Monday, July 25, 2011

No going back

Getting up early and running out to LA has some really nice advantages. One is as you can see...empty streets. Park where you like, walk out in the middle of the street and snap off some comps. Try to do this Monday thru Friday...not going to happen!
I have been leaning towards over saturated photo's lately with my HDR's. (Just see my last post and you will see what I mean) This one I decided to go with some desaturation and filtration to come up with a different look.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think.


The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2,  ISO 250, 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 80%
>Color Saturation 80%
>Smoothing (Very High)
>Luminosity 0.0
>White Point 4.856
>Black Point 0.865
>Microsmoothing 10.0 
>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
   >Duplex (Opacity Lowered to taste)
>Vignette Added
>High pass sharpening
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting



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Sunday, July 24, 2011

LAFD Building

The way the mornings have been lately I didn't know if the 4am wake up would produce a clear morning or not. Needless to say, it did. So out of the last few visits to LA in the morning this is one of my favorite views. Facing south is the building, facing north is Disney concert hall, and West is the city. I got to tell you it is great getting up so early and seeing the sunrise over the city.


The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2,  ISO 200, F/8, 24-105L @67mm, 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 92%
>Color Saturation 85%
>Smoothing (Very High)
>Luminosity 0.0
>White Point 2.090
>Black Point 1.055
>Microsmoothing 2.0 
>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
   >Glamor Glow (Masked and used for Parking lot, trees and small amount on building)
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-White and Black points
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Decrease reds in building
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Filters-Blue Filter for sky
>High pass sharpening
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting



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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I'll Follow the Sun

This is a shot from last night in Huntington Beach. Once again it was a cloudless flat sunset. But when the sun hit the horizon the sky would light up this bright Orange. With a 0 Ev the sun would get absolutely blown out so I decided to go with a -2ev. I got lucky with the birds flying into the sunset they made a great prop to give the photo some more interesting focal points.

The Shot:
Single Exposure, F/9, ISO 200, 1/2500, -2EV, 70-200L @200mm, Tripod mounted, forgot my remote shutter release cable

Post Processing:
>Raw-Adjust Blacks, remove sharpening added Noise reduction

CS-5:
>Topaz Infocus-Sharpening
>Topaz Denoise-Reduce sky noise
>Adjustment Layer-Levels for deeper color
>Adjustment Layer-Curves for contrast
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0
  >Bleach Bypass-Darken outer edges and skyline
>Cropped, framed and sized for posting
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Newport North Side

Went out last night to do some shooting down at the Huntington Beach Pier. The sunset was not very inspiring for me so I came home and pulled one from the archives. My wife and kids are away for a few days so it creates plenty of time to play with photo's in the post processing stage while ESPN drones away in the background. Tonight was one of those nights I enjoyed letting the post processing phase drive the train.
Needless to say is this the way this one looked when I took the photo...upper half...pretty much, a tad of adjustments in curves and levels. What drove the colors so blue was getting the pier a nice dark silhouette in levels with the black dropper. The lower half...not even close. But this is where I went with it and I am pleased with the outcome.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

The Shot:
Single Exposure-F/11-1 second Exposure-Sigma 10-20mm @20mm, Tripod and shutter cable

Post Processing:
>Topaz Adjust-Enhance Color and Detail
>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening
>Color Efex Pro
  >Pro Contrast
  >Brilliance and Warmth
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Global Contrast
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Black Point-Silhouette pier
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Black Point-Silhouette island
>Cropped-Framed and sized for posting
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Saturday, July 16, 2011

American Pride

Got up 0 dark 30 this morning to get out and shoot. Overcast mornings are a crap shoot at best for shooting. LA has been my run lately but today I decided on Long Beach. Shoot wasn't going well. Overcast sky tends to lend itself to flat images. After walking around looking for some comps it just so happened that the clouds started to part. This is just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. In this shot the reflections in the water is what really caught my eye everything after that was easy.


The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2,  ISO 400, F/11, 24-105L @28mm, Tripod and Cable shutter release.

Post Processing:
>ACR
>Removed All Sharpening, Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration
>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:
>Detail Enhancer
>Strength 100%
>Color Saturation 90%
>Smoothing (High)
>Luminosity 0.0
>White Point 1.055
>Black Point 1.055
>Microsmoothing 2.0 
>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 (Masked and used just for middle of shot)
   >Glamor Glow (Masked and used for sky and water only)
   >Bleach Bypass (13% Opacity)
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-increased white in boat and reflection
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-increase red in bottom of boat and sails
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-increased brightness in flags on boat
>Topaz Denoise-Sky and water only
>High pass sharpening
>Cropped, Framed and Sized for posting





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Friday, July 15, 2011

Take the Stairs

Sunlight would have given this photo a lot more contrast and colors but sometimes you get what you get. This is a shot of the LA Library from across the street and up the stairs. the building on the left is the US Bank and just to the right out of the shot is Citibank.

The little yellow cone at the escalator to the right gave me the idea for the title.

My post processing on this photo took a little turn of difference.  My first processing try didn't really come out that great with the -2, 0, +2.  I guess it just didn't capture enough detail.  So I made a +1,-1 and -3 from those raw files.  That seemed to give me the easier and nicer process for the contrasts I was looking for.  Once again I was hoping for more sunlight early in the morning for more contrasts but the foggy morning never let up.  I head out to LA on Sunday mornings just because the streets are empty.  I can get out to LA by 5:30-6:00 drive around, park anywhere, shoot and get home shower and make it to church for the 11:00am service.  How cool is that!?

The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2,  ISO 400, F/11, 24-105L @24mm, Tripod and Cable shutter release.


Post Processing:
>ACR
>reprocessed 3 more tiffs +1, -1, -3
>Removed All Sharpening, Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration
>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:
>Detail Enhancer
>Strength 100%
>Color Saturation 92%
>Smoothing (Very High)
>Luminosity 0.0
>White Point 4.856
>Black Point 1.055
>Microsmoothing 6.0 
>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 (Masked for buildings only)
   >Glamor Glow (Masked for certain areas and opacity lowered to taste)
   >Bleach Bypass (Masked and used in areas where needed, Opacity lowered)
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Bring out peach color in small building on left and cement stair railings
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Bring out orange's in lights to left and in bushes
>Corrected lens distortion
>Framed and sized for posting


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Thursday, July 14, 2011

The Dark and the Light

Another shot from the Freeway Underpass. Yes, these colors are the actual colors from underneath the freeway. The pillars, the walls are all this colorful and really caught my eye.
As soon as I saw this you know it had to be shot. I decided to go with a 16:9 Crop just for something different.


The Shot:
>Standard 3 Shot HDR +2, 0, -2, ISO 100, F/8, Sigma 10-20mm @10mm, Tripod and Cable shutter release

Post Processing:
>ACR
>Removed All Sharpening, Added Noise Reduction, Removed Chromatic Abberration
>Saved as Tiffs

Photomatix:
>Detail Enhancer
>Strength 100%
>Color Saturation 81%
>Smoothing (High)
>Luminosity 0.0
>White Point 3.208
>Black Point .8659
>Microsmoothing 2.0 (Default)
>Saved as 16 Bit Tiff

Post Processing CS-5
>Masked in +2 Exposure for red pylons
>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail Enhancement
>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening
>Color efex Pro 3.0
>Pro Contrast
>Glamor Glow (Lowered Opacity to taste) (Masked and used where needed)
>Bleach Bypass (Masked and used in areas where needed)
>Adjustment Layer-Hue/Sat-Desaturation of cement
>Corrected lens distortion
>Vignette Added
>16:9 Cropping
>Sized and Framed for posting
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