It's true. Sometimes
the magic has to happen in the camera.
Or on the camera. Today's image
is of a small water fall along the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire, USA. It was taken in late morning on a bright
sunny day. Everything that could go against
the image was there, but then again, so were we. It's great to be at the right spot at the
right time (the golden hour), but that isn't always possible. We were up shooting at a reasonable
hour. Sunrise wasn't until somewhat past
7:00 AM and we were in the field by 7:30 or so.
Not ideal light, but "good enough" light to get a few
interesting shots. By time we'd arrived
at these falls it was almost 11:30. We'd
gotten to the Conway, NH start of the Kanc before 9:00 but stopped every fifty
feet (or so it seemed) to try to get the flavor or the road. Between Conway and Lincoln, NH the Kanc is
only something like thirty four miles.
If you live in the area and your daily commute takes you from one end to
the other you can probably do the whole thing in one hour. If you're tourists (us) it could take you all
day. There's a reason why it's listed as
one of America's most scenic drives. So,
would do you do when you arrive at one of the prettiest spots on one of the
most scenic drives at something past 11:00 AM?
Hit the "Read More" to find out.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
The Fantasy Of Photoshop And Lightroom
Today's image is real.
No HDR, no trickery. Just being
at the right place at the right time.
That doesn't mean there was no burning, dodging, tweaking, pushing and
pulling in Adobe Photoshop CS6 (CS6) and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
(LR4). The image is processed. Since it was taken as a RAW file (an NEF
Nikon image) it had to be developed. I
just finished watching a PBS show about Ansel Adams. Part of it discussed the fact that he could
spend an entire day in the darkroom working on a single print. We have a luxury Adams didn't have but would
certainly have used. His first pass was
probably a general print with no messing around. He'd probably look at it and make an estimate
of what needed to be done. He'd translate
it to the vision of what he saw, the emotion he felt, the soul of what was
there. What he didn't do was take the
image as shot and print it. Done. Finished.
He worked at his post processing as much as at capturing the scene in
the camera. He was (still is) the master
craftsman of photography. Okay, I'm not
the second coming of Ansel Adams. I'm
just one of the common ruck. Taking
pictures and having the great good fortune of living in the era of the digital
darkroom. Each pass at an image by Adams
meant blindly doing all the work we can do in the light and starting over with
each trial. By the time he would have
gotten to attempt four, or six, or eleven he would have developed a recipe. Dodge this, burn that, double burn in that
little spot, Hold back the sky, deepen the foreground and on and on. All this and not being sure of what you'd get
until the paper went into the developer and the image would blossom into its
full glory. Boy, do we have it
easy. We get to see what's going on as
we develop the image. Oh, that made it
look better. Opps, that made it look
worse. Hit CTRL Z and the misstep is
gone. No waiting twenty minutes (between
going through other twists and turns and getting the paper into the developer)
and then realizing you'd screwed up.
Adams would have loved Photoshop.
He was "photoshopping" images before Photoshop was ever
thought of. To find out about what was
done to today's image, Hit the "Read More".
Read more!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
A Long Trek Through The Woods With Photoshop
Sometimes you have to suffer for your craft. A long hike over hill and dale on a hot day
to get to just the right spot to get a unique image. Then again, sometimes you stand on the side
of the road and the shot is just there, as is the case in today's image. Our recent trip to the Maine coast to shoot
lighthouses we augmented the coast with a "return" trip through the
White Mountains of New Hampshire. We're
sort of known for "creative" routes home. We actually were leaving Lincoln NH on Route
93 south and saw an exit sign calling out Woodstock. My razor sharp mind (obviously not) instantly
flashed images of a farm scene down a road.
Of Main Street with some classic buildings. Of covered bridges and mountain vistas all
found in Woodstock ... Vermont. Opps,
wrong state. It's not that Woodstock NH
isn't a quaint little New England town, it's just that it isn't Woodstock
VT. As we were driving into town I saw
today's image, pretty much the way you see it here (minus a fire hydrant by the
door and a red flag out back). Made a
mental note to stop when we were headed back toward the highway. Woodstock NH is kind of the Cinderella (per
glass slippers) to Lincoln just to the north.
