Digging into history using 32-BIT HDR

 

The photo I show you today was made April 18, 2008. You can't make the same picture anymore, not even if you go to exactly the same place at Arches National Park in Utah. This was Wall Arch, one of the numerous arches that gave the park its name. Wall Arch collapsed 109 days after I made the image. So what you see here is history.

We had only two days in the National Park and not every photograph was made during a time with good quality light. Any time after 8:30AM we had to deal with high contrast scenes and harsh light. I shot many images with five different exposures in order to overcome the limitations of the dynamic range in the digital camera, at that time my Nikon D200. Back home it was a time consuming process to layer the pictures on top of each other and paint with layer masks to reveal only the parts of each photo that I wanted in the final image. I remember it took me at least three nights to do that, partly due to the fact that my Photoshop skills were still very limited. Needless to say that I was very proud about my accomplishment. High Dynamic Range (HDR) software was not available or at least was not known to me at that time. The photo below was the result.

Because of its historic value, that it has at least for me, I wanted to redo this image with today's software and better technology. This time I used a 32-BIT HDR method that I learned a little while ago in Matt Kloskowski's blog "Lightroom Killer Tips" (see the link for this blog in the side bar on the left hand side). Starting in Adobe Lightroom I merged my five original RAW files into HDR Pro in Photoshop. From there I just saved the picture as a 32-BIT tiff-file back into Lightroom. What you will find is that the range of the Exposure slider has changed from ±5 to ±10, giving you a much wider range to work with shadows and highlights in your picture. The 32-BIT tiff-file gives you a humongous dynamic range to work with in comparison to the usual 16-BIT or 8-BIT we have at our hands.

I prefer a very natural look in my images and this method, without any ton mapping, works very well for my style of photography. But here is the best, it only took me about five minutes to create the final image from my five bracketed shots and can still use the tonal range of all five shots together.

As you can see, I cropped the new picture slightly just because I like it now better this way. Can't really say anymore, "I will do it right in camera next time I'm there".... ;-)

2012 – Looking back, part 8

 

I can't move on with my 2012 photography review without talking about the main reason I came back to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. I really wanted to work on the birds, especially shore birds. American Avocets were there in big numbers, which doesn't mean it was easy to get the photo. I set my tripod to its lowest possible height, just a few inch above ground and put my belly in the sand. That sounds easy as long you don't know that the beach (or better salty mud strip along the shore) was black and covered with probably billions of little brine flies. It might be disgusting for some folks but the flies are your ticket for making the click because many birds feed on them. The good thing is, they don't bite.

I have never done this before but it was a great lesson about the birds and their behavior, and I wanted to learn what is possible and what doesn't work with the camera really low to the water level. You may ask, why can't you do that at the Green Island Wetlands here in Iowa? The difference is the elevation of the surrounding land. At Green Island you have to work almost everywhere from the top of the road or trail, which is usually quite a bit above water level. There is no flat beach.

Another bird that we have here in Iowa during the summer  too is the Yellow-headed Blackbird. Their habitat is the reed belts along the shore of the Great Salt Lake. You can't miss these wonderful looking birds, they make a lot of noise, but it is not easy to get close to them. I still haven't been able to make a frame filling picture of a male like this but at least I got some "environmental portraits" with a little more environment than I desire. Yes, I could make a crop, but I'm at a point with my wildlife photography where I don't want to make this compromise anymore.

2012 - Looking back, part 7

 

Back in June I was able to visit one of my favorite locations again, Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. I have published the first image in B&W before but sometimes, after some time has passed, I see things differently and like to rework an image. I now feel that the mood of this first evening on the island is better reflected with the original colors. It's more dense, more atmospheric.

In the late afternoon I had a chance to see some Black-tailed Jackrabbits. It was not easy to get the picture of this long eared rabbit since they try to stay out of sight all the time. I decided to crop the image on the right hand side in order to compensate for the lack of composition. The almost spot light  and having the tall grass in different planes of the image makes it a nevertheless a good environmental portrait of the Jackrabbit.

The evenings bare always a good chance to get some good light on one of the bisons that roam on the island. Getting too close to a bison bull is never a good idea and having the SIGMA 50-500 at maximum focal length is a must.

