Playing with some new toys
Although we do not celebrate Christmas, that doesn’t mean I did not get any toys… With my birthday earlier in the month and with some spare photography money I received a few things this season and yesterday I finally had the chance to get out and play with them – well sort of. I had two real estate shoots to take care of and one of them was at a property with quite a bit of land and a horse barn.
The image above is a seven image exposure blend using my TS-E 24 II and my new Singh-Ray Color Combo. I really like how the Color Combo brought out the blue in the sky. As those of you who live here know, blue skies are quite rare here. Had I not used the filter the sky would have been whitish and I would have had to do some post processing to get the sky bluer – though it would not have looked as natural as it does here.
Above is another image with the Color Combo. While the previous image was not shifted very much, this one had a bit more shift. As you can see the vignetting with the TS-E 24 II is minimal. I generally use the TS-E 24 II for exterior shots and the TS-E 17 for interiors.
The above image used by TS-E 17. The TS-E 17 does not accept filters – though a polarizer would have had a negative effect indoors anyways. In this shot I replaced the windows in Photoshop. I did it rather quickly and am not crazy about the result but these images will be viewed small. I also used one of my new toys – Viveza by Nik Software.
This weekend I purchased the Complete Collection by Nik Software using a discount on Ron’s blog. I have been having fun playing with all of the tools in the package (except for SilverEfex – right now I do not do too much in black and white), but for real estate so far Viveza is the only one I need. I found that by adding a bit of warmth to the shot and removing some of the green the shot looks a lot better.
The above is another similar shot in these conditions. In this case the window removal came out a bit better. I honestly just used the quick select tool in Photoshop. In some cases it works well while in the previous shot I should have been a bit more careful.
Next week I have my final toy coming – well sort of. We ordered a G11 for an upcoming vacation where I will not be able to take my 5D2. Of course, it is probably foolish to think that I will have a chance to use it, as Eitan has been wanting that camera and will quickly take it from me. 
