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Altus Photo Design's Blog

Tag Archives: Digital photography

Provo City Center Temple

06 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by melaniedean in Away from home, Black and White, Dusk, Learning Days, Magic Hour, photography, Photoshop, Shooting Days

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Tags

#LDS, Adobe Photoshop, Altus Photo Design, Arts, Beauty, Black-and-white, Business, Camera, close ups, color, Digital photography, dusk, magic hour, Provo City Center Temple, Utah

My dogs — Izzie and Ziggy — went stir crazy yesterday and insisted on going for a drive in the car.

Izzy in the Window
Ziggy in the Window

To oblige them, Michael and I took them to shoot the Provo City Center Temple and the new Payson Temple.

2015-11-05 18.22.26

Michael shooting through the construction fence at the Provo City Center Temple.

Provo City Center Temple taken from the West side.

Provo City Center Temple taken from the West side.

What a treat!  Especially the Provo one.  It is almost finished.  The dedication is in January 2016.  But it was enough done and cleaned up to have a very successful shoot.

Two of the six spires on the Provo City Center Temple.
Holiness to the Lord and window detail on the East side of the building.
More window detail.

A few words of explanation.  The Provo Tabernacle burned a few years ago.  Not to the ground, but the interior was hosed.  Literally.  The Mormon administrators decided to save the facade and rebuild it as a temple.  And honestly, it is simply charming.

Sepia
Color
Black and White

Aged Sepia
Aged Color
Aged Black and White

This one is my favorite.  Today.

Aged Color

Aged Color

40.233844 -111.658534
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Salt Lake Temple Revisited

03 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by melaniedean in Away from home, Black and White, Learning Days, Magic Hour, photography, Photoshop, shooting, Shooting Days

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#LDS, a temple in every home, Adobe Photoshop, Altus, Altus Photo Design, Black-and-white, blizzard, Digital photography, every home a temple, faux toned, I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday, LDS Art, Mormon, Salt Lake Temple, selenium toned, snow

004_SLC_BWsnow_8x10

I found a pin on pinterest of some of the most beautiful LDS temples I have ever seen.  Bob Boyd photographed them.  Each was a work of art in its own right.  This inspired me to re-think some of the Altus work.  This image is the result.

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Kalli & Makell’s Bridals

30 Tuesday Nov 2010

Posted by melaniedean in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Altus Photo Design, Black-and-white, bride, brides, Camera, Digital camera, Digital photography, Flash, Image, Light, Motion blur, photographer, Photography, Portrait, Shutter speed, sisters, twins, wedding

Another indoor shoot — this time at the Utah State Capitol Building.  The setting is important, so a photographer must light the subject and expose for the background.  Simply put, a photographer lights the subject and then uses a slower shutter speed to expose the background.  That means the camera must be set to manual mode, the subject is metered and exposed correctly.  This is best done by adding some sort of flash or external lights.  Then for the background, the shutter is set to expose it correctly.  Typically, a flash syncs at between 1/60 and 1/250 — but can be set manually.  Instead of using these speeds, you set the shutter speed at 1/30 or  1/8 or whatever will give you the amount of detail in the background you want.  The flash should freeze the motion of the subject — but for me, there is always some motion blur.  Most of the time, I like it.  Sometimes it’s distracting.  So if you shoot this way, shoot mega extra frames.  You’ll probably need them.

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Apart from the technical, this was a joy to shoot.  Two brides playing off each other!  What an opportunity.  And the best part — they are family.  My family.  Heidi, the brides’ mother, is my almost youngest sister.  She’s always doing things for me.  It’s nice to have something I can do for her!

Related Articles
  • Blur to convey motion (pixiq.com)
  • Using Slow Shutter Speeds on Your Digital Camera (brighthub.com)
  • Using a Fast Shutter Speed on Your Digital Camera (brighthub.com)
  • Use HDR to Improve Indoor Photography (brighthub.com)
  • 8 On-Camera Flash Tips: How To Get Better Lighting From Your On-Camera Flash (digital-photography-school.com)

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9 Ways To Make Your Portrait Subjects Look Thinner

13 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by melaniedean in Learning Days, Photo Tips, photography, Shooting Days, Surviving Days, Tutorials

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Tags

Adobe Photoshop, Altus Photo Design, Digital photography, Graphics, Image Editing, photographer, Photographers, Photography, Photoshop, Portrait, Shooting, Techniques and Styles, Thinner (film)

Elliott Children

Shot from above, a good angle for people thinning.

As far as tips go, everyone wants a photographer to know how to make them look thinner!  So here’s a link.  Enjoy

9 Ways To Make Your Portrait Subjects Look Thinner

My favorite is to just remove my double chin in photoshop!  LOL!

Related Articles
  • How to Create Portraits that Captivate and Intruige (digital-photography-school.com)
  • Portrait Retouching in Photoshop (thejebbica.com)
  • Photography Tips for Taking Full Length Portraits (brighthub.com)
  • Shockingly Surreal Self-Portraits (10 photos) (mymodernmet.com)
  • How To Cartoonify Your Photos With GIMP (makeuseof.com)

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Huntsman Senior Games

12 Tuesday Oct 2010

Posted by melaniedean in Away from home, Black and White, Learning Days, Photo Tips, photography, shooting, Shooting Days

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bronze Medal, Digital photography, Gold Medal, Photography, Sports, Table tennis, United States

My mom, two sisters, and I went to St. George last week to watch Lon — you’ve met him — play in the Huntsman Senior Games.  We had a glorious time — even though it rained the entire time we were there.  Lon won a Gold Medal and a Bronze Medal in Table Tennis.  It was exciting to watch and a challenge to photograph.   We were indoors and no flash allowed.  This meant the iso had to be set high enough so that all the action wasn’t just a blur.  But raising the iso also increases the grain or noise — as it is now mostly called — in the image.  If you don’t like noise, you won’t be in love with the pictures technically.  But let me remind you, there is no such thing as a perfect picture.  You just have to learn to shoot within the allowed parameters and be happy with what you get — or else give up photography and go swimming.


