Another image from the recent 2010 Worldwide Photowalk in London, this one at Buckingham Palace. I thought the light coming through the arches looked a great counterpoint to the darker palace front and the colours ideal for HDR.
The image was created from 3 handheld shots at +/- 2 stops and processed in Photomatix. Post processing was done in LR3 and Photoshop with Topaz Adjust and DeNoise used as part of a new HDR process I’m testing.
This image is a view of the Queen Victoria Memorial on The Mall outside Buckingham Palace and was taken in London on the 3rd annual Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk.
It’s a handheld 3 shot HDR at 2 stops +/-, processed through Photomatix followed by extensive colour processing in LR3. I had a concept in mind of the sun setting on the British Empire so I adjusted the overall temperature and colour saturation to get the golden look. Finally I tried out some new HDR post-processing in Photoshop, adding overlay and multiply layers at different opacities, each processed separately in Topaz Adjust finished in Topaz DeNoise. The idea of the post-processing is to increase colour punch and contrast.
I loved the position of the castle and the play of colours between the grass, stone , and sky. It just screamed HDR to me. The interior of the castle has been really well preserved and the quality of the displays is excellent – well worth a look if you’re ever there.
I processed this image in Photomatix from 3 images shot at +/- 2 stops, then ran it through Topaz Adjust and DeNoise to give it a little more detailed pop and remove the usual HDR noise. I also had a trial of CS5 running at the time and tried out the new content-aware fill to remove a couple near one of the foreground rocks, and as you can see it works very well.
I just thought this little fella was such a great idea – a bag of chips from the good old days of getting chips wrapped in newspaper.
This HDR image was taken in Green Park and is from 3 shots at +/- 2 stops. After initial processing in Photomatix I took it through my favourite add-on, Topaz Adjust, to give it a bit more pop.
Today’s image was taken in Green Park is a HDR image created from 3 separate images at +/- 2 stops. After processing via Photomatix I ran it through Topaz DeNoise and Adjust to clean up the noise from the HDR process and to give it some real pop via the Spicify preset in Adjust. Finally I used a targeted saturation setting in LR3 to tone down the green in the background just a little.
This week I’m going to show some of the images I took recently of the Elephant’s Parade that’s happening now in London. I went out around central London one afternoon last week and just went mad taking pictures of these fantastically coloured guys.
Our first image was taken near Trafalgar Square, that’s Admiralty Arch in the background. I thought he looked so mellow, staring up at Nelson on his column and generally having a fun time.
I applied a “Dave Hill-ish” preset in LR3 and then added some pop in Topaz Adjust. Finally I ran the image through the new CS5 to try out the content-aware fill function and it worked a treat! I removed some stuff from around the base of the elephant, and then removed the flagpole and radio antennas from the top of the arch. Got to say I’m impressed with the function, but it does take a bit of work and won’t do everything for you.
I love sunset shots, the colours are amazing and you get so much scope to work with shadows and light. This shot was taken on the mid-north coast of NSW, not far from the holiday town of Laurieton. You can see smoke from a bushfire on the horizon, which has tinged the clouds a smoky orange.
This was a 3-shot HDR at +/- 2 stops. I first ran it through Photomatix and then tweaked in LR2, adding clarity, vibrance and sharpening.
This is a lovely house in East Sussex, part of which dates from the 15th century. It was acquired by a businessman named Nathaniel Lloyd in 1909 and he had a 16th century house in a similar style moved from Kent. The two were combined with new work by the architect Edwin Lutyens to create a much larger house, which was rechristened Great Dixter. It is a romantic recreation of a medieval manor house, complete with great hall, parlour, solar and yeoman’s hall. There are also substantial gardens to explore around the house.
The image was taken from the gardens at the rear of the house and processed in Photomatix from 3 images at +1/-1 stops and then tweaked in Lightroom using the adjustment brush tool.
I thought Tintern Abbey was fantastic, although difficult to photograph as there isn’t a lot of space around the site with unobstructed views, unless you’re prepared to hike into the hills, and that’s just not me.
This image was first processed in Photomatix and then had some basic adjustments applied in Lightroom. I then ran it through Topaz DeNoise to reduce the usual HDR processing artefacts before giving it some ‘pop’ in Topaz Adjust. Finally I gave it a bit more clarity and sharpening in LR3.
This was taken at the Canal Boat Festival in Little Venice, London during the recent May bank holiday. It’s a 3 exposure +/- 2 stops HDR which I processed in Photomatix, then tweaked in Lightroom 3 beta 2 and CS5 to test out some of the new functionality. I don’t normally push my HDR shots this much but the sky was so forbidding (the heavens opened not long after this) that I couldn’t resist it.
