Post-Processing Nightmare (Part 2 of 2)

Thanks for the kind words on the behind-the-scenes video of Nightmare.  This is part 2 of the article and will focus on how I did the post processing for the image.  The video tutorial is fairly long (15min) but covers a host of different techniques during the process such as;

• Compositing an image from layers
• Using high contrast b@w layers to create an edgy look to your image
• Creating dusty light beams
• Using textures in your images to create a gritty look (and where you can access over 3,000 free textures)
• Using curves for local adjustments

I hope you enjoy this tutorial on Post Processing Nightmare.

 

If you find it useful, be sure to let me know… I appreciate your feedback.

 

Brent

Twitter Blows!

OK… Just for the record… Twitter just doesn’t cut it for me…. I like to think of myself as someone who is open-minded, stays up with trends and technology. I gave Twitter another try recently to see whether I was missing something. What a freaking waste of time…. For me Twitter = a whole bunch of mindless crap.

Happy to be flamed….. maybe I’m just a luddite, but for me it was one big waste of time. Blogs are great… they are thoughtful and informative…. but for me Twitter Blows.

Anybody that is following my Twitter account will be dissapointed.

I Love My New Ball Head!!!!

When I arrived in New Orleans my package from Really Right Stuff was waiting for me.  A new ballhead and L-plate for my camera.  Why did I upgrade my ballhead?   I was shooting with the Manfrotto lever ball head which I absolutely loved, however it was terrible for shooting panoramas.    Fantastic for single shots.

Because of this trip to the SouthWest,  I decided that I want to shoot more panos while I am here, so I made the leap and bought one of their beautifully machined ball heads.  Why did I chose this head and L-plate?

• I love the quality of their products… these guys only make camera support systems, but they are absolutely surperbly manfucatured and designed.
• I have the flexibility of a ball head (with variable control drag and instant lock), but I also have a panning base that allows me to rotate the camera horizontally
• Their L-plates are gorgeously machined and you hardly know you have mounted one onto the camera (unlike some of the big chunky ones you see around the place)
• I love the arca-swiss mounting rails and locks… they are a joy to use.

When I went through the package, I noticed that the Really Right Stuff folks had included a think 77 page product catalog.  So I said to myself “Oh thats interesting… I thought these guys just made camera support systems (ballheads, release plates, L plates etc.)…. I wonder what else they sell?”   As I started looking through their catalog I realised that they don’t sell anything else…. this is a 77 page catalog just on camera support gear.   These guys are clearly passionate about their products and it shows.   Their stuff aint cheap, but I expect to be delighted by my new ball head as I give it a workout in Utah.

I’m about to hop on the plane at Denver… weather forecast looks too good to be true… a week of possible thunderstorms!!!  That means dramatic clouds etc.   I was dreading the the thought of shooting clear blue sky for 9 days….  but by the looks of the long range forecast I don’t have to worrry about that.

First Seascape Workshop Ran Last Weekend

Last weekend I ran my first seascape workshop in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.  The workshop was sold out and limited to 10 participants only.  Now these 10 photographers have to go down as being unbelievably lucky when it comes to shooting conditions.

We started on Saturday at Mona Vale Community Center where we went through some information about equipment, how and where to research for a seascape shoot as well as the capture techniques that I use when I take my seascape shots.  We had a range of skill levels from beginners to more hard core seascapers.

When we headed off to Turimetta Beach for our Dusk shoot, the conditions were absolutely perfect… and I mean PERFECT.  It was one of the most gorgeous sunsets that I have seen for a long time.  When you combine that with the fact that Turimetta is looking absolutely stunning after the recent storm… it wasn’t hard to predict that many of the students would forget about the task I had given them to shoot (don’t shoot any more than two compositions)…. and instead many of them entered a state of heightened frenzy as they darted around capturing the gorgeous light that was changing by the second.

Once darkness had descended, we had a debriefing session on the beach and looked at the lessons learned from the shoot.  Those that were in “frenzy mode” recognised it and vowed to slow down for the next morning’s dawn shoot.

The next morning a small group of hard-core seascapers departed for the rock shelf on North Turimetta, while my old man and I worked closely with the newer students on the finer points of seascape capture.  The sunrise was to die for….  Probably one of the best sunrises I have seen in the last 6 months!   All the students slowed down and focused on capturing a couple of “perfect shots” rather than racing around to get as many compositions as they could.  They all seemed to be applying the theory well and had ear-to-ear grins on their faces as they watched mother nature put on an incredible sunrise.

Then it was time for a big breakfast to refuel before the post processing session.  We set up all the computers and started working through a detailed post-processing workflow.  I realised after a couple of hours that we were moving too slow as a group and we would never get through all of the processing in the time allowed in the hands-on format, so unfortunately about half way through I had to turn it into more of an instructor-led training for the remainder of the day.   Getting a phone call from my wife to say that one of my sons was in an ambulance en-route to Sydney Childrens hospital with suspected spinal injuries from his rugby game didn’t exactly help my concentration for the last part of the course (son turned out OK).

We finished the workshop including printing one of the students images to show how to take your images all the way to print.

While I am going to make some changes to the post-processing session for day 2 in my next workshop I think the participants really enjoyed the course.  If you would like to see what one of the participants thought of the workshop, check out his blog post here.  I just hope that the July workshop group gets shooting conditions as good as that of last weekend.

Here’s just a couple of the participant’s images from the weekend.