Pretzel's Snack-A-Day (365 for 2014)

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 6 - It's durn COLD outside, so I set up a little inside fun, messing with my SB-700 and the NIK collection again.

I've always wanted to get some artistic shots of the "man" stuff, so here are a few for ya. REALLY impressed with the HDR Efex Pro 2, as well as Dfine 2. Plus, the content aware healing brush in PS CC blows my mind when compared to the healing brush in LR 5 (helped me make the serial number on my Taurus disappear for the shot). One thing I've noticed, though. After editing my pics in PS CC, then NIK tools, and saving back to LR, when I export out of LR to .jpg format, my watermark is no longer added even though it's still checked in the options. Anyone know why??

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Moab Man

Senior Member
A Taurus, the only brand of pistol I just can't shoot for nothing. If I ever had to use a Taurus I would sooner throw it at you than try to shoot something. Not a criticism of the brand, we just don't get along. However, I like the photos.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Moab Man said:
A Taurus, the only brand of pistol I just can't shoot for nothing. If I ever had to use a Taurus I would sooner throw it at you than try to shoot something. Not a criticism of the brand, we just don't get along. However, I like the photos.
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I've heard it's love/hate with Taurus. This one (full size) is as smooth as butter, though. Near a thousand rounds through it with not a single FTF of any sort, and I can place a palm sized grouping at 30 feet without having to think about it twice. Some of the slims they carry don't work so well, though. Really want to make my next pistol a Springfield XDM .40!
 
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Don Kuykendall_RIP

RIP :(
Pretzel said:
Day 6 - It's durn COLD outside, so I set up a little inside fun, messing with my SB-700 and the NIK collection again.

I've always wanted to get some artistic shots of the "man" stuff, so here are a few for ya. REALLY impressed with the HDR Efex Pro 2, as well as Dfine 2. Plus, the content aware healing brush in PS CC blows my mind when compared to the healing brush in LR 5 (helped me make the serial number on my Taurus disappear for the shot). One thing I've noticed, though. After editing my pics in PS CC, then NIK tools, and saving back to LR, when I export out of LR to .jpg format, my watermark is no longer added even though it's still checked in the options. Anyone know why??

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I have the exact same gun. In 9mm also. Mine is one of the nicest guns to shoot. Tarus makes a different brand of gun also that is less expensive but ever bit as good. I have the 357 revolver that lives in my truck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Don Kuykendall said:
I have the exact same gun. In 9mm also. Mine is one of the nicest guns to shoot. Tarus makes a different brand of gun also that is less expensive but ever bit as good. I have the 357 revolver that lives in my truck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

Their revolvers have been solid quality for as long as I can remember. May or may not have one of the lightweight .38's runnin' around here somewhere. ;)
 
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Moab Man

Senior Member
I can generally hit reliably all day with any pistol, but when my buddy handed me his full size .40 Taurus I could hit nothing and he thought I was messing with him. It's just the strangest thing, all I can say is it just doesn't fit me.

My favorite firearm is my HMR17. Here in the desert we can shoot long distance and this one is just fun. Quiet, zero kick, and cheap to shoot all day. Unlike some of my other toys where I feel like i'm chambering five dollar bills and it seems everyone can hear you two states over where they too once upon a time had a second amendment right.
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 6 - part 2. Enjoyed these shots/edits so much, I snapped another couple to play with.

1st, nothing really fancy here, just working with Dfine and some sharpening/detail work.

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2nd, REALLY like this one! Analog Efex Pro...

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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 7 - Detail and structure

STILL enjoying the SB-700! Switched away from the weaponry and went to a pair of silver rings. To the casual eye, they look fairly shiny, but with the right touch to draw out the details, you can see they're in dire need of a good polishing! On a side note, I also found out why my watermark quit showing up on the pics. Somehow, all of my watermarks in LR had lost the .png files associated, so were just blank squares. It only happened after I installed the NIK tools, so not sure what happened, but edited them all and they're back! :)

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mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Love the gun shots though they make me jealous of what we cant have in the UK,i did have a friend who was a registered arms dealer and we used to photograph the more interesting guns he got,this means i did get to handle some nice guns.
Unfortunately he didnt want any thing artistic just plain record shots,my first wifes brother sold a load of tanks once but we couldn't get them into the studio :D
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 8 - Man's best friend?

It's definitely not his son... (although, really, we get along great!) As soon as I mentioned I needed to get a pic for the day, he disappeared to his room. He hooked up the PS3 controller to his laptop so he can play old classic games by way of emulation, then has his iPad playing videos at the same time, listening by way of earphones. He "tried" the old out of sight, out of mind trick, but I followed him and snapped a pic just because. He wasn't exactly thrilled, but I did surprise him. His response? "Oh... HEY! Wait, you got a flash thingy??"

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Then, I found a much more willing subject (as long as there were treats), and proceeded to capture a few for fun. NO, I didn't set up a mini-studio with a black backdrop. I just used the speedflash then dropped the exposure on everything else except the pooch using LR5 and a masked adjustment brush. It was VERY tedious, and I'm sure I did it the hard way, but sure couldn't fathom an easier way after my brain was already tired from a long day's work.

This first one was just my test pic, to see if I could pull off what I wanted with rough edits, and it seemed to work. I wasn't happy with the pic though, because of the positioning of her head to the frame, I lost most of her lower jaw...

Day8.jpg

This next one, I seemed to catch a grin, and liked the pose, so I attacked it with a little more finesse.

Day8-1.jpg

This third one though, after making the edits, was my fave of the set... and THEN I remembered I still have the trial going for the NIK collection! w00t! (don't judge, remember the long day at work I mentioned?) So I ran it over to PS, ran it through Dfine and Sharpener Pro, then Dfine once more before bringing it back to LR5 to export into .jpg.

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After all was said and done, after remembering I had the NIK tools to play around with, I took the 2nd photo back through for some "PLAY" time, and came up with this. It reminds me of those old "Velvet Paintings" that used to be popular back in the day. Some of you will know what I'm talking about. Truth be told, though... I kind of like it!

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What did I learn at the end of the day? Editing tricks? Workflow? Speed light tricks? Nah...

I learned that in a matter of moments, a dog connects a bright flash of light to treats, and anything else I wanted to shoot, she would jump up and get all excited! LOL
 
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Pretzel

Senior Member
Day 9 - You can fit in... or you can rise above.

One of the temptations in trying to make yourself better is to emulate someone you look up to. In some ways (discipline, morality, commitment) this can be a good thing, but in the case of artistry (like photography), it can be detrimental. Although I often get inspiration from those I look up to in this art, I often try to do things on my own rather than trying to perfectly duplicate what others have done, and the pics today try to reflect that drive... They don't imply that some day I will be greater than all of those I respect, but rather, it's the only way I will ever become better than I am.

Even so, I wasn't particularly pleased with these photos, so perhaps I'll get something other than cheap plastic game pieces and an old worn out paper board and try again some day soon.

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