Wordless Wednesday
Tag: composition
A Path Through The Woods
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Today I am sharing an HDR image that has been processed with Aperture 3, NIK HDR Efex Pro 2, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop CS5, Topaz Clarity and OnOne Perfect Effects. I shot the scene along Floyds Fork in the new Parklands Park that is being developed in eastern Louisville. My bracket set was -2, 0 and +2 EV which gave me three versions to work with for my HDR merger and tone mapping.
I first took the three bracket set into NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I merged them and applied the Balanced Preset. After that I made some adjustments in Aperture 3 before opening the HDR image in Adobe Camera Raw where I adjusted color saturation and luminance and then saved it in Photoshop CS5 as a tiff file. I then used Topaz Clarity to add micro-contrast and further refine the colors in the image. After returning the image to Aperture 3 I adjusted the sharpening, definition and added a vignette. I then opened the image in OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 7 and used Perfect Effects where I first applied the Vecchio filter at approximately 75% opacity to warm the image even further. Next I added the Holga Filter to another layer in OnOne Perfect Effects before returning the image to Aperture 3 for final sharpening.
Reflections of Louisville
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I have been trying to represent each of the eclectic business districts of Louisville in a single image for a couple of weeks now. I tried various angles but each time I wound up with too much pavement in relation to the amount of architecture. While shooting one morning last week I discovered that I could show businesses on both sides of the street by using the reflections of one side of the street in the shop window across the street.
I shot all the images in this post in three shot brackets that I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then finished them in Aperture 3. I built a preset in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 that I used on all these shots so that I had a consistent feel to the images. By using the preset I could quickly get the HDR image where I wanted it and then take it back into Aperture 3 for final processing.
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I used the same processing for the rest of these images.
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Kentucky Derby Festival 2013 The Great Steamboat Race
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This image is from the Great Steamboat Race here in Louisville, Kentucky. Each year, as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival, Louisville hosts the annual Great Steamboat Race which pits her own steamboat the Belle of Louisville against any other contenders that show up. This year was the first time people could view the race from the Big Four Bridge in Waterfront Park.
This image is a single frame post processed in Aperture 3 without using any plug-ins. I liked the repeating shapes of the boat’s wakes as a reinforcement of the bridge beams and handrail.
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This image received the same post processing as the previous photo. I created a preset Effect in Aperture 3 based on the first image and was able to apply it to many of the images I shot that afternoon. After applying the preset to an image I could go into the adjustment panes and make small tweaks to each image as needed without having to start from scratch.
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I applied the preset to this image as well. It’s a real timesaver to build an Effect Preset in Aperture 3 and then apply and tweak it as needed.
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This last image was also processed in Aperture 3 using the same Effects Preset I created but since it was later in the day I had to go into it and readjust many of the sliders to emphasize the colors of the sky and it’s reflection on the river. Still it was nice to have the preset as a starting point that shared the same overall feel as the earlier images.
Ohio River Sunset
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This is a three exposure HDR using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 for the merger and tonemapping as well as some exposure and structure adjustment. The three kayaks in the scene are from the middle value exposure which is the default frame for NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 when anti-ghosting is applied; I used a 60% setting which seems to work very well for preventing ghosts when objects in the scene are moving in one direction. The anti-ghosting also worked very well for the women walking along the landing at this 60% setting. After completing my NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 adjustments I returned the image to Aperture 3 where I adjusted the separate color channels to get the image I wanted.
