Category Archives: Photo

Film Photography and Scanners: First impressions of the Canon 9000F Mark II

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In my last blog post I hinted at a longer story coming forth about my problems with my scanner. Today is the day to write this down.

Years upon years ago, I bought a HP G4010, which has a backlight unit to scan 35mm negatives. At the time my only goal was to digitize some of the old images my family had taken before there was digital photography. For this it worked pretty good. Then I bought the Diana F+ and suddenly I needed a scanner that was able to scan those medium format film strips. I ended up getting the HP G4050 since I had liked the G4050. Since hindsight is 20/20: this was a mistake!
The G4050 has been around for a lot of years now and HP has updated the scan software it uses for all its scanners but the G4050 did not get the updated utility but stuck with the old one. In addition to that, I had trouble scanning with lines running cross my images (digital lines) a lot of the time. I got into contact with the support of HP, who offered to send me a replacement top part of the scanner so I could try if that would help. It got a bit better but I still got the lines most of the time when I used the Lomography Scan Holders instead of the ones the HP came with. In addition oftentimes it would preview color images as black and white or the colors where completely off. Basically anything that was more advanced than a ISO 200 or ISO 400 color negative film was beyond its capabilities (which is the film I am least likely to shoot…). These results, btw, were the same when using VueScan instead of the build in utility.

uhm-no

The final straw was a few weeks ago when I started scanning the first results from my Belair X6-12, a medium format camera. The first film was a ISO 200 (or 400, cannot remember) 120 slide film – meaning I saw the image itself already on the film strip, so I KNEW that the images had good exposure. The HP though only gave me completely blown out shots. I was able to get a bit better results using VueScan but still not ideal. In the end I put the film strip on my iPad on a white background and used my iPhone to share some results.

overblown
Then a few weeks later I shot a slide film and crossed it with it. In the end I spent about an hour in Photoshop on each image because the best i could do was take the raw image from vuescan and invert myself using photoshop and then using curves etc to clean up the colors.
If this sounds frustrating to you: welcome to my world. I have cursed more often at this device than I can imagine…

options

But not only did I get a Belair recently but Canon announced a new scanner. Scanners are notoriously slow to be updated (especially those which can scan film) so I was interested in this new one since it uses a LED backlight and can scan both 35mm and 120mm film and uses a new software utility Canon built from scratch for this scanner.

So after this last debacle with the HP, I decided to take the plunge and buy the Canon. It took a few weeks to arrive since my photo store had to order it for me but on Saturday I was able to pick it up and started testing it right away. At first I used VueScan (which has an update out that can utilize the Canon) but somehow I still have not fully grasped VueScan – but i got okay results already with it and the scanner was super quite and fast compared to the HP. Then I decided to install the scan utilities that came with the scanner and see how they work and I have to say: i am impressed. It has a lot of options for improving your results and is relatively easy to understand and use and the results turned out great in my opinion. Even the cross processed slide film worked right out the box with results that look like I imagined they might. All without shouting and cursing! (Images where I show two here, the HP is the first, the Canon the second, the HP ones have several hours of post-processing, the Canon ones have not been touched after scanning)

hp 2canon-scanner 4

My next step now is to re-scan some of the films from the last two years to see if I can get better results. The Lomo scan masks, btw, work without a problem with it – meaning I can finally fully scan the sprocket holes!

scan-120810-0008-1 canon-scanner 7

canon-scanner 1

canon-scanner 3

Best of 2012

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As in years past (2011, 2010, 2009, 2008), Jim Goldstein is doing a blog project asking for submissions for the best photos of 2012. Like the last few years I’ll participate and wandered through my archive for the last year.

This year has been pretty hectic work-wise for me so I was actually surprised that some of the stuff was in 2012. I would have sworn it was before that. So for this alone it was good to take a trip through and see what I did in 2012.

As always I’ll sub-divide the pictures into categories because I just cannot chose only one or a handful of images…. As always I will highlight my favorite of each category. Note: by clicking on an image you will see a larger version of the images in a clickable gallery.

