Creative License

When I first started on my journey into digital photography I had a purist mentality where I thought the image should be created in the camera with little to no post processing using the computer.  Through research I came to realize that even the legendary photographer Ansel Adams didn't capture the final image in the camera, he too used some sort of post processing in the darkroom to create his final images, so why can't I?

So, with the purist mindset pushed aside I set out to create the image that was in my minds eye but didn't actually exist at the moment I captured the original image.  I used Adobe Lightroom to convert the image to black and white and used a bit of dodging and burring (old darkroom terms for darken and lightening and image) to get just the right look.

Below is the original image straight out of the camera with no post processing.
 



What's Your Second Most Important Tool?

Other than your camera and lenses what is the second most important tool when it comes to producing great looking digital images?  In my opinion it is your computer's video display monitor.

I'm currently using an HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor as my primary display for using Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop for post processing images.  When I first installed the HP ZR24w I noticed that the images looked very different than they did with my previous monitor, a ViewSonic VX2240W 22" wide screen LCD.

After running just the HP ZR24w for a few weeks I decided to reconnect the ViewSonic VX2240W as my secondary display.  After getting both monitors connected I used a Spyder2Express color calibrator and calibrated each monitor. 

After calibrating both monitors and displaying the same image on each monitor the difference in the display quality between these two monitors is absolutely astonishing. The more expensive HP monitor has a much clearer and brighter display that allows me to see the details in images that can't be seen on the much cheaper Viewsonic monitor. 

I'm so impressed with the HP ZR24w 24-inch S-IPS LCD Monitor that I've ordered a second one to replace the ViewSonic VX2240W which will find a new home on my wife's or children's PC.

Using Natural and Artificial Light

With all the flowering plants sprouting up outside I decided to do some close-up macro photography using the flowers as my subject. I went outside setup my tripod, attached the camera and mounted my Tamron 17-70mm MACRO lens to the camera.

I then set the aperture to f/25, manually focused on the flower and looked through the view finder to see the flower wiggling back and fourth as it was buffeted by the winds. I popped off a few shots and quickly determined that this wasn't going to work because I couldn't keep the ISO at 100 and get the shutter speed high enough to compensate for the movement caused by the wind. So what to do next? I went in the house to get a pair of scissors and vase. I was going to cut the flower and bring it inside and photograph it there. But what do I see sitting on the kitchen table? A new flowering plant that my wife had just purchased and the flowers where orange, my favorite color. I had a new subject to photograph.

I typically shoot using natural light but I was in an experimental mood so I retrieved my tripod and camera from outside and set it up in the kitchen. I placed the flower pot near a window to provide some back lighting using the soft natural sunlight flowing in from the northern facing windows. Because I was using the natural light as a back light I had to use artificial light to illuminate the front of the flowers to prevent a silhouette effect. I could have used the camera's built-in flash but that would have most likely washed out the color and flattened the image. I set up my portable light stand and umbrella and mounted my Canon 480 EX flash in slave mode and placed it at a 45 degree angle just to the left and above the flowers and bounced the light using the umbrella. I mounted my Canon 580 EX II flash on the camera's hot shoe and pointed it straight up to bound the light off the ceiling and provide fill light. I overexposed by about 1-1/3 stop to blow out the background.

I like the results, what about you?

f/22, ISO100, 4.0 sec, 70mm

This is the same image as above post processing in Lightroom 2.0 to convert it to black and white and overexposed to give it a high key look.

All images copyright Daniel Ray Photography.

Revisit Old Photos to Find Something New

This weekend my primary hard drive was full and I couldn't import any new photos until I did some house cleaning and purged my system of a few gigbytes of bits. So I began by opening Adobe Lightroom and started looking through my many folders and thousands of images trying to decide what could be deleted to free disk space.
After about an hour of browsing and numerous photos removed I came across a series of images from Chirstmas 2007 which were taken shortly after I pruchased my Canon 40D SLR camera. One photo of my son Austin kind of stood out. There was nothing exceptional about it but I just loved it. So I put my house cleaning project on hold, swicthed from the Lightroom Library module into the Develop module and started working on the image in hopes of bringing out the best qualities while hiding the rest.
Below is the orginal RAW image straight out of the camera with no processing. After looking at the image I wanted to draw the viewers attention to his cute little face peeking out from behind the Christmas tree. As you can see the rule of thirds was not used since his face is planted sqaurley in the middle of the image. I also didn't like the group of people seated behind him becuase it was distracing and didn't add to the image. What should I do?

Original Image

I began by cropping the image to remove as much of the group of people as possible without chopping the top or side of his head. This resulted in a closer view of his face and reveled the typical skin blimishes you'd expect to find on a child. So I grabbed the Spot Removal tool and removed those unsightly spots. I next turned my attendtion to the colors and used the Vibrance slider to pump up a little color and I also lowered the Contract to soften the image. I'm pretty pleased with the end result. What do you think?

Final Image