Tag Archives: hue/saturation

Sun on The River

Believe it or not, that small stretch of water is the mighty Mississippi just above Alton Illinois. And it’s one of the wider sections of the river. This was shot with a 80-200mm f/2.8 Nikkor lens. You can see how the 200mm setting compresses the scene and in this case gives a much more intimate view.

And even though this is kind of a cliche shot, the simplicity of the color in contrast with the deep shadows creates a dramatically dynamic visual. To get the smooth tonality while maintaining the details of the foreground trees, I used sharpening and luminance in Adobe Camera Raw.

And for more of an artistic expression, here’s a Monochrome version created with Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

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HDR – Hibiscus in Red

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Our Hibiscus plants were just about bare for this year but I managed to find one last bloom for this HDR image. It’s been about a week since I shot this one and I’m sad to say that the limbs are empty. Oh well, next spring will bring more beauty.

Processing: This photo is about 60% of the original which accounts for a slight lack of sharpness and definition. But with a subject like this, the softness isn’t always a negative. For some unknown reason (to me anyway), flowers usually need additional work when doing HDR imaging. The tones and shadows seem to get swallowed up with my Nik HDR Efex Pro software so I used the File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro process in Adobe Photoshop CS6. With three exposures, I was able to get the limited tonality that I needed while still maintaining the shadow and highlight details. After creating my image, I used Camera Raw for sharpening and adding luminosity. My final step was to do some very subtle dodging and burning on selected areas for more depth.

For the monochrome version, I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and increased the overall structure for a more textured look.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with Nikkor 105mm f/2.8 lens at f/22, ISO 800. Manfrotto/Bogen tripod and ball head.

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HDR – Classical Grass, Weeds, Whatever!

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This High Dynamic Range (HDR) image is the product of cropping a larger image. It’s about 80% of the original but still holds enough detail. I really like doing these “Intimate Landscapes” since the intricate beauty of nature can be presented more intimately.

These very tall and wispy whatevers were in constant motion as you can see from the tops of some. I decided to use the motion for a softer look . . . more of an artistic expression than a statically realistic one. And yes, the color is also just a little more saturated than reality as I think it adds to the art of it.

Processing: I used seven exposures, shot from -1.5 to +1.5, loaded into Nik HDR Efex Pro. Since the majority of this scene has a much tighter dynamic range, I didn’t need to extend my exposures beyond this limit. I did selective Control Point work to balance the tones and bring out the detail in the grass/weeds. I also used control points to manipulate the light to draw more attention to the foreground and sunny area in the upper left.

In Adobe Photoshop I used Shadows/Highlights to add more depth and then Hue/Saturation to get the color to the just beyond reality stage. I finished with High Pass filter set to 8 pixels using Soft Light with opacity and fill at 100%. This gives a beautiful sharpening without getting too brittle. I used Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 for the monochrome version below.

My focus was to get more of an edgy, black and white look by increasing the contrast and eliminating some of the tonal smoothness.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 lens at 35mm, f/16, ISO 3200.

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HDR – Matt’s Alley

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I don’t do very many HDR shots like this but I was drawn to this one because of the colors. The yellow “MATT” seemed to define the place. It’s a walkway between buildings in Washington, North Carolina. This is another shot from my “Poppin a few with the Nifty Fifty” photo walk earlier this year. The limited field of view from the 50mm lens actually forced me to compose this tight composition in a more thoughtful way.

Processing: Five images from -2 to +2 ev loaded into Nik HDR Efex Pro for tone mapping. I kept the tones as close to reality as I could. The saturation was selectively increased for the yellow but everything else is natural. In Adobe Photoshop I used Curves to add contrast and Hue/Saturation for overall color balance. Then I flattened the Image, saved it and loaded it into Camera Raw for sharpening and Luminance to reduce noise.

And for this monochrome version, I loaded the final color image into Nik Silver Efex Pro and chose the basic conversion, but made the blue spray a little darker for more contrast.

The reason for the darkening of the blue in the lower right foreground is to add more of a leading line since the monochrome doesn’t have the color elements that achieve the same result. And it gives a better balance to the overall image from lower right to left and diagonal from upper left to lower right. Yes, part of my past career was being a technical analyst.

Equipment used: 50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor, f/4.8, ISO 800.

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HDR – Standing in The Sun at Bodie Island Lighthouse

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With a sky like this, the Bodie Island Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina was an ideal setup for High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging. This shot is from a trip in December of last year. It was cold and the day kept going from cloudy to sunny and everything in between. You can see from this image that the sky at times overwhelmed the beauty of the lighthouse. For this photo, I tried to do a visual balance of both.

Processing: I loaded seven images, shot from -3 to +3 ev into Nik HDR Efex Pro where I did tone mapping, selective sharpening and overall structuring. In Adobe Photoshop, I corrected the colors using Hue/Saturation, modified the contrast and tones using Curves and added a small amount of High Pass filter for sharpening.

For the version below, I moved the image into Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and applied a warm filter and light vignette to allow the lighthouse to stand out a bit more.