Falls Last Gasp In Connecticut

It just keeps going on and on.  Yesterday was another spectacular autumn day in Connecticut.  Same spots are just maintaining their leaves and giving a show that ranks right up there with some of the best leave peeping seasons in recent memory.  Today’s image was shot yesterday, just after the sun had gone down past the hill to the west.  It’s strictly lit by the afterglow of the gathering twilight.  It was shot as a part of a nine shot sequence with the idea of playing with Adobe Photoshop CS5’s HDR Pro.  Nine shots were done at .3 stop intervals, so it gave me everything from -1.3 to +1.3 off the camera’s metered exposure.  Kind of minimal brackets for attempting any HDR.  But, it does give me another option by doing it this way.  If one exposure is just too good to pass up, I end up with a great start point to develop a straight image.  That’s what we have today.  I could have expanded the range a bit by changing the bracket from .3 stops per click to .5 stops per click.  This option is available in the menus of a Nikon D300.  So, it is possible to shoot a nine shot sequence that goes two up and two down.  Today’s image has to be one of the straightest shots ever to appear on the gallery.  To find out just how straight, hot the “read more”.

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Sometimes The On Camera Flash Works

Everyone says your little popup flash on your camera is about the most useless piece of gear.  In general, when used at full tilt with it firing at the start of the exposure, “they” are typically right.  There are ways to improve the results of that ridiculous point source, on axis blast of light.  Today’s image is an example of what “could be” the result of a couple of simple adjustments done in camera and some new finishing techniques available in Adobe Photoshop CS5.  The pup with the intent look on his face was sitting in the front seat of a car in Litchfield Connecticut last Saturday.  The window was open and the day was a beautiful, warm (not hot) fall afternoon.  He had his head just above the sill of the window and appeared to be looked for his master.  We had been walking around town with a couple of friends, shooting general interest shots and waiting for the sun to go down and the moon to rise.  As it happened, the two conditions were just about in sync with each other.  Sunset was a couple of minutes before 6:00 PM and moonrise was about 6:03 PM.  We spotted this little guy being as patient as could be as we were killing some time.  To get an idea what the camera settings were and what the “new” finishing technique is, hit the “read more”.

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Make Things Easy With Adobe Photoshop CS5

Some things are a little tough to do in any photo editing application.  Some things just appear to be hard to do.  Today’s image is one of the later.  It starts out as two separate images and ends up as a composite.  It would be easy to add the moon to the image of the church in any of several different ways.  You could use the Erase Tool (E) [yuck].  You could make a Mask and Mask out the moon.  Readers can probably come up with another twelve methods of getting the image of the moon onto the main image.  The rub comes when you try to put the moon into the image “and” behind the branches of the tree.  I can’t imagine the Eraser Tool (E) being successful.  I could go along with using a mask, but you’d probably be stuck with the moon in one spot.  It you decided you wanted to move the moon you’d unlock the Mask from the image Layer and have limited ability to shift the moon.  There is a method that’s incredibly easy that’s overlooked (or unknown) by 99% of Photoshop users.  It’s not available in Adobe Photoshop Elements of any version.  If you’re interested in finding out about this little used secret weapon, hit the “read more”.

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This Weekend Is The Max For Autumn Color Around Here

The calendar says it, the weather forecasters proclaim it as though it was the first day, the nip is in the air and the photographers are ready.  Today’s image comes from last week’s ride to northwestern Connecticut and Kent Falls State Park.  Today’s image is of a single tree along the walk up to the base of the falls.  As I crossed the covered foot bridge and started up the path, this tree wasn’t even on the radar.  Half way to the falls it emerged out of the early morning mist.  I didn’t have a choice, I had to stop and shoot the tree before the gathering light ruined the mood.  I plunked down the tripod and shot a couple dozen frames.  In order to get the optimum exposure I bracketed the exposure at one stop steps, two stops in either direction of what the camera thought was correct.  This also gives me the potential to do some Adobe Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro magic if the spirit strikes me.  Today’s image is one exposure, but it did benefit from a slight bump from CS5’s HDR Toning.  The dark area surrounding the tree is actually the mountainside (a Connecticut level “mountain”, not a real mountain) behind.  A daylight shot, with the fog burned off, would have revealed the hillside with no problem.  As it was, the F Stop really didn’t matter.  F 22 wouldn’t have provided more detail in the background.  Everything was sucked up by the mist.  If you’d like to know the surprising details of the finishing of today’s image, hit the “read more”.

