Another Chloe Butterfly

Before I discussing today’s photo, let me address an issue noted regarding yesterday’s post—I did not de-saturate the colors. I took the original posted image and just cropped it, added a layer to do the burning, and completed the stroke on the newly cropped photo. For some reason, it was de-saturated when I posted it on the blog. So, try to image the new crop with the same saturation. I am too lazy to re-do it!

Chloe and I took this photo when we took the one posted on Friday. When I first viewed this one on the computer, I was not very happy with it because out-focus leaves in the right corner (too near to the camera to focus) seemed to make the butterfly float on an unconnected leaf.

After looking at it for a while, I decided I liked the look that was caused by the out-of-focus leaves. But, what do you think?

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 300mm f/4 shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/250^th

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, added clarity and increased saturation of green.

Posted Picture Revisited—Taking Your Comments to Heart

Before I discuss today’s revisited photo, I would like to discuss last week’s revisit.

Unfortunately, I did not do a very good saying what I was thinking. All of the suggestions that I received would have made the photo a better photo and the points that DHaass made were very good, especially if you were creating a fine art print where all the elements of the photo should be spot-on. But, for this photo, fine art was not my intent. Rather, my intent was to show how certain things in life are timeless. Hence, the question, when does bothersome details become a major hindrance to the artist’s intent? I still do not have a good answer to this question—I think it depends upon the photo, the maker’s intent and how well he/she communicates his/her intent within the photo.

Today, I want to revisit a photo that I posted on September 24, 2009.

Everyone correctly said that the photo needed to be cropped. I agree, I agree and, by the way, I agree. But then, where should I crop it? I played around with several crops and finally decided on this one. After looking at the cropped image for a while, I decided that the photo lacked sufficient depth, so I decided that the shadows in the foreground needed a little burning to add some depth.

Enjoy.

A Little Change of Pace

I thought that I would offer everyone a little change of pace from what I previously presented this week. Between a portrait session and a meeting with a perspective client, I dropped by the Houston Museum of History. I wanted to see what was new at the Butterfly Collection. Since Chloe is in school full time now, I do not go to see the butterflies as often as when she was not in school—she loves the butterflies!

For this photo I was presented a perfect situation—beautiful green, soft leaves and a black and orange butterfly gently perched on the leaf. The only technical problem was putting a little extra light on the butterfly. I chose to use a snooted flash so that I could control precisely where the light was falling.

I must thank the butterfly, he/she was very cooperative while I dialed the level of light I was hitting him/her with. I took about 15 photos before the butterfly flew off. This one was pretty much what I wanted.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm at 200mm with an extension tube attached, shot at ISO 200, f/7.1 and 1/250^th of a second with snotted Nikon SB-800 hand held to the right of the camera and triggered by Nikon SU-800 using CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and cropped image.

Local Hindu Temple

A couple weeks ago, I went over to a local Hindu Temple with one of my friends who is a member of the temple. While there, I was asked to take the photograph of a couple of the priest. This is one of those photographs.

Overall, I was pleased with the photo, but there are a few things that I wished I had done. First, I probably should have asked him to take his watch off. I think the watch seems to out of place with his attire. Second, I wish that I had used slower shutter speed. The slower shutter speed would have provided more ambient light onto the background and also blurred the walking priest a little more.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 32mm, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/90^th of a second with Nikon SB-800s on right of camera, held by my friend and feathered slightly in front of priest and triggered by Nikon SU-800 using CLS.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—Cloned a few hot spots out of the photograph and used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast filter to add contrast to shadows, mid-tones and highlights to the priest’s robes and the background behind him.

Another Thing I Just Don’t Understand

No, I am not going to list all the things that I do not understand—the list would be too long, and too boring. But, I must admit I truly do not understand why a person with “thinning hair” would ever have a bull’s eye painted on the top of his head.

I wanted this photo to be about the bull’s eye. I tried to limit my depth of field to the bear minimum so I chose a wide open aperture and an angle that would move the background as far away from the bull’s eye as I could move it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 105mm f/2.8 at 105mm, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, and increased clarity and vibrance.

Photoshop—dodged and burned parts of the photo using a screen and multiple layers.

A Real Man—Maybe?

You can tell a man by his clothes, or in this case, the lack of clothes.

I was out doing a little street photography when I looked over and saw this unusual outfit. I knew that I had to have a photograph, but the question was of what.

