With the upcoming photography teaching event and photo walk I will be teaching at Clay Pit Ponds State Park Preserve I decided to shoot a little before going over some of the presentation. I am without my wildlife lenses unfortunately as they are being serviced, so to landscapes it is! The skies were cloudy and a fresh painting of snow had touched the landscape. Before I even took the camera out of the car I knew I was going to shoot for HDR (High Dynamic Range.)

One thing I love about HDR is what it does to the clouds. It adds an incredible amount of drama. If you ever underexpose a shot heavily with stormy skies you will see what I mean. I am working on a tripod 90% of the time when working with HDR. You need to make sure all the images will easily overlay and line up to reduce any artifacts. The one problem too is wind. Zoomed in you can see a few branches that look like they are ghosting due to the wind. I could have not shot the image, but I felt it didn’t suffer because of it. Once I had my tripod I stopped down for a large depth of field and I usually start with no exposure compensation. In typical scenes like these a 5-stop range of light will cover my needs. I go into my cameras bracketing function and set it for a total of 5 images. A normal meter reading, -1 underexposed, -2 underexposed , +1 overexposed, +2 over exposed. Then from those images I will compile them all later in Photo Matrix Pro to get the image I desire. There are a ton of sliders in photomatrix and I push and pull them until the image feels just right. A tip I use to know when I shot a 5-image sequence when reviewing my images from the day is to go back to a single exposure shot and photograph my hand. It’s a signal to me that before that shot is my sequence. I took a total of 8 HDR sequences and trying to keep up amongst all the other photos can be a blur. I got the tip from Matt Kloskowski at DTownTV for shooting panoramas. I would take a lot of images and not knowing where one starts and one begins can drive you nuts!

Notice something in this image that wasn’t in the last? Same location, but there are no foot prints! I actually walked back in my own foot prints to keep this look going. The HDR technique really brought out the detail in the depth of the snow.

I was captivated by this one walkway. It is just across Sharrotts road near the park and I was the first one to step foot there. Well besides the wildlife at least. I ran this through Silver Efex Pro and choose the Dark Sepia filter. No adjustments beyond that. This is the same image as the first one posted.

I wanted to shoot some images that weren’t HDR. Although I enjoy HDR photographs I don’t like to fill a location with them. The advantage is I keep all 5 shots so I could pluck out an exposure I like. These non HDR images however were shot for the sole purpose of not using HDR. I used the Pro Contrast filter in Color eFex pro that made my whites bright and crisped up the edges.

I also ran it in B&W. Although I realize most of these images are  the same location/position there are subtle differences. We all too often walk by a scene as something we have seen before. Something that has been photographed and we have grown tired off. Don’t get me wrong I have done it too. I try and correct myself when I do so however. I try and remember that every moment in time is unique. Why was this last photo (color and B&W version) so unique? Well if you notice the shadows came out. The day being overcast left no shadows. I had MAYBE 15seconds to take this image. I panicked and shot it at f/8. Not the f/16 I had wanted, but we take what we can get.

The reason I was shooting at f/8 was I wanted to be ready for anything. Remember I alluded to wildlife before? Well if something walked in the frame he/she wasn’t going to stand still for an f/16 exposure. I have left my settings in bracketing or stopped down real hard before and payed for it with missed opportunities. So this is the flip side of trying to avoid that. Can’t win them all they say

My goal was to get to Sharrotts Pond. As you can see everything was untouched and just a beautiful sight. I kept the cooler tone that the HDR had created as I felt it told a batter story as to how the temperature felt.

The pond was perfect. Frozen just enough for a fantastic winter landscape. I wanted to bring you along for this one

I wanted to finish out the day with a portrait of the pond. Sometimes an image speaks to you and when it does don’t let it get away! Whether it is HDR or a quick snap the hesitation of holding off that photograph is not worth it. Just Click! (sorry Nike :-p)

We have been to Cape Cod two other times and for some reason never noticed the Cranberry Bogs. We always wanted to see them, but never ran into them before. Shows you how much great stuff there truly is out there. Funny thing is that as soon as we found one they were everywhere. Even in places we have traveled by before. A tad embarrassing to admit, haha. For this photograph I didn’t set a black and white point. It was one of those days where you point, click, and your done. I really wanted to find a way to make it pop and I resorted to a favorite Nik software plug-in of mine ‘Tonal Contrast’. I upped the saturation to +40 and checked off the “conventional high pass filter” to see what it would do. Through experimentation it gave me exactly what I wanted. I shot this in a road runner and the wild coyote style I think.

Provincetown is a place of acceptance and a love of expression. It really is a great to visit in the ‘off’ season to avoid the crowds. The ‘off’ season as I write it isn’t the off season for us. It is the perfect time of the season! The spring thaw is bringing a period of nutrient turn over due to temperature gradients in the water (water is heaviest at 3degrees celcius so as the temperatures change the water moves basically dragging nutrients with it due to the water current cycle and thermoclines in the ocean)  in the oceans attracting high quantities of fish and zooplankton which is the main reason the whales come to this thriving location. If your smart you’ll go from late April to early June and avoid those crowded tourist months.

Great food is another item that is never in short quanitity hear. The Lobster Pot is a famous restaurant located in the heart of commercial street. It is two floors, faces the ocean and makes some of the most amazing, mouth watering food you could imagine. The menu is huge, accomadates food lovers of all kinds, has the freshest catch and you can keep on coming back as you couldn’t finish the menu in a week if you tried! Just one of the many great places to chow down.

One more version of the Lobster Pot. I think it gives it a more of a fisherman’s town feel. Also shows the dreary day that had set in toward dusk. I did try to make this photograph more of an illustration by boosting the strength of the HDR effects and also boosting the saturation.

On our way home we tried to stop at as many locations as possible. After going numb trying to shoot in the storm by the shore I moved to a spot I thought the waves would really be raging. Turned out I was wrong and the waves were more spread out rather then crashing the shoreline. However; leaving nauset beach we lucked out with photographs of the Nauset Lighthouse. It was still pouring and I was taking on fresh water both in the car and on my lens, but I kept firing my bracketed exposures to get the images I wanted. The second version I applied the Tonal Contrast filter and boosted the saturation and contrast in the shadows just a bit more. I really love how it spikes the detail in the shingles and the side of the house. (Used the Magic Cleaner microfiber cloth to remove the water and found it to be perfect. It is incredibly absorbitive compared to your average cloth. Very happy with it.)

If I can find a moral of this story when it comes to this two part series (sorry for tense issues with writing this backwards ); it is to always keep an open eye to multiple avenues of photography. It is definitely good to have your photography concentrated so you can focus your strengths in your work, but all too often we can get stuck in a rut. Moving ourselves to see other things in common places can aid not only your enjoyment of the location your visiting and take back more memories with you, but it will also expand your photography and bring it to new levels.

Enough with the technical. Lets talk about the safety of your gear. With overcast skies, moisture is always a threat. You may be walking straight into your day with the rain coming down or the lingering disaster may be waiting for that opportune moment where you thought you were in the clear. The best thing is to have a rain coat for your lens. Typically some type of plastic sheath or cover for your lens and or body. They also help in dusty or sandy environments so they aren’t just for wet environments. I use the Tenba RC-24. It was the first one I purchased and have just stuck to it. (Sometimes an investment might cost a bit much and you have to take full advantage.) It works by means of Velcro. You attach some double sided Velcro to your lens hood and then line the outer edge on your lens hood. It has other Velcro on it for further security. You can remove the Velcro and use a product called ‘goo gone’ to remove any left over residue.  I don’t shoot through the clear back as it’s obnoxious and not really necessary with the D300 seals. One other ultra cheap option is the rainsleeve by op/tech. You get two covers for 7$ quite a deal. I ordered a pair myself and will be investigating them by Wednesday to report back to you I hope. Either way there are a bunch of options out there. I’d find a local photo store, or a place with a great return policy that will let you try certain products first.

So now that you are protected and aware of your WB it is time to get out and experiment:

Experimentation was a real theme for the day. I was shooting with everything in mind. This is an HDR (high dynamic range) five frame composite image designed to have a very persuasive feel. I used this trail (made from misuse of the trail system; I was at the trail head and did not take the path) to direct the eye and also when processing this image using the light to perform the same task.

