East Branch Evening

Gallery: LandscapePosted October 17, 2010246 views18 comments

I was done shooting for the day when I noticed the crimson maple on the bank of the East Branch of the Sacandaga River in the Adirondacks. After crawling around on the rocks as it got darker and darker, this image seemed to have the best comp, even though that neon tree was not a large part of it. The scene had so much dynamic range that I shot a series of exposures ranging from 1/8 sec. to 4 seconds.

Canon 50D
Sigma 17-70mm. f/2.8; Circ. Pol.
Six Exposures 1/8 sec. to 4 sec. @ f/16; ISO 400
Tripod; Mirror up; 2-sec. timer
HDR in CS5, but then covered the whole image with layers of varying opacity from original exposures to put back the life that HDR drained from the image (just my crazy way of processing HDR).

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Patricia Brundage on October 17, 2010 at 11:10 PM

Excellent comp, low angle and subject. Just a beautiful fall scene from the sky to the highlights in the water... not to mention the fall colors. Well done Wayne!

Registered on March 23, 2006, 1111 Posts, 6531 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on October 17, 2010 at 11:25 PM

That one neon tree is plenty, Wayne. Just gorgeous, and very nice other range of colors as well. Nice composition, and blended very well. I don't get any sense of hdr in this.

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on October 17, 2010 at 11:39 PM

I agree--terrific job on the blend! And just a fabulous blend of mood and colors too. Good stuff. For the web version, id just back off the tree outline sharpening just a tiny bit.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on October 17, 2010 at 11:45 PM

Gorgeous. Excellent scene, phenomenal processing. You've really brought out the colors and textures well.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on October 17, 2010 at 11:54 PM

Wayne,

Terrific job with the blending. And if I was using digital, I would certainly want to hear more about your technique in taming the HDR process in PS. The blend just looks quite natural.

The red is certainly a nice touch to the scene, but overall the comp just seems a bit static to me. Kinda one of those scenes where I would like to see more of the autumn vegetation along the shore, or more river and rocks... but it seems here you just tried to include it all. Don't get me wrong, nothing bad about this image, but I guess just not your best. But who's counting... :-)

Hope you're doing well.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Danny Laureys on October 18, 2010 at 12:08 AM

Very nice!!!

Registered on January 5, 2008, 590 Posts, 1261 Comments

Comment posted by Russell Colletta on October 18, 2010 at 12:20 AM

Nicely crafted in both comp and processing. Those trees are electric, nicely done.

Registered on October 31, 2009, 114 Posts, 1008 Comments

Comment posted by Doug Roane on October 18, 2010 at 12:49 AM

I really like the comp and the low angle here

Registered on December 12, 2008, 213 Posts, 2226 Comments

Comment posted by Dietrich Gloger on October 18, 2010 at 1:13 AM

Works great for me Wayne. An image that conveys "Autumn" perfectly for me. Dos not look HDR-ish to me.

Registered on January 26, 2007, 360 Posts, 9876 Comments

Comment posted by Greg Maklae on October 18, 2010 at 6:54 AM

Wayne, great comp and colors and a fantastic job of HDR. Vey natural looking. I've tried shooting along here many times, but do not be able to find the comps you do. Maybe need to put on my water wings and climb out more on the rocks.

Registered on November 18, 2008, 170 Posts, 759 Comments

Comment posted by Ron Pederson on October 18, 2010 at 7:14 AM

Definately an Adirondack shot...it's a good one, but a tad oversharp for the web.

Registered on August 12, 2010, 29 Posts, 108 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on October 18, 2010 at 9:31 AM

Excellent job on the blend, and I really like the low perspective. Beautiful fall foliage too! Very pretty Wayne.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on October 18, 2010 at 9:38 AM

A beauiful scene, Wayne. Well done. I could really see spending some time here. What a great place. The fall color looks wonderful.

Nick Bristol
lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Arnab Banerjee on October 18, 2010 at 9:38 AM

Wayne - I process hdr in a similar way..so you are not crazy alone. Great NE shot - good to see that you have found some autumn color even in this year. Or it was probably not that bad up in the Dacks.

Registered on January 3, 2007, 313 Posts, 2270 Comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on October 18, 2010 at 10:34 AM

Wayne, this really encapsulates the Adirondacks or New England fall look to me. One can almost feel the temperatures dropping viewing this wonderful scene. The rocks form a nice vantage point as well as a framing of the upstream viewing overall. Nice work as always.

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by Eric Good on October 18, 2010 at 2:46 PM

I love the way you've framed this image... lots to look at, top to bottom. Great job on the blending as well. I might favor a little of the original exposure blended back in along the area in the UL... that still has a slight HDR feel to me, if that matter to you. I too used to blend original exposures at varying opacity over an HDR image when I did HDR work, so you're not the only strange one.

Nice work!

Registered on March 17, 2007, 116 Posts, 4764 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on October 19, 2010 at 10:10 AM

That one red tree is such a great eye grabber. There is also excellent depth in this image. The water still needs more work imo as it looks a little flat on my monitor, but what a beautiful scene.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Paolo De Faveri on October 19, 2010 at 2:06 PM

A beautiful fall scene with all the elements one would hope having in for such a scene. Nice background, lovely stream, wonderful fall colours on the trees and some nice sunset light in the sky. Processing this with all those different exposures must have been a nightmare (

) but you made it out pretty darn well.

Paolo

Registered on August 29, 2007, 318 Posts, 1651 Comments