Tag: clouds

Ohio River Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Orange Dawn

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This panorama was taken from the Big Four Bridge looking upriver; the river seems so calm and sleepy in the early morning hours. I really liked the way the sky was reflected in the river that morning and the minimalist feel that it imparted.

I processed this image in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 using the Deep 2 preset as my start point.

Not much more to add except that I hope all my readers here in the US have a great Thanksgiving holiday. I’ve baked three pumpkin pies and a sweet potato casserole as my contribution to our family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Now all I need to do is deliver them and then sit back and enjoy our family’s company.

Magic Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Magic Morning

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It’s been a while since I posted anything but I’ve been busy shooting the final days of the Big Four Bridge project. I shot this image from the Big Four Bridge a couple of weeks ago and just found time to process it last week.

Though it appears to be a HDR image this image is from a single frame and was processed entirely in Aperture 3. I chose to use this frame from the bracket set I shot because it had an excellent histogram that was not blown out in the highlights or blocked up in the shadows. It was very early in the morning and the sunlight had not begun to illuminate the shoreline but the reflections of the clouds were so dramatic I couldn’t resist the shot.

Waterfront Park Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Waterfront Park Morning

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This image is one that I shot while in the man lift a few weeks back. We were 135 feet above the Big Four Bridge and the view was incredible. Fall was just beginning and a few of the trees were stating to turn adding just a bit of color to the park. This view of the Louisville skyline is one that I won’t be able to get again and I’m very grateful to the man lift operator, Tim Williams, for taking me up in the man lift. I also want to thank T&C Construction and Construction Solutions for allowing me to be a part of the project and giving me such unique perspectives of the city

I processed this image using Aperture 3 in an effort to create a realistic photo with a high dynamic range. The histogram for this image was an excellent exposure with no blocking up in the shadows or blown highlights. I am relying more and more on reading the histogram while shooting and using 1/3 stop EV adjustments to get as optimal an exposure as possible. I still shoot brackets, in most cases, but where possible I use only the best frame to create my image. This doesn’t mean I am abandoning  merging multiple exposures for HDR images though. There are still many times when the dynamic range of a scene can only be captured with bracketed exposures in order to open up the shadows or prevent blown highlights. I still love the richness and latitude that HDR processing affords me and will continue to use it but there is a great deal of satisfaction in capturing the full dynamic range, such as this image exhibits, in a single frame.

Across the River

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Kennedy Bridge Sunset

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This image was captured from the Jeffersonville, Indiana shore of the Ohio River looking west toward Louisville. It was a great evening for a sunset and I chose to ride over to Indiana to see what the Louisville skyline would look like.

I processed this single frame in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to enhance the colors in the sky. After adjusting the tonality to create the feeling I was looking for I returned the image to Aperture 3 for final sharpening and some additional tweaks to the definition, vibrance and recovery sliders as well as performing the final sharpening on the photo. Before sending it to NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 I applied some RAW pre-sharpening in Aperture 3 which I have discovered is a good way to start processing an image.

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.