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Spaceship Suburbia

Spaceship Suburbia

Lately I have been beating up my ‘photographic self’. I am bit frustrated creatively. Sure, I discover images while I am traveling, I throw myself into unknown situations to see what my creative self can do, and I consistently try to improve myself as a photographer. However, I haven’t had a project to focus on. I’m not pre-visioning my images. I’m not actively creating images in my mind, prior to discovering them. In the face of this lull, I decided to assign myself a project. If I wasn’t going to do it, no one else was. What did I come up with? I call it Spaceship Suburbia. The goal, to morph the everyday into images from the Cloud City. I’m not expecting a Pulitzer, or a show at the Guggenheim. I’m just hoping to have a bit of fun and force myself to translate what is in my head to a .TIFF. Wish me luck!

Here is my first image from the new project. To capture it, I deployed my stability system, mounted an 80-200mm light refractorer (made up space word), and set my white balance to stun (err…incandescent).

News: Remember the Heart and Lung benefit show this Friday night. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions. It is for a great cause!

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-200 AFD
Gitzo Traveler

Processing Notes:

In an effort to expose myself to new techniques, I decided to give a fellow Flickrer’s tutorial a try. It worked out pretty good.

You can find it here.

Thanks! jfdpl686

Lounge Chair

Lounge Chair

My good friend Fred once asked me while we were out on a photo adventure, “Justin, have you ever thought about the impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on U.S. history?” I’m pretty sure I did in high school history class, but I haven’t given it much thought since. It was a bit of a departure from our usual discussions concerning lens selection and metering modes. However, Fred offered some interesting insight into the railroad as we drove on to our next subject of interest where the conversation quickly went back to image making. Why this story of railroading you ask? The town of Cisco, UT, whose gas station pictured here, is proof of this impact. This town’s rise and fall was dictated by rail. All that is left now are a couple of abandoned buildings, free range animals, and the occasional photographer who happens to pass by.

Note: As promised, this in an image I have been working on as part of my work with David Nightingale from Chromasia.com. David and I have been doing some back-n-forth on images as he shares his eyes and insights. So far, in round 1 alone, I have learned several valuable lessons. I am looking forward to round 2. Remember, if you are interested in getting a lifetime membership to Chromasia.com, and access to all of David’s tutorials, use the coupon code C7164B8543 to receive a 15% discount.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D300
Nikkor 17-35 AFS
Gitzo Traveler

Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 19 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:

Capture (9 images @ 1EV)
Photomatix – RAW conversion and HDR/Tonemapping
Photoshop – Smart Sharpen Layer
Photoshop – Curves adjustment global contrast and color correction
Photoshop – Curves adjustment to sky based on Luminosity mask
Photoshop – Curves adjustment to lounge chair selective by brush
Photoshop – Curves adjustment to left and bottom left side of image from Luminosity Mask
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

Tip: It is always better to invest in yourself rather than your gear. Never stop learning.

Crafting A Cottage


As promised, here is a quick look at the post processing I did to create this image. In order to try and keep it relatively short, the video starts after the HDR/ToneMapped image had been generated using Photomatix 3.2. It walks you through the use of a Photoshop Channel Mixer adjustment and a couple of Nik filters to create the final image.

Also, if you are interested in the tools I used in this video, you can use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC to receive 15(percent) off of Photmatix or any Nik Tools.

You can find the original post here. I reversed a processing step from the original, but I’m not sure it made much difference?

For other videos from the LightAsMagic.com studios, click here.

Warning: Upon playback, I realized I overused the words ‘Vibe’ and ‘Ominous’, but it was far too late in the game to do anything about it.

Bob Ross, The HDRtist


This is another image I received some questions about, so I thought I would put together a quick (< 8 mins) processing video to show you some of the steps I took after generating the initial Tonemapped HDR .tiff. Also, I really dig Nik Silver Efex Pro. I dig it so much, I was trying to find ways of using it for color images. In this video, I use Nik's Silver Efex Pro High Structure preset to bring out the texture and character of the building. I liked results, and I hope you do to.

For my other processing videos, click here!

Also, if you are interested in the tools I used in this video, you can use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC to receive 15% off of Photmatix or any Nik Tools.

For more information on some of my favorite Nik filters, and how they fit into my work-flow, click here.

The Power of Post

I’m not sure if it is universal, but a question I asked myself many times when I was starting out in photography was, “Why don’t my pictures look like that?”. I always wanted to see my heros’ captures. I wondered what it looked like on their LCD? After a while, I started to realize much of an image’s power and punch happened after the capture. By no means am I claiming that you can’t get it right in the camera to start with. There are plenty of people who do. But most digital photographs could use a bit of contrast and saturation boost to realize their full potential. That is why, in my Six Guiding Principles To Improving Your Photography, number 2 is ‘Know your software’.

One benefit of not having to maintain a professional reputation is I can show you the before images. I posted this image long ago, but because the capture was so bad, it was good candidate for this video. Yep, it was pretty bland. I shot this after a long run, and only had my camera and water bottle with me. I could have fine tuned the white balance and applied some in camera picture controls, but I was exhausted and ready for a meal. I knew I could save it once I got back home. Here is a quick glimpse at the power of post processing. Hopefully it will help you realize the full potential of your memories!

Video:

Before (not quite like I remembered it)

After (More like it!)

Note: If you are an email subscriber, you will need to visit the site. Also, if you are interested in the plugins I used to process this image you can find them here: http://www.niksoftware.com and use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC to receive 15% any of their products. For my overview of their entire suite click here.