Adding Life to an Image.

There are times when the scene before you looks much better than the picture you just took.  Sometimes it is an issue of field of  view.  Other times your camera isn't able to capture the dynamic range of the scene as well as your eyes and brain can.  This scene looked flat and uninteresting straight from camera.

This is the merged HDR file.  You'll note the numerous dust spots in the sky.  I realized after this trip that my camera was in desperate need of a good cleaning.  Processing of the merged file consisted of cleaning up all the dust spots, minor straightening, and running through PixelBender's Oil Paint filter.

The oil paint filter is my go to when I'm looking for a more abstract look.  It has several sliders that are very useful in determining how you want the final image to look. 

I knew from the start that this would end up being more of a digital painting than a photograph.  The term digital painting is used very loosely when it comes to this because there are people with the talent to actually paint a scene like this instead of applying a filter.

With an abundance of dead space in the sky it felt like the perfect opportunity to add a poem or verse. Choosing Psalm 119:105 was obvious as the lighthouse provides guidance for ships.

By choosing to stray from reality a little I felt that punching up the colors wouldn't take away from the overall image. 

Technical data for this image. Nikon D700, 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 180mm, iso 200, median exposure 0.8 seconds @ f/14.0

The American Adventure

The American Adventure is a long-standing iconic attraction at EPCOT.  Add in the Voices of Liberty performance pre-show and you have a recipe for an incredible way to travel from founding to today.  The show itself is a combination of video and audio animatronics.  The music throughout fits perfectly with the different times and scenes.

Adding to my love of this attraction is the memories associated with it.  I grew up making trips to Disney World and we always made time to get there early and listen to the Voices of Liberty.  My Dad was especially fond of this attraction because of his great love for history and this country.  The final track, Golden Dream, was one of my Dad's favorite songs.  It has also become a favorite of mine.

I love how Disney has combined pivotal times in America's history with original dialogue to tell the story of the formation of our nation.

Washington and some of his men at Valley Forge.

The story of a family where the two brothers fight on opposite sides during the civil war. Another great song during this section (Two Brothers).

President Roosevelt at what would become Yosemite National Park.

Men discussing the hardships of the Great Depression.

The great Chief Joseph when he famously said he would fight no more.

Representation of Rosie the Riveter as women increasingly took over jobs previously held by men during WWII.

Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain help bring the show to a close standing on the torch atop the Statue of Liberty.

Fireworks Technique Update

One of my great fascinations is fireworks. For most of my life I have enjoyed them as most people do.  Now my focus on the shows is capturing the explosions with a camera.  In a previous post I talked about equipment and technique.  Since that last post my family and I have returned to Walt Disney World with new equipment and methods to try out.

My wonderful wife purchased a new camera for me and my mother gave me two Neutral Density (ND) filters.  ND filters have been used for a long time by landscape photographers to get that silky, dreamy water everyone likes.  Until I read the Disney Photography Blog's ebook on fireworks technique the thought of using a ND filter for fireworks hadn't crossed my mind.

Using a ND filter for fireworks has its good and bad side.  First the good side.  Decreasing the amount of light that reaches the sensor allows you to keep the shutter open for longer periods.  This results in more bursts per frame.  My last post on fireworks (which is linked at the top of this post) has examples without the ND filter.  Most have just a few bursts in them. 

This first shot was during the villain scene in the Wishes show.  With a .9 (8x) ND filter I was able to keep the shutter open for the entire scene.  Exif for this shot: D800, 24-70mm 2,8 @ 31mm, iso 100, f/9.0, exposure 60 seconds.  In comparison my best shots from last trip were averaging just a few seconds at a much smaller aperture.

Now the downside to using a ND filter.  Since the exposures are now much longer the number of shots you can get per show are greatly reduced.  Less shots means a smaller chance for getting a great shot and less opportunity to experiment with different settings.  The great part about experimenting on your fireworks photos at Disney is they have fireworks pretty much every night and sometimes twice in the same evening.

