Posts in Category: Lightroom
4/13/2010
Parsons Rays
Parson’s Beach is only 2 miles from my front door, so we visit it often, and it never fails to show a new face. This is late in an iffy day weather-wise. I was after the rays here and the dramatics in the sky. I took a fairly straight forward Landscape program shot, biased a little for the sky by tipping the camera up and locking exposure, and then brought up the foreground in Lightroom.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/1250th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom, heavy Recovery for the sky (even biased as the exposure was). Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint right. A good deal of Fill Light for the foreground, but even then, to restore it to something like what my eye saw, without removing the dark areas of the clouds, it required a Graduated Filter Effect from the bottom to lighten exposure on the sand.
From Around Home 2010.
A photo friend with whom I trade comments suggested that this might look good in B&W. We often have this discussion as he likes B&W better than I do. So, without further ado, a B&W version.
3/13/2010
Tide Pools Area: Cabrillo National Monument
Cabrillo National Monument sits at the point of Point Loma, overlooking San Diego Harbor on one side, and the Pacific on the other. There is a lighthouse there, and little pocket park, with some of the best views of the coast you are likely to see. You have to drive through a section of the Naval Base and the National Cemetery to get there, so access is limited to 9 to 5 (when the military gates are open these days) but it is always worth a visit, in any season and any weather.
The day I had available dawned, as promised, with rain, and I debated going at all. I did get out, and had about 3 hours there, shooting from under my umbrella and in brief intervals in the drizzle, before a steady driving rain drove me off the point and back to the hotel.
This is the Tide Pool area, which is reached by a well paved and graded road that serves both the modern lighthouse and a water treatment plant. They have been working here in the last year, making improvements on the short trail system, and I enjoyed exploring further from the parking lot than I have ventured in the past.
The challenge in this weather is, of course, to capture the authentic drama of the rainy coast, cliffs and ocean. The contrast and exposure (EV) range is surprisingly broad on such a day, dull as we might think it, as the lighter sky tends to dominate the dark, rain soaked, landscape. More on that in a Point & Shoot Landscape post (coming soon).
I took a couple of different shots of this view before I got the balanced rocks where they needed to go. This image required some creative work in Lightroom…or maybe I should say, a bit more work than my usual 1 minute adjustments.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80. Landscape Program. (For more on Landscape Program see the P&S piece mentioned above.)
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky, Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Reduced Brightness overall. Reduced Contrast. Graduated Filter effect pulled down diagonally from the top right corner across the top half of the image to reduce exposure even more for the bright area of clouds. Sharpen landscape preset.
From San Diego 2010.
1/17/2010
Merriland River Massh
Looking out over the Merriland River marsh to the sea from on of my favorite vistas at Rachel Carson NWR. I have lots of shots from here but I have generally called it the Little River Marsh. I just found out that the river in the foreground is the Merriland…it joins the Little near the point of trees jutting out o the left.
This was a very difficult shot to expose. I ended up with just a straight Programmed Auto exposure and some heavy work in Lightroom.
Fill Light for the trees, which otherwise were dark going on black, Recovery for the snow field and sky, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen Landscape preset. Pretty much standard processing. but more of everything, beginning with Fill Light.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100.
From Rachel Carson Seasons.
1/13/2010
Little River in Winter Sun
We switch now from the series taken while it was snowing to pics taken several days later when we got our first real sun. Sun on snow is a whole other story. For more on the exposure and post-processing challenges, you might want to visit Shooting Snow on Point & Shoot Landscape.
The Little River flows through the Headquarters section of Rachel Carson NWR. This is one of those classic views of the river that I have taken in all weathers and in all lights, and that I will, I am sure, continue to photograph as along as I live in Kennebunk. Winter light across the snow. Winter light and color caught in the water. The green of the evergreens showing at its best. Classic. Zoomed in a bit for effective framing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 60mm equivalent. F5.0 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto with –.7 EV exposure compensation.
I was experimenting with EV compensation for the snow. This shot was underexposed .7EV. Some Recovery in Lightroom for the snow. Fill light for the colors. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance (Vibrance really brought up the color in the water). Sharpen Landscape preset.
11/9/2009
Rose Hips at Sunset
I previsualized this shot, walking back to the car from my late day, cloud’s-closing-in visit to the beach…but getting it right was not so easy. There were lots of rose hips, just at their best, and lots of beach, but finding the right combination proved more difficult. And then exposing the thing: that was a challenge.
Still, with a little help in Lightroom, it just about works.
Sony DSC H50 at just under 40mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
I took two exposures, one metered more for the sky and one more for the rose hips. When I got home, I actually chose the lighter of the two to work with as the hips were just too dark in the sky shot.
