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Some great winter sunset photos I captured today


Phait

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Three pixels? Who can even see if something is three pixels off?

I don't always spot it right off, but I'm pretty good with that stuff. But I don't expect other people to be. But I tend to align graphics by eye, particularly things like text banners. I mean, the one thing you pretty much know off the top is that dead centering the text area is probably going to look off balance because of different 'weight' of the text. Even if the word is a palindrome.

 

Paint Shop Pro, regrettably, was bought a few years back by the Big Lots of ones and zeros, Corel. Up until then, things were getting better incrementally. Then Corel got their fingers in it and menus started moving around, things got renamed, a lot of it-wasn't-broke stuff to my thinking. But there are, nonetheless, some pretty powerful things.

 

I haven't really used Photoshop in many years (except briefly at clients') so I can't compare. I'd imagine that Photoshop has a lot more goodies than the

 

As far as PSP being intuitive, forget about it. I've been using it since the 90s and I still get really frustrated when things don't act like I'd expect -- like I thought they did last time. It has all kinds of odd little modes that they keep adding in (it wasn't broke but they fixed it) that radically changed some behaviors. And I swear sometimes I have no idea how to get in or out of a mode. You have to remember that I've been sussing out software -- including badly broken software [i have to test my own stuff, eh?] for a quarter century, so when I can't figure out a UI, it's a mess. Certified.

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So since we're posting sunset shots by water, I'll share some that I took New Year's Eve along the Sonoma Coast.

 

237sonomacoast-longexposure.jpg

Five-second long exposure shot of the rocks at Goat Rock Beach during the setting sun (the last one of 2011!), captured by leaving the shutter open for five seconds to create the otherworldly misty look of the waves pounding the rocks.

 

230adamsonomacoast.jpg

Ten-second exposure. You can see my friend's son moved while checking up on me. :D

 

253adamsonomacoast.jpg

Ten-second exposure where my friends stood still for that amount of time, the long exposure blurring the waves into a shimmery expanse as we watch the sun go down for the last time in 2011. These last two are kinda unusual shots in that people are sitting or standing perfectly still for ten seconds. It was a lot of fun experimenting with this.

 

This is my new Ken Lee Photography blog, where I describe in fuller detail how I achieved these shots, if you're interested. You can also subscribe to my blog via email if you're interested.

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So since we're posting sunset shots by water, I'll share some that I took New Year's Eve along the Sonoma Coast.


237sonomacoast-longexposure.jpg
Five-second long exposure shot of the rocks at Goat Rock Beach during the setting sun (the last one of 2011!), captured by leaving the shutter open for five seconds to create the otherworldly misty look of the waves pounding the rocks.


230adamsonomacoast.jpg
Ten-second exposure. You can see my friend's son moved while checking up on me.
:D

253adamsonomacoast.jpg
Ten-second exposure where my friends stood still for that amount of time, the long exposure blurring the waves into a shimmery expanse as we watch the sun go down for the last time in 2011. These last two are kinda unusual shots in that people are sitting or standing perfectly still for ten seconds. It was a lot of fun experimenting with this.


This is my new
Ken Lee Photography blog, where I describe in fuller detail how I achieved these shots
, if you're interested. You can also subscribe to my blog via email if you're interested.



Beautiful Photos Ken, especially the last one which really resonates with me.

Thanks for sharing.

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PS is pretty expensive but offers a ton of control. Basically too much for me. I like PSP and have used it since the JASC days. They do change things, but I'm pretty used to it. I didn't like their big shift to an "organizer" which I found cumbersome, so got Lightroom. There was a killer deal on PSE9 with Lightroom, and PSE handles a lot of plug ins which don't work well with PSP.....so I added it for $39 or something like that. It is okay, but IMHO, not as powerful as PSP. Both NIK and Topaz plugs are easy to use in Lightroom and PSE, but the problem is HOW to use them artistically. If you have ever watched a webinar at NIK where one of their photogs is doctoring a pic....."This area could use a little less saturation, while this area would benefit from a bit more darkening of the mids. Ah, a little sharpening here, and let's avoid sharpening this area......" When it is over, his/her pic looks amazing, but the eye to see what they want to improve....that's the difficult part. Kinda like, I have lots of EQs, but which one, where, and how much on what.

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Thanks, EB!

 

~~~

 

RJT, thanks. I guess I sort of know where I want to go with the photo. I know if I want something blurred more in one area or softened or treated in some way, and their software gets me there considerably quicker than if I were simply working in Photoshop alone. It's intuitive to me because it allows you to quickly identify the spot you want to treat, and the plugins are effective. Then, too, I found their customer service to be responsive and friendly.

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Not sunset, more like just after sunrise. Taken from my sailboat anchored on Ridout Creek near Annapolis Md. One of my favorite spots, I actually proposed to my wife at this spot. I like the way the reflection of the fallen, dead tree contrasts with the otherwise green reflections. Some lucky SOB lives on that hill; maybe my next life. And yes, it's tilted a bit, have to see if I can fix that in Photoshop; I usually find it easier to just go back and take another picture...;)[ATTACH=CONFIG]341486[/ATTACH]

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253adamsonomacoast.jpg
Ten-second exposure where my friends stood still for that amount of time, the long exposure blurring the waves into a shimmery expanse as we watch the sun go down for the last time in 2011. These last two are kinda unusual shots in that people are sitting or standing perfectly still for ten seconds. It was a lot of fun experimenting with this.


This is my new
Ken Lee Photography blog, where I describe in fuller detail how I achieved these shots
, if you're interested. You can also subscribe to my blog via email if you're interested.

They're all really cool, but I like the third quite a lot. It really has the feel of an illustration...

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They're all really cool, but I like the third quite a lot. It really has the feel of an illustration...

 

 

Thanks!!!

 

I think it is my favorite of the three as well because of how my friend and his son are watching the sunset and the mystical quality of it all. The long exposure and glow really makes it seem more surreal and storybook-like somehow.

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There's more at the Flickr album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73577099@N06/sets/72157628723579061/detail/


Nothing special or skilled, Canon A630 point n' shoot camera on manual, changed the aperture and f-stop, the bluer photos I switched to tungsten filter.


I'm quite happy with how they turned out though!


399513_142357959211832_100003128869544_1

406261_142357329211895_100003128869544_1

391038_142358172545144_100003128869544_1



Theses shots remind me of something many years ago. A buddy and I had taken a winter drive to a lake at a nearby state park. As we walked through the woods toward the lake, we could hear a tinkling sound; couldn't tell what direction it was coming from, it was all around us, but it got louder as we approached the lake. Finally came out of the woods and the source of the sound was revealed. It was very windy. The sun had broken up the skim ice from the previous night and the wavelets were piling it up against the shoreline, making a tinkling sound like a zillion pieces of glass clinking together. Was pure magic; I've never experienced anything quite like it. Those pictures really reminded me of that day.

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Theses shots remind me of something many years ago. A buddy and I had taken a winter drive to a lake at a nearby state park. As we walked through the woods toward the lake, we could hear a tinkling sound; couldn't tell what direction it was coming from, it was all around us, but it got louder as we approached the lake. Finally came out of the woods and the source of the sound was revealed. It was very windy. The sun had broken up the skim ice from the previous night and the wavelets were piling it up against the shoreline, making a tinkling sound like a zillion pieces of glass clinking together. Was pure magic; I've never experienced anything quite like it. Those pictures really reminded me of that day.

 

 

I'm very glad the imagery can you remind you of a bit of nostalgia! Very cool!

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