Tag Archives: filters

dehydrated

When Prickly Pear cactus become severely dehydrated, they often take on colors like yellow, red and purple. I shot this one at the very end of our hike yesterday. I need to go back with my macro lens and work this!
dehydrated prickly pear cactus

Also…a repeat of yesterday’s photo. With no sun, it wasn’t a great exposure to begin with. I did a quick Photomatix HDR which I didn’t particularly care for it so I worked on a single image this time turning it B/W with a hint of color. Much better, I think.
fallen saguaro cactus

desert pixels

Yesterday, I worked on a recent desert landscape and came up with three renditions.

HDR – three exposures blended using Photomatix
HDR desert scene

Black and White – I used Photoshop’s B/W adjustment layer and Topaz Ajust for contrast
black and white desert scene

High Key (sort of) – I used various Topaz filters on this one

High Key Desert scene

Also…a correction to what I said yesterday regarding our rain storms. The worst is yet to come! It’s starting tomorrow afternoon and continuing through Friday. I always get Tu and Thu mixed up 🙂

dueling blogs

One of my shooting buddies, Barry White, just started a blog. I’ve been giving him a hard time about it for several years so it’s about time! Welcome Barry 🙂

His photo today is very similar to my first shot of Balanced Rock so I thought I’d post mine. My shot was taken on October 7th, 2003. (I like Barry’s shooting angle better than mine). I was with him when he shot his (2009) so I know he did an HDR. Mine is just a single shot but I did “Topaz it Up” a bit 🙂

balanced rock in arches national park

Our images remind me of a favorite “What the Duck” strip.

depth of field

One of the best ways to improve your photography is to learn about depth of field (DOF).
It can make ordinary subjects stand out. I shot this dried Thistle last Friday in Flagstaff.
Knowing how to control the DOF, I was able to cause a very busy background to become
a beautiful blur. The color in the background is simply grasses and other weeds.

2009_10_16

(I used Nik and Topaz to bump up the contrast).

Here’s a link to a YouTube video with an excellent description of depth of field:

Understanding Depth of Field

Note: You’ll have more success achieving Depth of Field (DOF) with a single reflex camera (SLR).
It’s difficult to control in a compact camera because they tend to be sharp at all f/stop settings.