Category Archives: Technique

Using aperture brackets to overcome blur and diffraction

May 20, 2012Cocoa, Cocoa Beach Pier, INSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquelandscape, pier, sunriseEd Rosack

I finally made it over to Cocoa Beach in time for sunrise yesterday morning:

Sunrise by the Cocoa Beach Pier

In this photo, I wanted to use a long shutter speed to blur the water and show wave motion. I set the slowest ISO my camera supports (50), added a 3 stop neutral density filter, and used an aperture of f/22 which gave me a shutter speed of 2 seconds. I would have liked even longer, but this was as slow as I could get it under these conditions. I think the water came out pretty well.

As I made the exposure, I worried about two things: 1) Such a tiny aperture would lead to diffraction and blurring of small details and 2) Such a long shutter speed would add motion blur where I didn’t want any (boats and people). So how could I overcome this?

I was shooting in aperture priority mode and my camera was locked down on a tripod. So I made a second exposure at f/4 and let the camera set a shutter speed of 1/15 second. Normally when you bracket, you’re trying to change the exposure (or sometimes white balance or focus). This time, I was trying to bracket the aperture / shutter speed I was using, but keep the exposure constant. Having a second exposure let me load both images as layers in Photoshop. Then I used a layer mask to show the first exposure for the water in the lower part, and the second exposure for the upper area including the boat and pier. This let me have motion blur where I wanted it and still keep sharpness in areas where I wanted that. I think the technique worked pretty well. What do you think? Have you ever tried this?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Water Dragon Sunrise

April 22, 2012OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquesunrise, vacationEd Rosack

Just a quick entry to say I’m very sorry about not posting last week. I was busy with family and found it hard to update the blog. But the good news is that I’ve got a lot of new images and info to share with you (as soon as I get finished editing my photos).

Mary graduated from the University of Florida with her MBA degree and Lynn and I celebrated with her, Mike, and Sara by taking a family cruise. Here’s one favorite image from the trip:

Water Dragon Sunrise – The view from the deck of the Carnival Paradise last Thursday morning, somewhere near Yucatán in the Gulf of Mexico.

This illustrates an important point for sunrise photography: It’s very hard to predict – so you have to wait and see what develops. This scene looked very mundane at first. Several people came out on deck, took a photo and went back inside. But then an interesting cloud formation developed and drifted left right in front of the sun. I really liked the shape. And the back / rim lighting. And the rays. And the shadows coming up from the head that look like smoke. And the mist on the horizon. And the ocean…

And the food at breakfast was pretty good too!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

Infrared Photography Follow Up

April 1, 2012Infrared processing, INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWR, Ohio, OUTSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C.birds, infrared, landscapeEd Rosack

If you’re a regular reader, you saw my post from a couple of weeks ago about infrared photography and how I post process my IR images. If not, please check it out!

That post concentrated on a single image and tried to show some detail on how I processed it. Today, I’d like to show you a few more examples of what you can expect when you try this very interesting genre of photography. I made these photos with my IR modified Olympus E-PL1 camera.

I R n Air: A river runs through the countryside in this B&W digital infra-red photo made out the window at ~30,000 feet. The IR light cuts right through the haze to show a lot of detail.

Palm Tree: IR sensitivity makes the foliage stand out against the sky in this false color image.

Calm water and birds: Bird photography is not a strength of IR, but the birds in the water and the ones flying through the frame add to this landscape.

Play time at Union Station: Buildings, architecture, and people can be good subjects.

Jefferson Memorial from across the Tidal Basin: IR adds a different look to this classic view.

I have some other IR photos on Flickr in this set. And you can see examples from other photographers in The Infrared and The Digital infrared groups on Flickr. How about it – are you inspired to try IR photography? Let me know if you do.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now, go make some photos!

[Additional info, added 1/24/2014]: https://edrosack.com/2014/01/12/infrared-updates/

Digital Infrared Photography – a post processing example

March 10, 2012Infrared processing, INSIDE FLORIDA, Lake Jesup, TechniqueCypress, equipment, infrared, landscape, treeEd Rosack

Introduction

If you’ve read through my blog or looked at my photostream on Flickr, you’ll already know that I enjoy black and white photography and occasionally post B&W images. Removing color from a scene abstracts reality – and emphasizes shapes, composition, and texture. The image becomes a bit unreal, but since we’re used to B&W – not too unreal. This makes B&W a great way to make your images stand out.

