Points of View Photo Project #27
Welcome to the 27th week of the Points of View Photo Project!
This week we are fortunate to have a source image from Friend-of-the-Blog Marc Benton of the Columbus Skyline. Thank you Marc!
We have 6 versions for your enjoyment this week! I am excited for the continued growth of the project and I encourage you all to give it a shot for next week. We have a special image at the end of the post that comes from my brother, Chris, from his recent trip to Antarctica.
So have a look at what we all did to process this initial photo and, who knows, you might learn a little something too!
The Ethics of Digital Photography: Part 3
Today’s edition of our miniseries looking into questions of what is and what is not “ok” when it comes to our work as creative professionals steers us towards the more conceptual side of the discussion. What are the limits of using the creative ideas of others in your own work?
Points of View Photo Project Source Image #21
As promised, we are starting the Points of View Photo Project back up with the new year!
I’m adding in a couple of elements though that will hopefully make this project more interactive, not only for our participants, but for the readers as well. Read more, after the jump.
Software Review: Topaz Adjust
I will be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of plug-ins. Maybe I’ve just never used the right ones, maybe I’ve never played around with them enough, maybe I just haven’t been too impressed with the results. So, I’m going into this one a little skeptical from the start.
With all of that said, I must say that when I sat down to try out Topaz Adjust, from Topaz Labs, I found myself actually enjoying the process. Now, I’m not a purist at all; I think if you have the tools at hand and the ability to utilize them to achieve your vision, by all means. But I feel, and I’ve said this before, that sometimes people can go overboard and turn a potentially good photo into something kind of “alien”, surreal, and even cartoonish which distracts from more than enhances the viewing experience. Not that it isn’t ok to do that sometimes, but it should be done sparingly, in my opinion.
When I opened up my source image from a photowalk I did in Boston over the summer, I was presented with a dark, flat, and uninteresting photo – isn’t that how most of them start out?
Sometimes, when presented with a shot like this I may even just pass right by it without giving it another thought thinking that it was a nice idea but the light wasn’t right or I didn’t take enough time to do this or that the way I wanted to. Then I thought, what better way to really put this Photoshop plug-in to the test than with an image I’m not excited about in the first place? And so the fun began.
When I first opened the plug-in dialog I felt that the interface was very intuitive with a diverse set of presets and their respective previews running down the left, a decent-sized window for your full-sized image (complete with the option to zoom in and out of your photo), and a collection of sliders along the bottom for any fine-tuning you may want to do.
I started off by clicking through each of the presets to see how they would each affect my shot, thinking as I went that a number of them just didn’t give me what I was looking for. At the same time, though, I found myself thinking how I could see where those effects might come in handy with other types of images. I finally landed on the “Dramatic” preset which really caught my attention. I felt as though it really balanced out the tones in the image by lightening up the shadow areas without blowing out the highlights. It also brought out a great deal of details and made the sky, well, dramatic. All adding interest and depth to the photo.
In a way it created an HDR-like effect without the downsides I mentioned above. I then hit the sliders to refine the image even further and really get the results I was hoping for. I brought back a little detail in the highlights and shadows, supressed the noise a tad, and made sure that I wasn’t getting that awful halo effect that a lot of HDR photos employ. In the end, I was pretty pleased with the final image. And considering I was about to dismiss the photo altogether, I’d say that using Topaz Adjust saved it from the recycle bin. Here’s my final image (only process with Topaz Adjust):
Pros:
- Simple, straightforward, and intuitive interface.
- Variety of presets available, with previews
- Large preview window with zoom
- Ability to adjust each setting to fine-tune the image
- Hovering over a slider does more than show you the tool’s name, it pops up a description of what that tool is actually doing
- Works well Smart Objects so you can always go back – gotta love that it’s non-destructive!
- Priced at only $49.99 puts it within reach of everyone.
Cons:
- I could tell that the presets were on the left, but I think the section could’ve been set apart or labeled a little more clearly to make it more self-evident.
