Posts in Category: Lightroom
6/9/2009
Prairie and Pothole
The weather man said intermittent rain and gray skys. Not an ideal last day in North Dakota, but what I had to work with. And of course, seen rightly, the lowering sky only adds drama to the vast prairie landscape.
This is a classic Prairie and Pothole shot, taken where a road crosses a section of native prairie near Lake Louise and the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge in North Dakota. The theory is that retreating glaciers left large blocks of ice on the landscape, which melted slowly and left these more or less circular depressions. They fill with water to form resting and nesting areas for wild-fowl, bringing the prairie to life each spring. Later in the season they remain wet, and provide habitat for many prairie species.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, I used two graduated filter effects. One from the top to darken and bring out the detail in the sky, and one from the bottom to punch up (+ Clarity, + Exposure, and + Contrast) the foreground. Globally, I added Clarity and Vibrance and used the Landscape sharpen preset. I just slightly cropped from the bottom and top for composition.
6/2/2009
Big Sky Beach
Parson’s Beach, in Kennebunk ME is only two miles from our front door. I take a lot of pictures there. This was taken on the first day of sun after 4 days of rain, with more rain predicted by the day’s end. Get out while you can. Big sky.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Recovery in Lightroom for the sky (tried the Graduated Filter effect but it did not work on this image). Added Clarity and Vibrance. Brighness, and Contrast. Moved the blackpoint to the right and sharpened.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
5/31/2009
Impression of Rhodora
Generally speaking I am, as a photographer, a realist. I attempt to catch what is there, in all its glory. Sometimes it is fun, however, to mess around with an image in software just to see where it goes. The result is not strictly speaking real, but sometimes you have to stretch the truth to make it true to the experience, at least in the telling, or the portrayal in this case.
The Rhodora was just coming into bloom at Saco Heath in what is becoming, my girls tell me, our traditional family outing on Memorial Day. Many plants were vibrant, but there is still more to come. Interesting, since last Memorial Day the Rhodora at Saco Heath was all gone by when we visited.
The base image here is, as usual, taken with the Sony DSC H50, in this case, at full tele, 465mm equivalent. F4.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
I started out in Lightroom with my usual processing. Added Clarity and Vibrance, sharpen, black point to the right. This is what it looks like.
the original
I am totally happy with this image and it stands alone as a real picture of what the massed Rhodora blooms looked like that day…but it does not, maybe, fully catch the impact of the day.
In Lightroom I made a Virtual Copy of the image. This creates a new copy that I can re-edit, but does not duplicate the original file on the hard-drive. It simply creates a second set of instructions for processing the original when exported from Lightroom.
I opened the VC in the develop module. I have tried this before with other images so I knew what I was about to do. Clarity slider all the way to to left, adding what amounts to negative clarity, and softening the whole image. Negative clarity also produces interesting halo effects at strong color boundaries. I boosted the Vibrance even more, and added a small amount of saturation. And undid the sharpening. Hay presto. In seconds I had an impressionistic version of the Rhodora image.
Does it do a better job of conveying the effect of the massed Rhodora blooms? Maybe. I like it anyway. How about you?
From Saco Heath 09.
5/18/2009
Trout Lily (at least what they call Trout Lily in Maine)
This may, or may not, be Trout Lily. That is what I have always called it, but google turns up several different plants by that common name, and none of them are this one?? [ed. note: it is more commonly Blue-bead Lily (Clintonia borealis)] Anyway, it always blooms between the Trillium and Lady Slipper here in southern Maine, overlapping both. Because of the unique greenish yellow color, it is a difficult flower to photograph. The sensor wants to render it either too green or too yellow, and the subdued light of the overcast morning did not help. It took more than usual color adjustment in Lightroom to bring it back to reality.
Because of the down drooping flowers, it is an ideal candidate for the flip out LCD on the H50. You have to get really low to see it to full advantage. That low, care must be taken with the background, so that it does not overpower or overwhelm the flower itself.
I used Program Shift to select a smaller aperture for depth of field on the flower itself.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro (taken from about 1/4 inch). F8.0 @ 1/40th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto. -.7 EV Exposure Compensation.
Besides the color adjustment (both temperature and tint), I added Clarity and Vibrance (very little vibrance to avoid bringing out the yellow too much), and sharpened in Lightroom. I used a graduated filter effect from the top to darken the background, and cropped a bit for composition.
From Rachel Carson NWR Seasons.
Trout Lily and Trillium
5/15/2009
Lowdown on the Lighthouse
Where are the clouds when you need them? Of course this would be more dramatic with some detail in the sky…but it is what it is. Gotta love a Lighthouse. To compensate I chose the super low angle, actually dangling my camera below the level of the boardwalk and framing with the flip out LCD. I like the way the tree/grass line frames the lighthouse in an off center notch. Cropped at the top for better composition.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom I used a graduated filter effect to darken the sky and a second filter up from the bottom to increase foreground contrast for a more chiseled look. Added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel. Landscape sharpen preset.
