Ok, so here it is. The blog post you all have been waiting for, all two of you. So Monday morning I went to Cincinnati, Ohio at 3am to get some night and morning shots of the skyline. Other then one road being closed I had no problem finding my destination. The only close parking was a small lot belonging to the riverboat business, so I parked there since it was so early. I wanted to keep the car within view since my brother-in-law had made a comment about my safety. Anyways, so I got out my equipment and found a nice spot by a bench to set up. I took some shots and realized that though I had a great view of the skyline, my panoramas were blocked on the sides, one by a tree, the other by the riverboat business, so I moved closer to the riverbank. This spot had a full view, but the I couldn’t get the “full” reflection of the tallest skyscraper in the water, so I moved closer to the water. The ground there was too soft and the wind seemed to be a little harsher, so I backed up to location two. I spent the next few hours shooting various shots, getting some hdrs and some panos, too. I found that shooting at f5.6 seemed to work the best because of the wind. The shots at f5.6 were about 2-4 seconds, whereas the f22 was 20-30 seconds. That extra time with the shutter open in that wind was causing slight blur. At about 7am the light starting changing with the sun coming up, and I had to constantly meter the scene to keep up. At about 7:30, some trucks started coming through, with one stopping behind my car for a few seconds. I noticed they were employees of the riverboat business, so I started worrying I would get towed. At 7:55 I took a last shot, looked at the sky and decided with that overcast sky behind me I wasn’t going to get that golden sunrise I was lucky to get in New Orleans. I packed up and left. As I drove blindly around the city because my GPS locked up, the clouds dispersed and that golden sun hit the buildings and I realized if I had waited a few more minutes I would have gotten the greatest shots of my career. Oh well. I wonder if Ansel Adams worried about getting towed…
So in my last post I posted a completely raw photo straight from my camera (I was at my in-laws and had no access to photoshop) because I was so excited about my shoot. I just finished editing that photo and here it is….
Ok, so here is what I did. Leveled, auto color correct, increased brightness by a few notches, increased contrast. I cloned out the ducks because they just looked like black blobs in the water. I thought the sky still looked flat so I added an adjustment layer (bright/contrast) really boosted the contrast. Made the clouds look darker, but the sky, too. So I deleted and created a new adjustment layer, this time I increased the brightness and then the contrast. I then used a gradient faded from top to bottom. The buildings were darkened slightly by the adjustment layer, so I used the eraser to cut away the mask on the buildings and the river.
Here are a few other shots I have worked on from that morning, and also one of Nashville that I got on the way home….
