Serendipitous
by James Howe on Aug.17, 2011, under Architecture
(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 28mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/1000 at f/8.0)
My wife and I are spending some time in Northern Michigan, including Mackinac Island situated between Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. The island has a great collection of summer ‘cottages’, most of which are really large homes. They were generally built by wealthy industrialists and needed to accommodate family and servants. A nice example of a typical Mackinac Island cottage is ‘Brigadoon’ shown above. This cottage has a wonderful view of Mackinac Island’s harbor.
I took this shot as we were walking back to our hotel room after having lunch in the main part of town. I took a few different shots and finally settled on this low angle where I took a series of shots for possible HDR processing. However, when I got back to the room and look at the shots I had taken, I knew right away that I had to go with this shot. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a monarch butterfly had flown into the frame in the upper right. It fit so nicely with the sky that it almost looks as if I placed it there in post. I assure you I did no such thing. It’s just one of those lucky things that sometimes happens to photographers.
Processing for this image included some perspective correction and some work in Lightroom and PhotoTools to bring out the color that was present in the scene. As you can see in the raw image below, the bright sun created a somewhat washed out image to start.
Comments and feedback are always welcome. Feel free to leave them below.
Copyright ©2011 James W. Howe – all rights reserved
Maserati in Grand Central
by James Howe on Aug.12, 2011, under Automobiles
(Olympus E-3, 7-14mm at 8mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/6 @ f/4.0)
This shot was taken a couple of years ago when my wife and I were in New York City celebrating our anniversary. My wife had never been to Grand Central so we decided to check it out. On display in the main concourse was this Maserati Quattroporte automobile. I like shooting cars and architecture, so this seemed like a perfect combination! It was cloudy outside and there wasn’t a lot of bright light flooding Grand Central so the lighting wasn’t the greatest. I was using my Olympus E-3 which tends to be grainy at higher ISO’s so I stuck with ISO 100. The car was isolated from the unwashed masses with heavy velvet rope held up by a series of metal poles. I was able to set my camera on top of one of the poles to get this shot. The image is rather sharp even though the exposure was just 1/6th of a second.
Processing involved a couple of different things. First, I created a square crop to make the Maserati a strong element in the image. I also adjusted the white balance a bit, the original was just too yellow. I also like what it did with the hanging posters in the background. I used Topaz Adjust to bring out some detail, mostly in the floor. In an earlier version of this shot I also used Topaz Simplify in a mode which created more of a line drawing and combined that layer in luminosity mode which made for a ‘crunchier’ image. It looked ok, but it made the car too noisy and I decided that I didn’t like it. I finally settled on adding a bit of local contrast using PhotoTools, using it a a very low level to avoid halos. You can see what the image looked like out of camera below.
As always, I’d be interested in any feedback you might have.
Copyright ©2009-2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
UMMA – Gallery – Old Wing (take 2)
by James Howe on Aug.09, 2011, under Architecture
(Olympus E3, 7-14mm at 7mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, 1/4 sec @ f/7.1)
This shot was taken in the old wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). I’ve always liked this gallery and I’ve been here a few times to take pictures of it. Each time is a little different, different people, different light, etc. I had a blog post back in 2010 with an image similar to the one you see here, but with a completely different method and style of processing. For that image I went with a grittier, almost HDR look. I liked the way the processing brought out the detail in the floor, but I’ve always felt that this shot was meant for black & white. I also wasn’t too thrilled with the number of people in the shot, so I went back at a later date and took the shot you see above. In this shot, there is only the one woman on the bench, which I like better. I also chose to convert the image to black & white. Initially I created an image to which I added a bit of film grain, however I ultimately decided that I wanted a smoother look. I edited the shot to hide the grain layer and used Lightroom noise reduction to help smooth the shot out even more.
I would love to hear your feedback.
Copyright ©2010-2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved
Rainbow Room – Rockefeller Center
by James Howe on Aug.06, 2011, under New York
(Olympus E-3, 14-54mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 200, 1.3 sec @ f/20)
I’ve been rummaging though my archives looking for interesting images to post to Google+ and I came across this shot that I took in 2008. I was in New York on business and I was staying in Midtown. I had some free time so I took the opportunity to walk over to Rockefeller Center and take some pictures in that part of town. The GE Building, also known as 30 Rockefeller Plaza or just 30 Rock has a restaurant and club on the 65th floor called the ‘Rainbow Room’. On either side of the building there are entrances which are marked by these neon signs. I was feeling experimental so I took a few shots of the sign using a slower shutter speed and zooming my lens while the shutter was open. Of the ones that I took, this was my favorite.
I don’t have much to say about the processing of this image. About the only thing done to it was to remove just a bit of a stray light which was in the upper right, just above the ‘R’ in the word ‘Room’. I wanted that area to be black so I cloned it out. Other than that about the only other things done were a very minor contrast change and some sharpening.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments or questions.
Copyright ©2008-2011 James W Howe – All rights reserved
’37 Cord 812 Sportsman Convertible
by James Howe on Aug.03, 2011, under Automobiles
(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 122mm, ISO 200, 1/500 sec @ f/11)
The mid 30’s Cord automobile has long been a favorite of mine. The distinctive feature being the ‘coffin’ nose and on some models, exposed chrome exhausts. My favorite Cord designs are the model 810 and later. The 810 was introduced at the 1936 New York, Los Angeles and Chicago auto shows. The show car was unique in that it had copper accents. The show car is on display at the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg museum in Auburn, Indiana. The 810 was designed by noted car designer Gordon Buehrig. The 810 was originally going to be a 1935 Duesenberg but after incorporating a front wheel drive design, the vehicle was renamed the Cord 810.
The car above is a 1937 Cord 812 Sportsman Convertible automobile, on display at the 2011 Concours d’Elegance of America show held in Plymouth, Michigan. The 812 grew out of the 810 and was introduced in 1937. The 812 included a supercharger to increase horsepower, and featured the distinctive chrome exhaust pipes.
My main goal in processing this image was to draw attention to the two key details of the Cord, the exhaust pipes and the coffin nose. The original color shot (seen below) was a bit too bright, so I reduced the exposure in lightroom to bring back some details. The D-700 raw file is pretty forgiving of slightly overexposed images, you can generally reduce the exposure and have a nice shot, a benefit of ‘exposing to the right’. After some other minor cleanup in Lightroom, I used Silver Efex Pro 2 to convert the black and white. I think the end result sort of looks like an alien being, or the sort of car that an Imperial Stormtrooper might drive.
Here’s a final shot to give you an idea of what the full car looks like. I used Topaz Simplify to rework the background and used a layer mask to bring the car back to ‘normal’.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts, comments or questions.
Copyright ©2011 James W Howe – All rights reserved