Yesterday I finally got out to take some photo's with my friend Jermaine. We headed down to Dana Point for sunset photo's. it was a beautiful sunset and we both really felt that even if we got no shots of any significance the trip was well worth it. The lighting and high surf really created for a magical sunset. I do have some sunset shots to process but those will come later.
Along the side of the cliffs that align the shore are these ice plants that have some magnificent colors.
This didn't take a lot of processing to bring the colors out. Such bold and vibrant colors were definitely worth photographing.
I gave this a black framing around the white to bring the colors out more.
Post Processing:
Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0
Contrast Only Filter
Skylight Filter
Detail Extractor Filter
Adjustment Layer Curves for more global Contrast and color pop
Topaz Adjust Infocus for Global sharpening
White Frame with Drop shadow
Black Frame to make photo pop more
Sized for posting
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Bold Colors
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Evenings Fade
Good Morning to all, I would hope that you all are having a blessed day!
The 2 previous shots were the prelude to the sunset shot taken. The boat by the dock was just a perfect timing shot with the sun shining just right on the small boat by the dock, it just happened to be by the parking lot when we first got out of the car.
The ice plant shot was taken just walking along the rocks trying to get to a good sunset spot.
Small Explanation:
This part of the beach along Dana Point has a lot of cliffs that stick out and the beginning part of the beach faces South/West so you don't see the sun setting per say. So you need to walk around the cliffs to get to a sun facing sunset and of course while you walk you look for things to shoot. It is exactly why you get to the area you are going to shoot 1 or 2 hours ahead of time. This is why it takes you 1-2 hours to get to the spot you want to shoot and only 20 minutes to walk back after the sun has set.
Small Story:
As Jermaine and I were walking back after the sunset we came across 2 guys sitting on some rocks facing the South/West not really seeing the sunset drinking a few beers. What transpired next was the usual back and forth we all hear:
Guys on Rocks: "Get some good shots?" (Hmmm, just because I have a back pack, tripod, big ass camera attached to tripod, shutter release attached...what makes them ask that all the time?)
Tony: "Beautiful Sunset tonight"
Guys on Rocks: "Yeah this is far as we got before the sun started to go down and it started getting dark"
Moral of story...GET TO SUNSET EARLIER TO ENJOY THE MOMENT!!!
So that is a lot of story to say that it was a great sunset and whether you get a good shot or not it is just good to get out and appreciate all of God's glory and all the blessings He bestows upon us.
HDR Post Processing:
>Standard 3 shot HDR
>Photomatix-Detail Enhancer and saved as Tiff's
>HDR Tiff brought into Photoshop
>From original Raw shots I blend in all areas of the HDR shot I don't like. In this case, -2ev for sun and sky (I like to get the sun to show if possible), +2 EV for water reflection.
>Topaz Adjust to retrieve color and texture
NIK COLOR EFEX PRO 4.0
>Remove Color Cast
>Contrast Only
>Bi-Color Filter-Sky only
>Skylight filter for warmth
>Dark/Lighten Filter
>Shadow/Highlight Layer to bring out slight shadow areas in rocks and cliffs
>Cropped and framed for posting
Evening Fade by Tony DeSantis
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Natural History Museum LA
I know some are not big fans of HDR. But when you walk into a room such as this what is your best way to capture it? For some I guess it would be to capture as is and let the lighting, textures and shades fall as is. The small hand hand held mini's try for a flash and walk away disappointed. For those who shoot HDR this is a dream come true. Textures, marble, lighting all move the imagination. I personally don't think there is any other way to do this room justice without HDR.
The other issue we have is "The NO Tripod rule". So here we are shooting a Pano HDR, multi upon multi shots hand held. For this shot...18 exposures. Let me explain:
I went with my family to the Natural History museum and knowing that no tripods were permitted, flashes only create bad reflections, and I really didn't like hauling around a backpack. I decided to go with my cheap lens, the 50mm 1.8. Best $100 lens on the books bar none!
