Eros Bendato Redux - HDR Series

This version of Eros Bendato was taken from the same angle as the last post, but is a stitched panorama from three vertical slices of the statue.  I ran the the resulting single 24 mega-pixel through a landscape preset I made for Nik HDR Efex, then added a CSI Miami glow using Nik Color Efex Pro.

Nik Silver Efex Pro is responsible for the monochrome conversion with sepia/blue split tone.

This Polaroid Transfer version made in Nik Color Efex Pro might be my favorite of this series.

The solarized version, also from Nik Color Efex Pro, gets its split tone from Lightroom 3.

Technical
Camera:	Nikon D700
Lens:	AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G
Exposure:	ISO 200, f/8.0 @ 1/400s, Auto WB, RAW
Lighting:	Morning daylight and shade
Support:	Handheld
Location:	City Garden, St. Louis GPS
Dates:	Capture - April 11, 2010, Processed - January 15, 2011
Processing:	Lightroom 3.3, Photoshop CS5, Nik HDR Efex, Nik Silver Efex Pro, Nik Color Efex Pro

Eros Bendato, City Garden - HDR Series

This huge bronze head by Igor Mitoraj is a real show stopper.  This single image tone mapped HDR was created in Nik HDR Efex using the Turquoise Night preset as a starting point.  I used Photoshop to take out a couple of cars and parking meters and actually toned down some colors in Lightroom.

Monochrome created in Nik Silver Efex Pro using a green filter and sepia/blue split tone.

The solarized version comes from Nik Color Efex Pro.  I like this effect - definitely creepy.

Technical
Camera:	Nikon D700
Lens:	AF-S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.4G
Exposure:	ISO 200, f/8.0 @ 1/400s, Auto WB, RAW
Lighting:	Morning daylight and shade
Support:	Handheld
Location:	City Garden, St. Louis GPS
Dates:	Capture - April 11, 2010, Processed - January 15, 2011
Processing:	Lightroom 3.3, Photoshop CS5, Nik HDR Efex, Nik Silver Efex Pro, Nik Color Efex Pro

James S. McDonnell Planetarium Roof

One of the many jewels of Forest Park, the planetarium must have the most distinctive roof line in the city.

This is the color version that served as the starting point for the monochrome.

Lens: Nikkor AF 24-85mm f2.8-4 IF 

Camera: Nikon D100

Exposure: ISO 400, 75mm @ f/11 @ 1/750s, Auto WB, Polarizer, handheld, RAW

Lighting: Daylight  

Location: 5050 Oakland Avenue, St. Louis, MO (Forest Park) GPS

Date: Capture - 2009-03-07, Processing - 2010-10-17

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

St. Louis in Silhouette, Single Image HDR

I was curious about how much shadow detail HDR Toning could pull out of the single RAW image from an earlier post, "St. Louis in Silhouette".  While I can't say that I really like the resulting picture better than the original post, the shadow detail here is pretty amazing.

The monochrome conversion is from the just release 64-bit version of Silver Efex Pro.  There are no new features, but processing is noticeably faster.

For comparison, here is the capture straight out of the camera.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: Nikkor AF-S 50mm f1.4 G

Exposure: ISO 200, f/11 @ 1/800s, handheld

Lighting: Daylight 

Location: St. Louis Art Museum GPS

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

St. Louis Art Museum Muse Study #1, Solarized

The St. Louis Art Museum muse to the right of the entrance.  Both of the gals are looking worse for wear these days, suffering from missing bits and a layer of grime.  I hope the statues get some restoration attention as part of the museum expansion.  The solarization effect is a custom style I've developed for Silver Efex Pro.

Technical: Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 G, ISO 800, f/4.0 @ 1/8000s, hand held.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.6 to crop and straighten, then edited in Nik Silver Efex Pro to apply the solarization effect.

1904 World's Fair Entrance Bridge, Forest Park

An infrared view of the old 1904 World's Fair Entrance Bride in Forest Park, shot late summer 2008, the image was a good opportunity to put Nik Silver Efex Pro through some extra testing.
Technical: Nikon D100, AF Nikkor 24-85mm f2.8-f4, ISO 200, Cokin P007 infrared filter, 24mm @ f/8.0 @ 1/5s.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.5, then converted to gray scale in Nik Silver Efex Pro using standard/neurtal, split toner #2, AgfaPan 100 film setting and structure contrast boost 32%.  

