Robert H Clark Photography Blog

Bryce Canyon Sunrise – Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Circle, Landscape, Landscape Photography, National Parks, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Robert H Clark Photography, sunrise, Twilight Photography, Utah 2 Responses »

Oct 282012

Bryce Canyon Sunrise • Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah.

Hi everyone and welcome to todays post. I know it has been a little while since my last post but it has been a whirlwind of a fall that has included the installation of my first one-man show at the City Meat Gallery in Winchester, Virginia, a major shooting trip to Utah, and a trip to Photo Plus Expo in New York. I am just now able to slow down and start looking at some of the files from my recent shoots. Todays image was shot in Bryce CanyonNational Park in Utah and was shot at dawn just below the canyon rim along the Navajo Trail. I found this “hoodoo wall” while scouting a potential morning shot for Thor’s Hammer, one of the more iconic hoodoos in Bryce. I made a mental note of the forms but at the time did not think too much of the shots potential. It was only while checking the rising sun angles with the Photographers Ephemeris on my iPhone that I realized I could capture the rising sun through the window openings in the wall. Scouting and pre-visualizing a shot is an important part of the photographic process. This is especially true when you need to arrive very early, before the sun rises, to set up the shot. As a general rule I like to be on-site and in place at least an hour before sunrise. This gives me time to get into position and an opportunity to watch the “lights come on”. I will always be enthralled by this phenomenon. In the darkness the landscape is seemingly a place of quiet shadows. It can be an eery time as well with thoughts of things that go bump in the night. But as the earth rotates into astronomical twilight, approximately an hour before sunrise, the eastern horizon begins to glow with the promise of a new day. By the arrival of civil twilight the landscape begins to glow with reflected light bouncing from the sky and clouds. Light at this time is generally even and shadowless allowing the forms of the landscape to be revealed. It is my favorite time to shoot.

On the next morning I made a few twilight exposures of Thor’s Hammer and then raced up the trail to set up my camera on the largest window in the hoodoo. I marked the brightest point along the horizon, the point where I thought the sun would rise, and made sure it was visible through the window. I made a few test exposures for the composition and then waited for the sun to rise. It came right on time and light burst through the hoodoos window. In order to get the starburst effect I stopped the camera down to f22. The smaller aperture focuses the light and creates the star. Additionally I wanted to make sure the sun was partially blocked by a piece of the hoodoo which aids in creating the effect and helps to eliminate a lot of the potential flare. I did have a little bit of correctable flare however since I was using my Tokina 16-28 which has a pronounced front lens element. The intense color evident on the hoodoo came from reflected light off the canyon wall just behind my camera position. The RAW file was processed in LR4.2 and finished in PS5.1

Camera: Nikon D800E | Lens: Tokina 16-28mm, f2.8 at 20mm | Exposure: ISO 100 at 1/15th of a second at f22

Thanks for stopping by today.

Bob

Toadstool Hoodoos – Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Colorado Plateau, Grand Circle, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photoshop Technique, Sony α900, Utah No Responses »

Jul 272010

Entrada Toadstool, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Shot with a Sony a900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 28mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/30th of a second.

Hi everyone. Welcome to today’s posting. I am going to talk about several things in this post relating to how I shot and processed this image. First a little background. This shot was made in an area called the Toadstools in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The area features a wild landscape of red Navajo formations and white Entrada formations. The white toadstools are hidden in a small side canyon and receive afternoon light. Littered all around the site are dark Dakota Formation rocks and caprocks that sit on top of the toadstools. Sunlight bouncing off the white Entrada surfaces is intense so it is best to wait until the late afternoon and a lower sun angle to shoot in this area. I made quite a few shots around the canyon but I kept gravitating to this amazing Dakota Rock. I loved the color and textures. I spent some time just trying to compose a shot and as I moved around I was able to focus in on a composition with the rock and the toadstool against the canyon wall. In this composition I wanted to capture the implied leading line of darker rocks beginning at the left corner and leading up to the toadstool with the caprock. There are actually two leading lines here; the line of the foreground rocks and the diagonal line formed by the wedge of light leading to the toadstool. To make this work I wanted to achieve sharp focus in the shot all the way from foreground to background.

The final processed image is a merge of three exposures, all with the same exposure, but each with a slightly different focus point, and combined in Helicon Focus software. The focus points were the foreground rock, the group of rocks in the middle, and the toadstool in the background. The three RAW files were processed with the same settings in Lightroom and placed in the Helicon program where the software magically crunched the numbers and blended the files into one critically sharp image. It was saved out as a .psd file for final work in Photoshop.

Entrada Toadstool RAW image before processing in Photoshop.

The image above is the merged RAW file before applying the various layers and adjustments. When comparing the two shots I think it is pretty easy to see the differences between the files. The RAW file lacks the contrast, punch, and color of the final image. But buried within the RAW file is the image I envisioned. It is only a matter of laying out a plan of action to bring out the details. I have outlined four areas within the image that I focused on in processing the shot.

Area 1: In order to make the toadstool standout I would need to darken the canyon wall. This would achieve separation and actually make the toadstool look brighter.

Area 2: This wedge of highlight would need to be knocked back. It was too bright compared to the rest of the tones in the scene. In addition the line of rocks were to hot and also needed to be toned back just a bit for better balance.

Area 3: The left hand fin of sandstone would also need to be toned back to help in framing the toadstool.

