Jake's Backdoor Hippie-palooza, 2014 Edition

[Krs_2007]

Jake, I have been trying to pull off a shot like this, I think I need to shoot wider to include more. What lens was this

 

[hark]

2014-008:

Today I managed to get outside for 10 minutes to feed the birds, so I brought the camera. 5 minutes in my fingers were numb, 8 minutes in they were in pain. 9 minutes in I shot this. Some days I suppose it's just good enough that you shot something. I'd been listening to some late 60's music while working out today, so I was inspired ...

View attachment 65933

So you managed to get outside braving the frigid temperatures and captured this image. Your fingers were chilled to the bone. Did you do a headstand to get this perspective? Actually I LOVE this perspective. You are always raising the bar (or barre for guitar language ) with your photos, Jake! Extremely fascinating--I feel like I'm lying on the ground looking up at its top.

 

[Rick M]

2014-006:

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Flickr link: Cleared For Landing | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

We get these snow geese locally every year, and I never get a chance to shoot them. This year, I've made it a priority to stop and take a photo if I have my camera with me, even when it's not convenient. So when I looked to the left where I almost always catch them flying and saw a mass of them on the ground I pulled over, turned around, and drove to where they were. Try as I could I couldn't scare them into all taking flight, but I stood around long enough to catch some incoming.

Excellent shots Jake! What software did you use on this one?

 

[BackdoorArts]

So you managed to get outside braving the frigid temperatures and captured this image. Your fingers were chilled to the bone. Did you do a headstand to get this perspective? Actually I LOVE this perspective. You are always raising the bar (or barre for guitar language ) with your photos, Jake! Extremely fascinating--I feel like I'm lying on the ground looking up at its top.

Thanks for the kind words. That's just me with the top of my head on an oak looking straight up...

Jake, I have been trying to pull off a shot like this, I think I need to shoot wider to include more. What lens was this

...with my Sigma 15mm Fisheye.

Nice shot. How would it feel posted upside down?


WM

Believe me, I tried flipping it. Didn't work for me - it looked too normal, and yet not at all right. Funny thing is, when I shot it the perspective I saw was the flip of what you see here, but I'd leaned back past horizontal and so when I uploaded it the software flipped it. I liked that aspect, so I started working to figure a way to keep it...

Cool shot though is that dark clouds in the corners or a horrible example of vignetting?

... which included adding what are obviously some horrible vignettes. LOL What they're doing there is hiding bit of three separate houses, which is one of the hazards of the lens - you get a 180 degree perspective corner-to-corner. I thought about cropping in, but that changed the feel as well. I had a better vignette coming out of Analog Efex Pro, but it came with a bunch of other baggage that I didn't like, so I just ditched that edit.

I'm flattered that you guys like my effort. It came out a lot better than the various attempts I made trying to capture the ice flow in my backyard, leftover from the snow melt run-off that didn't evaporate fast enough.

 

[BackdoorArts]

Excellent shots Jake! What software did you use on this one?

The birds were a hodge-podge, Rick. I started in Lightroom where I took what was way too busy a flight shot and cropped it so that it allowed you to focus on individual birds. Otherwise the exposure was pretty good and all I needed to do was drag out some details. Here's the cropped but otherwise untouched image.



I set about to try and bring out the missing details, which involved pulling back almost all the Highlights (-98) to get the feather detail and bumping the Clarity up a bit. Then I sent it to Photoshop where, after using Dfine to remove noise, I used Viveza to bump the Structure a bit and tweak the warmth and saturation, and then I think I used the Dynamic Contrast filter in Perfect Effects to pull out some more details, which it's very good at doing without overdoing it. It gave me a painterly effect, particularly with the birds on the ground, which I kinda liked. I then saved it back to Lightroom, where I then did some color specific Luminance adjustments, pulling back the blues (-50) that got boosted in Viveza and brightening the yellow and orange (+9 each) to make the corn stalks pop. I pulled back the Highlights again (-36) and sharpened. It wasn't until I pulled back the highlights post-Photoshop that I got the greys in the wings, which I was very happy with.

A lot of playing for what amounts to a rather subtle difference in terms of what you see coming out of the camera, but the structure adjustments really make the difference in this for me across the board, even down to seeing the differentiations in the leftover corn stalks in the field.

 

[dramtastic]

Thanks for the kind words. That's just me with the top of my head on an oak looking straight up...



...with my Sigma 15mm Fisheye.




Believe me, I tried flipping it. Didn't work for me - it looked too normal, and yet not at all right. Funny thing is, when I shot it the perspective I saw was the flip of what you see here, but I'd leaned back past horizontal and so when I uploaded it the software flipped it. I liked that aspect, so I started working to figure a way to keep it...




... which included adding what are obviously some horrible vignettes. LOL What they're doing there is hiding bit of three separate houses, which is one of the hazards of the lens - you get a 180 degree perspective corner-to-corner. I thought about cropping in, but that changed the feel as well. I had a better vignette coming out of Analog Efex Pro, but it came with a bunch of other baggage that I didn't like, so I just ditched that edit.

I'm flattered that you guys like my effort. It came out a lot better than the various attempts I made trying to capture the ice flow in my backyard, leftover from the snow melt run-off that didn't evaporate fast enough.

And to think, I would have happily fallen for....'yes the surrounding cloud structure coincidently and fortuitously created a vignetting effect that framed the composition exactly how I had pictured it in my minds eye'.....or words to that effect.

