Yesterday, I worked on a recent desert landscape and came up with three renditions.
HDR – three exposures blended using Photomatix
Black and White – I used Photoshop’s B/W adjustment layer and Topaz Ajust for contrast
High Key (sort of) – I used various Topaz filters on this one
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 🙂
A more acceptable cause of death in Saguaros is an act of nature. In this case, it was probably a lightning strike.
Note: For those digital darkroom users out there, you can probably tell that I’ve been playing with High Dynamic Range (HDR) this week. It’s hard to resist when you have clouds. Forgive me for getting a little carried away sometimes 🙂
From my archives today with a little help from Photomatix using the single image option. This was my favorite image from our last trip to New Mexico. The woman is Leona of Leona’s Restaurante which is located a few steps from the famous El Santuario de Chimayo. Her wonderful food and location has made her known around the world! We’re not going in that direction on this trip but I always think of her when I think of New Mexico.
I gave a presentation on Photomatix software yesterday. Here’s a link to a PDF of links to video tutorials and also the names of two books I recommend on the subject.
Another HDR example. This one is a gift shop in Jerome. I should have taken one more shot which would have revealed the area outside the door more clearly. As it is, it’s too bright so I cropped it off.
Greasewood Flat is a must stop hangout for motorcyclists and photographers.
(HDR image using Photomatix)
Another high dynamic composite (HDR) shot from Tlaquepaque….this time a little stronger tonemapping. If you like creating artsy stuff from your images and your budget can handle $99, then I highly recommend Photomatix Pro. (I’m playing lately because I am giving a presentation on the program at my digital group next month).
Took a day trip to Jerome and Sedona yesterday. Tlaquepaque shopping village is a wonderful photo op. This image is a combination of 5 images capturing all the shadow and highlight information. I used Photomatix Pro 3 to combine the files.
The Monsoon gives hope of rain almost every afternoon but so far not a drop. This quick shot from last night (Canon S5 ) needed a lot of help so I opened it in ACR, converted it to 16bit and opened it as a smart object. I then manipulated the heck out of it to give it more of an impending rain look 🙂
Here is the original.
Every time I buy tomatoes that are still on the vine, I tell myself to photograph them as soon as I get home. That hasn’t happened yet but this morning I got one at least! I used Photomatix to process a single image (cool) and then applied a fun filter called Fractalius. Both these programs accentuate any lines or textures. Below is the original file.
Cleo (L) and sister Cloe in their kitty walk enclosure. This is a very quick handheld and not so great HDR from this morning. The cats were in total shade so I set my 40D to ISO 400 and auto bracketed to produce 3 different exposures. The newest version of Photomatix does an excellent job of aligning handheld images.