After studying my subject for a while, I decided a body only shot was in order. I wanted the photo to about what drew me to the subject to begin with—the truly unique clothing

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 135mm, shot at ISO 200, f/8 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, and increased clarity and vibrance.

Photoshop—used Topaz Adjust to bring out details and then added black and white layer at 45% opacity produced nik Silver Efex Pro.

Posted Photos Revisited—Taking Your Comments to Heart

I decided to try something new. On Mondays, I intend to republish photographs that I have previously presented on this blog, but I want to include changes that viewers’ have suggested. I must admit, I may not agree with the posters’ comment, but I do think their suggestion warrants consideration.

This photo was presented on August 17, 2009.

On that post, DHaass said: “I'll make note of the cut off arm to the left and the boys head so close to the edge of the frame. If the little girl had that arm in her lap would it be better? Yes, but it's not a deal breaker. The boy is looking down more than out of the frame so I'm okay with that too.”

When I looked at the scene, I thought that this was a scene that could have occurred anytime during the past 100 years. I really did not think about the little details in the composition. If I had, I would have posted the photo more like this. There was a post just outside the girls hand on the left side, so I did exclude it from my original composition.

Out of laziness, I had slapped the frame on it. In the revised photo, I increased canvass sufficient to allow for the girls hands to be shown and also included more room to the right of the boy’s head. The photo presented here is more the one that I took except that I did clone-out the flip-flops—which did not seem to go with the scene.

The reason, I selected this photo as my first to revisit is simple, I think it raises an interesting question: “When does bothersome details really distract from the essence of the photograph?"

I do not have an answer to the question, and would welcome your comments.

Enjoy.

Photo of an Artist

I ran across this artist sketching tombstones in a local cemetery. She is very talented. Her sketches had a tremendous amount of details. In fact many of them looked more like engineering drawings than art—sketches from all angles.

I really like the way her eyes darted from the subject to her sketchpad and then back to the subject. I asked her if she would mind if I took her photo. She just looked at me blankly for a few seconds and then asked why I wanted to take a photo of her rather than all the great tombstones in the cemetery.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/250^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, and added clarity and vibrance.

Shooting into the Sun

For a landscape photographer, I do not think there is anything more discouraging than getting up before sunrise on a cold morning, slugging through the dark to plant your tripod at the ideal spot and then to find the sunrise just isn’t that interesting. That’s what happened to me on this morning. I had scouted the location the evening before and had carefully selected this spot. I thought that the tree had a great shape and I thought that the sun would rise directly over it.

I wanted the photo to show the sun rising from a cloud filled sky with the tree in the foreground. Yet, the morning greeted me with very few clouds.

This is the best I could come up with.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 40mm with a graduated 4-stop neutral density filter attached, shot at ISO 200, f/11 and 1/125^th of a second on a tripod with a Nikon SB-800 pointed at the top of the tree to provide some fill light and overcome the effects of the neutral density filter.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, and clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro tonal contrast filter to add contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows of water, beach and tree.

A Little Light in the Fog

I think the Giant Sequoia trees are the most breath-taking sights in the world. I also believe they are among the hardest things to photograph. How do you photograph something that stands 300 feet tall and is 50 feet around? I really do not have an answer to that question.

In this photo, I wanted to capture the slight fog in the air, the red of the trees’ bark and the green of the leaves. I thought that the contrasting colors of red and green provided great contrast and the fog and light slipping through the trees also added to that contrast. Unfortunately, nothing in the photograph shows how massive the trees are.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 at 20mm, shot at ISO 200, f/4 and 1/10^th of a second on a tripod.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, and increased clarity and vibrance.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast to increase the contrast in the highlights, mid tones and shadows.

A Landscape Photo for All Photographers

It is required. All landscape photographers must have a photo of Yosemite Valley from about the same place that Ansel Adams took many of his photos. I think everyone needs to follow a master so that you can put a little reality back into yourself. Yes, I know this is not as good as his, but, who’s is? I will just live with that!

I took this photo earlier this year and just have not done much with it. I finally decided to convert it to black and white—I think that I have a death wish or something.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D700, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 35mm, shot at ISO 200, f/13 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast and added clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert photo to black and white.

