Kenneth Reynolds

A couple of nights ago, while hanging out with one of my close friends while he was in town for the night, I had the chance to do an extended late night long exposure photography session. Much experimentation was to be had this night, and after experimenting I got an idea to tell a story with a single frame. Below is the photo as it was captured in-camera. The title of the photo/story is “The Accident”. Hopefully, the title and image are pretty self-explanatory.

As it is, straight out of the camera, the image tells the story quite well. Creating the ghost effect in-camera is deceptively simple when shooting at long exposures of roughly 5 seconds or longer. In the case of this photo, I set the ISO to 800, the aperture to f/11, and the shutter speed to 30 seconds. I had my friend get positioned as I wanted him in frame, told him to hold as still as possible, then pressed the shutter release while simultaneously pressing the start button of the timer on my iPhone. After the timer on the iPhone had counted down 25 seconds, I told my friend to drop to the ground immediately so he would be out of frame for the last 5 seconds, thereby creating the ghost effect. The exact timing for the shot took a few tries, which only contributes to the fun-factor.

While I really like the image straight out of the camera, I decided to run it through Photoshop to see if I could come up with something that pushes the ghost idea a little further. So, I opened the photo in Photoshop, created a copy of the background layer, then added a curves adjustment layer for each photo layer. To enhance the ghost effect, I used the Negative (RGB), not Color Negative (RGB) preset in the curves dialog box, as shown. Next, I selected the layer mask for the curves adjustment layer and painted out everything around my friend in the image using a big, soft black brush. I was careful to leave a little bit of the curves adjustment effect showing around him. Then, I painted with the same brush, only smaller, inside of my friend, leaving a feathered white halo around him, thereby creating the basis for the ghost effect.

At this point, I set the layer’s blend mode to Screen, then added a Gaussian Blur of roughly 21.1 pixels to the curves adjustment layer to blur it and finalize the halo effect. To finalize the ghost effect, I created a layer mask on the layer being affected by the above described curves adjustment layer and painted in my friend only using a soft white brush in order to preserve the color and contrast of the background as seen through his body. Next I began working on finishing the image by manipulating the curves adjustment layer that would affect the rest of the image outside my friend. For this adjustment layer, I again turned to the curves dialog presets, this time using the Cross Process (RGB) setting, as shown.

To help direct attention to the tracks and my friend in the foreground, I directed my attention to the layer mask for this curves adjustment layer and painted the sky out with a big, soft black brush. The blend mode for this curves adjustment layer was left at Normal, thus completing the coloring effect for the rest of the photo. Next, I added a third and final curves adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack and utilized the Increase Contrast (RGB) preset to increase the contrast just a tad.

To complete the story and bring all the important elements of the image together, I needed to change the coloration on my friend, The Ghost, to match that of the cross-processed background. This was accomplished by adding a Color Balance adjustment layer above the “ghost effect” layer. The layer needed to be color balanced to be more green to match the background, so I moved the middle slider to roughly +45 toward green, as shown, then clipped the layer to the layer below by selecting the color balance adjustment layer and pressing and holding the Option/Alt key on the keyboard and left clicking between the two layers in the layers palette.

Finally, I completed the image with a simple vignette to fully direct the viewer’s attention to the foreground subject by adding a layer at the top of the stack and creating an oval selection around the area of the image I wanted to be clear. I then inverted the selection, feathered it by 50 pixels, then filled the selection with black and lowered the opacity of the layer to about 45%.

As I mentioned before, the image successfully told the story that I wanted it to relate in it’s unaltered form straight from the camera. However, in the final image, seen below, by utilizing the digital darkroom and adding a little bit of Photoshop wizardry, I was able to enhance the ghost effect that is the subject of this photo and direct the viewer’s attention to the “ghost” and the railroad tracks, where it can be assumed that he met his untimely demise.

I hadn’t gotten out of the house to do any photography in weeks and by this weekend I finally could not take it any longer. Yesterday morning I woke up, got out of bed, and hit the road before sunrise with the intention of shooting along the north shore of Lake Grapevine. Much to my dismay, upon arrival at my destination, I discovered that it costs to gain access to any part of Lake Grapevine. If that weren’t enough, the clutch on my truck decided to give out. Thankfully it held together long enough for me to get back home to Grand Prairie.

So, by Sunday I was chomping at the bit to get out and spend some quality time with my camera. I held it together long enough to wait until evening so I could head over to Lake Arlington and kick the evening with a shoreline sunset shoot. Managed to net a sweet sunset and captured a couple of different exposures to use for the two image composite HDR displayed below. Nothing fancy in post for this one. Blended the two exposures in Photoshop via Layer Mask magic, adjusted levels and curves for optimum color and contrast, then sharpened the final image. I’m extremely pleased with the results.

After wrapping things up at the lake I got the idea to head over toward the new Cowboy stadium to test out a shot composition idea I got a few weeks back near the Arlington Convention Center. Unfortunately, the stadium’s interior lights were all off, thus delaying that idea. Not one to give up, I decided to head over to the old Arlington downtown area east of UTA to shoot the old First Baptist Church on Center St. Once I got the camera setup and tweaked the exposure to just the right setting, I noticed traffic was just slightly frequent enough to allow for some headlight/taillight trails in the frame. I scored a few frames with some nice bright trails, the best of which can be seen below. Post on this image is minimal, with the slightest curves adjustment made in Lightroom and the customary sharpening in Photoshop.

