Short Video of Portfolio

Hello everyone and welcome to Impacted Images. This is a short video I made with a couple of images from my gallery.

Today's Image: Composite "Sun Behind Earth"

Good morning everyone and welcome back to Impacted Images. This is a special image for today, my newest composite "Sun Behind Earth."


All the elements in the scene were created in Photoshop CS5.

To start off, I made the background by painting white dots on a layer, then duplicating and resizing them. This created the starry background.

Next, I created planet Earth by using Photoshop's "3D Object from Layer" command. I chose the sphere and changed the texture to a satellite image of Earth. This created a 3D Earth-like planet.

I then used the Lens Flare filter on a separate layer and chose the 35mm preset. However, the lens flare was on a black background, so I moved the Underlying Layer slider in the Blending Options a little to the right. I also erased some of the remaining black with a large, soft eraser.

I made a copy of the earth layer and darkened it to set the backlighting. The sun is just a white circle with Box Blur applied.

To make the sun rays, I painted several rays of white and then used the Polar Coordinates filter to rotate them around the sun. A few adjustments of Free Transform and Skew, and the image was complete.

Here is the complete composite:

"Sun Behind Earth"

Thank you very much for visiting Impacted Images. I will post more images soon.

Today's Image: "Skyknife"

Good afternoon and welcome back to Impacted Images. This is today's image overview, featuring my latest image, "Skyknife."


This is the original image:

I took this image with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens zoomed in all the way to 270mm. I used 1/250th shutter speed and f-40 for best sharpness and depth of field. The ISO was set to 125.

A Canon Speedlite 580EX II firing at 1/32nd power was above the subject pointed to the nose of the helicopter.

Today's Image: "HDR Sky"

Welcome back to Impacted Images. This is today's image overview, which features my latest photograph, "HDR Sky."

This is the untouched HDR image after being combined from five pictures in Photomatix Pro 4.2:

The images were taken with a Canon 7D using 1/1000th, 1/500th, 1/160th, 1/100th, and 1/50th shutter speed. I used ISO 400 and f-5.6 since the sun was already setting behind the houses.

In Photoshop, I first cropped in more tightly to focus attention on the sky and not the grass in the foreground. I then used a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer and set the Brightness to 30 with the Contrast to 75.

Next, I used the Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 plug-in and chose the Tonal Contrast filter. However, after adding the Tonal Contrast filter, the grass had too much contrast. I used a mask to paint the lower half of the image out, leaving the contrast only in the sky. I next added another Tonal Contrast layer to just the grass for a more vivid image.

I then used Alien Skin Exposure 3's Color Film filter and used Kodak Ektachrome 100. I slightly adjusted the Contrast, Midtones and Highlights slider inside Exposure 3.

This is the final image:

Thank you for reading Impacted Images. More image overviews are coming soon.

Today's Image: "Reading Statue"

Good morning and welcome back to Impacted Images. This is the image for today, "Reading Statue."


The image is actually a combination of these two pictures:

The main image above was taken with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens zoomed in to 91mm. I used 1/100th shutter speed and f-11 for maximum depth of field and sharpness. I chose ISO 125 for less noise. A Canon Speedlite 580EX II is at camera left, subject right, firing at 1/16th power.

This image was also taken with ISO 125, but for this shot I used 1/160th shutter speed and f-14.0.  The flash was behind the subject at camera right illuminating the side of the statue.

Series: "Church Fire"

Welcome back to Impacted Images. These photos are from my series "Church Fire."

I took these photos when I went with my dad while he was covering a church fire. This fire could be seen from miles away. It lasted for four hours.

All images were taken with a Canon Powershot A630.

Special: "LEGO Knights Final Part"

Hello and welcome once again to Impacted Images. This is a special post with the last two images of my "LEGO Knights" series.

The original images were taken with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens. I did not use flash for these images, I used a desk lamp to light up the scene instead.

All elements of the scene except the knights were created in Photoshop CS5.

I hope you enjoyed these images; I will continue to post new images each day.

Today's Image: "Galileo's Thermometer"

Hello and welcome back to Impacted Images. This is the post for today, featuring my latest image, "Galileo's Thermometer."


