Repainting in Photoshop

 

Not sure if I like this but I did a simple three step of a fairly even exposed photo and made it an HDR in three simple steps but not in the camera.  Simply +2 over exposed, even exposed, and -2 under exposed.  Saved all three and used the HDR Pro in CS5.  The picture really came out crappy so I decided to try taking it in a direction from there by painting it.  

 

 

 

Well, this is what it turned out to be.  Looks a little more like pencil coloring to me.  The leaves are too speckled for my liking but then had I had the original in a split screen mode I may have done better.  It came out washed out, should have saved a copy of that as well.  I turned it into a b/w before painting the colors back in.  Some dodging was done but not much.  Mostly a paint brush.  

A Couple of Sunrise Shots

Been away from doing much on the Blog of late.  Bought a book on Lightroom 5 but haven't had much of an opportunity to take any shots then on day a fellow Focus Photo Club member put up a great picture of a road in the early morning where he took a great shot of the sun light coming through the trees.  This inspired me to take some photos. 


I almost lost this one with a blown out sky but was able to salvage it.  There's a little HDR thrown in and then edited to un-sharpen the effect.

 

 

 

This one looks like an edited on of the first but the sun would be in there.  It was taken just a few minutes earlier.  The sun rises very quickly so you have to be ready.  It would help to have two cameras set up differently, like if you wanted ND filters on like I did but things just change too fast.  So, I took an already pretty good silhouette picture and amped it up a tad.  I call this Metallic Sunrise.

 

An Early Morning Visitor

The face of authority as is the eagle and falcon.

I got several shots of this hawk sitting on the deck railing.  The problem was that I didn't want to spook it by raising the blinds so all that could be done was to twist them open.  I didn't even know it was out there until my wife told me so I hurriedly retrieved the camera.  I edited it in PS to hide the lines from the blinds.  I love their faces.  A little HDR effect as well.  Possibly a Red Tail.  The two below are of a Coopers Hawk.  Much bigger bird.

This one was on the neighbors deck a couple of years ago.

This was last year.  A Robins nest was in the tree above it.  You can see one of the babies on the ground.  It became part of the noon day meal for this magnificent bird along with its two siblings.

Lightroom 5 Beta

I downloaded the Adobe beta version of LR5 to check out the improvements.  I have been using my LR3.4 version more and more.  I really do like it and the organizational aspect.  I'm going to put up three car shots from 2011.  All have been edited in LR5.  I have watched some tutorials about the program so I will say I haven't even touched the surface of this newer version.  And, no, these are not shot in HDR, all hand held.

 Black Porsche wheel shot.  Starburst on back wheel was not put there by me, but the lens and lighting.

 50 something Chevy if my memory serves me correctly, Beep Beep!

Looks like HDR but not.  Didn't know I was going here until it was done and my son-in-law pointed it out to me.  Good eye Greg.....he also shoots a mean shot with a camera.  I say, I say, the boy has talent ;-)

Moon Shots From 12/03/12

Sky shots of any kind need definition and clouds are pretty much the only thing that works. I use to fly radio control airplanes and the best time to fly was with a back drop of clouds to help keep your orientation. After all, you aren't in the cockpit unless you have one of the newer cameras mounted and know how to view what you are seeing....ie drones.

There was just a whisper of clouds in the sky last night. I couldn't leave well enough alone, the original pictures came out pretty good right from the camera. Night shots can be bit to get right. The first picture has some HDR (High Definition Resolution) with some Levels tweaking, color control as well and changing from color to black and white. Image was taken through a window.

This shot I call Reflections. You could all it a vertical panorama.

You can enlarge if you desire.