A rainy morning at the sea - HDR

Le Pradet near Cap Garonne - Provence

Same scene, no GND filter but HDR from 3 exposures.
I didn't try to keep a similar rendition, this one is darker with more saturated colors.

A rainy morning at the sea

Le Pradet near Cap Garonne - Provence

I was there really soon but had to leave the place before 9 am because the rain was too strong.
This one was done with a 0.9 GND filter. I also shot 3 other exposures to try an HDR version :)

Clouds over Toulon - without HDR but with a GND filter

Clouds in the sky over Toulon in Provence

Posted for comparison with the one shown in this previous post.

Clouds over Toulon - HDR seascape or HDR skyscape

Some clouds over Toulon - Provence

That's always the same story : Today was supposed to be a sunny day and i expected a beautiful pink daw on the buildings you can devine on the right of this image. So i jumped out of my bed at 5 am, prepared a big little coffee and drove to Toulon where i arrived at dawn. Light was really not as expected :) I decided to wait some hours walking on the beaches and at around 9 am (i guess) the sun said a little hello threw the clouds in my back. As this kind of sky can always be interesting for HDR works i rapidly shot 3 exposures and after that one more with a soft GND filter.

The one you can see above is the result of my HDR work and i have to say that it was a real pleasure to process. I'll show you the flitred one in the following days.

Vivid colors and long exposure plus one happy feature

Long exposure of some rocks bathing in the Mediterranean sea.

This one is the most recent of my long exposure of rocks bathing in the Mediterranean waves collection. Sometimes, the photographer needs a little luck, capturing such vivid colors and keeping the water perfectly smooth is not always easy.

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Natural threat : cloudy sky over the Mediterranean sea

FishHack, another blogger has just featured this image in his blog and he asked me if i liked his choice.
I mention it here because i really like his choice. This image is one of my big fav from this year. It was done in May. The day before, the meteo said that weather will be very fine during the next days and then i decided to be on the beach before dawn to be able to capture some soft and beautiful blue and pink tones ...
So i woke up before 3 am, drove to the sea threw a little fog and once on the beach i discovered that the weather was not be exactly what i was expecting. I was a little disappointed during a short time but decided to stay and try to catch some skyscapes over the sea. I did two when the sun was just rising and this one a short time later because i noticed the clear blue in the water contrasting with the gray sea and sky. The first two are probably more beautiful because of the rising sun but i think this one is my real fav, probably because it makes me really feel the atmosphere of this morning.

Mediterranean perspective

Mediterranean seascape in Provence - Carqueiranne

A winter shot. HDR work with a very light tone mapping.

Classic HDR scenery

Cloudy morning on the Mediterranean sea
Le Pradet - Provence

Natural threat - Cloudy seascape

Natural threat : clouds over the Mediterranean sea
large view

An incoming storm over the Mediterraneans sea at Carqueiranne in Provence.

The sky was done by HDR processing 3 exposures, the sea and ground come from a unique shot.

Stormy dawn on the sea

Stormy dawn on the seaMediterranean seascape at Le Bau Rouge in Provence.
Don't miss the large view.

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.