by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, panorama, photography, photography creativity, photography gear, photoshop tutorial
Working a Scenic Landscape
The light was fantastic. Scenery amazing. Time? Very short!
I was on my way to a photo shoot in the evening and saw the moon just starting to peek above the horizon as the light from the fading sun had already dropped below in the west. I grabbed the Lumix GX85 and the 7-14mm f4 lens to see what I might capture in the few minutes I had available. I don’t usually like to rush when a situation like this appears, but duty and a deadline called.
This was the first quick image to make sure I had something in the can.
I first quickly grabbed an overall scene-setting image. Then I tried a couple quick grab shots. I ran down the parking lot to get a better overall view. Having the wide angle lens gave me a lot of the scene but I knew I would need more to be happy.
Nine image panorama capture for further work in post. Note the images have already been adjusted a bit in Adobe Camera RAW
I set up and shot a nine image panorama with the camera in the vertical orientation to gather as much info as possible. Already the light was starting to fade and my job was calling.
Image output after using Photomerge in Photoshop.
I allowed the Adobe Photomerge tool to do a lot of the heavy lifting for me. I highlighted the images in Adobe Bridge selected Photomerge from the Tools drop-down menu Tools>Photoshop>Photomerge… Layout was set to Auto. The following text boxes were checked. Blend Images Together for obvious reasons. Vignette removal. This was checked because the lens had a bit of vignette and would have made for messy skies. A reason for not checking the vignette box would be if you had files that had no vignette because the files could process faster. Geometric Distortion Correction. You can try working without this but I have found in a scene like this the red rocks would have curved. Content Aware Fill Transparent Areas. When a handheld pano is made like this there is often areas that don’t completely fill the rectangle of the final image. Photoshop will look around and use it’s best guess to fill the areas. You can check on them quickly as it will also leave a selection around the areas it filled in case you need to make some adjustments. In this particular case, it did a great job. All setings are available for you to play with if you don’t get the exact results for which you are looking.
Post-production is a huge help in these instances to obtain quality images.
I pulled a full moon from my files as the moon area was blown out. Another case of the eye being better than the camera. If I had more time I would have bracketed exposures to get the detail I needed.
Here’s the final. The moon has detail. The image was cropped to bring attention where I wanted it and
a little judicious Cloning was used to remove the couple under the tree.
If you have any questions or comments give me a shout!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | black & white, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photographer of musicians, photography gear
Live Entertainment Photography – Anthony Mazzella Black & White
Many times if I want to check that I have a good solid image capture I convert to black and white to see how the tones do without the distraction of color. The fact that I produce advertising and marketing images for Sound Bites Grill makes me check that even more often as many of the images I create will end up in a newspaper in black and white.
I recently photographed the Legends of Guitar show at Sound Bites featuring Anthony. You can check the color images in my previous post. Here are the black and white versions.
This image still carries the blues feeling. I remember working hard to get Anthony in a spot where there was a separation light on his hat.
Shows the full line of instruments telling the story of the show.
A little smoke machine action gives extra depth and dimension.
Here’s one that needs the distraction of color. The hot spot of the light is too distracting in this image in black and white.
Check the color versions in the other post to get the most from this post. Images made with the Lumix GX85. The fact they removed the anti-alias filter give a better ‘grain pattern’ in my opinion. Makes for sharper images. And the five-axis image stabilization makes for better handhold ability in the low light.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | bird photography, black & white, imaging competition, inspiration, Lumix GX8, Lumix Lounge, photography competition, photography creativity, photography gear, wildlife photography
Sunday Photo Art Quote – Thomas Jefferson
I’ve seen this quote attributed to Tom although I’m certain it belongs to him as there are variations in place attributed to others. I try to research my quotes for accuracy. With that in mind if you know who the originator of this quote was, please let me know.
“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” – Thomas Jefferson
You might ask, “What in the heck does this have to do with art, Bob?”
It all has to do with getting in there and doing the work. Whether you feel like doing it or not. Many times I will happen into a fortunate art situation just because I keep on trying even though things have not worked out crazy good in the past. If you see a concept, you need to keep acting on it until it comes to fruition.
Here’s an example. I love photographing wildlife, especially birds. I enjoy the texture of their wings. Studying and anticipating their movements to capture more compelling images. The time alone searching out new behaviors. It can be very frustrating to try to come up with something original. That doesn’t stop me from going out and trying. Over and over. And over. Until that magic moment when the luck part comes into play. Because I was still there trying I was treated to this perfect moment of a Snowy Egret chasing fish.
I captured approximately 200 images of the bird working the shallows in front of me. And this is the composite I thought I wanted to accomplish.
Working composite of Dance of the Snowy Egret
I had sifted through and extracted many images of the snowy egret to get this far but wasn’t happy with what was happening. It was the vision I originally had in my head while I was photographing the bird, but it just wasn’t working form, although my wife loved it. So I kept working.
So I kept working. And working.
And because I kept working on it even though I wasn’t happy I had another stroke of luck. In turning off the background to clean up my extractions of the birds, I saw the image in it’s simplest form. All attention became focused on the positions of the birds with absolutely no distractions.
