State of the Art

This post will focus on exactly where I am in relation to certain goals set for myself over the last year.

First and f_77a3324_dxo11oremost, I’m taking sharper photos due to improved technique, use of a tripod, and being more aware of my camera settings (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO).  Also, my photos are less noisy due to excellent use of DxO Optics Pro noise reduction. By the way for some reason my camera and lenses remain fairly clean and free of dust; exactly why I do not know.

There still are many goals to achieve. I tend to take high contrast scenes and have been blowing out either foreground or background. So, I recently invested in graduated neutral density filters. Another goal is to improve my intended focus, especially in long focal lengths or panorama shots. In this regard, I have been trying to perfect my estimate of hyperlocal distance based on the focal lengths of my lenses.

The posted blog photo is of Sugarbush Farm in Vermont. It was shot with a Canon 5 DS, EF 24-105mm f/4 IS USM @ 40mm, f/13, 1/640, ISO 800. I was aware of trying to capture the hyperlocal distance, and believe I succeeded.

A Different Kind of Light

Vermont has been an area that I have visited and photographed for a long time. Admittedly, I may not have been as disciplined and focused in my shooting then as I am now, but I had a great difficulty in adapting to the lighting conditions on my just completed visit. The scenery was in full brilliant color, it being the height of the foliage season, but getting to a spot or angle to shoot what were on the face of it spectacular vistas or compositions, was challenging, if not impossible due to how the lighting conditions were.

The many hills, mountains, ravines, and valleys created sharp contrasts and haze. Positioning or re-positioning oneself to overcome these obstacles was difficult at best due to the terrain (streams, hill, private property). It seems that one would have to develop a log of sorts to work out when to shoot and where to shoot precisely in order to get a good composition.

Living on the coast of the eastern USA makes photography immensely easier as compared to Vermont. Sunsets and sunrises are completely different in the Green Mountain State. Consequently, for the time being I have not posted any panoramas or long shots of Vermont on this blog.

The photo to the right was taken in the heart of Gaysville, which has to be one of the more unique and diminutive villages in the state. The lantern sat on the side of an old unique Vermont barn next to an historic inn by Cobble Hill. The sun had just risen and morning mist was burning off.The photograph was taken with a Canon 5 DS, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 55mm, f/16, 1/25, ISO 800, post-processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, Camera Raw, and Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

 

 

Split Toning

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Some of the so-called film look of movies has intrigued me, since they create an atmosphere or specific time period to better portray the story. In my exploration of style journey I was drawn to this element. For some reason I am drawn to the “blue-ish” cinema look of the latest Hobbit movie, The Battle of the Five Armies. I’ve included a photo from the movie of Bilbo Baggins (credit is from Warner Brothers Movies).

IMG_5650DxOPPS9I assume this blue effect was created with a filter (I will have to research this further), but for me to create this look the quickest I could think of was split-toning. So, that is what I did in a creative fashion in this photo of a barn at Sugarbush Farm in Woodstock, VT.

Mixed Metaphor

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“When opportunity knocks, make lemonade.” This is my mixed metaphor for dealing with how I habitually shoot. For the most part I do not plan shots. I do not get up early or stay late to get that “golden hour” masterpiece. Instead I try to make the most of the opportunities afforded me (rather passive, in a sense) rather than making my ow opportunities. And when circumstances give me lemons, I make lemonade. That, in a nutshell, is my mixed metaphor explained.

Such was the state of affairs on an early October visit to central Vermont. Apart from the fact that the colors this year were not bright or brilliant (even tho it was supposedly in the peak), it was rather breezy. In other words, the chances of capturing sharp subject matter were remote. But, the countryside presented so many interesting scenes/objects, that this impelled me to shoot despite the odds of not getting any salvageable photos.

There were dozens of places to take long exposures of water. The photo above is of the Ottauquechee River. The water was captured as I desired but the trees and clouds all were blurry making the shot less than good. Then my mixed metaphor kicked in saving the shot. To obviate the blur, I used the Glow filter in Perfect Photo Suit 8. And to capture the fall-ish sense of multicolor, I enhanced the Vibrance using their Adjustment Brush. Violá

Seeing Light

IMG_5491DxOPPS8StrokeOver the last several months much has been occurring within my photographic mind. A concerted effort has been made to get control of how I see reality and how this reality is portrayed in my photography.

One of my main goals over the last year was to get sharper photos. This I was somewhat successful in by simply increasing my ISO. Obviously, there are pluses and minuses in this approach, but I decided to concentrate on the pluses part. That being achieved I then concentrated on the tonality of my photos, This forced me to try to understand the actual techniques of taking “proper” exposures. I read about Ansel Adams’ “zone system.” Then, I augmented this information by studying Tim Cooper’s adaptation of the zone system to digital photography, i.e., Perfect Exposure for Digital Photography (The Zone System of Metering & Shooting) on a CD format (via Photoshop Café media).

In addition to the above points of concentration I continued to use all the features of the Canon 5D Mark II, i..e., manual mode,  aperture mode, and shutter mode while also continuing to bracket certain shots. While this seems simple enough to do, for me it was a harder step to make it part of my routine and discipline in shooting. After all, with digital cameras one can shoot ad infinitum and most tomes get a good shot. I guess what I finally wanted was more than just a good shot; I wanted a great shot.

The above being said, this should bring the blog up to general par as far as documenting the development of my photographic style. What I will resume doing is detailing this journey.

The photo in this blog post was taken on the Marsh-Billings-Rockerfeller National Historic Park just outside of Woodstock, Vt. The pond sits at the end of a carriage trail on top of one of the hills. There were considerable clouds but these created a shifting medley of light and shadow due to upper level winds. Taking shots was  a challenge due to the variable and rapidly changing lighting conditions. Bu this apparent negative also provided some interesting contrasts in the landscape.