Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Advanced Photoshop Tutorials

I’m enjoying Sean Bagshaw’s video tutorials for dealing with Extended Dynamic Range images in which the tonal variation between darkest and lightest areas in a scene is greater than a single exposure can capture. These are a very powerful set of techniques that allow much greater control, and fewer weird artifacts, than HDR software. I really appreciate that along with the video tutorials, Sean also provides fairly detailed notes summarizing the techniques covered in each video segment. Nice.

Friday, May 10, 2013

Alhambra dawn

















Photographed July 2009.
For previously processed versions of this image, I have used a bracketed sequence to generate an HDR file for tone mapping, with some of the weirdness that comes with that whole process. For this version, I just took a single raw file (zero exposure compensation) and reprocessed it using Photo Ninja, Tony Kuyper’s Triple Play action (using luminosity masks to balance tones), and a little bit of Nik Color Efex (put just a touch of Reflector filter on the Alhambra to brighten and warm it a little). I like this one better.

Social inequality through the lens

Mark Laita’s paired portraits speak volumes about life in contemporary America.