March 2, 2010

Getting the Shot I Saw


Last Friday, I had a couple assignments to photograph some of the Houston Rodeo Bar-B-Que cooking teams. I had not been to the cook-off for some time and was not really sure what I was getting myself into. The photographing was hard because of the tight quarters and a lot of smoke around my subjects. But, the people were great and having some bar-b-que in one hand and a beer in the other is what every Texan lives for.

Today, I present two photo of a scene that I tried to photograph—one a complete mistake and the other a partial success. The problem that I was presented was getting some light on the US and Texas flags while keeping all the color and intensity in the sky.

The first photo was taken straight-up with matrix metering and very little adjustments. It definitely was not what I was seeing or wanted.


In the second photo, I changed my white balance to tungsten to bring out the blue in the sky. I used my flash (actually attached to my camera). I tried several shots using the flash in TTL mode, but was not very happy with what I was I was getting. I finally changed my camera to manual mode and shot the ambient light about 1½ stops underexposed. I then set my flash in manual mode and keep adjusting it until I got the light I wanted on the flags. The final flash was set at ½ power.

Not my normal use of flash, but an effective one.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/250th of a second with flash in manual mode and set at ½ power.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set black and white points.

Photoshop—used Topaz Adjust to add details to the flags and the building.


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4 comments:

  1. AnonymousMarch 2, 2010 at 12:44 PM

    You could have done this in Photoshop. Why do all of this?
    Charles M

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  2. Barry ArmerMarch 2, 2010 at 1:57 PM

    Nice shot Patrick! Love all the traditional Texas elements! Nice job getting it right in the camera!

    Cheers!
    Barry

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  3. Steve SchuenkeMarch 2, 2010 at 3:53 PM

    Nice image. A couple of observations. At 200mm and a half power pop of an SB800 put nice light on the flag. Were you surprised at that? Seems like that wouldn't be enough light to get the result you got. Also, the moon seems a hair sharper in the original image. Just wondering.

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  4. Doug HaassMarch 3, 2010 at 6:23 AM

    I prefer the second shot with the extra light. I think the moon appearing to be sharper in the original is due to the increase in saturation in the second version. Looking at it closely it seems to be the same. It appears to have a halo or something that is more evident in the second one due to that saturation boost. I like the pop you got in the second one too.

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