Silhouette of St. Louis

I thought this angle made a strong silhouette against the wispy clouds.

Technical: Nikon D700, Nikkor 50mm f1.4G, ISO 200, f/5.6 @ 1/1000s, handheld at dusk.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.5 to crop and convert to sepia using a develop preset I've been working on trying to imitate the look of the old Ilford Gallerie F silver paper processed in Kodak Sepia Toner.  Can't say I miss the hydrogen sulphide smell :)

"Freedom Is Not Free"

Susan and I took a stroll along the Missouri river in the Kadi Trail Park and came upon this Veterans Memorial. Thankfully, all my friends who served in the military during in wartime actually returned home in realitively good shape. So when I think of the ultimate sacrifice, my thoughts go to several photojournalist friends who never came back from battle assignments. One in particular, Hiroshi Takanawa, a childhood friend and karate sparring partner, fell victim to a land mine just a few yards away from me. One thing led to another and I decided to imitate the "new photojournalism look" from Life magazine, circa 1969, where the pix were high contrast, layered with metaphors and photographers' shadows and reflections became part of the picture, no longer considered mistakes.

Nikon D700, ISO 1600, Cokin R72 Infrared filter, Nikon 24-85mm f2-f4, 24mm@f/8.0@1/25s. Under the right circumstances, the infrared filter really helps isolate graphic elements. RAW processed in Lightroom 2 by cropping to 1:1, some contrast adjust and applied standard Sepia preset.

Rivet Study #1, Chain of Rocks Bridge

Portrait of a rivet on the old Chain of Rocks Bridge.  Nikon D100, ISO 200, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8, Cokin circular polarizer, f/16 @ 1/250s.  

Tivoli Sign, The Girlfriend Experience

From my most recent trip to the Tivoli theater to see "The Girlfriend Experience", taken from the street.  Nikon D700, ISO 1600, Nikon 24-85mm f2.8 - f4.0, 50mm @ f/8.0 @ 1/250s, handheld.  There is some noise in the deep shadows and blacks, but I think the quality is very usable.  What's really impressive here is the highlight detail.  

St. Louis Study #8

Color version of the earlier sepia version.  For statues, I'm starting to favor muted colors and pumped up contrast over monochrome conversions.  The mood is more striking for some subjects.  Nikon D700, ISO 200, 50mm, f/8.0 @ 1/400s.  RAW processed in Lightroom 2.3 using Mike Lao's "300 v2" develop preset as a starting point.  I've been printing the series on Museo Silver Rag.

Hercules and the Hydra Variations

I spent most of Sunday browsing for Lightroom add-ins.  The most common are Develop module presets.  I think having a good collection of these helps to quickly see what changes in mood and other possibilities might be for given photo.  Starting with a straight shot of "Hercules and the Hydra" behind the St. Louis Art Museum, taken with a Nikon D100, 24-85mm @ 48mm, ISO 200, f/11 @ 1/400s, cropped 1:1 in Lightroom 2.

Transform using "BoonDoggle 2" from BlixPhoto.  This is a very nice muting of tone combined with a strong boost in contrast.  I like the way it grayed the sky, moving the shot to more abstraction.  
Look familiar?  This is the "300" transform by Mike Lao.  This subject, oddly enough, isn't really suitable, but I'd love to run this on some protraits.

Probably not familiar because almost nobody saw the movie, but this is the "Max Payne Red" transform from by Matt Koslowski, the "Lightroom Killer Tips" guy.  Not great for this subject, but I'm keeping handy...

Finally, this one really surprised me.  The statue transformed from bronze to chrome, while leaving the other colors roughly the same.  This is the work of the "Gritty & Grungy" preset from Neil Cowley.

Shoot me a note if you want more information about these Lightroom presets.

St. Louis at Dusk

St. Louis, December 7th at about 5:00 PM.  Nikon D700, ISO 200, 50mm f/1.8D, f/5.6 @ 1/100s.  It was nearly dark.  The first few shots were over exposed by quite a bit, giving great detail on the statue, but bleached the sky and blew out the moon, so I did a -1.0 in camera exposure compensation.  I'm finding the D700 tends to expose for shadows.  Cropped in Lightroom 2 with some added post crop vignette.  The sky color is straight out of the camera.