Tag: HDR

Back to the Boneyard

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Here’s another shot from my trip to the Studebaker Boneyard in Arizona. I really like the texture and patina that this front end from a 1950 Studebaker has. The famous “Bullet Nose” grill is an American icon. Studebaker was so far ahead of it’s competitors, in the design realm, after World War II . Unfortunately the cars themselves were pretty mediocre in terms of the quality of their components which helped seal their fate.

I shot this at midday and, as I do most times, I was using my polarizer to cut down on the glare. I find using a polarizer to photograph these abandoned vehicles helps when I do my final processing. The polarizer seems to intensify the colors and bring out the texture in the rust. I recommend using polarizers to my students when they are shooting in less than favorable light such as the light in the middle of the day.

I processed this image in Topaz Adjust using the Spicify preset then I dialed it down somewhat from the default setting. One of the real benefits of using a plug-in such as Topaz Adjust is that I can accomplish the feat of opening up the shadows and showing the detail that is in them, such as the inside of the wheelwell here, where the viewer can see the ground and the inside of the fender too.  Too often I see images that have gone through one of these plug-ins where the effect is too strong. I often advise my students to think in terms of “less is more” when using them.

Compositionally I like the way the the subject comes forward in the frame; almost as if it is trying to jump back on the highway for one more ride.  The many triangles that are formed by the composition keep the image from being flat or static. The angles move our eyes within the frame while suggesting that there is more going on just out of our sight.

Studebaker Boneyard

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Studebaker Boneyard

Every vehicle in this shot is a Studebaker truck. The location is in western Arizona along US 50. Even though it was midday I was able to create a memorable shot which comes back to my belief that with practice and study a photographer can capture good images no matter what time of day he is shooting.

I really like the way Topaz Adjust helped me bring out the colors in this shot. I have printed this image at 24″x36″ and the detail is amazing.

I use a local print shop, Unique Imaging Concepts, to print most of my work. They print on many different substrates but my choice is their glossy aluminum. Their process is dye-sublimation which really works well to preserve the vibrance and detail that I require in my work for gallery exhibition. I still print on paper when the client or gallery requires that but my preference is printing on aluminum.

Ohio River Bridges Panorama

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Image 

Today’s shot is stitched together from two frames I shot from Waterfront Park. I used Photoshop CS5 to stitch them together and then finished the image in NIK HDR Efex Pro. I like the way the silhouettes of the bridges give structure to the scene.

I like shooting panoramas because they allow me to include so much more of the scene than one image usually can accomplish. Panoramas take a little more time to setup and shoot but the end results are almost always greater than I could accomplish by simply cropping into a single image to produce the panorama format. 

Flaming Sky

Posted on by Nick Roberts

Today’s image was taken at Louisville’s Waterfront Park. I love the texture that the clouds produce and the silhouettes of the bridges. It is a single image that was processed in NIK HDR Efex Pro and finished in Aperture 3.

I love Louisville’s Waterfront Park and the way the bridges across the Ohio frame my shots there. On this particular evening I was able to place the sun between two piers on the left side of the Kennedy Bridge which added to the drama of the scene.

I believe a photographer needs to shoot every day; in the same way that a great musician practices every day to better control his instument. The more one uses the tools of his craft, the better artist he becomes. Photographing daily allows me to become more and more skilled at composition and using the controls of my camera.

Canyonlands Sunset

Posted on by Nick Roberts

I was riding in Canyonlands National Park in Utah a couple of years ago when I came upon this scene. I had been down this road earlier in the day and was returning to my hotel when I came around a bend in the road and saw this vista. I immediately knew I wanted to capture the vista that was before me.

I had already met the Park Ranger back at the end of the road and knew that I was the only person on the road as the sun was going down behind me. I decided to ease my bike off the shoulder of the road  but when I put my front wheel onto what looked like a solid sand flat spot it tipped over instantly. I wasn’t going fast so I wasn’t hurt at all but I was still concerned. You see a Harley-Davidson Roadglide weighs nearly 900 pounds and there was nobody there to help me get it back up on it’s wheels. I learned long ago how to use leverage to right a motorcycle but even at that I knew I was in a pickle. I had to unload all my luggage, remove the saddlebag that I could reach, take off my rear Tour Pak and then dig the sand out under the bike’s wheels with my hands before I could lift it up and get it back onto the blacktop.

By that time I was exhausted and the sun was rapidly setting. I had used up almost 30 minutes and was concerned about riding alone in the dark as I exited the park. Once I had the bike back on the road; I still had to reinstall everything I had taken off before I could get going again. I finished that and then I saw that the original shot I had stopped to take had morphed into this gorgeous scene.

To this day I think the gods of photography tipped that motorcycle over so that I would be there to shoot this image.