Another way to make your images stand out is by using infrared (IR) film or an IR modified camera:

IR captures a portion of the spectrum of light that’s different from what your eyes can see.
The spectral response makes blue sky look dark and foliage bright. This reverses a normal daylight scene’s brightness values, helps tame contrast, and allows you to shoot even when the sun is high in the sky.
You can interpret this alternate version of reality by processing your IR photo as B&W or various types of false color images.
IR can sometimes also capture details that aren’t seen with visible light.
If you use a modified digital camera, you may see improved detail in your photos, since the conversion process removes the anti-aliasing filter that most digital cameras use to slightly blur the image during capture (and remove Moire patterns and other aliasing artifacts).

I’ve gotten some questions about my infra-red images. And I haven’t written anything about technique recently, so in this post, I’ll go into detail about a recent IR image I made. I’m relatively inexperienced at this, but as a IR n00b I’ve learned a few things that may come in handy if you want to try it.

Messy knees: Cypress trees on the south shore of Lake Jesup. Cypress trees and their roots are good subjects, especially along the water where they’re usually found. The light hitting these tree trunks and the Spanish Moss also caught my eye. I’m still playing around with infra-red. There’s a range of post processing options available. I was hoping that this false color version looks just alien enough to make people take a second look. Click here to view a larger version of this photo on Flickr.

Camera

I use an Olympus E-PL1 modified for IR by http://www.lifepixel.com/ and I’m very pleased with the result.

Using a micro 4/3 camera has advantages for IR:

Older models like the E-PL1 are relatively inexpensive;
They have a large sensor (compared with compact cameras) which helps image quality;
They use the sensor for contrast type focusing so there are no focus calibration issues that can occur in a DSLR
Most have RAW format capture available

Settings

I shoot in RAW, not jpeg. For IR, it would be tough to get all the settings perfect in camera. Plus, there are a lot of post processing options which you’d give up if you only capture jpeg.

White balance is one thing that you should set. If you shoot in RAW, white balance can be adjusted in post processing. But setting a white balance in camera is important since it lets you judge your shots on the LCD screen as you take them. Unless you set a custom (preset) white balance all IR images would look very red. On my E-PL1 I use a temperature setting of 2000K which is as low as it will go. This camera has no tint adjustment, so photos still look blue, but it’s good enough for judging exposure.

Workflow

Here are 7 versions of this photo that show the processing steps I went through along the way. Don’t be alarmed – this is quicker and easier than it sounds.

1-Messy knees__IR21042 — This is the RAW photo straight out of the camera. My custom white balance adjustment isn’t able to completely correct the IR spectrum so there’s a pronounced bluish tint.

2-Messy knees__IR21042 — This is the image after white balance and levels adjustment in Photoshop. Other initial adjustments in LR or Photoshop may include a bit of noise reduction, lens corrections (if available), cropping / straightening, and spot removal.

Messy knees — In this version, I’ve used several copies of the same scene (shot from a tripod) to smooth the water’s surface and make the trees / knees stand out more.

4-Messy knees — This version has a Channel Mixer preset adjustment layer (red and blue colors swapped). Debra Sandige’s IR page (listed in the references below) has detailed steps on how to do this in Photoshop.

5-Messy knees — A Hue / Saturation / Brightness adjustment layer was used to modify the Hue in the cyan and blue channels so it looks a bit more natural.

6-Messy knees — This is after final adjustments in Lightroom: clarity(+47), vibrance (+24), medium contrast tone curve, sharpening with edge mask. (note: this is the same image as at top of post).

7-Messy knees — For comparison, a black and white conversion of the final false color image. I like the false color version better.

