My Fine Art America website
Showing posts with label Ukraine ~ Elsewhere. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ukraine ~ Elsewhere. Show all posts
Friday, February 15, 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Best of the Year, 2012 (10 of 12)
The top 12 of 2012, in no particular order.
My wife often calls these birds, "Ibis," but from what I can determine, they are white storks. Of course, some of these things get confused in the translation from Russian to English.
This is the original of the photo posted about a month ago.
My Fine Art America website
My wife often calls these birds, "Ibis," but from what I can determine, they are white storks. Of course, some of these things get confused in the translation from Russian to English.
This is the original of the photo posted about a month ago.
My Fine Art America website
Monday, December 10, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Autumn at the Kiev Sea
It's what the locals call it. Of course, it's not a real sea. It's a resevoir created by damming the Dnepr north of Kiev.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Smoke on the Water
I'm working on some new photos to add soon, but for the time being, here are some favorites from the past. There will be more new stuff coming soon, I promise!
Smoke on the Water. A Fire in the Sky. OK, so I’m channeling a bit of Deep Purple this morning.
And half my audience exclaims “Deep what”? Well, Deep Purple is a 1970′s rock band, best known for it’s song “Smoke on the Water”.
Smoke on the Water. A Fire in the Sky. OK, so I’m channeling a bit of Deep Purple this morning.
And half my audience exclaims “Deep what”? Well, Deep Purple is a 1970′s rock band, best known for it’s song “Smoke on the Water”.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Autumn in Uman
I'm working on some new photos to add soon, but for the time being, here are some favorites from the past. There will be more new stuff coming soon, I promise!
From a autumn trip to Uman, Ukraine, a few years back.
From a autumn trip to Uman, Ukraine, a few years back.
Monday, August 6, 2012
Old Church, Uhzgorod
This is a reprocess of an older photo from a few years ago. Some photographers don't like to go back and revisit their older work. But when I see an older photo that I just know I can do a better job of processing now, I'll go back and redo it and give it the look and treatment that I like and that it deserves.
Friday, August 3, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Schornborn Palace (HDR)
Schornborn Castle, Ukraine, also known as the Schornborn Hunting Castle
During the early 18th century, the beginning of the revolt led by Ferenc II Rákóczi took place around the Mukachevo area. During the mid-late 18th century, the city came under Austrian control as part of the Kingdom of Hungary and was made a key fortress of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1726, the Palanok Castle and the town, before 1711 owned by the Rákóczi family, was given by the Habsburgs to the Schönborn family, who were responsible for an expansion of the town.
Mukachevo
How this was done.
Once again, I started with only one original photo. You've got to work with what you have, and all that! From this original photo, I created two alternate versions, one underexposed by two stops, and one overexposed by two stops. Then I ran these three versions of this photo through Photomatix 4 to see what would come out.
On the bottom left, you see the output from Photomatix, and on the bottom right, you see the result after some adjustments in Photoshop. WAIT, you might be saying, the one on the left is the more colorful and vibrant of the two. That must be the final version! But there are a couple of problems with it.
When doing HDR, I generally try to keep the final results on the more realistic side. (Except when I try not to)! So, what's the problem with the results on the bottom left? Well, the sky is just too vibrant, plus, in the upper right of that photo, there is a banding problem. Why this happens in Photomatix sometimes and not in most occasions, I couldn't tell you. But after trying a number of adjustments, it was still there.
So I took the Photomatix output and the three original input versions into Photoshop. The main adjustment I wanted was to pull the sky out of the original photo (middle top) and overlay that onto the HDR result. Honestly, I think that sky is just more pleasing. I also lightened the brick in the foreground using the brick in the upper right photo.
Additional adjustments were using Topaz Detail (Bold Detail setting), with minor saturation tweaks in Topaz Detail, then, back in Photoshop, using the Fade command to fade the Topaz results by 50%. I then selected only the brick sidewalk and went back into Topaz Adjust and used the Bold Detail setting again, and back in Photoshop, used the Fade command again. I also upped the saturation on the yellow on the building.
During the early 18th century, the beginning of the revolt led by Ferenc II Rákóczi took place around the Mukachevo area. During the mid-late 18th century, the city came under Austrian control as part of the Kingdom of Hungary and was made a key fortress of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1726, the Palanok Castle and the town, before 1711 owned by the Rákóczi family, was given by the Habsburgs to the Schönborn family, who were responsible for an expansion of the town.
Mukachevo
How this was done.
Once again, I started with only one original photo. You've got to work with what you have, and all that! From this original photo, I created two alternate versions, one underexposed by two stops, and one overexposed by two stops. Then I ran these three versions of this photo through Photomatix 4 to see what would come out.
On the bottom left, you see the output from Photomatix, and on the bottom right, you see the result after some adjustments in Photoshop. WAIT, you might be saying, the one on the left is the more colorful and vibrant of the two. That must be the final version! But there are a couple of problems with it.
