Photos Featured on Blues CD

Check out my photos featured on Sterling Koch's new blues CD. I didn't get the cover but two out of three ain't bad.  You can check out some of Sterling's music at:
Sterling Koch Myspace

Jalopy Drags 10/02/2010

Jalopy Drags at Beaver Springs Dragway Sponsored by Traditional Rod & Kulture Illustrated magazine.

Albany Series September 2010

 

 

 

Norge Albany

Fashion Care Albany

Auto Glass Albany

Jacks Albany

 

Jacks Detail Albany

Albany 9/12/2010

Zombie Planet f6.3 1/125 ISO 320

Clouds 3/29/2009

Another amazing sky just before a violent downpour.

f4.5 1/40 ISO 200

Clouds 5/28/08

Storm Approaching. Amazing light.

f4 1/10 ISO 100 From my deck. What an afternoon!

Clouds 7/11/2008

f11 1/200 ISO 100 July 11, 2008 from my deck.

What is it about clouds? I love 'em.

Sacred Oak 11/6/2009

f10 125 ISO 100, Is shadow a person?

Color conversion to B&W

Spectacular sunrise on Christmas morning. I created a panoramic image using Adobe Bridge. I'm only using CS3 here at home. At work I have CS5 but it's on a PC. Can't have everything. I haven't done much experimenting with merging files into panoramic images using CS5.  Might be a good thing to try this year.

Today I'm looking at converting a color sunrise image to B&W using CS3. How well will that work and will I run into any problems.

OK here is the color image and I will follow with some B&W conversions.

This was a combination of 5 images which were then cropped down to 10x30. I reduced noise, did a slight surface blur and tweaked the color.  I saved as a jpeg then sampled down to 5x15 at 150 dpi for this exercise. I made all conversions from this jpeg file. There was no banding apparent in the original file but there seems to be some introduced during the jpeg conversion.


All conversions were done using the a B&W Layer. Here is the first conversion using the preset conversion "none". Looks flat really looses the detail in the sky.

Here is the conversion using the red filter. More contrast and detail in the sky but the banding becomes very pronounced.

Here is the conversion using the Max Black conversion. Surprisingly I like this better than the Red filter. OK sky detail and less pronounced banding but at the cost of the vertical ray of light.

Bottom line I don't like any of these conversions. I think I could do better working a custom setting with the sliders. The banding is a real problem I will need to experiment with doing the conversion at full scale and then sampling down to a jpeg.

That's all for now. Hope you had a great Christmas. Looking forward to a fun New Year!  Don

Black & White vs RGB posting

I'm wondering if you can see much difference online posting a greyscale image versus an RGB image.

OK FIRST IMAGE: I converted this image in PhotoShop using a Black & White conversion layer. Looks like a B&W is actually an RGB image. Saved it as a jpeg. 

 

SECOND IMAGE:  I converted the RGB jpeg image to B&W using the  Image mode drop down.

To me it seems less warm a cooler B&W. What do you think?

Thanksgiving 2010 night before

Brining the bird. Clean-up was required after major spillage transfering the bird into the brine filled bag.

Available Light, F 1.4 @ 250, ISO 1250.  Nikon D700

Thanksgiving 2010

Available Light, F1.4 @ 250, ISO1250, Nikon D700

The night before Thanksgiving our family traditionally has a Spaghetti Carbonara dinner. Thank you Calvin Trillin!

Good Morning!

Here I am on the eve of my 60^th birthday starting a Blog.
How cool is that!

First topic… what should I call my Blog. Well I guess that depends on what I’ll be posting. I don’t know how it will evolve, and I certainly expect it will, but I’m thinking I would like to begin by posting some of my photos and maybe discuss what I’m interested in photographing. What I’m learning technically. Photos that I find in other places that I like. I’m thinking I may do only Black and white images.  That’s mostly a stylistic decision for now. We’ll see how it goes. PhotoShop is another area that I would like to discuss. It’s such a powerful program…I’m always learning new things. Maybe if I write them down here I’ll remember them the next time I need ‘em, HA!

So three things:

Stuff I’m interested in photographing and why:

·     This is a pretty broad topic. Custom mototcycles and cars. Currently café racers, and rat rods. Flat track racing and drag racing. I’m really interested in people who make stuff…any stuff…people who create with their hands. Music and musicians. Blues, Jazz, rock-a-billy. Landscapes…particularly my farmscapes series. Thinking about doing some more portrait work.

Photo techniques I’m experimenting with:

·     Working on being better using flash. Developing studio techniques. Thinking about trying some selective focus stuff.

Photoshop techniques I’m experimenting with:

·     Currently experimenting with hi pass and B&W retro look images Looking for ways to create distressed type. Creating silhouettes for product shots.

Probably each one of these things could be it’s own Blog but one blog is all I can handle for now.

A portrait of Uncle Phil still sharp at 88 years.

For titles I’m thinking “three things” or “3 things” might be a good name for my Blog.

Maybe “2 by 3”…the proportions of a 35mm frame.  How about “The crossroads of light and time”…hmmm

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”    

 Leonardo da Vinci