PPA Loan Collection Image – Dance of the Snowy Egret by yours truly
I entered the image in the International Photographic Competition from Professional Photographers of America, and it was judged into the Loan Collection in the Master Artist category. That judging is based on twelve elements (click here for more on the twelve) including composition, technical excellence, and storytelling. Also, how the artwork was accomplished is a significant part of the criteria which is why the reference images are shown.
I feel I was lucky on two fronts in the creation of this photo. But I did work hard to get ultimately get there
But I did work hard to get ultimately get there.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – I think one additional piece of luck was the equipment I’ve been using. Because the micro 4/3rds format is so small and light I was able to handhold a 600mm equivalent lens and track the egret comfortably for a long period of time. Heavier gear would have required a tripod and been much less mobile. Lumix GX8 with the 100-300mm f4.0-5.6 lens
by successfulbob | Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, photographer of musicians
Live Entertainment Photography – Anthony Mazzella
I’ve been working capturing the performers at Sound Bites Grill in Sedona for about four years. I still enjoy the challenge of making images in this environment.
Anthony Mazzella on guitar – Image captured with LumixGX85
The latest entertainer to make the Wall of Fame is Anthony Mazzella. Even though Anthony is on the Wall already from a previous performance Sound Bites felt that the stage show Anthony has developed with his salute to Legends of Guitar should have its own special image.
Full stage with Anthony and his ‘babies’ all ready to play.
Playing multiple guitars in a variety of styles, along with looping music from other instruments makes this a really great show.
LED lighting and a smoke machine add a lot of ambiance to the stage.
I’ve been pleased how the Lumix camera gear can handle the contrast range in this difficult shooting scenario. In the earlier cameras, I had to work a lot harder to have detail in the shadows and not loose the pure color of the LED lights. Now, with new processing engines and five-axis image stabilization, I’m able to get more detail across the entire range. Can you say happy?
Mazzella Playing the blues during his performance.
Monday I’ll share the black and white conversions of these images.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix Lounge, Lumix LX100, panorama, photography creativity, photography education, photography gear, photography software
Panoramic Photography – One More Time
Here’s one more use of panoramic photography that I haven’t mentioned in previous posts. Change the number of Mega-Pixels in your camera.
“Say what?” You ask? “And once you explain, tell me why I want to try that?”
Ok, here goes.
You can expand the number of pixels in an image in order to be able to make a larger print by making multiple images and overlapping the capture. After you get back to the studio move those images into your favorite photo stitching programs like Adobe’s Photoshop or AutopanoPro and put the images together. Photoshop has gotten very good at merging images together including a new feature called Content-Aware Fill that can automatically clean up the blank space that can sometimes surround your image.
This morning I had my Lumix LX100 with me. I call this the professional’s point and shoot because it has fast glass and is quite versatile with all important controls on dials just like the old days. No need to move into electronic menus to access your settings. All of this is in a quite small package. But the camera is only 12.1MP which yields a 36-megabyte file. In today’s example, I shot five exposures overlapping each by 30-40 percent. After merging the photos I ended up with a 97-megabite file. 97 divided by 3 equals a 32MP capture.
Here is a screen capture of the five images when highlighted in Adobe Bridge.
After the images above were assembled in Photoshop and massaged with Luminar from MacPhun.*
With this technique, you can get file sizes you have only dreamed about with a little extra work. Remember if you want to really make a huge file you can use a long lens and do row after row of images and blend them all together. Make sure you capture each row the same way. I always go left to right and top to bottom during my captures.
Yours in creative Photography, Bob
PS – * Luminar software is currently only available for the MAC platform but from what I understand they will be releasing a PC version later this year. Luminar can be used as a stand-alone processing program or as a Plug-in. There’s a sale on ’til the end of the year the link above will take you there.
PPS – The MacPhun software Aurora 2017 HDR is also on special until the end of the year. I’m enjoying the creative processing from MacPhun products.
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, panorama, photography, photography creativity
Let’s Talk Panoramic Photography – Part 2
In looking through my files for some examples of in-camera panoramic photos I came across some more examples I wanted to share. I feel the format adds another arrow to the creativity quiver. Here’s a few made with the Lumix GX7.
Outside Salt Lake City – Panorama format is perfect for telling the dramatic landscape story.
Another from the Salt Lake City Trip.
A different way to share a scene.
As I was going through my photos, I realized I didn’t share a slightly different idea to leverage the in-camera panorama feature. Sometimes the resulting photo just doesn’t quite cut it as far as capturing the scene. Or you want a file that will have a different aspect ratio but is still a panoramic image. Or, you need more pixels but don’t have time to create a full set of images for future stitching. So here’s two rows followed by the final.
Showing the dome.
Showing the base.
Here’s the final with the two stitched in-camera panorama images using Adobe Photoshop.
From the Red Butte Arboretum in Salt Lake City.
One more.
Think about the ways you can use the panorama feature. I don’t have one at my fingertips, but you can also make the panorama vertical.
Yours in creative Photography, Bob
