Bill Buchanan, HonPSA, FGDC
About the Image(s)
I dug deep into my hard drive for this month’s image, which I captured with my then-new Canon 7D and an 18-135mm kit lens during the 2010 PSA Conference in Charleston, SC.
This image was shot using a manual five-exposure sequence at f/13 and ISO 100. The original RAW files were processed in DxO PureRAW 4, then imported into Photomatix Pro 7.1, where I processed them as an enhanced HDR image. Next, I imported the image into Photoshop for further refinement. Using the Camera Raw filter, I applied a brush mask to tone down the bright areas in the background. I then created an oval mask around the bright foreground area that initially caught my eye, inverted the selection, and darkened the surrounding areas.
Following this, I applied an edge darkening vignette. To finish, I brought the image into Topaz Photo AI for sharpening and noise reduction. The final touch was adding a two-pixel gray stroke around the image.