Absolutely excellent. I'm just back from photographing out there with David Cobb and hope to post some of mine soon. This is brilliant and sets the bar at a whole new level as I'm going through my stuff. Hope I can find something half as good.
This is just excellent John, love the foreground, the line of 8 mile creek, the light, and those shadows on the hills. I might see you out there, I don't live too far away.
That is just excellent.. sublimely beautiful. Way more interesting than the billions of Rowena shots I've seen. You get a little more color and quantity in your flowers than we do in our california ones!
Thanks all!! I’m back in town, to help celebrate my daughter’s birthday, after a quick trip over to the Columbia Hills last night. I met up with Jesse Estes, and we photographed near where I took the above as the light faded. The sky never developed significant color, but was nevertheless very dramatic. This morning was drizzly and overcast. I would love to have stayed and played, but duty called.
In addition to meeting Jesse, I had the honor of meeting Kevin McNeal, Adrian Klein, and Marc Adamus. They were leading photo tours of the area. This morning as I was heading out, I ran into Darren White too. Maybe we should have our next PNWNP event in the hills this time of year?
Sean, knowing your photography I’m sure you’ve got some great stuff and look forward to seeing it!
Christoper, I hope you’re feeling better.
Zack, too true. The lower balsamroot is just on the edge. Fortunately the lupine is really rocking right now.
Cliff this is Dalles Mt. Ranch in the Columbia Hills, in a ravine feeding 8 Mile Creek as David notes.
Erik, glad you asked. I usually try to post shooting info, but had a busy week and wasn’t able to finish this until yesterday. I wanted to post it for those who might be able to catch it before heading over, and didn’t take the time to add the shooting info before heading out.
This is a blend of four shots. Two shots, exposed for the areas in shade, focused near and far for DOF. A third shot was exposed for the sunlit areas, and a fourth for the sky.
(In the spirit of full disclosure, something I always like to do, the sky was shot at around 4pm and the earth a little after 6pm. I did this because the clouds had disappeared just as the good light began the two prior days. Sure enough, it happened again and I needed this “insurance” shot to get the clouds. I'd like to post this in one of the galleries, but am wrestling with the fact that the sky was taken at a different time then the rest. Would it fit in ESS, or should it go into Photoart? Any thoughts appreciated.)
Nikon D80
Nikon 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 at 12 mm
1/20, 1/45, &1/180 sec at f/16.0 and ISO 400
A great shot for sure--you should be proud of this image.
I've noticed that you have definately figured out how to properly blend different exposures/focus points to create a final master piece. Can you shed some light on how the blending is done--because it is very seemless. Perhaps a there's articles written on this, and a link in that direction would be helpful and appreciated.
Jason, the advantage of blending is that you can really expand the power of your camera. The disadvantage is that it can take a _lot_ of time.
At some point I need to write up a detailed description, but in brief I make sure the images have an area of overlap, and are aligned. I then stack them as layers in Photoshop and lasso a selection of the areas I want; using the difference mode in Photoshop to make sure the selection follows areas that are the same. I then turn the selection into a mask, so that only the parts I want are showing.
The zone of overlap for focus blending needs to be done in camera; essentially you focus carefully so that the focus has at least a little overlap between the two. The overlap for dynamic range is done in Photoshop.
If you are only blending for dynamic range, you may not need to align the images. However, remember that the field of view changes as you change your focus point, so if you are blending for depth of field you will need to do this. (You’ll also need to align the images if you, like me, bump your tripod now and again.) To align the images, I use Photoshop’s Auto-align feature when it will work. When it fails (for example if you have a lot of flowers blowing in the wind), I use PTAssembler. PTAssembler is more complicated and has a learning curve, but can align almost anything without parallax once you learn how to use it.
To achieve a zone of overlap for dynamic blending, I use a curves layer for each image to match the area I want to overlap. For example in the above photo the darker photo was exposed for the sunny areas, and the brighter photo for the flowers. In the darker photo there was a lot of plugging and shadow noise in the flowers, and the brighter areas were blown in the lighter photo. I used curves to get them to match just below the shadow that runs across the middle of the photo. I used a curve to brighten the darker layer about half way towards the brighter layer, and then an additional curve to move the brighter layer to meet the darker layer. For this second curve, I usually make the adjustments to the red, green, and blue curves individually to maximize the match.
It takes a bit of Photoshop experience for all of this to make sense. If it is all confusing, I’ll try and get a detailed, step-by-step, description one of these days.
Thanks for the description John, a lot of work, but a big pay-off. I must say, you have the patience of a dark-ages monk to put this photo together. I keep coming back to it, to admire the beauty.
Very very nice image John! Glad you got up there with no wind which unfortunately I did not get. It was pleasure to meet you as well. I am sure I will see you in the field again!
