Tag: Morning

Waterfront Park View #2

Posted on by Nick Roberts
We’ll Be Landing in Louisville

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This is another shot I took from high above the Big Four Bridge last month.  It was early and the sun was just rising when I captured this scene. The airplane in the sky adds interest to an otherwise empty sky. The river is so placid early in the morning almost as if it has been sleeping and is just waking to a new day. Waterfront Park is a treasure that many Louisvillians are unaware of; the park extends east of downtown for several miles and reinvigorates a former blighted area of Louisville. The park sits on land that at one time had nothing but scrap yards, asphalt terminals, barge docks and derelict structures all along the riverfront. The land has been reclaimed and decontaminated over the past twenty five years to create one of the most unique parks in America.

I processed this single frame HDR image in Aperture 3 and NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to get just the right atmosphere.

Four Twenty One

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Four Twenty One

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This image is another from the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk last Saturday. I found this ornate grill above the door to the old Lincoln Bank and Trust building to be very interesting. I processed this image exclusively in Aperture 3 and did not use any plug-ins.

In the image below I processed the same photo as a Black and White version using the red filter option in Aperture 3 which really brought out the details and contrast.

Four Twenty One #2

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Louisville Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Louisville Morning
Louisville Morning

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Last week I decided to shoot a panorama of the Louisville Waterfront Park and the Ohio River from the vantage point of the Big Four Bridge. I set my tripod up and shot nine frames in a 180 degree arc from left to right. I wanted to capture the soft pinks and blues of the sky and the reflection of the Kennedy Bridge in the water. As an added benefit of this panoramic shooting technique the bridge is shown from two different viewpoints. I especially like the altered perspective that occurred with the left and right sides of the image where the Big Four Bridge is shown from different angles.

I merged the nine frames in Photoshop CS5 using the Automate/Photo Merge command. After merging the images I flattened it and cropped the edges slightly. I then returned it to Aperture 3 where I lightly adjusted the exposure and very slightly increased the vibrancy and definition sliders. I then applied a little sharpening before saving it for the web.

 

Big Four Bridge at Sunrise

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Big Four Bridge at Sunrise

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This is an image from my first ride up in the man lift to shoot from above the Big Four Bridge. I didn’t know how high I could bring myself to let Tim lift us in the air. Ultimately I have been able to ride the man lift to 135 feet in the air which including the height of the bridge above the river means I can say that I’ve been up to 215 feet total above the river.

For this composition I used the bridge members to divide the image into several triangular sections. I processed this image entirely in Aperture 3 without any plug-ins.

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.