References

You can find out more about Infrared photography at these places:

This Wikipedia article has some background information on infrared photography – especially film techniques.
I had my camera converted by LifePixel and was extremely pleased with the result. They have a huge amount of IR information including tutorials, FAQs, and a blog on their website.
I read and enjoyed Debra Sandige’s recent book about IR photography. She’s very creative and presents a lot of good information. She has a page on her website with IR information.
Lloyd Chambers also has an intro to infra-red on his site and offers a paid site with more info.
The Khromagery website has several good articles on IR cameras and processing. They also offer an IR Photoshop action as a free download.

Conclusions?

So, is IR an infatuation? Will I use it for a while and then let it fade away? Will I only bring it out for special photo ops as inspiration? Will it take over my photo life to the exclusion of all other approaches? Who can say? You’ll just have to keep reading my blog and see what happens. Along with me.

You can visit my IR set on Flickr to see more examples of what I’ve done. What do you think? Is IR photography something you’d like to explore?

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some IR photos!
©2012, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

[Additional info, added 1/24/2014]:

https://edrosack.com/2014/01/12/infrared-updates/
Infrared Photography Follow Up (April 2012)

Jetty Park, Cape Canaveral

January 1, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Jetty Park, Techniquebeach, birds, cloud, landscape, Northern Gannet, panorama, Pelican, reviews, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Happy New Year! Back to basics with my first post of 2012: A photo-op review.

When I was in the Navy, I was stationed at the Naval Ordinance Test Unit at Cape Canaveral for a while – so I’m familiar with the port and Jetty Park. But I’d never really investigated it as a photo-op. I had some time last week, and decided to visit.

Jetty Park is located on the south side of Port Canaveral in Brevard County. Depending on where you leave from, it’s a little over an hour from Orlando, basically a straight line along the Beachline Expressway (528 toll road). In addition to the jetty and 1200 foot fishing pier, there’s also a 120+ site campground and beach (with lifeguard) at the park.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

The rocks, pier and seaside vegetation can provide some interesting foreground for sunrise landscapes.

The sun rises every morning…But no one know what it will look like. This was the view before dawn from the beach at Jetty Park.

You can also see a variety of shore birds. I saw Brown Pelicans, Northern Gannets, Ruddy Turnstones, Royal Terns, various Seagulls and others that I haven’t identified yet.

A place like this is also great for practicing your BIF (birds in flight) techniques. Pelicans make especially good subjects, since they tend to glide in a predictable straight line, but other birds are also flying in and around (see the last photo, below).

Tripod/Monopod:

No restrictions, so bring yours and use it.

Lenses:

This will depend on your subject. I used my tripod mounted Nikon 16 – 35mm f/4 VR Wide angle for landscapes and sunrise. When the light got a little better, I switched to hand holding my Sigma 150 – 500mm f/6.3 for birds. You can get up close to some of the birds, so a shorter telephoto might come in handy too. For example, this Brown Pelican wouldn’t fit in the field of view at 500mm. Since the bird was so still, I made a multi-shot panorama. I like to use this technique when I can since the result can be a higher resolution image (this one is 18.5 Megapixels, un-cropped).

Best time to visit:

Day visitor hours are 7am to dusk. Take this into account if you’re planning to make some sunrise photos. I didn’t and the morning I went, sunrise was at 7:15. I arrived about 6:45 and the gate was still closed, so I drove around a bit to see if there was somewhere else to make a sunrise photo (I didn’t find one). When I returned at about 6:55 they were unlocking it. I had less time than I wanted to find a good spot and setup, but I did manage to get some photos I like.

Winter is probably a good time of year to go. It’ll be less crowded (with people) and more crowded (with birds). Many of the birds could be winter visitors too.

Northern Gannet in flight: This Pelagic species is a winter migrant to the waters off of the Florida coast.

Other:

There’s a $10 per day usage / parking fee.

The morning I was there I saw a young man land a large fish from the end of the pier. This might be a good place to combine your interest in fishing, camping and the beach with a photo side excursion.

There’s a lot of shipping activity at the port. Cruise ships and fishing boats enter and leave regularly. I think you can still occasionally see a submarine that’s visiting too.

Jetty park is close to both Viera Wetlands and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. If you have time for a little longer trip, you could combine a visit here with a second stop at one of those places. The morning I went, I also stopped by Viera to see what was going on there.