What other superlative can I add....this shows thought and mastery in all stages of the process, from capture to pp. As far as it being photo art, I would say that the fact you added a sky from another time would classify it as such. I wonder what other people think. I think it would still be a great photo with no clouds, though, imho.
Thanks for writting the overview of how you processed this image. I'll have to do some experimenting with this when I get time. It really does sound like (and look like) a powerful tool. Also, which Dan Margolis book would you recommend for learning to work in the LAB color space? I thought I saw where you suggested one of his books but I can't find that comment to verify.
No problem, hope you have fun playing with blending. The book is called The Canyon Conundrum, and it really helped me understand color and Photoshop much better.
Discussion
32 repliesI was headed in that direction this morning but turned around feeling a little under the weather.
David M. Cobb
Kevin
Jack
In addition to meeting Jesse, I had the honor of meeting Kevin McNeal, Adrian Klein, and Marc Adamus. They were leading photo tours of the area. This morning as I was heading out, I ran into Darren White too. Maybe we should have our next PNWNP event in the hills this time of year?
Sean, knowing your photography I’m sure you’ve got some great stuff and look forward to seeing it!
Christoper, I hope you’re feeling better.
Zack, too true. The lower balsamroot is just on the edge. Fortunately the lupine is really rocking right now.
Cliff this is Dalles Mt. Ranch in the Columbia Hills, in a ravine feeding 8 Mile Creek as David notes.
Erik, glad you asked. I usually try to post shooting info, but had a busy week and wasn’t able to finish this until yesterday. I wanted to post it for those who might be able to catch it before heading over, and didn’t take the time to add the shooting info before heading out.
This is a blend of four shots. Two shots, exposed for the areas in shade, focused near and far for DOF. A third shot was exposed for the sunlit areas, and a fourth for the sky.
(In the spirit of full disclosure, something I always like to do, the sky was shot at around 4pm and the earth a little after 6pm. I did this because the clouds had disappeared just as the good light began the two prior days. Sure enough, it happened again and I needed this “insurance” shot to get the clouds. I'd like to post this in one of the galleries, but am wrestling with the fact that the sky was taken at a different time then the rest. Would it fit in ESS, or should it go into Photoart? Any thoughts appreciated.)
Nikon D80
Nikon 12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0 at 12 mm
1/20, 1/45, &1/180 sec at f/16.0 and ISO 400
A great shot for sure--you should be proud of this image.
I've noticed that you have definately figured out how to properly blend different exposures/focus points to create a final master piece. Can you shed some light on how the blending is done--because it is very seemless. Perhaps a there's articles written on this, and a link in that direction would be helpful and appreciated.
Again, great work.
Thanks,
Jason Denham
At some point I need to write up a detailed description, but in brief I make sure the images have an area of overlap, and are aligned. I then stack them as layers in Photoshop and lasso a selection of the areas I want; using the difference mode in Photoshop to make sure the selection follows areas that are the same. I then turn the selection into a mask, so that only the parts I want are showing.
The zone of overlap for focus blending needs to be done in camera; essentially you focus carefully so that the focus has at least a little overlap between the two. The overlap for dynamic range is done in Photoshop.
If you are only blending for dynamic range, you may not need to align the images. However, remember that the field of view changes as you change your focus point, so if you are blending for depth of field you will need to do this. (You’ll also need to align the images if you, like me, bump your tripod now and again.) To align the images, I use Photoshop’s Auto-align feature when it will work. When it fails (for example if you have a lot of flowers blowing in the wind), I use PTAssembler. PTAssembler is more complicated and has a learning curve, but can align almost anything without parallax once you learn how to use it.
To achieve a zone of overlap for dynamic blending, I use a curves layer for each image to match the area I want to overlap. For example in the above photo the darker photo was exposed for the sunny areas, and the brighter photo for the flowers. In the darker photo there was a lot of plugging and shadow noise in the flowers, and the brighter areas were blown in the lighter photo. I used curves to get them to match just below the shadow that runs across the middle of the photo. I used a curve to brighten the darker layer about half way towards the brighter layer, and then an additional curve to move the brighter layer to meet the darker layer. For this second curve, I usually make the adjustments to the red, green, and blue curves individually to maximize the match.
It takes a bit of Photoshop experience for all of this to make sense. If it is all confusing, I’ll try and get a detailed, step-by-step, description one of these days.
You should post it in ESS.
David M. Cobb
Thanks for writting the overview of how you processed this image. I'll have to do some experimenting with this when I get time. It really does sound like (and look like) a powerful tool. Also, which Dan Margolis book would you recommend for learning to work in the LAB color space? I thought I saw where you suggested one of his books but I can't find that comment to verify.
Again, thanks for your time.
No problem, hope you have fun playing with blending. The book is called The Canyon Conundrum, and it really helped me understand color and Photoshop much better.