Determination

Sometimes you do not need many words to describe what you saw as you were taking a photo. This photo is one of those times—RGB (red, green and blue) colors and the young man’s can do attitude.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon F3, Nikon 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 at 300mm, shot at ISO 200, f/11 and 1/180^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—used Topaz adjust to bring out details and saturate the colors in the boy’s clothing and the stroller.

Another Landscape Shot

Yep, another landscape shot—just a different type of landscape. You cannot go to Sin City with a camera and not come back with a few night shots of the lights along the Strip.

This photo is totally about the colors.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D700, Nikon 17-35mm f/2.8 at 17mm, shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/15^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—used Topaz adjust to bring out details and saturate the colors.

I Came, I Saw, I Shot

Not much to tell about this photo. I saw the barn one evening outside the Badlands National Park, but the lighting was not very good. I decided that morning light would be much better, so I returned the next day and took the shot.

I like the simple scene and the simple primary colors of red, yellow and blue. I thought that the road leading to the barn provided a nice leading line to the barn and the few clouds broke-up the sky just enough to add a little interest to it.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 70mm, shot at ISO 200, f/22 and 1/125^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—used screen and multiple layers to dodge and burn various parts of photo.

Doe at Dawn

A friend of mine has a small ranch a little south of Alvin, Texas. The ranch has an old windmill that is quite striking at sunrise. I got up long before the sun and headed down to his ranch to get the shot. The windmill is about a half-mile walk from his house. So, there I was walking along a small path in the dark. I was determined to get my windmill shot.

What did I get? Totally overcast skies that provide zero amount of sunrise.

As I was walking back to his house (looking forward to the big, country breakfast that he always fixes), I saw about six deer on the edge of the tree line. I moved closer and set-up my tripod and waited for the deer to move closer. They cooperated. I got several good shots, but this one was my favorite—mainly because of the way the soft, dark background sets the doe off.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm, shot at ISO 200, f/2.8 and 1/6,000^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efext Pro tonal contrast filter on the doe to increase contrast of highlights, mid-tones and shadows.

Old Door of an Adobe Building

Adobe is not used much in Houston. Yet, a few months ago, I ran across a series of building in northeast Houston that looked like they belonged in New Mexico rather than Houston, Texas.

This building is a very simple building with a single door and window in the front. But, for some reason, I thought it was interesting. I tried photographing it with various crops and finally settled on this one. I know that many people will not like the way I cropped most of the window out of the frame, but, this cropped seemed the most natural crop for the building.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 56mm, shot at ISO 200, f/5.6 and 1/90^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity.

Old Stairs

No theme this week. Just thought that I would show a few photos that have been hanging around my “Possible Blog Photos” collection in Lightroom.

I had seen these stairs on an old building in the Heights many times, but never really taken the time to photograph them. I was very early to a photo shoot one day and decided to really see if I could get a good photo out of them. I tried various angles and framing and finally settled on this one. I wanted this photo to be as much about the textures and colors as the architecture of the stairs and the buildings.

Enjoy.

Camera settings: Nikon D3, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 at 32mm, shot at ISO 200, f/9.5 and 1/60^th of a second.

Post Processing:

Lightroom—Set white and black points, added mid-tone contrast, clarity and increased saturation of red, blue and cyan.

Photoshop—used nik Color Efex Pro tonal contrast to add contrast to highlights, mid-tones and shadows and added a slight vignette using a multiple layer.

Evolution of a Photograph—Part 5: Settling on How to Present

My final step in post-processing is settling on how to present the photo. What do I mean by that? Well, do I want to present it in color or black & white, include a boarder or not, add a vignette or not, etc. Presentation is totally about two things: your vision for the photograph and personal taste.

For this photo, black & white with a sepia tone seemed to be the ideal presentation because the black & white would emphasize the contours and the textures within the photograph and the sepia tone would fit with the age of the old rusty truck. I used nik Silver Efex Pro to convert my photo to the sepia toned black & white. I believe that Silver Efex does a really fine job converting RGB images to black & white, and does it very easily.

All the work done on this photo took about 16 minutes. So, not a lot of time was spent to arrive at the final photo. I can hear some of you say: Da, and it looks it! Of course, this image did not require any complicated or detailed selections and the cloning was pretty straight-forward.

The post-processing of all photos is dependent upon your starting photo and what you want to do with the photo. The better starting point, the easier it will be for you to develop the image that you want. I hope my posting help you understand my approach to photo post-processing.

Enjoy.