Mariners Church

Mariners Church, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

Got out early this morning looking for something to shoot. Didn't really feel like going into LA so I hung out In Orange County. I drove down into Laguna Beach and drove around and up through the hills looking for a view of the sunrise. Unimpressed by anything I was finding I decided to head on back home. Getting an extra hour of sleep before helping the wife clean out the garage sounded like a pretty good idea.
Mariners Church was on the way home. I have shot this church before a few years back at night when I first started with HDR. the shot didn't come out as nice as I wanted then so having the opportunity again to shoot it and the morning sky behind it I decided to give it another go.
I like the result maybe you can give me your opinion if you like it or not.
Thanks for stopping by.

The Shot:

>Standard 6 Shot HDR +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, -3  ISO 100, F/11, 10-20mm Sigma @11mm, Tripod and cable shutter release

Post Processing:

>ACR

>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black,  Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration

>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:

>Detail Enhancer

>Strength 80%

>Color Saturation 86%

>Smoothing (High)

>Luminosity 6.00

>White Point 3.654

>Black Point 1.055

>Microsmoothing 2.0 (Default)

>Microcontrast 2.0 

>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff

Post Processing CS-5

>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement

>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening Just the buildings

>Topaz Denoise-Sky only

>Color efex Pro 3.0

   >Pro Contrast

   >Tonal Contrast (Everything but sky)

   >Glamour Glow (Everything below the church only)

>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Yellows-Grass and sky saturation of colors

>Adjustment Layer-Curves- Pull down brightness of left hand sky only

>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Increase brightness in church and tower for more contrast against sky

>Light Vignette applied

>High pass sharpening

>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting

Vision

Vision, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

No HDR!! I know so hard to believe since my last 12 out of 18 have been HDR. This really called for a more natural look. It is not that I didn't have bracketed shots, I wanted dark areas, shadows and just the natural lighting that was present that gave this street the awesome lighting and color that was there.
On the previous shot I wrote about moving in and out of the street, you can see this shot was taken from the middle of the street. Really had to keep your ears open for cars, trucks and buses coming from the rear. I don't go out wearing reflectors, or lights and obviously my goal is not to be a speed bump for a semi-truck. But the shot just isn't the same taken from the sidewalk, so work fast, work smart visualize your shot before you set up. Set-up quick take your shots, watch your back.

One other thing, who ever had the Vision to paint this building is a pretty awesome artist. This mural/wall art really takes an industrial section of the city with no beauty or redeeming value besides the commerce it produces and jobs it provides what so ever and gives it an eye catching work of art and I am sure makes everyone who works in the area or drives by some small bit of joy everyday!!

The Shot:
Single Exposure, F/11, ISO 400, 2 Seconds, 24-105L @ 35mm, Tripod and cable release

Post Processing:
>Camera Raw
  >Adjust for Black
  >Remove Preset Sharpening
  >Slight Noise reduction
  >Saved as Tiff and opened into CS-5

CS-5:
>Topaz Adjust-Color and slight brighting of entire image
>Topaz InFocus-Building only
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0
  >Pro Contrast-Correct Contrast and Color Balance
  >Bleach Bypass-Darken Street
  >Adjustment Layer-Curves-Increase contrast in Building
  >Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Desaturation in Sidewalk on Rt, color cast on street (Masked for specific areas)
  >Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Increase in Saturation in artwork on building only (Masked for specific areas)
  >Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Increase in Yellows in Artwork on building and Double yellow line  (Masked for specific areas)
  >Clone Tool used to remove any marks or trash in middle of street
  >Nik Color-Bleach Bypass-Darken road a little more and grunge right side walk (Masked for specific areas)
  >New Layer color Black-Vignette outer edges
  >Sized and Framed for posting

Sidewalk Serenade

Sidewalk Serenade, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

LA on a Sunday morning is starting to become a habit. No matter what Saturday night brings I set the alarm for 4am. I have a real positive attitude that the morning will bring something of a shot that I will like and post. Worse case scenario I will scout around for future shots for future Sunday Mornings.
This one was a drive around and I found it outside of downtown. Just seemed like downtown wasn't bringing anything I liked so I can't tell you how I came upon this jewel of a sidewalk art but I did and took all of a nano second to pull over and shoot. Some of the shoots that I took came from the middle of the street and with traffic coming around corners I kept running in and out of the middle of the street in order not to get run over.