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Soup To Nuts With Adobe Photoshop CS5

For the past 200+ posts there’s been an image accompanying the story.  A month or two ago I received an email saying would you “show your work”.  Made me think of two things.  One, that I was back in some primary school math class and the other was “yea, I should do that more often”.  Today’s image wound up with kind of an interesting Layers Panel and used more Alpha Channels than typical for a simple image.  So, what we have today is the original RAW file, the Layers and Channels Panels and the finished image.  I’ll take it step by step and explain what was done and why it was done.  Seeing as the images take up so much of the header of this post, we get right into it.  Clicking on each image will enlarge it so detail (in the Panels) can be seen.  To follow along, hit the “read more”.

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The Last Step With Adobe Photoshop CS5

It was a pretty good weekend, photographically.  With the fall colors at just about peak we had to maximize what we had, so I shot Saturday, early Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.  One of the reasons for the urgency was the high winds for the entire weekend.  For anyone who doesn’t live in a place with the wonderful change of seasons we get in Connecticut, let me tell you how it goes.  The leaves turn and just hang on the trees.  Without a fairly heavy rain storm or some wind they’ll sit there for a couple weeks.  It’s the times when the weather is calm that you get the spectacular colors you see in magazines and on calendars.  Once the wind comes, it’s done.  One day the trees are a riot of color and the next they’re bare.  It’s as quick as that.  It’s a metaphor for life.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  So, every fall there’s a mutiny by those couch potatoes who’d rather sit and watch a game on the weekend and the roads near any vantage point become as thick as molasses with car after car slowing to get a few seconds of autumn’s glory.  There’s an adage about those not learning from history being doomed to repeat it, and we’re no different.  Seems like every five years or so we get an irresistible urge to take a ride along the Mohawk Trail through western Massachusetts.  It’s actually Route 2 and follows the hills and ridgelines of the Berkshire Hills.  Every time we get suckered in.  Thinking, as we start out along the trail, that “this isn’t too bad” and wandering along for the first thirty miles unencumbered.  We scoff at those traveling in the opposite direction because we see the traffic jam at the exit point, stretching for miles.  Because we’re there to capture the wonder of one of nature’s greatest displays we tarry and end up at the terminus (it really doesn’t matter which end) after dark, sitting in a ten mile long chain of headlights.  I’m sure from the air it must look lovely.  From ground level, not so much.  Today’s image comes from a different, equally evocative, tourist spot at a completely different time.  To find out where and what “makes” today’s image, hit the “read more”.

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 And The Pristine Firetruck

Wouldn’t it be nice if every fire company kept up their equipment in as good shape as the one from today’s image?  That statement is particularly true considering the truck is an antique from the 1940s.  The paint is flawless, the knobs and controls look like they just came out of the box.  They’re not!  It’s Adobe Photoshop CS5 to the rescue.  Things done to today’s image can be done with any relatively new version of Photoshop.  Almost naturally, the basis for the image is a mask.  For anyone starting out with Photoshop, or Adobe Photoshop Elements 9,   the first thing to learn is the use of Layers.  The second thing should be the use of masks.  Either Layer Masks or the masks that come along with Adjustment Layers.  I haven’t looked at PSE 9 yet, and I don’t know if it has Channels to go along with Masks in this version, but Masks without Channels is kind of like an iPOD without speakers (or earbuds) if you’re into music.  There are things you can do.  As an example, I have very few songs on my Apple iPod Touch and haven’t the foggiest idea where the earbuds are.  My use for the thing doesn’t focus on music.  So, Masks in PSE 9 can be used for something, but you can’t get the maximum benefit from them without Channels.  Obviously, the main point of today’s post is about Masks.  To learn how today’s Mask was developed and how that “paint job” got so smooth, hit the “read more”.

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