Summary

I added a few birds to my life list and a few photos I really like to my archives. You can too. Check out the other photos I made there in this set on Flickr. Let me know how your visit to the park goes.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157628638922015/with/6606239041/
Their Website:	http://www.portcanaveral.com/recreation/beaches.php
Address / Phone:	9035 Campground Cir, Cape Canaveral, FLView in Google Maps
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A sunrise and shorebird showplace!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Orlando American Photo Model Shoot Workshop, December 2011

December 9, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, Techniqueequipment, people, reviewsEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Well this is a bit different from what I normally photograph and post about. But to keep learning, it’s good to occasionally stretch your skills, move outside your comfort zone, and try something you haven’t done before. And as your intrepid Central Florida Photo Ops reporter, I have an obligation to report on more than just the landscape and wildlife opportunities in the Central Florida Area. Right?

Flavia, in color

So last Saturday, I found myself at the American Photo Magazine Model Shoot Workshop at the Marriott World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The magazine organizes the event, hires models, brings lighting equipment and sets everything up for you. You just need to show up with your camera and plenty of memory cards.

They also bring in an instructor for the day. For this session it was New York Photographer Lindsay Adler. She provided some very good information on lens choice, lighting, posing, and creativity in two different sessions during the day. She and the other instructors also circulated and offered advice and help while we were shooting. It’s a great opportunity to learn, especially if you’re not familiar with this kind of photography.

There were 15 different models there. I’ve included four photos of three of them in this post. You can see more photos I made (including the other models) in this gallery. You can also look at other photographers’ images at this link.

Tiffany, in fur

Since I’m normally a Nature & Wildlife photographer, I found it quite fascinating to think about the differences between those genres and Fashion and Model photography:

Nature and Wildlife Photography	Fashion and Model Photography
The light is what it is. You may be able to change it a bit with flash for fill and catch lights.	You control the light. Indoors, you control it completely.
High Dynamic Range is common for landscape photos to control large contrast levels.	Since you control the lights, you control the contrast. HDR isn’t required.
You rarely interact with the subject. And if you do, you usually scare it off.	You must interact with the subject. Building a rapport and directing the pose is critical.
Very wide (landscape) or very long (wildlife) lenses are favored.	Large aperture lenses are favored: 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, 70 – 200mm f/2.8
It’s all on you – a one person show.	You’ll require a team: models, make up artist, costumes, sets, etc.
Knowledge / experience and persistence are necessary to find good subjects.	Portfolio, reputation, and relationships are necessary to find good subjects.
You go to where the subject is.	The subject comes to you in a set or studio.
Post processing: Color adjustments, HDR (landscapes), Selective sharpening	Post processing: Color adjustments, Retouching, Selective sharpening

I’m sure I must have missed something. What else is different about these two types of photography?

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

At this type of event, everything except you and your camera are provided: backdrops, lighting (hot lights and soft boxes), sets, models, costumes, makeup, etc. The instructors will help with light adjustments and offer advice if you’re having any problems. Flash isn’t recommended, since the lighting is provided and flash will interfere. It will also be a lot harsher than the large soft box hot lights that are used.

You do need to use a higher ISO setting. I used ISO 800 almost all day. I shot with my lens wide open and my exposures ranged around f/2.8 between 1/60 of a second and ~1/320. A capable high ISO camera will come in very handy as well as a large aperture lens with VR. The Nikon D700 and 70 – 200 f/2.8 VRII combination worked well for me. I did have some issues with overexposure. I don’t know why these scenes were fooling my meter (maybe the dark backgrounds?), but I sometimes had to dial in some negative exposure compensation. Make sure to check your histogram often.

Flavia, in black and white

White balance was tungsten on some sets and daylight on others. I shot in RAW mode, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I just set my camera in auto white balance and then corrected it (if needed) in post. If you shoot in JPG mode, pay attention to the changing white balance. I overheard a lot of discussion that day from different people about “degrees Kelvin”.

