Canon 20D

Before and After: East Maui

It’s been fun being out “on location” up here in Door County, WI this weekend. I managed to take shots for a few different ideas and images that I’ll be processing when I return home, including a friend’s hockey game in Green Bay we found out about that same morning. Once I’m back home and in front of my 24” monitor in the digital darkroom, I’ll be sharing those results, soon.

In the meantime, and to keep the stream of images coming, I thought I’d start a new series to showcase some of my work in the digital darkroom and touch on some of the tools I use from time-to-time. These aren’t going to be full tutorials, more of just a little peak under the covers and maybe a little inspiration for others in the process.

For the first image in this new series, the featured tool is Topaz Adjust.

The Before Image

The image below was one I was already particularly fond of. It was taken back in April ’08 on a visit to Maui’s east coast.

To me, this misty view of Koki Beach had a certain mystique to it, and my original attention was to enhance that aspect of the image. What happened, however, was the creation of an entirely new, maybe even more powerful, image as a result of using the Spicify preset in Topaz Adjust.

The After Image

Since I hadn’t visualized this artful look as my intended output, my initial reaction was a surprising “Whoa!” It certainly was an entirely new image, and it was love at first sight. I toned down the saturation just a tad, removed a little noise, and that was it. Sure, that mist is all but gone, but it’s not missed that much now.

More About Topaz Adjust

Topaz Adjust, from Topaz Labs, is still relatively new to me. I first heard about it from a keynote presentation by Rick Sammon entitled “Awaken the Artist Within” at the ‘09 Maui Photo Festival. I will have more to say about Topaz Adjust when I feature it as part of my revamped Software series here at the blog, but if you haven’t experienced it for yourself yet, go ahead and grab the 30-day trial from their website.

If you’re still not convinced, stay tuned to blog for more before and after images, and I assure you that you’ll be a little curious about what it can do for the large archive of photos you have on that hard drive of yours.

Thoughts?

I admit beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as we all have different tastes and dislikes. Please share your thoughts on the particular outcome shown above, as the broader range of opinions and feedback I receive helps me to gauge which direction my little experiments are headed.

As this is the first post in the new series, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on it. As stated, my goal is to showcase a little of my creative side and maybe inspire others out there to tinker a little bit outside of what they do now. Future posts in this series will likely be less wordy, so I hope to crank them out with a decent amount of frequency.

Photo: The Lahaina Harbor Experiment

Photo: Boats docked in their slips in Lahaina Harbor in the early morning, awaiting the day’s tours.

That title almost sounds like a Matt Damon action thriller, doesn’t it?  I also thought of, “Dude, Where’s My Boat?” referencing the two empty slips there, but be glad I didn’t.

I’m calling this an experiment – possibly the first of many – because I’m trying something new here, and while not entirely excited about the result, I wanted to share and elicit feedback and comments about how it could be improved.  Based on any additional ideas, I may repost a new version for a little before-and-after.

Behind The Experiment

This shot wasn’t too bad in full color, but there were parts to it that I wasn’t sold on. I thought about trying just a plain black and white photo, but decided on leaving just a dash of color.  Maybe it’s the little voice in me that wants to shoot more infrared shots, I don’t know. There is just that realm between black and white and ever so subtle color that almost plays tricks on your mind as to whether there is color there or you’re just imagining it in your mind’s eye.

On the technical side, I did some exposure correction and a few saturation tweaks in ACR before I decided it wasn’t working.  I actually applied the Topaz Adjust Photo Pop filter just prior to adding the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.  It might be considered sacrilege to use Topaz Adjust and then undo all the colors, but it’s an experiment.

Primary it was the blues and the greens that I was try to leave as subtle, and for added mind-trickery, I left the guy on the boat to the right in his red shirt as-is, seeing as though it was the only red in the original image.

Give It To Me Straight

Okay, I’m shutting my eyes hard and bracing for the worst.  Please share your thoughts, whether you like it or think it’s awful.  If you could also comment on what parts you don’t like about it, that will help me a lot.  If something does happen to work for you in what’s already there, mention that, too.  You can tell I’m a glass-half-empty kind of guy, eh?

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
– Kris

Photo: Golden Sunset

Photo: A pure golden sunset looking west from Ka’anapali, Maui facing the island of Lana’i.

