Saturday (30-April-2011) — Pacific Ocean

Gone to See Central America and the Panama Canal. Semester at Sea Spring 2011 Enrichment Voyage on the MV Explorer. Ultimate Travel Photography Workshop II with Michael Mariant. Day 4: At Sea.

Comparison of Digital Noise Reduction Programs. Pre-dawn view of the Moon, Venus (and Mercury) over the Pacific Ocean. Professor Ian Campbell had us look for the moon and several planets in close proximity. Here are a couple of images taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4 lens (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). I needed the high ISO to even get a 1/30 sec exposure since it was still dark and the ship was moving. For each image I processed with no digital noise reduction, then with either NIK Define 2.0 or Topaz DeNoise 5.0.

Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5.
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with NIK Define 2.0. (David J Mathre)
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with NIK Define 2.0.
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with Topaz DeNoise 5.0. (David J Mathre)
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with Topaz DeNoise 5.0.
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. (David J Mathre)
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5.
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with NIK Define 2.0. (David J Mathre)
Pre-Dawn View of the Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Image taken with a Nikon D3x and 85 mm f/1.4G (ISO 1600, 85 mm, f/1.4, 1/30 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro 6 and converted to jpg/sRGB with Photoshop CS5. Noise Reduction with NIK Define 2.0.

Three-Years Ago (19-November-2007) — Hawaii

Gone to See Hawaii. Big Island Photography Workshop with Thom Hogan. Day 2: Morning Session.

Image Processing Techniques. A comparison of different HDR (high dynamic range) programs for rendering a series of images 7 images taken at different exposures (+3, +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, -3 EV). The programs compared are Photoshop CS5, Photomatix Pro, and Nik HDR Efex Pro. I should note that I am not able to run the Nik HDR Efex Pro on my desktop computer as it causes Photoshop to crash. I had to use a different computer to process the images using the Nik HDR Efex program. The images were taken with a Nikon D2xs camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens.