of web sites I  like. This sight has been added to my list because of it’s simplicity and that is was made with flash.

If you know how they built this site or have an expertise in this type of web design, I would be interested in hearing from you. Also, i would like any suggestions of clases I can take to learn how to make this type of site. You can place your comments and suggestions in the comment section below.

Now on with the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit. When you look inside, you first notice that the images submitted are not by pro’s, but by the average point and shoot photographers. As you dig deeper you will find some very exceptional photos. It’s is easy to join and add photos. If you have a flickr account just go to the upper left corner of the frames, and you will see UPLOAD YOUR HAPPY PHOTOS and click on the Start Here. This will link you to your Yahoo or Flickr sign on. Sign-in and the follow the instructions to accept the API. Next when you go back to the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit it will ask you to accept and a few other instructions to follow. When you are done you will be able to add images directly to the flickr group Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit flickr group or directly to the Lay’s® Happiness Exhibit.

If you don’t have a flickr sign-on you can follow the above instructions and create a new flickr account.

A friend of Thomas Hawk of Thomas Hawk Digital Connection has posted some great trip to increase your Flickr influence on the web and on the Flickr Social Media site. As a photographer, I have wanted to increase my exposure among Flickr circle. Since Flickr is one, if not the largest photography social media web site it should be a good place to my photography noticed.

With permission from Thomas Hawk I have reposted Thomas Hawks TOP 10 WAYS TO GET ATTENTION ON FLICKR .

“What is more pleasant than the benevolent notice other people take of us, what is more agreeable than their compassionate empathy? What inspires us more than addressing ears flushed with excitement, what captivates us more than exercising our own power of fascination? What is more thrilling than an entire hall of expectant eyes, what more overwhelming than applause surging up to us? What, lastly, equals the enchantment sparked off by the delighted attention we receive from those who profoundly delight ourselves? – Attention by other people is the most irresistible of drugs. To receive it outshines receiving any other kind of income. This is why glory surpasses power and why wealth is overshadowed by prominence.”

Caterina Fake, Co-founder of Flickr, 2005.

Over the course of the past 4 years, about every 2 years or so I’ve written a blog post that has been one of my most popular entitled “Top 10 Ways to Get Attention on Flickr.” It’s been a few years, Flickr’s changed a bit, and so I thought I’d take a bit of time today to outline some of the techniques that active power users use on Flickr to get more attention for themselves and their photos.

Fundamentally it comes down to a pretty simple equation:

quality photos + reciprocation² = attention.

But there are lots of other little tricks and tips, so let’s get right into them.

1. The order that you publish your photos in matters — alot. A lot of people will take 50 snapshots of that killer sunset on their vacation and then upload them at random to flickr. Some are better, some are worse. At Flickr, those that call you contact predominantly only see your last photo uploaded or your last 5 photos uploaded (depending on their settings) from the popular “your contact’s most recent uploads” page. The other 45 are effectively buried. Always upload what you feel are your best, strongest, etc. photographs as the last five and save the very last spot for the photo you want to pimp the most.

2. Explore, you whore. Explore is a section of Flickr where Flickr highlights what they feel are 500 interesting photos every day.

I used to have photos show up in Explore pretty much every week. Then Flickr staff blacklisted me from Explore (and their help forum) about 7 months or so ago after I wrote a blog post criticizing Flickr staff for nuking a popular group on Flickr that I administered. Payback’s a bitch, right?

After having photos regularly appear in Explore every week since it started, they capped my ass in there at 666 photos (cute, because I’m the devil, get it?). That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider Explore though. It’s probably the fastest way to get a lot of views on any of your photos. Whilst everyone bitches about how full of crappy photos Explore is, secretly you know you all love it when your photos show up there.

Flickr claims to have a “magic donkey” formula which picks the photos for Explore. This “magic donkey” is really just an excuse though to avoid transparency/accountability about Explore. In general, the more activity a photo has (activity = faves, comments, notes, blogged, etc.) the more likely it is to show up in Explore. By putting your best foot forward (see item 1) and by focusing on promoting a popular photo of yours on a given day, (see below) it just might get there.

3. Promote your photos outside of Flickr. What are you doing to promote your photos outside of Flickr? Some things are super, super easy and involve no active participation on your part other than setting something up. Popular content aggregators on the web allow you to publish your Flickr photos out of Flickr, with valuable links back to your photos on Flickr.

Have you configured Flickr Tab on your Facebookery page yet? Why not? It’s free and easy.