- I think some of the names for the sliders could be improved to help the user have a better idea of what’s going on (ie – “Highlights” should be called something more like “Highlight Protection”).
- I think the interface could be rearranged a little bit for a cleaner look – but I might just be nitpicking at this point.
In the end, I would say that I am very glad to have been introduced to this plug-in and it has helped change the way I feel about plugins as a whole. I would definitely recommend adding Topaz Adjust to your Photoshop toolkit!
Points of View Photo Project: #12
Welcome to the 12th edition of the “Points of View Project“!
Every other Friday I will post a new, out-of-the-camera image for you to download. You may process, manipulate, composite, experiment, or otherwise alter the photo in any way you wish. The hope is that we will get to see a number of different takes on the same image and/or see it used in unique ways as a part of a new image.
This is not a contest or competition. It’s simply a way of stretching our creative muscles and to get those juices flowing through experimentation and seeing how many different interpretations can be applied to the same starting photo.
Check out our Points of View Gallery showing this week’s source image and how it has been seen from our contributors’ different points of view. I am especially pleased with this week’s contributions.
Thank you to everyone who contributed this week!
Here’s the image for week #13:
Click here to open the full-size version to download as your starting point. Have fun with it! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
You can do whatever you want to the photo as long as you use the given photo in some way as part of your final image. In fact, I know the potential is there for a number of people to end up processing the image in very similar ways and getting similar results. Because of that, I’d like to encourage you to experiment and/or take things a couple of steps further to really challenge yourself to make it truly unique.
Once you have worked with the image as much as you feel it needs, simply email it back to me at pov@jasondmoore.com by Wednesday September 23rd for inclusion in the project. Please be sure to include your name, location, and website/blog URL so I may properly credit you.
If you would like to send in a photo – unprocessed, straight out of the camera – for us to use as our starting image for a future week, please send me an email to the same address listed above.
I’d like to note that the image(s) that will be used in a given week are only offered for use within the confines of the “Points of View Project“. I am not releasing any rights for use beyond creating your submission. I would also express the same for any starting images that may be provided by other participants. Feel free to re-post your version of the image on your site to share your participation in the project. I just ask for a link back here when you do.
The Points of View Photo Project is sponsored by Towner Jones Photography, LLC. Please take a few moments and head over to see some of the great things Rob is doing! If you would like to sponsor this or any other project here at Jason D. Moore Photography, or would like to support the site as a whole, please visit our “Become a Sponsor” page today to learn how!
Points of View Photo Project: #6
Welcome to the sixth edition of the “Points of View Project“!
Every other Friday I will post a new, out-of-the-camera image for you to download. You may process, manipulate, composite, experiment, or otherwise alter the photo in any way you wish. The hope is that we will get to see a number of different takes on the same image and/or see it used in unique ways as a part of a new image.
This is not a contest or competition. It’s simply a way of stretching our creative muscles and to get those juices flowing through experimentation and seeing how many different interpretations can be applied to the same starting photo.
Check out our Points of View Gallery showing this week’s source image and how it has been seen from our contributors’ different points of view.
Thank you to everyone who contributed this week!
Here’s the image for week #7:
Click here to open the full-size version to download as your starting point. Have fun with it! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
You can do whatever you want to the photo as long as you use the given photo in some way as part of your final image. In fact, I know the potential is there for a number of people to end up processing the image in very similar ways and getting similar results. Because of that, I’d like to encourage you to experiment and/or take things a couple of steps further to really challenge yourself to make it truly unique.
Once you have worked with the image as much as you feel it needs, simply email it back to me at pov@jasondmoore.com by Wednesday July 1st for inclusion in the project. Please be sure to include your name, location, and website/blog URL so I may properly credit you.
If you would like to send in a photo – unprocessed, straight out of the camera – for us to use as our starting image for a future week, please send me an email to the same address listed above.
I’d like to note that the image(s) that will be used in a given week are only offered for use within the confines of the “Points of View Project“. I am not releasing any rights for use beyond creating your submission. I would also express the same for any starting images that may be provided by other participants. Feel free to re-post your version of the image on your site to share your participation in the project. I just ask for a link back here when you do.