Analogue

I still enjoy film photography a whole lot, although I didn’t get the chance to take very many images this year. I love the unexpected results though. You never know what you will get back when you send in a roll of film and I quite enjoy that.

bestof2012 10 (1) bestof2012 11 (1) bestof2012 10 bestof2012 12 (1) bestof2012 15 bestof2012 16 bestof2012 17 bestof2012 2 (4)bestof2012 1 (4)

 

bestof2012 1 (1)

HDR

This year I took a lot more HDR images than last year, mainly because I had the chance to get away twice this year, once to Augsburg (Germany) for a weekend and then two weeks on Madeira.

bestof2012 19 bestof2012 13 (1) This is the orangery at the castle in weilburg, germany. bestof2012 9 (1) bestof2012 8 (1) bestof2012 7 (1) bestof2012 5 (3) bestof2012 5 (1) bestof2012 4 (3) bestof2012 3 (3) bestof2012 2 (3) bestof2012 2 (2) Monte, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, bestof2012 1 (2) iPhone5_wall_119

 

bestof2012 3 (2)

Macro

Looking back through my archive I realized that I didn’t take that many macro shots this year, which is a real shame and something I will try and change again next year. But sometimes it is also good to take a break from something and come back later with new ideas.

bestof2012 3 (1) bestof2012 24 bestof2012 23 bestof2012 11 bestof2012 8 bestof2012 5 (2) bestof2012 4 (1) bestof2012 4

 

bestof2012 3

Animals

bestof2012 21 bestof2012 20 bestof2012 14 bestof2012 7 bestof2012 6 bestof2012 5 bestof2012 2 bestof2012 22

bestof2012 9

Lighting

Every two years there is the Luminale in Frankfurt which is a light exhibit, so I took a whole bunch of images there, which were a challenge for me because I don’t do much low-light photography. I love some of the results though!

bestof2012 18 (1) bestof2012 16 (1) bestof2012 15 (1) bestof2012 6 (1) bestof2012 17 (1)

Misc

bestof2012 1 bestof2012 18 bestof2012 13 bestof2012 14 (1)

bestof2012 4 (2)

 

Overall my favorite images are the one I highlighted in the HDR section and the one in analogue. they are very, very different but I love looking at both of them! Which one would you have highlighted?

iPad Retina Size Wallpapers

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Some years ago I offered some wallpapers for both the iPhone and the iPad but when I moved the site, I removed the galleries for them and only offered the downloads (they are still here, btw). Now the iPad 3 came out and I needed some new wallpapers to put on mine because smaller scale images just don’t look that well on the device. So i went through my archive once again and selected over 140 images that work as a wallpaper and made a gallery of them.
For now I don’t have a zip download because it is way too big to have all of them in a zip here but if you go to the gallery, you have a thumbnail of each of the images and when you click on the individual images you come to a page with the full-res image on it that you can save onto your iPad. Feel free to use them on your personal iPad but please do not include them in any for sale packages!

Best of 2011

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Another year gone by, another year with only a handful of posts (blush). But it is the end of the year again and Jim Goldstein is doing his blog project again where photographers can share their best pictures of the year. Like last year, I took a journey through my photos from this year and tried to select my favorites from the last year. Of course, I couldn’t decide (again … ). Due to this I’ll put them into different categories with my favorite from each highlighted.
You can view larger versions of all images by clicking on them and also then navigate between them with the arrow keys of your keyboard.

Analogue

Last year was my first year of really shooting analogue photos – my camera collection grew from one camera (the Diana F+) to several cameras that yield very different results. I’m still in love with the results and not knowing what to expect when I get the film back. The great thing about them are their technical imperfections – something that is sooo different from my digital photography where I strive for perfection or at least technical flawless execution.
0736_012 (1)0737_005 (1)3413_002 (1)3413_011 (1)3780_010 (1)3780_012 (1)4520_004 (1)4520_005 (1)4840_5 (1)7889_34 (1)7889_36 (1)9949_011 (1)Modern Antiquity? (1)Bild014_Neg.Nr.15A (1)
Bild022_Neg.Nr.23A (1)