Where Lincoln has made an effort to be a tourist area, Woodstock is
happy being the little, out of the way, sleepy town next door. We wandered around town for a time, popped
into a couple shops and found the local General Store (Lorri, you would have
loved the HDR possibilities). As we
started out of town we saw a sign for Lost River. We'd been there when our older son was still
being carried on my arm. That probably
means to was close to forty years ago.
Had to go check it out. It was
closed for the season, but you could walk a couple of the trails. Back to Woodstock and headed south out of
town to get back to today's image. Just
a couple hand held shots and the rest was a little Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
(LR4) and Adobe Photoshop CS6 (CS6) work.
To find out what that work was, Hit the "Read More".
Read more!
Monday, October 22, 2012
Farewell To Fall, Except For Photoshop Lightroom
On Thursday it looked like it was going to be an exceptional
weekend for shooting the foliage around here (Bethel, Connecticut, USA). Then it rained on Friday. Not a hard rain, just rain. Well, that about killed it for the fall
foliage. By Saturday morning more than
half the leaves that had been glowing in the sunlight were gone. Instead of going anywhere (literally
anywhere) and having great images jumping out at you a search was required to
find something, anything to shoot. Take
today's image as an example. Looks like
peak color, right? Turn around and it
was almost leafless. There were a few
leaves here and there, but nothing to take a picture of. Pointing the camera in the direction of
today's image it was a cat and mouse game, with the sun darting in and out of
the clouds. Thirty seconds sooner and
all you had was drabness. Thirty seconds
later than when the shutter was clicked and you were back to blah. I must be getting either lazy or a little
more skillful because this shot never left Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4
(LR4). That doesn't mean it wasn't
developed. Since there was no
manipulation of the shot (no Cloning, no Healing, no adding or subtracting
elements, nothing that could only be done in Adobe Photoshop CS6 (CS6) there
was no reason for using CS6. To find out
what bits of LR4 were used, hit the "Read More".
Read more!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Sometimes Ya Just Don't Have To Leave Lightroom
Sometimes the stars align, everything goes right and the
shot is just there. Today's image is of
the Albany Covered Bridge along the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire,
USA. (The first time we drove this road
[in the early 70s] it was known as the Kancamagus Trail. I guess some things do get upgraded.) The KT (or I guess it would be the KH today)
is listed as one of the best fall foliage drives in the US and the covered
bridge is one of the highlights. I'm not
sure if the price of gas had anything to do with it, but the road wasn't bumper
to bumper along its entire length. It
might have also had something to do with it being a Wednesday when we drove
it. ???
Once you get above 1000' (max elevation is listed as 2840') the sky gets
bluer, the clouds puffier, and the air sweeter (maybe that last one is pushing
it). It was a cool, crisp fall day and
we stopped at every legitimate turn off and several shoulders. We had to laugh when we realized we'd been on
the road for two hours and gone a total of about six miles. We figured, at that rate, the sun would be setting
as we drove into Lincoln, NH. We did
pick up the pace and rolled into town in time for a late (light) lunch. To check out where (how) today's image was
shot and processed, hit the "Read More".
Read more!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Wednesday Q&A: Using Photoshop Brushes To Make Believable Composites
The foliage isn't the only thing colorful at this time of
the year in the northeast. Sometimes graffiti
artists can come up with some pretty colorful artwork. Our town (Bethel, CT) is a fairly sleepy little
burg and typically is kept clean, with no "tagging" of the
buildings. But, there is one little
section , over by the new train station (about fifty yards to the south) where
"artistic expression" is alive and kicking. Take a look at the enlarged view (click on
the image to see it "full size").
To the right of the image someone just got stupid and randomly sprayed
paint haphazardly. To the left of the
two walkers there is some real talent.
You may have guessed (today's title should have been a hint) that the
two guys walking in the grass weren't really there. The "trick" to today's image comes
from a question I was asked over the weekend.
