Action Blur (Ghost Shots)

I used Shutter Speed Priority to capture these shots. I wanted to have the people turn out more transparent so they looked like ghosts but I didn't quite get it as I wanted. For the top shot, we used our tripods in the Mason classroom. The room wasn't very light so we were able to set our shutter speed to about 2-3 seconds. We had Andrea walk really slow in order to absorb enough light for the photo to turn out. For Bre's shot we just had her spin on the merry-go-round at a pretty slow speed and used tripods to stabilize the shot. For the bottom shot, we sat at the end of the hall at Hotel Meade and had Andrea walk from one room across the hall to the other side. It overexposed the shot because of the light entering the hallway. I did a minor edit with a temperature filter in Photoshop.

Andrea 1; 21 May; 1pm; Bannack; f20; 2.5"; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Bre; 21 May; 1pm; Bannack; f22; .3"; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Andrea 2; 21 May; 1:30pm; Bannack; f8; 2.5"; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Action Freeze

This shot is simple. I had Josh (Joaquin) jump off the steps of Hotel Meade. I set my camera to shutter speed priority to freeze the motion and used a tripod to stabilize the shot.

Josh 1; 21 May; 2pm; Dubois; f2; 1/4000; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Josh 2; 21 May; 2pm; Dubois; f1.8; 1/4000; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Josh 3; 21 May; 2pm; Dubois; f2; 1/4000; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

HDR

Using the Dynamic Photo trial (www.mediachance.com) I produced some HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos. I tried making HDR photos from 1 photo, 2 photos, and 3 photos. For the old truck photo, I took 3 separate shots on a monopod. I used AEB bracketing to take a shot that was underexposed, one at normal, and one overexposed. I then took the 3 photos into Dynamic Photo and did some tone mapping. I decided to use Kelvin to add some temperature to the photo and used a soft vignette filter. For the gears photo I used 2 shots: one under exposed and one normal. I then used DP for some tone mapping and a filter. I used Kelvin and the vignette filter again like the truck photo. I used the same process for the blue truck photo. For the license plate photo I tried a stronger vignette and a sepia filter. It was fun using HDR but I still have so much to learn.

Brown Truck; 21 May; 2:30pm; Bannack; f10; 1/200; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Gear; 21 May; 11pm; Dubois; f1.8; 1/60; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Blue Truck; 21 May; 11pm; Dubois; f3.2; 1/640; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

License Plate; 21 May; 11pm; Dubois; f1.8; 1/600; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Blended Images

I took these two images into Photoshop and used the Overlay blending mode to merge them. I adjusted some levels, saturation, and opacity. I like the texture that came from the shot of the gold furnace.

Truck; 21 May; 11:30am; Dubois; f3.2; 1/640; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Gold Furnace; 21 May; 4pm; Bannack; f1.8; 1/60; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

I used the same process above for these two shots. I didn't like this shot turned out as much as the first but I guess it was a good learning experience.

Stairs; 21 May; 12pm; Bannack; f1.8; 1/100; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Texture; 21 May; 4pm; Bannack; f1.8; 1/160; Canon T1i; 50mm lens

Portraits

We went on a photo shoot to Bannack, Montana on Friday and had some fun taking lots of different kinds of pictures. My favorite shots ended up being the portrait shots. Thank goodness everyone was so willing to get their picture taken. We snapped these shots in front of Hotel Meade and the sun was just right. The clouds diffused the light really well and I liked how these turned out. Levi and Bre's photos are completely unedited. For Andrea's, I just tried a couple of things and ended up making it a smart object, added a levels adjustment layer, increased some sats, added some vibrance and warmed it up with a warming photo filter.

Andrea; Bannack Ghost Town, Montana; 21May;1:30pm; f1.8; 1/2000; Canon T1i; 50mm lens; Edits: PhotoShop--Smart object--levels, saturation, vibrance, warming filter.

Levi; Bannack Ghost Town, Montana; 21May;1:30pm; f1.8; 1/4000; Canon T1i; 50mm lens; unedited

Bre; Bannack Ghost Town, Montana; 21May;1:30pm; f1.8; 1/1600 Canon T1i; 50mm lens; unedited

RAW challenge

I took this photo in RAW and opened it in Camera Raw to open as a Smart Object in Photoshop. Once I had it in raw I adjusted the saturation and heated up the temperature. I then took it into Photoshop as a Smart Object. I added a gaussian blur and then I used the free mask with black paint on a paintbrush to mask out the blur on the main bird. I then added some noise to the border as a vignette.

