I took this photo a year ago in downtown Pittsburgh at First Presbyterian…. They do a nice job decorating the church for the holidays.
Looking Back
I learned long ago that regardless of what I’m aiming my camera at, I always need to look behind me. Sometimes the best shot is the opposite direction in spite of my pro-shoot plans. This perspective is looking back towards the rear of the First Presbyterian Church. I posted a photo of the front of this church back on November 29th.
1st Presbyterian Christmas Tree
This beautiful old church is in downtown Pittsburgh…. They do a great job of decorating for the holidays.
To view a larger version, click HERE
Presby Again
Keeping with the season, here is another holiday photo from within First Presbyterian Church in downtown Pittsburgh. It’s a great facility and they do a nice job decorating it for the Christmas season. I took this one from the balcony.
To view a larger version, click HERE
First Presbyterian
Here is a holiday photo from years ago. This was taken many years ago now…. Brad, David and I got access to this church at something like 7am in the morning on a weekday before work. They had the church open for homeless to come in to get out of the winter weather. Good times.
Anyway, I reprocessed it using today’s technology and software. It’s amazing how much better it looks.
To view a larger version, click HERE
Pittsburgh View
Today’s post is from the East Liberty area of Pittsburgh. The larger tower in the background is the amazing East Liberty Presbyterian Church. In the foreground are the new Fairfield Apartments. I liked the new/old contrast of the photo.
To view a larger version, click HERE
Don’t forget to check out my photo galleries. I recently updated them.
East Liberty Presbyterian Cathedral
I’ve posted photos from this location in the past. This church is a great architectural accomplishment and I’ve enjoyed visiting it a number of times. This perspective is slightly different from the typical view. How do you like it?
To view a larger version, click HERE
Don’t forget to check out my photo galleries. I recently updated them.
East Liberty Presbyterian Church
Today’s photo is from the side chapel inside the East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. This little chapel doesn’t get my attention due to the amazing center chapel. But it should.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the photo above.
Cathedral Of Hope
Here is another photo from inside the East Liberty Presbyterian Church. The cathedral’s construction was completed in 1935 and was designed by Ralph Adams Cram, who was out of Boston. He referred to this cathedral as his masterpiece. Weekly planning meeting took place over four years at the Duquesne Club to prepare for this design and the construction. The committee’s time and effort paid off with this wonderful facility.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the photo above.
East Liberty Presbyterian Church
Last weekend, I got a chance to photograph the inside of this wonderful church with a few other photogs. This great facility is an architectural wonder. If you’re in East Liberty, it is worth a visit regardless of your religious beliefs.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, click the photo above.
Christmas In May ----- HDR Stages
Let’s start with the “Christmas in May”. So thinking about what to post tonight, I decided to go back to my photos from December 2011 and use a picture I took of the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. I’ve had three people in the last week mention the picture I originally posted of this church back when I took it. It occurred to me that I never really used any other pictures from that photo walk. Therefore we have Christmas In May. When I look at these pictures all I can think about is Christmas.
Here is the link of the original I posted over a year ago:
Click Here
Don’t forget to look at the rest of the post below the picture.
To purchase a print or view the entire gallery, please click the photo above.
HDR Stages:
So you’ve probably seen me comment in past blog posts about how many exposures I’ve taken and whether they were auto-brackets. So of you might be wondering what the heck I am talking about. I thought I would show you what it takes (in stages) to create my HDR photographs.
First, I take three photos or more of the same subject either manually or with an auto-bracket function on my camera. Here is what they look like for tonight’s photo right out of the camera. Notice, none of them look great, but the EV (Exposure Value 0 is what the camera thinks is the best picture and is what most camera will produce)
EV 0 - this is the exposure the camera thinks is perfect.
EV -2 This is the under exposed picture.
EV +2 This is the over exposed picture.
Then I merge them using Photomatix Pro to create the HDR image. If you are wondering what HDR is, see this earlier post that covers this topic by clicking
HERE
As you can see, the HDR picture doesn’t look great at this point and they normally don’t look good at this stage.
This is the HDR image right out of Photomatix Pro. Ugly right!!
Finally, I take the HDR image and all the original images into Photoshop CS6 to do some blending, cropping, color correction, etc…. some of which is my secret sauce. But in the end, you get the final product. On average, it takes me between 20 minutes to an hour per picture to get a final product I am happy with. Which gets us back to the final image that I posted tonight.
Final Photograph