Have you signed up for Google Buzz yet? Google Buzz does a great job presenting your Flickr uploads and has a killer lightbox feature that allows people to see your photo BIG (if you allow it) on Google Buzz. I’m faving more Flickr photos that I’m finding on Google Buzz these days than from any other source. I fave more photos from Google Buzz than even Flickr itself.

Have you linked your stream to a FriendFeed account yet?

How about a photoblog? Anyone can set one of these up. They are so easy. And they have cool widgets that can do a lot of automated things for you. Check out the widget I’m using for my Flickr photos (to the right over there). It’s called Fidgetr. It automatically pulls in the six most recent photos from my “10 faves or more set” on Flickr, making sure fresh new photos are constantly being published to thomashawk.com. Don’t those large thumbnails rock!

4. Avoid watermarking, small-sized low-res photos, frames and other gimmicky crap. People don’t want to see this stuff. It’s a turn off. It pushes them away. Yes, yes, I know, you cry, but the thieves, the photo thieves, they all want to steal from me. GASP!

Get over it. You know what happens when people steal your stuff? Recently a friend of mine had an image of hers taken by a commercial entity. Do you know what we did? We contacted them, and after a little arm-twisting they paid her $700 for her photo. You know why? Because they had to. Because she could have sued them if not and probably gotten a lot more than $700 if she was inclined to put the time in it. Courts award statutory damages (not actual damages) for copyright theft. Trust me. If you like getting paid $700 for your photos, you WANT people to steal them. Put a big sign on the photo. “Steal Me, I Dare You.”

With tools like Tineye, it’s getting easier and easier and easier for you to find unauthorized commercial use of your photos on the web.

Sure, some dude is going to print up your big bouquet of sunflowers shot and hang it in his living room to impress his friends while they drink beer and watch football and you’ll never find out about that use. Trust me, that dude wouldn’t have paid for your photograph in the first place anyways.

As a byproduct, uploading full, glorious, high res, original photos to Flickr gives you one more backup of your precious photos in the cloud.

5. Moooooooooooo. Do you know about moo cards? Get some. They’re cheap — well, at least the little ones are cheap. Give them to everyone you can. When you are out and about and people talk to you about your photography say (in your best Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad voice possible) “Hey Yo, I’m slinging this camera, check me out here Yo,” and hand them a moo card. Trust me, it works.

6. Groups. Most groups on Flickr are a waste of time. Dead groups where photo whores dump billions of photos in pools that nobody sees. Your photos are quickly buried deep, deep, in the pool, never to be seen or heard from again. Avoid these groups. They typically have names like “Baskets! Show us all your photos of baskets!” or “You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato, show us all your photos of tomatoes!” Don’t just dump your photo into 30 random groups.

Instead pick a few meaningful groups and actually hang out there and interact with people. You might consider a local group for where you live. Or a photo critique group. Or whatever. But find a few active groups (meaning several new threads are engaged in a day) and participate. I belong to a number of groups on Flickr, but 95% of my Flickr group time is spent in the critique group DMU. (Note, DMU is uncensored and not for everyone. Remember above where I told you that Flickr nuked one of our groups? yep.)

7. Fave it Forward! Have you heard of Billy Wilson? Because if you haven’t, you will soon. Not to be confused with his second cousin and other Flickr legend Billy Warhol, Billy Wilson is the original Flickr fave machine! Billy has favorited more photos than anyone else on Flickr and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Want to know what happens when you fave almost 200,000 photos on Flickr? Just check out Billy’s stream. How’s that for getting some attention?

Now, you don’t actually have to copy the Billy Wilson favoriting machine. He’s an original and that’s his gig. But. Don’t be stingy with your faves either. If you like something fave the hell out of it. You can start here at my “10 faves or more set” if you’d like. You have an unlimited amount of faves to give out on Flickr. People love getting faves. People reciprocate.

Be like Billy, fave it forward.

Same goes for comments too. If you like something say so. Maybe you can be the next “nice photo” guy. Or maybe you can be known as that super hot chick who writes deep, meaty, insightful, witty, quirky comments on people’s photos — especially then, you’ll be loved.

8. Tag for discovery. You know how people find many of your photos? Search. Don’t be “that guy” who tags the 300 most commonly used keywords to your photos no matter what they are. I don’t want to see that photo of your bikini clad girlfriend when I’m searching for puppy. Good boy.

But. Be descriptive. Be sure to tag the place the photo was taken. The subject matter. Anything relevant that people might use to search for your photo. Consider geotagging as well. The more discoverable your photos are, the more likely they’ll be seen on Flickr.

