"B&W Waterfall"

2012-02-24 "B&W Waterfall"

Category: B&W

Contest Score: 20/27

(this photo later got 3rd place during the year end competition!)

Location: Bridal Veil Falls in Bedford Metroparks (http://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/Main/Bridal-Veil-Falls.aspx)

Camera gear:

- Canon Digital Rebel XT

- Lensbaby Composer with Double Glass Optic (DGO)

- Can't recall if I used any on-camera filters or not

- Handheld

Photo Specs:

Raw Image

Focal Length: 50mm

Aperture: ?

Shutter Speed: 1/250

ISO: 400

Software used:

- Photoshop

- Noise reduction software

Print medium: Matte paper

Lessons learned:

- Learned that the Lensbaby lens wasn't overly accepted by judges in the beginning.  When people see areas with blur, they automatically believe that the photo was taken out of focus... with Lensbaby being a selective focus lens, that isn't actually the case.  Although it appears to be a more accepted lens (or at least recognized) now, it can either help or hinder a photo.  This lens is absolutely not for every subject matter, but when it works, it works well!  Part of the fun is figuring out where it does work.

- Learned that my monitor wasn't in sync with the output images, thus causing me to produce printed images that were darker than on my screen.  Instead of syncing my screen, I just started making the photos much lighter in Photoshop.

"Engulfing Clouds"

2012-02-24 "Engulfing clouds"

Category: Color

Contest Score: 24/27 - Honorable mention

(at least one person received a perfect score this evening)

Location: Somewhere in New York State, taken during a solo road trip through the Adirondack mountains.

Camera gear:

- Canon Digital Rebel XT

- Tamron 17-200mm Telephoto lens

- Cokin graduated Neutral Density filter (I think)...

- Promaster red enhancing filter (but maybe not...)

- possibly a Circular polarizer

- Tripod

Photo Specs:

Raw Image

3-Image HDR (+/- 2 stops)

Focal Length: 47mm

Aperture: f/5.6

Shutter Speed(s): 1/40 , 1/160 (-2) , 1/10 (+2)

ISO: 200

Software used:

- Photoshop

- Photomatix (HDR software)

Lessons learned:

- Learned how to process using HDR without being heavy handed.  I only used it to even out the colors/tones.