Kevin Raber

Photography, Techniques and Whereabouts of Kevin Raber

Category Archives: Technique

How’s it done?


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Pah Head Billy

Pan Head Billy

Pan Head Billy

While photographing in Death Valley I visited the Artist Pallet are to shoot sunset.  There on the side of the road was this motorcycle guy leaning back on his bike watching the mountains light up in all the magic they do.  I went p to take pictures and I started talking to this guy.  Turns out he has been cruising the highways for 17 years.  everything he owns or needs is packed on the back of this bike.   I asked if he would pose for some shots and he was more than cooperative.  This is the result of the shot.  I did some post work on this image in Photoshop to make it a bit different.


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Second Beach

2nd Beach, Olympic National Park

Along the Washington and Oregon coast lines there are some classic places to take magnificent images of the coast and stacks and crashing surf.  One of the more iconic places is Second Beach in Olympic National Park.  A little bit of a hike through a well marked trail deposits you at this super location.  Sunset being the best time to be there.  I wanted my images to be different than others I saw before of this location. This was shot with an IQ180 and then processed out with one exposure to six levels at one stop increments.  So I had a 3 stop over and under and one normal from one shot.  The Phase One camera takes an incredible image with 12 plus stops dynamic range.  So in one image I was able to hold all details in highlights and shadows.  It’s quite the moment when you look at the histogram of an image like this expecting clipping on highlights and shadows and the Phase One back shows a very nice histogram with toes at both ends.  This allowed me to know I had the information to produce an image like this.  Then using Photomatix I processed them together to make an HDR.  I made adjustments so it didn’t appear to grungy or fake.  I retained enough detail in the rocks but didn’t overdue it.  I decided on a gold tone cast as that is how I remembered this image.  After the image was processed and saved I opened it using NIK Viveza and did some desaturation in the clouds and darkened some corners.  Finally I saved it, flattened it and then did a JPEG at a smaller dimension so I could post it on my blog and FaceBook.  There were number of images from this one nights shoot that were keepers and this was one.  I like the rock in the foreground and texture the water makes.  Hope you enjoy it.  This weekend I will make a 30×40 inch print.


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Big Ass Yellow Truck

Big Yellow and Rusty Truck

So, what do you do when you go to an industrial site (Gravel Quarry) and want to make the place look gritty and sort of apocalyptic?  You use a good camera and some of the app you can find on the iPad.  This shot was of a big old dump truck at the quarry, obviously not used much.  I shot a variety of angles of it and this is the one I selected.  I like the flat tire, low angle, and the hose coming off of it.  I pulled the image into the iPAd and used SNapSpeed to adjust the drama, grit, and selective colors.  Enjoy!


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Stand Pipes

Standpipes, Broad Ripple, Indianapolis, IN

A photographer I very much admire is Jay Maisel.  He is a typical tough New Yorker who has been shooting images forever and does so everyday.  You never and I mean never see Jay without a camera on his shoulder.  He finds a shot on the streets, in stores and anywhere he goes.  He never has the excuse I can come back and shoot it later or I’ll get next or I wish I had a camera.  His work is amazing and his philosophy towards photography inspiring.  So, why the rambling?  Because this is a classic case of seeing something and grabbing it.  These are just plain standpipes in Broad ripple are of Indy.  I saw the color, contrast and sun and had to shoot it and I let my shadow become part of the shot too.  I like the design of the shot.  Messed around with it a bit on the iPad and here is my image.  Enjoy.


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Carmel Performing Arts Center – Palladium My Way

Carmel, IN - Palladium - Performing Arts Center

The other night after experiencing some dramatic storms the skies began to clear and just turn wonderful colors and they were so dramatic.  My friend Debra grabbed me and we drove the block it takes to get to the Performing Arts Center.  I jumped out of the car and began shooting away.  I had grabbed my GH3 and shot in HDR mode – 5 exposures per shot. This technique allows my camera to shot over exposures opening up shadows and underexposures allowing highlights to be recorded.  I then bring my images into Capture One and do perspective control (straightening lines on building so they don’t or do distort).  Then I process he images to tiff format and run them through PhotoMatix combing all the exposures into one image.  Then I took the image into photoshop and run them through a series of other programs.  In this case I used a plug in called Topaz Adjust.  So here is my artistic version of PAC at a dramatic sunset.  I have more so look for them soon.  Also, finished up some dramatic Moab B&W Images.  Stay tuned.


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The Last Palouse For A Week

Truck In A Barn - Palouse, WA

Well it’s another day and another plane ride.  Today it’s New York for a few days. Need to spend some time in the office working on pushing the PODAS workshops along and making sure we are set to go for a busy rest of the year.  We have a PODAS workshop every month for the rest of the year.  Also, I have a trip to China coming up in the next month to promote a workshop there.  Life at Phase One is always busy.

Today’s image is another take on the barn with the truck I posted the other day.  This time from the front with some effects thrown onto it for artistic sake.  Shot on a P65 and then converted using an iPhone app.  It’s just fun.  The details in the original Phase One file are amazing.  Definitely be working on some big prints when time allows.  Think I’ll post some Neon Graveyard images the next few days.


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Happy Easter Retrospective

For the next two days I’ll be posting a retrospective of published images.  Kind of like  re-run time.  Maybe you missed a few of these.  You’ll be able to look at the gallery below and see images that have been previously posted on these pages.  You can click on any image to see a larger image.  Tomorrow I’ll post the second gallery.  Stop back and check it out.

Also, I just launched a new PODAS workshop on Friday being held this July in Chicago.  The focus is on Architectural Photography – The Man Made Landscape.


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Performing Art Center With A Bit Of Fun

Carmel Performing Arts Center - Iphonegraphy

Today was one of those dramatic days in Indianapolis. We just had a tornado warning.  Fun – fun!  Anyway I was driving back from doing some errands this afternoon and saw the dramatic sky behind the Performing Arts Center.  So I stopped and took out my iPhone and did a 30 image pano with stitch.  I then over dinner worked some iPhone fun on the image.  So here it is.  All in all it was fun and isn’t that what taking pictures all about.


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The Stairs

Stairs - San Miguel - Mexico

Continuing with Mexico shots I present another image from the abandoned hotel.  This is a set of stairs basically going no where.  It was made with 5 exposures and brought together in Photomatix and then post processed on the iPad.  Amazing what you can do with your photographs these days.  I really liked the feel and the way this flows.  Let me know what you think.


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Painted Tree

So, some nights when I have nothing to do I sit on the couch, put on some TV show and pick up my iPad.  Last night I did just that and played with an APP on my iPad – Paintit Show.  This is a slick app by Corel and all you do is load your images, select a style and away it goes.  Lots of fun to watch and results are nice.  This is one of the many I did last night that I like the best.  Originally shot with a P65+ of a gum tree in Ormiston Gorge, Australia.


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Olympic National Park

Sunset, Olympic National Park

Every year I spend a week with a group of fellow photographers and friends.  We go to a special location, shoot a lot of photos, talk photography and drink fine wine.  Last year we visited Olympic National park and had perfect weather and shot lots of good images.  One evening were photographing the sunset on the Pacific Ocean and it was tough scene.  It was a classic case where HDR was needed.  But to shoot multiple exposures with water that is in continuous motion is near impossible.  Lucky for me I was shooting with a Phase One P65+ and this amazing camera has a huge dynamic range.  So what I did was find an exposure I like, processed it out by setting exposure sliders in capture One to 2 stops over and 2 stops under and then normal.  I took the three images and used Photomatix to handle the HDR.  I made several varieties of HDR some very natural looking and a few like this are best described as nuclear.  So, enjoy my nuclear sunset.

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