Lightroom – heath ofee dot com

Perfect Layers

Heath OFee — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 12:45:33 +0000

Yesterday saw the official release of Perfect Layers from onOne Software. This is a pretty revolutionary plugin for Lightroom and Aperture that allows the use of layers within both of these programs. For those of you who don’t have Photoshop, prefer to do most of your work in Lightroom/Aperture, or just want a quick and easy way to add layers, you should definitely check out Perfect Layers. I haven’t used it a ton yet, but from my brief experience, it functions very well. Similar to Photoshop, multiple images can be stacked with different blend modes and opacities, and layer masks can be created to selectively mask two or more images together.

As an example of what is possible with Perfect Layers, I decided to try some manual exposure blending using two images at different exposure levels. Below are the two images I brought into Perfect Layers:

I stacked these two images with the overexposed shot on top, and set my blend mode to Normal. From there, I used a layer mask to selectively paint where I wanted the underexposed shot to show through. I varied the opacity of my brush through the frame to get the blend that I wanted. One of the great things about Perfect Layers is that it allows you to easily view your mask in different ways to see exactly where you’ve brushed in or out. Once I had the image where I wanted, I did a quick bit of styling in PhotoTools and I was done. Below is the final image:

I can see myself using Perfect Layers for quick exposure blending and layer masking. The ability to edit layers right in Lightroom is amazing, and I can’t wait to really put this plugin through its paces.

You can download a 30-day trial of Perfect Layers right now, or pick up the full version for the introductory price of $99.95 (a $30 savings). Give it a go…you won’t regret it.

New Blog, New Eyes, and The Eye of a Monster

Heath OFee — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 02:17:29 +0000

As I type this blog post I am still marveling at the miracle that is laser vision correction. I’ve worn glasses or contact lenses since I was 11 years old, and the fact that I can now wake up and go about my daily activities without needing either is really nothing short of a miracle. I’ll publish a full summary of my experiences in a week or so, but for now…on to the more exciting news: I’ve launched my new blog today!! For a long time now I’ve thought about shedding the yycofee.wordpress.com URL and moving on to a more professional photographer’s name here . com style hosting platform, but only made the plunge into getting my own domain name and hosting a couple of months ago. Since then, I’ve been working off and on trying to sift through the infinite customization options offered by my WordPress theme trying to get things looking *mostly* the way I like. The hardest part by far was trying to create a logo/header…so any feedback you have on that would be appreciated. I’m sure over the course of the coming months I’ll notice things that I want to change/add/remove, so bear with me, I just really wanted to get this thing live! On the off chance that you’re a current subscriber to my old RSS feed, you can re-subscribe to the new feed here. And if anyone still uses bookmarks and happened to have my old blog marked, don’t forget to add heathofee.com to your list!

Yesterday, I went for my first short photowalk after my eye surgery, and since my car is still parked across the city, I was limited to wherever my feet could carry me. I’ve said this before, but I live in a relatively new development, so there are still a number of large construction vehicles around almost all the time. I had walked the dog earlier in the day and saw a couple of these construction giants that I wanted to capture when I went back out with the camera…unfortunately, two of the three I wanted to shoot were in use by the time I returned. So…with only one of my locations still available, I tried to make the best of it and ended up with a few usable brackets from the one construction vehicle….the first is below:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 16, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Mistakes…

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:33:02 +0000

We all make ’em, right? Whether it be in our personal lives, at work or while doing something we love, mistakes are an unfortunate but necessary part of life. So, since these mistakes are inevitably going to happen, the best thing to do is try our best to learn from them and try not to make the same mistake again. Why am I talking about mistakes today? Well, recently I was given the opportunity to shoot the interior of St. Paul’s Anglican Church (you can find some photos of the exterior here and here). When I got home and dumped my images into Lightroom, I was disappointed to see that for a number of series of brackets I neglected to shoot a frame that was suitably exposed for the stained glass windows on the east side of the church. When shooting my brackets I always check my histogram to make sure I’ve covered the whole spectrum of light, but on this occasion I didn’t think to double check the images themselves to make sure the windows were okay. Thankfully, there is a ton of information stored in those magical RAW files and I was able to retrieve enough light information to make the windows passable in a few images…this is the case in the photo you see below. Moral of the story? Check your histogram AND the images themselves…or get yourself a darn Promote Control and bracket from -4 to +4 ALL THE TIME

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 5 Exposures

Simmons Heritage Building

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:02:59 +0000

Although Calgary is a relatively young city, there are a few pretty cool historic landmarks still kicking around, and any of these landmarks that are deemed worth preserving are given Heritage status and are typically restored and sometimes used as retail or office space. The old Simmons building in the East Village was constructed in 1912 for an estimated cost of $20,000 and was used by Simmons to make quality bedding products until 1966 when flooding from the Bow River necessitated a move. It is currently occupied by the Calgary Municipal and Land Corporation. They have a much more detailed history of the building on their site if you’re interested.

I took the below shot with my Sigma 10-20mm and purposely got nice and close to the building and shot at 10mm to get the interesting distorted perspective. I also don’t usually place a subject right in the middle of the frame but sometimes the symmetry of a shot can be much more powerful than a traditional “rule of thirds” composition.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Downtown Calgary Reflections

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:56:59 +0000

I’ve always thought one of the coolest things about the downtown core of any city are all the reflections that play in the mirrored glass windows of office buildings. I really like the idea of being able to see a building within a building and there are a couple of these in this shot.

