Golden Gate Bridge Tower

This shot is an HDR taken looking up one of the main towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. The HDR caught some of the grungy metal texture and amplified it, and the color, etc was finished in Photoshop. I also used Topaz Adjust in this one, which I don’t use much anymore. But it gave some startling detail to the image.

More at www.kelleybard.com if you are interested!

Enjoy… and if this makes you think of a certain two towers in New York City… well, I can’t say that they weren’t in the back of my mind when I finished this photo.

 

Utah Storm Light breaking Through

 
One of the last photos taken on my recent trip through Utah, Arizona and Nevada. This was in the center of Utah. I watched this storm build for a while and stopped to take several images of it… this was when I finally started to see rain falling off to the right and I wasn’t sure how long it would be before I got hit with it, so I stopped and took several exposures for an HDR. I love how the underside of the clouds is so richly textured, and I’m a sucker for sunrays so the strong light beams are incredible to me. The dappled light on the ground was an extra gift here, as I really wanted to get some light on the ground and for the most part it was in shadow. HDR for HDR Friday… enjoy!

Thanks so much for viewing my work here. If you are interested, my website has lots to explore and enjoy. www.kelleybard.com. Feel free to browse!

 

Route 66- Using Textures to Create Interest

 

One of my favorite roads in America, Route 66 runs through the Southwest and has sections that are found as far east as Chicago. It’s an old road, the main artery into the west for much of the 20th century but largely abandoned now. The sections that are open go through beautiful, open country with hardly any traffic. Some of the towns located on it are hanging on by a thread, others are completely shuttered. It’s eerie.

You also find these old Burma-Shave ads all over the place. They are priceless: odd, quirky, mostly dark humor that keeps you interested in what the next sign down the road has to say. I pulled over here before a big curve to take in the road, valley, and sign. The resulting image (3 exposures processed in HDR) still didn’t give the aged feeling to it, so I worked on the image with some textures and detailing. I like how the warmed up colors really highlight the old look of the sign, and the sky is much more interesting with the layers of textures. Overall, a photo I really enjoy.

See more at www.kelleybard.com. Thanks!

 

Bryce Canyon Tree and a New Use for HDR

 

Have you ever taken a landscape image you liked in theory but it just didn’t have great or interesting lighting? Here is a way I’ve found to create a better image from a good one:This was a tree I found on the way to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was in a gorgeous area of these red rock formations, and I looked up and saw this tree and fell in love. The sky was more blue, and the rock wasn’t as vivid or well lit (it was solidly overcast, so the light was nice and soft but not interesting), so I chose to process it as an HDR. I took 3 images (my normal landscape protocol so I can pick and choose HDR’s in the future) and processed them in Photomatix. The result I liked best left the tree and rock dark. So I processed it a second time with the same images, this time making the light on the rock brighter and lightening the tree area as well. I followed the process discussed below and mixed the two .tif’s to create the rock lighting that I wanted. Then I finished the photoshop creation with some cleanup touches and here you are!

Process:

1. Take 3 or more shots (for me, the Canon can take -2, 0, and +2 exposures every time I shoot an image) whenever you might possibly use a photo for an HDR.

2. Process the set of exposures in Photomatix, the Nik HDR program, or Photoshop (any HDR creation program). Process it once as your ideal sky and save it. Then undo tone mapping and re-create it with your ideal rock lighting. Save that one as well.

3. Put both images into Photoshop, layer the images (shift and drag one onto the other) and mix them however you find best!

4. Finish it with noise reduction, sharpening, saturation and hue changes… whatever you wish for your HDR image.

5. Save it as a final image and enjoy!

So, a new option to use with good photos that I want to turn into great photos. Nice to find.

See this at www.kelleybard.com. Thanks for viewing!

 

 

Zion Lights

 

 

Two versions of this image for your viewing enjoyment… and it’s HDR Friday so they are, um, well… HDR’s. Taken in Zion National Park (which, by the way, I’ve wanted to go to since I moved to the 4 Corners region. So glad I went, and I need to spend much more time exploring this beautiful area). I believe this is the “Great White Throne”, but I”m not sure if I have the name right. I love how the different versions came out so vastly different. The great lighting on the mountain is more visible in the color version, but the black and white one is more intense, in my view. What do you think?

Will be available at www.kelleybard.com, come on by and check out what I have there when you get a chance!

 

 

Back in Action! Some of what was missed over the past 2 weeks….

Sorry again for being gone so long, I was able to keep up with my flickr and facebook postings but it was too much to do this blog as well. So back to the grindstone…

Here are a few of the cute images missed in the past few weeks!

Babies:

Maternity:

Nature:

Rapture-related:

HDR: (Well, the one above is also an HDR)

And Commercial:

Enjoy!

The “Scape” part of “LifeScapes”… Spring Tree at Red Rocks

I took this image while exploring Red Rocks Amphitheater (and here, the entrance drive in) with my new wide angle lens. I was struck by the lovely, bright leaves and the lines in the rocks and sky, so I took a few images for a possible HDR. This ended up being a single image HDR (handheld was a bit blurry in some of the exposures). The extreme sunlight made some unavoidable color problems, though- I got rid of the red lines around the branches, but was stymied (or too lazy) to clean up every green outline), I removed as much as possible without going into each single line. So I did the best I could. I still like it but I don’t like cutting corners, dammit!

I love landscapes and haven’t gotten out with my camera to catch the beauty around here lately, so it was nice to get back to it.

See more at http://www.kelleybard.com, or facebook, flickr, etc (links to the right).

Enjoy!

