Showing posts with label HDR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HDR. Show all posts

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Imperial Palace in Annecy

Impérial Palace in Annecy

 

During the past weeks, i spent 2 mornings in Annecy making images around the lake. Expect to see more in the next days  ...

Initially built in 1913, Impérial Palace is a 4 stars hotel just near the lake and also contains a congress center and a casino. It's obviously a private place but gardens and beaches are opened and very appreciated by the public (locals or tourists).

Monday 30 September 2013

Horse Tail waterfall, the upper part

The upper part of Horse Tail waterfall in Haut Jura Natural Park
Horse Tail waterfall, Haut Jura Natural Park

 

The upper part of the waterfall posted a few days ago.

Thursday 9 May 2013

Franclens church illuminated at dusk

Photo of Franclens church illuminated at dusk
Franclens church illuminated at dusk

 

Yesterday, i spent a part of the afternoon exploring the Rhône valley between Ain and Haute-Savoie departments. I was lucky enough to be able to make a few images under a correct light between rain showers.

In the late dusk, i was driving back home and crossed Franclens village when i saw the church illuminated. I stopped for a few shots before the night became too dark.

Friday 26 April 2013

Pain de Sucre waterfall on Vézéronce river

Photo of Pain de Surcre waterfall near Surjoux
Pain de Sucre waterfall on Vézéronce river

 

An image from yesterday while i was exploring Vézéronce river near Surjoux in Ain department.

This river is a small one with just a few kilometers long but goes to the Rhône which is one of the main rivers in France (it starts in Switzerland and finishes the mediterranean sea)

This waterfall is just a few hundreds meters far from the junction between the two rivers. Access is really short and easy and i guess it's a famous place for family walks.

I know there is at least one more fall above this one but i couldn't find any path through the cliffs. I asked to someone living just near. He answered that he wasn't sure about the path and that it should be dangerous.
I think i need to have a closer look to my map.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Menthon Saint Bernard castle in the dull light of a springtime dusk

Photograph of Menthon Saint Bernard Castle in France
Menthon Saint Bernard castle

 

About one year ago, i show you another side of this castle.
Yesterday, i spent the afternoon exploring the surroundings of this monument. I drove all around, hiked in the forest, walked through the park, ...
Even if the light was not at its best, i took e few images before driving back home. I plan to come back with more greenery on the forest and i hope the leaves won't hide the castle too much.

Thursday 4 October 2012

Autumn on the junction of Rhone and Parnant river

Autumn picture around the confluent of Rhône and Parnant river
Autumn on the junction of Rhône and Parnant river

 

Parnant river is a very small stream but it goes to the Rhône which is one of the biggest rivers in France.
After the junction the water will run a little more than 500 km to reach the Mediterranean sea in Provence.

Friday 28 September 2012

A very soft dusk on Annecy lake

Image of the landscape around Annecy lake at dusk
A very soft dusk on Annecy lake

 

Another image from a few weeks ago, during this afternoon on Mont Baron over Annecy lake.

While the others were done with GND filters, this one is the result of a HDR work done with Picturenaut from 2 exposures.
It's free of any filtering artifact and i think it's my fav in the serie.

Tuesday 11 September 2012

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Bronze river running through the forest

Photo of the Bronze river cascading through the forest in Massif des Bornes
Bronze river running through the forest

 

An image from end of spring, done during my first exploration in Massif des Bornes.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Grande Riviere church near Abbey lake

Image of Grande Rivière church near Abbey lake in Haut Jura Natural Park
Grande Riviere church near Abbey lake - Haut Jura Natural Park

 

I left this blog during some long days because i had to work for some clients in Provence and i'm just back home since this night.
Before this little trip, i expected to find a few free time for some new seascapes but in fact i had absolutely no time for some personal photography.

I share today this other composition around the beautiful church of Grande Rivière from my last visit to Haut Jura Natural Park a few weeks ago.

I've also posted some images from Massif des Bornes on my french website.