Analogue – Panorama

One analogue camera by Lomography I especially like is the Sprocket Rocket, a panoramic camera that also exposes the sprocket holes of the film which I think gives the panoramas a very distinctive look.
fotos-27 (1)scan108 (1)scan138 (1)
scan109 (1)

Macro

2011 was another Macro year for me. I was able to go to the botanical garden in Frankfurt several times throughout the year and even got to visit the botanical garden in Zurich (switzerland) for an afternoon.
The last small image was done with my iPhone – which I find really incredible.
Burst of Color (1)Growing Bananas (1)IMG_6448 (1)IMG_7209 (1)IMG_7219 (1)IMG_7324 (1)IMG_7385 (1)IMG_7457 (1)Palmengarten 1 (1)Palmengarten 10 (1)Palmengarten 20 (1)Palmengarten 371 (1)Palmengarten 376 (1)Frozen (1)
IMG_7437 (1)

Animals

The last few years I took a lot of animal photographs, this year I was only to visit the zoo in Frankfurt once and no other zoo, so I didn’t take that many animal pictures. But still I got some that I really like, with the frogs being my favorite since it is so hard to get a good picture of frogs in a zoo.
IMG_6847 (1)IMG_6999 (1)IMG_7115 (1)IMG_7151 (1)
IMG_7093 (1)

HDR

2010 was my big HDR year. This year was no different, I took a lot of HDR images but I didn’t get to go on vacation, so I took less city & architecture shots where I would usually do HDR images. So all of the images this year are from Germany and are day trips – or photo walks. I still enjoy then a lot though!
IMG_7474_HDR (1)IMG_7513_HDR (1)IMG_7877_HDR (1)IMG_7962_HDR (1)IMG_8071_HDR (1)IMG_8340_HDR (1)IMG_8509-8512 (1)
IMG_7532_HDR (1)

The Best Image of the Year?

I have to be honest, I cannot say. To me no image really stood out this year that I go back to again and again. I really like all of these images but there are none that I could single out. What do you think? Which one was my best?

HDR at night. More work, awesome results

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Last weekend I went on a photo walk with Gaensler, who lives about a half hour drive from where I live and who is also shooting a lot of HDR photos (be sure to check them out!). We decided to go on a tour of my home town which already has the christmas lights up. So we met up in the afternoon but continued shooting into the night when the lights came on and still I tried my hand at HDR. At night it is a bit more work to get good HDR shots (for one, you have to hold the camera steady longer) but also because noise can become a huge issue in post-processing.

Here is an example of this and some tips on what you should keep an eye on in processing the image. First, the source images:
-2normal exposure+2

As you can see, the normal exposure (middle) has the lights pretty good but the whole tree is too dark, you simply cannot really see it. The overexposed has a beautifully lit up tree but the lights are too bright and have lost all definition, so HDR is the way to go to balance these two.
When I am out shooting a bunch of HDR photos, I always use the batch function of photomatix to make a HDR of each threesome to get a first visual clue about which images have potential. I used the same preset I always used, but it is not usable for night captures, as this photo clearly shows:
Noise? I don't know what you mean...
As you can see, all you can see is noise. I have no idea why photomatix always tries to make the image so much lighter than the source material is (because really, even the over-exposed is not as bright). What you can see clearly here is noise and blown-out lights in the tree. Even the whole tree is too bright, imo.
With night time images you have to look at each one individually and make the processing based on the amount of light you have and the subject you captured, because that will have a lot of impact on how much light you want to have for the background and the main subject.
I decided to make two different versions, one in photomatix and one in HDR efex pro because I am still not sure which one I like better for night-time HDR pictures.
Photomatix zoomHDR Efex Pro zoom
The one on the left is done in Photomatix, I made it relatively dark to make the lights stand out better in the tree and so that the illumination really comes from the tree – I especially like how the light looks in the tree. The one on the right is done in HDR Efex Pro and I decided on a bit more exposure for this one, the lights are not as distinguishable but I’m enjoying the blue sky as a backdrop for the tree.
As you can see though, both don’t have super noticeable noise (non have been de-noised yet) or have noticeable halos or color shifts in the sky, which is also a problem you can run into when you look at night-time HDR. If you get one or both, start over, it is easier that way than to get it back under control.

