Little did this guy know that when he walked out of the cleaners, he would be walking into a foray of paparazzi. Seriously, when this guy opened the door there were 4 photographers set up with tripods shooting this brick wall. We were all on the monthly IlluminateWorkshops evening photo-walk.
I knew this scene needed something more than just the wall. I tried opening the door and staging myself in the scene, but it just wasn’t working. However, after waiting a while the man in the fedora walked out and I quickly snapped a frame. The frame I snapped was my metered exposure. Once the door closed and he was done asking questions I finished my sequence of 7 frames.
Nikon D300
Nikkor 35mm 1.8 AFS DX
Gitzo Traveler
Markins Q3T Ballhead
Processing Notes:
Capture (7 images)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
Photoshop (Masked in the man and light)
Photoshop (Curves adjustment global contrast)
Nik ColorEFX Pro (Tonal contrast slight desaturation and brick texture)
Photoshop (Crop to 4×5 ratio)
Nik ColorEFX Pro (Vignette – Off center to enhance light’s shadow)
Nik Sharpen (Display adaptive 25% selectively applied to bricks)
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: When shooting a sequence of photos that are going to be used in an HDR image, pay attention to any moving objects. Try to capture the movement you want in the image when the movement you want coincides with the exposure that is appropriate for your image. That sounds a bit circular? Hopefully it makes sense. Feel free to email or leave a comment if it doesn’t.
