Photography Technique

Liquid Light • Salt Creek, Death Valley National Park, Ca.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This will be my last post for about a week or so. I am heading out to the Grand Canyon for a combination work and shooting trip. I will be at the South Rim for a few days and then heading up to Page for a trip into Canyon X and some photo exploration with Tony Kuyper. The 10-day weather forecast looks promising to finally get into Canyon X. I was thwarted on my last attempt when a large front moved over the Page area killing off all the light. Tony and I are planning a little exploration of the Painted Desert and a jaunt through Cathedral Wash down to the Colorado River.

Today’s image is affectionately named “Liquid Light”. This was shot on my recent trip to Death Valley with my pals Alec Johnson and Travis Bechtel. As you may have noticed from recent posts we were blessed with incredible shooting conditions, amazing light, and clouds. Epic clouds to be more exact. This image, shot at Salt Creek, was made in the late afternoon as the sun was setting over the Panamint Range, just behind my camera position. The sky event was happening on both sides and it was difficult to choose where to shoot. There were just so many options. The three of us must have looked like ants after a picnic basket as we scurried about framing compositions. The clouds sent long tendrils over the salt flats. Driven by upper level winds the clouds resembled a liquid spill in the sky. As the sun moved lower reflected light illuminated the clouds and carried their reflection in the water below. Sky and earth seemed to meld into one. We continued to shoot well into Civil Twilight just enjoying the light show.

Technical Details: This image is a blend of two bracketed exposures. One for the foreground and one for the sky. Each image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and opened as layers in Photoshop for final work. I created a Channel Mask to seamlessly blend the two exposures before applying my final curves and color adjustments.

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you back here soon.

Bob

Sunset in the Alabama Hills – Lone Pine, Ca

Adobe Lightroom, Alabama Hills, California, Death Valley, Desert, High Dynamic Range, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Mountains, Photography Technique, Robert H Clark Photography, sunset, The Alabama Hills, Twilight Photography, Wide Angle Photography No Responses »

Jan 102012

Sunset in the Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, Ca.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. On my recent trip to Death Valley my intrepid friends Alec Johnson, Travis Bechtel and I were kindly treated to some amazing sunrise and sunset conditions. This is the kind of light and cloud cover you hope to have for at least one shooting session. We had it everyday save for one, and that was the last morning we shot at Zabriske Point. Today’s image defines some of the incredible skies we had during our shooting excursions. The image was made in the Alabama Hills, a collection of rock monoliths and boulder fields, situated above the town of Lone, Pine, Ca. The area is known as the Gateway to Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states. On the trip over from Death Valley we saw the clouds build up and once we dropped into the valley on the eastern side of the Sierra’s we knew we might be in for another treat. Well, we were not disappointed. The show ramped up in the late afternoon and soon went into overload as the sun disappeared behind the massive Sierra Range. For a very brief period of time the light flattened out on the landscape but within 10 minutes into Civil Twilight the scene re-lighted and the rocks glowed with the reflected light from the sky. By this time all of us had spread out to compose and shoot. Even after an afternoon of scouting it was a hectic time as we were scrambling to create memorable images. To give you a sense of scale if you look between the “crab claw” formation you will just make out the silhouette of my buddy Travis. We only had one afternoon to spend here and for all of us it was not enough. But we left invigorated by the experience and the place.

Technical Details: As you might imagine the dynamic range of this scene was pretty intense. To compensate I made a five shot bracket at 1 stop intervals and chose two images from the set to process. The two RAW files, one for the foreground and one for the sky, were processed in Lightroom and combined in Photoshop using a Channel Mask for blending. From there it followed my usual workflow of masks, color corrections, and sharpening.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

King of the Hill – Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Abstracts, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Arizona, Black and White, Desert, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Grand Circle, Hoodoo, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Nikon D3x, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photoshop Technique 2 Responses »

Dec 092011

King of the Hill, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This is an image I have affectionately named “King of the Hill”. It is a rather large pedestal of Navajo Sandstone perched on top of layer upon layer of serrated and swirling stone. To be honest this was a disappointing day. I was scheduled to make a trip into Canyon X but a massive front several states away brought clouds and flat, contrasty light. Not exactly the kind of conditions suitable for slot canyon photography. So with the Canyon X trip cancelled, and determined to shoot something, I wondered out into some slick rock areas near Glen Canyon. I do not like to shoot in desperation as it usually leads to uninspiring images and frustration. But here I was anyway. At the very least this would be a scouting trip for a future trip. I wandered for hours up, down, and through an amazing landscape of sharp-edged stone. They were like giant red layer cakes rising upward through a series of dimensional swirls culminating in a large rock “cupcake” with a cookie on top. But the light was just horrible – flat, contrasty, and featureless. Light brings form, shape, and definition. With it we can separate the elements of an image and bring it to life.

But even without the light I knew there was a shot here in this garden of stone. In conditions like this black and white can save the day. To begin to see the possibilities I set my cameras display setting to black and white. Immediately the possibilities began to surface. The flat red color and grey sky became more cohesive and interesting in black and white. And with a little Lightroom and Photoshop work I knew I could bring out the drama and detail in the stone. I also had to be a little patient with my subject. At time during the day a hint of form would appear in the featureless grey sky. For this shot I waited almost 45 minutes for a band of clouds to form over this formation. Waiting for just the right moment I was able to not only capture some interest in the sky but to also use this to frame around the sandstone pedestal. All day I played this “cat and mouse” game with vary degrees of success. With this image everything fell in to place and I was able to bring home a winner.

Technical Details: This image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 24mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f13 for 30 seconds. Even though I had my screen display set to Black and White the RAW captured all the color data. I experimented with the RAW processing to bring out as much color detail so I could make the B+W conversion in Photoshop. For the final however I made the conversion in Lightroom using the Color Mode Sliders. I have found I have a great deal of control with these sliders and can produce an excellent file for final work in Photoshop.

My workflow in Photoshop followed my typical pattern with one exception. I began, as usual, with “digital gardening” on a filter layer to clean up a few dust spots and applying my Smart Sharpen layer to bring up the micro-contrast of the file. The RAW file brought from Lightroom, though solid, still needed some punch. To do this I “Merged Visible” to create a new Image Layer. Note that here that I could also have flattened the file but I almost never do this as I might want to make some adjustment to the Sharpening and I need the Layer Stacks intact for this. With the new Image Layer active I changed the Blending Mode to Soft Light. You could also use Multiply Mode but this usually requires reducing the opacity of the effect. With Soft Light I find I get a nice punch to the file by increasing the density of the pixels. It is a great technique in certain circumstances to add depth to the file. From here it followed my usual Layers including White and Black Point, several Contrast/Curve Adjustments through Luminosity Masks and extensive dodging and burning. Dodging and burning is where I paint with light and manipulate the highlights and shadows to add visual dimension to the file. Using a combination of the Brush Tool and D+B Tools I work light and dark values at low opacities along edges and flat areas to separate tones and emphasize light and shadow.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Bob

Rocks and Huckleberry – Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia

Dolly Sods Wilderness, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Nikon D3x, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Singh-Ray Filters, sunset, Twilight Photography, West Virginia 1 Response »

Oct 302011

Rocks and Huckleberry, Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Last week was quite busy. I made a quick photography trip into the West Virginia highlands with my shooting buddy, Mark Muse, and zipped up to New York to attend the PDN Photo PLus Expo. Both trips were exciting and fun but on different levels. Mark has been trying to get me up to the WV mountains for quite some time and quite honestly I have been somewhat resistant. Sometimes you can get into a mode of sameness which amounts to nothing more than excepting that which is more comfortable. I have spent the majority of my recent photography time in the west shooting slot canyons, deserts, and shorelines. These are subjects I love and which I have developed an affinity for shooting. My biggest complaint to Mark was West Virginia has too many trees. Now this may seem odd to all of you because after all, isn’t all landscape photography viable in all its varied forms? The fact is that I find many western landscapes, of the type I shoot, easier to isolate. By this I mean that I am able to distill the view into a series of images that simplify the subject matter. Foreground, middle ground, and background all seemed to fall easily in to place. And of course there was no end to repeating shapes, leading lines, and other compositional elements. Subject matter here on the east coast, however, just seemed to elude me. Too many trees, too much complexity, and too much noise.

There is a complexity to Mark’s work that I have always admired. He takes these complex scenes and dials into them revealing the microscopic structure of the landscape-the trees, branches, stems, twigs, and leaves. They are a marvel of detail and subtlety. I love the images but at the same time hate them. Now before you think this harsh, my hate comes from my own internal roadblocks, my own inability to allow myself to see what Mark was seeing. I could see it in his finished work but with a camera in my hand, walking the landscape, the view was noise, not unlike the static of a TV set when the picture goes out.

The solution to this problem was easy. Just keep shooting what I like, and find comfortable, and my world will be fine. But the world, at least my world, does not work this way. Seeking the comfortable and avoiding the difficult will stifle growth. To continue to grow as photographers we must except new challenges. We must go into the landscapes we fear and confront them. Before I go further there are other things to consider. My “way” of shooting, and Mark’s way, are both outgrowths of our collective experiences, gleaned throughout our lives. Pretty heavy, I know, but it is true. What and how I see are different than Mark’s, and in fact, different than all the other photographers shooting today. Everyone one of us is drawn to different aspects of what we shoot. The patterns, textures, colors, light, compositional elements, compositional style, capture methods, processing methods, etc inform the what, how, where, and when of what we shoot. What I am getting at here is difficult to describe. The challenge for me was to not shoot what Mark shoots because that is not me. The challenge was to find my own voice, utilizing my experiential experiences, and vision, all in a landscape where I often wander with eyes wide open, like a deer in headlights, never taking the camera out of my pack.

Today’s image is one of many I took on my recent sojourn into the unknown. And guess what. The fear of the unknown is irrational. I did find much of the landscape daunting but this is a result of my unfamiliarity with my shooting locations. I don’t like everything I shot but I did break down some barriers of my preconceptions and find some compelling images and compositions I could appreciate. This image was taken at Dolly Sods, a wilderness area located at 4000 feet above sea level, on the Allegheny Front. It is a sub-alpine landscape of spruce forests, bogs and wetlands, and rock outcrops. Bear Rocks, located on the northern end, was our second stop during the shooting trip. To say that I only loved the place would not do it justice. It was fantastic. We had beautiful light, dappled and hazy, almost arctic like, with high cirrus clouds. It was complex and noisy but I found structure in the fantastic rocks that could anchor my compositions. Study this image and you can see many of the elements I talk about in my blog posts. I found many successful images that evening and I know that I missed quite a few. But that will draw me back. Yes fear of the unknown is irrational.

Technical Details: This image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm at 17mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1/2 of a second. A 3-stop Singh-Ray, soft edge, split neutral density was used to balance the sky and foreground exposure. The RAW image was processed in Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

Blue Light Special – Lower Antelope Canyon, Arizona – Creative White Balance and Exposure Blending

Antelope Canyon, Antelope Canyon Photography, Arizona, Colorado Plateau, Grand Circle, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lightroom, Navajo Lands, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Photoshop Technique, Photoshop Workflow, Robert H Clark Photography, Slot Canyon, Sony α900 4 Responses »

Oct 142011

Blue Light Special, Lower Antelope Canyon, Arizona. Creative White Balance Setting and Photoshop Exposure Blending.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Fall color is just around the corner and we may see the full display by the end of next week. So while I wait for nature to take its course in the next few weeks I am bring you some intense color of a different type. Many of you who follow this blog, and my work, know that I have shot quite extensively in Antelope Canyon. I love the sinuous curving formations and how light plays off the sandstone walls. It is light that brings the canyons to life. I other posts I have talked about some of the lighting in slot canyons including bounce, or reflected light, chiaroscuro light, and blue light. All can have a dramatic impact on your shot. Today I am going to show you what happens when you apply some creative White Balance Settings in-camera during your exposures.

But first just a small bit on Color Temperature which , in photography, is often associated with White Balance. Essentially color temperature is a characteristic of the visible light that we see, or in some cases, we don’t see. Color temperature is conventionally stated in the unit of absolute temperature, K, on the Kelvin Scale. Color temperatures over 5,000K are called cool colors (blueish white), while lower color temperatures, 2,700–3,200 K, are called warm colors (yellow white to red). In photography, the daylight or normal color temperature, is deemed to be 5000K. If you set your White Balance selector on your camera to Daylight Setting you will be shooting at 5000K. But what happens when you go indoors and shoot with incandescent lights on a 5000K setting? Your image will appear very warm and red/orange. If you lower your White Balance Setting to Tungsten, somewhere around 3200K you can compensate for the warmer color and render the scene more naturally. In this case you are bringing the color down from the warmer side of the spectrum to the cooler side.

You can use this information to do some creative White Balance shooting in your photography. Today’s image was shot in two separate exposures-one at 5500K, what I call my “normal” White Balance for slot canyons, and one at 2500K to bring the warm tones down to a bluer color. I can then combine the two files to create a dynamic image expressing blues in the shadows and oranges in the warmer highlights. When I looked at the “blue” image I noticed I picked up some slight magenta tones which gave me the opportunity to process a third, magenta toned, image to use in the composition. The resulting blending in Photoshop would give me an image that moves from blue to magenta to orange. So lets take a look at the files I processed to achieve the final image.

Image 1: Canyon shot at 5500K White Balance Setting.

Image 2: Canyon shot adjusted to 5800K in Lightroom.

Image 1: This is the first image shot with a White Balance setting of 5500K. I typically shoot just at a WB of 5500K for most of my work and make adjustments depending on the light conditions. You will need to check your manuals for setting a custom WB. On the Sony a900 I can set this right from the main menu screen. On the Nikon D3x I can set this from the WB controls on the back of the camera. Both cameras also give you the opportunity to adjust the color temperature further with by hinting the color towards the Green or Magenta side. Setting this to zero is fine.

Image 3: Canyon shot adjusted to 3500K in Lightroom.

Image 4: Canyon shot at 2500K White Balance Setting.

Image 2: In RAW processing of Image 1 I increased the WB to 5800K and made some adjustments to the Green/Magenta Tint using the slider in Lightroom. The intent here was to brighten up the warm tones.

Image 4: This is the second shot in my bracket set and was made with the camera WB at 2500K. This is below the Tungsten Setting of 3200K. In a situation like this, having shot so much in slots, I go for a lower K-number as I can get much cooler tones in the shadows. You can just note a hint of magenta color in the far part of the image. This led to processing out a third image to accentuate this color.

Image 3: This is the Magenta file processed from Image 4. For this I simply raised the WB in Lightroom to 3500K and adjusted the Tint Slider more towards Magenta.

You will notice that after all the adjustments the final files used for the blend all have the same relative luminosity and tonal consistency. Other than the various changes for WB and Tint the RAW processing for each file was the same. I applied the same development to the curves, noise reduction, and pre-sharpening. This must all be the same so the file set can blend together properly. When I was satisfied with each file I returned to the Library Module in Lightroom, selected the three files and then went to Photo > Open as Layers in Photoshop. All three files were processed and placed in Photoshop in a Layer Stack. The Layer stack for this image is shown below.

I ordered the files going from warm to cool in the Layer Stack. For this processing I preferred this as I wanted to paint on top of the warm file as I felt I could see the changes better visually. I added a Layer Mask filled with Black for the Magenta and Blue Layers. Using the White Reveals and Black Hides concept I went from Layer Mask to Layer Mask painting in and out the color changes until I reached a blend I liked. I used a soft brush and adjusted the size and opacity as I worked on the various layers. It is important when blending files like this to pay attention to the Blend Zones – the areas where the colors overlap. Here you must be subtle and work the masks to eliminate hard edges.

Photoshop Layers for Blue Light Special.

Each of the Layers also had a Selective Color Layer where I adjusted the color intensity. Keep in mind this is a salt to taste function. For this file I wanted more intensity in the colors so I pumped up the blue and magenta. I finished off the file by setting the White and Black Point, adding several Curve adjustments, Dodging and Burning, and Creative Sharpening. Dodging and Burning is an important Layer as painting in darker and lighter tomes adds additional detail and helps to blend in color at Blend Zones.

Technical Details: The image was shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 28mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1.0 seconds.

If you have any questions on this post just send me an e-mail. Thanks as always for visiting and supporting this blog.

Bob

Morning Fog on the Shenandoah River – Harpers Ferry, WV

Harpers Ferry, Heliopan Filters, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Mountains, National Parks, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Potomac River, River, Robert H Clark Photography, sunrise, Trees, Water, West Virginia, Zeiss Lenses 3 Responses »

Oct 122011

Morning Fog on the Shenandoah River, Harpers Ferry, WV.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. In my last post I admonished myself for not getting out and enjoying the many scenic possibilities that exist in my own backyard. I received quite a few comments via e-mail from folks all coming clean about falling prey to the same malady. It is easy to do of course. When you plan a shooting trip, say out west, your whole focus is on that trip and the physical and mental act of scouting, shooting, chasing the light, composition, and the list goes on and on. It is different at home however. Because all the home obligations from family to work to putting a roof on the house take over. It is natural because unless we live totally in a self-absorbed vacuum we still have to take care of the business end of life. And that means manage our commitments. It is just life. But, and here is a really big but, if we do not take the time to pursue what we love then it will pass us by. Lost opportunities will turn into the “I wish I had done that”. I for one have a big bucket list of places I want to go and things I want to see, do, and experience. It is quite long and I may never get to the end of the list but I am going to try. If you want something to happen then you have to take matters into your own hands. You can’t wait for it to come to you. You must throw you aspirations out into the karmic airwaves and step by step begin the journey. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Oddly enough the journey, for most of us, begins at home.

I am fortunate to live and work in a very beautiful place. Just twenty minutes from my house the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet just below Harpers Ferry. The Appalachian Trail passes below my office and Loudoun Heights and Maryland Heights, part of the Appalachian chain, tower over the the confluence of the two rivers. Needless to say it is not only beautiful but an amazing barometer of the changing seasons. Fall color has started to appear and it will not be long before sheets of ice will stretch across the river. Though constantly changing the river is the catalyst which draws me to shoot. Fall brings some incredible fog events caused by the temperature inversions as the weather changes. So I have been spending a few days at “home” now just getting reacquainted with the river. As I have discovered it has a lot to offer.

Technical Details: I was on the river fairly early in the morning. The fog is generally thicker at this time and depending on the temperature swings can hang low to the river, obscuring all but the closest details, or float higher revealing more of the landscape. On this day I waited for the fog to begin to burn off just a bit and set up the shot to play on the various converging lines. The image was shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. The image was exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 6 seconds. I used a Heliopan Circular Warming Polarizer to remove specular highlights and a Singh-Ray 3-Stop, Soft Edge, Split Neutral Density Filter over a portion of the sky and background to hold in the sky and fog.

Thanks for stopping by today. Remember where your journey starts. Get out and shoot.

Bob

Bridge and Fog – Shenandoah River, Harpers Ferry, WV

Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Lightroom Workflow, Bridges, Harpers Ferry, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Lee Big Stopper, Lightroom, National Parks, Photography Composition, Photography Technique, Robert H Clark Photography, Shenandoah River, Sony α900, sunrise, West Virginia, Zeiss Lenses 4 Responses »

Oct 092011

Bridge and Fog, Shenandoah River. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 45mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1-1/2 minutes.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s is image is brought to courtesy of our recent influx of beautiful fall weather. The cool mornings and warm afternoons typically generate some fantastic fog along our rivers in the early morning. In a recent conversation with Alec Johnson we were both lamenting that our current workloads and obligations were preventing both of us from getting out and shooting. So I want to make a point about this conversation. Getting out and shooting for the two of us usually involves anywhere but home. For Alec it is the North Shore of Lake Superior and for me it usually revolves around some slot canyon or grand vista in the American West. The fact is that the act of photography, the mental and physical immersion we both have for this medium, is important to our sanity and well being. It seems like a lot of baggage to place on our choice of art but it is true. Both of us, in our own pursuit of photography, find peace and well-being. Much like yoga the process is one of contemplative and deliberate practice and within this we find a release of our demons.

With the arrival of the fog came a revelation. I travel so much and most of my shooting has indeed been in the far reaches of the country. But I live in an incredible place with a veritable playground full of photographic opportunities. What am I waiting for? Nothing was preventing me from shooting, but me. That’s right, me. I am coming clean here. It is so easy to put up the road blocks and complain about our situations. Our conversation and the influx of of fog gave me a new sense of clarity. Yes, I want to shoot out west but when I can’t be there I have great places at home to practice my craft. In the immortal words of Steven Stills, “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one your with”. The river is so close and I can make the time without negating my other obligations. It is a good thing and I am glad I woke up to the possibilities. So “Chak” , if you read this far, this one’s for you.

Technical Details: Today’s image was shot in the early morning and was conceived as a long exposure black and white. I wanted two things in the vision of this image. I wanted to soften the details and capture the beautiful soft light created by the fog. This required a long exposure to achieve. So out came my Lee Big Stopper. 10-stops of neutral density gave me a shutter speed at f11 of nearly two minutes. So during the exposure time the river softens and becomes “ice” like and the drifting fog softens the details rendering the image almost high-key. Just exactly what I was looking to do. In processing I kept the image light soft and put most of the detail into the first bridge pier. This in effect stabilizes the composition and provides a nice contrast.

Get out and shoot. Time is wasting away.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Vidae Falls – Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Abstracts, Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Oregon, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Robert H Clark Photography, Singh-Ray Filters, Sony α900, Waterfalls 2 Responses »

Oct 052011

Vidae Falls, Crater Lake National Park. Image shot with a Sony a900 and a Sony 70-300 lens at 200mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1.5 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s image is a close up view of Vidae Falls, located on the East Rim Drive, in Crater Lake National Park. This waterfall is the best known and most viewed at the park and easily accessible by a turnout on the Rim Drive. Though many people presume the falls represent a leak in the crater the source is actually 600 feet above the lake levels. It is formed by springs which flow together to become Vidae Creek. At a a high point just above the drive the creek plunges over 100 feet through a landscape of native wildflowers.

The closeup was shot at the lower base of the falls as it flows into a scree field. While it is often desirable to photograph the entire waterfall, and I am no exception here, some of the best shots come from isolating the various cascades and shooting a more intimate portrait. A good telephoto works wonders for these compositions and the falls can be explored visually from a safe distance. Though Vidae can be shot in the early morning my preference is late in the afternoon after the sun has passed overhead. The result is a shot where the falls are more evenly lit by ambient light without hotspots and harsh specular light.

Technical Details: To shoot this image I wanted to slow down my shutter speed to produce the flowing, frozen ice, look to the water. To achieve this effect I made a “filter sandwich” with my Heliopan Circular Warming Polarizer and a Singh-Ray 4-Stop Neutral Density Filter. The polarizer has the added benefit of reducing specular highlights in the water and other surfaces wet surfaces such as rocks and plants. As the flow of waters constantly changing I made many exposures so I could chose an image with a pleasing look to the water.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Tidal Pool and Sea Stacks – Bandon Beach, Oregon

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Oct 022011

Tidal Pool and Sea Stacks, Bandon Beach, Oregon. Image shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 17-35mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f11 for 1.5 seconds.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. Today’s image was shot at Bandon Beach along the beautiful Oregon coastline. I only had time for two shooting sessions at Bandon-afternoon/evening and sunrise. I arrived at Bandon in the early afternoon to a howling gale, high tide, and blowing sand from dunes along the back of the beach. I was hoping to get some dramatic clouds to work into my compositions but I was greeted with clear skies. Scouting for possible shots was a challenge in the contrasty light and I was constantly pelted by sand and debris. I was already tired from the drive and found the beach’s welcome less than hospitable. When you feel this way it is best to back off and just breath a bit. I went back to the hotel to check the weather conditions and the hotel owner told me that the wind would abate for the evening. He promised.

And indeed the wind died. The tide rolled out and left an expansive beach full of tidal pools and amazing rocks covered in mussels and starfish. Though I was hoping for some dramatic clouds I was treated to some amazing pink and magenta twilight light. I found this rock encircled in a tidal pool and set against a back drop of illuminated sea stacks. In the far distance you can see “Face Rock” lying in repose in the Pacific Ocean.

Tidal Pool and Sea Stacks. The Processed RAW file brought into Photoshop.

Technical Details: I used a Singh-Ray 3-Stop, Soft Edge, Split Neutral Density filter to balance the light. The WB was set to 5500K. RAW processing was done in Lightroom with final finishing in Photoshop. Take a look at the RAW file below and you can see the dramatic changes achieved through layer manipulations in Photoshop. The images below illustrate the starting point and some of the details from my processing to achieve the final image.

I almost always start with a Cleaning Layer. I perform some digital gardening in Lightroom but deal with the more difficult spots with the Cloning Tools on a separate layer. I dealt with some color cast issues in the next Layer. Keep in mind that with my first layers I am almost always dealing with Global Image Adjustments. My Detail Image Adjustments are made after Global. So for the color cast I felt the file was a bit too magenta and this was killing off some of the blues in the shot. I used a Curve Layer and adjusted the Red Curve and made a further correction in a Selective Color Layer.

Tidal Pool and Sea Stacks. Images zones worked to achieve the final image.

At this point I began looking at my more specific Detail Image Adjustments based on final vision for the file. In Area 1. I wanted to make some very specific adjustments to bring out the Contrast, Luminosity, and Color in the sea stacks. In Area 2. I wanted to bring out the Contrast, Luminosity, and Color in the rock. And in Area 3. I wanted to make a global Color change to the pool and pick out some minute details.

For Area 1. I used tow Curve Layers, one for increasing the Contrast and one for increasing the Luminosity. By Contrast I am referring to the relative difference between Darks, Midtones, and Lights. Here I am simply making subtle adjustments to the 3/4 Points (darks) Mid Tone Point, and the 1/4 Point (lights). Essentially I am making a slight “S” Curve. For Luminosity I am referring to the overall brightness. This is achieved with another Curve Layer where I am sliding the White Point over towards the Mid Point (see the screen captures below for the dramatic effect this achieves. Since I only want to apply the effect locally I use a Black Layer Mask and paint through to reveal the change.

Screen Shot of the Luminosity Adjustment Layer.

The screen shot below shows the Luminosity Layer turned on to reveal the dramatic difference to the overall brightness of the sea stacks. You will also notice the difference in the sea stack reflection in the water. Painting in the change on the foreground rock also dramatically raised the level of brightness and detail. I had what I needed in overall Contrast and Luminosity so I added a Mid Tone Contrast Layer. This is essentially a targeted High Pass Filter Layer applied to the Mid Tone components of the

Scree Shot of the Luminosity Adjustment Layer turned on to show results.

file. You can search my site for posts on how to make this layer. This was followed by Creative Sharpening applied to a “Merge Visible” Layer. Both this layer and the Mid Tone Contrast are essentially tweaking out contrast against the edges to increase the apparent sharpness of the image. The last piece of the work flow are my Dodge and Burn and Color Burn Layers. I dodge and burn my files extensively. It is essentially painting with light and dark on an Overlay Layer with a 50% Fill. Using a soft brush at low opacity I paint in details where light and shadow meet. It is a painting layer that sculpts the file.

The Color Burn Layer is where I can add and intensify the colors of the files. I have written a post on this as well. Please search the site for the details on how to perform this technique. Hopefully this post has given you some insight as to how I processed this image and some of the various techniques I use to achieve the results. As always if you read this and have any questions please use Contact Form link in the Site Menu and send me an e-mail.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Star Trails and White Bark Pine – Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake, Crater Lake National Park, Light Painting, National Parks, Night Photography, Nikon D3x, Oregon, Photography Technique, Robert H Clark Photography, Star Trails No Responses »

Sep 282011

Star Trails over White Bark Pine, Crater Lake National Park.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. In my last post I promised to leave the waterfalls for a bit and post something “other worldly”. I think today’s star trail shot qualifies for “other worldly”. I was at Crater Lake National Park about a month ago and found it to be one of the darkest places I have ever been. The night sky was amazing and every evening you could see the Milky Way glowing brightly and stretching across the sky from horizon line to horizon line. I did not anticipate shooting a star trail shot but after I found this amazing remnant of a white bark pine I had to give it a go. The tree clings to an out cropping of rocks along the crater rim and can be found on the West Rim Drive at an overlook near Hillman Peak. Despite the dark sky I still had an issue with the ambient light coming from the Crater Lake Lodge which can be seen in the lower right hand side of the image. But after working on the file I came to like the amber glow that frames Garfield Peak. You can also see part of the Milky Way which is the blurred area in the upper right.

Technical Details: Image was shot with a Nikon D3x and a Nikkor 15mm Rectilinear Lens. The image was pre-framed when I still had some light. The 40 minute, one-take, exposure was made at ISO 400 at f5.6. I started the exposure at 9:30 which was well after astronomical twilight to ensure a very dark sky. I used an electronic release with a timer to make the exposure. With 3 minutes to go I light painted the pine using an 80 lumen LED flashlight. I shone the light through my moving fingers which acted as a light diffuser. Just a word of caution when working with single exposure star trails. Make sure you do not turn off your camera after the exposure is made. After your shot the camera will take the same amount of time as your exposure time to process the image. Final processing was done in Photoshop and consisted of a series of layer to bring out details in the tree and the star trails. A small amount of noise reduction was also performed.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Bob

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