My number one goal is to make image processing a fun and enjoyable experience that doesn’t have to take hours upon hours in the ‘digital darkroom’. Whether it be for your own enjoyment or to sell your work in the form of fine art prints my simple approach to image processing allows for large scale printing and enjoyment of your work. 

Post Processing Zoom Sessions:

• $120.00/Hour and multi class package deals are available 
• Sessions are recorded for future reference and will be emailed to you directly after the class for you to keep
• In depth tutorials on how I achieve my signature ‘look’ 

We can cover a wide range of topics during these Zoom sessions; some of which include the following:

• Compositional theory
• In field techniques
• General image processing
• Advanced post processing techniques
• Perspective blending
• Exposure blending
• Focus stacking  
• Night photography image processing

And more!

Here are a few examples of Before and After Images using my Black and White post processing techniques:

Contact me to schedule a time today!

Feel free to email me at cwexplorationphotography@gmail.com for scheduling, Zoom session package rates and additional questions. 

The post Post Processing Tutorials appeared first on Chris Williams Exploration Photography.

Star trails photography can be fairly overwhelming to beginning photographers and veterans alike.  Here I will be outlining some of the key elements needed to produce exciting star trail images.  Feel free to follow me on Facebook as well for more updates.

So you ask how is it done?

To produce a star trails image you need to take several 30 second exposures in a row (no breaks in between as they leave gaps in your trails), on the order of 50+ images to really start to see the desired results.  You can read my Landscape Photography 101 posts for more detailed information on long exposure photography.

What you will need:

• A DSLR Camera
• Remote shutter release (a must for star trails)
• Tripod (a very sturdy one with no shake or movement)
• Clear skies with limited light pollution
• Post editing software (Adobe LR4 and Photoshop CS6 are my tools of choice but there are a number of third party apps)
• Time (lots and lots of time)

How to Prepare

The most important step in this whole process is finding a great location with limited light pollution and clear skies.  I often use the National Weather Service to check regional forecasts.  Finding dark skies can be very challenging (especially in Washington) but they are a must for star trails.  The go-to website that I use to locate dark night skies with limited light pollution is called the Dark Sky Finder.  This website is extremely useful and very easy to navigate. The brighter the color is on the map, the worse the conditions are for shooting the stars.  Look for locations that have no color or are blue/green in color.  These areas will provide the best viewing of the Milky Way and the stars in the sky to make for an optimal star trails photograph.

Getting the Shots

1. Set your camera up on your tripod and then set your lens to the widest possible zoom and the focusing ring to infinity.  Doing this will allow for your widest field of view (more stars) and also it will ensure that your photo is in focus.
2. Connect your remote and take some 10-15 second test shots to determine how high your ISO needs to be and where you would like your camera to be positioned.  Remember to set your aperture to the lowest possible number to let the largest amount of light in (f/2.8, f/1.4 etc.), you really need to have a very fast lens to do this type of photography.
3. Use a Star Finder app or map to look for the Milky Way or your object of interest.  If you are able to see the North Star point your camera toward it if composition allows as you will obtain complete star circles in the compiled star trails photo (think of it as a central point of rotation).
4. After making your adjustments make sure to adjust your exposure time by using the rule of 600.  I typically shoot my photos using these settings: 16mm, f/2.8, ISO 1600-2500 (depends how much light pollution is present) and 30 seconds.
5. Now comes the fun part; waiting.  You need to take a minimum of 50 photos to gain the desired effect, so patience is a must!

Editing

LR4

Editing can be a very grueling process, you need to make absolutely sure that every photo is edited in an almost identical manner (compensating for light on the earlier images at the beginning of your shoot).  You can do this using batch editing techniques in Adobe LR4 by simply selecting a number of photos by holding down the shift key and then using the Paste feature.  After you are done editing you can export the photos (jpgs) to your favorite stacking app or program (I use Photoshop CS6).  You can literally do all of this in CS6 but I like the ease and simplicity of Lightroom 4 for post processing.

CS6

To bring your photos into CS6 choose ‘File’ then ‘Scripts’ and then select ‘load files into stack’ and browse for your files then click ‘open’.  Don’t bother aligning them as they should be perfect.  The images will load in the bottom right column of the screen.  Select the top photo, scroll down and click the last photo to highlight all of the desired layers.  Now select ‘lighten’ and let CS6 do its magic.  After the photo is produced you can select which layers you would like to eliminate and polish the final product.  To finish flatten the image and save and export it as a jpeg.  Check out Youtube for some awesome tutorials.

Feel free to follow me on Facebook as well for more updates, email me at cwexplorationphotography@gmail.com for questions and print inquiries.

The post Landscape Photography 101: Star Trails Tutorial appeared first on Chris Williams Exploration Photography.