My wife's favorite part of the Wishes show.  30 seconds @ f/9.0

Finale from Wishes. 21 seconds @ f/9.0

Illuminations finale. 32 seconds @ f/8.0

Portrait Workflow

While editing several sets of images lately I thought it may be interesting to describe my workflow from camera import to Lightroom export.  While the process does vary a little from portrait to portrait, there is a basic order that I use to process images.

First is importing into Lightroom 4.  As soon as I get home from a shoot the images are uploaded onto my desktop and an external drive as backup.  If they are for hire they get organized inside my business folder by type and name. 

After importing the total number of images are narrowed down.  If there are multiples of the same pose/group I look at the 100% image for expression, eyes, and pose.  Any pose that just doesn't look right gets deleted.  The main point is to narrow the session to the best examples and not overwhelm the viewer with choices. 

The next step is basic white balance correction, minor exposure adjustments, and straightening.  Most of the time I shoot on the Auto White Balance setting because the images are shot in RAW format.  RAW gives me the flexibility to adjust white balance in post instead of in camera.  Sometimes the exposure, highlights, or shadows need minor adjustments before I bring the image into Photoshop for more intensive editing.  Finally for this step is straightening the image if the camera wasn't lined up the way I wanted it.

From Lightroom the image then goes into Photoshop for the majority of the edits.  First step here is to duplicate the original layer so if there are major issues I always have that base layer to start again.  The duplicate layer is used to fix any skin blemishes or other minor items.  Then if it would help the image the healed layer is duplicated and taken into one or more Topaz Labs plugins.  Adjust 5 is great for color and detail and Clean 3 is great for skin softening.  After all edits in Photoshop are complete the image is sharpened and imported back into Lightroom.

Final tweaks are done in Lightroom before either export or upload to Smugmug.  Of course my workflow differs from portraits to landscapes but the same basic steps are there.  Later I will do a post on skin softening and what has really worked for me.  For now here is a before and after from Ben and Karissa's wedding.

The original image was a little flat for my taste so I used one of Topaz Adjust 5's presets to add a little color and increase detail.  Minor skin smoothing and hot spot removal. Flattened the back of Ben's vest that was bulging out.  Sharpened for final output.

 Final output.  This is the first time I've posted a before and after so you will have to let me know if this kind of post is helpful or not.

Recent Portrait Work

One of the things I am going to add to my blog is recent sittings.  I often post personal projects because they are fun.  While those posts allow me to talk about a variety of topics they often don't showcase work that is done for clients.  The first post about a recent sitting was about a local musician beginning his doctoral studies (full post available here). 

Today's post includes a picture from my niece's second birthday shoot.  She is such a cute little girl and a joy to photograph.  She follows directions well and loves the camera.  I'm very fortunate to be in a position to capture these moments in time for members of my family.

For this image she was sitting on a little rocking chair in front of the small waterfall at my mom's house.  We were playing peek-a-boo and she was pretending to be a little shy.  I love the innocent look on her face and the direct contact of her eyes and the camera.  It was hard to change positions or want to move on because she was having fun and giving lots of different smiles.

Some technical info on this shot.  My SB-800 was aimed into a Photek Soflighter 2 with diffusion cloth above and to the left of Natalie's position.  I paired my 70-200mm with the D700 with a large aperture to make sure the background was out of focus.

Natalie has a great little smile.  Quite often now she sticks her tongue out the side and I think it makes it even cuter. 

For the majority of the shoot I was laying on my stomach to get closer to her level.  It is an easy way to make your photographs of children that much better.  For more tips check out my previous blog post, Taking Better Pictures of Children.

Camera Modes Explained

After a recent Facebook poll I decided to post about the different modes you may see on your camera and what your camera does when you select each mode.  Not all cameras have the same modes so if there is one I don't cover that you would like more information on please comment below and I will see what I can do to help you out.

