HDR Landscape Photograph-Clouds Over The Canyon

 Landscape Photographs, Photographs  No Responses »
Jun 112013
 

Here’s another image from our recent trip out to Colorado that shows the power of using HDR in creating a landscape photograph. This one is of Red Canyon at Colorado National Monument:

Colorado National Monument's Red Canyon

Clouds Over The Canyon

I took this about 50 minutes before “official” sunset but the Sun was already pretty low in the Western sky (left side of the image) and it was highlighting the canyon walls and the clouds above the canyon. The colors of the canyon were starting to appear but so were the shadows at the bottom of the canyon (especially on the left side). I wanted to show the entire canyon as I saw it and with the depth of the canyon, the bright clouds and the differences in lighting between the West and East walls of the canyon I knew it would be next to impossible to get anywhere close to a proper exposure with just one image.

The only way to do it was by bracketing my shots. I did 3 shots (-2,0,+2) and dumped the brackets into HDR Efex Pro2 to get this result, which comes very close to what Pam and I saw that evening.

Another win for HDR landscape photography!

 

 

Why HDR Might Be The Perfect Tool For Landscape Photographers

 Building Photographs, Landscape Photographs, Photographs, Photography Tips, Thoughts  No Responses »
Jun 072013
 

In my short time as a “serious” photographer I have come to embrace HDR (high dynamic range) photography and am quickly becoming convinced that HDR is the perfect tool for landscape photographers.

Based on my experience so far, HDR seems to be the best way to as accurately as possible reproduce the wide range of lighting that seems to most often be present while shooting outdoor landscapes. Our eyes are much better than the camera’s sensor at balancing out the dynamic range of a scene, so my goal with most landscapes is to use the camera to reproduce what my eye sees as realistically as possible. And, because of the wide dynamic range of many scenes, some type of exposure bracketing combined with HDR processing seems to be a great way to accomplish that goal. Let me use a set of images from our just completed trip to Colorado to demonstrate:

Here is the series of three bracketed shots I took at the West portal of the Eisenhower Tunnel, which goes under the mountains at the continental divide (at an altitude of over 11,000 feet) just West of Denver. It was a fairly sunny day and that combined with the snow and darkness of the tunnel entrance indicated to me that HDR might be a good option.

Here’s the first image (zero exposure compensation). This is typical of what most people would get if they took their camera, focused on the tunnel, and pressed the shutter:

The Eisenhower tunnel at 0 exposure compensation-A typical “snapshot” quality image

As you can see in the above image, it was a pretty bright day and there was a wide range of light, from pitch black in the tunnel to blazing bright white on the snow. The camera’s metering system did an OK job at best with this and the image would qualify as a “snapshot” and not a photograph in my opinion. You can tell what the subject is and make out that there is snow in the background and some kind of dirt in the foregroud. But beyond that, the rest of the details are hard to make out. There are probably thousands of images like this on people’s computers and in their vacation photo albums.

Here’s the second image (2 stops underexposure):

The same tunnel underexposed by 2 stops.

This image shows what happens when the camera underexposes by 2-stops. The tunnel just about loses all detail and becomes one big shadow but the road and snow take on a lot more detail. You can make out some of the dirt and grime on the snow, the shadows caused by the clouds on the snow, and the sand in the foreground actually looks like sand.

One last image, this time overexposed by two stops:

Over exposed by 2 stops

The third shot, over exposed by 2 stops, is needed in order to capture the details that are hiding in the dark parts of the scene. The foreground sand and background snow are blown out and almost pure white. But the details of the tunnel come into view. Compare this image to the first one (taken at “normal” settings) and you will see that the tunnel has stoplights in it (red on the left and green on the right). Also the windows above the tunnel tubes reveal more structure and the doors in the middle of the tunnel become apparent.

Now it’s time to work some magic and combine the three images into one cohesive, detailed photograph using HDR software. I use Nik’s Color Efex Pro 2 (which I can highly recommend) to generate the final image but you can use any number of HDR applications or plugins:

The Eisenhower Tunnel In All It’s Glory

Big difference, huh? :-) Compare this final image to the first one at the top of this post (the snapshot) and you will see a HUGE difference. Getting to this final image took a little work and experimentation with the various settings in HDR Efex Pro (and I have more learning to do) but I think I got it pretty darn close to what my eyes saw that day when I parked the rental car at the top of the pass, got out and looked back at the tunnel we had just come through. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the brightness of the scene but once they did I was able to make out the details inside the tunnel, see the dirt on the snow behind/above the tunnel and make out the details of the tire tracks in the sand right in front of me.

If I had just taken out my DSLR and snapped a quick photo I would’ve never captured all of that. All it took was a little bit of foresight, three bracketed images, a tripod (get one now!), and a bit of time with some specialty software in order to create this final image.

I think the final result is well worth the effort and I will continue to use HDR, whenever I can, to create realistic photographs of landscapes (and just about anything else) that represent what I saw with my eyes at the moment I captured the image(s) with my camera.

If you are looking to create realistic Landscapes with your digital camera and aren’t using the power of HDR, you might want to give it a go and see what happens. I think you’ll be happy with the results!

