Date of the post? February 15, 2011. Date of the photograph? August 14, 2008.
I was just a child.
Camera? D80. Lens? Some kit lens. Major software? Elements and Photomatix. Philosophy? Luck. I had a Nikon and I was on a roll.
As this is a blog of my photographic journey, my self imposed rules forbid me to delete any post. The paying job will keep me up late tonight - way into the hours of Sunday morning. So to pass some time, drifted back through the early day of the blog. The cameras, the processing and stuff I was proud to post.
FYI - This image was added by a link to somewhere deep in Google. Not sure if I'm impressed or scared.
Fortunately, I was shooting RAW at this time. The fact I was shooting RAW should not be inferred to that I knew what I was doing at the time. This may not be far from the truth that I didn't like what the JPG output looked like. So it was RAW. There was a time when I bounced back and forth between RAW and JPG. Lucky for me, at this time I was shooting RAW. This allows me to revisit the file.
This photo does have meaning for me. I thought it was just another travel photo. In the early days, my (over) use of HDR was not a favorite of the photo club. I get it. One, I was doing it way overboard. Two, it was new and different. But one of the club elders told me this was the best photo I submitted, based on subject. He wasn't a fan of the post processing as much although this shot didn't offend him as most of my efforts had. That meant a lot to me.
The photo was clearly put through Photomatix. My photo processing history system was in its infancy in those days, like all I have is the RAW file and the finished JPG. Space must have been at a premium. Now, I have JPGs of just about all the steps that are not in the PSD file.
This photo was taken while we were on the Covered Bridge Tour, which is a layout of the covered bridges in Somerset County. Looking at all the photos, I could tell my abilities at the time were suspect at best. Seriously, every photo has a blown sky. Every one. HDR saved this sky. Seriously, every photo.
So, can today's software save yesteryear's errors?
I didn't want to use HDR on this one, because it's not in my normal workflow these days. These days, it is mostly PS with some assists to Topaz DeNoise and Sharpen. If I wanted to take this project any father than the blog, I'd replace the sky. But for this exercise, I was able to get some definition out of the file. And I'll crop most of the sky out.
CSX Engine - 2008
NIKON D80/18.0-135.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
75 mm, 1/200 sec, f/5.6, ISO 125
The rail bed is much easier on the eyes.
This was fun. The journey - Defined.
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