Make your own signature

Have you seen those beautiful signatures some put on their photos and maybe tried yourself and failed? In this article I’d like to give you a recipe. As long as you have a computer and a camera, you will manage this.

My original signature

Of course you could choose to use a computer with a touch screen and a pen and make yourself a signature, but not everybody have a touch interface. So the first thing you do is to find a pen and a paper. If you have a black pen, that’s the best.

Make a hand written signature on your paper as you would on any formal letter. Once you’re satisfied with the results you use your camera to take a photo of your signature. Try to get as good light on it as possible.

There is a handfull of vector services online, but the one that I have had the most luck with is Vectorizer (This article is not sponsored or endorsed by Vectorizer).

You simply load your image up to their online vector editing tool and start tweaking. First you crop your image, then you set the model to “Drawing (Black and white)” , then you adjust the threshold so that the output image will have the signature in one colour and the background in the other. On the left side you see two Color wheels. Click the middle one that represents the collection of light colours and replace it with a completely white one and the same with the dark one to a completely black one.

After vectorizing

Then you hit “Vectorize” and then “Download”. The result is a vector file of your signature. So why do you want a vector file you might ask? Well, a vector file is a bunch of coordinates. Coordinates scaled up and down will still be coordinates. Rendered into a raster graphic after rescaling will lead to a much better result than just scaling a raster in the first place. The next thing is that it is a really simple way to get a clean file/signature.

I prefer Photoshop, so where is where you can add this file to Photoshop and get a nice looking signature. You can add this file as a layer in most photo editing softwares supporting layers and vector graphics.

Sunset in the woods

Norway is still affected by Corvid-19 and it is strongly advisable to stay at home or close to your home. Since we live on the countryside its possible to move around a bit, but not too far. My family live in a valley called Orkdal and the hills surrounding this valley is mostly covered in forest and farmland. One evening I was out biking and I came across this beautiful little area with some old trees and rocks. I always bring a camera with me, but my M100 was not capable of capturing all details in those trees.

A couple of days later I went up there again with my big camera (Canon 5Ds) and my 24-70mm lens. I’m really pleased with the result.

Greenland 2016

Back in 2016 I went on an expedition across the Greenlandic Icecap in a group of 11 people. I will remember this for as long as I live and luckily I have som fantastic images from the expedition as well.

Into the woods

Now a days one have time to digg trough the photo library for old hidden treasures. I found this piece from the woods.

I’m not quite sure where its taken, but I believe its shot south west in Norway at a place called Urdådalen. It has a remarkable good quality given that its taken by a Canon 350D back in 2009.

Urdådalen

Framing that snowy landscape

Have you ever been photographing snowy landscapes just to realize that your camera made a blue gray looking out of focus image?

The camera operates with something called while balance and there is your first problem. The camera does a best guess when it comes to picking the color temperature.

Moving away from AWB (Auto White Balance) and over to a more representative choice could solve your first problem. A much better choice would be to also shoot in raw. Raw makes it possible to adjust the white balance in post processing. I’m always shooting Raw. The single reason is to keep all the colors.

By keeping more of those colors you will also be able to reveal some more details in under/over exposed images. That often happen because the snow will reflect light and confuse your light meter.

The next issue is the out of focus problem. There might be condensation on your lens so check that when you are out photographing.

The other, and more common, issue is contrast. The camera needs contrast objects to detect focus. So find your self a color change in your image to help that autofocus.

If you are using the camera on a tripod then use your live view and focus with manual focus and magnification. The process takes a bit longer but done properly the results are always better.

Low contrast snowy landscape on Greenland

Autumn mist

The autumn is really beautiful. Especially all the different colors on the trees and the ground. I’ve also got a weak spot for partly frozen waterfalls, but there is one more thing I discovered recently. The beauty of the autumn mist as it rises from the ground and create great separation to the elements.

I went out one early morning to find a good location. I did know approximately where to go, but I had not been there before. I arrived early and spotted for a location about 30 minutes. Then waited another 60 minutes for the sun to rise.

It’s all about getting the composition and then get the timing just right. I find both quite hard, but I do think I got a couple of beautiful shots. One of them I’ve added to the post below here. What do you think?

Autumn mist at Storhaugen
Autumn mist at Storhaugen

Waterfalls

I often spend grey overcast days searching for new places. I’m using some apps on my smartphone to check when (and if) the sun will light up the scene or maybe if the moon decides to show up one night.

If I’m not in the mood for new places then I go visit some waterfalls, rivers or streams. Even if the light is flat its possible to create beautiful images. I’d thought I’d share some of my techniques with you in this post.

Continue reading “Waterfalls”

That time of the year

The nights are getting colder and darker. You wake up early and realize that the morning mist is just as beautiful as yesterday. Unfortunately you have no time to catch those first rays of the sun before you go to work.

One morning on my way to work I brought along my camera and had to stop for this image. I just love the clear reflections in the water and the colors in the sky. Especially when the colors are reflected in the water.

Continue reading “That time of the year”
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