The Points of View Photo Project is sponsored by Towner Jones Photography, LLC. Please take a few moments and head over to see some of the great things Rob is doing! If you would like to sponsor this or any other project here at Jason D. Moore Photography, or would like to support the site as a whole, please visit our “Become a Sponsor” page today to learn how!
New Online Magazine: Creative Studio (CAFE)
I was looking through my latest email CAFE Cup news from PhotoshopCAFE and noticed that Colin just launched the first issue of his new online magazine, Creative Studio (CAFE).
For this inaugural issue, Colin has assembled an awesome group of experts to talk about what’s new in CS4. It’s more than just a listing of new features, they go in-depth to really show how some of the newest features work and how they will help you improve your workflow.
In other news, I was reading Scott’s post the other day about AllTop.com and how they are now letting you create your own page of RSS feeds. Scott links us to his page to see the blogs that he checks up on every day and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I am on his list! Very cool!
And speaking of Scott, I was reading the blog of my buddy Rob Jones of Towner Jones Photography and he recently posted about the judges for the “On Assignment” contest. I was asked to be on the panel of judges but when I saw that the other members were Scott and Photowalker Extraordinaire Jeff Revell, I was humbled.
I never want to sell myself short but I am always amazed when movers and shakers in the digital photography community take notice of what I’m doing here in my little corner of the web or when others count me among those same individuals whom I hold in such high esteem.
So, thank you Scott! And thank you Rob! for such honors.
Points of View Photo Project: #5
Welcome to the fifth edition of the “Points of View Project”!
Every other Friday I will post a new, out-of-the-camera image for you to download. You may process, manipulate, composite, experiment, or otherwise alter the photo in any way you wish. The hope is that we will get to see a number of different takes on the same image and/or see it used in unique ways as a part of a new image.
This is not a contest or competition. It’s simply a way of stretching our creative muscles and to get those juices flowing through experimentation and seeing how many different interpretations can be applied to the same starting photo.
Check out our Points of View Gallery showing this week’s source image and how it has been seen from 7 different points of view.
Thank you to everyone who contributed this week!
Here’s the image for week #6:
Click here to open the full-size version to download as your starting point. Have fun with it! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
You can do whatever you want to the photo as long as you use the given photo in some way as part of your final image. In fact, I know the potential is there for a number of people to end up processing the image in very similar ways and getting similar results. Because of that, I’d like to encourage you to experiment and/or take things a couple of steps further to really challenge yourself to make it truly unique.
Once you have worked with the image as much as you feel it needs, simply email it back to me at pov@jasondmoore.com by Wednesday June 17th for inclusion in the project. Please be sure to include your name, location, and website/blog URL so I may properly credit you.
If you would like to send in a photo – unprocessed, straight out of the camera – for us to use as our starting image for a future week, please send me an email to the same address listed above.
I’d like to note that the image(s) that will be used in a given week are only offered for use within the confines of the “Points of View Project“. I am not releasing any rights for use beyond creating your submission. I would also express the same for any starting images that may be provided by other participants. Feel free to re-post your version of the image on your site to share your participation in the project. I just ask for a link back here when you do.
Also, if you would like to sponsor this or any other project here at Jason D. Moore Photography, or would like to support the site as a whole, please visit our “Become a Sponsor” page today to learn how!
Three More Sponsors for the BIG Photo Contest
I received word yesterday of three new sponsors for my 1000th Post BIG Photo Contest!
The details are still coming together but I am excited to announce that Kelby Training, onOne Software and Mpix have joined our list of official sponsors for the contest, which already includes:
- Photoshop Cafe – “Photoshop CS4 for Digital Photographers” DVD
- What the Duck – What the Duck Plush & Signed Print
- and Unified Color – HDR PhotoStudio
A HUGE thanks goes out to all of our sponsors for your support and generous offerings.
Click here for complete contest details and to start working for your chance to win!
