PhotoWalkPro

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Yesterday’s post discussed some scenarios that require shooting a little unconventionally with the intention of using Photoshop to complete the photographic process and complete the pre-visualized image.  I ended the post with a picture of the I Amsterdam sign that is located in a park in Amsterdam.  I also told you that I shot the image with the express purpose of using Photoshop to make it look the way it does below.

Several of you posted your guesses as to what I did in Photoshop to make it look like it does above.  Unfortunately no one had the correct answer.  So here’s the deal.  My buddy, Jeff Kelby, had been to Amsterdam before and he told me about these letters he had seen that were located in a park in the Southwestern part of the city.  We set off to the park and sure enough, we rounded a corner and there were the big red and white letters, spelling out the I Amsterdam slogan that is found all over the city (mugs, bumper stickers, hats, t-shirts, you name it). I really wanted to get a photograph of the landmark but it was covered in tourists.  They were climbing and posing and basically blocking me from getting a good shot.   So here’s where I had my “shoot for Photoshop” idea.

As I walked around the rear side of the letters I noticed that there was no one there. Everyone was posing on the front side so that the letters would be readable in their own pictures.  That’s when I pulled out my camera and composed my shot of the rear of the letters, completely unobstructed by other tourists.  Of course the letters were backwards in my image but that was my plan.

Once I had my shot, I simply opened it in Photoshop and then flipped the image to reverse the backwards text so that it read correctly in my image.  No multiple image stacking or masking as some of you guessed, just a simple horizontal flip.  Crazy, huh?  But totally conceived at the time I took the image with the intent to change it in Photoshop.  Sometimes a little planning can really go a long way towards getting the shot that you want.  Here’s the original image as it came out of my camera.

That’s it for me this week.  I am going to try and catch up on some well needed rest and put some finishing touches on the D3000 book.  Have a great weekend and I’ll see you Monday.

Getting the shot right in the camera should always be the goal of any photographer but sometimes the shot you want is beyond the camera’s capabilities.  So what do you do when you know what it is you want but you know you can’t get it in one exposure?  In those circumstances, you can shoot for Photoshop.  Here’s a good example of what I mean.

While walking in a cathedral in Bruges last week I saw a beautiful stained glass window at the end of a large hall.  I wanted to capture the entire scene but when I shot with a proper exposure for the hall, the window was completely over-exposed.  When I shot to get a good exposure of the window, the hall became so dark that you couldn’t see any detail.  To remedy this, I decided to shoot two exposures with the intent of combining the two images in Photoshop.

To get the two images as one, I adjust the images in Lightroom and then opened both of them as layers in one Photoshop document.  I then had Photoshop align the two layers and used a layer mask to combine the best parts of both.  I am sure that some of you are wondering why I didn’t shoot an HDR and the truth is that I considered it but I think that the processing would not have given me the result that I was after.

So here’s another shot that I took with the intention of fixing it in Photoshop.  I’m not going to tell you what I did but take a look at it and see if you can figure it out (Jeff and Scott Kelby are not allowed to comment).  I’ll post the answer on Friday.

The weather on my last trip was pretty dicey in terms of photographic potential.  But that’s the thing about travel photography is that you just never know what Mother Nature is going to dish up for you.  Some days you can go out and be greeted with beautiful sunrises and other days, the sun just pops up into the sky without any fanfare at all.  Still other days you could be met with clouds or rain or even snow.  There’s just no way around it and unless you live in the area and can go shooting when the weather is optimum, you only have two choices, shoot what you have or don’t shoot at all.  Frankly, I would rather have something to remember my travels than nothing at all so I shoot.  That doesn’t mean I always have to settle for bad shots when the skies won’t cooperate.  One of the best ways to overcome blank, overcast skies is to just ignore them and shoot for black and white.  Either in camera or through post-processing, you can get some pretty decent black and white shots on those cloudy days.

Not the greatest of shooting days...

...but not too bad as a black and white image.

Another option is to not show the sky at all.  Cloudy conditions mean no sun but they also mean no harsh shadows and nice, saturated colors.  If the clouds move in on you, try concentrating your photography on colorful items that will come to life when the skies are gray.  Just make sure you adjust your white balance to compensate for the typically cool tones that accompany a cloudy sky.

Taken inside a Tea Room while shaking off the cold.

The sun finally came out shortly after I took this shot.

Sometimes as photographers we get lucky and all the necessary components line up just right for us and we get that shot that we envisioned.  Sometimes we need to look past those shots and deal with what we have.  These are the moments that make us better photographers.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned snow yesterday because that’s what we woke up to this morning.  It wasn’t horrible, just enough to cover the ground a little and give us cloudy skies.  We decided to check out the Photography Conference that Scott was speaking at instead of heading straight out to shoot.  I was really surprised to see such a large show.  While I was there I stopped by the Peachpit booth to check out Scott’s translated books and was pleasantly surprised to see that they had copies of my book as well.  They were in English but it was still a kick to find them there (check out the shot of me over on Scott Kelby’s blog). We also checked out a model shooting demo over at the Elinchrom booth by Frank Doorhof.  He was great, even in another language. Another highlight for me was when I stopped by the Canon booth and checked out the new T2i/550D.  It’s pretty darn slick and I expect it to make a pretty big splash in the market when it comes out later this month.

We wrapped up our visit to the show and then headed off to shoot some windmills and anything else we could find.  The skies were still cloudy but the sun did start poking out and I managed to grab a few good shots.  From there we headed East to a small fishing village where we shot the last moments of good light and then headed back to the hotel.  It’s been a great trip but I’m ready to wrap thing up and head on home.  I’ll post some more images and give some more details tomorrow but until then, have a great Tuesday.

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day here in Amsterdam and I got to spend a great day touring the city and shooting with my buddy Jeff Kelby.  Unfortunately his brother, Scott, was tied up all day at the Professional Imaging conference in Utrecht.  We will probably crash the conference for a little while today to check out all the action on the trade-show floor.  Scott has another full slate of classes so Jeff and I will be heading out for another day of site seeing and shooting as we set out on a quest for windmills. I have a couple of spots already scoped out just North of the city so we will see if the weather once again cooperates.  I just wish we were here in May or June.  I can only imagine how beautiful it must be when all of the flowers are blooming and the trees are green.  Nonetheless, it has been a fantastic trip, even with the cold temps and brisk winds.

Here’s a few photos from yesterday’s venture.  I’ll be sure to throw a few more up here on the blog tomorrow, that is unless we get snowed out.  Have a great Monday!

And what’s a trip to Amsterdam without some bike pictures?

After a long overnight flight I finally made it to Brussels.  After hooking up with my buddies, we headed out to Bruges Belgium for the day.  The weather wasn’t all that cooperative but we still had a great time walking the quaint streets of town, stopping to grab a few shots and eat some waffles (it’s a “when in Rome” kind of thing).  We are going to spend a little more time here tomorrow before hopping in the car for the drive to Amsterdam.  Hopefully the weather will be a little better and we will get a little sunshine and some blue skies.

I haven’t had much in the way of time to process any images, not that there are any great ones to be had from this first day of shooting.  Maybe I’ll play with some more in the tomorrow.  Have a great weekend and look for more (and hopefully better) images on Monday.