CONNER VS. CAMERA

I chose this image because I knew I wanted to print on canvas, and I thought a simple composition like this would look good at that size with the texture of the canvas. I didn’t take too much time to compose the photo, I just saw the shadow from the window almost on the horseshoes and shot one photo quickly and without much thought. I didn’t think putting it through HDR would bring out the texture so much, but I think that’s what really made the photo my favorite.

By way of editing, I used single-shot HDR in Dynamic Photo first of all (and adjusted some levels in that program). Then I used camera raw to sharpen and increase blacks. After that, Photoshop to darken the shadow on the top and crop a little bit. All in all, not very many edits aside from the initial HDR.

SHOES: 5.25.11, 5:57PM; BANNACK GHOST TOWN; F/4.5; 1/160; CANON POWERSHOT SX30 IS; PRINTED 24X36 ON CANVAS

EDITS: SINGLE-SHOT HDR (DYNAMIC PHOTO), CLOSE CROPPING, GENERAL LEVELS ADJUSTMENTS, SHARPENING, INCREASE BLACKS AND SHADOW

On the blue bird, the background was pretty overexposed so all I did in postproduction was raise the saturation and clarity, and crop out some of the roof. I followed that bird around for about an hour before I got that shot. I didn’t make any significant edits to any of the others, aside from basic levels and color. I did some cropping on the snake as well, though.

blue bird: 5.25.11, 7:00pm; bannack ghost town; f/7.1; 1/160; canon powershot sx30 is

bird on fence: 5.25.11, 6:49pm; bannack ghost town; f/8.0; 1/160; canon powershot sx30 is

snake: 5.25.11, 5:39pm; bannack ghost town; f/8.0; 1/160; canon powershot sx30 is

sage berry: 5.25.11, 5:22pm; bannack ghost town; f/8.0; 1/160; canon powershot sx30 is

bolts: 5.25.11, 5:30pm; bannack ghost town; f/8.0; 1/80; canon powershot sx30 is

The prison shot is a shot from the window in the back cell of the jail. I didn’t have a tripod, I just rested my camera on the ledge and then did a little manual aligning when I got the photos into the HDR program. The single shot is the horseshoe picture. I guess it was lucky, I just saw the light on them like that and took the shot. I think it turned out well.

prison hdr preshots: 5.25.11, 4:34pm; bannack ghost town; f/5.0; 1/60, 1/250, 1/1000; canon powershot sx30 is

horseshoe hdr preshot: 5.25.11, 4:15pm; bannack ghost town; f/4.5; 1/160; canon powershot sx30 is

I wasn’t sure I was doing this right when I took the photos, but when Sister Esplin explained later, it turns out I was. They don’t look all that different, though. I don’t know what the problem was. I metered on the ground, the horizon, and the sky and took a shot of each. The differences are tiny.

5.25.11, 7:00PM; BANNACK GHOST TOWN; F/; 1/; CANON POWERSHOT SX30 IS

5.25.11, 7:00PM; BANNACK GHOST TOWN; F/; 1/; CANON POWERSHOT SX30 IS

5.25.11, 7:00PM; BANNACK GHOST TOWN; F/; 1/; CANON POWERSHOT SX30 IS

I took the shingles shot from the stairs of the masonic temple. The broken lightbulb is on the porch at Hotel Meade. I tried to make the grain of the wood pretty visible, and I changed hue to a more fun red color. I used the layer mask method and black/white paint to fade stuff in and out.

5.25.11, 7:00PM; BANNACK GHOST TOWN; F/; 1/; CANON POWERSHOT SX30 IS

5.25.11, 7:00PM; BANNACK GHOST TOWN; F/; 1/; CANON POWERSHOT SX30 IS