Jake's Backdoor Hippie-palooza, 2014 Edition

BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

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hark said:
Quick question...did you sharpen this photo in stages (doing certain sections individually), or did you sharpen the entire photo at once? And which program(s) did you use for post? Thanks for any info, Jake! :) These 3D images really captivate my attention. ;)
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Don't honestly remember. With landscapes I'll often use onOne Perfect Effects 8.5 and their Dynamic Contrast filter. It's really more a detail enhancer, but works across Fine, Medium and Large details simultaneously. From there this one simply required evening of the lighting (top was a little bright SOOC) and then color tweaks since the greens got blown out.

When I sharpen it's always with layers, either a Smart Sharpen, High Pass Filter or Unsharp Mask. I do that for the full size image to pull details, and then again on a resize for publishing (though honestly, I simply export out of LR for upload here - I never reopen and check sharpening).
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

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Not sure who "Jack" is, but the railroad apparently has it in for him.

20140803-D71_2889.jpg
 
hark

hark

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Jake, nice train shot! :)

Question...you are doing a lot of panning and zooming lately. Is it because of a competition somewhere or are you doing it to develop your technique? If it is from an upcoming competition, I don't need to know which one. I'm just picking your brain to find out if your motivation is due to developing this particular skill since you are using it more frequently than in the past. As the phrase goes, I don't know jack. Hence I'm peeking into your methods. ;)
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

Senior Member
hark said:
Jake, nice train shot! :)

Question...you are doing a lot of panning and zooming lately. Is it because of a competition somewhere or are you doing it to develop your technique? If it is from an upcoming competition, I don't need to know which one. I'm just picking your brain to find out if your motivation is due to developing this particular skill since you are using it more frequently than in the past. As the phrase goes, I don't know jack. Hence I'm peeking into your methods. ;)
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It's just something I rarely do, and I've been presented with some opportunities of late to practice. I've had plenty of shots in the past where I've gotten home and realized that I wasn't really thinking things through from shot to shot and sort of working on auto-pilot, so I get a great picture of a kid on a bike, but there's no DoF or sense of motion. So, I'm just making a conscious decision to look for opportunities where I can add a motion dimension to my photography when it applies.

Now, whether or not it's "skillful" would depend on the number of keepers to tossers. I got about 1 in 8, with most of them coming in the last couple cars. :)
 
hark

hark

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BackdoorHippie said:
It's just something I rarely do, and I've been presented with some opportunities of late to practice. I've had plenty of shots in the past where I've gotten home and realized that I wasn't really thinking things through from shot to shot and sort of working on auto-pilot, so I get a great picture of a kid on a bike, but there's no DoF or sense of motion. So, I'm just making a conscious decision to look for opportunities where I can add a motion dimension to my photography when it applies.

Now, whether or not it's "skillful" would depend on the number of keepers to tossers. I got about 1 in 8, with most of them coming in the last couple cars. :)
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Thanks, Jake. :)

I remember the very first time I tried panning after reading about the technique. It was with my 35mm camera so I had to wait until the film was developed to see my result. The anticipation was exciting...then when I was able to see the image my face fell. :( The technique doesn't work when panning an airplane against plain blue sky. :rolleyes: The good news is the plane was in sharp focus--my shutter was set to 1/15 second so from that perspective, my effort was successful. When I went to a local boat dock to pan activities on the Delaware, many of the small boats and jet skiers came very close to the Pennsylvania side of the river. That delighted the onlookers who were relaxing on park benches so it was a win-win.

After seeing your panned images, I've got to get out there and do it again myself...of course without any plain backgrounds. ;) Keep them coming, Jake! Your images are always inspiring. :D
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

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Playing with painterly effects this morning. I was speaking to another artist at the gallery where I have work hanging and she was telling me about a project she has to do a pop art interpretation of a portrait. The interesting thing is that she cannot paint from site, but she needs to first literally visualize her painting as a photograph, and then paint the photo. She was telling me that to do what she wants to do will take her nearly as long in Photoshop (which she's not in any way proficient with) as it will painting, so I told her I'd see if I could find some tutorials to help her along.

OK, so now you have the backstory to what I'm posting today. I got around to a couple more images taken prior in the week and as I finished the image this is what I had...

20140802-D71_2775-Edit-2.jpg


... very structured and HDR-ish (which I'm not really thrilled with and may revisit).

I then started playing with some techniques for getting a flatter, painterly look to it using only Lightroom's Noise Reduction and Sharpening. I ramped up the noise reduction to 100, brought the detail down to 0. Then I cranked the sharpening up to around 100, which crisped up the lines particularly on the grating.

20140802-D71_2775-Edit.jpg



Not something I love, but I'll be damned if it doesn't look like it could be a painting.
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

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Krs_2007 said:
Looks good Jake.

Did you ever figure out your focus issue you were discussing last week?
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Kevin, I suspect it was a combination of technique and low contrast lighting conditions on the second shot where focus didn't lock entirely. I didn't encounter it the other day, but I wasn't pointing at crowds, mainly performers.
 
T

Tom Grove

Senior Member
BackdoorHippie said:
Playing with painterly effects this morning. I was speaking to another artist at the gallery where I have work hanging and she was telling me about a project she has to do a pop art interpretation of a portrait. The interesting thing is that she cannot paint from site, but she needs to first literally visualize her painting as a photograph, and then paint the photo. She was telling me that to do what she wants to do will take her nearly as long in Photoshop (which she's not in any way proficient with) as it will painting, so I told her I'd see if I could find some tutorials to help her along.

OK, so now you have the backstory to what I'm posting today. I got around to a couple more images taken prior in the week and as I finished the image this is what I had...

View attachment 105945

... very structured and HDR-ish (which I'm not really thrilled with and may revisit).

I then started playing with some techniques for getting a flatter, painterly look to it using only Lightroom's Noise Reduction and Sharpening. I ramped up the noise reduction to 100, brought the detail down to 0. Then I cranked the sharpening up to around 100, which crisped up the lines particularly on the grating.

View attachment 105946


Not something I love, but I'll be damned if it doesn't look like it could be a painting.
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Great work! I like it a lot. Painterly can make a great photo look bad, but by the same token, it seems to lend itself to certain photos. This is one of those types of photos. BTW... My town sucks for not having cool bridges!
 
BackdoorArts

BackdoorArts

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Tom Grove said:
BTW... My town sucks for not having cool bridges!
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So does mine, Tom. I have to travel 35 minutes to get to this one.

What I actually like a lot about this treatment is how it gives the hardware on the edge of the tracks this uniformity that really isn't there in the original photo.
 
Marcel

Marcel

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Seems you like the 7100 Jake. It's been a while since I saw pictures taken with other bodies. :)
Is it the weight? IQ? Reach? Or novelty?

Curious mind wants to know.
 
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