Celebration at the Station :: Memorial Day weekend 2007

[Tosspot]

Here are my photos from the Celebration at the Station event on Sunday, May 27 '07. The plan was to meet up with KCKev again, but he didn't hang around. I ran into GRID almost as soon as I arrived, and he'll have some nice fireworks photos for you from very nice vantage points. I met up with AllThingsKC as well, and we walked around taking pics together. Here we go...

[Roanoker]

Very nice!

Some of your photos with people featured remind me of Norman Rockwell paintings. I suppose many forum posters have never even heard of him. His work was displayed on every cover of the weekly publication, The Saturday Evening Post for many years. His style was distinctive and consistent. And very American. (To see examples of his work, go to Images in Google and search on "Norman Rockwell.")

I like your appropriate fireworks animations. I need to learn how to do that...

[AllThingsKC]

Wow, very nice!  I like some of the ones of the crowd - very colorful.  I think this one is my favorite:




I plan on posting some of my photos within the next day or two.   

Some of your photos with people featured remind me of Norman Rockwell paintings. I suppose many forum posters have never even heard of him. His work was displayed on every cover of the weekly publication, The Saturday Evening Post for many years. His style was distinctive and consistent. And very American. (To see examples of his work, go to Images in Google and search on "Norman Rockwell.")

Norman Rockwell is the next big exhibit at Union Station.  I might try to go to that.   

[PumpkinStalker]

Awesome fireworks pictures!  I could see those between buildings while I was at the Loose Mansion for a wedding.  Wish I could have made it down!

[DaveKCMO]

very nice. we were sitting very close to the canons... jesus, they were loud. i imagined a nearby loft owner having to pry a canonball out of their granite countertop.   

[GRID]

very nice. we were sitting very close to the canons... jesus, they were loud. i imagined a nearby loft owner having to pry a canonball out of their granite countertop.   

Those things were loud and I was on top the station!  I told my youngest that the Sprint Center is now destroyed as he was for sure those canons were firing canon balls at something.  He believed me till we drove by it.  It's so fun messing with your kids!

Great shots as usual toss.  I have not even looked at mine yet.

I guess the crowd was a bit smaller than last year because of the weather, but sill quite a crowd and quite an event.  The concert was awesome.  I hope this event continues to grow every year.

I love the clouds in this shot:

[Highlander]

He believed me till we drove by it.  It's so fun messing with your kids!

Yea, just wait until they are old enough to mess with you.

[Theiler]

Some of your photos with people featured remind me of Norman Rockwell paintings. I suppose many forum posters have never even heard of him.

I sincerely hope this is not true...

Wait... the second part, not the first part... 

[Roanoker]

I sincerely hope this is not true...

Wait... the second part, not the first part... 

Ha ha. I threw in the caveat because people younger than I (an ever increasing population) frequently twist their faces in perplexity when I refer to anyone or anything existing prior to their birth. 

[Tosspot]

I'm curious to hear what you guys think about my editing technique for these pics. Do you think it's overdone?

Allow me to elucidate my post processing workflow for the these:
1) I split the individual RAW images into three separate exposure values in Apple Aperture.
2) I then merged those three disparate exposure values in Photomatix.
3) After than, I went wild in Photoshop CS3 with the RGB curves, and the Brightness and Contrast settings.

The result of all that is a heightened dynamic range and dramatic color tone. In my own view, these adjustments make the photos more fun to look at, but I was also wondering if some of you think it's overkill.

[ComandanteCero]

I think your sense of composition and drama are pretty great, and that has come through in your pictures with and without HDR. HDR has definitely enhanced many of your photos when appropriate, but there are certainly times when it hasn't added much and in fact just distracted the eye with unnaturally darkened skies or random shadow patterns.  For example, it seems like the crowd shot allthingskc pointed out could have worked fine without HDR (or perhaps a more subtle tweaking than the overtly manipulated look the image has).

I get the sense that you're exploring what HDR can and can't do, and once you've mastered its possibilities, you'll intuitively understand when you should and when you shouldn't use it.  All I would say is don't be afraid not to use it, or to use it so subtly that it isn't apparent.  But in the end you're the only one who knows what you want to convey with your pictures, and what you want the viewer to experience, so it's ultimately up to you as to whether you feel it is or isn't overkill.

Great thread btw!

[supastudio]

I'm curious to hear what you guys think about my editing technique for these pics. Do you think it's overdone?

Allow me to elucidate my post processing workflow for the these:
1) I split the individual RAW images into three separate exposure values in Apple Aperture.
2) I then merged those three disparate exposure values in Photomatix.
3) After than, I went wild in Photoshop CS3 with the RGB curves, and the Brightness and Contrast settings.

