Rocky Mountain Sunset - Bend In The River

[Len Backus]

Here is an example of using new technology to handle lighting limitations in some scenes. Skies are much brighter than foregrounds. Usually, a picture of this scene would either burn out the color and detail in the sky...or you would lose the detail in a too-dark foreground. How many times have your own pictures looked like that?

This image is a blend, in the computer, of 5 differently exposed images of the same scene. I shot this picture last Friday in Colorado.

 

[royinidaho]

Jeez, Len, couldja quit posting those kinds of pics? Its tearing my guts out with envy. For all of the expensive stuff I have I may as well be using a Brownie Hawkeye.

As usual a darn good photograph, worthy of being call a photograph.

 

[Len Backus]

Well, no, Roy. I won't quit. I kind of enjoy tearing out your guts!

 

[Fulldraw™]

Awesome Photo!!!

 

[lovdasnow]

wow, looks great! I would love to get some shots like that for my walls, but I think my wife would like it even more.
how difficult is it to blend pictures like that? does is take, say 1/2 hr, or 3 hrs? and are you using cs3?
thanks again for sharing!

 

[Len Backus]

Jon, thanks.

I use CS2 generally but not for this blending. For that I use Photomatix software.

It costs $99 and is worth every penny. Now, there is more to it than just knowing how to use Photomatix. I do some things in Photoshop CS2 also...levels, shadow/highlight, sharpen, etc.

 

[Craig Dodd]

Len,

Very impressive photo(s). Did you take a laptop with you on your trip or did you do this once you got home?

It looks like you not only have to have the eye to recognize the picture opportunity/moment but computer expertise as well. Have you considered writing some technique articles on-line and/or in print?

Thanks for sharing you work with us.

Craig Dodd in
SE Idaho

 

[Len Backus]

Craig, I always have a laptop on trips. Even Kenya, Tanzania, Peru. I look at my shots of the day, do some processing/editing. Enough to feel my shooting is working out all right. My heavy editing is done at home, though on a better monitor.

These days I don't have patience or attention span for things like writing technical articles. And others do a good job anyway.

But I do plan to chat about technical stuff in these threads. I hope some of you guys will try to bring in others to add some member critical mass to the discussions.

 

[Craig Dodd]

I will try to do my part. However, some of the questions/discussion may seem basic to some, but we all have to start somewhere...

 

[lovdasnow]

I'm looking forward to adding some more substance myself to these threads. can't wait!

would it be difficult to post the original 5 images of that finished shot, so we could see the beginnings of it? curious how they started?

thanks

 

[Len Backus]

And then I used Photoshop's Shadow/Highlight to bring down the tones in the, by now, blended image's sky. That last step brought out even more of the sky color that was there all along but needed to be coaxed out. You see, the dynamic range of a sunset image, both foreground and sky, is just so great that while the human eye can see the entire range, no camera can capture it in one exposure.

 

[lovdasnow]

thats pretty neat, thanks for taking the time to post those other 5.
pretty amazing what the ol' eyeballs can see! nice job on capturing that!