Results of Blog Project: Best of 2010

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Yesterday the results for the „Best of 2010“ Blog Project were published by Jim and I thought I’d share them here with you, too, like I did last year. Enjoy!

Best Photos of 2010 blog project Results

via JMG-Galleries and Borrowlenses.com Lens Rentals

  1. Best Photos of 2010 by Jim M. Goldstein – JMG-Galleries

  2. Best Photos of 2010 by Matthias Wassermann – Mawpix.com

  3. Exploring Light -Top Photos 2010 – Chris Moore

  4. My Top Ten Photos for 2010 – Tom Varden

  5. My Top Ten Photos of 2010 | Craig’s Musings – Craig Vitter

  6. Top 10 Photos for 2010 | Dobson Central – Ken Dobson

  7. Best Photos of 2010 – Carol Bauer

  8. My Best photos from 2010 – Janis Janums

  9. My Best Photos of 2010 – David Daylor | SixtyOneNorth.com

  10. 2010 – Year In Review – Jon McCormack Photography – Jon McCormack

  11. S Zacharias: Best of 2010 – Stephen Zacharias

  12. 2010 Photos – David Hernandez

  13. Iceman Photography – Top 10 in 2010

  14. Best of 2010 – Dave Wilson

  15. Skolai Images – Bears of 2010 – Carl Donohue

  16. My Best Photos From 2010 – Art Kuntz

  17. 2010 in Review – Jay Goodrich

  18. My Favourite Images of 2010 – Sven Seebeck ***

  19. Lunchisoptional: Favorites of Year: 2010 Edition — Ken Trout

  20. My ten favorite photos of 2010 – Stefan Bäurle

  21. Top 10 of 2010 – Behind The Clicks – Mohammad Noman

  22. Top Ten Photos Of 2010 – Jed Link

  23. 2010 in Review – kRiZ cPEc Photo Blog

  24. Chuqui.com- Best Photos 2010 – Chuq Von Rospach

  25. My Favorite Photos of 2010 – Ed Rosack

  26. 2010 Favorites – Pat Ulrich | Pat Ulrich Photography ***

  27. Favorites of 2010 – Kevin Moore

  28. Top 10 of 2010 from BlazingB Photography – Bill Pennington ***

  29. My Favorite Photos of 2010 – Mike Criss ***

  30. My faves from 2010 – Matt Smith

  31. My favourite shots of 2010 – Catalin Marin | Momentary Awe ***

  32. 2010 a Year in Review, My Top 10 Memorable/Favorite shots – Mike Criswell

  33. Craig Ferguson Images – A Year In Photos – Craig Ferguson

  34. Top 50 Images from 2010 and Goal Setting – Mike Cavaroc

  35. Jim’s Photography – Jim Wheeler

  36. Sharpimage.net – The best of 2010 – David Sharp

  37. StephenWeaver Photography/Earth Systems Imaging-Stephen G. Weaver

  38. Best of 2010 – Changing Perspectives – Jenni Brehm

  39. katzekotz.de – best of 2010 – Thomas Kneppeck

  40. 2010 Favorite Images – Alpenglow Images – Greg Russell

  41. Best Images of 2010 – Peter Cox Photography – Peter Cox

  42. Best of 2010| Simon Says – Simon Ponder

  43. My Favorites Shots of 2010 – Fine Art Prints – Jeff Colburn

  44. Mountain and Climbing Photography – Alexandre Buisse

  45. Siam In Contrast 2010 – Adrian Young

  46. Olivier Du Tré | 2010 in review (black and white) | 2010 in review (colour)– Olivier Du Tré

  47. John Dunne Photography | My Top 10 Favourite Images of 2010 – John Dunne

  48. Best of 2010 Flickr Set – Tony Rath

  49. Top 10 from 2010 – Behind-the-lens-lukey – Luke Weymark

  50. Evan Gearing Photography’s Top 10 of 2010 – Evan Gearing

  51. 2010 Photos in Review: Water – Rebecca R Jackrel ***

  52. Justin Korn [dot] com – Best of 2010 – Justin Korn

  53. My Best Photos of 2010: Learning and Growing> – D. Travis North

  54. Uncommon Depth – Roberta Murray