From Cape May 2009.
And here is what you have to do to get the shot if you do not have a flip out LCD. My friend Paul Hackett make the sacrifice for art.
Paul Hackett going the extra mile for art...
5/14/2009
Pond with Pollen
Lighthouse Pond on Cape May Point. Swirls of weed below the water and pollen on the surface provide foreground interest in this low angle shot of the pond. Sky reflections give the water further out an interesting texture. And I like the sculpted shapes of the trees along the far shore. Though this is clearly an suburban pond (no way to hid the houses all along the back side) it still has a wild feel (at least to me).
Sony DSC H50 at about 42mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/600 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I used a graduated filter effect from the top to darken the sky, increase contrast in the houses slightly, and bring out the wispy clouds…and then another gfe from the bottom to adjust exposure slightly and add Clarity and Contrast. My usual added Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
From Cape May 2009.
4/30/2009
Great Egret Display
Not an easy exposure. White bird in shadow against dark foliage. -1 EV exposure compensation for the feathers, but that leaves the scene dark and flat. Fill light in Lr, and some global added exposure. Vibrance for the green leaves and green breeding lores of the bird. Added Clarity for the feather detail.
Sony DSC N1 through the eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 85FL spotting scope. 1/160 @ ISO 64. F-stop determined by scope.
From St. Augustine FL.
Video:
4/22/2009
The Sands of Lindsfarne
These are the sands you drive across to get out to Lindsfarne. There are signs everwhere saying not to attempt them when the tide is coming in, but ever year people do, and every year they get stranded and have to be lifted off the safty tower in the middle by helicopter. I have to say that driving across the sea bottom is an other-worldly experience…it is not just knowing that twice a day where you are standing is under many feet of water…there is just a feeling to it that has no thing to do with any rational knowing. I am certain it added to the reputation of holiness the island has always had.
As you see, the storms that were sweeping over the coast that day are momentarily elsewhere, though within sight.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Relatively straightforward in Lr. I did use a graduated filter effect for the sky, and another for the foreground. Clarity and less than usual Vibrance (since the blue peeking out the sky was already almost too intense without any help from me). Landscape sharpen preset.
From Scotland.
And, while we are on the subject…
warning
4/21/2009
Lindsfarne Castle
Lindsfarne Island, the Holy Island, is accessible by road at low tide and several hours either side. The road runs across what amounts to the sandy bottom of the sea. The Island has been held sacred for centuries. I suspect it already had a reputation for spirituality when the Celtic monks arrived during the dark ages and turned it into one of the few seats of learning left in the western world.
It was the trump card of our trip to Scotland, though it is well south of the Scottish border and only by a generous detour on the way home to Manchester from Aberdeen. My guide and driver in this adventure kept hinting that there was to be one final treat, the one place he would not tell me about in advance. It is that special.
Of course we had no more than gotten out of the car when it began to pour rain. Not just a mist like the one that plagued us at Donnattor, but a real find shelter British downpour. We tried to keep dry under the trees of the graveyard around the abby buildings, and ended up pretty wet in the church, along with the rest of the tourists visiting that day. When we ventured out, it was still threatening, so this is as close to the Castle as we got.
A difficult shot, due to the light sky behind, and the mist in the air, but then that seems pretty typical of photographic conditions in England.
Sony DSC H50 at about 100mm equivalent (to frame the castle behind the sheep). F5.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
This shot responded amazingly well to the graduated filter effect in Lr. Even using heavy Recovery, I could not get any blue out the sky, but as soon as I applied a graduated filter effect and cranked down the exposure in the top part of the image, the sky detail popped right out. Another graduated filter effect from the bottom to lighten and increase contrast, though I had to go gently as the sheep would not stand much of either. I also used the adjustment brush to increase the brightness and contrast of the castle itself, to counter somewhat the effects of the mist in the air. Normal Vibrance and Clarity settings. Landscape sharpen preset. A touch of noise reduction for the sky.
From Scotland.
4/20/2009
Storms Over the North Sea
Driving down the east coast of Scotland, looking from the high shelf where the A road runs, out across the machair (fully cultivated along here), the storms were impressive. We were in and out of them all day, wet and (more or less) dry. Here they stand off the coast contrasting sharply with the tilled fields below us.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F4.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
On the first pass in Lr I used Recovery for the sky to good effect. Since then though, I have learned to use the graduated filter effects, and like what they do for a sky like this. I went back this morning and reworked the image. One GF from the top to darken the sky, and one up from the bottom to pick up the foreground (added exposure and contrast). With GFs I use less Vibrance than I have in the past, and slightly less Clarity in Presence panel. Landscape sharpen preset. There was some noise in the clouds, which I filtered out with the Noise Reduction sliders.
From Scotland.