Benz World Blog » Desaturation

Black Swans

Jason Benz — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 10:09:09 +0000

Black Swans are the state and bird emblem of Western Australia. Their white eyes turn red during breeding season. This image puts the herbivores and carnivores neck and neck on this blog at 22 each.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Vision Gallery

Jason Benz — Sat, 19 Jul 2014 13:05:08 +0000

This is The Dillon James Band playing at The Vision Gallery in Brisbane yesterday. They play smooth bluesy reggae which is worth checking out. As well as live music this gallery also had a bar which is a little weird, but then in Australia you have a better chance of buying a beer in a library than a supermarket.

Music Tour

Jason Benz — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 01:08:57 +0000

This band is called Late For Woodstock. We saw them twice this weekend while shuttling between gigs on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. The reason the trip was to record content for a YouTube Channel called MusicLive4U which produces high quality videos from live performances of unsigned bands. Thanks to Iouri and Sasha inviting us along.

Night Heron

Jason Benz — Fri, 26 Jul 2013 16:37:13 +0000

This bird is a Nankeen Night Heron. We saw it one morning at a campsite called Ban Ban Springs in Queensland, Australia. This image needed some work in Photoshop so I have shown the layers below. I added some blur and desaturation to the background and used a multiply layer on the heron to bring out some more detail.

Journey Begins

Jason Benz — Sun, 05 May 2013 23:26:52 +0000

We hit the road today. We have a few stops in the UK before we fly to Australia on Thursday. We should be landing in Sydney on Friday evening. After arriving I will be able to post some new shots but for now I will use these road trains I shot last year as we crossed the Nullabor in Western Australia.

To develop this image the blue and green were desaturated in Camera RAW leaving a red spot colour.

Engine Maybe

Jason Benz — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:00:49 +0000

This is a piece of Randon Iron we found deep in the Goldfields of Western Australia. I think its some kind of engine. What do you think?

To develop this image the blue and green were desaturated in Camera RAW leaving a red spot colour.

Melbourne Streets

Jason Benz — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:12:04 +0000

This night shot was taken of Melbourne in Victoria. To process this shot maximum desaturation was used on the greens, blues and purples. To help the taxis stand out the saturation of the oranges and yellows was increased.

Like many recent posts, this was taken last year. I have been developing RAW files from my archive as our UK stopover has taken longer than expected. We have booked our flights back to Australia now and will be posting new images after we land on the 10th May.

Galah Cockatoo

Jason Benz — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 11:03:15 +0000

This bird is one of Australia’s iconic animals. The Galah or Rose-breasted Cockatoo is one of the most common in mainland Australia. This one was in Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields of Western Australia. To process this image I desaturated the greens and boosted the reds. Some vignetting was also added to darken the edges.

This image has been accepted by Shutterstock for Stock Photography and is available for download here.

Random Iron

Jason Benz — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 23:22:11 +0000

This was taken in Gwalia in the Goldfields of Western Australia. It demonstrates Australians fondness for decorating remote houses and mail boxes with random pieces of iron. In the UK metal that is not nailed down seems to find its way to the scrap merchant. In Australia Victorian engineering seems to last forever in the dry environment. The result is a visual time warp reminiscent of Cuba. I used desaturation on the greens and blues and made the yellows and oranges stand out.

Congratulations to Karen who has had her first nine images accepted at Shutterstock, followed by her first sale.

If you would like to sell your images read the Guide to Stock Photography.

Sydney Tower

Jason Benz — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 02:16:53 +0000

This is the Sydney Tower in New South Wales, Australia.

I used Google analytics recently and discovered a boost in Benz World Blog site traffic. On closer inspection the extra traffic was a result of a doubling in the amount of Google search traffic. I opened an incognito browser and started Google image searching the blog titles. To my surprise over 60% appeared on the first page of images. A further 11% of blog titles put into Google came back as the number one image. I use two word titles for all posts. I hope one day to accidentally name a blog with a Googlewhack but for now I am very happy with these obscure Google number ones.

Solar Nuke
200th Photoblog
Adios Adelaide
Hopetoun Rocks
Hopetoun Stingray
Sealion Sammy
Belton Folly
Belton Globes
Floyd Riot
Edible Asteroid
Austrian Clouds
Spice Bowls
Nile Skyline
Colosseum 1926
Fractal Hieroglyphics
Hathor Fractal
Pyramid Lightning
Rutland Stump
Wicker Spitfire
Syracuse 1926
Sphinx Pool
Trinidad Sunset
Dahabia Jordan