This is another shot taken from the week. Once again the sky was very flat. So I used way more foreground with the rocks and water leading the photo in. All is not lost any day down the beach watching the sunset is a good day!
This is another Black Card Technique: See previous post for how to go about this type of technique.
I thought the photo lacked and needed some more something so I used a Psuedo HDR processing with a single exposure just to get more texture out of the rocks and show movement in the water. This gave me a better look to my foreground that I needed.
The Shot:
Single Exposure, F/27, ISO 100, 15 second exposure, 10-20mm Sigma Lens @ 20mm
Post Processing:
-ACR-Slight adjustments to Fill Light, Black, Clarity
CS-5:
-Photomatix-Single exposure, psuedo HDR
-Adjustment Layer-Curves for overall contrast
-Topaz Adjust-Overall Color adjustment
-Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Orange saturation
-Cropped and straightened
-High Pass Sharpening
-Framed and sized for posting
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Dana Point Blues
This was a rare Wednesday that I can get out and take photo's. My wife and kids have a function they go to on Wednesday nights and I usually do dinner with friends and catch up on their week. This Wednesday all were busy so I decided to head out for some shooting.
I watched the clouds and sky all day and with streaking clouds moving through the sky all day I was planning for a great sunset, some long exposures. Soft water and streaking cloud look was what I was hoping for or at least some interesting skies with some good depth and texture. Drove out to Dana Point after work trying to beat the sunset. Needless to say the clouds cleared and the sky wasn't very interesting.
Now realize, anytime you get to enjoy a sunset down the beach with the waves crashing and warm weather it is a great thing. But us photographers want it all. Great sunset, warm weather, clear shooting, dramatic sky. Give it to us all day, everyday!! But alas, that is just not meant to be. So for me I try to make the best of what I am looking at.
I am still working with the Black Card Technique for interesting shots without multiple filters and exposures for blending. This is a black card technique photograph (See below for technique instructions). On this photo to get more glow out of the rocks I really overexposed the water. I wanted more glow out of the water and rocks than what I was getting with a normal exposure so if metering the rocks was 10 seconds for what the camera said was a 0EV exposure I made it 20 or 30 seconds depending on what I could get for lighting without blowing out the highlights. I kept the same exposure for the sky as the camera read of a 0EV exposure it was mostly the rocks and water I wanted to give more of a glow. Once again this is a great technique and worth trying instead of GND filters or HDR.
Worth noting: Post processing time and layers are greatly decreased with this type of process.
The Shot:
Single Exposure: F/16, 30 Seconds, ISO 100, 20mm, Sigma 10-20 Lens
Post Processing:
-ACR-Minor adjustments to Exposure, fill light, Clarity, Black, Noise
CS-5:
-Adjustment Layer-Levels-Blue in sky and water
-Topaz Adjust-Bring back color and glow in foreground water
-Adjustment Layer-Curves-Brighten up foreground rocks only
-Adjustment Layer-Curves-Brighten up foreground water
-High Pass sharpening
-Cropped, bordered and sized for posting
I watched the clouds and sky all day and with streaking clouds moving through the sky all day I was planning for a great sunset, some long exposures. Soft water and streaking cloud look was what I was hoping for or at least some interesting skies with some good depth and texture. Drove out to Dana Point after work trying to beat the sunset. Needless to say the clouds cleared and the sky wasn't very interesting.
Now realize, anytime you get to enjoy a sunset down the beach with the waves crashing and warm weather it is a great thing. But us photographers want it all. Great sunset, warm weather, clear shooting, dramatic sky. Give it to us all day, everyday!! But alas, that is just not meant to be. So for me I try to make the best of what I am looking at.
I am still working with the Black Card Technique for interesting shots without multiple filters and exposures for blending. This is a black card technique photograph (See below for technique instructions). On this photo to get more glow out of the rocks I really overexposed the water. I wanted more glow out of the water and rocks than what I was getting with a normal exposure so if metering the rocks was 10 seconds for what the camera said was a 0EV exposure I made it 20 or 30 seconds depending on what I could get for lighting without blowing out the highlights. I kept the same exposure for the sky as the camera read of a 0EV exposure it was mostly the rocks and water I wanted to give more of a glow. Once again this is a great technique and worth trying instead of GND filters or HDR.
