Photography History by Michael Leyba

I recently attended a photography convention and met some people from the International Photography Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They were dedicated to the history of photography and came there at there own expense to recruit members. I was touched by their sincerity. I am hoping to write for their publication and other publications about people who were at the forefront of the art of photography from the beginning even to today.

Their website is http://www.iphf.org/

Thank you to all the members of the hall of fame. We all can learn from your genius.
I hope to promote one person who I believe who could receive this honor. It is Doc Harold Edgerton. He did much to promote photography through his pioneering images.
He will be one of the first photographers I feel should be promoted as a legend.
Another photographer I highly admire is A. Aubrey Bodine. I will discuss him in a future blog.

Thanks for listening,

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

I Love and Hate E-Bay by Michael Leyba

Have you gotten ripped off by someone on e-bay? I finally did. Took me a few years. Here is one horror story and how to learn from it. My nephew was trying to buy a fancy stroller for his soon-to-be baby off of e-bay. The stroller was made in England and was quite “exclusive.” He didn’t know how much until he got ripped off by the first seller. The seller asked him to send a Western Union wire of money to England. My nephew thought this a little different, but proceeded and never heard from this schmuck again. Western Union wires are not verified except that the money was delivered. Don’t do it!

His second purchase was a little like the first in that he got ripped off. Maybe I should have said it was a lot like the first purchase. Oh well, he finally ended up fighting with e-bay and paypal (2nd go round) and got some of his money back (about $500 out of $1000.) PayPal has a guarantee-like statement about their transactions. It is not really completely that. There are some things you need to know.

Okay, back to my scenario. I bought a photographic prop from an e-bay person with shipping and everything it was about $25. I have never received it. I wrote the seller a couple of weeks ago, but never heard anything back. I checked the other night and several other people did not receive their items and the e-bay seller has shut down his account. Chances are I will never see the prop or my money. PayPal only guarantees CERTAIN transactions and you need to know whether they secure your transaction so find out about what it does and doesn’t do. In my case I have opened up a case and PayPals words are that they will pursue the money from the selling vendor. Sure!

I love e-bay in that last night I purchased a camera stand from a photographer that used to live in New Orleans, but moved due to the flood. The photos of the product show it is in great shape (no water damage visible.) I trust that it is okay. I talked to the seller and he confirmed it is in great shape and originally cost 10 times the price I paid for it and it is in almost new condition. If this is the case which I have hoped before and everything worked out great, that is fantastic. I have to drive to New Orleans to get it, but that will be interesting to go back and take photographs of that city in the rebuilding process.

Thanks for listening.
Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
© 2007
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Photoshop CS3 and Tutorials by Michael Leyba

Whenever a new software update comes out I get a little antsy. For one thing I know I’m probably going to pay extra to get the software and then there are new things to learn and that takes much time. When Adobe announced that they were putting out the beta for the new Photoshop CS3 I actually thought that was pretty great. A chance to play with the new software and maybe contribute toward it getting better.

After learning about the new features in CS3 I was anxious to jump in there and try them. After installing the software I realized this has some opportunities. I am making tutorials that I can sell from my website. These are simple and short how to do lessons on the basics up to how you can do some fancy stuff in the new program.

I’ve watched a lot of tutorials over the years and learned some of the pitfalls of helping someone do something. I tend to like the kind I can watch on the computer and open another window of the program and simultaneously do the same thing with the software. I think that is important especially when you are trying to follow an expert and they are blazing by at the speed of light.

What is most important to you about tutorials? You don’t normally get a chance to ask for improvements. Now is your chance. Send your comments either here or to my e-mail at ml@michaelleyba.com. I will do my best to try all of them. One thing I’m looking forward to using is my photographs that can best show what were trying to learn. Maybe I’ll even throw in a joke now and then. Heck, you might even get a few tutorials for free. Remember my other blog on that. Eeech!

Thanks for listening.
Michael

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
© 2007
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Free Things by Michael Leyba

Are there many free things in life? The air you breathe. That is one unless the air is polluted then you might get sick someday. Could be pretty depressing though. Normally, there is a catch to everything. There used to be a time when the expression was free love. The main problem with that was the infectious diseases that sprang from having relations with a stranger. It is also morally wrong.

Now, life is full of free things. I remember when NetZero had those cute commercials about the Internet needs to be free. Now, they charge $5.95 or $9.95 so it is not NetZero. Sometimes you get free rebates, but they don’t accept them because you put the wrong information on the rebate slip and it gets rejected and therefore your free thing turns out to be $20.

What about the free websites you can get now? I saw one for weddings, but it was only free for the first year, then you had to pay. Some are more upfront and actually charge you right away. I have to admit that even I have used the free items before. In trying to get new customers sometimes we’ll say you get a free photo when you pay a creation or session fee. Actually, the photo is not free in that you are paying for the session fee. However, I have to defend myself and all the other free givers around the world. Sometimes this is necessary to get new business. The customer does save something over if they spent the retail price for the things sought. There, I did it. I apologized. For any of my future, current, and past clients, I’m sorry if my practice seemed devious. Okay, with that over let me tell you about my latest free thing.