  55. Organic Light Photography Best of 2010 – Youssef Ismail / Organic Light Photography

  56. The Best of 2010 – blackandwhite.ie – Neil McShane

  57. My Best of 2010 – Larry Rosenstein

  58. Will Wohler Photography: 2010 A Year in Review – Will Wohler

  59. digitizedchaos – best of 2010 – rian castillo

  60. My Top 10 from 2010 – Chaz Curry Photography ***

  61. My best underwater photos 2010 – Suzy Walker ***

  62. Favorite Photographs From 2010 – Fine Art Landscape Photography of Seung Kye Lee ***

  63. Best photos from 2010 – Amanda Herbert

  64. Wrapping Up 2010: My Favorite Photographs – Ivan Makarov Photography

  65. Graf Nature Photography | Reflections on 2010 photographs – MARK GRAF

  66. VACANT SHOP IN DOWNTOWN SANTA BARBARA – G. Kaltenbrun

  67. Pat O’Brien Photography – A Look Back at 2010 – Pat O’Brien

  68. G Dan Mitchell – 2010 Favorites – G Dan Mitchell ***

  69. Favorite Photo of 2010 – Naturalvision-photo.com –Derek Griggs

  70. Crest, Cliff & Canyon – Jackson Frishman

  71. 2010 In Review - Photoimagery.net – Peter McCabe ***

  72. Favorite Photos from 2010 – In the Field Photo Blog – Richard Wong ***

  73. Year in Review Best Photos of 2010 – Matt Graham Photo Blog – Matt Graham

  74. Elizabeth Brown Photography PhotoBlog: Ten Favorite Photos of 2010 – Elizabeth Brown

  75. My Top Photos of 2010 – Jonesblog – Bryan William Jones

  76. latoga photograph: My Favorite Photos of 2010 – Greg A. Lato

  77. Best of 2010 Images – Rob Tilley

  78. Living Wilderness: 12 Best from 2010 – Kevin Ebi ***

  79. Highlights of 2010 - TO KNOW MORE WEB JOURNAL – KENT MEARIG ***

  80. My Best Photos of 2010 – Michael Russell | Michael Russell Photography

  81. Best Photographs of 2010 – Chuck Goolsbee

  82. Favourite Photos from 2010 – Tim Smalley

  83. My Best 10 Photos 2010 – A Reconnection to Nature – Mark Fenwick

  84. Best of 2010 – Quotidian Photography – Jessica Sweeney

  85. My Top Images of 2010 – ANDREW KEE

  86. A Photo A Day… Done! – WelliverPhotography – Beth Welliver

  87. Batsto Village – Louis Dallara Photo Blog – Louis Dallara

  88. Best 10 of 2010 – John Wall’s Natural California ***

  89. 10 from 2010 on the Ann-alog – Ann Torrence ***

  90. Favorite Photos from 2010 – My Photo Blog – Ron Niebrugge ***

  91. My favorite photos 2010 on Flickr – Markus Heinisch ***

  92. My best photos of 2010 – Mike Hellers

  93. Dave Reichert’s Best Of 2010 – Dave Reichert

  94. Photographs: 2010 Revisited – Joseph Szymanski

  95. Best Pics 2010 on Flickr – Michael Rubin

  96. My 10 Best Shots of 2010 – ROBIN BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY – ROBIN BLACK

  97. Top 10 from 2010 – Anne McKinnell

  98. Vanilla Days – Best of 2010 – Pete Carr

  99. Top Photos of 2010 – Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images ***

  100. Top Images from 2010 – Russ Bishop | Nature Photo Blog

  101. Favourite photos from 2010 – Bryn Tassell ***

  102. 10 Best Photos of 2010 by Scott Thompson – Scott Thompson

  103. My Top 10 photos of 2010 – Alexander S. Kunz ***

  104. My 10 Best for 2010 – Dan Baumbach ***

  105. Unified Photography – Best Photos of 2010 – Ken Snyder

  106. 5 From 2010 – Contemporary Wildlife Photography – David Lloyd

  107. Top 10 Photos of 2010 – Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

  108. 2010 Top Ten Photos – Andrew S Gibson