First with the Wide Angle Lens! 2 Versions “Tree and Mountains Wide”

I planned this to be a color image, but I liked the black and white version so much that I included it. I guess that goes to show that you can’t always plan out a photo… there is always an unexpected element to it!

My first published image using the wide angle lens. Like it!?? I’m loving it, although I am still learning what works with it and what doesn’t.

Single image HDR- it had to be that way because it was a very windy day (see the snow blowing off the mountains?) and the branches were blurred in the normal and light exposures. I did the HDR thing on the normal exposure then brought in the darkest image’s tree to get the focus right and blur to a minimum. I also had fun running this through Topaz Adjust twice, to get a different look for the clouds and for the ground and tree. Fun times in Photoshop!

See this and others on my website http://www.kelleybard.com, or the links to the right (facebook, flickr, twitter, buzztown, etc.).

Flatirons from Chautauqua

This was the morning before I got my wide angle… it would have been nice to have on this shoot, though! I love, love, love Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO. It’s amazing. I headed there the first morning I was in Boulder, and saw this amazing sky forming. You should have seen me booking across the field to catch a good angle! The photo is an HDR, made from 3 different exposures of the scene. I hope you enjoy it. The solitude and calm of that morning was amazing, and the otherworldly Flatiron mountains are incredible.

See this and other images at www.kelleybard.com, on at any of the links to the right (Buzztown, facebook, flickr…).

More images are going to come from this great trip, including some darling family and baby shots that I was blessed to take. Keep coming back to view them as I post my daily photos for 2011!

Colorado Mesa Roadwork and a Mini HDR Tutorial

Here’s an HDR for all of you hungry for HDR images. To review: HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. HDR images are technically HDRI (if you want to sound like you REALLY know what you are talking about). HDR allows more light options to be shown in the image because you take several different exposures of the same shot, essentially allowing for a dark, light and normal version of the image (3-9 is the usual amount of shots taken)- that are then combined in a computer program (I use Photomatix Pro 4) to create your image. You can tone map the photo from there, which allows you to control the amount of detail in shadows and in highlights. Tonemapping also can give you the look of a realistic image, or a SUPER CRAZY OVERCOOKED HDR, depending on your settings. So play cautiously. Sometimes an image needs the overcooked look (I tend to get my slider as close to the left as I can get away with on the “micro smoothing” tab, which definitely adds noise and the grungy HDR look I like. But I try to temper it with sanity. Really I do!). I’ve found (and the vast majority of photographers out there with HDR tutorials seem to say as well) that you need to take that noisy image into Photoshop and play with it there before you have a clear final image. I will sometimes take parts of the original images and mask them into the HDR image in spots where the HDR didn’t work so well. I also play with the colors of my images A LOT- in this, I desaturated and darkened the blues to get the sky look I like, and changed around the yellow and rust colored equipment until I liked it better. I think noiseware of some kind is a must with HDR, and I always use either Noiseware Professional or Topaz DeNoise (both have their positives and their negatives, look up my reviews of each in this blog if you are interested in pros and cons… but know that as I’ve learned how each works, both have become very usable and friendly). Noiseware desharpens the image, so sharpening of some kind is needed to finish the picture- either in Photoshop or Lightroom. But be careful, as sharpening brings back some digital noise if you aren’t watching!

This particular image was finished with a hard light layer added over the main layer and mixed in. But that’s just my work… and a recent obsession (adding lighting layers to change the look). Totally not HDR-specific.

I’m not the best out there with HDR, but there are several places and people you can check out to see and learn from the real experts. For me, Trey Ratcliff at stuckincustoms.com is the master for HDR landscapes. I’d also look at Rick Sammon’s work at his blog site. Trey has a great HDR tutorial for free on his site, and Rick might also have something. Finally, to be inspired I go to HDRspotting.com. The featured images on the home page are always well done HDR, and the editors picks are amazing. If you can get invited to join, then share your work there. They rarely deny submissions, but to get on the featured page or editors picks requires a great image (and sends TONS of people to your website or flickr page, which is a plus). Contact me if you want an invite code, I have one free, or go to the HDRspotting facebook page and show your work there- maybe you will get a code from that. I suggest contacting artists directly from the HDRspotting website, complement their work, and ask for a code then. I am sure there are many more great HDR artists out there- I’d add Laurie Shupp, Brian Matiash, RC Conception and Scott Frederick on the short list of photographers that I really admire.

For other programs to create HDR, I’ve heard great things about the Photoshop CS5 program, and also Nik Software’s HDR Pro. It’s becoming more common, so look around and see what you can find. Photomatix has been around a while (Pro 4 just came out in 2010 though) but does quality images- and is fairly cheap. You still need Photoshop to really finish the images, though, and I heard that the Nik Software works well even without Photoshop… haven’t tried it though and so I can’t vouch one way or the other.

If I get comments on this, I’ll be glad to go back in and add more detail to any sections you want- well, more detailed. So feel free to comment good or bad on it! I’d also love more “go-to” people to suggest out there, so if you know a great HDR artist, let me know who he/she is! I have a “Check This Out” category on this blog where I suggest great artists I admire, so this could work into an article there in the future!

I wouldn’t say this is the best of my HDR. Here are some others which have gotten good comments or view counts:

To see more of my work, head to www.kelleybard.com and enjoy. I have a whole gallery just for HDR at www.kelleybard.com/hdr. There you can see my good images (and some of my bad HDR, I’m sure). Lastly I love to get connected with you on flickr, facebook, buzztown and twitter. Links are above to the right… and you can always search “Kelley Bard” or “Kelley Bard Photography” if you want to find me on one of those sites!