Spoon Bay – Exposure Blending

Ok guys and girls. Here is my latest blend of three images. Shot these ones at -2, 0 and +2. When shooting I did keep my .9 ND grad on and I don’t think I will next time as when doing the brackets it works well for the +2 and 0 but it kills the -2 and makes it too dark especially when that one is for the sky.

More experimentation I guess. Good fun shooting these things. Makes a change from shooting slide. I especially love the water movement in this shot.

There is no HDR (Photomatix) in this image just Photoshop CS3 and layers.

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Ken Duncan Exhibition 2008

For all those who are interested. Ken Duncan has just released this years exhibition of images called ” Island Home”. (17 new ones) They can be seen on his website. http://www.kenduncan.com.au or in his galleries.

Some nice shots there. I am going to check them out this weekend at his Central Coast gallery.

360 Precision Mark II (my version)

After being sick and tired of what this head doesn’t have I decided to make a few modifications to suite my style of shooting. Welcome to the Precision Absolute Head Mark II. If you have the head (this is an achievement already as you might not get one after you pay or one that works) you will know the head has no way of adjustment in between -45, 90 and 45 degrees.

So a specially crafted piece of plank works a treat. Then there is the technical placement of the canon filter cap to adjust / refine the composition. In my extensive trial and error I have found the B&W cases for my ND filters also work well.

If you are wishing to point the lens down ward …. wait for it… YES… your piece of plank can be turned vertically. Awesome hey.  Or if you are “without plank” a pro pack of Velvia 50 film also works a treat. For adjustment just remove a roll from inside the box so it collapses a little. Sorry no picture available. If you don’t shoot film, then maybe try your shoe. I have not tested this as yet.

Moving on… now after each rotation of the head to take the next pic the dents are so severe you have to wait for your tripod to stop wobbling or the whole tripod pushes into the sand a little each time, thus hurting your stitch. Solution…. get rid of the dent ring all together and save yourself valuable seconds in between shooting. It’s not like you know which ring is for what as the thing comes with no instructions anyway.

For my Mark III version I am looking at removing / grinding off the lug off that inserts into the back of the 1ds Mark II. This will allow me to then move the camera up or down and I can then put my plank into retirement. Maybe it can keep open a door or something.

Also my head is set up for the 24-70mm lens. If you want to use other lenses on the head you are meant to buy additional arms. In the shots you can see my 70-200mm f2.8 is on and it works perfectly when stitching. My image titled Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb two posts ago was taken with this set up.

These images can be clicked on to view the technical placement of the plank and lens cap in better detail.

For those interested the plank was bought from Bunnings to make my chicken coop. Was about $3.40 from memory. I’d say each plank could make about 6 Mark II adjustment pieces. Or you could even make lengths of different size. Wow ! I just thought of that then, I may have to check my wood scrap heap for more piece.

Oh the world of professional photography is a fun one.

HDR by Multiple exposure blending

This HDR shooting and blending technique / process and me are far from friends. But this week I have told myself that I was going to give it a go. So I headed out to one of my favourite places at the moment on the Central Coast (Spoon Bay) and kicked things off.

After a nice sunrise I headed home and played with a set of images in Photomatix and after getting annoyed at the results I ended things for the day hitting Command Q on the mac thus killing the terrible image before me and terminating the program. I then decided to take a different approach and blend the three images in Photoshop. The images are -1, 0 and +1 in exposure.

So the shot on the right is my first attempt at exposure blending. I know the composition is lacking but this is just a set of shots I pulled off the card to have a go. So be kind.

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

Got a few more to play with and will post once they are done.

Cheers

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb just celebrated it’s 10th birthday and over 2 million walkers. It is a fantastic and memorable experience for anyone who lives or visits Sydney and the historic info they tell you along the way is brilliant. The walk goes for about three hours from start to finish and it is over before you know it.

In this shot (click image to view large) you can clearly see three groups of climbers enjoying the experience. I did the walk back in 2000 with my sister.

The high afternoon cloud in the background made for a perfect contrast against the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This shot when viewed at actual pixels has such detail that you can make out the sex and facial characteristics of the climbers.

For more information on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb click here.

Sydney Opera House

I’ll never get sick and tired shooting the Sydney Opera House. There are so many angles you can shoot it from and with digital panoramic’s the possibilities seam almost endless.

This is another of my Black and White series I am shooting of the Opera House. I have three more definite locations / angles I want to get.

Landscape Photoshop Tutorials

After a good month of hard work I have finally released my latest project which is an extensive range of Landscape Photoshop Tutorials for the digital photographer. (click to view range)

When teaching landscape photography to my students on my courses I always emphasise the importance of embracing a digital workflow to take advantage of RAW image capture.

The video tutorials come in three topic areas. Masterclasses | Retouching Techniques | Tips and Tricks

In my Masterclasses the tutorials show you step by step the process from start to finish that I use to create my images starting with Adobe Camera RAW development then moving to stitching using Photomerge and then final post production in Photoshop.

In the Retouching techniques tutorials I show you Photoshop skills used to edit, adjust and enhance your digital work. The Retouching techniques can be purchased individually or in packages.

Then finally in Tips and tricks I have tutorials on topics that I use and come across in my everyday work as a landscape photographer that you may find useful.

All the tutorials are recorded in high resolution with clear audio and can be viewed on both PC and MAC. The tutorials are available as instant downloads or can be mailed out should you not wish to download them.

In total there is over 1 gig worth of tutorials available and I have plenty more Masterclasses in development along with retouching techniques and more tips and tricks. All new tutorials will be advertised on the blog.

As a special offer this tutorial titled “The Entrance” is available at a special discounted rate until Sunday the 26th of October.
(download only)