What do silky waterfalls, glass like water and millions of stars in the sky have in common?  Slow shutter speeds.  Slowing things down can really add depth and character to an image, making it stand out from the crowd.  In this post I will outline how you can use slower shutter speeds to your advantage to obtain a landscape photograph that will blow people away.

Silky Waterfalls  

Many of you have probably seen photos of waterfalls that seem to flow right before your eyes.  This is done by slowing down the shutter speed, that is leaving the sensor exposed to the image you are photographing for longer periods of time.  To do this you must shoot in the dreaded manual mode of the camera.  A lot of people are very intimidated by this, but fear not!  It’s not as bad as it seems.  Manual mode can become your best friend while shooting landscapes.  A tripod is a must for this type of photography as your camera must be absolutely still for the entire shot.  A cable release is also a much needed accessory, but if you don’t have one you can use your camera’s built in timer delay (usually between 2 and 10 seconds).

Shooting waterfalls can be fairly tricky depending upon the lighting as a sunny sky can cause an image to be ‘blown out’ or overexposed.  You need to compensate for the longer shutter speeds by keeping your ISO low and your aperture small (large f/stop numbers, think f/16-f/22) .  Another way to avoid this is aiming to shoot waterfalls under cloudy skies if possible, if not, then an ND filter is your new best friend.

An ND filter or Neutral Density filter allows you to add more f/stops to your aperture in other words less light will hit your sensor.  This is great for shooting long exposure landscape photography.  Neutral Density filters are often sold at 3, 4, 6, 9 or even higher f/stops.  This means if your particular lens is rated for f/22 a three f/stop filter will make the lens shoot at f/25.  Set your camera up on your tripod and aim to shoot for 0.5 seconds to 2 seconds for fast moving water and longer times for slower moving water.  Remember to adjust your aperture accordingly.

 The Misty Ocean and Glass Like Water

This is one of my favorite uses of long exposure photography for landscapes.  Misty oceans and glass water really require a lot of patience and low light.  For this type of photography the Magic Hours are the preferred times to shoot as you really need low light to obtain this type of shot.  Flat water and misty oceans can really only be obtained by opening the shutter for 10 seconds or longer (sometimes as long as 2 minutes).  This really requires an ND filter to achieve the best results.

As I mentioned above a tripod is very important and in this case so is a cable release.  A cable release will allow you to switch to ‘Bulb’ mode on your camera and shoot for longer than 30 seconds.

Remember to look for objects of interest when shooting these types of photos as they will add a great deal of character to your photo.  Look for trees, rocks and other objects to lead your eye.  See my Getting The Shot post for more tips.

Shooting The Stars

Astrophotography is becoming extremely popular these days.  It really is amazing how much more our cameras can capture than our eyes can see.  This type of

photography is a little less technical on the shooting end, however it can be a little difficult to edit these photos in post processing.  Your best friend for this type of photography is an ultra wide angle lens with a very wide aperture, preferably f/2.8 or lower.  This will allow a great deal more light from the stars to hit your sensor, making for much clearer and brighter night sky photos.  Tokina makes some amazing lenses for this type of photography.  Look into the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 for crop frame bodies and my new personal favorite the Tokina 16-28mm f/2.8 for full frame bodies.

The key to taking photos of this nature is dark skies.  You need to get in an area with minimal light pollution and clear skies.  This may mean that you have to drive for an hour or two away from big cities.  Once you arrive at your favorite night sky viewing area, break out your tripod.  Switch to manual mode and set your camera to the highest aperture possible (small f/stop numbers) such as f/2.8 or f/1.4.  The next step is to adjust the ISO to around 1600-3200.  The higher the ISO the noisier the photo is, so take a few test shots to determine what works best.  Set your lens to the widest possible zoom and the focusing ring to infinity.  Choosing the shutter speed is the trickiest part of astrophotography.

You need to follow the rule of 600 to take in to account the rotation of the earth.  Take the number 600 and divide it by your focal length.  An example of this follows: say you want to shoot at 16mm, take 600/16mm and you get 37.5 seconds.  That’s the longest amount of time you can shoot for without getting blurry or trailing stars.  I normally shoot for 30 seconds max as longer shutter speeds can lead to blurry or less sharp stars.  Star trails can be obtained by stacking 50-350 30 second images in post processing software.  You get something like the image seen above once you finish the editing process.

The post Landscape Photography 101: Long Exposures Tutorial appeared first on Chris Williams Exploration Photography.

Landscape photography can be very challenging, but with the right skill set and some perseverance you too, can set yourself apart from the crowd.  Here, I will be outlining a few tips and tricks that I think are essential to getting a great landscape photograph.

