Posts in Category: Photomatix
8/26/2010
The Dom: Wetzlar, Germany
There is an interesting story, of course, behind the Dom…the not quite cathedral of old Wetzlar. The original church was built in the 1300s, but as the city of Wetzlar grew (salt and iron), the town fathers found the ambition to be a cathedral city, and began to build a new church around the walls of the old. That’s how they did it then…they literally built the new building with the old one inside it. Before it was completed, Wetzlar fell on hard times, and construction was abandoned. It was restarted, as I remember the story, 3 separate times in the next 200 years, as the fortunes and ambitions of the town and the town fathers waxed and waned, each time with a new architect and a new style. It never was finished. There were supposed to be two towers, and inside the church there are doorways half way up blank walls where new floors had been planned and never installed. And yet, because of that, it is one of the most interesting churches in Germany, containing as it does, written in stone, a record of the changing styles in church architecture over almost 3 centuries.
Sitting high on the hill on which old Wetzlar is built, the Dom dominates the skyline from any direction, but it is actually not easy to find a good spot for photography. This is a classic distant shot, taken from the long park along the River Lahn, beyond the stone bridge, again on my one rainy late evening of photography on this trip to Wetzlar. In this light, and with that sky, it certainly has drama. What you see is a Photomatix HDR rendered from two Canon SX20IS wide angle exposures. (The blue on the tower is not a lens or sensor flaw. There is scaffolding the full height of the tower where they are repairing and reinforcing the walls, and it is, characteristically, covered in bright blue polyester tarps.)
After blending and tone-mapping in Photomatix Lite, I did my usual Blackpoint adjustment, added Clarity and Vibrance, and sharpen in Lighroom. Some perspective adjustment was also applied.
From Germany and England 2010.
8/24/2010
Half-Timber Wetzlar
The Old Town section of Wetzlar has buildings dating from the late 1300s to the present. Many half-timbered buildings from the 14th and 15th centuries have been lovingly restored. You can see the progression of building…the oldest buildings are the straightest, as they still had access to tall timber. As the town grew, they had to rely on shorter timbers and build one story on top of the other. Over time the various stories have leaned different ways, giving the the 15th century houses a unique, slightly crazed, character. When you add brightly painted carved detail, and filled flower boxes the effect is pretty amazing.
City photography is always a challenge, due to perspective and wide angle lens distortions. We are used to seeing buildings leaning crazy directions, but in the case of Wetzlar’s half-timbered houses part of the lean is reality. The building on the right above is a classic example. No one is going to believe the lean of the roof peak, but is, in fact, reality. Correcting distortions for a more natural view is never easy, but the new tools in Lightroom 3 are nothing short of amazing, and, for the first time I was able to pull the half-timbered shots back to something very close to the way I see them with my naked eye.
All the shots here are with the Canon SX20IS. The top shot is an HDR using two exposures in Photomatix Lite, using the exposure blending mode to keep the sky more natural. The other two shots are straight-forward single exposures processed in Lightroom with my usual mix of Blackpoint adjustment, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpening. In both cases the image was cropped for composition and to eliminate distractions, and adjusted using the distortion controls for more believable perspective.
From Gemany and England 2010.
8/23/2010
Gables
This is one of my favorite views of Wetzlar. I love the jumble of gables and the scatter of skylights. I have taken this shot many times…but never on a late rainy evening, and never with HDR in mind. This is again, two exposures separated by 3EV combined in Photomatix. I had to turn the strength of the blend way down, or the sky went way dramatic.
To my eye that is a bit over the top, though it does make a statement.
After processing in Photomatix, both shots were taken into Lightroom, where the first challenge was correcting the vertical perspective distortion and some lens distortion for a more natural look. Then I adjusted Blackpoint, added Clarity and Vibrance and used the Sharpen narrow edges preset.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. ISO 200.
From Germany and England 2010.
8/21/2010
Lahn Bridge: Wetzlar
An very old coble stone bridge provides access to the lower part of the old town section of Wetzlar. Here we see it in another late evening shot (after 8PM) on a rainy day in August. The concrete sluice way replaces falls and rapids that contributed to flooding in the past, and keeps the water through the commercial section of the new town at manageable levels. The river is managed, in part, for tourism as it is one of the most popular canoeing trails in Europe.