The overall experience sometimes resembled a paparazzi shoot out on a red carpet. Popular models would attract a crowd of photographers. Courtesy is very important. Take your turn and let others have theirs – there was plenty of time for everyone. It was also fascinating to be one of the photographers in the crowd and hear shutter clicks sync up when a model changed position or where they were looking.

Tripod/Monopod: Not recommended – it’s too crowded and would definitely be in everyone’s way – including yours. It would also slow you down. The models do move around, so you need to react quickly to get the compositions you want.

Lenses:

One of the event sponsors was Sigma. They brought a couple crates of lenses and would let you borrow one for a session. This is a great chance to try glass that you haven’t used before. I checked out an 85mm f/1.4 for the first session, but ended up not using it very much. I wasn’t getting many sharp images even when I stopped it down. I didn’t have time to diagnose the issue but I think my problem was a combination of very shallow depth of field and blur caused by slower shutter speeds with no VR. I switched to my 70 – 200 f/2.8 and used it the rest of the day. It was occasionally a bit long at the 70mm length, but I compensated when needed by taking multiple shots.

Jennifer, in close

Best time to visit:

You’ve missed your chance for this year. To see when they’re coming back to Orlando, you’ll have to check the American Photo Website. They told us they’d be posting the 2012 schedule soon.

Other: I had a great time, but it was a long day. You’ll be on your feet a great deal of the time, and you’ll be shifting positions often to get a good vantage point. I was quite tired at the end of the day.

Summary

You can view a higher resolution gallery of other photos I made at the link in the table below.

My Gallery:	https://edrosack.com/APMS
Their Website:	http://www.americanphotomag.com/modelshoot/
Their Contact Info:	apmodelshoot@bonniercorp.com
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A different kind of CFL Photo Op must do!

Using Selective White Balance to Fix Problem Photos

October 30, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C.Potomac River, sunrise, sunset, white balanceEd Rosack

I thought about going to Orlando Wetlands Park on Saturday before it closes for the winter (in mid-November), but the weather was quite bad. This morning, I wanted to get up early in search of a sunrise but instead had to deal with a migraine headache (I need to be much more careful about restaurant MSG). So anyway, no new shots to post this weekend.

Instead, let’s go over a technique that can be quite useful in certain situations. Normally I shoot in RAW format and use Lightroom to adjust color balance globally over the whole photograph. This works well in most situations, but sometimes a photograph can be improved substantially by correcting white balance selectively.

How do you do this? The way I do it is to open the photo in Photoshop, duplicate the image in a second layer, and adjust the white balance globally in each layer, but for different areas of the photo. So in layer 1 the sky may look good, but the ground may be off – while in layer two the opposite is true. Then I blend the two layers together using a layer mask, taking the best portions of each. If you don’t already use layers and layer masks in Photoshop, you should really learn about them. They provide a very useful tool in many situations and the ability to paint in (and erase) from one layer to the other gives you a great deal of flexibility and control over the results.

In this first example, I initially used a “day light” color balance and this brought out the sunset colors in the clouds, but the clear sky and terrain are a little too warm.

: Neighborhood Sunset – before selective white balance adjustment

In Photoshop, I left the color balance as is in one layer, and in the second layer, I made it much more neutral. I then painted the clouds from the first into the second.

Neighborhood Sunset – after selective white balance adjustment

This second example is even more dramatic than the first. The scene included both the pre-dawn sky and artificial lights along the far shore of the river. No matter what I did with the global white balance adjustment, I couldn’t get it to look right.

: The pre-dawn Potomac River – initial white balance

Again, duplicating the image into a second layer and blending with layer masks allowed me to neutralize the color balance of the lighting on the far shore and still make the sky and water more natural looking.

The pre-dawn Potomac River – after selective white balance adjustment

You owe it to yourself and your photography to try this technique. It some situations it can save a photo.

Neighborhood Sunset

September 25, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, TechniquesunsetEd Rosack

Beauty is all around us. You don’t have to journey thousands of miles to an exotic location with many pounds of gear to make a good photograph. Often, you can find one in or very close to your back yard. And since you know your area better than any other, you know where the beauty is. Make a photo of it.