The fast lens helped with some shutter speeds that were manageable. Yes the 1.8 doesn't create for great depth of field but hey with life there are always trade offs.
With that all said, you can see the final outcome. Your feed back is greatly appreciated.
Here is my Post Processing, it maybe a little long...sorry
Pano HDR in Camera:
>6 vertical 3 Exposure (+1, 0, -1) Total 18 Exposures, 1/30-1/60-1/125, 50mm, ISO 800
I did a 1EV spread because pushing a 2EV spread would have been hard at the +2 to hold without blur
1st Part of Post Processing:
>Each 3 Segment Vertical brought into Raw
>Black slider to 0, White Balance and Temperature and Tint matched
>Default Sharpening to 0
>Noise Reduction on all
>Saved as Tiffs
>Any Exposures that had to much movement were deleted and replaced by one of the other exposures at the deleted exposures EV.
>Once finished you should have 18 tiff files
Photomatix-Detail Enhancer:
>1st 3 shot Segment brought into Photomatix
>Sliders moved to taste and saved as 16 bit tiffs
>Each additional 3 shot segment brought into Photomatix, since Photomatix saves
previous settings, each panel would get the same settings by default of previous settings and saved.
>Once all 18 shots/6 segments are processed you will end up with 6 panels of the Pano all as 16 bit tiffs.
CS-5:
>All 6 HDR Tiffs brought into CS-5
>1 Panel at a time, starting with the 2nd panel CMD-A (Select All), CMD-C (Copy), CMD-W (Delete)
>Back to 1st panel, CMD-V (Paste),
>Same process for all 5 panels stacked onto the 1st panel
>Choose 1st layer (Background Layer)
>Shift/Click on the Last Layer (5th Layer) Should choose them all
>EDIT-Auto Align Layers, Wait for processing to finish
>EDIT-Auto Blend Layers, Wait for processing to finish
>Flatten Image
>Save Image but don't delete (You save image in the event you mess up somewhere or your CS-5 closes
>Crop or Duplicate and Free Transform to get rid of any white areas
2nd Stage Post Processing:
>Nik Color Efex Pro-Pro Contrast
>Nik Color Efex Pro-Tonal Contrast
>Topaz Adjust-inFocus for global sharpening
>Shadow/highlights-For middle statue alone
>Adjustment Layer Levels-Remove color cast of yellow
>Adjustment Layer Curves-Slight global Contrast
>Left Segment of pillars duplicated, Transform/Flip Vertical and aligned on floor
>Soft Light Mode/ Opacity to choice
>Redo until you move across entire floor with a nice reflection
>Cropped and Framed for posting
Friday, March 16, 2012
Your End is my Beginning
The difference of 5 minutes can make the same comp look like a total different photo.
This shot was shot 5 minutes later than the previous post. The previous had more warmth and this had more color. You can choose which one you like the best. As for me It is this one. I always like more blue in my sky, movement of colors in my sunset from yellow to blue.
The Post processing was just about the same maybe a few extra steps in the end.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Dock of the Bay
I haven't been out to shoot in the past few weeks. Actually you feel like you have fallen off the face of the earth when you don't post. Heck, you feel like total rust when you don't get out to shoot at all. It really is nice to get out and just walk around looking for something to shoot, I would have been happy coming away with nothing, just being out with the water and the wind, stopping and enjoying the sight was well worth the trip.
The Shot itself:
This was taken down in Balboa, California. I parked pretty close to this area and saw this scene when I first arrived but decided to walk around for about an hour and a half looking for something to shoot and waiting for the sky to get right. Once the sun started to set I headed back to my original spot. The wind was blowing pretty heavily so I really was waiting for the sun to go down enough to get some wind swept streaking clouds. But with wind swept clouds comes many, many blurry boats. To many to process those shots. I did go with some faster shutter speeds thinking the boats were going to be to blurry.
