Foto Friday - Burial Hill Cemetery

Foto Friday - Burial Hill Cemetery

Hello everyone.

Today's photo(s) are an attempt to get us into the spirit for the upcoming Holiday, Halloween. This is a 15 shot, light painting on Burial Hill in Plymouth Massachusetts.

Burial Hill is a historic cemetery or burying ground on School Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Established in the 17th century, it is the burial site of several Pilgrims, the founding settlers of Plymouth Colony.

To say the least, is was a bit creepy while we were there capturing these scenes. One kept an eye open for anything, unnatural that is.

For the Technology Geeks, the final compilation was combined from 15 separate shots. Each shot was 10s, F11, ISO 100, 24mm, on a tripod. When the exposure was triggered with a wireless remote trigger, I would use an LED flashlight to "paint" light onto the Tombstones. Some of the Tombstones required multiple shots on them to capture the shadows on on faces of the stones. I've included the 1st and 4th shot so you can see how each area is captured separately. Once captured and cleaned up in Lightroom, the 15 shots are brought into a single Photoshop file as 15 layers. Once there, the ascending shots are put into a "Blend Mode" of "Lighten", to easily blend them into the overall shot.

Hope you enjoy!

Dennis

www.drfineart.com

www.instagram.com/drfineart

Foto Friday - Christian Science Center

Foto Friday - Christian Science Center

Hello everyone.

Today's photo is a long exposure day to nighttime shot that I captured at the Christian Science Center in Boston. Besides the day to night transformation, the other thing of interest in this picture is that there were about 50 - 100 people in the scene when shooting it. See how I handled it below.

For the Technology Geeks, I would say that this is a 50/50 shot. 50% of the effort is in the capture, and 50% of the effort is in the processing.

In the Capture Phase the original shot was metering at 1/125s, F22, ISO 50, 10MM (16-35mm Sony Lens). I then added a 10Stop and a 3Stop ND (Neutral Density) filter to the front of the lens. This changed my Shutter Speed down to 107s (1m 47s). This allowed me to remove all of the people walking through the scene. You see if they keep moving when passing your camera, they don't register into the shot.

In the Process Phase it started with some basic adjustments that were done in Lightroom and then moved into Photoshop. From here the magic happens. First I ran the Nik Filter Dfine2 to clean up the noise, mostly in the sky. Then I added a Color Efex 4 filter (Detail Extractor), and the added a Silver Efex Pro 2 Filter to turn the shot into a black and white. From there I added a Camera Raw Filter and added ~50 Radial Filters to light the highlights in the scene. From daytime to nighttime with no people.

Hope you enjoy!

Dennis

www.drfineart.com

www.instagram.com/drfineart

Foto Friday - No Right Turn

Foto Friday No Right Turn

Hello everyone.

Today's photo is one in a series I have been doing called "Day to Night" photos. A normal daytime shot (second photo) is taken, darkened down and re-lit to give it the appearance you see here.

For the Technology Geeks, it starts out as a three shot HDR with the base shot at 1/25s, F8, ISO 100, 18mm (16- 35MM Sony Lens) and on a Tripod to keep the three shots in register. After combined into a single shot and initial processing completed, the shot is then darkened down, -1.5 EV on exposure, blacks pulled down, and a Post Crop Vignette is added. After that, it is an exercise of re-lighting the scene with "Radial Filters" (all done in Lightroom). On this particular photo, I lost track at 100 Radial Filters when working on it.

Hope you enjoy!

Dennis

www.drfineart.com

www.instagram.com/drfineart

Foto Friday - You left the gate open...

Foto Friday - You left the gate open.

Hello everyone.

Today's Photo(s) is from one of my latest series titled "Beacon Hill en Noir". Beacon Hill has become a favorite spot to shoot, and these shots are just made for Black & White.

For the Technology Geeks I have added two more photos showing the evolution of the final photo.

Out of Camera - the OOC shot was captured at 1/125s, F5.6, ISO 5000, and at 27mm (16-35mm Sony Lens). The key here is the high(er)ISO that was used to get the shutter speed to an acceptable speed since I was shooting at night, handheld.

Lightroom Adjustments- this photo shows some of the initial cleanup and processing that was done in Lightroom before I sent the photo to Photoshop for final processing. If yo notice the photo is very flat in its lighting, and the viewer's eye needs to be given an initial place to land.

Final Result - This represents the final result after the photograph is processed in Photoshop. It is turned into a B&W, blacks are pushed down, a heavy dark vignette is added, and the center of the photo is "re-lit" to focus the viewer's eye. When completed this shot represents what I saw in my minds eye when I was taking the shot. I just needed to get it there.

Hope you enjoy!

Dennis

www.drfineart.com

www.instagram.com/drfineart

Foto Friday - Custom House

Foto Friday - Custom House

Hello everyone.

Today's photo is a street level view of the Custom House in downtown Boston. I have taken many shots of the this building from the waterfront, highlighting its long tower with clock face on top. It is a much different representation of the building when you are standing directly at its base looking skyward.

For the Technology Geeks, it is a relative straight forward shot. My camera was mounted on my Tripod and the picture was captured at 1/160s, F11, ISO 100, at 28mm. After minor cleanup in Lightroom, I then processed the shot in the Nik Filter called Silver Efex Pro2 to render it in Black and White. As you can see, the B&W treatment really helps you focus on the structure of the building, as opposed to the bright sky where you eye would travel in its color counterpart.

Hope you enjoy!

Dennis

www.drfineart.com

www.instagram.com/drfineart