Posts from the ‘Nikon D300’ Category
Sorry for the quick post, but I am spending a bit more time behind the camera this week than the computer. I hope the new images next week will be worth it. The lesson I learned from this image…be courteous and honest with security guards when photographing private property and they might let you photograph a fertilizer plant.
This is another image from my visit to the local rail yard last year. You can see a previous composition from the same location here. It was one of those days where I knew I was going to pass something interesting on and errand, so I decided I would grab my gear and tack on 30mins to my commute. I wonder how much memory my brain is wasting trying to efficiently plan photo errands? I should formalize a documentation strategy so I can save space for things like remembering to mow the lawn.
I was excited when Topaz Labs announced (official release date is Monday Aug. 2nd) an update to their DeNoise tool. I use several Topaz Lab tools, including Adjust and Detail, quite a bit in my workflow, but I rarely used previous versions of DeNoise. However, when they announced DeNoise 5, I thought I would give it a run. Normally, if my image requires any noise reduction, I usually preform it right after generating the HDR/Tonemapped image and prior to any Photoshop work. In this image, after generating the HDR/Tonemapped .tiff, I brought it into photoshop, duplicated the base layer, and ran DeNoise 5 against it. Here is a quick list of things I found.
- Presets – I like software that offers its users a good starting point. Topaz DeNoise offers a couple of .jpg and RAW presets. In this image (a 16bit .tiff) I started off with the ‘RAW – Moderate’ preset. From there I experimented with a couple sliders and quickly found a level of noise reduction I was happy with.
- Ease of Use – The new DeNoise 5 interface follows the most recent release of of the product suite. It seems pretty straight forward, and ease to dial in.
- Preview Click – Like many tools, DeNoise allows you to click the image while you are making adjustments to quickly toggle between the original and processed images. This makes dialing in the settings you want a breeze.
- Speed – I’m not a numbers guy, but it seemed pretty quick.
Here is the before image:
Before
Here is the after image: (the volume control is not a feature. I was adjusting the background tunes)
After
This image had quite a bit of Noise in the sky. DeNoise 5 handled it pretty nicely, without much processing fuss. I have always liked Topaz products because of their power and price point. DeNoise 5 seems to be a welcome upgrade to their suite of products.
You can find out more about Topaz Labs and their entire suite of products here:
http://www.topazlabs.com/denoise/
Give the 30 day trial a run and see what you think. If you decide to buy it, you can use the coupon code LIGHTASMAGIC to receive a 15 percent discount on any purchase form Topaz Labs.
About the image: I made this image in the Spring along the scenic-byway between Cisco and Moab, UT. I have mentioned it before, but if you are ever driving west to Moab, don’t let people talk you out of taking the slightly longer drive. It is well worth the extra couple of minutes.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-200 AFD
Gitzo Traveler
Lexar UDMA Film
Processing Notes:
Capture – 7 images @ 1ev
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Topaz Labs DeNoise 5 – Noise reduction
Photoshop – Curves adjustment (2x)
Sized For Web
LightAsMagic.com
When I installed my sprinkler system, I wish I knew about this…it would have saved me a ton of time and a very sore back.
