dav.d photography

Posts Tagged ‘landscape photography’

25th April 2010

HDR on the Utah Salt Flats – Day 234 of 365

written by dav.d

Sunday I was out a the Utah Salt Flats for a photo shoot – we were lucky we found some dry salt flats – most the salt flats were covered in water. At the end of the photo shoot the sun was setting and it looked just amazing so I created this HDR photograph handheld with my Canon 5DII. This is 3 shots and +/- 2 and then created in Photomatix Pro. I have then polished off the photograph with Nik Software Viveza 2. I like that in Viveza 2 I can warm up some areas while cooling down other areas so we have more blue and yellows in the photograph.

It definitely becomes much more vibrant and punchy.

HDR High Dynamic Range on the Utah Salt Flats

HDR High Dynamic Range on the Utah Salt Flats

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2nd February 2010

Provo Mountain Range – Day 152 of 365

written by dav.d

I am still a camera snob – would take a DSLR over a point and shoot everyday. But if I don’t have my DSLR on me then I have a point and shoot or at worse I have my iPhone. So I can still get a photograph – and then I can fix or upgrade the image with Photoshop and plugins. And I have talked about Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro – and I will talk about it again. It rocks as a photoshop plugin.

And it helps being single sometimes so it makes purchasing camera gear and software a hell of a lot easier. Wink.

Provo Mountain Range

Provo Mountain Range

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27th October 2009

Cameras Don’t Matter

written by dav.d

Cameras don’t matter. You can own the best camera in the world but if you don’t have it with you then it is useless. The best camera you own is the one you have with you. This landscape photograph was taken with my Canon SX200 IS. I was just walking along the road when I saw this cool river that runs through Provo, Utah. I didn’t have my Nikon D300 or D90 with me – but I had my point-n-shoot. I also had my iPhone – but I used the point-n-shoot because it is a better camera than the iPhone.

Landscape photograph taken with a Canon point-n-shoot camera

Landscape photograph taken with a Canon point-n-shoot camera

Cameras are nothing more than tools – and tools are only good if you know how to use them and if you have them with you.

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19th October 2009

Photowalking Utah in HDR n Junk

written by dav.d

It has been a little while since I worked on some HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. I was finally able to make it to a Photowalk Utah event. And so I grabbed my tripod, cable release, and Nikon D300 and took some photographs that I later turned into full HDR photographs.

Salt Lake Apartment Complex in HDR

Salt Lake Apartment Complex in HDR

The key to taking good HDR photographs? Tripod. This is the first step in creating the images. You want a series of photographs where your camera is solid as a rock – unmoving. And then you hope you can get a series of images where people aren’t moving or cars stay still.

Salt Lake Hallway in HDR

Salt Lake Hallway in HDR

The sun had set so I was taking some long exposures. Some of the exposures were about 30 seconds. For each of these images I took 7 shots. I could take 9 but I wanted to experiment and take only 7. I say ONLY, lol.

Glass and reflections really take on a surreal look in HDR. I think there is an added dimension to the photographs – such as the reflections and the shine on the windows of the train station in SLC.

Intermodal Hub Salt Lake City in HDR

Intermodal Hub Salt Lake City in HDR

You also want to find extreme light conditions. If you photograph at noon – there isn’t a lot of variation to the light – everything is bright. But if you can find bright lights and dark shadows you get a lot more out of an HDR photograph.

Lights and leaves of the city in HDR

Lights and leaves of the city in HDR

The last two photographs ARE NOT HDR photographs. The first one was a photograph of 4 cameras sitting on the dinner table at Jason’s deli. Can you find all four cameras? The Canon 7D, Canon G11, Pentax something, and the iPhone. Yes the iPhone counts as a camera – because if it is the only camera with you then it is the best camera you have.

Can you find all 4 cameras in this photograph?

Can you find all 4 cameras in this photograph?

And I whipped out the Nikkor f/2.8 105mm VR micro lens to take some macro shots. This was a rather cool photo of another lens. I know, I am a geek.

Macro photograph of a Nikon lens

Macro photograph of a Nikon lens

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Sunset on the Great Salt Lake

Sunset on the Great Salt Lake

To lens flare or not to lens flare – that is the question. I did try to clone stamp out the lens flare and I decided not to. Could I? Yes. Would it look perfect – maybe not. I had edited the colors and the contrast before I started clone stamping and that is my mistake. I should have done it first then do the fancy effects.

The Great Salt Lake is really unique – it can really smell. Today, no bad smell. I was out there photographing a portrait session and after the photo shoot I decided I would grab my daily photograph. What better than landscape? And at least today it wasn’t something lame like food or something easy and thoughtless.

The photos from the portraits will come later – I will be editing like crazy this weekend. Should be fun. My iPhone, some podcasts, a few audiobooks and I am set. Oh and some caffeine – to help me work faster ;)

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