Reeds, pond, sky

I went for a walk after dinner last night and photographed the sky reflected in this pond not very far from my home. We have an obligation to notice, capture and share the beauty all around us with others.

Technical notes: I made this photo (with a small camera and no tripod) using the technique I described in this post. Here though, I used four images instead of two. Because I had four source images, I didn’t try to blend them by hand. Once I auto-aligned the layers, I used Photoshop’s “auto-blend” layers capability. I also used one extra technique: white balance blending. When I imported the four original photos into Photoshop, I set the white balance to “daylight”. When I finished blending them and had them back into Lightroom, the clouds looked good, but the rest of the image was too warm. So I made a virtual copy, did an auto white balance adjustment on it and then blended these two versions in Photoshop using a layer mask. The resulting master file is 4668 x 6352 pixels (~30 megapixels).

An HDR photo and some tips

August 20, 2011Cameras and Photography, Circle B Bar Reserve, INSIDE FLORIDA, Techniquelandscape, sunriseEd Rosack

Here’s another photo from our trip last week to the Circle B Bar Reserve:

Sunrise marsh: Early morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve near Lakeland, Florida

The dynamic range of the light in a scene like this is extreme – a perfect opportunity to try your hand at High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. I won’t get into the details on how to do HDR. You can find an excellent tutorial on Trey Ratcliff’s site. But I wanted to offer a some hints.

For sunrise / sunset images such as this, I usually bracket 9 frames at 1 EV apart. This allows me to capture the very bright sun, details in the sky, and even details in the shadows. You may want to consider biasing your overall exposure to underexpose slightly since it’s usually the sun’s brightness that is hard to capture.
When you process your images, select only the ones you need. I look at the image and histogram in Lightroom and use that to pick which ones to use. In this example, I didn’t process the brightest exposures. The reason for this is that as you use more and more exposures, you increase the chances of introducing noise and ghosting into your final output.
If you can afford it, try different software to process your image. Photoshop, Photomatix, and HDR Efx Pro (and others) all have their strengths and weaknesses and one may work better on any given image than the others.

Before and After, Again

July 24, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Ponce Inlet, Techniquebeach, landscape, lighthouse, Reprocessing, sunsetEd Rosack

This is another entry in my occasional series on reprocessing photos. You can see the other posts here, here, and here. You can also read the original blog post about this image here.

Post-processing skills as well as taste develop over time. New tools come out or get updated. Reviewing your image library for things you may want to change is a good idea. Just don’t spend too much time on post processing – leave enough to go out and make new images too!

This is one of my favorite photographs and one that I’ve even sold, but re-looking at it I saw several things I thought I could make a little better. Here’s the updated version after all my re-edits (which are described below):

After: Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, Final Edit

I started over from the RAW file (you do save your RAW files, don’t you?) and re-did the basic adjustments in Lightroom (color balance, initial exposure adjustments). Then I moved into Photoshop and cleaned up distracting elements (tire tracks, poles, the tip of the cloud just right of the lighthouse, …). I then added a duplicate layer and ran that through Topaz Adjust using the “Spicify” preset to bring up structure, detail, and color saturation. I don’t usually like applying this filter all over an image at 100%, so once back in Photoshop I added a hide all layer mask and partially painted in the effect, using a higher opacity brush for the sky to let more of the filter show and a lower one for the rocks and ocean to mute the filter effect. I then took the result back to Lightroom for final tweaks to color balance, sharpening and a crop to remove part of the sky. I thought that the colors of the sky and rocks were still a little off, so as one last tweak I added graduated filters to help adjust their tints.

For reference purposes, here’s the old edit of this photo:

Before: Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, Initial Edit

Note: you can click the two versions above to go to my Flickr account, where you can view larger versions.

And also for reference, I uploaded the original RAW file (with default development settings in Lightroom) below.

Ponce Inlet lighthouse, sunset, bird, RAW Capture

Would I go to this much effort for every image? No. But sometimes a photo really appeals to me and I want to get the absolute best I can from it. It helps that I enjoy working in Photoshop and learning about new techniques.

So what do you think? Quite a few changes, some more subtle than others – but overall I like the new version better.