Daily Image - Nov 2014 Archive

03 Nov 14. This week we'll start off with the same image for three days. Today's version will be in the form of a vintage photo, tomorrow's in B&W, and Wednesday's as a standard color image. Please keep all three until Wed so you can put them up side by side to compare. Each will have its own unique look, each quite different from the other, but all three exactly the same photo. A common approach to historical photography currently in vogue is the then and now comparisons. This set of three is along the same idea, as the vintage version is quite a bit different from the "modern" color version as is the B&W when compared with the color version. I'm betting as I write this that there will be many of you who will have already decided which look you will like best, but do yourselves a favor and wait until you see all three, especially all three side by side. You might just surprise yourself. The vintage image I'm sharing will likely appeal primarily to those of you who like the creative versions I share, those who favor B&W will undoubtedly prefer that version, and those of you who really prefer the straight from the camera approach will likely prefer the color version. But if you aren't hard over in one of those camps, hold your decision until you have all three in front of you at once. This shot was a long exposure made by putting a 10 stop neutral density filter in front of the lens. It resulted in two things happening, one I wanted and one I didn't. The one I wanted was the silky effect on the water, the one I didn't want was a color shift on the green side, something totally unexpected. We'll discuss that on Wednesday. Meanwhile, here is a vintage photo of Lower Yellowstone Falls. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 10 sec @ f/ 6.3.

04 Nov 14. Today we look at the same image as yesterday except that I've removed all the frilly edge stuff and converted it to B & W. As most of you may recall from earlier mailings, I grew up with a B & W darkroom directly across from my bedroom in the basement of our house. I hold many fond memories of my room and the darkroom and among the best are those of watching the magic of a B & W image materialize on the surface of a piece of paper submerged in those strong smelling chemicals. Those were truly special times, and I'm only now beginning to fully appreciate the impression they made on a young child's mind. As I play with digital images I'm finding a strong pull to make them as B & W as opposed to just leaving them as color. So now I make a B & W version of every image I prepare for these mailings. Using the major digital imaging program around today, I have 7 different native approaches to creating that B & W image, along with an additional four pieces of software I've purchased to improve on the native capabilities. The 7 ways to do it are as follows for those of you who may be interested: 1) generic grey scale conversion, 2) desaturation via an adjustment layer, 3) monochrome channel mixer layer, 4) a B & W adjustment layer, 5) using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), 6) Lab color mode, and 7) employing a gradient map. Not all of these are equal in their ability to provide for a decent B & W image, and in fact they vary greatly. I employ method 7 on every image to ensure I'm getting the best color image possible, but why and how it's done can be another discussion. In addition to these 7 methods, I have available a set of actions called "The Digital Zone System" which attempts to replicate the work of Ansel Adams, another set of actions called "T K Actions" which works similarly albeit very differently, and two plug-ins for directly manipulating a color image into B & W, one called "silver Efex Pro 2" and the other "BW Effects 2." There are many more programs that could be employed which I don't have. For this image I've used the plug-in silver efex to achieve my desired result. I also made another using just method 7, but decided that I liked this version better. So for all you B & W lovers, here's your version. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 10 sec @ f / 6.3.

05 Nov 14. Today we will look at the third of the three images of the Lower Falls in The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I'm hoping this image comes across as intended as it looks quite different on this mail machine than it does on my color calibrated graphics box. The point of concern, and the basis for this discussion, being the color of the falls which should be very close to pure white. On a calibrated screen it is just that. Now recall I mentioned on Monday that there were two things that the long exposure got me: 1) the soft water which was what I was after, and 2) a color shift toward green which I didn't want or expect. Back in the days of film when shooting long exposures, such as this 10 sec exposure, it was not unusual to get a shift in color, but this is not something that is typically experienced in the digital world, so having it happen came as quite a surprise. A bit of searching on the web these past couple of days is suggesting that it is fairly typical with long exposures using ND filters, such as the 10 stop ND filter I used to get this image. So I learned something I needed to know before hand and didn't, but now do. Removing a color cast from an image, such as the green shift I experienced, isn't all that hard, and there are several ways to do it and I'll list four. They all work but vary in the complexity and application and time involved. However, the more complicated versions offer the greatest degree of finesse. Here are four you can employ and others on these lists may have other suggestions. 1) A threshold adjustment layer using the color sampling tool and a curves adjustment; 2) a gradient adjustment layer also employing the color sampling tool and a curves adjustment; 3) using either ACR or Lightroom - they use the same color engine - to set the white and black points, and 4) a plug-in such as Color Efex Pro 4 which offers a filter for removing color casts. All of these will get the job done. The choice of tool is simply based on the difficulty of the job. Of course it can all be rendered to a one click solution by including a calibrated color chart in the frame or shooting the color chart at the start of the shoot and using it to color correct all the shots in a batch. So now you have all three images to compare: the original color corrected version, the B & W edition of that color shot, and a creative old time look. Hopefully your monitor will show the white as white! Put them all up on the screen side by side to see the same scene three different ways. Maybe your initial thoughts about which is best will be altered by this approach. And then again, perhaps not. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200, 10 sec @ f/ 6.3

