Would the finalists like to share?

Greensquared · May 29, 2007

I admit that I have a lot to learn. Thinking of different and new ways to do things is one of the reasons photography so fascinating to me.

For the semi-finalist winners, would you mind sharing information on your image? How and when you shot it, type of lighting, what post processing techniques you used? I think it would benefit a lot of us. I would love to see original shots as well, to know how you cropped it, etc. It was the combination of these decisions that have got you this far and I know it would be a big benefit to learn as much as I can from this experience!

Emily

photogmomma · May 29, 2007

I'll be happy to! But I'll have to show the original later - it's on a different machine.

For now, this will have to do. My photo was originally landscape orientation with a pretty distracting background that was difficult to remove so I chose to go B&W. My daughter had amazing blue eyes, but I felt they were just as strong in the B&W as the color.

I really wanted a casual photo - something that was obviously not from a studio. And I wasn't quite happy enough with the shoot I had done the day before. My girls were playing in the guest bedroom, which has wood floors and amazing light, and I started shooting. I noticed that the light was reflecting off the floors and off my shirt onto their faces. In this shot of Sam, I didn't get quite far enough away - I cropped off her arm a big, which bugs me - but I did get myself in the reflection in her eyes, which I thought was fun.

I also had several other photos taken at the same time with her adorable grin, but the eyes had it for me. Although she's serious and I rather enjoy smiles more, this one had much more impact.

This was taken in the morning (you'd have to look at the EXIF for the time and particulars), the sun was flowing through the window to her left onto the flooor directly in front of her. She was just barely in the shadows.

Does any of that help?

!

Good luck in the new round! I"m sure you'll do awesome.:D

Tessa HD · May 29, 2007

ok,
Emily, you are right, it IS a combination. I chose an area that I thought would be scenic from all angles. I was shooting during sunset and was little afraid the light might be too harsh, so I shot on priority mode and underexposed some. The overall photo was still too light for me, lacking some depth, so I used photoshop and used Marc Muench's tip for quick and beautiful (here). I only used the multiply layers option. Then on that layer I erased some areas that had become too dark, like her skin.

Tessa

Swartzy · May 29, 2007

The thought process
Since this challenge began, I had a few shots in mind for the semi-final (should I make it that far). The reasoning for these selected shots are based on a wide viewing audience (hence, the open public vote). The photograph must be appealing to a larger, general audience, so many of my ideas were delineated down to a few.

My first passion in photography is landscapes. Everyone loves a beautiful photo, and I'm no different. I wanted a shot that would provide as many cohesive elements that one shot could provide. I chose this particular scene and time of day for these reasons. This particular shot is an icon of the Minneapolis area. It provides (at the proper time of twighlight) many important features such as repetition, color, specular highlights, shadows/highlights, composition, interest along with cool reflections. The only thing this doesn't have is rainbows, God beams and lightening bolts.

I crawled (literally) as far down to the left of the stairway once below at river's edge, getting my feet wet, trying not to slip and fall, ruining the camera. There were trees, stinky dead carp and stuff I won't mention. The water began rising as I was sitting there setting up....I had only 2 feet behind me from a craggy hill and tucked under a tree, ripping branches off just to get this shot. The camera was wide and low (2 feet above the water), the tripod was in the water and I was curled up like some yoga guru (still haven't been able to straighten out completely).

I believe (at least in my mind's eye) the best shot of this scene is wide and low...that is what I made up my mind to achieve. I was hoping for placid water to nail the reflections but it wasn't meant to be. Last October, I took this shot and is stellar, residing as a 16x24 on the living room wall. This challenge period (last 2 weeks) the weather was not cooperative with high winds, rain, cloudy days. The weather cooperated for a short period one evening after a day of rain and wind.

Shay mentioned it's a bit contrasty...actually, out of the camera it is what it is....which I personally enjoy....vivid. Post processing was not over the top. I did clone out a couple distracting features such as a tripod looking high wire line post atop the bride near the upper corner of the frame along with some power lines going across the sky. I used a gradient layered (multiply) to darken the sky just a tad as it matched the color in the water. Of all the shots I took that evening (from total daylight to dark), the bluer sky with some clouds was the choice as it provided the most interesting view of the bridge, city, lights and reflections.

