Portrait

Gorilla  with Platinum toning.  Again, I used Topaz Adjust B&W 2.0 to convert this image taken at the Bronx Zoo.  Shot in color with a Canon IS SX40 camera, through glass,  I thought it was a stunning portrait of this magnificent animal.  I always liked the color image, but this effect really grabs me.  I did some 25% dodging in the central part of the face and created a slight vignette to darken the shoulders and background. The most important part of the image is the face, and this technique emphasizes that.  Enjoy, Jeff

 

Topaz Adjust BW Effects 2.0

Saratoga Motion shot with a 

KONICA MINOLTA DIGITAL CAMERA 7D

This is my first color conversion using Topaz Adjust BW conversion software.  It plugs into PS 3 or higher or in to later versions of PS Elements.  It was really a pleasure to use with as typical of Topaz products, endless creative possibilities.  I toned this platinum with a slight vignette.  Enjoy, Jeff

Star Landscape Photography-How to do it

 This is Yosemite Valley view, photographed last week about 730PM.  The tricks to getting good star photography with out star trails are these:

Use a wide angle fast lens 10-30 mm, ideally 2.8 or faster

Use a camera that allows you to shoot at 800 ISO to 3200 ISO with little to no noise

Include the landscape in the scene

Expose at widest aperture and VIP,  prefocus to a distant object manually as light is getting dim, and turn off auto focus to lock the focus. Do not touch the lens after that

Expose for about 10-30 sec, depending on the lens.

To avoid star trails divide the Focal length of the lens into 600 to give you the maximum exposure time to avoid star trails. Example, a 20mm lens allows up to 30 sec exposure.  Bracket times/ISO's to see the best shot.

Use a tripod. Fire the shutter with a cable, wireless or self-timer to avoid camera shake

A tungsten white balance keeps the sky blue
Turn off long exposure noise reduction

In this image, El Capitan is on the left with night climbers and their head lamps.

Camera was a Canon EOS M with a 22mm pancake lens.  ISO 1600, f2, 15 second exposure, fired with 2 sec self timer.

Enjoy, Jeff

Yosemite

These were shot with the iPhone 5 this week. Apps used for the color images were true HDR. For the monochrome , 645
PRO. A little editing was done in Photowizard, which
Is a great editing Application. Met some great people
out there!!

Yosemite