The result of all that is a heightened dynamic range and dramatic color tone. In my own view, these adjustments make the photos more fun to look at, but I was also wondering if some of you think it's overkill.

Well, you know my opinion.  The less use of post processing, the better.  Take good quality pix in-camera makes post processing non essential, especially if you have more than 40 shots to do.  HDR does look really awesome, but its a tool that you need for certain photos, not all. 

What I learned from experience, in doing my portfolio is, quality over quantity. Having a few outstanding pieces is always better than having many mediocre pieces.  Even having a few mediocre pieces with a few outstanding pieces still doesn't out do having a few outstanding pieces alone in your portfolio.  My first portfolio had every single project I ever did at that point.  Now, my portfolio only contains my "greatest hits" which is around 5 projects.

Your shots are cool, but I don't think you need to post process so much. You sure did bump up the saturation on some of those pix that it made the grass look radioactive! And sometimes the sky gets too distracting when there are poles, powerlines, and antennas that disrupt the sky and you can see a few burned in spots next to them (like the photo with the humvee and it's antennas).  Also, in my opinion, you're also trying to make the HDR look your first priority and your not fixing the simpler/easier "problems" in your shots.  For example, some of your shots would look even better with proper cropping, slight rotation, and correcting of barrel distortion.  All three are simple fixes in photoshop (If you like, I can take a couple of these shots and show you how I would have cropped and fixed the barrel aberration).

I come from the school that photoshopping should be invisible in the final composition. While others like it when there is evident photo manipulation. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

[GRID]

Here are some of my photos.  I seem to run into toss a lot at events like this . I could use a little help here myself.  Could you vote for your favorite fireworks shot?  I really need to narrow this down a bit and what others percieve as a great shot tends to be different than what I would choose.

[supastudio]

If I were to vote, these pix would be my favorite. And this is the way I would order them if I were to display them:


This photo gives you a base point for the rest of the shots.  It's composition is clean with no extraneous objects to distract your eye.  You know exactly what your eye is supposed to see.




This shot and the following three shots have good composition. The fireworks are mostly in the frame of the shots.  The other ones you had parts of the fireworks cropped off.  Since the Liberty Memorial lends itself for symmetrical composition, all these shots had the fireworks in balance.  One shot had the fireworks heavy towards a certain side which made the shot lop sided. 


This shot I would use the clone stamp on photoshop.  I would get rid of the crane and even the incomplete federal reserve building.  It's still a great shot, but the crane is distracting. 


You left the triangles from rotating this picture.  You can get rid of these again with the clone stamp tool in PS.  Do you rotate the photos manually using the square grips when your in transform mode or do you manually input the amount of degrees? There's a simpler and precise way for rotation using the measuring tool which leaves nothing to chance. PM me if you want to know the super duper secret trick 




Finally, I chose this photo for the ending because its the exact opposite of the last three.  It's up close and personal. It's compact and vivid.

Your daytime, dusk shots were great too.  The shots of the crowd are awesome.  But, I thought these shots would go well together in a group.   

[Theiler]

I went last year... watched on TV this year.  I must say the stage this year is a vast improvement.  Also, I enjoyed watching the programming that went along with the broadcast... gave big props to DT and the arts.

[GRID]

Thanks supastudio!  I didn't even notice the error on that rotated shot, see what I mean?  Yea, I thought about cloning out the fed reserve, but now I will for sure.  I'll take any super duper secret tricks I can get .

[KCLover]

Nice thread guys. Nice pictures too.
Im taking notes as well on this stuff. Supastudio- photographer or graphic designer I take it? I'm graduating in December from Pittsburg State in commercial graphics and marketing. I wouldn't mind hearing the secret tips as well.

[AllThingsKC]

Ok, here are a few of the pictures that I took. Not as the same qaulity as Tosspot's or GRID's, but I think at least a few of them came out ok.




























































(I still have a few more that I'd like to post.  I'll do that as times allows for me.)

[beccanator]

Thanks for posting the beautiful pictures, guys! I actually saw you (Tosspot and AllThingsKC) walking around taking photos....you managed to take one of me. I'm in this one.

I really enjoyed the celebration. It was a beautiful event (Micheal Stern is dreeeaaamy!) and it was wonderful to see so many people there.

[moderne]

Could even see the fireworks from the NE Loop this year.  They seemed to be higher in the air than last year.  Norman Rockwell coming to US?  Gag!  Sentimental calendar schmaltz.  Guess it will pass as high art to most Kansas Citians.