 

[BackdoorArts]

And to think, I would have happily fallen for....'yes the surrounding cloud structure coincidently and fortuitously created a vignetting effect that framed the composition exactly how I had pictured it in my minds eye'.....or words to that effect.

I'm not quite ready to trade my integrity for some lousy clouds. LOL

That said, just to show that things can always benefit from sleep and a sharp mind, as I started typing these words popped into my head, "Why the heck didn't you just use Content-Aware Fill to take out the houses?!" What a dumbass, I am!!

So, for those of you unaware of CA Fill, here's the original image from LR, and here it is from Photoshop after simply selecting each corner, on at a time, using the lasso and then Fill using the Content-Aware option...

Before

After

From here I could easily have used the healing brush and the clone stamp to put things in order.

Lesson learned.

The "Before" shot does give you an excellent idea of just how wide the view is on the Sigma 15mm. This house is in the front corner of my property. The upper left house is across the street, upper right is mine, and lower right is the next-door neighbor.

 

[BackdoorArts]

(Note to self - perhaps you should take note that shots must be taken every day, but not necessarily posted every day, because there are times when you're more creating first thing in the morning, particularly when you're not quite sure what to do with something after a "day" of work.)

Or if you prefer...

Someone Cue Up The Yardbirds

 

[RockyNH_RIP]

I'm not quite ready to trade my integrity for some lousy clouds. LOL

That said, just to show that things can always benefit from sleep and a sharp mind, as I started typing these words popped into my head, "Why the heck didn't you just use Content-Aware Fill to take out the houses?!" What a dumbass, I am!!

So, for those of you unaware of CA Fill, here's the original image from LR, and here it is from Photoshop after simply selecting each corner, on at a time, using the lasso and then Fill using the Content-Aware option...

.

While I do not have a current Vers of PS (mine does NOT have content-aware) My elements 11 has CA and Layers so I just take my LR edits over to elements... gives me so much more capability for so little..

Good reminder Jake!

Pat in NH

 

[BackdoorArts]

While I do not have a current Vers of PS (mine does NOT have content-aware) My elements 11 has CA and Layers so I just take my LR edits over to elements... gives me so much more capability for so little..

Good reminder Jake!

Pat in NH

Pat, Elements 11 has a Content Aware Healing Brush (as did 9 & 10), but not Content Aware Fill. Were I to take the image above and attempt to just use the Healing Brush I would get very different results. I could still clean it up nicely, but it would take far longer. Content Aware Fill is a pretty amazing tool that can fill in large sections of a photo in one pass and do an almost imperceptible job. I've been amazed at some of the fixes. It is almost worth the cost of PS over Elements. Almost.

 

[RockyNH_RIP]

Pat, Elements 11 has a Content Aware Healing Brush (as did 9 & 10), but not Content Aware Fill. Were I to take the image above and attempt to just use the Healing Brush I would get very different results. I could still clean it up nicely, but it would take far longer. Content Aware Fill is a pretty amazing tool that can fill in large sections of a photo in one pass and do an almost imperceptible job. I've been amazed at some of the fixes. It is almost worth the cost of PS over Elements. Almost.

Thanks Jake... learned something new (again!)
I was not aware they were different, good to know for future reference... Though I have no payments on LR or E11

Appreciate the clarification and education!


pat in NH

 

[BackdoorArts]

2014-009:

Something a little different today. Went down to the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers hoping to catch some ice and other wintery stuff. No such luck. On my way back to my car, however, there was a couple ignoring any idea of what cold there was. Normally not my bag, but the shot was there.

 

[RockyNH_RIP]

Nice Jake... wonder if they would like it... Romantic!

Pat in NH

 

[BackdoorArts]

Nice Jake... wonder if they would like it... Romantic!

Pat in NH

Thanks, Pat. I'd be glad to offer it, but I wonder if I could ever find them again. LOL Since it's not normally what I shoot, and I only squeezed off this frame, I didn't even think to speak to them and offer up a shot. Heck, I didn't want to disturb the lovers. LOL

 

[RockyNH_RIP]

Thanks, Pat. I'd be glad to offer it, but I wonder if I could ever find them again. LOL Since it's not normally what I shoot, and I only squeezed off this frame, I didn't even think to speak to them and offer up a shot. Heck, I didn't want to disturb the lovers. LOL

I understand the DoNotDisturb! It is a nice picture ... shoot more of those, they are nice!!

Pat in NH

 

[BackdoorArts]

2014-009: Lightroom Only

I could have sworn something was staring at me...

 

[Krs_2007]

Great shot on 009, makes me wonder what they are talking about. By the way, you have 2 009, so I am referring to the couple sitting on the rock. The work just looks like he is telling a joke.

 

[hark]

Something a little different today. Went down to the confluence of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers hoping to catch some ice and other wintery stuff. No such luck.

I am loving the frozen Delaware River photos your brother took for the Star Ledger! You two do some amazing photography! Sure wish your part of the river would have been frozen--would have loved to see your perspective!

Here's one I took yesterday:

 

[BackdoorArts]

2014-010:

Tonight a little concert photography featuring bass legend Stanley Clarke and 19 year old drum phenom Mike Mitchell in Bethlehem, PA. D800 isn't too bad at ISO 6400 either.

 

[gqtuazon]

Awesome shot Jake.


Sent from my iPhone.