Gone to See America 2010. Big Sur Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. Day 1: Redwood Gulch.
Comparison of HDR Image Processing Programs. I’ve used 5 images from a Photography Workshop in Big Sur taken a year ago to compare two of the newer HDR image processing programs: HDR Express from Unified Color, and HDR Efex Pro from Nik. The image is of a waterfall in Redwood Gulch where there is a very wide range of light levels. To smooth the moving water in the waterfall, I used a couple of Singh-Ray filters (Vari-N-Duo and Mor-Slow ND). The exposures ranged from 2.5 to 30 seconds. The initial raw images were processed with Capture One Pro, cropped to a square image and converted to tif. The images were then imported to Lightroom, then processed with the HDR programs. The first image is the 10 second exposure without any HDR processing. The next 5 images were processed with HDR Express using the following defaults (Optimum, Linear, Natural, Vivid, and Artistic). This is followed by 3 images processed with HDR Efex Pro using the following defaults (Realistic Strong, Realistic Gradient, and Vibrant Textures). Please let me know which (if any) you like or dislike.
Gone to See America 2010. Big Sur Photography Workshop with Michael Mariant. Day 0: Piedras Blancas Beach.
A year ago today, I drove from San Franciscio to San Simeon for a Big Sur Photography Workshop run by Michael Mariant to begin the following day. With time to burn I visited the Elephant Seal View Point on Piedras Blancas beach, just seven miles north of San Simeon on the California central coast. Link to an aerial view of Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal View Point. The sun was slowly going down over the Pacific ocean as I took this series of images.
Page Arizona Photography Workshop with Winston Hall. Day 2: Upper Antelope Canyon.
Nik recently upgraded its Silver Efex Pro plug-in for Photoshop CS5 to version 2. The following images of the Upper Antelope Canyon were taken during a Page Arizona photography workshop lead by Winston Hall. The raw images were processed with Capture One Pro, converted to tiff and transferred to Photoshop CS5, then converted to B&W using the new Silver Efex Pro plug-in. The conversion used the default “Fine Art #19” settings. Make a comment to this blog post, or send me an e-mail if you see the ghost in one of the images.
Gone to See America 2008. Page Arizona Photography Workshop with Winston Hall. Day 1: Lower Antelope Canyon.
Comparison of HDR Express Default Processing Modes. I recently obtained HDR Express (from United Color) as a new HDR (High Dynamic Range) processing program. The following are examples of the default processing modes provided in HDR Express. The images were taken on this day in 2008 while on a Nikonians Academy Photography Workshop in Page Arizona with Winston Hall. Additional images from this day are in the 08-April-2008 Blog.
The first two images are the initial single image processed with Capture One Pro. The first “as is” — note the amount of the image over exposed (clipped) near the top and second “optimized” using the Capture One Pro tools to better balance the exposure. The following 13 images are composites of 5 over and under exposed images processed with HDR Express using the default processing modes: Optimum, Linear, Natural, Vivid, B&W, B&W Grunge, Dreamy, Vintage Color, Soft & Cold, Artistic, Blogger’s Delight, Artistic, Grunge, Retina Burn.
Gone to See America 2008. Springtime in New Orleans.
Dusita Naree on the Mississippi River in New Orleans. This image of the Dusita Naree was taken on this day in 2008. The Dusita Naree is a dry goods cargo ship. Note the members of the crew sitting watching New Orleans. For more images from this day along the Mississippi river see the 05-April-2008 blog.