Archive for the ‘lobster’ Tag

At the End of Day   10 comments


Thurston's Wharf

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In the recent HDR Collaboration project, Inland Sailor, I mentioned that prior to snapping those brackets we had indulged in a great lobster dinner. This scene is from Thurston’s Lobster Pound in Bernard, Maine, where lobster boats unload their daily catch to be enjoyed at the waterfront restaurant. It’s a great place to kick back and enjoy the scenery while waiting for your crustaceans to steam.

To be honest, I’ve become a bit bored with standard processing techniques, even though there is always room for improvement (perhaps particularly so in my case.) I’m sure it’s just a temporary condition. However, in order to fully break away from my typical stuff, I decided to give the image more of a nostalgic, postcard feel using a few techniques that I don’t usually approach. Given that the composition of the original shot was cluttered and had a chaos of different colors, I like the way that this treatment works with the scene, and hope you like it, too.

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Starting with an tonemapped image from 7 exposures (+/-1EV, f/14, 75mm, ISO200), I applied a Shadowmap derived from Nik’s Silver Efex Pro, adjusted for some imperfections, then turned around in SEP to apply both aged toning and light vignette effects. Seeing that it was a bit too monochromatic, I allowed just a hint of color to sneak through in places. Various other more subtle plug-ins were used, including Topaz DeNoise and Nik’s Color Efex Pro 4 for final dressing.

Why I Like HDR, Tonemapping, and Post-Processing   1 comment


Some people ask why I bother with HDR techniques, tonemapping, and post-processing. After all, it can take hours to come up with one, good final image. Is it worth it?

Here’s my answer, from an image captured in Maine in 2009:

Before – A RAW file (NEF) straight from the camera, converted to JPEG format for web display.

After – The same shot, where I fooled around with LAB color, shadow-mapping, tonemapping, detail adjustments, straightening, cloning, and sharpening.

Click on either image for a larger display.





While the second image is FAR from perfect (it was a quick pass), the differences are easy to see.

As Forrest Gump would say, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Cheers!

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