I’m sure they have stunning sunsets all over the world, but the place I first truly learned to appreciate the majesty of day’s end and night’s arrival was, of course, Maui.

Of all the trips we’ve taken there (5 and counting), this has to be in the top 3 of my favorite sunsets.  Particularly, I love the distinct shape of the sun and the glowing rim it places on the most adjacent clouds.  Team that up with the strong orange hues and the higher clouds at the top, and you have a pretty nice image (in my opinion, anyway).

Don’t Try This At Home

One of the things that continues to strike me every time I see this image on a computer screen is just how bright that sun is in the capture. It’s almost as if you need to wear sunglasses just to view the photo.

Then it dawns on me (pardon the pun) that I was probably an idiot for looking directly towards the sun to get this shot. Not to mention the fact that it was shot at the long end of my 70-300mm lens, either. It might even be a small miracle that I still have my vision!

In any case, grabbing your longest telephoto lens and running out to shoot the sun is not something I’d recommend without doing research and taking safety precautions first. While shooting the sun close to the horizon is a little less intense than shooting it at high noon, it’s still dangerous and should be approached as such.

After all, the last thing you want to lose as a photographer is your vision.

Sunrise vs. Sunset

On the topic of the sun, I was thinking of trying to find an interesting location to shoot the sunrise while we’re up in Door County this weekend. I’m by no means a morning person – unless you consider still being up at 2am “morning” – so it may just continue to be one of those things I say I want to do but never get around to. Hey, it happens.

Whenever the topic of sunrise and sunset come up, I’m usually reminded of the following post from my favorite Hawaii travel blogger over at Go Visit Hawaii.

Are You a Sunrise or a Sunset Person?

Check out the comment thread and feel free to leave your own opinion if you’d like. In the context of Hawaii, it’s an interesting take from people on both sides. And if there ever was a topic where people were very content on agreeing to disagree, this is probably it.  After all, you’re in Hawaii!

– Kris

Photo: Stars Over West Maui

Photo: A starry sky on a perfectly clear night above Black Rock in West Maui.

Another reminiscing photo from my first ever attempt of shooting the skies back in ‘07. Call it beginner’s luck, or having the perfect canvas to work with.

We’ll be heading back up north to Wisconsin later this week, and I’m starting to think of some of the shots I want to work on this trip.  We have seen some great night skies that far north in previous visits, and especially in the winter if the skies are completely clear.  Sure, there’s about a 60-70 °F difference between this image and anything I see this weekend, but layers just aren’t for Photoshop, you know.

Into the Night

Maybe not as favorable for stargazing, we’ll be staying right near downtown of the biggest city in Door County, WI (that’s Sturgeon Bay for anyone playing along at home).  Still, I’ve been getting more socially active on Flickr lately and some of the night shots I’m seeing in the Night Images group pool have me itching to stay up late and shoot.

I mentioned that a little bit back in September when I said the night was my new golden hour, so it won’t be too far out of my norm.  Plus, we’ll be staying right on the bay, walking distance from where I attempted this shot in Sept. ‘08.

As I like to think that both my field skills and my talents in the digital darkroom are now much improved since this shot, I get excited about the new possibilities this trip.

And, seeing as it’s the middle of January, I don’t think I’ll be worried about getting washed out this time, either.

Back to the Stars

Getting back to the original photo, if you’d like to see more of my night shots of the heavens, click through to my Astrophotography Portfolio. The one of me and the Milky Way is starting a little bit of chatter on Flickr, at least compared to my other images in the past.

Photo: Scoreboard HDR

Photo: An HDR image of the scoreboard at the Allstate Arena, in Rosemont, IL

Not exactly another hockey image from last week, but something I felt like sharing today. I captured the source images for this at a game in November in between periods. Seeing that there’s not a lot of opportunities to shoot HDR at a sporting event while the action is going on, I looked elsewhere.

Now, some HDR images can be taken handheld, but wasn’t taking any chances with the indoor lighting I was in. Since tripods are frowned upon in sports arenas, I was lucky enough to have seats right between the railing separating our section from the one in front of us. That, and my friend the 2-second delay timer, and I had an instant tripod.

I shot this with my Canon 20D, which its tiny LCD viewer (when compared to my Rebel XSi) didn’t give me too good of an indication whether the frames I took would work. In the end, I think it came out okay.

What do you think?