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Technique

Home > Beyond the Lens > Technique

The Making of “Clear Water, Hudson River” Panorama

by RR Jr on January 4, 2012

Clear Water, Hudson River

Clear Water, Hudson River

I received a few emails with questions about this months wallpaper photo “Clear Water, Hudson River”, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a “Making Of” article for the benefit of all readers.

Planning

This photograph was very much planned in advance in the sense that I needed a very specific and limited window of conditions for the image I had in my mind. I wanted low tide for a strong foreground (the rocks are completely submerged during high tide), sunrise during winter for quality and direction of light, and optimally minimal wind. Because the sun rises much further south during the winter, it actually creates a nice backlighting condition when looking south on the Hudson. This creates a subtle but dramatic lighting effect which improves the sense of depth and dimension in the image. Notice how the rocks in the foreground (especially on the lower right) and the mountains across the river have a beautiful 3 dimensional quality to them as the light seems to flow around their shapes.

Of course we can plan for these conditions, but there is no guarantee that everything will come together when the time comes to set up the camera. After several failed attempts, I found myself standing on the edge of the river once again this year hoping for a chance to capture something special. The weather forecast predicted clear skies for the day, but the morning started off rather cloudy and somewhat foggy. Patience and perseverance paid off however, and all of the elements I look for in a successful landscape photograph came together for a few moments: light, color, composition, and drama.

Setup

Wanting to create a panorama, I setup my Canon 60D with a Canon 24L f/1.4 lens and shot 7 images in a vertical position. I leveled the tripod as best I could, and used reference points along the river to make sure each successive shot would overlap the last by about 25%. Camera settings were Manual, f/11, 1/250 sec @ ISO 200 with highlight priority turned on. I also used a remote shutter release with mirror lockup enabled to keep movement to a minimum and ensure the sharpest and cleanest image possible. No filters or multiple exposures used. (No bias here, just didn’t think about either at the time.) I especially dislike polarizers when shooting a panorama because of the inconsistent look you’ll wind up with as you change your angle to the sun – given the effect is most pronounced at 90° and least effective at 0° or 180° from the sun.

Notice the focus point in the foreground, which is about 12′ from the camera – @ 24mm, f/11 gives me a hyperfocal distance of about 9′, so I approximated the distance and focused there. This brings everything into focus from 5′ to infinity, plenty for this image. I used manual focusing to avoid any anything changing between the 7 images.

Post-Processing

I processed the 7 images in Lightroom, making slight brightness adjustments to each so that they would match up better when merged in Photoshop. Lightroom has a great feature which allows you to select several images,then export them directly to Photoshop for merging into a Panorama. (Control-click on a group of selected images, then select “Merge to Panorama in Photoshop” from the menu).

Once the process is complete, I flattened all of the layers in Photoshop, then saved the new panorama to Lightroom. I don’t crop in Photoshops because I would rather use the non-destructive cropping in Ligtroom instead. This allows me to experiment with different crops and sizes. Finally I added a graduated filter in LR to control the highlights (and sun) in the upper left, and added some subtle dodging to some of the foreground rocks.

The resultant image is the equivalent of 32 megapixels, enough to make a print 54″ wide a native resolution of 180ppi. I could probably go much larger using Alien Skin Blowup (my favorite plugin for re-sizing images).

Lightroom Print module showing native resolution and size.

Summary

The important points I wanted to share here are:

  • become intimately familiar with your favorite landscape locations
  • be aware of light at all times
  • use a tripod
  • don’t use a circular polarizer for panoramas
  • patience is your best ally, time is your best investment
  • think about what inspires you to make photographs

Finally, why this image and why does it work for me? The lighting was the critical element since it had to be made in winter, yet I didn’t want it to be a “winter” image. The calmness and clarity of the water, together with the overall mood of the image is what I wanted to capture –  that helps convey what I felt, and often feel about the Hudson Valley. It shows how I view the world, how it inspires me to appreciate the very basic and simple things in life, and most importantly how I want to share that with others.

Thanks again for your questions, and please feel free to leave any other questions or comments below.

