LAST DOLLAR ROAD NEAR THE SAN JUAN RANGE
This view of the aspen grove was made at the nine thousand foot level and all of the elements are in place. You have a nice foreground, middle ground and a striking background of dark blue sky.
The sky at high altitudes is darker than it is at lower levels, but I felt that the sky in this image could use a little extra darkening so on with the polarizer.
Notice the spacing of the dark brown patches of vegetation in the foreground. This adds another little touch to the composition.The finished image is about as close to being a perfect photograph as you can get, and I have always heard the experts say that there is no such thing as a perfect image. Well...that just depends on who is judging the finished image.
When I made the shift from film to digital, the actual process came naturally because I already knew the basics of the medium. What hung me up initially was learning how to use the computer. And then there was the processing program. I struggled with the computer for several months before I was comfortable with it.
I ended up purchasing Microsoft Digital Image 2006, and it was quite easy to walk my way through the various programs. A computer expert in the area recommended it as a great "starter" program. Heck, I am still using it five years later because it has everything I need plus more. It took me less than a day to figure out how to use most the various functions, and my philosophy has always been to keep it simple. And that applies to fine art work as well.
An engineering friend kept telling me how great Photoshop was, and that all the serious photographers used it. So, one day I broke down and dropped a hundred dollar bill on the counter and went home with Photoshop Elements 5. After one solid week of absolute total frustration, I took that program out of my computer and put the Microsoft back in. Enough was enough. I just wanted a simple program that had everything I needed. Nothing fancy!
As for RAW, I use the Nikon Picture Project 1.7. It too, is simple and easy to follow, and there are a few processing tools available for the user on page one. The Nikon program then channels your images directly into the Microsoft program with the conversion to tiff or jpeg already made. The simpler it is, the better I like it, and the results that I have obtained during the past few years vouch for the end results.
My objective was to obtain stock-art quality for the agency that handles my work, and my computer programs meet their quality standards.
I am from the old school, and I like to get the exposures right the first time. So why mess with Mother Nature. I have become a bit spoiled by the simplicity and accessability of the tools on my Microsoft program.cc
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