Reflections of...

Reflections of..., a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

No HDR this time. But that is a flood plug in used for the reflection of the water.
This comp was taken from Corona Del Mar, CA. I really liked the sunset but wasn't impressed by what I got for water so I used the (Flaming Pear) flood plug in to replace the water. Everything else is pretty much out of the camera.

Here is the post processing:

CS-5:
>Flaming Pear flood plugin to replace the water
>Lab Color-Curves enhance color
>Topaz InFocus for sharpening
>Noise Ninja-Noise reduction sky
>Adjustment Layer-Levels for contrast
>Sized and Framed for posting

Another LA Skyline

Another LA Skyline, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

The foreground learning center on the North side of LA really makes for a color foreground to the LA skyline. The crystal clear morning also creates a beautiful sight that really can't be captured by a camera. The shear size and vastness is Larger than life in. Being in the part of the city that makes you turn around with every noise at 5am gives you a little rush as well.

The processing on this was really simple and pretty much directly out of the camera:

>Minor adjustments in camera raw brought into CS-5 as Tiff
>Lab color mode
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-Lightness/A Channel/ B Channel
>Topaz Adjust-Color and Detail
>Topaz InFocus-Sharpening
>Noise Ninja-Noise Reduction for sky only
>Sized and Framed for posting

Rippled Reflection of the Palace

Rippled Reflection of the Palace, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

Decided to go back to a blast from the past. This is not the best shot I could have gotten from this spot but considering the circumstances I am happy with it. I really wanted to shoot a blue hour shot from here but there just wasn't enough time in the day when I was there. I hope to go back and get a shot at sunset or even sunrise, anything to get what I would consider to be a better atmosphere.
What made this shot worth keeping is the fountain ripples in the water.
After my usual HDR post processing I decided to try a little Nik Color Efex 3.0-Glamour Glow. It really enriched the color So I decided to keep it in and post it with that extra Post Processing.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

This started out as an regular HDR shot but then you start to blend in the all the different exposures here and there.
Fix the sky
Fix the blown out lamps
Replace some halo's from different lights
Darken the road...and pretty soon you have an HDR Hybrid and you end up with more bracketed photo blends than HDR. But that is ok, it gave you a nice base.
But then the real Post Processing starts because you want to get to what you visualize as the final image
Nik Color Efex Pro:
>Pro Contrast
>Bleach Bypass
>Midnight with a mask
>Adjustment Layer-curves for contrast
>Adjustment Layer-Selective colors to adjust color of sky
>Silver Efex Pro-Because for a second I thought to go black and white but then decided to change the blend mode to Soft Light and mask for city only.
You start processing a shot with a certain final image in mind but as you process the image starts to move in a slightly different direction. Sometimes it is straight ahead bam, bam , bam and done and sometimes you have to go around a little to finally get there. I think this was one of those shots that I had to go the long way home.

1303

1303, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

I really hated to go B&W on this shot but the colors were so contrasty I knew it would make for a nice B&W not to mention the last few posts all of the same bridge and sky might be a little over the top with the same colors. On this shot I must say the sky looked incredibly blue but once I tried the processing through Silver Efex Pro it wasn't very hard to change it to the B&W.
Silver Efex Pro is a great piece of software. Not only is the B&W conversion easy but the control point usage really gives you more creative control and lets you concentrate on certain areas of the shot. In this shot it really helped me to lighten up the arch and surrounding wall while darkening the outer areas for a much more contrasty shot.

This is not an HDR. But I did blend the 3 bracketed shots manually(+1, 0, -1) and took what I thought to be the best from each that I needed.

POST PROCESSING BLEND:
>The +1ev-I took the sky only because I liked the contrast it gave against the bridge not to mention the colors of blue from light to dark were awesome
>The 0ev-I took the bridge and surrounding dark city background
>The -1ev-I took just the lights and blown out areas (Light pole and inside of arch)
>In Silver Efex Pro-I converted to B&W and then used my controll points to lighten up the fence and bridge railing/sidewalk and darken the edges for a more eerie look
>Adjustment Layer-curves for global contrast
>Vignette for overall darken edges and center weighted lighting

The Other Side

The Other Side, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

The last post was facing the other way, East and to the sunrise. Here is the shot I came for in the first place.
This is what LA looks like in the winter time early in the morning. No mist, Smog, or haze which really takes away from the cityscape which is what you get in the summer time. Just a clear crisp shot and yes in the middle of the road which you probably wouldn't get to do during the work week and not get ran over.

These type of shots do create there own problems.
1st of course is keeping an ear open for cars coming up from behind. But for the most part they are few and far in between but none the less it is dark and I wasn't wearing any type of reflective vest. But the middle of the road shot is the definitely the shot to shoot. No risk, no reward!
2nd shooting from the middle where the Metro rolls past is forbidden I guess. Some of the trains stopped and told us to get off the tracks and of course when they leave you get back on. Then the Metro police rolled by and told us to get off the tracks or out of the middle. What is the big deal, It wasn't like we were standing on the tracks of the on coming train it is a very wide path. But none the less we were shoo'd to the middle of the street instead.
So the moral of the story is...stand in the middle of the street and get hit by a car instead of the empty tracks.

Don't they realize we are just trying to catch the best possible shot from the best possible angle with our thousands of dollars in camera equipment. Getting hit by a train is the last thing on our minds.
I guess they think that real responsible people are still sleeping at this time of the morning and only nut cases are out shooting cityscapes at 5am.

Bart Simpson

Bart Simpson, a photo by Tony DeSantis Photography on Flickr.

LA...just a cool place to be in the morning. Winter mornings the sky is clean and crisp. LA looks spectacular. Another early wake up and headed out with JERMAINE. We headed out to 1st Street to shoot the bridge and the LA skyline. The sun was coming up to the east away from the city so a quick look back a turn and set up. Here comes a train, perfect!
What a great morning, there will be more to come from this shoot.

Check out JERMAINE'S photostream well worth the look.