Pretty Bird; 8 May; 1pm; IF Zoo; f2.8; 1/640; Canon T1i; 16mm wide angle lens

Camera RAW Edits

When I went to the Zoo a couple weekends ago, I took some shots of this monkey that just didn't turn out. I couldn't get the lighting right, I was shooting through glass, and my exposure settings were just off. So I was excited when I was able to take a totally underexposed photo and be able to get an image out of it. I took the photo in RAW on my camera and so editing the settings in Camera Raw was a cinch. I opened it up in CR and brightened up the black fill lights and desaturated the image. I adjusted some of the contrast and did some restoration. It was fun to play around with the different sliders. I was happy to see what was under all of that black.

Monkey in Black; 8 May; 1pm; IF Zoo; f2.8, 1/50; Canon T1i; 16mm wide angle lens

Panorama

I decided to head out to Saint Anthony for my panoramic. I found this cool bridge and decided to get a bunch of shots of it and of the river next to it. I used a monopod to keep the camera steady and took a bunch of shots. I ended up merging 13 shots for this very wide panoramic. I really like what Photoshop did to merge these photos with the panoramic photo merge tool but the downfall is that the photo is so darn wide but the height is so small. It makes looking at this photo very difficult unless you have a really big monitor. I flattened the image and then cropped it. I then adjusted the levels to make the photo have a little more vibrance and contrast. I added some canvas to the bottom with a black background and the Saint Anthony caption. I added a smart filter and a vignette I made two versions of the photo: a 800 pixel wide version and a 3200 pixel wide version. The larger size has a lot more definition so I like that one the best.

Saint Anthony Bridge; 13 May; St. Anthony,Id; f22, 1/60, monopod

Flexible Edits

I started experimenting with adjustment layers on this photo of my friend Wyatt. I added an adjustment layer with multiply blending mode. I added a mask and used a paintbrush for the white and black paint for the border stuff. I masked out some of the edits on the mask that comes with the adjustment layer. For my sister Sheena's photo I converted layer to smart filter, added a Fresco filter, and used a paintbrush with black paint on the free mask to mask out some of the effect. I liked the Fresco look so I left most of it there.

Wyatt; 7 May 5pm; Shelley; f2.8; 1/200; 35mm; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35mm wide angle; multiply blending mode adjustment layer; paintbrush edits on mask

Sheena; 4 May 7pm; Shelley; f2.2; 1/50; 50mm; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; converted to smart filter, added Fresco filter, paintbrush to mask out some effects.

Flora/Fauna

I went for a photo shoot last weekend to the Idaho Falls Tautphaus Park Zoo and to my mother's house. I was armed with a Canon L 16-35mm wide angle lens. WOW! What a lens! If you haven't used this lens before I definitely recommend it. I rented it from Tech Time Rentals in Idaho Falls. It was $45 a day but compared to the $1500 price tag, I thought it was a pretty good deal. The lens has a very minimal zoom so getting close ups on the animals was quite hard. But I tried to get as close as I could on them to get a good shot. For the flower shots I got up real close to get some good bokeh.

Pink tulips; 8 May 5pm; Shelley; f2.8; 1/100; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35 wide angle lens; unedited

Light pink; 8 May 5pm; Shelley; f2.8; 1/250; Canon EOS Rebel T1i: L16-35 wide angle lens; unedited

Yellow blurry; 8 May 5pm; Shelley f2.8; 1/250; Canon EOS Rebel T1i;L16-35 wide angle lens; unedited

Apricot Blossoms; 4 May 2pm; Shelley; f1.8; 1/1000; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; 50mm lens; unedited

Red; 3 May 3pm; Rexburg; f1.8; 1/200; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; 50mm lens; unedited

Dingo; 8 May 12pm; IF Zoo; f2.8; 1/500; shot in RAW; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35mm wide angle lens; unedited

Green/blue bird; 8 May 12pm; IF Zoo; f2.8; 1/640; shot in RAW; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35mm wide angle lens; unedited

Here Kitty Kitty; 8 May 12pm; IF Zoo; f2.8; 1/500; shot in RAW; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35mm wide angle lens; unedited

Kitty Squared; 8 May 12pm; IF Zoo; f2.8; 1/400; shot in RAW; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35mm wide angle lens; unedited

Pretty Bird; 8 May 12pm; IF Zoo; f2.8; 1/1250; shot in RAW; Canon EOS Rebel T1i; L16-35mm wide angle lens; unedited