
Redwood Burl, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, California. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 35mm. See story for processing.
Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. This image is from the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in Northern California. The park is located on California 199 that heads north towards Grants Pass, Oregon. I only had a few hours to explore and shoot but I can tell you I want to make a return trip. If you have never stood at the base of one of these giant trees then you need to put this on your bucket list. I arrived in the late afternoon which, as it turns out, is one of the better times to shoot in the forest. This shot was made in the Stout Grove which takes a small bit of effort to find. These trees and their canopy are so large that only dappled light filters through the forest which makes for challenging shooting conditions. In most instances the shot requires multiple exposures or HDR techniques to capture the full range of light.
Technical Details: This image was shot with seven exposure brackets to capture the full range of light from shadows to highlights. Each exposure bracket was one-stop apart. My initiial plan in the shot was to combine all the exposures but after some experimentation I only used two of the exposures; one exposed for midtones, and one one-stops darker for shadows. The two files were first processed in Lightroom. The two files were selected and sent to Photoshop where I did an exposure blend to merge the two files together. Final finishing included some creative sharpening, curves, dodging and burning, and color burning. (Note: this file has been updated and replaced with a different processing method).
Thanks for stopping by today.
Bob
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