Worth noting: Post processing time and layers are greatly decreased with this type of process.
Black Card Technique:
Black Card Technique is a little technique I read about so I don't have to use GND filters or HDR. A black card, shutter release and tripod is pretty much all that is needed. Here is the way it works:
>Spot Meter your foreground
>Spot Meter your sky
>Shoot in bulb mode to control exposure time
>Put black card over the area with the least exposure (Need at least 1.5 second total exposure)
>If the foreground is a 6 second exposure and the sky is a 3 second exposure cover the sky for a count of >3 seconds and remove card for the next 3 seconds and get a great exposure (6 seconds foreground, 3 seconds sky).
>Remember to shake card up and down just a bit so you don't get any lines where the card stops. That is it!! Takes a few times to get the feel for it.
>Things to note
-When shooting in Bulb Mode you can always adjust your time for the darker area's.
-The sky may not always be the darker area depending on the look you are going for
-ND filters may be necessary to get longer exposures during daylight hours
The Shot:
Single Exposure: F/16, 30 Seconds, ISO 100, 20mm, Sigma 10-20 Lens
Post Processing:
-ACR-Minor adjustments to Exposure, fill light, Clarity, Black, Noise
CS-5:
-Adjustment Layer-Levels-Blue in sky and water
-Topaz Adjust-Bring back color and glow in foreground water
-Adjustment Layer-Curves-Brighten up foreground rocks only
-Adjustment Layer-Curves-Brighten up foreground water
-High Pass sharpening
-Cropped, bordered and sized for posting
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Blue Lantern Inn
The Blue Lantern Inn is a small inn that sits up on the bluffs at Dana Point. This quant little place over looks the Dana Point Harbor.
After shooting the sunsets down below off of the rocks at Dana Point it was a pretty clear night and I knew I wanted to get some star trails done. I instantly thought of this area. To the left of this building is a small over look that looks over the entire harbor and that is where my first thought was to do the Star Trails. I set up the tripod and camera measured off a 30 second exposure locked in the shutter release to constantly shoot and settled in for an hours wait. As I was walking around and the camera was doing its thing. I noticed the inn and thought this would be an even better shot. So I walked back to the camera picked it up and moved it to this spot. Again setup tripod, measure off for a 30 second exposure, set the shutter release and settle in once again for an hour while the camera clicks off 120 frames. One thing I did do different here is because the building is so bright compared to the sky. I took a few shots of the building at a faster shutter speed and blended it in post processing later. I actually took 3 shots to blend in because of the lighting disparity in the building.
Post processing was rather simple. I googled "photoshop star trails tutorial" found an downloadable action for processing of the photo's. This made it pretty simple to do. After putting all the photo's through Adobe Raw and adjusting for White Balance, Exposure, and noise. I saved all the files to Tiff's and loaded them into CS-5 to use the action I downloaded from the internet. Some minor adjustments after that and presto!
The Shot:
120 Exposures, F/5.0, ISO 400, 30 seconds, 24mm 24-105L,
Post Processing:
-Raw all photo's
-Set the same White Balance, Exposure and Suppress Noise
-Save all as tiff's
CS-5
-Star Trails Action for all photo's
-Wait 1/2 Hour
-Adjustment Layer-Curves for Contrast
-Adjustment Layer-Levels for white and black point
-Copy Background Layer- Free Transform to adjust for distortion
-Cropped to taste
-High Pass sharpen
-Framed, Drop Shadow and sized for posting
After shooting the sunsets down below off of the rocks at Dana Point it was a pretty clear night and I knew I wanted to get some star trails done. I instantly thought of this area. To the left of this building is a small over look that looks over the entire harbor and that is where my first thought was to do the Star Trails. I set up the tripod and camera measured off a 30 second exposure locked in the shutter release to constantly shoot and settled in for an hours wait. As I was walking around and the camera was doing its thing. I noticed the inn and thought this would be an even better shot. So I walked back to the camera picked it up and moved it to this spot. Again setup tripod, measure off for a 30 second exposure, set the shutter release and settle in once again for an hour while the camera clicks off 120 frames. One thing I did do different here is because the building is so bright compared to the sky. I took a few shots of the building at a faster shutter speed and blended it in post processing later. I actually took 3 shots to blend in because of the lighting disparity in the building.
