Back from Arizona...

[Seb]

Hi all,

My wife and I had a wonderful 4 days up in the Flagstaff, Az area. Got to see a LOT of new and different places we'd never been to before. On our second day there we got about 4 inches of snow, which was great for picture taking, but it ruined the eclipse for us. Oh well.

I've got at least a couple more flash cards to go through but here's just a sample of some of the places we visited:

#1 View from downtown Sedona.

#2 Fall colors at Oak Creek.

#3 More fall colors at Red Rock State park.

#4 It was snowing at the Watchtower, Grand Canyon, so we had to come back the next day to get some clear shots of the canyon. Converted this in PS to b/w.

Canon DRebel/Sigma 28-80

More to come later, or visit this link for other photos not posted here: http://www.photostor.com/schrackman/arizona

Ray

Hi Ray,

Looks like I should spend more time on the Viewfinder board, I am glad I haven't missed your tread. My favorites pictures happens to be the very first one, the red barn in the snow and the perfectly centered tree in the snow (a clever composition, it usualy wouldn't work but it definately doe's in your case!!).

I'd be curious to hear a little about the post-processing that was involved here. Your series have unique aestethic which I find very strong and that I have rarely seen.

regards

Seb

[schrackman]

Hi Ray,

Looks like I should spend more time on the Viewfinder board, I am glad I haven't missed your tread. My favorites pictures happens to be the very first one, the red barn in the snow and the perfectly centered tree in the snow (a clever composition, it usualy wouldn't work but it definately doe's in your case!!).

I'd be curious to hear a little about the post-processing that was involved here. Your series have unique aestethic which I find very strong and that I have rarely seen.

regards

Seb

Hi Seb,

First, thank you for the kind words. I am pleased that you enjoyed the photos.

As for post-processing, it all actually begins in the camera itself. The DRebel, like many other digital cameras, allows you to customize certain parameters for contrast, sharpness, saturation, etc. I've set these to my liking, and for these particular photos I chose to use the cloudy setting for white balance to provide a bit more of a reddish tone to the images (to bring out the natural color of the soil in Arizona). When I brought them into photoshop, I slightly adjusted to the positive the saturation of the reds and yellows, used selective color to lighten the whites, adjusted curves to the lower midtones, adjusted contrast, added unsharp mask, and finally adjusted levels for all channels to 8 on shadows), 248 on highlights, and 1.02-1.05 for the midtones slider, and then added border. It's not really that complicated and doesn't take very long, and it's how I like to "process" my pictures for a consistent asthetic. Hope that answers the question.

Ray

[Seb]

Hi Seb,

First, thank you for the kind words. I am pleased that you enjoyed the photos.

As for post-processing, it all actually begins in the camera itself. The DRebel, like many other digital cameras, allows you to customize certain parameters for contrast, sharpness, saturation, etc. I've set these to my liking, and for these particular photos I chose to use the cloudy setting for white balance to provide a bit more of a reddish tone to the images (to bring out the natural color of the soil in Arizona). When I brought them into photoshop, I slightly adjusted to the positive the saturation of the reds and yellows, used selective color to lighten the whites, adjusted curves to the lower midtones, adjusted contrast, added unsharp mask, and finally adjusted levels for all channels to 8 on shadows), 248 on highlights, and 1.02-1.05 for the midtones slider, and then added border. It's not really that complicated and doesn't take very long, and it's how I like to "process" my pictures for a consistent asthetic. Hope that answers the question.

Ray

Hi Ray,

I am taking good note of your explanations. It is always interesting to learn how another photographer works. Thank you for sharing your methods.

Seb