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Afternoon light on Abbey lake

Photo of Abbey lake in Haut Jura Natural Park, France
Afternoon light on Abbey lake - Haut Jura Natural Park

 

One more image from monday.

This one was a little tricky to capture. I first had a few tries with my GND filters and after a look at the images on the camera LCD, i decided to also try 3 bracketed exposures for a future HDR work.
Back home, i first processed the filtered ones but i was not really happy with the results. So i took my 3 bracketed exposures and made my HDR processing with Picturenaut to get the image posted here.
The most difficult was to keep the reeds free of artifacts but my long experience of HDR landscapes gave me some tools to fix such problems :)

Tuesday 10 July 2012

The church near the lake

Image of Grande Riviere church near Abbaye Lake in Jura department
Grande Rivière church near Abbaye lake - Haut Jura Natural Park

 

I had a long drive yesterday through Haut Jura Natural Park to explore some new places around Abbaye Lake.
I noticed this lake one year ago while i was driving back from Hérisson waterfalls under a pouring rain. It's one of the most important lake in Jura department and the surrounding looked really wild in the storm.

It took one year before i had the opportunity to come back with a decent weather. I arrived there in the afternoon, walked along the lake, drove around the lake, climbed some hills but interesting points of view were rare and difficult to find.
In the evening, when the light started to be nice, i finally had 2 or 3 interesting spots in mind, this image of the church was done from the first one.

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Barbennaz waterfall

Image of Barbennaz waterfall in Haute Savoie, France
Barbennaz waterfall

 

After a long time without visiting this lovely place under my home, i returned there a few days ago.

Arrived at the end of afternoon, i waited for the sun to be low enough but after some tries, the contrast was still a little high to give some files of a very good quality with a single exposure.
So, i went for HDR and the image above results of two photos blended and tonemapped with Picturenaut.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Last sunrays on Dard waterfall

Photo of Dard waterfall in Massif des Bornes, France
Last sunrays on Dard waterfall

 

A new place discovered yesterday.

Dard waterfall or Cascade du Dard is on the Bronze river running through the mountains of Massif des Bornes in Haute Savoie department.

I arrived in the middle afternoon and the light was really too hard on the fall. So, i explored the narrow and underwood canyon lower on the river.

After a nice hike and a few images of the stream, i was back to the waterfall around 7 pm. The sun was still a bit high and i spent the last waiting time looking for the best point of views.

The image posted here was done under the very last sunrays. The contrast between dark trees and clear sky was really high and i thought that HDR could be one of the best solution for this view. So i took a serie of 5 exposures. Back home, i processed them with Picturenaut to obtain the result you can see here.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

Cold and powerful water in Valserine river

Photo of Valserine river in winter with ice on the banks
Cold and powerful water in Valserine river


That's a place of Valserine river i've left unexplored until last week.
Access between snow, rocks and ice in a strong slope was not exactly easy but at least i spent a nice time there and came back with 2 or 3 interesting images.
This one comes from a HDR work done with 5 exposures processed mostly with Picturenaut.

Friday 9 December 2011

Weekly commented photo # 49 - Mediterranean dusk at Gigaro beach

Photo of the mediterranean sea at Gigaro beach near Saint Tropez
Mediterranean dusk at Gigaro beach


This end of autumn is rainy and from a photographer's point of view, the landscape all around is not really exciting. I only made a few images in the past week and spent most of my time working on files from the preceding months. I'm also negociating with a TV channel which want to buy some of my photos but doesn't seems ready for the price i ask :).

So, this morning i was wandering about which image to feature here today when i receive an order from my french website for a print of the above photo.

I was a little surprised because that's an old image and because there is another one just near in the gallery that i find most beautiful. But after all a sale is a sale and one more time i was happy not to post only my own favourite images but all the "correct" ones.

Gigaro beach is a famous place in Saint Tropez area but i've just a few images from there. I think you can now retrieve most of them on this blog through this link.

