Posts in Category: brook
10/11/2010: color on the Mousam
Happy Columbus Day! In New England, Columbus day weekend is celebrated primarily by motel and restaurant owners, as the height of the short, but profitable, leaf peeping season. I am, of course, still in Georgia, though I am headed home today.
This is a week ago, right across the road from Old Falls Pond of yesterday’s post. This is the Mousam River above Old Falls, framed at the medium-tel end of the zoom on the Canon to catch a pocket of color and the reflections in the surface of the moving water. Sometimes less is more…or at least as much.
Here is the full scene.
Both shots are three exposure HDRs using autobracket shifted –2/3 EV on the Canon SX20IS. Exposures were blended and tone-mapped in Photomatix, and processed in Lightroom for using Fill Light, Blackpoint, Clarity and touch of Vibrance, and, of course, Sharpen narrow edges. One advantage of the HDR method, if you like the effect, is the automatic blurring of moving water, even at higher shutter speeds. The three different exposures catch the water, as in the falls here, in three slightly different positions and Photomatix, though it does a really good job of blending exposures, does produce some blur for the overlapping motion. A rapidly moving surf line, for instance, or foreground vegetation moving in a strong wind, is death to HDR. Here it actually, I think, adds to effectiveness of the image.
So I am looking forward to seeing what the foliage is like in Maine the day after Columbus Day…
9/18/2010: No Name Creek HDR
I have taken several shots this year from this spot, where a little creek with no name flows under the old railroad embankment (now the Kennebunk Bridle Trail) on its way to the Mousam River and the sea, generally tempted by a sky like this one. This is a Canon SX20IS and Photomatix HDR, using the auto bracket feature on the Canon for three shots.
The wind was blowing very hard and you can see the disturbance in the grasses of the marsh, but the creek bed is deep enough so that the water, at least back against the sand, is still enough to reflect.
Three shots, separated by 3 EV, auto bracket, with the center point moved down 2/3rd EV using the Exposure Compensation dial. Canon SX20IS @ 28mm equivalent. ISO 160.
Blended in Photomatix using tone mapping and detail enhancement. Final adjustments for Blackpoint, Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpen in Lightroom.
8/10/2010
Marsh Light
Another shot from my Saturday outing, and another Canon SX20IS and Photomatix HDR. Two shots.
Just a very quiet domestic scene with a touch of wild in the marsh in the foreground, and some drama in the clouds. Or so I hope. The tension between the elements is of interest to me.
From a technical standpoint, the trick was to take both shots with no cars visible on the busy road that passes between the house and barn…and of course I was trying to do this handheld. A tripod would make HDR much easier…but then I’d have to carry the tripod. 
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. 1) 1250th @ f7.1 @ ISO 80, 2) 1/400th @ f4 @ ISO 80. Exposure compensation dial used to change the exposure by eye for the clouds and landscape.
In Photomatix, enhanced detail, tone mapping blend, with the settings tweaked by eye for the desired result. I am still very much learning to use Photomatix.
In Lightroom, a touch of Fill Light and Blackpoint to the right, added Clarity and Vibrance and Sharpen narrow edges preset. Cropped at the top to constrain the sky.
From Around Home 2010.
8/3/2010
No Name Creek: iPhone Panorama
This is 12 images from the iPhone camera, representing over 220 degrees of view, taken from the same spot as yesterday’s HDR (you might want to compare). It really needs to be viewed as large as your monitor will allow (click the image and use the size controls at the top of the new window). AutoStitch on the iPhone makes this kind of shot easy. You just take roughly overlapping images and the program does all the aligning, stitching and exposure blending for a very polished result.
Often I use a panorama matrix that is two shots deep…4 across and two down for 8 images, or 5 across and 2 down for 10, but with this sweep I kept it simple. I was not about to attempt 24 overlapping shots. When you do two shots vertically you get an automatic HDR effect, since the upper shot is generally metered off the sky, and the lower off the foreground, and the AutoStitch exposure blending routine does an excellent job of preserving the best of both. With a single layer pano you lose that benefit, and, indeed, this set correctly rendered the sky but left the foreground too dark…even with levels adjustment in PhotoGene, since I was not willing to sacrifice sky detail for the landscape exposure. In Lightroom I would have used the dueling Graduated Filter effects I have outlined in the past, but I was determined to keep all processing on the iPhone for this iPhone shot. Therefore I used Tiffin’s FotoFX app to add a .6 Graduated Neutral Density filter effect to darken the sky. Once saved, I reopened the image in PhotoGene and adjusted curves, exposure, contrast, and saturation for the finished image, which is a pretty good rendering of this huge sweep.
From iPhone 4 HDR and Pano.
5/19/2010
Early Light: Highpoint
During the chase of Team Zeiss for the World Series of Birding we made stops in some of the most beautiful country in New Jersey, and, though I was focused on documenting the Team’s efforts for the day, I was not totally insensitive to the beauty…and since I was not actually competing, I could turn my camera away from the team for a quick landscape, or even a flower shot, or two.
This is somewhere in the Highpoint/Stokes area in the far north-west of the state. The sun was just glancing across the landscape from the horizon. It does not get better than this.
