Death Valley Workshop Day 2 - Perfecting Panos

February 25, 2012 in : Canon 5D Mark II, Death Valley, Panos

Today we shot panos. Here's a five-shot, hand-help pano I took with my Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 17-40mm lens. I stitched the image in Photoshop's Photomerge.

I added the color in Nik's Color Efex Pro with the a Graduated filer and a Film Nostalgic filter.

When it comes to color, think like an artist.... make your own color.

Click here to learn more about Nik and the other plug-ins I use.

Below is my original pano minus the color I added.

Explore the light,
Rick

Death Valley Workshop Day 1 - Telling the Story

February 25, 2012 in Death Valley

As always, my advice to my workshop students is to "tell the whole story" of a location.

One story-telling technique is to shoot both wide-angle and close-ups views.

Try story-telling on your next photo trip. You'll like it.

Click here to see the gear I am using to tell the story here in Death Valley on the workshop run by Randy and Jeff who head up The Digital Photo Workshops.

Scroll down for more Death Valley posts.

Explore the light,

Rick

Death Valley Workshop Day 1 - Bad Water

February 24, 2012 in HDR

It's still day one of my workshop with The Digital Photo Workshops here in Death Valley.

We had a blast this afternoon photographing at Bad Water.

When shooting into the sun, shoot HDR. And, use an aperture of f/22 to create the starburst effect.

Here I used Photomatix to create the HDR image. Click here to learn more about the creative plug-ins and HDR image programs I use.

Scroll down for previous posts from Death Valley.

More images to come.

Click here for my iPad and iPhone apps that offer how-to info on lighting and HDR.

Explore the light,
Rick

Death Valley Photography Workshop: Day 1 - Sand Dunes

February 24, 2012 in California Photo Workshops, digital photo workshops

It's day one of my workshop with The Digital Photo Workshops here in Death Valley.

We had a blast this morning photographing the sand dunes.

A basic tip: You snooze you lose. You gotta get up early and stay out late to capture the beautiful shadows created by a rising or setting sun.

Remember: Light reveals, shadows define.

Also, envision the end-result and crop creatively. Here I cropped out the top and bottom of the frame to draw attention to the beautiful sand dunes in the center of the frame.

More images to come.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. For all my workshops, click here.

Use Snapseed as a Time Machine - and go back in time

February 20, 2012 in Nik's Snapseed, World Fair

Snapseed image by Rick Sammon

Recently, perhaps because I am over 60 and past halftime, I have been reflecting on past experiences - and on those who have influenced my life.

My grandmother was one of those people. We had a lot of fun together, and that fun included a trip to the 1964 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, NY.

When I photographed the Unisphere this past weekend, I thought about old times and old photos.

I took my original photo with my Canon 5D Mark II and Canon 15mm lens. The fish-eye lens created the curvature in the image, and setting the aperture to f/22 gave me the starburst effect. I added the vintage look in Nik Software's Snapseed, which I have loaded on my iPad.

Snapseed image by Susan Sammon

I guess my wife, Susan, was reminiscing about old times, too. She also used Snapseed on her iPad to create a back-in-time image.

For a few more Snapseed images, see my Creative Plug-ins page.

Explore the light,
Rick