by tmoffett | Jul 2, 2007 | Photo tips
Being 2 days before the 4th of July, I thought I would give a few tips on creating great images of your local fireworks displays. One of the first things to consider is vantage point. Where should you be set up? Do you want to include any buildings in your images or do you want a clean sky? Is there a river, lake or pond that would create interesting reflections? these are a few questions to ask yourself before the show, so that you can get set up while it is still light. One other consideration is that I would always recommend that you be upwind from the fireworks, otherwise smoke will be a problem.
One mistake that I commonly see is the improper selection of film or ISO speed on a digital camera. Even though it is dark outside, the fireworks are quite bright. I would recommend using ISO 100 or slower speed film. The images posted here are all made at ISO of 100. I am using an aperture of f5.6 to f8 and my favorite shutter speeds of 2 to 4 seconds. The brightest bursts tend to blow out if I go slower than 5 seconds.
One other thing that I commonly hear is to use a tripod! I disagree here! While a tripod is useful to capture fireworks as we tend to think they should be, and I am a big advocate of using a tripod whenever possible, experiment without one as well. My favorite images of fireworks have been made without a tripod.
Most of all, have fun and enjoy the holiday!
by tmoffett | Jun 30, 2007 | Uncategorized
Sunset Over The Great Salt Lake
This is a new image that is included in my exhibit that I just finished hanging at Satchel’s in Downtown Boise. It will be up through the month of August. I have titled this show “Fragments” as it is pieces of 3 larger series of photographs. The space at Satchel’s is brokenup, so it really lends itself to showing 3 distinctly different types of images. I have included a few of my more recent color images, some black and white’s and because it is July I added some fun firework abstracts. It is an interesting mix, but works well in the space.
by tmoffett | Jun 19, 2007 | Uncategorized
The month is more than half over and I haven’t put our print of the month up here yet! It has been available on the Gallery website, just not announced here. Things have been crazy with the end of school for the kids and the summer kicking into high gear already that I have just neglected this space a bit. Anyway, these prints are available at a discounted price for one month only, or less if the edition sells out. These are printed in editions of only 50 prints, half the size of our regular editions, which mean you get an even better value. Not only 30% off, but fewer prints as well! This is a 19×13 image and comes matted to 24×20 for only $195. Remember, there are only 50 of them, so they will go fast!. Order your by calling us at 208-465-4931 or by logging on to www.moffettgallery.com to order online.
This month’s featured image is Sunset, Lake Lowell. As Christeena and I were walking along the shore of the lake late this past spring, I was intrigued with the warm light reflecting off the top of the waves at sunset. The simpleness of the composition and color are very inviting and interesting to me. This image is really all about color and the play between the cool of the sky and the warmth of the sunset.
by tmoffett | May 7, 2007 | Uncategorized
We finally got our exhibit titled “The Color of Light” hung at Dawson’s Downtown! It really does look good. We had a “Meet the Artist” night on Thursday in conjunction with First Thusday’s Gallery stroll. It was great to see all of you that showed up to enjoy the evening with us. For those that didn’t make it, you will have until the 31st of the month to see it. This is the first of many exhibits in the coming months. Posted below are a few of the images on display.
What is really exciting for me about this show is that it is the first all color show that I have done. Prior to this, most all of my exhibits have been black and white photographs. After hanging the images, I sat back and took it all in, and really could see the influence af black and white in my color work. I always knew it was there, but when I saw the body of work all together, it really started to make sense to me.
I hope that the rest of you that see it enjoy it as much as I have in creating it!
by tmoffett | May 1, 2007 | Uncategorized
It’s a new month already, and that means time for a new print of the month on our gallery site. These prints are available at a discounted price for one month only, or less if the edition sells out. These are printed in editions of only 50 prints, half the size of our regular editions, which mean you get an even better value. Not only 30% off, but fewer prints as well! This is a 19×13 image and comes matted to 24×20 for only $195. Remember, there are only 50 of them, so they will go fast!. Order your by calling us at 208-465-4931 or by logging on to www.moffettgallery.com to order online.
The image we are featuring this month is a favorite of mine. I photographed this barn on a trip in November to Jackson Hole with several other portrait photographers. We had been to a seminar in Bozeman, Montana and decided to extend a day and go to Jackson. The weather was not looking too promising for good image making, but as you can see from this image it changed for the better, at least for few minutes.
by tmoffett | Apr 18, 2007 | Photoshop tips
Things have been pretty crazy around here lately. I have a show that hangs on May 1st that I am frantically trying to get ready for. I have also been working on two wedding albums, shooting portrait sessions, marketing stuff, and the list goes on and on. I will post more images shortly as I get caught up a bit, but for today I wanted to pass on a little Photoshop tip.
Have you ever wanted to put a vignette on an image, but when you do the vignette you get banding in the image? If you have, here is a technique that works really well, and I have never had the banding problem with it. The key is in how you feather the selection.
Open an image and with the marquee tool make a hard edged selection. To make this selection make sure that feathering is set to 0 pixels.
Enter Quick Mask mode by pressing the “Q” key, then do a Gaussian Blur. This way, instead of guessing how much feather to use you can visually see what the feathering will look like. On a high resolution file I typically use a setting of 120-150 pixels. If the feathering goes too far, you can then “Clean up” the mask with the brush tool.
Exit Quick Mask by again pressing Q. Invert the selection, copy to a new layer(Cmd-J / Ctrl-J), then choose Image>Adjustments>Levels and drag the midpoint slider to the right to get the desired effect.
Here is a before and after to show the result. This technique works well anytime you need a feathered selection and don’t know for sure the amount of feathering needed.
Before:
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After:
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The changes on this particular image are subtle, but the technique can drastically change the feel of many images.
by tmoffett | Apr 11, 2007 | Portraits
We recently attended the Professional Photographers of Idaho Annual Convention and print competition and took 1st place in the Child Portrait category with this portrait titled “Ringlets of Fire.” This gal was a joy to photograph. Everything really clicked from the moment she and her mother walked into the studio. We could have photographed all day and I don’t think she would have got tired of it. I really thought that their choice of clothing was perfect to compliment her striking red hair and blue eyes. My goal in every session is to make that connection that allows us to capture the beauty within a person in a natural and believable image. I believe that we were successful here! Below are a couple of other images from this session. I hope you enjoy them. 
by tmoffett | Apr 9, 2007 | Uncategorized
We are excited to announce that our new websites are now live! This has been a long time coming, and this blog is nearly the last piece of the puzzle. We will be making a few minor additions to our portrait site in the coming days as well as making constant additions to the Fine Art site. We will be announcing many of the changes and additions here, but many will also just happen, so check back frequently to see what is new.
My passion has always been in the Arts. I love teaching and sharing, and as a result of this desire to share, we decided to push into new territory and open a consulting and mentoring division to our business. We have many new things in the works as far as educational opportunities and will be posting updates here to keep you abreast of what we have available. We will also be posting photography tips for both film and digital photographers.
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