I’m no expert but it appears the economy is improving. The first two months of 2014 were the busiest I’ve ever had. I know it’s a small sample to base the year on but other photographers have told me they’re off to a good start also. If photographers are working, businesses are marketing and looking to growth. That’s what we do, we help our client market, sell and grow their business.
I spent a lot of the month on the road. Several trips to Orange County surrounded a couple San Diego projects and then I went to the Bay Area for a couple shoots up there. After a quick respite back home and starting a new local project, I went to Alaska for a quick shoot. I know, why send a San Diego photographer there, it’s because my client trusts me to get what they need. Maybe an idea for a future blog.
Well I need to wrap this up. I have another couple projects in Orange County and LA this week. I hope everyone else is busy.
About my image gallery: All images shot with my iPhone while traveling. Post was in Snapseed.
HDR photography is not always a product of three to seven separate images. Nor does it have to be overdone to loose the effect and value of the hdr. The image above was taken during a visit to my home town in Kansas. Having been there previously I knew there was the likelihood of a potential nice landscape image at sunset, not to mention a high probability of catching a fish or two.
Shortly before this image was captured on a nearby field they started burning some native brush. This gave the perception of a gathering storm and gave texture to the sky. As I was ready to start shooting the big fish struck. My host Glen quickly came over to reel in the fish. With a slight reposition to the right I was able to capture this image as the fishing rod was bent over lined up with the cloud formation from the fire.
In postproduction I brought the files into Lightroom. I made two virtual copies and then adjust them to give three distinct images for the highlights, midtones and the shadow detail. After merging them and adjusting them in Photomatix we had the sunset, fishing shot and a thank you print for my host.
I was testing the new beta version of Lightroom 3 and decided to play with some old images. To my surprise the presets that I’d made in my other Lightroom 2 copy were included following the installation. One of the presets is one that I’ve used to make a hi pass filter image that starts with a dark over saturated image and ends up with a high contrast color image. So, I selected an image of DeAngelo Williams of the Carolina Panthers that I’d shot for Donruss Trading Cards. After applying the preset I backed off the recovery and brightness sliders in LR3 to make it brighter and contrasty. I then added sharpening in Lightroom to add snap to the highlights on the skin and football. This gave me a final custom black and white image with it’s own character.
Although this was just a test image I can see making a small portfolio of these portraits in black and white. My initial impression of Lightroom 3 is very favorable. Normally I like to just discover new changes in the programs but this time I watched the videos that Adobe made. Each new version of Lightroom has been a significant improvement and I don’t see Adobe falling short on this one too. I’ll be watching the changes on the beta and anxious for it’s actually delivery.
