Night & Light

1. Temple Streets; 10-18-09; Rexburg Temple; 8p.m.; f/2.8; 6; Canon PowerShot SD 1100; adjusted levels.
2. Signature; 10-18-09; My Apartment; 8 p.m.; f/2.8; 2.5; Canon Powershot SD 1100; adjusted saturation.
3. Downtown; 2-21-09; Downtown Rexburg; 8:35 p.m.; f/4.9; 0.8; Canon PowerShot SD 1100; no edits.

It was fun to play with the shutter speed for these night & light pictures this week. The first photo of the temple was fun because if you look closely you can see the lights of the cars streaked along the road.  I made the shutter speed longer to compensate for it.

The second photo is my roommate using her phone to write an “L” in cursive. The last photo I took last Winter in downtown Rexburg. I just moved the camera all around and it turned out pretty neat.

Edge Effects

1. Lily; 5-25-09; South Jordan, Utah; 5:10 p.m.; f/8.0; 1/60; Canon Powershot SD 1100; adjustments to levels, border added.
2. Hotel Meade; 10-7-09; 1:30 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/8.0; 1/160; Sony DSC-H7; hue/saturation and levels adjustments, border and words added.
3. Sistine Chapel Ceiling; 5-9-08; The Vatican, Vatican City; 11:30 a.m.; Canon Powershot SD 850; adjustments to levels and saturation, poster edges filter.

I tried out a few different Edge Effects. The one of my cousin Lily has a burned edge with a twist. I decided that I was going to put the layer on screen mode to make it lighter instead of multiply to make it darker. I also added the slight colored border on the inside as well.

The one of the Hotel I just incorporated a burned edge border by copying layers and using the blend mode tool.

The Sistene Chapel Ceiling photo I’m quite proud of. I personally took this photo. I tried out the painted on effect using the history brush tool. I found it to be quite useful and had fun painting the image back on.

HDR Editing

1. Overexposed Building; 10-7-09; Bannack Ghost Town; 11:40 a.m.; f/8.0; 1/30; Sony DSC-H7
2. Building; 10-7-09; Bannack Ghost Town; 11:40 a.m.; f/8.0; 1/160; Sony DSC-H7
3. Underexposed Building; 10-7-09; Bannack Ghost Town; 11:40 a.m.; f/8.0; 1/800; Sony DSC-H7

1. Overexposed Mining Gear; 10-7-09; Bannack Ghost Town; 11:45 a.m.; f/8.0; 1/60; Sony DSC-H7
2. Mining Gear; 10-7-09; Bannack Ghost Town; 11:45 a.m.; f/8.0; 1/125; Sony DSC-H7
3. Underexposed Mining Gear; 10-7-09; Bannack Ghost Town; 11:45 a.m.; f/8.0; 1/250; Sony DSC-H7

These HDR Shots turned out pretty well. I was able to get some beautiful sky background’s that contrasted extremely well with the tans, browns, and oranges of the buildings and old mining gear. Taking these shots at different exposures really enhances the best parts of each exposure.

I quite enjoyed this part of the trip and hope to be able to take many more like this.

Best of Bannack

This week was amazing! I absolutely loved going to Bannack Ghost Town. Although the lighting and the weather weren’t the best, I still had fun and was able to capture a few good shots. Many of my shots are slightly edited in this post. All edits were only to the levels or hue/saturation because some of my shots were flat and blue.

I realized that I need to just start taking shots more instead of waiting around and trying to catch the right moment. If I just start taking shots, I’ll be able to catch that moment better and I can always throw out the not so great shots.

1.    Ghost of Amber; 10-7-09; 2:09 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/5.0; 4; FujiFilm FinePix S1500 Ver1.02; adjusted saturation/levels.
2.    Screw – Shallow Depth of Field; 10-7-09; 3 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.7; 1/6; Sony DSC-H7; no edits.
3.    Portrait; 10-7-09; 3 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.8; 1/125; Sony DSC-H7; adjusted levels.
4.    Bench out Window; 10-7-09; 2:23 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.8; 1/20; Sony DSC-H7; adjusted saturation.
5.    Doorknob; 10-7-09; 1:30 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.7; 1/400; Sony DSC-H7; adjusted saturation.
6.    Hooks; 10-7-09; 12:30 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/4.5; 1/4; Sony DSC-H7; adjusted saturation.
7.    Hotel Meade; 10-7-09; 1:30 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/8.0; 1/160; Sony DSC-H7; no edits.
8.    In the Mill; 10-7-09; 2:30 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.8; 1/10; Sony DSC-H7; adjusted saturation.
9.    Stairs; 10-7-09; 4:30 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.8; 1/30; Sony DSC-H7; adjusted saturation/levels.
10.    Window Light; 10-7-09; 12:00 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/2.8; 1/1000; Sony DSC-H7; no edits.
11.    Window Light 2; 10-7-09; 12:00 p.m.; Bannack Ghost Town; f/5.6; 1/1000; Sony DSC-H7; no edits.