I am sending a website link to my clients with free wedding website available to them at no cost and no strings attached. Now, you might ask how do they do that. It is important to know that there are many ways to make money on the Internet. Just ask Utube. They sold there site to Google for over a billion dollars. Why? Because a lot of people visit there. This does two things. It allows them to see commercials that Google can charge a lot for and it also provides user information. Google might not sell the information out right, but they can tell their clients what the demographics are of their users.
This means they will get more for their advertising based on real data.

Have you ever found any really good deals out there for free? If you have let me know and I’ll tell others here. Thanks for listening.

Michael Leyba
© 2007
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

It’s All Relative by Michael Leyba

Relative by Michael Leyba

I believe it is cold to people in different places.
that it is all relative. There are people in Texas
who think it is cold When it is 60 degrees outside.
I consider it cold when it is below 20 degrees.
However, I used to live in Alaska.

When I lived in Fairbanks, Alaska from 1980-1984
it got pretty cold there. So I think I know a little
about cold. There was one month when the
temperature never got above 50 degrees below zero.
That’s right, it never got above
50 degrees below zero. Now that is cold.
I used to know some people from North Dakota
who said that wasn’t cold because it wasn’t windy.
That is true that the wind can cut through your
clothes and make it colder with a wind chill factor,
but I had to remind them that there is no fan
inside a freezer either, but it is still cold.
Well, now come to think of it. Some do have
fans. No, that is for automatic defrost. It
doesn’t count, does it?

It was so cold that one season that the ski slope was only
open one day and that was because it had to be above
minus 20 degrees below zero.

That was my first time on the ski slopes. I had to quit
when my ski instructor came down with frostbite.
It was okay for me as I wasn’t a good skier anyhow
and the slope was super steep and straight down.
It really wasn’t ice anyhow, it was slick ice.
If you didn’t stop you would run into a bush of trees.
I thought it better to quit while I had my head.

Getting back to relativity. All things in life are relative.
We experience life from our relative point of view.
What one person considers expensive is cheap to someone else.

Consider this. What is your experience with photography?
Have you been exposed to a broad range of photography services?
If you had only been to a department store photographer
Then you would have a totally different perspective
on what a photographer should be like and what they
should offer. I wonder how much training the department
store photographer gets in photography or do they just
learn what buttons to press and what a good smile
looks like. Now, I’m sure there are some fantastic store
photographers around, but I wonder about the majority.
I don’t really know this though since I have only been
to one department store photographer in 30 years.
The session was too short for me to have paid attention
I guess. I think I need to go back to compare what they
do to how I photograph in my studio.

I want my clients to experience a photographer who
wants to get the very best photograph for them. I’m
Not paid by the hour so I will take the time to make
my client feel at home and comfortable so that they
can relax and be themselves.

I had someone call me today and ask about senior
photographs for her daughter. One of the things
she said struck me funny. She said she didn’t want
anything fancy for her daughter. I told her that was
exactly what I wanted to do for her daughter. To
create dazzling photographs. She stepped back on
the telephone and then said that she did want to
be dazzled, but insisted still she didn’t want anything
special. I don’t think I will be photographing her
daughter. Sometimes you have to reckon that
it is all relative.

Michael Leyba
(c) 2007
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Tone in Photography by Michael Leyba

Tone

The tone of the image can be a couple of things. One could be the mood of the image. The other is the tonal range of shades of light in the image. In a black and white image this is the gradation of tones from Black to White. Ansel Adams, the famous American landscape photographer called them Zones. He rated them from black to white. His Zone System or method was to try to achieve an image that included as many zones as possible to stimulate the eye. He was able to accomplish this through dodging and burning the image through his enlarger work. Dodging is the holding back on light from the enlarger or in digital terms to make whiter or lighter. Burning is the adding of light from the enlarger or in digital terms to make blacker or darker. Dodging and burning is still something that skilled artists use in programs such as Adobe Photoshop to get darker and lighter portions of the photograph or image.

I use dodging and burning in my photographs to add emphasis to certain things. For example, if we had a scene with a tree in it and the light was hitting the tree from a angle to the side there would be highlights (brighter areas) and shadows (darker areas) in the photograph. I might want to emphasize certain highlights and shadows to give the photograph more depth and interest. Too much dodging and burning can also look pretty bad so the skilled artist will determine just the correct amount. Adobe Photoshop allows the user to have this kind of control. Unlike Ansel Adams in his darkroom. Each photographic print can be made exactly the same as the original. Adams had to have meticulous control of his process to repeat his work. I once saw a stack of Adam’s images of Moonrise Over Hernandez. In this print, Adams had darkened the late evening sky while lighting the foreground with small white crosses in a cemetery. His skill was such that every print looked identical to the next. This is pretty amazing as his negative did not contain the final image he wished to attain.

In my work of dodging and burning. I use Adobe Photoshop to do this. I use separate layers to dodge and burn. This allows me to 1) Control Dodging and Burning on Separate Layers . 2) Allow me to make each layer to show from 0-100% for my effect or changing the opacity for each layer. 3) Allow editing later on each layer or create a different effect on a new layer. 4) Keep the original image intact.