06 Nov 14. A very short drive or an enjoyable walk from the Firs lodge where we stayed for the Mt Baker outing is a parking lot that houses both a set of rest rooms and a visitor's center on opposite sides. In between is a stone fence on the other side of which you access the series of very small lakes that are connected together by a small stream collectively known as the Chain Lakes. Seen from above, from where this photo was taken, the bodies of water are aptly named. It is a nice walk around them but it will take you the better part of a day to do them all and a small amount of effort along with some degree of agility depending on the time of the year you embark on traversing them. I have yet to make it all the way around chickening out at one end of the trail due to "road" conditions. The trail is one of dirt and stone with the occasional blockage due to white stuff. While I don't mind level white stuff, that which has as one side rock, and the other an angle of about 15º down tends to give me second thoughts, especially when the top is but a few inches in breadth. Our visit this time as I mentioned prior was predominantly one of rain, but Sunday provided us with more intermittent clouds than rain and we made the most of it. Leaving the parking lot and starting down slope that takes you to the trail, you are initially presented with the grand view of the area and it is a rather lovely sight. This shot is looking generally north with one of the lakes that has a bridge over it in the center background. Since it is Theatrical Thursday, I ran the shot through the Impressions filter I was testing a couple months back and selected a palette knife and oil look that I thought might well represent the windy conditions we experienced throughout the weekend. While the image doesn't depict it well, the drop off just behind the slanted brown area to the base of the lakes is about 200 feet. So the trip down takes a few minutes of your time, even if you are not taking photos. Longer if you are. Of course, if the wind blows hard enough, it just could be a quick trip. After you've looked at this up close, step back about 5 -6 feet and look again. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/250 sec @ f / 6.3.

07 Nov 14. After yesterday's blaze of color and squiggles, we'll look at something quite tame for Macro Friday. This is a blossom from a Christmas Cactus Jan grew from a broken branch of another plant. It has been sitting in her green house window over the sink for a few months and just suddenly decided to bloom. The image on your screen, assuming your monitor is in the 15 - 19 inch size, should be about 6 - 10x life size, as its actual length is roughly 2.5 inches. The only things I've done to it are to add my standard amount of contrast enhancement which is VERY small and selected out the background to make it blacker. The backdrop I use has a wee bit of texture and it was showing up and a little distracting to my eye, so I just eliminated that texture. Otherwise, this is a straight from the camera shot. Nikon D300s; 105mm macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /10 with flash.

10 Nov 14. The morning we arose to the stars and headed out early we encountered several small herds of bison numbering around 20-40 animals per group and scattered along several miles of prairie. The clouds were playing hide and seek with the sun and the opportunities for many different kinds of shots were constantly being presented. All one needed to do was to stand in one place long enough - 5 to 10 minutes - and you could have everything from bright sunshine to complete overcast and everything in between. This was one of those bright sunshine moments and the reflections being shared on the surface of the small bodies of water made for some delightful sights. One of the more interesting things we observed was the relatively large number of very young bison, red dogs as they are affectionately called, that were in most of the herds. Some of them were likely less than two weeks old. We had some thoughts about how many would make it through the winter being born so very late in the year. We'll never know but at least of few of them, two in this image, got recorded for posterity while we were visiting. After you've found them take another look to identify who is in charge in this herd. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/500 sec @ f / 9.