Post processing was rather simple. I googled "photoshop star trails tutorial" found an downloadable action for processing of the photo's. This made it pretty simple to do. After putting all the photo's through Adobe Raw and adjusting for White Balance, Exposure, and noise. I saved all the files to Tiff's and loaded them into CS-5 to use the action I downloaded from the internet. Some minor adjustments after that and presto!
The Shot:
120 Exposures, F/5.0, ISO 400, 30 seconds, 24mm 24-105L,
Post Processing:
-Raw all photo's
-Set the same White Balance, Exposure and Suppress Noise
-Save all as tiff's
CS-5
-Star Trails Action for all photo's
-Wait 1/2 Hour
-Adjustment Layer-Curves for Contrast
-Adjustment Layer-Levels for white and black point
-Copy Background Layer- Free Transform to adjust for distortion
-Cropped to taste
-High Pass sharpen
-Framed, Drop Shadow and sized for posting
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Rock'n Sunset Dana Point
Monday night is get out and shoot night. I have been working my way south through Orange County, California and this weeks stop was Dana Point. Not knowing where to go I went to Google Earth to try to get a lay of the land. Seemed like a lot of places to shoot and lots of places to park. So many winding streets where do you start. So being a follower on Flickr I have a contact that shoots quite a bit in Dana Point (Didenze). Sent out an email to see if she could recommend some places to shoot and she got back to me giving me a few options. How awesome is that!! Decided to try the first place she recommended which is the Ocean Institute area. Parking was right there and free and the beach was 100ft away. Loaded up and trekked on down to the beach for a bit, looking for a spot to set up. Seemed to be a ton of really nice places but I really didn't want to set up at the first I saw. Obviously I ended up at this spot which was about a 1/2 mile down the rocky beach.
Still trying the Black Card Technique and also multiple set ups. On the tripod I had a Canon 30D with a 10-20 sigma lens along with a 10 stop ND filter. Strapped I had my Canon 1DS Mark II with a 24-105 Lens. It seemed to be a good set up and I will try it again next time out.
The Shot:
Single Exposure, 10 Seconds total (2 seconds for sky), F/8, ISO 100, 10mm Sigma 10-20 Lens, Manual setting
Black Card Technique
Post Processing:
ACR: Minor adjustments in fill light and Black
CS-5:
-Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Oranges on Rocks
-Topaz Adjust-Overall Color and detail in Water
-Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Reduce Yellows in Sun Area
-Adjustment Layer-Curves-Overall Contrast
-Noise Ninja-Sky
-Cropped to taste
-High Pass Sharpening
Still trying the Black Card Technique and also multiple set ups. On the tripod I had a Canon 30D with a 10-20 sigma lens along with a 10 stop ND filter. Strapped I had my Canon 1DS Mark II with a 24-105 Lens. It seemed to be a good set up and I will try it again next time out.
Black Card Technique:
Black Card Technique is a little technique I read about so I don't have to use GND filters or HDR. A black card, shutter release and tripod is pretty much all that is needed. Here is the way it works:
>Spot Meter your foreground
>Spot Meter your sky
>Shoot in bulb mode to control exposure time
>Put black card over the area with the least exposure (Need at least 1.5 second total exposure)
>If the foreground is a 6 second exposure and the sky is a 3 second exposure cover the sky for a count of 3 seconds and remove card for the next 3 seconds and get a great exposure (6 seconds foreground, 3 seconds sky).
>Remember to shake card up and down just a bit so you don't get any lines where the card stops. That is it!! Takes a few times to get the feel for it.
>Things to note
-When shooting in Bulb Mode you can always adjust your time for the darker area's.
