Our Woods

I mentioned a few days ago that when doing the layered effects in Photoshop and PostWorkShop the visual effect was largely lost when the image was sized down for presentation on the web. It is necessary to redo the same procedure on the size I intend to present it othrewise it simply appears to be a slightly fuzzy photo, the result of resizing mushing the pixels together and mangling the texture I had created in my layering process. This image has been processed to be seen at the size you will see if you click on the image above so be sure to check it out at that size.

It uses the same procedure I used on the prior one and I originally did it as a 16X20 print but I redid it to show here. Obviously the details on the 16X20 version and this one don't match exactly but it is closer than simply shrinking the big image. I like the effect of the texture. It looks sort of like a colored engraving to me.

Winds of Autumn

We're having a lot of wind here, both last night and today. I went out this morning and took a few photos including this one  looking across the meadow toward our small piece of woods. In just the couple of hours since shooting the original image the wind has knocked about half the leaves off the yellow/orange tree that is left of center.

It is a bit hard to tell in the small version here, even if you click on it to see it full size, but I have digitally modified it in both Photoshop and PostWorkShop. I used  the Topaz Simply filter in Photoshop to reduce detail and then layered over that  a version that I had modified in PostWorkShop with both watercolor and drawing layers. The full effect is visible on the large file which would print out at least 10"x15" but in reducing the image size for web use much of the effect is lost. To give an idea a cropped detail is below.

I find that when doing a lot of these special effects they only work well when reproduced at the size that the effect was originally applied to. If you shrink or stretch the size the effect loses its visual impact. I like this combination though. The overall visual effect matches what I visualized when I was shooting the photo.

Canon 7d with an 18-135mm EFs lens on a monopod.

Fall Color

Although dull color was forecast because of the dry summer the Adirondacks enjoyed some of the best autumn color I've seen in years, at least in the areas I frequent which are the NW corner of the park and the High Peaks area. I did two day trips in the last week. I'd like to have gotten out daily and covered ore of the park but gas prices are ridiculous so I stuck to areas I was familiar with.

The photo above is a waterfall adjacent the Wilmington Notch NYS Campground. It has no name that I'm aware of and the state does not promote it as It is a relatively dangerous place. The rock you see in the foreground is a point of land sticking out over the river that drops off at least 30 feet on three sides to the rocks and river below. You don't want to fall but it provides the best view of the falls if you can take the adrenaline that comes with standing there. The edge of the rock was only about 3-4 feet in front of me as I shot the two vertical frames that I stitched together to make this image. I've stood closer in the past but I bruised my left shin climbing Indian Pass on my last lean-to cleanup trip and it was still sore so I wasn't feeling steady enough to get too close and I thought the rock made a good foreground anyway (a juicy rationalization?). Whatever, that was as close as I dared get yesterday.

There is an album of 64 Adirondack Autumn photos on my Zenfolio galleries*. They were all made, as this one was, with a Canon 7D. Before anyone asks, yes the colors were that intense. Most have not had any added saturation. I did increase the local contrast with the "Clarity" control in Lightroom on many of them and that does heighten the impression of intensity but for the most part the saturation is what came out of the default conversion from RAW. It almost looks like it was shot with Kodachrome.