Let's get ready for Fall

Several of us gathered up at Steel Creek this weekend for some pre-fall scouting. Really we just needed to get out of the house!

We need to decide dates and places for the fall gathering. Most of us will be out every weekend when the leaves start changing. A trip report would be nice from each of us so that we can keep up with the changing colors.

Maybe one weekend in Richland Creek and another weekend somehwere else. Matt and I discussed Richland turning before everywhere else last year and maybe that should be the starting point.

Here's one from Roark Bluff last night at sunset.

Great view and well composed! Maybe just a bit too HDR'y?

And when are you all going to meet?

Really great shot, Mike. Although the sky was pretty nice, I think you could crop it and still have a beautiful composition.

It was nice meeting you and Karla and Matt down there this morning, Mike. Thanks for showing me this location. It looks like you really did have a nice sunset. Now I know why you all get so exited about Fall in the Ozarks.

I changed some settings on the HDR preset that I was using to make it not so HDRish. The colors were too saturated from the HDR so I lowered the saturation a bit.

I would have liked better clouds, but this was what I was given to work with.

Nicely done.

Mike, did you use Photomatix or Photoshop CS5 for your HDR work? I have been experimenting with both and so far Photomatix still seems to work better for me. If anyone else has any thoughts on these two programs, I would be interested in you thoughts.

Mike, very nice! I love that setting, a beautiful spot on our planet. I like the cropped version the best. Looking forward to meeting you down the road.

I've just begun to learn or figure out what settings I like best without being to HDRish. Photomatix pro 3.0 has more control over the final product. My settings for this last image was listed below. I find that I have to lower the overall saturation in photoshop.

Tonemapping:
Strength 75
Color sat 75
Lumin
Microcontrast
Smoothing
white point 0
Black point 0
Gamma 1.5
Temp 0
Saturation Highlight -4.0

Mike I think you have handled this pretty well. It was a tough scene for sure.

Mike, are there still a lot of bees up there? Last time i tried to get out there, bees were flying all over the place and I changed my mind. That little rock ledge is a little too skinny to be dodging bees.

I definitely think Photomatix is better than CS5 for HDR stuff. It seems like I can get more natural looks with Photomatix, it just takes a lot of playing with the settings.

I'm all ears about the gathering. Looking forward to getting out for some better fall photos this year.

No bees. Ken was the only brave one to walk out onto that ledge. Matt went half way out there.

Matt and I were thinking last week of October. A few more weeks to figure this out before we set a date.

I just pre purchased the new Nik HDR software at our regional SWPP convention for $139. It will ship Oct 15th. The rep told me it would be available from Nik for a short time for that price....regular price $159. I liked the flexibility of the software....about 40 presets and lots of sliders to adjust to taste form mild to wild. I have never used Photomatix, so can't compare.
Joe Rogers

Thanks for the info Joe. At this point I'm happy with Photomatix and waiting for version 4.