Avocets again (because I love them)

Just a quick post today. I'm on the road again with no time to focus on photography so far. Instead I like to show you another photo of the American Avocets. Can you tell that I really like these birds? I think they are really pretty. This image is from the morning shooting on Antelope Island ten days ago. I wished light would always be like this... ;-)

Nature clicks #112 - Lark Sparrow

 

If there is an abundance of wildlife in a particular location it is sometimes easy to forget the smaller birds and critters. It was very windy every day during my recent trip to Antelope Island and I didn't see many small birds anyway. This Lark Sparrow was a first sighting for me and so I made a few clicks, even if the bird was actually too far away for a good detail shot. This photo was sharp enough to consider a crop, and yes, I cropped it quite a bit. The result is an environmental portrait, good enough to show here and report about it, but too small for a large size print. Well, next time... ;-)

Nature clicks #111 - Black-necked Stilt

I only had one minute to work with a second bird of the Avocet and Stilt family before it flew away. My location was everything but good when I discovered two wonderful Black-necked Stilts right in front of me. I was slightly above the water level and tried actually to approach some gulls on a bank in the Great Salt Lake. The higher elevation allowed only to shoot from above and this is not an interesting shooting position for most animals. Ok, it was my first sighting of the stilt and at least I have now a few images in the "books". It is a beautiful bird and the next time I go to the Great Salt Lake I'll try to find them again and make the photo I have in mind.

I use the software iBird PRO on my iphone for identification and comparison of birds while I'm in the field. This eliminates the need to carry any books with me while traveling. There are always some interesting facts to learn and for the Black-necked Stilt it says that they have the second-longest legs in proportion to their bodies of any bird, exceeded only by flamingos.

Nature clicks #110 - Willets

 

As you can imagine I made many clicks last week on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, Utah. Back home I have to make the difficult decision which photos to choose for the blog or for my galleries at Pbase. Not always easy! First I look for images with a good light and mood. The first one is from my Saturday morning session and I love how the subtle light touches the Willet in the shallow water.

The second criterium is story telling. A particular gesture can make all the difference between one photo and the next. The Willets are not particular pretty birds but it looks sometimes almost elegant how they move in the water and search for food or clean themselves. The pictures that captured these gestures stand out from the rest and that's why I have chosen them. Still more to come...

Love those evenings...

I wrote two days ago that I love the evenings on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. Landscape photography is probably much more rewarding during the winter and spring because of great clouds that move fast over the lake and along the surrounding mountains. If you like feel free to click HERE to see what I mean.

However, the wind calmed down Thursday night and even some clouds moved in. A sunset is always nice but it is the hour after it that I enjoy the most for landscape photography. The little marina on the island was my anchor for this image with great reflections on the salty water. The Carl Zeiss Distagon T*, 35mm / f2 ZF is a wonderful sharp lens for this kind of photography. It has manual focus, something that many people probably not even consider anymore, but the quality of this lens is hard to beat. Still more to come...

Nature clicks #109 - American Bison

The biggest mammal on Antelope Island is the American Bison. There is a herd of about 500 bisons free roaming on the island according to the Utah State Park website. They seem to stay away from the part of the island that is easily accessible by car. I have never seen more than ten at a time. That's alright with me, bisons are such beautiful animals that I get excited even if I come close to just one of them. This bison bull was relatively close to the road so that I was able to shoot out of the safety of my rental car. The bull was feeding the whole time I watched him and it took forever to get a clear view of its face. Light was great, it was wildlife photography fun at its best....

Nature clicks #108 - American Avocet

 

Hi, I'm back home again after another week of business travel. The second part of my trip brought me to Salt Lake City in Utah. I spent three days there and had the chance to shoot two evenings and one morning in one of my favorite locations for wildlife photography. I have written here before about the abundant wildlife on Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake and it wasn't any different this time. Before I go to a location where I have been before I usually review my previous work and think about new goals I like to meet  or particular animals I want to focus on. This time I wanted to pay more attention to shore birds. The island is connected with the main land by a dam and the road on top of it is already a great place to watch out for birds. There were hundreds of American Avocets feeding in the shallow water. I like to show you how the light at different times of the day can change the outcome considerable.

Image #2 was made about mid afternoon. The sun and a very thin layer of clouds made for bright, but still soft light without harsh shadows. It was very acceptable for me.

Photos #1 and #3 were made the same day but five hours later at about 8:15PM. The sun was already close to the horizon and the colors developed a wonderful intensity. Oh, I love the evenings at the Great Salt Lake!

The last picture was made next morning about 7:45AM and the sun had developed some good power already. Dialing in exposure compensation between  -1.5EV and -2.5EV kept the white parts of the feathers intact and made also for a nice deep blue color of the water.

Which light situation did I like the best? To be honest, I liked them all. The afternoon light was like working with a softbox. The soft light reflected by the water minimized the shadows underneath the birds. The low sun in the morning and evening made for better colors. It was a great learning experience for me, and yes, the Avocets were very patient ... More to come...