Monthly Archives: August 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.
8/20/2010
Rooftops: Hamburg
What does a photographer do if stuck in a 5th office all day on his first (and likely only) visit to Hamburg (and on a gray day at that).
He sees what is to be seen out the windows and snaps a few on short breaks in the meeting schedule. At lease that’s what I do.
Canon SD4000IS (which is great for this kind of spontaneous work) at 1) 90mm equivalent @ f5 @ 1/320th @ ISO 125 and 2) 106mm equivalent @ f5 @ 1/125th @ ISO 125. Programmed auto.
Both received a combination of Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges in Lightroom, as well as some distortion tweaking and slight cropping for composition.
From Germany and England 2010.
And then, of course, there is the classic out the windshield shot from the moving car. This one required considerable adjustment for perspective distortion as well a cropping for composition.
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.
8/18/2010
Cotton Grass
(Still in Germany)
On the bog in August, about the only thing blooming (or looking like it is blooming), is the Cotton Grass. These tuffs of cottony fiber with their attendant spears dot the marsh and provide contrast with the blueberries that make up the mass of the surface vegetation. I got down low, using Macro on the SD4000IS for this shot (really missed the swing out LCD on the SX20IS!).
Canon SD4000IS at 28mm equivalent and macro. F2.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 125. Programmed auto.
In Lightroom, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
From Saco Heath.
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.
8/16/2010
The Colony
One of the more famous hotels in Kennebunkport, famous already in the Victorian era, is the Colony, perched on a rise about the outer harbo, looking out to sea over St. Anne’s Point, ideally and picturesquely placed. Cricket on the lawn anyone? Evening light, with the sun already off the landscape.
This is another iPhone HDR, using Pro HDR, and the funniest thing about it to me is that the upper gull is in the sky shot and the lower gull is in the land shot. ProHDR is one intelligent program if it can sort that out! Because I had the iPhone and camera tipped up, the wide-angle and vertical perspective distortion was pretty obvious. If I were using Lightroom 3, I would just have corrected it…however…being yet an iPhone purest with these shots, the best I could do is FotoFx’s wide-angle distortion and vertical perspective filters, which actually improved the shot quite a bit, though you might have to compare it to the original (as I have) to notice any difference. This is after adjusting levels and sharpening in PhotoGene. All iPhone HDR!
From iPhone4 HDR and Pano.
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.
8/14/2010
Bush Place Panorama
This vista (or the owner of the house on the point, former President George Bush Senior) is so popular that they have had to build a parking area. Well, okay, there is also a famous local feature right below the parking lot called Blowing Cave, a hole in the rocks that spouts a gout of water and booms at the right tide, but most people discover that by accident when attempting to photograph the Bush estate. It was lovely evening, though windy with the passing front that piled the clouds out there over the sea.
This is is 8 shots, 4 across and 2 down, taken with the iPhone 4 and assembled on the phone in AutoStitch, processed on the phone in PhotoGene (levels and sharpen, some straightening), and uploaded to the web from the phone in SmugShot and Flickrstackr.
From iPhone4 HDR and Pano.
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.