Low light street photography is one of my favorite past times. I don’t know what it is about the night, but I love exploring foreign cities with a single lens. Maybe it’s the range of light and shadow at night, or the simplicity of a single click. Maybe it’s because I can observe from afar and blend into the background like Forrest Whitaker in Ghost Dog (a movie I highly recommend)? Either way, it is something I do whenever I get the chance. This image was shot a couple years back in the town of San Miguel, MX. At night the entire town comes out to dance and sing in the main plaza. Local vendors line the streets selling everything from art to the best churros you have ever tasted. I couldn’t pass up this eclecticism. I debated if I should encourage the vendor (who you can barely see in the right side of the cart) to step out for the photograph. I wondered if the image needed more ‘human element’. I decided it didn’t, and made the image as I found it. If you view the image larger, you easily see the vendor day dreaming in the distance. That was the mystery I was after.
Corporate Religion II
Round two of a location I shot earlier this year. However, unlike a previous image, I didn’t include the sky in the composition. Having not included the sky, I wanted to emphasize the contrast between the office building and church. To achieve the contrast I was looking for, I made a selection out of the church in the foreground and used that selection to control a couple adjustments I made using Photoshop and Nik Color Efex Pro. After I made the selection, I was able to apply a slight darkening curve adjustment and moderate desaturation to the office building in the background. I was then able to apply a brightening curve adjustment and Nik Color Effects Pro Tonal Contrast filter to the church to enhance its character. Here is the image as it was fresh out of the Photomatix 4 oven.

Co-op

Sorry for the quick post, but I am spending a bit more time behind the camera this week than the computer. I hope the new images next week will be worth it. The lesson I learned from this image…be courteous and honest with security guards when photographing private property and they might let you photograph a fertilizer plant.
Rail Yard

This is another image from my visit to the local rail yard last year. You can see a previous composition from the same location here. It was one of those days where I knew I was going to pass something interesting on and errand, so I decided I would grab my gear and tack on 30mins to my commute. I wonder how much memory my brain is wasting trying to efficiently plan photo errands? I should formalize a documentation strategy so I can save space for things like remembering to mow the lawn.
DeNoise 5 and the Lonely Trucker
I was excited when Topaz Labs announced (official release date is Monday Aug. 2nd) an update to their DeNoise tool. I use several Topaz Lab tools, including Adjust and Detail, quite a bit in my workflow, but I rarely used previous versions of DeNoise. However, when they announced DeNoise 5, I thought I would give it a run. Normally, if my image requires any noise reduction, I usually preform it right after generating the HDR/Tonemapped image and prior to any Photoshop work. In this image, after generating the HDR/Tonemapped .tiff, I brought it into photoshop, duplicated the base layer, and ran DeNoise 5 against it. Here is a quick list of things I found.
- Presets – I like software that offers its users a good starting point. Topaz DeNoise offers a couple of .jpg and RAW presets. In this image (a 16bit .tiff) I started off with the ‘RAW – Moderate’ preset. From there I experimented with a couple sliders and quickly found a level of noise reduction I was happy with.
- Ease of Use – The new DeNoise 5 interface follows the most recent release of of the product suite. It seems pretty straight forward, and ease to dial in.
- Preview Click – Like many tools, DeNoise allows you to click the image while you are making adjustments to quickly toggle between the original and processed images. This makes dialing in the settings you want a breeze.
- Speed – I’m not a numbers guy, but it seemed pretty quick.
Here is the before image:

Before
Here is the after image: (the volume control is not a feature. I was adjusting the background tunes)

After
This image had quite a bit of Noise in the sky. DeNoise 5 handled it pretty nicely, without much processing fuss. I have always liked Topaz products because of their power and price point. DeNoise 5 seems to be a welcome upgrade to their suite of products.
You can find out more about Topaz Labs and their entire suite of products here:
http://www.topazlabs.com/denoise/
Give the 30 day trial a run and see what you think. If you decide to buy it, you can use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC to receive a 15 percent discount on any purchase form Topaz Labs.
About the image: I made this image in the Spring along the scenic-byway between Cisco and Moab, UT. I have mentioned it before, but if you are ever driving west to Moab, don’t let people talk you out of taking the slightly longer drive. It is well worth the extra couple of minutes.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-200 AFD
Gitzo Traveler
Lexar UDMA Film
Processing Notes:
Capture – 7 images @ 1ev
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Topaz Labs DeNoise 5 – Noise reduction
Photoshop – Curves adjustment (2x)
Sized For Web
LightAsMagic.com






