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January 20, 2014

Personal, Photography, Travel | 0 comment

MLK Memorial at sunrise

Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a holiday in the United States observing the birthday of the great civil rights leader. He fought for equal rights in the 1960’s using non-violent marches and speeches as his main vehicle for his message. There is a new memorial to MLK located at the Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, a place that does not have many monuments to people that were not presidents of the nation. It is concurrently right in the line of cherry trees that bloom in spring bringing many visitors to the area.

Tidal Basin

On this morning, there were so many photographers and TV stations that were there to cover the holiday. There were speeches and other presentations that would take place at the memorial, and of course I wanted to see what the scene would be like. It was probably not the best day to get a distraction-free view of the memorial with all the people in the area, but it was so nice to see so many that took time out of their day off to pay tribute to such a historical figure on the holiday created in his name.

It was an awesome sunrise this morning. There were lots of clouds in the sky that reflected the sun nicely across the tidal basin, and right into the memorial. With his statue facing East, the sun makes for nice portrait light when it is low in the sky. This is what so many of the photographers that got up early were waiting to capture, and today did not disappoint. After I got many photos from that vantage, I wanted to try and get something different. There are some really nice stone walkways that lead visitors to the memorial, with quotes carved into the stone.

Off Camera Flash

I did not like how the default camera settings were making the image, so I thought that adding flash would help! Here is what the manual settings in the camera looked like. I wanted to keep the deep blue in the morning sky since the blown out look did not add anything to the photo.

Next I added some flash that is warmed with an orange, or CTO gel on the front:

I really liked how this turned out – so for the final shot, I just moved back a little from the wall, and zoomed the lens out as far as it could go. This way, I could get in some of the large white stone in the background that was reflecting the rising sun. I was happy with how it came out!

MLK Memorial, Washington, DC - ©TimeLine Media — MLK Memorial, Washington, DC – ©TimeLine Media

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
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January 15, 2014

Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Printing Image on Inkjet Printers Part 2

Continuing on with my first printing project from my own inkjet printer, I first wanted to ensure that only the black ink was used in the next print. I clicked all the boxes in the dialog box to only use the black ink, but this had an unintended consequence. In choosing to only use the black ink, the printer dialog does not let you specify the type of paper. My thought was that the printer can handle this change and make the appropriate changes to get a good print. That was not the case! Here is the print:

Second inkjet print from black and white HDR image - ©TimeLine Media — Second inkjet print from black and white HDR image – ©TimeLine Media

Printing Setup

For the third attempt, I changed the paper type in the printing dialog box to match the type of paper I was using. In this case, I was using a “premium glossy” paper from Kodak. There was no specific settings or profiles for this particular paper, although I have seen instances where more professional papers and printers will let you set each. This made the biggest differences in the printing quality.

Third inkjet print from black and white HDR image - ©TimeLine Media — Third inkjet print from black and white HDR image – ©TimeLine Media

The banding is now gone, and the image takes on a picture-like quality. The first two attempts not only had banding, but you could see many of the components dots that make up the image much like duotone or newspaper printing. This third attempt, this is almost disappears completely, and gradients between the light and dark parts of the sky transition nicely between each. When you hold the photo at arm’s length, it looks almost like an optical print. I am happy with the results, but I think that I am limited with how far I can take this. If I do make any more prints, I will stick to small ones – probably 5″x7″ or smaller.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

January 14, 2014

Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Printing Image on Inkjet Printers Part 1

Lincoln Memorial - monochrome HDR - ©TimeLine Media

Because of the nature of event photography, and the way I sell my photos, I do not do any of the printing of these images using my own inkjet printers. With the amount of images that I need to print, and the number of different places that I need to send these, I outsource this task to professional photo labs. They have the expertise in doing this work, and they have the best in optical printing machines to create the best possible prints for my clients.

So, if you have come across this post because you have purchased prints from TimeLine Media before, please know that no changes will be made to how I create those photos. If I print using inkjets, it will only be for personal work for the near future. In this case it was the first experiment in printing on inkjets using this HDR photo from a recent walk in D.C.

Original File

This is an HDR image that was processed in HDR Efex Pro 2. It was subsequently converted to black and white in Silver Efex Pro 2. At this time, I wanted to try a monochrome image first. I thought it would be easier to see and fix any problems compared to adding color into the mix. Here is my first attempt with the default settings from my printer. Undoubtedly it is not pretty! To keep the changes to the images minimal, I kept the 4×6 aspect ratio. It was then printed onto 5×7 glossy paper:

Inkjet Print

Truth be told, I just hit print immediately, and did not even see a dialog box for printing settings. There is some serious banding problems in this attempt. In looking at the settings as the print was going through, the printer was using some of the color inks. It was not just using the black ink to create the print. For my second attempt, I made a few more changes in the dialog boxes prior to printing the next try.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

Posts Tagged ‘DC’

Tidal Basin

Off Camera Flash

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Printing Setup

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Original File

Inkjet Print

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