Golden Hour (Photography)

[JB88]

thanks eskimo.  ive been tinkering with some techiques for conversion from color to black and white.  


speaking of color...

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by eskimo2

P.S. everyone,
This thread is really an invitation to post any golden hour pictures, be it landscape, vacation snapshots or whatever.

One of my favorite photos I took this year. In hindsite, I should have used fill flash, asked her to take her purse of the shoulder...but other than than, this one will be a 20X24 print in our living room once I find the right frame for it.



And that "Golden hour" lighting on our new dog:

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by JB88
thanks eskimo.  ive been tinkering with some techiques for conversion from color to black and white.  


speaking of color...

Love the 2nd one JB88!!

[eskimo2]

JB88,

WTF is growing in that bottle?!  Seamonkeys?  

Very cool picture.

[JB88]

Originally posted by eskimo2
JB88,

WTF is growing in that bottle?!  Seamonkeys?  

Very cool picture.

thanks

dunno.   it looked sorta like a hunk of seaweed...it didn't appear very friendly.

[JB88]

7:15 am

[Ripsnort]

Nice contrast JB88.

[eskimo2]

That's pretty good when you can make a shed that needs to be condemned or burned down look good.

[JB88]

thanks guys.  i appreciate the compliments.  espescially given your experience and work in the field.

it's a nearby shed that's been abandoned and taken over by various bark and burr bearing lifeforms.   you can barely see it and it's only 15 feet away from the road.  

not sure if it's exactly right...but i tried several variations and finally settled on that one.  

(if i up the contrast then i lose some of the shadow detail.  i'm already sacrificing alot of detail in the upper corner, but dodging it in makes it look unnatural...i can also pull the curves up and get more details in the objects in the space...but it feels to me like it takes something away from the scene beyond the window...i keep imagining the window as the picture and the space as matt and the black as the frame...i ramble)

it goes along with the old abandoned house.  amber's aunt is 71 and she says she can't remember anyone living in it for maybe 30-40 years.  all of these objects are exactly as i found them.  it's an odd thing these spaces...i suppose it appeals to the part of me that wanted to be an archaeologist when i grew up.

[ChickenHawk]

I was messing around with my telescope Sunday and caught the moonrise over some distant hills.  It's not a composite; this is the scene the camera actually saw through the scope.  Maybe a tad past golden hour but here it is anyway:

[texasmom]

Originally posted by eskimo2
_ Professional photographers often seek the natural sunlight an hour after sunrise or an hour before sunset; the pictures below show why that light is so special._

I have learned that asking the girls to smile just doesn't work._ "Smile" to our children translates in their minds to; "make an awkward-fake-looking dorkish smirk"._ They also rarely are in sync._ If I have the energy, making them laugh proves to be much more effective.
 

Beautiful girls, and beautiful picture!

I agree on the smiling bit.  Few years ago took our 3 sons for 'portraits.' Took one fake-smile posed shot. The rest were of them goofing off: bunny ears, punching one another, tongues out, showing off muscles. I don't even recall if we purchased the posed shot. We got many copies of the others though.

[straffo]

You used HDR and tone mapping  JB88 ?

[JB88]

nice shot chicken hawk!



i couldn't resist.



corrected: levels/colors/contrast/curves/sharpened/burned the sky in around the moon a tad.







note: if you miss color you can always start pulling it back in.

[JB88]

Originally posted by straffo
You used HDR and tone mapping  JB88 ?

nope...nothing that fancy.

i use photoshop and gimp about the same as i would a darkroom.

correct for colors (filters)
correct for contrast (filters)
correct for levels (filters)
correct for luminence (brightness and curves...exposure)
dodge and burn for details.
crop image to set composition
perform a few plugin tricks and voila...

most people would be amazed by what the most basic photoediting steps can do to enhance an image.

i had to look up hdr and tonemapping.  boy would that be fun.





p.s. - all of these images were taken with a 128$ canon pocket jobby.

[JB88]

mrs. 88 tells me that i need to decist with color correcting other peoples work.

sorry.  i just get exited about it.  i really hope i wasn't toe stepping.



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