It’s been a bit of an absence! As we start 2021, let’s see, if I can get going again and revive some of the fun that I had prior to this shutdown of sorts.
First of all, a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to everyone around the globe with fervent wishes that we escape from this virulent frenzy and get back to visiting one another again.
All this lack of travel has been something that I have missed for quite a while, so I’m starting to look at doing something with images from previous trips, which I’ll start with a view from Ireland in 2019:
Cliffs of Kerry
The Cliffs of Kerry are absolutely stunning, and, in my opinion, they rival the Cliffs of Moher, especially, as there’s not nearly the crowds! The view and sense of scale of these cliffs is nothing short of breathtaking!
A little bit about this image, as I did a bit of processing on it. Here’s the (somewhat) original image, which is an HDR composite that was processed using Skylum’s Aurora HDR:
Cliffs of Kerry (HDR only)
This image was then taken into Skylum’s Luminar AI, which is a recent purchase. Luminar AI is very much a version of Luminar with additional very smart bells and whistles, such as lots of templates, skies, etc. With a bit of playing around, I selected the Street Theater template and added some edits to it, which include the Sunset.
Definitely a bit of fun to experiment with this image and impetus to try some other things in the future. As I get more skilled with this new tool, I’ll share more of my findings.
In the mean time, thank you for reading and stay healthy and safe!
There are lots of things in the universe that fill me with wonder, and there are a significant number that make me wonder. Today I present you with something in the latter category.
A Vista?
This was during a photography trip, led by John Slonina, to the Chincoteague area. To finish up the first day of shooting, John had brought us to this beautiful stretch of beach where we’d have a great opportunity to catch the sunset over water.
As I’m not always the one to go for the obvious shot, I decided to add a little point of interest to the stunning beauty of the sunset: the not-so-stunning view of waste receptacles just off the parking lot by the beach.
The human footprint on our planet is something that I often wonder about, as I’m sure many of you do as well. Minimizing our footprint and living in harmony with our space home is in our best interest, as we don’t want to overstay our welcome; the planet will survive, but will humanity?
Technical Details
This shot was captured with my Canon EOS 5D Mk III using a EF 24-105mm f/4L lens. The HDR effect came from the in-camera HDR.
Life is full of art, it creates it, becomes it, displays it, and, yes, it even imitates it.
Are we awaiting the young Sorcerer’s Apprentice to appear on the scene to create mayhem with the best of intentions? Will the broom get a life of its own? Can a dustpan moonwalk?
A little background
This image goes back about 5 or so years, when I was still very active in photography agility trials. Well before the action started on this fairground, I stopped by the bathroom, looked and saw this scene in front of me… The way the light came in through the door and backlit the broom and dustpan; the lines working together turned this ordinary scene into an interesting sight…
I left the bathroom to grab my tripod and camera, so that I could get the shot I wanted before anyone would disturb it, or the light would change. As I was setting up, a trial worker stopped by to hang up a sign; I got a bit of an odd look, but, as I was that weird photographer, no questions were asked.
Technical Details
Shot with a Canon 1D MkIII and a 24-70mm L lens. This was a series of of 5 shots, each 1 EV (exposure value) apart around the correct metered exposure. Processing was done with Photomatix Pro.
Urban exploration aka urbex has become immensely popular over the past decade to the point that it is mainstream photography. When increases in processor power made HDR processing available to every photographer, dilapidated buildings could be made to look interesting in completely new ways.
Of course, I have been guilty of a little exploration myself, as I love wandering through old, abandoned sites and checking for some unique vista that speaks to me. When moving through a building, I let my mind wander and lose itself within the possibilities of transformation through fantasy.
Part of my process relies on visualization of the alternate spin that I can put on the image, so that viewers can feel themselves transported into an alternate reality. Allowing my imagination to roam free across the landscape of my mind is an enjoyable, stimulating aspect of photography, which is very much enabled by HDR processing, about which I will write more in a future post.
The site of this image was the farm for a state hospital; the structure has been razed since I captured this image. On the day that I captured this image, the outside light was extremely bright and harsh, giving enough light to get the great definition in the floor and walls.
We’re looking past the animal stalls toward an open door, a possible exit from the dark, stark area, where we find ourselves. Is it a safe exit, or will it lead into a dimensional trap/
The combination of technology and photography have allowed for some rather interesting advances in what we can capture and the ease, with which images can be created. As a result, we have created a generation of ‘mad snappers’, who, at times, appear to be more intent on photographing or recording an event than experiencing it.
As a photographic dinosaur, I tend to be somewhat careful in my shooting, as if there is still film involved. Mind you, that doesn’t mean that I won’t make use of the immediate feedback that the LCD panel provides on the back of my camera; it’s nice to get some fast feedback on image composition and to use the histogram for exposure details. However, I tend not to photograph everything that I see.
Standing against the approaching weather, Nubble Light provides a beacon of hope and safety.