1.) Use A Tripod

This may seem trivial, but a tripod is essential to getting the perfect shot.  Not only does it add stability, but it also helps you to avoid camera shake and enables you to use longer shutter speeds for low light conditions or to capture beautiful silky waterfalls, like the one pictured here.  Even at extremely fast shutter speeds a tripod can help you to line up your shot and maintain consistency throughout your entire photography session.   A cable release and or a remote control can also be used in addition to a tripod to ensure that the camera doesn’t move or vibrate during the shot.

2.) Look For A Focal Point 

When you’re looking at a vast landscape what stands out to you?  A roaring waterfall, an old tree, maybe a mountain?  These are all considered focal points.  Focal points or subjects are crucial to getting the perfect landscape photograph and can really add character and depth to a photo.  A focal point also helps to lead your eye through the photograph giving it a nice ‘flow’.

Try to frame your focal point of interest to add depth to the photo.  The rule of thirds is often referred to by photographers when discussing focal points but it can be a bit confusing.  The main idea is to avoid cluttering an image with multiple points of interest while also avoiding too much open space in the photo.  It’s a bit of a ying and yang principle.

3.) Depth Of Field (DOF) and Focus Stacking   

Depth of field is very important to capturing every detail possible in a landscape.  The main idea is to have as much of landscape in focus as you can.  A wide angle lens can be very useful for this but another way to go about it is to use an extremely small aperture.  This means setting your camera to a high f/stop number i.e. f/22 or f/16.  This allows for greater DOF to be obtained.  It’s important to keep in mind though that this will darken your image a lot as it blocks more light from hitting the sensor of the camera.  To counter this you can increase your shutter speed to allow more light into the photo.  You can also increase your ISO but this can sometimes lead to grainy photos, so try to adjust your shutter speed first.  Focus stacking is the key to obtaining pin point sharpness throughout your images.  I always start with the subjects closest to me first and then move to the back of the image.  This means that you get the object closest to you in focus first and take a photo, move to the next point and take a photo.  You do this as many times as necessary to achieve a sharp image from front to back.  To put an image like this together you need to load the layers into Photoshop, align them and then blend them using the action in Photoshop.

4.) The Foreground

This is another crucial element to setting your photo apart from the rest.  An example of this would be an alpine meadow with a large mountain range in the background.  Pick a foreground that will add a sense of depth and character to your image.  Gorgeous wildflowers are often the choice foreground for most photographers; but anything of interest can be a foreground element; a log, rocks, water you name it!

5.) The Sky

The sky can add a great deal of character to your image, but it’s important to avoid adding too much to the shot as it will take away from your focal point (remember the rule of thirds).  For instance if you have a pristine blue sky, don’t let it dominate the image as it can take away from your focal point.  If you have interesting clouds or an amazing sunset to work with then make that more of a focus in your shot, maybe even the entire foreground.  Using lens filters can also add drama and color to the sky your working with.

6.) The Weather

Here in the Pacific Northwest we are quite accustomed to clouds and rain, but don’t let that discourage you!  In fact I encourage you to go shooting in less than optimal weather conditions.  A stormy sky can often add a great deal of character to the image and can really make your photo stand out from the crowed.  I encourage you to look up, look for dramatic clouds, foggy skies, misty mornings as these things can all add a great deal of character to an image.

 7.) Lines and the Horizon

While photographing landscapes a tripod can be an immense help when it comes to keeping a straight horizon line.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come home to find that my horizons weren’t perfect (this can be fixed with post processing but it’s better to get it right the first time).    Try to adjust your horizon based upon your foreground.  By adjusting the horizon you can get more or less of the sky in your shot.

Lines can also add a great deal of depth to an image and can also help to frame the photo.  A river, road or even a valley can help lead the eye to your object of interest.  Look for lines that add depth to the photo, they can even be a focal point in your image.

8.) Photographing Movement

Slow shutter speeds are your best friend while trying to photograph movement.  A silky waterfall is a classic example of this technique but there are many other uses for this type of photography such as long exposures involving a freeway full of cars, waves in the ocean or even the stars in the sky.  Movement in a photo can add drama and a sense of actually ‘being there’ to the photo.  Longer shutter speeds allow a great deal more light to hit your sensor, so remember to adjust your aperture accordingly (bigger f/numbers).

9.) Golden or Magic Hours

Timing is everything!  Instead of shooting a photograph in the middle of the day wait until sunset or dusk or even sunrise to add more character and richness to the photo.  The colors, the lighting and the conditions will make for a much more dramatic and appealing image.

10.) Perspective

Sometimes looking straight out over a vast landscape will leave you with a boring image.  Get dirty.  Shoot low, look for flowers and other objects and points of interest.  Look for unique angles and different points of view to give your shot character and set it apart from the rest.

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