Tag: HDR

What I Learned About Photography While In Yosemite

Tripods make a huge difference. It’s just one more cumbersome step I now need to take. That sucks.

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I learned something very surprising about photography this weekend. A tripod makes a big difference, even while out in bright sunlight!

I didn’t think that was true. Doesn’t faster shutter speed compensate?

No. Tripods make a huge difference. It’s just one more cumbersome step I now need to take. That sucks.

If your camera is still, shots turn out sharper. Sharpness is critical. No shot is sharp at every point, but every photo needs at least one area in sharply in focus.

There were more tripods at Yosemite (our group and individuals) than anyplace I’ve ever been! They are the most abused piece of photo gear. Often one or more legs was in water or sand or scratching for a toehold on a convenient rock.

seven-shot-hdr-raws

Half Dome from Glacier Point - Yosemite National Park-w1920-h1400

I took lots of HDR shots. Multiple images (7 or 9 for me on this trip) are combined by computer to provide a single image with more detail in both brights and darks than cameras or monitors can natively produce. The color range is compressed. You have to carefully process these shots or they look phony.

The tripod provided my best HDR results ever. The ads say HDR programs compensate for handheld shots. The results say tripods do better.

I did some (not enough) work with neutral density filters. Think gray sunglasses.

This allows long exposures in daylight. That’s how you turn flowing water into dreamy white ribbons or make a lake with light ripples look perfectly still and reflective.

Yosemite National Park Three Brothers River View-w1920-h1400

I am not usually a photo printer. There are a few of these I’d like to hang. Maybe three or four different looks of the same basic shot? I mull slowly.

A Quick Photo Run

After a gloomy week followed by a mostly gloomy weekend the Sun returned to Connecticut. The clouds did rule until 4:00 PM, but late afternoon of Sun can (and did) save the day.

I took a quick shower, threw a few lenses in my backpack, dropped the top on the toy car and headed out.

After a gloomy week followed by a mostly gloomy weekend the Sun returned to Connecticut. The clouds did rule until 4:00 PM, but late afternoon of Sun can (and did) save the day.

I took a quick shower, threw a few lenses in my backpack, dropped the top on the toy car and headed out.

I’ve written before about my daily drive down Tuttle Avenue behind Sleeping Giant State Park. My normal exit from Mount Carmel is under construction so I’m detouring to River Road. That let me scout a few new locations that looked photo worthy.

I walked about fifty yards down a well beaten path to the shore of Butterworth Brook Reservoir. This is an area of idyllic beauty easily passed without a second thought.

The photo above is slightly augmented using Luminance HDR. There’s just too much dynamic range for a camera to capture natively.

Later I moved to Tuttle where the horses I wanted to shoot were behind an ugly wire fence. I thought the road itself might make a nice long lens photo so I twisted on a telephoto and began to scope it out. Within a few seconds I heard the throaty rumble of a motorcycle.

In the movies this guy comes shooting by like a bat out of hell. Not today. He couldn’t have been doing much more than thirty when he crested the hill.

I have no idea who’s riding the bike, but if you do will you tell him I have a pretty cool shot he might want.

WTNH Satellite Dish At Sunset – HDR Photo

Over-the-top HDR photo.

Heavily processed with QTPFSGUI and Photoshop. Some folks will find this a bit over-the-top and I can’t necessarily disagree.