Veterans Day. Just when you think you've got this B&W stuff under control, you find out that you've missed something right under your nose that does a much better job of creating a B&W image and it is something that is so obvious that it is embarrassing. Of course, like most things, once you are made aware of it, it's obvious, but prior to that it certainly wasn't, even if it should have been. Now what am I babbling about. Before I get you thoroughly confused, here is a link to learn more about it for yourself, and both the video and the paper are worth your time if you are seriously interested in creating better B&W images. The web page to which I'm directing you is also definitely worth your time. In short, the better way is to open your image, then, in order, create a hue/saturation layer followed by a B&W gradient layer, (W&B gradient layer if you are after creating a B&W negative). With all three layers active, the B&W gradient will give you the B&W image; using the underlying hue/sat layer you can individually adjust the hue, saturation, and luminance of each color in the original background layer. Doing so will let you maximize the tonality of the B&W version of the image but it will likely give you some outrageous colors in the original image which you don't care about since you are after the B&W version, not the color version. Today's submission was created using this technique. The original was taken from a friends home on Puget Sound which overlooks the Olympic Mountains. I had gone there for a visit when I noticed what seemed like an unusual sky and developing sunset so I started taking photos and continued for about 40 minutes. In the process I couldn't help but think that the playing of the clouds in the sky was reminiscent of our ancient Etch-A-Sketch and this was God's version of playing with one.If you've ever played with one you'll undoubtedly get the analogy. Tomorrow we'll look at a color version of what I was seeing but use another image. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 500; 1/200 sec @ f / 22.

12 Nov 14. Many of you may remember the old trick with slide film when shooting sunsets of under exposing by roughly 1 stop to get a really nicely saturated image. This approach to sunsets has been around as long as I can remember, which, with advancing age, may not be all that reliable, but the process works as well in digital imaging as it did in analog imaging. We'll pick up today with where we left off yesterday, and I hope that at least some of you visited the link to watch the video and read the paper. If you didn't, please consider so doing. This shot was one of the series I mentioned yesterday which started out as mostly interesting clouds that then dissipated along with the fog that had been with us for most of the day - you can still see a band of it washing out the trees, and then began to give us a nice light peachy sunset that increased in intensity until finally giving up as the sun went out after falling into the Pacific Ocean. This shot was taken right before the peak, although at the time I thought it had peaked. I found out the next morning from my friends that the show got better about 10 minutes after I had departed. Goes to show that it pays to wait for the final curtain before exiting the theater. This shot got my normal gradient layer adjustment and nothing else; the saturation, such as it is, was due to the 1 stop under exposure but keep in mind that most of the color was what we were actual seeing; I just helped it a small amount. The fog that is almost gone in this image turned out to have high tailed it to my cousin's farm which, as I passed by it on my return home, was totally engulfing it. Had I had the tripod with me I would have captured some really interesting images, but sadly, I had not brought it along as I hadn't been planning on doing any photography that evening. Lesson learned, keep the tripod available at all times. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/160 sec @ f / 5.6.

13 Nov 14. Today's creative effort is supposed to resemble the work of Rembrandt, although I think the preset fails to render the effect dark enough to actually simulate the work of the master. I believe I'm going to have to rework it and then send it to the company to consider as a replacement for what they are currently shipping. This is another of the shots from the top of the trail leading down to the Chain Lakes at Mt Baker. I started working on this image from the onset with the idea of it only being a creative effort, and that's what I did. So all that I've done to it was to add my typical gradient layer adjustment, then it went straight into the plug-in for conversion to what you are seeing. I played with it for the better part of an hour before deciding on the final outcome. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f / 6.3.

14 Nov 14. My apology for the lateness of today's mailing but somewhere between making a crash run Monday into Seattle to help a friend buy a computer and dinner on Veteran's day I managed to make my body appealing for some nasty critter that has been getting the best of me the last couple of days and was really acting nasty yesterday so I took the day off, completely. Winning the battle now, so here we go for Macro Friday. On my screen the red leaves are very close to the actual size they were in the rocks, so from the perspective of this monitor we have a life sized image. In reality, when I snapped the shutter, the leaves were about 1/5 life size, still in the realm of close-up photography. This shot is from the Mt Baker trip and being predominantly cloudy, overcast, and windy, we had some very nicely saturated colors (the wind of course having nothing to do with it except for blowing the clouds across the sun with sometime maddening timing.) I did a couple things to this image to get it where I wanted it from what I captured when I took the shot. First was to crop it to move the placement of the leaves, something I should have done in camera. Next, I've increased the micro contrast to better bring out the marvelous textures in the rock, and finally, I've selectively brightened the yellows in the rock. The overcast sky did a nice job of saturating the color, but it left the image a bit on the dark side which didn't allow for the rocks to share in the impact of the image. Next trip up to the area my plan is to concentrate of the rock formations setting them off with some of the surrounding scenery. If you make a visit there, be sure to take a good look at all the different rock formations. Nikon D300s; 18 -200; Aperture Priority; ISO 320; 1/60 sec @ f / 5 hand held.

