1. Josh; 6/14/2012; 9:52 PM; Rexburg Skate Park; f/4.5; 1/16; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Contest Entry
3. Wifey; 6/19/2012; 1:14 PM; Woodman Ballroom; f/5.0; 1/125; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
4. Contest Entry
I went through the same basic steps to get both of my images. First, I opened them in Photoshop and made the basic edits that I usually do, (fix blemishes, adjust saturation, hue, contrast, etc.). After I made those basic edits, I saved them and opened them up in Photomatix and made them single shot HDRs, and chose a preset filter that they had on the program. After those edits, I opened them in Photoshop once more, cutting them out and putting them on top of the backgrounds that Sister Esplin gave us to work with, tried to match the colors, and then just flattened them and saved them.
I chose this photo contest initially because I had some great ideas that I wanted to do and I really wanted to do my own thing. I had my backgrounds shot and edited but then I realized that we were supposed to use the backgrounds that were given to us, so then I had to change my ideas. I chose this contest because I wanted to learn more and work with HDRs and matching pictures and backgrounds.
http://www.carynesplin.com/portrait-hdr-contest-third-group/
I submitted my pictures on June 20th.
1. Sequence; 5/20/2012; 5:45 PM; Skate Park; f/4.0; 1/4000; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Frontside Flip; 6/7/2012; 9:20 PM; Skate Park; f/4.5; 1/320; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
The reason that I chose these two pictures for my final prints is because I wanted to do something a little more unique, something that is different from the rest of the class, and something that would be personal and something that I’m passionate about.
With the sequence image, I put my camera on the fastest shutter speed I could and then took multiple shots as he did the trick, without moving my camera. Once I had all of the images I just cut him out of each one and combined them all into one image. After blending and cloning a little bit of the background so that it looked right, I flattened the image and started with some editing layers like brightness/contrast, and hue and saturation. Then I resized it to 24×18 (since I’m printing two images) with a resolution of 200 dpi. I then saved it as the highest resolution of jpeg that I could. After that I opened the images in Photomatix and applied the tone mapping and chose the very last effect so that it gave it a more artistic, sketching effect.
For the Frontside Flip picture, I just started with a little bit of cloning and blending to get out some unwanted graffiti that was on the wall, then started with some editing layers like brightness/contrast, and hue and saturation. Then I resized it to 24×18 (since I’m printing two images) with a resolution of 200 dpi. I then saved it as the highest resolution of jpeg that I could. After that I opened the images in Photomatix and applied the tone mapping and chose the very last effect so that it gave it a more artistic, sketching effect.
I chose to edit both of the images in the same manner because I wanted them to match a little bit so it looked like they had the same subject, same effect, and same feel.
1. Hands;Â 6/3/2012; 7:09 PM; Train Tracks; f/5.6; 1/320; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Love; 6/3/2012; 7:28 PM; Train Tracks; f/4.5; 1/640; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
3. Couple; 6/3/2012; 7:09 PM; Train Tracks; f/4.5; 1/1328; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
4. Template; 5/4/2012; 5:46 PM; Woodman Parking Lot; f/5.6; 1/320; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
When I was creating the borders I just tried to find a few of my images that might work well with borders and then went ahead and tried them. The hardest one for me to figure out was the fine art template. For some reason, I couldn’t get the black rectangles to duplicate and the directions in the book weren’t really too helpful to those using PCs. I eventually figured it out and I like how it turned out and got me wanting to experiment more with that.
1. Main Street; 6/3/2012; 11:17 PM; Main Street; f/22; 10 sec; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Read A Book; 6/3/2012; 10:47 PM; My Apartment; f/22; 10 sec; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
3. Form; 6/3/2012; 11:01 PM; Main Street; f/22; 3.2 sec; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
4. Chair; 6/3/2012; 12:17 PM; My Apartment; f/22; 32 sec; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
For these images it was a little bit of a challenge to get anything too clear in them because I didn’t have a tripod, but other than that, I was just experimenting with everything and trying to get some images that weren’t too terrible. Another problem I had is that my flashlight didn’t work so I ended up using the light that was on my cellphone, but I couldn’t figure out why the picture of the chair came out so blurry when my camera wasn’t moving at all even when I put it on a self-timer.
1. Window 1; 5/24/2012; 12:38 PM; Bannack; f/22; 1/4; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Window 2; 5/24/2012; 12:38 PM; Bannack; f/22; 1/64; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
3. Window 3; 5/24/2012; 12:38 PM; Bannack; f/22; 1/16; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
4. HDR Window
5. Single Shot HDR; 5/24/2012; 1:27 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/3200; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
With these pictures I just tried to get the right view and the right lighting, and I put the f-stop on f/22 so that I would have everything in the house in-focus as well as everything that was outside of the house. The single shot was just on automatic settings and then I messed around with both of these in Photomatix.
1. Metal Stuff; 5/24/2012; 5:37 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/50; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Red; 5/24/2012; 5:59 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/250; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
3. Desks; 5/24/2012; 2:35 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/16; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
4. Nest; 5/24/2012; 2:32 PM; Bannack; f/5.0; 1/6; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
5. Blend
The first two macro abstract shots that I posted are ones that I really liked, and then the other two that I blended together worked together better than I thought. The picture of the bird’s nest that came out blurry I thought I was just going to toss it, but then I found that when I turned the opacity down and laid it on top of the desks it actually added to the eery feel/mood to the picture.
Creek; 5/24/2012; 4:49 PM; Bannack; f/5.0; 1/1328; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
I tried to make this picture a little more interesting than the other pictures that I had previously taken for the reverse shallow depth. I like it because though one thing may be out of focus in each picture, I still like each one.
1. Jumping Cowboy; 5/24/2012; 4:31 PM; Bannack; f/4.5; 1/320; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Ghostly Peeps; 5/24/2012; 1:39 PM; Bannack; f/29; 6; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
For the blurred motion all I did was move to where there was low light, and I had the shutter stay open for a longer time so that when the people moved out of the frame part way through taking the picture, they would be transparent. Opposite with the cowboy; I had better light and a quicker shutter speed. Very cool.
1. Vampire; 5/24/2012; 3:39 PM; Bannack; f/4.5; 1/50; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Country Girl; 5/24/2012; 3:46 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/125; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
I was just messing around with these two portraits, trying to give both of them a little bit of a different feel. I tried to make the eyes look a little creepier on the vampire picture on purpose by totally whiting-out the pupils and then turning down the opacity. I turned the country girl black and white after the editing just because it seemed a little more old-western to me.
1. Shotgun; 5/24/2012; 3:51 PM; Bannack; f/5.0; 1/20; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
2. Little Boy; 5/24/2012; 4:07 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/64; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
3. Flare; 5/24/2012; 1:22 PM; Bannack; f/22; 0.4; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
4. Organ Peddles; 5/24/2012; 2:15 PM; Bannack; f/4.5; 1/5; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
5. Hat; 5/24/2012; 1:05 PM; Bannack; f/5.6; 1/4000; Canon EOS REBEL T1i.
These are some of the pictures that I liked and I knew that I liked them right after I took the picture. I didn’t spend too much time editing them at all; just adjusting the contrast, saturation, and darkening some of them. The first shotgun picture is actually a HDR with one of the effects that Photomatix offers.
jasonmw13 