A Quick Maine Lighthouse Shot

Imagine that, not very creative of me but the weather as you can see was a bit overcast.

I am just getting to downloading my cards, I will work on them and coax out a couple shots when I have some time this week.

Chilly

It was a tad chilly for the first swim meet on June 17th. Olivia and Leah were keeping warm the old fashion way, they are such good friends.

We are back from Maine, the weather was Maine like, but that is why we go... Did some shooting with Scott, he did a family portrait for us. I gave him my idea - He executed it masterfully. THANKS SCOTT!!

Need to get back into the groove of summer.

Blop

Equipment List:
D300, 105 Nikkor, Cable Release, Tripod, SB800, Elinchrome Skyport, black paint tray with water, Ziploc bag with water, needle, TOWELS!!, gels, colored paper.

Technique:
Set up as above photo, Sb800 at 1/8th power triggered by Skyport aimed at colored background, F8 at 250th, poke a very small hole in bag, use a pencil to set manual focus in the drip

Experiment with power settings, gels and backgrounds.

Have FUN shooting!! Share you shots!!

I am heading to Maine--- See you in July

Drop

I look to be a drip this week experimenting with the drop.

Wolf, I will take a picture of my set up and explain the technique before I go to Maine on Friday.

Drip

Saw this technique on Strobist last week, had to give it a try.

The Falls of Great Falls

(click to enlarge)

So this is the final for the Great Falls HDR shots I did.

To recap my technique:

I shot all images RAW with a D200 w/ 24-120 VR Nikkor , I shot Aperture priority, bracketed, 3 shots, hand held at f3.5. I overlapped the pano 20 percent for each shot.

Imported the .NEF's into Lightroom. I selected the series (3 x how many in the pano) I was going to batch processes in Photomatix, created a new folder in LR and put the images in the folder. Started photomatx, did a batch of that folder at 3 images, and walked away. So how do I get the look? These are the setting I used. If you use Photmatix, you know they a a bit over the top, but I went to a HDR seminar by Chris Alvanas at CDIA and he is the one who turned me on to this. He was also the guy that was in Nikon World Magazine for HDR and the cover for Shutterbug.

After they batch processed in Photomatix Pro ,the tonemapped .Jpegs would be plaed in a new folder, I synced the folder in LR, and the tonemapped .Jpegs would import into LR. Select (Ctrl-click) the .Jpegs and right click, Merge to Pano in Photoshop. Ctrl-Shift-E to merge layers, Crop, Curve, Sharpen (unsharp mask Amt 185, Radius 1, Threshold 5-10), add letterbox effect in canvas (Alt-Ctrl-C). Save and export for the blog at 2000 wide 72dpi.

Bottom Line, Its FUN, I do not carry a tripod everywhere, and I think the water came out really cool in the process, very angry. Try it yourself and have some fun... If I was not clear (not the first time) or you have a question, feel free to email me Michael@mpalmerphotography.com.

Also if your in the DC area, my Meetup Group "When everyone else is working photography meetup group" is having a meetup tomorrow night to support the Shawn Duffy Night Photowalk.

Have a good weekend.

Great Falls HDR Pano

Tow Path

I went to Great Falls, MD last week for a stroll with Olivia, shot this HDR Pano 5 shots hand held +1,0,-1 each exposure, merged and tone mapped in Photomatix Pro, Merged to Pano CS3. Should have a couple more to share this week. I exported a bit wider for detail, so go ahead and click to enlarge.

Have a drink and sit for a bit...

Cubano's drink specialties....

Cubano's

This is for a website that is under construction for Cubano's. The owner's take great pride in their slice of Cuban heaven they have created in Silver Spring. The food in authentic and you can not beat a great Mojito and order of Paella on the patio there.

Are you "On Assignment" ?

Go check out this AWESOME summer project themed contest at Towner Jones Photography and get "On Assignment".

Exec Portraits for Bloomingdale's

Updating some executive portraits this week for Bloomingdale's in Chevy Chase, MD.