Digging in the Shadows

It was a bit early in the season to find snakes sunning themselves on warm rocks, so we were pleasantly surprised when we came a little one slowly crawling up on a rock. The setting was a little creek in our favorite park, just below a bridge. The bright afternoon sun brightly lit up part of the rock. The rest was in the deep shadow of the bridge we were standing on.

Not much of a photo opportunity, but I took a couple of shots anyway.

This is were post-processing can rescue an otherwise useless photo. I talked about this in a recent post over in the “other corner” of Café Ludwig. You can read all about it here: Lost your friends to the shadows? This photo seemed a good chance to do some “umbraluminology” – that is my term using poor Latin for “the art of illuminating the shadows”.

I always start in Photo Gallery. The histogram showed that the camera was fooled into underexposing the photo. I have it set for “center-weighted” exposure measuring. The sunlit rock is all the sensor would see.

Moving the Shadows slider all the way to the right brought out detail in the shadow, but not nearly enough.

Before I reached for more powerful tools I decided a crop would be in order. Then I took a look at what I could do in Picasa. The “Fill light” slider helped some but it was not much of an improvement. I even tried the HDR effect. Nothing there.

Next I took the photo into onOne Perfect Effects 8. I really like the HDR effect that tool provides. With that I could bring out more details from the shadows. The noise also became quite noticeable. My next attempt was to see what I could do with PaintShop Pro. I selected the triangular shadow part and applied some noise reduction. Then I took the whole photo into Topaz Detail for bringing out some of the fine detail. No, none of these tools turned this into a “fine art” photo. But I did pull out an amazing amount of detail. This is not a story about artistic accomplishments but rather an illustration of just how much detail is literally lurking in the shadows of photos. The moral of the story is this: Don’t discard a photo just because the faces of your friends are unrecognizably dark, or that the shadows hide all the interesting stuff. Be aggressive in post-processing.

Get skilled in “umbraluminology”, there is treasure “in them thar shadows”.

.:.

© 2014 Ludwig Keck

Museum

I met them at the Museum

They were not very talkative but told many old tales!

At the Michael C. Carlos Museum

Museum Photography

Museum Photography

.:.

© 2014 Ludwig Keck

Southeastern Railway Museum

A day at the Southeastern Railway Museum with the SPS

Duluth, Georgia is home to the Southeastern Railway Museum with a marvelous collection of railroad memorabilia. Here a few photos and a bit of café art from a photo outing with the Southeastern Photographic Society.

The Southern Crescent

Locomotive C.V. 21 coming at you.

All aboard!!

.:.

© 2014 Ludwig Keck

Afternoon in the Park

Just a 40 Minute Stroll

McDaniel Farm Park has been a favorite place for an afternoon walk for many years. Today the weather was like spring, sunny and warm, with the temperature at about 68 degrees ( 20 C). So after lunch we headed for the park. We have seen it literally hundreds of times, walked the same paths, greeted the same neighbors. Yet there is always something new for the camera.

Just nineteen photos was my “take” today, but I thought it would be fun to share a few. I selected eight – a rather large percentage, normally I am happy when I have two or three out of a hundred that are good enough to share. There is a moral in this story, but let’s hold that for the end.

Riprap Rocks – 2:44 pm

The timestamp on this photo is 2:44 pm – just a few minutes down the trail from the start. The sun played nicely on some of the riprap rocks that were added to keep the trail from washing out.

White Bark Tree – 2:47 pm

A few steps along and one the with barked trees gleamed invitingly in the sun.

Contrail in the sky – 2:51 pm

The sky was a cloudless, beautiful blue, undisturbed but for a plane dragging its contrail and passengers to a far away destination.

Water Strider – 2:55 pm

The trail crosses several creeks, some tiny, some with little pools. A water strider was showing off. I call the photo “Me and my Shadow”.

Proud Weed – 3:03 pm

The path leads past some fields with dried out plants and weeds. Some are still standing proud. “Silky light and spider webs” is my title for this little view.

Trail Walkers – 3:05 pm

We share this trail with many others, some we have come to know over the years, others are just friendly strangers. Some stroll along, others use the park for a quick exercise.

Ranger’s House – 3:16 pm

As we come back to parking lot we pass the park ranger’s house. Two satellite dishes bring the world to the home. I call this “Three Windows” as that is what we really see in this photo. One looks out on the park, the other look into the world.

Park Gate – 3:19 pm

The sun was playing on the park gate, the small one for the pedestrians, and providing interesting shadows. So this is “Boards and Shadows”.

Just eight memories from today’s stroll. Oh, yes, the moral!

I found many new things to see, to discover, in some very familiar surroundings. So I urge you to look up, look down, look close, look far, wherever you are. Even in the most familiar places there are views to capture, to share, to treasure. Take your camera and enjoy!

.:.

© 2014 Ludwig Keck