“Winter Tree” was my first real attempt at creative processing, rather than just using Photomatix to make a shot look extravagantly real (I was going to put “hyperreal” here but I couldn’t bring myself to do it). The initial version was an accident - one of those rare “I wonder what happens if I…” experiments that gives a pleasing result. Unfortunately though my inexperience at the time though led me to overlooking some serious flaws with the original image - the contrast was all wrong and the image was noisy.
The poor contrast in the original version was due to my monitor being poorly set up - it was far too dark - and whilst the noise level isn’t that obvious in the version elsewhere on this site (http://www.andystafford.co.uk/winter-tree/) it is painfully apparent on the large version available on Flickr (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3194854394_305882a0a9_o.jpg).
Why was the image noisy? Because my Microsmoothing setting in Photomatix was too low (0). It made the clouds look more dramatic but I didn’t see how badly it was affecting the quality of the image as I neglected to look at it at full size.
If I was ever going to make this image available as a print I knew I was going to have to go back to the original raw files and reprocess it. Details of this process can be found here http://www.andystafford.co.uk/winter-tree-and-photomatix/
A trial version of HDRsoft’s Photomatix is available at http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html. Should you decide to buy a copy of Photomatix, feel free to use my discount code, “AndyStafford15″ which will give you 15% off.
Purchase print at RedBubble | imagekind
Posted in hdr, trees.
Tagged with canon 450d, canon ef-s 18-55mm, clouds, coupon, discount, hdr, photomatix, print, tree, winter.
Bradgate Park is a particularly rich environment for a photographer - although obviously for this reason it is also incredibly popular with local photographers.
This shot was taken on an overcast spring afternoon, and whilst I would have liked a nice blue sky with a few clouds in, sometimes a dull sky can look more dramatic. Often when I take a photograph I know exactly how, or if, I’m going to process the shot later - in this instance though I was just out taking a few shots because I had a bit of spare time and was getting some more experience in using the camera manually.
In the end I tried a few different compositions and processed them each differently and this one proved to be my favourite of the lot.
Purchase print at RedBubble | imagekind
Posted in landscape, textures, trees.
Tagged with bradgate park, canon 450d, canon ef-s 18-55mm, landscape, old john, painting, print, texture.
After six months of having a camera I decided it was about time I went through my previous shots and tidied them up, both in terms of organisation and correcting past mistakes. A couple of people commented on this image recently - I was really happy with it at the time but my preferences and skill have changed somewhat since taking it so it became the first one to have a bit of a facelift.
At the time it was taken I was interested in the effect it was possible to create with running water and Photomatix, and even though the shot was taken during the day I still managed to get managed to get a 2.5s exposure by choosing a shaded location and a small aperture.
The three bracketed shots (at 0.6s, 1/6s and 2.5s) were then combined in Photomatix and the resulting image was desaturated and had some contrast tweaks to enhance the molten glass look.
Posted in b&w, hdr, long exposures.
Tagged with b&w, birstalll, canon 450d, canon ef-s 18-55mm, hdr, leicestershire, photomatix, water, weir.
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