This was taken in February of this year and was on one of my very first photowalks with my (at the time) brand new Sigma 10-20mm lens and was also among the first batch of bracketed images I took with the intent of processing in HDR. I had kinda given up on this image after the original processing was done but recently went back to it. I converted it to black & white, masked in the original sky and I’m now much happier with the final product. So, don’t be afraid to go back through some of your old brackets…you never know what you’ll find!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Wheelset 046

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:51:16 +0000

Have you ever felt completely uninspired by the shots you were able to get after a day out shooting? That’s mostly how I felt after the afternoon I spent hunting brackets in Invermere, BC this past weekend. The light was kinda flat all afternoon and there didn’t seem to be very much drama in the grey, overcast sky…so I had some trouble finding inspiration. I find in these situations it helps to distance yourself from the photos for a day or two before you go back to process them all. This way you can attack the photos with a fresh attitude that isn’t tainted with the crummy feeling you had while you were out shooting.

One of the places I knew I wanted to hit was the train tracks on the west side of Windermere Lake. There’s always at least one train just hanging out there and I’ve always found trains a little bit fascinating even though I know next to nothing about them. I shoot most of my HDR with a wide angle lens and try to take in as much of a scene as possible so this detail shot of a train is a bit of a departure from the norm for me. I have no idea if the wheels on a train are actually called a ‘wheelset’ or if the number painted on these wheels has any kind of significance, but I thought it would make a cool title anyway.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 11, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Conference Lounge – MGM Grand

Heath OFee — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 21:48:38 +0000

I was in Las Vegas for the very first time in May and we stayed at the MGM Grand. Not only was this my first time in Vegas, but it was also my first trip anywhere since I started shooting HDR in January of this year. Needless to say I was extremely excited about all the amazing photo opportunities I knew I would have, but I was also a bit nervous (and self-conscious) about carrying my camera/tripod setup with me everywhere since I’d never done that in such a public place before. I hope I’m not the only one who felt this way the first time they walked through a busy hotel or down a busy street with camera on tripod, legs extended just looking for a cool shot! After the first day of exploring and shooting I was feeling much better about things and was almost feeling confident…until the first time I got kicked out by security. Well maybe not kicked out altogether, but I was definitely told my tripod was not welcome…so I asked if I could shoot handheld…of course that was forbidden as well. Crap. Back to feeling like I’m some weirdo with a tripod.

To be fair, this was only one of two times I was told I couldn’t use my tripod in any of the hotels in Vegas, and the vast majority were more than welcome to accommodate me. But it’s those few bad experiences that stick with you. So…if any of you have some good tricks for getting in under the radar or how to approach security about permission to shoot I’m all ears!

One very early morning (4 AM) while staying at the MGM Grand, I went downstairs and explored as much of the hotel as I could before it got too busy. Eventually I made my way down a long corridor past the pool and ended up in the conference center which is absolutely enormous! We definitely don’t have hotels with conference centers like that here in Calgary. After snapping a few brackets in the main lobby area I made my way upstairs to where they have some of the smaller conference rooms…and stumbled into this really cool lounge type area. Anyway, enough rambling. Here’s the shot:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

Storm Over New Brighton

Heath OFee — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:39:30 +0000

Recently we’ve been getting some pretty dramatic looking clouds and storms over Calgary, but because I have to get up ridiculously early for work I haven’t been staying up late enough to catch these storms during sunset. Inspired by Mike Olbinski, who has some amazing storm photos, I decided it was worth the loss of sleep and ventured out last Thursday night to get me some brackets!

I live in a relatively new suburb so there is still plenty of open space and construction going on and I knew just where I could find a good vantage point to see this storm…it was just luck that there was some tall wavy grass growing on the hill that happened to make for a perfect foreground. I thought about masking in one of the originals to keep the grass looking a bit more stationary, but I kinda like the flowing feel that the windswept grass gives. Hope you enjoy!

Canon EOS 50D, Sigman 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 16, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, Lightroom for catalogue, color, contrast, Noiseware for noise control.

The Ranche

Heath OFee — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:30:49 +0000

Well, Stampede week is coming to a close here in Calgary and it was a pretty slack one at work. The office was virtually empty by noon each day which meant I was able to get out early almost all week. I managed to use some of that time to head out and take some much needed photos! Growing up in the southwest of Calgary, I frequented Fish Creek Park quite a bit and became quite familiar with a lot of it. One area I never made it to was the Bow Valley Ranch, so I decided to make a trip there after work this past Thursday. It turned out to be a great spot to snap some brackets for HDR…especially the ranch itself which has been turned into a very nice restaurant simple called ‘The Ranche’. I won’t give you the whole history here but if you’re interested you can read all about by following this link.

Canon EOS 50D, Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5, 13mm, F 9.0, ISO 100, 4 Exposures

The details: 4 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix 3, Lightroom for color, contrast, clarity, sharpening, Photoshop for layer masking, Noiseware for noise control.

Columns and Couches

Heath OFee — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:37:45 +0000

On my trip to the mountains a while back, I probably spent a good couple of hours walking around the Chateau Lake Louise looking for interesting spots to shoot. The architecture and vibrant colors in the hotel make it an absolute joy to capture, and I’m sure most of you have seen the previous photos I’ve published from my time at the Chateau. This shot was taken upstairs almost directly above the main lobby. The columns, fireplace and corner bench couches made this huge sitting room a must to photograph. I can just picture skiers who have come back to the Chateau sitting here in front of the fireplace chatting about the day with a nice warm cup of hot chocolate or coffee…hmmm…maybe I’ll have to do that next winter! Hope you enjoy it:

Canon EOS 50D, Sigman 10-20mm f/3.5, 10mm, F 8.0, ISO 100, 3 Exposures

The details: 3 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix, Lightroom for color, contrast, clarity, Noiseware for noise control.