It seems we all have choices to make when it comes to our photography. I am not just talking black and white or color, landscapes or architecture...I am talking more of, do we get it right in the camera or do we try to compensate with photoshop? I am really striving to get it right in the camera and it just so happens that this photo is not that shot. Way to much time invested in photoshop and layers and lighting and sitting in front of this stupid computer trying to give it lighting and shadows, pushing pixels to the limit. This is not what I would like to call the fun part of photography.
So I posted this shot to always remind me of what I don't want to do.
But with that said, all this post processing of what I should have done in camera but instead I am trying to duplicate it in photoshop has given me better insight to what I would like to see in my compositions prior to pushing the shutter.
Hopefully we learn from our mistakes and hopefully I have learned from mine. You will all know soon enough with my future posts.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Tower II
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Flip the Switch
2nd weekend I was able to get up and get out and shoot in the morning. I find the difference in shooting sunrises and shooting LE's in the morning...you don't have to get up as early. You still have to get up early just not 0 dark 30. I would normally wake up around 4:30 today it was 5:30, that is like sleeping in, specially on the weekend when you look forward to a little extra sleep.
With a different vision for my photography, I am revisiting all previous locations. With a different vision comes different perspectives. I have previously looked at this building to shoot with some windows open, it Always caught my eye but it is not a pretty building for color so the shots I have always taken have been trashed. I also tried to shoot around the lamp post, instead this time I included it in the composition. I maybe could crop it out but I thought this time I would leave it in and keep the shot horizontal.
At the end of the day, the moving clouds, B&W, silhouetted lamppost, and working the building windows have made me feel this looked good to post.
What is your opinion?
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Power to the People
Another long exposure shot. This actually came out black and white when taken because of the gray sky, so no B&W conversion needed. When I actually sit down and think about it, not only am I working on long exposures, cloud and light movement, black and white processing but I am also working on composing photo's with different perspectives and angles. This just happen to have all those combined.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Horsetail
Looks like I may have the opportunity to head on back to Oregon for some shooting. My trek usually starts with Seattle and then to Oregon and then back to Seattle. This time it looks to be Oregon only. Scouting locations online has brought me to revisit some of my archives. Horsetail is a great spot to shoot. Being from The OC you don't see this much so it is always exciting to head up to Oregon and the Portland area. These trips are usually only 4 days so I really try to plan and get as much shooting in as possible.
Any ideas on where to shoot, I would appreciate any advice. So far here are some of the places I am looking at:
Japanese Garden
Lower Oneonta Falls
Sparks Lake
Crater Lake
Downtown Portland
I am also looking for anything abandoned to shoot as well.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Freedom Earned
Abandoned LA Zoo, not a lot to see, this is about the only thing I thought was worth the shooting.
Not as Creepy of a place as I thought, might go back and check it out another time. I was also short on time and I was looking to hit another spot before heading home.
Slowly but surely working on a website to show my photo's that gives a better showcase than flickr.
Check it out if you get a chance.
Tony DeSantis Photography
LA's Fine
Before there was the LA Zoo shot there was the LA Sunrise shot from the Griffith Park Observatory.
That I know of the best place to see the sunrise in LA is the Griffith Park Observatory.
75 degrees at 6am, the weather was beautiful but any sunrise shots in LA does have a hazy feel to them. I still have yet to get up here in the winter but one of these days that will happen.
This shot is just about directly out of the camera. Here is the minor photoshop post processing:
Post Processing:
>Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0
>Pro Contrast
>Tonal contrast
>Adjustment layer-Hue/Sat for sky blues
>9/16 cropping for more pano view
>Framed and sized for posting
Website:
Tony DeSantis Photography
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Flesh and Bone
I have sat on this shot for a while and with not going out and shooting but once in the last month I decided to revisit it. What catches my attention on this is the movement of the smoke through the frame. Simple and clear lines that really catch the eye.
