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This past week I attended the Fourth of July event in Louisville’s Waterfront Park to capture some fireworks images. While waiting for the fireworks show to begin I wandered around the park looking for images that spoke to the idea of festivals and the attendant support services that are needed whenever large groups of people gather for a celebration. The sky was leaden with the remnants of our unrelenting week of rain and thunderstorms so I went in search of some color to shoot.
As I strolled through the park I came upon the food vendors area and was immediately drawn to the scene you see here. I liked the graphic quality of the signage and the lights on and in the funnel cake vendor and decided to create a composition that incorporated it. I found a place behind the food wagons that also held some promise of a strong foreground element. I set my tripod up and shot this image because I enjoyed the strong diagonal lines and the contrast of colors between the booths and the park’s water feature. I also liked the way the stainless steel rails contrasted with the concrete and the angles that they created.
I shot a three frame bracket set using +2, 0 and -2 EV to be sure that I had a wide dynamic range to work with. Back at my computer I first took the three RAW frames into NIK Sharpener Pro and pre-sharpened them. I then opened the three images in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I merged them into a HDR image. I applied the Deep 2 preset and then adjusted the amount of tone mapping and contrast to suit my taste. After the initial tone mapping was completed I returned the HDR image to Aperture 3 where I adjusted the individual color channels to bring out the reds and yellows of the signage. I also added some additional adjustments to the contrast and sharpened the image before adding a small vignette to it.
Quite enjoyed this one. Belated fourth of July greetings…Murray Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network. From: SpeedDemon2Sent: Monday, July 8, 2013 06:06To: Murray McKercherReply To: SpeedDemon2Subject: [New post] Funnel Cake Fourth
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speeddemon2 posted: ” Click on the image to enlarge it in another window. This past week I attended the Fourth of July event in Louisville’s Waterfront Park to capture some fireworks images. While waiting for the fireworks show to begin I wandered around the park looking fo”
Thanks Murray.
WONDERFUL!!
Thanks Ellen.
Hi Nick, this is the sort of image that makes me think of selling my camera equipment on eBay. Brilliant composition!
No need for anything as drastic as that Nancy though I’m very honored that you gave it such high praise.
Great photo, Nick. I enjoyed reading your description and reason for setting the photo up the way you did.
Thank you Cheryl I appreciate your kind words.