Tag: composition

Louisville Boat Club Marina

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Sailboat Sunset

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Today’s image comes from a shoot I did earlier this year along River Road here in Louisville. I was taken by the way the trees framed the scene of the docks in the Louisville Boat Club Marina and wanted to include them as a foreground element to add interest to the scene.

I’m not really sure which app I used to process this image but I think it was an earlier version of NIK HDR Efex Pro. I finished the edit in Aperture 3 with a little sharpening and some tweaks to the vibrancy slider too.

Thorax Thursday

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Where Do You Want To Eat Tonight?

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Tonight I’m exercising a little macro mojo. I don’t know what they are but they sure look strange to me. Straight photo with my 105mm macro lens and Nikon D90 processed in Aperture 3.

Hey Bert, Let’s Try That Place Over On Market Street Next Time.

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Mind If I Join You Guys?

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Stormy Morning in Louisville

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Stormy Morning

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This image is another HDR from a bracketed set of exposures. I was looking east from the Big Four Bridge around sunrise last week and found the sky to be very dramatic and foreboding. I really like the view from up on the bridge with the boat club on the left and the ramp up to the bridge on the right. In this composition I wanted to emphasize the many triangles that were formed by the channel on the left, the ramp and parking lot on the right and the clouds as they receded into the distance.

I merged the four exposures, +2, +1, 0, and  -1, in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to begin the tone mapping. I initially used an anti-ghosting setting of 20% but when I viewed the merged image there were several issues with the way the clouds rendered. I returned the merged image to the merge panel and applied 100% anti-ghosting which solved the problem. Normally I try to keep the anti-ghosting setting relatively low to avoid an artificial appearance but I have discovered that dramatic cloud formations really need it boosted to 80% or 100%. I think it has a lot to do with the speed that the clouds are moving, which is usually pretty fast, when they are part of a storm front such as this one.

I then started trying the various NIK HDR EFex Pro 2 realistic presets but did not find one that matched my intent for the final image. As I sorted through the many presets I discovered one named “Sinister” which was very close to what I wanted for the final effect. The only difficulty I encountered when applying the preset was that the foreground and foliage went way too blue and gray to suit me. I then placed a control point in the foliage and increased the exposure slightly. This served to lift the greens in the trees out of the shadows. Using that same control point I then raised the saturation very slightly and adjusted the vibrancy. What I was trying for was to get the scene to appear in the photo as it had appeared to me when I was capturing the bracket set.

The more I use NIK HDR EFex Pro 2 the more ways I find to create images that reflect the image I have in my mind when I trip the shutter. As I have said here in the past, my intent with many of my images is to create something that evokes my feelings for the subject and not necessarily a documentary photograph. I know that some photographers take issue with that line of thinking but as the quote in the masthead of this blog says “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” by Edgar Degas. I hope that my images evoke similar feelings in those who view my art.

Ironworker

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

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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.

Joe Ley’s Garden of Delights

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Joe Ley’s Garden of Delights

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This is another image form the NuLu Photowalk on Saturday. This is a side yard at Joe Ley Antiques on Market Street here in Louisville. I processed it using Topaz Adjust and the Spicify preset. Some readers of this blog have asked me if I’m advertising for Topaz, NIK or OnOne so I just want to clear the air about that. The simple answer is no; I am sharing what tools and techniques I use to achieve the images that I see in my mind when I’m photographing or when I’m in my studio creating a new piece of art. I want those who view my art to know what I used, not to sell them on the tools, but to open their eyes to the possibilities that the plug-ins offer for artistic expression.

While I consider myself to be an accomplished photographer I do not feel bound or constrained to meet the expectations of other photographers. I am first and foremost a photographic artist; I try to impart my feeling for the subjects I photograph through the use of color, composition and texture. I am not concerned when someone feels the need to criticize my art and thinks that somehow I have broken some arbitrary norm that they think is sacrosanct. I don’t need validation from those who think they know what I should be doing or how I should do it.

Photography is my chosen art form and I’m content to put it out in the world and share it with anyone who enjoys it. I didn’t study art to copy other artists; in part I studied art to understand what others had done before me and draw inspiration from their works. I enjoy color, I like saturated colors, I like natural colors, I like the colors in a sunset or a thunderstorm. Sometimes I feel that I cannot improve on the scene before my lens and I strive to be as realistic as possible while at other times I want to overpower the colors and punch them up beyond what some folks consider natural.