Posts in Category: marsh
9/1/2010: Rutland Water UK
I had to crawl between a tent and flap, where, strictly speaking I was not supposed to be, to get to this image out over Rutland Water at the British Birding Fair, but honestly, who could resist? This is England at its best…or maybe on its best behavior, at least as far as weather goes. And, of course, it only lasted a few moments. Within 30 the sky closed and within 60 it was raining again. I especially like the mottled sun on the foreground.
iPhone 4 HDR, two exposures in ProHDR (which now has an auto mode that analyzes the dynamic range of the image and computes its own two exposures), sharpened and contrast adjusted in PhotoGene and uploaded to my SmugMug site with SmugShot.
8/15/2010
The Way is Narrow (but the view is wide)
Happy Sunday!
When this posts, I will actually be at London’s Heathrow Airport, waiting to catch an afternoon flight on to Frankfurt (work), and trying to stay awake after an all night transatlantic flight. Not my usual, or favorite, Sunday routine.
No this, from last Sunday, is much more like it. This is another shot from the stop my daughter and I made at Saco Heath (a different heath altogether than Heathrow) on the way back from her musical service at a local church. I told about the heath and my Photomatix HDR technique in the 8/13 post. This is the board walk I mentioned in that post, which more or less floats on the surface of the bog all the way across.
And, of course, being Sunday, there is a parable (a whole commentary really) about life in the Way in the title and the image. All I will say here, is that there are lots of signs at the heath adjuring visitors to say on the boardwalk for the sake of the fragile environment (not to mention their own well being), and though the path is narrow, and, you might think, severely limiting, it takes you through wonders you could not get near any other way, and provides vistas, like this one, that you would never get far enough into the bog to appreciate otherwise. And, to my eye, as in this image, even the path itself has its own beauty. You just have to look with the right eyes.
I will try to remember that at Heathrow!
Canon SD4000IS. Two exposures, by eye using the Exposure Compensation controls. ISO 125 @ f2.8 and 28mm equivalent. Images combined for HDR in Photomatix using the fusion mode. Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and sharpening in Lightroom. Cropped slightly from the left to trim an obtruding tree branch.
From Saco Heath.
8/12/2010
Water Meadow
Along the Mousam River near its mouth, several little streams come in from the north, generally winding, as this one does, through an open area of tidal mash. These meadows were actually a big attraction for early settlers, who put cattle and sheep on them, and even harvested the hay. They are the reason for the salt water farms of colonial times.
Of course my interest in them is that they remain rich in both plant diversity and wildlife. Many, like this one, are protected by one conservation organization or another. They are one of my favorite summer haunts (despite the mosquitoes!).
This is another Canon SX20IS and Photomatix HDR. Two exposures, at full 28mm wide angle equivalent, one dialed down on the Exposure Compensation dial for the sky, and one dialed up for the foreground. Combined in Photomatix using the Enhanced Detail: Tone Mapping Mode with tweaked controls. Final processing in Lightroom for sharpness, Clarity, Vibrance, and Blackpoint (slightly right). Cropped at the top to eliminate some clouds that were moving too fast for the two exposure technique (they looked shadowed…almost 3D…when over-laid in Photomatix). The sky, of course, makes it (along with the bit of reflection in the stream)! Look at it large on Wide Eyed In Wonder.
From Around Home 2010.
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.
8/9/2010
Summer Morning: River Meets the Sea
Saturday morning I headed out to my favorite birding and digiscoping spot, along the Kennebunk Bridle Path where it crosses Route 9 by the Mousam River bridge. It was one of those clear, cool, summer mornings after days of heat, with bright sun and broken cloud cover and I was hoping to do some more iPhone HDR experimentation. When I got out of the car to set up my scope, I realized that my iPhone was back home on the charger. No HDR today!
But then, as I mounted my digiscoping camera and walked in toward the marsh I was thinking…all I am really doing with the iPhone is taking two exposures, one for bright (sky generally) and one for dark (foreground landscape generally). I could do that with my SX20IS…and actually it might even be a bit easier since I could use the exposure compensation dial…or even the auto exposure bracket built into the camera.
All the magic is in the software. Maybe I could download the images to the iPhone and use Pro HDR to combine them…or, failing that…surely there must be some software available to do it on the laptop. I just got an upgrade notice from Adobe on PhotoShop Elements 8…and didn’t that mention some kind of HDR?
So I took a bunch of experimental images using both the exposure compensation dial, judging exposure by eye, and auto bracket. Auto bracket on the SX20IS does three exposures, 1EV either side of center (you can shift the center point along the scale but you can not increase the range). By eye, I judged 1 EV to be too little compensation for the sky with clouds, though about right for the landscape, and, indeed that’s how it worked out when I came to process the images.
Back home, I found that even if I downloaded the images to the iPhone, they were just too large for Pro HDR to handle (not surprising since Pro HDR expected maximum 5mp images form the iPhone camera). Plan B.
I always try to find a free program first, and I downloaded what looked like the best of then. No. Did not work. So, after some more research, I downloaded the trial version of Photomatix Lite and gave that a try. Excellent. As easy as Pro HDR on the iPhone, and in “enhanced detail: tone mapping mode” it provides a very similar set of adjustments, and, with care, similar results. Best of all, it does the auto alignment of the images just as Pro HDR does, which makes shooting HDR handheld possible. I bought it.
And after all that…the image for today is my first Photomatix HDR. I still find that Pro HDR produces more natural results as its default, but you can achieve the same results with Photomatix with some tweaking of the controls. On the other hand, it is possible in Photomatix to do the massively overblown HDR thing too. I am not tempted that way, but I can understand the temptation.
I took the Photomatix processed HDR into Lightroom and made final adjustments…Blackpoint right, some added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
So, one more tool…one more set of imaging possibilities to bring to the landscape.
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.
8/2/2010
No Name Creek: iPhone HDR
So I admit to still being slightly amazed and muchly delighted that the iPhone can do this! Such a great toy. Of course it is actually rapidly becoming a tool…just another piece of equipment with its set of inherent possibilities that I can bring to bear on photo opportunities. It is still all about the eye. That is not to diminish the simulative effect of a new toy. Having the HDR program and a decent camera on my iPhone certainly stimulates my eye to look for possible HDR-worthy scenes, and leads me to compositions I might not have attempted with my standard gear. This shot, for instance would have required considerable manipulation in post processing to pull off. The iPhone just makes it easy.
Lots to like here (imho), beginning with the range of tones in the foreground water…the way the camera has captured the play of light across the surface and even where it penetrates the water to bring up the creek bottom. That, to my eye, is way cool! Then we roll back over the various textures and green tones of the marsh grass, lead by the curve of the creek, to the horizon and the little bit of beach balanced between the dark mass of houses on the left and the few trees on the right, and then we shoot out over the ocean under a ceiling of clouds that recedes to infinity, with the blue of the sky pinning us to the top of the frame.
Of course, I did not think or see any of this when taking the picture. I did not get much beyond “I like that. Wonder what it would look like as an iPhone HDR?”
Captured and processed on the iPhone 4. Two exposures in ProHDR, one metered and focused on a bright cloud at the top, one metered and focused on the shadow under the bank of the stream in the left foreground. Levels and sharpen in PhotoGene, and the red channel pulled back a bit. Uploaded direct to Wide Eyed In Wonder in SmugShot.
From iPhone 4 HDR and Pano.
7/30/2010
Marsh by the Mousam
This is another iPhone HDR using the Pro HDR app. Two exposures, tap, tap, one for the sky and one for the foreground, auto processed in the app. Slight adjustment: horizon straightening, levels, and contrast…red channel pulled back a bit…in PhotoGene on the iPhone, then uploaded to Wide Eyed In Wonder (SmugMug) using SmugShot. Could not be easier. Everything was done right there in the field at the time, with the scene before me. Though it is not an intentional feature of the Pro HDR app, selecting exposure areas in the sky and background also alters the iPhone camera’s focus point, which makes for a processed image that is sharp, as here, from immediate foreground to to the distant clouds. Like I have said before…I really wish my Canon SX20IS could do this!! (And there is absolutely NO reason it could not…it is just software.)
As far as the shot itself goes…well it has just about everything going for it. Glorious sky, reflections in still water, strong horizon with the mass of houses leading in on the left, wonderful detail and interesting texture in the swirling marsh grasses, subtle effective color tones throughout…even that bit of stump sticking up to anchor the eye in the foreground. Add the HDR effect and you get a photograph that strikes the eye like the best landscape painting…in the sense that we are not used to seeing this kind of range in a photograph.
It almost makes me laugh out loud when I remember that it was produced completely on the iPhone 4! Who could have imagined it?
From iPhone 4 HDR and Panos.
7/29/2010
Now You See Me
Eastern American Toad. This is why you always carry a second camera when digiscoping. You just never know what is going to hop across your path. Literally in this case…both the hop and the path part. He came to rest first under a clump of grasses beside the Kennebunk Bridle Path, which made getting an angle more than difficult, but then hopped out in the open before I had finished with him. Not that he is much more visible out in the open than under the grasses. 
Such a handsome creature!
Canon SX20IS at full zoom, 560mm equivalent, and Macro. F5.7 @ 1/320th and 1/250th @ ISO 400. Programmed auto.
For the top shot, I had to use the flip out LCD on the Canon to get the angle, and then, finding the toad on that LCD at full zoom was a real challenge!
A touch of Fill Light and Blackpoint right in Lightroom. Added Clarity and just a bit of Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset. Both images cropped slightly for composition.
From Around Home 2010.
7/28/2010
Mousam Mouth Pano
Continuing one more day with the iPhone theme, here is an AutoStitch panorama made up of 10 separate images…5 across, and two down. It needs to be viewed as large as your monitor will take it. Click the image and use the size controls a the top of the window that opens. AutoStich could not be easier to use. Take any number of overlapping images with the iPhone’s camera so they are saved to the Camera Roll. Then open AutoStich and select them from within the app. That’s it. AutoStitch then intelligently assembles the images into a panorama, blends exposure, renders the finished image and gives you the option to auto crop. The image is not perfect…but it is very close. Since I often, as in this shot, have to straighten the horizon a bit, and I want to sharpen slightly and maybe adjust curves, I generally do the cropping in PhotoGene, again, right on the iPhone. Finally, I upload the image to my Wide Eyed In Wonder site directly from the phone using SmugShot. Could not be easier.
This, by the way, is the mouth of the Mousam River, seen from the Kennebunk Bridle Trail across the marsh…Great Head, Parson’s Beach, and almost out to Route 9 on the right…close to 180 degrees. Taken and processed with the iPhone 4.
From iPhone HDR and Pano.