  109. 2010 Reflections – Dru Stefan Stone – Dru-Color My World

  110. Best of 2010 – Dave Hammaker

  111. Top 20 of 2010 – Jenna Stirling

  112. LandLopers.com Top Travel Photos of 2010 – Matt Long

  113. Best of 2010 – Stephen Davey

  114. Landscape Photography Blogger My Favorite Photos of 2010 – David Leland Hyde ***

  115. Views Infinitum – Best of 2010 – Scott Thomas

  116. One Per Trip – Favorite Travel Photos From 2010 - The Carey Adventures – PETER WEST CAREY

  117. Best of 2010 – I Love It, SF – Kara Murphy

  118. My top 10 pictures from 2010 – Duffy Knox

  119. Burrard-Lucas Photography – Will & Matt Burrard-Lucas ***

  120. Hank Christensen Photography Top 10 2010 – Hank Christensen

  121. My Best Photos from 2010 – 365-1/4 Sra

  122. Top Ten Images of 2010 – Michael Frye ***

  123. Jono Hey’s Best of 2010 on Flickr – JONO HEY

  124. My Favorite Photographs from 2010 – Stories From Home –David Patterson ***

  125. My 2010 Best Images of California and Arizona – Steve Sieren ***

  126. My Top 10 Landscapes of 2010 – Andre Leopold

  127. Best of 2010 set on Flickr – Erik Turner

  128. This was 2010 on Flickr – Jeffrey Van Daele

  129. Top 10 of 2010 – Brian Mangano

  130. Best Photos of 2010 - KBTImages – Kevin Thornhill

  131. Best Photos of 2010 – The Sun Shines & The Igloo Melts

  132. Top 10 of 2010 – Chad Griggs

  133. Best Photos of 2010 – WASEEF AKHTAR

  134. My Favorite Images from 2010 – Outdoor Exposure Photography by Sean Bagshaw – Sean Bagshaw ***

  135. My Best Shots of 2010 – Annika Ruohonen Photography – Annika Ruohonen

  136. Top sights from 2010 – Mariana Travieso Bassi

  137. Year 2010 in Korwel Photography – Iza Korwel

  138. WISCONSIN SUMMER – Jarrod Erbe

  139. Best Photos of 2010 – Jim Stamates

  140. Top 10 of 2010 – Younes Bounhar

  141. Light on the Landscape Photoblog/My Favorite Images of 2010 – WILLIAM NEILL ***

  142. My Best Photos of 2010 – Itsa a greyt day for a photo – Terri Jacobson

  143. Listening to Nature Photography Blog by Rhoda Maurer – RHODA MAURER ***

  144. My favorites of 2010 – David Richter

  145. Best of 2010 – View from the Little Red Tent – Edie Howe

  146. tmophoto best of 2010 – Thomas O’Brien

  147. Best Photos Of 2010 – Dawnstar Australis – Daniel McNamara

  148. Top 10 of 2010 - Cranial Aperture – Jeffrey Yen

  149. 10 Best Favorites of 2010 – Sudheendra Kadri ***

  150. Flickr – Best of 2010 – Chris Arts

  151. Flickr: Best of 2010 – Heidi Donat

  152. Best Photo of 2010 – Anton Huo

  153. Best of 2010 – Travel & Landscape – Eugene Cheng

  154. Preetalina Photography: 2010 Favorites – Preeti Desai

  155. Hidden Light Photography 2010 Favorites – Alan Williams

  156. 5Mae 2010 Favourites Flickr Set – Sarah-Mae

  157. Best Photos of 2010 – John Fujimagari ***

  158. Best of 2010 – Paavani Bishnoi

  159. Best Photos of 2010 - Phil Colla ***

  160. 100 Favorites from 2010 – Patrick J. Endres ***

  161. Top Ten Of 2010 – Steve Cole Photography

  162. Some of My Favorite Images From 2010 – Clark Crenshaw Photography***

Best of 2010

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Another year has come and gone and it’s time to for another look back at the photos I have taken in the last year. Like last year Jim is doing a Blog Project called „Best of 2010“ in which I want to participate again (My entry last year).

