Category: Architecture

Four Twenty One

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Four Twenty One

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

This image is another from the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk last Saturday. I found this ornate grill above the door to the old Lincoln Bank and Trust building to be very interesting. I processed this image exclusively in Aperture 3 and did not use any plug-ins.

In the image below I processed the same photo as a Black and White version using the red filter option in Aperture 3 which really brought out the details and contrast.

Four Twenty One #2

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

Four Hundred

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Four Hundred

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

Last Saturday I joined 25 fellow photographers for Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk. We met at 5th and Muhammad Ali and fanned out from there. I came across this building and really liked the facade. I also liked the reflection of the building across the street in the glass.

I had attended a lecture by Dan Dry earlier last week and after listening to Dan explain what was in his camera bag I thought I would emulate him and restrict myself to one lens. Dan said that his kit consisted of a Nikon D800 and a 24-70 mm lens. Because I use a Nikon D90 which has a crop sensor factor of 1.5; I opted to limit myself to my 18-55 mm which is very close to the one Dan uses; my effective range with this lens is 27-82 mm. It was a different feeling not having my standard walk around lens of 18-200 mm and led me to try a different approach to my photos. I am continuing this exercise for the next few days to see how it affects my image making. I processed this image with Aperture 3 and did not use any other software to finish it.

I also did a Black and White version using Aperture 3 to see how that affected the image. I started with the red filter preset and then tweaked the color sliders to get the image you see below.

400

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

Ironworker

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Jackie Alpha on the Big Four Bridge Project
Ironworker Jack Alpha

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

This image was taken from a man lift inside the Big Four Bridge last week. The man in the photo is Jack Alpha he’s an Ironworker who let me use his safety harness to ride up into the upper structure of the Big Four Bridge as part of my continuing project to photograph the men who are doing the work to convert the Big Four Bridge from an abandoned railway bridge into a pedestrian bridge linking Louisville, Kentucky with Jeffersonville, Indiana. Jack is repairing the handrail that runs along the top of the bridge and in this photo he is anxiously waiting for me to get done with my photos so he can get back to work.

This is a straight photograph with minor adjustments to White Balance and Sharpening. I used Aperture 3 to edit it and the only thing I needed to do to get it right was to set the white balance by picking a neutral gray which was easy since the concrete deck has a full range of grays in it. I then chose a black point from the man lift and a white point from the arrow on the man lift. Using these three points nailed the colors in the image and all that was left to do do was sharpen it.

Trompe l’oeil at Buffalo Trace Distillery

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Trompe l’oeil at Buffalo Trace Distillery

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

This image was taken last Saturday morning at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort Kentucky. The mural on the building is a trompe l’oeil painting. The term trompe l’oeil means “to fool the eye” and this mural does just that. As you walk past it the perspective seems to change and it appears that the wall in the back of the mural moves from side to side. It is quite a sight to see and to experience.

I shot a five exposure bracket set +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 which I then merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. One problem I encountered after merging was with the clouds. I had the anti-ghosting set to 20% and the clouds were severely misaligned creating a very unnatural sky. I tried selecting a different reference image but the problem remained. I then boosted anti-ghosting to 60% but the problem was still there. My final attempt was to use the anti-ghosting at 100% which gave me an acceptable sky.

I applied a realistic preset in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and tweaked the temperature, black point and highlight sliders very slightly before returning the image to Aperture 3 for cropping and sharpening then I exported it for the web.

Morning On The Ohio River #2

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Cloudy Morning

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

I have been trying to catch the sunrise each morning from the Big Four Bridge. Yesterday I arrived at the bridge at the same time that a cold front was moving in from the southwest. The weather forecast was for rain to start by 10:00 am and the sky was very active as the front progressed.  I decided that it might be interesting to shoot the river and the Kennedy Bridge as I watched the clouds build up.

I set up my tripod looking west from the ramp going up to the Big Four Bridge and captured several five exposure bracket sets of the Kennedy Bridge. Back in the studio I opened the morning’s shoot and found this image. I usually try to get several variations of my subject when I shoot as I have learned over time that the best way for me to evaluate a composition is in the studio on the monitor. I chose this image because I liked the way the handrail swept into the frame.

I used all five exposures +2, +1, 0, -1, and -2, which I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I used the default preset in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 as my starting point as I started my tone mapping. I liked the way the sky and bridge had turned out but the lawn had acquired an over saturated green tone that was in conflict with the blues and grays of the rest of the image. I dropped a control point into the grass and desaturated it slightly to get it back to what I saw as I shot the scene. I find that these control point adjustments work well when there is a marked difference in the colors in the image where they are applied. In this case the green was so distinct in the image that it worked like a charm.

I returned the merged TIFF image to Aperture 3 where I adjusted the vibrance very slightly and applied some sharpening before exporting it as a jpeg for the web.