Thanks for reading this over-winded explanation

Greensquared · May 29, 2007

Thanks so much to all that have shared so far. It's what makes this forum so special! I hope more choose to as well.

Emily

Dee · May 29, 2007

What a great idea
I hope more semifinalists post here too!

Elaine · May 29, 2007

Swartzy wrote:

Thanks for reading this over-winded explanation

Wow, Swartzy! After reading your explanation, I like your pic even MORE! (Loved it to begin with!)

Nikolai · May 30, 2007

Swartzy wrote:

Since this challenge began, I had a few shots in mind for the semi-final (should I make it that far).

Good one, David!

Thanks for sharing!

sherstone · May 30, 2007

Thanks for asking.
Since I am all for learning, I going to explain "rail meat" from concept to final image. Even posting this is an exercise in learning for me personally.

I knew that Swiftsure, (the sailing race) was coming and I had been invited to go out on a shoot with my friend and fellow photographer, it just happened so coincide with the LPS SF#1 date time frame. I had in the back of my mind the type of image I wanted and felt that my entry would probably come from this shoot. But instead of rely on a shoot that happened one day before deadline I worked very hard to find that "perfect" image the weekend before.

I drove up North to try and capture the Vancouver Island's rough coastline, and an early morning break in the rain resulted in this image.

While I really like it I felt it ultimately blended in with the rest of the entries that were landscapes as well. So I was even more excited to be able to shoot Swiftsure.
The day of Swiftsure the sky was very overcast but the light was acceptable. overcast soft light is better than harsh contrasty light for this type of subject anyway.
I was in a small 16' boat with an outboard motor piloted by my friend, we were able to maneuver around the oncoming boats quite well resulting in a great shoot.

Because the day was very overcast I had to compensate for dark exposures in the shots and ended up actually over exposing the original frame used for "rail meat" a little more that I would have liked. The frame was my favorite and I refused to let a little bit of over exposure ruin my vision.

Here it is from the RAW file converted straight to jpg. Note also uncropped.

Because of the over exposure I decided to do a bracketing of the exposure in Lightroom and save out four different levels of light to be merged into a quasi HDR image that was able to show the level of detail I was after.

Once combined the resulting image looked like this.

Now I was left with an image that was 90% of the way my minds eye saw it. What I didn't like was the strong blue haze background so my goal was to enhance the tonal values in both the bow of the boat and the water as well as reduce the bluing effect that the distant land mass takes on.

After working with several techniques I was able to achieve the final look I was after and in the process cloned out one stray non-sail boat on the left as well add a little more color to the grey bland sky.

The results to me fit well into an open challenge it has a grabby factor, a people element and a back story as well. It all came together to grab enough attention, of that I am very thankful for.

Here is the final qualifying image after all the tweaking:

Hopefully this gives someone some insight into how an image is both shot and created to fit within the minds eye of "one pixel among many" - mainly me. I am very excited and honored to be able to now compete in the finals.

(questions are welcome)

System · May 30, 2007

andi and swartz-

neat pics and neat explanations-

System · May 30, 2007

I'm sorry, sean, but for the amount of processing you did here this really isn't photography-

seriously, a marvelous transformation of a nice picture into a beautiful, gorgeous photograph-

well done!-

and well done to all the top ten!-

k2butter · May 30, 2007

Wow! That is a lot of information to take in for a newbie!

But thank you all for sharing, it is very insightful to read about the process...

seastack · May 30, 2007

Okay, remember you asked ...

Well, this certainly was not a grab shot.

A lot went into it - planning, time, driving, petrol, on-the-ground scouting, working the scene, calculating hyperfocal point, experimenting with filters, bracketing the shot, post processing, second guessing, going back to work the same area again ...

All told, I have more than 40 hours of work into this image, half of it driving.

I had a lot of the same thoughts about strategy, time of day, etc. that Swartzy related so well. For landscapes, I won't even try to take a photo midday. It's usually a waste of time - harsh shadows, harsh light, limited color spectrum in the light, etc. And I am a big fan of the light AFTER sunset. There isn't much of it but it's soft, full of color and wonderful. The sky often turns the most incredible deep, rich blue before going to black.
I've often had people come up to me after they took their sunset shot and the light has faded to ask what I'm doing still taking pictures. It's the best time of day, I say and smile. I'll explain if they've made it that far without thinking I'm nuts.