Nubble Light on Cape Neddick, Maine, is one of the subjects that I had avoided photographing for a long time; I have seen so many photographs of this lighthouse, many of which are very good, that I found it hard to imagine that I could do something to contribute to the Nubble Light oeuvre. Maybe it’s a little pretentious, but I like for my images to have an impact and emotion to them.
Until this fine June afternoon, when my mother and sister were visiting from the Netherlands. Something clicked in my mind, when I saw the interplay of sea, clouds and light, which urged me to take several series of varying exposures from this lower angle.
About six weeks later, when my mood was dark enough, I created this image from those exposures, infused with sufficient drama and dark emotion to make me happy with the end product.
Hopefully, you find something that strikes a chord in you within this image!
I’m sure that many of you suffer from the same photographers’ malady that I have: tons of images that you have forgotten about! Now, that is not all bad, because I have taken some bad photos in the past (and will take more in the future), which are best forgotten.
Bay of Fundy at Low Tide
On the other hand, my photo editing/processing skills have expanded and improved over the years, so some of those not-so-great photos might benefit from a bit of this new skill level. As I went looking for the source file for a reasonably nice landscape of Peggy’s Cove that I took in 2007, I stumbled across an image at the Bay of Fundy that just never pleased me. If I would take it nowadays, it would be as an HDR sequence, so that I could really get everything I wanted in the image.
However, thanks to the wonderful folks at HDRsoft and the fact that I have played with Photomatix Pro for years, there was the possibility to come up with something new in this image. It is no longer a pure photo, as I went rather painterly on this image, but I really enjoy the mood that is captured here.
Let me know how you like it and about the photos you have resurrected from the past!
Over the past number of years a tremendous amount has been written about HDR imaging and the state of the art has evolved at a rapid pace. This blog contains some of my thoughts about this topic, some of the work that I have done in HDR and a tip or two.
First off, what is HDR? High Dynamic Range photography is a combination of photographic and editing techniques for extending the dynamic range of luminosity of an image. What this means in real-world terms is that some of the darker parts of a scene can be treated with more light and some of the brighter parts can receive a bit less light, so that the overall effect results in a more complete viewing experience of the scene when processed.
A view over the Connecticut River at Turner’s Falls.
The concept of extending the dynamic range covered in an image is not as new, as you might think: in the 1850s, French photographer Gustave LeGray combined multiple negatives of sea and sky to create seascapes that are stunning to behold with dramatic skies. Significant additional developments were made in the 1930s and 1940s through manual dodging and burning (increasing and decreasing of exposure) of areas in a negative to create a more dramatic print; Ansel Adams was a true artist in this process, as can be seen in many of his famous landscapes.
The advent of massive processing power in desktop computers combined with Digital Photography has created a new level of interest, which has allowed many photographers to capitalize on some of the algorithmic advances that have been made in the 1980s and 1990s in image processing.
Cape Neddick, ME, is the location of Nubble Light an oft-photographed landmark.
At this point in time, there are also numerous cameras available, which do the HDR processing on-the-fly, taking multiple images and combining them into a single HDR image with preset processing settings.
As touched on earlier, the HDR process extends the dynamic range of luminosity in an image; this enables us to bring the range of image capture somewhat closer to that available in the human eye. Camera sensors have gotten better over the past years, so that the range of the camera’s sensor starts to rival that of the human eye, which may lead one to think that the need for HDR is diminishing. This definitely is true from the perspective of being able to ‘see’ as much as the human eye with the camera.
The fair bathroom is a piece of Americana that looks best in the early morning hours.
From my point of view, there is no diminished reason to use HDR imaging, as there are several benefits to working with HDR that cannot be achieved easily through other means, such as:
The setting of very specific moods within the image.
Creating that dramatic sky, which Gustave LeGray was after
Surreal, hyper-realism
There definitely are other great reasons for HDR, but these are some of my personal favorites. I have included a couple of samples from my work with HDR in this post to give a bit of flavor.
I mentioned tips in the beginning of this post, so here are a couple from my experience with HDR:
Bring a tripod! It will make your processing work that much easier later – the Cape Neddick image was shot free-hand with the camera on HDR, so it is possible)
If possible, meter the light, so that you can set your bracketing up correctly for a good range. As a rule of thumb, I use -2, -1, 0, +1 and +2 for my exposure values in a range of 5 shots; more or less will work, depending on the scene.
Have a vision of what you want to achieve with your shot, before you process it. Aimless HDR processing is never very fruitful, regardless of the quality of the software; with a vision in mind, you will know when you have arrived at the sweet spot of your endeavor.
Experiment! Not every image will make a great HDR image, which can only be found out through experimentation.
And, of course, most importantly, have fun when working your images. You’re not going to convince everyone that you did the right thing when processing your ‘killer’ image, but, if you’re happy with the end result, you can smile despite what someone else says about it.
Dutch goes the Photo! 