Glowing Ribbon of Water, and Thanks again for the Visits! And… Event Monday

I think, after my steampunk balloon photo, I’m trying to push the fantasy look of my photos a bit. So this is Lower Yosemite Falls, Idealized in my mind, for all eternity. The original pic wasn’t quite so perfect… not far from the final image, but more blah, less great water (in all honesty, I wish I could be one of those photographers who could make total fantasy creations in Photoshop- either I’m not creative enough, or just not computer/Photoshop savvy enough, but I wouldn’t even know where to start!). I always liked this pic, though, so I wanted to finish it. Photoshop and Topaz Adjust cleaned up the foggy look a bit, and sharpened it up. I turned it black and white, which made it better, but still not perfect… I went into OnOne PhotoTools and finally got the right mix, ghosting and glowing the water a bit, while still getting the sharpness of the rocks and the details. I finished with Lightroom and made the sepia look… which worked in my mind as I saw this as sorta ideal, possibly in the past Yosemite Falls.

Besides talking about this pic, I wanted to thank you all, again, for another max day yesterday! I think it was that steampunk balloon image that caught someone’s attention… I try to notice that and it’s good for me to see what works for people and what doesn’t, so keep commenting and visiting pics and such, please!

This, along with my other fav pics and (most importantly) YOUR fav pics, is posted to www.kelleybard.com. I’ve also got it on flickr and facebook. Hopefully I’ll get some more feedback on this in one or all places, so I can see what YOU think of it. Comments are loved, always. And keep visiting!

Enjoy.

**Event- Grand Opening of The Red Tent, a womens healing center in Durango, CO**

Monday, Valentines Day from 5-7 is the grand opening of The Red Tent. I spent a good amount of today there, putting my pics on the walls. I’ll be one of the featured artists for the next 2 months there. I’ve got 3 framed images (one a 30×40 frame and 20×30 print, it’s HUGE!) and a canvas wrap coming (another first). I hope to get lots and lots of maternity and infant work out of this, it will be a fun place to be associated with! Check out www.redtentwellness.com for information. And maybe… see you there!

Lower Yosemite Falls Rainbow Mist

A rainbow photo! Who couldn’t love a rainbow photo?

LOL. I had to work a bit in photoshop with brightening the colors of the rainbow while keeping them manageable in all the other parts of the image… also in darkening it to the point that the blacks approached true black (I try my hardest to have light from white to black in every image I finish). I do have a spot of the stream of water which got blown out. It makes me want to go back and create an HDR just to see if I can draw that back from the edge a bit (I almost always take 3 exposures of my images so that I can make an HDR or High Dynamic Range image from the combination of them, if I want to). Overall I like this shot and I think it would crop well to an 8×10 or so, which is nice.

I have my best work at my website, http://www.kelleybard.com, and my daily photos always get posted here, on Kelley Bard Photography’s facebook page, and on flickr. See the links to easily access any of these!

Enjoy!

Lower Yosemite Falls and Nik Class Review

Here is a photograph (well, a series of them, since this is an HDR image) that I took in the early morning at the base of Yosemite Falls, in Yosemite National Park. I absolutely love how the water is falling in these undulating ribbons, and how it contrasts with the textures and solidity of the rocks. The HDR process helped to bring out some of those textures, as well as my use of Topaz Adjust (I think I chose the “clarity” setting and only altered it slightly to get this look).

The original images were a bit more misty and soft, but photoshop and unsharp mask (plus the already discussed software) helped bring out the rock details again. I also desaturated the image a bit, as the browning rocks were distracting.

Love to hear your thoughts on this one! I personally really like it.

Posted to my website, www.kelleybard.com, as well as flickr and facebook. It will be interesting to see if the feedback I get on this corresponds to my feelings about the image… lately I’ve been following what you guys say a lot more, and I think my website is getting more quality images placed there as a result.  Let me know, if you take a moment to check out my redesigned site: what do you think of it?

Nik Software Class Review:

“Enhancing Scenic and Landscape Images” was a really good class. If you look back over this blog, you will notice that I have favorably reviewed many Nik products. I currently don’t own any, and I cover why that is in my previous discussions (basically, they all work well and have some neat ideas… but they are also some of the more expensive photo software that I’ve found out there.  So money has kept me from purchasing the products).  I have always felt, though, that I would purchase something like “Color Efex Pro” when I had the money and the time to learn it well.

I sometimes get emails from Nik Software, not tons spamming me unmercifully, but every once in a while, to let me know of goings on in their company and with their products.  I have heard good things about HDR Efex Pro as well, and was eager to see it in action.  This class seemed to be a good chance to learn their software and maybe a few tricks that would help, even without Nik Software currently on my computer.  It was my first class of this type, and was free to sign up for, so I took the chance.  (I did find out, though, that there is a limit on how many people can attend the online classes, and it sounded like they frequently have to “close the doors” with people still trying to log on.  So if you take one of their classes, it might save you aggravation to show up a few minutes early).

The class used Nik Software on 6 or 7 different images, showing various photographers work from start to finish.  It was taught by Laurie Shupp, who is a fantastic photographer in her own right (I was pointed to her website www.imagesbylaurie.com a while ago, and it’s one that I check out fairly often). Even with only using Nik Software, the class gave many tips that were useful for Photoshop, so it wasn’t a waste at all.  Laurie also gave some composition tips, and other ideas came up which made me glad to attend.  I also feel that I’ll be more comfortable with Nik Software next time I get a go at it, which will be very helpful.  I was really glad to get to see HDR Efex Pro put into use on one of the images, and it seems to work as well as Photomatix Pro 4, which is what I currently use for HDR images.

My only complaint was that the questions didn’t get addressed until the end of the class.  I know I had one photo-specific question that didn’t get answered at all, and I’m sure that was because once the teacher got to it, it made little sense without the photo as context.  It sounded like she was a bit rushed, trying to get through questions at the end, as well.  It was probably due to the set up of the class, or perhaps she isn’t the normal teacher for these classes, but otherwise it was exemplary.  I felt like I learned some tools and I got to spend an hour looking at glorious photographs… how could that be bad?

See www.Niksoftware.com for more info about their free classes!  Oh, and the nice part is after the class, or even if you don’t end up attending, I got a discount for my troubles.  So I learned stuff AND can get their software for cheaper!  How’s that for win-win?

Half Dome from bridge (Second of 2 photos)- I’d LOVE comments here!

So here’s my second version of the same image, processed a bit more “HDR’y” although both came from the same HDR image.  I like the more extreme HDR look here, but don’t like the increased noise in the water and trees, and the smoothed out look that came from my Topaz Denoise noiseware also bugs me in some of the plants along the river.  The other is probably the best technically… But this one calls to me still…

So I’m torn.  Love some comments to see which YOU like better.

Posted to Facebook and flickr.

Enjoy!

Yosemite Falls in Early Winter

Yosemite Falls.  So, what do you think?  I like how the photo came out, and I like how the noise removal made the rocks look, but the trees are made pretty spacey…. oh, HDR.  How I love your look but not some of the side issues.

Anyways, I would love to hear comments.

Posted here, flickr (kelleybardphotography) and http://www.kelleybard.com/places.

Enjoy!