Sunset at the Beach - D700, 24-70, HDR
A quick hand held HDR shot of sunset at the beach this evening…learning to use SNS-HDR Pro to do the tone-mapping. So far I really like the control you get with the program.
Click to view a little larger…
Mountain Ferns No. 1 - D700, 24-70mm
Almost drove off the road the other day when I saw all these ferns in the mountain. They must cover at least 4 or 5 acres, maybe more I didn’t follow them to the end. I will definitely be going back to photograph these some more between the rain storms. Here’s another quick shot in color, the green goes as far as I could see…simply amazing.
Click to view a little larger…
Mountain Ferns No. 2 - D700, 24-70mm
Red Trains - D700, 70-200mm
I know, the title says Apples, Trains & Raindrops and I start the post with a train photo…just wanted to see if you were paying attention. You will get your apples later, really. The first “Red Trains” image is a combination of four images, as the train was coming down the track I thought it would make a more interesting image if I showed a sequence as the train approached. Click on the “Continue Reading link to see the rest of the post and get your “Apples”…
Side Door - D700, 14-24mm
On the last day of the photo workshop in NH it was raining pretty good so we went to the Mt. Washington Hotel to shoot inside and have a REALLY GOOD breakfast. Here are a few of the images I shot…
The first one “Side Door” is a combination of two sets of three bracketed images, one set to get the door in focus and another to get the room in focus. Image sets were combined in Photomatix using the Fusion option. I am finding that this gives me a very natural look without the problems you can run into with HDR.
Watchmans Indicator - D700, 14-24mm
The next image “Watchman’s Indicator” uses the same technique as the “Side Door” image above. The next two are interior shots of the main hall, both were done using the Fusion option in Photomatix. Additional finishing was done in CS5 using Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0.
Click on any of the images for a slightly larger view…
Mt Washington, Main Hall - D700, 14-24mm
Mt Washington, Main Hall - Vertical - D700, 14-24mm
Silver Cascade - D700, 70-200
Just a quick post of two images from a photo workshop in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I got a call last week on Thursday from Sue saying they had a last minute cancellation for their workshop in the White Mountains. Well I did not have to think about it too long, it was more about how I was going to get there.
The workshop started on Sunday and went to Thursday morning. Lets just say it went by all too fast…what a GREAT time. I got to spend time with two GREAT photographers, Tony Sweet and Susan Milestone and they are very nice folks to boot.
Fall Color along 302 NH, D700
I’ll have some more images later, right now I am in the middle of migrating to a new 64-bit computer with all the frustrations that go with the process. NOT one of my favorite things TO DO! I must say that the increase in processing speed is nice. I’m sure the new programs will chew away at that in time…
These images were processed using the new Nik HDR Efex Pro program. I will need a little more time to refine my processing skills but I must say that my first impressions are that it is an amazing bit of programing. Try a demo for yourself and see…
I also got to meet John Barclay in New Hampshire, he is a photographer whose work I enjoy a lot and a very nice person too. All in all it was quite a memorable week even though the drive home was 3 hours longer that planned. Don’t you just love highway construction delays!!!
St Mary & St Finnian Church - CS5 HDR
Well I made the jump to CS5 after having skipped CS4, just don’t see the need to do the upgrade thing for every version. I read a lot about the improved HDR in CS5 and wanted to see if it lived up to the hype…soooo here’s my first experiment with HDR in CS5.
I have to say that it’s not too shabby, to steal one of Tony Sweet’s lines. The reduced noise and the ability to select one image for ghost removal worked pretty good. The tone mapping will take some time to get use to what the sliders do. This is NOT a review of the new HDR features in CS5, just some of my initial observations.
The image above is a 5 image HDR, using 1 stop EV with a D700 and a 24-70mm lens. I tonemapped in CS5 and did a lot of additional processing in CS5. Some processing included, Nik Color Efex Pro plug-in filters, Nik’s Viveza, Topaz Adjust and Simplify and the sky was dropped back in without any of the above filters and worked separately.
Click on image to view larger…
This is an image of St. Mary & St. Finnian Church along the Road to the Isles in Scotland. Somewhere I would surely like to visit again…we’ll see.
HDR-IR Pano - D200, IR converted, 18-35mm
The clouds were pretty good this morning so I thought I’d try a HDR IR panorama of the view…three sets of four images at each position bracketed in one stop EV. Stitched together in AutoPano Pro and finished off in CS3 with Nik Color Efex Pro.
After the shot we took our morning walk on the beach…click on image for a larger view.
Loch Ness at Dores No 1 - D700, 24-70
Going over some images from our Scotland trip I found these HDR black and white images I forgot to post. We were looking for a place to get down by the loch for a special request from a certain family member. As we were getting ready to leave the hotel in Inverness we ran into the hotel manager and asked him where we could get down to the water. He gave us some great directions and pointed us to Dores. Both of these were shot down by the boat launch area. A Frenchman was in his van getting ready to take his kayak out. It was a bit breezy and there was a chill coming off the water. Not the kind of day I would like to go kayaking alone…
Loch Ness at Dores No 2 - D700, 24-70
I can still feel the chill coming off the water…
A while ago I shot some photos (HDR) for a local business to use on one of their trucks. It was an interesting and challenging space to photograph, a large empty converted ribbon mill. Driving through town today I saw some of the images on one or their trucks. Good thing I had my G10 in the glove box so I could get a few shots of the finished product.
Ribbon Mill Truck, Image 1 - G10
Ribbon Mill Truck, Image 2 - G10
I know, not the greatest product shots you’ve seen lately but at least it shows the end use, sort of. Not the images I would have used from the session but then again it’s NOT my business or truck. Here is the large pano I shot, the image I would have used…
Ribbon Mill Pano - D700, 24-70mm - Click to view larger
This is a 8 shot HDR pano, 4 bracketed (2 stop ev) for each piece of the pano. That’s a total of 32 images taken for the final panorama.
Here are the two images they used for the truck before the cropping was done, these are 4 shot (2 stop ev ) HDR images. So the final image blow up was enlarged/pushed about as far as you might want to go…sometimes you just don’t have any control on a project and it doesn’t quite end up the way you might have liked.
Ribbon Mill 1 - Click to view larger
Ribbon Mill 4 - Click to view larger
Crail Cottage - D700, 24-70mm
On our way down to Edinburgh we stopped in Crail to visit some friends from 30+ years ago. We stayed with them for two days. One morning I took the camera for a walk down by the harbor and shot this cottage. Just loved all the texture layers…single image processed in Photomatix Pro and some Topaz Detail added.