I recently came up with this macro shot and I was curious how to take photos like this where everything is blurred out and extreme macro is in focus. I am assuming there is a lot of post processing involved. If possible, I would be really glad if some can share some expertise on some of the post ...
There is so much "water droplet" photography, I am guessing this question is getting undue attention as high ranking google fodder, from people looking more for classic water droplet photography.
I keep seeing the term "workflow" in relation to post-processing being used here and on other sites. What does it actually mean though?
To me it sounds like it means you do A, then B, then C every time you edit a photo. But that seems strange: no two edits are alike for me and I do find that I ...
@jrista yeah I can see it bringing in many from google too
If the water droplet photo was a hugely complex and interesting shot that required special equipment or setup it would be fairly interesting. I personally don't even find the image interesting. The amount of blue and teal is off-putting to me along with the boring background, center composition, etc
Maybe I just find questions raised on the site annoying if they are "viral" topics
Last week we had the question about "color runs" or "colored dust" or whatever and how to protect your camera. That story was picked up by nearly every photography related blog/site that I read. Then seeing it on this site was equally annoying as it gained huge interest
@dpollitt - LOL, I didn't vote on that one simply because I thought the answer was blazingly obvious...
@jrista - The problem I have with shots like the first one is that I have a hard time calling that photography when your finger isn't on the trigger. I do drop shots all the time, but I don't use devices that time the drops and fire the camera and flash without a human, for some reason I like to know a human initiated the capture I guess.
@dpollitt A good question, but a dumb one at the same time. Most regulars in PhotoSE know the word and never see a reason to upvote such question, while most newcomers have so many good questions and answers to read that they feel they can't vote everything thus not voting much of anything.
it was the same, when I asked about IQ. You know, everybody who has spent any time reading and writing about photography do not read the letters I and Q when they see those letters together. In their mind they automagically read "image quality" and never think about it.
But for a beginner those letters are what they are, two odd letters put together. What does IQ mean? Having no idea, they google it (as one comment suggested and as what I had already done) and found out about Intelligence Quotient.
Surely this IQ does not mean that, when used in photography site, does it?
And all the oldtimers went to answer to another question, "What is image quality?" because that was how they read the question. But it was not that one. The question was "What does IQ mean?"
..hmph, I'm losing my point here. The point was, a question is not what it reads, but how it is read by the person with his personal background and experience and prejudices playing interference.
@JohnCavan thanks for confirming what I just wrote to @dpollitt ;)
@AJHenderson I was going some browsing.. and also did some findings on Irfanview.. there was an option set file but even didnt do well.. instead it reduced the image filesize to 9KB.. haha :(
@Rafee ok, so did you try what I suggested about using a preview output from Photoshop's Export To Web option (Gimp's Export to jpeg option will also work if you don't have Photoshop). I just confirmed that my answer works for both Gimp and Photoshop
I took a file that was 20k and made it take up half a meg
by increasing the image size (number of pixels) and then exporting as a high quality jpeg
I was on the internet early enough to have gotten that domain, but unfortunately was too young at the time to have the disposable income necessary to do so
nope, my primary job is a software architect, but I have a dual major in both Electronic Media, Arts and Communications (which includes photography) as well as computer science
been writing code since I was 5 or so and been taking photos and shooting video since I was about 7
I started with computers at the age of 3 on a suitcase computer (think it was a Tandy) that my Dad would bring home from work
the green on green screen and dual 5 1/4 floppy drives
but yeah, when they were introducing the other elementary school kids to how to use the turtle paint program I was writing code in the command line that I found when I didn't put the disk in the Apple IIe
and by 4th grade, I was hacking past the security software that the school had on the computers to prevent access to things like being able to program
it's a little luck and a lot of trying everything that I can
occasionally you end up trying things that turn out well
and a lot of times things you spend time on end up being a total waste
I learned a lot about that while working with Wiicafe.com and helping them with reporting on the video game industry. Went to E3 4 or 5 times between 2002 and 2006 as press, which you would think would be awesome, except that what it really means is that you get to try all the really great games that never actually come out
and while most people may be sad the game didn't come out, I actually got to play parts of them
and know exactly what I'm missing out on since it didn't come out
Huxley, Starcraft Ghost, two different Stargate video games are among the cancellations I was the most frustrated by
and even the time I put in to that site in general eventually ended up closing down this past year after it hadn't been updated anymore for a couple years
though it wasn't a total loss because I was able to host my personal stuff off their server for a number of years
it was a good opportunity and a solid resume builder
not many people can say that they lead a video production crew that they trained across the country to film content and interviews for 98 games in 24 hours spread over 3 days
on a budget of $15,000
(not counting airfare or lodging)
and all the crew members were volunteer
particularly when they were still in college at the time
the project even managed to break even after selling off some of the equipment second hand
or for that matter say they developed the back end for a site that had over 3000 unique visitors a day at it's peak (which is small in the scale of the internet, but still not bad overall)
but it also had some crazy moments. Like the year the Wii was announced, we ended up with over 50,000 unique visitors a day and went through 1.5 terabytes of bandwidth in a day and a half
He's one of the owners of the site and a friend from High School
him and Matt Silver are the ones that started Wiicafe back when it was GameCube Cafe
I came in a little after they had started it because they were looking for someone who could help scale up the server and could help plan the E3 DVD project and they remembered me from High School
not any more than getting the interviews and getting free admission to E3 (which is standard for press)
it was actually bank rolled by the guy that wrote National Instruments LabView
who is actually related to one of the guys that worked with the site
and is on the board of the college I went to
he had set aside funds for doing business start-ups for his relative's kids so we were able to tap in to that
he actually expected it to be a loss, we expected a much bigger gain and it ended up pleasantly in the middle with break even even if it was a whole lot of work just to break even
I keep seeing the term "workflow" in relation to post-processing being used here and on other sites. What does it actually mean though?
To me it sounds like it means you do A, then B, then C every time you edit a photo. But that seems strange: no two edits are alike for me and I do find that I ...
