Here is one more view of my photo shoot with my friend Jon from Reflected Pixel.
Located at: http://www.reflectedpixel.com/index.html

Jon recently was invited to participate in HDR Spotting http://www.hdrspotting.com/ This is a new web site sponsored by Stuck in Customs http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-photography/

For this shot I had to move fast. This was a three shot panoramic. To achieve the HDR I shot each section with five different exposures. Much to my horror when I opened the pictures I soon learned that I had changed lenses in a dusty location. I had several dust spots in the sky. To clean this up I used the band aid in photoshop.

Before stitching this particular panoramic together I used NX2 to increase the exposure on my raw photos by one stop. I had read recently that when shooting in the snow it is a good idea to over expose by one stop. Since I read this after this photo was taken I decided to experiment in my digital darkroom. I then exported each set of five exposures into photomatix pro to create the HDR photo. After this was repeated three times I exported the photos to Bridge and photomerged them into a panoramic photo.

The next step was to clean up the dust. (my sensor has since been cleaned). My next step was into Lightroom for some fine tuning of the color and then back to Photoshop. At this point I used Topaz Detail to lightly enhance the ice blocks, and then I used Topaz Denoise 3 to reduce the noise created during the HDR process.

This was quite the process, but the end result was well worth the effort.

The specs.

A tripod
A cable release
Iso 200
24 mm
f/22

To get a crystal clear picture like the one above you need a tripod. It is essential in landscape photography.

I like the curves of the sky and the ice.
I like the rich colors of the sky.
I like how the colors are transmitted into the ice.

Let me know what you think, and thank you for visiting this site.

~wr~

Here is another look at the frozen photoshoot I did with my friend Jon Adams a couple of weeks ago. This is a three frame panoramic stitch. Each frame used five exposures. After I made the HDR in using Photomatix Pro I used my new Christmas Present of Snap art to give the photo a painting type of a look. This photo was processed under the pastel plugin.

I like the look the paintings gives to a photo. I would never be able to produce this look on my own. I just don’t have that type of talent. I don’t pretend to say that this type of photo will replace painting, but it sure gives photographers a new tool to represent our work.

I like the cool feeling of this photo.
I like how the lines in the ice and clouds form a nice curve.
I like the colors of the sky.

Thank you for visiting, and please share this site with your friends.

~wr~

Here is another picture edited using Snap Art 2. This was a sunset that was taken looking towards the southern end of Utah Valley. I edited the photo using the watercolor feature of Snap Art 2. The thing I like about this plugin and the Topaz plugins are they allow you to take a photo and edit it in a creative way to give it a look like a painting.

For those who are wondering what to get with extra Christmas money try the plugins at Topaz and Snap Art. They give you a fully operational trial version. You can try and see if you like and then buy or just discard.

For all of you that have visited my site over the past few months I want to wish you a Merry Christmas.


~wr~

For today’s post I wanted to show you one of the neat plugins that are available to the photographer. These plugins allow the photographer options that were not available just a few short years ago. This is a photo that I took during the summer of a waterfall located in Provo Canyon. I used a 70-200 mm lens with a teleconverter on it. After processing the photo I used the Photoshop plugin Snap Art 2. I used the preset water color and made simple adjustments to some of the sliders. I like this plugin because it gives you so many options, and the end product looks great. This will never replace an original watercolor, but it allows the photographer to branch out and have fun with their photos. If you are interested in this program Alien Skin allows you to have a 30 day free trial that is fully operational.


This is the original photo before I used the plugin. Both of these renditions have their place.

Let me know what you think by clicking on the link below.

~wr~

This is a waterfall located in Provo Canyon. I took this photo right after a snowstorm had hit. I then processed the photo using Topaz adjust. The plugin brought out the details of the trees.

I like this photo because it reminds me of something you might find in a fantasy land.

I like the clean look of the snow.
I like the snow covered trees.
I like the rugged cliffs.

Let me know what you think.

~wr~

Last night I took my family to Temple Square in Salt Lake to look at the Christmas lights. The fog was rolling in and it created a surreal feeling. This is a hand held three exposure HDR photo of a building being constructed across the street from Temple Square. The lights and the fog gave an almost Halloween type of feel.

The Specs
iso 1600
62mm
f2.8
Hand held

I like how the building is framed by the trees.
I like the different colors in the photo. These came from the Christmas lights and the colored signs.
I like the skeleton of a building framed by the lights.
I would like to go back to this photo and take it with a tripod, more exposures, a higher f/stop and lower iso.

Let me know what you think, and thank you for visiting

~wr~

Last year I went to Aspen Grove, Utah to take the family photos for a friend. As we were leaving to go to another area I saw this scene. It was starting to get a little darker so I upped the iso so that I could take a quick photo and not keep the family waiting.

The Specs.
iso 400
26mm
f/13

I like the intense yellow.
I like the black branches.
I like the leaves on the path.

Let me know what you think by clicking on the link below.

~wr~