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The Can

PepsiCenter

Probably not what you were expecting based on the title. The Pepsi Center, here in Denver, is affectionately known as the ‘The Can’ by locals. It hosts the Avalanche, Mammoth, and Nuggets. It has also provided the stage from many a concert. Red Rocks is still the better venue for concerts. However, if you are a stadium rock band, the ‘The Can’ is where it’s at. Well, unless you are U2, then you have to look at 80,000 person arenas….not too many bands like that left.

As you have noticed lately, I am pretty big on using a Nikon 45mm PC-E lens. I don’t really use it for its indented purpose, which is to increase depth of field, and help reduce converging lines in pictures of tall things. I will be going into more detail when my review of the lens hits the blog next Sunday. As for this image, I wanted to test the Perspective Correction feature of the lens. With any other lens, because you would have had to point the camera up at the building, you would have seen the straight lines getting closer towards the top of the photo. Not with the Nikon 45mm PC-E lens! You simply keep the camera (film/sensor plane) parallel with the building and raise (shift) the lens up. It is hard to visualize, but the difference is incredible to witness. That is only one of its tricks. It is a finely tuned, razor sharp, optical engineering wonder!

Continue for Capture/Processing Notes…

2001 Wine Odyssey


An astronaut with a day off from space walks, research, and mission tasks might want to take a break from the daily regiment of Tang to enjoy a nice pinot or cab with their protein paste. A quick trip to the wine cellar module on the International Space Station could provide such luxuries to our orbiting scientists. Although currently not available, or scheduled for production, a wine cellar would be a nice addition to the space based bed and breakfast. However, if there were such a thing, I believe this might be the wine cellar they would visit.

As a bit of an impressionist I commonly take creative liberties to realize my vision. Feel free to watch the video below to see how I use Photomatix 3.2 and a couple of NIK filters to build a wine cellar suitable for international space travel.

Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VRII
Gitzo Traveler
Markin Q3T ball head

Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 16 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:
Capture (7 images)
NX2 (Raw Conversion)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
NIK Define 2.0 (Noise reduction)
Photoshop (Curves adjustment – global contrast/color correction)
Nik Color EFX Pro (Glamour glow – desaturate)
NIK Color EFX Pro (Tonal Contrast)
Photoshop (size for web)
NIK Sharpener (Display adaptive 35% selectively applied to the wine bottles)
LightAsMagic.com

…or, if you have time, you can just watch the video (length: about 10mins).

If you are interested in purchasing any of the NIK Tools, make sure you use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC and receive a 15% discount on their products.

http://www.niksoftware.com

To find out more about Photomatix 3.2 visit HDRSoft’s website at:

http://www.hdrsoft.com/

You can use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC to receive a 15% discount on Photomatix

Room 217


As you might know by now, my mother-in-law loves images of doors. She asked me to photograph one last weekend when we were visiting the Stanley Hotel. This might be one of the more famous (infamous) doors I have ever had the opportunity to photograph. It is the door to room 217. The great thing about being an independent, impressionistic photographer, I have the freedom to make the door as creepy as Kubrick did.

Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 17-35 2.8 AFS
Gitzo Traveler
Markins Q3T

Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:
Capture (5 Images)
Photomatix (Raw Conversion, HDR, Tonemapping)
Nik Color EFX Pro (Bleach Bypass – selective touch of desaturation excluded the door)
Nik Color EFX Pro (Tonal Contrast – selective boost saturation included only the door)
Nik Define 2.0 (Automatic entire image)
Photoshop (Curves adjustment global)
Nik Color EFX Pro (Vignette big-n-soft)
Sized for web
Nik Sharpen (Display 30% adaptive selective to the door)
LightAsMagic.com

A Lucky Star


Sometimes you stumble upon a collection of colors and lines that you can’t help but fill your viewfinder with. After a scheduled photo-walk of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, I was headed back to the car when this scene presented itself to me. I used a longer focal length to try and draw the compositional elements closer together. The brass star was pure luck.

Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VRII
Gitzo Traveler

Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 70 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:
Capture (7 images)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
Nik Define (Automatic entire image)
Photoshop (Curves adjustment global)
Nik Color Efx Pro (Tonal Contrast selectively applied to buildings and stairs)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com

Urbanscape


A photographer friend of mine, whose images you can see over on flickr, likes to make images of landscapes within landscapes. He will find a small patch of grass and flowers, or an interesting rock amidst a much grander scene. He calls these images ‘intimate landscapes’. I really like the idea. He tells me that I am an ‘intimate urbanscape’ photographer. I am pretty sure it is images like this that compels him believe that.

Nikon D300
Nikkor 35mm 1.8 DX
Gitzo Traveler

Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200

Processing Notes:
Capture (7 images)
Photomatix (HDR/Tonemapping)
Photoshop (Curves Adjustment)
Nik Color Efx Pro (Bleach Bypass)
Nik Color Efx Pro (Vignette)
LightAsMagic.com