Automatic

As the name implies the camera does all the thinking for you and determines the shutter speed, aperture, flash,  and sometimes ISO for you.  Some cameras allow you to turn off or adjust the automatic ISO feature.  The camera doesn't know what you are trying to achieve so it does what it thinks is necessary to get a proper exposure.  My belief is that you should always be thinking when you are taking a picture and as such you should probably stay away from the automatic mode. 

Program

This is similar to Automatic and is a good mode for beginners.  Unlike Automatic, once the camera determine what settings should be used, you may then make adjustments to what you think they should be.

Aperture Priority

With this mode you are starting to make your way towards total control over the image.  You select the aperture (which controls depth of field) and the camera will determine a shutter speed for a correct exposure.  For example if you are taking a portrait and want the background out of focus you would select a wider aperture (lower number).

Shutter Priority

This is the reverse of Aperture Priority.  Here you select the shutter speed and the camera will adjust the aperture to give you a proper exposure.  This is useful when you aren't picky about the aperture but you don't want the shutter speed to change.

Manual

Once you have learned the basics it is time to move into Manual Mode.  This gives you full control over ISO, aperture, shutter, and white balance. With complete control over all settings you can create whatever look you are envisioning.  After some practice you will discover times when certain situations can fool your camera's computer brain.  Using Manual will allow you to make adjustments to overcome those obstacles.

This image was shot in Aperture Priority and manual focus. I set the aperture at f/10 so the stem and buds would be in focus while the background would be out of focus.  Knowing that an aperture of f/10 would yield a shutter speed that would be difficult to hand hold I bumped the ISO up to 500 which gave me a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. 

Musician Portraits

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of working with one of my favorite wedding couples for the second time.  Ben and Stephanie are so much fun to work with and be around.  Ben is currently beginning his doctoral studies at the U of M.  He contacted me about taking some head shots and detail shots of him and his instruments for his website.

I was thrilled to help him out and we had a lot of fun on the first half of our shoot.  We spent a couple hours shooting details and some shots of Ben with his instruments.  A special thanks to Stephanie for agreeing to be my stand-in assistant through the shoot.

Both his tenor and alto saxophones are incredibly interesting subjects.  I really hadn't realized how intricate they are until we were working and trying to decide what parts we wanted to highlight.  We could have easily spent several more hours focusing on all the little details.  Below are a few of the detail shots and one of my favorites of Ben with both of his instruments.

Night at the Cathedral

My original plan yesterday was to shoot a sunset from the high bridge.  The clouds didn't cooperate so I decided to head over to St. Paul's Cathedral and try some night shots.  While there weren't any clouds left I figured that the architecture would be enough to add interest to the shot.  As it turned out the Cathedral was much like my shot from Duluth.  The lack of clouds didn't bother me.  Clouds would have added drama but the occasional clean sky works.

All said I spent about an hour walking around the cathedral trying different angles and elevations.  A couple of locations required a couple different shots to fit the whole building in.  The picture that I posted on Facebook was a good example of that.  I wanted to have the stairs in the shot with the railings leading up to the building.  I also wanted to have some space above the top of the church so, if printed, the top wouldn't be cut off.

For my recent shoots I've been using my new Promote Control.  After my previous remote release started to fall apart I wanted to replace it with something that had a little more functionality.  A couple of the benefits of the Promote Control is it bypasses the built in 30 second limit and expands the maximum number of shots in a bracketed series.

The first image is the one I posted to in Facebook.  It is a combination of two HDR's.  With the 24-70mm lens I wanted to show how large this building is.  Shot from a low angle helps to accentuate the size of the building.

The second is a popular angle.  I love the gentle rise of the grass in the foreground and the cars parked just in front of the church.  They help to establish how large the building is.

Photographer or Equipment

Anyone who invests money in quality photographic equipment has heard the following, "That's a great camera, it must take great pictures."  Most photographers will smile and agree while screaming in their head, "I create the image! The camera is just the tool I use to capture it!".  Some may even give you a lengthy lesson in how the photographer's individual skill is more important than the equipment they use.  Anyone with a lot of disposable income can buy an expensive camera.  This doesn't necessarily make them any good at taking pictures.

