Clouds After Meteor

I took this photo the morning after a meteor lit up northern Utah on November 18th, 2009. Here is a link to the news article on KSL 

Posted via web from Nathan's Posterous

Concerts and Theater

Here are some of my favorites from my new Events Gallery showcasing concerts, dancing, plays, parties and parades.

This was taken at a concert featuring the bands Silent Envy and Scarlet Grey. I used a flash and 3 second exposure to get the two expressions.

I took this photo at a swing dance club in Ogden, Utah called "The Cowboy."

The comedy improv group known as the Thrillionaires asked me to take some photos of a production featuring Kirby Heyborne.

This photo was taken at Alexander's Print Advantage 30th Anniversary Celebration.

This photo was taken during the Provo City 4th of July Parade, 2009.

Simple Photograph Enhancements

A friend of mine wanted to know how I made this photo go from this ordinary Snow Leopard Cub photo:

 To this enhanced version in under 5 minutes:

So here's my process for basic photo enhancement.

In hindsight, I took quite a few photos of this cat. I try to take several photos of the same subject, that way I have lots of options when it comes time to edit. Sometimes the best photo comes from the most unusual angle, I move around and try different camera settings. Digital media is reusable, and slight variations can make the difference between an OK snapshot and a great photo.


Once I decide on a photo, I open it in Adobe Photoshop. There are many other excellent graphic programs you can use like Picasa, GIMP or Paintshop Pro.


The very first settings I adjust are Brightness and Contrast; its amazing how a little bit of contrast can make details stand out and enrich color. In this photo I increased the contrast and lowered the brightness, notice how the fence in the background almost completely disappears. I like the effect of the brightness and contrast settings, so I might just call it done, but I like to experiment.

In this photo I pushed Saturation nearly to the limit and every tiny bit of color jumps out. I try to keep my photos in a little more realistic hue so I toned it down for my final rendition of the shot. Also, I find the branches in the background suddenly are distracting because of the increased saturation.






Removing all saturation results in a black and white photo, this can have a dramatic impact and is always fun to try. In this particular instance I feel the cub gets a little lost and the impact of the photo is lessened, but still its crucial to experiment and see what works.





The most important thing I keep in mind is the focus of the photo. That is, what do I want people to notice or feel when they look at the photo? Will the change I made help people find the subject of my photo or is it distracting from that focus?

In short, remember these three basic settings: Brightness, Contrast and Saturation. Of course there are thousands of other variables that constitute a good photo, but I like to start with those.

Just for fun, this version has a "spot focus" on the cub to draw even more attention the cub.