Category Archives: Image Manipulation

The Good Side of a Caterpillar

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My father introduced me to science fiction at an early age. He used to subscribe to Fantasy and Sci-Fi Magazines.I loved the covers and waited for him to finish reading so I could get the issue. I probably read some when I was too young and one was a story about a planet with Giant Caterpillars. It scared me to death. I can still remember the cover with giant caterpillars and one had a young damsel in it’s pincers while he was being shot at by solders with machine guns. I had nightmares and never liked caterpillars after that.

I remember when we moved to Pittsburgh from Cleveland and it was the summer of the gypsy moth. The caterplillars would crawl on my window screen and you could hear them eating the trees. The screen pulsated with insect life The roads had to be sanded because they were thick with caterpliiar guts. I guess around that time I learned about cocoons and how they turned into butterflies. I have been conflicted ever since

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The Good side of a Caterpillar

The Good side of a Caterpillar

The Second City

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There are many myths on why Chicago is called The Second City. Of course egocentric New Yorkers think it is because Chicago is second to New York. This is odd because if you think about population Los Angeles is first and if you think about age both Boston and Philadelphia are older. Bur of course New Yorkers tend to be full of themselves.

The one that is probably real is that the Chicago we know today rose from the ashes of the Great Chicago Fire of 1837. The great fire destroyed an area about 4 miles long and encompassing an area of more than 2,000 acres. It destroyed were more than 73 miles of roads, 120 miles of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts and 17,500 buildings. Of the 300,000 inhabitants of Chicago at the time,100,000 were left homeless. The City was entirely rebuilt and as you can see is looking pretty good.

This view is from the 22nd floor of a Chicago Loop high rise and prints can be purchased on my commercial site.

To see other images and buy apparel or prints, please visit my commercial gallery.

The Second City

The Second City

Speaker’s Balcony HDR Redux

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I have been experimenting a lot with Google’s NIK Collection photo editing tools. Previously I have created HDR images by using auto bracketing on my camera and combining the images with Adobe Lightroom. However, The Nik Collection offers editing tools that are pretty effective.

The advantage of HDR is the increase of detail and color adjustment in the image. I still feel that auto bracketing offers more detail because it actually changes the size of the image. The Adobe Lightroom auto combine also has a powerful de-ghosting procedure that allows you to take HDR images without the use of a tripod. However as you can see from the two images below, the NIK tool also increases detail without a dramatic increase in image size.

Not all images are improved by the HDR process and I am not sure if this image actually benefits although the change is dramatic. What’s your opinion? Comments are truly appreciated.

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From The Speakers Balcony

From The Speakers Balcony

HDR Redux

HDR Redux

Skippy Redux

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A few years a go I published skippy the Pelican. So named by me since he seemed to skip across the water. This was taken at a small harbor on Isla Mujeres a small island near Cancún in the Mexican province of Quintana Roo. I decided to edit the image using the HDR tool from the NIK Collection by Google. The new image is on top, so you be the judge. Comments appreciated.

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Skippy Redux

Skippy Redux

A Skipping Pelican

© Richard Burke 2016 All Rights Reserved

Silver Knees

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Here is a new version of an older image processing it through the Silver NIK filter from the NIK plugin pack from Adobe Lightroom. This was taken at Lettuce Lake State Park in Tampa on a misty winter day. The original image is in color but it was planned as a monochrome image. A lot of images from that day are better in monochrome.

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Silver Knees

Silver Knees

The NIK Collection from Google

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A photographer friend and former student of mine and I were discussing HDR. I have started to use auto bracketing and the new HDR merge feature of Lightroom on some images. I am generally pleased with the results.There is almost no ghosting with tripod shots. I also did hand held shots with a VR lens and the ghosting correction option worked perfectly. See Yesterday’s post

My friend suggested I try the NIK filter collection plug-in from Google which I have since installed and am really amazed with the options offered by this product. I have just started to experiment with it and so far I am wowed! I cannot yet comment on all the features but compare the two images below.

The first was done with standard editing using saturation, highlight and monochrome tools on Lightroom. The second using one of the many editing pallets from the HIK Silver plugin for Lightroom.

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Standard Editing Monochrome

Standard Editing Monochrome

NIK Silver Tool

NIK Silver Tool

New Lightroom HDR Merge

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I don’t normally write reviews on equipment or techniques. There are many people who do it much better than I do. I did write a series of technical How To articles for eHow a few years back but when they stopped paying me, I stopped writing them. Since then I have been more concerned with creativity than technology.

I have been disappointed on how difficult it has been to create HDR images. I don’t travel that much with a tripod which has been a prerequisite to do these sorts of images. I have tried HDR plug ins but have been disappointed with the results. GIMP made a pretty good plug in but the images were usually noisy or ghosted beyond repair. However, today I tried the new Merge Photo tool on the new Lightroom.

I took this picture, edited and posted it in less that 30 minutes without a tripod! I used auto bracketing on the Nikon 5200 with three images one f-stop apart. Easy to use with a great how to video on YouTube that takes four minutes to watch. Once again Adobe products continue to amaze. Wait why do I need Photoshop again? Oh yah its bundled with Lightroom.

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Lightroom HDR

Lightroom HDR

Flight

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Most people think that blending multiple images into one image began with the invention of Photoshop which is of course not true. I blended this image and many others in the darkroom in 1977 inspired by Master Photographer.Jerry Uelsmann.

Photoshop does make it easier though. To make Row for Your Life, I had to create a mask, make multiple exposures on photographic paper, process and dry. Of course it would have taken hours to get the two negatives. Shooting the images, processing the negative film, making contact prints before you could even evaluate which images you wanted to blend.

This is an image of a fall sky in Pittsburgh blended with a Pelican from Merritt Island Florida. Took an hour or so after I had the concept,

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Flight

Flight

Magic Mirror

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Milan is known for lots of things; fashion,parks,commerce,opera and great food. However, Milan is not known for its canals. Nor should it be. We found out that Milan had a canal only by reading the small print in a tour book. The canal is small and lined on one side with antique shops and clothing stores and on the other with restaurants and clubs.

In December of 2013 I published Canali di Milano which includes a scenic picture of the canal. This image of a mirror along the canal has long held my interest.

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Magic Mirror

Magic Mirror

Things I’ll Miss—Moonlit Nights

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If you follow this blog you know that for some time we have been trying to sell our house and move back to Pittsburgh. Our tablets are done (DreamMap publishing in October) and it is time to come off the mountain. Of course moving is hard work so I haven’t been taking new pictures and have been thinking of how to keep the blog “alive” during this time of transition.

Moonlit waterfalls are beautiful wether they exist in nature or are created. The moon is from our back yard, the waterfall is part of Bushkill Falls about twenty miles away.

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Summer Moon

Summer Moon