While browsing some of my favorite photography websites I came across the perfect article on this issue.  Over at PetaPixel there is a fabulous article on the subject.  Sohail Mamdani explains in his article, Gear Doesn't Matter - Except When It Does, that to a certain extent the photographer must have the skill and knowledge to properly capture a picture.  However, there comes a point where gear does matter.  Any time you start to specialize the right gear makes a huge difference.

The best example I can give of this is my last trip to Walt Disney World.  One of my main goals was to capture images of the dark rides.  This is a great example of when the gear you have makes a difference.  For the dark rides I had my Nikon D700 with a Nikon 50mm 1.4 attached.  The full frame D700 has great low light capability and the 50mm 1.4 has a very wide maximum aperture.  The combination of these two pieces of equipment allowed me to shoot scenes that would have been difficult (if not impossible) with lesser gear.

Sure you could use flash to illuminate the subject but on any of the dark rides a flash would be distracting to other guests as well as ruin the atmosphere of the ride.  Dark rides at WDW are tricky due to low light, unstable ride vehicles, and scenes that confuse your camera's exposure meter.

I highly recommend reading the full article on PetaPixel (linked above).  That article plus many others are very useful.  Below are a few examples of pictures that were made possible by using more specialized equipment.

Pirates of the Caribbean - ISO 2500 1/30sec at f/1.4 (an ISO that my first camera couldn't achieve and would have been so noisy that it would have been completely unusable.)

POTC - ISO 2500 1/40sec at f/1.4

Rockin' Roller Coaster - ISO 1250 1/15sec at f/2.8 (used the 24-70mm lens for this one)

Macro Details

I've always been facinated by macro photography.  Looking at every day objects up close gives me a whole new perspective on the things I see every day.  Flowers are a great example.  We see them every day but rarely stop to appreciated how intricate they are.

This first example is little groups of flowers found along my mom's driveway.  I have no idea what they are but from a distance they look like boring little pink flowers.  Get up close and it is a whole different story.  Changing my perspective (lying down on my stomach) and utilizing my 105mm macro lens revealed these delicate curled stamen.  To really appreciate these structures go to my site and view the image at original size (O in the size choices).

This image was a little difficult to capture as I was unable to use my tripod.  Instead I had to use the same breathing techniques I do when at the rifle range.  To complicate things a little further there was the slightest breeze which really moves around these miniature flowers.  Thankfully my mom is very supportive of these little endeavors and used one of my pop-up reflectors to create a wind break.  After a few attempts I got one that I liked.  The only post processing done on this shot was a white balance adjustment and minor sharpening.

Here is another flower that looked very unassuming from my 6'3" vantage point.  Originally I was drawn to this flower because of the vibrant color and the darker veins that ran from the center out.  After my first shot I saw the sharp, crown-like structure in the center.  Not sure if this is stamen or not but since it is interesting I don't really care.   This was another shot that was hard to get because of the movement of the flower.  Post on this consisted of minor sharpening and removal of a few dust spots.

The last one is one of my favorite flowers that can be found at my mom's house.  They are pretty large flowers so I wanted to focus on one element instead of the flower as a whole.  In an ideal world the stamen in this flower would all be in a nice row so they are all in focus but nature doesn't like doing that.  I didn't want to increase the depth of field since that would draw attention away from my primary subject.  When out of focus the flower provides a wonderful background as it transitions from deep red to vibrant yellow.  Post on this image was a white balance adjustment and minor sharpening.

Be sure to check them out at their original sizes at my site.  As always they are available for purchase in a wide variety of forms.

Simplicity

Most of the time I prefer to have clouds in my landscapes.  There are times when that rule flies out the window.  My wife and I spend Sunday and Monday in Duluth's Canal Park area for our anniversary.  Our day was filled with walking around this busy area, enjoying each other's company and taking pictures.  I was hoping for a spectacular sunset over the lift bridge but, like most times, the clouds blew away prior to sunset.  What we were left with is a perfectly clear sky.  Inwardly I was thinking that now the images would be boring and I would have to find another way to add interest to the images.

