Door County

The previous two editions in my Before and After series have featured the use of the Topaz Adjust plug-in for Photoshop.  Sometimes that extra creative step isn’t needed, and the following images demonstrate.  Many times it’s just a few minor tweaks in Adobe Camera Raw that will do the trick.

The Before Image

Most people will recognize that as the Big Dipper constellation, which I captured here over the waters of Sturgeon Bay in Sept. ‘08. It’s a neat little shot, but I wasn’t happy with the orange tint. Also, I had took a few liberties when I cropped this image initially, so I thought there might be something worth bringing back into it on the redux.

The After Image

I took a few different approaches to redoing this image. What I ultimately ended up with was processing the RAW image twice – known as mutli-RAW processing – to preserve some of the darkness in the sky while adjusting some of the foreground elements.

By processing the elements of the scene independently on separately layers and applying the changes using a gradient mask, I essentially keep the best of both worlds and have an image more to my liking with relatively little extra effort.

Thoughts?

For one, I definitely like the detail on the right with it’s color more in check and not gushing orange hues.  However, each time I look at that after image, I still think to myself, “is the foreground too bright?”. Since I save checkpoints at each step in my workflow, it wouldn’t be that difficult to go back and just darken the chairs on the pier just a tad.

Well, what do you think?

Photo: One of the waterfront facing buildings of the Stone Harbor Resort, overlooking the frozen waters of Sturgeon Bay.

This was shot from the first early morning session I did over the weekend up in Wisconsin. I shot it as an HDR image, and at the time, I was a little unsure how it would turn out because of the overcast skies that early in the day left me no shadows to play with.

Photomatix took it close to halfway of what you see here, but Topaz Adjust brought out even more detail, and gave the building a nice two tone look from the brick and the other paneling.

Hockey Alert!

For those that were following along on my new Facebook page late last week, might have caught that I picked up on a hockey game one of my former players was playing in down in Green Bay. It’s been a longer delay than I had anticipated, but I’m going through all the shots now and getting ready to post them.

So, if you liked the recent hockey shots from a few weeks ago, time for another skate.

– Kris

Photo: A pickup truck parked out on a frozen Europe Lake in Northern Door County, WI.

I captured this image while standing in the middle of a frozen lake up in Door County over the weekend. There were a few vehicles out there with adventurous ice fisherman braving the elements and enjoying a popular winter pastime in this part of the country.

Even though there were entire pickup trucks and minivans driving around on this ice, we were still a little leery about trekking out ourselves. Seeing as I grew up playing hockey my whole life, you’d think being out on a frozen lake would come natural, but playing it safe seemed to be the order of the day. Looking back, I almost wish I had brought my skates like I did the previous winter trip up north.

Photo: A look at the Stone Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay, WI from the Bayview Park located just on the other side of the water.

Let the darkroom work commence! Now that we’re back home from our latest road trip up north, it’s time to get cranking on processing and uploading all the photos I took.

This first shot is from a series I did on Saturday afternoon, about an hour before sunset. We’re looking East here towards the resort we were staying at this time. The park where this was taken is visible from the resort via my telephoto lens, so I had to scope it out on Google Maps and make the drive over there.

Can’t wait to come back to this spot during the warm summer months.

– Kris

Photo: A mobile snapshot while stopping for our caffeine fix in Fish Creek.

Well, halfway through our weekend up here in Door County, WI, and it’s been fun. Now that I’ve grown fond of my 24” monitor at home for doing all my post production work, I’m hesitant to upload any new photos without the proper processing. That means the good stuff will half to wait until we return.

In the meantime, how about a fun little snapshot I grabbed while stopping for coffee on Friday. These quaint little shops up here are so neat, and the shop owners that bear the Wisconsin winters and stay open all year round have to be the best.