Trey Ratcliff Releases HDR DVD!

Trey Ratcliff of “Stuck in Customs” just released his long awaited HDR DVD tutorial. His packages not only includes hours of tutorials, you also get access to private sections of his website stuckincustoms.com along with many other extras. When it comes to learning HDR no one else is offering anything close to this comprehensive, this is an amazing offer. There are 2 packages, basic and premium, details are below:

Basic Package: $197

• 3 DVD Set
• 334 Minutes – 5 hours and 34 minutes
• Many step-by-step on-screen tutorials (screen-captured video and more)
• Access to “The Clubhouse”
  • A private section of StuckInCustoms.com
  • Access-only forums for private discussions
  • Get the latest techniques, information, and more
  • Open discussion area for questions and how-tos
  • Compare notes and photos with other hardcore post-processing enthusiasts!

Premium Package: $397

• 4 DVD Set – 1 Extra DVD
• Many step-by-step on-screen tutorials (screen-captured video and more)
• Access to “The Clubhouse”
  • A private section of StuckInCustoms.com
  • Access-only forums for private discussions
  • Get the latest techniques, information, and more
  • Open discussion area for questions and how-tos
  • Compare notes and photos with other hardcore post-processing enthusiasts!
• Premium Only: 388 Minutes – 6 hours and 28 minutes
• Premium Only: Over 100 Working Files – Bracketed photos for following along
• Premium Only: Bonus Bracketed images straight from Trey’s camera for practice
• Premium Only: Free eBook – Top 10 Mistakes in HDR Processing, Bonus Edition
• Premium Only: 3 Bonus Screencast Tutorials with new techniques!

I can’t wait to get my hands on this!!

Desert Motel

On my recent Globe/Miami trip I shot this awesome motel sign. I love the colors and the desert background. This image was merged in PhotomatixPro and touched up in Lightroom 3.

Phoenix Sunset

Phoenix sunsets have been very colorful lately. Last Thursday night I saw an incredible red sky just after sunset in Scottsdale. This image is a sunset I saw Saturday evening driving home. The church is something I’ve been wanting to shoot for a while, and when I saw the pink/blue sunset I had to stop. After merging and tonemapping in Photomatix, I punched the colors a bit in Lightroom 3 with the vibrance slider and then in Photoshop CS5 with the Nik filters Color Efex Pro and Viveza.

Book Review: Chasing Reflections by Eli Reinholdsten

Craft and Vision just released a wonderful e-book by Eli Reinhoildsten called “Chasing Reflections”.  Eli has a passion for shooting reflections and she is darn good at it . What I love about her work is the complex stories she captures in the reflections. This 72 page e-book is not only filled with her images, but she also shares some simple tips on chasing your own reflections. I especially love the idea of shooting a mirror inside a shop window, combining the window reflection and the mirror reflection gives a really unique point of view. Some of her images are so complex that it takes a little time looking at it to figure out what’s the reflection and what’s real. I appreciate her “breakdown” of how her shots were done towards end of the book- makes me want to chase my own reflections. The best part of this e-book is the price, at $5 it’s a steal! You can pick it up at craftandvision.com

Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk

Yesterday I lead a walk for the 3rd annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk here in Phoenix. We did a walk in downtown Phoenix, starting at the Arizona Center. There were a total of 15 photographers brave enough to tackle the Phoenix heat, luckily we started early enough that the heat wasn’t that bad.

We shot St. Mary’s Basilica, San Carlos Hotel, Orpheum Theater, Old Phoenix City Hall and more. Here are a few of my favorites.

Signs, Signs

This past Sunday I hit the road at 5am to shoot Globe and Miami, Arizona. We had amazing clouds over the weekend and I wanted to get out and shoot before the clouds blew away. Globe and Miami are still mining towns with cool historic buildings and lots of vintage signs and stuff. I really loved the old hotel signs along highway 60.

Processed with photomatix, lightroom 3 and photoshop cs5

Book Review: Safari, A Monograph by David duChemin

SAFARI, A Monograph is the second in the series The Print & The Process. David duChemin unpacks the images from a 10-day safari in Kenya, first letting the images speak for themselves then diving deep into the process behind the photographs. The book starts with just the images, and as always the images are strong and beautiful. I really like the duo-tone look of the safari images, it’s certainly different than your usual safari image. In the 2nd part of the book you get an opportunity to hear David’s thoughts about each image. He discusses the process of making the images, the composition, the location issues and he even shares his duo-tone lightroom preset as a free download. He also talks a little about gear, what he took with him on safari and what he could have left behind. I found this book inspiring and insightful and even though I doubt I would go on safari I enjoyed it. SAFARI, A Monograph a 62-page PDF is available now for $5 as a downloadable PDF ebook. Special Offer For the first four days only, if you use the promotional code  SAFARI4 when you checkout, you can have SAFARI, A Monograph for only $4 OR use the code  SAFARI20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST JULY 11, 2010 This ebook is a steal at $5, so getting for $4 is an extra special deal. With the amazing low cost of all of David’s ebooks ($5 each) I recommend you grab all of them (that’s what I did!).

Unified Color Announces HDR Expose

Unified Color Technologies, announced today the launch of their next generation in HDR processing software, HDR Expose™. HDR Expose will replace their current product, HDR PhotoStudio.  HDR Expose offers new features that include the addition of interactive HDR histogram, digital color readout, multiple ghost reduction options, plug-ins for Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture, and a sleek, intuitive user interface that enables photographers to create true-to-life HDR images. Unified Color Technologies is the only company offering HDR solutions that provide full 32-bit color editing capabilities based on its patented Beyond RGB™ color space.

Fireworks

Yesterday I went out to shoot fireworks for the first time, no I didn’t “shoot fireworks” I shot photos of fireworks. Me and about 20 other photographers staked out our spots on the north side of Tempe Town Lake. For those who do not live in Arizona, it was hot, about 100 degrees at least!! I had a great time and I think I got several nice images, check out a few of my favorites.

Book Review: Top 10 Common HDR Mistakes by Trey Ratcliff

I recently had the opportunity to read Trey Ratcliff’s latest ebook “Top 10 Common HDR Mistakes”. Trey is known for his HDR images and his Stuck in Customs website.

I really enjoyed the ebook, his examples of the common mistakes are taken from actual mistakes he has made over the years. I appreciated that he choose to use some of his early HDR images as examples of what NOT to do. This shows that he is not afraid of his mistakes, he states in the book..

“I believe any one can get better by analyzing mistakes, forgiving the mistakes, and then moving on to create more, different, and better mistakes in the future”, Trey Ratcliff

Not only does he list his  top 10 mistakes, he also offers fixes for them, however some of his “fixes” were very vague. For example, when dealing with halos, he says “watch luminosity slider” or  “clean it up in photoshop”.  It would have been nice to see more details on techniques to clean up the halos in photoshop.

All in all I enjoyed the ebook very much and gained some useful tips for my own HDR process. I think this ebook is a must read for those who are doing HDR, whether you are an old pro or a beginner.