Much to my delight the simple sky worked with this scene.  It may be because the lower third of the image is filled with all the lights and details of the city.  I'm not really sure.  All I know is that the final output makes me happy.

Composing this image took a bit of thinking.  I wanted the bridge to dominate the image but I didn't want it to be the only thing you see.  Rach and I walked to the end of the pier and up by one of the two lighthouses.  This elevated the scene enough so the pier lights weren't bothering me.  Thankfully Rach is very patient with my picture adventures as we spent the better part of 45 minutes taking pictures of various parts of the downtown area.

It was a wonderful evening spent with the woman I love and I hope to spend many more like it.

For more images from this trip go to my SmugMug page and check out the Landscape and Macro Flower galleries.

B&W Conversion

What makes a great black and white image?  To me it is a combination of several different things. First you need a clearly defined subject.  In the photograph below the subject is isolated by a blurred, simple background.  If you have a situation where you have a busy scene, use a long lens and a larger aperture to create the separation of subject and background.  Second you need contrast.  The transition of highlight to shadow on Alex draws your attention to his face.  The last part ties in with the first.  The subject should be limited.  Too many subjects in a single image can be distracting.  I'm not saying that a large family portrait on a plain background doesn't work.  I'm talking about having so many elements in the image that the main focus isn't clearly defined.

I never shoot an image in black and white even if I intend the final output to be B&W.  Why would I do that when many cameras have a setting for black and white?  The easy answer is if you shoot in B&W or a selective color you are stuck with that.  There is no way to recover the color information that your camera didn't save.  When I convert my images to B&W I use the B&W layer adjustment (most of the time, sometimes I use plugins).  Here is where having the color information available is key.  When you apply the B&W adjustment layer you have lighten/darken sliders for all the different colors.  Many times if I want to lighten skin to give it that nice light look I'll lighten reds and yellows.  You can also use the color sliders to help isolate your subject.

Playing with the sliders can greatly change the overall look of the final image.  Even though it takes a little more time to convert an image I think the final output is well worth the time.  You have that little bit of extra control to make the image look just how you want it to.

Below is my son Alex engrossed in some activity.  I love candid pictures of children.  They convey so much emotion without even being aware of it.  It is these times that people don't normally think of having their camera out.  Some of my favorite images of my son were taken at times when he was unaware that his picture was being taken.

Light Speed Train

While down on Harriet Island recently I stopped on the train tracks to take a few pictures.  From behind I heard the sounds of the train approaching so after finishing the current shot I set up to catch the train as it went by.  I'm fairly surprised that the image didn't blur from motion even though it was on a tripod.  I could feel the ground move as the train rolled by.  While it looks like the train went flying by it actually was going pretty slowly. 

I left the shutter open for about 30 seconds.  It is amazing how much of the image behind the train was captured.  The breaks between cars was pretty short but the long exposure allowed more than a dozen cars to pass. 

Overall I like the image.  It has motion, an interesting sky and those nice little star lights that are created with a small aperture.

I hope everyone had a great Father's Day.  I can't help but think of my Dad and the things that I would give anything to share with him. 

I'm Back

It has been far too long since my last post.  Tonight's image comes from the walkways down along the Mississippi River on Harriet Island.  I've been to Harriet Island several times before but never ventured down as far as I did this time.  This area has some wonderful views of downtown St. Paul.  It is easy to lose track of time while walking the pathways around this area.  My main goal was to shoot some bridges from underneath but I couldn't resist a few quick panoramas.

This shot is two, five exposure HDR's (from -2 EV to +2 EV).  The output from Photomatix was pretty good.  The final output required some minor dust removal, sharpening, and a little contrast adjustment.  One unexpected bonus was with the long exposure the quickly moving river turned into a pretty nice mirror.  Adding to the overall appeal are the interesting clouds. 