I approached this image from several different angles, but once I raised my tripod up, and pointed my lens down on the top of the claw, I knew that is what I wanted. However, because I was shooting a very wide lens, the legs of my tripod were in the frame. It required some finagling and patience, but I was finally able to achieve the result I wanted.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Tokina ATX Pro 11-16
Gitzo Traveler
Processing Notes:
Capture – 7 Images @ 1ev
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Photoshop – Curves (set grey point)
Photoshop – Basic midtones luminosity mask curves adjustment (luminosity blending)
Photoshop – Vibrancy boost
Sized for wed
Nik Sharpener – Display 35% selective to claw
Tip: A wide really wide angle (16ish mm on FX, 10ish mm on DX) lens isa great tool to achieve images like this, where you can get very close to a compositional element, and still have the rest of the subject in the frame. It also a fun tool to add an interesting perspective to portraits. For this image I used the very nice Tokina ATX Pro 11-16
I’m sure the mural on the side of this service station in Cisco, UT was once the the jewel of the desert. Now the store stands empty, but the artist’s pride carries on.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 17-35 AFS
Gitzo Traveler
Aperturef/4.0
Focal Length30 mm
ISO Speed200
Processing Notes:
Capture – 9 images @ 1 EV
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Photoshop – Curves adjustment
Nik Color Efex Pro – Tonal contrast
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com
I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with this one. It was the product of a “hey, go back, that looks kind of cool” moment. I’m not over the moon about the image. I think both the composition and processing has a bit to be desired, but what the heck, maybe someone else will find some inspiration in it. If that happens, mission accomplished. If not, at least you had a glimpse of something you might not have otherwise.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VR II
Gitzo Traveler
Aperturef/4.2
Focal Length 26 mm
ISO Speed 400
Processing Notes:
Capture – 7 images @ 1ev
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Photoshop – Mask in the anchor trees
Photoshop – Curves adjustment
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com
I hope you are enjoying the Tour as much as I am. After a week of all LA, all the time, I will get us back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Tokina 11-16 ATX Pro
Gitzo Traveler
Processing Notes:
Capture – 7 Images @ 1ev
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Photoshop – Curves adjustment (Expanded midtones luminosity mask)
Photoshop – Channel mixer (B&W basic mid-tones luminosity mask mild opacity)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com
After a day of wrestling with a tool that a blacksmith might use to forge a Terminator, I’d be dammed if I wasn’t going to make some images when I returned it. If you ever need to remove tree stakes from your yard, rent the tool, it will save you 2 months of failed re-enactments of ’sword in the stone’. Leave that up to King Arthur.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Tokina 11-16 ATX Pro
Gitzo Traveler
Processing Notes:
Capture – 7 images @ 1ev
Photomatix 3.2 – HDR/Tonemapping
Nik Define 2.0- Noise reduction
Nik Color Efex Pro – ProContrast
Nik Color Efex Pro – Glamour glow (slight desat)
Nik Color Efex Pro – Tonal Contrast (re-gain some contrast and definition)
Sized for web
Nik Sharpener – Display 40%
LightAsMagic.com
Here is a quick behind the scenes look at the kit in action.
Another addition to my on going Spaceship Suburbia project. I thought I would try and capture a “Cloud City Scape” by shooting a busy scene full of the non-traditional. This was a sunrise shoot on the outskirts of Denver. When I pulled the camera to my eye, I was sucked into the depth and variety of the shapes and shadows. I thought it would make a good addition to the project.
Answering The Call! A big Thank You is in order to all those that took the time to help me with my dilemma. I am truly thankful for the amount of time those that answered my Canon/Nikon SOS put into their responses. I am also humbled by the quality of photographers that visit LightAsMagic.com. I made my way to all your websites and photostreams, and I am inspired by your work. It is obvious by your responses that Canon is indeed a great company. But there is also something said about familiarity. There is a lot to digest, and I will take some time tomorrow to revisit all the comments and post a reply to everyone. Thanks again! Heck, even my wife and mother-in-law chimed in. If you go back and read the comments I am sure you will find the wonderful humorous perspective my wife added to the discussion. Let it be know my mother-in-law voted in favor of Nikon. Her vote counts double. I will keep you posted on my final decision and the reasoning behind it.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-200 AFD
Gitzo Traveler
Processing Notes:
Capture 1 Image
Adobe camera raw
Photoshop Contrast/Sat boost
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: When I am trying to create a silhouette in an image, I will switch my camera’s meter to spot meter mode and meter an area that is pretty bright, but not the source of the light. In this scene this happened to be the area of the sky close to the horizon. After I have meter that area I will the lock the exposure, or make a note of it and reset it when I recompose. At that point, I will be shoot a couple of frames and review the images. You can rides you exposure compensation to quickly choke or expand the shadow areas.
To recognize Bike to Work Day, here is a story unrelated to the image.
I was hammering home today on my bike. I mean I was really suffering coming up a local hill here in town. I felt lean, my legs felt great, and I was chasing a Tour title in my head. Suddenly, my dream was interrupted by the sound of a bicycle behind me. I thought to myself, ‘no way…no one could catch me at this speed’. Sure enough, this guy was gaining. To quote the Princess Bride, “Inconceivable”. I began to make excuses. He probably isn’t carrying a pack home from work, or maybe it is a local pro? Just as he catches me, I look over my shoulder, positive I was going to see George Hincapie, decked out in a National Champion jersey. Nope, no Hincapie! I see a guy in jeans and flip-flops. He even has enough breath to tell me I am riding really fast. What the heck was this? I know I’m no pro, but common, I can’t be that slow. Thankfully, upon closer inspection, he was riding an electric bike. My tour dreams are still intact! Anyways, I hope everyone here has the opportunity to participate in their local bike to work days. Once you do it, you will be hooked.
