Sep 19, 2012 | B&W Photography
The drive home from Photoshop World was great! We were fortunate to have our sons Brent & Jake join us at Photoshop World and than follow us home to head out together in a day to the Reno Air Races. The skies were simply killer so once we turned off Hwy 95 and started to head west, I grabbed the D800 & 24-70 and drove with them in my lap. When I saw a photo, I would stop in the middle of the road, shoot and than keep on going. This really slowed down our progress but gave me time to think about things.
About thirty minutes later I noticed the boys weren’t behind us anymore so I pulled over. After a while, we started to wonder so we turned around and drove back about five miles to find them pulled over shooting. These shots came from that stop. The top is a simple click with Silver Efex Pro doing the heavy work. The bottom photo is a pretty common site here on the eastside. I popped out the flash on the D800 to give it a little glow. I’m posting this now because they are forecasting snow for us this coming weekend. Fall is here…ya baby!
Sep 11, 2012 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
You know when you have a friend in Joe McNally when on his blog he bestows you with such a title. While I don’t think I’m that light on my feet, I do love clouds! During our Napp Photo Safari during Photoshop World, the heavens gave us a heck of a show and I was more than happy to watch, shoot and hopefully inspire others with the experience. Both of these shots are in my book simple clicks, taken with the D4 and 24-70AFS
The scene above is the one Joe describes in his blog. For me, such a scene is a simple click but for many, clouds and B&W is a mystery so I explained what I was seeing with my eyes and how I would translate that to a photograph. We start with the light and how we want to use it to pull the eye through the frame. With that known, we than look at those elements that prevent that movement of our eye and do what is needed to exclude them from the frame. Than we make sure we still include those elements we do want, set the exposure comp to -2/3 and go click. Than head into Silver Efex Pro 2 and do a simple 80 structure move, a little levels for the blacks and we’re done. Some from the safari have emailed asking for the video I mentioned. You will find those along with all my videos in, yeap, the Moose’s Video Library. Thanks to all the folks who joined us…great day!
Jul 26, 2012 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
We are incredible fortunate to live in paradise! As I’ve mentioned probably too many times, summer in the Eastern Sierra is great with our monsoon storms. The clouds just play in the heavens as they float by. For this reason, I’m constantly heading out to the front deck to look up and see what is floating by. My favorite rig is the D4 with 24-70AFS, the format fits perfectly for shooting among the pines in the front. Here’s a series from last evening.
What you have here is the out of the D4 Jpeg and the finished PSD file. In this first image, first step in finishing is ACR using my Landscape preset. In Photoshop, the Apsens in the dead center of the frame were replaced with the Clone Tool with fir as in the rest of the frame. Then the image was run through Silver Efex Pro 2 and finished with Pro Contrast in Nik’s Color Efex 4. The entire finishing process took less than two minutes.
This next image in the series is the one I like the best. Camera gear and finishing all the same except this time, Pro Contrast was replaced with a Levels layer just to pull the blacks down a tad. Oh ya, I removed a couple of tree tops in the lower left corner with Content Aware Healing Brush. Why do I like this one the best? I have that “burning bush” feel to it, really strong graphics. I like that.
I like this last image more as a color than B&W, I think. I like the shape of the cloud but the tree is a little too bulky for me. The camera was all the same. In finishing, the first thing you’ll notice is the limb in the top left missing. That was done with Content Aware Fill. Then the rest of the finishing was done exactly the same as the first image. I hope this series will encourage you to just step out your door, no matter where you live, look up and make a click. Exploring the backyard and simple processing can open up all sorts of creative doors!
Jul 16, 2012 | Aviation, B&W Photography, Landscape Photography, Random Thoughts
If you do, then run! Run to find a great foreground and subject to put with them. Clouds have the magic to transform the common into uncommon just by their very being. The key is to place your subject in the clouds but not letting the clouds overcome the subject. You want to use the clouds to give the imagination to roam and then bring the mind’s eye back down to the subject. This requires not only a great shape but also highlights and shadows that move the eye through the frame. In this process, you might have to use a split grad and the point of capture and Curves in post to manipulate those highlights and shadows. But if you have clouds, you have photographic gold!
Jun 13, 2012 | B&W Photography
A bigger file with greater “depth” should by defacto produce a richer B&W image. I thought I would push that just to see if the math works. This is a hangar shot where 30% of the light is from sodium vapor. Processing is simple Silver Efex Pro 2 and the results, well I am quite thrilled with this impromptu test!
May 18, 2012 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography
We had driven past it a couple of hours earlier, but it was in full sun with bald skies. Yuck. When we came back by, the thunderstorm was building and the aperture in the clouds let enough light in to bring drama while providing a great background. So was required was an illegal U turn as we were shooting.
The only real question was, what lens to use? There was actually no right or wrong answer because everyone could make up and tell their own story. I went with the 18AF for a couple of reasons. One was its angle of view, the other is because it’s rectilinear (that’s not a PC). With that, it was simply a question of getting in the right place to relate the three buildings the way I like in concert with the clouds. So, I danced a little as the clouds and the aperture in them moved about.
The bottom image is the one I like the best, then the color version and finally the top image. When I stopped, I saw this at a B&W image but the clouds were changing and that made me move changing how I wanted to actually arrange the three buildings. Then a burst of sunlight came out when made me think color. All of these images are a handheld, 7 image HDR finished with Photomatix Pro and Photoshop.
