Postcard from Sedona {Before & After}

posted December 17, 2012 in Happenings, Photographer Resources

I’ve been a long-time fan of fine art landscape photography and enjoy studying the work of the likes of David Meunch, Peter Lik, Joe Cornish. This summer, I was fortunate to meet Peter Cox and Eoghan Kavanagh in Ireland when shooting some personal work (click here to view those images). As much as I love being a wedding photographer, I equally enjoy shooting landscapes and one day dream about having a gallery show in NY or Sante Fe. Part of this requires a keen portfolio and mastery of tools and technique.

The PhaseOne IQ 140 paired with PhaseOne’s CaptureOne Pro has created a powerful new set of techniques which I am loving. I’d like to share an example of an image taken from start to finish and explain a bit behind my methodology and processing.

Sedona can serve as a landscape photographer’s best friend or worst. For every fine-art gallery showing ‘good’ work with photographer’s work who have graced the covers of Arizona Highways, there’s a nearby gallery promising to photograph one’s aura. I’m still wrapping my brain around that latter concept, and am not totally convinced a polaroid camera set on a tripod in a dark room with sparkly lights counts as a “schtick” I’d hang my shingle out. But who am I to judge good vs bad art.

However, from my own technique, I’d say without pre-visualization and a firm understanding of tools and capabilities, I’d be the first to toss this image:

But then with a little work using Capture One Pro 7, paying to shadow recovery, brightness, clarity, vignetting and some dodging and burning (all traditional darkroom techniques sans Photoshop, mind you), I was able to create this:

A closer view to highlight the painterly details:

My screen settings in Capture One Pro 7 illustrate the before adjustment and after adjustments.

My Mom once said, “You can’t polish a sneaker.”

Same could be said about a photo. You can’t make a bad photo good with software. But if you know a damn good recipe for lemonade, at least you don’t have to toss the lemons.