Even More Shots

A few people asked for additional shots from the Superstition Mountains area... so here ya go. Let me know if you have any favorites from all the shots I've posted from this area.

Comments

[Shad]

I had a question about the post-processing...does it consist mostly of dodging and burning? And by chance, do you have a place where we could see the before and after shots of some of those old trucks and gas stations?

Excellent photos!

[Ben Willmore]

I never "dodge and burn" in a traditional sense... I might apply curves To tweak the brightness/contrast though. Lately, I've been shooting almost 100% High Dynamic Range images where I bracket my exposures and then combine the shots into a single image. There is little or no painting (on masks or anything else). I'll give more details about the process I use in a later post.

-Ben

[LindaJ]

Ben, I really like your current work - your style seems to be evolving and you are producing unique and appealing photographs. I'm looking forward to learning more about the PP techniques you are using, but you obviously have really good shots as a starting point. Of the above photos, "25" is a favorite - great colors. I also like the last shot very much - the composition is great.

I lived in Scottsdale for a couple of years and had great fun exploring Arizona. It is a wonderful state.

Thanks for sharing.

Linda

[Ben Willmore]

LInda,

All of the shots I've been posting would look quite a bit differently if I shot them using traditional techniques. I almost always shoot a -2, 0, +2 bracket and combine them together in Photoshop... If I didn't shoot them that way, then I would never be able to get the shadow detail you see.

For the "25" shot, I spent about 2-3 minutes shifting colors with Hue/Saturation and I selected areas with CS3's Quick Select tool... total amount of time start-to finish, including raw processing was about 5 minutes. I rarely spend more than 10 minutes post processing an image.

-Ben

[Nikon]

shit looks STUPID!