Tag: Channel (digital image)

HDR of Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Saturday on the Ohio River Bridges Project
Saturday on the Ohio River Bridges Project

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This image was captured looking west from the Big Four Bridge. The two cranes in the river are drilling sites where the towers for the Downtown Span will be built. The tugboat in the foreground was moving barges into place at the two drilling sites.

The image was created from a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV shot handheld. I merged them in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and applied the Balanced preset which I then tweaked to get the detail and realism I was looking for. I set the anti-ghosting at 60% which did a good job of rendering the moving tugboat. After merging and tweaking the image I returned it to Aperture 3 where I finished adjusting the color channels, contrast and sharpening.

Final Assembly of the Pier Reinforcement Structure

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Ironworkers on barge
Ironworkers on their construction barge put the final touches on the pier reinforcement structure.

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This image shows the pier reinforcement structure that will be taken out to the drilling platform in the background and installed inside a steel caisson  that has been drilled thirty feet into the bedrock under the river. The men are making their final assembly before rigging it to be lifted and inserted into the caisson the next day.

Once again I worked with a single frame from my bracket set in Aperture 3. I created a preset that I can apply to most of my shots from this day which will greatly speed up my processing for the entire shoot. Once I have my basic settings adjusted to suit my vision for the photo I create a preset that I can then apply to other images from the shoot and then adjust to fine tune a particular image.

HDR at Night

Posted on by Nick Roberts

 

Big Four Bridge Ramp at Night
Big Four Bridge Ramp at Night

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This HDR image is a three frame bracket set +2,0 and -2 EV. I merged it in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished it in Aperture 3. The flares around the lights are from the f8 aperture which adds a star burst to almost all artificial lights; the way around it is to shoot with as wide an aperture as possible which will reduce it greatly.

Louisville at Night
Louisville at Night

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This HDR image was created using the same procedure as the first. I was shooting from the Big Four Bridge looking  south west from a vantage point close to the Indiana side of the Ohio River.

HDR Images Using Topaz Restyle and OnOne Perfect Effects

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #1
Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #1

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This first image was created in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 from a three frame bracket set using +2, 0 and -2 EV. Because it was evening I shot it with a tripod to allow for the long exposures needed to capture such a low light scene. After merging the three frames in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2  I returned the image to aperture 3 where I made some adjustments to the color channels and applied sharpening.

Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #4
Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #4

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This second image was created by taking the same HDR image as above into OnOne Perfect Photo 7.5 and then opening it in Perfect Effects where I first added a layer with the  Daguerrotype effect I then added a second layer where I overlaid the Palladium Print effect after that I added another layer where I applied one of the Border effects to complete the image. As you can see it gives an entirely different feeling to the image which is one of the strengths of the Perfect Effects application.

Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #3
Ohio River Bridges Project Downtown Span #3

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For this third version I took the HDR image into the newest Topaz Labs product, Topaz ReStyle, and applied the preset named Saffron Sunset. I was amazed by the transformation that Topaz ReStyle made to the image. I didn’t stop with simply selecting the preset; instead I then adjusted the sliders in the preset to give the image the feeling I was looking for. Topaz ReStyle has over 1000 different presets built into it and by previewing them in groups I was able to find one that I liked for this scene. One of the interesting feature of Topaz ReStyle is the ability to select a color pallet to work with and search the entire preset library to find variations that use the colors you have selected. You can then preview the presets with your image before committing to one of them.

I hope these three images help you to see the potential of combining different software options from Topaz, OnOne and NIK to create an image that expresses your personal vision for a particular image. Topaz ReStyle is going to become another tool for me to use when I want to explore variations on a theme and I think over time it will be as valuable in my workflow as the many other plug-ins that I already use.

Topaz ReStyle is on sale for $29.99 (a 50% discount) until August 31  if you use the link below and the promo code restyleit 

http://www.topazlabs.com/705.html

 

 

Using OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 7.5 with HDR Images

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Old School Hotrod
Old School Hotrod #1

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I took an HDR image that I created in NIK HDR Efex Pro and started experimenting with it in OnOne Perfect B&W to see what I could get from it. The OnOne Perfect Photo Suite is very powerful. It allows me to work in layers so that I can turn on and off each individual layer to see whether I like what it does in conjunction with other layers. For the first image here I applied the Ambrotype preset and then made several adjustments to the paper tone and silver tone, added an Emulsion border and adjusted the contrast and sharpening. Using the HDR image as a starting point helped render the interior details while still maintaining the surface textures on the car.

Old School Hotrod #2
Old School Hotrod #2

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This is the HDR image I started with. As you can see there is a lot of color in the image due to the patina of age. Most of the color in the glass and the wooden steering wheel was too muted for my taste until I adjusted the separate color channels in Aperture 3 after merging my bracket set in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2.

Old School Hotrod #3
Old School Hotrod #3

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For this last image I used the Perfect Effects application and applied a preset that changed the overall color of the image yet allowed me to emphasize the yellow and red in the window sticker. I can’t recall which preset I started with but I’m sure that I adjusted it’s effect to get the result I was looking for. I seldom stop with the base settings in these presets as I consider them to be starting points rather than end results.

The point of this post is to show that digital image processing opens the door to many options when creating art photography. It’s no longer necessary to spend hours in Photoshop building an image only to discover that it doesn’t convey your vision for the piece. By applying plug-in presets the artist is able to look at variations rapidly and decide what they want final result to be. Once a preset has been selected the artist can then make their own changes to it and emphasize the aspects of the image that are important for their vision of the image.