-The sky may not always be the darker area depending on the look you are going for
-ND filters may be necessary to get longer exposures during daylight hours
The Shot:
Single Exposure, 10 Seconds total (2 seconds for sky), F/8, ISO 100, 10mm Sigma 10-20 Lens, Manual setting
Black Card Technique
Post Processing:
ACR: Minor adjustments in fill light and Black
CS-5:
-Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Oranges on Rocks
-Topaz Adjust-Overall Color and detail in Water
-Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Reduce Yellows in Sun Area
-Adjustment Layer-Curves-Overall Contrast
-Noise Ninja-Sky
-Cropped to taste
-High Pass Sharpening
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tools of the Trade
Car shows are cool enough but they can be repetitive. How many shots can you take of cars before your processing becomes the same old thing?
Today I visited 2 car shows. These are weekly events where the local muscle and exotic cars get together, drink coffee, eat donuts and share ideas. Many people walk around with there cameras and take photo's of the cars and such. I look for cars that have color and contrast that would make for a good HDR photo. The first show I went to had plenty of muscle cars and flames and contrast but it was 6am and the sun wasn't out yet so trying to take photo's would have been futile. I was traveling with a friend who is an avid car enthusiast and he wanted to head to the second show so we did. This car show had many Ferrari's, Porsche's, Lamborghini's. Not much in the way of contrasts so I looked for more interesting shots.
This came from a Volkswagen. The spare tire in the front had a compartment in the middle that had all the tools to repair. i thought it interesting and decided to HDR it.
The Shot:
Standard 3 shot HDR (-2, 0, +2) Photomatix (Detail Enhancer)
Post Processing:
-ACR-Adjustments to Vibrance, Fill Light, Black, Clarity all to taste
CS-5:
-Layer Nik Color Efex Pro-Tonal Contrast 60% Opacity
-Layer Nik Color Efex Pro-Pro Contrast 60% Opacity
-Layer-Topaz Adjust-Bring back Color and Contrasts
-Adjustment Layer Levels-White point to remove yellow from white walls
-Adjustment Layer Hue/Sat-Enhance Greens
-Adjustment Layer Hue/Sat-Enhance Blues
-Adjustment Layer Hue/Sat-Enhance Purples
-High Pass Sharpening, Cropped and sized for posting
Today I visited 2 car shows. These are weekly events where the local muscle and exotic cars get together, drink coffee, eat donuts and share ideas. Many people walk around with there cameras and take photo's of the cars and such. I look for cars that have color and contrast that would make for a good HDR photo. The first show I went to had plenty of muscle cars and flames and contrast but it was 6am and the sun wasn't out yet so trying to take photo's would have been futile. I was traveling with a friend who is an avid car enthusiast and he wanted to head to the second show so we did. This car show had many Ferrari's, Porsche's, Lamborghini's. Not much in the way of contrasts so I looked for more interesting shots.
This came from a Volkswagen. The spare tire in the front had a compartment in the middle that had all the tools to repair. i thought it interesting and decided to HDR it.
The Shot:
Standard 3 shot HDR (-2, 0, +2) Photomatix (Detail Enhancer)
Post Processing:
-ACR-Adjustments to Vibrance, Fill Light, Black, Clarity all to taste
CS-5:
-Layer Nik Color Efex Pro-Tonal Contrast 60% Opacity
-Layer Nik Color Efex Pro-Pro Contrast 60% Opacity
-Layer-Topaz Adjust-Bring back Color and Contrasts
-Adjustment Layer Levels-White point to remove yellow from white walls
-Adjustment Layer Hue/Sat-Enhance Greens
-Adjustment Layer Hue/Sat-Enhance Blues
-Adjustment Layer Hue/Sat-Enhance Purples
-High Pass Sharpening, Cropped and sized for posting
Friday, January 21, 2011
New Years Eve
New Years Eve all dressed up and no kids for a night out.
Ok, a little back tracking on this photo and the processing. My wife and I had an invitation from friends to go to a 50th birthday party on New Years Eve. (Which by the way was a lot of fun and a good time had by all). The dress was formal so we got all dressed up and sent the kids to Grandma's house for the night. My wife thought that since we were dressed up why not take a few photo's. The reason I like photography is so I can take the pictures and not be in the pictures. So I begrudgingly agreed and set up the tripod and we took a few shots before we left.
Weeks later my brother in-law asked me to take some photo's of him and his girlfriend and also asked me kiddingly if I could make them look a little cartoonish/surreal. So after searching the internet for tutorials on how to do this I came across a processing I liked. I tried it on his and then did it also on mine as well and then decided to post my results. I did do the process twice because I thought after the first time it wasn't effective enough.
Now I realize there are many that do this and in no way is my processing the optimum way to do this. But without others posting there technique who do it better than I, this is what I have come up with to share.
The Shot:
Single Exposure, F/4.0, ISO 250, 1/100sec, Flash fired with Gary Fong Lightsphere
Post Processing:
ACR-Adjusted Exposure and Contrast for more Contrast, Over Noise Reduction (Process makes photo over grainy, you need to adjust for that early in the process.
CS-5
Duplicate Layer-High Pass Sharpen 4.0-Blending Mode to Vivid Light-Flatten Image
Duplicate Layer-High Pass Sharpen 6.9-Blending Mode to Color-Opacity 30%-Flatten Image
Duplicate Layer-Gaussian Blur 9.4-Add Noise 3.0-Layer Mask Hide all-Lasso Tool around eyes (Lasso tool 1 eye press Shift and do all other eyes) Select-inverse, Brush tool 30% with white Foreground color choosen brush over entire image-Flatten Image.
Duplicate Layer-Sharpen-Unsharp Mask (Amount 100%, Pixels 30, Threshold 0) Adjust opacity if needed. I usually leave at 100%.
Duplicate Entire process-Unsharp Mask at the end I will adjust opacity to taste.
I will Dodge and Burn with Non-Destructive Process areas of face, hair and cloths to taste. I will darken wrinkles and smile lines, creases in clothing and shadows on face.
I will lighten highlighted areas of face and cloths and a lot of the hair.
I will save all of this and go back into Raw and possibly Noise Reduce again if needed (I like a smoother look)
I will bring into CS-5 and adjust contrast and Hue/Saturation to taste.
That's it, it seems like a lot but it really isn't and for me it is fun because it takes a regular photo and turns it into something different.
I posted all of this not only to share but in the event I forget how to do it I can always visit my own blog and read how to do it again without searching the web.
Ok, a little back tracking on this photo and the processing. My wife and I had an invitation from friends to go to a 50th birthday party on New Years Eve. (Which by the way was a lot of fun and a good time had by all). The dress was formal so we got all dressed up and sent the kids to Grandma's house for the night. My wife thought that since we were dressed up why not take a few photo's. The reason I like photography is so I can take the pictures and not be in the pictures. So I begrudgingly agreed and set up the tripod and we took a few shots before we left.
Weeks later my brother in-law asked me to take some photo's of him and his girlfriend and also asked me kiddingly if I could make them look a little cartoonish/surreal. So after searching the internet for tutorials on how to do this I came across a processing I liked. I tried it on his and then did it also on mine as well and then decided to post my results. I did do the process twice because I thought after the first time it wasn't effective enough.
Now I realize there are many that do this and in no way is my processing the optimum way to do this. But without others posting there technique who do it better than I, this is what I have come up with to share.
The Shot:
Single Exposure, F/4.0, ISO 250, 1/100sec, Flash fired with Gary Fong Lightsphere
Post Processing:
ACR-Adjusted Exposure and Contrast for more Contrast, Over Noise Reduction (Process makes photo over grainy, you need to adjust for that early in the process.
CS-5
Duplicate Layer-High Pass Sharpen 4.0-Blending Mode to Vivid Light-Flatten Image
Duplicate Layer-High Pass Sharpen 6.9-Blending Mode to Color-Opacity 30%-Flatten Image
Duplicate Layer-Gaussian Blur 9.4-Add Noise 3.0-Layer Mask Hide all-Lasso Tool around eyes (Lasso tool 1 eye press Shift and do all other eyes) Select-inverse, Brush tool 30% with white Foreground color choosen brush over entire image-Flatten Image.
