The Photographers thread: Show us your stuff!!

[Matt]

Here's an interesting one --

Even though I said above I don't manipulate with photoshop too much unless I'm trying to make the captured image as beautiful as the original subject. Well, then there's black & white.    Almost everything looks better, IMO, in B&W. 

This photo is an original vs. retouched. It has a LOT of work to it. I'll let anyone interested point out all the stuff I did.

 
                                                        ORIGINAL                                                                                                                                            EDITED (Final)

[Americanbeauty]

Yeah, I get you.
But I'm soooo lazy and PS is just too complicated for me

I use filters when I'm taking a photo with my phone and posting it on Instagram. It's so easy. The Arc de Triomphe one I played with the contrast and added a black & white filter. The fog was real

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[Americanbeauty]

Here's an interesting one --

Even though I said above I don't manipulate with photoshop too much unless I'm trying to make the captured image as beautiful as the original subject. Well, then there's black & white.    Almost everything looks better, IMO, in B&W. 
                                                                                                                             

Couldn't agree more



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[Matt]

The Arc de Triomphe one I played with the contrast and added a black & white filter. The fog was real

The fog is gorgeous on that photo. It really looks like it is a photo from 100 years ago. It has such a timeless look to it. I love it.

[Matt]

Yeah, I get you.
But I'm soooo lazy and PS is just too complicated for me

I use filters when I'm taking a photo with my phone and posting it on Instagram. It's so easy. The Arc de Triomphe one I played with the contrast and added a black & white filter. The fog was real

Yeah, it's time consuming. It almost ruins the fun of it all because I need to sift through 100 or so photos, pic about 5 of the best ones and then play with each one for 10 minutes.

But, then again... if I didn't do that, I would have photos that also would ruin the fun of photography for me because they'd be so disappointing.

It's a necessary part of it, for me.

[Matt]

Oh, and if you have Photoshop and want any help with it, I'll see if I can point out some of the most effective tools. Once you get going, it might only take a minute for most photos.

[Matt]

Sunset untouched -- silos and grass brightened a bit.

[Americanbeauty]

Nice! ⬆

I use Photoscape by the way, even though I have Photoshop.

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[Matt]

That's the one I suffered for... I didn't grab my tripod and I needed about a 1.5 second lens speed. I had to sit and use my knees as a tripod, which is how I did get the beautiful sunset. Looking through the viewfinder, I knew I wasn't getting the grass and silos bright enough -- and I had to give up because I was getting eaten alive by bugs.

[Americanbeauty]

Ha. What we do for a shot!

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[Matt]

Decided to try a little additional work. I like it better. This would be wall-worthy.

[Americanbeauty]

Definitely!
Do you print your photos?

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[Matt]

I don't usually print them. I only have one that's blown up and hanging up -- I'll post it in the thread eventually. I kinda like these newer ones better.

And I wasn't going to post any more silo and sunset pics, but what the hell... I like this one a lot -- the lighting on the silo looks more natural to me.

[Americanbeauty]

Here's a triptych I put together with photos taken this past summer in San Francisco.
I liked these 3 shots individually and since their common element was the bridge... 
No PS at all on any of these.

[Matt]

Fantastic shots! 

[Americanbeauty]

Oh they're OK I guess.

I really like the middle one for some reason.

[Matt]

I love photographing bridges. I used to be able to get on job sites during construction and go up in crane baskets to shoot them. I'll have to dig around and see if I can find anything - the engineering firm was able to keep the originals, but I got one or two.

(Pre-digital. I shot on slide film for actual projectors for their town meetings.)

[Matt]

Here's one during construction of the Bayside Bridge, which spanned Tampa Bay to link St. Petersburg to Clearwater (Florida).

[Americanbeauty]

oh that's cool 

Here's the GGB again.

[Matt]

On these, I'm shooting on my decent camera, a Nikon N8008, and whatever slide film I'm using is high contrast... I actually had to tone these down slightly.

But, they've been through a lot. First, taken on punchy slide film.

Then developed to prints (Very expensive process, I believe these were about $75 a shot back in the early 90s).

20 some years later, they're finally scanned (today) ....

Very punchy.  I settled them down slightly with actually removing a little saturation and vibrance. They don't, however, look too good in B&W -- there's too much going on.

Anyway, this pic is cool because you can see one of the crane baskets in the foreground. We were not OSHA compliant in any way, shape or form. Normally, I'd be nervous in one. But you know how it is when you're trying to get that shot, you really can only think of what you've gotta do to get that shot.  I walked beams at that full bridge height without a safety cord, wearing only a hard hat and life preserver, and loved every minute of it.