Tag: Aperture 3

Navajo Highway

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This image is from Arizona along the road out of Flagstaf heading east. I was taken by the alien looking landscape and decided to stop and shoot a few frames before heading east. I climbed up on one of the mounds of clay to get a better composition and to get a sense of the place.

This image is almost straight from the camera. I used a polarizer to cut down on reflected glare. The composition uses the rule of thirds as well as letting the highway become a leading line. All processing for this photo was done in Aperture 3.

Buick Fireball Eight

Posted on by Nick Roberts

At the NSRA Streetrod Nationals you will see many creative uses for vintage engines. This Buick Dyna Flash Fireball Eight is one such engine. It was installed in a Reo roadster which made it a very unique combination. The car itself was a faint pastel green and the engine was this fantastic deep jade green with white lettering. I wanted to capture the paint job on the engine because it was as finely detailed as the overall car. All the raised lettering that was stamped into the spark plug cover really caught my eye because it had all been perfectly hand painted.

Once again I am trying to show how by taking an entirely different approach to a subject, that I have been photographing for over 40 years, I was able to come up with a unique image that I hope will resonate not only with car people but with anyone who appreciates streamline influenced art deco design.

I chose to frame it diagonally to move the viewer’s eye through the frame from left to right. I used Aperture 3 and NIK HDR EFex Pro to saturate and intensify the color in the image.

Whiskey Ridge Roadster

Posted on by Nick Roberts

I found this track style roadster last year at the NSRA Streetrod Nationals in Louisville, Kentucky. I really liked the way this car was built and it’s racing style but I didn’t want to just shoot it from a standing position. I got this angle by laying down in the grass beside the car and shooting upward. I saw this composition in my viewfinder and knew immediately that I was onto something.

Back in my studio I decided to use NIK HDR Efex Pro to process the image. As I was going through the presets it occurred to me that this image was a good candidate for black and white. The preset I settled on caused some haloing around the cockpit of the roadster which I thought really fit with the image. After a few minor tweaks to the contrast I returned the image to Aperture 3 for final output as you see it here.

The composition uses circles to unify the image and adheres to the rule of thirds. The texture and position of the tire creates foreground interest while the perspective of the roadster draws your eye into and through the image into infinity.

Cyclops

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This image sums up this week’s composition themes, leading lines, texture and complimentary color contrast. Not much to add to what I’ve already written on the subject this week. Processed in Topaz Adjust and Aperture 3.

Enjoy your weekend; I’ll see you next week.

 

 

Color In Composition

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Sometimes color is all you need to create a memorable image. By using complimentary color this image is balanced and moves the viewer’s eyes into the frame. This image is pretty much straight out of the camera. I used a polarizer to avoid glare from the sun’s rays in this image which I shot during the middle of the day at the NSRA Street Rod Nationals. Since I took care to make a good image in camera the only thing I needed to do was to sharpen it in Aperture 3.