In a nutshell, by combining good composition, low light and long exposures, I strive to produce something a little different, moody and otherworldy in my landscapes. It takes a fair bit of practice, patience, experimentation and it certainly does not always work. But there are so many truly great landscape photographers out there that I've worked hard in the last few months to find my own signature, to do something at least a little different I hope. And it's a nice contrast to my older photojournalistic work that more often than not involved way too much tragedy and was very fast-paced.

So, to specifics ....

I was planning to go to the spectacular Oregon, USA coast to get some ocean landscapes (that whole play to your strengths in the semifinal thing) when, during the first week of the semifinal, I got the flu. I'll snot bore you with the details but I got a later start on this than I had planned.

Online I researched locations, and checked the tides, sunset, moon for several areas of the Oregon coast. (TIP: Google "U.S. Naval Observatory" for an incredible wealth of worldwide astronomical information including sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset data by searchable location and date) The first five-hour drive south, which I combined with a delivery of a sail and other items to our boats (I work for a nonprofit that operates two tall ships) turned out to be a bust. While I did get some good on-the-ground research of locations done during the day, I was invited to a Native American ceremony that evening, an honor I could not refuse, and missed my window of best lighting. I got home at 3 a.m.

A few days later, I headed back to the same area after work. My first two locations didn't work - the first because of haze and the second because the great ocean waves crashing on the rocks a few days before had settled down and were now pretty boring. So my first idea of getting a dramatic ocean landscape with waves crashing on rocks was a bust.

This beach was my third choice and I'd spotted it because of the S-curve creek leading to a rock outcropping (the one in the background above). I got there about an hour before sunset (much later than I'd hoped) and started exploring. I was very careful not to walk in the sand along the shoreline since that would detract from the scene (a post by Marc Muench made me think about this, thank you!)

As the sun started to set I started working the scene with the creek and other areas, catching reflections and colors mirrored. Trying many different angles, focal length, dialing in my exposures. As the light fell further I moved down to this area of the beach where I made this image. I wanted a slow shutter speed to smooth out the water. The round but cracked rock in the foreground really intrigued me and I took a number of shots just of it, including a few that ignored the rule of thirds. They almost worked. I also tried some images in portrait (vertical) format but I no longer have a lens wider than 24mm and couldn't quite capture the look I was seeking. I often try to shoot both portrait and landscape for later sale potential - magazines love vertical.

I then pointed my camera up to get some shots of just the moon with idea that it might fit well into one of the other images.

As the light fell further I moved into position and set up my tripod, with rocks hanging in a net below it for added stability in the wind and the sand, for what I felt to be the strongest composition - the juxtaposition of the round rock against the sharp silhouette of the background seastack. By combining a fully exposed foreground element of the round with the silhouette, my idea was to further define this paradox of elements. The smooth water contrasted with the smooth but textured sand added another juxtaposition and balancing of elements. I followed the rule of thirds here to provide further balance of elements and contrast - the round in the intersecting lower left third lines, the seastack in the upper right intersection and the horizon at the upper third.

I found the optimum f-stop and focusing point using my new handy Expoaperature disk (learned about here on dgrin). The idea is to have eveything in focus by finding the hyperfocal focusing point. I figured out that f8 was the optimum f-stop - I could have stopped down further but it wasn't necessary for depth of field at 24 mm and I didn't want my exposures to be too long because of fading light. Also, f8 is optimum for sharpness. Added note: Depth of field and sharpness are not the same thing, and a greater f-stop does not necessarily equate to more sharpness, it can have the opposite effect, in fact. I'll not get into "Circle of Confusion" because it is just that.

I used a polarizing filter to both reduce my shutter speed and tone down the highlights on the rock. I was battling the bright sky and dark foreground - I really wanted to get the beach properly exposed. I tried some shots with a grad ND filter to tone down the sky and balance the light but it's inferior quality reduced the sharpness of the seastack by an unacceptable amount. I also really needed a reverse grad here, probably a 3-stop hard, but I don't own one ... yet. Been saving up to buy the best.

