Creating HDR's with the LensBaby

As many of you might already know I love creating HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. During my trip to the Photo Expo in NYC I meet-up with Craig Strong of LensBabies. We got into a conversation about HDR's and the LensBaby. To my surprise there have not been too many HDR submissions to the LensBaby galleries. Turns out the Craig is finds the HDR process very interesting. Craig would like to see some of my HDR images added to the LensBaby galleries. In the very near future I will be receiving the new Composer lens to work some of my HDR magic.

The image here is a HDR image created from 1 image with a +/- 2 stop exposure created with Photomatix and Lightroom. Traditionally, true HDR images are made from multiple images at different exposures. Since I currently have the LB 2.0 (it's held in focus and tilt by hand) it is very difficult, if not impossible to capture multiple images with this lens. As soon as I receive the new lens I will be creating a complete gallery of HDR images to include cityscapes, subway series, and many different subject matters.

I am very excited about this new project. And, hope that you will be checking back to see the progress on this. As soon as I have a gallery with at least 10 or more LB-HDR's I will be adding a featured gallery to my site.

Mpix Boat Tour

Friday I was lucky enough to spent the day with some really great people from Mpix. Mpix sponsored a boat tour on Manhattan. Fellow Mpix users and fellow forum uses spend Friday morning with Rick Sammon and Carey Schumacher touring around Manhattan on a Water Taxi.

We all had the chance to meet with Rick and Carey and to gain knowledge. As well as share techniques and shooting tips. All in all, I know I walked away with a bunch of useful information as well as some new friends.

I look forward to any opportunity I have to do something like this again.

White Balance and shooting sports

After a few inquires on how I get my image results I decided to post a brief summary of my post processing.

I take a test shot of the WhiBal card and it looks like this. I take this image at the iso I am going to be shooting at and set my camera to "P"

For this image the is camera set to AWB and says the temperature is 4800°K. I use the white balance picker in LightRoom and pick anywhere on the card.

This is how the image looks after the WB is set. This is corrected to 3300°K





Then, I set my camera to the readings from the light meter, but I add 2 full stops to obtain 1/500th of a second for my shutter speed. I use the Sekonic L-358, it has a module that will fire the strobes via pocket wizards. It is a very popular meter.

My meter reading for an iso setting of 400 is then taken from out on the ice, and I come up with 1/125th of a second @ f/2.8. from there I shoot 2 stops under exposed and set my camera to 1/500th @ f/2.8

This shot is straight out of the camera.







After setting my WB using the the adjustments from the WhiBal test shot. and adding the ~2 stops back into the image I adjust the image as needed. The full list of adjustment are made in LightRoom and are:

Exposure: +2.25
Recovery: 15
Fill Light: 10
Blacks: 5
Brightness: +80
Contract: +30
Clarity: +14
Vibrance: +10
Saturation: +5
Highlights: -19
Sharpening: 40
Noise Reduction
Luminance: 10
Color: 25

Testing the backboard cam

Well the way I see it is if your gonna do a test session why not test with the pros. This will be my first season using the backboard cam so I took advantage of a NY Knicks practice session held at Pace University in Pleasantville today. As in the past I have tried to get 1 or 2 test prior to the beginning of the season, and basketball is right around the corner.

This is a busy couple of weeks coming up with the winter sports starting, and the fall sports winding down. All in all I got some pretty good results with the backboard cam. I have a few adjustments to make and some parts to order. The parts are due to user error on my part setting up my remote cam in a hockey game last night. I should have the parts replaced in plenty of time to be up and running by the start of bball.

Look for the new basketball and hockey images to be posted with-in 24 hours after the event.

I love shooting from catwalks

I had a request to post a picture from my position up on the catwalk. This is looking down the walk, down the lenght of the catwalk. This is 1 of 5 catwalks in this building, it is all the way at the top of the building. I would say it is around 100 feet up, dead center of the building.







This is one of the shots I got from this location. I liked the lower catwalk I shot from last volleyball game in this building. Although it is considerably tighter, both less head room and narrower. From this location I took up my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens. I got maybe 5-6 usable images, less than I would have from the lower walk.

Goal-Cam up and running

Well the goal-cam got it's first "GAME" use. It was a scrimmage but, basically game situation. I am please with the results I got today.

I was running late due to a volleyball tournament I was shooting out in Garden City. So, I didn't get there till the 3rd period. I had about 3 minutes to get everything set-up and all my settings. dueing 1 period of play there was 143 shots taken with the camera and I wound up with 27 keepers. I think that is really acceptable results.

The next game is on Saturday were I will be there in plenty of time to set-up everything and hopefully will have even better results.

The one thing that conserns me is the battery and it being mounted only 6 inches above the ice. I might try some pocket hand warmers in the housing.

2008-09 Army Hockey Media guide chock full of images from CSI

The 2008-09 Hockey Media guide is out. And it is loaded up with images from CSI: Photo. I'll have to pick up my copy this Saturday and check it out for myself. Go Army.

Football getting bumped

Well I got another call from Stonehill College in Easton, MA today. This call was for Volleyball. Initially I had a hockey scrimmage @ 10 and football @ 1pm @ West Point. I am looking forward to the hockey scrimmage so I can get my in-goal camera some "game" time. prior to the start of the season. Well, wouldn't you know the SID from West Point called today and let me know the scrimmage is @ 5pm.

So, I booked the volleyball for Stonehill College. They have a double header at Adelphia University in Garden City, NY First game is @ 1 against Adelphi and the second is @ 3 against Malloy College... I think I can make it to West Point for at least the second period. This is 1 final test of the in-goal camera housing before the season gets under way. First real game is October 18th.

Ref's, Ump's & Officials

I had a conversation with a football ref today. He asked me if I every take pictures of any of the refs. I said, "not if I can avoid it." LOL

But, anyway, he ask if I could take a few of the crew today. He said that they all have really big ego's (his words not mine) and are always looking to buy photos of themselves. So naturally, I told him I would. After going through some of the images I captured today I decided to add a featured gallery to my site today. So, if you wanna see more Ref's, Ump's & Officials let me know.

Calling it.... Yep you guessed it
Ref's, Ump's & Officials.

A view from the catwalk

I don't think there is any better place to photograph sporting events from other than up on the catwalks. I think it gets you a whole different perspective to the game. I tend to spend quite a bit of time up on those things. But, the shots you can come up with!!

Last year 1 of my hockey shots wound-up in USA Hockey Magazine. You can see the image and article bay clicking on the published links to your right.

You can view complete game images in my new storefront.

Off to Iona again on Saturday

I was suppose to do another volleyball game @ West Point on Saturday. But, I received a call late Friday afternoon, from Stonehill College in Easton, MA. They are playing Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. I photographed a game Stonehill had a few weeks ago versus Pace University. I came up with this image. And a few others. Look for these images to be in the gallery sometime Saturday evening.

NEW Storefront

I have changed my storefront and will now be adding all images from upcoming events HERE

Until I have a chance to reload past events on to the new storefront they will still be available HERE

Please bear with me during this change over. This new storefront will soon have many new choices for your favorite images.

Next Up - Volleyball

I will be at West Point tomorrow for some Volleyball. The Lady Knights are hosting Bucknell University. This event will be at Gillis Field House. You may expect to see images posted on my new storefront sometime Friday night.