"Sounds Of Magnificence"

"Sounds Of Magnificence"
© David A. Ziser

I just received a call from an old acquaintance, Fritz Noack, a master pipe organ builder and restorer and owner of Noack Organ Company [link].  We worked together about five years ago on the Plum Street Köhnken organ restoration – me doing the photography and Fritz doing the restoration.

Anyway, Fritz asked me if I could go back through my archives and find an image of that magnificent pipe organ.  This is the image I sent to Fritz.  It actually appeared on the cover of the prestigious publication, International Society of Organists Journal in 2007 [link].  It was one of my favorites.

The image is photographed in the natural light of the sanctuary.  There was quite a bit of enhancement and pixel bending done in Photoshop to complete my final result. Everyone loved it.

Camera specs: Canon 5D fitted with 24-105mm IS lens at 28mm, F5.0 @ 1/20 second, ISO 800.  Enjoy! –David

p.s. You can see the original photograph by hitting the “Read More…” link below.  I think you’ll be surprised ;~)

Original un-retouched image – yep, lots of Photoshop going on here.

One For The Road - On Lighting

Just where do you place the lights for a shot - in the one best place, of course. Check out this quick read available at Professional Photography 101 right here for a nice discussion on how to place the light in any given shot - good stuff to know.

Hey gang, that's it for me today. Everyone is back in town and back in the studio so the joint is jumping around here. I'll see everybody tomorrow. Adios, David

Pretty Cool Site Over at David Tejada's Blog

This fellow has a ton of good info over at his site. David is a annual report photographer who claims that the F-stops here. He's has been popping up over the net on blogs like the Strobist to name a few. His written and video tutorials cover a wealth of information on everything from how to shoot a cover shot portrait - the current post - to how to build a cheap ring light. Again, many well documented leaning opportunities here. Here is the link to his latest "Cover Shot" posting.

9 Easy Ways to Improve your Portrait Photography

I gave this a read over at Cheapshooter.com and thought the article had some nice ideas on how to improve the art of portrait photography. There are some good basic ideas on composition and technique - a nice article for the upcoming pro or just to review as a refresher. Give it a read right here. That's about it for today, gang. I have clients arriving in about an hour. Whoops! my client showed up early and I missed the morning post, so enjoy the afternoon read. Have a good one - see you tomorrow. --David

More Cool News with NYC Views

And You Thought 22 Megapixels Was Big

John Nack, one of the all time Photoshop gurus had this really, really interesting piece over at his blog. He posted a link to a - get this - a 13 GIGAPIXEL image of Harlem, New York. You can navigate the image, zoom super close. It is truly amazing - check out the image here. Check out the entire story at John's blog right here.

Smoke Sculpture Photography:

This piece caught my attention because I had seen some similar images by a photographer in Indiana about two years ago, but these images are just outstanding. I stumbled on them over at F1.0's site. They were produced by Mehmet Ozgur. Check out the images here. Amazing!

Lighting For Commercial Applications:

Here is a nice article on commercial lighting published by my friends over at Rangefinder Magazine. It was also written by Linda May, whom I just finished an article with last evening. More on that later. Anyway, this piece gives you some good insights as to how to get it right on your next commercial shoot. Here is the link. It's a down loadable PDF so print it out and give it a read.

Freebie of the Day - Wondershare iPod Slideshow:

Here is the description - Wondershare iPod Slideshow is an innovative and easy-to-use tool to show off your imagination and create your entertaining slideshows on iPod. Tons of dazzling transitions & Ken-burns styled effects, powerful photo/video editing, various photo/video formats to iPod mp4 files converting, and the program’s simplified three-step workflow enables you to make show-n-tell custom movies for enjoying easily on the go! Click here for the link.

Meridian iPod Dock Upscales Video to 1080p:

Hot on the heels of the Freebie of the Day News comes news of Meridian's new iPod dock. It lets you res them up to 1080p for presentation on your big screen TV. Does this have the same "ring" as giant shrimp? Anyway, that's it for today.

See everyone tomorrow, All the Best -- David