17 Nov 14. Driving westerly through the Lamar Valley we were struck by the absolute beauty of the aspens for the few minutes that they were thoroughly back/side lit by the morning sun. This extreme color was present for perhaps 10 minutes and then it began to mute as the sun rose higher in the sky. Less than 20 minutes earlier as we were heading in an easterly direction toward Cody they appeared dull and generally uninteresting. But as the sun began to rise above the horizon we were treated to a delightful show. Because of the varying heights of the surrounding hillsides we had the opportunity to see the show in several different locations. A few shots we took at the old Yellowstone Association grounds which are surrounded by these beautiful trees were not as colorful as this image but we apparently missed the show there as pictures sent this fall by the Association show the trees around the old buildings displaying much as are the ones in this image which was actually taken within a mile off that location. Timing, as is said, is apparently everything, especially in photography. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/400 sec @ f / 7.1.

18 Nov 14. Today's B&W image was created with an original color file that was edited using an initial B&W gradient layer on top of which I placed several curve adjustment layers. And that was it; no filters or any other software. Nothing fancy here, just the application of several slight and one heavy - for the sky - luminosity (curves) adjustments to achieve the final output. The grass, trees, reflections, and rocks all received small adjustments, but the sky, which was really bland in the original color file, and even more so in the B&W conversion needed a LOT of "help" if it was going to be interesting and not just a white distraction, so it got the heavy handed treatment. This is the small pond adjacent to the upper parking lot which leads to the trail taking you over a descent ridge to the series of small lakes appropriately called the Chain Lakes. If you make the drive to the end of the Mt Baker Scenic Highway, you definitely want to enjoy this very scenic hike. You'll want sturdy hiking boots, and depending on the time of year both sun screen and Deep Forest OFF, and of course your camera and a good hiking companion. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 400; 1/500 sec @ f / 7.1.

19 Nov 14. Today we look at the view presented as you begin the hike down to the valley base wherein lie the Chain Lakes. As for the suggestion of needing good hiking boots, take a good look at the ground upon which you will initially encounter as you begin your descent. It isn't all like this as you can see the upper portion of the trail just beyond the rock section, but this one phase will require a bit of secure footing, especially in wet weather. Once beyond it you will be on a rocky dirt trail that is easy to traverse, but, as there are lots of loose rocks that can roll under your feet good hiking footwear will help in keeping you upright. You can get a sense of the weather from the clouds hovering beyond and over the mountain peaks, and by observing the shadow patterns on the mountain sides appreciate the ever changing shooting conditions. This was our Sunday weather, Saturday and Friday were much the same sans the sunshine. A great trip nonetheless, and one I hope to complete someday with the huckleberry in full color. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/800 sec @ f / 6.3.

20 Nov 14. Our daughter Jennifer has a couple of flowering maple trees that sit on her front steps. As they don't do well in really cold weather, and we've had a few days in the 20s of late, she talked her mom into bringing them over here and storing them inside with all our other "patsy" plants. It was a bit of a chore to get them here as they were both a bit too tall for our vehicles and way too heavy. But we managed to do it without any damage and they now adorn portions of the main living area. When we picked them up they were basically green plants with a hint of potential flowers on one of the plants. After a few days inside those potential flowers became the real thing, with the plant fully adorned in red bells with yellow clappers. That was too tempting, so I moved the plant into a good natural light setting and took several frames, well, more like the equivalent of a 36 exp roll. Beautiful as they are in their own right, they also begged for me to try something 'special" read creative, and so I did. This is pretty much a one click conversion using a plug-in called Impression. So here you have my "impression" of a red flowering maple flower. Nikon D300s; 105mm Macro; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/3 sec @ f / 4 on a tripod.

