Colours of winter

We went for a walk today, I brought the D80. The light was great, and the clouds inspired me to have a go at some HDR-photography. Here is "Academill", on the coast of Vaasa. I particularly like the reflections in the ice and the dramatic clouds. Enjoy!

Solarigraphy

Finally! Here are 4 photographs, or solarographs, that I created using small pieces of Ilfords photographic paper that I placed in small containers with a hole in the side (basically pinholecameras). The exposures were 2-4 months. This project was totally experimental, and my main objective was to record atleast a few strokes of the sun on the sky. I´m proud to say I achieved this. I haven´t added any landscapes to the photographs, but I think that could be the next step in this project.

The paper I got from my pinholecameras was about 5 x 3 cm. I scanned the image and inverted it, flipped it horizontal and adjusted the contrast along with curves and shadow/highlight. I also added a sepiatone to these particular images.

the big dipper

This landscape needs no further introduction. A 55 sec exposure and some ACR along with my beloved softing-technique. A memory from the summer past...

Classical landscape

The archipelago needs no further introduction. The beauty, the drama, the serenity.

Autumn is still (here)

I´d like to continue on my autumn-theme. Here is a couple of shots of a leaf in the water. And, yes - it´s the same leaf. It´s getting harder and harder to find colourful leaves in good shapes, they are all starting to decay. PP as described in the earlier post.

Nature is on fire

I mentioned earlier that i like rust. Well, guess what else I like? Autumn! Finally the air is crisp and clear and natures treats us to a majestic cascade of colours. This afternoon I decided to go for a walk with my D80. I found some really nice scenerys. Along with some leaves. I had a go at creating a triptych of a collection of leaves I found in a park nearby. PP as usual.

Autiotalo

This weekend I had the opportunity to visit an abandoned house in a small village in the Kvarken archipelago. Here are a few photographs from that visit.

I like rust

You know, I like old stuff. Really old. The kind that others have already left behind, tossed away, or wish they could get rid of. That kind of stuff make excellent pictures. And rust is one of those elements in old objects that gives the photograph that extra punch. So here is two pictures of some old junk. PP include ACR, gradientmap, vignetting and softing.

Impressions:Vienna

Vienna, what a fantastic city. The food, the architecture, the art, the atmosphere... I spent 5 days in this beautiful Austrian capital with my wife. I ended up taking about 1000 pics with my D80. I know, 1000 photogs isn´t really that much. But after all, I was on a vacation/honeymoon, so I couldn´t really spend all the time looking through the viewfinder :) Above is but a few of the many impressions I got from beautiful Vienna.

Boathouse

This picture is more than one year old. It´s shot with my old Canon Powershot A85. So yesterday I found it on my harddrive while going through some other projects. I had already adjusted the luminance and colours, so basically I just needed to get the frame and the signature added.

The spinning wheels

Here are a few spinning wheels I found in the attic of a really old building. These spinning wheels haven´t been used for about fifty years or so. The HDR consists of three exposures merged in Photomatix PRO, and then some tuning in Photoshop.

Angel

Here is one of the photographs from the project I mentioned earlier. My theme was beauty, serenity and relaxation. The photographs depict an angel that has taken her wings of for a moment, as if she was taking a brake from being an angel (and what ever angels do). In this particular shot, the model is improvising.

Post production include Camera RAW, sharpening, vignetting and softening in Photoshop. The dodge-tool came in handy when I needed to get the dress and the wings even whiter.

Peace

Peace can be a state of harmony or the absence of hostility. "Peace" is used to describe the cessation of violent conflict. ('source')

During the Winter War an iceroad was build between Finland and Sweden so that supplies could be transported to and from Finland. The hand above is a statue in memory of the iceroad that was part of keeping this peace-loving country independent.

This is my response to the challenge I received last week. CP Geek wrote: Mission: "Peace".
Photoshop: Not allowed.
Time to accomplish: Must be presented 4th of july at latest.

Since Photoshop is a well integrated part of my photography-workflow, the challenge was, well, let´s say challenging...

I insisted on that the use of Camera RAW had to be allowed, though.

So, for the artistic part that I missed out on by not being able to use the force of the mighty CS3, I had to do a lot of thinking. I tried different angles and positions. Different f-stops and shutterspeeds. Just like in the good old 'analog' days. Above is the result. I used Camera RAW to adjust the saturation and luminance and to crop the image. The frame is obviously added in Photoshop, but that is all about presenting the photograph (it has nothing to do with "what you shoot is what you get"). So, mr Geek. Your call!

Parthenon II

I´m quite happy with this HDR render. The construction is actually a family grave I found while strolling around in the graveyard this beautiful sunny morning. I really like how the sun casts the distinct shadows of the pillars on the grass.

Angelwings on a wall

Believe it or not, I can do other stuff than just HDR´s. Here´s a pic from my latest project, "Angel". Hopefully I´ll be able to post some of the other (200 +) images from that project later on. I have some contests coming up, so I have to be careful with what I publish.

This would be a great candidate for the peace-challenge I recently received, although I´m afraid it´s a bit too manipulated for my friend, the geek.
RAW-tweaking, vignetting, softing and a few dabs with the dogde-tool. That´s not too much photoshopping according to me. Weird guy, that geek...

"trophy", another HDR

Here is my latest HDR production. To get the colours right, I used a part of the original image and did some serious masking. Finally I added a light vignette-effect and tried some softing techniques I´ve picked up lately.

Even more HDR

I just love the colours in the HDR-pictures, so I´m going to be publishing a few more of them here.

Below are the three original exposures.

HDR - for real this time

I just started a new era in my graphics/photomanipulation career. Yesterday I purchased the Nikon D80. What a magnificent piece of electronics! Above is the result of me testing the bracketing-funktion. I used Photomatix Pro to create the HDR, and I then gave the render the finishing touches in Photoshop. Below are the three exposures I used to create the HDR. As you can see I used the clonestamp on a couple of details. After getting the render from Photomatix PRO, I tweaked the colours in Photoshop using levels and hue/saturation. No colours added :)


A friend of mine is sworne by the principle that "what you shoot, is what you get". I´m not there yet, Photoshop is a much too integrated piece of my workflow. During my day out with the camera experimenting and shooting, I repeatedly caught myself thinking: I´ll fix that later in Photoshop.

Egographia subnormalis levis

Egographia subnormalis gravis