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PIXelations 1
…my first pixelation
by fotofinish , 07-12-2005 at 06:43 PM (523 Views)
I learned something the other day, and if I write it here, I might actually remember it later. I had processed over two days about a dozen pictures from my latest shoot. The first day I processed a few pictures during the afternoon. I shot all of these in raw. The second day I processed the remaining ones in the evening, so the room was fairly dark. I didn’t bother with putting a light on. Anyway, what I found out was that the pictures I processed during the day were lighter than the ones I processed late in the day. These were darker, so much so that I will probably reprocess them. Moral of this story, use a consistent light source when processing pictures.
About those pictures, I saw a photo in my mind of the water tower in partial sunlight as the sun was rising. My ultimate picture would have been with more mist than what I captured, but I was there so I figured I would try it anyway. I’m not sure if I got what I wanted. It seems that if I boost the exposure to bring out more contrast I lose the mist effect. Guess I’ll let this go for now and maybe re-shoot in the Fall when the trees are in color.
The end result here took several weeks of waiting since I wanted to wait until the wildflowers were in bloom around the base of the tower. Since I drive past this tower everyday on my way to work, I was able to keep an eye on what was happening with the tower. But of course, on the days of the best blooms, it was either overcast or rainy. So when I finally did my shoot at 5:30am, the blooms were almost past what I wanted. The early blooms had more yellows. I guess sometimes that is just the way that it goes.[/color:e9468491b9]
Westwoods Watertower pics…
where’s my camera
by fotofinish , 07-13-2005 at 07:34 AM (557 Views)
…when I need it. Home, of course. Driving this morning I saw the rising sun etching the edges of the storm cloud formations in golden light, like something you would see on a tropical island. It’s all about the light, isn’t it?
And it’s all about trying to see the patterns that exist in the world around us. The famous photographer, Vincent Versace, is always looking for what he called “patterns interrupted”. I have to pay more attention if I ever hope to improve my compositional tools.
handholding
by fotofinish , 07-14-2005 at 09:29 AM (524 Views)
…my 100-400L IS lens, that is. I posted a question somewhere about what percent of time a photographer will handhold or monopod-mount this lens, and overwhelmingly the responses were handheld most of the time! This blows my mind, since I have had very little luck getting clear shots with little or no motion blur. I know the 1/focal length rule but in the situations I was shooting, I felt I didn’t have that luxury. I also know that my lens-handling technique needs work. I’m afraid of missing the shot, but then again, no pain no gain . So the responses have given me some encouragement to know that handholding this lens IS possible. Now, I just have to think of a suitable test shoot…
But not this weekend. We’re throwing a high school graduation party for my daughter, Sarah, so there will be lots of family, neighbors, and friends. I hope to take a few snapshots, even though the weather is supposed to be if-y. My daughter (my baby!) will turn 18 August 11. I can’t believe it. She and my wife just went to the orrientation for incoming freshman at Central Conn State Univ. a couple of days ago. And the seasons go round and round…
tempting…
by fotofinish , 07-19-2005 at 08:34 PM (531 Views)
Gerry is a programming consultant with whom I have worked for a short while. He is also an amazing photographer of bike racing. His skill at this is the result of his personal experience as an elite bike racer himself. He has the uncanny ability to capture stop-action scenes with blurred backgrounds. His subjects show the intensity of the struggle with which they are involved.
Today he told me that he is quitting this job to attend the Hallmark School of Photography . He will become part of the “Ten months to a career in photography.” He is finally taking the leap few of those among us have ever dared. He will pursue his dream.
His decision does not come lightly. His wife has the kind of job that could endure the amount of time it would take Gerry to retool and relearn, and she has the kind of support and faith in her husband’s ability. With no children or other bindings to hold them back, it seems the time is right to make such a commitment. The chance to make a dream a reality.
Gerry believes as a result of his training that he will be able to not only find something at which to earn a living, but also he will discover new frontiers in which to explore his creative side. The chance to become like Icarus, without getting burned.
So tempting…
westwoods shoot revisited
by fotofinish , 07-20-2005 at 11:17 AM (424 Views)
Well, as I promised in my blog opening, I reprocessed the raw images from the Westwoods water tower shoot. These were definitely too dark. What a difference a light makes next to my desktop! After tweaking exposure and contrast in raw, I then opened each photo in CS2. Once in CS, I ran PhotoKit Capture sharpener in digital low res and medium edge for the web. I then made a minor adjustment to levels, and sometimes shadows/highlights or hue/saturation. I resized each to 640 px on the long edge and applied PhotoKit Output sharpening for the web at 600 px and adjusted the opacity upwards from 50% to around 80% for the dark and the light layers. Finally, I applied my framing action which I made some time ago to my liking.
I feel happier with the end results, and have reposted my pictures. here.
I feel this is my best image from this shoot:
There is just a hint of the light mist still remaining. What do you think?