Lake Panorama National GC - Dusk Patrol

Over the past few months, I have been able to capture images of Lake Panorama National Golf Course underneath the glowing sun as it sets over Lake Panorama. I was able to get these images by either looking out the pro shop window or while out golfing and having my camera close by when the conditions were right for great sunlight.

The D90 was fitted with the 18-105mm lense for all these images and all were shot in aperture priority mode. I ranged the aperture from f7.1 to f13 depending on the type of depth of field I wanted for the particular shot. ISO was set at 400 and I adjusted the exposure compensation as well as using the exposure bracketing feature on the camera. This allowed me to have a wide range of different exposures to capture the scene on the golf course. The SB-700 was also used to put extra light on the flag when I was on hole #12.

In ViewNX I adjusted the RAW files by changing the key settings such as white balance and picture control. Underneath the white balance, I used the direct sunlight, shade or high color rendering fluorescent setting which changed the main color of the image. For picture control settings, I used the different custom controls that I have created in ViewNX: nature landscape, golf course and custom sunrise gc. These picture control’s have different tonal curves that adjust the image a particular way. Because I wanted to do some HDR images as well, I would adjust the exposure compensation on certain images and then make multiply copies of the image at different EC’s to input later into a HDR program.

I transferred the files into PSE8 were I used the clone and healing brush tools to get rid of unwanted objects in the images. Bunker rakes, cart signs and other objects were taken care of using those tools. I also straightened a few of the images to make sure the flag stick was perfectly straight. EasyHDR was called upon to create the HDR images which allowed me to combine three to five different exposed images into one. This created a different look to some of the images that had a lot of dynamic range allowing the highlights and shadows to be saved.

With the golfing season only about half over, I hope there is still plenty of time to capture more images of Lake Panorama National Golf Course.

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Memorial Day at Iowa Veterans Cemetery

This past Memorial Day, I was honored to have visited the Iowa Veterans Cemetery in Van Meter. On a clear blue sky day, the red, white and blue flags on every tombstone glowed brightly honoring those who have served this nation.

 As I walked around the cemetery, I carried my D90 to capture the scene that every American should see during Memorial Day weekend.  On this day, I only used the Nikon 18-105mm lense but used different angles by either getting really low or high with my camera. I choose to shoot in AV mode with f7.1 to f11 being my settings with an ISO of 200 or 400. Because of the bright conditions, I bracketed my exposures which allowed more adjustments in post processing.

ViewNX was used to make adjustments of the RAW files on my computer. Because of the bracketed exposures, I adjusted the exposure compensation if needed. The white balance was changed to direct sunlight and picture control was set at nature landscape. Shadows and highlight sliders were adjusted as well if needed.

In PSE8, I stepped up the post processing by combining different black and white images with colored images to showcase the red, white and blue colors of Memorial Day. Layer masks and the paint brush were used to mask out areas that I didn’t want affected by the color changes. The cloning tool was used to clone out unwanted items in the images as well.

My favorite image of this collection was created by combining two different images into one by the use of layer masks and blending modes. I first outlined the eagle and then brought in the background image by changing the blend mode to overlay into the same image as the eagle. I had already used layer masks and a WWII black/white filter to change the background image. Combining the two created a very strong image.

Thank you to all the men and women who have served this nation.

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Daffodils in the Light of the SB-700

With the unusually warm spring, the flowers this spring started to bloom very early which affected my timing of taking photographs of them. It seemed like the wind was always too strong so I used this opportunity to take the flowers inside and shoot them in my basement using a flash.

I fastened the D90 to my Slik tripod to keep the camera steady and allow me to focus sharply on the daffodils. To get different perspectives of the flowers, I used the Nikon 18-105mm and 70-300mm lense along with the Sigma 50-150mm lense with Zeiko’s marco extension tubes. Shooting in RAW, I kept the ISO at 200 and used an aperture of f11 or f22 with manual focus.

The Nikon Speedlight SB-700 was set to manual mode which allowed me to adjust the flash power level to my liking to make the daffodil’s glow in the darkness. By moving the flash around, I was able to light up the flowers in a different ways along with the vase that the flowers were sitting in.

I processed the RAW files in ViewNX by changing the white balance to direct sunlight or incandescent if needed to adjust the color of the daffodils. The picture control was changed to either nature landscape or my new curve, golf course. To create the black and white images, the picture control was adjusted to MonoChrome curve that I created as well. The sliders on highlights/shadows were also adjusted.

Tiff files were created from the RAW’s and then moved into PSE8 for the final adjustments. I used the cloning tool to get rid of imperfections in the flower petals. With the flower vase visible on a few of the images, I wanted to make that a different color but keep the flowers unaffected. Using layer masks, I was able to bring in a new layer that was black and white and mask out the vase to be visible.

Hopefully this summer, there will be more opportunity to capture beautiful flowers.

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