I arrived in Houston Sunday afternoon for my Lightroom seminar today and was greeted by some beautiful clouds that looked like it would shape up for a great sunset. Luckily, my hotel (the Hilton) has an observation deck on the 24th floor so it was really easy to get in to place to shoot.
Sadly the god beams and crazy looking clouds had faded by the time I got there, but I did manage to put my ND filter on and grab a few longer exposures during sunset. Even better, I met up with a couple of new friends, John and Arty (thanks for letting me borrow the lens!) from Promote Control, and got a sneak peak at some technology they’re working on. I have to say, if you’re in to outdoor photography and time-lapse, from what they showed me, the Promote Control looks like a great device. I’m anxious to try it out. Anyway… So it ended up being a fun evening all around and now I have cool shot to share with the class today. Have a good one!
Photo Details:
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: Nikon 24-70mm
ISO: 100
Aperture: f/8
Shutter Speed: 30 sec
Tiffen 2-8 Stop Variable ND Filter
(click to see it larger)
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
I just read the article “Why Neutral Density Filters are dead to me” and click on the next page
which is the beautiful Huston dusk shot and I bewildered as I read the shot data when I read
the entry “Tiffen 2-8 Stop Variable ND Filter” in the Photo details. Whassup?
Hey Rich – I think you missed the word “Graduated” in the title. I don’t use split or graduated ND’s anymore, but regular ND filters still play a very huge part in my photography 🙂
Hi Matt:
I am always amazed at how all your photos are so sharp. Are you using a Photoshop Plug-In to sharpen your images?
Nope. A combination of good stable tripod. Manual Focus in live view to get the sharpest photo. And good ole’ Unsharp Mask (and a little onOne Dynamic Contrast for some contrast) in post.
🙂
Great input Matt – thanks a lot!
Hey Matt,
Great shot! I use to live in Houston in the late 70’s. Good thing you don’t have to travel on the freeways … lot of cars, trucks and other stuff. 🙂 Just when I think I have all the gear I need you come up with this Tiffen vari ND. I know you mention them in your class, but I didn’t think you had one. Great job. I finally got my ND filters from B&H … travel from NYC to Parker, CO not to good with all the snow back there.
Hope all went Great at the seminar!
Dennis