Tag Archives: landscape

HDR – Great Day Sunshine

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While doing some HDR photo walking at South Tar Greenway in Greenville, North Carolina on one of those perfectly sunny, warm and breezy days, I came across this woodsy, “Intimate Landscape” scene. The foreground vegetation first caught my attention. But it was the chaotic beauty of the full view that really impressed me.

This is one of those areas that has only recently been transformed into a recreational area with paved trails for biking, walking, running; whatever.  Since the location is right next to the Tar river, the growth is pretty dense and looks like it’s been wild for a long time.

Processing: I loaded five exposures from -1 ev to +1 ev at .5 ev intervals into Nik HDR Efex Pro and used Control Points to emphasize the texture in the foreground and balance some very deep shadows in the trees. In Adobe Photoshop CS6, I applied Hue/Saturation to correct the colors for an overall, warm look. I used High Pass filter for sharpening and the Gamma setting in Exposure to lighten the image just a bit. Since this image was taken at a 20mm zoom setting, I used Lens Correction to adjust the visual perspective. I retained some of the wide angle look but brought the distortion down to a more realistic expression.

Continuing with a little Photoshop experimentation, I converted this to greyscale and then duotone for this black/cyan version.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 lens at 20mm, f/11, ISO 400.

HDR – Warm Woodsy Way

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As we head into the fall season, the colors are starting to change and provide a warm, relaxing view of nature. Though this HDR image was shot at the beginning of summer, I decided to give it an early fall look using the Adobe Photoshop Photo Filter. Warming Filter(LBA) set at 25% gives enough warmth to change the season.

Processing: I used nine exposures from -2 to +2 ev at .5 ev spacing. In Nik HDR Efex Pro, I used Control Points to selectively maximize Structure and tonal variations.  With Adobe Photoshop, I balanced the colors with Hue/Saturation, added contrast with Curves and used Unsharp Mask for sharpening. I added another layer and painted selective areas to balance tones and lighten the path. With a final layer I applied Photo Filter and adjusted the fill to 60%. Sometimes artistic license can make a big difference.

Here’s the original, combined image.

Equipment used: Nikon D700 with 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 lens, 35mm, f/8, ISO 800. Manfrotto 190XPROB with 486RC2 ball head.

HDR – Nicely Mowed Suburban Nature

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It’s been a while since I posted an “Intimate Landscape” in HDR. This is another shot from Brookside Gardens in Silver Spring Maryland. In the short time that I spent there, I managed to pop quite a few brackets. This is one of my favorites and shows a beautiful combination of nature, mowing and architecture. And with such a perfect weather day, it was hard to mess anything up. :)

Processing: Five images from -2 to +2 ev loaded into Nik HDr Efex Pro for Tone Mapping and overall Structure.  I emphasized the texture in the walkway and steps and added more structure to that area. Adobe Photoshop was used to add more depth and modify the saturation for a realistic result.

Nikon D700 with 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5 set at 28mm, f/20, ISO 400.  Manfrotto 190XPROB with 486RC2 ball head.