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This image was shot from the ramp leading up to the Big Four Bridge. Three shot bracket set merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3.
Sunset on the Ohio River
Tag: louisville kentucky
Color and B&W HDR Versions of the Same Image
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Today I am sharing two versions of the same image. For the color image I used NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to merge the three frame bracket set. I applied the default preset and then returned it to Aperture 3 for contrast and color adjustments.
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I decided to try OnOne Perfect B&W to convert the color HDR into a black and white HDR image. I started with the default B&W setting that OnOne Perfect B&W provided and tweaked it to adjust the contrast until it was the way I wanted it. Not much more I can say about this one.
Construction Cranes in HDR
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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.
Saturday’s Sunset on the Ohio River
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This HDR image was taken from the Big Four Bridge in Waterfront Park Saturday evening just after sunset. I shot my usual three frame bracket set of +2, 0 and -2 EV which I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to create a HDR image. I started with the balanced preset and from there I built my own preset for this image as well as several other bracket sets that are from the same shoot. After merging the three images I adjusted contrast and exposure sliders. I then added a -2 stop gradient filter to the sky to lower the brightness level there. I then returned the image to aperture 3 where I made a few small adjustments to contrast and adjusted the red, yellow, blue and magenta color channels. Finally I applied sharpening and cropped it to give it a more panoramic feeling.
HDR Image of the Ohio River in Black and White
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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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