Still Waters : Rattling Leaves

Intimate Waterscape
©Joe Bridwell
It’s a topsy turvy world
You see; yet you don’t
What’s real; what’s reflected?
Finally, a tree stump and lillys sort out…
Then, windblown tree reflections on a still pond.
Another HDR tone poem…

Intimate Lighting
Walking along the pond’s bank, several HDR shot sets were taken before this vista became best of catch…
The sun’s brassy October glare was before sunset, but they closed at six sharp. A wind was blowing – Kodak’s Balloon Fiesta would see no balloons go up.
While tree leaves rattled overhead, our pond was relatively quiet.
But, it’s the inverted tree reflection which shows this intimacy; the reflected tree trunk is sharp and clear whereas the rattling tree top leaves disappear behind and among the real small trunk's protrusion.

Only after seeing this final image, did I realize just how powerful still water could enhance a rattling leaves effect (vocal) with a seemingly indistinct reflected shimmer (visual). Amidst viewfinder and LCD, images undergo serious visual compression; smooth vs indistinct variation can't be seen... But, in the final image ~ a rather unexpected visual reward.

Full Range HDR
With eight HDR shot sets captured, I developed all.
What’s a shot set?
It’s a range of HDR images captured such that you start with highlights albut 10% blown, then cycle 1EV (2 0.5 EV clicks each time) until the shadows are albut 10% blown. Each raw image is 14 bits, at ISO 200, f/13 (about the upper sweet spot range on a Nikkor 24-120 4.5 lens), and shot about 5 PM.
In this lighting, 12 images spanned our 10-10% blowout shot set range.

Using Lightroom 2.5, Photomatix Pro 3.2.3, and Photoshop CS4, I performed all functions from Full Manual HDR Capture. Shot sets were processed by PP, then returned to Lightroom as Tone Compressed (Default Setting) 16 bit tif images.
Using Lightroom’s Basic, Curves, and Detail Panels in Develop mode, I Tone Mapped images before carefully choosing the Masking portion of Sharpening function to see if, as usual, PP left a noisy sky. After performing Luminance noise reduction of about 50%, I might crop the image in Photoshop to strengthen impact.

Keepers
Isn’t it always about the best?
When each shot set had its preferred image completely worked up, I gathered the last efforts in Lightroom as a Smart Collection. Using Full Screen Loupe View, it was then quite easy to decide which keeper (four of nine) met the winning criteria
“Which image contains a story within an already delicate story; does that image create a pleasing emotional and visual impact?”

Enjoy…

Full Manual HDR Capture

Recent talks with Sandy Corless have reconstituted how I capture HDR images. Sandy has taken Dan Burkholder’s HDR workshop, then developed her own HDR style, as usual!
Revised

What Cha’ Lookin’ At..? Two images – the 0EV manual capture at f/11, ISO 200, shutter speed 1/180 sec.
The 2nd image is the resulting full range HDR where shutter speeds ranged from 1/6 to 1/6000 secs. The 11 raw files were captured at 11 AM. Our colorful result has gone thru Photomatic and Lightroom to become the ‘Best It Can Be…!’

In A Nutshell
I shoot with a Nikon D300 – it handles 14 bit raw images and allows me to manually change shutter speed at constant aperture and ISO. If I set my shutter speed to 0.5EV per click, two clicks, up or down, can change my EV by +/- one setting.
On manual setting, I choose depth of field (aperture), set ISO (200), and estimate the first capture. By moving my viewfinder dial to +5EV (10 clicks left), I estimate the initial HDR range. If the histogram shows only a small amount of signal, with most being blown out, e.g. the upper 10% of the histogram shows data, that’s my beginning HDR image. If Magic Hour tonal contrast is larger, I must continue searching until my initial HDR histogram only fills the upper 10%.
I then methodically begin decreasing my EV 2 clicks at a time moving right on the shutter speed dial until I show only 10% of the lower histogram remaining. Of course, you want to take a shot each 2 clicks, examine the histogram, then move onto the next capture!
For a near sunset or sunset Magic Hour capture sequence, this may take 15-20 images…

Photomatix Pro
Lightroom has a Photomatix Plugin which lets you select the range of images, then ask PP to assemble a 32 bit .hdr file. I always ask PP to perform all functions in assembly – Align, Reduce Chromatic Aberrations, Reduce Noise, and Reduce Ghosting Artifacts. PP plugin returns a 16 bit tif file.
Time has shown 2 issues; the resulting 16 bit tif file usually contains noise _and_ ONLY Tone Compressor at Default Settings allows me to retain the original bi-modal histogram in the 32 bit file.
An 11 shot HDR (RHS in final image above) took ~ 7 minutes on a dual CPU 32 bit 1.8 Ghz PC.

Lightroom’s Initial Tone Mapping
I apply Basic, Curves, and Detail panels to allow tone mapping to the final 16 bit tif, making copies for each separate Develop function in case of later modifications.
Detail panel actually allows me to perform 2 functions; noise reduction and sharpening.
Noise Reduction – PP usually leaves noise. By clicking on the Masking slider and moving to the right, I can see how much sky noise appears. I then move the Luminance slider until that noise is minimized.
Sharpening – I then apply an appropriate sharpening preset, modifying the Masking slider to produce the most pleasing HDR image.
If it’s a competition image, I might also choose to apply Pixel Genius’ Photokit Sharpener for its more complete sharpening tools…

If additional refinement is warranted, I open the Lightroom image in Photoshop to perform specialized tasks not presently available in Lightroom…

You can find a basic workflow either on Pathways of Light under Full Manual Range HDR capture or as a downloadable PDF here.

Enjoy…

Shiprock a Finalist

This morning, New Mexico Magazine’s Lisa Malaguti sent the following email:

Congratulations! Your photopgraph titled Shiprock has been selected as a finalist in the 9th Annual Photo Contest. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be announced in the January 2010 issue.

Thank You, Lisa, You’ve MADE My Day…