Duplicate Layer-Sharpen-Unsharp Mask (Amount 100%, Pixels 30, Threshold 0) Adjust opacity if needed. I usually leave at 100%.
Duplicate Entire process-Unsharp Mask at the end I will adjust opacity to taste.
I will Dodge and Burn with Non-Destructive Process areas of face, hair and cloths to taste. I will darken wrinkles and smile lines, creases in clothing and shadows on face.
I will lighten highlighted areas of face and cloths and a lot of the hair.
I will save all of this and go back into Raw and possibly Noise Reduce again if needed (I like a smoother look)
I will bring into CS-5 and adjust contrast and Hue/Saturation to taste.
That's it, it seems like a lot but it really isn't and for me it is fun because it takes a regular photo and turns it into something different.
I posted all of this not only to share but in the event I forget how to do it I can always visit my own blog and read how to do it again without searching the web.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Backbay II
This was taken about a week ago. The skies gave me a little more to work with which I really like to have some clouds in the sky to give them depth.
This is an area known as Back Bay in Newport Beach, It is an inlet that runs off of the Pacific Ocean. This has all sorts of birds and such the migrate here. This is one of my all time favorite places to take photo's. It is close to the office and very serene. I would like to say it is peaceful but about 10ft behind me and 20ft up is a busy street where the overpass runs by.
A little post processing note:
This had quite a few rocks in it. So many it really cluttered the scene. I really didn't notice them all until I got back and saw them after I downloaded the photo's. So thanks to content aware I slowly but surely removed some to give the water a better look. Now I know some will say that you can do to much cloning and things but I feel it is to the photographers eye on what they feel to recreate the best scene and photo possible.
The Shot:
3 Exposure HDR (-2, 0, +2)
Post Processing:
Photomatix (Detail Enhancer) adjustments to taste
Photoshop CS5:
Adjustment Layer- Nik Color Efex 3.0 Pro Contrast-overall color
Adjustment Layer-Nik Color Efex 3.0 Tonal Contrast-overall Detail
Adjustment Layer-Curves for contrast
Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat tone down yellows
Copy Background-Cloned out rocks that cluttered water foreground
High Pass Sharpening
Sized and Framed for posting
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tunnel To The Cove
Once again Monday is shoot day. I got out early last night and headed for the beach on a cloudless but warm evening. I got there early enough to walk the beach before sunset and try to find a good place to shoot. Needless to say with no dramatic clouds, not really a dramatic sunset. I shot for sometime but nothing I really liked. Tried some experimental shooting like star trails and such but I haven't processed those yet.
On the way back to the truck I was still looking for shots and came across this tunnel and puddle. For me, this shot might be the saver of the evening. With the sunset well past and evening settled in there was no foot traffic to spoil or interrupt me. The biggest part of getting this shot was finding the correct angle. With no urgency in time (Sun Setting, Light Fading, busy area) I took my time in Composing the shot. I wanted to get as much reflection of the tunnel in the puddle as possible and getting very low to the ground helped me do this. This shot is definitely not possible without tripod!
Lessons Learned:
>Hauled all of your cookies to the beach for shooting make the most of it. Don't stop looking for things to shoot until you get back to the home base.
>When composing a photo, take your time and get the shot you want. Get it right in the camera and save yourself a lot of post processing (Still working on this one)
The Shot:
6 Exposure HDR (+3, +2, +1, 0, -1,-2) F/8.0, ISO 400, 24-105L 47mm
Post Processing:
-Photomatix (Exposure Fusion)
Photoshop:
-ACR Minor adjustments to: Fill light, contrast, Clarity, Vibrance
-1 Adjustment Layer-Levels, White and Black Eyedropper to remove yellowish tone and to reset white and black points
-1 Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Enhance Yellows only
-Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-Tonal Contrast (Twice for increased contrast, 2nd time lowered Opacity to taste)
-Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-Pro Contrast (Twice for increased texture, 2nd time lowered Opacity to taste)
-Noise Ninja-Selective for black areas only
On the way back to the truck I was still looking for shots and came across this tunnel and puddle. For me, this shot might be the saver of the evening. With the sunset well past and evening settled in there was no foot traffic to spoil or interrupt me. The biggest part of getting this shot was finding the correct angle. With no urgency in time (Sun Setting, Light Fading, busy area) I took my time in Composing the shot. I wanted to get as much reflection of the tunnel in the puddle as possible and getting very low to the ground helped me do this. This shot is definitely not possible without tripod!
Lessons Learned:
>Hauled all of your cookies to the beach for shooting make the most of it. Don't stop looking for things to shoot until you get back to the home base.
>When composing a photo, take your time and get the shot you want. Get it right in the camera and save yourself a lot of post processing (Still working on this one)
The Shot:
6 Exposure HDR (+3, +2, +1, 0, -1,-2) F/8.0, ISO 400, 24-105L 47mm
Post Processing:
-Photomatix (Exposure Fusion)
Photoshop:
-ACR Minor adjustments to: Fill light, contrast, Clarity, Vibrance
-1 Adjustment Layer-Levels, White and Black Eyedropper to remove yellowish tone and to reset white and black points
-1 Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Enhance Yellows only
-Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-Tonal Contrast (Twice for increased contrast, 2nd time lowered Opacity to taste)
-Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-Pro Contrast (Twice for increased texture, 2nd time lowered Opacity to taste)
-Noise Ninja-Selective for black areas only
Sunday, January 16, 2011
When a tree falls
I was planning on doing one post a day and since the blog has just started I also wanted to catch up with old posts from flickr. Well since I am no expert at the internet and blogging, this has been an all day project and I decided I mine as well upload one more to see how this all works and how it is going to look.
The Shot:
This photo was also taken April 2010 in the Columbia River Gorge. You really don't realize how fat and out of shape you are until you try some hiking with 20-30lbs of camera gear up hill. Trying to make my way up to Fairy Falls and stopping what seemed like a hundred times I came across this wonderful scene.
This image is a panorama format it is a combination of 3-4 photo's taken vertically. I probably could have picked out just one part of this scene but the fallen tree going across the top really intrigued me along with the tree to the left with all the roots out of the ground. So I decided to take in the entire scene and use that as my comp.
This would be one of my first photo's taken of running water and also one of my first hikes.
Lessons Learned:
I need to get in shape before my next hike anywhere.
I learned that you can over expose the flowing water which will make your water not look so great.
When hiking take plenty of water and snack food for energy no matter how far you are going.
In the Columbia River Gorge...the juice is worth the squeeze
Just another case of learning as you go. But it would have been nicer not to climb and sweat so much to learn these lessons.
The Shot:
This photo was also taken April 2010 in the Columbia River Gorge. You really don't realize how fat and out of shape you are until you try some hiking with 20-30lbs of camera gear up hill. Trying to make my way up to Fairy Falls and stopping what seemed like a hundred times I came across this wonderful scene.
This image is a panorama format it is a combination of 3-4 photo's taken vertically. I probably could have picked out just one part of this scene but the fallen tree going across the top really intrigued me along with the tree to the left with all the roots out of the ground. So I decided to take in the entire scene and use that as my comp.
This would be one of my first photo's taken of running water and also one of my first hikes.
Lessons Learned:
I need to get in shape before my next hike anywhere.
I learned that you can over expose the flowing water which will make your water not look so great.
When hiking take plenty of water and snack food for energy no matter how far you are going.
In the Columbia River Gorge...the juice is worth the squeeze
Just another case of learning as you go. But it would have been nicer not to climb and sweat so much to learn these lessons.
Space and Sound
Well this is the first posting of my blog. This was taken in April of 2010 but just recently worked on and posted. I was always happy with the way it looked but never worked on it vying for other photo's instead. I have been doing a lot of reading on some new HDR techniques and I have applied them here with masking and such. Hope you like it and your comments are greatly appreciated.
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