Craft & Vision: If you have ever wanted to start experimenting with the video capabilities of your DSLR (I know I have!) Trevor Meier just published a great new eBook titled Vision in Motion about the issues of motion storytelling. It is full of useful tips regarding composition, capture, and gear.
Craft & Vision Coupon Codes (expire June 27th):
- MOTION4 to receive the eBook for a mere $4.00.
- MOTION20 to receive 20(percent) off of the purchase of 5 or more eBooks.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 17-35 AFS
Gitzo Traveler
Exposure:0.001 sec (1/1000)
Aperture:f/4.0
Focal Length:17 mm
ISO Speed:200
Processing Notes:
Capture – 1 image
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
NIK Silver Efex Pro – BnW conversion (Red filter for day to night trick)
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: What my man Rick calls the ‘Ole day to night trick’ is applying a red filter (either in post, or at the time of capture) to your image which will basically render a blue sky black. I use this technique when I have a big, uninteresting, blue sky. If you have a white or lightish foreground element, it seems to work pretty well.
p.s. This image of a booming metropolis was from the little town of Cisco, UT.
Lately I have been beating up my ‘photographic self’. I am bit frustrated creatively. Sure, I discover images while I am traveling, I throw myself into unknown situations to see what my creative self can do, and I consistently try to improve myself as a photographer. However, I haven’t had a project to focus on. I’m not pre-visioning my images. I’m not actively creating images in my mind, prior to discovering them. In the face of this lull, I decided to assign myself a project. If I wasn’t going to do it, no one else was. What did I come up with? I call it Spaceship Suburbia. The goal, to morph the everyday into images from the Cloud City. I’m not expecting a Pulitzer, or a show at the Guggenheim. I’m just hoping to have a bit of fun and force myself to translate what is in my head to a .TIFF. Wish me luck!
Here is my first image from the new project. To capture it, I deployed my stability system, mounted an 80-200mm light refractorer (made up space word), and set my white balance to stun (err…incandescent).
News: Remember the Heart and Lung benefit show this Friday night. Feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions. It is for a great cause!
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 80-200 AFD
Gitzo Traveler
Processing Notes:
In an effort to expose myself to new techniques, I decided to give a fellow Flickrer’s tutorial a try. It worked out pretty good.
You can find it here.
Thanks! jfdpl686
This is a local Super Fun(d) site close to Denver. Boy, do I ever want inside. However, I am guessing the fence protects me from my willingness to ignore the asbestos in the name of photography. I think I will just continue to photograph the building from the safety of my truck bed.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 16-85 VR II
Nikon CPLII
Gitzo Traveler
2004 Toyota Tacoma
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 25 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Processing Notes:
Capture – 9 images @ 1EV
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
NIK Color Efex Pro – ProContrast
Nik Color Efex Pro -Glamour Glow (desat a bit)
Nik Color Efex Pro – Tonal Contrast selective to building
Size for web
Nik Sharpener – Display 40% output
LightAsMagic.com
From the safety of my truck.
Tip: I have mentioned it before, but always make sure to shut your engine off when shooting from the bed of your truck. Your high dollar tripod is worthless on a a vibrating surface!
As promised, LightAsMagic.com has gone big! Well, at least the images are bigger. What better way to celebrate than a big sky image of an alien watering hole as seen from Dead Horse Point outside of Moab Ut!