 

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Home > Beyond the Lens > Technique

Using Ideas and Interpretation in Landscape Photography

by RR Jr on October 20, 2011

One of the most common questions I get from students is how do I know when I’m finished processing an image?” A related question is how do I distinguish between processing and excessive manipulation? Of course these are questions that are difficult to answer in a general sense, and often depend upon the photographer, his experience, his goals, and ultimately his commitment to creating work that is worthwhile.

One of my favorite books, Art & Fear written by Ted Orland, puts it more succinctly -

“Simply put, art that deals with ideas is more interesting than art that deals with technique.”

This has been my guiding principle as long as I can remember, even when I was producing and arranging music. The toys always fascinated me, and still do to this day, but the ideas were always more important. The following is a real world example from a recent shoot in my hometown of Beacon, NY.

Stormy Hudson, Beacon, NY

To say that I have photographed this location on many occasions would be an understatement. Yet there are images in my mind that I have not made, and so there is always something new to learn from re-visiting familiar landscapes. On this particular morning, I knew there was something special brewing in the sky, and with a strong wind, conditions were changing very rapidly.

Inspired by many Hudson River School painters, I have wanted to try and capture the feel and mood of a stormy Hudson, and this seemed like a good opportunity. I positioned the camera as low as possible and used a wide angle lens to accentuate the size of the waves and push the very dramatic clouds into the distance. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the right waves and cloud formations to line up in a pleasing composition (to me).

The strange thing was that though I wanted to capture the “moment” and all of its drama, it didn’t feel foreboding or dark, but rather positive and inviting. I realized I might be able to make a different interpretation of the same scene, a long exposure, so I added a polarizer plus a 6 stop ND filter to the lens (a total of 8 stops), then adjusted the exposure to match the reduction in light – 15 sec @ f/18 ISO 100. 

Calm after the Storm, Beacon, NY

Both images were processed in Lightroom, with some minor dodging to bring out some of the foreground details, and burning down some very hot highlights in the sky using the local brush tool. The conversion to black and white for the second image helps to simplify the message and really emphasize the textures and shapes. I never considered HDR or double exposures due to the high movement of water and clouds in both images.

How did I know when I was finished processing the images? I guess when what I saw on screen matched both how I felt being there, and also the images I envisioned in my mind. Of course with two different interpretations, I needed to shift my mindset for each image. But the principle remained the same – nature provided the ingredients that I look for in any image: light, color, drama and mood. The rest is composition, which ultimately determines the final result.

My point here is that having a very basic idea and visualization of what I wanted to capture helped tremendously, and allowed me to focus on translating the scene before me in creative ways. Of course being proficient with the technical side of things also helps, but this is mostly a matter of practice and experience. The processing is done when the image feels right, conveys your feelings as effectively and simply as possible, and most importantly draws the viewer into the scene. A tall order for sure, and one I continue to pursue (with many failures) on each image I make.

I hope these examples serve as inspiration for you to focus on ideas and vision, and not worry too much about the prefect location. Your comments and feedback are always welcome!

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Home > Beyond the Lens > Technique

Photo of the Day “Cold Sunrise”- with Bonus Lightroom Workflow

by RR Jr on January 24, 2011

Cold Sunrise - Lake Placid, Adirondacks

This was a very cold, early morning hike to a great sunrise location in the Adirondacks, and I really wanted to convey this feeling in the image “Cold Sunrise”. There are many cues that you can use to express how you feel when you’re at a particular location, and these involve all of our senses including sound, touch, smell, etc. Here I’ve tried to convey touch and feel by leading the eye onto the texture of frozen snow on these rocks in the foreground.

In addition, I think that the low fog in the valley conveys that stillness and silence that we often associate with these types of atmospheric events. When we can’t see very clearly, our other senses become more acute, and even though this is a photo, it triggers that sense in our minds to imagine what it would sound like to be there. Notice also the strong diagonals which guide the eye as mentioned before – cool to warm, texture to smooth, dark to bright, all contrasting elements.

Anyone looking at this photo will immediately understand what it must have felt like to stand on this frozen rocky ledge – at least that is my hope, and why it is important to continually practice the language of photography.