We were having lunch after Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk and one of
the photographers said they were having all sorts of problems making composites
look convincing. To find out what was
done to the background and how the guys were added realistically, hit the
"Read More"
Read more!
Monday, October 15, 2012
Foliage Report For Acadia NP, October 15, 2012
We just got back from our annual (usually annual) fall
foliage trip to Maine. There were a
couple shots I really wanted to get and today's image was one. I think we've shot The Bubbles from the north
parking lot beach at Jordon Pond just about every year, but the main parking
has always been so full that we just abandoned any hope of getting in
there. Last week we were determined to
wait it out and find a legit parking space.
I say "legit parking space" to differentiate us from the clod
from New York (who da guess) parking on the brick sidewalk, blocking everyone
else's path to the Pond House. I
digress. (Sorry about the rant.) We only had two days in Acadia National Park
this year, so we could only hit the highlights (Jordon Pond, Sieur de Mont
Spring, one circuit of Park Loop Road, Eagle Lake, the little harbor of Bernard,
dinner in downtown Bar Harbor and not a whole lot more). We wanted to search for foliage on the
interior of western Maine for another couple days. Today's image involved a little more
finishing work than might be thought. To
find out about our opinion of the foliage conditions this year and where Adobe
Photoshop CS6 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 came into play, hit the "Read
More".
Read more!
Friday, October 5, 2012
Hartford Under The Influence Of Photoshop
If you're a follow of "The Kayview Gallery" this
shot may look suspiciously familar.
Before going to the "Read More", slide down and take a look at
Wednesday's post. Both are shots of
Hartford Connecticut, taken from within a hundred feet of each other. One of the big differences between the shots
(besides the leaves) is that Wednesday's is a four shot panorama and today's
image is a single shot, cropped to a cinematic format. Is one a better way to get the shot? No, just different. A couple facts about the difference between
the two. Neither has the original sky
(but today's is closer to the way it was).
Wednesday's is more heavily "Photoshopped". Today's was a bigger problem to get the sky
right. Take a look at the enlargement of
today's image (click on the image). See
if you can see what was done to "improve" the sky. To find out what was done, hit the "Read
More".
Read more!
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday Q&A: HDR Lookalike
There's an old commercial in the US where the question is
asked "is it real, or is it ...".
The debate that rages today is HDR.
Some people love it, some hate it and some are ambivalent. I'm kind of in the third classification. Some of it is really interesting. My buddy Lorri does great HDR images, but if
you look on any of the photo sharing sites you can find a lot of junk HDR. Today's image is a four shot panorama, but
not HDR. It does have an HDR
"look", but never went through any of the common HDR programs or
Adobe Photoshop CS6's (CS6) HDR Toning (Image/Adjustments/HDR Toning). It did include trips over to Nik Software's
Color Efex Pro 4 and to CS6 to replace a really boring sky, but the major magic
happened in LR4 (or it could have been done in Adobe Camera Raw [ACR]). To find out about the "magic", hit
the "Read More".
Read more!
Monday, October 1, 2012
Showing Off Western Connecticut With Photoshop
Lately I've been featuring a couple of Connecticut's larger
cities. Notably, Hartford and New
Haven. Coming up I have several more
cities I think will make good subjects for images and probably
discussions. Today's post and image are
geared more toward the quieter side of the state. There is a part of Connecticut that's
referred to as "The Quiet Corner", but that's the northeast piece of
the state and almost as far as you can get and still be in Connecticut. In past posts I've talked about Kent and
western hills. Today we're about on line
(north/south) with mid-state and one town in from the New York State line. The bridge in today's post spans Lake
Lillinonah along Route 133. It connects
the small town of Brookfield and the smaller town of Bridgewater. The lake is manmade and ends at the Shepaug
Dam in Monroe (?). There's a little parking area at the south
side of the bridge. An
"informal" trail leads down under the bridge to the spot where
today's shot was taken. To find out
about the processing of today's image, hit the "Read More".
Read more!
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