Tyler Wainright Photography

Old Pat O’Briens | Memphis Photography

I’m usually not perusing downtown Memphis in the early morning hours but, I had some time to kill  ~9 months ago while I waited for my wife to finish the St. Jude half-marathon. While armed with my trusty Panasonic point-n-shoot camera and, an almost-dead battery on a very cold December morning no less, I was hunting around the downtown area for some great “cityscape” type of shots.

Since my battery was running on empty (the cold weather didn’t help either) I felt like I was back in the film days; I felt like I had to be very selective in the photographs I took. I had to be 100% sure that I wanted to use battery power in order to capture an image.

When I came upon the old Pat O’Briens, I was instantly drawn to not only the beautiful, early-morning Winter light, but also the simplicity of this composition. Right away I knew the tones and light would make for a strong black-and-white photography so I didn’t hesitate to fire up the camera and burn some of the precious battery power I had remaining.

I’m sure glad I had my camera with me that morning because during the same outing, although slightly earlier, I took a picture of a white picket fence in front of W.C. Handy’s old house. I’m not looking forward to the long, dark Fall nights but there’s something about Winter light that I can’t wait to capture again. Be sure to check me out on Facebook if you’d like to keep up with my photography there. You can also follow me on Twitter

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(Source: wp.me)

White Picket Fence - Downtown Memphis Photography

While waiting for my wife to finish the local half-marathon, I was wandering around downtown Memphis with my point-n-shoot camera and I spotted this fence close to the starting line. I took a few pictures of this fence but, not only was my battery running low (the cold weather didn’t help either), the back ground was very busy and people were walking all around me so I had to get creative in my framing and composition.

I really liked how the early-morning light illuminated the front of the fence while casting a shadow on the grass behind. I knew when I took this picture that I wanted to convert it into a black-and-white image in Lightroom. The conversion turned out pretty well with little adjustments to the tonal curve as well as the clarity.

Also, I added a platinum-like tone to the final image. If you’re on Facebook, be sure to like my page: Tyler Wainright Photography where I’ll post updates on all my work. You can also follow me on Twitter @tylerwainright

Yucca Plant: Memphis Botanic Gardens Photography

This is a fairly recent shot taken at the Memphis Botanic Gardens which I processed through Lightroom 3 using the Serengeti Chocolate preset from David duChemin. This awesome preset is only available if you download his new ebook,  SAFARI, A Monograph, from Craft and Vision. The 62 page ebook is worth the $4 alone plus, you get a very cool preset - it’s an awesome deal and well worth the money. 

I found this yucca plant near a walkway as I cruised around the Botanic Gardens one morning. I was drawn to its stark symmetry and also how the sunlight was illuminating the little fibers which were hanging off the sword-shaped leaves. The combination of the strong, large leaves and the soft, small little fibers adds considerable interest to the image. 

Originally, I edited this image to be in color as the greens and yellows made for a good color combination. But, once I found this new preset, I knew this image would work well with a split-tone look especially one like this which not only forces you to see the shapes within the plant but, also makes you feel as though the plant is in the middle of the desert. 

I really need to head back over to the Botanic Gardens soon. I’m afraid I’ve missed some wonderful photography opportunities but I know there will be many more this Fall. 

My Lightroom Beta has expired - Now what?

I’ve been using Adobe’s Lightroom photo editing program for a good 6 months now and I’ve become very comfortable with its interface and workflow features. It’s an understatement to say that I was bummed when I got the above error message saying that my beta trial version had expired. They could have at least given me a warning message saying that it was *about* to expire.

Oh well. 

So now I’m as a post-processing decision cross roads. Do I pony up the $300 for a Lightroom license or do I try to learn another program such as Gimp or Photoshop Elements or even Bibble Pro? I know comparing Lightroom to Gimp and/or PS Elements is like comparing oranges to apples but, as much as I love Lightroom, every now and then something comes up and I feel like I need a more traditional editor like Gimp or Elements. 

Decisions…decisions…decisions

I did download the official trial version of Lightroom 3 so I could finish the book I’m working on but that only lasts 30 days…the clock is ticking. I’d hate to lose all the edits I’ve ever made within Lightroom - I’m thinking the best solution is to use Lightroom for most images and if I need to edit anything further, I’ll fire up Gimp or even Paint.net. 

What type of post-processing solution do you use?

