Flooding on the St. Croix

I've just returned from a 3200 mile photo-adventure that began at home in Stillwater, stretched into North East Ontario and encircled the Great Lakes. Like every road trip, it's about the journey and not the destination. 

With over 1500 images to edit, let's begin at the beginning. It's the day before our travels and the banks of the St. Croix are still under water.

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Scars from the River -  St. Croix River, MN

Canon 6D + Canon 17-40 f4.0L

More from the road in future posts... cheers,

©2000-2014 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Dreams II

Photographers will often talk about making images versus taking a picture. The former implies intent while the latter glorifies the experience. Vacation and family pics are about the taking, while a portrait session or deliberate landscape is about the making. Here the key word is “deliberate.” 

In digital photography, to make an image, it is important to think about the initial input and the final output. By input, I am referring to image capture whereas output refers to the post-capture manipulation and image sharing. 

The picture at the top was made with a 17-40mm lens set to 26mm at f/16. I used a neutral density filter to reduce the amount of light striking the sensor and thus produced a 16 second exposure. To maintain sharpness, a tripod, mirror lock-up and cable-switch were used to reduce vibration. While I like the photograph produced at the point of capture, it is not the image that I had envisioned at the time it was made. Without further digital-processing, the picture does not meet my original intent.

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Dreams II - Costa Rica

Canon 5D Mark III + Canon 17-40L + Induro CT313 Carbon Fiber Tripod and  BHL3 Pro Ball Head

To finish this image, I adjusted the whites and blacks in my raw processing software (Aperture 3.5) and exported the file into a secondary program called onOne Perfect Photo Suite 8.5. Like the photograph in my previous post (see Dreams 1), I applied a Glow filter from Photo-Effects within the Perfect Photo Suite package. I chose to use the Deep Forest preset on the original image. The application of this filter darkened the blacks and softened the highlights. Because the effect is so strong, I used the layer settings to back off the filtration by 50% and then blended the processed photograph with the original. To finish the photo I wanted to emphasize the mystery of a dark jungle and the kaleidoscope of color lurking in the shadows. To do this, I boosted the reds by saturating the image. 

The final photograph is a construct rather than a photojournalistic representation of reality. It is an expression of my interpretation of my experience. 

©2000-2014 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Dreams I

In my previous post I was lamenting Apple's decision to terminate the development of their "Photo Asset Management" program known as Aperture. To underscore the importance of software to the digital photographer, I have decided to write a series of short articles where I will describe the nuance of taking and processing a photograph. The overarching theme for each picture will be dreams. I decided to structure these posts in this manner as way to stress what most photographers already know, a photograph is anything but a depiction of reality. Specifically, the non-arbitrary decision to include or omit an element from a composition is a form of extracting or adding to the reality of the moment. Furthermore, by choosing a specific lens, shutter speed or lens aperture, the photographer is defining what the viewer should or should not see.

Today's image was made where three rivers meet at Finca la Anita. Photographed early in the morning to take advantage of low angled light rays and minimize contrasty highlights, I was seeking to capture the essence of the jungle experience. I positioned my tripod as low as it would go, adjusted the zoom to 23mm and set my aperture at f/16. I used a Tiffen 8-stop variable neutral density filter in order to reduce the light that hit the camera sensor. As a result, I was able to create a 16 second exposure that would smooth the water's flow and produce the green silky reflections visible in the river.

At this point, I could have consider the photograph to be complete, as the original image is quite pleasing. However, I wanted to leave the viewer with the sense of mystery and darkness that one often feels during a rainforest hike. It here where post-processing can be the difference maker. The photograph was imported in Aperture 3.5, catalogued and adjusted to balance highlights and shadows. I then exported the picture into a secondary program called OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 8.5. From within the software, I selected the "Effects" tab and chose the filter titled "Glow." With many presets to choose from, I played around with the possibilities and ultimately settled on the filter titled "Change More-Strong." At the first the effect was a bit much for me, so I used the program's layers' window to reduce the opacity of the effect and thus blend the filtered image with my original. 

Clearly, one might have to play with this software to fully understand the steps described, however, herein lies my point. Artistic expression via digital photography requires knowledge of picture making. Inherent in the production of a digital photograph is a two part process: capture with camera + post-process with software. 

Good shooting,...

©2000-2014 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.

Loss

Depending on the source, there are 5 to 7 stages of mourning and grief. For the sake of simplicity, I will focus on the five most oft quoted stages as a way to convey the loss that Apple Inc. has imposed on me, again. First, it is necessary to lay out a very brief background. In 2010 I was faced with a huge decision regarding the management of my photographic library. Specifically, which software package should I purchase and learn… Adobe Lightroom 3.0 or Apple Aperture 3.0? At the time, the decision was not difficult. Aperture 3.0 appeared to be a refined product that was designed to specifically operate within the Mac OS “ecosystem.” The decision to choose one product over the other was not a trivial one. By investing in a file management software application, I was committing myself to learning one set of algorithms and designing a filing system based on the software’s architecture. Four years later, over 100,000 images have been imported into various Aperture 3.5 libraries that are now organized into indexed albums with pictures that have been tagged with stars and flags. Furthermore, Aperture 3.5 has been my raw file processor of choice, and now stores instructions for outputting more than 10,000 images that I deem worthy of publication. The decision I made in 2010 now has huge implications for June 2014 and beyond.

The Loss… On June 27th, Apple Inc. announced the following, “With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, …, there will be no new development of Aperture.” 

Enter the 5 Stages of Grieving

1. Denial… “There is no F’n way that Apple Inc. will terminate the development of Aperture. Sure they screwed me when they dumped AppleWorks for Pages and old Pages for the new lame Pages, but there is no way they would walk away from the professional photographic community!” …Denial, an intrinsic defense mechanism for buffering the shock of a loss. 
2. Anger… “WTF!” They say this is natural and that it will eventually fade. While the anger is dissipating, I’m not sure that my trust will be so easily earned in the future.
3. Bargaining… “Maybe Apple Inc. will rethink the decision to terminate Aperture. Better yet, is it possible that the new software will be better than the predecessor?” Here, bargaining is an attempt to regain control… [As a side note, Apple’s new Photo’s program promises to be an improvement on iPhoto, but Apple has clearly stated that its overall functionality will not be as sophisticated as the current Aperture 3.5 program.)
4. Depression… Been there! This has been a depressing few days dealing with the reality that my investment in Aperture 3.x now seems to have been a futile waste of time and energy. The termination of Aperture will require that I learn a new software package, and rebuild a filing structure for my photo libraries. This loss will translate into a giant time suck and reduction in productivity. While I’m not ready to move back to the world of slide film, the simplicity of those days now looms large in my head.
5. Acceptance… Well I am now climbing this mountain. I have subscribed to Adobe’s Creative Cloud for Photographers , and have been watching a KelbyOne training on “Making the Switch from Aperture to Lightroom”… good for Scott Kelby and his company to capitalize on my (and many other’s) loss. The linked Kelby training is two hours long, explains Lightroom basics, and discusses ways to move Aperture files with EXIF data intact. What’s more, this training session is FREE! Small gestures like this will make me a KelbyOne subscriber in the future.

Call it a reflective rant, but the loss of Aperture is a Big Deal to me. The posted image has been archived and processed through Apple’s Aperture software package, a process that is now as intuitive to me as using my cameras or driving a car. When companies abandon loyal customers in this manner, it tends to have a lasting impact when making future purchasing decisions…

©2000-2014 BTLeventhal.com / Bruce & Tamy Leventhal. All rights reserved. No image on this site may be used without permission.