It was a very demanding exposure problem. I tipped the camera up to meter more of the sky and locked exposure. That left the foreground too dark, but I was able to recover the detail in Lightroom. This image will repay viewing as large as you monitor will take it.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky. Heavy Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint well right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
3/23/2010
Balson River, Emmons Preserve, Kennebunkport ME
I have attempted to photograph this stream in every season over the past 12 years. It is on a little pocket preserve tucked in between the homes on two back roads…gifted to the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust some years ago, and developed just enough for easy access…once you know it is there. The stream, or river, depending, goes from a trickle at mid summer to a full raging torrent during the storms of spring and fall. Or it can be an icy cascade in winter, with every willow wand along the bank hung with ice bells. I have seen it in every light.
And it is always a bear to photograph. The range of light, from deep shadow to bright sun on the foaming water of the falls, from the incredible dark green of the moss in the shade, to the pure silver light reflected off leaves, is just way beyond any sensor’s ability. I even wrote a whole Point and Shoot Landscape piece on exposing for post-processing based on my trials here: the only way to come close to capturing the range is to expose so that both shadow and highlight detail can be restored in post-processing. Of course, that means that the images, out of camera, can look pretty strange.
So…with a new camera and all, I had to try again…or at least make a beginning in the process of learning how to use this camera to capture an image in Emmon’s Preserve…since no two cameras have the same range of possibility when it comes to that (or anything else).
All the shots taken that day were experiments. I found that with previous cameras you could not use exposure compensation to save the highlights. That left the shadows too dark, and post-processing added to much noise. Still, I know that photographically, exposure compensation is the right solution here, so I was trying what the Canon could do. This exposure was at –1 EV, and, with processing in Lightrroom, it is one of the most successful shots of the Balson that I have ever taken. The highlights and sunny bank areas are just within range (having applied some Recovery in Lightroom), and the shadows opened up well with just enough Fill Light not to produce much noise. Granted, it will get worse when the leaves come out and the shadows deepen…but for now, I am really liking this rendering. The dynamic range is very natural…both shadows and highlights are much as the eye would see them in real time: and that, ultimately, is my goal.
(By the way, I am not an advocate of the silky water school of stream photography. I have another P&S Landscape piece on that. I prefer to let the shutter freeze some of the water motion…since, in real time, I see something closer to the detail of frozen water, than I do to the silky blur. I find the patterns of swirl and bubble infinitely fascinating.)
Canon SX20IS at just under 60mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/200 @ ISO 80. Landscape preset. (Landscape preset, by the way, does better, somehow, for color balance than regular Program does on auto. It handled the open shade here just fine.)
In Lightroom, as mentioned, Recovery for highlights, Fill Light for shadows (but not much). Blackpoint just slightly right. Added Clarity and just a tiny amount of Vibrance. Sharpen landscape preset.
From Around Home 2010.
12/20/2009
Winter Lace
There are always interesting patterns in the foam that forms in the still backwater below the series of small falls at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport, but on this day, when it was well below freezing and only the motion of the water kept it liquid, the foam itself was half frozen and particularly lace-like. This shot contrasts the intricate patterns in white with the equally intricate patterns in the green moss. It was cropped at bit at the top for composition.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F3.2 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
Blackpoint to the right in Lightroom. Added Clarity and Vibrance, and a touch of Fill Light for the moss. Sharpen Landscapes preset.
From Around Home Kinnebunk ME.
And, for contrast, a close-up of the foam. Purely abstract. Taken from the same spot by zooming in to about 200mm equivalent for framing.
10/9/2009
Autumn Angler
I was down at the river looking for a view, when I turned to see this fisherman in the stream. I had only time for one shot before he became aware of me. To me it captures a moment and a feeling. Just enough autumn color to give you the when, and yet a king of timeless quality in the activity. The reflected colors in the water, the little fall behind the fisherman…I could not have posed it better…and yet it just happened. To me those are the best shots!
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F2.7 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped slightly in Lightroom for composition and to eliminate a light sky expanse. Recovery for the highlights in the falls. Some Fill Light to open shadows. Blackpoint to the right very slightly. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel and Sharpen landscape preset.
From Fall 09 Maine.
8/23/2009
Grand Falls
The highest of the Falls above Ingleton and a show piece of the Yorkshire Dales. You can see the limits of the camera clearly here. I had to apply a graduated filter effect from the top to darken the sky, and even then could find no real detail. Of course, it was one of those white English skys, on the edged of rain, with no real features.
Still, the falls carries the image.
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F5.0 @1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
As above, graduated filter effect from the top. Blackpoint adjustment. Fill Light. Punch and Landscape sharpen presets.
8/22/2009
Fall on the Ingelton Water Falls Walk
I can’t remember how many falls they claim for the Ingelton Water Falls Walk, but there are many. You go up one river, across the high moor, and down another river back to the junction where you started. This was one of the more prominent falls on the upward loop. We got there well before the car park opened, and the attendant eventually took pity and let us in early, so we were gloriously alone on the trial. A walk I will certainly remember and treasure forever. By afternoon, when we looked back at the moorland section of this trail from across the valley, it was like a city sidewalk with hikers. (So many people use the trail that two enterprising farmers have allowed snack booths along it were it passes through their land, one tended by foot, carrying everything quite a distance in, and one a truck that daily penetrates the deep cut lanes between stone walls to reach a likely vantage point on the top of the moor.)
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F2.8 @ 1/20th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery for the highlights in the falls. Blackpoint adjustment. Punch and Landscape sharpen presets.