Thanks for looking, your comments and thoughts are welcomed!!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Listen To The Sound
Cruising down the road or sitting on the beach. The smell of the air, the sound of the ocean, the breeze blowing and a song comes on the radio, it is a song you haven't heard in a long time. You close your eyes and you remember once upon a time back to that summer day and that song playing on the radio. The warm air with the windows down cruising down the road, sitting on the beach with the sandy radio blasting out a tune. Maybe it was just sitting on the beach with your girlfriend or boyfriend watching the sunset or does it go back to the days when you went to the beach with your parents and you were digging in the sand and your parents had a song come on the radio "K earth 101". Do you remember, can you feel it, almost touch it and smell the air? Yup, those were the days!!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Laguna Moon
Walking up the hill from the beach this was a hard shot to pass up, so I didn't.
The full moon shining on the beach and water really gave a great look.
F/22 helped give the moon the star look.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Castle In the Sand
Where do you build your life and your faith...
In a shack on the rock or a castle in the sand?
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Double Edged Sword
It is really great to look at smoke and see what you see. Everyone is different in what they see and then with what they see what they feel. The previous shot was a rose and then I used my post processing to make that vision reality. This smoke shot here looked like a serpent/snake with an open mouth with a forked/knifed tongue. With that thought in mind I molded my shot to that vision. Once again the original shot was already there. I removed a small amount of plume around the sword/upper right area to complete that vision. Add a little color with filters and curves and the shot was complete.
I am enjoying the smoke abstract. Having my shots in Explore means that others have enjoyed them as well and thank you all for that. But really for all of us it is our own vision that we expand upon with the motivation to create feelings in others with that vision.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Smoke Rose
Once again this is a photographed smoke from an incense.
Believe it or not I did very little to this to get it this way. I did paint out with a black brush some on the top end to get rid of some of the plume that gathered at the top but the original shape of stem and rose was there already. That is why I picked this shot to do "The Rose". I also added the color with Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0 Bi-color filter. After that it was a little Hue/Sat and Curves to finalize it.
Post Processing:
>Duplicate Layer
>Black Brush-Brush out areas not wanted (in this case top area plume)
>Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0-Bi-Color filter to add Green and Red
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat Green-Saturation and intensify color
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat Red-Saturation and intensify color
>Adjustment Layer-Curves for final contrasts
>Cropped, framed and sized for posting
Smoke'm If you Got'm
Spent the day in the garage shooting with the make shift studio. Water drops and smoke trails.
Started out shooting water drops, pans of water, plastic bags, koolade that was all an interesting time. But this is what I really couldn't wait to get to. I haven't shot smoke trails before so after watching a view You Tube videos on the subject I decided to go for the gusto.
First step was to go to the local smoke shop and pick up some incense and a holder. When I picked a few that I thought were good the store owner said "Oh these are very nice and they have very little smoke to them". I told her "no,no,no I need the ones with a lot of smoke". She looked at in an odd way and asked why. I told her for a photography project and she pointed me in the right direction. $3.75 out the door (How cool is that)
The set up is pretty simple:
Black Back drop, Desk Lamp, Flash gun, remote flash release, tripod, Incense and of course camera.
Put up your black cloth background, set incense in the middle, on one end you put the desk lamp and point it where the smoke is going to be, the other end you put the flash. You stand in the middle, light the incense and shoot away.
Here are my settings that don't change for the entire shoot:
Flash set to manual 1/2 power
Camera settings: 1/200 of a second (Just below sink speed), ISO 100, F/11
I shot many a shot with just smoke but I really like this showing the incense, holder with the silhouetted light.
This is pretty much right out of camera.
>Adjustment layer of Levels for contrast
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Low & Slow
3rd shot posted from the San Clemente Car show but the 1st shot taken. Arriving at 7am was perfect for catching cars rolling down the middle of the street slowly to there staging place. It was nice to catch them with no stickers, signs, numbers, hoods up or people around the car.
