Hi, my name is Mark Metternich, a native Oregonian but in Las Vegas right now marketing my work (fine art landscape gallery prints). I have been occasionally lurking here for a few years, but just could not find the time to join. I appreciate the wonderful work here by many and have been inspired a lot by more than a few folks here.
Although I just got back from Oregon a few days ago and think I have some new winners, they are not yet developed, so I'll post a recent other shot from up there.
Cape Kiwanda. Attempting a color wash, impresionistic approach (inspired a lot by David Burdeny's outstanding B+W's) I did a 3-4 minute exposure during and through the epicenter peak of a vivid pink sunrise, as the clouds whizzed on by. All the changing colors averaged through the long exposure to create this image.
Canon 1DS Mark II
Canon 24-105@28
9 stop ND filter (maybe a polarizer too)
f/8
ISO 200
5-7 minutes
One raw image was used to render this image. I got the image essentially done in ACR 5.3. For the Haystack rock, a white balance tool adjustment was taken off the rock to keep it neutral (although when you do really long exposures during the epicenter of sunrise or sunset color you are going to get natural, somewhat radical color casts). I rendered the haystack rock neutral to make the scene look more natural. I decided to "capture sharpen" in raw the haystack rock slightly (20 amount, 0.5 radius, 100 detail) and to mask out all the rest of the scene to prevent any unnecessary graininess from occurring in the soft areas. I usually use no luminance noise reduction in my landscapes (because of proper exposure and the desire to retain as much detail in a scene as possible) but I did both a chrominance and luminance noise reduction on everything but the rock, again to keep the natural soft look and to keep noise and grain from showing. A slight LAB (a and b channel) color blur (Gaussian) was used to rid the image of chrominance noise and to keep the color averaged and more ethereal, keeping with the effect of the long exposure. The image was cropped in PS CS4 using the grid lines at a perfect thirds for the rock. This was set up in my PS preferences under grids (33.33% and subdivisions of 1). A very slight vignetting was used going to Filter/Distort/Lens Correction. I used Edit/Fade to make the effect slight. When sizing the web demo, I sharpened the rock only, and decided to downsize a layer using Bicubic Smoother (for its ability to keep things smooth and prevent artifacts) and had everything but the rock the "Smoother" algorithm. The rock layer was downsized using Bicubic (my favorite for downsizing) and erased in. I used my personal custom sharpening techniques for it. A combination of the technique Marc Adamus seems to have innovated and a few improvements I have stumbled on.
I used an umbrella to prevent the wind from hitting my camera during this exposure (people often look at you like a weirdo when you do this). Of course a cable release was used. The exposure was a guess because of the fast changing lighting. I usually fail at these guesses. It ended up being shot "to the right" of the histogram so at least in this case I got it right.
Posted by James Walley on June 21, 2009 at 2:13 AM
Hi, Mark! I'm surprised you haven't posted here before. I certainly have seen some fine work from you on FredMiranda.com.
Beautiful image Mark, your post processing seems to have worked and the smooth cloud cover due to long exposure makes Haystack stand out all the more. I also like the play of light and color throughout the image.
David M. Cobb
Posted by Bryan Spahr on June 21, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Hi Mark. Beautiful image and wonderful description of the process to make it. I too have seen some of your work over on fm. Your images will be a welcome addition to NPN.
-Bryan
Posted by Darren White on June 21, 2009 at 8:32 PM
Discussion
8 repliesAlthough I just got back from Oregon a few days ago and think I have some new winners, they are not yet developed, so I'll post a recent other shot from up there.
Cape Kiwanda. Attempting a color wash, impresionistic approach (inspired a lot by David Burdeny's outstanding B+W's) I did a 3-4 minute exposure during and through the epicenter peak of a vivid pink sunrise, as the clouds whizzed on by. All the changing colors averaged through the long exposure to create this image.
Canon 1DS Mark II
Canon 24-105@28
9 stop ND filter (maybe a polarizer too)
f/8
ISO 200
5-7 minutes
Technical notes are separate, below this post.
Comments welcome, thank you.
I used an umbrella to prevent the wind from hitting my camera during this exposure (people often look at you like a weirdo when you do this). Of course a cable release was used. The exposure was a guess because of the fast changing lighting. I usually fail at these guesses. It ended up being shot "to the right" of the histogram so at least in this case I got it right.
David M. Cobb
-Bryan
nice results
Welcome Mark!