In color photography tone is still important, but has to be combined with hue, color, and saturation. If one of these is over compensated generally the image will look bad.

There are three other things pretty important about tone. There are three types of lighting styles that photographers will pick for their images. They are low key, middle key, and high key. In low key the image has very dark tones for both black and white and color photography. In low key the details can be lost in the shadows of the image. High key is very bright tones overall and detail can be lost in the highlights of the image. In Middle key the image has a balance of light and dark tones and detail will be present.

Michael Leyba
(c) 2007
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Photography Composition by Michael Leyba

Have you thought about what a good composition looks like? Here are some quick general guidelines for this:

1. Needs to be balanced generally to be pleasing to eye. One side with more dark or light or things in it or out of it will look unbalanced.

2. The rule of thirds is the principle that people are drawn to an overlap of imaginary lines that relate to thirds of the image. They go horizontal and vertical. Here is an example:

Where the lines intersect is where the focus for the photo is greatest.

That is it for now. We’ll definitely talk about this later.

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Photography as Art by Michael Leyba

Photography started as a scientific process to secure a permanent transfer of light images reflected from a subject. It is credited with the Frenchman, Louis Daguerre of the first photograph. A Frenchman by the name of Niepce was also working on the process, but Daguerre beat him to it. When photography first started in the early 1800s it was used more as an experiment than anything else. Exposures were very long therefore, the moving object was a blur. It came into use during the Crimea war and later the American Civil War when photographs of battefields were displayed to show carnage, death, and ruin.

At that time many photographers were roaming these graveyards trying to make known their craft. Other photographers pursued their craft around the world photographing all the wonders of the known world in order to share these photographs with others and thus, make a profit.

George Eastman also wanted to make a profit in the US by inventing a camera that one could take the photographs and then send in the camera to have the film developed and printed and receive a new camera back with film and the photographs previously taken. This was a great break through for photography since anyone could now take photographs. Before, it was left to those who ventured into the dark and sometimes dangerous world of chemical darkroom processing.

Kodak was formed by Eastman in the late 1800s and thus he took the process from one of an art to consumerism. People were churning out photographs left and right. Sort of like the digital age today. Before such quick and easy invention a person taking photographs would take hours just to make one photograph by preparing the plate or film, taking the photograph, developing it, and enlarging the image onto a print, and finally developing, washing and drying the print before viewing it in light.

(c) 2007 Michael Leyba

Later for part II.

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

Teenage Brain Cells by Michael Leyba

Have you ever seen the way teenagers dress in cold weather? Some of them dress with as little of warmth to help at all when there is cold weather (see relative blog.) Mind you it doesn’t get all that cold in Midland, Texas in January. It is about 40 degrees currently. It is cold, but not unbearable. It isn’t that windy so you can’t take the windchill into account.

I was talking to a teen recently about the unprecedented (just wanted to use that word) and non-scientific explanation of the law of brain cell loss in teenagers. He looked at me puzzled. I explained to him that there is no scientific proof that teenagers lose brain cells at rapid rates during their teenage years. I offered him no proof other than the millions of parents who would vouch for this phenomenom. However, proof no. There is not one scientific paper written that would collaborate on this amazing quandary (not sure if that is spelled correctly, but I do like the word.)

If you would like to participate in my survey please e-mail me at ml@michaelleyba.com
I will post a blog update here when I have heard from a few people. If you are a teenager, please send your e-mail to: teanbraneresurch@harvard.edu If you have troubles sending the e-mail please keep trying as their servers are down.

Later,

Michael Leyba
Portraits by Michael
http://www.michaelleyba.com

If We Could Capitalize on the Heat from a Laptop by Michael Leyba

If We Could Capitalize on the Heat from a Laptop

Have you ever wondered why laptops get so hot on the bottom? It is not a new phenomenom as
I have experienced it back several years. As processors got faster the manufacturers just kept pushing the speed of the computers so the processor was always pushed so hard it had to heat up. Or is it just the torture of the little electrons to push through a small circuit board. Or is it just that Bill Gates and the people at the processor company just want us to be unbearable as we sit working on the computer so that we will look forward to and buy the next fastest computer and processor. I sort of think it is the later.

Now here is a prospect. What if we could harness the power from our laptops and redirect it to other parts of our body where heat is needed? Yes, there you go. We could send the heat from the laptop bottom to our hands, feet, back, neck, and other places that just aren’t warm enough. Or if the heating unit on our house went out we could just flip the computer over and it could provide warmth for a small room. If we had enough laptops we could heat all our rooms with laptops. Schools could heat the classrooms with laptops. We wouldn’t want to take too many laptops to Antarctica since that could result in more polar icecaps melting. Nor would we want to take the laptops to equatorial countries since that would be a waste of precious heat. I wonder whether people living on the equator ever get cold (see my blog on relativity.)

I’m going to start this project right away. Thanks for listening.

Michael Leyba from Portraits by Michael January 5, 2007
http://www.michaelleyba.com