Tag: distilling equipment

iRobots

iRobots

I didn’t set out to make this image when I shot my brackets but once I was back in my studio at my computer the possibility of doing it came to me. I really liked the way the copper and stainless steel glowed under the industrial lights at Vendome Copper and Brass Works manufacturing facility here in Louisville. I thought the copper stills had characteristics that suggested that they were alien beings and I went with that idea. After merging the two versions I began to see various patterns in the image that further reinforced the concept.

The composition is symmetrical, something I usually avoid, but in this case it really works to give a sense of depth to the image. The composition also showcases the objects within the image and gives them new meanings. I especially like the many patterns that are formed in the space from the textures on the floor to the very back of the image.

The original image is another five exposure bracket set that was first merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then using the Realistic (Deep) setting I did my final tone mapping. I tried to not go too far in my tone mapping in order to retain a sense of reality in the colors and textures within the scene.

I saved the resulting image back to Aperture 3 before exporting it to Photoshop CS5 where I duplicated it as a mirror image. I created this image by flipping my original shot side to side in Photoshop CS5; this left me with two images that I then merged into one image using Photoshop CS5.

 

Vendome Copper and Brass Works, Louisville, KY

Yesterday I downloaded the newest version of NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 which just came out this week. I had seen a webinar by NIK that showed the newest features of the app and I wanted to try it out. I am very impressed with the upgrade; the new version is much more refined than it’s predecessor which I already thought was the best HDR app I had used.

Today’s image was taken at Vendome Copper and Brass works here in Louisville. Vendome Copper and Brass Works is the main manufacturer of distilling equipment in the USA and the opportunity to photograph there was wonderful. They use a lot of copper to build these stills and distilling columns which made the place a fantastic place to photograph. I have several more images that I took while there and will be sharing them over the next few days.

This photo was processed from 5 frames taken at +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, Exposure Values. I could have just as easily used shutter speed to bracket the shots but my method is to adjust EV when shooting HDR brackets. I then took the images into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I merged them and then applied the Realistic (Deep) preset and did some minor tweaking of the settings. After that I returned the image to Aperture 3 for sharpening and final output. If you are looking for an app for HDR processing I highly recommend NIK’s app, like everything else from NIK it is loaded with features and performs flawlessly.