Area 4: The foreground rock is one of the most important features and along with the small grouping of rocks to the left form the beginning of the line that leads the eye up and around to the toadstool in the back of the canyon.

So these four areas were the starting point. I want to point out that before you start working on any image it is a good idea to study it and create a plan for how you want to process the shot. What is your vision for the image. What story are you trying to tell. What are the important details about the image that you want emphasize. Look closely at the shadows and highlights, the color tones within the image, and the contrast. Map out a plan and begin first with your global adjustment for shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. This might include setting a white and black point. Each of these adjustments should be made through curve layers. From there move to more localized adjustments. I always have a dodge and burn layer followed by my color correction layers and if necessary a color burn layer. I also apply a mid-tone contrast layer. I have spoken about this before and it is an important step to pop the contrast within the mid-tones. It is basically a highpass sharpen filter appled to a certain tonal range. The screen shot below shows the number of layers I used to process this shot. I employed a number of Luminosity Masks for shadows, mid-tones and brights followed by more focused adjustment for the background, the fin, and the foreground rock. These are indicated in the “A” set. The “B” shows my Mid-tone Contrast layer and Dodge and Burn. The “C” set is the localized color adjustments.

Everything is accomplished in layers and the file is saved as a layered PSD file. This gives you the most flexibility and allows you to come back and make or change your adjustments. Often when you make your first test prints you will see things that need to be changed and it is easy to go back into the layered file to do this.

Two critical steps I want to point out are the Dodge and Burn and the Color Burn layers. These are powerful, often overlooked, adjustments that can really make an image pop. In my darkroom days I used D+B as a way to lighten and darken values within my black and white prints. It is no different in the digital darkroom today. It is a subtle, painterly process that can impart a remarkable depth to an image. Color burn is another powerful layer where you can bring back color to certain areas within the image. Color burn when used in conjunction with D+B can help you bring out the glow. To see the effect compare and contrast the foreground rock in the RAW file with the final image.

Entrada Toadstool adjustment layers in Photoshop.

As always I want to thank everybody for stopping by today. I covered quite a few items in this one shot. If you have any comments or questions just drop me a note in the comments section. I am always happy to tell you what I did to an image. We are all on a photography journey together and we can only grow by sharing our knowledge.

Bob

Ghosts – Wahweap Hoodoos, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument

Grand Circle, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Hoodoo, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Trips, Sony α900, Utah No Responses »

Jul 242010

Ghosts at Wahweap Hoodoos, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Shot with a Sony α900 and Sony SAL 20mm lens. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f16 for 1/30 of a second.

Hi everyone and welcome to today’s post. As a heat wave envelopes West Virginia I am sequestered inside trying to stay cool. Though the weather is not cooperating for photography it is nonetheless a fine time to slow down and revisit some files I have not had a chance to process. This image was shot at the Wahweap Hoodoos, a grouping of eroded Entrada sandstone formations along the Wahweap Wash in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah. I came upon these formations and immediately thought of them as ghosts. Not ghosts in the traditional sense of course, but more like early trick or treat days, with a simple sheet pulled over our heads as we headed out to collect candy from our neighbors. The far formation actually reminded me of Cousin It from the Adam’s Family.

There was a beautiful quality of light on this afternoon where the cool blue shadows stood in contrast to the warm reflected light on the canyon walls. The hardened sandstone felt cool to my touch and the wonderful fluting from years of erosion gave each ghost a unique personality. In the quiet of the canyon I spent some time with the ghosts, my ghosts, with my thoughts far away from this place. I don’t remember what was on my mind that day or really how long I was lost to my thoughts. Perhaps it was just the power of being in a special place but I woke from my thoughts free and calm. All thoughts gathered in the folds of my ghosts and washed away. I moved on as the light began to change.

Thanks for stopping by today. Spend some time with your ghosts.

Bob

Badlands Sunset – Grand Staircase-Escalante

Badlands, Black and White, Desert, Grand Circle, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Hoodoo, Landscape, Landscape Photography, Photography Technique, Photography Trips, Sony α900, sunset, Utah, Zeiss Lenses No Responses »

Apr 292010

Badlands Sunset. Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument. Shot with a Sony α900 and a Zeiss 24-70mm lens at 24mm. Image exposed at ISO 100 at f14 for 3 seconds.

Hi everyone. I am getting ready to depart for a few days to watch my daughter in a big track meet. So I thought I would post an image before head down the road. This shot was taken in the area of the Rimrock Hoodoos in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The site is easily accessible from Highway 89. A short hike brings you to a playground of hoodoos, balanced rocks, and colorful badlands. I spent the better part of an afternoon exploring this area and as I was about to leave late in the evening a wonderful band of wispy clouds moved in. This shot is looking almost due west into the setting sun. I really liked the contrast of the hard barren landscape and the ethereal clouds. I had taken a few shots when the little dark cloud rolled in to the scene. The darker band of foreground rocks leads the eye to the cloud which adds a nice layer of dynamic movement to the shot.

In order to capture this image I used a 4-stop Singh Ray split neutral density filter to compensate for the difference in contrast between the foreground and the sky. The sunlight was somewhat obscured behind the band of clouds on the horizon which helped keep exposure issues to a minimum. The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom and finished in Photoshop.

As always thank you for stopping. We will see you again next week.

Bob