Tag: Nikon D90

Beautiful May Evening

Posted on by Nick Roberts
May Sunset on the Ohio River
May Sunset on the Ohio River

Click on the image to enlarge it in another window.

This image is from a photo shoot I did last Thursday evening after shooting at the Pegasus Parade earlier in the afternoon. I wasn’t ready to go home yet so we headed down to Waterfront Park to explore it further and capture some images with Derby Festival goers using the park. We walked around the park for a couple of hours and wound up on my favorite place to shoot Waterfront Park from, the Big Four Bridge. I had been up there the prior afternoon and evening to photograph the Great Steamboat Race but I really wasn’t happy with a lot of the landscapes I shot after the race ended. I wanted to capture the dramatic sky that was visible Thursday so we hung out on the bridge waiting for sunset.

I shot my normal three frame bracket set of -2, 0 and +2 EV for this HDR image. Today I made a change in my processing and started my post processing in NIK Sharpener Pro 3. I allowed the program to determine the amount of RAW pre-sharpening to apply and then I opened the sharpened RAW files in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. I merged the three frames in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and kept the anti-ghosting set at 20%. I then applied the Deep #1 preset which I tweaked slightly to improve contrast and accent the highlights and shadows. Once that was finished I returned the HDR image to Aperture 3 where I spent some time adjusting the individual color channels as well as the vibrance and saturation of each one. Finally I applied my sharpening and a very light vignette to the image.

 

More Playing with Topaz Adjust

Posted on by Nick Roberts
He Retired in Kansas
Retired Kansas Farm Truck

Click on the image to enlarge it in another window.

Here’s another image from Cawker, Kansas. I had a polarizer on my Nikkor 12-24 mm lens which really cut down on the glare and saturated the colors before any processing was done. Once again the sun was almost directly overhead but by using Topaz Adjust with the Spicify preset I was able to bring out the texture and patina on this old Ford farm truck. Spicify really enhanced the crazed windshield glass as well as the reflections inside the headlights.

The current version of Topaz Adjust has the ability to create layers of effects and control the amount and transparency they apply. Not only that, they have added a robust Vignette and Borders feature that didn’t exist in earlier version. I can also apply sharpening within the Topaz application which allows me to finish the image inside Topaz and eliminate the added step of returning to Aperture 3 for final sharpening.

Playing with Topaz Adjust

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Kansas Tractors
Kansas Tractors

Click on the image to open it enlarged in another window.

Today I thought I’d play around with some images of old tractors I came across in Kansas a couple of years ago. I was riding through there on my way to Utah when I spotted a junkyard full of farm equipment. As you can see from the shadows it was high noon which is usually thought to be a time of day to avoid shooting anything. I have found over the past few years that photos taken at this time of day seem to really respond to Topaz Adjust treatment.

This was a single frame that I first opened in Topaz Adjust. I used the Adjust 4 presets and chose Spicify as my starting point. I dialed it down a little before adding some color adjustments to the Cyan and Blue in Aperture 3. Before that I applied one of the vignettes and a black border in Topaz Adjust.

The Eagle and the Indian

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Eagle Motorcycle
Eagle Motorcycle

Click on the image to open it enlarged in another window.


I thought I would begin this week on a different note from the last few posts. As I’ve said many times motorcycles are a passion of mine and have been for over 48 years. I started riding when I was 17 years old and still love the feel of a motorcycle as it accelerates out of a turn and blasts down the road. Nothing compares to the immediacy of riding, hearing and feeling the machine as I go through the gears on a lonesome highway.

The motorcycles in these photos harken back to an earlier time when men were just beginning to ride motorcycles. I imagine that they too felt the same way about their machines as I feel about mine today. I love to look at how elemental they were , not a lot of unneeded or frivolous components just the bare necessities.

Eagle Engine Detail
Eagle Engine Detail

Click on the image to open it enlarged in another window.


I really like the attention to detail that the early motorcycle manufacturers showed. Even though everything here has a function there is still a measure of pride in the way they are attached to the engine such as putting an acorn nut on the magneto bracket and chrome plating the oil fill neck.

The Soul of an Indian
The Soul of an Indian

Click on the image to open it enlarged in another window.

This Indian Motorcycle engine is so primitive yet in it’s day it was the epitome of internal combustion technology. Once again the engineers made sure that every part had an intrinsic beauty as well as a clearly defined function.

 

 

 

Miles Lake Morning / Using Reflections to Add Interest

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Miles Lake Morning #1
Miles Lake Morning #1

Click on the image to open it enlarged in another window.

When I went out to the Parklands the other morning I was hoping to get a dramatic sunrise but the eastern sky was empty. I decided to hike along the southern shore of Miles Lake to see if there might be something else in there to photograph. About half way to the end of the lake I looked behind me and saw that there was a weather front moving in from the west. I noticed that the clouds were creating an interesting reflection in the placid surface of the lake so I set up my tripod and shot a three frame bracket at -2, 0, and +2 EV.

Back home in my studio I opened the three images in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I merged them and since the morning had been calm I only applied 20% anti-ghosting to the merged files. Once they were merged I applied the Deep #1 preset and made some adjustments to the contrast, white, blacks, shadows and highlights sliders. I then returned the image to Aperture 3 where I adjusted the recovery and vibrance sliders very slightly before sharpening and saving the image.