The Revisit and Retouch project has finally come to a close. The participation was stellar, and I couldn’t be happier with the results of CaeraPorn’s first blog project. We had 17 solid entries and around 40 voters to decide who the overall winner would be.
The votes have been collected and counted and the winner is (insert drum roll)…
Several weeks back, I posed a challenge to CameraPorn readers. Take an image I dug out of my archives in the form of three bracketed exposures and retouch it into the best final image possible. The “Revisit & Retouch” project was meant to be an exercise in compositing these bracketed exposures into one image, taking details from each, but what it became was an interesting and educational view into the personal style of each of the entrants.
Here’s what everyone started with:
After the jump we have 17 different interpretations and the best part, everyone gets to vote for their favorite image…
For those of you that are familiar with our recent blog project “Revisit and Retouch” you’ll recognize this image. I provided CameraPorn readers with a set of three bracketed exposures to have a go at creating their own unique version by any means necessary. The image above is not only my entry to the project, but also an exercise in retouching that focuses on the common practice of compositing multiple, bracketed exposures to create a final image that better represents the scene as viewed by the human eye… In more ‘technical’ terms, an image with a higher dynamic range.
Before getting into the nitty-gritty of how I came to this final image, it’s important to understand what I mean by “higher dynamic range.” Many of you are probably thinking, oh yeah, he means ‘HDR’ imagery like what you create with a program such as Photomatix and see plastered all over flickr, but you’re wrong. As neato as those images can look, they are rarely executed in a way that brings the final image to appear as the scene actually looked to the human eye, which in my opinion, is where the true value lies in creating higher dynamic range images. Creating a tone-mapped HDR image in an HDR program usually leads to oversaturated, dream-like and haloed images which look pretty cool but can be created by almost anybody with Photomatix and some bracketed images with little to no skill involved in most cases. Now don’t get me wrong there are some incredibly talented HDR ‘artists’ out there whose work amazes me, but the general image you see on flickr looks too fake for my tastes, and besides today we’re talking about using good old Photoshop and Lightroom. To see how I did it and learn a bit more about dynamic range, read on… Continue reading ‘Howto: Create Higher Dynamic Range With Bracketed Exposures’
Well, the entries keep pouring in, and I’m surprised and impressed that each entry has its own unique feel. More entries after the jump…
Continue reading ‘Retouch and Revisit - Entries #6, #7, #8, #9, #10′
The fourth submitted entry for the “Retouch and Revisit” project by Ryan Harvey.
More on this entry, and #4 and #5 after the jump!
Continue reading ‘Retouch and Revisit - #4 and #5: Ryan Harvey and Phill Price’
The second entry for the “Retouch and Revisit” project by Arnoldas Ramonas.
Arnoldas went or a more saturated and colorful look. To view how he did it, click here.
The third entry for the “Retouch and Revisit” project by Tim Grimshaw.
Tim went in a different direction, creating a dark foreboding scene. To view how he did it, click here.
Well folks, we’ve received our first entry into the “Retouch and Revisit” Project and wow I’m impressed. To accompany this wonderful image, Ryan did a VERY thorough blog post on his blog, blog.rrdphoto.com. Great work Ryan D. and awesome blog post explaining how you did it. I’m most impressed with the level of detail in general and especially with what he was able to get out of the rocks as well as the dreamy feel of the whole scene. Awesome work. To check out how he did it and see this image larger, click here.
Remember, the deadline for entries isn’t until January 25th, so there’s still plenty of time to take a stab at it. Click here for entry details.
Recently, I’ve found myself looking at older photos I’ve taken, and giving another stab at retouching them. Why retouch again? Well over the last year, I’ve dedicated a lot of my time educating myself in different methods of retouching and with new tricks up my sleeve I can go back and look at older photos with a more critical eye, to make a better final image. One of my favorite retouching methods is using a series of exposure bracketed images to composite a final image.
The image above happened to be one of my favorites from this process, and I thought to myself, why not include the CameraPorn readership and see what your eyes see to make this image the best it can be. After the great fun I had with the Epic Edits Project, “Editing Brian’s Photo,” I realized that everyone looks at any image differently. Throw in 3 bracketed exposures, and the possibilities could be endless.
Full project details, RAW files, and entry information after the jump…
Continue reading ‘CameraPorn Project #1 - Revisit and Retouch’
Old Cocoa House
Canon 30D : 1/250th : f/4 : 70mm : ISO640 : Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L
As an entry to Jim Goldstein’s most recent blog project, I’ve gone through the painstaking process of trying to pick my 10 Best photos from 2007. Let me tell ya, this was not easy. I am submitting just a bit past the deadline but I hope Jim will still accept my entry. 
It’s funny how happy hour after work on a friday can make a plan to post by midnight a bit foggy. Anyways, I’d love to hear what you guys think of my picks. All the photos after the jump!
From OnTakingPictures via Thomas Hawk, photographer Bill Wadman goes into why he would take a quality lens and cheap camera over expensive camera and cheapie lens in any situation. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve had this conversation with people when they ask me for advice on what camera or lens to buy.
He is pretty much spot on with everything he is saying and this quote about says it all: “I saw a girl with a high-end Gitzo tripod, 5D body, and some crappy consumer level zoom lens on the front. Honestly, I almost pushed her over the edge.” …as you should have! Check it out here.
Found from our friends over at Digg, there’s an excellent post at Lifehacker that you really, really want to read if you own a Canon point an shoot. I won’t spoil everything, but the short of it is that there’s free, non-volatile, hacked firmware that can add tons and tons of useful features (RAW shooting, to top the list) to your kit. You really want to read this. Like now.
Via Photography Bay, it seems Canon’s German site posted some information for a short period of time, and though its in German, looks like 16 MP and due in June. We’ve been expecting an announcement around April 22nd or 24th from other rumors. More details as we get them. Check out the story and more screenshots here.
Update: Obviously nothing happened on either the 22nd or 24th… I’m not at all happy about it… I want my 5D Mark II dammit! We will of course keep you updated with any new developments.
Via Engadget, Crunchgear and DPReview… it seem some super code geniuses have dissected the just-released Nikon D3 firmware update and found some information that led them to believe that a 24.4 Megapixel camera, presumably the D3x is on the way.
