Tag: texture

Exploring an Abandoned Distillery (Part 2)

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Temple of the Whiskey Spirits #2

Click on the image to open it at a larger size in another window.

This image is another from my exploration of the abandoned distillery I talked about yesterday. I am very curious about the purpose of this structure and will probably go back there soon to further explore the site to see if I can figure out it’s purpose.

This is a bracket set of +2, +1, 0, -1, -2, that I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then used the Deep preset as my starting point before adjusting the black and the white points, the contrast and the structure sliders. I then took it back into Aperture 3 where I boosted the vibrancy and details slightly before adding a vignette and some sharpening.

Window to a Spirit World

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Window to a Spirit World
Window to a Spirit World

This is another bracketed shot of five exposures processed in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and Aperture 3. By using five exposures I was able to capture both the exterior detail of the brick and stonework and the barrel inside the building. I returned the tone mapped image to Aperture 3 where I cropped and straightened it as well as adjusted the sharpness, vibrancy and exposure slightly.

The blacks you see are a mold that forms on everything around a distillery. It is nurtured by the evaporation of the alcohol as it ages in the barrels. The distillery folks refer to the evaporation as the “Angels Share” which probably has it’s roots in the religious beliefs of the Scots, Irish and Welsh people who brought the distillation of whisky to Kentucky in the 18th century as America pushed westward from the coastal settlements.

The image is a symmetrical composition because the window is centered in the frame while within the window the barrel on the left side of the opening shifts the viewer’s eye and adds movement to the photo.

Resting Spirits

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Whisky barrel warehouse
Resting Spirits

Yesterday morning I joined 25 or 30 fellow Louisville Photographic Society members for a tour and photo walk at the oldest continuously operating distillery in the United States, Buffalo Trace Distillery, located in Frankfort, Kentucky. The tour included a great deal of the lore and history of bourbon making and it’s deep roots in the central Kentucky region. We were very fortunate to have as our guide a third generation employee of the distillery Freddie who gave us a behind the scenes look at the distillery and the history of whiskey in Kentucky. Freddie took us into the warehouses and explained the way that the whisky ages in the barrels and why they are placed where they are in the warehouse. The barrels placed at the lowest levels are there for a long slow aging process that imparts the characteristic flavors of the charred oak barrel and the tannins in the oak to the bourbon inside.

I shot this image as a bracketed set of exposures for HDR processing. I first processed it as a color HDR image in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I tone mapped it using the realistic preset before returning it to Aperture 3 for final adjustment of the vibrancy, clarity and sharpening. Once I had completed that I created a duplicate image and reopened the duplicate in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 where I used the Black and White preset to convert it. I then applied a yellow filter which enhanced the highlights and deepened the shadows.

The image below is the color version that I started with to create the Black and White photo. With this image I am showing you that there are sometimes several ways to create a memorable image by taking advantage of the tone mapping ability of NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and then applying different presets to the final image.

Resting Spirits #2

I think the composition is strong in both the images due to the perspective and the leading lines taking the viewer’s eye down the corridor to the lights in the background. The HDR process allowed me to capture the detail in the structure and the barrels which would not have been possible in a single exposure.

1948 Pontiac

Posted on by Nick Roberts
1948 Pontiac

I went back into the vault for this image. I shot this several years ago but I had never done anything with the image. The original file is a little overexposed and judging by the shadows it was probably shot in the middle of the day. I liked the camera angle but the colors were very washed out. I wanted to try a psuedo HDR approach to see if I could give it some depth.

Yesterday I started by using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 on it to see what I could create. I tried several different presets and finally settled on Deep 2 as the start point for finishing the photo. I then adjusted several sliders which really brought out the clouds as well as revealing the green reflections under the headlight. Some times when working on an image with the adjustment slider I will simply grab the slider and move it all the way to the right or left to see what happens. Most of the time it is way too much but I liken it to having an eye exam where the doctor places two sets of lenses in front of you and asks “better here or better here?” when trying to find the right combination for your vision. Once I know what the extreme effect is I can then decide whether to use that adjustment slider or not. If the effect is in keeping with my vision for the image I can then dial it down and fine tune it’s effect.

I was pleasantly surprised at the way the sky came to life after the initial adjustments in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 but there was still a problem area on the left side of the image. Just to the left of the headlight there was a red car that was drawing my eye away from the rest of the image. I returned it to Aperture 3 and then I took the image into NIK Vivesa 2 where I used a couple of control points placed on the red car to desaturate the red of the car. After that I took the image back into Aperture 3 and finished it with a little tweak to the vibrancy slider and some minor sharpening.

Alabama Morning

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Alabama Morning

These Fords were in a wrecking yard in Alabama a couple of years ago. The cars I find in the southern states have a much different patina of rust on them than the cars out west of the Mississippi River do. The climate in the south is much more humid and therefore the rust is more agressive. The oxidation process creates a much rougher surface which in turn traps more moisture that then eats away at the metal more aggressively.

I liked the way the early morning sun was lighting the scene and how it really emphasized the texture on the 1949 Ford in the foreground. The contrast of the smooth chrome and glass in the headlights really caught my eye. The cars are framed to in a typical rule of thirds composition and the rust on the roof in the background draws the viewer’s eye back in the scene while reinforcing the colors of the cars.

There wasn’t much I needed to do in processing to get this image finished. I used a little of the Spicify preset in Topaz Adjust to punch up the texture and saturate the colors before returning the image to Aperture 3 for final sharpening and output.