High Noon in the Old West

I have to admit, I enjoyed the challenge of shooting in the contrasty light of high noon. I actually looked for situations where I could play with HDR for a couple of reasons. I had a new way I wanted to finish my HDR images pushing the edge of Elvis on Velvet without going there and, had new HDR software I was asked to beta test (not so hot). For the most part I liked my new approach to finishing of the HDR in Photoshop (nothing different in Photomatix). It’s still a work in progress to achieve what I was seeing in my mind’s eye on paper. My bud RC got me to thinkin about it, now to keeping moving forward with that thought.

I wasn’t going HDR just because I could, I wanted to achieve a certain look. I wanted to bring some of that “old” Hollywood western light & warmth to the images while not going cross the line. I reached my goal 50% of the time which ain’t to bad for experimenting with new ideas. This image from inside the grocery store turned out to my liking.  So did the bed and wagon wheel. Jury still out on the Model Ts. I assembled a little collection of what I’ve finished from our two hours of shooting for you to check out. You can see them here, enjoy! And the very last image, that’s no HDR, it’s just one I like.

And be sure to check out Jake’s blog, a couple of very sweet images from the same shoot!

Photos captured by D3s, 24 & 45 PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film