Software

The Ship’s Tavern

May 15, 2013 by Justin Balog 5 Comments

I haven’t posted much from Denver lately, so I decided to go waaaay back into the archive today. This is the famous Ship’s Tavern, which is the quaint little pub in the world famous Brown Palace. A must see while visiting Denver.

Photographer’s Note & Other Geeky Stuff – When I’m shooting at night, I try to overexpose my images. Partly because the camera will tend to underexpose them. Even if I lose some detail in the highlights, I can easily recover that information in Lightroom. What it does give me is an information rich file to work with. This allows me be creatively style my night scenes with Nik Filters. Hope that helps you on your own creative journey!

Filed Under: Colorado, Denver, Gitzo Traveler, Lightroom 4, Nik Software, Nikon D700, Processing Notes, Sigma 15mm Fisheye, Tips

The Red Planet

May 7, 2013 by Justin Balog 7 Comments

I Reeeaally want to visit Mars. So much so whenever I have a chance to make one of my photographs look like a Martian landscape, I do it! This isn’t Mars, bummer right? This is Double Arch in Arches National Park. All my buddies from this year’s #nXnw were going to post their image from this epic night of light painting on their sites today, so I suggest you check them out as well. We used a really big flashlight to light up the arch while we were photographing it. The folks in the industry call this technique…Light Painting.

Filed Under: Moab, Nik Software, Nikon D700, Really Right Stuff, Sigma 15mm Fisheye, Software, Travel, Utah
Tagged With: Arches National Park

Buffets & Mountains

May 6, 2013 by Justin Balog 2 Comments

Howdy! I hope you all had a great weekend. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I was a big cruise type of guy. However, when we took an Alaskan cruise to celebrate my folks 40th wedding anniversary, I was game. I had visions of spring breakers splashing around in a pool and 3000 people over-eating at the buffets. Boy was I wrong…well, the spring breakers part anyway. I saw quite a few folks get their grub on. But the Alaskan cruise is the way to go. This is the kind of scenery you just casually sail past. Crazy cool stuff! I’d go back in a heartbeat.

If you would like to see the before/after I posted it over in the Nik G+ Community (click here).

Filed Under: Alaska, Black & White, Landscape, Nik Software, Nikon 5100, Nikon 70-300 VR, Processing Notes, Software, Travel

Cisco Utah – Part II

May 1, 2013 by Justin Balog 3 Comments

Brace yourself for some more Americana. I have decided to dedicate the week to a few more images of Cisco Utah. It’s such a unique place, that very few people of know of. Even less consider it a photographer’s paradise. If you ever pass by, make sure to take the scenic byway into Moab and stop at Cisco along the way.

Photographer’s Notes – This week’s series of images were all shot handheld using a Nikon 45mm PC-E and processed in Nik Software Color Efex Pro 4.

Filed Under: Americana, Cisco, Nik Software, Nikon 45mm PC-E, Nikon D700, Travel, Utah

Cisco Utah – Part I

April 29, 2013 by Justin Balog 6 Comments

I apologize to you for missing yesterday’s post. Over the last three days, I’ve only gotten about 7 hours of sleep. The rest of the time was spent photographing the areas around Moab Utah with some incredible photographers who are also my good friends. More on the second annual North by Northwest Photo Jamboree (aka #nXnw) in a later post. I need to get some sleep!

As for this image, which was one of the first images I shot on the trip, I decided to experiment and try to evolve my creativity and process. Having photographed Cisco Utah many time, I wanted to bring a style of Americana that I have worked on over the last couple of years. For this style I’m developing, I use a single lens. It is the Nikon 45mm PC-E (get the full specs at B&H -af link). At 45mm, it conveys close to a normal focal length, much like your eye would see. Which I like for my style of Americana because it provides a very familiar feel to the viewer. However, because it tilts, I’m able to mange the element of focus in a much more creative way.