New Website

 

Here is the link to my new Zenfolio website:

http://underwoodphotography.zenfolio.com/

Gathering of Photographers Spring Show

I will be showing 3 of my giclee prints at the Gathering of Photographers Spring Show in Downtown Austin, Texas on  Saturday, February 20th. There will be many other new Photographers showing their work and all work is for sale. If you love photography and live in or near Austin I would highly recommend planning to attend. There will be food and drink served starting at 7:00PM. The location is 707 San Jacinto St. at the Alpha and Omega Gallery.
Please rsvp by clicking this link if you are coming: http://www.meetup.com/Gathering-of-Photographers/calendar/12191472/

See you there!

Chuck

Recent Work

Sunrise on Ladybird Lake (Austin, Texas)














                                                                                                   Yellow Rose With Water Droplets
Hello, again!
 Here are a couple
of recent images I have been working on.
I spent at least a couple of hours on the Austin sunrise image. After
first making the usual adjustments (on a Raw image) in Adobe Lightroom,
I tweaked the white balance with the curves adjustment tool in Photoshop.
Still in Photoshop, I used the Topaz Adjust 3 plug-in to further refine the
image with the "adaptive exposure" and "adaptive saturation" sliders.
I then decided that I needed further adjustments to those adjusments because
certain parts of the image -  i.e. the sky, were over - processed and needed to
be selectively toned back. I did this by creating a copy of the background layer,
and then created a layer mask on that layer. Using the brush tool at a low opacity
setting, I proceeded to mask out the areas of the sky that were overdone, until
it looked good to me. This is a common workflow pattern for me, especially on
my landscape and nature images.
Each image can present its own unique set of challenges. Sometimes, If the stars are
in alignment and I've been a "good boy", there are only a few minor adjustments I need
or want to make before I am happy with the way the image looks. that being said, no
image is ever considered 100% finished in my mind. As time passes, new processing
techniques and software will come on the scene, and I have to, am compelled to, is I guess
a better term, go back to earlier "finished" work and either start over from the original
raw image file, or take one of the unsharpened semi-finished images and try to come up
with something fresh and new that I may like as much or even more than the previous work.

2010 Wall Calendar is now available on Amazon.com

My 2010 Nature's Splendor Wall Calendar is now available on Amazon.com.

If you want to see a full preview of all 12 pictures featured in the calendar, you can follow this link:

http://www.lulu.com/product/calendar/natures-splendor-wall-calendar-2010/6088399 (This is my publisher's website).

Thanks.

Chuck

Before

Digital Sandwich (Sample 1)




This is a sample of some of my recent Digital Sandwich (it's addicting!) creations.
My cat Mia was kind enough to grant me several seconds of contented sitting on
my backyard fence, so I snapped some shots with my Canon 5D using an EF 70-200 USM 2.8 lens mounted to a 2x tele-extender.

I'll post more soon.
P.S. Scroll down to the previous post for a quick tutorial on how to create a Digital Sandwich.
- Chuck

Step 1. Open your image in Photoshop. (this tutorial is for Photoshop only).




Step 2. Duplicate the background layer.




Step 3. Go to: Image>Apply Image.




Step 4. Change the blending Mode to "Screen".




Click "OK"



Step 5. (Important!) Duplicate the Background Copy layer.



Step 6. go to: Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur



Step 7. Set the radius to an amount of your choosing. I like it at somewhere between 14
and 17. I suggest experimenting with different settings until you find one you like.



Step 8. The last step is to go to the layers palette and change the Blend Mode to "Multiply".



Your Digital Sandwich is now complete. You may want to do a little extra tweaking to the image
if you feel it needs it. I may look a little too light(or dark) overall, in which case you could add a curves adjustment layer to darken (or lighten) it more to your own taste.

Image sharpened with TLR Pro Output Sharpening Panel















I want to share a new (and free) output sharpening panel for Photoshop CS4. from the folks at The Light's Right
I highly recommend it to anyone who has Photoshop CS4. It integrates beautifully with the Photoshop interface so you can access it anytime just like any other Photoshop panel.
One feature I really like is that it not only has a great unsharp mask filter, but it also has a high pass filter to add an extra dimension of sharpening that is easily adjustable to your specific tastes.
It has a variety of presets available in 4 categories: web, injet, contone, and halftone.
Even if you don't currently have Photoshop CS4 I still recommend checking out the TLR website. It's an excellent resource for free photography tips, tutorials, links, forums, Photoshop actions, the list goes on.

Enjoy!

Best Regards,
Chuck