Flora & Fauna

This week, I found it a little more difficult to capture the lighting that I wanted to, mainly because of the changing weather. I took a lot of shots, but any I took later in the week didn’t turn out so well. On Wednesday, though, there was a break in the clouds where the sun shone through and everything was beautiful. Sadly, I had a night class that I had to attend and when the class was over the sun was completely gone.

The flower shots I took in the Gardens on Tuesday around 6 p.m. I also used some shots I took in the previous two weeks. I was trying to capture the color of the flowers and the ducks in motion.

Image Info:

1.    On the Water; 9-25-09; 7:03 p.m.; Rexburg Nature Park; f/14.0; 1/250; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; increased saturation.
2.    Stems; 9-29-09; 5:53 p.m.; BYU – Idaho Gardens; f/8.0; 1/125; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; increased saturation, levels.
3.    Duck; 9-20-09; 1:55 p.m.; Rexburg Nature Park; f/4.9; 1/500; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; increased saturation.
4.    Purple Flowers; 9-29-09; 5:55 p.m.; BYU – Idaho Gardens; f/8.0; 1/400; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; levels, saturation.

Adjustment Layers/Smart Filters

French Flowers
I started out with a vivid image that I took of flowers in France. I placed two smart filters, watercolor and colored pencil. Then, I masked out the flowers to make them look as they originally were with the warped background.

French Flowers; 5-19-08; 10:20 a.m.; small town in France; f/2.8; 1/60; Canon Powershot SD850 IS; macro setting, smart filters.

Sunset Bench
I started out with an image that was very flat, but had a colorful sky background. First, I added two levels adjustment layers. I put one on Screen blending mode and one on Multiply blending mode. Then I used the black and white paintbrush to mask out the places that were either too dark or too light. To finish it off, I increased the saturation of the greens and reds and reduced the saturation on the blues and cyans and added a vignette border.

Image Info: Sunset Bench; 9-25-09; 7:18 p.m.; Rexburg Nature Park; f/8.0; 1/200; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; adjustment layers: hue/saturation, levels.

Grunge Edit

This picture was taken when I went to Europe last year in Florence, Italy. The sun was setting on these buildings and I think I caught the light just right. In editing the image I had a hard time deciding which mode the texture should be. I tried a lot of different options, but I finally decided to go with Color Burn. This made the image look more rustic just as the actual city was.

I added the border by selecting the outside portion of the original image and copying it to another layer. Then on the new layer ed the saturation levels to be darker to create the border effect.

Image info: Firenze: 5-11-08; 7pm; Florence, Italy; f 5.5; 1/125; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; Parchment Paper color dodge blend mode, Papyrus Font.

Parchment paper from cgtextures.com

Edited Image

Original Image

Landscapes and Still Life

This week I realized that capturing a landscape scene was more difficult than I thought it would be. I really like going to the Rexburg Nature Park to feed the ducks and thought I might start there. I think that I went a little later in the day than I should have, but I think my pictures turned out alright.

The Suntree photo I took from 7 different angles, but finally decided that this one was the best. The shot straight on was very bland and boring. Also, to capture the real color of the sunset, I had to spot meter my camera and make sure the exposure was capturing the sky and not the bridge I was standing on.

The Greek Island picture is just a lucky shot I think. I took it over a year ago when I went to Greece and, at the time, I didn’t know much about photography. It seems that I did figure out a few photography concepts like composition, though.

1. Bridge: 09-25-09; 7pm; Rexburg Nature Park; f 2.8; 1/100;  Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; increased saturation and levels.

2. Suntree: 09-25-09; 7pm; Rexburg Nature Park; f 10.0; 1/400; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; no edits.

3. Reflection: 09-25-09; 7pm; Rexburg Nature Park; f 2.8; 1/160; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; increased saturation.

4. Greek Island: 05-02-08; 2:30pm; Island off the coast of Greece; f 4.0; 1/1250; Canon Powershot SD 1100 IS; no edits.

Cutout in Photoshop

This photo was also taken at my great grandma’s house in Fairview, Utah.  Her flowers were just blooming and were so beautiful.  The lighting wasn’t my favorite, but the flowers were pretty. The cutting out of this image was fairly simple because of the contrast in color with the background.

Flower: June 16, 2009; f/2.8mm; 1/500; Canon Powershot SD 1100;

A study in Color: Green

Green

My reason for choosing the color green was simple.  I kept trying to find a color that best described what was happening around me at the moment.  Green was the most frequent color that I saw around Rexburg, which seems pretty odd considering the majority of the time when I’m in Rexburg, everything is either brown or white.

I saw these green images as signs of life and prosperity before the winter snow comes.  The thorn image I took over the summer at my great grandma’s 90 year old house. All of these images are unedited.

1. Bench: September 20, 2009; late afternoon; Rexburg Nature Park; f/ 2.8mm; 1/1500; Canon Powershot SD 1100; digital macro.

2. Thorns: June 13, 2009; sunset; Fairview, Utah; f/2.8mm; 1/500; Canon Powershot SD 1100; digital macro.

3. Squirrel: September 20, 2009: late after noon; Rexburg Nature Park; f/4.9mm; 1/500; Canon Powershot SD 1100.