Utah State Capitol - Before / After Lightroom

I love Adobe Lightroom and use it on all of my images. But most of the images I produce are probably closer to straight out of the camera with small tweaks rather than highly modified representations of the image.

Well, tonight I was playing around a little bit with the gradient adjustment layer in Lightroom and thought I'd show off the results of a before/after edit session. It's still nothing too fancy, but it's certainly different from the original:



Both of the above images are from a single raw image processed by Lightroom. The one on the left is just a standard conversion of the capture. The one on the right contains a few more tweaks:

- A couple of gradients were used to lighten the center and darken the top and bottom.

- Another gradient adds some blue to the sky

- Yet another gradient adds some yellow to center of the image (from the capitol building on down)

- While the first includes some Clarity and Saturation, the second uses a lot more Clarity and a little more Saturation.

The images were then brought into photoshop to resize and place them side by side.

Whatdya think? Do you prefer the more hazy picture on the left? Or the brighter, more well defined picture on the right?

LDS Draper Utah Temple at Sunrise

Two nights ago I visited the LDS (Mormon) Draper Utah Temple and took pictures at night. While I liked the pictures, I really missed having something, anything at all, up in the sky. So I returned back to the temple this morning, just before sunrise, and took these pictures:



















More pictures of the Draper Utah Temple.
Pictures of other LDS Temples.

LDS Draper Utah Temple

I had a chance to drive up to the LDS (Mormon) Draper Utah Temple this evening and take a few pictures. It was pitch black outside, perhaps not the most ideal time for picture taking. But I'll be sure to return for more pictures later. In the mean time, check out the ones I got:













Future images of the Draper Temple (and others) will be available on my website here:
LDS Temples

Working with a model - Shona Barnthouse

Standard portraiture from the point of the photographer, often involves providing a lot of direction ... look this way, chin up, face towards me, hands in your lap, etc. But working with a model, especially an experienced model, can be relaxing and often is just downright fun! The main difference being that both of you have some concept as to what is involved in "creating the image".

I recently had the privilege of working with a model. While her needs for this photo shoot were simple (nothing more than a head shot or two), we still had a bit of fun playing with a couple of different styles. Below is a collage of several of the head shots we came up with during this session:

Blowing a kiss

One of my favorite images from the photo shoot the other day is somewhat abstract in that the model's face is not in focus. Instead, the tips of her fingers as she was blowing a kiss were what I focused on. And using f/3.5 at that close range meant that very little was in focus beyond the tips of her fingers.

For this image, I used a Canon 580EX II on camera as master (but not contributing to the exposure). Another 580EX II on a light stand with an umbrella on it as my main light. And a third 580EX II with a green gel on it pointing at a white background.

Canon 5D Mark II plus Canon 85mm 1.2L Lens

Wow... what a combo!

I picked up the Canon 85mm 1.2L lens the other day. Yesterday was my first real chance to use it. And I must say... what a combo the 5D Mark II with it's 21mp resolution and the Canon 85mm 1.2L lens make. Just take a look at this image and the 100% crop below it and draw your own conclusions:


(21mp image - reduced size to fit here)


(100% crop)

All I can say is ... I'm in love with this combo. I've never had or played with a sharper lens.