First Steps In Compositing

My friend Tom recently got some photographic lighting gear, and I became one of the his "models"  for trying out both the equipment and his technique. Plus I gave his birds a break from his "torture by flash" sessions.  

Besides, I had recently bought a Matt Kloskowski's book on Compositing, so I was more than eager to test out some of the concepts that I had learned.

I am in the beginning stages of this Compositing journey, and below are a few of my earliest Composited images.

Puebla Church + Studio Shot

I shot this image of the man kneeling in prayer at a church in Mexico. He was quite frail, and his son had to literally carry him into the church.   I quietly moved out of the aisle and let them pass.  They headed to a side alter in this very large church.  Other than his obviously failing health, wondered what he prayers were.  Moments later while he settled into conversation with his God, and set my camera on silent and took the picture.

Back at home, in Photoshop, I proceeded to piece together the image which Tom had taken with the one of the kneeling man in the church.   I wanted the image to have a kind of solemn "enveloped with the light from above" feel.   I think that I achieved that, what do you think?

In the next image, I was going for a dark stairway look.   I also like B&W photographs, so I combined both within this picture.    The bored guard at the library forbade me from taking any pictures inside the library, but allowed pictures from the outside stairway, so that is what I did.  My forbidding posture, was homage to the guard, one of many "Mr No" that I met that day.

Puebla  Library Stairway +  Studio Shot

Another church themed composite.  This one, the church caretaker was extremely gracious and allowed me to take my tripod inside and take several pictures.

Puebla Church + Studio Shot

These composites are very time consuming to make.   Each took me more than 4-hours to create.  But that is one of the things that attracts me to this form of photography.   Nothing is better than settling in and spending quality time doing something you enjoy.   Besides when its 115 degrees outside, what could be better. 

In a follow-up post, I will be showing some of the pictures I took of the churches in Puebla and Mexico City.

Cheers
D.

Grand Canyon North Rim Day 3: Getting Up Early

Sleeping in a tent is always a tricky hit or miss deal for me.   Sometimes the cold hard ground has me turning uncomfortably and just aching for day break.  At other times, the cool morning air that envelopes my tent, combined with my warm downy sleeping bag, makes for a quite a cozy little nest, where the sleeping is easy and daybreak comes much too soon.

On this the third morning of my Grand Canyon North Rim camp-out, my little nest was cozy and warm when my watch alarm jarred me out of my slumber at 4:00AM.   Arrgh.  A couple of my fellow hearty-souled camp-mates had agreed the night before to catch the golden sunrise at Cape Royal Point, some 25 miles from camp.  So an early start was required.      Problem was, I could hear droplets of rain drizzling on my tent.  Not good.   Nonetheless, one by one, the early morning crew got up, grabbed our gear and off we went.   The drizzle continued.

We had breakfast at the trailhead under a pine tree.  The drizzle didn't stop.    We headed out to the Point and waited for the sun to come up.  Eventually it did, ever so slowly under a blanket of heavy clouds,  muted and grey, accompanied by a lens fogging mist.      Somehow, through the mist, a spec of orange and a bright rainbow appeared, and I managed to squeeze off a few shots.

Here is my meager wages for my early morning's effort.   Not bad.  But I wished Mother Nature has saved the rain for any of the other 364 mornings.  She wins.

Sunrise Raindow - Cape Royal GC Nat. Park

The rainy morning gave way to a wonderful afternoon and a spectacular sunset.   So after a long day I went to bed a much happier camper.

Next time, I will be talking about my Photo Compositing experiments.  "What's that?"   Come back and visit to find out.

Cheers

D.

Grand Canyon North Rim Day 2: Sunset Pictures

One of the fun things about car-camping is that you get to bring lots of extra little goodies with you.   On this trip, my goodie bag included a tripod, an extra camera lens, lens filters, tripod head adapter to take panoramas and several spare camera batteries.   I was ready to take lots of pics.  

So on the second evening of camping while the others were totally jazzed up for a sunset dinner at Cape Royal, I was secretly hoping for some clouds, a bit of breeze and a Grand Canyon horizon.  I got them all.

6-Mins @f/8 

4-Mins @f/22

Lately I have been experimenting with taking long exposure shots, particularly on cloudy evenings when the movement of the sun and skies makes for some interesting effects in the twilight hour.  

Here are some of my results of combining  sky, clouds, wind and sun. And having the Grand Canyon as a back-drop doesn't hurt one bit.






I am really getting to like these long exposure shots.  


I usually just take three shots at a time with the Promote.    Typically at 2-4-8 minutes, and hope for the best.   With the light changing so much, its all guesswork.  







Truth be told though - I shoot in raw+jpeg these days.   And with Camera Raw you can do so many things with a raw image during post processing.  And with these long exposures, count on doing  

4-Mins @f/11 

a lot post processing to get a nice picture.  But the results are worth it.

Traditional sunset pictures are always nice as well.   I took quite a few before the sun went down and I put away my camera and soaked up some good food and adult beverages.

Cape Royal at Sunset

Chillin' At Cape Royal

In my next post I will talk about my 4:00AM wakeup to take some sunrise shots.

Grand Canyon North Rim Day 1: The Widforss Trail

The 2012 Labor Day Weekend offered the perfect opportunity for me to experience the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  My wife was away in Chicago visiting our daughter, and I had a extra a day of vacation to burn.   All this made for perfect 4-day long weekend getaway, and a chance to check something off the bucket list.   The Arizona Backpacking Club (ABC) Meetup that I belong to had a trip planned, so I jump on it.

On Friday morning, a couple of my hiking buddies and I loaded up the truck and drove the 325 miles from Phoenix to the North Rim.  We were there by mid afternoon.  What a transformation it was - going from 110 degrees to 75 -  along with a cool breeze.  I knew a fun time would be had by all.

All included a dozen other hikers in a large camp-ground - Campsite C to be exact.   It was close to everything - toilets, showers,  a country store, the Lodge and the trails.    After we settled in I was ready to hike and to also give my camera a workout.    I had a couple trails in mind, with the Widforss being chief among them.

I like to hike and backpack.   But I like taking pictures the most.    No better way to combine all.

After dinner, camp fire stories and good night's sleep, myself and a couple of other hearty souls were on the trail by 8:30AM.  A little late for sunrise pictures in the sweet light, but perfect for a walk in the woods,  some heavy breathing in the high altitude air, and a bit of solitude to top it all off. The Widforss  trail did not disappoint.

The Transept Canyon

This is a typical overlook from the trail.  And they were many of them along the 10-mile round trip journey .    This particular canyon is called the Transept Canyon.  Its fairly large and long, but its only a mere small side drainage to the much larger Bright Angel Creek.    The Grand Canyon is an enormous place.  A more beautiful place on earth I can't imagine. I am so grateful to be living so close to it.


Along the trail there are may beautiful overlooks and rock formations like this one.    A tree surviving in an impossible environment.   Crazy and inspiring at the same time.

Tree Growing From a Rock

End of Trail

The views from the turn-around point trip hike are like above.   Beautiful and well worth the trip.  

We got back to camp at 2:00PM, had lunch, relaxed and then got  ready to a some picture taking. We also planned on a sunset dinner out by Cape Royal Point, about 20 miles from camp.    That will be subject of my next post.