The initial plan was to get a sunset but I didn't plan ahead enough to make it there.  So between shooting bridges I grabbed a couple of these.  I'm sure there will be upcoming blog posts with some of the other shots from the night. 

I'm going to get back to a regular posting schedule now that my personal schedule has relaxed a bit.

The Newest Gerber Baby

This last Thursday I had the pleasure of photographing my new nephew for my brother and his wife.  It is wonderful to be able to provide this service for them.  I've been taking family pictures for them since their daughter was born almost two years ago now.  Before we get to the good stuff (the pictures) I'll explain a little about my strategy going into a sitting like this.

Whenever I'm contacted about photographing a family I try to get as much information about who is involved and what they are looking for.  Besides showing an interest in the family it provides me with vital information on how I plan the session.  Generally speaking we start with whatever the most important grouping is.  In this case it was the whole family together.  From there we start doing breakdowns with the shortest attention span first.

Since my niece is under two she has the shortest attention span for this type of event.  After taking the full family shot we moved on to some shots of my niece and her new baby brother.  This way if she needs a break or just doesn't want to take pictures anymore you will have something in the bag already.  Sammy was only a week old at the time of the sitting so I wasn't that concerned with his attention span.  Generally speaking if you keep infants fed and warm they can do really well even in a longer sitting.

When my niece didn't want to do any more pictures we sent her off to play and take a break.  This way you can hopefully bring her back in at some point and continue to capture images.  In all my family shoots I ask if they have something particular in mind.  Involving the family in the creative process is a great way to help them feel like they are getting what they envisioned.  I always come with a game plan of images that I would like to get as well as an open mind to situations that present themselves. 

Now on to the good stuff.

Back to My Side Project

A few posts earlier I shared about my Star Wars Lego fun side project.  While waiting for the storms to start rolling through the area I decided to add to that project.  This time I used Lightroom 4's tethered shooting mode.  On the plus side it was really nice to view images on my laptop immediately after shooting.  This makes checking focus much easier than the 3" LCD screen on the back of the camera.  On the down side I wasn't able to use the live view mode that I use when manually focusing macro shots.  There may be a way to do this but I haven't had the time to investigate that yet.

I always loved the speeder bikes in Star Wars.  The Lego kits do a pretty good job recreating these speeders.  Despite what some may think of this as a nerdy project, it does have real world application for photographers.  It gives me an opportunity to work on lighting.  Finding ways to creatively light objects like this is very helpful for when I want to do product photography.  The surfaces of Legos are surprisingly reflective.  Hit a surface with direct flash and boom, all of the detail is gone.  On the previous post of the Storm Trooper I moved the flash around then masked in the parts that I liked to create the final image.  In this example I had a diffuser on my flash and only shot from one position.  This gave the final image a little more contrast and harsher shadows.

I may play around with this a little more to accentuate a few areas but for now I like how it looks.  Almost forgot one of the practical applications.  Ever taken a picture of someone with glasses only to have a giant flash spot covering their eyes?  To eliminate the flash spot move the flash.  If you can't do that try slightly tipping the glasses or turning the face away from the flash slightly.

New Beginnings

It has been a few days since I posted and a lot has happened since then.  My brother and his wife welcomed their new baby Samuel into the world a week early.  Sammy insisting on being born a week before the scheduled C-section reminds us that despite all our careful planning, children often have a mind of their own. 

The whole family is doing well and will be at home for the first time tonight.  Big sister Natalie reacted well to her new brother at the hospital.  Thankfully I could be there to help document her first interactions with her little brother.  The picture below is one I took while he was still laying in the hospital bassinet.  If you get in close you can eliminate the distracting elements (such as the plastic bassinet).  Make sure that you aren't shooting from an angle that is too low because then you get an unattractive up-nose shot.

I will work on getting back to regular content now.  Until then enjoy little Sammy.