This is the original untouched image:

I took this image with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens zoomed in to 42mm. To camera left, subject right I set up a Canon Speedlite 580EX II firing at 1/8th power and Zoom set to 105.
I used 1/250th shutter speed to eliminate shake and f-18 for better sharpness.  I also used ISO 160 for minimum noise.

The reason I chose to shoot with a black background was so the colors in the bulbs could pop out better. With a white background, there was a lot of reflection and the thermometer was almost indistinguishable from the background.

Series: "Neuschwanstein Castle"

Welcome back to Impacted Images. This post features a series I just finished working on, "Neuschwanstein Castle."

All of these images were taken with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens, along with an off-camera Speedlite 580EX II.

Today's Image: "Shoes and Lamp"

Welcome once again to Impacted Images. This is today's image overview, which features my image, "Shoes and Lamp."


This is the RAW, unprocessed image:

I took this photograph with a Canon 7D and an 18-270mm lens zoomed in to 30mm.  I used 1/200th shutter speed and f-8.0 for depth of field and maximum sharpness. I tried to keep the noise low by using ISO 250. A Canon Speedlite 580EX II, which was triggered wirelessly, is at camera right, subject left firing at 1/16th power.

As you can see, the highlights in the shoes are almost blown out and the second subject, the lamp, is very dark.

In Camera Raw, I cropped the image more tightly and adjusted the Tint, Brightness and Contrast. I then headed inside Photoshop to continue working on the image.

Inside Photoshop, I painted out the flash and the curtains in the back. I then used both the Burn and Dodge tools to darken the highlights and lighten up the shadows.

Next, I applied a Levels adjustment layer and added a mask to keep the rest of the picture untouched but lighting up the lamp and the lamp shade.

Today's Image: "Pumpkins"

Good afternoon and welcome to Impacted Images. Here's today's image overview, which features one of my newest images, "Pumpkins."

This is the raw file with no adjustments made:

I took this image with a Canon Powershot A630 using 1/1000th shutter speed and f-8.0. I used ISO 80 since it was a very bright day and I did not want noise in the photograph.

I started by cropping in Adobe Camera Raw and adjusting the Clarity, Vibrance, and Exposure. I then opened Photoshop and added more contrast with the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. I set the Contrast slider to 12 but I did not touch the Brightness at all.

Next I used the Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 plug-in for Photoshop and applied the Color Stylizer filter. I adjusted the contrast to get better results.

Finally I added Saturation with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. I only applied saturation to the Yellows to pop out the pumpkins' color a bit more.

Here is the finished photograph:

"Pumpkins"

Thank you for visiting Impacted Images. I will continue to post image each day.

Today's Image: "Done"

Good afternoon and welcome to Impacted Images. Today's image overview features my latest image, "Done."

Here is the unprocessed picture straight from the camera:

This image was taken with a Canon Powershot A630 using 1/500th shutter speed with f-6.3. I used ISO 100 since the sun was out and I wanted as less noise possible in the picture. I took this image while covering a fire with my father. As you can see, the fire had just finished burning and the sky was very smoky. As a result, the image lacks contrast and could have more detail than what it has here.

I started off by using Camera Raw to crop the image more tightly and adjust the Clarity, Vibrance and Blacks. Since the picture was somewhat blue, I adjusted the Temperature slider to a warmer tone. I then opened Photoshop and used the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to pump up the Contrast.

Special Series: "LEGO Knights"

Good morning and welcome back to Impacted Images. This is a special post that features my series "LEGO Knights."

These images are part of a series that I am currently working on. The original images were taken with a Canon 7D and 18-270mm lens. Aside from the knights, all other objects in the pictures were created in Photoshop CS5. The grass is one of Photoshop's brushes and the sky is a variation of the Difference Clouds filter with some Motion Blur. I painted the lightning bolts and added the purple outer glow for a more impacting look.


I made the rain using Motion Blur and High Pass, and set the blend mode to Soft Light to make it transparent. Finally, I painted white on a separate layer to create the fog.

Here are the images:

"Oakland Police Memorial" Final Part

Good morning and welcome to Impacted Images. This is the third and final part of my series, "Oakland Police Memorial." These were shot at a memorial for four police officers killed in the line of duty in March 2009.

All images were shot with a Canon Powershot A630.