This shot was taken at the very North end of the Balboa fun zone looking over the bay and the sunset. The rough water and sun shining on the water made for a nice composition of color and light.
The Shot:
>Standard 3 shot HDR, -2, 0, +2 with a +1 and -1 made from the OEV shot.
>F/11, 1/4-1/15-1/60 of a second, ISO 50, 24-105L @ 24mm
Post Processing:
>0EV duplicated to make -1 and +1
>All combined in Photomatix-Detail Enhancer (Exif info for settings)
>Saved as Tiff
CS-5:
>Command J-Duplicate-clone out all dust and dirt marks
>Topaz Adjust-Enhance Detail and Color
>Topaz Infocus-Global Sharpening
>Nik Color Efex Pro-Tonal Contrast-below horizon line
>Lab Color-Curves (A and B channels) Opacity 17%
>Adjustment Layer-Warm Color Filter
>Cropped (Took me forever to get a crop I liked)
>Nik Color efex Pro-Bright/Dark- Bring bright out in center and darken edges-slight vignette
>Sized and Framed for posting
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Red Skies at Night
This is a shot archived from a year ago. I have used some of the processing that I have learned in the past year. Nothing really spectacular or unusual on the processing side but still some fun to do.
This was shot in Dana Point, Ca. As you can see a beautiful area to shoot with the colorful rocks that line the beach.
Post Processing:
>Single Exposure-Processed into 5 tiff files through ACR -2, -1, 0, +1, +2
>Brought into Photomatix using Detail Enhancer, saved as single Tiff
CS-5:
>Cmd J to duplicate and clone tool used to remove spots and dust
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-Tonal Contrast
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-Tonal Contrast used again and lowered opacity to taste
>Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0-User defined Bi-color filter to change sky and water tint
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-tone down green in rocks
>Adjustment Layer-Curves-slight S curve to enhance contrast and remove foggy feel
>Sized and framed for posting
I have been asked how long does it take to process a photo. Well of actual process time varies some are more labor intensive than others depending on how much I have to do with Masking. But for the most part I would say this photo took about 2 hours from start to finish. Actual working time on the photo about 15 minutes., let me give a short explanation.
I get out the laptop, sit in my chair and turn on news or a sporting event (Lakers, Angels, NASCAR, Football) I start with an idea, do some processing, watch some TV mostly to take my attention away from the photo. After sometime I will go back to the photo and do some more work constantly taking away my focus from the photo so I am always using fresh eyes and ideas of where I want to see the photo go. I have found if I stare at a photo to long I get tunnel vision and my vision dries up. Constantly reevaluating the shot keeps the vision alive.
What is your processing time on a photo and how do you go about getting there?
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Through the Open Door
This is another shot from Corona Del Mar, CA. I used Photomatix Fusion to process this shot. I also used the +1EV to bring out the sheen in the water.
I enjoy working through my Post Processing never really settling for 1 standard processing but running through many ideas to get the shot I envision in the end. I am really glad I took a few shots with some small waves because the shots with no waves look pretty boring in the foreground and the water just didn't have any pop. The waves weren't big this night but they do add some interest to the foreground and the surrounding rocks. The birds...well that was just a bonus in the -2EV shot that I also processed into the main photo.
Post Processing:
> 3 images- (-2,0,+2) processed through ACR and added the a -1EV and +1EV
>Photomatix-Fusion-default
CS-5
> +1EV-Processed into shot and masked for water only
>Topaz Adjust for Color and detail
>Topaz Infocus-Sharpness
>Noise Ninja-Remove noise in the sky
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Blue's in sky
>Adjustment Layer-Levels-Blues in water
>Shadows and Highlights to bring out brightness in waves
>Nik Color Efex pro-Pro Contrast to bring overall color cast and contrasts
>Nik Color Efex pro-Gradient Filter to darken sky a bit more
>-2EV masked in for birds
>Sized and framed for posting