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A Guest Post by Robin Ryan

I’d like to talk today about the potential offered by Neutral Density filters, and how they can make your photos more unique.

Ruined Harbour II by Duncan_Smith (used with permission)

The smooth watercolour feel in the above photo is due to a Neutral Density 64 Filter. This filter has interested me lately and this photo demonstrates one of its primary uses: to smooth out water and skies without the use of post-processing. I think the results are perfect, and I’d love to have this on my wall.

A Neutral Density Filter is one designed to block out a substantial amount of light. This enables the photographer to slow down his shutter speed and/or shoot at a faster F-stop.

Most photographers will use what is called an N2, N4, or N8 filter to smooth out waterfalls, rivers, oceans. This photographer has used an N64 filter which is far stronger, letting him have an exposure of 60 seconds at f/16 for this image. Without the filter, the photographer would have had to use f/2 to get away with a 60-second image, or less than a second at f/16.

An N64 filter allows for 1.5% of available light to enter the lens. Here is comparison table for the other filters, courtesy of wikipedia:

Filter Name F-Stop Reduction % of Light Transmitted

ND2 has an F-Stop Reduction of 1 which means 50% of the light gets through
ND4 has an F-Stop Reduction of 2 which means 25% of the light gets through
ND8 has an F-Stop Reduction of 3 which means 12.5% of the light gets through
ND64 has an F-Stop Reduction of 6 which means 1.56% of the light gets through
ND1000 has an F-Stop Reduction of 10 which means .1% of the light gets through

Options

It’s important to remember that filters are designed to fit your lens circumference. Look at the front part of your lens and check for a 2-digit number followed by mm. Common circumferences are 77mm, 72mm, and 52mm.

I think most people have seen motivational posters in their travels. You know the ones – they have an image in the middle – a large word underneath and often a saying or quote that is supposed to inspire and motivate you for your day ahead.

This weekend your challenge is to create a motivational poster of your own and to share it.

Image by kkimpel

You might choose to make a serious motivational poster or do a funny one (my personal favorite)- the choice is completely up to you.

Once you’ve taken your shot and created your poster come back to this post

Once you’ve taken your photo and created your poster, upload it to your favourite photo sharing site and either share a link to it below or embed it in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

If you tag your photo on Flickr, Twitter or other sites with Tagging tag it as #DPSMotivate to help others find it. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

Image by Oplotnik

Image by ellie_4_jc

Image by lintmachine

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The field of perception is devoted to explaining the operation of the senses and the experiences and behaviors resulting from stimulation of the senses. Perceptual processes such as recognizing faces, seeing color, hearing music, and feeling pain represent the actions of complex mechanisms, yet we usually do them easily. The Encyclopedia of Perception presents a comprehensive overview of the field of perception through authoritative essays written by leading researchers and theoreticians in psychology, the cognitive sciences, neuroscience, and medical disciplines. It presents two parallel and interacting approaches: the psychophysical, or determining the relationship between stimuli in the environment and perception, and the physiological, or locating the biological systems responsible for perception. Are there any processes not associated with perception? Surely there are, but the pervasiveness of perception is truly impressive, and the phenomena of perception and its mechanisms are what this encyclopedia is about.

The Scanning Workshop is a project-based learning experience that teaches readers how to get the most out of their scanners. In addition, the book includes care and cleaning instructions and provides secret tips, such as how to scan Grandma’s heirloom hand-painted china without any glare. The book is closely tied to the software on the CD, Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, so readers get a hands-on introduction to post-scanning image correction. Extra sidebars point out outstanding features in some of the most popular software distributed with scanners so readers can choose what will best suit their needs.