Tag: louisville waterfront

Snow in Waterfront Park

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Louisville Waterfront Park in the Snow
Louisville Waterfront Park in the Snow

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No HDR here just a good exposure processed in Aperture 3. This image relies on composition as it’s strong suit. The repetition of curves in the ramp, ramp shadow and shoreline are set against the strong geometry of the bridge, concrete veranda and the skyline as well as the linear pattern of the trees in the swing garden.

Louisville Waterfront Park in the Snow #2
Louisville Waterfront Park in the Snow #2

This image is also a single frame without any HDR processing applied. It was also processed exclusively in Aperture 3. Once again the composition is balanced between the strong linear elements of the concrete veranda and the rows of trees in the swing garden set against the curves of the shoreline, ramp and the ramp’s shadow.

 

 

 

Louisville Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Louisville Morning
Louisville Morning

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Last week I decided to shoot a panorama of the Louisville Waterfront Park and the Ohio River from the vantage point of the Big Four Bridge. I set my tripod up and shot nine frames in a 180 degree arc from left to right. I wanted to capture the soft pinks and blues of the sky and the reflection of the Kennedy Bridge in the water. As an added benefit of this panoramic shooting technique the bridge is shown from two different viewpoints. I especially like the altered perspective that occurred with the left and right sides of the image where the Big Four Bridge is shown from different angles.

I merged the nine frames in Photoshop CS5 using the Automate/Photo Merge command. After merging the images I flattened it and cropped the edges slightly. I then returned it to Aperture 3 where I lightly adjusted the exposure and very slightly increased the vibrancy and definition sliders. I then applied a little sharpening before saving it for the web.

 

Louisville Waterfront Sunset

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Waterfront
Louisville Waterfront Sunset

I took this image last week from the Clark Memorial Bridge. I used five exposure values +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 to capture the scene. I then processed them in NIK HDR Efex Pro to merge and tonemap the image. I also reprocessed the merged image with the anti-ghosting feature set at medium to clean up the vehicles on the highway and any ghosting in the clouds.  I chose the Realistic Strong preset as my starting point and then tweaked the sliders until I had the colors and details where I wanted them. After that I returned the image to Aperture 3 for a little boost to the color temperature and sharpening.

I am especially pleased with the way the sky is reflected in the YUM Center in this image. I had been trying for several weeks to catch a sunset that was dramatic enough and high enough in the sky to reflect in the building’s convex glass. I checked cloud maps every evening for almost a month in hopes of being able to capture a dramatic sky such as this one. Many times the clouds would be where I wanted them 30 minutes before sunset only to fade away just as the sun set. On this particular evening the cloud map showed a  lot of clouds out to the west so I set up my camera and tripod on the Clark Memorial Bridge and waited for their arrival. I was rewarded by these clouds moving in at just the moment  the sun was setting.

Studying your location and accessing relevant sources, such as the cloud map, can really help when seeking to capture an image that you see in your mind’s eye. Keep this in mind the next time you wonder why you can’t seem to catch the scene you are seeking, patience and planning will eventually pay off if you do your part too.