Waterfall, Japanese Garden

The sudden cold snap put me in the mood for Spring and I found this shot taken in the Japanese Garden at the Missouri Botanical Gardens last April that I had not processed.  Nik HDR Efex provided single image tone mapping and Photoshop CS5 improved the levels and curves.  

The monochrome was generated in Nik Silver Efex Pro using the N-1 Processing preset and strong coffee toner.

Technical
Camera:	Nikon D700
Lens:	Nikkor AF 24-85mm f2.8-4 IF
Exposure:	ISO 200, 48mm @ f/8.0 @ 1/640s, Auto WB, RAW
Lighting:	Bright Sunlight
Support:	Handheld
Location:	Japanese Garden in Missouri Botanical Gardens
Dates:	Capture - April 17, 2010, Processed - January 1, 2011
Processing:	Lightroom 3.3, Photoshop CS5, Nik HDR Efex, Nik Silver Efex Pro

Climatron, November 2008 HDR

Fall 2010 was a color bust, but 2008 was fairly lush.  This is a single image HDR processed in Nik HDR Efex Pro.  The capture has some sentimental value because it is the last photo I made with my Nikon D100.  The unprocessed picture is pretty good, but the light was extremely flat that day.  HDR tone mapping brought added quite a bit of dimension, but really exaggerated noise in a way I've not seen before.  I used Photoshop CS5 to adjust levels and remove a woman leaving the Climatron, Nik Vivenza for brightening, Nik Dfine to reduce noise and Nik Color Efex Pro to apply my custom "CSI Miami" filter.

The monochrome was processed in Nik Silver Efex Pro using a landscape preset I made for HDR landscapes.

Lens: Nikkor AF 24-85mm f2.8-4 IF 

Camera: Nikon D100

Exposure: ISO 200, 24mm @ f/11 @ 1/250s, Auto WB, tripod, RAW

Lighting: Daylight

Location: Missouri Botanical Gardens

Dates: Capture - November 28, 2008, Processing - November 9, 2010

Processing: Lightroom 3, Nik HDR Efex, Nik Silver Efex Pro, Photoshop CS5

Japanese Bridge #2

The Japanese garden pond is especially green this Summer, no doubt due to the crazy hot weather, which frankly is not very pretty.  What the heck, I decided to make it all about green, leveraging the color shift of a Polaroid transfer.  It reminds me a little of the 1981 movie "Excalibur" from John Boorman, where they poured on the green lights.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: AF NIKKOR 180mm f/2.8D IF-ED "Leni lens"

Exposure: ISO 200, f/11 @ 1/125s, tripod (Gitzo Basalt GT2830 and Gitzo GH2781QR ball head)

Lighting: Sunlight 

Location: Missouri Botanical Gardens GPS

Processing: Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Nik Color Efex Pro

Water Lily Blossom Study #7

A fallen blossom in late afternoon light at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.
Technical: Nikon D700, Nikkor 180mm f2.8 "Leni Lens", ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1250s, circular polarizer, tripod.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2 to crop, apply Nikon Landscape setting and minor retouching.

Climatron

Nikon D100, ISO 200, 24mm, f/11 @ 1/250s.  The light was very flat, so some curves adjustment and WB applied in Lightroom 2.  A few people were removed using Photoshop CS4.

Infrared Water Lily Pads - MoBot

Nikon D100, ISO 200, 105mm Micro w/Polarizer and Hoya R72 Infrared filters, f/16 @ 1/6s, Bogen tripod and ball head.  The original is dark red and very flat, despite the backlight.  Retouching in Photoshop CS4 to remove coins on the upper left pad and a stray leaf on the foreground pad, then Sepia conversion in Lightroom 2.  After some hit and miss results, I find that the best workflow for digital Infrared is to edit in Photoshop first, then finish up in Lightroom.

Three Lily Pads

Early September, late afternoon light at Mobot. Shooting around the Chihuly glass is getting very difficult! Nikon D100, ISO 200, 105mm Micro w/Polarizer and graduated ND, f/16 @ 1/15s using -0.5 exposure compensation.

Infrared Test 2a - Water Lily - MoBot

Here is the final picture for Infrared Test 2 - Water Lily. First in Lightroom 2 I added a gradient, tilted slightly from the upper right. Next, some dodging, burning and spot clean-up in Photoshop CS2. Finally, back in Lightroom 2, applied the standard sepia preset and dialed down the default highlight levels. I think I'm finished...

Pink Lotus Blossom - MoBot

Usually noon is not good landscape light, but I got lucky with surrounding trees acting like gobos. A MoBot worker cut the bloom two minutes after this was shot. Nikon D100, ISO 200, 105mm Micro, f/16 @ 1/60s, cirular polarizer.

Climatron Flower - MoBot

I came upon this beauty shining through in the dappled sunlight. Nikon D100, f/5.6 @ 1/500s, cropped for 8x10, otherwise straight from the camera.

Infrared Lily Pad Study

Continuing with infrared experiments... Nikon D100, 105mm + Infrared filter, f/11, 1/5s. The saturated red image converted to albumin print color in Lightroom.

Water Lily Study 1

This time of year you can see water lilies in all stages of development. Nikon D100, ISO 200, 105mm, f/8.0, 1/250s. I used the Lightroom Selenium Transform for toned grayscale confversion.

Slightly Ravaged Flower

This is the last picture I took Saturday at MoBot. In spite of being in deep shade, the color really popped. Nikon D100, ISO 800, 85mm macro mode, f/4.0, 1/160s

Yellow Flower - MoBot

Flower, just past its prime with a petal starting to fall away. Nikon D100, ISO 200, 85mm macro, f/4.0, 1/2500s, hand held.

Early Tulip

Grab shot at MoBot; not sure if I like the lens flare, but couldn't pass it up. Nikon D100, ISO 200, Macro-mode, 70mm, f/4.0, 1/1250 sec.