September 11, 2012

0

beauty, color, f164, Fine Art, journal, signature, technique

Resting Place – Northwest Oregon

Folio-Resting-Place2

Resting Place – Dry Creek, Oregon, 2012 by Gavin Seim – PPA 2013 Loan Collection.

The forests of the Pacific Northwest are almost primeval in beauty. Tinkling water and gently blowing ferns make an almost unrivaled tranquility. A scene so stunning that in a story, it would be require a giant beast or a sinister wizard to balance the scales. But the tranquility is real and there are no monsters lurking in the shadows. At least, not today.

Forest light is like seasoning on a platter of summer vegetables. It tickles the palette and pleases the senses, but only if used in the right proportions. That happened here. We camped down in the forest and I started early in the morning, having scouted this Dry Creek Oregon location the day before with Nathan, as we filmed for the EXposed Workshop. In truth I did not realize how breathtaking it was until I stood there the following morning. I made my images and then wandered up to the waterfall just a few hundred yards upstream, poking around and peacefully musing about the forest light. I like to muse.

Awhile later I was about to leave when I saw the light. It was beautiful before, but suddenly the sun moved to just the right position when the radiance glimmered and danced through the foliage. Not to harsh, as often happens from high sun over a forest. Just that perfect glow. I quickly setup again and made this image, thankful that I had not rushed away to breakfast, or assumed that the first light was the best I could get. The reward for my patience was Resting Place. Perhaps the best pictorial I have ever made, and certainly one I’m very proud of.

Resting Place – Dry Creek, Oregon.

Release details: Prints Available Now. Order Open Edition originals above. Master prints and Signature Limited Editions can be ordered by contacting gallery.

Currently Released prints….

 

For Photographers. How it was made…

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March 17, 2012

0

lightroom, news, presets, ProPhotoShow, special effects, Updates

Color Fantasies 1.7 – Better Effects, LR4 Compatible.

Color Fantasies presets have been a popular collection for those that love playing with creative color. But today they just stepped up another notch. Version 1.71 is an update that makes Color Fantasies fully Lightroom 4 compatible and adds tons of refinements to effects (for all versions of LR).

Color Fantasies 1.7 presets now include a set for Lightroom 1-3 and another set for LR4. Both sets include every Color Fantasies effect and t0 top it off, v1.7 is a totally free update for current owners.

If you own Color Fantasies, you should already have your download email at your purchase address. If not, just get in touch (effects@seimstudios.com) and let us know the email you purchased them from. Gavin will set you up.

If you don’t have Color Fantasies, check them out here and don’t miss out on the powerful versatile color bending presets for Lightroom.

 

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January 6, 2012

0

beauty, color, f164, Fine Art, journal, National Park, Nature, signature, technique

Evening Passage – Mount Rainier National Park

Evening Passage. Upper Tipsoo Lake, Mount Rainier National Park, Fall 2011, by Gavin Seim.

We made a trip this fall into the forests above Yakima, below the rear entrance of Mount Rainier national park. It’s a breathtaking view up here if the weather favors you. And while it was pretty grey on this evening around sunset, the sky had it’s moments and beauty. There was indeed a gentle subtlety singing in those peaks, hidden away within the folds of light and shadow,

The result is Evening passage, a silent reflection in the upper lake, made calmer my the gentle passing of clouds and ripples in this long sunset exposure.

Release Details: Prints Currently available. Contact the Studio for availability and ordering.

For Photographers. How it was made…

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August 23, 2011

14

Aperture Freebies, Aperture Presets, Free Effects & Goodies, free lightroom presets, lightroom, presets

Softly Sunset. A FREE preset for Lightroom & Aperture.

I’ve been refining a new effect for a gentle warm sunset feel. This result is something that may well find it’s way into my Color Fantasies and Lightflow collections in the future, but I thought it would make a great freebie for you readers today.

It was interesting making the same effect side by side in both LR and Aperture.I don’t plan to do that with everything, as both my Lightroom and Aperture preset collection have their own effects that suit the tools available in each. But it was a good challenge to use the varying tools of both applications for the same effect. While their not identical, the preset should run very close on a RAW file in Lightroom or in Aperture. Cross platform. Oh yea.

This effect is gentle. Well suited for pictorial or portrait work, where a warm gentle process is needed. It’s meant to be used like a summer breeze. Not sharp, but not dull. Not too hot, but enough to make you smile. I really like it and I hope you will too. Below is a quick example of what the preset does. You can download it via the link. Enjoy… Gavin Seim

 

Download The Presets (Lightroom/Aperture) ZIP

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July 6, 2011

4

color, f164, journal, musings, Nature, science, technique

The River Fork… A Look at Sensor Noise and Heat.

River Forks, Snoqualmie National Forest, Summer 2011. Non released example image, 8 minute exposure at ISO 100.

This is for you photographers. It’s an 8 minute exposure I did just after sunset on the river. I processed it with the Velvius preset from Power Workflow3. It’s not a stunning image and that’s not why I posted it. I felt it was a good image to use to talk a bit about pixel science.

To me, what merits discussion is the noise. I’ve done images much longer than 8 minutes. The longer the exposure, the more potential for noise to be generated as the sensor heats up. But, as myself and some others have found, the warmer the environment, the worse it seems to get. It was probably in the low 70’s here in the mountains, and the warmer temperature seemed to make a great deal of difference compared to images I’ve done in cooler environments.

Look at the image and the crop section I posted below. The noise produces a banding-like effect on the frame that really reduces quality. The large color artifacts are easy enough to fix, but there’s an almost patterned, under-the-surface noise that really is a challenge. And this was with in camera long exposure reduction turned ON.

I talked about this type of noise in depth in the making of 140 Minutes of Night ( 2+ hour long exposure) and looked at techniques to deal with it, but it’s not easy to correct. When you get into bad heat noise, the plethora of noise plugins and tools we have won’t just take it away. Well, they will, but only at the cost of losing a lot of detail everywhere else. And that’s just not acceptable.

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