I also bracketed the hell out of this shot with the idea of compositing the images in Photoshop later but in the end thought I'd missed it because of lens fogging on some of the shots. The fog from the mist off the ocean waves can be a real issue. Since I shot in RAW I was able to save this using two bracketed shots (one at 15 sec. f/8 and the other at 30 sec. f/8) turned into four and combining them in PS using layers and layer masks. I also added just a touch of softness to the water and a little less to the sand using a Scott Kelby PS trick (The Photoshop CS2 book for Digital Photographers is highly recommended). I also added the moon for a finishing touch.

Unfortunately, as people pointed out here and on another forum, the moon was facing the wrong direction in my first take so I rotated it (some smart people hereabouts).

I got home at 5 a.m. and went to work the next morning at 9. Oh, and I got the flu back. I wonder why? I'm finally getting over it.

I could have saved myself a lot of postprocessing time and captured this image in camera using 3 stop reverse ND grad filter and a soft focus filter combined, or so I've been told by two of my heroes of landscape photography. They saw my image and gave unsolicited comments. As a result, I'm going backpacking and shooting with one of them next month in the Oregon Cascades. Makes me a winner regardless of any outcome here.

For me, this is one of the most satisfying images I've ever produced and by far one of the best. It's quiet, peaceful, otherworldy feel of solitude is the opposite of my original plan but no less dramatic, I think. Better still, I learned a few more things in the process of making this image. I know I wouldn't have pushed myself this hard or grown as a photographer this quickly if not for LPS and the feedback from some great photographers on dgrin and beyond. Perhaps it takes a village to raise a photographer.

Tom

Elaine · May 30, 2007

Thanks for sharing, Tom! Very nice description of your process to make a really special photograph. Now...where on the Oregon coast did you go to shoot this??

Swartzy · May 30, 2007

Excellent Tom
Thank you for being long winded too

because it provides us with more insights and ideas for future shots. That is a remarkable area there and would love to visit. The reverse grads I've not used before but see the benefit. The longer exposures are tricky when bracketing especially when the moon is involved (as the silly thing keeps moving in the sky). Smart move on shooting that and dropping it in. What a great forum we have here. Very nice work and thanks so much for sharing....ya learn something new everyday

seastack · May 30, 2007

Elaine wrote:

Now...where on the Oregon coast did you go to shoot this??

I'll never tell

Greensquared · May 30, 2007

seastack wrote:

I'll never tell

Yeah, I guess you have to keep a few of your secrets!

Thanks so much for sharing!

GaryBakker · May 30, 2007

seastack wrote:

For me, this is one of the most satisfying images I've ever produced ...

For me, this is one of the most satisfying images I've ever seen. Well done.

Thank you for your detailed explanation. It's fascinating.

(I swear that you wrote this in English, but there are entire sentences that registered as a foreign language to this amateur photographer.

)

seastack · May 30, 2007

Green Fleurdelis wrote:

(I swear that you wrote this in English, but there are entire sentences that registered as a foreign language to this amateur photographer.
)

And some of these were foreign to me too just a few months ago but it's so much fun to figure it out. I love epiphanies.

LiquidAir · May 30, 2007

sherstone wrote:

Now I was left with an image that was 90% of the way my minds eye saw it. What I didn't like was the strong blue haze background so my goal was to enhance the tonal values in both the bow of the boat and the water as well as reduce the bluing effect that the distant land mass takes on.

After working with several techniques I was able to achieve the final look I was after and in the process cloned out one stray non-sail boat on the left as well add a little more color to the grey bland sky.

The results to me fit well into an open challenge it has a grabby factor, a people element and a back story as well. It all came together to grab enough attention, of that I am very thankful for.

To my eyes, the sky in this shot looks a somewhat unnatural color of green; but the color really works well against gold tones of the sail. What I find most interesting about this photograph is how you have taken a shot which is naturally very blue and warmed up it so effectively. When I am processing shots, I warm them up until my "reality filter" kicks in and says that's too much; it doesn't look right anymore. At least in my eyes, you have gone beyond that with this shot, but the way you have done it is very effective. The lesson I am taking home is that I ought to be a little less rigid about realistic color and pay more attention to mood set by the color of the shot. Thanks.

Nikolai · May 30, 2007

Tom,

seastack wrote:

Okay, remember you asked ...

What can I say! I knew you're godd, I just didn't realize HOW good you are...