Oh, also keyword at the file level, not on Flickr itself. It’s much faster to keyword and geotag that way and also when Flickr ends up nuking your account (KABOOM!) you won’t lose all of those tags and geotags that you worked so hard on adding to your photos. When you tag/geotag at the file level, these tags/geotags are automatically populated at Flickr when you upload your photos. Read about my workflow here for more on that.

9. Are you allowing the search engines to index your photos? If you aren’t, you should be. You can check your settings on that here. I’d estimate that about 20% of the traffic to my own Flickr photos comes from search engines.

10. Certain subjects just get garner more attention. In general I’ve found that certain subjects tend to do better on Flickr than others. Your (and my) Egglestonian masterpiece of the sidewalk curb? Not so much.

But. Subjects that seem to garner a lot of attention. Attractive women (number one attention getter on Flickr, especially self portraits), motion or blur, silhouettes, images with stories in the description, some HDR, bokeh, abstract architectural photography, bridges, cityscapes, artwork by famed graffiti artist Banksy, you get the idea.

Also sometimes an interesting looking thumbnail will pull people in as well.

Well there you have it. 10 tips to get you more attention on Flickr. Use them in good health and with good company.

Disclaimer: remember my equation above? “quality photos + reciprocation² = attention” It doesn’t matter how much work you do optimizing the promotion of your photos if they suck. Find your voice. Make your style. Create your art. But put time, energy and pride in the work that you share. Make the world a more beautiful place with the amazing work that you are capable of creating. The best photos in the world have yet to be taken.

Oh, and one final way to get a lot of attention on Flickr? Write long blog posts about getting attention on Flickr. It works every time. 

You can find Thomas Hawk on Flickr here. You can find me on Flickr here.

The first video is the actual comercial. The second video is how it was done. Take a look, it is awesome to see how they played with each scenarios.

I Can't Believe it (55247)

In order to find out how many actuations you camera has taken you need to look in the EXIF data. Now I currently am shooting with a Nikon D70s and I have been shooting with this camera since June, 2006. Last night I had my camera with me while my wife and I were baby sitting her brothers kids. We took them to the park and had a good time chasing them around. The last image I shot last night was shutter click #55247. I figure that when my 4 year anniversary with this camera come this June, I will be up to at least 60,000 camera actuations. That is an average of 15,000 clicks a year.

Here is the link to the web site MyShutterCount that allowed my to grab this information for my Nikon camera. If you have a Canon or another brand go to the article on DPS to find your Shutter Actuations.

Known Issues

New in Lightroom 2.7

The goal of this release is to address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom 2 and provide additional camera raw support. A comprehensive list of issues fixed in this release is included below:

Lightroom 2.7 and Camera Raw 5.7 are now available as final releases on Adobe.comand through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. These updates include camera support for the following models:

• Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
• Kodak Z981
• Leaf Aptus-II 8
• Leaf Aptus-II 10R
• Mamiya DM40
• Olympus E-PL1
• Panasonic G2
• Panasonic G10
• Sony A450

Release Notes:

• Camera Raw 5.7 includes an updated demosaic algorithm designed to provide compatibility with settings applied in Lightroom 3 beta 2.
• Lightroom 2.7 also includes the same updated demosaic algorithm. The updated demosaic algorithm will appear as a subtle shift in noise characteristics at default values.
• By default Camera Raw will display the image adjustments exactly as performed in the Lightroom 3 beta 2 develop module.  However, at this time Camera Raw 5.7 is unable to support further adjustments to the following settings or tools:
  • Highlight Priority and Color Priority post-crop vignette
  • Enhanced Luminance and Color Noise Reduction
  • Grain effects
  • Process Version

There’s more to this update than I saw at first. According to Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty, Lightroom 2.7 and version 5.7 of the Photoshop plug-in adds Lightroom 3 beta 2′s new “demosaicing” technology for processing raw images.
Specifically, Hogarty said:
• Camera Raw 5.7 includes an updated demosaic algorithm designed to provide compatibility with settings applied in Lightroom 3 beta 2.
• Lightroom 2.7 also includes the same updated demosaic algorithm. The updated demosaic algorithm will appear as a subtle shift in noise characteristics at default values.
• By default, Camera Raw will display the image adjustments exactly as performed in the Lightroom 3 beta 2 develop module. However, at this time Camera Raw 5.7 is unable to support further adjustments to the following settings or tools: Highlight Priority and Color Priority post-crop vignette; Enhanced Luminance and Color Noise Reduction; Grain effects; [and] Process Version.