David Epps Photography: January 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

Blog 4-Raw Image

BYU-I Center. 20" f/8. Tripod.
The process in the picture was the same as any jpeg. I opened it up in camera raw and adjusted the brightness, saturation, clarity, blacks, and everything else. I went next to the levels and adjusted the highlights, light, mids, darks, and shadows. I saved it with a different name. Then I opened it in photoshop and resized it and then saved it as a jpeg.

Blog 4-Edit

Stairs. 1/125 f/2.8
I opened the image in camera raw. I adjusted the brightness, contrast, levels, clarity, saturation, blacks, and fills to my liking. Then I added a small vignette to it. I saved it with a different name as a jpeg. Then opened the .jpeg in photoshop and resized the image.

Blog 4-Panorama

BYU-I Center. 30" f/2.8 ISO 800. Tripod.
I took this panorama in the dark. The only lights on were the green exit lights and tiny red light on the flat screen TV's. I started with the far right picture, then panned my camera left on the tripod and took the center picture, then panned it left again to get the left picture. I opened it up in camera raw and lightened up the image by taking away some shadows and contrast, and then with levels, increased the highlights, mids, and blacks.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Blog 3 Edits

Stairs. I first edited with levels to tweak the blacks and whites. I converted my image to a smart object. Then I chose the Film Grain filter. I tweaked the filter to my liking. I tried many other filters and their options but I didn't like the look they gave me so I just stuck with this one. I saved it as a .psd then as a .jpeg.

Tanae. I first edited the levels to make sure I had a nice solid black for my silhouette. Then I chose an adjustment layer. I chose multiply for my blending type which darkened the picture. I already had Tanae silhouetted before it was darkened but when I used multiply blending, it gave me more color in the sky. Then I used the paint brush with black paint and 20% opacity and lightened up the edges of tanae so she would stand out a little.

Blog 3-Flora and Fauna

Rabbit. 1/21/11 @ 5pm. Sand Dunes. 1/60 f/2.8.

Process: When at the sand dunes we we're walking back to the car from an unsuccessful photo shoot and I ran into the little bunny. I wanted to have the focus be on the tree and all the character that goes with the tree and use the bunny as a highlight. So although I chose the rabbit as my subject, I wanted it to be subtle.

Tree. 1/17/11 @ 2pm. Chester, ID. 1/80 f/11.

I was out driving around with some friends trying to find cool pictures to take when we came along this tree in the middle of a field. It represents the doctrine of The One, as Christ taught us, to leave the ninety and nine and go after the one. I wanted everything in focus, so I used a high f/stop number.

Tree through the Window. 1/17/11 @1pm. Chester, ID. 1/400 f2.8

I found an abandoned house with some friends and like the symbolism of looking through the window into the world. I used a low f/stop because I only wanted the window frame in focus and once again I wanted the tree to be a subtle highlight.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Blog 2-Blend Edit

1/60 f/2.8

Chair. Abandoned house in Teton Pass. I used color burn as my blending mode with 28% opacity.

Dam Panorama. Swan Valley Dam. 1/125 f/13. I used overlay as my blending mode with 66% opacity. This pictures full size without stretching it at all is 20' by 3' so in order to put it online, the quality had to be shot way down.

I started by adjusting the colors and levels under the adjustment panel for each picture. Then once I had each picture how I liked them individually, I started the blending process. I played around with all the blend types and tried different opacities and chose the one I felt best portrayed what I wanted.

Here's a larger rendering for those intrested.

Blog 2-Color Study

Blue Stair. Teton Pass abandoned house. 1/60 f/2.8

Blue Mountain. Swan Valley. 1/500 f/22. I stitched 2 pics together

Dam Panorama. The Dam in Swan Valley. 1/125 f/13. I stitched 5 pics together.

Blue Door. Abandoned house in Teton Pass. 1/160 f/2.8.

I chose to study the color blue in nature and in man made subjects. For a couple of the shots I had a very small aperture which created great depth of field. With the door frame, I got very close to my subject and zoomed in which created a more shallow depth of field compared to the stair photograph where I was completely zoomed out and a few feet away. The two panorama shots were taken with high f-stops so I could have the whole landscape in focus.