Tag: HDR

Construction Cranes in HDR

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Walsh Construction Cranes on the Ohio River Bridges Project.
Walsh Construction Cranes on the Ohio River Bridges Project.

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Cranes are the workhorses for Walsh Construction on their Ohio River Bridges Project. In this view from the Indiana landing there are two large cranes on barges in the river and if you look along the horizon you can see at least six more cranes. They are being used to move material and to set the pile drivers in place on the Kentucky side of the river where there are going to be over fifty structures erected in the reconstruction of Louisville’s Spaghetti Junction.

This HDR image is another three frame bracket set +2, 0 and -2 EV at f8. I merged them in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished the merged image in Aperture 3. After that I took the HDR image into Photoshop and applied some lens correction as well. I’m starting to limit my use of the structure slider in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 because I think it is introducing graininess into the skies. I still use a little to punch up the details but not nearly as much as I have in the past. When in Aperture 3 I have also limited the use of the details slider for the same reason.

The Ohio River Bridge Emerges From the River

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Placing a 240,000 pound form for the Ohio River Bridge.
Placing the 240,000 pound “tub” concrete form for the Ohio River Bridge. HDR Version

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Last Thursday a significant milestone was reached in the Ohio River Bridges Project. After months of preparation Walsh Construction placed the first “tub”, a concrete form weighing over 240,000 pounds, that will be used to construct the western portion of the waterline footing at Tower 5, the pier nearest the Indiana shoreline. With that accomplished the foundation work on the bridge broke the surface of the Ohio River for the first time.

The yellow tub is the form that will retain the wet concrete that will be poured to form a portion of the waterline footing. The tub, which is 61 feet long and 22 feet wide was lifted and placed over two 12 foot diameter permanent casings that have been placed in the river after drilling over 30 feet into the bedrock of the river. Once those casings were in place they were filled with a steel reinforcement structure and poured concrete. Those two drilled casings were then used to secure the tub form that will be poured full in a single continuous concrete pour later this month. This is a massive concrete pour that will require the installation of a cooling system to handle the heat generated by the concrete as it cures.

Watching the crane operator lift and move this massive structure was very exciting. The longer I work with the men and women from Walsh Construction the more I appreciate the amazing amount of coordination that is required between the people on the ground and the crane operator to safely handle incredibly large structures. The crane operator had to be able to smoothly and safely lift the tub from another barge in the river and then pivot 90 degrees without allowing the load the swing or sway as he moved it into position over the two pier casings. His skill and the planning that went into making this “critical lift” paid of as the form was lowered into it’s final position and secured to the piers. This was the first time something like this has been done and it went exactly as planned.

The image at the top of the post is a three frame bracket set at +2, 0 and -2 EV which was first merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then finished in Aperture 3. I am also including the zero EV image, which I adjusted in Aperture 3, at the bottom of the post to show why I  use HDR techniques. Using HDR techniques enhances the final image and reveals details in a much broader range than is possible when simply using a single frame and trying to adjust it for the very broad lighting situations that working in the field with available light presents.

Placing a 240,000 pound form for the Ohio River Bridge. Single frame version.
Placing the 240,000 pound “tub” concrete form for the Ohio River Bridge. LDR version.

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HDR Image of the Ohio River in Black and White

Posted on by Nick Roberts
B&W HDR Image of the Downtown Span Construction Sites on the Ohio River in Louisville, KY.
B&W HDR Image of the Downtown Span Construction Sites on the Ohio River in Louisville, KY.

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This image was taken from the Big Four Bridge looking west over Waterfront Park and the Ohio River in Louisville Kentucky. It was a busy morning on the river, the construction tug was moving barges for the Ohio River Bridges Project, the Belle of Louisville was headed upriver and a tugboat was pushing the largest size tow downriver, five barges long and three barges wide, that can go through the McAlpine Locks at one time. The Ohio river carries more traffic than any river in America delivering cargo from Pennsylvania in the northeast to the Mississippi River in the west and vice versa.

I decided to make this image Black and White after merging it in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I first took it into Aperture 3 after merging my three frame bracket set where I applied some additional contrast and a vignette to the HDR image before opening it in Topaz B&W Effects 2.1 where I chose the Platinum preset. I adjusted the paper tone slightly as well as adding some additional contrast adjustments that the Topaz B&W version seemed to need.

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Don’t miss the 50% 0ff sale on Topaz Adjust  that is going on until September 30,2013. Topaz Adjust doesn’t go on sale very often and this is a great chance to save some money and get a true workhorse of a program. My entry into the world of plug-ins began with Topaz Adjust and I recommend that anyone wanting to explore that world take advantage of this opportunity.  Use the link below and the discount code septadjust when you order.

http://www.topazlabs.com/705.html

While there consider purchasing the entire Topaz Suite of programs. Topaz has done a lot of improving in the past few years and offers a very good line of software plug-ins that work well with Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture 3.

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This Is Why I Get Up Early Each Day

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Iron workers Placing Reinforcement Steel into Concrete Form For Pier Cap.
Iron workers Placing Reinforcement Steel into Concrete Form For Pier Cap.

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I get up every morning hoping to find a sky with this much texture and color. On this particular morning I was given a wonderful start to the day when I saw the colors start to intensify as the sun rose in the sky. The morning light and the wide range of light made this scene a natural for shooting it as a high dynamic range image. Even with such a wide range it was only necessary to use +2, 0 and -2 EV to capture the shadow details as well as the highlights and mid-tones. I try to keep the number of frames I use to a minimum to help combat the noise that inevitably occurs when underexposing the frame to capture the highlights and then merging them to create the HDR image.

The more I use HDR techniques and adjustments the more comfortable I become with them. In my book NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 is the leader for creating realistic HDR images with minimal halos and believable transitions across the tonal range. I want my images to convey a sense of the wonder I feel when I’m shooting them and the natural beauty in the scene. In this image I am very pleased with the balance of warm and cool light and the peaceful mood that accompanies sunrise on the river.

 

HDR of Ohio River Bridges Project

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Saturday on the Ohio River Bridges Project
Saturday on the Ohio River Bridges Project

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This image was captured looking west from the Big Four Bridge. The two cranes in the river are drilling sites where the towers for the Downtown Span will be built. The tugboat in the foreground was moving barges into place at the two drilling sites.

The image was created from a three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV shot handheld. I merged them in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and applied the Balanced preset which I then tweaked to get the detail and realism I was looking for. I set the anti-ghosting at 60% which did a good job of rendering the moving tugboat. After merging and tweaking the image I returned it to Aperture 3 where I finished adjusting the color channels, contrast and sharpening.