Dark Passage of Monticello

I took this image a year ago and thought I wish I had used my tripod. When I uploaded the image, I saw it was soft and not sharp, and definitely not what I wanted. The image is of the north / south cellar passage under Monticello. They do not permit photographs inside the mansion and the temperature that day was in the upper 90's so I wasn't going to carry any extra equipment like a heavy tripod with me. I used my Nikon D3 and shot a handheld 5 exposure bracketed burst hoping to capture the scene. I used the 32 bit hdr merge and the new camera shake reduction filter in Adobe Photoshop CC to make a keeper of this dark cellar area.

Covered Bridge

Covered bridges are a favorite of mine. Photoshop CC

Software try out_Portrait Professional

Here is my first attempt using Portrait Professional. I normally stay away from programs like this because the cost usually doesn't justify its ability. I feel most everything you possibly need to do can be found in Photoshop. I must admit this program is quite nice. You can change a face from very subtle adjustments to very dramatic. I especially like the eye treatment features. I still need a lot more practice at this but I feel this program has great potential. You need to use this program like we used filters on film cameras way back when....sparingly...less is more on the sliders for the best effects. I will work more with this program and give my thoughts soon.

Autumn Color

It's beginning to look a lot like fall in western New York. Grab your camera, get out there, take some pictures, have fun. Just some images I captured this past week while traveling around my area.

How to shoot waterfalls by Gary Muth

You can sign up for our waterfall workshops to learn how to shoot great waterfall images like these. Call or contact our studio for details. The Portrait Gallery Niagara

Photographing Waterfalls by Gary Muth

Whenever I get a chance I like to get out of the studio and photograph nature. Waterfalls are my favorite subjects because they are so tricky to handle. I took these last week at a small nature park in Lockport, NY. First off your chances of success improve greatly if you photograph the falls on an overcast day. This makes handling the highlights easier but I still bracket my exposures. I prefer to use a ND filter too, to knock down the exposures even more to get a great blur on the water. We hold two annual workshops to teach the proper techniques in shooting waterfall pictures correctly. If you are interested contact our studio at: The Portrait Gallery Niagara for dates and times. 716-297-3387.

The Portrait Gallery Niagra shoots horse racing images at Fort Erie

The Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie Race Track is the second leg of the Canadian triple crown in thoroughbred racing. Our studio was there to capture some great images for our fine art collections. The image of the horses leaving the starting gate was won by Uncaptured the number one horse on the rail. We decided to name that image Uncaptured. The other image of the horses rounding the final turn is called Lucky Image after the horse who won the forth race, Lucky Image the number one horse, who by the way is in the lead and the focal point of our image. You may click to enlarge. Visit The Portrait Gallery Niagara to purchase a wall portrait for yourself.