Next time I will get there early catch them rolling down the road get my shots in the can and enjoy the rest of the show.
Post Processing:
>Magic Wand and masked to remove background
>CMD J for car on separate layer
>Topaz Remask to refine mask
>Replaced background
>Flood plugin for water look
>Topaz Adjust-color and contrast
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat to remove double yellow line reflection in paint and chrome
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Blue to enhance blue paint
>Nik Color Efex pro
>Tonal Contrast for definition in paint
>Bleach Bypass for defined shadow areas in paint
>High Pass Sharpening
>Cropped, Framed and sized for posting
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Fenderlicious
2nd of a days shoot at the San Clemente Car Show. The curves, sheen, colors and overall subject matter makes these fun to shoot and then work on in Post Processing.
If anyone knows the year, make and model of this vehicle please post.
Thanks for stopping by. Your comments and critiques are welcomed.
Post Processing:
>Masked and replacement of background
>Topaz Remasked used for fine tuning mask
>Topaz adjust-color and contrast and shading
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat removal of yellowing on paint job from Topaz adjust
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat removal of red in grill from reflection of other vehicles
>Nik Color Efex pro 4.0-Tonal Contrast-Bleach Bypass-Opacity lowered to taste
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Windshield reflection darkened and contrasted
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Headlights brightened
>Cropped, framed and sized for posting
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Painting from the Air
I took this shot on the way to Washington last year. I have reworked it through my new processing. I really like the lines that have been created by the new processing.
This is a rework of an old post. Nothing new as of right now because I have sold the Canon 1ds Mark II and I am searching for a 5D Mark II. Any hints on what to look for when buying a used camera would be helpful.
Thanks for looking and leaving comments.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Off the beaten path
Another HDR/Painted photo.
This was taken in a industrial section off of LA. I found this area intriguing because of the road leading to the city skyline. Once again this photo is taken just before sunrise the only time to be taking photo's in LA without traffic and of course a small thing like getting run over while taking shots in the middle of the street.
I am enjoying running through past shots and working the new processing and figuring out which ones it works on and the others it really doesn't.
Here is some of the post processing steps taken:
Standard 3 shot HDR +2, 0, -2
>Photomatix-Detail Enhancer
CS-5:
>Blend in -2 ev of the original shots to remove noise in sky and overdone lamp glare from HDR processing
>Topaz adjust-To bring back color and detail
>Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0
>Oil Painting
>Sized and framed for posting
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Watch Over Me
Took this shot and I have looked it over a few times, Never really cared for how it came out in previous processing's. When I took the shot I felt a dark moody look and my Post Processing never really brought out the image that I wanted until now.
I am really quite pleased with this final processing holding off the verdict until I see some others in print and see if this all works. As I worked through the process the shades of the tree and roots became more and more of an interest to me to finalize the shot and bring out some nice detail.
I like the color of this as well but I decided to post the B&W liking the mood it portrayed.
Thanks for looking and the comments.
Parks Open
Always a great view LA Skyline. Can't imagine what it is like not to live near a big city. I am blessed that LA is only a 30 minute drive from The OC at 5am on a Sunday. Haven't tried to drive this at rush hour, not really interested in trying either.
This is a mix of post processing, let me list them.
Post Processing list:
>HDR- Photomatix-Detail Enhancer
>Photo Blending
>Cloning Tool and Fill-Removal of
>Stop Sign and shadow
>Red Zone Parking
>Cross Walk
>Topaz Adjust-Detail and Color
>Pixel Bender and Mask for fence and grass area
>Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0-Misc filters to achieve desired result
>Adjustment Layer-Curves
That about sums it up
VIEW LARGE
G+
IMAGE INCEPTION BLOG
500px
I really like processing and posting but if the eventual print comes out like crap than what good is it. Well time to put the processing to the test. Gonna get some of this new processing printed. I will let you all know how they turn out. Specially the one below (Previous Post). I really like the way it turned out but it has to look good in print or this processing will go in the round file.