The Shot:

>Non-Standard 3 Shot HDR +1, 0, -1,  ISO 400, F/11, 24-105L @28mm, Tripod and cable shutter release

Post Processing:

>ACR

>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black,  Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration

>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:

>Detail Enhancer

>Strength 100%

>Color Saturation 80%

>Smoothing (Very High)

>Luminosity 0.00

>White Point 1.115

>Black Point 4.365

>Microsmoothing 2.0 (Default)

>Microcontrast 5.0 

>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff

Post Processing CS-5

>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement

>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening Just the buildings

>Topaz Denoise-Sky only

>Color efex Pro 3.0

   >Pro Contrast

   >Tonal Contrast (Buildings only)

   >Glamour Glow (Street and Sidewalk)

   >Bleach Bypass (13% Opacity Street and Building)

>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Reds-Desaturation of reds in curb and street

>Light Vignette applied

>High pass sharpening

>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting

Hope St.

Hope St., a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

Once again adding to my LA project, downtown LA early on a Sunday Morning. Lets see if I can give you where I am at so you can google map it.
I am standing in the middle of Hope St., to the left is the Sheraton Hotel. The small building at the end of the street is the LA Library. The tall building with the light at the top is the US Bank Tower. The first green light you see is 7th street.
I gotta tell yeah, I really dread getting up at 4am to drive out to LA. The alarm goes off and I contemplate rolling over and going back to sleep everytime. It's Sunday Morning what the heck am I doing. But once out and driving downtown on totally empty streets accept for the street people is pretty awesome. You just know tomorrow and for the rest of the week this area will be sick crowded. Not only do I watch my back for vehicles thinking about running me over and honking there horn as they drive by. But I do try to have eye's in the back of my head for any street people thinking my camera gear looks like easy money.

The Shot:

>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2,  ISO 400, F/8, 24-105L @24mm, Tripod and cable shutter release

Post Processing:

>ACR

>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black,  Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration

>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:

>Detail Enhancer

>Strength 100%

>Color Saturation 80%

>Smoothing (High)

>Luminosity 0.00

>White Point 1.601

>Black Point 1.348

>Microsmoothing 2.0 (Default)

>Microcontrast 5.0 

>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff

Post Processing CS-5

>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement

>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening Just the buildings

>Topaz Denoise-Sky only

>Color efex Pro 3.0

   >Pro Contrast

   >Tonal Contrast (Buildings only)

   >Glamour Glow (Street Only)

   >Bleach Bypass (13% Opacity)

>Adjustment Layer-Levels-White and Black points

>Layer-Fill tool-remove tire tracks in street (Very Distracting)

>Light Vignette applied

>High pass sharpening

>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting

LBCC

LBCC, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

The Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center is a convention center located in Long Beach, California. It was built on the site of the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium beginning in 1962.

I really enjoyed shooting this area in the early morning. This is an HDR photo. Comments and critiques are welcomed.

The Shot:

>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2,  ISO 400, F/8, 24-105L @45mm, Hand held.

Post Processing:

>ACR

>Removed All Sharpening, Removed Black,  Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration

>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:

>Detail Enhancer

>Strength 80%

>Color Saturation90%

>Smoothing (Medium)

>Luminosity -4.2

>White Point 6.997

>Black Point 0.753

>Microsmoothing 5.1 

>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff

Post Processing CS-5

>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement

>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening

>Color efex Pro 3.0

   >Pro Contrast

   >Tonal Contrast

   >Bleach Bypass (13% Opacity)

   >Glamor Glow  (65% Opacity)

>Adjustment Layer-Levels-White and Black points

>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-remove Yellows from sidewalk and white of building

>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Increase blue in light poles

>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Improve contrast

>High pass sharpening

>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting