Tag: reflections

Floyds Fork in Winter

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This photo was taken last winter along Floyd’s Fork Creek which is a tributary of the Ohio River. Due to the bright morning sunshine and the direction I was shooting the sky was pretty well blown out in the image before I edited the RAW file in Aperture 3 and then finished processing it in Topaz Adjust using the Spicify preset. I was able to bring some color into the sky by adjusting the strength of the preset while still keeping the image from becoming cartoonish.

This second image from this shoot is a macro shot of the ice along the edge of the stream. Once again using Topaz adjust I was able to intensify the colors in the scene while maintaining a sense of reality.

1948 Buick

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This Buick caught my eye at the Street Rod Nationals here in Louisville last summer. I decided to use Topaz Adjust to make a Black and White version and really like the way it came out. By getting down low with my camera I was able to create a dynamic composition that emphasizes the lines in the car.

Here is the same car processed in Topaz Adjust. The Spicify preset really brought out the color in the car and enhanced the clouds. I got in low and close to the car to compose this shot. I like the way that the car seems to be moving out of the frame, the details inside the headlight, the reflections of the sky and the way the metallic paint sparkles in the sun.

One tip I have for shooting these types of images is to use a polarizer. Using a polarizer intensifies the colors and subdues the glare that shooting at midday causes. The other tip I have for you is to get down on the ground and shoot up at the car. Don’t be afraid to get dirty lying on the ground; in the end the results are usually worth it.

This final image is of another 1948 Buick I found down in Alabama. It has been given a faux HDR look with Topaz Adjust. I took this shot early in the morning and shot it from a low angle to emphasize the grill and the massiveness of the car. The sky was very hazy that morning which resulted in it being nearly colorless but the Spicify preset brought a little color back into it. The halo around the tree is a result of pushing the preset a little too far but even at that I like this image.

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. 

Yum Center Louisville, KY

Posted on by Nick Roberts

This shot is a true HDR image merged from 5 separate exposures. I use the EV (exposure value) control to change my exposures. I find that these late sunset images work really well when I expose at +2, +1, 0, -1, -2 EV. Doing this gets detail into the shadow areas via the overexposed frames and prevents blowing out the highlights by underexposing the two minus (-) EV frames while the 0 exposure gives good mid-tone information. I took these images straight from Aperture 3 into NIK HDR Efex Pro to tone map the image then returned the tone mapped image to Aperture 3 where I cleaned up the sensor dust spots, boy do I hate dust spots, and gave it some sharpening to wrap it up.

I shot this from the Clark Memorial Bridge with my Nikon D90 set at 200 ISO and f11 using my Nikkor 12-24 mm wide angle lens. Another thing to keep in mind is to always use a tripod and cable release when shooting multiple images for HDR processing.

I was trying to balance the building with the sky to create a balanced image that would give a sense of depth to the scene. I also chose to include a small amount of the bridge railing in the frame to add some foreground interest and added texture to the composition.