Category: HDR

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Making The Best Chicago Skyline

The final image after adjustment in Capture One and adding a sky from Luminar 4
The final image after adjustment in Capture One and adding a sky from Luminar 4

One of the things I like doing when visiting Chicago, one of my favorite cities is to take the architecture tour.  This is a boat tour that takes you up and down the river then out to Lake Michigan.  The photo ops on the trip are numerous, especially you take the tour at different times of the say.  I wanted to share on a picture I took on the trip.  Essentially I took an image that looked of (below) and then using Capture One made adjustments to the image you see above.  The main tools were level, color temp, contrast, clarity, saturation.   I’ll be doing tutorials on photoPXL.com to show how all this is done.  But, you need to have confidence that if you take a photo that you might question, that in the end, you can use your software to bring it to life.

Image before the one above
Image before the one above

Please Visit . . .

If you are interested in seeing more work by Kevin Raber and purchasing his work for your own, please visit RaberEYES.com

Kevin also runs workshops for photographers all over the world at Rockhopper Workshops

Kevin also has. a major website for all photography enthusiasts with articles, forums, tutorials, community and more at photoPXL.com

Kevin also shares his work daily on Facebook and Instagram

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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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Heavy Metal

TRain Restoration, Noblesville, IN

Close by to where I live there is a transportation museum.  This museum is mainly focused on trains.  There are a lot there.  Most of them rusty and falling apart.  I just love that.  They do a fair amount of restoration on these trains and have a special building just for that.  It is fun to shoot there and catch restorations in progress which is what this shot is all about.  Made with a Canon 5dII in multi expose mode then using an HDR program I made it the gritty look.  Then on the iPad using SnapSeed I worked on focus and some selective color to come out with this image.

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Gritty Denmark

Nyhaven, Copenhagen

One of the most visited areas in Copenhagen, Denmark used to be one of the grittiest.  It’s known as Nyhaven an area where all the ships and seedy bars used be.  Now it is the main tourist destination.  I tried to put a little grit back into one of the more colorful areas of Copenhagen.

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So Copenhagen

Copenhagen, near the brewery

I love Denmark and especially Copenhagen.  I work for a Danish Company, Phase One and love the job. I get to work in a field i am passionate about, meet great people from all over the world and share our mutual passions – photography.  Copenhagen is a magic city.  You can practically walk the whole city and there is so much to see.  This is a shot from a trip a year ago.  Obviously I messed with it a bit but it kind of fun.  I love the whole lion thing.  Kind of like a fairy tale thing.

I don’t do recovery well.  I am restless and want to get out.  But my shoulder still hurts a lot and I don’t want to push my knee.  I am doing what many of my friends have recommended and that is take it easy and take advantage of good drugs.  So, I sit around the house reading, working on photos, doing some work, watching TV taking meds.  I so much want to be out enjoying the day.  I tell myself this can’t last forever.

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Red Light

Red Light, Neon Graveyard, Las Vegas, NV

A quick update, tomorrow I head out for an 8 day adventure in the Palouse.  This is a region in SE Washington state that is a very beautiful area to shoot landscape pictures.  I’ll be leading a PODAS workshop there with 28 attendees and 5 great instructors.  I’ll update my blogs as often as I can.  So starting tomorrow look for PODAS Palouse images.  You can follow our blog for this trip at the PODAS Blog by clicking here.  The blog will begin on Wed.

Today’s picture was made in the Neon Graveyard in Las Vegas, where old signs from the strip go where they are torn down.  I focused on a red light bulb and then enhanced it in a few apps on the iPad.  Kind of different so I thought I would share.

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Old Boat

Boat At Seattle Maritime Museum

One day while visiting Seattle I decide that everything I shot I would do in HDR.  I also decided to do this technique with the gritty look.  Needed to get it out of my system I suppose.  So, this was shot of an old boat at a maritime museum with three different exposures.  They were then blended in photomatix.