• Lightroom Workflow

As a bonus, I’ve included my Lightroom workflow so that you can get a better sense of how I processed this image with these ideas in mind in order to create the best interpretation of the RAW file.


1) Here is the original capture, with the default settings n Lightroom. Aside from a small amount of highlight clipping in the sky, the histogram looks good and I have maximized tonalities by exposing to the right. The image looks a little dark, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t lose any sky detail which was beautiful and adds the warmth to the image – a critical component to the overall feel and composition.


2) Next I made some adjustments in the Basic Panel, mostly increasing the Fill Light to bring out the dark foreground, Recovery to control the clipped highlights, and Clarity to bring out the texture of the ice and snow. I also added a bit of Vibrance for color. This works together with White Balance, which I increased from 6000k to about 6700k – this adds some warmth to the sky and removes some of the blue cast from the snow.


3) Next I wanted to try and increase the mid tone contrast – again with the idea that the textures in the image will help convey the feel – ice, frozen, rough, cold – even the trees appear like frozen statues, and adding contrast emphasizes this. I used the Tone Curve panel to added a tight S curve. This helps the midtones, but prevents the deep shadows or highlights from being affected. Adding extra points high and low on the curve prevents this from happening.


4) I decided I wanted to darken the sky to help bring out the soft cloud textures, so I decreased the Luminance value of the Blues in the HSL Panel. This will also darken areas of shadow that often have a blue cast, so care must be taken not to go overboard. I wanted to a subtle effect, so -17 felt about right.


5) Now we come to theDetail Panel – one of the most important aspects of this image, and here I used fairly standard settings - Amount=66, Radius=1.0, Masking=25. However the important setting here is Detail=100. The Detail slider in Lightroom acts as a halo suppressor, meaning it tries to prevent halos, the ugly glow around edges when high sharpening is used. While often useful, it can make an image somewhat softer as well, especially a high frequency image like this one. I didn’t want to compromise that, so a setting of 100 removes all halo suppression and gives me the sharpest image possible. Remember that this requires a very clean image (little or no noise), and a sharp capture to begin with.


6) Finally, I was still not happy with the overall mood of the image – I wanted to sky to play a stronger role in leading the eye and conveying a sense of depth. Up to now it just seemed to bright and washed out. I added a Graduated Filter to with a setting of Exposure= -0.15, Brighness= -49. The key here is not to lose the highlights, but bring down the overall brigthness of the sky and stretch the tonal values. Had I just used Exposure, then I would have lowered the whitest part of the sky only, which was not my intent. By using mostly the Brightness control, the sky becomes more dynamic and richer – the finishing touch to the image.

• Conclusion

I hope this is helpful in illustrating how I make technical AND creative decisions when processing an image in Lightroom. Having a clear idea of what you want to say with an image is extremely important, and aids the workflow tremendously. Thanks for reading and hanging in there through my explanations, and feel free to post comments and suggestions below.

PS- I teach this extensively in the Real World Lightroom 3 workshop where I go much more in depth and work through a bunch of images explaining how the creative process happens in the field, and continues in the digital darkroom.

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Focus On Fitness and Improve Your Landscape Photography

January 18, 2011 General

Let’s face it, landscape photography is hard. However, I don’t just mean capturing great vistas, but the physical demands that you face, be it extreme weather, long hours on foot with a backpack, and the difficult terrain we must often deal with to get access to great shooting locations. Physical fitness and overall health has [...]

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Behind the Scenes on a Landscape Photo Shoot-HD Video

January 3, 2011 Craft

Watch this video for a behind the scenes look at a recent hike I did in the mountains of the Hudson Valley where I captured the Jan wallpaper photo. Because I was alone I used my iPhone 4 without a tripod so please forgive the shaky parts of the video – even so, I think [...]

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Controlling Exposures and blending in Photoshop- Video Tutorial

November 3, 2010 Technique

I recently received a few questions from a student on controlling exposures and using ND filters. Here are his questions and my responses – keep in mind these are very general answers and books have been written on these topics. I highly recommend “Understanding Exposure” by Bryan Peterson for anyone who wants to dive into [...]

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