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Fuji, VSCO Film, and the Salton Sea

I haven't been able to get out to shoot the past couple weeks so I've been spending a lot of time combing through the archives. What I've come to realize is that my style of shooting hasn't changed much over the past five years. The thing that has varied quite a bit has been my post processing. While I still lean towards creating very high contrast images, the vibrancy of those images seems to have decreased. From comparing my current photographs to those in the past, I can see a definite change in my work.

This change may be partly attributed to my purchase of the Fujifilm X100 last year because I really like its film simulation modes. I like them so much in fact that I shot JPEGs using (mostly) the Astia film simulation mode for almost a year. Now that I'm shooting more and more with the X-Pro1, I find myself slowly shifting into shooting RAW+JPEG, something I've never done. This is partly because I want the extra data in the RAW files for my long exposure photographs and partly because I like the option of getting more creative with my post processing.

This brings me to the latest tool in my post processing toolkit, VSCO Film. Having gone back and forth for weeks, I finally took the plunge today and purchased the classic films (02) presets for Lightroom. My first impression is that the presets are much more subtle than I thought they would be, and that's a good thing. I was a little worried that they would give my images that over-processed look that I just don't like. Having used it to re-edit a few of my old images, I can say that is certainly not the case. The presets altered my images just enough to provide the look of film without making them look over processed. To give you an idea, here are a couple images I made of my friend's dog, Charley, back in 2010 at the Salton Sea. Both photographs were shot using my Canon 40D and a Lensbaby Composer and edited using the Fuji Superia 100++ preset.

Experimenting with Color Efex Pro

A lot of the images I've been sharing recently have been black and white conversions from Silver Efex Pro. Partly because I've been trying to refine my conversions with the new plugin and partly because I've been quite focused on long exposure photography. To give myself a break from the black and white conversions, I did a bit of experimenting with one of the other plugins from the Nik Collection I purchased back in March; Color Efex Pro 4. 

Editing in Color Efex Pro 4  

As you can see, the interface of Color Efex Pro is very similar to Silver Efex Pro. The difference is that Color Efex Pro allows you to stack multiple filters, much like Nik's mobile app; Snapseed. Having used Snapseed for a while now, I felt right at home making adjustments and adding filters in Color Efex Pro. The great thing about Nik's plugins is that they let me get in and out of them quickly. Since the interface is simple and straightforward, I can make my edits in a few minutes and be back in Lightroom to fine tune my images for export.

I must admit I was a little overwhelmed at first with all the filters available in Color Efex Pro. But after I narrowed my selection down to the filters in the Landscape category, I was able to find some that worked well for the images I was editing. A couple of my favorites thus far are the Detail Extractor and Sunlight filters. I've only spent a few hours with Color Efex Pro, but now that I've given it a chance, I'm sure I'll be using it more and more. Here are a few photographs from a recent trip to Corona del Mar that I edited in Color Efex Pro this evening.

The Getty

The Getty is one of my favorite places in Los Angeles and the first place I visited with my first DSLR back in 2008. Since that time, I've returned many times, with many cameras, and made many, many photographs. No matter how many times I return however, I never grow tired of the wonderful architecture or the inspiring exhibits. 

We spent some time people watching in the garden during our trip this weekend and I noticed how much fun everyone was having capturing the flowers throughout the garden with every type of camera imaginable. I thought back about my first trip with my shiny, new DSLR and the fun I had experimenting with depth of field and shutter speeds. It was a good reminder of the simple joy I use to get from looking through the viewfinder, clicking the shutter, and seeing the image on the back of my camera. It sounds so simple, but then again, that's kind of the point. Photography can be as challenging and difficult as we make it, but sometimes it's important to let all that go and just snap away for the sake of making pictures.

Exploring Waterfalls with the Fujifilm X100

We recently returned from a week in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and I've spent the last few days editing my images from the trip. During our time in the parks, I had the opportunity to photograph three waterfalls: Topoka Falls, Grizzly Falls, and Roaring River Falls. While reviewing my images of these waterfalls, I was once again reminded of just how versatile the X100 is as a travel camera. Before leaving, I picked up a step up ring so I could use my ND filters with the X100. This, combined with the built-in 3 stop ND filter gave me the ability to extend my exposures even when shooting in bright midday sun. 

The following images, which were all edited in Lightroom 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2, are some examples of the long exposure capabilities of the X100. Even though I am enjoying my new X-Pro1 (and had it with me the entire week), the fact that I can travel light with the X100 and a small tripod may make me think twice the next time I pack my gear for a trip.

Roaring River Falls - 25 seconds at f/16

Grizzly Falls - 12 seconds at f/8

Topoka Falls - 1/2 second at f/16

Rework with Silver Efex Pro

Since I didn't an opportunity to shoot this week, I spent some time reworking one of my photographs posted a couple weeks back of the Newport Pier using Silver Efex Pro 2. The original image I posted was converted and edited using Lightroom 4. Since I shot the original image in raw, I started by converting it to black and white using the Red Hi-Contrast Filter preset in Lightroom. From there, I made the normal tonal adjustments using the Basic panel and finished by applying a Graduated Filter to the top, left, and bottom of the image. I did this instead of applying a vignette because I wanted to darken the edges slightly without completely losing the blacks in the pier. 

Newport Pier original

To compare the results from Lightroom and Silver Efex Pro, I created a Virtual Copy of my original image and reset all the adjustments I made except for cropping. I then opened the image in Silver Efex Pro from Lightroom and applied the Full Contrast and Structure preset. Of all the available presets, this one seems to be my favorite so far. As you can see in the screenshot, the image quickly took on a very different look from what I created in Lightroom.

After applying the preset, I did some fine tuning using the Brightness, Contrast, and Structure sliders available in the right pane and used the Burn Edges adjustment to slightly darken the edges.

Newport Pier in Silver Efex Pro 2

Here's the final image from Silver Efex Pro. Comparing the two outputs, they're obviously very different. But that has more to do with the edits I applied and less to do with the tools I used. I've been using Lightroom for years so I have a good idea of what I can and can't do. Since I've only been using Silver Efex Pro for a couple weeks, it'll take some time to get my workflow down. Seeing and comparing the results from both tools, I can imagine lots of possibilities when using the two together and look forward to many, many more images created using this combination.

Newport Pier rework