As last year I could not decide on one best photo – especially since I took so many photographs, both at home and during my Roadtrip last summer (for which I still have not wirtten a blog post…). So like last year, I will have several categories in which I will show you my best photos. My favorite for each categorie is larger than the rest – you can see larger versions of all of them by clicking on an image.

Macro

Macro photography has been one of my favorite topics for years now but this year I did not have much time to go to a botanical garden or to spend time shooting in our own garden but still I got some new images I really liked. The thing for me with Macro shots is that I have become very, very picky in my images, since photos can be very similar some times – I’m looking more and more for the unusual than for simple depictions of the flowers.

IMG_0534IMG_2013IMG_2512IMG_4691IMG_5728IMG_5804IMG_5816On the tipSpring Awakening
Untitled

Insects

Years ago, I wrote a blog post about how hard it is to get a good shot of an insect – it still is but I am getting better and got lots of practice this year with three visits to butterfly gardens.
Hiding in plain sightIMG_2519IMG_2553IMG_3838IMG_4488IMG_4512IMG_5795IMG_5828IMG_6026
IMG_4363

Animals

I only visited two zoos in 2010, which is almost nothing for me but I got some pretty pictures (I think) – as with the flower Macros I was looking a bit more for the unusual than in the last years.
IMG_4312IMG_5181 - Arbeitskopie 2IMG_5208IMG_5273IMG_5274Schusch
IMG_5337

HDR

Okay, I’ll admit it, I was obsessed with HDRs this year – this was heightened even more with the new versions of Photomatix and HDR Efex Pro, which gives my HDR shots a lot more different looks. I used HDR mainly when I was on vacation, so the photos in this category were taken in the USA (Atlanta, New Orleans, Columbus, MS, Natchez, MS, Vicksburg, MS) and in Germany (Meersburg, Konstanz, Dreieich, Frankfurt). And yes, this is a best of and not all pictures I did take – I just had a hard time deciding, since a lot of memories are connected to these images.

At the lakeCathedral in the sunEnter the Time MachineGuard DogIMG_0611_2_3_tonemappedIMG_0658_9_7_tonemappedIMG_1927_HDRIMG_2056_HDRIMG_2068_HDRIMG_2745 - Arbeitskopie 2IMG_2756_HDRIMG_3196IMG_3216_7_8EnhancerIMG_3234_5_6EnhancerIMG_3344_5_6EnhancerIMG_4806_7_8EnhancerIMG_5555_6_7IMG_6067_HDRIMG_6212_HDR_HDRIn a Fairy Tale?Our Bed & Breakfast in Columbus, MSP8295952_3_4_tonemapped - Arbeitskopie 2Painted onVicksburg National Military Park - Illinois Memorial
house-of-voodoo

Miscellaneous

These photos did not fit into any one of the categories – either because they are single exposure photos or because I was experimenting at night.
IMG_0037IMG_4334IMG_4899
IMG_0884

So here they are, my best pictures of 2010. Besides the ones shown, I took a lot of iPhone photos this year (some of which I highlighted in my last post) and started taking photos with a film camera (I got it for christmas, so not much to show yet). So next year there will probably be an even wider range of photo subjects.