This is a sudo HDR using the tone mapping functions in Photomatix, applied to a single image, plus some tweaking of Blackpoint, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpening in Lightroom.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent @ f2.8 @ 1/60 @ ISO 200. Landscape mode.
From Germany and England 2010.
8/19/2010
Mill Canal, River Lahn: Wetzlar Germany
I love to walk the old town of Wetzlar, and I never fail to find something new to photograph, or to discover a new light on an old favorite scene, but my only opportunity this trip was between 8 and 9PM at the tag end of day of heavy rain. I took my umbrella, and used it, as I explored what the fading light had to say about the ancient town. This is the mill canal along the old town side of the River Lahn were it separates, for the most part, Old Wetzlar and New. I love this jumble of houses, of many different ages (and that is using ages in its historical sense), along the canal, and the light gave me a good excuse to try an HDR shot where nothing else would have worked. The long exposure required for the late evening foreground would have burned the sky white, and an exposure for the clouds would have left the foreground close to black. I took two exposures separated by 3.5 stops, –2EV and +1.5EV, and combined them using the Detail Enhancement/Tone Mapping mode in Photomatix. The result is actually pretty close to a naked eye view. Presented as an photograph, it might strikes the eye as painterly, since we know, from daily experience of recoded images, that a camera could not have caught that range.
The image is not perfect. I was working, as usual, without a tripod, and trying to balance an umbrella as well…but I still like the effect. You would have to walk along the canal in Wetzlar, on a rainy evening with your umbrella up, to know how well it captures the atmosphere of the place.
In addition to the treatment in Photomatix, I adjusted color balance in Lighroom, slid the Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and used the Sharpen narrow edges preset. I also used the distortion controls, both for lens and vertical perspective, to restore a natural look.
Corrected distortion is actually another reason why the experienced eye sees this image as painterly…we have come to expect, to totally accept, wide angle and vertical distortion in photographs…when it is not there, or when it is corrected as in this image, we miss it!
From Germany and England 2010.
8/17/2010
Atlantic White Cedar
Okay, I am still in Germany, but this is a post I scheduled before I left.
I mentioned a few days ago in my first post on Saco Heath, that one of features of the place is a stand of Atlantic White Cedar, one of the largest in Maine, and certainly one of the furthest inland. The light in the grove is always interesting since it occupies a slightly raised hummock completely surrounded by open bog.
Canon SD4000IS at 28mm equivalent @ f2.8 @ 1/250th @ ISO 250. Programmed auto.
I took the file into Photomatix as an experiment and used the tone mapping tools to see if I could bring it more alive. I still used Lightroom for levels and sharpening. Compared to the same file processed in Lightroom alone, the result has a kind of 3D effect that I think is interesting.
From Saco Heath.
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.
8/13/2010
Saco Heath
Happy tridecaphobia day!
The Nature Conservancy has preserved this bit of peat bog in suburban southern Maine. They maintain a boardwalk that bisects it and leads to a stand of Atlantic White Cedar (One of the largest in Maine, and rare this far inland). It is unique habitat. My daughter played piano for worship at a little chapel right on the edge of the Heath last Sunday, so, after, we had to do a quick visit. I only had my Canon SD4000IS with me, but I tired some dual exposures for later treatment in Photomatix for HDR. The expanse of the open Heath dotted with cotton flower and the thin wispy clouds on a blue sky, set off by the tall snag that seems to have actually snagged some clouds…that is what I saw here.
Canon SD4000IS at 28mm equivalent. ISO 125 @ f2.8 with the exposure varied by eye with the Exposure Compensation dial.
I found that with less cloud detail in the sky, I had to try new settings in Photomatix. Tone mapping did not preserve enough of the thin detail in the sky to satisfy me. I was able to use the fusion mode, adjusting the settings by eye, and then take the HDR into Lightroom to move the Blackpoint right, add some additional Clarity and Vibrance, and sharpen.
From Saco Heath.
And just for Andrew, here it is as a B&W with green filter and tweaking in Lr. I will admit to liking it.
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.