Another Mediterranean sunrise

Bau-Rouge sunrise
Another Mediterranean sunrise, not sure i'll post many more before some months. I wish i'll be able to wake up at 3 am next night (in a few hours) to go to the sea and not arrive too late. I've some shots in mind but not sure the weather will be ok. Today we had crazy wind here and tomorrow rain is not impossible. A not rainy dawn with a not too strong wind would be fine...
If tomorrow i can do what i plan, i think i won't return to the sea (for photography) until the autumn. The sun is rising really to soon and summer dusks are often crowded.

The above shot was done from 6 exposures and post processing includes HDR, tonemapping and exposure blending.

Canva prints

I won't report all my sales on this blog but some are (unfortunately) unusual.

I recently received an request from a Canadian customer who wanted 2 large canvas prints of Mediterranean dawn and Water colors.
She wanted to hang both on her wall and needed exactly the same sizes for the 2 prints.
Mediterranean dawn originaly had a 5x4 aspect ration while Water colors had a 3x2.
I think some of my landscapes could not be cropped but after a quick try i found that the 5x4 version of Water colors was at least as beautiful than the original one.
My client also liked the cropped version and the sale was done yesterday.

As a photographer my favorite support for photographs is paper. It is the one which offers the best colors and details rendition. But i must say that large canvas can be very impressive on a wall and they don't need framing or matting.

Some tips for HDR landscapes (updated 2009/04/14)

Wild coast

You will find many and many HDR tutorials on the web, here are just a few more tips which can help people trying HDR photography in their landscapes works. These tips are a little about HDR theory, mostly about how to practice in the field and also a little about file processing.

1 - HDR THEORY

HDR is for High Dynamic Range and of course it can be used to photography some scenes having a too strong contrast for a common camera sensor.
Making a HDR image requires taking several exposures of the same scene and blending these different exposures with a dedicated software. The blending result is the real HDR image. Because of its high dynamic range, this HDR image can't be viewed correctly on a usual computer display and neither printed on paper.
To make a viewable photo from the HDR image you need to make it's total contrast fit the capabilities of classic digital images. This part of the process is named tonemapping. There are many tonemapping algorithms giving all some very different results. I think the most popular is the Detail Enhancer implemented in Photomatix.

Even if the overall dynamic range of the scene is not really too high for the camera sensor you can use HDR technics to improve shadows and or highlights rendition or to increase local contrasts.
You can also use the tonemapping algorithm on a single exposure to give it more power. It's just tonemapping and not HDR. It can produce some very impressive results but take care because it can also strongly enhance the defaults of the original file (noise, banding, etc).

If you want to know more about the history and theory of HDR Imaging i can just conseil you to read this Wikipedia page and also the Photomatix FAQ about HDR.

2 - IN THE FIELD

• First and always shoot raw ! It will give you some really better files to work on during the digital processing.

• Use a tripod, a sturdy one and don't forget to lock all the parts you can lock. It will increase image sharpness and help to avoid misalignment problems at blending time.

• Still to avoid misalignment, try too shoot without touching the camera. Use a remote controler or the interval shooting option if your camera has one.

• Exposure, number of frames etc :
  - On your camera, select aperture mode and choose the aperture you will use for the landscape. As for a classical landscape, the aperture will depend of your lens capabilities, your need for slow or high shutter speed, your need for DOF, etc...
  - Put your camera on spot metering and take the light in the brightest and in the darkest parts of the scene. Note the corresponding shutter speeds, compute the average and the number of IL you will need to cover all the dynamic range of the scene.
  - Put your camera in manual mode and then select the aperture you choose in first point and also the average shutter speed you have just computed.
  - Program your camera bracketing to cover the full dynamic range of the scene. If you feel limited by the bracketing capabilities, remember that one exposure captures really more than one IL :)
  The goal is to have at least one frame whith the shadows slightly overexposed and an other with the highlights slightly underexposed.

3 - DIGITAL PROCESSING

It will be a short part. I won't try to tell you how to use the Photomatix sliders, i think it all depends of your tastes and of the type of image you're working on.

• Raw files. I usually process them with SilkyPix, save the results in 48 bits TIF files and then blend these TIF files with Photomatix.
  I find i have more control on the processing doing this way but if you don't have any raw processor you can process them directly in your HDR tool.

• Usually, HDR softwares have an auto alignment option. If you respect all the points listed above i suggest you to try without this option. You will save time and possibly avoid some misalignment due to false software interpretation of some image points.

• One thing we often read is that HDR images are noisy. If all the frames are correctly exposed and if you're not too crazy during tonemapping you can obtain some noise free images without using any noise reduction.
  So once more, if you want a noise free result try to expose correctly your images and skip the noise reduction option. You will save time and avoid artifacts and loss of details.

• Chromatic aberration :
  Most of time, HDR landscapes concern scenes with high contrast and it's a nice way to test your lenses about chromatic aberrations. Speaking seriously, i would tell Make your possible to avoid and/or reduce chromatic aberrations.
  The colored fringes can be "nicely enhanced" by the "Details enhancer" algorithm of your tonemapping software and so become realy disgracious on a large print. I also think they can produce alignment errors when using an automatic alignment option at processing time.
  Today, some softwares are very good in correcting chromatic aberrations but if you can afford try tu use a lens which doesn't suffer too much of this defect.

• Last point : Most of time the tonemapped image can be strongly improved by some slight curve tweaks in your favourite photo editing software ...

Orange dawn

Orange dawn on the Mediterranean coast
Sometimes i find difficult to start the day so early ... but sometimes it can give some wonderful moments.

