Bringing out the beauty in Albany's Cathedral

Recently, Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception underwent a huge restoration.  As a matter of fact the outside of the renewal project is still going on.  Inside, the place is stunning.  But its hard in a photograph to bring out the true beauty of the place.  There are a lot of details that you can see with the naked eye (as you adjust to the darker areas) that is kind of tough for the camera to pick up.  At least in a single shot.  So, I thought this might be a good subject for the an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo.

Again, the idea for HDR is to bring up the shadows and calm down the highlights using numerous exposures.  Here's a before and after (click on the pix to make them bigger)...

To get all the detail I needed I made a total of 7 shots.  In addition to the first exposure (the before picture above), I made 6 more shots at varying degrees of under and over exposure.  Then, using a program called Photomatix, all 7 shots were merged into a single image...

After the processing the image looks a little flat, so then I went into Photoshop for some additional tweaking, upping the contrast and adjusting the colors and saturation a bit.  I was happy with the final product.  You can see a bunch of detail in the brickwork, and the bright light from the stained glass windows is not blown out.

After I took that first shot(s), I tried again with a much wider view.  I put on my 10-22mm lens and zoomed out to get as wide a shot as possible....

I wasn't quite all the way in the back, but fairly close to it.  As you can see, because I am using the super-wide lens, I have some perspective distortion going on with the pillars.  So after again combining 7 shots, I also used the Lens Correction tool in Photoshop to straighten things out...

Now, as I was going on to the next step of tweaking up the contrast, etc...  there were two little details in the shot that bothered me (they were also in the first vertical shot).  There were two large electric fans toward the front of the church.  I cloned them out as best as I could...

Again, after the final tweaking, I was pretty happy with the final result. Click on this final pic for a fairly large view...

Star Trails... 1st attempt

Next September I'm heading out west and want to get some star trail shots at Arches National Park and the surrounding areas.  I thought it might be time to do a few practice test shots.  Here's the first attempt. This is about a half hours worth These are actually about fifty 30 second exposures piled on top of each other in Photoshop.  I think it'll work better with no clouds in the sky.  When I combined all the shots the clouds seem to form a kind of stepping pattern.  This wouldn't happen in a single super long exposure, but from what I have read, really long exposures create a lot of noise in the digital image, hence the need for a bunch of smaller exposures.  Hopefully, by the time I head out on the vaca, I'll have this all figured out!  Btw, that weird line near the horizon was a plane.

Goodbye, Stuyvesant Photo

 

I just found out that my favorite photo shop is closing it doors.  It's last day is tomorrow.  Always sad to see a great business go.  This one in particular.  Their staff was friendly and knowledgeable and their customer service couldn't be beat.  These guys will be sorely missed by every photog in the Albany area.  Take care, gang... and thanks for all your help over the years! 

Springtime for Oakwood

Oakwood Cemetery in Troy, that is.  Drove by on my way home from running errands yesterday and decided to swing back around and take a few shots.  The cloud cover to the right brought a big but brief rain shower about an hour later.

I gave it a bit of the "HDR" treatment in Photomatix and further tweaking in Photoshop.  I'm pretty satisfied with the results.  I'll have to head back there during a nice sunset!

Brave New World....

...is not the name of the web project that of pal of mine, Dean, is directing and producing.  For now he is keeping the title under wraps. But it is the name I am giving this image (click on the pic for a bigger view!)...

I had the pleasure of being on the set today, where I snapped off some pix of the production and came away with this publicity type shot!  I'll have more news on this project as it becomes available, so stay tuned!

Super-Moon!

Last Saturday was the night of the much heralded "Super-Moon."   That's when the moon is 14% brighter and a wee bit bigger cuz it is as close to the Earth as it gets.  I thought it might be a good photo op.  I wasn't the only one!  There were a few other photogs staking out their spots on the edge of the Empire State Plaza overlooking the rest of the city.  Anyway, here is the best of what I was able to get...

The problem with the "Super-Moon" is that because its so bright, you really can't see any definition in the moon itself.  If you want to also expose for the foreground, anyway.  I should have gone the night before, when the moon would have appeared almost full, but would have risen an hour earlier when there is plenty of daylight left.

My buddy John Nilsen took a really nice timelapse of the event... Here it is...
Supermoon Timelapse from John Nilsen Studios on Vimeo.

Happy Spring!

OK, so its the first day of Spring and of course, its snowing outside.  I have always found it real tough to get out there on the Winter days and shoot some pix.  Here's a few shots from this past Winter where I actually got motivated enough to do so...