When doing HDR, I generally try to keep the final results on the more realistic side. (Except when I try not to)! So, what's the problem with the results on the bottom left? Well, the sky is just too vibrant, plus, in the upper right of that photo, there is a banding problem. Why this happens in Photomatix sometimes and not in most occasions, I couldn't tell you. But after trying a number of adjustments, it was still there.
So I took the Photomatix output and the three original input versions into Photoshop. The main adjustment I wanted was to pull the sky out of the original photo (middle top) and overlay that onto the HDR result. Honestly, I think that sky is just more pleasing. I also lightened the brick in the foreground using the brick in the upper right photo.
Additional adjustments were using Topaz Detail (Bold Detail setting), with minor saturation tweaks in Topaz Detail, then, back in Photoshop, using the Fade command to fade the Topaz results by 50%. I then selected only the brick sidewalk and went back into Topaz Adjust and used the Bold Detail setting again, and back in Photoshop, used the Fade command again. I also upped the saturation on the yellow on the building.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Soviet Era Hydrofoil (Revisited)
• HDR Photo ~ This is a re-visit to one of my earlier HDR attempts and redoing it with some new skills I've picked up along the way.
Here is the original Soviet Era Hydrofoil.
Seen in Chernigov, Ukraine.
When my wife first saw this parked in Chernigov, she recognized what it was right away. I experienced a what the ???? moment. This is a Polesye class hydrofoil, made to operate in shallower waters.
How this was done. I started off with one original photo, which is the middle one on the left, below. Now some will say HDR should be done with the differently exposed originals. But I say you have to work with what you have. And that's all I had. One original. I proceeded to create two new copies, one with a lower exposure and one with a higher exposure. These are seen on the left. From the top, the original at -2EV, the original at 0EV, and the original at +1EV. Again, some will say the exposures should have evenly spaced EV values, but really, thats not necessary. And setting the bottom photo on the left at +2EV would have overexposed everything in that copy and left you without the ability to extract much of value to the final HDR outcome.
On the top right, you see the final HDR outcome from Photomatix 4. It's nice, and certainly a bit of improvement over each of the photos on the left. Yet, it's generally agreed that the final outcome from Photomatix does leave the photo a bit flat, so it's off to Photoshop with it. Some of the Photoshop adjustments are, toning down the grass between the boat and the cement wall in the foreground, and exporting it to Topaz Adjust, where I applied the "Bold Detail" setting and pumped up the saturation a bit. Back in Photoshop, I did a fade on the Topaz outcome to 50% and applied the "Multiply" blending mode. I then wanted to accentuate the hydrofoil itself some more, so I did a quick select on the boat, returned to Topaz Adjust, applied "Bold Detail" again on the boat only, and back in Photoshop again did a "Fade" on the Topaz outcome of 50% and a normal blending mode.
That's how this was done!
Here is the original Soviet Era Hydrofoil.
Seen in Chernigov, Ukraine.
When my wife first saw this parked in Chernigov, she recognized what it was right away. I experienced a what the ???? moment. This is a Polesye class hydrofoil, made to operate in shallower waters.
How this was done. I started off with one original photo, which is the middle one on the left, below. Now some will say HDR should be done with the differently exposed originals. But I say you have to work with what you have. And that's all I had. One original. I proceeded to create two new copies, one with a lower exposure and one with a higher exposure. These are seen on the left. From the top, the original at -2EV, the original at 0EV, and the original at +1EV. Again, some will say the exposures should have evenly spaced EV values, but really, thats not necessary. And setting the bottom photo on the left at +2EV would have overexposed everything in that copy and left you without the ability to extract much of value to the final HDR outcome.
On the top right, you see the final HDR outcome from Photomatix 4. It's nice, and certainly a bit of improvement over each of the photos on the left. Yet, it's generally agreed that the final outcome from Photomatix does leave the photo a bit flat, so it's off to Photoshop with it. Some of the Photoshop adjustments are, toning down the grass between the boat and the cement wall in the foreground, and exporting it to Topaz Adjust, where I applied the "Bold Detail" setting and pumped up the saturation a bit. Back in Photoshop, I did a fade on the Topaz outcome to 50% and applied the "Multiply" blending mode. I then wanted to accentuate the hydrofoil itself some more, so I did a quick select on the boat, returned to Topaz Adjust, applied "Bold Detail" again on the boat only, and back in Photoshop again did a "Fade" on the Topaz outcome of 50% and a normal blending mode.
That's how this was done!
Monday, January 23, 2012
Autumn in Uman (Painted)
Had a photo to painting marathon Saturday over on Google Plus, so I spent a few hours on Saturday turning photos into paintings!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Autumn in Uman 2
No, it's not what it looks like, although I'm not exactly sure what this sculpture represents.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Break on Through Too
Opportunities for shots like this don't come along often, at least not where I am, but when they do come along, you can often get a number of shots like this within 10-20 minutes.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Break on Through (To the Other Side)
Seen at the Kiev Sea/Reservoir north of Kiev, early October 2011.
Friday, October 21, 2011
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