One of the greatest things that God has given humans is the ability to see beauty in the world around us. I have never noticed my dog stop and stare at the beauty of a forest or the incredible colors of a sunset, but these things have the ability to stop me in my tracks in wonder and awe. This website is my attempt to capture some of the beauty and glory of an indescribable God by capturing reflections of Him that I see in His creation.
Hi! Your photos are absolutely amazing - Thank you! May I ask what kind of camera you use? And are your photos modified at all? They really are incredible - the clarity!!!
Such a beautiful lady!
Thanks Stephen. The camera I use is an older Canon digital slr, the Rebel XT. It's a great camera and I love it.
As for modifying photos, I guess the answer is yes. I usually shoot in RAW format which means that the settings of the camera (white balance, contrast, saturation, sharpeness, etc) is not set by the camera and you can go in using Canon's software and set these settings. These are all on the camera, but this lets you set them later and not have to set them for every shot (every camera uses some kind of white balance - even the camera in my phone). Changing your white balance can drastically change the colors in your picture. I just go through and pick the one that best represented the light and color saturation I saw that day.
About the only other thing I use is an unsharp mask. That's probably where the clarity in the pictures come from. After setting my raw settings in the Canon software, I then open up Paint Shop Pro X2, duplicate the picture so I have 2 identical layers, apply the unsharp mask, then set that layer's transperency to 30-40% (I think the unsharp mask is too intense most of the time and takes away from the photo).
I started using the unsharp mask last year after wondering why my wife's little point-and-shoot camera took much sharper shots then my bigger and fancier camera. I was told about the unsharp mask, and I've been using it ever since. The way it works in kinda interesting, so here's a link that explains it and gives you an idea how it works:
http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/unsharp-mask.htm
This is just a gorgeous shot of the Statue and so different from what you normally see with the sailboats in the foreground. I REALLY like it! smiles..
fantastic shot, dave! wow! it would make a great NYC postcard if you could get it 'discovered'! :)
ps. my wv made me smile: verslity --how a drunken person would say "versatility"...or perhaps just a way we could shorten the word??