At the Rock Wall

For the past few weeks I have been working on a series of photos for my digital photography class.  The assignment was pretty wide open, but one option was a photojournalism series of nine photos.  I decided to do a series about rock wall climbing.  Basically the nine photos show the process of going on a climb.  Here are two from the series:

ISO 2000 50mm 0ev f/3.5 1/125

ISO 2000 50mm 0 ev f/3.5 1/125

Lighting was a huge challenge for this series.  I used my 50mm lens because I knew I would need a low f-stop.  I am also using a pretty high ISO.  These images are HDR images, processed using Photomatix.  After that, I put them in Photoshop and put a gradient mask on them.  I did that because I found the color in the originals was pretty distracting.  I also did noise reduction and sharpening in Photoshop.

For the assignment the prints are about 15×10.  I am turning in the assignment today, so wish me luck.

Cheers!

 

 

Another bee in the series

Last week I posted two bee pictures.  One in sepia and one in color.  This one is in color, but is a bit different:

ISO 64 4mm f/2.8 1/694

It is different because I took it with my iPhone.  Now that it has been edited, it is a very small image, but good enough for this format.  I snapped this picture because I thought it was interesting that the bee and the bug were sharing this flower.  This photo has been edited in Aperture.  I used curves to make it just a bit brighter.  I didn’t want to make it too bright because I liked the green and yellow tones as they turned out in camera.  I also sharpened the image a bit.

Cheers!

Another day, Another bee

I wrote yesterday about a bee that I had photographed and then edited into a sepia image.  The post is here if you would like to take a look.  Today I was looking at another series of bee shots and here is what one of the final images looks like:

ISO 800 135mm 0.67ev f/22 1/125

I think it was the bright yellow of the flower that made me decide to keep this a color image.  I managed to get a pretty sharp photo, even with the movement of the bee and the flower.  I had used my tripod earlier in the shoot, but did not for this particular image.  I think the most challenging thing about this image is the background.  There is just a lot going on.  So, the original image I cropped to try and get some of the background out but still leave enough to convey the scene I was shooting.  In Aperture I corrected this photo a bit using curves, I just wanted to darken the image a little bit.  I have also sharpened the image.

Cheers!

Sepia in Spring

It has been cold here and while that is fine since it is winter, I do find myself looking forward to warmer weather and longer sunlit days.  A few days ago I was looking back through some photos from the spring and I found one I hadn’t yet edited.

ISO 800 100mm 0ev f/5.6 1/60

I have a series of pictures of this bee and I have been trying to edit them in different ways.  Here is one edited version:

ISO 800 100mm 0ev f/5.6 1/60

This version I edited in Aperture.  I cropped it, put it in a sepia tone, and sharpened it.  I like this version, not really sure if I love it.  I think this photo shows one of the downsides to not having a macro lens.  With a macro lens, this picture would be sharper, even before editing.  My kit lens did a decent job though.  I think the 50mm lens I have wouldn’t have worked because I was having trouble getting any closer to the bee.

So, what do you think? do you like sepia for this particular subject matter? Your comments are welcome in the comments section.

Cheers!

 

Just Hanging Out

Here is a subject that was hard to shoot:

ISO 1000 50mm 0ev f/2.2 1/25

This is Batty and Scar.  They are Straw-Colored Fruit Bats that live at the World Bird Sanctuary in St. Louis Missouri.  I set my white balance to florescent, because that seemed to get the truest to real life color result.  The bats are in an enclosure, so I got as close as possible to get as much of that out of the picture as possible.

The lighting casts some pretty harsh shadows, so in Aperture I lightened the bat that is further back in the frame.  I also messed with the curves slider to get the color the way I wanted it.  The photo has also been cropped and sharpened.

Cheers!

Float away on Friday

Earlier in the week I posted another balloon photo and I am at it again.  I thought it would be a nice way to end the work week:

ISO 800 50mm -0.33ev f/16 1/400

Looks like fun doesn’t it? Just float away.  Here is the original photo:

Some of the editing I did was very similar to what I wrote about earlier in the week.  With this photo though the first step was to crop.  Basically I was just interested in the middle section of the photo.  Then in Aperture I made two additional versions one with a lower exposure than the original and one with a higher.  Then I took the three photos to Photomatix, where I put them back together.  Back in Aperture, I saturated the color a bit more and sharpened the image.

I’d love to hear what you think!  Have a pleasant Friday.

Cheers!

Balloons

It has been awhile since I have posted a hot air balloon photo, but I was working on some this weekend:

ISO 640 50mm -0.33ev f/16 1/40

This was taken in the fall at the Forest Park Balloon Festival.  Here is the original photo:

Looks pretty different eh?  In Aperture I created two additional versions of the photo, I lowered the exposure on one, raised it on the other.  Then I took my three photos into Photomatix and put them back together.  I ended up liking one of the “painterly” settings best.

I also took out some stray ropes, boosted the color and sharpened the image.

Cheers!

Grab your camera, Fall is almost here

Well, in this hemisphere anyway.  Here is the first leaf of the season:

ISO 125 f/9 0.5 shutter 56mm

This was taken with a tripod.  I will try some shots with the 50mm lens also, when I borrow it from my friend again.  Next time I will try for more depth of field.  When this photo is magnified it is just a little bit fuzzier than what I was really going for.  I cropped, boosted the saturation of the yellow, and sharpened the image in post processing.  I am using Aperture now as my image software.  Overall, I really like it, but I am still learning how to use it.

Cheers!

Scary, up close!

I guess it depends on what scares you.  For whatever reason I find gargoyles interesting.  So, when I saw this one, I had to take a picture:

ISO 1600 15.4mm f/5.6 1/20

This was taken with my point and shoot in the monochrome setting.  Then I darkened it quite a bit and sharpened it some.  I used the sharpening to really bring out the pock-marked stone.

Cheers!

A Chicken for Competition

I have entered this photo in a competition that has “macro or close up” as a theme:

ISO 200 50mm f/4 1/250

I titled it, “In the Blink of an Eye”.  It was taken with a 50mm lens and then cropped. I did some sharpening, but didn’t mess with the color because I liked the way the color came out in the camera.

Wish me luck, but feel free to leave constructive comments.

Cheers!