How I Photographed Historic Cotton & Wool Mills

April 30, 2013 by Scott | 2 Comments

On April 6, I was up in Lawrence, Massachusetts for the first ever Historic Mill Photo Workshop.

While shooting in the mills, I knew that I would want to bracket my photographs in order to create dramatic images showing both the inside and outside of the mills.

I have not used the HDR technique in a very long time, and although I did photograph some brackets specifically for HDR, I used a different approach for most of the day.

Enjoy the video below.

So as you can see, I photographed two exposures for the most part. The first exposure was for the interior and the second was for the exterior. Then in onOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite 7 I am able to apply some masking to the windows in order to bring back some details outside of the mills.

As you viewed in the video I also had a neutral density filter on the lens. I did that to cut back some of the light, creating longer exposures. I was also using Bob Lussier‘s 20mm Nikon lens, which is amazing!

Here is the result from the scene you viewed in the video.

photographed-historic-mills

Gear: Nikon D800 & 20mm f/2.8
Exif: ISO 100, 20mm, f/11, 3 sec & 1/4
Processing: onOne Software Perfect Layers, Perfect Effects & Adobe Lightroom

Thanks for reading and happy shooting,

Scott

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Lightroom Presets from Nicolesy

April 25, 2013 by Scott | Leave a comment

I’ve mentioned my friend Nicole before in a couple articles. Not only is she a photographer, writer, blogger, but she also happen to marry my friend Brian Matiash.

Most recently, Nicole has created a series of Lightroom presets and Photoshop actions. Most likely there will be some onOne Software presets to be released as well.

I had some time to spend with Nicole’s presets and found them to be inspirational.

Below is a video of my trying Nicole’s presets out for the first time. In it, you will notice that I keep stressing the fact that presets are meant to be a starting point and not used as a one-click solution to processing.

So there you have it. Nicole’s presets are awesome, inspirational and fun.

Ok, how about another video. Nicole recently published a promo video for her presets. Check it out!

Head over to Nicole’s website and either pick up individual sets or her entire bundle for $35.

nicolsey-lightroom-presets

Thanks for reading and happy shooting,

Scott

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Rowes Wharf

April 23, 2013 by Scott | Leave a comment

Rowes Wharf is a beautiful spot in Boston where you will find a marina, restaurants, hotels, water transportation and during the summer a floating stage for concerts.

When Melissa and I were there, it was a chilly and sunny day with little clouds in the sky. Every so often, the water would move heavily as well.

I set up my Lee Big Stopper (10 stop neutral density) and stacked a 2 stop ND filter on top of it. The end result was 30 second exposure so the water would smooth into ice and the reflections of the buildings would pop out in the water.

rowes-wharf

When doing a long exposure like this, hang your camera bag from the center hook of your tripod. Doing so will add more weight, further preventing any movement during the shooting process.

Gear: Nikon D800 & 70-200 f/2.8 VR II
Exif: ISO 100, 70mm, f/11, 30 sec.
Processing: Adobe Lightroom

Thanks for reading and happy shooting,

Scott

 

Posted in Photography Tagged |