Tami's granddaughter
Acacia came prepared to watch tennis with her hat and shades!
Sister two
Heidi at Lon’s last tennis match.

sister one
Tami visiting during Lon’s last tennis match.
gold winner
Lon only lost to this man who won Gold in the 2000+ points bracket.

he beat Lon
This gentleman beat Lon in round 3 of the tennis — then won the gold!
taken for flickr
A friend of the Gold winner in Tennis.

Lon's Mixed Doubles Partner
Marilyn, Lon’s Mixed Doubles Partner. They won the Bronze Medal.
1948 World Cup Winner
Thelma (Marilyn’s Mother) won the 1948 world cup in table tennis.
1948 World Cup Medal
Thelma, showing off her 1948 World Cup Medal in Table Tennis.


The player Lon defeated twice for the Men’s Age 55-59 Gold Medal.

Lon wide angle
Lon in the 2000+ point playoff.
55-59 yr old age bracket
Lon, playing for the Gold Medal in his age bracket.
Another shot
A closeup of Lon playing for the Men’s Age 55-59 Bracket Gold Medal.

Temple and "D"
The St. George Utah Temple and the white “D” on the bluff stand out.
Lon playing tennis
Round 2 of the tennis match. Lon won.
at least the ones who made the treck
All of the pilgrims who made the journey to St. George for the Games.


I may never sell the images, but to me they are priceless, a visual reminder of our time together as a family, a record of the laughter and nervous excitement of the event.  Though we were there to watch Lon, it was important to me to photograph a little of the other players and watchers.  That gives a better idea of the event and all the other commitment that was battling  around in the Dixie Center.  It’s also nice to include a little of the surrounding city to get a fix on the location.

Oh!  Be sure to shoot a ton!  Most of them will probably need deleting — if you shoot like I do!

Related Articles
  • David Helfenbein: An Ode to Huntsman (huffingtonpost.com)

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Lon’s “Take” on Photography

29 Wednesday Sep 2010

Posted by melaniedean in Away from home, Black and White, Dusk, found at home, Learning Days, Magic Hour, photography, Photoshop, Shooting Days

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Tags

American Fork Canyon, Arts, Arts and Entertainment, Digital photography, Hong Kong, Photographers, Photography, Techniques and Styles

Our guest photographer this week is my brother, Lon Dean, from Seal Beach, California.  The following is his “take” on photography.  (Also see yesterday’s post.)

“I’ve always been enthralled with photographs.  As a child I often watched slide shows with my family when my dad got out the old slide projector and set up the special white screen that magically appeared out of a metal tube on a tripod.  We’d make popcorn and watch for hours, at least it seemed like hours!  I was especially excited whenever a photo of me came up.

When I was about 8 years old I had my dad buy me a darkroom setup so I could develop my own photos.  I must have been too young to really figure how to do it well but remember when I first dipped the paper into some chemicals and saw a black and white likeness of our dog appear.  I was ecstatic!  I wanted to buy an enlarger but could never save enough money to buy one.  The long, narrow closet in which I had set up the darkroom  eventually became my bedroom . . . and there was no more room for chemicals.

Water drop
Won 1st Place in the Long Beach “Say Cheese” Photography Contest
Lon's Dog
Won 1st Place in a Dog Photography Contest in Huntington Beach

Roller Coaster at Night
The Pike was featured on the Front Cover of a book about Long Beach
Man sleeping
Won 1st Place in the Long Beach “Say Cheese” Photography Contest, Occupations

Girl and Sea Lion
Won Best in Show in the Long Beach “Say Cheese” Photography Contest
Lon!
One of the slides I liked to see popping up!

It was years before I took up photography again and then mainly just snapshots.  Then I was called as a LDS missionary to Hong Kong and it was there that I fell in love with photography again.  I bought a a good Pentax SLR and began shooting all the wonderful sights to be seen in Hong Kong . . . I enjoyed that so much more than knocking on people’s doors.  Then one day while I was out, someone broke into the apartment and stole my camera.  I’d love to go back there again just spending all my time shooting . . . and eating.

When I finally retired I had the time to do all the things I really enjoyed . . tennis . . table tennis . . eating . . . and photography.  I bought one of the best cameras out at the time and almost all the lenses I wanted.  (I still want the 800 or 1000 mm zoom but am still wondering if I could get $10,000 dollars worth of enjoyment from it!)  My sister Melanie helped me so much at the beginning learning the basics of digital photography.  I was enthralled with her photos, especially the ones out on the Salt Flats.  Since then some of the  best times I’ve had in photography have been shooting with her.  Some of the most memorable were in St. George, American Fork Canyon, the Utah State Capitol Building and our old hometown Smithfield.

I still don’t have a “specialty”.  I love taking landscapes, people, macro shots, dogs, birds, architecture, sports action, and figuring out which lens works best with a particular shot.  I’ve grown to love Photoshop.  I love manipulating images and discovering new “plug ins”.  I still have lots to learn but it’s always exciting to me.”

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  • Inspired By – Black and White Photography (theoriginalwinger.com)
  • Well, shoot! Installment 23: Black & white; Picture-taking advice from The Bulletin’s professional photographers (bendbulletin.com)

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