Friday 18 November 2011

Weekly commented photo # 46 - Autumn morning along Cheran river

HDR photograph of an autumn morning along Cheran river in Massif des Bauges Natural Park
Autumn morning along Chéran river


I spent most of the week preparing the house for winter.
No blogging and almost no photography. I just took some time today in the early morning to return to Chéran canyon.

The drive before dawn to Massif des Bauges natural park was a little longer than usual because of the frosty roads and the path to river was more slippy than last week.

I started by some other images of the little waterfall posted here last friday but with a shorter exposure to give more details in the falling water.

After that, i climbed some rocks to pass over the waterfall. I wanted to explore more deeply the upper part of the river but i discovered it was not possible without a little and cold bath. Not prepared to this kind of game, i decided to stay a little time just on the top of the waterfall where i made the today image.

This one is the result of an HDR work done from 7 exposures and tonemapped with Picturenaut and Photomatix. I also have another one done with a strong GND filter but the left side of the image is really dark and i prefer the HDR one.

As i couldn't go higher i went back to the lower river bed, walked a little to another waterfall i noticed last week, did a few more photos and walked back to my car when the sun started to be really too high in the sky.

Friday 28 October 2011

Weekly commented photo # 43 - Autumn mist in Valserine forest

HDR photograph of a misty morning in Valserine forest

Last week end we went to visit some friends living in Haut Jura Natural Park. The main purpose of such times is obviously not photography but they live in a really beautiful place, just a few steps from Valserine forest and i can't imagine going there without a camera.

My friend is a wood sculptor and we spent the saturday evening looking at his recent work, at my images, commenting each others ...
On sunday morning we both woke up early. He went to his workshop and i took my camera for a little walk in the forest.

It was a nice, quiet misty morning. I had spent the night speaking with a good friend and i was walking alone in an amazing natural forest. So it was a very beautiful moment.

As you may know, its difficult to have a really free mind and instead of contemplating the amazing forest around me, i was looking for autumn colours.
So i probably missed a lot a photo opportunities before i told me you're in a pine forest and their autumn colours are green not orange.

Then i started to look around me differently, to breath the morning mist and finally seated on an old mossy tree stump. After this short stop i continued my walk during a least two hours and got a few nice images.
This one is the result of a light tonemapping done with Picturenaut on a HDR image produced from 7 exposures.

Friday 30 September 2011

Weekly commented photo # 39 : The syncline fold and its waterfall

Picture of a waterfall falling along the cliff of a syncline fold
Chapeau de gendarme syncline fold and waterfall


This is the place around Septmoncel about which i wrote a few words one week ago.
Its name means "Policeman's hat" and comes from its shape.

I discovered it in july with ugly weather and pouring rain. The waterfall was very very impressive and i was a little disappointed when i came back in september and found a very low water level despite the rain we had in the weeks before.

I found a kind of little path in the green vegetation you can see under the cliff and made a small serie of images of the entire waterfall plus some closeups i find more interesting.

The photo you can see here was done from the road. I didn't found any other composition to include all the fold with its waterfall.
The light in this end of afternoon was very nice but contrast between highlights on the cliff and shadows in the vegetation was huge. I could have wait a little more but i would have lost the sunrays lighting the rocks.

That's obvioulsy not the kind of images where GND filters give their best results and so i went for the HDR solution.

Five exposures where used.
NEF files where converted to 48 bits TIFs using SilkyPix.
TIF files where blended to a real HDR file with Picturenaut.
A first tonemapped image was then produced with Picturenaut and a second one was done by tonemapping the HDR file with Photomatix.
These two tonemapped files where then blended to give the final image you can see here.

I know that many magazines (and some famous ones) claim that they don't publish composite images including HDR ones. I think that's to avoid too much fakes in the photojournalism world.
I can understand their choice but on the other side when i compare this HDR photo with the best single exposure i've done from this scene i'm forced to recognized that the HDR file has a really better quality ...
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