Synopshots » Nikon D70

The Boardwalk in Asbury Park: NY City Serenade

Tim Dempsey — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:32:16 +0000

With all this Bruce Springsteen talk: Superbowl halftime, new tour behind the “Working on a Dream” album, I found myself getting a bit nostalgic. Back in November of 2006, I spent Thanksgiving with my two sons down on the Jersey Shore where I grew up. The weather that weekend was incredible: I think it got into the 60s fahrenheit, so we had the great good fortune to enjoy a long and sunny walk an Asbury’s boardwalk. Not quite what it used to be… but beautiful in its own decrepit way. I was playing with Adobe Lightroom I think — and put together this little movie. The video quality doesn’t do justice to the images, but it’s a fun walk down the boardwalk, accompanied by the Boss himself and one of the great ones from “The Wild, The Innocent, and The E-Street Shuffle,” “New York City Serenade.”

I know the resolution is terrible — but be sure to select “HQ” in the YouTube panel. Send comments and I’ll post the originals somewhere!

Kobe being Kobe: Flickr’s “most interesting” photo of Kobe Bryant

Tim Dempsey — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 18:46:54 +0000

Kobe-being-Kobe, originally uploaded by TimDD.

This photo has now become "the most interesting" photo on Flickr when you seach for "Kobe Bryant." Amazing. Volume up especially as Kobe recently reached the 20,000 point milestone (before age 30). I heard on SportsCenter this morning that Wilt reached this point in five fewer seasons…

VitalStatistics.info politely asked to use this photo on their site for an article on Kobe. A first for me. Very cool.

Here’s the original photo:

I use LucisArt, www.lucisart.com, the "exposure" filter, on a background copy layer (usually) to get the effect. I also play with HDR, but only when I can get proper multiple exposures, for the reasons you rightly cite.

The Kobe photo is a lot more complicated (and not very well executed, as I look back on it now a few weeks later). In the original, you couldn’t see Kobe without really looking hard — he was lost against the background. (http://flickr.com/photos/ddwise/2058844301/in/photostream/)

So I created a selection of Perkins, Kobe, and Ray Allen — and the Parquet Floor — and reduced the brightness on everything else. It kind of looks like a strobe shot (it wasn’t — all available light and there was plenty of it) — but you can at least see Kobe.

Rachel Robinson

Tim Dempsey — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:03:07 +0000

This is Julie’s colleague Rachel — I’m continuing to work on the various blending options and blurring effects to get a grip on the "Orton" technique.

Banquet-Hall

Tim Dempsey — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:41:11 +0000

Banquet-Hall, originally uploaded by TimDD.

Banff, Canada — early morning at the Banff Springs Hotel. Surrounded by the beautiful Rockies.

I experiemented with LucisArt a bit to highlight the texture of the massive stone walls, and removed some flare in Photoshop… but for the most part this is the scene.

Kobe-being-Kobe

Tim Dempsey — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:17:14 +0000

Kobe-being-Kobe, originally uploaded by TimDD.

Jules and I brought Ian and Eric to the Celtics game last night. I cranked up the 70-200mm at ISO 800, and got a couple of decent shots. Here’s one of the dreaded Kobe — who, it has to be said, can create a shot.

This one actually got a fair amount of processing time. I went through the painstaking process of making Perk, Kobe, and Ray Allen a selection — which required substantial work. But I wanted them to pop out from the background, which while detailed is distracting.

LucisArt provided the usual chewy texture and contrast, without, IMHO, becoming too "CGI."

What is the right size for the images in these posts?

Tim Dempsey — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:04:41 +0000

Testing image widths for PhoBlo posts…

Trying to sort out the best image size for the postings… just a test.

Great-Blue

Tim Dempsey — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:15:31 +0000

Great-Blue, originally uploaded by TimDD.

Ah Flickr. I started out with a far smaller Great Blue Heron when I originally posted this photo… but the beauty of the Flickr Gallery is that there are critiques galore to help you refine your technique. Here I was able to tighten up considerably by layering the bird, using LucisArt Exposure to bring out the under-wing detail without too terribly generating digital artifacts, add the vignette… and here you have it.

Neighbor-Mod

Tim Dempsey — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:33:00 +0000

Neighbor-Mod, originally uploaded by TimDD.

The near-final result.

Here is the near-final result. I used the eraser tool to "erase" the layer from LucisArt which had lots of noice in the sky — I wanted the original, smooth sky around that single cloud. I softeved the trees a bit to keep them from distracting (thanks Trey at www.stuckincustoms.com for that tip), and used levels and curves to get just the right color balance.

There is one mistake in here — but you’d probably need to know the neighbor’s house pretty well to catch it. Post a comment if you think you can see it!

Process step 3: building “Neighbor-Mod”

Tim Dempsey — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:31:49 +0000

By creating a layer for the house alone, I could call up another great processing tool: LucisArt (www.lucisart.com). This plug-in for Photoshop has a couple of effects — I use Exposure, Sculpture, Whyetha and Winslow — and each has setting buttons and sliders that I just had to experiment with to understand. It allowed me to bring much more light and life to the house, while I dealt with issues in the surrounding areas separately.

The house is starting to emerge from the shadows.

Process step 2: building “Neighbor-Mod”

Tim Dempsey — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 05:23:01 +0000

This is already looking better, but there is still much work to be done. I have traded an overall shadowed image for one which fails to highlight the house itself, much less that fabulous roof line. So I get to work in Photoshop… first cropping the image down, then establishing layers: one for the house itself, one for the remainder of the shot — both the lawn / foreground and the trees and sky.