Workflow Friday: Marcus Taylor
This week we welcome photographer Marcus Taylor of the blog Invisible Green Photography. This is a really cool series of HDR photos that have a really nice balance between the true-to-life tonal range that HDR provides and the surreal, almost dreamlike nature of some of the artistic applications of HDR without being over-the-top like so many others seem to do.
Take it away, Marcus!
Urban Exploring in HDR
Shooting
For our December meetup, my photography group planned an urban exploring outing in Atlanta. Having never been before I had no idea what to expect, so I set out without much of a plan. Once we got there, and I saw what we would be shooting I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try some HDR shots. Nearly everything I shot that day was a sequence of bracketed shots from three stops below to three stops above what my camera was metering.
Of the shotss I got on the trip, this composition would turn out to be my favorite shot of the day. I might have missed it too, because I was pretty much done shooting when I found it. The rest of the group was standing around talking while a couple of guys were still shooting. I stood around for a minute, but then kept walking around, looking for something else. I had already shot just the hook
and just the tag on the background wall,
but while I was walking around I realized the similar shapes would make for an interesting shot. So I setup my tripod, lined up the hook with the tag and fired my bracketed sequence.
When shooting HDR, or any photography for that matter, the most important steps in the workflow are what I’ve desciribed above. You have to find something interesting to shoot and then shoot it in a way that conveys what it was that pulled you to it. For me, this shot was just about the rhythms of the shapes, colors, and textures. The correctly exposed version of the shot is interesting on it’s own without the HDR processing. As was recently said by David Duchemin, HDR is not an “unsuck filter”, if you don’t have a very good image to start with, then no amount of post processing is going to make it good.
Photomatix
Here’s how I post processed this image, or rather these images. First I imported the files to my computer. When shooting for HDR I generally only use the jpegs straight out of camera, so I don’t bother with the RAW files. I haven’t found any noticeable improvement in image quality from using the RAW vs JPG when tone mapping, and it saves a lot of time over processing each RAW file.
I use an image viewer to find the correct sequence of shots and make a note of each number in the sequence. Then I open Photomatix Pro, go to HDR > Generate.
On the HDR dialog press Browse
and select all of the images you want to use for your image.
Click open, then ok. And you will see the Generate HDR dialog.
Use “Align Source Images” to make sure slight movements between composition don’t cause problems for the image. Use “Attempt to Reduce Ghosting Artifacts” if there was something moving through your images, people or a breeze, etc. And “Take tone curve of color profile”. Then click ok. Depending on how many images you’ve used, or how large they are, this could take several minutes.
When that’s done, you will see an image that doesn’t look very good at all.
In order to get a presentable image, you’ll need to Tone Map it. Go to HDR > Tonemapping.
You’ll get a new window with a much better looking image, and a dialog box with many options.
For this image, and most HDR images, I used “Details Enhancer” because it allows a lot finer control of the details than the “Tone Compressor” method. I can’t tell you exactly what settings I used for this shot, but my practice with working these settings in Photomatix is the same for most any photo editing program. That is is I push them to an extreme value, then back them down to a point that looks more like what I was going for. The settings in the screen shot are a rough approximation of what I used to tone map this one. It’s rare that I keep the strength at 100% but in this case I think it was warranted. I also use the Micro Tab and bumped the micro contrast to 4 and Micro-smoothing to 5.
After fine tuning the settings to your liking, click “Apply” to apply the tonemapping, then save the image as a tiff.
Photoshop
The final step in the process is to open the image in Photoshop for a little bit of enhancing. When I shot this, I thought the empty beer bottle was an interesting detail. Once I generated the HDR I found the bottle distracting so, I cloned it out.
After cleaning everything up, I used high pass sharpening, to bring out a little bit more of the texture. To do this you’ll need to create a composite of all the layers, the easiest way to do this is press CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+E. Then, with the new stamped layer selected, Go to Filter > Other > High Pass.
In the dialog that comes up slide the radius slider to the right until you just start to see color in the preview.
Click ok, then change the blending mode of the layer to Overlay.
My final step before publishing to my website was to resize, flatten, and save as JPG.
And here’s the end result.
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