LiquidAir · May 30, 2007

seastack wrote:

I could have saved myself a lot of postprocessing time and captured this image in camera using 3 stop reverse ND grad filter and a soft focus filter combined, or so I've been told by two of my heroes of landscape photography. They saw my image and gave unsolicited comments. As a result, I'm going backpacking and shooting with one of them next month in the Oregon Cascades. Makes me a winner regardless of any outcome here.

One of the games I have been meaning to play Grad ND is to capture the profile of the filter shot against a white wall. Then I can use the captured profile to invert the effect of the filter, recovering the full orginal dynamic range of the shot, and recompress the dynamic range using more sophisticated techniques in Photoshop. I haven't had a chance to try it yet; the time I have available for landsacpe photography has been severly restricted since my son was born. I haven't played with my grad ND filters since I got the 5D; they were good enough for 35mm film, but I can imagine seeing their limitations in digital.

It is interesting reading your account and comparing it to my failed attempt to catch a shot at Point Reyes. When I got to my chosen beach, there was precious little to work with as a resonable foreground. The place I finally set up had two problems. I was too close to the surf and the lens was misting too quickly to get a good capture. Also, I couldn't stay as long as I wanted because I was in danger of being trapped by the tide.

I check sun and moon locations before I go out and I bring a compass so I know where they are going to be while I am scouting. Checking tide tables is a good idea and I am going to do that from now on. Do you prefer low tide because shoreline features (like your rock) are more likely to be revealed?

seastack · May 30, 2007

I do often try to shoot for low tide to get that soft foggy feel around rocks and such, and I check so I don't get trapped like you were saying. More often than not, though, my shooting time is dictated by sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset than tides so it's more of a safety issue. I also want to know if it's coming in or going out.

Years ago I had to spend 5 hours trapped between coastal headlands in Olympic National Park. Not good.

BTW, the new 4 x 6 Sing Ray (sp?) grads are supposed to be some of the best, or so I'm told.

LiquidAir wrote:

One of the games I have been meaning to play Grad ND is to capture the profile of the filter shot against a white wall. Then I can use the captured profile to invert the effect of the filter, recovering the full orginal dynamic range of the shot, and recompress the dynamic range using more sophisticated techniques in Photoshop. I haven't had a chance to try it yet; the time I have available for landsacpe photography has been severly restricted since my son was born. I haven't played with my grad ND filters since I got the 5D; they were good enough for 35mm film, but I can imagine seeing their limitations in digital.

It is interesting reading your account and comparing it to my failed attempt to catch a shot at Point Reyes. When I got to my chosen beach, there was precious little to work with as a resonable foreground. The place I finally set up had two problems. I was too close to the surf and the lens was misting too quickly to get a good capture. Also, I couldn't stay as long as I wanted because I was in danger of being trapped by the tide.

I check sun and moon locations before I go out and I bring a compass so I know where they are going to be while I am scouting. Checking tide tables is a good idea and I am going to do that from now on. Do you prefer low tide because shoreline features (like your rock) are more likely to be revealed?

LiquidAir · May 30, 2007

seastack wrote:

Years ago I had to spend 5 hours trapped between coastal headlands in Olympic National Park. Not good.

Ooooo. Ouch. My wife would kill me if I let that happen.

seastack wrote:

BTW, the new 4 x 6 Sing Ray (sp?) grads are supposed to be some of the best, or so I'm told.

As far as I can tell, B&H isn't carrying those yet. They've got Tiffen and Heliopan and my are they pricey. My current set is Tiffen, smaller, and vingnette on wide angle lenses. Some day I'll shell out for some good grads. Most of the rest of my filters are Heliopan and I have been pretty happy with them (the 77mm CP wasn't cheap either).

sherstone · May 30, 2007

gefillmore wrote:

I'm sorry, sean, but for the amount of processing you did here this really isn't photography-

Coming from you George, that truly puts an enormous smile on my face.

Thanks!

As you know and practice yourself - I treat photography as an art form and a tool that demands more than just pressing the shutter. No I am certainly NOT a purist. I am a pixel pusher and proud of it.

sherstone · May 30, 2007

LiquidAir wrote:

I warm them up until my "reality filter" kicks in and says that's too much; it doesn't look right anymore. At least in my eyes, you have gone beyond that with this shot, but the way you have done it is very effective. The lesson I am taking home is that I ought to be a little less rigid about realistic color and pay more attention to mood set by the color of the shot. Thanks.