My goal for the day was to try and capture the sense of fog I was witnessing. There was a huge thick wave of fog coming in off the water toward shore. It was the perfect opportunity. This HDR image above took the fog right out of the image and wasn’t cutting it. As I was taking the (proper) trail down to the beach I caught a glimpse of this fisherman who wandered out to see what he could catch. This is one of many frames I fired off. The great thing about the fog is that it skaters light everywhere. So your shutter speeds can go at higher speeds then you would imagine. My goal was to capture the peak of action here. I have a bunch of him fiddling with his fishing pole and checking his gear, but nothing tells the story as well as you see here. (Processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro)

When I reached the beach I was greeted by this awesome scene. There were at least a hundred brant taking advantage of low tide in search of some food. The goal was to get close enough to have a sharp focus point and farther enough  away to still have the fog effect the landscape (shot with the Nikon 80-400mm; telephotos can do landscapes too ).

I wanted to share this one as a demonstration of the importance of foreground and more importantly to show a story telling element. Can you tell what that element is? I used the highlights to throw you to it. These two poor brant took a smack by mother nature. You can see them bracing for the wave as it comes their way.

I didn’t know what spooked them. I self checked myself mentally wondering what it is I said, or how I smelled? Eight seconds after this scene fully unfolded I turned my head backward. Turned out the fisherman had enough and seeing him cross the spartina was enough to make them disappear off into the abyss. You may notice that the black point of the images are a bit different or the WB a tad shifted. Light is constantly changing in the scene of course, but this was more a post processing issue. When I got back to the computer I wanted to make sure that the black points were equal. Problem is that in Nikon Capture NX2 as far as I can tell you can’t batch process a black point. A slight shift in the scene and the point will hit a totally different location. So some may appear a tad more saturated and contrasty. A good point to keep in mind with sharpness/contrast/saturation in relation to setting your black point or underexposing for the scene.

On the way out this scene struck me. It had a dreary and dark appeal to it. It is and HDR composite, but I feel it was a great representation of what I saw, not an illustration of what I may have wanted it to look like.

You can see the effect of a cloudy sky on the water. Even with a cloudy white balance preset it is hard to recover the damage done by the clouds. This slick bastard, I mean great egret is a tough one to place. Background is the part that he loves to make difficult for me. This was done on purpose however for two reasons. One to show you how without watching your background a good image can go bad. When an object in the background can decapitate your subject, it isn’t very aesthetically pleasing. The second reason is just to show how incredibly long his neck is! I thought it was a great angle to share with you all. If you ever get the chance to watch them hunt for fish take the time to observe. I was amazed at how carefully they approach. More so how I thought he was watching me. His head was sideways and not in a position to scan the water, but in a split second he shot is long neck downward and caught a fish in the complete opposite direction. Just an astonishing experience.

An image that has a classic look to it. After an experience at the Gateway National Seashore I stopped by the harbor to take in the natural events for the day.  So much for not being able to make much on a cloudy day, ey?
(This image was processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro.)

I really love the detail and how well the HDR technique works with grave stones. All of these photos were taken with my Sigma 10-20mm. I envisioned the type of images in my head before I even set foot on location. Knowing the possibilities in Photomatrix pro 3 and what it can do to even to a single image creating a pseudo HDR image I was set. Like I have mentioned before about HDR; for me texture is key.

This is an image where too wide might be too much. We tend to approach the world with a wide angle and want to capture all its majesty. This possibility doesn’t occur all too often. With so many elements it is hard to distinguish your focal point. The goal is to simplify and only include items that will complement, not compete with your subject. Here my subject was the priest on the tall stone you may see in front of the bench. The tree trunk to the left for me competes with the scene. What I would do is go back and get closer. With extreme wide angle lenses, the closer is usually better. Let your subject smack you in the face and the surrounding area complement the subject.

This is an alternative orientation to the one previous to the previous image, . A lot of times it will pay to have different orientations to a scene. All to often we get locked into a horizontal plane. Why not throw it vertical, you might be pleasantly surprised.

This is an example about bringing your subject closer and using the surrounding elements to complement your subject. The subject is this angel with a broken left wing tip (hard to see the broken tip here.) The trees towering her surround the subject. Emphasizing the cloud cover encircling our angel. You’ll also notice I shot this photograph lower to the ground. Giving a bit more attention toward the ground rather than the sky portion of the image. I didn’t get right on top of these statues and stones however as I was a guest here.

I really enjoy this one personally. I think its simplicity that gets me and addition to detail training the direction of your eye.

This last image is a bit of HDR gone out of control. I brought the overall light smoothing down very low if not to its lowest. Kinda plays with your eyes a bit. Throws the background out of focus real hard, but the trunk of this tree remains much more clear to draw your eyes to itself. Definitely a more experimental piece.

One other tool I used in my images was a polarizer. It was a tool that I used to cut down on any shine that might be present from the midday sun and also added a bit of saturation (not its main purpose.) I personally haven’t shot an HDR image with a tripod yet. They sure recommend you using one though. I would have to agree It is for the best when you can. Sometimes the situation just doesn’t allow for it. So the key here is using your in camera bracketing. Set it for a 5-frame bracket or even a 7 or 9-frame bracket. Whatever you feel the dynamic range of the situation is going to call for. At a high zoom artifacts can be noticeable in some images. I believe this is due to not using a tripod. The auto-alignment works very well provided you hold still and use proper hand holding technique. Can’t hurt to lean on something at the same time to increase stability either. Will be doing more and more tests with this. Now many may ask if HDR always has this look? Nope it sure doesn’t. It is a highly selective movement of many, many sliders (don’t let that scare you.) I personally like bringing in that black point as I find the more photographic looking HDR image just looks awfully strange. Of course this all changes as we meet and greet new subjects in our photography. Has any of this inspired you to try it? Awesome. There is actually a free fully functional tutorial here. Have fun!

On a side note I have some time in the coming week to make a quick side trip. We’re thinking anything within driving range of 6-8hrs in any direction from NYC. Anyone have any suggestions? We were thinking Cape Cod, but it might be a tad early for the humpbacks, and Maine sounds awesome, but I’d hate to rush it. Feel free to drop a line!

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]]> http://jarredsutton.com/blog/2009/04/a-cemetery-meets-hdr/feed/ 0 http://jarredsutton.com/blog/2009/03/san-ignacio-lagoon-most-rugged-drive-ever-comic-book-guy/ http://jarredsutton.com/blog/2009/03/san-ignacio-lagoon-most-rugged-drive-ever-comic-book-guy/#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:12:21 +0000 Jarred http://jarredsutton.com/blog/?p=1078 [...]]]> Due to the grey whales migrating so soon we had to move on to San Ignacio Lagoon. It was a drive of 45min on a good road to the town of San Ignacio and then an hour and a half drive on basically compressed sand road littered with stones. Testing the limits to see if your joints are all attached properly.

The experience was definitely something else. We all split into groups and boarded ‘pongas’ (aka small fiberglass motor boats.) Nothing fancy at all. Basically looked like a totally open boat with some benches of the same material across it’s inner sides. Fifteen minutes out and into the protected areas we went. We had some trouble as we never found a friendly whale for ourselves, but we did witness it abundantly for others. The photography was a treat as these graceful animals would slowly rise from the shallow 40ft depth gracing us with their presence.

This is a five frame HDR composite put together with photomatrix 3 pro. The early morning sun was highlighting the top portion and the lower section of the San Ignacio Kadakaaman church (mission) was in shadow. Not great for our cameras sensors. I Pushed the detail to really ‘grunge the image’ and exagerate the detail.

Another HDR five frame composite taken from inside the church. Saturation was pushed hard. In hindsight it might be a bit much, what do you think?

This is the back a grey whale which is assumed to have had a chunk taken out of her via an orca. The ‘scabbing’ you see in the peach type color is actually hundreds if not thousands of sea lice taking blood from the wound. Yummy.

A grey whales head as she breaths through her blow hole.

This is the grey whale experience we all set out to achieve. Not all had the opportunity, but being in their presence is life changing experience.