From Dull to Dramatic Photography

While this may not be dramatic in a bright happy colorful sense it is so, if in a dark and foreboding way. With this subject I will admit it was easier than if I had chosen an image which was bright and colorful with lots of sunlight, still even then one can cause an ordinary image to appear near HDR without all the added work and in many cases the use of software to produce the tonal mapping needed.

Take this original image of a door within an abandoned barn, with the use of flash.

From Drop Box

As you can see the amount of light hitting this well defines all of the aspects of the term abandoned, the failing paint, the rust on the handle, the cobweb within the latch opening and generally the decadent condition overall. This much light reflects really more than I want in this photo, so rather than lowering the exposure and losing too much information (btw this works well in most well-lit sunjects, i.e. lowering exposure, I am not the best at flash adjustments, so I use PP or post production techniques) which I needed to maintain. So after viewing the next photo I'll add a brief tutorial of steps in how I was able to push the image to a harsh and dramatic conclusion.

Notice that while you will experience a loss of detail the effect is what is critical. For sheer detail clearly you'll want an entirely different approach. But what this will offer you is a harsh, dramatic, near-HDR look with a few less steps unless of course you purchase the software needed.

As to the steps you can play around with. Because this was a Raw file I first barely increased Exposure to ensure the push I wanted in the highlights. Then I pushed higher Shadows by 25, Brightness by 75 and Contrast by 25. Then I opened and dragged the background down to create a new layer. Now working with the new layer, an exact duplicate of the background, I chose Layer> New Adjustment Layer > Curves and raised the brightness (upper right) by roughly 10%, the middle I left alone and the lower end (lower left) I dropped by about 10% also. The actual numbers are meaningless unless you are working on the image as I write this. But when you approach the effect I did, you'll see a similar result.

Next I used the filter Unsharp Mask in an amount 142%
the Radius I set at 3.7 pixels and the Threshold at 3. This gave me the really harsh tonal qualities I wanted. The I chose Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels and moved the left side of the Input level, or the dark side, by dragging the slider to the right till I reached the number 7, and left the other sliders alone.

I Saved For Web setting resolution to 96 and with a Quality of 30 for web use. I always choose 96 rather than 72 because I want both Windows and Apple computers to view this at their equally well.

That's it. Quick, simple with high drama and a bit of darkness added. Quite a difference for such a few steps. If it seems like you are getting the results I did, just keep tweaking the steps until you are happy. There is no magic number setting in any tutorial. Good luck.

Shooting Christmas Can be Fun.......or........

Shooting can be a lot of fun. Formal shots seem to take a lot of prep work if one wants to get everything perfect, like making sure nothing in the background conflicts with the subject which is your critical Aunt saying she doesn't like it that Bernie's coat is so ugly hanging on the wall behind me. Or just the usual clutter which can easily invade a nice grouping of the family. It pays to take the time to pick out a bare wall or large window so long as the flash will not bounce back at you. In the other hand if you are going for the candid approach, and want to avoid the background clutter which is unavoidable in most cases, try placing a lens of portrait class, say a Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM Lens for Canon SLR Cameras which when opened wide you'll produce enough bokeh, or background blur to avoid most of the stuff and leave you with a wonderful clear shot of your Aunt who won't be able to critique your photo without using a compliment.

What I hear most often from readers is in addition to missing that shot they thought they captured well, is that they ran out of space on their media cards. With today's cameras producing ever-larger images, say the Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3-Inch LCD and EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens which takes 15MP photos can fill a 4MB card in minutes. I hope your Holiday shoot gives you all the shots you were hoping for, but if you find yourself a little shy consider the following CF cards. These are in my opinion two of the best manufacturers money can buy. I own plenty of both.



Now that all the Holidays are past and the New Year is here, you can relax and concentrate on the 'HOW' of what you are shooting instead of the guests, the meals, and all of the hoopla surrounding you. Just get back to focusing on what you want to learn. Hopefully this one small example will help.

And here's an example of that bokeh I spoke of above. While the girls face and hair is sharp, the background offers that professional look.

Happy Best Year

Like a fresh sunrise on a mountain lake, each new year offers us a chance to begin anew; rethink our life, our work, our passions. Take an opportunity no matter how much the effort, to re-align your efforts and accomplish a more productive lifestyle, a more manageable workflow and a sharper take on your passions.

Today I have gone through my photography business papers, tossed notes, organized coming events, prepared a contact list, readied a recent shoot's image files for printing, re-profiled my Vizio lcd, and set my framed prints near the door to haul to the gallery for a month-long show here locally. OK I actually started yesterday afternoon. I have also done much of the same to my retirement paperwork, my Roth IRA re-investment paperwork and some desk cleaning. You may not need to do nearly as much as I have, or you may have a month of work to do, but don't just think about it. Or you'll be reading something like this again at this time next year wishing you had.

I wish all of my readers a Very Best New Year in every sense of the word. Make it a great one.