Small White Flowers | Memphis Photography

It has been quite a few posts since I actually shared a photograph taken with my D90. Not only has it been damn hot here lately which discourages me from spending time outdoors but also, taking and sharing images from my iPhone is so easy. 

This is an image I took a couple of weeks ago near Memphis International airport. I happened to be riding around in the car, looking for something to photograph (there’s not a lot to look at around the airport) and I spotted some plants and flowers near a few abandoned lots. Although it was extremely hot, I got out of the car and snapped a few pictures and this one is my favorite from that session.

I also wanted to share the final histogram for this photograph from Adobe’s Lightroom 3.2 beta. As you can see, there’s a lot of pure, no-detail-havin’-blacks (spike on the left) in this image but no blown highlights (right side of the graph). I intensionally darkened the image to pure black in some areas so certain parts of the image stood out against the dark background. Some photographers might think it’s wrong to lose detail in the dark areas of a photograph (or any part of your image for that matter) citing that there’s some sort of “rule” that says you’re supposed to have some detail in both your highlights and lowlights of your image. 

However, and most importantly, I was able to create an image that matched my vision when I took the photograph.  I knew this image would work well as a monochrome, or doutone image. Another thing the histogram shows is that the image has *some* color. In this case I used a magenta colored split toning preset to give the photograph a dark, purple/pink color. If I can find the original source of the download, I’ll be sure to share it with you. 

In the mean time, be sure to check out more of my work on Flickr, follow me on Twitter, and check out my new, photography page on Facebook. 

The iPhone Photography apps I use now

I’ve recently embraced the potential of using my iPhone to take pictures that I’m not only proud of but, pictures that capture my vision when my D90 is inaccessible or inappropriate. In addition to putting together my first photography book with images solely from my iPhone, I’ve downloaded 2 new photo apps in the last few days that I hope will inspire my vision even more. I love the fact that you can spend a couple of dollars and feel like you have a whole new *camera* to play around with. 

As much as I like the Hipstamatic app, I’m excited about trying Lo-Mob and Picture Show. They both seem to have some unique features that are somewhat similar to, as well as some features that I miss with the Hipstamatic app. The ability to process older images, ones taken outside of the app, is something I think would make Hipstamatic awesome. 

On top of using just a few apps to capture my images, I’m also trying to figure out the best digital photography workflow for mobile images. That’s why I love using DropBox to move my pictures to a Lightroom accessible location for easier post production work. 

With that I’ll ask - What are your favorite iPhone photography apps? Do you do any non-iPhone based post processing (in Lightroom, Photoshop, Elements, Picnik, or Photoscape)? 

Lightroom and photographing small purple flowers

I had a bunch of old slides scanned by Pixmonix a couple of months ago and I’m slowly getting around to publishing them. It’s funny because, for the most part, I can remember when and where I took photographs but, for this image, I have no idea the history behind it. I do know it was taken with an old Nikon N70 film camera and was probably shot on Fuji Velvia film.

I’ve always enjoyed photographing flowers; maybe it’s because they look beautiful on old chrome film. For this image, I processed it in Adobe’s Lightroom 3.2 beta. First, I reduced the luminance noise then I increased the blacks to help define the flowers at the bottom. Next I played around with the saturation and luminance of the greens and purples to try and make the flowers stand out a little more than they were in the original scan. 

Finally, I did a little sharpening, ran a little un-sharp mask, and then added a slight vignette to help draw the eye to the main flowers.  After that, I used Picnik to add the watermark which I know you can do in Lightroom, but I like have more control over its placement and coloring.

White Water Lily: Memphis Zoo Photography

This is my latest submission in hopes of being published in Capture Memphis 2010 due out at the end of the year. I took this photograph with my Panasonic Lumix TZ5 point-and-shoot camera and processed it in both Lightroom 3.2 and Picnik. In Lightroom I did a simple crop, some sharpening, and a little noise reduction and then exported the image. From there I pulled it into Picnik and added an effect that they call “Fancy Focus”.

The Fancy Focus effect helps draw your eye to certain areas of the photograph by blurring out and de-saturating everything outside of an selected area. For this photograph, I selected the area around the flower, which remains in focus and vibrant, while the rest of the photograph looses color and focus. This helps the flower stand out amongst the large lily pads in the background. 

I really want to get back to the zoo with my D90 to take some additional photographs of the water lilies as well as all the other great flowers and plants. And, if you like water lilies, check out my other shot of a single, pink water lily that was taken more recently.