While I do very much like how this image turned out, I’m planning on going back one evening this week to try a slight different angle for maximized compostion and subject placement. I also want to shoot at or just after sunset, when traffic should be even heavier than it was here. Overall, though, I cannot complain about the results that I got on this shoot and I definitely cannot wait to get out again soon so I can continue to sharpen my skills. The next outing will be in the historic downtown area of Cedar Hill, so stay tuned for that!

For the past year, or so, I have been enjoying the self-imposed challenge of documenting my urban surroundings as I see them. This has not been an easy task, for sure, but I have kept at it and I’ve immensely enjoyed the challenge as well as the few fruits my labor has produced. After last Thursday’s high point in my storm chasing career, it’s been hard for me to come back down from Cloud 9, not to mention find something to shoot that could match the insane injection of creativity that I got from  photographing such an amazing tornado. So, it was in such a condition that I hit the streets in search of something worthwhile to photograph that would feed the creativity beast within.

After an hour of aimlessly driving the streets of Arlington and Fort Worth, It dawned on me that I should revisit my challenge, so I headed back east along Highway 180 into Grand Prairie to shoot some of the old 50′s & 60′s era motels and buildings that line both sides of the highway. Even more, I had it on my mind to chase after that “California Look” I’ve been envisioning in my mind for a long time. So, of course, I attached the 17-40L to my 40D and screwed my trusty old Hoya circular polarizer onto the front of the lens. Side note: if there is one gear upgrade I should most likely run out and do now, it would be to upgrade my poloarizer to the Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo. Anyway, the gallery below communicates the best images of the morning. The first image of the Party Times and Ritz signs is probably my favorite of this set since it is the one that comes so close to capturing the “California Look” I’m after, although the other two images are also great.

Below can be found a few photos from my iPhone library. Of course, that means these photos were also shot and edited with my iPhone. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, but I will assert that I do intend to explore serious, professional-level photography using my iPhone more going forward.

Above is a photo of the Studio Movie Grill in the Arlington Highlands. Photo was shot and edited with the MoreLomo iPhone app.

Above is a view of one of the two building that are the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters, as seen from the 6th floor of the parking garage. Photo was captured with the ProCamera iPhone app, and the tilt/shift effect was created with the TiltShiftGen iPhone app.

Finally, above is a gorgeous sunset photo that I stopped to capture while driving to get some food on my dinner break a few weeks ago. Photo was captured with the ProCamera app, contrast adjusted with the Photoshop.com app, and finished with the MoreLomo app.

One note, the sunset photo, above, is a great example of why I’d like to continue to shoot with my iPhone as a viable professional imaging tool. Yes, I do usually leave my older, original Canon Rebel XT digital SLR with a cheap-o 50mm f/1.8 lens attached, in my truck so that I have an SLR with me most of the time. However, not all people do this, in which case using what you have is required. In fact, most of the time, I’d prefer to just shoot a scene with my iPhone rather than fiddle with the DSLR, especially during times when I’m rushed, such as the above case.

At any rate, I believe that the iPhone is a very worthy tool, capable of producing compelling, artistic images that are easily edited and finished with any number of the great, available image editing tools for the iPhone.

I was blessed with a gorgeous day outside as my first off this week. Of course, the only thing I could conceivably comprehend doing was photography. So, I packed the camera bag and zipped off in my beat-up old pickup truck to destinations unknown for photographic adventures as of yet undiscovered. After driving around for a while and getting a feel for the day I decided that, according to the cloud formations in the sky, I wanted to revisit my favorite old train bridge located on the western fringes of Arlington to explore new and different photo opportunities in that location. Upon arriving and parking my truck off the beaten path I was pleased to discover an amazing scene awaiting my craft with the camera. The first image below is straight from the camera with the slight exception of a minor curves adjustment performed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Just as a note, I perform curves adjustments on all of my photos. That’s just my style and workflow. The sky and clouds pop with the aid of my trusty Hoya Circular Polarizing filter mounted to the front of my essential landscape tool, the Canon 17-40 mm f/4L.

Below can be witnessed a major deviation for me. Not in subject matter, of course, but in post production and processing. Yes, to the most observant among you, this is an HDR image. This one is different, however, in that it is a fake HDR being that it was created entirely from one single image completely within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Again, here, I used the Canon 17-40 mm f/4L with a Hoya Circular Polarizing filter. I discovered this HDR effect completely by accident – or, to be more exact, by an accidental slip of the hand while adjusting one of the many sliders in Lightroom – and immediately saw the potential. I will be experimenting with this newly discovered processing technique over time, as I definitely have a few ideas for subjects that would directly benefit from this particular HDR effect.

Got out of Trig class this morning and had a major itch to shoot. Haven’t shot much at all in a while due to scheduling conflicts, so it was extremely awesome to just hold my camera in my hands and click the shutter. At any rate, I found this old train bridge in far west Arlington a couple of weeks ago and made a mental note to come back and shoot it.  With the lingering mist/fog this morning I felt it was the perfect opportunity to go and shoot the old train bridge. Pictured below is one of the better captures from the shoot. While working on the photo in post, the whole set of images just begged to be processed in black and white, so it was all I could do to oblige. Enjoy!

Decided to get up early this morning and explore more of the old industrial area just north of downtown Fort Worth. Made a few clicks and walked away with some new images to add to the ol’ portfolio. I’m definitely keeping the creative juices good and moist by continuously pursuing urban decay imagery. There’s almost something romantic about the scenes I discover in these old industrial areas. Below is one of my favorites from this morning’s outing.