On Assignment in the Dead of Winter on Oregon’s Mt. Hood

This past winter I had a fun shoot where we photographed a wide variety of subjects over several days including snowshoeing, snowmobiling, drinking in the bar, children sledding, fireworks over ski slopes, sleigh rides, and this dinner photo.

In this post: How I Shot The Snowshoeing Photography Assignment, I discussed the assignment and its criteria in regards to the client’s budget with respect their need for as many shots as we could do in a specific amount of days.

For this afternoon and evening shoot, the assignment was to photograph a private dinner that a company was throwing for a list of their clients.

What was fun and even exciting was that this dinner was no ordinary dinner in a restaurants private party room. It was taking place in Silcox Hut which is halfway up Oregon’s Mt. Hood…and in the dead of winter. … Continue Reading

Quick Tip: How to Get the Best Files for HDR

If you read the tutorials on the Photomatix website and other online HDR tutorials, you will read the recommendation that you set up your camera and shoot three bracketed images; Normal, -2, and +2.

Normal would be what your camera meter suggests and -2 would be two stops lower in shutter speed while +2 would be a two stop increase in shutter speed.

That should be it and depending on the scene and contrast it just may be, but some scenes will require more exposure range beyond plus and minus 2 stops.

The -2 exposure is to be your darkest capture designed to retain highlight detail while the lightest exposure at +2 is designed to capture all the shadow detail. Normal is in the middle for the mid-tones and is by default it’s what the camera meter suggests if you follow the basic guidelines.

However, what do you need for the best exposure combination’s that produce the least noise? A different strategy! A -2 exposure and a +2 may not capture all the needed detail in a high contrast scene. … Continue Reading

How To Darken A Light Area In Photoshop

Photoshop guru and acclaimed nature photographer Lewis Kemper writes, lectures, and teaches Photoshop across North America. Here he shares a Photoshop technique on how to fix an image that was exposed properly for the shadows but which overexposed the highlights.

LK: In this example we will pick an image with properly exposed shadows and overexposed highlights. I shot this image of Mt. Ansel Adams in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park on a 2 1/4 view camera. Unfortunately I forgot to use my Graduated ND filter. I did a good job exposing for the shadows, but in doing so, I totally blew out my highlights. … Continue Reading

The Art and Craft of Ghost Town Window Photography

Most outdoor photographers enjoy shooting ghost towns.  They are great subjects for our cameras and they play well into our imagination of time gone by and the romance of the old west.

I have visited many old ghost towns that are favorites among photographers such as Bodie, California, Bannack and Virginia City, Montana. Rhyolite, Nevada, Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains, and many more towns and historic sites spread around the states.

I have photographed the old buildings, cars, and rusty relics of times gone by and enjoyed photographing all of it. Many times I visited sites like Bodie or Nevada City, Montana and Virginia City Montana and looked through the windows of these historic buildings and see them full of period furniture and artifacts from their historic past. I wished I could go in a shoot!

But at these three specific locations we are stuck outside and can only gaze through the windows limiting our camera angle and perspective and it’s due to the fragility of the furnishings, the buildings, and of course for the more obvious reasons of wandering fingers.

On my last visit to Bodie, I looked through the window and thought I would try to shoot through the window and see what I could capture. The results were horrible due to light contrast within the rooms and exterior reflections. … Continue Reading

How I Customized a Stock Image for the Sports Injury Clinic

Once upon a time I was represented by a stock photo agency named Adventure Photo and Film. I did well with them and when Imagestate bought them my income plummeted to zero. Funny how that works! Or maybe not? APF was one of the old style agents who would send you lists of images requested that they could not fill, giving us an idea of what we should be shooting. Agents may still do that still but none I am represented by these days do.

One specific image they seemed to get requests for was people crashing on their mountain bikes. APF already had some images and I had seen other versions elsewhere. Some were well done and others looked hokey making you think “give me a break.” So I got to brainstorming to see what I could come up with for a good ‘crash on your bike image’.

I shot an image and later a client wanted it customized a little more and I thought that this could be something that photographers should consider if they weren’t already. Customizing images for specific clients. Obviously, it will not work for everything such as waterfalls and sunsets, but if you are shooting people in the outdoors you certainly could.

You can change the color of clothing or tent color, I have done that many times, or change elements within the scene to suit the client. I am not talking about moving the owl from the fence post to the tree branch where the image would be used editorially in a piece about owls, because as we all know that is a sensitive issue. Rather the point here is customizing an image for commercial use where the use has nothing to do with newsworthiness or authenticity of the subject. Here is how I did it. … Continue Reading

Is There a Market for Grungy HDR?

I love Photomatix and creating grungy HDR images of old cars, historic buildings, and anything that catches my eye. My friend Ben Willmore showed me the technique years ago after we taught a workshop in the Smoky’s, before the technique was widely known.

I have been creating images since then that are unique to me and I’ve found the technique really exciting and fun to do. But being a working pro who creates images for the markets, I have been wondering if Grungy HDR had found its place in those markets? So I decided to research this and see if I could find any commercial uses … Continue Reading

Important News for Photoshop Users

Adobe is letting it be known that if you are running Photoshop CS or earlier that you should upgrade now because the next version (CS5???) will only upgrade versions CS and higher. If you are using 5,6, or 7 you will be out of luck when the new version arrives.

Adobe’s own John Nack verifies this.

Rumors are swirling that CS5 will be out next month.

Best not to wait!

How to Get the Fisheye Lens Look in Photoshop

Photoshop is the most powerful tool for photographers ever conceived, next to film and digital technologies. And with each version and the new features included we have amazing opportunities for creating marketable images. One of the features that came out in the last couple versions was Photomerge, a tool to make panoramas.

Last fall, after teaching a workshop, I stopped at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands NP, Utah for the sunrise. Fortunately I was there early enough to grab a fairly decent spot amongst those who had arrived in what had to be the middle of the night, as if waiting for concert tickets to go on sale.

I settled on a spot that was available and set up my tripod and attached my 17mm lens to the 5D. This picture shows how much I could capture with this lens. As you can see it is not the whole arch. … Continue Reading

Tutorial: Using HDR in Flat Light Scenes

High dynamic range photography has been the technique of choice for sometime now. This software allows you to create photographs that cover a higher dynamic range than either film or a single digital capture can handle. One example is architecture where photographers shooting interiors of various structures struggle to get the proper exposure for the inside while the windows are blown out, over exposed and lacking detail.

With HDR software you can shoot a series of bracketed exposures and then simply let the software combine them for a full dynamic range image. HDR software also has great potential for outdoor photography where you may have a bright sunny day creating extreme contrast in your scene. By bracketing series of exposures and again, allowing the software to combine them you can reduce contrast to a manageable ratio. Simply put, you can bring down the highlights brightness and open up shadows for a much more pleasing image.

The first thing you need to do is acquire software and the most popular is Photomatix. There are many others that work just as well. If you are someone who uses various different pieces of software and technology regularly then you will be aware of how useful it is getting help on the best things to use. Here is how to use it.

… Continue Reading

5 Steps to Rescuing a Death Valley Image

Death Valley is one of my favorite places to photograph. I was teaching a workshop with my good friend Brenda Tharp and we spent the morning with our group photographing the golf course. When we were about to wrap up our morning, I was in the parking lot with a few students when I spied this view about a mile away. I call them the Neapolitan Hills because they remind me of a bowl of different flavor ice cream with some various syrups poured on top.

I attached my 300mm to my Canon 5D and aimed it the hills. I shot various sections of the scene and then also made sure I overlapped a few frames to make a panoramic image. … Continue Reading