Color and how it compliments mood and overall feel is certainly an important part of any image. Reality to me is not something I have to recreate, I am after what looks "good". Sometimes that is reality or as we perceive reality anyway. Sometimes I like to push that threshhold and hopefully others like the results.

I am very pleased that you were able to glean something useful from my bit of blather.

Thanks.:D

BistiArt · May 30, 2007

#2 if Voting
Swartzy,

This was my number two, if I could have voted more than once [unless I didnot understand the game...]

I like the balance and color...

BistiArt · May 30, 2007

Cheers, Mate!

seastack wrote:

Tom

Tom,

I really appreciate your due diligence in not only providing a truly spectacular image, but then putting yourself to the arduous trask of implementing that lovely vision in plain English.

I made a pdf so I could spend my own due diligence studying your approach.

After a time, I hope to make more comments, but for now the COB bell is about to close my industrial comcast... so I am off to more plebian affairs.

pyroPrints.com · May 30, 2007

What I used:
* "Urban Acid" action from http://www.atncentral.com/download.htm
* "Selective Color" filter
* Noise ninja (other noise removal/sharpening tools probably work too)
* Friends, who don't mind being taken advantage of.
* Some wine to loosen them up

* Assignment #32: Save your worst shot

Originals:

Full size JPG: http://hera.divshare.com/files/2007/05/30/786481/P5231701.JPG
RAW file http://www.divshare.com/download/786482-cb5

Honestly, the original is pretty damn bad. It's noisy, lighting is iffy, and not only that, it's OOF (out of focus). It was late, and I lapsed =c/ But I loved the content. So I didn't want to give up on it. The "Save your worst shot" assignment was helpful in that regard.

Like I said before I was inspired by Jack Vettriano, so my first step was to run the "Urban Acid" action, because I love the colors that produces. After that I added the "Selective Color" adjustment filter and used it to remove a very annoying purple color cast, and also boosted up the red in the dress.
I chose the composition, cropped the photo how I liked it.

Then I burned in the left part. BTW the way I like to do that, instead of using the burn/dodge tool, what I do is add a new layer and fill it with 50% gray, and set it on overlay mode. In overlay mode 50% gray has no effect on the image, but if you grab the paint tool and paint with black (whatever opacity you need) which will burn in your image. Painting with white over grey will dodge your image.

After that I ran the image through Noise ninja, to get rid of some noise and to sharpen it up.

Here is the result:
jv2_fixedColor+burn_filtered.jpg

I'm sure I missed some details, but that's the jist. Obviously this would have been easier if I shot it well in the first place, but sometimes that just doesn't happen. Feel free to play around with the original images.

sherstone · May 30, 2007

sherstone wrote:

As you know and practice yourself - I treat photography as an art form and a tool that demands more than just pressing the shutter. No I am certainly NOT a purist. I am a pixel pusher and proud of it.

I just realized this may come off quite stuck up,
for that I apologize if it does.

I am in an ever evolving position of learning and every time I press the shutter and then follow up with molding the image into my vision I learn something new. I know I do not know everything and I would hope that I continue to every day wake up and have an open mind into learning new and wonderful things from my peers both here and other forums.

I am quite intrigued to see the other photographers here reveal their tricks and knowledge and I am very thankful for the insight and ability to bounce ideas off of a stupendous group of people.

Thank you!

BistiArt · May 31, 2007

Expoaperature disk

seastack wrote:

Okay, remember you asked ...

I found the optimum f-stop and focusing point using my new handy Expoaperature disk (learned about here on dgrin). The idea is to have eveything in focus by finding the hyperfocal focusing point. I figured out that f8 was the optimum f-stop - I could have stopped down further but it wasn't necessary for depth of field at 24 mm and I didn't want my exposures to be too long because of fading light. Also, f8 is optimum for sharpness. Added note: Depth of field and sharpness are not the same thing, and a greater f-stop does not necessarily equate to more sharpness, it can have the opposite effect, in fact. I'll not get into "Circle of Confusion" because it is just that.

Tom

Tom

Can you please refer to this new term Expoaperature disk with a URL?

I am still trying to absorb the rest of your missive; back later.

Would the finalists like to share?

Comments