Canon 1D Mark III, 16-35mm F/2.8, f/8.0, 1/160, iso 100
TGIT - Thank Goodness it's Tuesday. That's how I often feel these days, I have so many shots that are fun to process with Topaz. I have a couple in my "future blog post" folder. But yesterday I came across this shot, taken last November down in the San Luis Obispo area, and I thought it would make a great Topaz candidate.
This is the pier at Avila Bay, a charming little beach community. We spent Thanksgiving there and it was wonderful. I was walking out in the pier one morning and at one point all the seagulls flew off, and I realized I was pretty much by myself. There were a few people at the end of the pier, but I positioned myself so them and the little hut at the end were all blocked. I had the lens at 16mm. Looking through the viewfinder I could see that the pier seemed to extend all the way to the horizon, a very neat illusion.
When I looked at the raw image, it struck me that it would be a great shot for HDR (High Dynamic Range). This is where 3 or more shots of the same scene are sandwiched together. You take the images at various levels of underexposure and overexposure. The resulting image has more "dynamic range" (range of light/dark) than is otherwise possible.
But of course I didn't have 3 or more shots of this scene at various levels of exposure. But I did recall that Topaz Adjust has several presets meant to mimic the HDR look. I tried out several, and settled on the HDR Medium preset. The intense sky is sort of a trademark HDR look. I thought about softening this up, but in the end decided to leave it alone?
What do you think of it? Wait, there's more. It's a Twofer Topaz Tuesday! Click on the continue link for "the flip side."
Canon 1D Mark III, 16-35mm F/2.8, F20, 1/4th, iso 100
We were in Avila with good friends the Levine's, and they were there at the end of the pier when I got there. They had already been under the pier and thought it might have some photographic value for me. So I clambered down there and checked out the scene.
As a straight photograph, I don't think the scene was blog worthy. This tilt was not in my original shot, I did this in Lightroom to add a bit of drama. Now-Topaz to the rescue! I once again used Topaz Adjust. This time I did a two-pass. First with Spicify, then with Crisp.
Now I think I have a pretty interesting image. I love what it did with the water, so emerald green and translucent. Let me know how you like these two. (And don't forget, you can try Topaz yourself for 30 days free of charge, www.topazlabs.com, and if you choose to buy, the code "bobtowery" gets you 10% off).