Tip: Go back in your Archive

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Revisiting an old image

I took the photo above over 3 years ago – but only published this version on Flickr a few days ago. Why the long wait you ask? Because I decided to re-process it recently. The photo has been one of those that has shown up on my Screen Savers from time to time and I always thought that I need to open it up again and do a different processing, because I never quite liked the original version I did:

It’s one of those photos were you see the potential but when you’ve been editing photos for a while, you also know that it could be way better and jaw-dropping. But with so many new photos taking up my time (I’m still processing those from my summer holiday…), I never went back to this photo. But it was always in the back of my mind, nagging me. So this weekend I decided to search my archive for it and see what I could do with it – it’s not just the fact that my tastes have changed but also that my processing knowledge has grown, as well as the apps I use (at the time I didn’t even know Photomatix existed!).

Like I said, it had been nagging me, so I knew a fair bit about how the final result was supposed to look like (kind of like when sculptures tell you the stone speaks to them or that they have to free that beaver from within that wooden block). I wanted it to be a bit ominous and for both the stone church and the clouds to have more structure to them. For this I knew that an HDR would probably be a great idea – of course I only had the single image but that’s okay, too, at least as long as you have a RAW file (you could do it from a jpg but I wouldn’t advise you to try). For this I fired up HDR Efex Pro, since I also knew that tonemapping was probably not going to be the final touch for the image (though it gave me some great results, too).
In the end I decided on this very dramatic version with some cross-processing applied and a very strong vignette applied, too, so that the clouds would be very dark and oppressing while still being very interesting (to me at least). But it also focusses the attention towards the church, which has a wonderful structured look and seems to almost glow in comparison to the sky.

The learning here is that it pays to go back to your favorite images from a few years ago (I know, you probably won’t like most of them and will cringe while looking at them). Because oftentimes they are worth a second look and a second try at becoming great and one of your all-time favorites!

How about you? Ever went back to an old image and made it something different?

Results with HDR Efex Pro

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Last year I fell in love with Nik Software’s Silver Efex Pro and tried out the Complete Collection of their apps and decided to buy all of them as a Christmas gift to myself. I’ve been using them a lot since then and got really excited when I heard that they were working on an HDR plug-in. Of course, the big question that I asked myself, as I am sure countless others did as well, was: how was it going to compare to Photomatix?
I got an early peek at HDR Efex Pro when Nik offered a webinar showcasing the beta version of the app during the summer. I really liked what I saw, especially since it offers you a huge number of visual presets with a lot more options than Photomatix does. Photomatix is the app you process your HDR in and then go into Photoshop or some other collection of filters to get your final results. This got so out of hand for me in the last few months that I, literally, spent hours perfecting a single photo. Granted, the photo was worth it but when you get home with several hundred photos you like from a summer vacation, there is just no time to spent hours on each individual photo.
Another thing I really got to appreciate is the U Point Technology, which is a faster way for changing settings for just an area in a photo without changing the overall look (similar to masking in Photoshop) – this is especially helpful with an HDR where you are almost bound to have some areas you would like to change a bit (e.g. the clouds).

Something they did not show in the webinar, was their Ghosting Technology and I was therefore really looking forward to seeing what they had done in that area, since I am tired of having to go into Photoshop to somehow rescue people strolling through my images. In the new Photomatix you simply highlight the area you have ghosting to reduce or eliminate it, with HDR Efex you get several options for Ghosting (youtube link) and I was really amazed at the results so far, people really were in one piece and they had a subtle HDR effect applied to them – something you lose with masking in from the original image.


I also enjoy the interface with the presets on the left and all your options on the right. Besides the strength of the tone mapping you also get a drop down with several options for the tonemapping, like sharper details or extra halo reduction, which gives you countless options for the look of your HDR. It also gives you the ability to do some advanced editing like adding a cross-processed look to the photo or going B&W in the app. You can even add a vignette in there (which I think is super handy).

I processed several photos these last few days with the new app, simply to get a feel for the options and I really, really enjoy using it. It’s very different from Photomatix but I like the added options and the ease of use of HDR Efex. I’m suddenly plowing through edits again after spending hours to get a similar result before, which is really great for the number of photos I tend to take.

If you want to try it yourself, there is a 15 day trial available for Aperture, Photoshop CS 5 and Lightroom.

(As always, click any photo to see a larger version)