Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Houston Zoo #1

The Bay Area Photo Club made a field trip to the Houston Zoo this past Saturday. I took a few acceptable animal photos but I think my favorite shot of the day may be this shot of a little girl in front of one of the zoo's water fountains.

Title: "Zoo Fountain Girl"


Camera / Lens: Canon 40D / Canon 100-400 L zoom
Post-processing: Photoshop CS3 > Duplicate Background Layer > Topaz Adjust plugin "Spicify" preset + custom Detail and Noise Reduction adjsutments in Luminosity blending mode > Merge Visible to New Layer > Distort Lens Correction Vignette

6 comments:

Larry J. Patrick said...

Great shot.

Not sure how you got your camera to meter this one correctly, but, you have it exposed perfectly. I really like how simple the scene is. As you look at it, you cannot help but wonder what this little girl is thinking.

Really good shot.

Larry said...

I thought you were just sitting on the bench sucking wind, but you were actually taking photos.:)

Good one. Like Larry said, good exposure betweent he highlights on the water and the dark skin of the little girl.

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Patrick and Larry!

I'm glad you guys like it! Based on how my animal pictures turned out I should have spent all my time photographing people! :-)

Cheers!
Barry

Brian Bastinelli said...

Barry----LOVE IT!

There is something about the treatment of this image that I really like. I love the color and the contrast to the background.

Very cool Image!

Barry Armer said...

Thanks Brian!

I think the "something" you like about the treatment may be the same "something" I like. As I processed this photo it didn't really work for me until I cycled through the blending modes (something I'm trying to make myself do on every photo these days) and hit the luminosity mode. I'm not into the technical aspects of Photoshop so I don't really even know how the luminosity blending mode works (and honestly I don't really care to know) but it definitely added "something" very subtly pleasing to this photo.

Cheers!
Barry

Anonymous said...

She's the cutest little thang!
Betty Tand