Southwest Landscape: Bisti Badlands Hoodoo and Clouds

 Landscape Photographs, Photographs  No Responses »
May 222013
 

I’m back in Lightroom working on some of the images from our trip last fall to the beautiful Bisti Badlands in NW New Mexico. I still have a lot to get through but here is one I finished up last week:

A hoodoo is bathed in the early morning sun at the Bisti Badlands

The early morning sun peeked out from the clouds and lit up this hoodoo. The clouds in the sky had an interesting texture to them as well, making this an interesting shot.

If you ever get the chance to visit the Bisti, don’t pass it up! It is a beautiful place full of strange and wonderful things. Perfect for an adventurous photographer!

Hard Rock Cafe Neon Sign And Post Processing Musings

 City Scene Photographs, Manmade Objects, Photographs, Photography Polls  No Responses »
May 162013
 

During our time visiting Great Smoky Mountains NP we stayed in Gatlinburg, TN which is right outside the border of the park. Needless to say, it is a VERY “touristy” town with all kinds of stores, shops, etc. to entice people to separate themselves from their money. Towns like this are a like/dislike thing for me. I like them because of all the things there are to photograph, especially neon signs, which are quickly becoming a favorite subject of mine. I dislike them for pretty much the same reason, all the shops,signs, and over-the-top stuff. I guess I’ll just have to learn to balance things out (and bring my camera) whenever I visit these types of towns.

Speaking of neon signs, here’s an image I shot of the Hard Rock Cafe’s neon sign while walking back to the hotel after dinner and a few tasty craft beers:

Hard Rock Cafe Neon Guitar Sign

Hard Rock Cafe Neon Guitar-Gatlinburg, TN

As you can see, it’s a big Guitar, or as they say down here, “GEEEE-TAR”. I took this just after sunset, right in the sweet spot of the famous “blue hour”. The result was a very nice deep, dark, blue background for the sign. I tried to give some perspective to the sign by including the side of the building in the image. The only thing I wish wasn’t there (in a perfect world) is that light sticking out from the sign, but I guess I could clone it out if I wanted to.

On second thought, I probably won’t do that,….WARNING!: POST-PROCESSING PHILOSOPHY MUSINGS START HERE…. since I’m finding that I enjoy keeping the images as close to what I actually saw with my eyes. And since I saw that light when I made the decision to compose the image the way I did, I can’t very well clone it out and say “that’s the sign I saw while walking back to the hotel from the brewpub after a few tasty craft beers!”, which is exactly what happened.

Good thing the camera had image stabilization then, I guess :-)

That’s not to say that I do zero processing on my images. Far from it. I’m finding that my “prime directive” when it comes to post-processing images is to try and get the image to match what I actually saw with my eyes. I think I’m sort of in line with Trey Ratcliff’s philosophy of photography (though not 100% completely on everything) which is basically that your eye and brain see far more than the camera can capture. So, in order to really communicate what you saw, you need to make adjustments to the image. In many cases that means that I must adjust the color, contrast, sharpness, etc. in order to get the image to match to what I saw before I pressed the shutter button. Oftentimes that means that I use “image enhancing” software like HDR Efex Pro, Topaz Adjust, Lightroom or any number of other apps, in order to get the final image to match what my eyes saw.

What it doesn’t mean (at least to me at this point) is that I can’t just fire up editing software and delete/clone-out, severely crop out, any object I find objectionable in the image. The way my thought process goes is that it’s my job as photographer to get the best composition I can, given the circumstances, before I press the shutter. Do I do this stuff (crop/clone out objects) some of the time? You bet I do but I try not to as much as possible. I think that sticking to my self-made rule will help make me a better photographer in the long run.

What do you guys think? Do you substantially alter an image (remove objects, severely crop, ect.) or do you tend to keep things basically the same (outside of adjusting color, contrast, sharpness). You can enter your comments below and/or record your answer in the “Photography Poll” on the right sidebar. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers, it’s just photographic opinion.

I’m really interested to see what y’all think!

Great Smoky Mountains Roadside Waterfall

 Photographs, Stream, Lake or Waterfall Photographs  No Responses »
May 152013
 

Both Pam and I are suckers for a good waterfall. Here’s an image I shot of one of the many beautiful waterfalls we saw while in Great Smoky Mountains National Park:

Ladder Falls-Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This waterfall was particularly interesting to me because of the many levels the fall (or maybe cascade is a better term) had. I spent about 15 minutes shooting a variety of looks at this, while dodging traffic on the narrow road (thanks to Pam for warning me of oncoming vehicular mayhem! :-) ) This shot ended up being the best of the bunch. I think it’s because of a couple of things:

  1. The composition- I managed to place the various cascades in a line moving from upper right to lower left, with the final cascade flowing out of the image
  2. The shutter speed-This image is at 1/15 of a second, which gave just enough motion to the water.

I am very happy with this image and I hope you enjoy it as well. If you really, really like it please feel free to purchase a high quality, affordably priced, print. Just click the “Buy Print” link at the top of the image :-)

 

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