Summer treats

So we went out for some ice cream last night with some friends and when I was thinking about what to post today, I saw this shot, thought about the ice cream and the 97 degree high today and decided it was a good idea to post it.  As you can imagine, there are many different places to get ice cream at Kennywood Park, as there is with any amusement park.  I’m not sure if this one is devoted strictly to Breyer’s ice cream, as the sign says, but it is an ice cream stand none the less.  This was one of the last shots that I took before the rain started the night that I was there.  HDR and neon really were meant to go together, and when you throw in a nice blue hour with some clouds movements, some people milling around, it makes for a great scene in my opinion.

For the processing, I ran the six exposures through Photomatix and then imported into CS5.  I used six exposures before the five bracketed exposures that I originally took for the HDR didn’t quite give me enough light on the sign at the top of the stand.  Anyways, I masked in the +2 exposure for the girls moving (tonemapped it first), as well as tonemapped the -2 exposure to mask in the inside of the shop.  Didn’t do too much to the colors in this one, as I liked how vibrant they all were.  Just added an Enter the Dragon filter in onOne PhotoTools and straightened the shot out a bit.

I meant to say this yesterday too, but I really have to share a quote on HDR that friend and great photog Mike Oblinski used.  If you haven’t been to his site yet, head on over and check out his work.  Anyways, his quote:

“It’s like Darth Vader. It may look evil, but if you really know it…there is good deep down inside.”

I think that sums it up the best.  See you all tomorrow.