Something Fun

Sorry I missed yesterday's post.  It ended up being day with lots going on.  Thought I would post something totally different today.  Every since I was young I had a love for all things space.  One of those things is Star Wars.  The original three (IV, V, and VI) captured me and provided hours of entertainment.  It probably didn't hurt that it had probably my favorite actor, Harrison Ford.

Elsewhere on the internet I've seen some awesome examples of photographs taken of Star Wars Lego characters.  This seemed like the perfect little personal project that I could revisit from time to time.  Some of the examples out there have very elaborate settings while others are very simple.  Since my Star Wars Lego collection is pretty limited I decided to go with the latter. 

Using a black piece of 3/16th inch foam board I set up my Storm Trooper in a position that looked good to me.  I knew that I also wanted the background to be black so I used a faster shutter to lower the amount of ambient light.  The next step took a couple different experiments with moving the flash around until I got a couple shots that looked how I envisioned.  Since I only have one speedlight, I took a couple different exposures with the light in different places for each.  This allowed me to simulate a more complicated lighting setup with only one light.

The last step was to composite them in Photoshop.  This was actually pretty easy since the subject and camera hadn't moved, just the light source.  I simply masked in the areas that I wanted from each photo then merged the layers before sharpening.  I look forward to posting more of these little projects as time goes on.

Bringing the Past Back to Life

While working on a project for church I started to scan some old slide that my Dad had.  First I had to find the adapter for the flatbed scanner then the right settings.  Now I'm hooked on converting all the old slides into a useful format.  Each picture will require some additional work in photoshop but it is a valuable way to transfer these images that otherwise sit in a cupboard and never get viewed. 

Looking at these images are a virtual trip back in time.  I've been using his old Montgomery Ward slide viewer to preview each image and each view is something special.  There are even slides of my brother and I when we were very young.  For now the personal project will have to be sidelined as the deadline for the church project is looming way to near.  It should be a project that keeps me out of trouble for quite some time.  There are thousands of slides in the cupboard over at my Mom's house.  I'm sure I'll post up some more pictures as the project continues.  With those images I will talk about what was done to improve the image quality.  For now I'll leave you with two images.

This is my brother and me Christmas 1984 (I'm on the left and Jon on the right)

This is my Dad when he was in high school in 1967

Sun Rays

I've always been fascinated by the shafts of light coming down from the clouds.  They seem to make any situation more interesting. On a late evening I was out at Mounds Park shooting sunsets when the sun started to peak out from underneath the cloud layer.  For just a few moments these sun rays, some call them God beams, shot out across the sky.  Thankfully I was well prepared and was ready to shoot the scene.

For this scene I was working on my HDR landscapes.  Not really knowing how they would turn out I shot the series and hoped for the best.  Once I got home I processed the image and the shafts of light looked just as they had when the picture was taken.  There are a lot of people that don't like HDR.  I think most of these people don't like it because it is easy to over process the image resulting in a surrealistic unnatural look.  For me HDR is a useful tool for difficult lighting situations. 

Here is why I like HDR.  The combination of the human eye and brain is much better at dealing with contrast range and tonal range than any camera on the market.  You can see this easily by standing indoors and looking out a window into bright sunlight.  With the combination of your eyes and brain you can see the detail in the much darker interior as well as the scene out the window.  Now try to capture that in a single exposure and you'll likely get a properly exposed outside scene and a very underexposed indoor scene.  This is because your camera meters off the very bright exterior and doesn't have the capability to capture the range of light in the scene.  Now you could take an exposure of the exterior and another of the interior and combine them but that is a lot of extra work.  For a scene like this you determine how many exposures you need, fire them off, run them through Photomatix (or similar program) and many times you are left with a reasonably good image.  There will be some cleanup or other adjustments to do in Photoshop to finish the image but overall you can get pretty good results right after minimal processing.  Personally I like to keep my HDR's as realistic as possible. The goal is to reproduce what the scene looked like when you were there.  With practice and learning materials you can get very quick at processing scenes.