Let me know what you think of the new format. My stats indicate that less than 5% of you might have to scroll a bit to see the entire side bar. The other 95% of you get to enjoy much larger images! I know what John Stuart Mill would have to say.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 17-35 AFS
Nikon CPLII
Gitzo Traveler
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 17 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Processing Notes:
Capture (9 images @ 1 EV, only used one)
Photomatix – HDR/Tonemapping
Nik Define 2.0 – Noise reduction automatic profile
Nik Color Efex Pro – ProContrast
Nik Color Efex Pro – Glamour glow selective to the sky w/ a touch of desat
Nik Color Efex Pro – Tonal contrast selective to the canyon
Sized for web
Nik Sharpener 2.0 – Display 30%
LightAsMagic.com
It started out like any other Saturday morning. Wake up early, make some coffee, head to the darkroom, and process a week’s worth of images. This has been my standard operating procedure for the last couple of months and it seems to work pretty well. I will dive into my holding project entitled “On Deck” and grab and couple of stacks that I want to process and post for the next week. Everything is quiet, the coffee is bottomless (which isn’t necessarily a good thing), and I’m taking a stroll down memory lane as I review images and remember the great times while making them. I was on my second cup of coffee when I began to process this image. I finished it well after the coffee pot was empty. Not only were the clouds a bit of a struggle, the canyon walls (both left and right) were riddled with Chromatic Aberration. The left side was plagued with magenta fringing on the vertical lines and the right side was spotted with a touch of blue fringing. To solve this problem, I processed the images where the problem was prevalent. This was the the two overexposed captures from the bracketed sequence. However, the CA really became an issue because once the right side was corrected, the left side was worse and vice-versa . Eventually I was able to establish a reasonable balance and carried on with my standard HDR/Tonemapping process. Now that I think about it, I might have been better served to process each problem image biased towards the specific CA fringing (one for magenta the other for blue) and then blended the two images together prior to processing. Hmm…a more appropriate tile would have been, Never Retreat, Never Surrender, and Hindsight is 20/20? Next time!
Scene: This image of the Canyonlands National Park, outside of Moab Utah, was shot on a short hike, about half way down from the mesa above.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Tokina 11-16 ATX Pro
Gitzo Traveler
Aperture: f/22.0
Focal Length: 11 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Processing Note:
Capture – 8 images @ 1EV
Adobe Camera Raw – Raw conversion (CA correction on 2 images)
NX2 – Raw conversion on 5 images
Photomatix 3.2.9 – HDR/Tonemapping
NIK Define 2.0 – Noise reduction
Photoshop – Curves adjustment global
Nik Color Efex Pro – Tonal contrast
Photoshop – Lens correction (CA fix)
Nik Define 2.0 – Noise reduction selective to sky.
Nik Color Efex Pro – Correct color cast, still wasn’t happy, so I cooled it down a bit.
Sized For Web
Nik Sharpener 2.0 – Display 50%
LightAsMagic.com
….ugghhhhhh
My good friend Fred once asked me while we were out on a photo adventure, “Justin, have you ever thought about the impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on U.S. history?” I’m pretty sure I did in high school history class, but I haven’t given it much thought since. It was a bit of a departure from our usual discussions concerning lens selection and metering modes. However, Fred offered some interesting insight into the railroad as we drove on to our next subject of interest where the conversation quickly went back to image making. Why this story of railroading you ask? The town of Cisco, UT, whose gas station pictured here, is proof of this impact. This town’s rise and fall was dictated by rail. All that is left now are a couple of abandoned buildings, free range animals, and the occasional photographer who happens to pass by.
Note: As promised, this in an image I have been working on as part of my work with David Nightingale from Chromasia.com. David and I have been doing some back-n-forth on images as he shares his eyes and insights. So far, in round 1 alone, I have learned several valuable lessons. I am looking forward to round 2. Remember, if you are interested in getting a lifetime membership to Chromasia.com, and access to all of David’s tutorials, use the coupon code C7164B8543 to receive a 15% discount.
Capture Notes:
Nikon D300
Nikkor 17-35 AFS
Gitzo Traveler
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 19 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Processing Notes:
Capture (9 images @ 1EV)
Photomatix – RAW conversion and HDR/Tonemapping
Photoshop – Smart Sharpen Layer
Photoshop – Curves adjustment global contrast and color correction
Photoshop – Curves adjustment to sky based on Luminosity mask
Photoshop – Curves adjustment to lounge chair selective by brush
Photoshop – Curves adjustment to left and bottom left side of image from Luminosity Mask
Sized for web
LightAsMagic.com
Tip: It is always better to invest in yourself rather than your gear. Never stop learning.