An other view

Mediterranean coast near Carqueiranne in Provence
For some times, i've shown here many views of Le Bau Rouge. It was always HDR and/or long exposures photos. This one is more classical and you can view the place like thousands of peoples do each summer.
It was taken the same day than the one in my previous post but some hours later (around 8h30 am) when i was about to leave the beach and start to climb the path leading to my car.

Interval shooting and HDR photography

First lights on the Mediterranean coast
With springtime, the sun is rising more and more soon every week and shooting seascapes at dawn time is more and more difficult. One day of the past week, i left home at 5am, drove to the Bau Rouge and walked to my favorite place while the sun was just shining. Arrived on the place, i realised that i had left my remote controler at home ...
Remote controler is a nice tool and a good help for long exposures but if you don't have one it can often be replaced by the camera self timer. When you have to shoot serveral long exposures to build a HDR image, the remote controler is really a must : No camera shake means sharp and easy to align images.
So i was very annoyed to have forgotten mine when i remembered that my D200 had an interval shooting function. In this mode, the camera can take n images every x minutes. If you also define a bracketing program, the camera will execute this bracketing program at each interval.
So i put the D200 on the tripod, locked every thing, programmed the camera and ... it perfectly worked : without touching the body, i obtained 7 exposures with 1 IL increment.

With their large bracketing and very fast shooting capabilities, recent Nikon DSLRs are very nice HDR tools. With the interval mode you can perharps save the money of a remote controler and save your day when you left your bed too soon.

Water colors

Water colors - Les couleurs de l'eau
Colorful dawn during a short rain stop on the mediterranean coast in Provence.

Green Africa

Green Africa - Mediterranean landscape

One shot from yesterday morning just after sunshine.
Made in Provence but the green patch made me think to Africa.

Nikon D200 and Sigma 10-20.
5 exposures converted to HDR and the tonemapped with Photomatix.
Resulting tif file post processed with SilkyPix.

Mediterranean dawn

Dawn colors on the Mediterranean sea
Dawn colors on the sea at the Bau-Rouge.
A few minutes soonner, it was raining !

Récif

Récif - Boulders under Mediterranean waves

Another shot from the Bau-Rouge. Same day that the Mistral photo but a few time sooner during a brief moment where the wind was a little less strong...

Mistral

Mediterranean seascape by a strong wind
An other day at the Bau-Rouge.
Mistral is the name of the strong NW wind which sometimes blows in Provence. The village where i live is in a valley and mostly protected from the Mistral.
This day, when i left home i was feeling a little wind but arrived on the coast it was just crazy and standing up on the rocks was not always easy.
Knowing Mistral strength is often decreasing at dusk, i decided to wait a few hours, sitting in a protected place between some big boulders.

Just before the night, at the blue hour, i could left my place, install my tripod and catch this image where we can feel the wind due to the long exposure.

The land on the horizon is the Giens peninsula : La Presqu'île de Giens

HDR on the beach

Mediterranean storm
I live 30 km far from the Mediterranean sea but i didn't shot any seascape during the past 3 years. I can't explain why, but that's like it.
From one month, things have changed. When i can find a moment for non commmercial photography, i go to the Bau-Rouge, a wild and rocky beach near Carqueiranne and try to catch some beautiful landscapes before summer when the light will be more difficult and when the place will be overcrowded.

In the begining of march, i was there in a bad weather afternoon. At the end of the afternoon, the weather was more and more bad and a big storm was coming. Just before leaving, i could catch some images like the one you can see above.

To keep all the sky contrasts and to avoid underexposing too much the darkest parts of the scenes, i shot 3 exposures for this image.
I converted the 3 raw files to 3 48 bits tif with SilkyPix. The tif files where combined and converted to HDR and tonemapped with Photomatix.
Then as i wanted a perfect sea with no gosthing effect i've blended the tonemapped image with one of the original tif file and kept only the sky from the tonemapped photo.

Photomatix 3.0 and PTGui 7.7

Mediterranean coast under the storm

Yesterday, some new versions of two softwares i often use where published.

Photomatix, probably the most popular HDR software is now in version 3.0 and PTGUi, my favorite stitching tool just reached the version 7.7.

Photomatix 3.0 most important news :

• Color managed display.
  Now we can see correctly the image we are working on !
• Improved graphic interface.
• New and improved exposure blending algorithms with the ability to blend directly from RAW files.
• New alignment algorithm.
• Ability to tonemap one single 48 bits TIF file.
• Evolution in the tonemapping algorithm resulting in images with a more natural looking.

Note : Upgrading from version 2.x to 3.x is free.

PTGui 7.7

In my mind the most important news are about the Pro version of PTGui but the normal version also wins one new small but nice feature : Upgrading is now done without the need to enter a registration key. When you know the lenght and complexity of the PTGui registration key, you understand why it's a nice thing.

The HDR tab of PTGui pro now includes an exposure fusion option.
Exposure fusion is an other way to catch scenes with high dynamic range without creating a real HDR image and avoids the need of tone mapping and often produce a resulting image with a more natural look and with less artifacts.

It's interesting to see that PTGui goes more and more in the HDR way and that Photomatix improves his exposure blending options. Exposure blending (or exposure fusion) is an old digital method to manage scenes with high dynamic range but it becomes more and more poular in the HDR comunity.
Why HDR is important for PTGui : Of course because HDR is more and more popular every day but also because scenes with a very large field of view often have high dynamic range.

The Panotools comunity wiki is full with good resources about stitching but also about HDR and exposure blending. If you're interested in exposure fusion, i can just recommend to read this page and the linked PDF files.