Just after a recent fresh snowfall, the park bench on my deck became a subject, again, following a bit of inspiration by photographer Sean Tucker (
www.youtube.com/user/seantuckermerge ). There was nothing to shoot so I spent a few minutes working with this because of the shapes and textures in the end casting and the lack of any significant colour elements, which I usually find myself looking for in potential subjects. It was also an exercise in working sans-tripod so I can see how I can improve my hand-held shooting sharpness (hint: get the shutter speed up, way up). Another near monochromatic image in full colour. - JW
Date Taken: 2019-02-18
Tech Details:
Taken using a hand-held Nikon D7100 fitted with a AF-D Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8 lense, ISO100, daylight WB, Aperture priority mode, f/4.5, 1/1600 sec with an EV-0.67 exposure bias to ensure the snow highlights/sparkles are preserved. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: significantly boost contrast in L-A-B mode, use the Exposure compensation tool to brighten the image overall by EV+0.21, further boost contrast using the Exposure control group Contrast tool, enable Shadows/Highlights and significantly recover highlights, adjust the colour temperature to 5630K (i.e. shift away from a residual blue cast to a warmer tone), sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: adjust the tone curve to brighten the top 50% slightly and then darken the bottom 20% slightly, remove a slight residual blue cast (mainly in the darker ‘dirty snow’ below the medallion), sharpen slightly, save, add fine black and white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 2048 wide for posting online, sharpen slightly, save.
