Posts in Category: river
8/27/2009
Ruskin's View
John Ruskin, Victorian art critic, philosopher and writer, champion of Lake District painters and J.M.W Turner in particular, claimed that this was the most perfect view in all of England. There are signs all through the town of Kirkby Longsdale directing you to this spot, and a big brass plaque and stone bench to help you enjoy it.
And I suspect it looks today just about as it did in Ruskin’s time. And I suspect this is just such a day as the day on which Ruskin drew his conclusion.
Obligatory photo.
Minolta A1 at 28mm equivalent. F8.0 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Sharpen landscape and Punch presets in Lightroom. Blackpoint to the right. Some Recovery for the clouds.
From England 2005.
8/16/2009
Bubbles in the Stream
Happy Sunday.
Another shot from the depths of Emmon’s Preserve. Lest you get the wrong idea, the total extent of Emmon’s Preserve is maybe 25 acres. It is tiny. Sandwiched in between rural housing areas. In spots, when the leaves are thin, you can see the backyards and hay fields that surround it from the deepest parts.
Still beautiful. And the stream is never the same twice.
Sony DSC H50 at about 85mm equivalent. F3.2 @ 1/100th @ ISO 400. Programed auto.
Just the basic added Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape sharpen in Lightroom. Cropped slightly at the top to eliminate a bright, distracting highlight.
8/15/2009
Deep in the Green
Emmon’s Preserve, managed by the Kennebunk Land Trust, is one of my favorite places to photograph. It is also one of the most difficult. A river runs through it 😉 under a solid canopy of maples and pines, and depending on the weather can be anything from a trickle down over rocks and through pools to a raging torrent. The light is very tricky. Lots of shadow, from open to deep, and shafts of full sun illumination random patches of vegetation, a rock here and there, and select passages in the stream…often a single curl of water around a stone. It is any exposure system’s worst nightmare. Then too, the light is green in the shadows which gives most white balance automation fits.
And it is beautiful with an almost mystical beauty.
So I go back again and again to try again and again to capture what I see and feel there…with never any more than limited success.
This shot comes from an area of the Preserve I only discovered on my last visit. I don’t know how I missed it all these years, but a side trail loops up over a small ridge and comes back down to the river above the rapids and pools I know so well. This section is quieter, but with its own beauty.
Sony DCS H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F3.2 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with -.7EV exposure compensation to tame the highlights.
Even with the exposure compensation, an image like this requires post-processing. Heavy Recovery was needed to bring out any detail in the brighter areas back among the trees, and Fill Light was needed to open the shadows. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen.
I have mentioned before that post-processing in situations like this is not used to save an incorrectly exposed image. In the field you expose the image knowing what you can and will do to it in Lightroom. You expose it differently than you might if Lightroom were not available. -.7 EV is not enough to bring out detail in the highlights, and yet it makes the shadows too dark, obscuring detail there. -.7EV is, however, the correct place to begin expanding the dynamic range with the tools available in Lightroom. All but the brightest highlights can be brought back in range by Recovery, and the Fill Light tool does a good job of selectively opening the shadows. You have to know this when making the exposure in the field. In a sense you see the image as it will be after post-processing, and expose for that.
It is easier than it sounds, since, with the EV adjustment, the Programed auto on the H50 produces an excellent, well balanced, beginning exposure. If I ever switch cameras (realistically when I switch cameras) I am going to have to learn to do this all over again.
And Emmon’s Preserve is there, always willing to teach me.
[An expanded version of this post, with more on learning to expose for post, will appear on Point and Shoot Landscape in the next few days.]
8/13/2009
Rock My River Horizon
I took several shots along this sharply sloping tidal river bank, attracted by the rocks in the late low sun, the sand shapes, and the blue of sky and water. This one works best for me. Very low angle using the flip out LCD on the H50 and getting right down at beach level, actually a bit below the curve of the beach. I feel some tension, in a good way, in the shot: somehow generated by the balance between the drama of the rocks and the placid river and sky. For me it as a lot of energy.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro. F4.5 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom all my standard adjustments for the H50: added Clarity and Vibrance, Landscape sharpen, blackpoint to the right. I also used a graduated filter effect from the top slanted slightly from the left, to darken the sky. And I opened the shadows slightly with the Fill Light tool.
8/9/2009
Big Sky, Little Stream
Happy Sunday!
I went to the beach to do some videoscoping…but who could resist this sky? Technically, not a difficult shot, at least with the H50, and Lightroom to back it up. Programed auto all the way. Apply some Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. Punch it up with Vibrance and Clarity. Sharpen a bit. That’s it. The scene itself makes the image.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Lightroom as above.
However…I took both a horizontal (more sky) and a vertical (more stream). I can not decide which one I like better. Different images. Same scene. I would be interested in your likes…and your reasons for them. (Both of these benefit from the largest view your monitor will allow.)
Big Sky, More than a Little Stream
8/5/2009
Flood Tide!
Tides continue unusually full along our coast. These pools are rarely this brim full, and rarely so still. It was that kind of morning, and, as you can see, evn the mist had not burned or blown off yet, though the sky promised (and delivered) a clear hot day.
The textures of the grass, brought out by a using a graduated filter up from the bottom to increase Clarity (local contrast) and overall contrast, is as much the subject of this image as the pools.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
As above, I used graduated filter effects from the top (darken) and the bottom (lighten and increased Clarity and Contrast). Also my standard added global Clarity and Vibrance, and the Landscape sharpen preset.
Something similar:
The Long and Thin of Reflections
Cropped for effect, with similar treatment in Lightroom, except for some added work with the Local Effects Brush to bring up the trees a bit. Again the texture of the grasses in the foreground are important to the image.
7/31/2009
Flood Tide and Fog
A different mood at Rachel Carson NWR. The east coast is seeing inexplicably high tides this summer and this flood tide was the highest I have seen at Rachel Carson. Subdued light, reflections, misty distance with interesting play of light, and the gentle curve of the stream…that’s what I see in this image.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped slightly from the bottom for composition. Recovery for the sky and mist. Blackpoint moderately well to the right, a touch of fill light for the trees, added Clarity and Vibrance.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
7/28/2009
Little River Marsh
Another classic Rachel Carson NWR view, and another touched by the magical light of that afternoon. The reflected light in the river, the highlights in the foreground foliage…along with amazing sky make this another view of this spot that I will be a long time equaling.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom, a touch of Fill Light for the shadows. Blackpoint to the right slightly, added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen.
From Around Home Kennebunk ME.
7/13/2009
Song Frozen in Time
Continuing the theme from yesterday, here is no apology water frozen by the shutter image. I am always amazed at what gravity, rocks, and light can do with this peaty water. You could take a thousand pics, and no two would catch the same forms, the same play of light, the same energy. This, to me, is a high energy shot.
The trick with a shot like this, where you have such a wide range of light values, is, of course, to get the exposure right. I used heavy Exposure Compensation and underexposed to save the highlights, and then brought the shadow back up in Lightroom when I post-processed. The net effect is very like what I saw, and what I visualized in the field.
Sony DSC H50 at about 80mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programed auto with -1.7 EV exposure compensation.
In Lightroom, heavy Recovery for the highlights. Fairly heavy Fill Light for the shadows. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset.
7/12/2009
The Rush (Batson River, Emmons Preserve)
We have had a lot of rain this summer, as I may have mentioned, and all the streams are running full. Baston River which runs through the Emmons Preserve (part of the Kennebunk Land Trush system) is no exception. I have photographed it before in spate, and know the challenges from my failures.
This shot is your traditional rushing water between green banks shot. One of the difficulties in shooting at Emmons is the depth of the shadows and the brightness of the light where it does fall through. I am always having to compromise on exposure and manipulate in post processing. This shot, on the other hand, being fairly even in lighting, required only that I change the white balance to cloudy, and use Program Shift to force a slow shutter speed. Community wisdom says that blurred silky water captures the rush better than water frozen in motion by the shutter. Generally a tripod is needed, but with the image stabilization on the H50 you can get away with hand holding.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F7.1 @ 1/6th sec. @ ISO 100. Programed auto, with Program shift.
On the other hand: this is closer to what it looked like. We do not, after all, see silky water anywhere but in photographs. It is an artifact: an attempt to capture the feel rather than the reality of the subject.
The Rush 2
Even in this shot, the low overall illumination under the heavy canopy pushed the shutter speed below water freezing levels, but certainly there is more detail in the water. This is the other extreme, where I used the program shift to select the highest shutter speed possible in this light.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F2.7 @ 1/40th @ ISO 100. Programed auto, with Program shift.
Both had the same post. In Lightroom, Recovery for the highlights in the water and considerable Fill Light to open the shadows. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset.
So my question, both to myself and to you, is: which one do you like better?
I plan a more extensive examination of this subject on Point and Shoot Landscape in the next few days, but what do you think? Which does a better job of capturing the sensation of the rushing water? Which looks more real? (Those might be different answers.) And finally, which is more aesthetically satisfying? To you?