21 Nov 14. We transition for the gaudy of yesterday to the more mundane for today. Leaving Sunday service a couple weeks back and about to get into the vehicle, something said look down as I almost stepped on top of a group of rather pretty, although simple, mushrooms. Having the camera in the back seat, I elected to record this group in part because it was really an easy shot, and I thought them rather handsome. I got down as close as I could with the lens I had on the camera, maneuvered to get the best composition and well as lighting, and snapped a few frames. Once I had an opportunity to look at them on the computer, I decided that all they needed to look their very best was a little attention to the surface texture and some overall cropping of some unnecessary surrounding grass, and so that's what I did. And nothing more. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/60 sec @ f /13 with fill flash.

24 Nov 14. About 30 minutes west of West Yellowstone on Highway 20 is a loop road that takes you on a bypass of the main highway to a location about 20 minutes distant that harbors a set of two waterfalls, the Upper and Lower Mesa Falls. The Upper Falls gets all the attention with a visitors center, elaborate walkway with multiple viewing areas, and lots of parking. The Lower Falls has a small parking lot, is not well identified, and allows viewing only at a distance behind a cyclone fence. The Lower Falls is by far the more spectacular but you will be hard pressed to see any photos of it for sale in the visitors center however there will be plenty of the Upper Falls. The lower and upper names refer to their location on the river and not to their height. The photo for today is taken from the viewer's platform right next to the edge of the Upper Falls, and offers a nice vantage point of the falls themselves, but most of the photographers there, including me, were trying to capture the scene stealer directly opposite the falls. Our lighting that morning was not ideal, but I did the best I could with what I was provided. The combination of mist, harsh light, and some degree of wind made for some challenging photography. I wasn't completely satisfied with any of the many shots I took, but this was one of the better illustrating the entirety of what we were observing. Next trip back I intend to go again on either a more overcast day or visit more near mid day light so I don't have to deal with such a contrasty situation. The original was far more contrasty than what you are seeing so obviously I have done some adjustments to counter that. Next time I'll use an HDR approach to help remove these kinds of lighting conditions. I should have done so this time around but didn't give it sufficient thought. I did however use as slow a shutter speed as possible sans external ND filtering to get as silky a waterfall as I could. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 100; 1/20 sec @ f / 22.

25 Nov 14. Today's B&W image is one I'll share with you for several days. Tomorrow I'll share the color version. As you see it today, I have taken it as a RAW image from the camera, brought it into a RAW format reader, adjusted the color balance and applied a lens correction, something that is done for every image. Then, in a digital editing program, added a B&W gradient adjust layer and on top of that a curves layer which was used in conjunction with the gradient layer to maximize the contrast in the image. That's it. Keep this image for a while as I'll use it to illustrate how different approaches to creating a B&W image result in vastly different results. You may also want to keep the color version for reference in comparing how the colors are represented as grey scale representations. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 8.

26 Nov 14. Today's submission is the exact same image I shared with you yesterday. I am sharing it only for the purpose of providing a color image for comparison. As we look at the various B&W versions of this original image, you will have the colors available to see how well they translate in the various monochrome approaches. Recall that in the days of the wet darkroom that one could get many different looks in a B&W image by first controlling the development of the negative and then again by controlling the printing both by chemical solutions and different papers. I'll likely go with a total of 4 -6 different B&W examples; you can pick what you think looks best after you've had an opportunity to see them all. For fun, you could save each file and then create your own hard edged composite so you can compare them side by side simultaneously. Same stats as yesterday; Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 8.

Thanksgiving. O.K., same image today as yesterday but this time as a painting. We now have it three different ways as a straight color image, a creative color image and a B&W image. I did a similar series several months back of a waterfall in the Olympic National Forest and got a lot of requests for another, so here you have it. But we won't stop there. To these three I will add several more B&W versions with an explanation of how I did each of them and, based on how well this image works with the technique, you don't know until you try, a final version in color created through the use of luminosity masks. So hang onto all of them until I get this exercise completed and as I won't do them back to back any more, it could be a work that will take us to the end of the year. Once again, the same exposure data of Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/500 sec @ f / 8.

28 Nov 14. For today's macro/closeup I've selected the blossom of a white Christmas Cactus. I shot this one in Jan's flower room against a very distracting background because that is what was there. Opening the image in a graphics program, I severely cropped it, trying to get rid of as much of the background as possible, then added a curves adjustment layer for increasing the contrast, leaving it quit bright to make a high key (mostly brights or highlights) image. I then flattened it and converted it into the jpg you are seeing. That was it. Nikon D300s; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 200; 1/125 sec @ f / 5.6.