Recovery for the sky, Fill Light for the hips. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen Landscape preset. I pulled a Graduated Filter effect down diagonally from the top left corner, ending just at the hips. I reduced Exposure and Brightness, and increased Contrast under the filter. Finally, I increased overall Exposure slightly and cropped from the top to eliminate some distracting elements on the right and improve overall composition.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
11/8/2009
Drawing Water over Parson's Marsh
Happy Sunday!
For full effect you should view this image larger than it is here. Click it and it will open in a new window. There are size controls at the top.
By the time I got out yesterday afternoon, we were rapidly loosing the light. Clouds were coming and we had an early sunset as they built in from the west. I always love the sun drawing water effect, and have caught it several times this fall. Must be something in the air.
Drawing water shots are, however, among the most difficult to expose. It is really a very delicate effect: obvious to the naked eye…but the eye has such a huge range of light sensitivity compared to any capture medium, and certainly compared to a digital sensor. It is just not possible to capture the scene the way it really looks.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programmed Auto, tipped up to meter the sky.
So you expose, as I did here, for the sun-rays, and everything else goes unnaturally dark. You can recover some of the natural look in post-processing with curves and levels and selective exposure compensation, but you never get quite there. Personally, I generally decide on the dramatic look…dark and intense…and then second think and go back for a more natural treatment, as I did here.
In Lightroom, I used two Graduated Filter effects, one from the bottom to lighten the foreground, and one from the top to darken the clouds and sky. I also applied a good deal of Fill Light to bring out some color in the marsh grasses in the mid-ground. Blackpoint just a touch right for intensity. Added Clarity and Vibrance for the drawing water effect. Sharpen Landscape preset.
From Around Home: Kennebunk ME.
11/6/2009
Deep Autumn on the Little River
Another not so easy exposure. I really wanted the wispy clouds in that very blue sky, so the foreground went dark. It took a Graduated Filter effect in Lightroom to bring it back up to where I am happy with it…but, oh, the sky!
I also cropped out some of the river in the foreground as it was too strong an element in the composition.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto. I tipped the camera up to meter more of the sky and locked exposure before reframing for composition.
As mentioned above, Graduated Filter and cropped in Lightroom. The GF effect was pulled up from the bottom to cover about 2/3s of the image. Added 60 Exposure, and some Clarity and Contrast. Added Clarity and Vibrance overall, Sharpen Landscape preset.
11/2/2009
Morning Marsh, Mackerel Sky, Drawing Water Sun
A very difficult image to expose and process. But who could resist the morning light, the pond, the sky, the reflections? One of the best parts of birding, as far as I am concerned is that it gets me out to places like this at times like this.
I am still not totally happy with the exposure on this image. I needed to catch the drawing water rays, so the foreground was way too dark. You can only do so much manipulation in software. This is a case where multiple exposures processed for HDR might have produced better results.
Still…it is what it is, and I think it catches the mood.
Sony DSC H50 at about 60mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto. Exposure read favoring the sky by tipping the camera up and locking exposure.
Heavy Recovery and Fill Light in Lightroom. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen Landscape preset.
From Cape May 10/09.
Okay…had some time this am so I opened LightZone (for the first time in months) just to see what I could do with this difficult image with the tools there. This is maybe a bit over the top…processed for maximum drama. But it certainly is an alternative view.
As above: but with drama! LightZone treatment.
10/30/2009
Autumn Pond Full of Cloud
I photographed this pond at Lighthouse State Park in Cape May NJ two days before with moody cloud cover. This day there were still clouds, but the autumn sun transformed the scene. The reflected sky…with pond weed showing through…as well as the band of fall color separating the clouds from their reflections…there is a lot to look at in this image.
Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.
A touch of Recovery in Lightroom for the clouds and reflections. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint to the right. Sharpen Landscape preset. I used the selective HSL tool to increase the Luminance of the red-orange of the fall leaves to make them stand out more.
From Cape May 10/09.
10/29/2009
Cape May Light over Cattails
Yes, it is another view of Cape May Lighthouse. Another. But honestly, it is a photogenic light and this year there were simply lots of good views.
For this shot, I used the flip out LCD on the Sony again to get down lower, placing the cattail heads and foreground grass as a strong element in the composition. The Light holds it own on the horizon (carefully placed according to the rule of thirds), and the heavy clouds add drama. I used Program Shift to select the smallest available f-stop for greatest depth of field to keep both foreground and Lighthouse in focus.
Sony DSC H50 at about 60mm equivalent (zoomed up for framing). F8 @ 1/125th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto with program shift.
In Lightroom I did my usual Clarity, Vibrance, blackpoint to the right, Sharpen Landscape stuff…but then I drew a Graduated Filter effect down from the top to darken the sky for drama, and one up from the bottom to increase both clarity and contrast for that chiseled by light look. This is as close to HDR as I get.
From Cape May 10/09.